Early morning market shopping. What takes priority in the news. And potatoes.

 Snow was forecast but it hasn’t arrived. I am reliably informed that a few miles up the road at Marsden they had a sprinkling but that’s all. 

I was up early to go to Uppermill and catch the fish-man, he and the ‘shoes, slippers and second-hand books with bric-a-brac on the side’ man being all that remains of the Wednesday market. It’s rather sad really but that’s how it is. So I bought fish and some rather nice fishcakes. Fish, by the way, is not a cheap option, at least  not fresh fish; I paid £25 for two sea bass fillets and four fishcakes! But it’s good to have a source of fresh fish. 

I tried to buy aspirin at the chemist’s and was told that they need to order some as it is in short supply! Who’d’ve thought it? You would think basic aspirin would be easily accessible! 

Then I popped to the Italian greengrocery, where they have some very nice oranges at the moment. Oranges can be deceptive, looking fine but seeming dry and stringy once peeled. So it’s good to find a supply of decent fruit. 

By 9.30 I was at the bus stop ready to return home for breakfast! 

I am growing heartily sick of the Epstein business taking priority in the newspapers online, one of the first articles you come across! As they find more and more men with links to Epstein - even Chomsky! - I could begin to lose faith in mankind. And I mean MANkind, the male of the species. It’s a good job I know some good men who, as far as I know, don’t regard women as a sort of commodity provided for their convenience! 

But why does that gossip-based news take priority over articles like this one about the continued atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank. Médecins Sans Frontières has now been told to leave Gaza, reducing even further the provision of medical services there. All because they wouldn’t provide Israel with a list of employees, a failure to do so indicating that they are obviously shielding Hamas activists.

Incidentally, here’s a poem on that subject, but mainly about the USA, by Steve Pottinger:-

A Beginner’s Guide to 21st Century American English

 Nurse means terrorist.

Mother means terrorist.

Clergy means terrorist.

ICE means thug.

Poor means terrorist.

Black means terrorist.

Woke means terrorist.

ICE means thug.

Law means tear gas.

Law means pepper spray.

Law means murder.

ICE means thug.

Now, here’s a question: How do you define a tryrant?

It seems that Spain has proposed a ban on social media use by teenagers as attitudes hardened in Europe against the technology. This has provoked comments against Spain’s prime minister from Elon Musk. Apparently he wrote on X: “Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain.” Later he continued, posting: “Sánchez is the true fascist totalitarian.”

Whatever you might think of Sanchez, such a description is something of an exaggeration!

Yesterday I wrote about food. To add to that, here is a link to an article about potatoes in Berlin, where they are giving them away it seems.

All part of the world’s strangeness!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!