Thread 5 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads (thread 4).

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.

LUXURY

Not everybody has gardens, but he has half a point, doesn't he? My dad had an allotment, and it provided the bulk of our veg. And he fitted it in with continuous shift-work. Are we (generally) lazier than our parents' generation? I think we certainly are. I know I am.

If he worked 7 days a week down the pit (which he didn't) why did he garden at weekends (apart from 'because it's made up')?

Also very few people have gardens that size these days; commutes are a lot longer; allotments have been sold off by councils and if there is a site near you there's probably a several-year waiting list; and growing your own isn't necessarily that cheap - especially for beginners.

Are we (generally) lazier than our parents' generation?

No.

Also very few people have gardens that size these days; commutes are a lot longer; allotments have been sold off by councils and if there is a site near you there's probably a several-year waiting list; and growing your own isn't necessarily that cheap - especially for beginners.

To be fair gardens and allotments aren’t the only options. I understand there’s an abundance of tomatoes on sewage-strewn beaches at the moment.

I caught Today in Parliament, @CyanCrystalViolet and heard the lying pound shop Yorkshire man sketch tribute act.

@duc748 I don't think we are lazier but we have grown up with different skills and expectations. Growing your own isn't a widespread skill these days. Also, the people most likely to need food banks are also the least likely to have gardens. I might be wrong about that but I'm guessing there's probably a correlation there.

I have decided to grow my own tomatoes this year because I have a south facing terrace and they'll probably do well. Also herbs, lavender, jasmine and honeysuckle. Food and lovely scents!

I grew up in a council house that was built with the needs of a family, and the ability to grow food, in mind. The garden is big - about 8m wide and 50m long. My sister still lives there so she can grow food if Morrison's gets too dear/runs out of veg.

Not tomatoes in winter though. Mind you, if you want a bit of sweetness in a salad at this time of year slices of apple do a good job; for cooking, tinned tomatoes exist.
Or at least, they exist here.

The Soviet Russia/Free UK shopping experience would be too much excitement for me, I like the dullness of being able to potter round dozily and get what I want.

Us leaving wasn't enough

maintenance.justthetalk.com

Women shouldn't exist, donkeys are better. Okay.

The donkeys do look very cute - though a nasty one attacked my dog once and left him with a badly broken leg so I'm slightly wary. Attacked other dogs too, and eventually people - his owner was grazing him illegally in a forest walking area.

The salad veg shortage has been a long time in the making and has a number of causes.

1. Bad weather in Morocco and Spain

1. Lack of home (under glass) grown stuff due to energy prices and general woe in UK farming.

1. Our JIT super market processes that are not that resilient shocks.

1. Labour shortages.

Brexit didn't cause it but overlays it all like a further exacerbating factor.

That said I am not aure it is the worst thing in the world not to be able to get abundant, cheap fresh tomatoes in Northern Europe in February.

I honestly don't feel my heart is full of hate.

My husband sent me this (he's still a JTT regular since he doesn't go on any contentious threads):

From the new team

JUSTtheTalk - about 9 hours ago
(#6766_ of 715)
A further update from the admin team: we now have a clear plan for the switchover. The site is expected to be down from 6am tomorrow, and we expect it to be up again by noon at the latest, possibly earlier. As previously stated, you will probably have to log in again when it comes back up.

That said I am not aure it is the worst thing in the world not to be able to get abundant, cheap fresh tomatoes in Northern Europe in February.

Yes indeed. A bit of seasonality is a no harm, and more efficient lights and electricity from renewable sources could give those of us living in northern latitudes more exciting varieties of locally grown winter veg. That won't solve the problem of getting workers.

I honestly give zero fucks what labels the Righteous fling at us in order to polish their halos. It's all meaningless TRSOH Pious Fraud Hyperbole. Remember "always been secretly bad inside" and "even if you turn out to be right, you'd have been right for the wrong reasons"?

sssh, the righteous people have all been doing slurpily drooling gratitude and sorrow, why dilute that?

Winter veg, that's the thing. Evidently my grandmother, cooking (well) on a small farm in tough times in the 20s-40s when most of what was eaten was home-produced had a few exceptions that came from the shops. Lemons any time of year, oranges sometimes, tea always. Maybe vinegar, some spices, salt and pepper. That was about it.

She loved the greater choices of the modern world.

I remember in the 70s being unable to find some things in the market during winter. Onions in early spring was the most surprising one.

Yes - I think that's why leeks, and , of course, spring onions were important. When my mother lived in London in the 50s she used (I'm told, I don't remember) buy big ropes of onions from French onion sellers that kept well. But possibly not into late winter/early spring. That was always the precarious time when the poor starved,

She loved the greater choices of the modern world.

On the flip side, my brother absolutely adores broccoli. Why? Because when we were growing up in Malaysia, it was an expensive and rare delicacy which had to be imported from Australia. We were quite poor and so we only got to taste broccoli on the most special occasions (if a more wealthy relative was buying!).

We had an abundance of cheap locally-grown Asian leafy vegetables such as choy sum and pak choi but these were boring and normal, you see.

Whenever my brother came to visit me here, he used to walk around Sainsburys with me exclaiming at how cheap broccoli was, and marvelling that it was pretty much our regular weekly veg.

Whereas Pak Choi and Choi Sum are really pricey here.

I don't want to go back to kale for months on end, but I think we could do well to think a bit harder about where our veg comes from and the costs of year round abundance.

Ultimately that will bring us back to the fact that food and other things including clothes are unrealistically cheap and housing is much much much too expensive.

I like the ‘boring’ vegetables best I think. Cabbage of any kind, broccoli, carrots, kale, onions, spinach. Love asparagus in season but wouldn’t buy it any other time. Affordable tomatoes in the UK are rubbish so I don’t bother and even the more expensive ones are hit and miss.

Yes I spoke too early yesterday saying he'd done the right thing, gone quietly, all a bit sad, etc., Just had to have a departing pop at the terfs.

This November review of the mere trailer for Cocaine Bear was marvellous:

www.theguardian.com/film/2022/nov/30/cocaine-bear-trailer-2023-wildest-film-everything-and-more