Thread 12 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 11).

The days are gradually growing longer, but the worst of the winter weather is not yet behind us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

@MouseMinge I only stayed for about two and a half hours as I needed to come home and nap ...

The "only" seems inappropriate there!

Alfie is a great name for a terrier. My niece has three children, the first two named Alfie and Charlie. MrGon said "What happened to poor little Bravo?"

Poor little Bravo!

It was made worse when child #3 was called Daisy.

If they have a fourth they could call it Give Me Your Answer Do.

"What happened to poor little Bravo?"

Haha!

Catching up on my reading, I just saw this snippet (actually at the end of an NS piece about porno 'deepfakes'), I'll just leave it here:

Recent polling conducted by Redfield and Wilton Strategies for Newsweek found Taylor Swift's endorsement could sway nearly a fifth of American voters; the NYT reported that Swift was the Biden campaign's number one endorsement target.

I'd say she was currently one of the most powerful women in the world and definitely the only one outside of politics. I've found it quite interesting to watch what's been going on with her this year. n.b. Not her personal/love life.

Once again, Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror got there a few years ago with The Waldo Moment, although we could go all the way back to 1957 movie. A Face In The Crowd where the concept of a popular entertainer being co-opted for political influence was explored.

I am hopelessly behind with recent music, so I looked up a few Taylor Swift songs on YouTube. I did enjoy Red, but the others all seemed awfully generic and a bit whiny. I’m not enthralled by Billy Eilish either, though Lady Gaga has grown on me a bit.

I like what litle I've heard of Taylor Swift but not liked it enough to seek out more. I also don't think I'm the target audience. She clearly does what she does very well and has a talent for business as much as she has for music. I suspect it's her billionaire success that rankles way more than her music or her opinions.

Oh definitely. How dare you be talented (enough), pretty (enough) and have the sort of business head on your shoulders that means you are making more money than any other act before you has made, changing (for the better) the economy in the cities/countries that you go to and all over being richer than any of us can ever dream of. WITCH!

I like the music of hers that I've heard and if I hear "Shake it up" then it'll be on my ear worm playlist for the rest of the day and I'm not mad about that. I suspect I know more of her songs than I think I do but am just not aware that they are her songs.

I hadn't consciously heard her until this evening - by which I mean I may have done, but wasn't aware it was her, not that I only listened to her when off my face on The Drugs. To my ear, she sounds as though she's singing very, very slightly sharp. Beyond that, meh.

I really like TS in small doses, say 12 songs. I think Back to December is excellent as is Wildest Dreams

DDs are probably in TS's core demographic as 14/15-year-old girls, but are vaguely lukewarm about her. Some songs they like, others meh. Apparently (I am told) TS is more likely to be popular amongst the "girly" girls.

A couple of years ago, my day didn't like her. Not long ago, one of her songs came on the car radio, so I turned it down and she told me to turn it back up, as Taylor is great...

Just finished a book I mentioned a bit ago called Bright Young Women which has two women's narrative and a third woman who is involved in both of their lives at different times. They are all three impacted by Ted Bundy but his name is only mentioned once in the book. The rest of the time he is called "The Defendant". It's a fictional account so none of the women have the names of the real women involved in the case/the women whose lives he cut short.

I thought it was a cracking read and so good for a book featuring a serial killer and the impact he had on the lives of those around his murders that is in no way about him but about those impacted. I'm really glad I read it.

That does sound interesting MM. Thanks for the tip.

This is like every conversation I've been having with DH/friends lately!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4991905-curiosities-about-the-passage-of-time-interesting-discussion-in-the-staff-room

DH and I also have that conversation but our relating time goes back further than most of those in that thread. He was born in 1942 and I was born in 1950 so our references are such that I didn't discover that I liked the music of Fleetwood Mac until their 21st anniversary tour sometime in the 90s because I only really remembered at that time their early instrumental "Albatross" which I was fairly meh about.

Last night I finished reading Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow after seeing much praise for it. I am a bit surprised by how well it's been recieved, given that it's about gaming culture and characters who grew up designing video games. Imagine something like Irwin Shaw's Rich Man Poor Man but with nerds. It's pretty much the perfect book for me, given my interest in gaming, especially the design and aesthetics of gaming but it's mostly a book about love, and enduring love, love that changes with the decades, love that exists even when we hate someone. A book without villains, just a bunch of imperfect people doing their best through life.

An absolute delight to read.

Glad you're all having fun! I've been WFH and this morning, it took 2 hours for IT to get me logged on. I wasted a bit of time here, did some tidying up etc. Just back from Sainsbury's, where a security guard made a middle aged couple with no kids move from a parent and child bay!

I have Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow on my Kindle and keep looking at it but keep not being quite in the mood to read it. However, if it's anything like Rich Man, Poor Man then I need to get around to it. I loved that back in the day.

I hope I haven't oversold it.

Well if you have, it's you and thousands of other people. It's hugely popular and the whole gaming thing doesn't appear to be an issue for none gamers.