Roll up, Ladies and Gentlecreatures, the Bluestocking has been redecorated

[DeanElderberry]

Here for your delight and delectation is the hostelry by, for, and about wise, intelligent, creative and kind women, their assorted avatars including (but not limited to) a remarkable beetle, an astute android, a wise cake, and an assembly of companion creatures and animal assistants.

Food and drink available in abundance, all with remarkable non-damaging qualities.

Males may congregate in the nearby Staunch Ally and sometimes visit the stableyard to view outdoor performances by the gerbil waitstaff (who need to be distracted after the moment after that terrible 'misunderstanding' about the meaning of safe sex).

last thread here if you need to know why the Quokkas need some extra cuddles, and why the Cabybaras are being particularly efficient just now

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5273255-the-bluestocking-all-gerbils-welcome-must-have-own-frou-frou-skirt?

I probably could if I had to

Of course! We're besties! She accompanied me on my trip to Jersey on the very small boat I own the other week.

Nooooo!

😱

I'm not googling that to see if it's true.

A charming image indeed!

I feel terrible now! Just had a look. Sorry Boily 😳

Totally looks like the holiday snaps!

I’m loving all this AI. Every time I look for an image generator all I find is ones that want you to take out a subscription.

I know we were all happy and excited when Beetle came back (OMG BEETLE CAME BACK!!!!!) but putting our dungarees on backwards was a massive mistake.

Those pockets are very useful for ones notebook and pen and sample bags and odds and ends (though ones contours become rather strange), but their utter impracticality is revealed as soon as one visits the loo, undoes ones shoulder straps, and gravity drags the front pocket and all the contents floorwards.

Ah, the things I learned as a young woman.

But trust me, wearing dungarees back-to-front would make things much much worse, not better.

Maybe the mid-back pockets are meant for tired gerbils to hitch a lift in? I’m sure they can attach themselves with their little claws to prevent accidentally being dropped in the loo.

Nah. Splashy gerbil. Grubby Grizelda will have to wash thoroughly before she's let back into the food area.

I'm afraid it's true about spit-roasted guinea-pigs, I have at least two first-hand reports.
As a vegetarian, it's no worse than spit-roasting pig-pigs, a living creature is a living creature, and eating cats and dogs is no worse than eating cows and chickens.. theoretically.

But I get it that it doesn't feel the same to meat-eaters who also have beloved little companion animals

I saw that.
Hide it before it scares the staff and they all scarper, in fear of their little furry lives!

In parts of Africa, herdboys are sent off with the flocks and a bag of mealie meal for months at a time. If they want protein, they spit roast mice, or anything else they can catch...

I knew such a herdboy in his adult life. He went and watched Fatal Attraction in a British cinema and was completely baffled by the audience's horrified reaction to the bunny boiling scene. His concern was that the rabbit clearly hadn't been skinned first, and who wants fur in their food?

Rabbit is very tasty. But I think it depends on which rabbit.

I used to live in the Midlands and regularly drove on country roads during the season when hundreds of rabbits were born. They were so prevalent at night on the roads that hitting them was unavoidable at times. You've heard the expression "rabbit in headlights"? That.

I was describing this to my London-based friend and her 13 year old daughter and the girl told me, "you killed a bunny and you're not even sorry!", which was sadly true. Most of the rabbits die of myxomatosis anyway and living in the countryside gives one a different context about wild animals.

I wonder did fear of being eaten drive Grizelda's dirty diving mission, trying to convince us gerbils are not safe food. Could someone make it very clear to the little rascals that rodents of any shape or size are NOT on the Bluestocking menu. In fact that none of the regulars are on the menu. Just because they eat puffins in the Faroes that doesn't mean we're going to start. No. We are not.

Too late! The kitchen gerbils have got hold of the recipe.

Fortunately it seems.the gerbils are enjoying the benefits of a warm bath and are lining up to get clean...

It looks as though they all have a go and then they actually cook something else.

Only in the Bluestocking!

Microsoft Bing is free. But it can't draw a decent clam, which I wanted for CLAMAW (Conspicuously Law Abiding Middle Aged Women) but that's now been contracted to CLAW anyway, as in Moley's artwork.

If anyone isn't already reading Tribunal Tweets on the Met case, do, along with MN's witness statement. It's all stunning.

And for Marie's benefit, as I think it might appeal to her love of the intricately bizarre & arcane side of life, I was going to riff on CLAMAW = the maw of the clam & the fact that I once saw a netsuke which was in the shape of a giant clam whose maw had closed & trapped the testicles of an unwary Japanese man inside the clam. The museum label explained all this (it was hard to see due to the small size of a netsuke) & commented that the Japanese found this predicament hilarious. Oddly, when I googled this I couldn't find anything beyond references to a mythical 'testicle thief' in Japanese culture.

I'm telling myself that that image is of Inky with a chocolate guinea pig which she's probably been given as an early Easter present. Right? Nothing nasty going on at all.

I use Google Gemini, because I have an Android phone and a Gmail account. It won't do people unless you pay, but that's not a big problem.

Microsoft Designer will do some free images every month but then you have to wait a reset. I paid for ChatGPT for a month for other reasons so I have unlimited images at the moment.

If you have a Microsoft account (and you can use your existing email address to set one up), you can use Microsoft Copilot for free.

We are only a few posts away from page 40. Who would like to start the next thread?

I once saw a netsuke which was in the shape of a giant clam whose maw had closed & trapped the testicles of an unwary Japanese man inside the clam. The museum label explained all this (it was hard to see due to the small size of a netsuke) & commented that the Japanese found this predicament hilarious.
That is delightfully weird, Android!😄
It's not only the Japanese who find this sort of thing funny - I'm always surprised at the reaction of team-mates when a sportsman gets hit in what commentators refer to as 'the lower stomach area' - the poor chap is rolling around in obvious agony and his dear team-mates as often as not can scarcely hide their mirth.
Men are a foreign country, they do things differently there🙄

I don't want to start a new thread. Don't know why, maybe it feels like too big a responsibility or something - I'm always relieved when somebody else steps up to do it. I realise that's an awful admission of being a shirker and a user and somebody who hides down the back of the class hoping that Sister Albertus Magnus doesn't ask you to come up to the blackboard to explain that theorem..😳

I'll start the new thread.

One nice, shiny new thread here.

Thank you, Woley, you're so brave, I'm going to sit behind you in every maths class from now on😄