Yes, it’s who you think it is
You know the legend, but here it is from the plinth. You can’t be any more authoritative than a plinth:
The Legend of Lady Godiva
The earliest account of the legend is the Chronic of Roger of Wendover (c. 1057), which tells of Lady Godiva pleading with her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, to repeal the heavy taxes on the people of Coventry. Growing tired of her pleas he eventually agreed to remove all taxes, if she rode through the town naked.
Lady Godiva’s horror at this request was overcome by her sympathy for the people of Coventry and their plight. Ordering all the people to stay indoors, and to keep the windows and doors barred, she rode through the silent streets of Coventry with only her long hair to cover her nudity.
One man, named Tom, dared to sneak a glance as she rode by. But, before he could gaze upon her, he was struck blind. This is thought to be the origin of the term ‘Peeping Tom’.
Having completed her ordeal, Leofric was true to his word and abolished the heavy taxes.
Although a legend, it has been recorded that in the reign of Edward I, no tolls were paid in Coventry except by those on horseback.
I always thought “I want the whole town to see my wife naked” was a weird flex.
Nobody had Pat Robertson or the Iron Sheik. I’d give good money to watch those two take the journey together.
Have a good weekend!
June 9, 2023 — 7:38 pm
Comments: 3
Well, that’s…something
If you can’t read it, it says “1868 – last publicly hanged woman in Britain.”
She wasn’t executed on that exact spot – this is on the path in the mall. The old Maidstone Gaol is about a thousand feet away. It’s been a jail for over 200 years; what’s left of it is currently a sex offenders unit. Reggie Kray married his girlfriend there in 1997.
Frances Kidder married the man who fathered her child and then found he already had a daughter. She was not pleased. Neighbors said she could be heard beating Louisa of a night.
One day, they were visiting relatives in New Romney and Frances and Louisa went for a walk. Frances came back alone and said Louisa fell in a ditch or something, whatever.
At her trial, her mother, father, husband and sister gave evidence how much Frances hated Louisa (which probably says something about how the family felt about Frances). She was hanged in front of the jail at noon on 2 April 1868. She was twenty-five. Her husband was already living with her sister by then and they both were in the crowd.
People, eh?
It was Maidstone day today. I went all by myself on the train like a big girl and had my fingerprints taken in aid of my citizenship application. It was all very pleasant, but I’m whacked. I’ll know if I succeeded in six months.
June 7, 2023 — 6:07 pm
Comments: 3
A tale of two teacups
The one on the left has been through the dishwasher a bajillion times. The one on the right hasn’t.
Not the most interesting post ever, but at least it isn’t bloody livestock again!
Is it Friday yet…?
June 1, 2023 — 6:13 pm
Comments: 8
My month as a blue check
Okay, it’s only been 20 days, but I have to make up my mind soon whether I want to renew.
By far, my favorite part is bold and italic. It’s a little thing, but it pleases me. I am an emphasis abuser going way back.
I don’t like having a bajillion characters. I prefer the discipline of having to make my point in 280 or fewer. Twitter doesn’t seem like the right place for long-form commentary to me – I never read the long ones, myself. (It remains to be seen whether it will work for video, as Tucker intends).
You only get edit powers on your own tweets, not on comments. On comments, there’s delay before it actually posts them, and you watch the circle count down. It’s like 20 seconds. On the upside, that does force you to proof your tweet one more time, but I almost always hit the button to make it post immediately. Don’t think I like this feature.
I was hoping for higher engagement and I’m not sure about that.
Of course, tarnishing the status symbol for the old blue check brigade is delightful. I expected to be taunted for having bought my check, but that hasn’t happened.
I’m just not sure…
p.s. One of these days, I’m going to fix that poor weasel avatar. The muzzle is too cat-like and it has a hump on its back.
p.p.s. I’ve got a four day weekend coming up, starting…now.
p.p.p.s. Kitty seems all better. Phew!
p.p.p.p.s. No, nobody had Tina Turner this round.
May 25, 2023 — 7:38 pm
Comments: 8
First!
Six radishes. First crop of the year. Uncle B said they went from planting to crop in a month.
I ate one right away to see what it was like (nice texture, spicy). I put two and a half in soup (it adds a surprisingly nice flavor to soup) and the other two and a half in coleslaw (haven’t tried it yet).
Salad days have arrived.
We did something spontaneous tonight – went to a charity auction. We bid on a couple of things but didn’t win. People were bidding way over market value, because charity. I have a hard time doing that, because cheap.
Anyway, back late and knackered. Toodles!
May 24, 2023 — 8:50 pm
Comments: 11
Har har
Actual headline: “Council fills in potholes after residents paint penises around them”
They initially tried to scrub out the penii, but that just made the potholes worse, naturally. Oh the huffy tone of the local council. See, this put pressure on pothole repair crews, who were expected to fill different potholes that day.
This was in Uckfield, Sussex earlier this week. It’s near Piltdown. Yes, that Piltdown.
May 17, 2023 — 7:11 pm
Comments: 10
Woopsie doodle!
So you know that biofeedback dingus I bought? I bought two of them. Here’s how that happened.
I asked Ebay to show me Buy It Now listings, because it was my birthday and I wanted my toy now, now, now. The first listing to come up was £30 cheaper than anyone else. Cool I thought and entered that amount.
Turns out, it wasn’t a Buy It Now, it was an auction – with, like, seven days left on it. I ain’t waiting that long! No problem, thinks I, that’s so cheap, someone will surely outbid me in the last few minutes.
You see where this is going.
So I bought a Buy It Now and then I won the flipping auction a week later. The picture is from the listing; it’s totally that other lady’s lacy bedspread.
It’s new in box with the shrinkwrap and everything, so I’m just going to re-list it. I’ve never sold anything on Ebay, though – have you? Any tips and tricks?
May 16, 2023 — 7:22 pm
Comments: 6
Serenity now!
This is what I bought myself for my birthday. It’s a biofeedback dingus meditation aid. It fits across your forehead reads your brainwaves, heart rate, respiration and stillness.
Yes, somehow it knows when you fidget. I don’t know how it measures that, but I tested it and it does indeed chime at me when I twiddle my fingers.
It does seem to be accurately measuring brain activity, too. Depending on the ‘soundscape’ you choose, it plays – for example – high winds when your brain is active and gentle breezes and bird song when it’s calm. I tried counting backwards from 100 by sevens and nearly caused a tsunami.
There’s a newer model than this one, but it’s fabric and suitable to be worn overnight while you sleep. I didn’t need that and thus was able to get a new old tech version on Ebay for (relatively) cheap.
I need it today. My day started at 5 when the cat bit me and went downhill from there. Good weekend, all!
May 12, 2023 — 7:03 pm
Comments: 4
Romance is not dead
I got an angle grinder for my birthday. In fairness, I asked for it. There are some frozen bolts around the place driving me knuts.
I knew they were for cutting through bits of metal. I didn’t realize you could use them for other stuff, like polishing and deburring. I mean, not that I do all that much deburring.
Before I hit up YouTube – it’s always YouTube these days – any of y’all know any fun angle grinder tricks?
May 11, 2023 — 7:00 pm
Comments: 14
Lookit this!
This message popped up on my phone well over a week before my actual birthday. What’s sinister about that is that I never give the internet my real birthday – my internet birthday is April 1. So how did Google Assistant get the real one?
I worry about the growing pervasiveness of Google. The number of times lately I’ve bought something online from some little podunk shop and they send a confirmation number undbidden to my cellphone, which I didn’t give them.
Oh! Why yes, my birthday is a-coming. I’m taking the week off to observe it. I’ll be around – I’m hoping the weather will be nice and I can potter around the garden all week – but I will auto-queue some posts so I don’t have to exercise my little braincell.
Bonus! I get next Monday off to celebrate Charlie’s becrowning.
May 1, 2023 — 4:00 pm
Comments: 22