2012 City Status competition

[Valmy]

Nevertheless, it was a paradise in those days compared to what it is now. Benefiting from millions of pounds of renovation and a massive economic boom, Reading looks more like Bilbao. But insurance salesmen, estate agents, foreign exchange students and mobile telephone engineers populate it. Scum in other words. It is a shrine to par venue pretensions. It may be shinny and new, but the whiff of boredom, wretchedness and despair reaches the nostrils and reminds one of the acrid rotten foundations.

Heh.  Sounds like a Manhattanite describing any place remotely affordable nearby...like New Jersey.

[Ed Anger]

Patrick Stewart, obviously.

Playing a Frenchman. Hilarious. 

[Brazen]

The hell is that bizarre traffic paint in front of the bus in Wolverhampton? Does it connote the spot in the road where buses need to squeeze like accordions for a few meters?

I can't see that photo. Is it one of those Zebra crossings?

No, it's zig-zag lines that you get near road crossing, schools and the like. Parking on them is the only shooting offence in the UK.

[fhdz]

The hell is that bizarre traffic paint in front of the bus in Wolverhampton? Does it connote the spot in the road where buses need to squeeze like accordions for a few meters?

I can't see that photo. Is it one of those Zebra crossings?

No, it's zig-zag lines that you get near road crossing, schools and the like. Parking on them is the only shooting offence in the UK.

Got it. Well, it's certainly an attention-grabber! O_O

[Josquius]

Just with the football teams is enough to put several of them in the map. I mean, Blackburn Rovers even won the Premiership once!

And I might work with an organization that is located in Stirling. 

Heh, that's how I learned my geography as a kid. Which led to me knowing some pretty darn unimportant and obscure places whilst bigger players without teams of note remained totally unknown- Birmingham was quite a mystery for me until my teenage years (sure, Villa and Brom, but there's no Brum in their name!).

I'm going to slightly hijack this thread about BBC America. HOW THE FUCK IS STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION AND BATTLESTAR GALACTICA BRITISH PROGRAMMING?

Thank you.

ST- god knows. Just the British actor I guess.
BSG- I believe it was half financed by Sky.

[Eddie Teach]

Cable channels have gotten pretty lax about sticking to their supposed formats over the past several years. What does a reality show about truck drivers have to do with history? How does a classic movie channel end up showing Catwoman? And why doesn't MTV play videos anymore? 

OTOH, AMC's original television programming does a lot to make up for all that.