Mrs Gretchen Lardbelly the wife of the metal detectorist of the same name apparently gets her kicks out of reading this blog seeking grammatical errors; in the "Trip to Normandy Detecting" thread on a metal detecting forum near you she claims (Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:27 pm) to have found as many as seven in one post. Bully for her. Mr Lardbelly says "she do this fer a living".Lordy, Lordy, Lady Lard, if you want to comment on this blog, why restrict yourself to sharing your thoughts on it with a self centred metal detectorist who cannot even spot grammatical errors for himself? Is conversation so sparse at Chez Lardies? Why not share your pearls of ever-so-grammatically-correct wisdom with all of my readers? Jjust click on the 'post a comment' link and let the word know how very wrong you think I am about metal detecting, metal detectorists and syntax. Be my guest Lady Lardy. Your thoughts on flippancy concerning artefact hunting in France? [UPDATE your thoughts on your husband hanging around on a forum which keeps hiding the disreputable stuff being discussed the moment somebody puts it into context?]
This is quite typical of metal detectorists (and I guess sometimes their families). There are serious issues to be discussed about the exploitation of the archaeological record, yet all we get from the other side in the debate are dismissive half-brain flippancies like this. I raised the question of the nature of this permit reportedly issued to the British visitor by the French authorities, note that this question (and that of its transferability) is being studiously avoided by the bloke who's trying to fill his guest-house off-season. Yet that is the key issue here, whether the proposed trip involves illegal activity. Note the forum where this is being discussed has a policy on this - let Mr 'Rocher' post a scan of his permit on the detecting forum where he's trying to persuade others to join him so they can see its wording and scope.
TAKE A GOOD LOOK at this behaviour, for these are precisely the sort of people the PAS wants to grab more and more millions of public quid to make into the "partners" of the British Museum, archaeological heritage professionals and to whom they want us all to entrust the exploitation of the archaeological record. Take a good look and decide what you think about that as a "policy".
Vignette: by "she do this for a living", Mr Lardbelly presumably means his spouse is a professional proof reader or copy editor. A very noble and necessary profession.
UPDATE 15th Nov 2014:
Oh, look the secretive beasties have hidden the "Trip to Normandy Detecting" thread. OK, now it is a challenge, Mr "Rocher" please show the 'permit' to prove what you are planning to do is legal. Hiding the whole thread mentioning it when the point is raised obviously can very easily be taken to suggest that everyone involved knows they were discussing committing an illegal act in a foreign land on the UK and European Metal Detecting Forum.
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1 comment:
Wish I'd had money on that happening. And yes, not showing (or even mentioning the existence of) a proper permit does make one wonder.
Did you see how many fell over themselves to say yes? And not a single one asked if it was kosher. In what other community would that happen, considering everyone knows it's illegal in France unless specific conditions have been met?
It's hard to think most detectorists are very bright. And it's hard to think well of the bright ones (you know who you are!) who don't publicly take their colleagues to task.
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