MR HACK No. 105

Time again for updating ... So, enjoy. We have argued and commented and asked about this one, so we thought it a good idea to do a little searching and, thanks to our good friend Derek Black we were able to trace an almost mint-condition copy of the Belfast Telegraph's Style Book - originally created by the late Fred Gamble (pictured below) and later modified by the late Des McMullan. To celebrate the resurrection of this fabled publication we have
created an album appropriately called BT Style Book and there you can find and read when you enlarge the picture the 23 pages that subs were once instructed to read and learn and write and edit text in style before it appeared in the paper ... 

Comments

[Blogmaster]

Not sure why I seem to incur the wrath of our President ... I did not realise that I was influencing the 'debate' (though most people who have commented seem happy with the way the blog has been running)... I did not know, either, that I was being timed ... Mostly I just try to keep the blog running smoothly, editing copy occasionally when a typing mistake needs to be corrected ... Deleting spam ...By personalising the 'debate' I assume that was my offer to relinquish my role ... I am quite happy to hand back the reins to our President and he can produce the Mr Hacks ... maybe he would communicate with my email what it is he would like to happen ...

[Mitch Smyth]

Great work, Graham. The oldest trick in the tabloid book: write something a bit outlandish and get everyone hot under the collar. And we all fell for it. And so the debate keeps moving . . .

[Blogmaster]

A supportive email alerts me to a link which all should find interesting in the debate ... 'Question marks' over future of local newspapers in NI ... the story is in the Press Gazette which is freely available online ... The article is by Andrew Pugh.

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story_attachment.asp?storycode=48126&seq=1&type=P&c=1

[Graham]

This has gone on long enough!

It seemed to erupt last night after I wrote a piece about the balance on this blog between "state of journalism today" and "memory lane stuff" and left it open for discussion by the members.

This was timed at 9.00pm exactly. But before any member had a chance to say a word the "blogmaster" came on at 9.50pm. This timing is recorded by computer on the blog. I had gone to bed, so I wasn't "timing" him or anybody else. Ridiculous suggestion. Scroll back and see, if you can be bothered.

Blogmaster at 9.50, before anybody else had a chance to speak on the issue, came on referring to my "break" and then started by saying that my contribution was "not complimentary or helpful" I have gone back to October 28 at 9.00 pm and cannot for the life of me see anything that was uncomplimentary or unhelpful. Can you?

See for yourself.

The blogmaster has now talked twice about "relinquishing" his role. I have congratulated John many times by email on the work he has done here. And I do so again. Now he asks me to email him to tell him what I want him to do. It is no business of mine to do so. That is up to himself to decide whether he is happy or unhappy.

To quote himself yesterday on the blog; "Times change, people come, people go" I will not take sides in case I am thought to be "unhelpful"

[Graham]

Press Gazette (reduced from £110 to £40 per year for retired journalists0 is not "freely available" online.

Only parts of it. Not the columnists. The latest edition of the controversial "Grey Cardigan" columnist is four months old! The most up to date "Axegrinder" gossip column is a month old.

Haven't bothered going through the rest in detail - but you get the picture.

[KB]

Great to see the red book again. It's as good a publication as ever. There was one in the News Letter, too, a long time ago. I think Dan Kinney may have had something to do with it. It had a neat way of dealing with collective nouns in the world of sport. It said something like, 'On the front page, Glentoran is singular but on the back page they are plural.'

[Michael]

Graham, John, please cool it my old friends. Life's too short for tiffing, and shortening ever faster. You both work very hard and we really appreciate it.

KB, there was indeed a style book in the NL but surely my great mentor DC Kinney worked on the BT. The BT style book then was an earlier version than Derek's, with the gothic masthead which lasted until about 1970? Rather than style, Dan's contribution to posterity was his magnificent Press Balls book which featured many departed Copyboys and one or two of the survivors. Including (blush) myself.

[KB]

Michael...I joined the News Letter in 1966 (god help us) and Dan was the Chief Sub then, having come from the FT. For the life of me, I have no clear mental picture (of anything these days) of what the style guide looked like but I do recall that particular gem. Stuart may be able to help.

[Graham]

SIR JIMMY SAVILE

Sorry to hear of the death of Sir Jimmy Savile. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the downmarket newspapers writes something negative about him before he's long gone, probably taken from internet gossip.

Here's the positive side: when I was a producer on a local radio station in England I was making a documentary on a health issue. Jimmy Savile was really big then. I had the idea, scoffed at by some, of having him introduce the programme.

At a BBC studio in Leeds, he recorded what I had written for him to say, he recorded it, and he had the tape sent to me. He refused to take any money for it because it was a health issue. So I sent him some cigars. I had a programme budget of nearly nil, anyway!

This was a guy who was on national television to millions then, getting £10,000 for personal appearances, taking time to do something for wee local radio station broadcasting to thousands, for nothing.

The programme became the station's entry for the annual Sony Awards.

[KB]

I once passed him during the Great North Run. And no, I wasn't in a car.

[ruthie]

Talking about newspapers, I am just off to bed now, foregoing a halloween party with friends.
Too knackered, so sent off hubby and inbetweener son (15).
Have now 'I' paper, Daily Mirror and Irish Field to read in the scratcher.
PS Are you Copyboys getting all crotchety with each other this week ?
Am also still trying to find Mitch Smyth's Austin car, haven't forgotton by the way. Have just one person to ask so fingers crossed

[Graham McKenzie]

NEWSPAPER REVIEW

First, the "Irish Times", always a fairly good, sober paper. First-class comprehensive coverage of the Presidential election. But what's this? The very first letter on the Letters to the Editor page. A very short one:

"Dear Sir, I was have always looked up to Presidents. Now I shall have to look down"

Now, when you think about it, would a similar type of letter have appeared in a UK national paper, so politically correct has that country become?

After yesterday's blooper from the "Belfast Telegraph" with its headline "QUB to charge UK students £9k" (they don't know the difference between GB and UK")comes a "smart" headline from the BT's stablemate "Sunday Life" on the death of Jimmy Savile:

"Jimmy Kicked It"

Presumably they mean the bucket? Is that in bad taste. I think it is. Then again, is this joke on the internet in bad taste?: "Tragic time for Jimmy Savile to die. He missed the extra hour in bed" Or is that sort of funny?

Mysteriously, the "Sunday Life" story on Jimmy Savile's death is headed "Exclusive" though it reads just like a bog standard PA piece.

"Sunday Telegraph", not noticeably downmarket, manages to convey some unsavoury tittle-tattle by recalling an allegation that Savile has denied in the past. And they look down on the tabloids?

Finally, the "Sunday Independent" recalls that Savile began his broadcasting career on Radio Luxembourg "an off-shore station" They do need an atlas.

[KB]

A while ago people were wondering about Carol Clewlow. Last I heard, she can be found at Northumbria University where she teaches an MA course in creative writing.
And Google's a great help. (Call yourselves journalists....?)

[JC]

Thanks for that, KB ... I had been wondering about Carol ... I shall also inform Betty Rainsford who asked about her.

[sm]

I do remember the NL style book, but I have to say it was in existence long before Dan joined us Keith. Certainly, DCK may well have introduced "Edition 2", but I do remember being given one to read when I joined - 1959 - long before Dan arrived on the scene. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Graham McKenzie]

Apologies. The "Jimmy Kicked It" headline about Jimmy Savile's death was in the "Sunday World", NOT the "Sunday Life" I read to many newspapers. Tell me, is there any cure?

[Chairman]

Not for dyslexia.

[Michael]

Nor for a surfeit of birthdays.

[Graham]

What sort of a loon is this new-ish editor of the "Independent"? Isn't it about time somebody had a swipe at him? Step forward that good Ulsterman and distinguished media commentator and journalist Raymond Snoddy.

Ray takes an entire page in the latest issue of "The Journalist" to castigate Chris Blackhurst for his "solution" to media problems. This is to have a register for journalists and have those misbehaving "struck off"

"And who, pray" asks Ray "would register the journalists? The government? Dictators everywhere would warm to such an idea" He might have added that they already have!

What a load of nonsense from the editor of a national paper with the lowest circulation in the country, though still respected.

"What exactly would constitute would constitute 'gross malpractice' - a dodgy into, a tasteless feature, a rude interview?" asks Ray.

Mister Blackhurst's contribution to the debate must have gladdened the hearts of politicians everywhere, all too ready to throttle the press. For an editor to come out with this Soviet-style suggestion is a disgrace.

As Ray Snoddy might say, in the idiom of his native province: "Catch yourself on, Mr Blackhurst"

[Blogmaster]

News of the launch on Thursday starting 7.30pm at the North Down Museum (formerly the Heritage Centre) in Bangor of Terence Bowman's latest book, "Bangor in the Seventies," available already we believe at good booksellers.

Hopefully, Terence tells us, some of the former Co. Down Spectator folk will be there, with understandable apologies from Michael MeGarry (in Holland), Peter Gibson (Canada) and David Crossen (doing extremely well in Australia).

Present for the launch will be a well known political entitiy - Lembit Opik, ex Liberal Demoncrat MP and classmate of the author. The main speaker on the night is expected to be Ian Alexander, MD of the Newtownards Chronicle and popular columnist in the Spectator each week.
After the launch, Terence tells us, people can adjourn to the Ava restaurant which is "very much an open house where everyone will have a better chance for a chat about not quite so old times."

[Chairman]

Mr. Blackhurst is merely echoing the fashion of the moment. Political correctness has passed from fad to persecution. A very Soviet attitude where toleration only applies to things you agree with. I prefer the ruling of the old London High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Sedley when he dismissed a case brought against a street preacher whose opinions offended the sensibilities of some passers by.
He said "Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heritical, the unwelcome and the provocative. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having."

Cutting people who disagree with you a little slack is the bedrock of civilisation. And good manners.

[Cal McCrystal]

A register for journalists is not a good idea. Speaking as a former Fleet Street (well, Grays Inn Road) news editor, I once was convinced that the only register for journalists seemed to be a cash register. As for the Blackhurst suggestion, this may well have come from his employer, Mr A. Lebedev, formerly of the KGB, for whom (presumably) such a suggestion may not be such an alien thought.

[Smyth]

A columnist in the Toronto Star on journalism today: ``I've watched wire reporters such as my friend Allison Jones from Canadian Press juggle tape recorder (radio), digital camera (still photos), video camera (moving images) notebook and pen (print) in news scrums to fulfill all the responsibilities of her job before finally sitting in front of a computer to write.''
Where in all that is there time for the thought-processing that actually goes into structuring a story?

[Smyth again]

An obituary on the great Ottawa sports columnist Earl McCrae records that a second before he was felled by a massive heart attack, his last words were ``Oh, f---.'' I wonder would a British or Irish paper have reported this.

[Mitchell Smyth]

Has the ``Occupy'' movement spread to Britain/Ireland? David Carr in the New York Times suggests it should spread to newsrooms to rescue them from the suits. Interesting read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/business/media/why-not-occupy-newsrooms.html?pagewanted=all

[Blogmaster]

Further to the comments about Press restrictions and registering journalists and gagging newspapers, today's Quentin Letts column in the Daily Mail is amusing:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2055866/MPs-expenses-scandals-mentioned-utter-silence-fell.html

[Graham]

Mitchell Smyth reports that someone has suggested that the "Occupy" movement spreads to newsrooms to rescue them from the suits.

Apparently it already has in many places - because under-resourced reporters, overburdened doing phone interviews, rewriting news releases
etc, seldom get out of the building.

[JC]

I got an email from Suzanne Lowry about the recent birthday bash we had to celebrate Betty Rainsford's 80th birthday ... Suzanne had recently suffered the death of her son Max from sudden death syndrome and she was planning to write an article about the subject for the Belfast Telegraph and nationally, too. She did manage to write an article which the Guardian published. Here is a link to the piece which is worth taking time to read ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/05/sudden-arrhythmic-death-syndrome

[ruthie]

Such a difficult article to write, so terribly heartbreaking. My deepest sympathies to Suzanne.

[Chris Ryder]

And mine too. Always a special tragedy when a parent loses a child Haven't seen Suzanne for years but always enjoyed her journalism.

[Cal McCrystal]

It is true that journalists on their home turf do not get out much, which is a pity. On the other hand, foreign-based correspondents are often never off the road, the sea lane or the aircraft. I am most impressed by the Guardian's Luke Harding's book, "Mafia State" which records extensive and often debilitating travel in search of truth. Apart from that, I recommend this book for its shockingly intimate portrait of a gangster regime and the cruel operations of the FSB (formerly KGB), still hand-in-glove with Putin-on-the-Agony, and the revelations concerning not only the activities and earnings of bent oligarchs but a growing, incredibly poor underclass living on cheap, home-made vodka which usually kills them no later than the age of 59.

[Michael]

"cheap, home-made vodka which usually kills them no later than the age of 59"

Cal's quote tolled a bell for me. There's one subject we may be reluctant to talk about.

Some remember the alcoholic lunch hours (and hours) of the 1960s, some didn't for obvious reasons. Sometimes it seemed that half the city journos spent early pm in McGlades or the Horse or the Duke of York.

Journalists seemed vulnerable, but across the whole community it was considered quite funny to be legless, quite smart to drive home while well under the influence. There was criticism of the police when they began lurking outside the roadhouse car parks, for it was unsporting and detrimental to the hospitality industry.

One motoring corr wrote a sharp attack on drinking and driving, only to be arrested hopelessly DinC the following Saturday night.

Nearer home I remember with sadness two first-class journalists who died from drink-related illness long before they were 59, and other journalists' family lives blighted by alcohol.

I miss the old traditions, but not that one.

[ruthie]

What about Lebedev hammering seven bells out of someone recently on Russian Television. And him supposed to be a posh London newspaper owner, never out of Tatler magazine and the Sloane Set.
Old habits die hard.
Nevertheless the Irish men always fall for the charms of high cheek boned Russian women, who can fit their arses into egg cups.

[Cal McCrystal]

Michael, you bring it all back to me. But not all policemen were diligent in arresting inebriated journalists behind the wheel. I think it was in the early sixties the Belfast Telegraph staff had a pre-Christmas party at a hotel on Antrim Road (righthand side going north, near Belfast Castle). We sucked much festive matter from glasses and bottles. Fred Gamble then invited a few of us to his home. They included Harold Binks and Andy Barr - in my car; I was labour corr. at the time. Ther car in front was driven by Trevor Hanna and held three other, including Fred Gamble. Trevor slowed to make a right turn. I banged into him and richochetted off the road. A policeman on the corner inspected Trevor's car and contents, then approached me. "Anybody hurt?" he slurred.
"Not a one," I slurred back. Binks was groaning and trying to stop the blood pouring from his head.
"Can you back you car off the pavement," the cop asked plaintively.
"No problem," I answered.
"That broken wall there ... you do that?"
"Why, no. Oh no, no, no."
"OK then. Off you go. Merry Christmas."

[Cal McCrystal]

Please forgive if I have told the above story before. I do believe I have!

[JC]

Some of us may not have heard it, though ... I still remember a Christmas event that started at Bangor Golf Club ... Caruth, Aiken, Shephard, Templeton, Alexander were all happily enjoying the beverages and not counting them, either. Someone (I think it was Stanley) said he knew a place in Comber that would be serving drink later, so off we set with him at the steering wheel of his handsome green Riley. All went well until we got to a sharp turn in the dimly lit road from Newtownards. In short, we hit the bank ... the car somersaulted onto its roof. Luckily, no injuries, though Roy may well have had a slight bruise on his forehead. We all escaped the car swiftly when someone (me, I think) remarked: "Do I smell petrol ..." The police at Comber asked for a while if anybody was coming over to claim the shorthand notebook found in the car pocket ... Not sure anyone ever did. Ps ... none of us had the courage to escort Stanley to his home.

[Graham]

Cal's hotel (three above) would have been, I believe, the Lansdowne Court. Don't know if anybody actually stayed there. Anyway, it was called a hotel. Or is that an hotel?

[Chris Ryder]

The Lansdowne, like the Hamill in Gt Victoria Street, enjoyed an hotel licence with more liberal hours to serve residents and their guests than pubs. They had few residents however in the conventional sense of the word although the Daily Express took over the Hamill after being bombed out of Victoria Street and some intrepid staff remained round the clock.

[Michael]

Numerous reports on the crooked Indian cricketers referred to their deals being uncovered by "a newspaper".

Could this newspaper have been, ahem, the News of the World?

[Graham]

Sammy Wilson, Minister of Finance in N Ireland. used to be a paper boy and Mervyn Jess, now a veteran BBCni reporter used to deliver papers in a van. You didn't know that?

[Cal McCrystal]

Yes, Michael, it was the Noose of the World wot done it.

[Graham]

Gordon Burns, late of this parish, but for many years now a prominent television news presenter in the north-west of England, has been given the Outstanding Contribution to the media award at a star-studded ceremony in Blackpool.

With UTV, BBC North West and the Krypton Factor, Gordon has been on screen for around 45 years, and has just come an end of a record stint as presenter of the teatime news programme from Manchester.

He says he's "thrilled" and has described it as a "very proud moment". Gordon was also very pleased that Sir Alex Ferguson, long an enemy of the BBC, gave him an exclusive interview during his last week on North West Tonight.

"Much appreciated Alex gave me a terrific interview, and I was stunned when he said kind words about my career"

[Derek Black]

BBCNI very slow off the mark on the BMI story. It has implications for the Belfast to Heathrow and indeed the Dublin to Heathrow route. BA not interested in domestic routes, they got out of here years ago saying it was unprofitable. Thanks to BMI we have had a decent service. Greedy buyers likely to use Heathrow slots for international flights. Suspect we will end up with just an Aer Lingus service from Aldergrove unless there is a big campaign. Media got very excited about the NYC service but this is even more vital.

[Michael]

Right on the nail, Derek. BA always threatened to walk out if another airline was given the route. Thanks to Mrs T BM offered them real competition in the 1970s and BA couldn't take it.

It must be remembered that our so-called national carrier was the only one to withdraw services when things were really bad here in the early 70s. The cabin staff took cold feet. Afterwards the crews took their empty Trident at colossal expense to Glasgow each night rather than stay here.

Throughout the Troubles British United, later BCal, later BM maintained a full service and even served meals.

I'm still angry that this arrogant one-time monopoly is allowed to keep so many lucrative Heathrow slots which were originally granted to serve communities such as Northern Ireland and Scotland.

If Aer Lingus gets the slots I'd be delighted. Used them every year for hols, no longer business, and couldn't fault them.

[Blogmaster]

Terence Bowman's latest book on what looks like a continuing series on Bangor was launched on Thursday night at the newly-named North Down Museum (formerly before the council got a grant, the Heritage Centre).

The place was packed and everyone enjoyed a video presentation of old pictures from the Co. Down Spectator and the Newtownards Chronicle - and all featuring in Bangor in the Seventies, a time, Terence noted, of bombs and death in the town. It is available at booksellers.

The MC for the evening was Tommy Boal, a well known Bangor figure, and the main speaker was Sammy Wilson, our Finance Minister, who told us, as Graham has noted earlier, that his first job was as a paper boy at Parks' newsagents on High Street. Later he was persuaded to move his skill to another newsagents up the road a bit and delivered morning papers far and wide on his motor bike before quickly catching the train to school at Methody.

He was glad of the invitation to speak at the launch because, he told his audience, he had been rejected by the electorate the last time he tried to get into the Town hall. Cue laughter.

Another guest was Lembit Opik, a former classmate of Terence Bowman's at Bangor Grammar, who went on to become a successful and then unsuccessful Lib. Dem. He was very amusing and self-mocking and he should be able to enjoy hearing his remarks again because a delightful looking young woman in black, leather-like trousers made a point of moving about recording it on her mobile phone. Maybe he did not come alone.

There are pictures from the event in the renamed Bangor 60s and 70s album.

[Maurice Neill]

When I started in 1989 I seem to recall the Style Book insisted we refer to the Prime Minister as 'Mr Brookeborough' and Tokyo had to be spelled Tokio. Nick Garbutt was instructed to update it and there was controversy over the use of a capital 'G' in government. Now there are no subs, there is no style and soon there will be no readers to notice.

[Derek Black]

Hi Maurice - yes it was Tokio in the little red book above. When I first went to Japan, I discovered the Japanese spelt it Tokyo. I reported this to the powers that be at the BT but to no avail. At least it got the distinction between whisky and whiskey. Completely agree with your last sentence!

[Derek Black]

I commend yesterday's BT front page to students of contemporary journalism. One story - Ready to Rock and two adverts. One is a plug for a free car contest (not a very good car, it must be said). The other advertises cheap diamonds. I suppose it sums up the priorities of the modern BT.

[JC]

I wonder was editor Mike Gilson in agreement with the front page? He does spend his weekends at home in Portsmouth and communicates with the top table by telephone. Bizarre, really. Will he soon be an absentee editor for good?

[Chris Ryder]

More pointedly will there even be a BT to edit.

Darwin T left Newsletter on Friday and I hear there could be a dozen or so applicants for the post which is, to coin a similarity, like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic. No appointment seems to be imminent.

Could one see the day soon when these two papers merge as a means to survival? INM like Johnston Press is feeling the full force of the world financial hurricane.

And could we even see the Sunday World and Life merged?

[Michael]

Hello Maurice, haven't seen you for yrs, hope you are well !

I sadly agree with the Copyboys above, for newspapers seem to be galloping towards a precipice.

For years I have taken The Times, and a local perhaps twice a year for old times' sake. This year I have skipped several days a week because I'm really fed up with half the front page filled by a house ad, and other ads for the Murdoch empire filling many inside pages.

Have I slipped into elderly rant mode without noticing, or are other Copyboys also voting with their feet?

[Cal McCrystal]

To enjoy the mellow grandeur of senescence (Flann O'Brien's phrase) one should look elsewhere, other than at newspaper, for stimulation. I take the Guardian daily, but recently cancelled the Observer. On most days I tend to skim the pages. Without my London Review of Books I would be bereft. Two local papers arrive weekly. Neither begins to compare with the Bangor Spectator or indeed the Northern Herald, long defunct. They simply refuse, or are unable to, explore obvious news angles. For example, In my part of North London there are proposals before the local council to create two new "Eruvs" (systems of poles and connecting wires that enable Orthodox Jews to push a pram or carry sun=glasses on the Sabbath. If granted, nearly all of North London (including, of course, Golders Green) will be flagged as an Orthodox Jewish ghetto (or close to that). I know that many people, including Reform and secular Jews are angry about the proposals. Many non-Jews are angry but scared of being tarred as anti-Semitic. An Orthodox rabbi last week was quoted in one of my local papers saying he hoped the Eruvs would prompt Orthodox Jews to move into the areas defined by the Eruvs. Not a whimper from the local press. No quotes from dissenting voices. This ought to be a big story/controversy. I emailed the editor of one of the two papers nearly a week ago. Reply came there none.

[A.McQ.]

Jaysus, Chris, Jaysus. Are things in the NI newspaper world really that bad?

[Chris Ryder]

As everywhere Alastair.

[ruthie]

Very sorry for Eric Lamaze the Olympic gold medalist in showjumping whose horse Hickstead collapsed and died at Verona world cup show yesterday.
Also bad luck for Ulsterman Jamie Boag manager of the Abu dhabi racing team whose yacht Azzam lost its mast a short time after leaving Alicante on Sat en route to Cape Town in the round the world yacht race.
Nothing however compares to the loss of lives in the Taunton Road disaster.

[Graham]

"Three fire engines fought the blaze" - BBC Radio Ulster news at 1pm today on fire in East Belfast.

Smart fire engines, those. Technology advances.

[Blogmaster]

What started as an Omagh reunion seems to have developed into a Belfast BT reunion at the Reform Club on December 9, around 12-12.30-ish, we are told in an email from Don McAleer who adds:"The cast is Deric Henderson, Des Magee, John Devine, Ivan McMichael, Ivan Little, Martin Lindsay, Michael Cairns, David Lynas, Ray Managh, Michael Drake, Hugh Jordan, Neil Johnston, Alan Erwin and myself. Any stray dogs I manage to round up in the meantime might also contribute to the disorder..." Now you all know ...

[Graham]

"IMAGE BUILDING"

"Last night armed riot police were deployed in Belfast to cope with 20,000 Bieber fans eager to catch a glimpse of their idol at the MTV Europe Music Awards" - Daily Mail

Good for image, as Lord Mayor and City Council had said it would be?

[Graham]

As regards Chris Ryder's comments about the Northern Ireland newspaper scene - I cannot but fear for the News Letter.

In England, there seems to be a trend to turn struggling daily newspapers into weeklies. This has happened recently in Scunthorpe where the daily paper had a circulation of 18,000 and in Torquay where the daily paper had a circulation of 21,000. The News Letter's most recent figure is 24,000, which looks dangerous with the owners being Johnson Press.

But let's hope the economics for JP are different in NI, what with their chain of (ex-Morton) weeklies and the Derry Journal.

[Blogmaster]

HEADING OF THE DAY

Headline of the day must go to the Daily Telegraph ... It read: I was groped by the pizza boss who wants to be US President ... it has everything: sex, food, intrigue, mystery and politics. This could become a regular feature ...

[Graham]

"People in Ballymoney are being told to boil their water" - BBC N Ireland News
"Homes in Ballymoney are being told to boil their water" - UTV News
More elegantly put by UTV, don't you think?

[Smyth]

But you don't ``tell'' a home, surely (no more than fire engines fight a blaze). You tell a person. Maybe if the BBC had left out the word ``their'' . . . (And I hate it when I get a note that says ``From the desk of ... etc.'' My desk couldn't write. )

[Graham]

Yes, but it WAS more elegantly put UTV, was it not? - which is my point.

Another favourite here - (we still have bomb scares!) - is about people being evacuated. Better to say that houses/buildings etc, were evacuated, surely?

[Emily Lea]

Sad days for newspapers and for the old BT - many of us are glad we knew it in its good days. Good to see that Style Book - wish it had been use in my time (very recent). when I left earlier this year, rules were changed daily and new styles introduced just as often. A state of chassis. And talking of chassis, I hate to see our lords and masters having an online fisticuffs. I think the blog is a great mix of comment and nostalgia and we should be grateful for all the time and effort the blogmmaster puts into it. I'm guilty of not taking the time to comment and just reading other people's entries -must try harder. . But in the meantime, as James Young would say, !Stap Fightin'". Let harmony commence.

[Cal McCrystal]

It is remarkable how grammar, meaning and syntax changes over short periods of time. Newspapers now mostly say "head to" instead of "head for". We are heading for trouble. Running out of fuel, she decided to head for Larne. So far, though, nobody is heading to disaster. Secondly, the current popular form of greeting seems to be "Hiya" (for "How are you doing?") I wonder why that one pipped "Howdy" (for "How do you do?"). And in London I have yet to hear "Cheerio" (Cheer you off") which was a common form of goodbye in the Belfast of my youth. Today it's "bye" or "cheers!" Occasionally, I fear that a monosyllabic texting world ("Hey!", "Wow!", etc) will soon reduce us to simian grunts. Indeed, I no longer instruct my servant thus: "Extricate the quadruped from the vehicle and administer unto it an adequate supply of nutritious elements, and when the aurora of morning once more illuminates the earthly horizon I will, by pecuniary compensation, reward you for your most amiable hospitality." In the old days he would have unhitched the horse from the cart, stabled and fed it before I finished the sentence.

[Mitch Smyth]

I agree with the Prez on the word evacuate. When I first went on th copy desk in the Toronto Star, we had a slotman (chief sub) who insistd: ``You evacuate people by giving them a huge laxative.'' So it was always changed to "people were forced to flee'' or "forced to leave'' their homes. (But then many of my generation went to school with evacuees) Go figure.

[Chris Ryder]

And what about the omnipresent use of the phrase 'meet with' where the 'with' is usually unnecessary.

[Cal McCrystal]

"meet with" is an Americanism. There is even a phrase "May I visit with you?' which I encountered when living in New York some decades ago. (I think I often responded: "No, you may not!"

[Michael]

I'm with Mitch on this one. Does anyone remember the occasion (perhaps mid-60s) when many of the BT staff were evacuated?

There was a rumour, doubtless untrue, that cast aspersions upon the canteen on the top floor. It certainly had consequences for those on lower floors, for copy paper was re-named when placed in the wooden containers on each door in the gents'.

Ah, men were men in those days.