http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk// Top stories for Neil Roland http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1089225_the_night_i_dined_with_eartha_kitt_ I NEVER thought I’d begin a column referring to the link between Eartha Kitt and Fallowfield or Didsbury, but when I heard the singer, actress and self-proclaimed oldest sex kitten in town had died, it took me back to my first meeting with her when she accepted an invitation to dinner. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1089225_the_night_i_dined_with_eartha_kitt_ Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1084755_chewing_it_over_ My ritual for reading the South Manchester Reporter varies little week to week. A Friday morning. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1084755_chewing_it_over_ Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1082215_forget_the_bad_news_its_top_of_the_shops FOR EVERY silver lining, there is a cloud. For every light, our newspapers need to concentrate on the darkness before the end of the tunnel…. Does nobody ever question the psychological effect of the way our media presents our lives back to us? http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1082215_forget_the_bad_news_its_top_of_the_shops Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1079480_part_and_parcel_of_a_frustrating_morning_out IF IT is logical that the human being is drawn to spending as much time as is possible in the place in which they feel most relaxed, comfortable and at ease, then it seems that a building at Fallowfield’s Granville Road is poised to become the new Cote d’Azure. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1079480_part_and_parcel_of_a_frustrating_morning_out Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1076857_i_cant_see_the_woods_for_pictures_of_the_trees_ TODAY'S column was to have been about trees, to tie in with the recent Withington Photographic Competition 2008, organised by the highly community spirited Charlotte Gildart-Butler who had involved me to help judge the many entries. She had chosen "Trees in the Withington area" as the topic for photographs. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1076857_i_cant_see_the_woods_for_pictures_of_the_trees_ Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1072902_chewing_it_over__october_16_2008 BEHIND the living room bay window in a book-filled flat in a sedate Didsbury deco mansion block, a woman who has long harboured a deep-felt fascination and empathy for people embroiled in life’s tougher struggles, is in a near frantic state. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1072902_chewing_it_over__october_16_2008 Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1067202_dumb_too_live_spelin_up_to_kidz THE bell is tolling for the English language this week, should the Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College London - and, sadly, President of the Spelling Society, get his way. John Wells has declared that our children are being held back at school by being forced to memorise irregular spellings and how to use an apostrophe. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1067202_dumb_too_live_spelin_up_to_kidz Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1065411_baffled_by_the_joy_of_text I HAVE an admission. I can’t send texts. There are no advantages in life to being unable to send a text, and I agree that it is backward of me in the extreme to have so far failed to achieve what almost everybody can do without thinking. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1065411_baffled_by_the_joy_of_text Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1064463_neil_roland__august_28_2008 PAM Siddons is not someone who particularly enjoys the limelight. This is not to say she shuns it, but when spokesmen are required to represent the community in West Didsbury where she lives - the battles to save beautiful buildings, parks and sites of historical interest - it tends not to be her name we hear and read. But she’s always there, central to the proceedings, and it is pure passion for her local environment which drives her. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1064463_neil_roland__august_28_2008 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1062603_neil_roland__august_14_2008 AN INTERESTING note appeared in my emails a week or so ago, from a fellow in West Didsbury who suggested that he was very concerned that an article I’d written a couple of weeks before had suggested stereotypes about different groups of people, and that , in his words "stereotypes - be they positive or negative - are really worrying…. giving people the right to discriminate." http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1062603_neil_roland__august_14_2008 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1060601_chewing_it_over__july_31_2008 ON SATURDAY morning last, a hand-written sign appeared by the garden gate of a house on Barlow Moor Road, declaring a garage sale - ‘no reasonable offer refused for anything’. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1060601_chewing_it_over__july_31_2008 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1057664_neil_roland__july_10_2008 WINE, Women and Smoke are dominating the domestic news recently. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1057664_neil_roland__july_10_2008 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1054775_neil_roland__june_19_2008 CARING, like love, sometimes gets better press than it deserves. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1054775_neil_roland__june_19_2008 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1052737_chewing_it_over__june_5_2008 SONG lyrics don’t always ring true. Life, for example, does not all that often come across as a cabaret. A farce, sometimes (Robert Mugabe travelling to Italy to lecture Europe on avoiding food shortages). http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1052737_chewing_it_over__june_5_2008 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0000 http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1050785_neil_roland__22_may_2008 THEY say it about people who love animals. If you’re kind to animals, you’re probably a kind person. A certain German Shepherd - what else - called Blondi is possibly the best example of this idea having exceptions. http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk//news/columnist/neil_roland/s/1050785_neil_roland__22_may_2008 Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0000