Bad News Day

Here’s  a typical Scottish morning.

I get up. It’s misty. I go to work and, if I need the caffeine, I pick up a cup of synthi-cafe from the local globo-megacorp distribution point. On the way to work I read a novel (if you’re curious it’s currently Solzhenitsyn’s First Circle). I try not to get too annoyed at touristy crowds and holes in the road.

Today I check the news and find that the bad news bears have been exceedingly busy overnight.

• Virgin Trains lost the franchise to run the West Coast. They have been replaced by the dark lords of transport chaos FirstGroup. The whole country enters a state of mourning for their holiday plans.
• The Dandy has been earmarked for closure. Everyone’s inner child weeps into their pillows (I still mourn the loss of Dan Dare).
• Harry Harrison has passed away.

This last one is going to pass many people by. Read The Stainless Steel Rat if you can. It’s very funny and Jim DiGriz is one of the first antiheroes I ever remember rooting for. He also wrote Make Room, Make Room! Which was later adapted into Soylent Green. I’ve never read the book but apparently it’s better than the film.
All in all it’s been a bad news day. The world has become a little more bland. And I hate synthi-cafe.