Forgotten City

Caroline Crampton -

The Birthplace Of County Cricket?

Kit Harris | Wisden | 11th April 2024

The beginning of county cricket in England is murky: various matches played as the game evolved in the late 18C can claim to be the "first". But the lost ground of Laleham Burway has a better case than most — it definitely hosted two counties and the wickets "were not pitched on a whim". Unfortunately, "it is not quite possible to reach the enclosure now, on account of the cows" (1,600 words)

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The Forgotten War On Beepers

Louis Anslow | Pessimists Archive | 10th April 2024

Decades before anyone was worried about smartphone addiction, the same discourse surrounded beepers. The "pager panic" of the late 1980s stemmed from their adoption by both teenagers and drug addicts — and the concern was that one group might use them to maintain contact with the other. New Jersey even passed a law banning them. A reminder that everything is cyclical (1,000 words)

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