Thread 13 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 12).

Looks like spring has sprung! Tulips, apple blossom and early hay fever are upon us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm, because "something something 'til May is out". 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…

Patronising and insulting. Mind you, if I lived in the US, with their stars-and-stripes waistcoats and parades, I'm sure I'd lose the will to live altogether.

I would say, though, that some issues are just tribal. Gender not least, surely? You're either for it, or against it. Not that that helps in trying to find a vote in this election.

More like one of the more than usually bonkers proselytising religions, I think. Scientology and Mormonism spring to mind (with zero apologies to any Scientologists or Mormons reading).

For my part, my opposition to gender ideology is not a tribal thing - it's a reality-based thing. Like flat earth or creationism. And it's the bundling of gender ideology into the Tribe of Righteousness that has contributed to my political homelessness.

I roll my eyes at the Starmer/Sunak dressing-up role-playing, but nothing is worse than Ed Davey's infantile stunts.

Election issues in NI just got serious: Jim Allister calls on Tayto crisp fans to ‘take notice’ as he hits out at EU over 'smoky bacon border’ https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/jim-allister-calls-on-tayto-crisp-fans-to-take-notice-as-he-hits-out-at-eu-over-smoky-bacon-border/a722919498.html

I think the point here is that you are using 'tribal' as essentially a slur, Kuc: redolent of 'unthinking following of the tribe, without bothering to analyse'. As you say, there are plenty of good and practical reasons for opposing gender ideology.

In non-political news, I've just confirmed my earlier suspicion that I've lost my sense of smell (went around sniffing loads of things that I know are scented).

Poor Jim Allister.

I watched most of the debate. It was very shouty. Sunak kept going on about Labour costing everyone an extra £2,000 in tax (sometimes it was every individual, sometimes every working family so presumably he couldn’t quite remember what his made up claim was meant to be) but it came across as ranting. And he keeps going on about having a plan but not really expanding on it so it very much seems like the plan is to have a nice long summer, possibly in California looking for a job.

Starmer was pretty ineffective at challenging the £2,000 claims (though that was partly the 45 second thing, which was stupid) but did at least point out that if things were getting better, as Sunak kept claiming, the election wouldn’t be happening now.

The audience openly laughed at Sunak a couple of times.

It was terrible telly though: so much shouting over each other (Sunak worse but both guilty of it) and neither had any real opportunity to go into detail on anything.

@Kucinghitam For my part, my opposition to gender ideology is not a tribal thing - it's a reality-based thing. Like flat earth or creationism.

For some reason that made me think of Saul Steinberg's 1976 New Yorker Cover: View of the World from 9th Avenue.

https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/essay/view-of-the-world-from-9th-avenue/

Fascinating, Gonners!

Oh wow, I'd never heard of that @Gonners! How interesting!

DH has made a fabulous beef stew for dinner. It looks amazing. Tastes like hot salty soft cubes. It's genuinely disturbing to lose the ability to perceive food flavours!

I don’t remember seeing that before @Gonners - it’s great!

Start boosting your B vitamins, particularly Thiamine, immediately. Cheapo supermarket multi-Bs are fine, but take them at bedtime, and don't take tea coffee or alcohol within a few hours of them. It might not work, but there are suggestions that it helps with several Covid effects including anosmia.

That's a useful tip - thanks DeanElderberry. I will try and store that away in case I get Covid again.

Maybe it's all snake oil, but I had a virus last summer (it didn't occur to me to do a Covid test at the time) with nasty gut upsets as well as a cough and prolonged weariness and woolly mindedness. A few months later it occurred to me that it felt very like some of the effects of thiamine deficiency so I started supplements - felt better within a week or so. I drink an awful lot of tea, and although it's often regarded as a condition that only effects alcoholics, serious gut problems AND EXCESSIVE TEA DRINKING are also problematic. And there are a lot of small studies about it and Covid.

Cheap, anyway, and if you don't need it you'll pee it out.

I'll ask DH to buy me some VitB supplements!

I do drink a fair amount of tea. Ironically only because I became intolerant to coffee a couple of years ago.

I've been to the Challenge Cup Final today at Wembley. It's such a lovely day out, And one of the things that's great about it is, it seems there's there's near enough enough women and children there as men, all their replica kits. Because it's all about the community. Half the town was there! I love it, and I think it's a very positive force for good.

That sounds like a lovely day, duc.

Hope everyone is okay and getting better if they've been unwell.

How much tea is excessive? I drink maybe 6 or 7 cups a day (PG Tips teabags, caffeinated in the morning and decaf in the afternoon and evening). Occasionally I have coffee (if I'm out, because America makes lousy tea).

How big are the cups, @Britinme ? 6-7 ordinary sized cups doesn't sound excessive to me.

I read somewhere that Tony Benn used to drink half a pint of tea per hour throughout the day and he lived to 88.

Well I ordinarily drink from a mug, but it's the same size of teabag whether it's a mug or a cup so that shouldn't make much of a difference.

@duc748 I could hear the rugby league yesterday (I don’t live far from the stadium) and wondered if you were there!

I drink hardly any tea these days and a lot less coffee than I used to. I also seldom drink alcohol now but I did add a bottle of Aperol to my Ocado order a week or two ago in the hope of summer. It’s sitting optimistically on the kitchen counter waiting for some sitting out weather.

Just reading a article praising American brevity, quotes Dorothy Parker, chased by an editor for a piece, replied, "Too fucking busy, and vice versa!""

Ka-boom tish, indeed! 😄

Mention of Dorothy Parker always brings to mind what she said about Spring.

'Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants.'

Evening all. Today I find myself wondering if there is going to be anything approaching an actual summer this year and deciding that right now it seems very unlikely. Earlier I was sort of relieved to hear that they'd finally found Michael Mosley's body because it was clear that he almost certainly wasn't alive and this whole thing must be awful for his wife and family. Such a shame as he seemed like a lovely chap.

@Kucinghitam I do hope you're on the mend from evil and horrid Covid. I must get my vaccine topped up. I kept getting texts about it but I was in hospital at the time so blah. I have a friend who has it and she's the sort who is always on the go. When we were told she was in bed we knew it was bad. I'm guessing it's similar for you with being bedridden an' all. Well, you were bedridden. I do hope you're able to be up and about again.

And of course, I hope everyone else is as well as can be expected in this bleak and rubbish weather and having to put up with election bollocks.