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Sixty-eight days to Christmas!

putin

Forget Vladimir Putin cuddling a puppy! That was last year’s calendar (no, really).

This year’s offering in the beefcake calendar market features Putin, among other things, with a kitten. Going straight for that internet demographic. Kitty does not look happy.

I don’t like the news around Mad Vlad at the moment. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say he’s right and we’re wrong in the Syrian conflict (I’m not absolutely certain sure I wouldn’t go that far, either), but I really, REALLY don’t like all the saber-rattling we’re doing.

By ‘we’ in this context, I mean the UK. I think the US is at least as bad, isn’t it? I’m only getting the news I occasionally glimpse between my fingers.

Whoever has the right of it, I’m absolutely as sure as I’ve ever been about anything that fucking Syria isn’t worth starting WWIII over. Could we not?

I could not come up with a good take on ‘Vlad the Impaler.’ Here are all the two-syllable rhymes for ‘impale’. Anything strike you as suitable?

abeille, airedale, airmail, amell, anael, ancell, arsdale, asail, assail, avail, avale, azrael, barksdale, barrell, bartell, bataille, beam scale, besayle, blackmail, black whale, borrell, brix scale, brown snail, bulk mail, cadell, camail, canaille, capell, cardell, carpale, carrell, cartmell, carvell, cattail, cicale, cigale, clinkscale, clout nail, clydesdale, coattail, cocktail, conrail, contrail, correll, curtail, cutrale, deer trail, defail, derail, descale, detail, dimsdale, dinsdale, doornail, dorrell, dovetail, downscale, drysdale, dugdale, e-mail, elayl, email, embale, empale, enscale, entail, euryale, exhale, fantail, fee tail, female, fence rail, ferndale, fife rail, fin whale, fish scale, folktale, forced sale, foxtail, fresh gale, full-scale, garrell, glendale, goodale, gorrell, gray whale, greenmail, greenvale, grisaille, guardrail, handrail, hay bale, hemdale, hillsdale, hinsdale, hobnail, holmdale, horsetail, houdaille, imail, impale, inhale, inrail, intail, inveil, jamail, jarrell, jerrell, kinsale, lambale, land rail, langdale, lansdale, large-scale, lavell, lawnsdale, levell, lonsdale, macphail, maleyl, marcell, mare’s tail, mcgrail, mchale, mcphail, medaille, mervaille, mikael, mikhail, minke whale, mireille, mishael, modell, mondale, montale, montvale, mortell, nadell, nasale, near gale, northvale, oakdale, oil shale, orrell, ovale, palmdale, parail, parcell, percale, perrell, plate rail, plymale, podell, poraille, portell, potale, presale, prevail, prunedale, quesnell, radell, rafale, ragsdale, rattail, regale, renail, resail, resale, retail, reveille, revell, ring mail, rocaille, rodale, savell, scarsdale, scotch gale, scottsdale, sea kale, secale, serail, shemale, slop pail, sociale, soft scale, soleil, split rail, springdale, spring scale, square sail, stockdale, stocksdale, strong gale, stub nail, subscale, sumrell, surveil, sweet gale, tagtail, tarsale, teasdale, telltale, the taal, third rail, thumbnail, time scale, tirrell, today’ll, toenail, toothed whale, topsail, tramell, travail, trouvaille, truesdale, turn tail, udale, ungueal, unnail, unscale, unvail, unveil, upscale, urteil, vandale, verrell, voicemail, wage scale, wassail, whitetail, white sale, white whale, wholesale, whole gale, wide wale, wind scale, withnail, yisrael, zapmail, zerwhale

Posted: October 18th, 2016 under international, personal.
Comments: 6

Comments

Comment from Ric Fan
Time: October 18, 2016, 9:17 pm

Russians have said that the US wants the rebels/ISIS to take out Assad and that the US believes it can handle the rebels/ISIS. Unfortunately, it sounds just like the type of boneheaded plan Obama/Kerry/Hillary would come up with.

Comment from Can’t Hark My Cry
Time: October 18, 2016, 10:30 pm

Just not going there on the political stuff (not the night for it). But the rhymes remind me of a passage in Dorothy Sayers’s /Murder Must Advertise/ where one of Peter Wimsey’s colleagues in the advertising agency is trying to think of a rhyme for Balliol (to complete a limerick starting “Bredon went to Balliol”) in the background while some other conversation is going on. Some of the rhymes were “jail you all, hail you all, impale you all”; they settled for “And his language was sesquepedalial,” only to be told by another colleague that the adjectival form is “sesquepedalian.”

What? Why are you looking at me like that?

Comment from Uncle Al
Time: October 18, 2016, 10:46 pm

@Can’t Hark My Cry – I’m looking at you like that because it is spelled “sesquipedalian”

It describes something that is a foot and a half long. No kidding.

Comment from OldFert
Time: October 19, 2016, 12:16 am

I remember Syria being the bad guys in the days of the USSR, but that was because they were pretty much in the Soviet camp.
Since the end of the Soviet Union, though, I’m not sure why they were considered “other.”
Seems that Assad (pick one), and pre Arab Spring Egypt, and even Post Saddam-era and pre Arab Spring Libya were relatively stable, if a bit despotic.
But I’m not sure why we persisted (this far into the 21st century) to try to de-Assadify Syria. Seems that he (generally) treats religious and ethnic minorities OK.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Comment from bds
Time: October 19, 2016, 2:01 am

Vald the Abseiler. Yeah, it doesn’t really make sense, but it sort of fits with his silly, macho stunts.

I’ve always liked the word abseil (not wild about actually doing it though). Kind of surprised they missed it as a rhyme in your list.

Comment from Deborah HH
Time: October 19, 2016, 2:54 am

Stoaty—A friend in the energy business turned me on to Geopolitical Futures and Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting, Inc). They are two highly regarded intelligence publications written for civilians. Paid subscriptions, but each publication offers a lot of free reading (on the order of drinking from a firehose). Info you rarely hear about on the nightly news, or find in the newspapers. I don’t understand half of what I read, but I keep on reading.
stratfor-dot-com and geopoliticalfutures-dot-com

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