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Here we go…

Last day of work today. I’m off for a couple of weeks. I can’t be more precise as I’ll have to go in briefly in the middle to check on the building. A glorified janitor, me.

I usually come up with a cheap Christmas gimmick to spare me even the desultory effort of coming up with a post every day, but I drew a blank.

I briefly considered putting a perishable item of food outside and taking its picture every day to post. You know, the Twelve Days of Deteriorating Baloney or something. I’m pretty sure if a fox didn’t eat it and the cat didn’t eat it and the seagulls didn’t eat it a chicken would.

So it’ll just have to be me and my low effort shitposting this year.

Adorable ferret stolen from Reddit.

December 20, 2022 — 7:43 pm
Comments: 6

Look what we’re getting for Thanksgiving

Oof! It is upon us.

Still, we’re poised to do the thing. You know…the thing. We eat our T’day as an evening meal, about 9:30, because – what the hell? It’s England and nobody knows what the traditions are. I make ’em up as I go.

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone! Or had one, as the case may be.

November 24, 2022 — 5:49 pm
Comments: 15

Happy you-know-what

I saw this warty pumpkin and had to have it. It’s a variety known as knucklehead.

Mistake. The outer skin is like iron. I almost gave up on it.

If it looks like it was chewed into shape by a band of chipmunks on meth, that’s why. I basically chiselled holes in it. Stupid pumpkin.

Our clocks went back yesterday. This is my first day of work when it was dark by five. I’ve just checked the weather forecast and it’s rain every single day for the foreseeable.

Now, that’s some scary shit.

October 31, 2022 — 5:39 pm
Comments: 11

Pull my finger

Happy Columbus Day, everyone. Or as we usually observe it, the annual Argue with Lefties About Columbus Day, Day.

Indigenous Peoples Day, indeed. Indigenous peoples is such a lumpen, juiceless expression. Who would want to be one of them?

I know from living in Rhode Island that Columbus Day is very much seen as a celebration of Italian immigrants. Good luck getting those guys to back off their special day.

Oddly enough, in countries all over South America, it’s called some variant of Día de la Raza or “Day of the Race” – a celebration of Hispanics arriving in the New World. Our neighbors to the south are much less shy about their European heritage. Or were until recently, anyway.

Oh, yah, you betcha – in predominantly Scandihoovian communities, they celebrate it as Leif Erikson Day, because by golly he got here first.

I think this one is too complicated to cancel, y’all.

October 10, 2022 — 6:06 pm
Comments: 12

Happy Independence Day, ‘Mericans!

I’ll bet you all had the day off.

Brits have been nice about it, actually. Everyone’s wished me a happy Fourth. Somebody asked if we were going to have turkey tonight, which tickled me. Like the only thing Americans can think to do on our special holidays is eat turkey. I think that might be the same person who asked if we give each other Thanksgiving Day cards.

We’re having hamburgers and beer tonight. That’s as much America as I have the energy for today. Hope you’re having a great one!

July 4, 2022 — 7:11 pm
Comments: 6

Happy Solstice!

We’re going to light the fire bowl, sit in the garden with a bottle of English wine and be all pagan-y.

I know a lot of you live in Hot Places, so this may not resonate with you, but it’s cold here. It’s been cold all summer so far. We had fires right into June.
To the point I really worry we’re headed into global cooling territory.

This is not like Midsummer where I growed up.

On the other hand, it’s not been unusually cold in the Winter, either. No significant snow in years. It’s like it’s just damp and cold and miserable all year round.

Global Miserabling.

June 21, 2022 — 6:19 pm
Comments: 6

I’m not a very observant Nazi


Man, I can’t believe I forgot to wish you guys a happy Führer’s birthday yesterday.

I think it was the SPLC that first informed the world that conservatives observe Hitler’s b’day. If you do a search of SPLC and “Hitler’s birthday” you get a long list of white supremacist goings-on that they claim were timed to coincide with the big H’s big day. Jail uprisings and the like.

I honestly would have no idea what Hitler’s birthday was if they didn’t publicize it. Now I can’t forget it.

Well, except I forgot it yesterday. Perhaps on account of that other thing we observe on the 20th.

Dead Pool tomorrow! Be here! Or don’t! I’m not the boss of you.

April 21, 2022 — 7:01 pm
Comments: 4

Gong hei fat choy, y’all!

‘Tis the Year of the Tiger again. This blog is so old, it’s cycling back through the Chinese Zodiac a second time. I hoped there was an old graphic I could steal, but Chinese New Year was on a Sunday in 2010. But hey, I found this neat screen shot from one of the Far Cry games. That’ll do.

Oddly enough, though we still have the godawfullest months February and March stretching out before us, it really does feel like Spring this week. The sun is shining, the birds are shouting insults at each other from the treetops, and Uncle B has his nose in a seed catalogue.

A big thanks to bds and technochitlin, respectively, for telling me a tweet of mine made both Ace and Instapundit. Woohoo!

Only, erm…mine was a stupid Boomer take and Mickey Kaus had the genuinely interesting (and terrifying) observation:

I’ve thought a lot about this since he tweeted it a couple of days ago. If he’s right – and it’s a take horribly congruent with Critical Race Theory – it’s yet another example of a mindset so alien and incomprehensible to me that we might as well be different species.

That legit scares me.

February 1, 2022 — 7:15 pm
Comments: 7

Merry Chickmas!

The last chicken of the year is…a robin. He’s an honorary member of my flock. We always have one, and he always comes to feed with the chooks.

You’ll note it’s a completely different species than an American robin – more like a chickadee in size and shape. Here he is in color. The European robin (Erithacus rubecula).

The robin is beloved of Brits and frequent symbol of Christmas here because they are around all Winter and they’re cheeky little bastards. If they were the size of seagulls, they’d probably have a bodycount.

And with that, I’m back to work tomorrow. I hope you had a great break and thank you for indulging me!

January 3, 2022 — 6:55 pm
Comments: 5

Merry Christmas, y’all!

Having a wonderful one.

The artist is Adriana de Matos, born in Portugal but lives in Scotland. This is the Christmas card Uncle B gave me.

It catches me out every year. I forget he starts festivities with a card and I usually forget to get him one. Is exchanging cards part of your family tradition?

Hope you’re having a good one. Our Christmas dinner is an evening meal, so pardon me while I go boil sweet potatoes. Carry on Dead Pooling!

December 25, 2021 — 4:20 pm
Comments: 18