The Bluestocking - where women are women, and small furry animals are gerbils, quokkas, capybaras, or a red panda called Rosy

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all to the Bluestocking Pub, a haven safe from harsh reality [mostly] full of good company, and excellent food and drink served by the most efficient team of gerbils in the hospitality industry.

I remember when if you wanted to ensure that your painstakingly hand-drawn archaeological site plan was locatable on the National Grid (a requirement of getting a license in the first place) you had to locate your nearest benchmark and use a theodolite and ranging poles to tie everything together (by 'you' I don't actually mean 'me' you understand, there was usually someone, often a bloke, who inexplicably preferred that sort of thing to getting down and dirty).

Nowadays your phone tells you.

Ah I see others beat me to it!

And now having seen the gerbils working as site engineers/land surveyors I'm breaking out in a cold sweat. Despite being employed at one point as a site engineer I hate levels and theodolites, I can never get the bubble in the centre!

Maybe they should ask for some help quokkas standing on each other's shoulders they way they did to act the part of St Patrick in the parade?

Oh God, centering their bubbles, there were some guys who spoke of little else.

Oh I can well imagine it🙄
'Yeah well y'know it's ISO 17025 certified calibration or it's nowhere, isn't it blah blah blah blah blah blah...'

I'm bluffing, that's calibration for spirit levels, but I'm guessing it would work for theodolites.

The etymology intrigued me - theo = something about God?? but no:

theodolite(n.)
type of portable surveying instrument, 1570s, a word of unknown origin and much speculation almost from its first appearance. The inventor seems to have left no account of the coinage. "The word has a Gr[eek] semblance, but no obvious Gr[eek] basis" [Century Dictionary]. Related: Theodolitic.

Now that is genuinely interesting, @MarieDeGournay. I love those random things that clearly the originator understood but thought it so obvious it didn't need writing down!
What the p in pH stands for is another example.

Dorset, though other places may be similarly infested.

Grrr, Grrr and thrice grr.
I’m listening to BBC R4 “PM at 5pm”and Lord Sumpsion (former member of the Supreme Court) has just referred 5 times to ‘The Equalities Act’.

The BBC wants us to consider what he says as authoritative, but why should we when he can’t even get the name of the Act right?

We live near motorways which get heavily used on BH weekends, so we tend not to go far. I swap my bh days for others as my US colleagues don’t care.

Isn't a sump usually the lowest point of a system? Nominative determination?

Yes, cake, you’re right. Wikipedia tells me that “a sump is a low reservoir.”

The only Sumption I knew of was the composer of “They that go done to the Sea in Ships”, an anthem I used to enjoy singing although it’s not relevant to our @Swashbuckled .

It tells us that, in storms:

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.

I have sent my first ever email to the BBC. No reply yet.

I see that @MarieDeGournaymentioned that she was a horse on another thread and I was about to AI her into the Bluestocking when I remembered she's actually a punk angel with black wings. So there's a horse that's arrived.

you mean a horse walked into the bar?

https://www.willowbrookridingcentre.co.uk/a-horse-walks-into-a-bar-jokes/

some better than others

My favourite

A horse walks into a bar.
Four hours later, a horse walks unsteadily out of a bar.

Late to the party, but I love that map. I could take you with confidence to exactly one of the benchmarks showing in various places that I have lived.

It seems I have a benchmark almost directly outside my house!
I shall have to investigate when I get back.

@MarieDeGournay was a horse?!?

Cross-species transitioning….impressive!

@MarchWindsAnd

”It tells us that, in storms:
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.”

Not just in storms, to be fair…

<excited>

Thank you Myrtle but I didn't say I was any horse, I said I was Shergar...
now I think of it, that would be the perfect explanation - Shergar was in the Bluestocking all this time😃

Explanation for Swash: I was riffing on the 'I am biological therefore I am a woman' TRA thing, I said 'I am biological therefore I am Shergar'.

I wonder if Shergar has lived longer in the Irish memory than the British? Hopefully the reference wasn't a complete mystery...

@MarieDeGournay

Ah, I see.
I imagine it’s good to be home 😊

Marie, I'm English and know exactly who Shergar is.

Probably ridden by Lord Lucan.

@lcakethereforeIam

I know! I can barely contain my glee.

Marie, also English, also recall Shergar.

I seem to recall that he made a reappearance in the public consciousness ten-ish years ago when horsemeat was found in various ready meals. There were sundry callous jokes about him, along with people messing around with packaging to give us all 'Filly-con-Carne' and 'Spaghetti Bologneighs'.

Marsca-pony!