An insight into tight-knit, remote communities

SO you move to one of those tight-knit communities we’ve been hearing so much about lately. You know the ones. Once you get outside London and stumble upon a village, by journalistic definition it is automatically “tight-knit”

Want a laugh? It won’t take a tikka

READERS of the Teesdale Mercury expecting an Indian restaurant story peppered with curry clichés will be disappointed – especially after the headline offers so much. But this really is a cracking tale

Survival of the thickest

THE Sun has published a survival guide for the 21^st Century based on a book by Matthew Cole. It’s full of information that everyone needs, such as how to navigate by looking at the nearest satellite dish

In a flap over a fishy tail

THIS will go down in history as one of the great stories of our time. Seventeen large goldfish disappear from a garden pond in Barnard Castle, County Durham. The owner involves the police after nearby residents blame a “guilty-looking heron”. Several days later the goldfish mysteriously return

Bog standard – but good for a laugh

FROM the Teesdale Mercury, March 2, 2010:

Insensitive headline of the week

NOT so sure about the headline chaps. “Margaret makes it to 100″?

If this had been my grandmother receiving her telegram from the Queen, and still bright and chirpy on her hundredth birthday, then “Mrs McEff makes it to 100” on the front page of the