mancunian1001

Archive for February, 2009

I’m In the Metro!

In Half Man Half Biscuit, Music, Stalybridge, Stuart Vallantine, Tameside on February 18, 2009 at 2:34 pm

OK, not quite.

A nice surprise came to me this morning in one of the free papers on the 220 service towards Stalybridge railway station. I was reading the Metro when turning towards ‘The Ridiculant’ page I found that one of my side projects was listed.

As advertised elsewhere within East of the M60, I created a Google map on the places namechecked by Half Man Half Biscuit entitled (ahem) ‘Half Map Half Biscuit’ (don’t you just love the wordplay).

Top of the list under a section entitled ‘Check These Ones Out’ was… Half Map Half Biscuit!

Fame at last I thought. Quoting from the Metro, The Ridiculant stated:

“At long last someone has created a Google map of every place ever mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song. You young ‘uns probably don’t even know who the band HMHB are, do you? Shame on you.”

Click on the link to The Ridiculant to see the map itself, some comments and other goodies.

At this time of writing, some 6,927 people have seen the map – not bad for a Google map anyway, but one that has only been up for one day more than a month!  Feel free to contribute the map itself.  Please note that entries may be edited for spelling and grammatical errors.

S.V., 18 February 2009

Ewing School: East of the M60 first again

In !Fail, Asperger Syndrome, Autism, Education, Ewing School, Manchester, North West, Politics, Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder, Stuart Vallantine, West Didsbury on February 11, 2009 at 2:41 pm

Update on Ewing School.

Some time ago, East of the M60 reflected on the ‘grotesque shambles’ of Manchester City Council’s proposed closure of Ewing School. Though a local Liberal Democrat newsletter exposed this at the end of last year, the story has finally made the Manchester Evening News (Wednesday 11 February 2009).  East of the M60’s story was released into cyberspace nearly a month before the MEN’s account of event.

Since Manchester Withington MP John Leech proposed an Early Day Motion for the retention of Ewing School, an online petition has attracted over 650 signatures.  This is in addition to the 2,500 signatures gathered at a rally in West Didsbury.

The loss of Ewing School and the council’s proposals are tantamount to “inclusion by isolation”.  Think of the pupils who will have made friends at West Didsbury, only to find he/she has been moved to Moston or Wythenshawe. For the good of fellow auties, aspies and SPLDers like myself, sign the online petition as soon as possible.  In the words of Del Trotter, ‘You Know It Makes Sense’!

Save Ewing School

S.V., 11 February 2009