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Ow Ow Ow, mmm

In the not too distant past there was an advertising campaign for a brand of yoghurt. the conceit of this campaign was that the yoghurt was tasty, but good for you, thus having pleasure without the pain. The joke being that some other sucker was getting the pain. Hail of nails, rabid dogs etc. They referred to this gag as the "pleasure/pain principle", of which I, yesterday, was a one man example. My final student loan repayment has been made this month, so I had only my outstanding credit card bill to go before being effectively debt free. In a spirit of clearing the decks, bracing fiscal prudence and what have, I decided to get rid of it in one hit.

It was not a small cheque that I wrote, and the creamy yoghurty joy of being WITHOUT DEBT FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1996 (mmmm) was counterbalanced somehwta by the sharp stinging pain in my wallet (ow ow ow)

Elsewhere, a bumper crop of entertainment in ths week's super soaraway Ormskirk Champion (which, rather sweetly, is boasting about it's circulation rise on the front. It's a freesheet, I take it this just means that they delivered more). the headline features the further fury of a group close to Coastalblog's heart, the Ormskirk and West Lancs Model Boat Club (known mystifyingly as OWLS). I have reported before on their travails as they attempt to put Model Boating in its rightful place on the map by constructing a giant lake, and their touching inability to understand why the council suspect that construction of said lake for the interests of model boating (and NOTHING ELSE. Regular readers will recall OWLS campaign aganst the invidious ducks taking up space with their wings and their quacking)might not be the hottest idea since Balti Pies warms the cockles of your correspondents heart. I am a particular fan of this quote, local journalism at its finest:

"If we had our own lake it would bring a lot of pleasure to all age groups including the disabled."

Marvellous stuff.

Further pleasure was to be derived upon reading the Champ's editorial. There are many ills in the world today. War, Famine, Religious persecution, June Sarpong and Global Warming to name but five. So what does the Champ address, bringing the full power of its journalistic prowess to bear?

Under the headline "We want clackety clack" (which in itself is worthy of several minutes of awed contemplation) they complain that improvements to the rail network to make track silent will make journeys more stressful, what with the drone of other's conversations and "personal" music players (their inverted commas, oh how I love sniffy inverted commas in local newspaper editorials, they actually use "progress" towards the end of the piece as well. Fantastic)not being drowned out by the train's rumble. As if this weren't wonderful enough in itself, they then liken said rumble to "being safe back in the womb." That's right. The womb.

I mean, what's not to love?

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