Lookit the purdy weasel
Such poise! Such grace! Such weasel crotch!
I always make a bee-line for the ferret tent. This one had open sides, so the pong wasn’t so cruel.
This girl wasn’t much bigger than a stoat and, in white, looked very erminey. I assumed it was a baby, but he said jills are just that small. I don’t remember them being that teeny compared to the males, but I guess the man should know his stuff.
I still want one, but I always remember the ferret owner I met who also kept chickens, but on opposite sides of the house. One day, a chicken came around the house at the wrong time and the pet ferret bit the man’s thumb to the bone to get at it.
Chickens and mustelids don’t mix.
August 15, 2023 — 6:42 pm
Comments: 3
Behold! I have chosen my hattery!
It’s the height of the summer fête season. Two on Saturday. I found these in a sale bin at a country show.
They’re reversible, it says – the other side is black. So I suppose you could turn them inside out for ordinary use. I think you can still make out the words around the brim, though.
Wearing these out probably constitutes a public order offence (Brit for disorderly conduct).
A poetic people.
August 14, 2023 — 7:16 pm
Comments: 12
YESSS!!!
I met my deadline!
The backstory is, one of our very senior researchers is increasingly old and frail and has been in the hospital for the last three months. Naturally, being the academic type, she used the time to write this book and the corresponding display. She has just returned to work a few hours a day and is there any way I could get it all laid out by the 11th?
I may be a weasel, but I’m not a monster.
I won’t say it was fun chasing a deadline, but it does feel good not to let an old skill fade away.
Nothing would do but a glass of my lucky whisky. Have a good weekend, everyone!
p.s. the big-ass lens flare is because it was out of focus and I was too lazy to get up and retake the photo. I have booze to drink, you know!
August 11, 2023 — 7:38 pm
Comments: 5
Hey! Blog’s back up!
Too late! Burger night…gotta go burger.
Noooo, not cooking a Big Mac. I posted this here picture because I have downloaded the McDonald’s phone app.
We only go to Mickey D’s about once a month – if that! – but it seems stupid to ignore discounts. Also, I can order food on the way and it will be ready when we get there, so they tell me.
I feel kinda dirty, though.
True story: in 1975, I had a Big Mac, fries and a Coke every single day for the whole year (not counting summer when I was down on the farm). And I was skinny. Okay, I had to walk a mile there and back, but still.
If memory serves, it was less than a buck.
August 10, 2023 — 8:04 pm
Comments: 9
Google Photos is weird
I have no idea how Google Photos chooses which photo to highlight when you open it, but this one is January 25, 2005 and my sweet old cat Charlotte in snowy Rhode Island.
It’s usually a dead pet. Thanks for the gut punch, Google.
Zo! I’m sitting here with a well-deserved G&T in front of me. With one or two little tweaks, I think I’m ready for printing and proofing tomorrow. Last minute fixes early Friday and done.
This is me, skittering around the corner on two wheels.
August 9, 2023 — 7:41 pm
Comments: 3
Phew!
Not only did I finish a first draft of the layout – which means I’m going to make my deadline, even if I skitter around the corner on two wheels – but the company bought me a copy of Microsoft Office for home.
I know what you’re thinking – Microsoft Anything is shit. And so it is. But I’ve been sitting in front of it for 40 years now(!) and I kinda know how things work, even if I have to kick them in the shins from time to time.
The open source substitutes like Libre Office and Open Office do a really good job mimicking the function of Office, but I’ve struggled for years with compatibility issues trying to take documents back and forth from home to work. Objects disappear or move or crash. They don’t play nice together.
They didn’t buy Office for this project, by the way – they bought it to get into an Access database. So I’m unsure whether to work on the book with this software – the version I have at work is 2007. Do I trust it to be backward compatible? The clock is running out…
p.s. Ooo! It’s fun to have an up-to-date version! I’ve been fiddling with the fonts in Outlook all afternoon.
p.p.s. Who you calling sad?
August 8, 2023 — 6:18 pm
Comments: 11
I swore I’d never do this again
When I did a lot of deadline-driven work, I had a terrible habit of taking on jobs that were simply impossible in the time given. Sometimes procrastination was involved, so it was my fault. Sometimes, I overpromised what I was capable of, so I guess that was my fault, too.
Okay, fine. It’s my fault.
I always succeeded, somehow. Mostly through sheer terror of the shame of failure. But I swore I’d never put myself through it again.
Anyway, I was all, like, “sure I can lay out a book in four days. And take the photos? Of course. The copy isn’t finalized yet? No problem, just dribble it to me. Announce it ahead of time in the local paper? Swell!”
So, while I run in circles yipping, please enjoy some trivia. This stamp, as you may know, is a Penny Black – the world’s first postage stamp. And because it was first, England is the only country in the world that doesn’t have to put the name of their country on a stamp.
If you find a stamp without country information, it’s English.
Now, excuse me. Expect me scarce and terrified.
August 7, 2023 — 7:00 pm
Comments: 4
Add title
Rather interesting article today on Going Postal about Tollund Man.
Actually, the article is about an old archaeology series on the BBC, available via iPlayer, which I haven’t watched myself yet. You might be able to watch it for your ownself if your VPN is set to the UK and you swear you’re British and have paid for a TV license.
They do ask. Yes we have :(
Anyway, among the revelations are horned helmets. I’m sure I’ve always read there were no horned helmets in antiquity.
Changing the subject, I’ve had a good look at Google Images headshots and I don’t think Possum Lady is Porno Lady. I think they both used a common theatrical alias and when Possum lady discovered this – lovable scamp that she is – she leaned into it.
Right. I brought some work home. If I don’t want to booger my Saturday, I better hop to it. Have a good weekend!
August 4, 2023 — 6:56 pm
Comments: 6
Happy Flying Ant Day!
Flying Ant Day is a term used to refer to the short period of time when ants emerge from their nests and search for mates, usually in July or August when the weather is hot and humid.The number of ants flying on certain days can be large enough to be detected by weather service radar systems, resembling rain showers. While there is no precise date for Flying Ant Day 2023, it usually falls in July or August on a hot, humid day, often after heavy rain fall. The number of ants flying on certain days can be large enough to be detected by weather service radar systems, resembling rain showers. Female winged ants can live up to 15 years, but males usually die just days after mating – the sole reason they are bred.
I can’t link a source for that. The Brave browser’s search function has gone AI and that paragraph is frankensteined together from several sources. They do tell you what bits go with what sources, but I’m far too lazy for that.
By common belief, Flying Ant Day varies from year to year but is the same day all over Britain, which would be weirdly cool. Sadly, it ain’t so. There are localized swarms in similar weather.
Still, it’s a giant formicalur Sadie Hawkins Day.
We were sitting in the garden with our next along neighbor, and suddenly the air was full of ants. The low brick wall around the patio was covered in hundreds of them. I ran inside to get my phone and by the time I came out again, there were only a few. It’s that quick.
That’s probably why I’ve only posted about it once before, in 2011.
p.s. one of the bastards flew into my right eye. I still feel like there are bits in there. Sorry to have screwed up your one and only sex, little dude.
August 3, 2023 — 7:52 pm
Comments: 6
How did I miss this little detail?
Some Vegetable sent me a link to this video. Why yes – that’s Dylan Mulvaney with the Possum Lady. She uploaded it last month, but it must have been made some time ago. Mulvaney looks relatively sane there.
If you get to the point you looked saner wearing floppy ears and pretending to be a possum, you probably took a very wrong turn somewhere.
Anyway! I discovered Possum Lady channel (and her website) during lockdown and it afforded me many a happy hour of wholesome chuckles. I wrote at the time:
The lady goes by Georgette Spelvin, a famous pseudonym from American theater history. All anyone knows is she’s a woman of a certain age who lives in Southern California and has a bunch of rescue squirrels and possums.
It was Georgina Spelvin, actually, and Wikipedia has helpfully added this observation to the article: “‘Georgina Spelvin’ has fallen out of general use since it was adopted as a screen name by pornographic actress Shelley Graham, who was credited by that name in The Devil in Miss Jones.”
Whu-hu-hu-huat? Possum Lady is a porn star?! That porn star?
Let me tell you a story. When I was in my freshman year in art school, I and three of my friends went to see The Devil in Miss Jones. We had more or less just met, just turned 18, all newly minted grownups out on the town and we thought, Why not? Why not go see a hardcore porn movie in the theater?
It was in a proper theater, not a porn theater, because it was regarded as an art film. Do you know what makes a porno an art film? Everyone’s having sex, but nobody’s having fun. It’s grubby and ugly and everyone’s miserable.
Not something to see with your new little friends. ‘Bout died of cringe.
August 2, 2023 — 7:53 pm
Comments: 8