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Personal Space

There's a "Lobby Lud" character murdered at the start of Grahame Green's Brighton Rock, if you've read that (or seen the film).
I first came across it in Brighton Rock (I'm a huge fan of Graham Greene), and apparently it has even lived on as a concept into the days of internet abbreviations, 'UR X &ICMY5UKP'. I thank Wikipedia for that.
 
There's a "Lobby Lud" character murdered at the start of Grahame Green's Brighton Rock, if you've read that (or seen the film).

I have seen that film (one of my favourite actors, Richard Attenborough) but I hadn't twigged about the Lobby Lud chap. Fair enough it's been a while since I watched it though :)
 
I seem to recall that the Daily Mirror was running a Lobby Lud type promotion as late as the seventies.

The focus was on seaside towns, because newspapers had noted a marked drop in circulation when readers decamped to the coast for a summer break. You had to be carrying a copy of the Mirror - or whatever - and make sure that you issued the challenge in the correct form:

"You are Lobby Lud of the Daily X and I claim my £20!" :win:

Edit: I see that Paul Slade has a typically thorough and fascinating article on Lobby Lud here! :salute:

He reminds us that the Mirror's version was named Chalkie White and that the feature ran up to 1980, with the prize inflated to a massive £50!
 
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I seem to recall that the Daily Mirror was running a Lobby Lud type promotion as late as the seventies.

The focus was on seaside towns, because newspapers had noted a marked drop in circulation when readers decamped to the coast for a summer break. You had to be carrying a copy of the Mirror - or whatever - and make sure that you issued the challenge in the correct form:

"You are Lobby Lud of the Daily X and I claim my £20!" :win:

Edit: I see that Paul Slade has a typically thorough and fascinating article on Lobby Lud here!:salute:

He reminds us that the Mirror's version was named Chalkie White and that the feature ran up to 1980, with the prize inflated to a massive £50!
I am still word-perfect on the challenge required by the Sunday Correspondent (remember that?) which ran an obvious homage to Lobby Lud, except with classic cars. They printed a picture of said vehicle, and if you were to see it on the highways and byways, you were to flash your lights or flag it down, and greet the driver with the words "I claim this classic car prize from the new Sunday Correspondent, the newspaper that cuts out the." Imagine my frustration when I actually saw the cut-down mini that was one week's prize from the top-deck of a bus about to begin its laboured ascent up Church Bank in Bradford... (I often wondered whether you had to be word-perfect on the first attempt, or whether the driver was able to exercise discretion.)
 
I am still word-perfect on the challenge required by the Sunday Correspondent (remember that?) which ran an obvious homage to Lobby Lud, except with classic cars. They printed a picture of said vehicle, and if you were to see it on the highways and byways, you were to flash your lights or flag it down, and greet the driver with the words "I claim this classic car prize from the new Sunday Correspondent, the newspaper that cuts out the." Imagine my frustration when I actually saw the cut-down mini that was one week's prize from the top-deck of a bus about to begin its laboured ascent up Church Bank in Bradford... (I often wondered whether you had to be word-perfect on the first attempt, or whether the driver was able to exercise discretion.)
Was the prize a classic car?
 
Was the prize a classic car?
Sorry, yes, I should have made that clearer. None of your mickey-mouse five pound notes here. The way the paper told it, the driver was supposed to hand over the keys and the logbook following a successful challenge. It never did explain what you were supposed to do about insuring it before driving it away, though...
 
Two amusing (to me, anyway) things related to personal space:

In the latest Charles Paris (Bill Nighy) R4 play CP relates a new 'game' to liven up his city strolls: walk steadily in a straight line on a pavement. For every smart-phone zombie who bumps into you and makes a sound score 2 points; For a full-on English 'sorry' score 5! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002zcc

And this charming ditty of stalkerish devotion:

 
Two amusing (to me, anyway) things related to personal space:

In the latest Charles Paris (Bill Nighy) R4 play CP relates a new 'game' to liven up his city strolls: walk steadily in a straight line on a pavement. For every smart-phone zombie who bumps into you and makes a sound score 2 points; For a full-on English 'sorry' score 5! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002zcc

And this charming ditty of stalkerish devotion:

How many phone zombies say sorry?
 
...walk steadily in a straight line on a pavement. For every smart-phone zombie who bumps into you and makes a sound score 2 points; For a full-on English 'sorry' score 5!

ae235


;)

maximus otter
 
If you wish for personal space in public, simply walk around with your todger out. Does wonders for me.

Obviously more difficult for ladies, I suggest you get a prosthesis.
 
India and Nepal have no notion of personal space. If walking as a couple, unless you hold hands, people will walk between you constantly. Holding hands is common amongst friends of both sexes and even policemen. Buses and Trains would be crammed to the brim, everyone in everyone else's space. I recall falling asleep on a bus and waking to find an Indian man sat on my lap.
 
I stood stock still in a shopping arcade for about five minutes. Of the five people who walked into me, one said sorry, one said nothing and the other three told me to look where I was going.
Should have told them to go where they are looking, anyway, I think the best way to keep enough space between you and the unwashed masses is to carry a clipboard
 
India and Nepal have no notion of personal space. If walking as a couple, unless you hold hands, people will walk between you constantly. Holding hands is common amongst friends of both sexes and even policemen. Buses and Trains would be crammed to the brim, everyone in everyone else's space. I recall falling asleep on a bus and waking to find an Indian man sat on my lap.

I was last there a year ago (I'm married to an ethnic Nepali) and it's changing, fast. Global media and cheap data via smartphones has opened up the culture in urban areas to all kinds of outside influences. The pace of social change in Nepal especially is astounding, even compared to my first visit earlier in the 2000s. There is much less pressure to marry within a caste hierarchy, or even within the same religion. For example two cousins-in-law have married 'out' (one to Magar ethnic group, one to a Christian) which would have been unheard of 20 years ago.

But, happy to say that friends of the same gender (mostly females) can still walk about holding hands. I see many fewer men doing so now :-(

Public affection between opposite gender couples is still frowned upon but I get a free pass for holding hands with my hubby as I'm disabled hence it makes sense I have to hold onto him! Personal space is still at a premium in public areas but I quite like the jostle and hustle on the local buses and in the shopping/central areas of Pokhara. I've often been handed a Nepali baby to hold onto whilst seated on the bus, none of that paranoid nonsense we've developed here. One thing I've noticed is that in Nepal and India that others are more considerate of those with a disability, whether they be beggars or a tourist. I've never had to ask to sit down.


Some women have penises, you h8r!

maximus otter

Nepal is one of the the countries to historically recognise third gender - the Ramayana story from the Hindu tradition from 300BC has a section relating to the founding of the concept of Hijra people*** - and there is a long-standing community of 'Meti' people. Mostly they are intersex (ie, neither identifiably or biologically male or female) people but also include butch women and effeminate men who tend to live in a family-type group all dressing as females.

Sadly, some parents when faced with a hermaphrodite baby (or possibly homosexual older child) dump them with the Metis and forget about them. Some youngsters run away to join Meti/Hijra families. Some gay men join the Metis as being openly gay in Nepal just isn't an option.

Metis are in demand at weddings and similar parties as they sing and dance but also they are believed to have the power to bless or curse an occasion so they are always invited and paid well 'just in case'.

3rd gender isn't a new hippy-dippy right-on new concept, it's been around for a long time in some parts of the world, just not ours.


*** Prince Rama left Ayodhya to travel, a crowd of his subjects followed him into the forest because of their devotion to him. Rama notices this, and gathers them together to tell them not to mourn, and that all the "men and women" of his kingdom should return home. Rama then leaves and does not return for 14 years. When he returns to Ayodhya, he finds that the hijras, being neither men nor women, have not moved from the place where he gave his speech. Impressed with their devotion, Rama grants hijras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious inaugural occasions like childbirth and weddings.
 
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I was last there a year ago (I'm married to an ethnic Nepali) and it's changing, fast. Global media and cheap data via smartphones has opened up the culture in urban areas to all kinds of outside influences. The pace of social change in Nepal especially is astounding, even compared to my first visit earlier in the 2000s. There is much less pressure to marry within a caste hierarchy, or even within the same religion. For example two cousins-in-law have married 'out' (one to Magar ethnic group, one to a Christian) which would have been unheard of 20 years ago.

But, happy to say that friends of the same gender (mostly females) can still walk about holding hands. I see many fewer men doing so now :-(

Public affection between opposite gender couples is still frowned upon but I get a free pass for holding hands with my hubby as I'm disabled hence it makes sense I have to hold onto him! Personal space is still at a premium in public areas but I quite like the jostle and hustle on the local buses and in the shopping/central areas of Pokhara. I've often been handed a Nepali baby to hold onto whilst seated on the bus, none of that paranoid nonsense we've developed here. One thing I've noticed is that in Nepal and India that others are more considerate of those with a disability, whether they be beggars or a tourist. I've never had to ask to sit down.




Nepal is one of the the countries to historically recognise third gender - the Ramayana story from the Hindu tradition from 300BC has a section relating to the founding of the concept of Hijra people*** - and there is a long-standing community of 'Meti' people. Mostly they are intersex (ie, neither identifiably or biologically male or female) people but also include butch women and effeminate men who tend to live in a family-type group all dressing as females.

Sadly, some parents when faced with a hermaphrodite baby (or possibly homosexual older child) dump them with the Metis and forget about them. Some youngsters run away to join Meti/Hijra families. Some gay men join the Metis as being openly gay in Nepal just isn't an option.

Metis are in demand at weddings and similar parties as they sing and dance but also they are believed to have the power to bless or curse an occasion so they are always invited and paid well 'just in case'.

3rd gender isn't a new hippy-dippy right-on new concept, it's been around for a long time in some parts of the world, just not ours.


*** Prince Rama left Ayodhya to travel, a crowd of his subjects followed him into the forest because of their devotion to him. Rama notices this, and gathers them together to tell them not to mourn, and that all the "men and women" of his kingdom should return home. Rama then leaves and does not return for 14 years. When he returns to Ayodhya, he finds that the hijras, being neither men nor women, have not moved from the place where he gave his speech. Impressed with their devotion, Rama grants hijras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious inaugural occasions like childbirth and weddings.

Yes, I realised after posting that my experience is dated (1990-1992) and wondered about possible changes since then, so yours is a timely post.
 
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