please empty your brain below
|
Tee Hee. I'm doing a quiz at the moment which has a question in it about 'the man on the Clapham Omnibus'. Lots of others are doing it, too, so don't be surprised if you get the odd referral or two.
Dave | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 8:55 a.m. | #
|
Ah, yes, the man beloved of all lawyers. That wonderful fictional person who thinks straight, looks and judges without prejudice and is utterly uninterested in the result. The god of objectivity. Would it be a good thing for the man on the Clapham Omnibus to actually exist? I'm not quite sure...
Katherine | 07.12.04 - 10:30 a.m. | #
|
Quite brilliant. A collection of people like that would keep me in material for months. Please do the 253 or the 254.
Quink | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 7:53 p.m. | #
|
Sadly 253 and 254 aren't square numbers, not quite. If I ever do a whole month of reports on Triangular number routes, though, the 253's in.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 8:00 p.m. | #
|
What on earth is "latté"?
There is no such thing. If you are referring to a tall beaker of warm milk with a shot of coffee in it, it's "latte".
I suppose that, all the accents having been removed from their rightful places in the journey to England, there would be plenty left over to put in the wrong places...
Dominic | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 8:11 p.m. | #
|
What's a manbag? Is it a polite term for a nutsac?
Matt | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 8:16 p.m. | #
|
Sorry, I don't understand coffee, as you'll have gathered. I wish someone had told me the accent in latté was wrong on one of the 20 previous occasions I used it.
As for a manbag, it's like a handbag except that men don't get beaten up for having one.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 8:37 p.m. | #
|
Chances are that the man on the Clapham omnibus is called Tarquin.
onionbagblogger | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 9:41 p.m. | #
|
My maths was a bit poor today. I didn't realise you'd be doing my very own bus route! The guy moaning about 4x4s could have been me; then again, I haven't caught the 49 for a week or so 
Dave | Homepage | 07.12.04 - 11:48 p.m. | #
|
Im looking forward to what you have to say about the 81's cheery Brunel Bus Station terminus in Sluff.
It is truly a palace fit for a king. And its also where I broke my digital camera sticking the lens barrel through a chain link fence on the roof. So I love it doubly so.
Not that that was *my* fault or anything.
Nico
Nico | Homepage | 08.12.04 - 12:12 a.m. | #
|
Nice observation, dg.
'ordinary, reasonable man', intelligent but non-specialist.
Things might well have changed since 1903, but it sounds perfectly possible that all these people fit this description.
(Except nowadays you'd hope that the opinion of the *woman* on the Clapham ombibus would matter just as much - whatever she's wearing.)
Can you suggest a bus route that's more representative of a cross-section of ordinary reasonableness?
anne | 08.12.04 - 12:15 a.m. | #
|
An 'ordinary' bus route, eh? I suspect you'd want to avoid Kensington, then.
Of all the buses that terminate in Clapham, the 35 would get my vote:
Clapham, Brixton, Camberwell, Elephant & Castle, London Bridge, the City, Shoreditch.
Rich and poor, black and white, plain and trendy - what more could you want?
diamond geezer | Homepage | 08.12.04 - 12:27 a.m. | #
|
The 35 sounds perfect, demographically.
I've often wondered (as one does) what the old route was that his Lordship had in mind that ran past the Royal Courts of Justice to Clapham. Or maybe it was past chambers to Clapham? Or maybe Clapham was a distant rumour to him?
anne | 08.12.04 - 12:54 a.m. | #
|
Maybe it was the 137?
diamond geezer | Homepage | 08.12.04 - 1:03 a.m. | #
|
Maybe it was the 137?
Well, maybe. My bus map has the 137 terminating at Oxford Circus - rubbish map, mind you...
I'm not sure that bus routes in 1903 even ran into treble figures. Is there any way of finding out?
anne | 08.12.04 - 1:37 a.m. | #
|
The 137 goes through Clapham on its way from Streatham to Oxford Circus.
As for bus routes in 1903, I can only find as far back as 1950 or 1940.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 08.12.04 - 7:01 a.m. | #
|
The 137 goes through Clapham on its way from Streatham to Oxford Circus.
No, I don't doubt its Clapham credentials, just its legal relevance. After Oxford Circus does it go on to the Royal Courts of Justice/the Strand/other barrister-infested waters? Or does it really terminate at Oxford Circus (horrified by what might lie beyond)? I live beyond the pale these days, so have to rely on reports like yours.
Sorry about the emoticon, BTW, didn't realise it would translate into technicolour inanity. Feel I have committed a major faux pas.
anne | 10.12.04 - 1:00 a.m. | #
|
The 137 really does terminate at Oxford Circus. However, you may be onto something here, anne...
There's only one bus that goes to Clapham from the barrister-infested waters of the Royal Courts of Justice, and that's the 77A. Maybe this is the Clapham Omnibus of legal legend.
77A: Aldwych, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Westminster, Millbank, Vauxhall, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth.
Unfortunately I don't think you could describe everybody along this route as 'ordinary, reasonable men'.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 10.12.04 - 7:24 a.m. | #
|
|
Clapham Junction isn't in Clapham. It's in Battersea. When the station was opened in 1863 Clapham was a lot posher than Battersea. The railway company, taking more heed of snobbery than geography, named the station after the former locality rather than the latter, thereby causing confusion that has lasted 150 years.
Jonathan Wadman | 20.08.12 - 11:47 a.m. | #
|
|
|
TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy
|