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Queeny cuppy cakes

Yes, the missing one is the one I bought. It was nice. I like cuppy cakes.

Nothing much to say for myself today. My little pigeon had vanished, as expected, but whether he flew off into the sunset or was eaten by the cat, I couldn’t say. No other pigeon has yet claimed the nest, though quite a few of them auditioned for it today.

Lavendergirl has won the dick with Deborah James, dead aged 40. Sad story, that. She was a school teacher until she was diagnosed with bowel cancer and spent her remaining years raising money and journalisming about cancer.

You know what that means? Yes, you do! Yes, you do! New Deadpool tomorrow. Be here, 6 WBT, and we will contemplate mortality together.

Nah, just kidding – we’ll laugh and chat and mark celebrities for death.

June 30, 2022 — 8:00 pm
Comments: 3

Oh, Your Majesty!

This is a postage stamp, y’all. From the Royal Mail, y’all (see Her Maj in the corner?). It’s part of a whole series of vomitously illustrated commemorative stamps for Pride Month

 

Reminds me of my favorite tweet of all time:  

June 29, 2022 — 6:57 pm
Comments: 15

These are not my pigeons

Today has been a day of pigeon drama. When I got to work early, one of the little ones was on the ground by the front door, looking stunned. I could see mama pigeon perched above watching him and I thought to myself, let nature take its course, Weasel. I found the other one had flown off (never to return, Wikipedia tells me).

About an hour later, when he hadn’t moved from the spot, I lost my nerve, brought him upstairs and put him back in the nest. After all, one of them was several days younger than the other, so perhaps this one was not quite ready.

Both mom and dad turned up to feed him, several times all morning. That in itself is unusual – we might see one of them, once, feeding the chicks. So I figured they were helping him build strength to try again. Which he didn’t seem at all inclined to do.

Until these two showed up.

These two are not the parents. They are totally different birds. I’ve never seen them before. They began to peck and pinch and kick the baby and make him squeak. I had never heard of any sort of bird community parenting – does it really take a village to raise a pigeon? – but I assumed they were encouraging him to fly off. Concerned aunties, maybe. It seemed awfully cruel, but I thought to myself, let nature take its course, Weasel.

The little one was ducking under the geraniums, squeaking and squirming and refusing to fly off and I lost my nerve again. Spooked them away.

I raised the blinds so they could see me better and waved at them. I shoo’d them off half a dozen times, at least. Eventually, they stopped coming back, though they did investigate the window box at the far left for a while (there are three).

You know what I think? I think they were trying to kick him out and steal that primo nesting spot. The internet won’t tell me if pigeons ever do that.

I’ve watched this little bird from egg to ugly mutant and I wasn’t about to see him harmed just as he was looking like a proper bird.

Things were stable when I left. Mom had been back to feed him again. He was stretching his legs and his wings and looking a lot more capable.

Thing is, I don’t work tomorrow. I will probably never know quite how this turns out. When I go in Thursday, there’s likely to be nothing to see, no matter what the outcome.

Except possibly a pigeon sitting on eggs again. They mate for life, return to the same nest and will hatch littl’uns over and over again, even in Winter, if the food supply is good.

I’m told oatmeal is good for them. Or rice.

June 28, 2022 — 7:40 pm
Comments: 4

Should be inna museum

Nethack has turned 35 and been inducted into the Museum of Modern Art (it appears to be Object 199863).

What is? One of the most wonderful and diabolically complex games ever created, and it could run on the stupidest hardware. I wrote more about it in 2009 when I finally won my first game…after playing for 24 years.

Hey, man, it’s about the journey.

Happy Monday, everyone! Twitter is still going REEEEEEEE!

June 27, 2022 — 7:42 pm
Comments: 4

Phew!

I was 13 when Roe v Wade was decided and I remember being very surprised that the court ruled the way they did. Abortion was only recently legal and in a very few states at that point, was wildly controversial, and a ruling from on high was only going to make matters worse. The Supremes weren’t usually that meddling.

Being only 13, my thoughts on the matter were probably a lot less coherent, but I got the emotional gist.

Abortion is not one of my biggest issues, though the Gosnell stuff got to me. But every law-talking-dude I’ve ever read says it was a complete mess of a decision. And goodness knows the Founders were unlikely to hide anything in the text that was pro-abortion. So, good riddance.

I wonder if they’ll burn DC to the ground tonight. Man, I’d miss the Smithsonian. Good weekend, everyone!

June 24, 2022 — 5:57 pm
Comments: 13

Happy birthday!

Clarence Thomas turns 74 today. I’m not going to pretend I read a *lot* of Supreme Court decisions, but when I do, Thomas is the best – his decisions are clear and explicable and his opinions are written that way.

Which is weird because English isn’t his first language. He grew up in a Georgia community speaking a creole dialect called Gullah. At least, that’s what Wikipedia told me.

Why on earth George Bush brought in a newbie to be Chief Justice when Thomas was Right There, I will never know.

Even if you don’t usually indulge in Twitter, today would be good day to take a peek. Lefty Twitter is going gaga over the gun ruling today.

If they strike down Roe v. Wade this week, I do think Twitter will spontaneously combust.

June 23, 2022 — 6:54 pm
Comments: 6

Boneless chicken

Chickens blissing out in the sun dissolve into formless heaps of feathers.

When we see a cat folded in half backwards off a sofa with his paws in the air and his mouth open, we’re like d’awwwww, he’s drooling. But a chicken relaxing in the grass looks like a stern object lesson about pesticides in the garden.

Relaxed chickens are impossible to paint.

June 22, 2022 — 7:56 pm
Comments: 9

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

Ya think?

Well, it made me laugh. Also, please note the police don’t suspect it’s arson, they suspect it’s suspected arson. And that one sad, lonely quotation mark…perfect!

The actual story is boring. Though I note that they as

I picked up my new glasses today. I’ve been careening around with my head tilted to one side dealing with old pairs of glasses with one missing earpiece. I think I have five pairs now.

They did the exam two weeks ago. I paid an extra £10 for a 3D scan and then the examiner and I flew around the inside of my eyeballs like we were fixing to take out the Death Star. I have shallow fissures inside that are apparently not dangerous. It was kind of creepy, honestly.

They said a week to ten days on the glasses, but to call them if two weeks went by. That really should have been a hint. It’ll be two weeks tomorrow, and sure enough – my glasses have apparently been rattling around in the office for who knows how long.

What happened to making them while you wait? Nah, don’t answer that. I think we’re going to have to get used to shit service for a while, and covid is the scapegoat.

June 20, 2022 — 8:02 pm
Comments: 5

More, d’aww…

Yes, they both hatched. I forgot to tell you. You can just make out a second beak at the arrow.

Pigeon number two is several days younger and therefore smaller. I couldn’t really see him until the parents started leaving the nest for longer periods.

Both parents are still highly attentive. I can’t tell if they both feed the babies, but they both babysit. We’re having a bit of a mini-heatwave at the moment and the parents don’t sit on the nest, they sit on the edge and provide shade from the morning sun.

Honestly, smarter than I thought pigeons were.

Have a good weekend!

June 17, 2022 — 7:20 pm
Comments: 5