Schadenfreude

[Clanad]

There's some mysterious satisfaction in seeing our staid, stiff-upper-lipped Bobby (are they still called such?)cousins making the same ill determined judgement calls as their occasionally incompetent brethern here in the U.S. (forgive the mixing of metaphors) as seen in this piece:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lin colnshire/8121586.stm

Can't find a link, but a Deputy Sheriff near where I live recently shot and killed a neigbors newly purchased Scottish Highland bull in an late night encounter on a little traveled county road... (seems the bull escaped through a fence) thinking it was a grizzly bear... County owes the rancher about $10,000...

Must be a symptom of the times in which we live, no? (See... there is a question in this)...

[Gromit]

My favourite quote of the week so far is in this news report

"She said: "It was a bit disappointing because there was nothing to get you going. You were stood there like a sardine."

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/sh owbiz/s/1122988_anger_over_lady_gaga_noshow

[wolf63]

Clanad - I also tried to find a link to your story but found nothing. But deputies in the US sure kill a hell of a lot of Pit Bulls.

I like dogs, big cuddly dogs but can't understand why anybody would purchase a dog in a breed that is 'unstable' in its temperament. Any the thought of any 'human' watching dogs rip the hell out of each other in a fight sickens me.

Heilin' Coos are cute things - shaggy and large and, if my understanding of Cowboy and Indian films is correct, Deputies are just the guys in front of the queue when a posse is required - no brains required. The poor wee bull didnae stand a chance.

Susan
The Fair City

[paraffin]

Isn't hindsight such a wonderful thing?

What would anyone else have done under the circumstances?

[fredpuli47]

And, Clanad, the only people who regularly call them 'bobbies' are tourists ! The word 'bobby' has a nostalgic, old-fashioned, air. It suggests a bygone age when "If you want to know the time, ask a policeman" was advice given to children , every area of every town had a constable walking a 'beat' of a set route of a few streets and every village had its very own policeman, "the village bobby". When you see the word in a newspaper it is either being used humorously or to recall such a figure of the past. What we call them now depends who we are.Londoners, particularly older ones still call them "Old Bill" (always in the singular) or "the old Bill" [ A reference to an old,cynical, grizzled, world-weary but all-knowng soldier, Old Bill,who featured in a First World War comic strip ] 'Bobby' comes from Sir Roert 'Bobby' Peel who founded the Metropolitan Police;

[fredpuli47]

Roert? "Who he? ed." That should be Robert. Roert sounds like some old Welsh name !

[denis567]

My daughter is a police officer and I have heard her use the term 'bobbie(s)' on more than one occasion