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Edited by Dynamic Dave on 30/10/2008 at 21:24
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It's a long story but my telly (LG D128Z12, for those who know about such things) has finally been reunited with it's correct remote control (the universal ones that I have tried have not worked with this particular model)
After such a long saga I was not really surprised to find that it didn't work, so prised it open to find the moulded rubber sheet containing the buttons coated in some sort of syrupy-like substance, this obviously preventing the required electrical contact.
Making a mental note to interogate son when I next saw him I duly cleaned it all up and was childishly pleased when it burst into life. However I'm finding that when the remote has a bit of time off, such as overnight, I need to polish the buttons and pcb board with a tissue before it will actvate again.
I guess the solution is to coat the board with some sort of electrical conducting stuff to help the buttons do their job but don't want to mess it up again. I thought of switch cleaner but then wondered if any back roomers knew of a better, or the correct product
{subject header changed, as per the "PLEASE NOTE" request}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/10/2008 at 10:09
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I bought a replacement remote from AV UK Ltd and I'm very satisfied with it. They sell remotes specific to most electrical appliances. No setting up is required. Here's yours tinyurl.com/6qeluc £12.89 inc VAT, and free delivery to the UK mainland.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/10/2008 at 10:09
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Many thanks for the link.
After the failure of the universal remotes to do the business, I did a google and this was one of the firms that came up.
In these parlous times I prefer to make do & mend but, now that I've got used to not kneeling in front of the telly to change channels, if the original remote persists in going to sleep overnight, I will send off for one.
[Apologies to PU for my gaffe re. subject heading]
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[Apologies to PU for my gaffe re. subject heading]
Gaffe No.2 ;o)
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I raised this question in an earlier, now locked, thread and had some helpful comments. Having bought The Economist Style Guide I can say that, to my surprise, there is no laid down rule.
"There is no firm rule about the number of a verb governed by a single collective noun. It is best to go by the sense - that is, whether the collective noun stands for a single entity.
The council WAS elected
The young generation HAS had its day
The staff IS loyal
or for its contituents
The council ARE at sixes and sevens
The preceding generation ARE all dead
The staff ARE at each other's throats
The couple ARE now living apart, is preferred to
The couple IS now living apart"
Posted to thank those who posted earlier to help me!
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There is a laid-down rule which you have correctly identified!
When referring to the individuals within the collective noun, plural; when referring to the collective as a whole, singular.
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Listened to that Nicky Campbell chap pronounce Holborn on Watchdog tonight - I always thought it had a silent "L" so pronounced "Hoborn" Who's right ?
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No silent L for a londoner.
Except the tobbacco - that was always pronounced "Old Hoburn"
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No silent L for a londoner.
>>
Can't swear to it AE but my impression is that it varies on an individual basis... more don't pronounce the L than do.
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... pronounced "Hoborn" Who's right ?
Take your pick:
www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pronounce+Holborn&...=
londonist.com/2005/07/these_are_a_few.php
To Clear Up Any Confusion
The first puzzle of Holborn is how to pronounce it. You'll have heard people say variously O'bn (locals), Ho-Burn (wannabe locals), Hol-Burn (tourists) and Hole-Bourne (Yank tourists). So the fewer letters you pronounce, the more you'll sound like you know what you're talking about. Strangely, though, it's probably the Yank tourists who get closest to the area?s ancient enunciation (see next section).
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A19773499
Edited by jbif on 27/10/2008 at 20:29
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I have an office there (indeed I am posting this from there or threabouts) and the younger people in the office say Holeborn, those mid thirties plus say Hoborn.
Truncating words is the norm eg places like Slaithwaite pronounced locally as Slowit.
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Must be a local dialect thing depending on your area, the town i now live in was formerly called Holborn Hill, all the locals hereabout pronounce it exactly as spelt, Hol-born, - i (as an off-comer ) on the other hand, "used" to refer to it as previously described, "Ho-burn" but was often severely corrected! - but then I think I still can hear the sounds of duelling banjo's on a quiet moonlit night.
Billy
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Southwell near Newark.
Is it South-well or Suthell? I know most people say Suthell but I remember reading somewhere that the locals pronounce it South-well.
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Southwell near Newark. .. Is it South-well or Suthell?
see my previous link:
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A19773499
Pronouncing British Placenames
A similar thing occurs with places beginning with 'South'; Southwell .... ....
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Leigh (in Surrey) pronounced Lie.
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Leigh (in Surrey) pronounced Lie.>>
Perhaps to differentiate it from Leigh (pronounced Lee) in Greater Manchester...:-)
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Is it South-well or Suthell? I know most people say Suthell but I remember reading somewhere that the locals pronounce it South-well.
We always assumed the locals would call it Suth-ell. But we recently did a job there, the client was a local man (quite well-heeled), and he called it South-well, carefully enunciated.
Another one is Blidworth north of Nottingham. We assume its referred to as Blid-eth; do the locals call it that or is it Blid-worth?
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Some Scottish ones.....
Ardnamurchan..... Ard-na-murra-chhan
Milngavie......Mol-guy
Fingzean.....Fing'in
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BBC link is interesting; somebody had great fun writing it.
Whalley (wor-lee) in Lancashire. But IME, Whalley Range, also in (former!) Lancashire, is that not known as "wally"?
Another London one is Marylebone - Marr-le-bun to those in the know.
Edited by Mapmaker on 28/10/2008 at 10:09
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Mousehole in Cornwall pronounced Muzzel.
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My favourite
Tacolneston in Norfolk - 'Takelston'
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Shrewsbury (as in small mammal) or Shrowsbury (as in to indicate or demonstrate)?
When I went to school by train many years ago there was a sign asking passengers to "shew" tickets. Which probably doesn't help.
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Shrowsbury is the public school. Locals I seem to remember pronounce it Shroosbury.
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And while we're a bit upmarket: Magdalene - as in the college - is pronounced as though miserable in drink, isn't it, ie maudlin?
Edited by Optimist on 28/10/2008 at 13:27
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And Caius, Keys...
By the way, Optimist, I always, even as a child, found that spelling of 'shew' extremely irritating for some reason.
Edited by Lud on 28/10/2008 at 13:30
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Archaic in the extreme, that's for sure, but made me vaguely hope that the station master, in tall hat, might appear to wave us off as Holmes and Watson jumped from a landau with a cloak concealing the coat of arms on the door, and caught the train with seconds to spare.
Anyway. Must get on.
Edited by Optimist on 28/10/2008 at 13:36
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Fowey in Cornwall pronounced Foy.
Clk Sec
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Saltfleetby in Lincolnshire pronounced Sollerby by some.
Happisburgh in Norfolk - Hazeboro
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Saltfleetby in Lincolnshire pronounced Sollerby by some.
And Saltfleet-buy by others.
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I have been told that some locals call "Tideswell"; "Tidser"
I have also been told quite vehemently that they do not!
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What about 'Featherstonehaugh' pronounced FANSHAW ?
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There was a story - completely true I'm sure - that a foreigner many years ago was walking down Shaftesbury Avenue in London when he saw a sign outside a theatre which said "Pygmalion pronounced success".
He shot himself.
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Just think of the problem other people have with my surname ~ Cholmondeley - Featherstonehaugh. Fortunately one's parents taught one how to pronounce it properly.
;-)
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Oh come on Chumley Fanshaw - we all know it!!!
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You're a set of dance troups?
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Another London one is Marylebone - Marr-le-bun to those in the know.
Surely everyone's in the know about that one at least? It's on the Monopoly board. Noone was brought up without a Monopoly board were they?
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Pronounced Mo'oly GJD?
When I lived in Plymouth in the fifties the girl next door went to America. On one occasion she was driven, she told me, in a grand American car whose make she pronounced 'Kerdilluk', with the emphasis on the middle syllable. Took me a moment or two to understand what she meant.
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Without wishing to be controversial, in what way is the word "controversy" pronounced?
When I was small I'm jolly sure everyone said conTROVersy, (ie trov in the middle) but then the BBC started saying contro - versy, to rhyme with nursey, which still sounds very odd to me.
I heard an Australian newscast the other day, though, and they said it like I do, the first way.
Has it changed over the years? What do others here say?
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Almost anything the BBC says this day is different from the way it used to be, plus, ovr-run with Scots talking about buds (Birds) and modder (Murder). Neil Oliver, with the long hair is about the worsst. Near Stratford Alcester is pronounced Alster by the locals. There is Wymondham in Norfolk pronounced Windem and one near me pronounced Wiemondham.
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I always remember Alan Green commenting on Manchester United matches and talking about how good that "Hard" is in goal, of course Tim Howard with an NI accent coming into play.
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Wymondham as Wind'em, as in the weather not a wind up.
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the one that annoys me most is that most folk refer to the "bodies of Water" in our area as: Lake Windermere, Lake Coniston etc etc.
There is ONLY ONE Lake in the Lake District, and thats Bassenthwaite Lake - the rest are Mere's or Waters! - Humbug!
Billy
Edited by billy25 on 28/10/2008 at 17:20
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First class pub quiz question there: How many lakes are there in the Lake District?
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If you mean how many have the name include the word lake then one. Bassenthwaite Lake.
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the one that annoys me most is that most folk refer to the "bodies of Water" in our area as: Lake Windermere Lake Coniston etc etc. There is ONLY ONE Lake in the Lake District and thats Bassenthwaite Lake - the rest are Mere's or Waters! - Humbug!
I agree with you about that Billy, but it is just as awkward having to say Windermere Village and Coniston Village to make it clear where you are actually going or have been.
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Bearing in mind that the NHS computer database, which we might need, has ground to a halt, 4 years late and has cost £12 billion so far:-
tinyurl.com/63ue7y
Does anybody think, re ID Cards
1. Do we need them?
2. Can we afford the system?
3. Could any governement make it work with say 99% accuracy?
4. Would even 99% be good enough?
moved into IHAQ
Edited by Pugugly on 29/10/2008 at 09:57
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1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No
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It is the shambolic track record of government IT projects which gives me hope that both ID cards and road pricing will never come to fruition. My only concern is how much money will go down the toilet in the inevitable failed attempts.
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ID cards, like MID, DVLA and ANPR databases tend to record the details of the law abiding so its easier to dish out fines to easy targets for being late with a road tax renewal. I expect the govt to introduce fines for late or non renewal of MOT soon just like road tax, it would be relatively easy to do with MOT computerisation now well underway.
Would ID cards work? The law abiding would conform as usual whlst the criminals find a way around the system.
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Think Cheddar's post says it all really!
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The NHS roll-out programme has been halted because Fujitsu have pulled out. The programme has been problematic because Fujitsu have continually made promises that they couldn't keep and misled the NHS managers in charge of the project.
I can find no evidence to substantiate that the programme has been halted, nor that any of the above statements are true. Dr_Duffy is welcome to substantiate these comments by links etc but until then these statements should be taken as a personal surmise only. smokie, Moderator
In my view ID cards ARE needed. In many parts of the country there are communities where many people have similar/same names and it can be very hard to determine the identity of patients. There is also the issue of overseas visitors arriving at a UK airport, taking a taxi to the nearest NHS A&E and announcing that they are ill and need urgent treatment. Often giving the name of a relative who is UK resident. No system will be perfect, but we need to do something to improve upon the current 'free for all' in which NHS staff, Police and other authorities often have no idea of the identity of the people with whom they are dealing. Other EU countries have ID card systems.
Edited by smokie on 30/10/2008 at 08:47
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"The NHS roll-out programme has been halted because Fujitsu have pulled out. The programme has been problematic because Fujitsu have continually made promises that they couldn't keep and misled the NHS managers in charge of the project."
Dr_Duffy this part of your post should not be on this site - for a start it's not true apart from Fujitsu walking away from contract reset negotiations because the customer (NHS) changed their requirements again. Besides Fujitsu only had the contact for the South, BT has London and CSC has the rest (the biggest chunk). And BT also provides the SPINE which is part of the centralised medical record.
If I was a mod I would delete that in case there was some comeback.
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>>because the customer (NHS) changed their requirements again. >>
Governments continually up the stakes with businesses once a contract has been agreed, leaving the latter facing further product developments at their own expense - just ask, for instance, BAe...:-)
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There is also the issue of overseas visitors arriving at a UK airport, taking a taxi to the nearest NHS A&E and announcing that they are ill and need urgent treatment. Often giving the name of a relative who is UK resident.
Astonishing. Is it really happening? First time I have heard that claim.
Assuming you are not from UKIP or the other nationalist party, and that your claim is true, and that the practice is widespread, I think you don't need ID cards to stop that happening.
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Think Cheddar's post says it all really!
Sorry, didnt have much time, didn't mean to be flippant.
The latter point is the key one IMO, even an 0.1% error is 50,000 people / slipping through the net / unaccounted for / inaccurately recorded etc etc, and it is that 0.1% that we should be concerned about not the other 99.9%.
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ID cards no thanks, but the govt computer project thing is more complicated than this. I see the problem with them as relating to two things: the civil service making poor decisions about contract terms--possibly because there is nowhere else for them to go for this kind of work--and the private companies who build the systems not fully grasping the size and complexity of the task or the constraints upon it. Or if they do, failing to curb the ambition of the client. Everyone loves a challenge, and these systems are truly enormous. If your company can say 'We built the brilliant and reliable NHS computer system' customers will come flocking, won't they? A clash of cultures in other words. Neither side really understands the other's needs, but both sides want what the other has to offer.
My solution? Nationalise IBM UK. Kidding, just kidding.
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From a personal point of view I am totally against these mega projects. However it is fair to say that a lot of the cost overruns and delays are caused by the 'customer' drawing up a spec and then continually making changes to it once the project is under way. This inevitably leads to delays and extra cost without always improving the product
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As someone who used to work in Government IT, and brought in many projects on time, on budget and with full functionality I must put in my oar. Agreed, I'm not exactly unbiased but IMHO the rot set in when these projects were outsourced. All our in-house projects worked - it was the ones put out the the private sector that went belly-up. And Civil Servants are cheaper than contractors and "consultants".
Anyway, the genie's out of the bottle, civil service IT teams have gone and it wouldn't be practical to set them up again (short of nationalising IBM UK!!) so we're stuck where we are.
And, oh, I left the day before my department sold my job - yes, to IBM, and would have given me to them as part of the deal.
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I've got some sympathy with terryb's point of view but the fact is that government treat private contractors different from their own people. They don't pay themselves penalties for a start. They want longer hours of service, standards which they never aspired to themselves and everything has to be "GIS compliant" which it wasn't when you took it on and for which you have to bear the considerable, unpredictable and ongoing costs.
Every change has to go past a Change Board, often made up of non IT people, some of them there to prove a point, though goodness knows what it is. They want enough reports to wipe out the Amazon rain forest and those people who TUPEd across don't work the hours they're demanding.
The bid went to, probably, the cheapest credible contractor, who is now frantically trying to make a profit on the deal meanwhile the customer is stretching the scope at every opportunity.
Sorry Terryb, I'm not having a go at you but at the management who aren't managing but are playing games with taxpayers money.
JH
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Sorry Terryb I'm not having a go at you but at the management who aren't managing but are playing games with taxpayers money.
Which is really my point exactly JH.
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Mrs S has the Blind Man coming tonight to give us a quote for 5 windows. I think he will be much more expensive that buying at, say, B&Q and self-fitting, but someone has told me they are difficult to fit.
Anyone had any experience of this?
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We once got D.I.Y blinds from a well-known store, - fiddly to put together, fiddly to fit, and not very good quality when you get them out of the box. However they stayed up for 2yrs until we re-decorated, then we got "the Blind Man" in from another well-known firm (Hillarys, they had an offer on, three for the price of two, we got six), he came did all the measuring - let us choose our fabric, took 30 mins, came back one evening a fortnight later and fitted them all, 1 hour!. Overall, slightly dearer, but much better quality, very well made, still hanging 8yrs later. You can specify washable fabric if you wish, we did, and they've been through the washer many times without damage, deteriation, or shrinkage. In my view, well worth the extra, and you dont have to do the fitting!
Billy
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Actually fitting them is easy if you have a decent drill and sharp drill bits - they usually hang off a couple of brackets. I removed ours when the builders were in and refitted it with no problems.
Billy25 has identified the main advantages of going to a specialist - they have a huge choice, will have good knowledge of the various materials you can use and they will fit them for you.
An off the shelf option may need altering and this may not be easy.
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Actually fitting them is easy if you have a decent drill and sharp drill bits ...........
Not necessarily if your house has steel lintels.
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My house does have steel lintels, that's why a good drill and proper bits are required.
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We had our front room bay fitted with window blinds from a local specialist after visiting its showroom to weigh up prices - the windows were measured up by a rep, who brought along a wide choice of fabrics from which to choose, including washables.
The blinds proved excellent quality and were fitted by a two-man team (one assembled the blinds and the other put up the runner mechanisms) just under a week later; I know which of the two jobs I do in such employment..:-)
Price? £179.
The firm is very successful and was, in fact, recommended by a neighbour.
PS
Seen daveyjp's post since; the advantage, as he infers, is that the firm make the blinds to fit your windows, rather than you DIY-ing and adapting what you buy.
Edited by Stuartli on 29/10/2008 at 15:18
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Thanks all - well Hillary's are coming tonight to give a quote - going on what you say above (and also that Mrs has no confidence in my DIY skills!!) we might be better to get them in to do them. I'd heard they were quite reasonable - they currently say they have 50% off - but off what is a mystery... Just hope they don't come to £179 per window!!
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I advise a local fitter is also contacted. Hillarys advertise on our local TV. The local guy doesn't - guess who is cheaper.
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Good point. There is a little interiors shop on the other side of town which is rarely open, I shall get a price from him too. (Hillary's have just done a massive leaflet drop around here)
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>>Just hope they don't come to £179 per window!!>>
As I said, it was for the front room bay windows (and Victorian bay windows at that!).
By the way, Hillarys use local agents; if you still fancy fitting the blinds yourself there's a link:
www.web-blinds.com/
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The Hillary's chappie (who, as you say, was a local agent, had a different company name on his van) came round and did us a quote - wasn't as bad as I thought it might be (although we would have to have plain blinds to get the 50% off - without 50% off it was horrendous!!) I'm going to try the local shop too but I don't see they will be a lot cheaper.
Edited by smokie on 29/10/2008 at 22:57
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50 per cent off perhaps should ring alarm bells - prices too steep in the first place?
Edited by Stuartli on 30/10/2008 at 00:18
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This perennial, well biannual, issue has surely been discussed before though I was just thinking this morning, it really did not need to be broad daylight at 7am though it would be very handy it it were still light at 6pm tonight.
IIRC the introduction of "daylight saving" was to help farmers though this seems to be unecessary today, 1/ because of changes in farming processes and 2/ because the farmer's milk, eggs etc collected early in the morning are not required to be in the local grocers store for purchase that day.
So from a motoring perspective should we continue with daylight saving or should we stay on BST all year?
From an eco perspective reducing the need for street lamps and, to a lesser extent, vehicle lights to be switched on would surely be a good thing?
How about BST (GMT+1) in the winter and GMT+2 in the summer allowing very light evenings and still quite light enough mornings?
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It has always amazed me that apparently inteligent people are seriously prepared to believe that tinkering with the clock actually produces more daylight. The old argument about farmers etc is total nonsense. Farmers are used to having to get up and work at all hours if necessary. If the sheep having a difficult lambing needs watching all night, they stay up all night. If there is a rare window of good weather they work through the night by arclight getting the hay in. It is ridiculous and patronising to suggest that farmers are incaple of planning their day to use daylight to best advantage, and they need a nanny government clock-tinkerer to tell them when to get up.
Organisations should simply order their working hours to suit their customers' convenience. Those having hourly dealings with Europe can keep European time if they like. Firms in the West of Britain can work half an hour later than those in the East if it suits them.
Let's just have permanent GMT and forget about it!
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>>patronising to suggest that farmers are incaple of planning their day to use daylight to best advantage>
Yes though in the days when milking sheds etc were manual and unlit etc it was clearly a great advantage to have that extra hour of daylight with a view to milking, collecting eggs etc and getting them into the shops / supply chain for that day's consumption. However things have changed.
>>Let's just have permanent GMT and forget about it!>>
Surely you mean permanent BST? GMT in the summer would mean light at 4:00am though dark at 9:00pm.
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Let's have the same as the rest of Europe and I won't have to think "do I add/subtract" as I go across the Channel.
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Let's have the same as the rest of Europe ...
No way. If you want a common time the rest of Europe should fall in line with us. We won WWII so we should call the shots. (No pun intended.)
Edited by L'escargot on 30/10/2008 at 09:56
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I strongly agree with two points here.
1/ It is crazy creating a scenario where mornings are lighter and evenings darker. This compromises safety for anyone travelling as the darkness is extended at the end of working days, a time when people are more tired than they are in the morning. Also, an extra hour of daylight in the late afternoon is more useable for most than one in the morning. Children playing for example.
2/ It is also increasingly inconvenient to be an hour out of step with the rest of Europe. Many businesses have regular and constant dealings with european trade partners every day. It would just make that arrangement more efficient at no cost if we were on the same time.
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I agree with both points Humph, point 2/ is my suggestion BST (GMT+1) in the winter and GMT+2 in the summer allowing very light evenings (dark at 11pm) and and still quite light enough mornings (light by 6am) with the added benefit of being in line with (most) of the rest of Europe.
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The problem is the difference between the north and south of Britain. Northern Scotland and Southern England in reality require different time zones. To move to the European standard would cause too much disruption. The current arrangements are the best compromise whilst we still have a United Kingdom in place. There is no perfect answer. IMHO.
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Just think yourself lucky we aren't defending ourselves against an aggressor, or we might have "double summer time" in summer and "summer time" in winter! tinyurl.com/57zqpc
Edited by L'escargot on 30/10/2008 at 10:58
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Just think yourself lucky we aren't defending ourselves against an aggressor or we might have "double summer time" in summer and "summer time" in winter! >>
Why "Just think yourself lucky"?, that is my preferred option.
Mods: Why has this been moved? I said "So from a motoring perspective".
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My least favourite two weeks of the year are those before the clocks go back in Autumn. It's so depressing to leave the house in the dark in October.
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It's so depressing to leave the house in the dark in October.
Well that is another perspective on it I suppose, personally I would rather have the light in the late afternoon / evening.
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I was at school when they tinkered with this before and remember it with misery. It was really depressing going to school in the dark with lights on in the classroom (think of the cost - this was in Kent, so imagine how much longer lighting was needed in the north), then getting home when it was dark too. I seem to remember far more accidents that winter involving children in the dark mornings too.
Like the idea of going forward 2 hours in the summer though - evenings have drawn in in August, when it would be nice to have light evenings.
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Mods: Why has this been moved? I said "So from a motoring perspective".
What followed was very little to do with motoring hence why its been moved here.
Webmaster.
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About three months ago my good lady bought me a Gillette 'Fusion' razor - the one that has FIVE blades. I thought that with five blades it was perhaps just a little over the top but I stand well and truly corrected.
First of all it provides a superb shave but the truly outstanding feature from my point of view is that, in spite of using it every day, I am still on the blade/s that was supplied when the razor was new. At a conservative estimate it has performed at least 100 shaves and shows no sign of wearing out.
Have any other backroomers experienced this wonderful instrument and, if so, is the longevity of my first blade typical or have I just been extremely lucky? One of the reservations that I had when I first got the razor was the price of replacement blades. At my current rate of usage it will turn out to be the best value shaving experience of my life.
Other observations would be welcome.
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Interesting Scouseford. A good friend many years ago worked in a senior position in that industry. Even then he claimed that they had the technology to manufacture a razor blade which would easily last a man his lifetime. The company he worked for owned the patent at the time and may well still do. Clearly it was not in their interests to market it. In fact the opposite was true and blades were deliberately engineered to blunt reasonably quickly to increase sales. Maybe some experiment has been conducted on a trial quantity of the ones you mention. I very much doubt if we will ever know.....
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I have something like that with a lot of blades. But they only last a few shaves before getting blunt with me. That's why I choose to dress down generally and look louche and scruffy. Means shaving isn't needed so often and makes one pass unnoticed.
When you have to buy some new blades you are in for a really horrible surprise. One would never have thought a single razor blade could ever cost a lot more than a quid. But it can.
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I use the Gillette Fusion and the replacement blades are very expensive. I do find it very good however.
There was once an offer on the blades so i bought some - and they all went blunt very quickly. Hmmm. I don't think I'd ever had 100 shaves out of a blade though.
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As documented here almost exactly two years ago that I was swapping to a brush and bowl. Brilliant shave and somewhat more satisfying than the modern take. Used in conjunction with Fusion, the blades last ages. I have a shaving regime inspired by an article by the late (and great) Fritz Speigl where he describes, in beautiful prose, his shaving technique including the essential cleaning of the blade in hot water - a process he suggested was critical for a good clean shave and long blade life.
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I buy Wilkinson's disposable twin blade razors from Poundland (BOGOF offer), which represents 10 razors.
They last me around six to eight weeks - not bad for someone who used to get only three or four shaves out of the old Wilkinson Swordedge blades...
By the way, using King of Shaves or the Body Shop's equivalent, provides the smoothest and nick-free shave you are ever likely to enjoy; amazingly you only need three or four drops for each shave.
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The whole methodology of the shaving industry is, of course, the same as that which exists in the business of printers. Supply the base item (razor or printer) as cheaply as possible and then clean up on the essential extras (blades and ink cartridges).
Lud, I agree that it would have been inconceivable only a short while ago to imagine a razor blade costing more than a quid. I get the impression that you are, like me, not in the first flush of youth and I'm sure that you will remember the days when each new blade was individually wrapped in greaseproof paper. They were usually sold in cartridges (small plastic boxes we called then then) of 5 or 10 blades and you could bet that at least one blade per box would be an absolute dud.
In case anybody is still interested I will report back when (IF?) I have to change my Fusion blade.
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And to a kid's imagination those little plastic boxes made marvellous streamlined hover cars.....
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PU. You have touched a nerve with your reference to both brush and soap shaving and to Fritz Spiegel.
My son works in TV journalism and his jobs are invariably contracts of varying lengths. A few years ago he was finishing a job and, being a decent sort of cove (like his dad) he had made a reasonable enough impression with the (predominately female) office staff and they had a whip-round and bought him some items of personal grooming which included a badger brush shaving brush (very un-PC) and a bowl of shaving soap from Trumpers of Jermyn Street. He said it transformed his shaving experience.
Fritz Spiegel was once a customer of mine and he was undoubtedly a charismatic fellow. Like all of us he wasn't perfect but his treatise on shaving was a classic.
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You haven't got a copy by any chance ?
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PU Unfortunately not. During one of my meetings with him I mentioned the article and he was passionate in his attitude to the whole business of shaving. Ironically he clearly hadn't shaved for at least a couple of days at that time!!
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