Nick Deverill

It's also a topic that deserves wider exposure, although I do have to declare self interest in that my first published story is partly about the same thing. Good tale, nicely complete, thank you Nigel.

Generally speaking, I hate the change of point of view in most stories that do it. But this one... It's nothing short of a masterclass in how to engineer a change in the point of view. No tedious and clumsy explanations, no darting hither and thither and no nasty unexplained three letter abbreviations - another pet hate of mine. Roll on the next instalment.

Being as how I'm deaf, I'd prefer a subtitled version, but it's a good and probably expensive bit of animation that deserves a wider audience. The 100% Beef-ish bit rings particularly true in the UK as we've not long had a big scandal with products that were labelled beef, adulterated with horse meat. The UK traditionally doesn't eat horse so a lot of angry comment.

Leaving aside the humanist angle, it's not even logical from the point of view of the state. The cost to the country in welfare will far exceed the debt, so if you like, can be seen as a state subsidy to the 'investors'. In the UK, an unpaid bill would eventually be collected by the bailiffs along with the fees incurred along the way. But they can't seize the home, essentially just luxury goods to raise the debt amount when sold. Details here:https://www.gov.uk/your-rights-bailiffs/what-you-can-do-when-a-bailiff-visits I'd think it impossible though for a $134 debt to rise in the UK to such an extent that appears to happened here.

Hook - line - sinker, I'm now wishing my life away for the next part. Well written, an interesting plot that so far has revealed new facets in all three chapters and a 'murderer' who one feels enormous sympathy for. I think I can now see the basics of how the plot will develop, but I'm sure I'll be proved wrong, at least in part.

I believe it's a whole chapter in the 'Handbook for Mums', 'The importance of telling your teenager to clean their room'.

Jaguar and Landrover were owned by Ford, but were sold to Tata Motors of India in 2008 if you believe Wikipedia, although I thought it was 2009. Ford got rid of their specialist car divisions to concentrate on the main brand at a time when they were in severe financial straits. A little bit odd to me as the specialist divisions were mostly doing quite well and returning profits. From what I remember, the car with the melted bits was black and you would not believe how hot a black car gets even in regular, non building enhanced sunlight.

It was on the local news (I live in the London TV area). Silly shaped building has caused a shop doormat to smoulder and paint to blister on another. Air temperature recorded by the reporter today reached 50 C (122F) and was 42 C (108) at the time they did their piece to camera. Forecast for London at breakfast time was 24 C (75F). As hideous things go, it is one.

One of the reasons doubling up words, ie "Paris in the the spring" and the use of the wrong homophone ie "you're" for "your", "two for too" are often missed. There are three tips that serve me well: 1/ Change the font as a visual change in appearance helps you see it as a piece of writing, and not your thoughts. 2/ Leave it 24 hours and check again 3/ Read it out aloud to yourself I'm pretty good at seeing mistakes made by others, but struggle to find my own although the above goes a long way to help.

It's why the cat herder is both a very skilled and rare occupation.

I read a bit, but when it didn't seem to be telling me anything extra, I looked at the sidebar; I was perhaps 20% through the article. I guess he likes the sound of his own voice; I've got better things to do.

There's a big difference between bullying and making toy guns. Plus, with kids that young, you can't assume anything so a rigid zero tolerance approach is just not appropriate. The other point is, suppose as is quite likely the case, the parents of the child are more reasonable, exactly how do you explain to the child that they have been punished by the school due to behaviour the school considers inappropriate - but they don't.

Hmm, rather reminiscent of the line in, of all things, an early Dr Who script where the doctor says the best thing about being a grown up is you can be a child whenever you want. I was looking forward to reading the rest as like all good stories, a good mental picture of the characters was rapidly emerging without the ultimate turn off, beginning a story with a textual description of the protagonists. Eric was 5 foot 11, ten and half stone (147 pounds if you are American), brown haired and left handed. He yawned and got out bed... I mean, who cares? But if the above means Camy has captured his muse and is currently tickling words for something else out of it, so much the better.

Perhaps I need a gmail signature? Governments overthrown, evil deeds done and general all round naughtiness plotted. While I wouldn't use any non-encrypted email if the matter were truly private there is an expectation the mail is only read by the addressee.

Very difficult to comment without giving a spoiler, but a nice tale that has several aspects that are not usual. I liked the descriptions given and I ended up with all sorts of pictures in my mind as a result. Although a written work, confirmation of the old adage about radio plays being better than TV ones because the pictures are better. Many thanks, Dabeagle and you can read it here http://awesomedude.com/dabeagle/short_stories/su_cuy_gar_.htm

Not reported, but I wonder if insurance came into it? While the event doesn't sound over the top for any kid of reasonable fitness, I can see it being a problem for the seriously* obese - although I'd have thought they'd rather stay home and eat... There is good reason though for putting the BMI figure high, as it is only a measure of body weight and height, and takes no account of whether the weight is muscle or fat. There have been reported cases of athletes 'failing' company BMI limits and having a very low fat measure - ie the weight is muscle. Whether any such are scouts, but I bet some kids in wheelchairs could propel themselves the necessary distances. *A BMI of 40 or more is classed as morbidly obese in adults in the UK

"Dif tor heh smusma" as the pointy eared ones would say!

And in the runic alphabet is 'th'. A friend and I actually learnt the mostly Anglo-Saxon runes in the Hobbit and we used to send each other private notes that others could see and hadn't a clue what we were talking about. Pretty simple alphabet to learn, only took us an evening and the security factor was the fact that no one else tumbled to the fact there were a few other single characters for two letters of English, so the length of words was wrong thus foiling schoolboy code breaking.

And for those in the UK, or the naughty folk elsewhere using a proxy server, the BBC web site in the magazine section now has this subtitled feature.I guess it's really an interview, but edited such that boys' words stand alone. http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-23062070 The reason the BBC output is limited to the UK is it's paid for by the UK TV licence fee. bbc.com exists for the rest of the world, but it takes advertising and does not have the same content.

It's a difficult case, one where the reports I've seen don't prove the case one way or another. While in the UK, the principle of 'double jeopardy' would not exist as it's a murder case, there are pretty strict rules for a retrial - which this appears to come nowhere near satisfying. No new evidence and no claims of a procedural error, just that the prosecutor didn't like the result. Excuse me, but that surely applies to any verdict that's nor guilty, and just because a prosecutor thinks someone is guilty, doesn't mean they are. Or do the Italians live in a wannabe Judge Dread world? Certainly the prosecution comes out of this very badly, and a retrial is not going to make it better, indeed with news you'd rather not be perpetuated, the rule is shut up and don't argue. Contend the issue and the press quite rightly thinks there must be something in this and you'll never get rid of them.

Makes quite a few human's efforts look ruff.

Not reported greatly in the UK, but I too was initially in favour. But there is a huge difference between 'whistle blowing' where an unfairness or illegality has been committed and endangering innocent others. As reported, his actions fall firmly into the later camp. I frequently disagree with political decisions taken on the use of the military of the UK overseas, but such disagreement does not lead me to take it out on the soldiers who have my backing 101%.

I'm another You might be well read, but not according to these standards But to be honest a fair proportion are American books, not much read in the UK. Although, I thought I was on to a winner when Voltaires 'Candide' appeared early on as I've not just read it, I bought a copy and have read it several times. One, just one "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West," by Dee Brown aroused my interest, and I might have a look sometime for it.

If ever there was a case for a "breeding licence" and the removal of same from the mother - that is it. The son may be a little hoodlum but whose fault is that? And at 13, ought not be too late for some proper education. But with a report like that, who knows, he may be quite a normal 13 year old. As for the school, wrong on so many levels. In the UK behaviour like that would see the perpetrators/teachers never working with children again, and I'd have thought the lawsuits in the USA would remove their bottoms to above their heads. Is Canada that different?

Agreed, excellent story. Interesting people, interesting plot and no filler. It also has the feeling of completeness, and not just the first chapter of a longer story that so many so called short stories suffer from. Link is duff for both above posts though, I can sort of see why the browser goes there, as it says it will and the display is not what the browser instruction is. This works though as Firefox replaced the inverted comma with %27 for me and thus reminded me of the various codes for special characters in HTML. It's always a bad idea to use punctuation in file names with HTML, even if it is good English. I wonder if Merkin and Jeff are using IE? http://awesomedude.c..._conspiracy.htm