Hello and welcome to the Levy Letter for Wednesday. I hope youre having a good week, and if youre getting some sun today I hope you make the best of it. As we discovered on the programme yesterday, August is statistically our wettest month! A surprising fact, isnt it? Lets hope we have a bit more summer weather to come. And I hope youll be able to join me tonight at half past six on BBC One for todays Look North. Well have all of todays news and stories from our part of the world, and if you get in touch with your comments and opinions hopefully well have a few of those as well. If you have anything you want to say on a subject featured on Look North, or perhaps a story of your own you think we should be covering, drop us a line and email directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Olympics I hope youve been enjoying the coverage of the Olympics so far. Theres a feast of events for sports fans, particularly if youre an early riser because of course the competitions are early in the day for us due to the time difference from Beijing. I wonder if you saw the story about the little girl who sang at the opening ceremony. It was just one of the beautiful moments in the extravaganza, but apparently the little girl who we all saw performing was miming! Another girl, who wasnt deemed attractive enough, provided the actual singing voice, while a prettier girl was presented to the world. You have to feel sorry for the talented girl who had such a sweet voice, and this comes on the back of another story which revealed that the incredible firework footsteps of fire in the ceremony coverage was in reality a computer generated animation. Although the fireworks creating footsteps leading up to the stadium were actually carried out, and presumably looked spectacular, it was thought too dangerous to attempt to film them live, and so an effects company provided a simulation of what it would look like, which was screened in the television coverage to over a billion people. Still, you might feel these complaints seem slightly petty given how accomplished the whole thing was. And does it really matter if there was a bit of artistic license? I wonder what you think on this one. If you have any comments, let me know. Names According to new research, some traditional names such as Edna and Norman are dying out in England and Wales. The study compared the popular names of 1907 with those from the last five years, and surprise surprise, names like Gertrude and Percy arent as popular now as they once were. Ive heard it said that these things go in cycles, so we might yet see the return of children named Harold and Ethel, but perhaps not for a little while. Richard was the most popular name 200 years ago in 1807, but the numbers dropped from 4,671 given the name in the 19th century, to just 538 in 2005. Thats a surprising one as you expect Richard to be quite a common one. Some names such as Thomas, Jack and William have remained in vogue for 200 years. The survey also suggests that royal names such as Elizabeth, Philip and Charles have remained consistently popular over the past 100 years, and rather than losing some names altogether, many have been replaced by something similar, with Olivia replacing Olive as a popular name, Lily has become a modern-day Lilian and Alfred has become Alfie. According to statistics, the most popular baby names last year were Jack, Thomas and Oliver for boys and Grace, Ruby and Olivia for girls. Its interesting research, and something to think about if youre planning a child. Economy With all the fuss about the Olympics, weve had less room in the news for gloomy economic predictions, but there was another one today with The Bank of England saying it expects no economic growth over the next year or so. The governor used a wonderful phrase, he said that growth will be flat. Which means no growth of course. But you have to think about it a bit. Its all to do with the current problems in the world of finance, and also rising food and fuel prices. So not great news there, as were expecting flat growth for the next year. Well thats about it from me for today. I hope you enjoy the rest of your afternoon, make the best of the sun if you get it, and I hope youll join me tonight at half past six on BBC One for Wednesdays Look North. I look forward to seeing your comments on the programme, so keep those coming in, and Ill be back with the Levy Letter tomorrow. If you cant watch the programme for a very good reason, then dont worry, you can catch up online through our Look North website at www.bbc.co.uk/looknorthhull. You can see the most recent bulletin and some of our top stories individually. You can even view the programme online while youre holidaying abroad! If you happen to see the programme from overseas, let me know, and of course keep watching. Take care, by for now Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
