Tony Jeffree’s Grinder letter in MEW175

[Richard ParsonsParticipant @richardparsons61721]

Ah the Lurcher.
A wonderful dog! Properly trained it would watch you from outside the butcher’s shop and whatever you touched it would later on nip in, steal and bring it to you. Sunday lunch could be cheap, simple and sometimes pre chewed!

Actually there was an ordinance in the city about whippets The Oxonians (the Gown) were forbidden to have them. The Bulldogs tended to round them up. It did not seem to matter if they were owned by Oxfordians (us proles).

Greyhounds were a different matter there was a watering hole called ‘The Angle and Greyhound’ it used to be nice. Untill they sort of got rid of us ‘wrinkles’ who knew good beer. They stuff they sold used to come from the stables up on the Lambourn downs. But now a days the get it from the ‘local council’.

 

Enough back to the Myford!

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Hey Richard

I remember the Angel and Greyhound in St Clements, Oxford – named after Angel and Greyhound Meadow which was itself, I believe, named after two old inns in the High Street – The Angel and The Greyhound.

I’m more a Staffordshire Bull Terrier man myself – you can think of them as the Dean, Smith & Grace of the dog world. Very solidly built, willing to take on any challenge, a pleasure to own but needing skill and understanding to get the best from them! ( The dog, not the lathe, will also give you a serious ear licking at the slightest provocation !)

 

All this is seriously OT and I apologise however Richard your name seems familiar to me – I will send a pm.

 

Regards

 

Norman

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

Posted by NJH on 26/03/2011 19:56:46:

Hi All

 

I agree there should be a balance between humour and seriousness. Now I’ve been taking MEW since issue 1 and Tony’s article was the first to make me laugh out loud. So then, if we were to say that 10% should be humorous, that will mean, Tony, that you need to completely fill the next 17 issues with funny articles to redress the balance! ( In truth it should be more than that as the ads etc really can’t be considered to be funny – although I suppose some of the prices are.)

 

No time to waste – get on with it now!

 

 

I’ll give it some thought!

 

Regards,

Tony

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

Posted by John Stevenson on 27/03/2011 13:24:49:

Priceless gems of our industrial history.

When I was an apprentice with not much money [ some things never change ] the dynamo went on my trusty BSA, an enquiry at the local motor cycle shop told me to take it to Harry for repair but I was warned to enter the premises with it behind my back, listen to what he had to say and ignore everything.

Then just say “I’ll leave it here and come back next week ” and leave.

 

Now Harry worked out of an old stable block behind his house [ I can see a bit of deja-vu here ] so I walked into this tiny, scruffy, dark workshop with bits of electrical gear strewn everywhere with said dynamo behind my back. As soon as harry spotted me thru dirty cracked glasses he shout “And you can F&*k off and take that Dynamo with you “

 

How did he know I had a dynamo with me ? So after a tirade of abuse which for a 16 year old used to a sheltered upbringing [ Bus shelters, air raid shelters etc ] was very off putting i announced that I’d put it on the corner of the bench and come back next week.

 

“Do what you like, it won’t be done” was the reply so I crept out not knowing what was going to happen.

 

Went back the next week to the same tirade of how hard he had to work on utter crap that people kept bringing him but on the corner of the bench was a repaired and repainted dynamo.

 

That’s thirty bob and don’t come back was the reply, I paid and as I was leaving I spotted a cuckoo clock on the wall, someone had pulled the cuckoo out it’s hatch and tied it’s extending linkage into a knot so it hung down all forlorn with a note round it’s neck that read.

 

“There no tick here” I had to smile. “Tick” being the local term for credit.

 

Over the years I got to know Harry quite well but he never changed, why did he have to ? He was brilliant at his job and I’m sure he enjoyed it but he would never let on.

 

These were what we knew as Characters.

 

John S.

 

John –

 

Sounds like he taught you everything you needed to know about how to handle customers <G>

 

Regards,

Tony

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Whilst I have a lot of respect for Prof. J. Hugel, it seems that having built and owned a Quorn for 25 years has effectively removed his sense of humour, and induced a knee-jerk reaction to any perceived criticism – even though Tony wasn’t actually knocking it at all.

 

And I would also like to point out that there’s quite a difference between ‘finding a letter very funny’ and finding humorous bits in it – which is what I referred to in this thread.

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

In answer to Tony`s letter; perhaps I am nowhere near unique in quoting SWMBO,

 

“Wot, ANOTHER project? How many is that? “

 

Maybe those comments are related to ones like, “What have you got that for?”

 

Familiar ring to lots of Model Engineers?

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