Small fix for Sunday's poem, "proved" for "proving": > Oh god, I can't quite remember. > It's the sort of thing you'd think would be easy to recall, > an oft-repeated item, a lines whine: > "I must not make fun of Applebottom's whinnying in Biology." > That sort of thing. > What was it that so disrupted rail travel on former and Falmer Sundays? > Engineering works? > If it was works, what then was, fundamentally, the problem? > That tickets please, perhaps? > Were we were all waiting for the sainted and faint, ticket-less passenger? > > British Rail generally regretted any and all inconvenience caused, > but everyone knew that they had steeped the tea, stiffened the sandwiches, > summoned up foul rage, disguised it as fair-natured customer relations. > > With a sigh one noted that, due to staff cuts, this or that ticket office, > like the prize-winning, public convenience, was temporarily not in service, > and therefore and heretofor and so on, we noted that trespassers would and > could be prosecuted on the very instant that they touched the live rail or > any communication cord. None of it worked. It was all sparks in the > cistern. > > If one counted oneself among passengers departing for Crew, Rugby or > Badminton, one probably guarded one's strips carefully, for fear of loss, > draw or result. The darts afterward were just as important. Passengers for > Stockton and Darlington quite properly held their horses, responding to the > sorry fact that between Pilchard and Musselborough a bus service was in > effect, due, of course, to infrastructure. The bed on the up-line for > Maidenhead was always receiving attention, but prophylactic repairs > generally proved insufficient, and so travelers were often fucked. > > British Rail quite properly and regularly apologized for the late-arrival of > the ten-oh-three, and so on, and so forth, which were all and always delayed > by points failure. Passengers with connections to Rhyme, Reason and > destinations beyond, where there's no point in going on a Sunday, decided to > stuff themselves. Persons with knowledge of points were, of course, > encouraged to identify themselves to railway personnel and have their heads > examined, but passengers generally found that Reading was their best bet. > Some, however, walked away, stupidly ignoring all the tannoy's suggestions > that, normal service would be resumed as soon as possible. > > David Ritchie > Portland, Oregon > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html