No point in worrying about today's bus number - the 6am66 lacks excitement and posting the daily number implies otherwise. Ridership remains sparse and with summer around the corner, it can only get more thin - the peaks and valleys of bus routes.On the ride home last night I heard a new message from the electronic lady voice that announcees the stops. Occasionally I still hear the man voice reminding passengers to check for personal possessions before leaving the bus. The new one yesterday, in the lady voice, goes like this: "In consideration of your fellow passengers, please refrain from using offensive language." I forgot to ask Dave if he ever heard that bus announcement. Dave makes full use of the 4-letter lexicon. His sentence structure is based almost entirely on expletives, with a particular talent for turning a certain "f" word into virtually any part of speech. The new message could apply to him, I suppose, although I think it might be aimed more at the young men who sometimes ride in packs and feel a strong need to speak loudly to each other using shock talk. I think ignoring it works more effectively to take away their thrill - they thrive on confrontation. When I heard the beginning of the message I thought it might end in 'cell phones' instead of 'offensive language'. I would rather encounter the occasional smarmy comment than become audience to loud speaking cell phone addicts. With expletives, you might learn a new way to curse a bad driver - half a cell phone converstaion usually reveals nothing of interest or import.
I leave you today with a link to a story in the Daily Mail about a cat who rides the bus. I have a year-old Abyssinian. Hoover, who needs to read this article. She could learn a trick or two from this enterprising feline. Hoover is featured in today's image.
3 comments:
30 years ago in Brighton there was, (allegedly), the "Bevendean Dog" who used to board either a 10 or 11 bus, (he somehow knew which side of the road to wait), and who used to alight at St Peters Church near the centre of Brighton most weekdays...
The puzzle was, he seemed to know exactly which bus to catch, and from which stop, he had to return each day...
By the by - how come you're looking at the Daily Mail? I thought you had FAR better taste!
Actually, the link was forwarded to me by a fellow Aby owner. I don't think he reads the Daily Mail - just peruses the net a lot. I never read it before and from what I could see surrounding this article, probably won't actively seek info from it in the future. Looks to be a tabloid type paper in the style of our National Enquirer - lots of inflammation and innuendo and very little of interest. Gotta love the cat story, though.
The Daily Mail isn't so much the National Enquirer (the Daily Sport is more that trick!)...
Leaving this aside, we have I suppose, in the UK, three main categories of newspaper, (although, it has to be said, all are now sad shadows of what once was)...
The Tory press - cheap "Conservative" (closest to Republican) papers - tabloid
The "Red-Top" press - cheap "Labour" (closest to Democrat) papers - tabloid
The supposed middle-ground papers
(like the Independent - which actually probably isn't and the Times which has totally lost its way)...
Actually who cares?
Grandchildren and cats are genuinely far far more interesting and locally important to the quality of everyday life than George W or Tony B ever were... If we don't like them we can kick George and Tony out far easier than we can ensure our own (local) happiness...
Either I'm tipsy or that's heading towards the profound!
Good blog as ever
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