39 minutes ago, John Wright said:

All advertising and branding is manipulation. To buy something you don’t need, or to convince you A is better than B.

And some uses emotional blackmail of deformity or injury of humans and animals to tug at the heart strings. Strange, isn’t it, the Victorians recognised it in the Vagrancy Act which prohibits showing deformities to ask for alms, but TV brings the same straight into our home.

The afternoon grab for Granny's pennys. celebrities touting phoney products, sick kids sick animals, ropey life insurance, IMHO it is shamefull the way they target the elderly and vulnerable, where is Advertising standards theses days. ?

2 hours ago, John Wright said:

Yep, I miss Ramsey Bakery thick Molenburg and their door stop French toast. But the bread I miss most, still, is Faragher’s Rough Brown Cob from Port St Mary

"Roberts" do a fair mega thick sliced, a la RB french toast, sadly you needs get it in a Spar shop,  😒

It could also be the case that it is just a group of like minded professional beggars having a punt on the Island, there isnt necessarily an organised crime / Coerced back story, there are many Eastern Eurpoean folk on the Island, word of our situation, re absence of pro beggars would easily circulate, I reckon this first foray was a fail, it may not be the last.🤔

Let us not forget the last MEA foray in large constructs, an engine shed required at Pulrose, a "Pompidou Centre" delivered with a mountain of debt, still being serviced, Would I give them a second opportunity to bollox up?  Nein Danke. I'd sooner contract in the South Koreans 

Just for clarity, are Romani /Romany and Romanian the same thing?

Are people who are in need, who beg and people not in need but beg as an earning method the same thing?

It seems the topic bounces between different groupings with common titles.

IMHO we have opportunist professional people, working folks emotional feelings with the aim of earning money,

Nationality or "criminal gang roots" are distractions from the root problem,

The IOM has been identified as an untapped resouce and the scouts are investigating to see how lucrative "Begging" would be.

May I refer to "The man with the twisted lip" a Sherlock Holmes story of a professional beggar , nowt new out there peeps. 🙄

Bonnag, day 1 ---eat as cake, day 2 --eat as toast, day 3--- fry for breakfart.

4 hours ago, La Colombe said:

Help ya what?

My spelling a wee bit off, ---https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Scottish-term-Help-ma-Boab-really-from-the-comic-strip-Oor-Wullie-or-is-it-far-older

An expression much loved by Gregor Fisher. --

3 hours ago, Jarndyce said:

Your circle of Scottish folk?   I agree - they must be from Edinburgh! 🤣

I’m from Glasgow myself - Scottish enough, ya bas?

Dis yer heid zip up the back? ma mammy came doon the clyde an a water biscuit 🤪

2 hours ago, Passing Time said:

Ye cannae forget Oor Wullie

Jings, Crivens, help ma bowb. 

My old Mam when faced with brawn for the first time asked how to cook it, Fry it said my old fella, what a pantomime 😁

Loved Clagues brawn, melting over chips, yum 

I made a batch of 24 potato cakes [farls]  last night, using me Granny's original skillet, freeze them down in 4's brilliant as a side with a curry.😋

4 hours ago, Passing Time said:

Isn't Ulster Fry the complete breakfast?

To me, an Ulster fry can be a mix of all items mentioned , as long as it was all cooked in the same skillet

Michael in the market made a very nice vegetable roll, i would freeze some and take it out to N Irish friends in Turkey, they swore it was better that home.😋

2 minutes ago, John Wright said:

Id have Fergus Henderson’s “Nose to Tail Eating” as the offal cookery bible.

This i will look for  👍

By the by, BRAINS [a company] do acceptable frozen faggots[settle down at the back], spotted recently in Tesco.

This is the bible for pork and offal cookery, mother of Sophie Grigson.

6 hours ago, Roxanne said:

When you say offal ‘mix’ what exactly is in the mix. Do you know? 

I'm a bit, " if you want to enjoy your food, dont look in the stock pot"  I dont know for sure, I would guess liver, kidneys, minced scrag end , some rusk and traditional seasoning.

Should anyone be interested, Willaston Butchers are knocking out "Savoury Ducks" an offal mix wrapped in caul fat, Yumee 😋

9 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

March 1974

Though, as mentioned before, it was the corner of Nelson Street and Prospect Hill, not Finch Road.  A tripe shop opposite Tynwald Buildings would be too good to be true.

Twas the Tynwald tripe shop i meant 😇

6 hours ago, Passing Time said:

Craine's pork shop? Harrison and Garretts bought it and moved the business to Strand Street

It was Clagues, Craines was in Strand street, before that it was Grays,

There was/ is a tripe shop, corner of Finch road and Prospect hill 😉

Make it a D.O.I  Sheeps head butcher, take the brains out.😬

1 hour ago, Passing Time said:

Used to love lamb fries even though I knew what they were. Cooked properly they were very tasty indeed

Prepping them, skinning and slicing can be discomforting for a Gent, i would normally have crossed legs and sucked in cheeks, slices then dusted in seasoned flour and fried, in lard or beef dripping if available. Always a breakfast meal for us.

During the war, offal was off ration, so it was a go to product if available,the taste carried for many years after, fading away as new generations found more/ better choice, out went the rissole, in came the crispbake.

Another off ration special was the carrot cake, still going strong today.

31 minutes ago, Gladys said:

Tripe - there is cows'  tripe which is the white honeycomb stuff.  Vinegar, salt and pepper, or simmered in milk with onions.  Preferred the former. Pigs' tripe is much tastier  - chitlins?

Sweetbreads - funny texture but nice fried.  Not to be confused with fries which are lamb's testicles.  Again funny texture but tasty.

Pigs' trotters - used to love them as a kid, but I was given chicken bones as a baby when teething.  It was some cooking to reduce them to mush.

Thing is we have made all these things repulsive, whereas they are no more repulsive than eating an animal's leg or shoulder.  We are happy to eat muscle, but not much else that is edible. 

I think Sweetbreads are the thymus gland from the Lambs neck, last had them in Madrid, V nice indeed. 

Brawn was traditionally made with the pigs head and trotters, not to sure if the brain went in, most likely did, interestly, brawn in some countries is called "Head cheese (Dutch: hoofdkaas) "  Potted Heid in Scotland.--Yum.

Just tried the new Takeaway in Annacur, along the Heron, The Yummy Place by name 🙄  Crap name but great food, I will re use.

It was the Great Wall before, also good tucker. 😋

7 hours ago, Gladys said:

The name query was meant to be ironic.  I also understand that they are scavengers.  The point I was making was that they  switched to scavenging on land because man provided them with scaveninging opportunities and so have become a 'nuisance' on land.  

 

But pre Man, the population level was a natural order, they would rarely venture inland, going back to those levels would suit me fine, I have never been harrased at my gate by a Gannet, Cormorant, Shag or Puffin, never see a Gulimot over Somerset Road and Shearwaters neither, all these species get along without the need to intimidate folk in town.

I noticed some 2 "Dears" having a gossip in the lane at Somerset Square recently, they had to take shelter under the Telecom overhead wires due to gull attacks, not right IMHO 😒

11 hours ago, Gladys said:

'Gulls' cover a whole lot of species.  In the main, it is herring gulls that we think of

  Wonder where they got the name? 

From their habit of trailing the herring fleet to scavange ?, often mixed up with the Common or black backed Gull, they are not a diving/ fishing seabird, they are omnivorous scavengers.

The food taken by gulls includes fish and marine and freshwater invertebrates, both alive and already dead; terrestrial arthropods and invertebrates such as insects and earthworms; rodents, eggs, carrion, offal, reptiles, amphibians, seeds, fruit, human refuse, and even other birds.