The Bluestocking: the one where AI finally learns what a blackbird is (we hope)

[Magpiecomplex]

Welcome all, New Year (nearly), new thread!

Humph.

<snorts loudly>

Wha'evah. Ya can find owt on t'internet, but in mah booook, thruppence is Northern. I's a Northern type o' slang.

In yer soft sahff we say Freppence.

cep we dun', cos it's all aineshunt histry innit.

<stalks away, throwing Collins Dictionary in the bin and chewing an unfortunate wasp>

Yuh daft 'apporth!

.

@inkymoose You're right about threepenny, I would only use thrupenny informally, so I'm sorry if it upset you.

I joined you in the search. We found a lot of ladybirds and I wonder if we've found Boily or a cousin or something...

If Boily's in my lab, I'll smoke her out.

Halfpennies are long gone, what do people play shove ha'penny with now?

My pedantry is aroused by depictions of labs almost invariably featuring far too many brightly coloured fluids (though few as unlikely as rainbow-hued). Someone always seems to be boiling up a pot of bright green Fairy Liquid and another of copper sulfate for some unfathomable reason, rather than the more probable range of colourless or yellowish compounds.

I think it was the second year of my chemistry degree when I spent the whole year making compounds exclusively in shades of muddy yellows and oranges. That was very dull!

I think I might have located Boily, by the way. Gerbils report sightings of a large beetle in the pump room, muttering to herself.

Some labs in the popular imagination don't feature brightly-coloured fluids, e.g. this one:

From my laboratory in the castle east
To the master bedroom where the vampires feast
The ghouls all came from their humble abodes
To get a jolt from my electrodes
They did the mash
They did the monster mash

Organic lifeforms have NO sense of fun!

Oh, well, that's alright then.

Found this from last night. This one's for you, Errol.😁

So where IS Boily? Bad trip? Did she ignore the weather warnings and eat the yellow snow?
I also hope Cher is doing OK today.

I have visitors for a couple of days arriving tomorrow and I have to tear myself away to do a spot of tidying, though this is much more fun.. hang on, that's 'damning with faint praise' isn't it, anything is more fun than tidying!
So no need to search the obscure corners of the Stocking if I'm not around the next couple of days

Has anyone checked to see if she's frozen in the maze?

Cher is home, with a new hip, a huge bag of medications and a pile of instructions. And a bit of a woolly head from the medications already taken.

I expect everything will become clearer as the week goes in.

Excellent news Cher! Take it easy. Hot and cold running gerbils to attend to your every need.

..as the week goes on, obviously.

I did mention the woolly head.

You did! Sympathies, I was doped up to the eyeballs after my last big orthopaedic surgery and for several days I was not nearly as coherent as I normally am. Everyone made allowances, as I am sure everyone will for you.

I suppose it makes some sense that you might prefer inorganic to organic chemistry.

Whatever. IRL, I don't even know what that means. I'm pretty much scientifically illiterate. Force = mass x acceleration: that's all I've got left, really.

I got it, Errol!
Although I was wondering whether Android was in fact just doing some pH testing.

<Emerges from the lab>

Glad to hear the patient @Chersfrozenface is doing well!

Erm... Boily, what have you been doing in the lab?

Nothing!

Honest!

It's alive!!! 🤣