The Other News From England.

12 Nov. 2001.

It is intended to renew The Other News weekly, but there are occasions when this is not possible. We apologise in advance for when this occurs.

Index of earlier issues - click here.

(Those who like digging about will find that there are hundreds of articles on many subjects to be found on this site.)

Old issues.

There are some much earlier Other News on this site. Click below.

early Othernews - 1992, 93, 94.

Bonnington Cafe.

Saturday 17th. November should be Phil, who sings a selection of Bert Jansch/Joni Mitchell/Dylan/his own songs, sometimes with guest artist/s, and on rare occasions Hugh Harris on a few numbers.

Saturday 24 November should be LETSwing (Steve Barbe vox/multi, Hanna Heissenbuttel vox/guitar Mark Treasure bass/vox Hugh Harris sax/vox playing a wide range of old jazz, reggae, bluebeat, pop - and even sometimes neo-classical.

Saturday 1 December should be Gabriele Gad piano and Hugh Harris saxophone - old-fashioned melodic jazz played at a low volume by these two players off the European and British jazz circuit.

No charge on any of these evenings, but the hat goes round

About the Bonnington.

Bonnington Cafe is a communally owned cafe in Vauxhall, Central London. The atmosphere is somewhat Bohemian, international, friendly, educated, and much wine (brought in by diners, not sold on the premises) gets drunk. Good quality vegetarian. Cheap. The only lighting is usually candles stuck in wine bottles, and the furniture is a collection of odds and sods that people have thrown out. The overall result is relaxed and pleasing. People tend to spend the whole evening over their meal, and engage in discussion with those on other tables, the caterer, the band, passers through......

Bonnington Cafe, Vauxhall Grove, London SW8 UK. Near Vauxhall underground and mainline station, buses 185, 36, 2, 88, 322 and others.

Booking for most Saturdays through Margarita (the main Saturday caterer) on 0207 582 3339.

Afghanistan.

If radio reports are to be relied upon, there may not be much longer to wait before the NATO onslaught on Taliban targets will have no purpose either strategic or moral, and therefore will have a chance of stopping. The capture of Mazar (and the broadcasting of music!) may well be the beginnings of the end of one struggle, although it remains to be seen whether the Northern Alliance will 'play the game' and treat all prisoners and civilians like human beings - something that we are led to believe does not often happen in Afghanistan. If they do this, of course, it is quite likely they will win the hearts of the people, thereby gaining public support despite their alleged reputation for behaviour unbecoming of any persons calling themselves civilised human beings, and the rest of the struggle could then be one about how to be rid of what is left of the Taliban, followed by another struggle about how Afghanistan will manage to get for itself a government it wants and deserves, and which will enable Afghans to live in peace with each other and the rest of the world.

There is just one difficulty: as must always happen at the end of a war, some members of the defeated side who survive the conflict, having insufficient imagination to do anything else with their lives, may go underground and try to undermine the peace.

Joe Punter's Shakespeare.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, by william shakespeare.

ACT 2.

Scene 2. (instalment two)

Another part of the wood continued.

Lysander and Hermia have just entered. (They are spied upon by fairies).

LYSANDER:

Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood, and to speak the truth I have forgotten the way. We'll rest, Hermia, if you think that a good idea, and wait for the comfort of the day.

HERMIA:

Be it so, Lysander. Find a bed, for on this bank I'll rest my head.

LYSANDER:

One turf will serve as a pillow for us both. One heart, one bed, two bosoms, one troth (betrothal - ed).

HERMIA:

Nay, good Lysander. For my sake, my dear, lie further off, not so near.

LYSANDER:

Oh, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!Love takes the meaning in love's conference. I mean that my heart is knit unto yours so that we can only make one heart of it. Two bosoms interchained with an oath, so then two bosoms and a single troth (truth), then by your side no bed-room me deny, for lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

HERMIA:

Lysander riddles very prettily. - strike me down if I meant to say you lied, but, gentle friend, for love and curtesy lie further off. In human modesty, lie at such a distance as befits a virtuous bachelor and a maid. Be that distant. And good night, friend. Ne'er alter your love til life's end.

LYSANDER:

Amen to that fair prayer say I, and then end life if I end loyalty. Here is my bed. Sleep give me all his rest!

HERMIA:

With half that wish the wisher's eyes be pressed! (shut? ed)

they sleep.

enter Puck.

PUCK:

Through the forest I have gone, but Athenian I have found none on whose eyes I might test this flower's force in stirring love. Night and silence! Who is here? He wears weeds of Athens! This is he whom my master said despised the Athenian maid. And here, the maiden sleeping sound on the dank and dirty ground: - she dares not lie near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. Churl, upon whose eyes I throw (squeezes the flower on Lysander's eyelids) all the power this charm does owe. When thou wakest, let love forbid sleep his seat on thy eyelid. So - awake when I am gone, for I must now return to Oberon.

(exits)

Enter Demetrius and Helena, running.

HELENA:

Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.

DEMETRIUS:

I charge thee: Go! And do not haunt me like this.

HELENA:

Oh wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not do so.

DEMETRIUS:

Stay, on thy peril. I alone will go.

(exit).

HELENA:

Oh, I am out of breath in this fond chase! the more my prayer, the less luck I have. Happy is Hermia, wherever she lies, for she has blessed and attractive eyes. How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears. If that were so, my eyes are more often washed than hers. No, no, I am as ugly as a bear. For beasts that meet me run away in fear. Therefore, it is no marvel that Demetrius does, as a monster, run away from me thus. What wicked and disembling mirror of mine made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyes? - But who is here? - Lysander! on the ground! Dead? Or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. - Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.

LYSANDER (starting up):

And run through fire I would for thy sweet sake. Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, that though thy bosom makes me see thy heart. Where is Demetrius? Oh how fit is that name to perish upon my sword!

HELENA:

Do not say so, Lysander, say not so. Why? That he loves your Hermia? Yet Hermia still loves you. Be content.

LYSANDER:

Content with Hermia! No. I repent the tedious minutes I have spent with her. It is not Hermia but Helena I love. Who will change a raven for a dove? The will of man is by his reason swayed, and reason says you are a worthier maid. Things growing are not ripe until their season. So I being young, till now ripe not to reason and touching now the point of human skill reason becomes the marshall to my will, and leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook love's stories, written in Love's richest book.

HELENA:

Why was I born to this mockery? When did I deserve this scorn? Is it not enough, young man, that I never do nor can deserve a sweet look from Demetrius's eye, but you must flout my shortcomings? 'Struth you do me wrong, you do - in such a disdainful manner, to boot. But fare you well. Perforce I must confess I thought you lord of true gentleness. Oh! that a lady by one man refused should by another be abused!

(exits)

LYSANDER:

She doesn't see Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there, and never mayst thou come near Lysander! For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things the deepest loathing of the stomach brings, or as the heresies that men do leave are hated most by those they did deceive, so thou, my surfeit and my heresy of all be hated, but the most of me!

(exit).

HERMIA (awakening):

Help me Lysander, help me! Do thy best to pick this crawling serpent from my breast! Aye, me! For pity! What a dream was here! Lysander, look how I do quake with fear. Methought a serpent ate my heart away, and you sat smiling at his cruel prey. Lysander! What, removed? Lysander! Lord! What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word? Alack, where are you? speak, an if you hear, speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear No? then I will perceive you are not nigh. Either death or you I will find immediately.

Exit.

End of scene 2.

More next week.

Miscellany.

Correction.

Last edition I suggested that reading Anne Bronte would be a very good way of understanding life in the eighteenth century. I should have said early nineteenth century.

...........................................................................................................................

The stuff that doesn`t often get changed now follows:

Alternet News.

Alternet News might appeal to some readers as a regular list of goings-on in the human rights/green areas of life. You can receive it by email. I have put one copy on this site so that you get an idea of what it is about and how to subscribe.

For sample Alternet email click here.

Biotechnology

Click here for an email that arrived in January 2000 concerning a proposed reasoned approach to this tricky subject

Goforth's social justice e-zine.

This interesting email magazine comes at fairly regular intervals and is of interest to almost anybody who is interested in human rights and green issues. In November 2000 it was going out to about 10,000 addresses. Try it. It won't cost you anything, and you can reproduce the contents without paying. You can subscribe by writing to them at: sjzine@netscape.net, or visit: Goforth's site

This website is about accounting investigations and fiddles. If you like to look at financial scandals (both hidden and public) this might be worth a look. I have not been there myself, but the books produced by these people, although difficult to follow, cover a lot of mysterious ground.

This website is about the destruction of countryside and agriculture. Worth a visit if you want to find out about how it is thought the British countryside will fair under the ongoing creep of the multinationals.

This website is one to do with monetary reform.The British Association for Monetary Reform. If you are interested in economics it is worth a look. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bamr1

This is a website about alternative currencies.Might be worth a look to those who have realised that you don't necessarily have to have money as such to be prosperous.

This is a website for something called The Green Guide. I know nothing about it, but am hoping it is something worthy. Please let me know if it is questionable.

This is a site concerned with one of the most unpopular planning decisions ever made in Greater London, the Crystal Palace Complex. It is so stunningly awful that only a handful of people who do not live near it appear to approve, whilst the rest are not entirely uninclined to mention such things as payola, freemasons....you name it! The site belongs to the London Borough of Bromley, but the aggro generated by it and the destruction of amenity caused by it will be almost entirely suffered by residents of adjoining boroughs and not the people of Bromley themselves.

This is a recycling site based in London, and offering materials to anybody. The organisation is a charity seeking to link suppliers of surplus materials with users. Especially good for the more ingenious designers amongst us.

The email of the people who run the above site is cs@london-recycling.demon.co.uk. They are called Creative Supplies. Look them up for more info.

Here's an interesting education site - particularly for those who have young children and are not quite sure what to do to avoid the worst of what`s on offer in the mainstream of education.They are called www.edrev.org.

early Othernews - 1992, 93, 94.

Early Other News essays.

There were a few essays that went out with the early Other News as a freestanding item. You can read these by clicking below.

Essays.

The Soup Designer`s Handbook.

The Soup Designer`s Handbook.

London Journey - a trip from Docklands through Beckenham and back to Docklands.

Friday Woodworkers.

(Friday Woodworkers are suffering a temporary break due to some of the episodes not having been fully edited at the time of writing. It may take some timne to fix this problem.

Episode 17.

(These articles were written in 1988, and were my first attempt at writing. Some people when shown these fell about laughing, some smiled faintly - and some yawned. I thought I was going to write a technical book, but it soon became apparent that I was much more interested in the people than the technology - and that is the main reason there are no drawings - although it might be rather good to do a couple of caricatures sometime.)

Index of Friday Woodorker articles (and a means of access).

Index of earlier issues.

Gabriele Gad on alternative therapy.

A READER COMPLAINED that it was not possible to go back more than 6 articles in Gabriele`s area. Regrettably this is because there is no index, and I have not the time to organise one yet. However, for those determined enough to find the early ones, they should be accessible by going to an early Other News and clicking through from it. This will not be fast, but I think will do the job. They started about November 1997 I think.

editor@othernews.co.uk

Cartoons and graphics.

drawings click here.

sheet music click here.

Consumers.

LEXMARK 3200 PRINTER.

In an earlier issue I told you about my feelings regarding Tempo retailers and the Lexmark 3200 printer I bought from them.

The Lexmark 3200 printer I got from Tempo must surely be the most uneconomical printer I could possibly have bought. The black cartridge only does about 250 pages of ordinary type - for £28! That makes each sheet cost 11.2 pence plus the cost of the paper and probably another 11.2 pence more if any colour is used! - ABOUT 22.4 PENCE A SHEET! Nearly a pound for every four sheets!

I wouldn`t recommend you to buy it - but also look at my earlier article for an idea of Tempo`s service.

Wanted

A person to help make up a subject index for the growing numbers of articles on The Other News From England. Email editor@othernews.co.uk (this may now have been provided, but please email if you might like to join in in some way - ed.)

All material on this site is copyright. Contact me if you want to use it. I am quite flexible. Educational non-profit use is free - but ask for permission and print an acknowledgement. If you can`t think what to print, put:

From The Other News From England. http://www.othernews.co.uk

Even better if you print the date of the article.

editor@othernews.co.uk

That`s all this week folks