Feminist Pub XVIII, in which the Bluestocking greets the first signs of spring with a glass of something soothing

I have long given up on shaving anything. I have more important things to worry about. I am therefore challenging low level sexism by doing exactly what low level sexists think I should do.

I know what you mean about S&B. I like it for the most part, but the body hair threads are terrifying. So many women seem to think that hair is dirty, and that being bald from the neck down is the correct way to be.

I hope that I can inoculate DD against this (silently) via my habit of wandering around the house in various states of undress showing off my lack of dedication to any form of hair removal. I wax my underarms from time to time, but that's about it.

welcome, magi

I've lurked here for sometime, may I now sit down & have a drink, please?

Re armpit hair I've stopped doing anything to mine as of this year, quite enjoying it after about 20 years of shaving...

Can I have a rant about the whole 'don't bother challenging low level sexism because there are more important things to worry about' thing?
Selfridges thread if any wants a dose of irritation...

And at a time perhaps when there is less social interaction in rl than has been the norm in the past, particularly cross-generational... So many of us live distant from and manage without wider family support nowadays.

Tangent, sorry. So many "terrified of childbirth" threads of late - I get it, I was scared too. But I can't help seeing it as a symptom of a wider problem, where women are controlled and marginalised and birth is viewed in a narrow way in popular culture and also in hospital policy. It makes me cross.

We had gorgeous weather im s wales, but we watched it on the telly anyway, apart from a quick attempt at a pinhole cerea box. Ds2 then helped himself to cereal for half of the day...

The clouds made the whole eclipse a bit of an anti-climax at school. We all had pinhole viewers and we all trooped out to line up like a fire drill and we saw a miserable cloudy day that got a bit dull. Basically a normal Friday then. We saw NOTHING!

I remember playing solitaire on the intel 386 computer during the PhD .

During my PhD I worked in a small basement lab, which we used to refer to as the Oubliette. It might have inspired my MN name a bit.

Somehow sadly fitting that Oubliette should be trapped in a windowless cell room.

DS saw the eclipse - his school provided special glasses for him. He says it was 'really cool' (which is good, because he's been quite apprehensive about it all week).

Apparently the clouds did break for a few moments above DD's school.

I have no idea what the weather was like here at eclipse o'clock. I was stuck in a meeting from 09:00 to 10:00 in an internal meeting room with no windows, so missed all the (possible) excitement.

I'm almost personally affronted by the weather.

Sera that sounds quite bad. I go on S&B when I'm bored but only ever clicked on threads about shoes and clothes, since I my skincare and makeup regime consists of wash-face-put-some-aqueous-cream-on. I'm bored of my shoes and clothes but can't think what different things I might want.

In other news, I have finally had to hide the Style and Beauty topic. It has enraged me many times over the years but a recent thread about underarm hair in 8yo has pushed me over the edge. They don't seem to see anything wrong with whipping hair off a child the second it appears (along with introducing a skincare regime at the same age) and one said she was literally crying with laughter when I said that I celebrate my DD's new-grown hair and encourage her to be proud of it (which she is).

"sun" missing from above sentence, obviously.

Oooh, an eclipse job. That must be portentous, right? Good luck FibonacciSeries!

I am equally about the now being out, LordCopper

Hello everyone, I think I might have bagged myself a job during the eclipse today . We will see but I'm feeling optimistic!

I can help with CVs, having had to pimp mine for many different companies in the last few weeks.

And now it's all sunny.

There were a couple of breaks in the heavy layer of cloud which allowed an attenuated view of the crescent through another layer. Not dark enough to affect birdsong or anything. DD's school were going to have the live broadcast on (Brian and Dara) in 4 rooms, and the sixth formers were going to be allowed to view it - hope it was a little clearer for them but I doubt it. A local couple who'd lost a 10 year old who was keen on astronomy have given sets of viewers to the local schools - I hope someone was able to use them.

The light was odd, and the toddler and her cousin both got uncharacteristically cranky. I've just about got rid of the crescent sun imprinted on the inside of my eyelids.