On May 8, 11:52 am, Ian Jelf wrote:

Now it's a bit of a trademark of the walking tours I do that I always
have a brolly. Sometimes in crowded places or with biggish groups it
can be a good marker and it's become a bit of a "prop" I suppose. With
hindsight, I suppose it did look a bit odd in yesterday's lovely sunny
weather but I still can't really see that carrying it could in any way
be construed as "suspicious behaviour".

I was at Grand Central Terminal yesterday morning, on my way to take a
trip up the Hudson Line to Poughkeepsie, when there was a woman
leading a walking tour on the main concourse; she was also holding one
up, so they seem to be a pretty standard marker, a bit like leading
the troops into battle behind the colours.

There were also lots of people taking photographs, and nobody seemed
to be objecting, though taking photographs of much transport
infrastructure is banned here. On PATH and the major bridges for
example. There were plans for a ban on both the Subway and NJ
Transit, but I don't think either has been introduced (yet).

One other rather baffling remark
from the female PCSO when I expressed surprise about this was that " a
lot of children use this park". Evidently carrying an umbrella in warm
weather and being in possession of a London Tourist Board Blue Badge
must be a sure sign of paedophilia. I would stress that they were
polite and happy to accept my given explanation of what I was doing
there; but I dread to think what they'd have made of me if I'd had a
camera!

Being anywhere near children is very suspicious these days; haven't
you seen the 'spot the difference' type police poster with two
pictures, both with some children, but one also has an adult man in
the background, quite some distance away. People are being told to
watch out for this sort of 'suspicious' behavior.

Who do you lead with by the way, is it London Walks, or one of the
other groups?

In message
Stephen Furley wrote:

[snip]

Being anywhere near children is very suspicious these days; haven't
you seen the 'spot the difference' type police poster with two
pictures, both with some children, but one also has an adult man in
the background, quite some distance away. People are being told to
watch out for this sort of 'suspicious' behavior.


Perhaps the posters should show the children at home, by far the majority of
child abuse takes place at home despite what the News of the Srews would like
you to believe.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

On Fri, 9 May 2008 00:15:21 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

[content snipped]

Would you shorten your sig please! It's very interesting but also
irritating having to scroll through 11 superfluous lines of text every
time you post.

tom

--
For the first few years I ate lunch with he mathematicians. I soon found
that they were more interested in fun and games than in serious work,
so I shifted to eating with the physics table. There I stayed for a
number of years until the Nobel Prize, promotions, and offers from
other companies, removed most of the interesting people. So I shifted
to the corresponding chemistry table where I had a friend. At first I
asked what were the important problems in chemistry, then what important
problems they were working on, or problems that might lead to important
results. One day I asked, "if what they were working on was not important,
and was not likely to lead to important things, they why were they working
on them?" After that I had to eat with the engineers! -- R. W. Hamming

On Sat, 10 May 2008, G wrote:

On Fri, 9 May 2008 00:15:21 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

[content snipped]

Would you shorten your sig please! It's very interesting but also
irritating having to scroll through 11 superfluous lines of text every
time you post.

It would be if you had to. My sig changes frequently, so you don't.

Also, why do you have to scroll through it? It's at the bottom, and i
don't top-post!

tom

--
For the first few years I ate lunch with he mathematicians. I soon found
that they were more interested in fun and games than in serious work,
so I shifted to eating with the physics table. There I stayed for a
number of years until the Nobel Prize, promotions, and offers from
other companies, removed most of the interesting people. So I shifted
to the corresponding chemistry table where I had a friend. At first I
asked what were the important problems in chemistry, then what important
problems they were working on, or problems that might lead to important
results. One day I asked, "if what they were working on was not important,
and was not likely to lead to important things, they why were they working
on them?" After that I had to eat with the engineers! -- R. W. Hamming



--
For one thing at least is almost certain about the future, namely,
that very much of it will be such as we should call incredible. --
Olaf Stapledon

On Sat, 10 May 2008 19:32:26 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

On Sat, 10 May 2008, G wrote:

On Fri, 9 May 2008 00:15:21 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

[content snipped]

Would you shorten your sig please! It's very interesting but also
irritating having to scroll through 11 superfluous lines of text every
time you post.

It would be if you had to. My sig changes frequently, so you don't.

Also, why do you have to scroll through it? It's at the bottom, and i
don't top-post!

The accepted usenet convention is that a sig. should not exceed four
lines.

Some people get upset if they are exceeded.
--
Regards

Mike

mikedotroebuckatgmxdotnet

In article ,
Mike Roebuck wrote:

The accepted usenet convention is that a sig. should not exceed four
lines.

Some people get upset if they are exceeded.
--
[1] Regards
[2]
[3] Mike
[4]
[5] mikedotroebuckatgmxdotnet

But what the heck - there are fewer characters there than a single, full
80 character line.

Sam

On Mon, 12 May 2008, Mike Roebuck wrote:

On Sat, 10 May 2008 19:32:26 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

On Sat, 10 May 2008, G wrote:

On Fri, 9 May 2008 00:15:21 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

[content snipped]

Would you shorten your sig please! It's very interesting but also
irritating having to scroll through 11 superfluous lines of text every
time you post.

It would be if you had to. My sig changes frequently, so you don't.

Also, why do you have to scroll through it? It's at the bottom, and i
don't top-post!

The accepted usenet convention is that a sig. should not exceed four
lines.

Oh, i know. And most of mine don't. But i like that quote ...

Some people get upset if they are exceeded.

.... and i'm willing to upset a few people once in a blue moon to use it!

tom

--
Argumentative and pedantic, oh, yes. Although it's properly called
"correct" -- Huge

On Mon, 12 May 2008 17:08:08 +0100, Sam Wilson
wrote:

In article ,
Mike Roebuck wrote:

The accepted usenet convention is that a sig. should not exceed four
lines.

Some people get upset if they are exceeded.
--
[1] Regards
[2]
[3] Mike
[4]
[5] mikedotroebuckatgmxdotnet

But what the heck - there are fewer characters there than a single, full
80 character line.

Yes - I hadn't noticed that an extra blank line had crept in.

I've fixed it now.

--
Regards

Mike
mikedotroebuckatgmxdotnet

Ian Jelf wrote:

One other rather
baffling remark from the female PCSO when I expressed surprise about
this was that " a lot of children use this park". Evidently
carrying an umbrella in warm weather and being in possession of a
London Tourist Board Blue Badge must be a sure sign of paedophilia.

I don't understand who these PCSO people are. While I have met some very
admirable and intelligent (normal) coppers, I have also met one in
particular who, while a nice bloke, reminded me of Benny from Crossroads or
Randy from My Name Is Earl. If *he* was bright enough to become a normal
copper and these PCSOs aren't, they must be on the verge of needing help to
cross the road.

Anyway, Ian, you fared better than this chap.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...pple-core.html

I have often thrown apple cores onto green spaces.... I hate litter, but I
consider apple cores to be new trees/squirrel food rather than litter. I'll
have to quit that now.

In message , at 23:51:11 on Mon,
12 May 2008, John Rowland
remarked:
I don't understand who these PCSO people are. While I have met some very
admirable and intelligent (normal) coppers, I have also met one in
particular who, while a nice bloke, reminded me of Benny from Crossroads or
Randy from My Name Is Earl. If *he* was bright enough to become a normal
copper and these PCSOs aren't, they must be on the verge of needing help to
cross the road.

I have yet to consciously see a male PCSO. All the ones round my way are
young women, and often very petite (assuming that's a PC [hoho] way to
describe their build).

--
Roland Perry