Things you've never done

[Sweep]

One thing I used to do a lot was writing Letters to the Editor, to local papers, the CTC Gazette of course, gave that up years ago, it was fun, :

Now why doesn't that surprise me?
And of course that is something you HAVE done.

[Cyril Haearn]

One thing I used to do a lot was writing Letters to the Editor, to local papers, the CTC Gazette of course, gave that up years ago, it was fun, :

Now why doesn't that surprise me?
And of course that is something you HAVE done.

Indeed, many were published too

[Ben@Forest]

One thing I used to do a lot was writing Letters to the Editor, to local papers, the CTC Gazette of course, gave that up years ago, it was fun, :

Now why doesn't that surprise me?
And of course that is something you HAVE done.

Indeed, many were published too

I've had a few 3 or 4 letters published in different local rags, but also one each in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The i. I've tried The Times a few times but no success yet.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Only ever once written that is hand written a letter to a magazine.
To be honest my writing is terrible well that won't surprised you will it, so I write in block capitals and have done for many years well the last 40 at least.
The author of the article in the magazine thought to mention my terrible handwriting, which was actually block capitals and easily to understand, but he did not mention content which was correcting his gross misunderstanding mechanical things.
He obviously didn't like being corrected or shown up publicly in a very popular monthly motorcycle publication.

So that once and one thing I have done not ever likely to be repeated

[Mike Sales]

I have had a couple of letters printed in cycling magazines. For one I was given the letter of the month prize. It was a helmet, which I returned.

[Sweep]

I have had a couple of letters printed in cycling magazines. For one I was given the letter of the month prize. It was a helmet, which I returned.

was your letter an anti helmet rant?
In green capitals?

[Mike Sales]

I have had a couple of letters printed in cycling magazines. For one I was given the letter of the month prize. It was a helmet, which I returned.

was your letter an anti helmet rant?
In green capitals?

I'm afraid not. if I remember correctly it was about "road tax". I pointed out that as axle weight went up, road wear increased exponentially. So that if we taxed on road damage, and cyclists paid, say £10 pa, then cars would pay a huge amount.

[Jdsk]

Not quite: usually quoted as fourth power, although I have seen sixth! But the effect on what's doing most of the damage is the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_axle_weight_rating

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

... I've had a few 3 or 4 letters published in different local rags, but also one each in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The i. I've tried The Times a few times but no success yet.

I've had half-a-dozen letters published in The Times when it was a serious newspaper. Pre Murdoch's staff cuts, a member of the Letter Editor's staff used to ring you up to discuss any editing they wanted to do and check your style and title eg were you something like a lieutenant commander (Retd) who probably made up the majority of correspondents.

The snivelling Parris led to my changing daily paper

[Mike Sales]

Not quite: usually quoted as fourth power, although I have seen sixth! But the effect on what's doing most of the damage is the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_axle_weight_rating

Jonathan

I too have seen various exponents quoted. As you say, the fourth would do fine for my purpose.

[Pebble]

Have never been an employee, as in I have never had a job working for someone else.

[Ben@Forest]

I've had half-a-dozen letters published in The Times when it was a serious newspaper. Pre Murdoch's staff cuts, a member of the Letter Editor's staff used to ring you up to discuss any editing they wanted to do and check your style and title eg were you something like a lieutenant commander (Retd) who probably made up the majority of correspondents.

The snivelling Parris led to my changing daily paper

The Times was my paper of choice when we bought real newspapers. Now online l read the Telegraph because it's about a third of the price of a Times subscription - the Times sends you vouchers for hard copies too. If the Guardian went behind a paywall and it was only a tenner a month l might subscribe to that too.

I don't like Parris either, he's ineffably smug and I've never forgotten his Christmas decapitating cyclists 'joke'.

[thirdcrank]

...
The Times was my paper of choice when we bought real newspapers. Now online l read the Telegraph because it's about a third of the price of a Times subscription - the Times sends you vouchers for hard copies too. If the Guardian went behind a paywall and it was only a tenner a month l might subscribe to that too.

I don't like Parris either, he's ineffably smug and I've never forgotten his Christmas decapitating cyclists 'joke'.

I've always read newspapers back to the days of the Manchester Guardian, Daily Herald and News Chronicle. I'm also a creature of habit eg I'm one of those people who sticks with the same current account longer than I should. When I left home and was married we took the Grauniad. Then, a colleague was on trial for something like handling stolen property. The trial lasted the best part of a week with a big spread every day. As Lord Gnome might say "Perhaps for reasons of space they didn't report his eventual acquittal." Cue to move to the Times a different creature then to what it has become.

IIRC, the first letter I had published in the Times was about a piece by Parris in which he referred to the Police Federation as a trade union, which it most certainly isn't, the point being that it was established as a government stooge to prevent any sort of industrial action by the police. I also got quite a thoughtful letter from Parris himself, apologising for the error and giving quite a bit of background info about Maggy, the avuncular Ken Clarke and their disagreements over policing.

Then we had the barbed wire jibe and a snivelling apology, explaining it was only humour. One might have thought that somebody so sensitive about his own minority status would have known better. Around that time the Times had started a column similar to the Guardian's readers' editor. The middle-aged porky-looking matrin in glasses - sorry luv, only harmless bantz - suggested the the poor misunderstood Matthew had only been joking but the cycling lobby had gonged up on him. Time to move again.

Going right back to the days of Jock Wadley, I'd bought the Daily T whenever I could afford it for his TdeF reports.

So, we've been taking the Daily T ever since the barbed wire. I'm not convinced it's worth buying anymore but my wife doesn't do screens and she likes a printed rag. I suspect the Daily T is about to fold.

[horizon]

I suspect the Daily T is about to fold.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... its-surge/

I can't read the whole article as it's behind a paywall

Unless of course you just meant that your wife is about to clear the breakfast table.

[thirdcrank]

I try to ignore spin. The evidence of my own eyes is that sales have tumbled.