Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
When I accidentally hit the combination of keys on my computer that makes the computer do something random to the screen display. Argh. 
Pointless But It Does My Head In
scottdisco
rip this joint please
oi Nomad!
i'll have you know i got mugged in Manhattan once!
i admit i was pissed, it was about 3 or 4 in the morning, down a side alley in a dodgy part of east Harlem, mind you, and bearing in mind i've been taxed about a million times in broad daylight in my native Manchester (where i allegedly know where i'm going).
(dunno why i called out N on this; she knows i wuv her)
i'll have you know i got mugged in Manhattan once!
i admit i was pissed, it was about 3 or 4 in the morning, down a side alley in a dodgy part of east Harlem, mind you, and bearing in mind i've been taxed about a million times in broad daylight in my native Manchester (where i allegedly know where i'm going).
(dunno why i called out N on this; she knows i wuv her)
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Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
scottdisco
rip this joint please
OK but only if Vimothy and Zhao adjudicate
Swansea versus Manchester, that's a toughie..
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
get in line mate! what can I say, I'm a sucker for girls who promise to write out Remarc tunes note-for-note on sheet music to prove to me why jungle isn't innovative.
also I didn't know Manchester was as dangerous as all that. it's funny cos the two places I've lived the longest since moving out have been West Philly (one of the "rougher" parts, not that big student section down the river) & Oakland & I've never been mugged in the States. admittedly I'm on a bike most of the time.
I have had kids try to pull me off my bike a few times - it's the 12-14 yr olds you've gotta watch out for in my experience. their older brothers could care less as long as you don't mess with them.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
no way it's a brotherly love. can't speak for scott or craner tho...
don't worry zhao, I love you too. what can I say, I'm a sucker for afrocentric boys who are forever berating my passe taste in "Western dance music".
don't worry zhao, I love you too. what can I say, I'm a sucker for afrocentric boys who are forever berating my passe taste in "Western dance music"
.bassnation
the abyss
they don't call it gunchester for nothing.
i'm used to living in peckham and brixton, south london which a lot of people find scary, but i personally think manchesters in a different league. mancs might disagree though!
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Awww, feel the plur on this page.
*distributes hugs all round*
*distributes hugs all round*
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
I guess I have a hard time imagining any British city as frightening. tho keep in mind as I said there isn't really any American city I find frightening either. actually small town America spooks me a lot worse. I've had a lot of bad experiences w/small town cops (& highway troopers - seriously, I f**king hate those guys - at least local cops are kinda tied to the community they police).
bassnation
the abyss
yeah i was just going to say - its not the cities people have to watch out for, more the small towns. less guns but much more potential for indiscriminate, drink-fuelled and unprovoked violence.
but some parts of london are like that - the city is really a bunch of inter-connected villages in some ways. so the outer reaches can be very rough. see stories like this for an example. this was a robbery btw.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...-set-alight-in-horrific-New-Cross-murder.html
bassnation
the abyss
there were two of them, they are being tried in court right now.
it was over a cashpoint pin. apparently they took the students cards, but the cash machine swallowed one of them and the torture was in revenge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ed-250-times-for-cashcard-number-1675179.html
bassnation
the abyss
the other thing which did my head in recently is that girl gang roaming round kennington waving a ball bearing gun in peoples faces. the middle aged woman they mugged, the girl pulled the trigger at point blank range but it jammed and they got arrested minutes later. i've also witnessed a gunfight directly outside a pub beer garden in tulse hill where everyone ran inside, wisely i thought, apart from a couple of idiots rubber necking who got dragged in by more sensible heads. its not something to boast about, but the uk is not the bowler hat tipping haven of tea and politeness that it once (or never maybe, who knows) was.
And earlier that day one of them had tried to rob the actress who plays Big Mo in Eastenders but was caught trying to get into her house?
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Yep. A lot of people who live outside London have this totally inflated idea of the place as this cesspool of indiscriminate, non-stop violence, but I think you're right, there are other places that are far worse from the point of view Mr Ordinary, walking around minding his own business. What the paper-reading/news-watching public fails to appreciate is that a) a lot of the murders are gang-related and often involve far-from-innocent victims (not that every gang member deserves to be killed, of course, but a hell of a lot of shootings and stabbings are tit-for-tat) and b) of course there's going to be a greater total amount of violence and crime in London; which other UK city has 7.5 million people living in it? Naturally, 'X teenagers killed so far this year' makes headlines in the way that 'X murders/1,000 head of population' doesn't, though. And if you were to use this second statistic as a measure I bet London would compare pretty favourably with places like Glasgow, Nottingham and, as you say, Manchester.
Yeah, that's right, it's an incredibly fracture or variegated place. Your point below ("or never was, maybe") is well made, too. From what I've read, there was a massive rise in most kinds of crime in London between the mid-50s and late 60s, and since then it's oscillated up and down but never got close to going below pre-55 levels. Though how that compares to crime in the 19th century, or the 17th, or in the middle ages, I have no idea. The late-19th century East End sounds like it could give late-20th century South Central LA a run for its money as a pit of concentrated, solidified social dysfunction, anyway.
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Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Writer's block.
Made of fail.
Made of fail.
Writer's block.
Made of fail.
You need to destroy to create.
Affliate, disaffliate, kill again.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I like this sentence, it has a Conan-goes-Zen ring to it.
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