Police local roads

I say they should get their priorities right and start to police the local roads around Firth Park, especially Firth Park Crescent which is a rat run and a residents parking nightmare with constant traffic both ways and non-stop parking on double yellow lines.

Neville Levick

Long time resident of Firth Park

Lady saved my day

The other day while shopping in Wilkinson’s I left one of my carrier bags on the upper floor. Unfortunately it contained my handbag, money and keys ect.

Fortuitously, a kindly and honest lady shopper handed it in. Therefore I was unable to thank her personally. Please may I be enabled to thank her through the Star.

Had it not been for her honesty I would not have had my bus pass. I would have been unable to unlock the door to my home had I even got home.

It was also absolutely pouring with rain. My grateful thanks, you are a Good Samaritan.

This thoughtful gesture has inspired me to make a further request please.

Approximately 18 months ago my daughter did a car boot at Eckington. She sold a coat there to a lady. Unfortunately inside the pocket was her gold watch and a bracelet.

She had seen this in a second hand jewellery shop when she was 16. Thus commenced an enormous savings fund to finally buy it.

It is possible that the coat may not as yet have been worn. Therefore if the items remain in the pocket so the owner might not have found them either. I will be grateful please for any information to locate said. Thank you, there will be a reward.

It would be interesting to read from other Star readers of any Good Samaritan gestures they had encountered. This amazing lady really saved my day!

A Tunney

by email

Offended by everything

Shirley Ballas on Strictly says to Johnny Peacock “You put a real spring in your step in that dance,” the audience cringes then Shirley says she’s put her foot in it again.

Social media is saying how dare she say that, it’s disgraceful. Johnny has a false leg, he wears a false one on the show. Was Shirley being nasty or just making a comment to a man who did a great dance? It was a remark she would make to anyone doing the routine who had just smashed it.

It just seems people are offended about anything these days. Are we not allowed to say anything so we don’t offend anyone?

Jayne Grayson

by email

Rewriting history

Gary Speck’s letter ‘N-word just unacceptable’ Star, October 21, made for interesting reading and gave food for thought. He has been waiting for complaints to be made, because the word was used by a black actor on the Graham Norton show and laughed at by another black guest. He asks why it is acceptable for him to use this word?

While it is now unacceptable in this country for white people to use the word, black people often use it among themselves and do not take offence, an example being on the show in question. In today’s society racial intolerance and political correctness rule the roost. While I fully agree that it is unacceptable for a white person to use this derogatory word to a black person, it does make a mockery of this when black people freely use the word and do not take offence.

What shall we call the dog? This was the dilemma facing the producers of a remake of the 1955 classic Dambusters movie, who had to choose between historical fact and racial sensitivity. In 2008 after Sir Peter Jackson bought the film rights, it was intended that a remake of the film be made. In the remake the Labrador was proposed to be renamed “Digger”. The intended remake has still not got off the ground and in October 2016 it was announced that it is still an ongoing project. The squadron’s mascot also featured in the original movie was owned by the leader of the raid Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC. He was a black Labrador retriever named “Nigger” This objectionable word is spoken 12 times in the movie. In real life he was an adorable but somewhat scruffy little guy! To avoid any racial criticism they renamed him “Digger” in the remake.

He was much loved by the whole squadron and often accompanied his master on training flights. Sadly the poor Labrador was run over by a car and killed on the morning of the Dambuster raid 16.5.1943. His grave is located at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and his name is engraved on the headstone. Aside from this drama, there is another historical aspect to the dog’s name. It was the code word Gibson used to confirm the breach of the Mohne Dam.

Other examples of the white community deferring to the black are the removal of a golliwog label on a well know jam maker’s jars, golliwog is a word in the English dictionary, abolition of the popular Black and White Minstrel TV show, and the renaming of an Agatha Christie crime novel, originally called “Ten Little N....r Boys” In more recent times the nursery rhyme Ba Ba Black Sheep has been reworded in some primary schools.

By all means let people of all races treat each other with respect when addressing each other. However, should history be re-written, the word “black” removed from a traditionally acceptable nursery rhyme, and a popular TV show scrapped, all in the name of racial tolerance, when the black community freely use and accept the N word among themselves?

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5

Puzzle as old as time

In reply to the Green Giant’s queries regarding cakes and biscuits .

This puzzle has been answered numerous times, it is really simple, cakes are moist so when left to stand the moisture evaporates into the surrounding air, causing them to dry out, (this is why people are advised to store cake in an airtight container).

Biscuits are dry and brittle, (usually, think ginger nut, digestive etc.), therefore the biscuit left to stand in the open will absorb the moisture from the atmosphere and become damp, (this is why people are advised to store biscuits in an airtight container) .

I am sure that numerous readers will respond to answer this puzzle, in fact a lot will have beaten me to it .

Liam Touhey

by email

How does it know?

Further to the Green Giant’s conundrum about bread and biscuits.

Something that’s always puzzled me.

If a vacuum flask keeps hot things hot and cold things cold, how does it know which is which?

PS Nice to see Green Giant back in print.

John Bisby

S6