Thread 4 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 & 2 & 3.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

I love that song! I saw her on stage here in Portland in 2016. She sang it then, and the whole show was wonderful. She doesn't have that lovely clear soprano she had as a young woman, but she still has a beautiful voice.

I like pheasant but the main reason for accepting was because we had to prepare them ourselves, which I thought we should do at least once in our lives if we were going to eat the meat.

I have once in my life killed a chicken, for the same reason, at my in-laws’ place in Eastern Europe. They always have a dozen or so hens, and when they reach the end of their egg laying career, they go in the pot.

We have had chickens where we live now in England for more than 10 years and they all get to retire rather than being eaten, in fact several of them are rescues hens who were for the chop at the end of their most productive year or two.

I rather like plucking pheasants- it feels elemental for connecting me with the source of my food. I don't do it very often- the last time, I sat outside on a beautiful autumn day and took my time, and it was very peaceful. The time it took me, meant it felt like a very special meal. And they were particularly delicious pheasants - very young and tender.

On the day we moved in here, we discovered our elderly (then) neighbour in his garden in his vest and boxers plucking pheasants. He looked up, gave us a gap toothed giggle and said “I’m a country lad, bit of a naughty boy..” by way of explanation, immediately incriminating himself. Until then it never occurred to us to ask (and was none of our business) where the pheasants came from.

When I was a child we lived in a country pub and my day would get given pheasants from time to time which he plucked outside. Have never done it myself though.

The easiest to pluck a pheasant is to not pluck it at all, but instead run your sharp knife up its belly and just peel the entire skin off, feathers and all.

That so needs to go in the Important Tips thread!

That's what we did and the skin peels off like a jacket. As long as you've removed the head, feet and wings, it's really easy.

One of my disturbing childhood memories was at a wet market, watching the frog seller. He had a large tank of live frogs; when somebody came to buy them, he'd take each frog out, bash its head smartly on the counter to kill it, and then swiftly slice its belly and "peel and core" it in a few quick motions. The skinning, yes, was like taking off a jacket. The frog corpses, still twitching, were dropped into a plastic bag for takeaway. 🤢 I still clearly recall how horrified I was, yet also transfixed.

Anyway, on that nauseating note, Happy Lunar New Year, thread! 🐰🧧

@MavisMcMinty The easiest to pluck a pheasant is to not pluck it at all ...

As a general rule, and one I try to live by, the easiest way to do anything is not to do it at all.

Makes sense to me, Gonners.

Happy Lunar new year, all! Thanks to Kuc’s post I’ve just learned about the red envelope emoji, which I hadn’t come across before.

@KucingDefarge, good frog story! I have a similar memory but not as grisly as yours. When I was teaching English in Taiwan, I was talked into doing a week as a 'model' where me and this other woman donned skimpy shorts and t-shirts, sunglasses, baseball caps and make-up and travelled around the south of the island on jeeps by men dressed as Disney characters. Our job was to wave and hand out leaflets about a new housing development. One of the places we leafleted was a wet market and I have a vivid memory of a man sitting with a bowl at his feet which was filled with squashed and bloodied frogs.

Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year to the thread too and I hope you get some good red envelopes!

Well I’m a Year of the Rabbit baby (1963) so this should be a good year for me.

I can find a🐇and a 🏮but no envelope. Happy new year!

🧧恭喜发财🧧

Maybe the red envelope is only on Macs?

I remember my former flatmate had a book that said we could call the year of the rabbit the year of the CAT, which we both preferred, just googled and apparently it’s cat in Vietnam.

KucingDefarge · Today 09:38

Anyway, on that nauseating note, Happy Lunar New Year, thread! 🐰🧧

And the same to you. I've now made the connection to the fireworks, last night.

I looked up the cat/rabbit thing a few weeks back - evidently the animal signs for the Chinese calendar were fixed before cats got to China. Not sure why/how/if Vietnam got them earlier. My mother was born in a Rabbit (or Cat) year so I'm inclined to look on it as benign, but notice when I look back that it's a year that often kicked off or immediately preceded major life changes for me in the Year of the Dragon.

Not of course that I believe such superstition, but I'll try to tread carefully and enjoy it before the big scary fire-breather turns up in 2024.

I'm another Rabbit/Cat year person. Calling it the Year of the Cat makes me think of the Al Stewart song/album from the mid-70s.

Yes, it's the Year of the Cat in Vietnam. One of the "legends" to explain it was that Vietnam, being a hotter country, valued cats very highly for controlling the rodent population. I'm very far from being convinced.

Cats are way cooler than rabbits, so I’m going with cat.

Happy year of the Cat/Rabbit all!

There has just been a truly heartwarming story on my local FB about a cat that was lost in early October being found. People were posting sightings (over a mile away from where it's home) and someone managed to grab the cat and phone the owner. Sometimes social media is a force for good.

Hares and cats are both cool. Then there's the moon rabbit.

Just put out some left over chips and the corvids are down mob handed. They are all flying off with two chips each.

left over chips

<Tries reading through right eye>

<Tries reading through left eye>

<Tilts head sideways>

<Turns screen around>

<Pastes into Google Translate>

Nope. No idea.