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The Mandela Effect: False Memory

JamesWhitehead said:
Plas Gwyn has, as you suggest, been replaced by smaller self-catering blocks. On our* penultimate, nostalgic visit, the old place was in the throes of demolition. Evidently nothing had been spent on it since the seventies, when we haunted it! The same hideous orange rags of curtains were hanging in the windows. I think that was the same day we visited Theatre Gwynedd, under notice of demolition. The kindly staff, on their last week there, allowed us into the auditorium for a few quiet minutes. It was Cinema Paradiso and The Last Picture Show rolled into one!

It is, I think, four years since our last trip, when we were able to visit the new Pont Centre. So much has changed. I suppose eventually, only the old College-on-the-Hill will remain standing as a place of pilgrimage for old alumni! :oops:

*Not the royal we. I go with my oldest and best friend, whom I met in Plas Gwyn!
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Ahh, I was on the other hill in St Mary's. That too has been remodelled.I went to visit the old home, the year before last and they let us look around. Amazing accommodation, but the grotto and grime I had to live with was character building. As was the walk up both hills each day. Up on the main arts hill I noticed the history house had gone ☹, the monstrosity that replaced the student union is awful and don't get me started on the stupid duck sculpture!!!
 
AgProv said:
Here's an interesting one. There is controversy and debate going on at the moment in our ex-UEA students' group as to whether Z-Block at Fifers Lane had basic washstand sinks in the student rooms. This was a big 150+ hall of residence on three floors where a lot of people lived over about 25 years. Now I don't remember the residence room as having a sink. We had seperate bathrooms, and communal showers/toilets at the end of every corridor next to the kirtchen. But I do recall having an electric kettle. So I must have filled it up somewhere. And you know... I honestly don't remember. People joining in the debate are roughly evenly split on this one. And I'm now beginning to doubt myself - maybe residence rooms in Z-block DID have a sink, although Gods know where it would have gone...
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E Block definitely didn't have sinks in the rooms – it had two kitchens (for 72 people!) but was at least more generous with the toilets, showers and baths. It also had, if I remember rightly, one coin-operated phone, in the short corridor between the two kitchens. I'm trying to picture the rooms in the old two-storey stone 'H' blocks – C, F, G, H – and I'm pretty sure they didn't have sinks. Here's one in its RAF Horsham St Faith's days and the entrance (A, B and C blocks, B containing the porter's lodge, bar on left and meeting room on right) in their officers' club days. This'll mean nowt to very few people here...


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Ba mess.jpeg
 
I was in Halls in Farnborough , Hampshire - also ex-RAF barracks. They sound identical!
 
I can see Z-block in the far distance... Here's one for the coincidence files; on the FB group, a former Z-block inhabitant who had lived there in 1982-83 posted pictures of his room. He gave its number as Z039. Two years later in October 1984, I moved into Z039. Wow.

Thinking about it, I'll need to ask the person who provided the shot of the room interior to a private group on FB if it's OK for me to repost his photo - just because I lived there two years later doesn't necessarily give me the right...
 
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Going back to opaque from a couple of pages back...

I often instinctively think it means the opposite too. I think there is something about the word itself that suggests transparency. I think it may be all the vowels. Even if you're not looking at it written down, it still starts with a vowel sound, and vowels feel sort of airy and see-through to me. Consonants, on the other hand - like the t of transparent - are much harder, and suggest solidity.
 
Perhaps my earlier understanding of the word opaque could do with some elaboration. We were taught the words translucent and transparent but I have it in my head that opaque referred to that vague last point of transparency before a thing completely obscures. If glass is a 1 and solid brick is a 10, opaque would describe the qualities of a 9. That was my understanding of it back then. This may have been due to various people on TV describing situations or reports as being very opaque i.e. very difficult to discern but not impossible.

edit.... So the definition of the word has always been the same but the interpretation has changed over the decades.
 
Yesterday I was looking at graves and saw that of a friend who died in January 1998, a few months before Techy and I met.

This friend had worked for a while in the area where I walked my dogs so I, and whoever was with me on the walks, would sometimes chat with him. For some reason I believed Techy had met him too, and done us a favour (to do with pointing the security cameras away from the skips!) one night.

But he was dead before Techy and I met. He'd also left that job a while before he died, although I still saw him around. I've mixed him up with someone else.
 
Re; teachers nicknamed 'Bunny'. I'd always assumed (not sure where from, I think it might have been too much viewing of Raffles in my formative years) that 'Bunny' was a name given to someone who was a bit of a duffer, a bit inept. So it was often used as a old fashioned nickname for one who could be a little awkward.

Unless their surname was Bunford, or Carrott or something.
 
catseye said:
Re; teachers nicknamed 'Bunny'. I'd always assumed (not sure where from, I think it might have been too much viewing of Raffles in my formative years) that 'Bunny' was a name given to someone who was a bit of a duffer, a bit inept. So it was often used as a old fashioned nickname for one who could be a little awkward.

Unless their surname was Bunford, or Carrott or something.
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Our Bunny, according to the school folklore, was named after the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, as he originally wore a pocket watch on a chain in his waistcoat.

I have to say, he was very slightly inept though; far too gentle and refined for a comprehensive, lucky he didn't take many classes really, as some pupils could run rings around him; he helped run the school library, there not being that many people doing Latin or Classics.
 
When I was a student, I got a summer job working at a little print works. A friend of a friend introduced me to the owner. He was introduced as 'Bunny'. I didn't ask why, but I suspect that he was having a few illicit affairs.
 
And here's another. A punning meme was posted on FB as follows (in a Terry Pratchett discussion site)

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now here's the thing. The pun depends on the table condiment being called "Worcestershire sauce".

The argument arising is this: some people are sure it's caleld "Worcestershire sauce" and others that they've only ever seen "Worcester sauce" on the label. And nobody seems to have a botle of the stuff in the ktichen to consult. Maybe it's "Worcestershire Sauce" in the USA but "Worcester Sauce" over here and that's where the confusion lies?

Or else... when did the name change happen and who authorised it.... debate continues.
 
AgProv said:
And here's another. A punning meme was posted on FB as follows (in a Terry Pratchett discussion site)

View attachment 27992


now here's the thing. The pun depends on the table condiment being called "Worcestershire sauce".

The argument arising is this: some people are sure it's caleld "Worcestershire sauce" and others that they've only ever seen "Worcester sauce" on the label. And nobody seems to have a botle of the stuff in the ktichen to consult. Maybe it's "Worcestershire Sauce" in the USA but "Worcester Sauce" over here and that's where the confusion lies?

Or else... when did the name change happen and who authorised it.... debate continues.
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Tesco list both, Sainsbury only list Worcester.
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I've never seen that Heinz sauce.
Mind you, I only ever buy the real stuff.
 
I've always seen it marketed as "Worcestershire Sauce", and I don't believe I've ever seen it labeled "Worcester Sauce" in the States.

This BBC item seems to suggest "Worcestershire Sauce" is the proper name for the sauce associated with Lea & Perrins ...

Worcestershire Sauce
A brief history of one of this area's most famous products - and a name most people get wrong. ...

Sauce Facts
Worcestershire Sauce is often called, incorrectly, Worcester Sauce. ...

SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandwor...2007/05/29/worcestershire_sauce_feature.shtml

last updated: 29/05/07
 
In contrast, this Foods of England webpage criticizes Lea and Perrins as patent medicine entrepreneurs and latecomers. However, this article associates the demonstrably earlier "Worcester Sauce" name with a sauce developed to accompany a specific dish - Worcester Lampreys.

Worcester (or Worcestershire) Sauce

Worcester sauce is unusual in that, although it is based on fish, it tastes rather like a meat gravy. It seems to originate as an accompaniment to the equally meat-like Worcester Lampreys, known to be a specialty of the town at least since the 1400's. These odd eel-like fish, with their fish-based sauce, were much prized as a substitute for 'real' meat on fast days, allowing the ingeniously devout to meet their religious duties without missing-out on the taste of red meat.

Soaking small fish, typically anchovies, for several weeks in water until they dissolve into a dark meaty-tasting liquid can be traced back to the Roman 'garum' sauce and there have long been several makers in England. Burgess's 'Original and Superior Essence of Anchovies', 'Ashworth's Sauce', Harvey's Sauce and Young's of Bond Street's 'Curious Essence of Anchovies' can all be traced at least to the late 18th Century.

In Worcester, J.Williams & Co ("under the patronage of the Duke of Gloucester") and Parry's in The Cross were advertising bottled sauce from the 1820's, and the earliest references to 'Worcester Sauce' by exactly that name associate it with the famous lamprey dish. ...
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FULL STORY: http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/worcesterorworcestershiresauce.htm
 
EnolaGaia said:
patent medicine entrepreneurs and latecomers.
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There is a germ of truth in the origin-story of Lea & Perrins. I discovered it by accident, myself. About 25 years ago, I acquired a lot of garlic - far too much to preserve for long without intervention. I peeled the cloves and shoved them in jars, with vinegar, without, iirc, the usual cautionary sterilisation of the jars or boiling of the vinegar. Some, predictably, spoiled and were binned. One was left at the back of the cupboard for a couple of years or so.

Rediscovered, it appeared to be quite wholesome. The cloves, themselves, turned out to be very bland; they had imparted their savour to the liquor, which tasted much like Worcester Sauce! For all the exotic additions of tamarind or anchovy*, I think the essential flavour of the sauce derives from pickled garlic.

*There are vegetarian versions, which omit the fish. Also gluten-free types, which don't use barley-malt vinegar. :dinner:
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
Can't speak for UEA but I remember Bangor's halls had a wash basin with hot and cold running water inside a cupboard. It was handy for those of us developing Auden-like habits. Rugger-buggers probably shat in it as well. :willy:
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I was at Bangor too, though only as a postgrad. I remember those cupboards.
 
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EnolaGaia said:
I've always seen it marketed as "Worcestershire Sauce", and I don't believe I've ever seen it labeled "Worcester Sauce" in the States.

This BBC item seems to suggest "Worcestershire Sauce" is the proper name for the sauce associated with Lea & Perrins ...
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That's my take on it. I have always believed (and still do) that the genuine stuff, made by Lea & Perrins, is called Worcestershire Sauce, and every other brand of similar sauce uses the name "Worcester", without the "shire". I presume that Lea & Perrins have trademarked their version of the name.
 
'Tis fairly well known that King Henry I died from a surfeit of lampreys, according to chronicler Henry of Huntingdon.
 
gordonrutter said:
But was he in Worcester or just in Worcestshire?
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If he were in either, it could have helped us work out the correct name, but alas, it was neither.
He was in Lyons-la-Forêt, when after eating the surfeit, he became quite ill over the course of a week and died a few weeks later.
 
Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce is the biz. Tesco or own brand Worcester sauce, though I confess I haven't tried them, is probably like the difference between Marmite & own brand yeast extract - ie a poor imitation but probably a few pence cheaper.
 
Peripart said:
That's my take on it. I have always believed (and still do) that the genuine stuff, made by Lea & Perrins, is called Worcestershire Sauce, and every other brand of similar sauce uses the name "Worcester", without the "shire". I presume that Lea & Perrins have trademarked their version of the name.
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This annotated history of Worcestershire sauce from the Soyinfo Center in California:

https://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/152/Worc.pdf

... indicates Lea & Perrins were the first to market their sauce under the label "Worcestershire" rather than "Worcester."

A firm named Phillips & Co. in Bombay began marketing a "Worcestershire sauce" in 1870.

The earliest documented mention of trademark in relation to the L&P sauce was in 1870, when their representatives took legal action against an Australian business selling a sauce labeled Worcestershire sauce. It's not clear whether this sauce was produced by the Bombay firm or someone in Australia. It's not clear whether the allegedly forged "trade-mark" at issue was the name "Worcestershire sauce."

In 1872 L&P took legal action against a New York firm (Stevens & Cole) who were marketing a "counterfeit" version of their Worcestershire sauce. L&P was apparently pursuing multiple court actions in multiple countries during the 1870s.

Finally ...
1876 July 26 – The High Court of Justice in England rules that Lea and Perrins, of Worcester, the plaintiff, do not own the rights to the name “Worcestershire” in connection with a sauce such as that made by their company. Richard Millar and Co. is free to continue using this name. While Lea and Perrins appeared to be the first to use that name, starting in about 1836, within no more than two years “other people, of whom one Batty seemed to be the first, began to sell an article under the same name” (Times, London), p. 11).
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It would seem L&P claimed trademark rights, and these rights covered the name "Worcestershire sauce" (or perhaps consisted solely of the name). It's not clear whether L&P ever formally filed for the trademark privileges they claimed, but it is clear the High Court denied any such rights with respect to the product name.
 
My sister and I share a Mandela episode dating back to about the 1990s. We both watched the Will Hay film Oh Mr Porter at least once in the 1970s or 80s (it was on TV a few times). In one scene, a gentleman walks up to the ticket office window where Harbottle (Moore Marriott) is officiating. There is a fair amount of abrupt opening and closing of shutters, which is unimportant. The dialogue goes something like this though:

"Excuse me my good man, what time is the next train to Belfast?"
"Next train's gone."
"Oh dear. What about the train after that?"
"Just gone two."
"Oh, so I've got time to get a cup of tea then."
"No. That one's just gone too."

Anyway that's how we both confidently remembered it. But when my sister watched it again some time in the 90s, she found that the exchange ends with "Next train's gone." The bloke just walks away, I think. Nothing of the remaining dialogue above is in the film.

I scoured the film backwards and forwards after she told me this but I couldn't find the extra dialogue. We were both so sure. But I think the second part of the joke is better than the first. What a cruel multiverse.
 
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