REMEMBER those little tags on post boxes that gave the time of the next collection? We complained a while ago of their disappearance, particularly as you could never be sure, if posting a letter close to the last collection time, whether or not you were in time - until it was too late.

Those tags are back, but instead of giving collection information, they permanently declare allegiance to a day.

The one nearest Spectator is on permanent Monday; that at the nearest sub-post office lives always in Thursday. What on earth do they mean?

Safe and sound

THOSE who live in glass houses ... these days seem to throw boulders with impunity, so here's a pebble. There have been many column inches devoted in the last week to Sudan 1, a food additive now deemed to be dangerous.

Dishes were quickly removed from supermarket shelves. But what of goods languishing in cupboards and freezers in homes? Spectator, being in possession of a bottle of Worcestershire sauce, rang the number on the label.

Despite it being what is normally out of hours for such numbers, the phone was answered swiftly and politely and the question hardly framed before reassurance was given that this product was in no way connected with the current food problem. Full marks to Lea and Perrins for making arrangements, but why wasn't this part of the national reporting on the subject?

In criminal issues, details are released to clear the uninvolved, thereby reducing anxiety.

Not naff

THE person responsible for the new Northallerton town logo has made a reasonable fist of it.

When the idea was first mooted, there was some speculation in the D&S Times' office about what it could be. After all, Northallerton has no iconic structure to use as a centrepiece.

There was a real danger, we thought, that some naff abstract symbol would be used which, while looking trendy, would say nothing about the town.

What has been produced is a decent compromise, a little low-key perhaps, but perhaps that's in keeping with a town that's sufficiently confident not to make an undue fuss about itself.

Echoes of FMD

FOUR years, almost to the week, after foot-and-mouth disease was reported, echoes of that terrible year still reverberate.

On Monday, Lower Wensleydale Young Farmers' Club holds an extraordinary meeting after which, members hope, the club will be able to run a full summer programme "as happened before foot-and-mouth"