Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

My contraceptive protection at sixth form in late-60s Ulster was provided by my classmate Maggie, who answered all enquiries from the boys with "Yes, of course she "does it" - she's English! But she wouldn't do it with you!" This saved embarrassment all round.

Surely a newspaper would be easier than a phone directory? And more versatile.

You might still feel something and that might lead to removing the newspaper.

A lot of relationship education in the 80s was “men are insatiable and it is your responsibility to not arouse them”. That in-grown sexism and misogyny has deep roots.

The weekend edition might be more efficacious than a daily.

Years ago I had a colleague whose parents were a former nun and a former priest. Presumably they knew about sex but perhaps not about contraception (although that was possibly hard to come by in rural Ireland in the 1950s especially for nuns and priests).

It would be interesting to know the statistics on events like that, wouldn't it? I suspect it's not uncommon.

I met some Americans who were former nun and priest, too, circa 1976.

These days, I understand, almost all nuns come from African countries. Many nunneries/convents (is there a difference?) have merged, and there are a number of old nuns, being looked after by younger African women.

This just made me laugh. There's an article on some US site called allthatsinteresting.com which begins:

During a sport fishing trip off the coast of Costa Rica, fishers reeled in an unusually rare orange-colored nurse shark.

Fishers? WTAF? I mean, if you're too afraid to use the generic "fishermen" and don't have the space for "fishermen/women", what is wrong with "anglers"?

Well anglers implies fishing with a rod, by a bank or in a small boat, but I can’t think of a neutral term that covers men and women.

Isn't that more the practice in US English? They say 'batters', after all.

And seniors… Shudder

I'd say 'reels in' suggests they were indeed angling, with rods.

Have emerged briefly from thread Sandie Peggie threads to announce that I'm a great aunt. (Not as in 'really good', I'm quite a rubbish one - but can now be rubbish across 2 generations).

I think it's partly because initially I read "fishers" and thought "fissures, surely?", because in my head "fisher" isn't really a word. Fissures made no sense ... and it sort of went from there into my general "Is this gender neutral talk, or are Americans mad?" train of thought. I did query it with my resident ex-American who said "Who cares?" Unhelpful!

According to Wikipedia fishers are also a rather attractive type of North American mustelid! But I don't think they go on "sport fishing trips" off Costa Rica.

Honestly I don't have a problem with the term "seniors" (being one myself). It's shorter and doesn't sound as pathetic as "old age pensioner" or even just "pensioner". And we get senior discounts from Dunkin Donuts, and half price senior matinees on a Tuesday at our local cinema.

I certainly don’t mind the benefits of getting things cheaper when you’re older. Spain is particularly good at old people discounts - I was in Córdoba when I turned 65 and was delighted to get a reduced price sentry to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos on my birthday. And I’m visiting the Sagrado Familia in Barcelona in October at reduced price too.

But I find the use of seniors just too twee, and disguising. It’s a bit like the XL version of trousers for boys aged 8 in GAP when my son was small (and always slim fit) was husky. From that sort of not telling the truth it’s an easy step to Isla Bumba saying she isn’t sure what sex she is. Everyone knows the truth; you just don’t ever admit it.

In Malaysia, OAPs are "golden citizens"

That's wonderful!

Yes: I’ll take that!

I'd rather be silver, but that's just a matter of personal preference.

I’m not bothered by “seniors” but “golden citizens” is great! On the whole though, I’m all in favour of anything that’ll get me a discount.

In #firstworldproblems our new kitchen still isn't finished after nearly 4 weeks. Or rather, it now looks finished but our hob still isn't connected to the electricity supply.

The electrician started out being over-keen, phoned me late last week while the kitchen floor was a lake of self-levelling screed to ask if he could pop round imminently to connect the hob. When I pointed out that he'd either have to swim or levitate over the flooring guys, we agreed that this Monday would be better. He didn't turn up on Monday.

On Tuesday, the kitchen fitter came back to finish the final bits and bobs, and said that the electrician would be in as well. No electrician.

On Wednesday morning, the electrician phoned again and said "I'll be round first thing tomorrow (i.e. today)" and so I waited all this morning... eventually I texted him to no avail.

Now a second electrician has just phoned, apologetically, saying that that he'll be round first thing tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we have a different company coming to replace the back door. But I said yes to the electrician anyway because we need a bloody hob I don't want yet another weekend with no functioning kitchen. He'll have to park in the road and work around the door people.

It’s so infuriating when that kind of thing happens - sympathies.

How annoying. I hope electrician number 2 does rather better.

My renovations today have been rather more successful. I had 2 very old IKEA screens, made from plastic that once looked like white Japanese rice paper but is now yellowing and very brittle, with several fractured 'panes'.

They now look like this:

That looks lovely! What have you used - is it paper? fabric?

Thank you, I'm rather pleased with it. It's wallpaper, but with a slight texture so looks a bit like fabric.