Some go peacefully, some “rage against the dying of the light”, some do it themselves,
some let nature take its course, for some it is a low key event, some do it in style. The
uncomfortable truth is, sooner or later, we’re all going to do it but have you ever wondered
how you’re likely to die? My own, rather rudimentary, research into how people would like to
die yielded a variety of not very constructive answers: “peacefully”, “old age”, “in bed” and
“jumping off something.” Of course most of us aren’t going to get what we want on
this one and statistics suggest that the most likely way will be heart disease or cancer. But
of course, as 83% of people know, statistics can be used to prove anything, so here goes.
The US national Safety Council has over the past few years estimated the chances of dying
from various causes. For example, the chances of dying from falling from a bed or chair are
1 in 4745 but only 1 in 93,125 from contact with hot tap water. Ignition of nightwear is the
fate of 1 in 286,537 people whilst “foreign body entering through skin or natural orifice”
accounts for 1 in 161,956. an average of 73 are struck and killed by lightning each year and,
according to Professor Steve Jones, this is much more likely to happen to men. The
chances of drowning in floods caused by a dam bursting are 1 in 10 million and there is of
course also a 1 in 2.8 million chance that you will die falling down a hole, possibly much
shorter odds if you are a Warner Brothers cartoon character. Vending machines – safe, yes?
no, these deadly pieces of equipment kill an average of twelve UK citizens each year,
shaking it for that last KitKat really isn’t worth it. and any resident ofOxford will not express
surprise that those ‘silent killers’, bikes, are responsible for 824 US deaths every year.
away from our perilous modern existence filled with vending machines and hot-taps the
natural world is of course a dangerous place to be. For example, the chances of dying from
being bitten by a dog are 1 in 206,944. “death where is thy sting?” – well for 6 million
americans each year it is in the end of a bee. But you have only a 1 in 54 million chance of
dying from a spider, lizard or snake bite.Scientists wanting to prove just how innocuous various animals are often cite the odds of
being hit on the head by a falling coconut, George Burgess, director of the Florida Museum
of natural History’s International Shark attack File (somehow I can’t imagine a British
museum appointing a director of ‘shark attack file’) claims that fifteen times as many
people are killed by coconuts than by sharks each year and that coconuts account for 150
deaths per annum. This idea has been heavily influenced by the work of Dr. Peter Barss, an
american academic whose jolly oeuvre includes, ‘Suicide in the Southern Highlands of
Papua new Guinea’, ‘Scald burns in children 0-14 years old’ and ‘Cold Immersion deaths
from drowning and Hypothermia’. He was awarded an Ig-nobel Prize in 2001 for his thesis
‘Injuries due to Falling Coconuts’ and now works in Saudi arabia. Barss further aided
medical science during his period in the tropics in the 1980s with such publications as,
‘Inhalation hazards of tropical “pea shooters”’, ‘Falls from trees and tree associated injuries
in rural Melanesians’ and the scientific classic ‘Grass-skirt burns in Papua new Guinea’.
Perhaps we should not pay too much attention to a man who has made his living
inspecting the buttocks of young Papua new Guinean girls, conclude that the
coconut statistic might just be George Burgess talking out of his Barss and that the much
maligned coconut is less dangerous than has been suggested.But how should you prevent all this? Well clearly you need to stay in your house at all costs,
have no social contact and never turn on the hot tap. Oh, and be naked. Yes because
clothes can kill as well and not just grass-skirts. Recent research has suggested that tight
ties can cause glaucoma and we chaps have long been aware of the health risks of tight Y-
fronts but perhaps the most dangerous article of clothing your trousers. Yes, each year
3695 people are hospitalised in trouser- related accidents. Primarily this is from putting
them on too quickly and falling over but anyone who has seen There’s Something about
Mary will realise the health benefits of button flies as opposed to the zip variety.On the other hand most accidents happen in the home, a fact which would be attested to by
the 35 people which the royal Society for the Prevention of accidents claims were injured in
2000 by tea cosies or the 738 who suffered at the hands of beanbags three years ago.
Over recent years the Darwin awards have shown us some of world’s most peculiar deaths
and accidents, such as the six egyptians who drowned in 1995 trying to rescue a chicken
from a well (the chicken survived) or the Californian who, offended by a rattle snake sticking
its tongue out at him, returned the favour only to have the offended body part bitten off. The
awards are of course designed to confirm darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest, or at
any rate the survival of those who can remember to put the pin back into an unthrown
grenade before returning it to their pocket. Of course one way to insure an eccentric death
seems to be to become famous. Celebrities and especially musicians have a habit of dying
in bizarre circumstances. Jazz musician Chet Baker’s defenestration or Sonny Bono skiing
into a tree serve as reminders to us all. Sadly the story that Keith Moon drove his car into his
swimming pool is fanciful, as he actually died from alcohol poisoning, incidentally in the
same flat in which Mama Cass had died from ‘ham sandwich asphyxiation’ a couple of
years previously. Modern rock deaths are a familiar and predictable catalogue of
overdoses, suicides and traffic accidents and it is surprisingly to classical music that we
must turn to encounter the truly bizarre.Charles Valentin alkan, a French composer, died when a bookshelf collapsed on him as
he was reaching for a copy of the Talmud from the top shelf whilst Henry Purcell died from
chocolate poisoning. Jean-Baptiste Lully died from an infection when the large wooden
staff he used to keep time whilst conducting fell on his foot and the Czech Frantisek
Koczwara meta sticky end to autoerotic asphyxiation in 1791. Such a fate has more recently
befallen Conservative MP (and former Oxford Union president) Steven Milligan and BnP
activist Kristian etchells, which perhaps says all that needs to be said about the British
right. death was no more subtle in the ancient world either. aeschylus the Greek dramatist
died when a vulture dropped a tortoise on his head, and the stoic philosopher Chrysippus
died of laughter after seeing a donkey munching on figs. At the other end
of the Mediterranean, age might not have withered Cleopatra, but an asp to the breast did
the trick. and death is no respecter of position or breeding as many royals would testify.
King Béla I of Hungary died when his throne collapsed due to sabotage and his compatriot
Matthias died after eating poisoned figs, which Chrysippus would presumably have found
quite amusing had he still been around. Modern day Hungarians seem to fare little better, in 1973 Finance Minister Péter Vályi died
when he fell into a blast furnace at a factory he was inspecting. Ben Schott revels in
recounting the deaths of Burmese kings in his Original Miscellany including no less than
three trampled by elephants and one killed by an enraged cucumber farmer whose
cucumbers the king had eaten. Closer to home, Henry I died of a surfeit of lampreys whilst
edward II was unfortunate enough to be the 1 person in 161,956 to die from a foreign body
entering the body through skin or natural orifice although as the foreign body was a red-hot
poker and the orifice was his anus I suspect the odds are somewhat longer. The quest for
knowledge is a noble one but one which has its hazards, just look at the case of Francis
Bacon who died from pneumonia after stuffi ng a chicken with snow to see if cold could
preserve meat; his body was not cryogenically frozen.Or there is Scottish botanist david
douglas who died in 1834 after falling down a pit trap and being crushed by a bull
which fell down the same trap. What are the chances? Well 1 in 2.8 million actually. One
final word of warning, “manners maketh man” but they can finishth the man just as easily,
as danish astronomer Tycho Brahe found out in 1601 when he politely remained at the
dining table rather than get up to go to the toilet during a banquet. He died of the ensuing
bladder infection. So what is the moral of all this? “Some people are so afraid to die that
they never begin to live” said Henry Van dyke, so we can all afford to live a little. Living won’t
kill you, though it will be those bastard vending machines. Is it wrong to laugh at other
people’s misfortune? George Bernard Shaw said, “Life does not cease to be funny when
people die” and he should know – he died falling out of an apple tree at the ripe old age of
94.ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

A
company founded by Oxford University Chemists has doubled in value since last
year and is now estimated to be worth £58 million.The company, VaSTox Plc, was floated on
the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 valued at £30 million. earlier this
month the company published an interim financial report showing a turnover of
£201,000, a fourfold increase from last year. One of the company’s founders
described its success as “remarkable.” The company was founded in 2003 by
Professors Kay Davies of Hertford, Edith Sim of St Peter’s, Graham Richards of
Brasenose and Steve of new College, who invested £100,000 in the company. VASTox is involved in develop­ing
treatments for diseases such as muscular dystrophy and tuberculosis, using a
process known as chemical genomics. Professor Steve explained, “By looking at
the unique features of fruit fly larvae and zebra fish eggs, we are able to
predict the properties of organic chemicals.” This information can then be related to
humans. According to the company’s website this leads to the production of much
safer medicines. As a ‘spin-out’ company, the Univer­sity holds a stake in
VaSTox allowing it to share in the company’s massive success.In January 2005, VaSTox moved out of
University facilities to a new site at Milton Park a few miles south of Oxford but Professor
stressed his priority, “still lay with the University, managing one of the
largest research departments and running a full teaching programme.” A professional
management team handles the day-to-day running of the company, allowing
academics to continue work in the University. described the team as “highly
competent”, and highlighted their role in the company’s achievements. He also
stressed that none of the academics were involved for personal profit, allowing
more money to be reinvested in the company. VASTox is not the first spin-out company
with which had been involved. In 1992 he founded the similarly successful Oxford asym­metry
Limited. That company was also floated on the stock exchange and sold for £316
million in 2000.Professor admitted that he had made
considerable personal gain from Oxford asymmetry’s suc­cess but added that a
large part of the company’s profits were used to fund chemistry studentships in
the University. He believes that success­ful spin-out companies can only be
beneficial for the University. Since 1998, forty companies have been spun
out from University de­partments and their estimated value is over £2 billion.
The companies are overseen by Isis Innovation Ltd, a subsidiary of the
University.ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

Cherwell notes with relief the return to form of those two bastions of political potty-training, OULC and OUCA, just when things seemed to be getting a bit boring.That’s not to say that the OUCA types haven’t been happily ensconced in the Union drinking port and talking about how Europe is a bad thing or “compassionate conservatism” (whatever that may be), or that the OULC haven’t been smartening up after the odd drunken rendition of Things Can Only Get Better. But in recent weeks they seem to have recovered from their respective hangovers to indulge in that most political of pursuits, the art of mud-throwing.No longer so concerned with Cameron vs Davis, or the latest (will he ever stop?!) ignominious departure of David Blunkett, the respective sides have got down to the really serious business at hand.For once, the charade was prompted by a rather over-the-top letter from the Presidents of OULC on the back of the now unlikely-to-actually-take-place visit of the infamous (if only he were in-famous) George Galloway, in which they tactfully implied that OUCA has fascist sympathies.A thinly veiled attempt at points scoring which hardly covers them in roses, however righteously Red they may consider themselves to be.On the other hand, the response from the not-entirely-whiter-than-white OUCA which accused OULC of Communism has added a touch of Blue bathos to the whole incident. While OUCA is right to argue that there was a degree of provocation to the original letter, from the point of view of OULC one might argue that OUCA is an obvious, if cleverly chosen, target.All in all Cherwell rejoices at OUCA’s formal complaint to the University Proctors which must surely, at least at first, be received with a combination of confusion and amusement in Wellington Square. While it is unclear where this particular saga will end, there is clearly no love lost between the two sides. Cherwell sits firmly on the fence in these things, but is sure to outstretch a hand of congratulation to all concerned for creating a nice little disturbance to wake us from a mid-term slumber.We imagine that, to quote The Big Chill, you’re “just trying to keep the conversation lively”, and for that, we thank you.ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

A friend of mine was recently told by his economics tutor that “you used to be able to get a First in PPE if you were clever. Now, it’s more about how much you work”And this is not just whimsical nostalgia. Higher education is very different to how it was forty years ago. Very small and socially stratified institutions have given way to an enormous enterprise employing millions of people.This was partly on the back of government and partly the organic growth of voluntary education. It is propelled by the now almost universal idea of education as a social mobiliser. This mobility business is global, and relentlessly competitive for students, teachers and knowledge.This phenomenal growth has caused ever greater specialisation in modern academia. Chair in Byzantine Studies at the University of Indiana has become a realistic possibility. And with every extra post, the corpus of work in any particular subject ‘to be understood’ grows.So specialisation becomes more and more necessary. It is self-propelling. Despite the merging of many disciplines, combinations have become solidified very quickly. The result: The Journal of Historical Anthropology.Especially in the arts and the social sciences, we are constantly reminded of our academic niche. ‘Recent scholarship states’, ‘the latest paper’ and the Harvard reference system litter our work. They are the new rhetoric, the marks of learning.The quantity of knowledge needed within this self-referential system keeps disciplines contained. They are enshrined by the PhD qualification. By far the majority of interpretive work has been done in the last forty years, corresponding exactly with the expansion of higher education. “That’s not my period” syndrome is getting worse and worse.This specialisation is compounded by greater careerism in academia than ever before. This is the inevitable result of its enormous expansion. Career ladders are mapped out. Undergraduateshave to be ‘experts’ in a particular field to get onto a graduate program, which will, in turn, lead to the next stage, be it a doctorate or tenure.This careerism is confirmed by the lack of interaction between academia and the wider world. And the culture of specialisation grows. What’s wrong with this division of labour? It’s Adam Smith’s pin factory meets the University.We are more productive, and furthermore, people want to specialise. The division does not alienate us from our labour. On the contrary, I believe that unwieldy specialization and careeristindustriousness of bloated higher education threatens free thinking and a constructive atmosphere of general learning.It is impossible to stop specialization at higher levels of education, but it is important to maintain undergraduate study as unfettered as possible. You must be in constant dialogue with new ideas – it is the only way to achieve great thinking in young people.Their ideas can be honed later. Undergraduate education was traditionally seen as the antidote to more focused research as the rigid mores of academia did not apply. However, the tide of specialisation has seeped into undergraduate educational culture.Undergraduates are just inferior graduates – we cannot escape the enormous weight of established scholarship and we are drawn into the cult of specialisation as the foundation of the academic process. Most undergraduate degrees now include some sort of compulsory thesis. This specialisation must inevitably come at the expense of exploring wider fields.Undergraduate generalism must be shored up against the scale of mass academic specialization.I cannot help thinking that this academic specialisation and careerism is directly linked to the idea of meritocratic education. Implicit in confining academic disciplines is the possibility of testing ability.Undergraduate education is increasingly seen in functional terms, both within the academic sphere and outside. University activities, from a thesis on cultural imperialism to debating at the Union, are just a step towards greater things. Oxford was a sheltered and exclusive place before mass higher education.Greats covered everything from history to logic, and it was common to change subjects. Sure, we are no longer all gentlemen of means who can indulge in leisurely study but we have lost the benefits of the old intellectual breadth. The current system does not encourage us to follow general interests outside our academic remit.We work harder within specialisms that are increasingly dictated by the confines of professional academia. Especially in this age of overpowering mediocre specialisation, we must recover something of that generalism if we are to maintain our superiority.Anthony Cardona is a former President of European Affairs SocietyARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

Mary Bennett, the former Principal of St. Hilda’s College, has died in her home at the age of 92. Mary Bennett was Principal of St. Hilda’s from 1965-1980. She was University Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1979-1980 and served on the University Council from 1973-1979. Mrs Bennett begun her Oxford association when she took a First in Classics at Somerville before work­ing for the BBC during the Second World War and at the Colonial Office from 1945-1956. She was at the forefront of the skirmishes which accompanied the introduction of mixed-gender colleges at Oxford in the late 1960s and vigorously contested the opening of men’s col­leges to women, arguing in a letter to the Principal of LMH that the older, male establishments would “skim the cream” of female candidates, motivated by the “stupid men out, clever girls in” argument. Sally Mapstone, a Tutor and Fel­low at St Hilda’s said: “Mrs Bennett represented everything that is best about St Hilda’s. She came from a background of academic distinction, and she believed in academic excel­lence. She had formidable presence, but she was also famously fair-mind­ed. She was a vintage Principal.” Mary Bennett’s family are holding a private funeral but St Hilda’s is to announce a public memorial service in due
course. ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

The
Old Fire Station nightclub on George
Street cut short a produc­tion of the rocky Horror
Show on Monday night following rowdiness and complaints from audience members. The show, held on the night of Hal­loween,
was a one-off theatrical club night organised by Carte Blanche, the production
company behind Burlesk. Billed as a “kinky, camp musical club night,” the
production consisted of a film screening, music and a live floor show. Midway through the evening members of the
audience began to heckle the onstage performers. Some approached OFS staff
complaining about the content of the production. The show was not permitted to
per­form the third act, and was pulled off the stage before the second act had
been completed, on the insist­ence of the Old Fire Station staff. One member of the audience, Holly Ware, a
student at St Hilda’s, said that “the crowd got very rowdy and quite violent.
The show was extremely good but it was clear that a lot of people in the
audience didn’t know that the rocky Horror Show was going on and just thought
it was a regular club night.” Following the termination of the rocky
Horror Show perform­ance, the evening continued as an ordinary club night with
music and dancing. The director of the show, Laurie Penny,
said, “We were on the stage when the music cut out, this cheese cut in and we
were told to get off. This was right in the middle a show for which we’d all
worked really hard.” The entry for the special night was five
pounds, and a large majority of the audience had come dressed in the
traditional rocky Horror attire of fishnets and suspender belts. Aspectator
said that “in the end projectiles were being thrown at the stage and the
projector had to be taken down.” Julie Sturgess, speaking on behalf of the
Old Fire Station said, “It wasn’t particularly rowdy. It was a decision on the
behalf or the promoters to pull the show because the majority of customers
seemed to prefer to dance rather than watch the show. The show had been on for
quite a long time already, and it was just cut a little short.” Joey Clark, who played a Transyl­vanian in
the show, said that “it was a shame that a few drunkards spoilt it.” Neil Tarrant, also involved in the
production, explained his feelings saying, “I was just rather upset that the
OFS were responding more to an aggressive minority than to a ma­jority who were
seemingly enjoying the show.” Carte Blanche have experienced a degree of
unfortunate Oxford
scandal in the past over their show Burlesk, which began at Jongleurs during
Hilary term. On the night that a Daily Mail reviewer was present, one
cast member’s nipples were inadvertantly exposed during a striptease. ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

Comedy writer Armando Iannucci has
been appointed as the next news International Visiting Professor of Broadcast
Media. Iannuchi, who wrote and directed I’m Alan Partridge with Steve Coogan, will
hold a lecture series beginning in January entitled ‘British TV Comedy: dead or
alive?’ Iannuchi graduated from University
College in 1982 and
worked for the BBC in the eighties.His past projects include On The Hour,
The day Today, the Friday and Saturday night armistice and the Armando Iannucci
Show. His satirical political comedy series The Thick Of It is currently being
aired on BBC4 and will be shown on BBC2 in the beginning of 2006.There has been much critical acclaim
for Iannucci’s work and he has won two Sony radio awards and three British
Comedy awards, one of which was a special award for his contribution to
television comedy.He and Chris Morris were jointly awarded
a 1992 Writers’ Guild award for the programme On the Hour. Together they
produced the critically acclaimed show The Day Today.Speaking about the theme of his
lecture series, Iannucci said: ‘If British TV has a heritage, then comedy is
its most precious commodity.’ ‘Today, though, British Television Comedy is at a
crossroads. Just as it gets more daring and varied in format and technique, and
just as audiences get more and more sophisticated in the breadth of comedy they’re
willing to watch, viewing figures for comedy shows are in decline.’‘Over the next five years, TV comedy
has the chance either to reclaim the mass-appeal, large viewing-figure slots
that were previously theirs by right, or become a fragmented web of innovative,
interesting but niche programmes. These lectures will outline precisely
how British TV comedy arrived at this crossroads, and the possible routes it
can take.’ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

An Oxford councillor has claimed that students
in rented accommodation are pricing out local families from the Cowley Road
area. Sid Phelps, Green Party
councillor for St Mary’s ward said in an article in the Oxford Mail that
University accommodation had not expanded enough to house the increasing number
of students in Oxford,
resulting in students pushing other local people out of privately rented houses
in the area. Phelps told Cherwell this week that he was "not
anti-student" but that "the amount of student accommodation is
causing a problem and it’s not neccessarily that healthy: we need a
balance." He said that he feels there is a divide between students and
local residents because "students are quite inwardly focused because they
are only temporarily in Oxford."
He added "it’s starting to be a problem because families can hardly afford
to live in the area." Phelps pointed out that student
numbers have nearly reached the maximum limit set by the Oxford Local Plan for
2016 and that "The community has been tolerant but the increase in numbers
of late licenses to cater for students is starting to cause problems." He
also pointed out that demographics show that there are dwindling numbers of
pupils at schools because families cannot afford to live in the local area.
Phelps said that the solution would be to provide more purpose built University
accommodation. He added: “It’s time for universities to look at their intake
and at what is sustainable for local communities. The government target of 50%
of young people at university doesn’t help." Craig Simmons, a fellow Green
Party councillor for the St Mary’s ward area said that Mr Phelps’ original
comments to the Oxford Mail were made in response to concerns from local
residents. He said, “it’s all about striking a balance: some streets in my ward
contain 80% students.” He also stressed that a Housing Standards survey last
year found that “90% of rented accommodation was substandard.” Student numbers have been
gradually increasing with 18,113 students at Oxford between 2004-5 compared to just 16,576
students in 2001-2. A spokesperson for Oxford University
said that “undergraduate numbers have remained relatively stable, whereas
postgraduate numbers have increased in recent years,” and that many
postgraduates live outside of college. She pointed out that the total number of
students living outside of University accommodation is only “around 3,500 which
is the figure that has been discussed by the University and Council and agreed
on as acceptable.” Ailbhe Menton, JCR President for
St Hilda’s College said that “providing accommodation for all students is
something a college should strive towards,” and that “with the recent number of
attacks on students in the Cowley Road
area living on site would provide more safety measures for students.” She added
“It would be advantageous to all if renting accommodation in Oxford was generally cheaper.” Aidan Randle-Conde, OUSU VP (Welfare) and Hannah Stoddart,
OUSU VP (Charities and Community) said “We are aware that rent and property
prices in the Cowley area continue to increase, and this is … partly due to
the high demand from students … [but] inflated rent prices are as big a
problem for students as they are for local residents”. 2004 survey by the Accommodation for Students website found that whilst
the average weekly rent for a student was £52.44, Oxford had the fourth highest rent in the
country at £77 a week, which was 47% higher than the national average.ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005

The Oxford University Conservative Association has made a formal complaint to the proctors
about an open letter from the Oxford University Labour Club to Respect MP George Galloway published in The Oxford
Student last Thursday. In the letter Jack Graves and Martin McCluskey,
co-chairs of the Labour club, stated that they are “currently boycotting OUCA”
after it “failed to take adequate disciplinary measures against members making
anti-Semitic jokes”. They also said that Galloway speaking to the society
would “undermine our struggle to make Oxford
free of those who tolerate fascist sympathies”.OUCA have also released a press
statement stating their “outrage at the Labour Club’s unprovoked letter”, which
they describe as a “cheap and offensive attack”, and one that is “insulting” to
its members. The complaint to the proctors says that “OUCA is the largest
student political body in the UK,
with a membership of some 700 members; it is frankly offensive to the many
undergraduates who are members to suggest Association the has any thing to do
with fascism”. It criticises the OULC for their “extreme left wing views, which
can only be described as verging on Communism”, and describes the letter as “libellous”.The Labour Club responded to the
OUCA press statement with one justifying their criticisms of the society. It
quotes reports of racist jokes made by members of the society in the years
1999-2001, as well as quotinga story published by Cherwell earlier this year about a member
who cracked a Holocaust joke to a Jewish student. They describe the society as “a
reactionary political organisation” and “feel they have strong grounds for
suggesting OUCA harbour fascist tendencies and refute any suggestions to the
contrary”. Speaking to Cherwell, OUCA President Christopher Ware
said of the Association, “it goes without
saying that we condemn any form of fascism or racism”. While acknowledging that
“unacceptable” attitudes had existed in the society in the past, he says, “No-one currently involved with OUCA has anything to do
with those accusations. They belong in a completely different era, and we have
move on. I challenge the Labour Club to come forward if they have any evidence
of fascism”. Christopher Ware also suggested the Labour Club “concentrate their
efforts on an underserved membership” rather then “dig up the past”, and asks
them to “publically apologise to the hundreds of students who by their
accusations have been associated with fascism”. In the case of the Holocaust joke
he says that the offending person immediately offered an apology to the Jewish
student, who said he was satisfied. A spokesman for the Respect Party
states that George Galloway is now “busy on tour, and unable to speak to the
Conservative Association this term”. However he also said Mr Galloway’s Westminster office has “not
received a letter protesting against the visit, or heard anything about one”.ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005