[r-t] various

[Robin Woolley]

Hi All,

Alan Barber said "I do! [know the line of DNCB]"

One swallow doesn't make a summer - but the point is well made that 
there are at least three ways of ringing any method. I remember learning 
DNCB by the rules in two minutes.

Don said "It's a losing battle trying to stop idiots from doing stupid 
things by throwing more rules in their way. They're smarter than we are"

Not necessarily, they've just got more time on their hands to get into 
mischief. Those of a religious turn of mind will say "the devil finds 
work for idle hands". Pascal said "All men's miseries derive from not 
being able to sit in a quiet room alone."

Do people always know what they are ringing? I  am reminded of a story 
of someone being told to learn a particular line and after he had rung 
it, he was told it was London S Major. This happened at Allesley - which 
reminds me of another Peter Border story.

One thing which really pisses me off is the old arguments are constantly 
recycled. "The CC doesn't allow this to be rung" - or some variation. 
This is crap, and always has been, and those who say it is so are either 
idiots or knaves - they believe it to be true, or know it isn't but 
still say it - which is worse. There is no such thing as an illegal (in 
the true sense of the word) method. There is nothing to stop you ringing 
Cambridge Minor on 2-7 with bells leading and lying throughout (1&8), as 
one of our ringers witnessed recently, if you want to.

The second thing (which pisses me off) is that the Decisions have been 
turned into nothing less than a piece of chewed string by trying to 
accommodate a very small number of exceptional cases. Most 'innovations' 
are, once again to a first approximation, ignored. The word is 
'fashionable' - and things go out of fashion just as quickly (Friends 
Reunited?) but some things are always in use. An 'Other' category is all 
that is/was required - so ringers in a hundred years time can know what 
was rung.

Don also mentions asymmetric methods. I suspect that these have not been 
popular since it was believed that such Minor methods could never 
produce an extent - which is not true!

Best wishes
Robin