wrote in message
...
"Chess One" writes:

Should you like to take a look at Michael's home town try this link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/photos/falmouth/1.shtml
where there are 27 views. I think #20 shows a palm tree, the climate is
the
mildest in Britain.

Almost excessively tropical in the short time I was there.

No view, alas, of one of Falmouth's greatest sights,
a pub with about 70 draught beers available.

I think I mentioned Nick Cummings in the other post. Excellent tour guide!
The only person I know who actually improved his rating after the first
pint. Nick sober was grumpy and lethargic. Nick well-oiled wanted a fight!
[chess that is, although I believe he used to bully young Michael and
threaten to throw him into the harbor. I don't mind saying this about him
because the sod stole my Sokolski book 33 years ago, the white and pink
covered one.]

The Blue Anchor at Helston, about 12 miles due West was one of only 5 pubs
in the UK brewing Spingo back in the sixties - it was extraordinarily
strong, and very dark, with what can only be described as 'litter' in it,
like leaf fragments, only more sinistre. Two pints of that had you either
singing or passed out.

I think it must have been approaching the alcohol limit for beer - and was
maybe 14% alcohol. I think the theoretical maximum is 17%.

My regrettably short stay there plus a perhaps exaggerated
concern for my health prevented me from sampling most
of them.

There is a 'thing' on the central ridge of Falmouth town which I don't know
the name of. Its built on the lighthouse model; you climb a tower into the
top chamber where there are 360 degree views clear of all surrounding
rooftops, and windows as if you were in a lighthouse, and there you find set
into the ceiling, an array of angled mirrors at approx 45 degrees. The
centre of the room is a glass table, and the effect of looking at the table
is to view the entire surroundings.

The structure probably has a proper name, and my guess is that its
mid-Victorian, a panoramicon?

Cordially, Phil

William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University