Recently my washing machine broke down so I had to use the local laundrette to wash my clothes. Never having used one before I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I’m certainly sure that what I did witness was not what you would call the norm.
When I walked in a couldn’t see a soul until I walked around the first bank of machines, to my surprise I caught this lady sitting on a washing machine writhing about, legs akimbo, whimpering to herself. My first thought was this was some reenactment of the famous scene from ‘When Harry met Sally’ but as I looked closer I could see the tail of some small rodent sticking out the bottom of her trouser leg. To say I was shocked would be an understatement, I dropped my washing and ran as fast as my legs could take me from the place and left her to deal with the situation herself. Now I know it’s not the most chivalrous response one could have but I just felt the fact that I was wearing shorts was enough of a reason to high tail it out of there in case it came at me with its pointed snout, small rounded ears and pink scaly tail. I certainly wasn’t going to be caught in this little fellas well thought out trap…
The story of John Henry and the Inky-Poo is a cautionary tale from American folklore that is still relevant today. John Henry was a steel driver when they were constructing the railroads in 1880’s USA. His job was to drive a steel drill into the rock using his sledgehammer to make holes into which explosives would be inserted.
A steam powered machine, called the Inky-Poo, was developed to do the same job and, worried that a machine would take his job, John Henry set to test his prowess in a race against the Inky-Poo to prove that humans were more effective. They wrote songs about what happened in the ensuing challenge but the long and short of it is that John Henry beat the Inky-Poo but in doing so had completely expended himself then promptly died on the spot. Today we still have a similar concern of our roles being replaced by machines but I just hope we don’t have engage in war with a Terminator-syle Skynet AI to prove it…
This piece was spotted nearby in Brixton which appears to be some commentary on the availability and proliferation of weapons use among the youth of today (especially in the capital it would seem):
And then, a week or two later, this article from the South London Press was brought to our attention:
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