On cinema trips, cosplay fascists, and a very good dog

Back after a few weeks away, and there's a fair bit to catch up on.

First, the story behind the title: a Greek-American scientist I used to work for, an old friend of his called James Coburn, and one unforgettable trip to the cinema that had the whole row in stitches.

Then it's what I missed while the kettle was off. A stand-off on the south coast that achieved next to nothing, except making the RNLI more popular than ever. And the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships in Ramsbottom, first won by a woman in its hundred-year history, a missing trophy, and a dog who did some proper detective work.

Kettle's on. Good to be back.

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Stanley's back from the school holidays to find the country arguing about black puddings.

Every second Sunday in September, Ramsbottom holds the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships — twelve Yorkshires on a twenty-foot plinth, three puddings each, underarm only, and all the money to charity. This year an animal rights outfit wants the puddings vegan, the papers have decided five hundred years of tradition is under attack, and the organisers have said something quietly interesting.

Also in this episode: Toy Story on repeat, a battle at Stubbins in 1455, Grandad's taxi, and a stricken Fiesta.

The written version is on Substack — View from the Shed.

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The Safari Bus

Grandad's taxi gets a summer upgrade — and the maiden voyage does not go entirely to plan. Stanley takes the great-grandchildren to Knowsley, meets a monkey with strong opinions about wing mirrors, and lives to tell the tale. Then it's somewhere gentler: a hill outside Royton called Tandle, a wood he last stood in as a boy, and a memory that took him sixty years and a cathedral in Germany to make sense of.

Stanley Common is a retired community police officer from Heywood, Lancashire. He writes and records from a shed.

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