With Us in Spirit
Here is Gareth's phone as it was this morning.
Gareth was trying to dry it out. We marvelled at how little is to be found inside a Smartphone. At least, you'd think, there would be a mysterious glowing orb, or some flashing buttons, or the eye of God, or something. But no - - just a few bits of electronics.
Meeting with little success in cleaning it and bringing it back to life, Gareth went exploring down the cellar which has Things that Might Come in Useful dating back to the late 1950s when my parents bought this house.
The Communist's tendency to label and keep everything paid off this morning. "Industrial Spirit" it said on the bottle. You'll notice that the label is pre-printed with "R.H.Blass and R. Fisher". It was a label from the Communist's Chemist Shop in York. Mr Blass was the Communist. Mr Fisher was - at the time of printing - sadly dead. But he lived on for years both on labels, as this one, and also as a way of resisting salesmen. "I'm sorry," the Communist would say, "but I can't buy anything without consulting my partner, Mr Fisher, and he's not here at the moment."
The Communist retired in 1985 so the Industrial Spirit's been in the bottle down the cellar for a while. But, old or not, the Industrial Spirit worked a treat on the phone, which has now leapt back into life, as good as new. Thanks, Dad.
As for why the phone wasn't working - - well, Gareth went on a day trip to the seaside, to Scarborough yesterday.
His phone, being a Smartphone, has a video recorder on it. Here's the last thing that it filmed. I expect that you'll be able to piece together the reason that the phone broke from the subtle clues in the video.
Meeting with little success in cleaning it and bringing it back to life, Gareth went exploring down the cellar which has Things that Might Come in Useful dating back to the late 1950s when my parents bought this house.
The Communist's tendency to label and keep everything paid off this morning. "Industrial Spirit" it said on the bottle. You'll notice that the label is pre-printed with "R.H.Blass and R. Fisher". It was a label from the Communist's Chemist Shop in York. Mr Blass was the Communist. Mr Fisher was - at the time of printing - sadly dead. But he lived on for years both on labels, as this one, and also as a way of resisting salesmen. "I'm sorry," the Communist would say, "but I can't buy anything without consulting my partner, Mr Fisher, and he's not here at the moment."
The Communist retired in 1985 so the Industrial Spirit's been in the bottle down the cellar for a while. But, old or not, the Industrial Spirit worked a treat on the phone, which has now leapt back into life, as good as new. Thanks, Dad.
As for why the phone wasn't working - - well, Gareth went on a day trip to the seaside, to Scarborough yesterday.
His phone, being a Smartphone, has a video recorder on it. Here's the last thing that it filmed. I expect that you'll be able to piece together the reason that the phone broke from the subtle clues in the video.
posted by Daphne at 12:45 pm
3 Comments:
whoops!
What the hell is "industrial spirit"? I thought it was murdered by Margaret Thatcher.
Ruth - - whoops indeed! But the phone's working perfectly again now.
YP - yes, indeed it was! I expect the Communist put this Industrial Spirit to one side in about 1979, sensing which way the wind was blowing. But we've opened the bottle now. All together now - "Arthur Scargill walks on water - "
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