62 thoughts on “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

    1. I was thinking it might be Alistair Cooke. Looking him up on the internet every site has the same photo when he was of more advanced years.

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  2. #11 the Ally Pally
    #12 Christine Keeler
    #14 Andy Stewart at Braemar Castle
    #15 I’ve seen it on TV. Somewhere In Austria and no longer in use?

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    1. Ally Pally, yes. Not Keeler, but Juliette Greco, maîtresse de la chanson française. Andy Stewart indeed. But the station is on the border of Spain and France. Canfranc. Wiki says this about it:

      The site is mostly overgrown, but most of the buildings are largely intact and can be entered. The main building has been re-roofed, but is otherwise in a state of disrepair, fenced off and closed to the public except during guided tours in July and August. In 2013–17, approximately 120,000 people, mostly Spaniards, toured the station, more than used it when it was in service.[1]

      The railway station, using rather more modest facilities, is still open for the two daily passenger trains to and from Zaragoza-Delicias railway station,[1] plus occasional freight trains to the grain silo.

      The government of Aragon plans to turn the station into a hotel, build a new station beside it, and reopen the line as the “western trans-Pyrenean line” with the assistance of the government of Aquitaine, the adjacent French region.[1]

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  3. Regarding #5, brace yourself for a numerical analysis.

    It seems reasonable that a ban on assault weapons should reduce gun deaths in mass shooting situations. Although, mass shootings involving rifle fire (usually much less than one hundred deaths per year) are statistically insignificant compared to the 30,000 to 40,000 individual homicides and suicides per year, generally from hand guns (that of course were not part of the 1994-2004 assault rifle ban.

    This bar chart data, shows mass shooting deaths from 1982 to 2016, with the ten year (1994-2004) period of the federal assault rifle ban highlighted in gray. It doesn’t appear that on average, the ten years of the federal ban were much different from the preceding ten years; although, the death rate did ramp up in later years.

    Looking at the bar chart data, it’s clear that the claim of a 43% reduction in shooting deaths when the ban was imposed and a 239% increase when the ban was lifted, are just common numerical artifacts that occur when dealing with variations in small numbers which are expressed as a percentage of a small number base.

    The 43% for example simply represents the decrease from a spike up in 1993 (at a little over 20) to a dip in 1994. (Maybe a change of only about 20 actual deaths.) But if you proceed to look at 1999, which was during the ban, the number of deaths is higher than for ANY year shown before the ban.

    Then, looking at the data from 2004 and 2005, we see how that BIG impressive 239% number came to be. As closely as I can estimate the data as shown, it’s a change from maybe about 5 deaths in 2004 to maybe 17 in 2005. This is a difference of about 239% (240% based on my estimate of the data,) since an absolute difference of 12 is a WONDERFULLY big and impressive 240% when applied to a base of 5. But of course this arithmetic doesn’t really tell you much about the salutary effect of a ban on assault rifles for the purpose of reducing gun deaths.

    I do think that a ban on assault rifles would be a very good thing, but when I encounter someone presenting numerical data as percentages of a small base, I figure I’ve found a con-artist who’s pushing an agenda. OR someone who’s just not good with numbers. I’ll give “Regular Resister” the benefit of the doubt on this one. 😉

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    1. Yes Danny,
      It’s great when you do arithmetic and stats with percentages.
      I’ve just read Freakonomics by Dubner & Levitt, old book but interesting take on SPIN.
      We don’t have as much gun crime reports here in Scotland but we do have the rare use of guns in what appears to be drug wars.So percentage wise one a year would be the norm so if we get 2 then that would be a 100% increase in that time period.
      The old one about death rates in shipping start from after Titanic sank and ignore war events.
      The picture of 3 Concorde aircraft at Glasgow airport is very unusual as there were only 16 built and Glasgow is a small rural airport in the colony of Scotland, 18.75% of the World’s Concordes, or nearly a Fifth of them.

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      1. Dave….

        I like your numerical analysis of the Concordes at Glasgow.
        Yes, with gun statistics involving 1 or 2 or 3 incidents, you could generate eye-popping percentages that should convince anybody of anything. 😉

        I had a math teacher who showed us an article describing 3 new political appointments, which went on to say that 75% of them had previous political experience.

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    2. PS…..Regarding #5:

      A few (HA!) words about “The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994”; the largest crime bill in the history of the United States. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) was a subsection of this massive bill.

      The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was a response to several high-profile violent crimes that had been in the news leading up to the 1994 election. So pandering, self-serving politicians of BOTH parties decided to get TOUGH ON CRIME. (A great campaign slogan.) The original bill was written by Senator Joe Biden of Delaware (now running for president) and was signed into law by Bill Clinton. It was in many ways a terrible piece of legislation that came down hard on minority race non-violent drug offenders for example. By targeting such defendants, the law contributed to mass incarceration and prison overcrowding. America has the highest incarceration rate in the world……..often African-Americans and often for non-violent drug crimes.

      Bill Clinton has apologized for his part in contributing to minority race incarceration, and at the time the bill was being debated, Joe Biden……BEING Joe Biden…….shot his mouth off, posing as the biggest baddest crime fighter in Congress. Biden said: “We do everything but hang people for jaywalking in this bill.” To get support for the assault weapon ban, a ten year “sunset provision” was added. Even then, it only squeaked through the Senate on a 52-48 vote.

      Yes, Joe Biden is an idiot who can’t keep his mouth shut, even when he definitely should. Now that he’s running for president and courting black voters, he spends a lot of time apologizing for his part in the 1994 Crime Bill.

      The bill and its assault weapon ban set off a political earthquake that’s still reverberating down to the present day. There was immediate backlash to the assault weapons ban, and the mid-term election in 1994 was a disaster for the Democrats. They lost control of the House for the first time in FORTY years. Al Gore’s vote for the bill in the Senate may have been instrumental in causing him to lose the electoral votes of his home state Tennessee in his presidential run in 2000. That handed the election to DubYa Bush. If Gore had carried Tennessee, he would have been elected president, whether DubYa took the hanging chad election in Florida or not.

      There were many efforts to reinstate the weapons ban after 2004, but to no avail. Obama ran on the issue in 2008, but was unable to accomplish it. As much as Joe Biden catches hell for the crime bill, he says he’ll push for the assault weapons ban again if he’s elected president.

      About the crime bill and the weapons ban:

      https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750656174/the-u-s-once-had-a-ban-on-assault-weapons-why-did-it-expire

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  6. N0 1 – Dean Martin; No6 – Harold Wilson, Labour P.M.; No 8 – Glesca 1960s, but most annoyingly, I can’t place the street; No 9 – Triumph Dolomite Sprint – I love the daft names they give cars; No 11 – Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally) under construction?; No 14 – Andy Stewart at Braemar Castle; No 16 – a “Blue Train” going to Errdri, can’t place the station.

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    2. #8 is Johnstone Church on Springburn Road. One of the Marmalade used to pop in to see his mother who lived in the houses on the right. It caused quite a commotion.

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        1. The video and those jersey heifers brought back fond memories of our house cow, Lorraine. She was also a pure bred jersey, hand milked morning and evening. The morning milking was always my preference, fantastic. Undoubtedly there would have been cold and wet mornings but I have no recollection of them at all. Only Lorraine, me and morning mists slumbering along the hollows in the fields, avoiding the suns first outstreched fingers bringing the wake up call for the day.

          Memory, inaccurate? Without a doubt. Can bring cheer? Without question.

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      2. Thanks for that, Ian. Ironically, I worked in Springburn for quite a few years and walked Springburn Road everyday but I think that the church had been demolished by then. I also remember Marmalade in their previous existence as Dean Ford & the Gaylords – how time flies!

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    3. No 16 could be a shot from the opening day of the Blue Train service in 1960. The trains ran from Airdrie to Helensburgh originally. A few years later they were introduced on the Cathcart Circle. They were built by Pressed Steel in Linwood which later became part of the Roots car plant.

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        1. Looking back to when I was telling a visitor to take a BLUE train to Glasgow from Balloch.
          Then had to add.
          They’ve painted them Orange now but locally still the Blue trains.
          Progress is quite regressive.

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        2. Not the opening day of the Blue Train service.
          Quote from the video says re-opening of the service.
          From memory there was a fire at Partick station when a transformer on the train exploded at the station.
          Service was interrupted until the transformers on all the trains were replaced.
          That would have been mid 60’s, steam trains ran on the lines between Airdrie and Helesburgh, the split at Dalreoch and Dalmuir also ran Balloch to Coatbridge.
          Some trains did the Singer branch at work times using the Singer station where the Balloch trains used the Clydebank branch normally.

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          1. Very sorry (says Mr Picky). Curiously however I can’t see the photo today, just “Image result for old scottish buses”.
            I feel another Doric tirade coming on!!!!

            Anyway, anorack’s (!) are not easily defeated. The bus is a 1961 Leyland Titan PD3A with Alexander lowbridge bodywork, this one also has rear platform doors, not evident in the photograph. This was the staple SBG vehicle of the 1960’s. I remember them from their regular use on the Northern service from Culter – Dyce/Bankhead.

            The lowbridge body meant a lowered offset gangway on the upper deck (and passengers in the lower saloon right hand side had to watch their heads). Getting a window seat on the upper deck meant clambering across full length bench seats, also annoying the other passengers if you wanted off before they did….

            The photo was actually taken on Middle Walk, Blackpool on 29th September 1985, so it’s rather a long way from Renfrew Ferry . It was taking part in the Tramway Centenary celebrations taking place at that time.

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            1. OK, Anorak Man, I can now see that you are a superhero and must be treated with as great respect as Superman, Spiderman or Catwoman.

              Even Munguin is impressed. You may get a job offer through the ether … or maybe by way of an owl!

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  8. Ally Pally under construction. The BBC were not the first to broadcast TV. The Germans started in 1935 but was broadcast to “television parlours” so the medium was controlled. The 1936 Olympics was the first games to be television. The BBC were the first to broadcast to peoples’ homes.

    He is a snippet from Nazi TV including the Hitler salute. A rather sinister comedian.

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    1. wow…That was quite something.

      Thanks for finding that, Marcia.

      I imagine Cummings and Patel will have made the BBC watch it for inspiration if it wants to survive.

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    3. Sheesh, that presenter. An interrogation by him wouldn’t take long, first few seconds and I’d be confessing to everything and anything, to get out his presence.

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    4. A very powerful message about the furreign musicians.
      Maybe next week we will get the rough wooing from doris using the same script.
      Don’t play the wrong notes or you’ll get sent to the fruit picking with Ms Hair.

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  9. Pic 17 is, I think, Coupar Angus from beside the Mercat Cross, back in Edwardian times and it looks like there’s a rather liberated lady cyclist pedalling through.

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      1. Tris, Agatha Christie did indeed write a novel – The Mystery of the Blue Train. It was of course the famous train which ran from Paris to the Côte d’Azur. It’s name lives on in the splendid restaurant Le Train Bleu in the Gare de Lyon – I thought you’d have been there or does Munguin leave you to eat at the station buffet?

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        1. LOL. I get a sandwich in the car, and a bottle of water.

          Actually, I have been to Lyons, the nearest Airport to Grenoble where I worked. I do remember seeing the station on the way from the airport though. French trains are fantastic.

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          1. Tris, I was referring to the Gare de Lyon in Paris although I’ve also been to Lyons, which I loved – a great city, with one of the best brasseries in France, imho👨🏼‍🍳

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        1. Just further on towards the Balloch Pier We used to watch the engines being turned round to face the other way, steam trains, on the turntable.

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