Recent content by BeijingDave

As an alumnus of Warwick, it was very strange that even when forced to live off-campus in the second year, students lived in Leamington Spa, Kenilworth, Coventry... anywhere but Warwick itself as there was no direct bus route.

I didn't know the university was actually so close. Quite amusing that the station for University of Liverpool is Edge Hill, while the comparatively nearby Edge Hill University is in Ormskirk. I wonder if that has thrown many international students.

It absolutely does work in China and Japan. I don't totally know why, probably a confluence of factors. The Japanese are very orderly I suppose. The Chinese have copied the Japanese high-speed rail system for the most part. There are fairly (but not totally) uniform fleets. I suppose...

Without having any data or study to reference, I do feel like people are confused by all the numbers and the signs with numbers on. You will have a platform number to find, you then hear a muffled announcement instructing you to stand in a numbered zone on that platform, you then have to find...

Exactly. And I have had an old lady ask me if 'This is Platform 3?' pointing at a 3-car stop sign. (It wasn't) It could all be simplified, again as they do in East Asia, with coloured markings on the platform floor depending on what length of train is arriving. For example: 'The next train is...

The best solution will probably be what is already in operation in some places: Have a big screen display that shows you which parts of the arriving train are most busy, do it as obviously as possible (a big red bar in the middle carriages and a small green bar in the emptier carriages) and...

'Whore' was of course in use then. 'Ho' (a contraction of 'whore') sounding very similar to (garden) 'hoe' is American slang, probably LA or New York origin. I do stand to be corrected, but I'm fairly confident people in 15th century England weren't calling promiscuous women 'Hos' like a...

Ho' is really a comparatively recent term of abuse adopted from the inner cities of the USA. To anyone my age (40s) or older, the first time we heard the word hoe was in most cases when our parents were gardening.

Again, although strange (even archaic) sounding nowadays, 'Normal School' (for anyone who doesn't know) has long been the name for a teacher training centre in many places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_school

Many of these are of course amusing (there is also a Bottom Flash near Crewe) but Oddfellows Arms are very common in the North West (maybe not in the West Country?) The Oddfellows were just a medieval guild for people who didn't have a guild to join. So trades like Builders, Joiners etc had...

Stewart Lee does a very funny stand up comedy bit on ****terton (and Cr4pstone), probably available on YouTube somewhere, the episode was called 'Shilbottle'

Reminds me of Moorly Common by the yards south of Warrington Bank Quay, which has been misspelled 'Morley Common' for so long it's just become commonly (no pun intended) accepted.

Not Leeks, this being Staffordshire?

Deleted. Posted in error.

WBQ qualifies on this basis with Earlestown, Wigan NW, Crewe (Acton Bridge but none of the trains stop there) and Runcorn East.