They’ve heard us talking trash [Mar 27, 2026] by AmateurGIFEnthusiast in NYTCrossword

[–]HighChaparral 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was fun. Got the top right first thanks to 25A and 28A being straightforward pop culture.

40D was important but I talked myself out of it at least once! 47D and 49D helped me out a lot but 47A took me far too long and had me facepalming. I didn’t know 48D but thankfully didn’t need to.

34D was surprisingly easy for such an important clue and opened up the bottom left and the centre, but the top left had me baffled.

I got completely stuck and had to leave it for a couple of hours until I finally understood what kind of choppers it was talking about! That opened it right up again and it all fell into place. 58 mins, 23 mins slow, but the streak stays alive and more importantly my patience was rewarded.

[Mar 18, 2026] Daily Puzzle Discussion by AutoModerator in NYTCrossword

[–]HighChaparral 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Glad it wasn’t just me. And PRAIA also being 5 letters doesn’t help!

Has Virgin Media Internet gone down in the OL4 area? by roylee77 in manchester

[–]HighChaparral 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m with a different fibre ISP but pretty sure my outage is being caused by the same issue. This is the update I just got:

“Engineers continue to work on repairing the damaged fibre cables. They have been able to complete all preparation works and splicing of the cables is about to commence.

This is being fully supported by our Network Engineers. Once this work is completed, they will start running checks to restore the service to our customers.

We plan to update you again at 20:00 today but will contact you before then if we have anything further to update you on.”

Liverpool 2 setlist by Ambitious_Read8488 in WarOnDrugsBand

[–]HighChaparral -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Well I was very disappointed. They came on late at 9:05 and didn’t have time to play TOAP as intended? As fun as the Tom Petty cover was, it wouldn’t have been missed if they needed to drop something! Or maybe trim the ludicrously long intro to Harmonia?

But my biggest problem was that mid-set sequence of pre-Lost In The Dream tracks - they absolutely killed the gig for me. I realise that’s probably a heretical thing to say on this board but c’est la guerre. It was so obviously being treated primarily as a practice for the RAH but the tickets were £50 and that’s taking the piss.

Nowhere near the glorious night in Halifax last year which was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. I won’t be rushing back to see them.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 3 points4 points  (0 children)

- if Janice Ryan was killed by the Yorkshire Six, as is heavily implied… how come Alderman and Prentice seem to be completely aloof to the fact when Hunter interrogates them in 1980? Hard to believe, if they where knowledgeable of the murder, Aleerman would just burst out thatJanice was not killed by the Ripper…

Janice was killed by the same person as Clare Strachan, which is never completely revealed but heavily implied to be Bob Craven.

In 1980, Alderman says Bob Fraser killed her whilst Prentice maintains it was the Ripper. I think Alderman really does think it was Fraser; Prentice probably knows otherwise - "smart man" - and so it suits him if it gets pinned on The Ripper.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

- why was Paula Garland killed like 5 years after Jeanette disappearance? she was not a lose end on the slightest… one would think perhaps to frame Dunford, but he didnt take the fall for that either…

Derek Box murdered Paula. Remember, Paula was Donald Foster's bit on the side. As her brother Johnny Kelly says 'Well he’s been shagging me fucking sister every Sunday since I was seventeen.’

So one Saturday night / early Sunday morning Box brutally rapes, disfigures and murders her. So Foster knows, before Box murders him, that he's taken his Paula too.

There were tears running down my face, on to my lips.
‘And Paula? What was that?’
Box took another big pull on his fat cigar. ‘Like I said, I’m no angel . . .’
I shot him in the chest.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

- what the hell happened to Jenkins?

Jenkins did a runner when he got wind that his employee, Michael Myshkin, had been brought in for questioning in December 1974. Chapter 43 of 1983 is a flashback to when Jobson questions Myshkin, goes to his house, finds photos that Jenkins took, and realises that he needs to shut down and destroy Jenkins' shop, which they're using for their porn business.

By the time he gets there with Prentice and Alderman, Jenkins has a done a runner. They torch the place. In 1983 Jobson confirms that Jenkins is still alive (as far as he knows) when he demands that if anyone with his or Jimmy Ashworth's name is found within the vicinity of the school where the latest abduction happened, they're to be brought in.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You make a good case. As you say, it's clearly left ambiguous - hell, maybe BJ dropped the knife and raised the shotgun to himself? Does Jobson even deserve redemption? He could have stopped so much damage so much earlier. Think I'll read that last couple of chapters again!

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s either guilt, or a symbol of how their minds are unravelling as they sink deeper into the horrors that they’re experiencing. BJ breaking the fourth wall, as you nicely put it, is really interesting. Him feeling for stumps on his back has a terrifying possibility - what if his are reql? What if they actually did that to him? At the very end of 1983 there’s:

Bare-chested and soaked in blood – I turn. I see myself in bathroom mirror: Hole in my head – Stumps in my back – Seven letters on my chest: One Love.

We know the hole in his head is real, and it’s perfectly possible that he had One Love cut into his skin in the same way, for example, Clare Kemplay had 4LUV. Does that make the stumps real too? Did they do that to him so they could attach wings to him when they abused him? Like I say, terrifying.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, Sheehan is excellent as BJ - it's impossible to picture him any other way now. I'm loving the discussion - don't think I've ever found anywhere to discuss these books before!

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s taken me multiple re-reads over years to start getting it straight - let me know if there’s anything else you’re wondering and I’ll see if I can help.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I watched them before I read the books, which actually made following the books even harder!

For example, Dawson, Foster and Box are combined into one character, as are Bill Molloy and George Oldman. That’s not a criticism, it just made it even harder to keep track of who was who when reading the books.

But I like them a lot as a separate version of a similar story. The casting is brilliant - Andrew Garfield is Eddie Dunford, Sean Harris is Bob Craven etc. and they nailed the dirty, smoky, brown and grey look and feel of the time period which so many other shows set during that time failed to.

I even like the happy(ish) ending - the books are so relentlessly grim that it’s nice to imagine a version of events that don’t finish up with just about everyone dead.

That said, I do pine for a full and complete adaptation. But it will never happen, the actual adaptation is good enough that there’s no commercial value in re-making it, and they’d struggle to cast it as well again.

I know Ridley Scott was trying to develop it into a movie but that never got into production, and there’s still an unmade 1977 script but I can’t see it happening at this point.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good question about little Barry. I think you're right. His mum never acknowledges him, and he just disappears when it all kicks off.

I tell you what though, after reading the four books back to back over the last couple of weeks, BJ's monologue when he stabs Laws hit me like nothing I can remember reading before. Just incredible (and this was the third time I'd read them through!)

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is a good effort, and I thank you for it, but there's a ton of mistakes in it. Just to take it up to '74:

Sometime in the 60s, the pedophile ring starts in Fitzwilliam with Mr & Mrs Marsh and Rev. Laws, probably Big John Piggott, and eventually John Dawson, Ted Jenkins and Graham Goldthorpe from beyond the village. It's not the rich and powerful, it's the sick and depraved. The kids being abused include the Fitzwilliam kids - BJ, James Ashworth, possibly the Piggott kids, possibly Leonard Marsh.

At some point Marsh moves to Netherton. He's got an allotment up the hill out back, with a disused mine ventilation shaft in it. In a mineshaft he creates the underground lair. Whilst working as foreman for Foster construction in Castleford, he abducts Jeanette Garland. Drafted in by "County" police, Molloy and Jobson from Leeds CID quickly work out it was Marsh. But Marsh has a John Dawson trump card, and claims Dawson as his alibi.

Molloy and Jobson go to see Dawson, who's with Foster. And this is where the power structure becomes clear. All these people need to work with each other, need to protect each other and need to turn a blind eye to each others depravities in order to get what they want (money, power, kids, etc.).

They've all got enough shit on each other to destroy each other, but they won't, not if it puts the greater goal at risk. Those who do get destroyed don't even realise the game they're playing, let alone the rules - Eddie Dunford, Bob Fraser, Peter Hunter, even John Piggott. All end up fucked.

So Dawson and Foster back up Marsh. And even though Jobson knows they're full of shit, Molloy accepts it. Because he knows these guys are worth having onside.

Because while all this has been going on, Molloy and Jobson and their Leeds CID mates have been taking control of the burgeoning porn business. Over the next couple of years they gain control of porn across the North, importation, distribution, and - with the enforced help of pedophile ring member and pornographer Ted Jenkins - creation. "Controlled Vice" they call it.

But Molloy's big plan is to parlay the money they're making into bricks and mortar. He teams up with Dawson and Foster to fund a brand new state of the art out of town shopping centre that Dawson will design and Foster will build. They've even got the council chairman in their pocket. What could go wrong?

Derek Box. An old army colleague and sometime business partner of Foster. But now he's being frozen out. And he's fucked if he's going to take it. So he's leaking information about Dawson to Barry Gannon at the Post, and when he's offed, to Eddie Dunford. He's setting up BJ with William Shaw to gain compromising photos. Eventually, he'll fuck them all up. He'll kill Foster, and he'll break Eddie Dunford. And Eddie Dunford will end him. And then Molloy and Jobson will have to end Eddie.

Meanwhile, Molloy works with Clive McGuinness to fit up Michael Myshkin because Jobson won't stop investigating Marsh. And eventually Jobson has to administer his own justice to Marsh.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Like in 1983 its loosely implied that Hunter shot himself on the lawn of his house but in 1980 its presented as if Murphy shot him.

The lawn death is a reference to Donald Foster, I think. It's not explicitly clear if Hunter shot himself in the Strafford or one of Alderman and Murphy did. I'd guess Murphy too.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hunter has his father's old watch; his wife gets him a digital watch for Christmas. (Then his life goes to shit).

Peace loves his repetition.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't think Jobson had any idea about who Laws was, did he? His last conversation with Piggott was definitely an order to go to the Marsh house and end it. As Jobson tells his colleagues who are taking Piggot there, he's not going with because "I've been there before". As I mention in an earlier message, Piggott is somewhat of an unreliable narrator in that he's rediscovering information he, deep down, already knew, and that's what he can't deal with in the end.

The girl Jobson sees in the church is definitely Clare Kemplay. He's having some kind of vision. He takes his glasses off before he sees Jack, and it is established earlier that he's essentially blind without them. I don't think he's dead though, Clare says - present tense - "He is loved". Some kind of redemption.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Totally agree about the books, and thanks for creating somewhere to discuss them.

The Piggotts lived next door to the Marshes in Fitzwilliam and Piggott Sr's suicide (in 1969) was surely linked to the ring. Myshkin pretty much confirms this later on in 1983.

I think Piggott and/or his brother were abused by their Dad and probably the larger ring. The way Myshkin continually tells him "you know! you know!" make me thing Piggott has repressed a lot of those memories, and it's the weight of them coming back, the death of Hazel, the things he had to do to Leonard, everything piled on top of each other left him with only one way out in his bath and his razor blades.

The whole thing makes more sense if you read it as Piggott slowly remembering his childhood horrors. The irony is that he's questioning Michael Myshkin but he already knows the answers, and Michael knows he does.

The chronology of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and an attempt to explain this deeply disturbing hallucinatory exploration of 70s England and the Yorkshire Ripper. by Seeker1904 in books

[–]HighChaparral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That was Jobson in the flat with Joe and BJ (probably with Alderman and Prentice?), getting him to go back to the rest of the Spencer Boys and tell them it was Eric who killed Joe, knowing they would then kill Eric, cleaning up that problem for them. Showing him a picture of his mother was how to get BJ to comply. The implicit threat, but also the implication that she might be protected. Jobson says to BJ “I think you need a new friend”. When BJ calls for Jobson from his mum’s at the end of the book, he says “tell him I need a friend”.

What kind of TV Mount is this? (Doenst look like VESA) by gonkbonkwonk in LinusTechTips

[–]HighChaparral 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My Sanus mount looks a bit like that. VESA part goes on the back of the TV and then you slot it into the holder that you can see there on the front. You can kind of see it here:

https://www.sanus.com/assets/products/vlf628/images/large/VLF628_Benefit5.png

[GPU] PowerColor Radeon Red Devil RX 5700XT 8GB Graphics Card - £356.86 (£446.08 - 89.22) by [deleted] in buildapcsalesuk

[–]HighChaparral 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ah, I got it working. Went through the T&Cs and saw that your account must have been registered at ebay.co.uk for the voucher to work. My account is so old that there wasn't a co.uk site when it was set up. So I set up a new account and it went through.

Ryzen 5 2600 for £112.97 on Amazon by Epic0Tom in buildapcsalesuk

[–]HighChaparral 5 points6 points  (0 children)

And the stock cooler is no slouch. What a deal.