The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

I recall seeing a German 90s (or early 00s?) documentary about pensioners spending Christmas/New Year's in Brighton. It was ... interesting.

[Josquius]

The UK is a joke of a country and privatisation is dumb #4681

.


A government white paper published last week painted a picture of a railway system hobbled by the byzantine structures created since privatisation.

The system now has almost 400 full-time staff called "train delay attributers" whose job it is to argue with each other about assigning blame for a delay. Nearly half of delays are subject to this blame game, meaning they have to go through an extensive adjudication process involving a 199-page principles and rules document.

The most bizarre dispute of recent years involved a debate about who was to blame for a train hitting a peacock. If it was defined as a small bird, then the company driving the train was responsible: if it was categorised as a large bird, then the blame went to the operator of the tracks. The two sides ended up haggling over whether peacocks were bigger than geese. (The answer: a peacock is a "large bird".)

https://www.ft.com/content/05fef011-f693-46a2-bfcd-fbdfffe4368d

[celedhring]

Thanks for the British beach suggestions! I'll take Brighton I guess.

[Sheilbh]

Question for the brits on the board: if you lived in London (guess Tyr doesn't count), where would you look for a weekend beach escapade? Ideally something that's not a big drive from the city.

(it's for something I'm writing).

Brighton is the obvious choice - it's one of the gay capitals of the UK, a bit boho and quite expensive.

Kent and Essex coast a bit more working class - but Kent especially being gentrified/hipsterfied: Margate (Tracy Emin and Turner Contemporary Art Gallery), Broadstairs, Whitstable (Oyster festival ), Southend. All still have a weird combo of legit cockneys/ London-South-East working class and yuppies. Dystopian and arty is Dungeness - bleak, nature reserve, power plant on the horizon, Derek Jarman's cottage and garden, great crab

Or maybe Poole/Bournemouth which is only a couple of hours away. Big university towns (and I believe pre-Brexit the location of the most Erasmus students in the UK ), but also lots of elderly people in retirement homest.

Or a couple of hours the other way heading to the East and you get Aldeburgh - opera festival, home of Benjamin Britten. Very arty and expensive.

[Sheilbh]

Maybe one for Grumbler - but what is happening here? From the Twitter of the UK carrier crossing the equator:

HMS Queen Elizabeth Flag of United Kingdom
@HMSQNLZ
We 'crossed the line'!

In true Naval tradition, nearly 1000 sailors were welcomed into Neptune's Kingdom 

This was the first time the ceremony has taken place onboard HMS QNLZ

HMS QNLZ has now operated in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

#CSG21

Lots of people in reply posting their family pictures of this ceremoney from, say, HMS Southampton in 1986:

Or HMS Britannia in 1956:


What is this?

[celedhring]

I remember from doing research for a script that it's some kind of rite of passage ceremony for people crossing the equator line for the first time. Grumbler will surely know more.

[Josquius]

Yeah, old navy tradition.
I wonder if it counts if you've previously Eg flown to South Africa.

[Syt]

In German it's called Äquatortaufe (equator baptism) IIRC.

[Razgovory]

We had a thread on this once!  Way, way back to before 2009.  A congressman got a little too grabby with congressional pages.  For some reason the congressman invoked the line-crossing ceremony and said something about asking an sailor about it.  So I created a thread where I asked Grumbler about it.

[The Brain]

I've crossed the equator twice. In aircraft. I was asleep both times and didn't feel the flip.

[grumbler]

Yes, it's a "Crossing the line" ceremony for those sailing across the equator for the first time (Slimy Pollywogs) to enter Neptune's realm as Trusty Shellbacks.

It will involve some silly "ordeals" and then the Pollywog will be invited to kiss King's Neptune's belly button (almost certainly covered with something disgusting-tasting) and be transformed into a Shellback.

There's something similar for crossing the Arctic Circle and becoming a Bluenose.  None for crossing the International Date Line and becoming a Denizen of the Domain of the Golden Dragon.

[PDH]

I didn't have to kiss anything, but I did have to drink a foul concoction when I first crossed the equator on a sailboat.  I did receive a nice hand drawn certificate.

[Caliga]

Yes, it's a "Crossing the line" ceremony for those sailing across the equator for the first time (Slimy Pollywogs) to enter Neptune's realm as Trusty Shellbacks.

It will involve some silly "ordeals" and then the Pollywog will be invited to kiss King's Neptune's belly button (almost certainly covered with something disgusting-tasting) and be transformed into a Shellback.

There's something similar for crossing the Arctic Circle and becoming a Bluenose.  None for crossing the International Date Line and becoming a Denizen of the Domain of the Golden Dragon.

My dad was in the US Navy during Vietnam and crossed both the Equator and Arctic Circle.  Both times there were weird ceremonies, yeah, but I forget the details.  I'll ask him to remind me.

[Barrister]

I've crossed both the equator and arctic circle and didn't get nothing to mark the occasion.

[Caliga]

I've crossed both the equator and arctic circle and didn't get nothing to mark the occasion.

I've crossed neither.  Me = loser 

My dad once showed me the Shellback certificate he got.  It was pretty neat.

He was on the USS Nantahala, which was a fleet oiler.  When he crossed the Arctic Circle they were in some NATO exercise shadowing the Soviet Navy and went right into the Barents Sea.  Not a place I'd want to be if the Cold War suddenly turned hot.