The Journal's Graeme Whitfield takes you behind the headlines in his newsroom blog »
Environment campaigner Anna Heywood writes on ethical living »
Malcolm Clarke on life as a professional pool player »
Brenda Boyd - the life and times of a morris dancer »
David Brennan from the website Enjoying Photography writes about how to take good photos »
Emily Sillar, from the Comfort Food Company on North-East food »
Write Said Fred - view from the pram with six-month-old Fred Telfer »
Rebecca Young finds fashion on a budget »
Local GP John Mackay writes about the NHS »
Mark Robertson of the Northumber-November 2007 Archives
November seasonal food - eat up your greens
Posted by Anna Heywood on November 2, 2007 9:14 PM
Now is the time of year to start eating all those iron rich leafy greens such as kale, cabbages, brussels.
Roots are also lovely just now and make a lovely broth for winter time.
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Monday, Bloody Monday
Posted by on November 6, 2007 3:48 PM
Actually, that's not this Monday I'm thinking of, but rather Monday 9th March, 1761; the ephithet 'bloody' was awarded on account of the infamous Hexham Riot which occured on that fateful day.
An echo of this violent and tragic episode resonated in the local press recently with certain contemporary documents coming under the hammer.
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Bob Geldof: I Don't Like, err, Webcams
Posted by Graeme on November 7, 2007 4:53 PM
You may not know him as a shy and retiring type, but it appears Bob Geldof was not keen to be filmed by The Journal today.
We had arranged to interview Bob when he appeared at a shopping conference in Gateshead but when we got out our video camera - we're all very multimedia now, you know - he stormed off, saying something about not doing things for websites.
You can read all about it in tomorrow's Journal.
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ECOnned!
Posted by Anna Heywood on November 9, 2007 11:28 AM
Hmmm I am not a happy bunny today.
I was brought up on this ethical lark and have been taught well in being able to see through even the thickest of greenwash.
But sometimes it happens that we are caught out and today I feel like I have been well and truly ECO-conned!
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If only we were Italian...
Posted by Graeme on November 11, 2007 4:18 PM
Coverage of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy has shown just how differently the media are governed in different countries.
In the last few days, a judge has said the people arrested showed “serious indications of their guilt”, while police have released an alleged confession and even outlined much of their evidence.
This is the sort of thing that would never happen in Britain - not without our editor ending up in the cells for contempt of court, that is.
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NUMERACY
Posted by Brenda Boyd on November 14, 2007 9:04 PM
To be a Morris dancer you need to be able to count to at least 8, preferably 12, and in some exceptional cases 32. So one expects a level of numeracy in dancers, especially those of us who are Countdown aficionados. Even so I’m still a little surprised at what happened in Asda today ...
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Green business support
Posted by Anna Heywood on November 15, 2007 2:53 PM
Dear Anna,
I check your blog daily and really like the fact that you don’t lecture and make me feel guilty. My only criticism is that I wish you blogged each day as your entries make me chuckle.
I have a query, which although isn’t about ethical living, I thought that you could help me with.
I've just started a job at an events company and as the only person in the office with a 'green' lifestyle in any sense of the word I've been charged with making a presentation to the management about how we can reduce our environmental impact.
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The Sword in the Stone
Posted by on November 15, 2007 6:43 PM
I'm currently writing a book on the 2nd Barons' War 1264 - 1267 and was thinking of illustrations for the arms & armour section - part of the problem these days is that the larger museums and archives charge exorbitant reproduction fees.
In an age where publishers seek to shift more of the cost burden onto the author, this effectively implies that most of the major collections are priced out of the market. However...
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The 50 things that will save the planet
Posted by Anna Heywood on November 16, 2007 4:42 PM
What will it take?
The environment agency put this question to 25 experts who came back with a list from the profound to the practical to the downright peculiar.
Interestingly, not one of them said it’s too late...
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When the cat's away
Posted by Brenda Boyd on November 18, 2007 5:09 PM
Tyne Bridge had an interesting practice on Thursday night.
The Squire was away at a rugby match and the Deputy Squire was in charge.
So we did the dances that don’t get done that often because the Squire doesn’t like them.
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GB 9 Ball Tour
Posted by Malcolm Clarke on November 19, 2007 2:29 PM
Apologies for the long delay.
A home move, an arm injury and all sorts of things have stopped me playing recently.
But I'm back, and raring to go.
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Between a Rock and a hard place
Posted by Graeme on November 21, 2007 1:51 PM
THIS year’s biggest news story has probably been the Northern Rock crisis and, as luck would have it, it’s happened on The Journal’s doorstep.
As a result, we have probably carried more column inches on the bank than most other newspapers, but our coverage has been markedly different to other media.
From the outset, we decided that while we had to look at what had caused Northern Rock’s problems as rigorously as anyone else, we also had a duty to the North-East to do what we could to campaign for the Rock’s survival.
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Money Flying In For New Tour
Posted by Malcolm Clarke on November 22, 2007 11:27 AM
The new 9-Ball tour is now close to confirming the list of entrants. They advertised the tour as a first-come first-served situation where only the fast people would get a place in the maximum 96 strong tour.
Obviously there will be obvious reasons why certain places are guaranteed for certain players..
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Apology needed?
Posted by on November 22, 2007 1:17 PM
I was thinking about the battle of Flodden, fought on 9th September, 1513, after a wet and dismal summer (sounds familiar). I've forgotten why the sanguinary events of that particular day sprang to mind, perhaps I felt the need to apologise to someone for something and an apology to the Scots might have seemed, in liberal patois, 'appropriate'.
On the other hand they've got the Barnett Formula and don't seem to want to apologise to us, so perhaps one cancels the other out. I'll be leading a guided walk around the field in September 2008 but I suspect what jogged my memory was, in fact, talking about an entirely different fight - the Battle of Evesham in 1265
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Kelvin MacKenzie is offensive (again)
Posted by Graeme on November 23, 2007 1:03 PM
After making himself a figure of hate in Liverpool and then Scotland, former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie seems keen to add the North-East to the list of places he can’t show his face.
In a typically “considered” column in The Sun this week, MacKenzie argued that the Northern Rock was only getting help from the Government so that Labour MPs in the region did not lose their seats.
“This wouldn’t happen if it was the Woking building society,” he squealed.
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Blackshirts
Posted by on November 28, 2007 4:04 PM
This week, apart from the Government's latest tribulations, has seen much attention fixed on the Oxford Union debate where Nick Griffin, leader of the fascist BNP and David Irving, fantasist and pariah, were invited to talk. This may have been a brave or foolish decision, depending on one's point of view.
In the event, the business turned out to be something of a damp squib; the debate so truncated and harassed by protesters as to be largely without impact; whether this is a good or a bad thing again is highly subjective, according to perceptions.
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Gordon Brown must love the North-East
Posted by Graeme on November 29, 2007 5:37 PM
After writing a couple of weeks ago about the biggest news story of the year happening in our backyard it seems worth mentioning that the other two biggest news stories of the year seem to be now be happening, well, in our backyard.
If Gordon Brown wasn't sick enough of the North-East with Northern Rock, he can now add the Revenue and Customs crisis and the phantom donations that seem to have been made in the name of just about everyone living between Berwick and Middlesbrough (I am exaggerating for very nearly comic effect).
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