"Ned Raggett" writes pro-Starbucks letter to Evening Standard

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From page 46 of today's edition, I quote:

"Your story about Fleet Street being colonised by coffee shops panders to a familiar British complaint - here comes the monoculture (27 February).

"It's true that other countries have been more successful at resisting Starbucks et al - on recent visits to Venezuela and Italy I noticed that locals wouldn't go near them.

"But I think coffee shops will have a beneficial effect on London, destroying the ossified image of the city where Sherlock Holmes hunts Jack the Ripper down foggy alleys and everyone speaks like Monty Python characters. Frankly, this has limited mileage as a tourist draw.

"What I, and countless others are looking for is a spor to sit and talk about new music trends and bad films, and Starbucks is as good a place as any.

Ned Raggett, WC1.

??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????!!!!??

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

sp: "spot" not "spor."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

"What I, and countless others are looking for is a spor to sit and talk about shoegaze and Narnia, and Starbucks is as good a place as any."

― Shelly Winters Death Clip (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha, that's bizarre!

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

i wanted to meet up with ned for a coffee but he stood me up ;_;

― c man (ken c), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

*scratches head* Strange.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:29 (nineteen years ago)

how funny

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

sorry, I mean LOLLZ!!1! probably

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

WC1 postcode and a bit too early for April Fools. Bored but friendly ILXor in the Russell Square area, maybe? Guessin' on the west side?

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:32 (nineteen years ago)

I suggest that this might be someone else with the not THAT unusual name Ned Raggett.

No conspiracy theories here...

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

Someone wrote into a webpage on an anti-smoking thing with my name. Since then, I have discovered someone with a very similar job/experience to mine, 11 years younger, with my exact name (middle name too).

But, Ned? Raggett? That's not that common, surely?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:35 (nineteen years ago)

Especially another one who is into "talking about new music trends and bad films"

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:36 (nineteen years ago)

Something just occurred to me -- I remember someone somewhere *did* ask for a response to a story that ran months ago and it was something to do with coffee houses in London. But it was definitely not for a story that ran just a few days ago, and I certainly don't live in London! God knows what I actually wrote, but I don't think it was entirely that, so it seems like I've now experienced the power of creative tabloid editing. ;-) Oh well!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, this is all coming clearer now -- somebody who had seen a post of mine over on FT on Blog 7, of all things and wanted me to respond to some other thing. I guessed they saved the response and waited for a better story and way to rewrite things. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

basically they copied your posts and removed ";)" from the end of it

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

Hahahah! And made me love Starbucks for some reason! (Whyever would I have said we'd want to meet at a Starbucks when pubs exist?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:41 (nineteen years ago)

As predicted many years ago, Ned is the new Luther Blissett:

The Church of Ned Raggett (25 Different People)Here’s the church, here’s the steeple - open the doors, and see the people; open the thumbs and see the fingers: a Raggett full of ringers, bushrangers and boasters – twenty five different posters* ... There’re loads: Robin Carmody and Nick Rhodes, Limiter Garner, Tom, Jeff Duff ... will there ever be enough?! At the weekends, Raggett shoots grouse in the grounds of his country house; and the finger, pulling the trigger, in his study, clicks the mouse; but his finger is stronger and bigger on his “Lord of the Rings” mouse-pad - when his tortured characters add their comments to a thread*. Open the doors – look inside Ned, where all our prayers are poured. His hand is a church - his fingers, his flock; and this starry discussion board still shudders with the shock of the big bang. Will Raggett, like Kelly, hang - his neck in the noose of his mouse? At the weekends, Raggett shoots grouse, drinking brandy from a flask; his mouse is his noose, his mask; a different e-mail, a made up name: he loads his gun, takes aim, and curses the game he missed, clicking the mouse with his fist.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

How desperate are the Standard, that they have to copy blog posts and put them on their letters page?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:43 (nineteen years ago)

Ned Raggett Misquoted: Angry ILXors Picket Offices of Evening Standard

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:43 (nineteen years ago)

I thought Ned was British during my first six months or so here

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests/vert.london4.ap.jpg

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

I'm more amused than anything else. But I like the idea of a doppelganger living in London wreaking havoc -- actually, wait, didn't Ken C and Roxy say they saw my doppelganger there once? I should get him under control, the damned punk!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

Is that a largeish "L" behind his fist there?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

That would certainly be an effective moderation policy.

― I'm Not Afraid Of Electricity (kate), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

"THOSE WHO INSULT LIAM"? Is this an Oasis fan club convention?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

i still love all music

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

It's so worth thinking up a really good Mail/Standard April Fool's trap. We have three weeks.

In the meantime could internet superstar Ned Raggett please mail the Monkey column at the Guardian to tell them about this alarming new cost-cutting strategy in the research department at Associated Newspapers, preferably under the header NOW THIS RLY IS NOT KOSHER...

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

So, Nick Sylvester is working for the Standard now?

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

lol

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

It's so worth thinking up a really good Mail/Standard April Fool's trap. We have three weeks.

hmm. i know of at least one associated staffer who posts here. some form of cunning double or triple bluff might be in order ;)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

Wasn't it the Guardian who ran a letter from some prominent cultural figure slagging off a rival or something, then had to sheepishly admit a few days later that it was actually written by an unknown imposter?

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

Is Ned now a prominent cultural figure?

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

In my mind's eye, certainly.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

A legend in his own mind, etc....

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

Wouldn't know about the Guardian, as I stopped reading it when it turned into the Beano.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

destroying the ossified image of the city where Sherlock Holmes hunts Jack the Ripper down foggy alleys and everyone speaks like Monty Python characters

Ned, you somehow managed to take everything cool about London and decry it in one fell swoop!

― naus (Robert T), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

How is this description different from, say, the ossified image of Edinburgh where Ken Stott hunts the murr-durr-urr down foggy alleys and everyone speaks like Chic Murray characters?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

If people actually paint everyone in a city with the same brush then they've got problems that no amount of letters to the editor are going to solve.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

Ned, you conveniently left out Spring Heel Jack!

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

I think I said before but there is a guy with the same first and surname as me who runs dance-ie, the Irish dancing forum on yahoo, like Michael Flatley type dancing. Very weird.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

If people actually paint everyone in a city with the same brush then they've got problems that no amount of letters to the editor are going to solve.

But I love Sheffield! (You are all knifemakers who create dour neo-industrial songs, yeah?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

Ned, you conveniently left out Spring Heel Jack!

I was too busy being chased by Shockheaded Peter.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

haha

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

Other things Ned omitted:
1. Bobbies on bicycles two by two.
2. Red double-decker buses.
3. The Queen Mum Gawd bless her.
4. They (a) helped old ladies across the road and (b) only ever killed their own.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

Look, just because I'm handy with a bit of stainless doesn't prove me wrong! I'm going to restyle my hair now.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

tissp!, yesterday:

http://www.discogs.com/image/A-150-210705-1110390455.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

Fuxor. Here:

http://www.discogs.com/image/A-150-210705-1110390455.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

4. They (a) helped old ladies across the road and (b) only ever killed their own.

I read that and switched 'helped' and 'killed' and was incredibly happy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

"Sure, I'll come round to help move tomorrow. Hang on -- YOU'RE LATE WITH YOUR PAYMENTS, MRS. SMITH!" *gunshot*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

I see no pic (via that link), Ned!

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

Bastard. It's supposed to be Phil Oakey in the long-hair days.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

But if you'd prefer Martin Fry or something...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1335000/images/_1336711_lame150.jpg

YOU ARE... GOLD!

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

(He is potentially auditioning for a part as Kryten in Red Dwarf there)

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

though, sadly, by the evidence of his recent appearance on BBC1's Just The Two Of Us, Mr Fry now looks something more like this:

ihttp://www.themagiccirclecentenary.co.uk/assets/images/db_images/db_DSCF00641.jpg

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

Which one's Fry?

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

(boom boom)

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

Anyway, Marcello will approve of this -- every conversation with my mom after returning from a UK visit:

MOM: "So did you go to Westminster Abbey?"
ME: "No, didn't really feel like it."
MOM: "But it's so wonderful and historic, I'm so surprised you haven't gone!"
ME: "We have yet to hold a FAP there."

She was happy that I did at least see Buckingham Palace, but that's only because I had stopped by the ICA to pick up the Suede bio back in 2003, had some time to kill and wondered what exactly was at the other end of the street.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

An FAP at Westminster Abbey...now there's an idea...

(though sadly no one seems to have followed up on my previous proposal of Club Poptimism On Ice...)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

I drank Gin & Tonic in a church once, and I felt very awkward about it.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

Alcoholic.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

An FAP at Westminster Abbey

Fancy A Pray?

― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

(The church was no longer in use, for the record)

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

I have dranked in Union Chapel. I could not get over the feeling of weirdness.

― I'm Not Afraid Of Electricity (kate), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:52 (nineteen years ago)

As a sideline - you really should go to Westminister Abbey - I sperak as an ex-Londoner and frequent visitor who had avoided it for 40 years - and then I was dragged there recently and it turns out to be rather good. Go late after all the Americans...ooops....

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

"Who me? Yeah I'm Canadian."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

"Sperak"? Who is this Sperak? 'Speak' is of course what I meant.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

A lot of people only drink the booze they get in church and nothing else.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

I got blown once in a church...no, wait this probably isn't the time or place for this (is what I should probably have said to them...)

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

I like sex in churches. Call it my spiritual side.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

Them? Exactly how many choirboys were involved? (xpost)

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

Priests not choirboys

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

I think we've wondered of the subject rather...

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

Ah, I see, you were the choirboy

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

Chrism

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

I'm bored with Strbcks. We need one of these in the UK.
http://www.delocator.net/index.php

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

OMGWTF AN IMPOSTER NED!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:34 (nineteen years ago)

Surrounded by Neds!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:34 (nineteen years ago)

THE NEDS ARE RISING!! WHY IS NO ONE LISTENING TO ME!?!?

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:35 (nineteen years ago)

CloNED Again

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

Tissp!, you'll have a place in the new regime. As our butler. (Not our cutler.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

Hey - I've been hear ages...did no-one notice...sob...sniff...sigh...

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

That should be 'here' of course...even bigger sigh...

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

I've noticed for a long time, and for good reason! You damned fake! (Even if you are older than me and all.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

A Ned colloquy!

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

I am a fake it's true...whoever heard of anyone making up a name to go online...

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:51 (nineteen years ago)

Others seem to have made the acquaintance of Postmaster Ned, so I just rolled with it because he seemed OK.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

And now?

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:56 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.scallycentral.com/images/netneds/neds_drinkin_1_.jpg

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:58 (nineteen years ago)

I pointed out a Starbucks in Glasgow to Ned and he definitely didn't suggest we pop in for a coffee.
We had important things to do like photograph Ned and the Tardis a few yards away.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

http://freespace.virgin.net/kenny.m/Art/Neds2.jpg

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

This is my fave
http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/pictures/nedGal30.jpg

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:13 (nineteen years ago)

Tupac on the poster calls it right.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:13 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha, that reminds me, in the latest edition of Mojo, Van Morrison claims that hillbillies got their name from Irish immigrants who were known as "the billy boys". Well it would explain the Lone Ranger on his white horse.

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

But he never fell off and broke his neck.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 19:12 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127474607

A coffee company from Taiwan hopes to teach Americans to love squid-ink buns and iced sea salt lattes. Stores in the 85C chain also sell cheap, and unusual, pastries. Just as Starbucks brought venti triple lattes to Main Street, U.S.A., 85C hopes that adding a little saltiness to the caffeine is a hit with American consumers.
"It's really unique," says Stephanie Peng, manager of the company's flagship U.S. store in Irvine, Calif. "The sea salt's in the cream, the foam part, so it just brings out more coffee essence."

Ned Raggett, freelance international coffee critic, what of this foreign salty brew just three miles north of campus?

― kkvgz, Thursday, 10 June 2010 16:38 (fifteen years ago)

I wouldn't know, yet.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 June 2010 13:23 (fifteen years ago)

Really Unique? Not, just a bit unique then?

― Mark G, Friday, 11 June 2010 13:28 (fifteen years ago)

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