29 July 2009

Daily Chat 29/07/09


The Arc de Triomphe was dedicated in 1836. Umberto I of Italy was assassinated in 1900. The 1948 Olympics opened in London. Two crazy kids got married in an understated little ceremony at St. Paul's in London in 1981 and they said it would never last. They were right. The only two remotely interesting people celebrating birthdays today are Ken Burns (of the Civil War film fame) and Geddy Lee (I'm going to assume you all know who he is). It is National Anthem Day in Romania.

139 comments:

  1. Wow, ol' Geddy Lee eh ? Where's CaressOfSteel ??

    Have thisthen.

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  2. ... and the first person to mention Ayn Rand gets docked ten points ;-)

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  3. I thought it was Cranky ?
    Bugger.

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  4. *What about the voice of Geddy Lee?
    How did it get so high?
    I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy...*

    Pavement - Stereo

    Kiz: I thought it was *complete bollocks* (the answer, not the “game”). Does that make me a cantankerous bastard?

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  5. That story about the two crazy kids marrying at St.Paul's in 1981 caught my eye. It is eerie that two kids in a ceremony where they must swear they will be together until death do them part state that their marriage was not going to last long.

    If this statement was made before the minister, then the minister should have stopped the ceremony, don't you think so?

    On second thoughts there are marriages that are bound to be split since the very moment they are being held, too many more than would be desirable, only that their components do not say so. Perhaps because they are not crazy?

    Which takes me to reconsidering my take on craziness.

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  6. BB, last night @ 22.38:

    I hope he made up for it with a Barrister Pardon

    Jose: LOL

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  7. ... and Geddy Lee (I'm going to assume you all know who he is)
    Oh, most assuredly!

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  8. Cantankerous? Well done, Deano. Wish I'd thought of that.

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  9. Anon won he/she posted cantankerous before me - my dongle link was so slow that when I posted it took ages and repeated attempts to get my guess posted. When it finally registered Anon had beaten me by about half an hour!

    So really it's well first guessed Anon.

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  10. What about my late night alternative suggestion to Kiz's game....

    "Carnaptious Bastards"

    carnaptious - adjective - irritable; quick-tempered; quarrelsome; cantankerous.

    The word is found in Scottish and N Ireland usage and also as 'knaptious', in Cumbrian dialect.

    I'd never came across carnaptious before I found it in a great little gift,(Foyle's Philavery) which was given to me at the family party last week end.

    Anybody know what a Philavery is? I've got two!

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  11. Extremely depressing comments on the John Harris thread. What utter pondlife.

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  12. The sub makes for a depressing start!

    Harris writes "and a cut-price society pitched somewhere between Margaret Thatcher and Philip K Dick" and the ham-fisted jobsworth who writes the subs translates that to "to be built by Thatcher and Philip K Dick" as if PKD were just another monetarist icon with no belief in society.

    I'll read more when I get back from the doc's.

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  14. I wonder if John Harris has ever read any Dick at all. I further wonder if he has the first fucking clue what he's talking about generally. I then wonder if I care, and I find that really, I don't. He is just another marching moron.

    I'm more interested in the politicisation of the Met office. Remember when the weather forcast was just about the weather, rather than how bad we all were?

    Buster Friendly weathermen are more of an issue than private jails.

    Hurrah for Ayn Rand btw.

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  15. Hi deano: how did the weekend go?

    I’m amazed you’ve shown the restraint over the past few days to not regale us with numerous stories, but I’d like to hear at least something.

    Surely the high point of the celebrations wasn’t a book that someone gave you, however great a book it was.

    Is Philavery Tex’s little brother?

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  16. Toast and Marmite29 July, 2009 10:23

    Morning all,

    Montana, are you still after some Jaffa Cakes? I will happily post some to you if you like. (Just hope they don't get impounded!)

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  17. Everything OK at the docs LordS? Hope you're alright.....

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  18. Fine thanks, Vari. I just have a small hole in my stomach that didn't heal properly after the surgery for my perforated ulcer. I need to have it packed and dressed every day until it decides to close.

    It's more of an inconvenience than anything else.

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  19. That puts me in mind of the MP Holy Grail film....a mere scratch etc....

    Hope you're fully recovered soon.

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  20. @ andy

    brief note yesterday morn but with 198 posts on yesterdays thread things tend to get lost.

    My dongle link is shit again today - it breaks the connection every couple of minutes at best. That makes for tedium when it's sorted I'll get back.

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  21. elementary_watson29 July, 2009 10:58

    "I'd laugh, but I'm afraid I might soil myself."

    Noone ever described the impression Bidisha makes on many of us more concisely.

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  22. elementary_watson29 July, 2009 11:05

    Also, better and funnier comments about how idiotic ads targeting women can be found at current.com.

    Here's the link: The link

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  23. Gosh LordS that's awful - hope it gets better soon.

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  24. Deano: missed your brief note; sorry!

    Looking forward to hearing stories when effective communication is restored.

    Is anyone else a Tex Avery fan?

    If not, check out RED HOT RIDING HOOD

    (capitals in the original)

    And there’s apparently a town called Avery in Texas. How cool is that?

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  25. I dont think my mood will tolerate a Biddy piece right now.

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  26. Ms Robinson...if you show up


    Where did you get to? Thought you must have got yourself banned

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  27. Very annoying day at work, Vari, cretins running amok, thought i'd have a quick look at cif for some light relief and saw a load of pondlife cheering privatisations. All very tiresome.

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  29. @Toast and Marmite: Heck, ya. Jaffa cakes would be great! If you go to my profile here, you can e-mail me and we can work out details? You'd be my idol.

    @LordS: hope all goes well.

    @Andy: There's a town in Texas named almost everything. My favourite is Nagadoches -- which is pronounced "Natchis". I also kinda like the sound of Chocolate Bayou.

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  30. "This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions" which is probably just as well.

    Rush were my Favourite band between the ages 15 and 17 (everyone should outgrow them by the time they're 20 though). I did make the mistake of playing "Permanent Waves" in the car once when my 5 year son was there and now he insists on playing it every time we're in the car together. I think he knows Mrs D hates it and enjoys the complicity!

    While I'm here, Montana, you always make me think of this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJN_uWaVRfo

    Right. As you were.

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  31. (Apologies for the the unlinkiness of the link. Just ascribe it to chronic technophobia.)

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  32. There was a town called Bettina in Texas, founded as a commune by German utopians and named after Bettina von Armin, a friend of Marx's.

    The town prospered for a while, but like all utopian communities, fell apart. They got on well with the Comanches, and would barter operations for captives.

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  33. There was a utopian community about 20 miles away from my town once upon a time -- called the Icarians. I don't know if you've ever heard of Amana appliances over there, but they were originally manufactured by a utopian colony in eastern Iowa. The society is actually still fairly strong, though they're in many ways indistinguishable from any of your common or garden variety Iowans. We've got several Amish and Mennonite communities, too. For some reason, Iowa was a bit of a magnet for them (utopian communities) in the late 19th Cent.

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  34. humm.

    I'm sorry to say CiF has reverted to being the place it was on Day One, when I first came along: a happyclappy talking shop where the most fatuous pap imaginable - Bidisha's article today, Cath's latest - is lauded as "brilliant" if it fits the shallow thinking and right-on ideals of the soggy left. Really depressing. Like bloody Groundhog Day on there, every day. Which I suppose is the point of Groundhog Day. Good comment from Waltz on MsWoman's article though.

    It was the *spread* of views, and later articles, on CiF that made it such a refreshing experience - such a great place to meet and argue, and that really has all but gone hasn't it? I haven't seen anything there in weeks that has wowwed me. Sigh.

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  35. Since I'm telling you about some oddities in Iowa history -- here's my favourite. Just a brief account, but from anything I know about it, it was a remarkable place. Too bad that it didn't flourish.

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  36. Thats been the refrain around here for some time...CiF is mainly just pap now I'm afraid.

    Some of the articles are so formulaic and predictable its almost insulting. If CiF charged, I probably wouldn't pay, a year ago - different story.

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  37. Well thus far I have had a fine day posting over on CiF - I managed to get both Mungo and Diesel dog's names into a post and the name of hero Frank Harris posted for the third time this month!

    And it's yet only lunch time.

    deano

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  38. The John Harris thread - article an unreadable mishmash, read it and then asked myself 'what did he actually say?'

    As to the comments I could have demolished them if I felt it was worth the effort. (it isn't).

    Frank I take it you mean the author of Atlas shrugged and not her devoted fan on the John Harris thread!

    As you can probably guess I don't think much of either of them!

    Mind you I don't think leaving the long term unemployed to rot on sink estates is altruism. Quite the reverse I wouldn't want their life and neither would you.

    The trouble is it has gone on for so long that repairing the damage will cost a lot. Probably save a lot in the long run though.

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  39. Charliepolecat @2:04 pm - Yessss!

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  40. indeed Thauma....who is he?

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  41. I looked briefly at Cath's article but I couldn't see the point of The Guardian commissioning an atheist to write something on the subject of whether we need saints.

    It's well written, Cath (if you're reading) but a bit pointless.

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  42. Usually I can imagine the meeting that results in these bizarre articles, but on this one I can't decide whether they really were at rock bottom and casting around for any old scraps or if they genuinely thought it would make a good feature.

    And Bidisha bleating about steereotypes in advertising is just pure laziness.

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  43. Laziness indeed ... but if she can't be bothered, and The Guardian can't be bothered then neither can I and from the look of the comments, neither can most of us ;-)

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  44. 'if she can't be bothered, and The Guardian can't be bothered then neither can I and from the look of the comments, neither can most of us'

    yep that's about it - I went off Cif in a huff and have stayed out from lack of interest in going back.

    I found myself boring me on Cif never mind anyone else, but it's not all my own fault - so many blogs now just qualify as trollbait, and they needn't be. Even Julie Bindel - even Tanya Gold and that mad Mckenna bloke - can write interesting stuff, but if they post keech they get more hits.

    But is that deliberate? Before that bizarre Tony Blair blog I would have thought they were doing it on purpose, and that blogs such as the Blair one were given to us as sort of bonding exercises (I think I was modded four times on that thread) but then Matt Seaton popped in to complain we were being nasty!

    So I really don't get it. But can't be bothered also.

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  45. I couldn't see the point of The Guardian commissioning an atheist to write something on the subject of whether we need saints.

    Can't you? Because they'd be certain to get back exactly what they want - something that confirms and conforms. It's the worst kind of editorial cowardice. Comment is Free = Commisioning is Frit.

    I just find it baffling. It's rather like these people who win the pools and say, "well, I won't let it change my life - I'll stick with my job, maybe have an extra week's holiday". I mean, what is the point? Why bother climbing the greasy pole to the editor's chair if you have no vision to spread? Why go to all that effort, and then simply embrace safe mediocrity?

    I suppose your vision might *be* safe mediocrity.

    Ewwww. C'mon MattS fer fuck's sake. Pull your finger out. No one ever got promoted for sending people to sleep.

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  46. ... but if they post keech they get more hits.

    While I so hope that's not their motivation, the more time goes by, the more inclined I am to believe it is.

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  47. Frank, if I ever win the lottery and someone asks me if I'll be letting it change my life, my answer will be "I should fucking say so".

    In fact, you are authorised to seek me out and kill me if I reply in any other way and as a bonus you can do it by slow torture if I say "no, I won't be giving up my job".

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  48. Well, I don't do the lottery or any of that, but if I did, and I won, I would consider it my duty to buy my workplace and bulldoze it into the adjacent canal. I mean, I actually like my job, but that's not the point.

    Besides, it would be something to do while I was amassing my arms cache and selecting the first batch of mistresses.

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  49. ... Well, I don't do the lottery or any of that
    Aaaah, I knew there was a flaw in my plan. Neither do I.

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  50. I don't either I'm afraid, but that dosn't stop me believing that any lottery winners who trot out the pathetic spiel about their lives not changing should have the cheque taken off them there and then and it be reissued to someone who'll appreciate it.

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  51. That's probably why I'm not rich. I always thought it was because I was unmotivated, unconnected, untalented and unlucky. Now I know. I should just buy in to the idiot tax like the rest of 'em.

    Being rich would be awful anyway - too many additional temptations to avoid.

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  52. If I won the lottery I'd absolutely stay in my job. But probably not for very long, because I would enjoy the luxury of speaking my mind....

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  53. Brilliant comment on Hadley's thread:

    DrMaybe

    Have to bring up what I think is the only known example of a decent joke by a premier league footballer (attributed to Peter Crouch on a recent edition of Mock the Week) - when asked "what would you be if you weren't a footballer" he replied "a virgin".

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  54. when asked "what would you be if you weren't a footballer" he replied "a virgin".

    I doubt it - he's from Macclesfield. He'd be considered a bit of a catch round here, simply through being tall enough to get served in Bargain Booze.

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  55. But, Frank, he is possibly the ugliest bloke ever whelped.

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  56. No. I can't look.

    Cameron's missing a Twitter trick

    John Prescott: I've found Twitter to be a great way of getting my opinions across, and of reading and responding to what other people are saying

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  57. I hereby declare that if I won the lottery I wouldn't stop working, I would just do it for free and cherry-pick the really needy cases that otherwise couldn't get proper repping.

    Yes I'm a saint.

    Actually, no I am not a saint at all. I just really really love what I do. How sad is that? :p

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  58. Aww... Crouchie isn't all that ugly. Not compared to Ronaldhino, anyway...

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  59. There seems to be a huge difference for most people between inheriting money (or the likes of a tax windfall) on the one hand, and winning money through a gamble on the other. The former feels great and lasts great, the latter can feel disconcerting.

    Probably something primeval in this, some fear of the capricious nature of the minor deities who monitor gambles.

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  60. Edwin

    Do you know who these minor deities are, so I can start worshipping at their altar? ;o)

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  61. Sorry anonymous I didn't spot your cantankerous post this morning... So it's your turn then...
    Anybody know what happened to martillo on cif? Has he been banned?

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  62. Kiz - I believe I spotted him today or yesterday.

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  63. Oh, but you knew that cos you were responding to him! - it was yesterday then.

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  64. thaum

    The secret with people who keep wanting to delegate stuff to you is to say yes, straight away, then don't do it. Then when they come and ask you about why you haven't done it, you explain that you have 17 other things to do too, and three of those with a deadline, but you can bump theirs up to the top of the pile after you have finished this one thing (and you give them a real hard-done by look).

    The next time they come and ask whether it has been done, you apologise profusely, say it's all your fault, but that someone else had something really urgent to do and you didn't have the heart to blow them off.

    The next time, you just act wildly, typing at your puter and grunting at them, moving about on your wheely chair a bit and then look up and say "sorry? Oh god! I'm so sorry... " and apologise again.

    Eventually
    a) they will give up and do it themselves and
    b) they will never give you their work to do again

    :o)

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  65. Oh dear, his user profile is not available. I fear you are right.

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  66. BB - good plan! Unfortunately it is work they are creating for me that they are unable to do. Still, I shall work on a modified version!

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  67. re martillo, some cheeky sod once posted as 'martilllo' with three 'ls' - I flagged that one on Cif as soon as i saw it. Think that was a one-off.

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  68. Oh noes

    Martillo is a fab poster - I wonder what caused him to be zapped?!

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  69. "Suicide by mod". Actually, I seem to have seen that somewhere lately! It is someone's user name?

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  70. Yeah it's a new poster's nick, thaum

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  71. Bidisha's article is a cracker. Here's some terribly sexist Danish advertising.

    stereotypical?

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  72. Anonymous said...

    At last I've killed off that Martillo bastard. Wish I'd never invented him.

    What did you do, Olching?
    28 July, 2009 22:24

    I think this is the one Kiz saw on yesterdays thread here - it had me confused too.

    deano

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  73. chopping the fish's head off was a bit much.. would never be allowed on British television!

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  74. I didn't think that fish was at all sexy...

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  75. Kiz - yeah, I've seen better.

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  76. Get with the program, kiz. Some points -

    1. As an honorary bubble and squeak, you can see the ikthos/christos religious fish reference, right?
    2. Cutting the fish's head off is also overt physical and literal emasculation.
    3. Thyme originated in Egypt - blatant racism here. They 'forgot' the thyme because it was merely a product of a 'third world' inferior culture. Do I have to go the post-colonial route here?
    4. Both guys are stereotypical Western white men.
    5. There were no women in the ad. Do women not read newspapers? I'm appalled!

    I could go on, but Bidisha is much more qualified than I am to take that advert to pieces. btw, I'm loath to post this in PB because it might be construed as misogynist, and they're all woman-haters over there :0)

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  77. scherfig
    Nice ad, nice follow up deconstruction! LOL

    kiz & thauma
    You're so right about the fish ..

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  78. scherfig - it's almost too horrible to contemplate, but the carrots and the fish were female....

    They just think we won't notice.

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  79. And funnily enough the vast majority of the women haters there are... WOMEN!... as per usual...
    Anyways good post Derrida/Barthes deconstruction work there.. although most of it is fairly obvious to the gender trained eye.. But I must say, you got me on the thyme (I thought it was greek? I thought everything beginning with 'th' was greek?)

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  80. Please don't, thauma, it is indeed horrible to contemplate! But .... I'll give you that the fish is 'female' (and we don't really want to go there), but all root vegetables are indisputably 'male'. I'm talking parsnips, turnips, carrots, potatoes etc. There is of course a logical reason for this, but again, we're straying into Bidisha territory, and I don't feel suitably qualified to pontificate on these matters. The floor is all yours (and your sisters').

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  81. They're male only until you start cutting them up into circles and semi circles, of course... batons are another thing entirely though...

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  82. Carrots, parsnips and potatoes are feminine in French.

    Just sayin....

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  83. kiz, I'm afraid that the ancient Egyptians were ahead of the Greeks and Romans in their use of thyme (by some several thousand years or so - they used it for mummification, among other things). Perhaps our resident biologist, Dotterel, could enlighten us a bit more about thyme as a plant. I just eat the stuff.

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  84. actually BB carrots and tats are feminine in Greek too... Don't know the word for parsnips in Greek... You only see em in the polish veg shops here!

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  85. But the word is Greek! Greeks feed it to bees too make the best honey...

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  86. Root vegetables are male, eh?
    Best to grate them then!

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  87. I've found sth claiming the Sumerians were the first to cultivate it actually... and it seems the Egyptians did use it for mummification.. very interesting stuff!

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  88. There's a large leafed thyme which grows in south america, it's nothing like our European thyme, more like a succulent. Tastes good tho'.

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  89. BB
    Just watched La Veuve de Saint Pierre by Patrice Leconte, with Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil and Emir Kusturica. Really nice little film and beautifully shot. Have you seen it?

    Couldn't be arsed with cif today...beyond dross.

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  90. There's a pic of the thyme here:
    http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2007/02/05/unkillable-herb-broadleaf-thyme/

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  91. Sheff - haven't seen that, no. I like Auteuil though. I will have to look out for it.

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  92. I love Daniel Auteuil. He was a dream as Henri of Navarre in La Reine Margot - just brilliant. Mind you the film was good all round with Verna Lisi a great Catherine de Medicis.

    Which reminds me got to get back to Anne Boleyn (summer reading you know).

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  93. Thyme contains the antiseptic thymol. An infusion of thyme is excellent for styes (on the eyelids). I've used it for that for years

    So the Egyptians would have used in it in mummification to prevent the natural rotting of tissues I guess.

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  94. Brussels

    Haven't seen La Reine Margot yet but have it on order. Am having a bit of an Auteuil feast at the moment - he's brilliant.

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  95. BB, in Danish there are no masculine or feminine grammatical genders in the language. It's either 'common' or 'neuter'.The root vegetables tend to take the 'et' form, which is normally used for non-gender-specific words like 'things' eg house or train. Living things (male or female) tend to take the 'en' form. And interestingly, potato (as a bit of a vegetable exception, along with mushroom), also takes the 'en' form and this pleases me as, being Irish, I have a very personal relationship with potatoes, and like to see them regarded as a bit more 'human' than eg. cauliflower in the Scandinavian languages. I'm not quite sure how much the patriarchy is to blame for this sad state of linguistic vegetable affairs, but those Vikings were mean bastards. I'm sure we can all agree on that.

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  96. scherig
    Is the potato a vegetable? It doesn't count as one of your 5 a day, as prescribed by the healthy eating police. And shrooms are funghi, technically, but they can be pretty animated as in Fantasia.

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  97. Scherfig - root vegetables may take on the phallic appearance of masculinity, but that is only because they have been intimidated by the patriarchy.

    Seriously, I expect that vegetables probably do have a sex - or are hermaphrodites - and await Dot's pronouncement breathlessly.

    Second the LOL @MsChin.

    I used to live near Auteuil - Boulogne-Billancourt. Is that the same?

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  98. Potatoes are the Skypixie of veg... and can be very healthy done right... and even if they weren't healthy, life would be unlivable without them... sublime things...

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  99. Scherfig - well, speaking as fellow Irishperson, potatoes are obviously more important than other vegetables. Interesting about the Danish constructions.

    However, I would submit that the fucking Roundheads were much worse than the Vikings.

    In fact, that reminds me of this, which may be slightly dated but is still current in so many ways.

    Jay, if you're lurking, I think you may enjoy it!

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  100. Bidisha, bless her, I went to see the fantastic Eddie Reader a few years ago, and at one point between numbers, she said in, her lovely stoned lilt:

    "What do you call a police woman that shaves her pubic hair?"

    "Cunt stubble."

    She then giggled

    "My *grandma* told me that!"

    Lovely.

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  101. On the women & work thread, is this from sarka, dissecting someone's argument that activities like travelling or novel writing aren't treated in the same way as women's time out of the labour market for child rearing:

    "I for example, have shamefully neglected my young novel for some months, but it hasn't died and no one has come round from social services about it..."

    LOL!

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  102. 'Is the potato a vegetable?' This is shocking to me, that you can even ask that question, MsChin! Of course it's a vegetable. Not only that, it's a tuber! We really do need Dot here to give us a heavy dose of cold, hard science.

    thauma, it's not vegetables' phallic appearance, it's more their essential 'beingness' that is the issue here. I'm going to have to refer you to Bidisha for a more erudite discussion on this point. I'm way out of my depth here. What do I know - I just eat the fuckers.

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  103. scerfig
    Well try telling that to the NHS - it doesn't count as a veg. Defies logic, doesn't it.

    Spuds - skins on or naked?

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  104. sorry, scherfig - I keep spelling your name wrong! It's the excitement at the vegetable content here ..

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  105. Bru - La Reine Margot is lush!

    BTW chaps and chapesses, for those that wants, V for Vendetta is just starting on BBC 3.

    Depressing film, though. Too close for comfort...

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  106. Look, I've done the pay gap thread (mercy me) & I refuse to go to Bidisha, so stop trying to tempt me, scherfig!

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  107. ha ha, thauma - great stuff. I thought the Irish bit was (successfully) channeling the peerless Flann O'Brian. And annetan might appreciate the Welsh bit. Or maybe the whole thing is really racist? :0)

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  108. Uplifting surely BB... The power of terrorism an all that...

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  109. scherfig - well, it manages to simultaneously pillory and exalt all the home nations. Not bad.

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  110. Agreed, thauma. It's a rare gift to be able to take the piss and still do it in a 'loving' way. The downside is what the likes of Bidisha might make of it.

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  111. Speaking of Bidisha, sarka's post over there just now is brilliant.

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  112. 'Spuds - skins on or naked?'

    That really made me laugh out loud, mschin. I remember recently andy getting his his nose all out of joint when the cooking of potatoes was discussed. I think I accused andy of being a potato purist and he didn't take it too well. (andy, when you read this, as you will, take it in the right spirit). Allotment totalitarianism is really uncool :0) CHAMP - spring onions simmered in milk and mixed in with mashed potatoes. Served as a sort of volcano shape on the plate, and you make a hole in the top and fill that with butter, which then melts, and you sort of eat round the sides and mix it in as you go. Poor people's food, tastes good.

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  113. Salted French butter and black pepper to taste........

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  114. You made me really hungry there scherf.. and I shouldn't be.. Tonight, as I'd eaten crap out (a jimmy's chicken pie for breaks and 2 souvlaki for lunch...) I didn't cook. I had some leftover basmati rice which I mixed up with some greek yoghurt, some tomato chilli chutney and hot lime pickle... sorry.. but it was great!
    Wasn't she just fab MsChin!

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  115. 1. Roasted
    2. Pan-fried with salt & butter
    3. Chips, deep-fried
    r. All other methods

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  116. kiz, we should have dinner some time.

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  117. thauma - parboil some spuds (cut into small pieces), sling them into a bowl with turmeric, garlic, chilli, paprika and toss them around a bit. Then forget about them. And when you eventually remember them - fry them in olive oil. (Back in the day my mother called them 'burnies', but that was just frying the old boiled spuds from the day before - no spices or anything.) Andy has a lot to learn about potatoes.

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  118. With all this foodie stuff going on here, getting peckish, I've been forced to eat half a packet of biscuits ..

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  119. Andy has a lot to learn about potatoes.

    Who out of us can say we don't have a lot to learn about potatoes?

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  120. LordS, you speak truth to power. I admire you for that.

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  121. I was thinking of Foucault's panopticon myself, all those potato eyes

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  122. Ah. The potato. I have yet to encounter a variety or method of preparation that was not thoroughly wonderful. Our neighbours to the north have a lovely dish called poutine -- chips smothered in beef gravy and white cheese. Yum.

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  123. Despite all our differences here, we hold these truths to be self-evident - we all love potatoes. Don't we?

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  124. Yep, Spuds We Like, that's us.

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  125. Off to bed to dream of potatoes ..

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  126. Night night Ms Chin - I am off to bed too and will be back next week. Holiday tomorrow! \o/

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  127. I'm off to bed too. But before I go I have to tell you all that I just love this tune and it's just bursting to be shared...

    Astounded

    Hear this, go to sleep with a smile on your face. Guaranteed!

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  128. Spuds?
    Just thought I'd mention I managed to totally f@ck up making mashed potato on Tuesday night. Twice. Left the skins on, undercooked them, and tried to fluff them using milk and lard.

    It was abysmal, and Mrs Bitterweed gave me a major bollocking as we didn't eat until half nine.

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