Laaaaaambs!
Look at this awful, blurry picture I took! Yeah, well, Uncle B pulled over so I could take it, but they were really too far away. Lambs, though! First we’ve seen this year.
These ones look older. We saw some fresh tiny ones on a different part of the drive, but no way to pull over and get a picture.
‘Twas a beautiful sunny day in Sussex, but still cold. Still no central heat.
March 26, 2026 — 5:51 pm
Comments: 6
I was a Goo Goo kind of gal
Well, I’ve confessed this on Twitter, so I might as well say it here: when we lived in Chattanooga, my father’s secretary was the daughter of the man who invented the Moon Pie. I know – touched by greatness.
No, I don’t know what her name was. No, I have no idea why she had to work for a living rather than swanning around on his vast Moon Pie fortune. I was, like, three.
I don’t actually like Moon Pies. It’s a texture thing with me and marshmallow. For some reason, I make an exception for that other local delicacy, Goo Goo Candy Clusters. Know the jingle?
March 25, 2026 — 7:40 pm
Comments: 15
Such a jokester
I asked Grok why you need to pee when you walk into a cold room, then I asked it to draw me a cartoon weasel. It gave me a whole lecture on the anatomy of a cartoon weasel, which included items like “Paws: Adorable pink beans with tiny claws that can dig, climb, and grip like Velcro. Perfect for: Holding tiny bladders when they really need to pee.”
Every item had an entry about pee. I think Grok liked to talk about it.
Then it drew me this picture.
What? Oh – vasoconstriction.
March 24, 2026 — 6:45 pm
Comments: 3
Is it cold in here, or is it just me?
Actually, it’s toasty warm in here. We’ve had a fire all day. That’s a red flag.
Uncle B caught our oil central heat boiler smoking over the weekend – and not the fun kind with the nicotine. He shut it down, but our boiler tech (whatever they’re called) is going straight to voicemail and he hasn’t returned the call.
So, day fires. Very evocative. I hung out at the gym this morning until he took the edge off. We’re having a cold snap, of course.
March 23, 2026 — 6:47 pm
Comments: 4
Happy spring equinox!
Or, as the Anglo Saxons called it, Ēosturmōnaþ (AY-oh-stoor-moh-nath) the festival to the goddess Ēostre. Nobody knows the nature of the festivities, but everyone has a spring festival of some kind. Everybody happy when spring come.
Or maybe he made all that shit up. The venerable Bede is the only one who named Ēostre as a goddess.
Who knew Chuck Norris could die? That must be one courageous heart attack that took him on. @smedleythebarbarian tripped over Rule Zero, but let us welcome him to the Dead Pool fold. I don’t recall seeing that handle before.
Good weekend. Go thou and drink to Ēosturmōnaþ!
March 20, 2026 — 7:30 pm
Comments: 7
Like dinner plates
Eye test went fine, but they gave me two different drops to dilate my pupils and – boy howdy! – did that dilate my pupils. I wasn’t in danger of losing my way home, but O my garden was soft and glowy when I got home.
My little leaking blood vessel is still leaking. She didn’t seem concerned – but she wouldn’t discharge me, either. I go back in three months.
That’s in direct sunlight, to give you an idea how paralyzed my poor irises were. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of your own pupil?
March 19, 2026 — 5:36 pm
Comments: 5
Creepy
China’s new micro spy drone. Grok says it real. Click the link to see it in flight.
It’s very good, but I question how long it can fly on a charge. And then take pictures and wifi them back to base.
Being an electric bike kinda gal, I’m always worried about battery issues.
Grok: “China’s National University of Defense Technology unveiled this mosquito-like micro-drone in June 2025, measuring 2 cm long and 0.3 grams, with flapping wings for silent, insect-mimicking flight suited to indoor espionage, as confirmed by reports in Newsweek and Euronews.”
Tomorrow, I have to hop on a train and do the ophthalmology thing again. It’s just a checkup, but I hate that they call me in last minute. From someone who used to do several trans-Atlantic flights a year, I have become an bad traveller.
March 18, 2026 — 5:50 pm
Comments: 5
He’s good on metaphors
I was reading a Victorian magazine today (as you do) and came upon the phrase “under a Upas tree.” So I axed my robot friend (as you do).
The Upas tree – Antiaris toxicaria – is a large tree native to Southeast Asia and parts of the Pacific. It produces a toxic latex that some Southeast Asian tribes used to tip arrows.
In the late 18th C, a dutchman wrote in a London magazine that the Upas, which grew in a remote valley in Java, was so deadly that it killed animals and plants for miles around it. This incorretoid made it into several guidebooks and travel books (and at least one poem). I mean, it’s poisonous, but it’s not that poisonous.
By the mid 19th C (the period of my magazine), they knew it wasn’t true, but it was firmly fixed as a metaphor for insidious and pervasive evil: bad political systems, immoral people, or destructive ideas.
The robot took pages to tell me all this. I’m’a start calling him ChattyGPT.
March 17, 2026 — 6:37 pm
Comments: 12
This one worries me
This was on a post about buying a new graphics card to play Black Myth Wukong (I didn’t, by the way). This one bothers me because it’s on topic and slightly amusing, making me wonder if some bright soul has figured a way to make spambots crawl and make undetectable slop comments.
It was for sure spam, though – two year old post and links in the address. When I went to look at the post, there were about six (inappropriate) spam links I had to take care of manually.
Yes, we are still being hammered with ass porn.
March 16, 2026 — 5:34 pm
Comments: 3
Dead Pool 196: Ready for the weekend
Carl takes it with Ian Huntley. Carl, you must tell me how you’d heard of him – you’re not a Brit, are you?
A lively discussion ensued about amending Rule Zero to exclude people on life support, but nothing was decided and so I’ve left it as it is.
IMPORTANT! I’m still getting hammered with spam, which has kicked Akismet into high gear. This means there’s a good chance you’ll land in spam. Don’t panic. I’ll empty the trap as often as I can, but meanwhile put a timestamp in the body of your post. An honest one, please.
If your curious, it’s most anal porn spam. Nice!
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.
Note: I am woefully behind on dick deliveries. If I owe you one, you’ll know how long. I ain’t gived up, but I haven’t drawn much since lockdown. Some day, your heirs might hear from my heirs.
March 13, 2026 — 6:00 pm
Comments: 85