jocanib

How Oxford Street is being reclaimed from American candy shops

Westminster Council has been cracking down on US sweet shops after many were discovered to be fronts for illegitimate businesses. In November 2022 one third of the stores had been shut down and by March 2023 the Met Police had seized £1 million worth of goods from the shops.

The solution is pretty sweet (pun intended):

A new initiative by Westminster Council called Meanwhile On: Oxford Street will allow up-and-coming businesses to open in the sites of closed-down candy shops without paying rent, while also having their business rates cut by 70 percent. The free rent will last for the first six months of the stores opening. It comes as part of a scheme to regenerate central London’s waning high street.

Then you're in a perfect position to help him out.

Make sure he gets a say in it. Invite him into your life, don't just make sure you're the next dumping ground for him, if that makes sense. Kid needs a sense of agency, I'm sure. And he needs to know that someone wants him around.

And make sure he has trusted adults outside your household he can talk to if things get difficult at any point. Your brother sounds perfect for that. Weekly phone calls or something to check in with him. It's important that he knows he can tell someone if he's being treated badly. Not that you will, but he needs to know that f anything goes wrong, he has someone he can tell about it.

This will not be easy. But if you're in a position to do it, it'd be a great thing to do.

Good luck.

I used to live round the corner from a strange little place that sold cassette tapes (what we used for music and sometimes even data before CDs, for those too young to know). Everyone was convinced it was a front but it turned out it was a world famous tape supplier. Just happened to be based in my quiet little back street.

The newsagents next door to my last place have to have been a front though. Shelves were half bare, only ever stocked with stuff that doesn't go off. Always two or three guys hanging out in the back room, looking slightly surprised if you wanted to buy something. Cash only, no cards (not that unusual round here but they usually have a minimum purchase rather than just no card machine at all these days).

They were absolute sweethearts. Took loads of deliveries for us, always really nice about it. And that's more evidence that it's a front. Proper criminals are the best neighbours anyone could ask for because the last thing they want is complaints bringing the police to their door.

Do you live close enough to his school to offer (effectively) childcare during the week plus any time she is working at the weekends?

If so, you don't need to take him off her or present it as that kind of threat. Just give her some space to get her shit together without forcing the kid along for the ride.

If you don't live close enough to his school, it gets a lot more complicated.

(Apologies if I've missed this detail somewhere.)

An easy non-tomato pasta is a tin of soup as the sauce.

Butter and black pepper is as easy as it gets; get some fruit for afters and that's not a terrible meal. You can chuck in extra bits and pieces to make it more interesting (cold meats, salad veg, cheese, anything tasty you can get to bite size).

Corner stores have trouble keeping fresh produce in because it goes out of date so quick. It might be worth asking them if you could pick up any past their best items for cheap at the end of the day.

You can quarter an onion or a potato (no need to peel) and get through most soft veg with a butter knife. But you could do with a better knife. Ask around some charity shops, they'll often have stuff like that come in and (depending on where you are) many of them still function as both fundraiser and provider of cheap stuff for people who need it.

Good luck. Hope things get easier for you soon.

The Huawei Talkband series does it. It's a smartwatch which turns into a bluetooth headset. For some reason, most reviewers struggle to see why anyone would want that but I struggle to see why anyone wouldn't...

They're different sorts of foldables. Hence Samsung calling one of theirs "Fold" and the other "Flip" (because the latter is the same form factor as older clamshell designs).

The cases do make them larger, as for every phone. But they still fit in your back pocket without threatening to fall out of it. The bulk of the case makes it even safer to pocket without making it any harder.

Secure pocketability when I'm not wearing a big jacket is the reason I have one, obv.

And are we not animals just doing the same?

If you know what "man made" means you know this question is pointless?

We're in the middle of a global fascist spasm. If you want to stick your fingers in your ears and pretend it's not happening, I think Threads is trying to be that place.

The East India Company.

Most people have more than the average number of legs.