Perfidious delphiniums
June 23rd to July 2nd is Delphinium Week at Godinton House! The sharp-eyed among you (I realize that’s not many) will note that it is, in fact, only the 16th of June, but nobody bought the delphiniums a calendar. They are early. They are likely to be all done by the time Delphinium Week proper gets here.
Also, those are not delphiniums in the picture. They’re tulips.
Never mind. We were tipped off and went today. We’ve been to the gardens many times, but this is the first time we’ve toured the house. It’s another one of these great old country houses that accreted centuries of new build around a Medieval great hall center. The carving throughout the house was spectacular!
Sadly, no photography anywhere inside the building, so I can’t share. I bought the guidebook, but it was a little light on reproductions of the paintings – my main interest.
All that and a proper cream tea in the tea room.
Good weekend, y’all!
p.s. I didn’t owe you a Dead Pool, did I? Nobody had Adam West this time, I know.
June 16, 2017 — 9:10 pm
Comments: 15
One angry rat
Rattus and I have been playing a game all evening. He finds an opening, I steal a brick from the path and plug it up. It won’t be long before I have bricks all the way around the run.
No, seriously. That’s what I think I’m going to have to do — put a course of brick all around. Unfortunately, I’ve run out of scavanged bricks. Probably have to buy some.
That is one angry, puzzled rodent…hee hee.
I think we’re going to have to shoot him. To answer the question from the thread below, yes we can get a proper .22, but the restrictions involved are way too onerous. Believe it or don’t. For now, we still have some pretty potent air rifles, though.
If we can figure out how to light him up.
June 15, 2017 — 10:42 pm
Comments: 30
Consarnit!
Pictured: the adorable hedgehog who has put on a little show for the surveillance cameras all evening.
Not pictured: the giant rat who has been eating my chicken feed all night. The sonofabitch is a LOT faster than I am and managed to scoot before I could catch him every single time. I’ve got him now, though — I found his tunnel. He’d cleverly dug it behind the ramp to the henhouse so I never spotted it before.
Let’s see if you can dig through a brick, rattus!
June 14, 2017 — 10:44 pm
Comments: 24
Chikken!
This young feller, Daniele Barresi, is making a name for himself doing quick food sculptures. Though this particular one is a soap sculpture. BUT IT’S A CHICKEN. A friend of mine in art school used to do soap carving, so I have a warm spot. More soap.
Here’s some of the better food ones, on Bored Panda. Yes, despite the name “Daniele” it’s a he. And he bites his fingernails.
Unrelated note: I have just put into the oven the greatest meatloaf ever made — I suspect — and no-one will ever know. But me. AHAHAHAHA!
June 13, 2017 — 10:35 pm
Comments: 17
I want this!
But I can’t have it. It’s from one of those American clearance places. You probably can, though. My Facebook has a hard time targeting advertising to me (heh heh).
Did I ever tell you about my moon dream? I was very little, but I still remember. I looked up, and the moon was in my livingroom, looking (as it does) about the size of a half dollar. I reached up and plucked it out of the air and immediately realized that was a Very Bad Thing to have done and I was Going to Get In Trouble.
Sure enough, I flipped the moon over, and there was a dial on the back. It’s said, “You will go to…” and “Hell” was on the left, “Heaven” was on the right. As I watched, the needle flipped over to HELL!
I woke up terrified. I thought about waking my parents. And then I thought, “pff! Hang on! I can’t even read yet.”
June 12, 2017 — 10:52 pm
Comments: 12
Dead Pool Round OMG I OVERSLEPT!!!
Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry. I conked out for a nap and slept past the Dead Pool.
Sassamon won Round 97 with Peter Sallis. Here come Round 98.
GOGOGOGOGO!!!
0. Rule Zero (AKA Steve’s Rule): your pick has to be living when picked. Also, nobody whose execution date is circled on the calendar. Also, please don’t kill anybody. Plus (Pupster’s Rule) no picking someone who’s only famous for being the oldest person alive.
1. Pick a celebrity. Any celebrity — though I reserve the right to nix picks I never heard of (I don’t generally follow the Dead Pool threads carefully, so if you’re unsure of your pick, call it to my attention).
2. We start from scratch every time. No matter who you had last time, or who you may have called between rounds, you have to turn up on this very thread and stake your claim.
3. Poaching and other dirty tricks positively encouraged.
4. Your first choice sticks. Don’t just blurt something out, m’kay? Also, make sure you have a correct spelling of your choice somewhere in your comment. These threads get longish and I use search to figure out if we have a winner.
5. It’s up to you to search the thread and make sure your choice is unique. I’m waayyyy too lazy to catch the dupes. Popular picks go fast.
6. The pool stays open until somebody on the list dies. Feel free to jump in any time. Noobs, strangers, drive-bys and one-comment-wonders — all are welcome.
7. If you want your fabulous prize, you have to entrust me with a mailing address. If you’ve won before, send me your address again. I don’t keep good records.
8. The new DeadPool will begin 6pm WBT (Weasel’s Blog Time) the Friday after the last round is concluded.
The winner, if the winner chooses to entrust me with a mailing address, will receive an Official Certificate of Dick Winning and a small original drawing on paper suffused with elephant shit particles. Because I’m fresh out of fairy shit particles.
June 9, 2017 — 6:39 pm
Comments: 125
Night visitor
Did I tell you I got a four-camera surveillance system for my b’day? It’s essentially to replace the wildlife camera, which broke. I’ve had a high old time watching…moths, mostly. Oh, I’ve had fun, but this is the first really cool thing I’ve caught.
Hedgehog!
Last night. Only the second one in almost ten years. They’re getting rare, sadly. This one stuck his nose under a sack of coal and decided he was completely hidden and safe. I left him a tribute of cat food and came back to find him tucking in (pictured).
p.s. just went out and nearly stepped on him. Or another one. Hard to say, but this one might have been smaller.
Yes, we’ll probably stay up until the election returns start trickling in. Not with much enthusiasm. This is a choice between bad and really fucking awful.
June 8, 2017 — 11:01 pm
Comments: 11
POOP. Also BUTT.
This cartoon is from a serious article on fecal transplants, part of my course on gut bacteria. Also, it says POOP and BUTT a lot, hee hee!
As horrifying as the very idea of fecal transplants might be, it’s one of the most promising treatments to come along in ages, particularly for dealing with Clostridium difficile. C. diff, as I devoutly hope none of us knows from experience, is a truly nasty bacterial infection of the gut and highly resistant to antibiotics, even the stupid expensive new ones. From the article:
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in January of this year [2013] found that 13 out of 16 people treated with fecal transplants were cured of C. diff. Two of the remaining three were cured with a second transplant. The results were so impressive that the researchers found it unethical to continue the other study group on antibiotics, and they received transplants as well.
When it works, it works overnight. Word.
So why aren’t fecal transplants the first line of defense against C. diff? Simple: money, honey. Drug companies can do little to capitalize on or patent human feces. It’s highly unlikely that, without an opportunity to make money, transplants will get the research funding they deserve. Without more research, they remain controversial — a lot of doctors won’t perform them, and some C. diff sufferers resort to at-home transplants [ack! – Weasel]. To further complicate things, the FDA tried earlier this year to regulate transplants by classifying human stool as a biologic drug. That means doctors would have to get an IND (Investigational New Drug) application before performing a transplant, slowing down the process and delaying life-saving treatment. Thankfully the FDA backed off, but it’s possible they’ll attempt regulation again in the future.
This lady was completely cured of her C. diff after a single transplant from her (horribly embarrassed) nine-year-old niece. I should add, though, she still has a nasty, lifelong dose of inflammatory bowel disease, so it ain’t everything. Still.
I used to think blaming drug companies for not following up unprofitable treatments was a bit unfair. Well, actually, I still think it’s unfair — it costs bzillions to research a new drug and carry it through to approval, so of course they don’t follow up on things they can’t patent. It would be a dereliction of duty to their shareholders to do otherwise. Now I blame medical research for not stepping up just a little better. And the regulatory state for getting in the way, of course.
So that’s Week 4 of 6 – two weeks of POOP and BUTT studies yet to come!
June 7, 2017 — 8:47 pm
Comments: 20
If only it were true…
A giant scaffold bearing the image of British Prime Minister Theresa May appeared on the cliffs of Dover on Monday, complete with a Union Flag skirt and a rude hand gesture indicating to the rest of Europe that it should go away.
This thing appeared cliffside in Dover Monday. It was whisked away almost immediately and…that’s about all I can find out about it.
Which is weird. A thing that big — requiring specialist construction, scaffolding and a crane — should leave all kinds of paper trail. I couldn’t find much about it online. One article said they were filming it with a drone, which may have been the point. That’s public land, so I’m not sure why it was taken down — wind hazard? I have so many questions.
We no longer have a fifth estate, we have minders.
June 6, 2017 — 8:34 pm
Comments: 15
And fuck this place in particular
“This place” is Dallas, today. Video in this tweet. It looks like something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon, don’t it?
We have showers tonight, but that thing makes this feel like a gentle June sprinkle (though the wind is s’posed to kick from 20 to 45 at midnight, much whoo-whooing).
Sassamon wins dick in Dead Pool Round 97 with Peter Sallis. A short round, but not the shortest round ever. I’m trying to tidy up my master list of Dick Winners as I have once again got confused. I’m honest, but I’m thick. I’ll publish it when it’s roughed out and you guys can correct my stupid.
But tonight, I have gut homework. See you back here Friday, 6WBT for Dead Pool Round 98!
June 5, 2017 — 9:28 pm
Comments: 9