The "And in other news..." thread

[GusB]

While I don't mind peas, I'm not exactly green with envy regarding this woman's job!

Hull taster tests 32 plates of peas a day and eats more for tea

Professional taster Michelle Lawrie samples 32 plates of peas at work then has them for her tea.

www.bbc.co.uk

Taster finds 32 plates of peas a day appealing

Michelle Lawrie samples about 32 plates of peas a day - and then has more for tea.
Ms Lawrie works as a quality manager at frozen food company Birds Eye at the firm's processing factory in Hull.
She checks the condition of the harvested produce and says the long spell of warm, dry weather has meant peas are sweeter than usual this year.
The conditions have also led to the earliest harvest in decades for farmers.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

While I don't mind peas, I'm not exactly green with envy regarding this woman's job!

Hull taster tests 32 plates of peas a day and eats more for tea

Professional taster Michelle Lawrie samples 32 plates of peas at work then has them for her tea.

www.bbc.co.uk

Give peas a chance.

 

[D6130]

While I don't mind peas, I'm not exactly green with envy regarding this woman's job!

Hull taster tests 32 plates of peas a day and eats more for tea

Professional taster Michelle Lawrie samples 32 plates of peas at work then has them for her tea.

www.bbc.co.uk

I can't imagine that she would ever suffer from constipation, mind!

 

[High Dyke]

While I don't mind peas, I'm not exactly green with envy regarding this woman's job!

Hull taster tests 32 plates of peas a day and eats more for tea

Professional taster Michelle Lawrie samples 32 plates of peas at work then has them for her tea.

www.bbc.co.uk

I wonder if she likes cheese too?

If you know, you know.

 

[TheTTTEGeek]

Wasn't there a matter a few years ago, which got a good deal of attention in the news: about a zoo in Denmark which had a surplus-to-requirements giraffe; the zoo authorities adamantly decided to put it down and use it for "carnivorous-inmate-feed", although various possibilities were aired re handing the animal on to some zoo elsewhere, which could maybe use another giraffe (as a living exhibit)? Much adverse criticism was directed at the zoo. General picture which seems to be got of the Danes, is that they are overall a nice folk -- but, it might appear, tending on the zoo-keeping front, to this particular policy: of which many, would not approve.

I can confirm Danes appear nice but my country fought them in war for over 50 years. The war began when my mother was just a few months after my mother was 21.5 years old & the war finally ended when i was a few months after my 19th birthday. If any of you you are interested in more info look up The Whisky War. I've asked some Danes about it when the war finally ended & they find the war a symbol of nationalistic pride (but in a good way) & we Canadians feel the same way about the war.

 

[edwin_m]

I can confirm Danes appear nice but my country fought them in war for over 50 years. The war began when my mother was just a few months after my mother was 21.5 years old & the war finally ended when i was a few months after my 19th birthday. If any of you you are interested in more info look up The Whisky War. I've asked some Danes about it when the war finally ended & they find the war a symbol of nationalistic pride (but in a good way) & we Canadians feel the same way about the war.

Maybe Canadians and Danes are now more united by a common enemy in Washington?

 

[43096]

I wonder if she likes cheese too?

If you know, you know.

It's cheese! It's peas! It's...

 

[Calthrop]

I can confirm Danes appear nice but my country fought them in war for over 50 years. The war began when my mother was just a few months after my mother was 21.5 years old & the war finally ended when i was a few months after my 19th birthday. If any of you you are interested in more info look up The Whisky War. I've asked some Danes about it when the war finally ended & they find the war a symbol of nationalistic pride (but in a good way) & we Canadians feel the same way about the war.

Maybe Canadians and Danes are now more united by a common enemy in Washington?

Am refraining from going there; but -- @TheTTTEGeek 's post above -- I was vaguely aware of this business concerning Hans Island; duly Googled it. One feels -- if only all wars could be waged that way: leaving, in turn, one's country's flag; and a bottle of something national-characteristic and warming, for the enemy to drink. We learn that the matter has been sorted out by putting a land border through the tiny, uninhabited island; each nation gets half. Fine general-knowledge-quiz fodder there ...

 

[Sun Chariot]

While I don't mind peas, I'm not exactly green with envy regarding this woman's job!

I'd be pea'd off doing that after a day or two.

Hull taster tests 32 plates of peas a day and eats more for tea

Professional taster Michelle Lawrie samples 32 plates of peas at work then has them for her tea.

www.bbc.co.uk

Michelle Lawrie samples about 32 plates of peas a day - and then has more for tea.

Ms Lawrie works as a quality manager at frozen food company Birds Eye at the firm's processing factory in Hull.

She checks the condition of the harvested produce and says the long spell of warm, dry weather has meant peas are sweeter than usual this year.

 

[TheTTTEGeek]

Maybe Canadians and Danes are now more united by a common enemy in Washington?

While nothing official yet agreed on by our governments the majority of citizens of both nations agreed to unite against America

 

[edwin_m]

I'd be pea'd off doing that after a day or two.

Hull taster tests 32 plates of peas a day and eats more for tea

Professional taster Michelle Lawrie samples 32 plates of peas at work then has them for her tea.

www.bbc.co.uk

Yes, this person must be a legume in her lifetime.

 

[brad465]

I don't think much of this remake of Brokeback Mountain:

The unlikely bond between JD Vance and David Lammy

The US vice president is beginning his UK holiday with a visit to the foreign secretary. Since when were they so close?

www.bbc.co.uk

(Image of JD Vance and David Lammy fishing together at Chevening in Kent)

US Vice President JD Vance is taking his holiday in the UK - a trip which will include visits to the Cotswolds, Scotland and, to kick it all off, a few days staying with Foreign Secretary David Lammy at his grace-and-favour country home, Chevening House in Kent.
It would seem an unlikely friendship on the face of it. One grew up in north London, the other in rust-belt Ohio.
One is a left-wing advocate of multi-culturalism, the other a conservative who has, albeit jokingly, referred to the UK as "the first truly Islamist country" with a nuclear bomb.
Yet, despite their differences Lammy and Vance appear to be the best of friends.
As he settled in for a brief chat with the media in the drawing room at Chevening alongside the foreign secretary, Vance spoke warmly of their relationship.

 

[Purple Train]

I don't think much of this remake of Brokeback Mountain:

The unlikely bond between JD Vance and David Lammy

The US vice president is beginning his UK holiday with a visit to the foreign secretary. Since when were they so close?

www.bbc.co.uk

It is rather amusing to see the media swarming over this. Assuming it's a genuine friendship and not Operation Butter-Up being exceptionally successful, if making friends across the political divide is this newsworthy, no wonder the country's in a mess!

(I jest slightly - obviously if it's the Foreign Secretary and the Vice-President of the US it's going to make news. But from a personal perspective, I'd be a member of the Rachael Maskell For Prime Minister Party if it existed and, among people I would count as friends, I can think of one who makes Reform look left-wing and another who's an anarchist. So the implicit idea that friendships that cross political boundaries are somehow weird does make me worry a bit for the state of polarisation in this country (or globally if I'm in a bad mood).)

 

[AndrewE]

Man survives after clinging to high-speed train in Austria after getting off to have a cigarette​

The man grabbed on to the outside of the train at St Poelten, west of Vienna, and was later taken aboard after it performed an emergency stop

Man survives after clinging to high-speed train in Austria after getting off to have a cigarette

The man grabbed on to the outside of the train at St Poelten, west of Vienna, and was later taken aboard after it performed an emergency stop

www.theguardian.com

 

[edwin_m]

Always said smoking was bad for your health.

 

[High Dyke]

'Awkward' moment crowds gather for Nottinghamshire power station demolition - in the wrong place - Nottinghamshire Live https://share.google/fYkfAfNDw8Zv6Vl2m

The crowds had gathered to see the demolition of eight cooling towers at a decommissioned Nottinghamshire power station. The time publicised for the demolition of all eight towers was 11am on Thursday (August 14).

Yet in what is perhaps the ultimate example of the consequences of not reading a news article properly - the crowds gathered at Trent Lock on Thursday were watching the wrong power station

Seemingly the crowds were watching Ratcliffe-on-Soar and not Cottam, fifty miles away.

 

[najaB]

'Awkward' moment crowds gather for Nottinghamshire power station demolition - in the wrong place - Nottinghamshire Live https://share.google/fYkfAfNDw8Zv6Vl2m

Seemingly the crowds were watching Ratcliffe-on-Soar and not Cottam, fifty miles away.

 

[PG]

'Awkward' moment crowds gather for Nottinghamshire power station demolition - in the wrong place - Nottinghamshire Live https://share.google/fYkfAfNDw8Zv6Vl2m

Seemingly the crowds were watching Ratcliffe-on-Soar and not Cottam, fifty miles away.

3 for the price of 1 - They flocked there after they herd what was going down until later on when they felt a bit sheepish

 

[High Dyke]

3 for the price of 1 - They flocked there after they herd what was going down until later on when they felt a bit sheepish

Apparently a number of people also gathered around West Burton power station.

 

[4COR]

Firmly in the weird news category, a French passenger was fined after her cat "miaowed too loudly" on train. The woman's cat (called "Monet") "did not stop meowing, several passengers complained, and when the officer subsequently asked Camille to move she 'refused'".

From https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-fine-noise-sncf-brittany-paris-b2815564.html :

A train inspector in France has fined a passenger nearly £100 after her cat meowed too loudly during a journey.

The passenger, named only as Camille, was travelling on a train between Vannes in Brittany and Paris with her partner Pierre last week when she was fined £95, local media reported.

She had bought a ticket for both herself and for her cat Monet - a requirement for travelling with pets on the SNCF, the French rail network.

“He meowed a little at the beginning of the journey, and following a passenger's complaint, a ticket inspector issued us a fine,” she told French outlet BFM.

The passenger added that Monet was in good condition and was safely transported in his usual travel carrier.

It comes after a series of fines were issued to ‘noisy’ passengers on French transport.

A man was fined £172 for having a telephone conversation on loudspeaker in Nantes station in February.

Police also stopped pilgrims singing Jubilate Deo at Montparnasse station in Paris four months later and fined one of the group for “causing a public disturbance”.

Camille told BFM that the fine was an injustice.

“I wasn't given the opportunity to resolve it at the time,” she said.

The inspector gave three reasons for the fine: the cat did not stop meowing, several passengers complained, and when the officer subsequently asked Camille to move she “refused”.

The rail operator told BFM in a statement that the fine was not issued because the cat was meowing but because of complaints and tensions with other passengers caused by the noises made by the pet.

“Our flight attendants offered to move her to the next carriage where there were many empty seats, a polite solution that she unfortunately refused. This simple solution would have helped ease tensions between her and the other customers,” SNCF said.


Camille has reportedly contested the fine.

“It's still a shame that the SNCF can fine people who are simply traveling with their pets, who are in compliance and who have taken all the necessary precautions,” she said.

 

[GusB]

Firmly in the weird news category, a French passenger was fined after her cat "miaowed too loudly" on train. The woman's cat (called "Monet") "did not stop meowing, several passengers complained, and when the officer subsequently asked Camille to move she 'refused'".

From https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-fine-noise-sncf-brittany-paris-b2815564.html :

It's lucky that the cat wasn't called "Munch"; that'd really give the other passengers something to complain about!

 

[D6130]

Firmly in the weird news category, a French passenger was fined after her cat "miaowed too loudly" on train. The woman's cat (called "Monet") "did not stop meowing, several passengers complained, and when the officer subsequently asked Camille to move she 'refused'".

From https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-fine-noise-sncf-brittany-paris-b2815564.html :

This is already the subject of another thread:

"lle-de-France" RER: €60 fine for putting feet on seats".

 

[Gloster]

It really should be on a ‘chat’ line.

 

[4COR]

This is already the subject of another thread:

"lle-de-France" RER: €60 fine for putting feet on seats".

Did they fine the cat €60 per paw?

It really should be on a ‘chat’ line.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Sep 2025 ==

It's lucky that the cat wasn't called "Munch"; that'd really give the other passengers something to complain about!

Wonder if the feline is known by it's middle name and its first name is "Clawed"?

 

[Calthrop]

Not directly cat-related; but -- on-train staff being referred to as "flight attendants"? -- funny lot, these Frenchies ...

 

[MotCO]

Not directly cat-related; but -- on-train staff being referred to as "flight attendants"? -- funny lot, these Frenchies ...

Well, some trains have an upper deck, so closer to the skies

 

[D6130]

Not directly cat-related; but -- on-train staff being referred to as "flight attendants"? -- funny lot, these Frenchies ...

Probably a Google (mis-) translation!

 

[Lewisham2221]

Man who protests against immigrants was previously convicted for... attempting to smuggle illegal migrants into the country...

An activist behind a campaign to fly Union Jacks and England flags in protest at illegal immigration has served a jail sentence for attempting to smuggle migrants into the country.

Lee Twamley is part of a group calling themselves 'Churchill's Lions' which last week raised British flags along one of Manchester's main shopping streets.

...

But the 55-year-old - who posts on TikTok under the name Salford T-Bone - has been exposed for having been involved in smuggling migrants into the UK.

In 2016 he was jailed for 20 months after being stopped at British border checks in northern France with four Vietnamese people hidden under camping gear in the back of a van.

Organiser of flag campaign was jailed over migrant smuggling plot

Lee Twamley is part of a group calling themselves 'Churchill's Lions' which last week raised British flags along one of Manchester's main shopping streets.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[brad465]

Whoever designed this medal will be told to jog on:

Great North Run medals show Sunderland instead of Newcastle

Medals given to participants use an image of Sunderland, which has no connection to the event.

www.bbc.co.uk

Great North Run organisers have apologised after medals given to participants in this year's event featured the wrong city and river.
About 60,000 people completed the 13.1m (21km) half-marathon on Sunday with each of them handed a medal incorporating an image of what was supposed to be an aerial view of Newcastle, Gateshead, South Shields and the River Tyne.
However, acknowledging the items actually showed nearby Sunderland and the River Wear which have no involvement in the event, the Great Run Company admitted it had "made a mistake".
In a humorous response, organisers said "Wear sorry!" and that "eagle-eyed" people had spotted the error, which also featured on clothing.
They claimed it made it "the most unique T-shirt and medal in Great North Run history, a keepsake that we'll be talking about in 44 years' time".
With grounds about 12 miles (19km) apart, Newcastle and Sunderland have long had a fierce footballing rivalry.
On social media, some posters asked whether Sunderland fan - and BBC athletics commentator - Steve Cram had designed the medals, and noted "even the ribbon is red and white" like the club's colours.
In a statement, the Great Run Company said: "To answer the rumours that this was the route reveal for next year… sorry to disappoint, it's a mistake.
"Lots of people looked very closely at the designs and none of us picked it up.
"We had Newcastle United stars on the start line and the Stadium of Light on the medal.
"The Great North Run is truly a celebration of the region, even more so than we had planned."

 

[dangie]

Whoever designed this medal will be told to jog on:

The good news is that the organisers say the ‘uniqueness’ of the medal means it may be worth something in years to come. However with 60,000 participants it may take quite a while