I am Janice Turner's No 1 fan - another excellent article

Gin is banned. Dry sherry is encouraged. The staff know there is an illegal still. Errol, who mans it, is only known as The Juniper, so they can't find anything out.

Deals for the other inmates are done over Scrabble. A series of triple word scores spelling out laundry cupboard, 9 PM. That sort of thing.

Not banned, but only Port and lemonade or Babycham is available. Hard liquor must be obtsined on the downlow by residents.

Shouldn't alcohol be banned in Shady Pines, so that residents can enjoy the thrills of smuggling it in and hidden distilleries?

I can build/run the secret fermentation dens to provide the material for Errol's stills. I have access to a gaziilion different yeast strains, including some for biofuel production to keep Shady Pines warm during winter.

Shouldn't alcohol be banned in Shady Pines, so that residents can enjoy the thrills of smuggling it in and hidden distilleries?

Yay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers her! Was sad to find out tonight that Sarah Dreher died a few years back though.

In other news... aaaggghhhh have just had to step away from Twitter (again) and am just raging at the right on lefty men and their fucking rank misogyny - who the fuck do they think they are to decide who is "more discriminated against"? - oh yeah, that's right, they're men and so they think they rule the fucking world. Because they do. They're just used to mattering, to having their opinions matter. Because they always have done.

Progressive and radical, my arse.

Does Shady Pines have Scrabble nights?

Of course.

I remember Stoner.

Oh fuck. My job is statistics & coding, I haven't worn makeup for over 20 years and I've never shaved my legs. Does Shady Pines have Scrabble nights?

I'm sure you didn't mean to misgender the legendary Stoner!

She's actually a lesbian detective in a series of books by Sarah Dreher, written in the 90's. I had it in my head that there was a rest home called Shady Pines in one of the books and thought maybe you'd got the name from there; but upon googling it turns out that while one of the books is called "Something Shady", and features a rest home of sorts, it's actually called Journey's End.

Ah well. Still need a refuge from all the crazy shit out there!

Less draughty than a tent, I'd hope.

I'd be up for Shady Pines too - will it be like the big red tent?

No. Why? Does he want to come too?

We're going to be quite the posse!

Does the name Stoner McTavish mean anything to you, Datun? Or anyone else?

Thanks Datun, sounds awesome. Not sure about the bridge though, I don't really stretch much further than whist. And bingo. I've always liked bingo.

Gin though, that's a no brainer.

GAH someone on twitter now saying that 2 of the Jo Cox places have gone to TW.

Count me in, I've got chemistry degrees so the distilling should be a doddle.

Ooh I'm going to join you on the gin course @datun

badbadhusky

I've put your name down. I've also signed us up to 'distilling your own gin'.

Shady Pines sounds quite restful, especially if it's full of tetchy, card playing, gin-swigging feminists. Sounds like my kind of retirement home.

TalkingintheDark

Done. I've booked twin rooms and put us down for bridge night every other Thursday.

I am so mad about that Jo Cox thing. Like so mad. So mad I am not coherent (as this post proves). I will tweet it out tonight to my hoards of followers (50).

''Speaking to The Independent, she said transgender people were underrepresented at all levels of society'.

Even if Sophie Thingy is the only transgender person on the Women in Leadership scheme, that's 1% of the group. But more than 99% of women, however loosely defined, are female, therefore biological women are hugely underrepresented in this group.

I like watching RuPaul's Drag Race and follow some of the ex contestants. Willam was known for being very acerbic and sarcastic. On his web show recently he made a few flippant remarks about trans people, among other things he said that "cutting your tits off doesn't make you a man". Fair enough! But he's copped a lot of shit since then and has posted a video that has a fellow ex-contestant educating him on trans terminology and apologizing for his comments. I've never seen him look so nervous and unsure of himself. Yet he still says he wouldn't sleep with a transman with no penis which means he's not out of the woods yet. He doesn't have to do it, but for max "woke" points he will have to say he'd be cool with it (eyeroll).

Datun I'm joining you at Shady Pines.

FFS indeed. And presumably no-one in the current labour bubble will dare to say anything against it (if they even recognise it as a problem)

Oh FFS.

When we say "er, TW are taking the things that are reserved for women", we get told that we are talking nonsense and we are just being bigoted. And then...a TW gets a place on a programme specifically for women at the expense of actual women...