Image: Kalimedia

Cartography blog Strange Maps has a map of the British Isles showing current place names translated into modern English. It’s one from a collection known as The Atlas of True Names. You can view a larger image at the link.

Link | Other Maps of Translated Place Names | News Story

Britain’s colourful pub signs speak volumes about the country’s equally colourful history, as well as depicting folklore, heraldry and social customs. Pubs were never named by accident and each sign invariably has a story behind it. The artwork on Britain’s pub signs is inspired by royalty and nobility, religion and the church, military heroes and battles, occupations and trades, myths and legends, sporting activities and pastimes, along with numerous other sources.

Read some of those stories at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

It was a very British protest – cocking a snook at overbearing authorities while staying within the law. But Dick Roper’s glow of pleasure at using two sheets of toilet paper to write a cheque for a parking ticket was short lived.

Although Her Majesty’s Court Service said they would accept the £30 cheque, they demanded an extra £15 to cover the fee for cashing it.

When the 63-year-old grandfather refused, he was dragged to court for non-payment of a fine. He took advantage of his day in court by reading out a letter he sent to the Court Service in which he described the police community support officer who slapped a ticket on his car as a ’snake’. Everyone, including the judge, was laughing as he described the man ’slithering’ home at the end of the day ‘to digest the evil he had done’.

The judge in Mr. Roper’s case had a sense of humor:

When the district judge asked what he would have done if a customer had paid with a cheque written on toilet paper, he replied: ‘I would pay the cheque in and send them a receipt on toilet paper.’

Link – via Blue’s News