Huggers

Hi Ryegirl, I sympathise with you heartily as mine is kept on lead around younger dogs as they make him anxious as they do not understand/listen to his 'I'm not into you' signals and can be very harrassing. To stop him feeling more wary about it I make sure I am 'the protector' who tells these dogs to go away so it's not his problem, while walking calmly away from them. But to the owners I am a woman telling their darlings to b****er off and they can't understand why. But I am taking the responsibility that they are not. One day their 'darling' could run uninvited into the jaws of something a bit more hostile and then it will be too late.

I spent about fifteen minutes construcing my contribution to a couple of other points in this thread which- if you remember- I started. Fifteen minutes to carefully articulate, but four seconds for the chair to read, judge and decide to delete. I can only assume the chair did not understand my references,or understand the nature of an expansive discussion on a single theme- because all my references were completely relevent. Nor were they libellous. Natassia Kinski's relationship at the age of 15 with Polanski isin the public domain and in her autobiography and was in response to 'was it a one off offence for Polanski?'question that was asked.. My reference to the film Tess likewise refers to Polanski's take on the whole thing. My reference to Brook Shields refers to an event comtemporative to the original offence and was in answer to 'werent the seventies Hollywood like that?' To sum up, yes the atmosphere of seventies Hollywood was morally ambivolent (c. brook shields) but that does not excuse Polanski who acted in that instance as a predatory paedophile even if he doesnt think he did. Like TImster I am saying a big no to the drawing room if it is unable to sustain a proper discussion. This Polanski discussion touches on ideas of the law and the passage of time, changing mores, personal culpability, whether we forgive artists more readily than citizens....interesting quesions? apparently not.

oh I repeated my post because I thought that I'd previewed it but not posted it at all.! I thought the drawing room was meant to be intelligent debate, so if I draw on a parallel current topical situation very relevant to our discussion when other posters have quoted 'sevenites hollywood morality' I think it's a valid post. The drawing room is for dialectical debate, serious discussion and may draw on related things. If it's going to be censored into superficiality, I'm not going to bother with it any more.

Timster, interesting points about the morality/amorality of Hollywood specially as we've just had the removal from Tate Modern of the highly sexualised photographic image of Brook Shields as a child, taken at about the same time as the Polanski 'event' and with the approval and collusion of her mother and which was printed in Playboy. We would never accept that today, and indeed we couldn't accept it's display even as a critique of those times, hence its removal. By the way, didnt Polanski 'date' the underage Natassia Kinski while directing her in 'Tess', itself a kind of cinemagraphic apology for the exploitation of the vulnerable by the powerful.

Hi Don, you are probably being approached by young inquisitive dogs rather than aggressive ones . When my dog was young he sometimes ran up to joggers or other people and if they shouted or flapped he thought it was a game and would bark, which made it seem worse though he 'meant no harm!. I felt very ashamed and would often bluster on about 'playing' to mask my absolute lack of control over my furry friend. I think maybe this is why the owners try and reassure you- which immediately feels quite sinister I know. Its just that an excitable reaction just overexcites these dogs more. It took a lot of training to teach my dog to find me more interesting than a running person but it was important to do so because harm is in the eye of the beholder and its intimidating if you don't know the dog. We all want to use the park in peace with eachother. So it's important for people to train their dogs to come back to them or have them on a long line until they do. If its any consolation it's also very annoying to some of us dog owners when our dogs are torpedoed by an unsupervised young dog with an owner miles away chatting on their mobile phone, especially owners of elderly or rescue dogs.

Sean are you tuned into Spiral 2?

Relevent to this- how about the withdrawal of the photo of a made-up naked Brooke Shields as a child from the Tate Modern today? It's picture we today find hard to stomach even as a statement about the times it was taken in. It was taken in the early seventies, with the approval nay encouragement of her mother and was apparently in Playboy. Maybe it does say something about the times- something horrible- and about Hollywood morals. Whoever said this was a 'one off' for Polanski, remember he had a long relationship with a very young Natassia Kinski. 'Tess' is all about expoitation of innocence,Maybe it was meant as expiation.

unless they nick the tree.

thanks guys, contacted server (which.net)and they are indeed down.

Is anyone else in the area suffering from internet probs today re emails?

My view is that he should have faced up to it at the time and saved himself a lot of trouble.

He did the crime, should he do the time? Discuss.

I think it's the opening lines from Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.

licence all dogs and link their poo to a dna database. A job for the ambitious traffic warden who wishes to transfer to the police- poo detective. And in the lab, poo analylsts (sic)could provide jobs for those bio chemistry graduates hit by current unemployment situation. Sorted.

Just want to say how clean the station is looking this afternoon- the forecourt all swept and the flower baskets making it all look rather smart.

Italian restaurant in Blenheim grove next to church.? Bar Story in Blenheim Grove.?

no worries pgc. I was sacrificing small kittens when I came off the fags.

beautiful piccies PR!

Hi Eliza, the amount of homework does leap dramatically once they start secondary but perhaps it varies from school to school exactly how much. It can be a bit of a shock. The key is organisation- work out what has to be in when and don't try to do it all at once or leave it till the last moment. My daughter (now year 8) had no problems last year as she is good at organising herself and just gets on with it. It doesnt seem to have got worse. I think the beginning is worse because we are not used to it. But My son started year 7 last week and needs lots of help keeping on top of this. He already has four assignments and we've done one. I am keeping a chart of what has come in and when it needs to go back. When he comes home he has a drink, something to eat and maybe a little relax (but not telly- as he would then go into another 'zone')- then we do it, maybe only fifteen minutes/twenty, then he can relax again. On a positive note he is actually taking homework more seriously than at primary-(though still trying to do as little as he can get away with) Hope this helps!

eh Peckham Gatecrasher I think you misinterpreted the tone of my post. I was just trying to help the OP who seemed to think St B was the main ED church . a lot of the correspondence on here re church is related to St Johns which is the parish church of East Dulwich whereas St Barnabus tends to serve Dulwich Village and I do think you are really rude.

SianandTony I think most East Dulwich C of E churchgoers go to St Johns Goose Green which is a lovely church.

I think Barry and his team are good. Its the system that sometimes seems mad.

Casualty everytime Plimsoul! Better value in terms of the proportion of medical staff wrongly accused of murder (five I think)who then die or are imprisoned unjustly, several psychos/stalkers who are killed but manage to accidentally fatally shoot popular member of staff (trying to escape typecast)in the process and of course any long drawn out love will-they-won't they drama resolved in one of the couple dying dramatically and unusually as soon as they have 'got it on' together. People leave Casualty to seek big telly stardom, but some return wounded from the frey....have you noticed in the reruns of The Forsythe Saga that Bettany's fiance was played by none other than Jessica, the love triangle nurse (how many episodes before she or Adam are slaughtered tragically as soon there is a prospect of love running smoothly?) Also as an actor you can die in one episode and come back as a doctor in another, working your way up via playing a porter.

If people have to queue for a long time to buy a ticket and miss trains as a result it is not supportive of honest passengers (who are punished with lateness for actually trying to buy a ticket) and just encourages dishonest passengers. Cynics might even be tempted to think that not making it easy to buy a ticket but making it easy to be caught if you don't is a revenue enhancing technique.

thanks. My mind is at rest.