"Ken" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 8 May 2008 23:03:58 +0100, "Clive D. W. Feather"
wrote:

In article , Ian Jelf
writes
Surprised at being asked, I was staggered when they said that their
grounds for suspicion was that I was carrying.......an umbrella!

With hindsight, I suppose it did look a bit odd in yesterday's lovely
sunny weather

Some years ago I was at a technical conference in London. The
conference
itself was at Lancaster Gate but the evening social was at Tower
Bridge
(on the gantries). One of the (sponsored) free gifts was an umbrella.

So one July, on a scorching hot day, you got to see 500 geeks carrying
umbrellas as they rode the Underground from Lancaster Gate to Tower
Bridge.

Wouldn't a true geek walk to Marble Arch and take the no. 15?

A true geek would walk to Marble Arch and take the F.

Peter Smyth

"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote in message
news
In article , Ian Jelf
writes
Surprised at being asked, I was staggered when they said that their
grounds for suspicion was that I was carrying.......an umbrella!

With hindsight, I suppose it did look a bit odd in yesterday's lovely
sunny weather

Some years ago I was at a technical conference in London. The
conference itself was at Lancaster Gate but the evening social was at
Tower Bridge (on the gantries). One of the (sponsored) free gifts was
an umbrella.
So one July, on a scorching hot day, you got to see 500 geeks carrying
umbrellas as they rode the Underground from Lancaster Gate to Tower
Bridge.

Even better, almost 20 years ago I was at a large international sales
conference in Jamaica. We were all given a world-time clock as a gift.
I don't think anyone confessed to security that we were all carrying an
electronic black box timer device. Nobody had any problems with
security, and, of course, no planes got blown-up.

On May 8, 11:52 am, Ian Jelf wrote:

Now it's a bit of a trademark of the walking tours I do that I always
have a brolly. Sometimes in crowded places or with biggish groups it
can be a good marker and it's become a bit of a "prop" I suppose. With
hindsight, I suppose it did look a bit odd in yesterday's lovely sunny
weather but I still can't really see that carrying it could in any way
be construed as "suspicious behaviour".

I was at Grand Central Terminal yesterday morning, on my way to take a
trip up the Hudson Line to Poughkeepsie, when there was a woman
leading a walking tour on the main concourse; she was also holding one
up, so they seem to be a pretty standard marker, a bit like leading
the troops into battle behind the colours.

There were also lots of people taking photographs, and nobody seemed
to be objecting, though taking photographs of much transport
infrastructure is banned here. On PATH and the major bridges for
example. There were plans for a ban on both the Subway and NJ
Transit, but I don't think either has been introduced (yet).

One other rather baffling remark
from the female PCSO when I expressed surprise about this was that " a
lot of children use this park". Evidently carrying an umbrella in warm
weather and being in possession of a London Tourist Board Blue Badge
must be a sure sign of paedophilia. I would stress that they were
polite and happy to accept my given explanation of what I was doing
there; but I dread to think what they'd have made of me if I'd had a
camera!

Being anywhere near children is very suspicious these days; haven't
you seen the 'spot the difference' type police poster with two
pictures, both with some children, but one also has an adult man in
the background, quite some distance away. People are being told to
watch out for this sort of 'suspicious' behavior.

Who do you lead with by the way, is it London Walks, or one of the
other groups?

In message
Stephen Furley wrote:

[snip]

Being anywhere near children is very suspicious these days; haven't
you seen the 'spot the difference' type police poster with two
pictures, both with some children, but one also has an adult man in
the background, quite some distance away. People are being told to
watch out for this sort of 'suspicious' behavior.


Perhaps the posters should show the children at home, by far the majority of
child abuse takes place at home despite what the News of the Srews would like
you to believe.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

Ian Jelf wrote:

One other rather
baffling remark from the female PCSO when I expressed surprise about
this was that " a lot of children use this park". Evidently
carrying an umbrella in warm weather and being in possession of a
London Tourist Board Blue Badge must be a sure sign of paedophilia.

I don't understand who these PCSO people are. While I have met some very
admirable and intelligent (normal) coppers, I have also met one in
particular who, while a nice bloke, reminded me of Benny from Crossroads or
Randy from My Name Is Earl. If *he* was bright enough to become a normal
copper and these PCSOs aren't, they must be on the verge of needing help to
cross the road.

Anyway, Ian, you fared better than this chap.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...pple-core.html

I have often thrown apple cores onto green spaces.... I hate litter, but I
consider apple cores to be new trees/squirrel food rather than litter. I'll
have to quit that now.

In message , at 23:51:11 on Mon,
12 May 2008, John Rowland
remarked:
I don't understand who these PCSO people are. While I have met some very
admirable and intelligent (normal) coppers, I have also met one in
particular who, while a nice bloke, reminded me of Benny from Crossroads or
Randy from My Name Is Earl. If *he* was bright enough to become a normal
copper and these PCSOs aren't, they must be on the verge of needing help to
cross the road.

I have yet to consciously see a male PCSO. All the ones round my way are
young women, and often very petite (assuming that's a PC [hoho] way to
describe their build).

--
Roland Perry

In message
Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 23:51:11 on Mon,
12 May 2008, John Rowland
remarked:
I don't understand who these PCSO people are. While I have met some very
admirable and intelligent (normal) coppers, I have also met one in
particular who, while a nice bloke, reminded me of Benny from Crossroads
or Randy from My Name Is Earl. If *he* was bright enough to become a
normal copper and these PCSOs aren't, they must be on the verge of
needing help to cross the road.

I have yet to consciously see a male PCSO. All the ones round my way are
young women, and often very petite (assuming that's a PC [hoho] way to
describe their build).


There's a few of the male variety in Southampton. Though I have to agree the
female ones do tend to be petite.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

In article ,
Graeme Wall wrote:
[PCSOs]
There's a few of the male variety in Southampton. Though I have to agree the
female ones do tend to be petite.

All the PCSOs in our SNT are male. They're petite, though.

--
Shenanigans! Shenanigans! Best of 3!
-- Flash

On Tue, 13 May 2008, Mike Bristow wrote:

In article ,
Graeme Wall wrote:
[PCSOs]
There's a few of the male variety in Southampton. Though I have to agree the
female ones do tend to be petite.

All the PCSOs in our SNT are male. They're petite, though.

I was section 44'd by a PCSO. She was female and petite, and so was her
colleague.

I am in favour of petite women in uniforms, but see no reason why they
shouldn't be real police. The one who stopped me has apparently since
signed up to becomes a real policewoman.

There's a cycle policewoman who i often see on the Critical Mass rides.
She's very petite, but makes up for it in volume of shouting.

tom

--
What's hit's history; what's missed's mystery.