Thursday, August 05, 2004
Coals to Newcastle (via email)
No, actually. And literally.
According to this morning's Daily Telegraph (sorry, no link), which I am
perusing while waiting to board my delayed flight to Frankfurt, the Port of
Tyne is set to import thousands of tons of coal from Russia. This is a
reversal of historic proportions, the first coal exports from the region
having been recorded in 1538.
As it happens, the Port of Tyne last exported coal in 1998, breaking its
460-year economic run. Newcastlans can, at least, take solice in the
thought that they took half a millenium to deplete their non-renewable
resource, which is a record that is unlikely to be broken in the modern era.
I am more troubled by the quite immediate obsolesence of an important
simile. What will we say now to describe a fundamentally superfluous act?
"Bomb belts to Palestine" might not go over well in certain circles, so I
propose "corn to Iowa". With roughly 90% of the nation's top grade land for
corn production, the Hawkeye State may make its principal export last for
more than 460 years.
According to this morning's Daily Telegraph (sorry, no link), which I am
perusing while waiting to board my delayed flight to Frankfurt, the Port of
Tyne is set to import thousands of tons of coal from Russia. This is a
reversal of historic proportions, the first coal exports from the region
having been recorded in 1538.
As it happens, the Port of Tyne last exported coal in 1998, breaking its
460-year economic run. Newcastlans can, at least, take solice in the
thought that they took half a millenium to deplete their non-renewable
resource, which is a record that is unlikely to be broken in the modern era.
I am more troubled by the quite immediate obsolesence of an important
simile. What will we say now to describe a fundamentally superfluous act?
"Bomb belts to Palestine" might not go over well in certain circles, so I
propose "corn to Iowa". With roughly 90% of the nation's top grade land for
corn production, the Hawkeye State may make its principal export last for
more than 460 years.
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