Unbearable
Cannot watch Notre Dame burn. Just cannot deal.
We heard about the news from my mother-in-law before it hit the top of the BBC (I think it might have been a smaller item down the page) — process that for a moment. Drudge had it front and center, though.
Take my advice: don’t go to Twitter tonight. I’m coming to the conclusion that the only purpose of Twitter is to make me psychotically angry.
Beautiful gargoyle picture above from Peter Adams Photography. I would say “courtesy of” but I don’t think it counts as a courtesy if you didn’t ask.
April 15, 2019 — 9:38 pm
Comments: 10
If I eat these, will I die?
An amazing whole bed of these ‘shrooms sprung up over the weekend in one of the flower beds. They were lovely and fluffy and white at first and I’m pretty sure they’re some flavor of champignons.
They’re looking a little tired and not so appetizing now, but I’m still tempted. Color photos wouldn’t help; they’re just kind of grayish.
I have a book on identifying local fungi around here somewhere, but I’m not sure where and I’m lazy. Pls help, internet.
The British have a lovely saying that’s not nearly as rude as it sounds: “suck it and see.”
Deborah HH has won the deadpool with Richard Cole, last of the Doolittle Raiders. You know what that means:
HERE. TOMORROW. SIX SHARP WBT. DEAD POOL ROUND 120.
April 10, 2019 — 8:34 pm
Comments: 10
Glamour and celebrity
Today, we were next in line to this guy in the supermarket checkout. I have a side bet with Uncle B that you guys will know who he is. You’re just the type.
The picture is a hint. I stole it from the BBC, which is also a hint.
My, he did look weedy, I must say. He was buying a sad little cluster of cans of mushroom soup. One he was returning because he’d accidentally picked one up with chicken in it, so I suspect vegetarian. Don’t do it, kids. Just don’t.
I probably violated half a dozen EU privacy directives just now.
Uncle B nodded hello to him, but I was busy wondering if I could sneakily take a phone picture without getting caught. The answer is no.
April 9, 2019 — 8:49 pm
Comments: 18
My kitchen garbage smells like cinnamon
My tea came today! That’s a big ol’ bag of chai, innit?
I generally prefer to make it up myself from spices, but this is a very nice commercial blend. If you’re in the UK, I recommend these people (strangely, they have many more varieties of tea in their Ebay shop than their online store). I can’t guarantee they make it up on the day they ship it, as they claim, but we’ve now ordered quite a bit of tea from them and it’s all been excellent.
Not cheap. Not as expensive as some, but not cheap. Fancy tea is dear, even in the land of fanatic tea drinkers.
Good weekend, all!
April 5, 2019 — 8:13 pm
Comments: 8
What the sam hill is going on here?
Meet my box of extra long kitchen matches. It is a clip art tragedy, featuring a googly-eyed hairy-leggèd prestidigitator spinning a wiener for an indifferent audience of Chads and Beckys.
Did you know fire targets children? Specifically?
I reckon that’s what’s going on in the warning box in the upper right: roving fire bolts victimizing a luckless child.
Forget the porn license – give us the clipart license!
p.s. No. I did not buy a porn license yesterday. Top of the world, Ma!
April 2, 2019 — 9:11 pm
Comments: 17
What time?
This is one of the many images that turns up when you do a search of the URL of my blog using this keyword “sad”. I should point out, this particular chicken is currently not so much sad these days as. You know. Dead.
Me, I’m just sad. I had to go in an hour early this morning. Which I did all last week, so whatever, but the differences is our clocks changed Sunday night.
I hate it when the clocks change. I’ll sulk about it for weeks.
Starting…now.
April 1, 2019 — 9:21 pm
Comments: 8
Not my chicken. Not my cat.
The look on that bird’s face.
Little Boo is not bad about chasing chickens. He’s had a go because it’s such fun, but he backed down when I yelled at him.
He’s responsive to that. Which is, on the one hand, gratifying. But on the other hand, a little sad. Cats are supposed to be bastards, but he’s incredibly shy and eager to please.
Jack was such an unrepentant chicken chaser that I literally wondered if he was deaf. The screaming and the throwing things, it did nothing.
Another picture pinched from my chicken-focused social media. Because I’ve had a lovely laid-back Friday afternoon and I’m lazy. Good weekend, all!
March 29, 2019 — 10:37 pm
Comments: 13
No, YouTube. Let us not go.
This popped up at the top of my YouTube tonight, as though they haven’t been interrupting my programs flogging this thing for months and months. That and their ‘premium’ service — which, as far as I can tell, just lets you play videos in the background on your phone.
No, YouTube. Nobody wants this. Go away.
Anyway. Got jammed up with work tonight, ‘Shopping pictures and watching ‘Tubes.
p.s. Uncle B just reminded me — they’ve started shoving ads randomly and badly all over videos now, too. Like, plop in the middle of an album.
March 28, 2019 — 10:32 pm
Comments: 6
Divided by a common language
I had one of those moments today, trying to pry two stuck stackable chairs apart and I said, “we have to put a little English on it” and all the English people went quiet and stared.
Yeah. I’ve wondered where the phrase came from, too. That seemed like a really good time to look it up.
In case it is hopelessly old-fashioned of me, “to put a little English on it” is most often heard in the context of baseball for putting a spin or curve on the ball. Metaphorically, it is giving something a little twist.
Someone in the room guessed it came from cricket. Which is a very good guess, because the pitcher (erm, bowler) often puts a little spin on the ball so it hops up unpredictably after the first (obligatory) bounce.
I gather. Nobody has ever tried to explain cricket to me, and with any luck no-one ever will.
Anyway. No. It comes from France. And billiards. The expression was to put a little ‘angle’ on it, which is a natural pun for Angles and the Anglais. Ironically, the pun doesn’t work in English.
You’ll have to take my word for it, though. I did all this on my phone, on the hoof, and I’m too lazy to look up the exact liink again.
March 27, 2019 — 9:08 pm
Comments: 15
My giant monkey comic book came today!
If you don’t know what this is: Richard Meyer is a guy who loves comic books. A little over a year ago he started a YouTube channel to talk about it. It quickly became all about how social justice was ruining the funny books. This made his channel very, very popular and made the current crop of comic book professionals very, very angry. And they were all like if you’re so smart, why don’t you make your own comic? And then he did. So they picked up the phone and scared his publisher off*. So then he self-published. I was one of the first few hundred backers, me.
It looks pretty good. I don’t know yet. I can’t read comics sober.
March 26, 2019 — 9:14 pm
Comments: 6