Ye Olde Videoe Clippe Threade

[fargon]

Did they do something to you or yours?

[Lamplighter]

Stop Scream Go

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by fargon

Did they do something to you or yours?

You believe that's how it goes with the TSA, do ya?

[fargon]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

You believe that's how it goes with the TSA, do ya?

I know that I will never fly again, because of the TSA.

[glatt]

I used to look for excuses to jump on a plane and go somewhere.

Now I look for ways to avoid it. Between the airlines reducing the quality of service, and the fucking TSA, flying is an unpleasant ordeal now.

[Lamplighter]

Do you have an extra $8.8 billion laying about somewhere ?
This is what you can get if you can fold it up and put it in a big suitcase



... and then unfold it again ... without anything going wrong

Here is a 3-minute animation of the unfolding...
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

(sorry, there's a short ad first)

[slang]

Originally Posted by glatt

Between the airlines reducing the quality of service, and the fucking TSA, flying is an unpleasant ordeal now.

Very true. There is also a newly established "authority" that the flight attendants wield over travelers.

[slang]

Originally Posted by fargon

I know that I will never fly again, because of the TSA.

That's bad enough dealing with them in the process of flying. Just wait until their role is expanded to land transportation as well.

[Gravdigr]

Even though it looks like he's talking to about seven members of the Rotary Club...

...this is an outstanding story:

[xoxoxoBruce]

Fermenting...

[Carruthers]

From the Witney Gazette.

After working as a blacksmith for more than 70 years, Fred Harriss knows all about earning a living by the sweat of his brow.

Sadly, when he finally laid down his tools and left the forge, he found he was less qualified to nail down the intricacies of the pension and benefits system.

Mr Harriss, is now at home at Charlbury working on his autobiography, charting a career that began at the age of ten, when he arrived at a forge in Langford in west Oxfordshire, to work 12 hours every Saturday for 6d (two-and-a-half pence).

At one point, it had looked like Mr Harriss’s book was set to have the saddest of endings.

For at the age of 82, only months after a long overdue retirement, Mr Harriss found himself in serious financial difficulty.

“I got to the point where I had no money in the bank. Things got so bad I was preparing to sell my home and move in with my son.”

He says he was even having to rely on his children and grandchildren for food.

When he retired at the end of 2009, the great-grandfather of eight was receiving a basic £97-a-week pension. But he was forced to spend a quarter of that on council tax, mortgage repayments and bills.

“I was always too generous for my own good when it came to business. I suffered from people not paying their bills,” he said.

“I would have a Rolls-Royce outside if I added up all the work I did that I was never paid for. It still disgusts me that small businesses are often never paid. I also went through two divorces.”

Mr Harriss also found himself faced with a battle with bowel cancer and having to look after his partner, who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

She has since been admitted into a care home.

Thankfully, he was put in touch with Age UK Oxfordshire by West Oxfordshire District Council staff, who happened to be fitting a shower at his bungalow.

The charity, which is running the Give An Hour Campaign with The Oxford Times, helped him to apply for benefit entitlements.

It was found he should have been receiving pension credits, housing and council tax relief.

Mr Harriss, who celebrated his 83rd birthday on Sunday, recalls: “The lady who came was related to someone who knew all about steam engines. So we got on famously. At the time I was just about to go into hospital for a cancer operation. I was grateful that she was able to take over.”

Jessica Brown, of Age UK Oxfordshire, readily recalls the case.

“What it showed for me is that some elderly people do need extra help when it comes to the benefit system, even if it is a person who knows how to apply and can fill in the form.

“There are complications and the pension system can get it wrong. Many people do not realise that. We pick up on errors all the time because we are aware of what people are entitled to.

“We provide extra advice and information about the different benefits that may be available, including advice on community care rights and the social care system.

“The pension service send out one person to help pensioners. But if they don’t have all the forms then and there, they don’t get a second visit.”

Mr Harriss even received an apology from the Department for Work and Pensions and received backdated payments and compensation for £86. The financial worry had an impact on his health, and last week Mr Harriss was heading back to hospital for a hernia operation.

But already he is looking forward to getting back home to continue work on his book about his life in a dirty, back-breaking job that he nevertheless loved.

He also looks in at the forge at Sturt Farm, near Burford, where the blacksmith business F.C. Harrris & Sons is based, to see how his son Martin is performing.

That’s what he really enjoys.

The old blacksmith was, after all, never one for mere paperwork.