The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms!

The company is always sparkling, the drinks are always sublime, and the cakes are mysteriously free from gluten, sugar, calories, and troublesome booze… not that you’d ever notice. 😏

Our enthusiastic team of gerbil waitstaff is ably supported by capybaras, quokkas, and other charming creatures who excel at their jobs while looking outrageously adorable.

You will find many things to laugh at - usually out loud - so take care not to spit out your tea. We are considering a petition for the return of the laugh emoji - just as soon as the AI gerbils learn how to spell.

New Bluestockingers are always welcome. Men can pop along to The Staunch Ally nearby.

Currently also knitting a Woolly Hug blanket for Bluestockinger Swashbuckled. Details here if you can knit or crochet a square before the 18 July.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5350941-woolly-hugs-desperately-sad-news-we-are-afraid-making-a-blanket-for-lovely-swashbuckled-whose-son-has-tragically-died

He is indeed Welsh :)

Thank you Cher! It's only 10.15 and I've learnt so much new stuff already today.
I can't overstate how much I love learning new stuff from fellow Stockingers, who are such a wonderful repository of facts and knowledge and wisdom

It's a funny thing about the ubiquity of Mary in Catholic Ireland. Looking at a different religious tradition, Utah has become famous lately for giving its kids made-up names that wouldn't be out of place on Ricki Lake.

But go back a few generations, and I found this tracing my LDS extended family, boys were often named after popular church leaders or, if they were really unlucky, Book of Mormon characters. Girls usually had standard English names but were often named after leaders of the Relief Society, the LDS women's organisation that often annoyed the Mormon patriarchy by being an alternative power structure.

But there's something quite strange in LDS baby naming - very few Josephs. There are lots of boys called Hyrum, after Joseph Smith's brother who was killed with him, but hardly any called Joseph. There seems to be an unspoken taboo about naming your child after the Prophet.

I wonder why some (Latino, any other?) Christian cultures use Jesus as a name but many others avoid it? I’d guess the Mormons forbears would have been in the latter group and would treat Joseph similarly?

I see the new nook is getting some use! The gerbils are a little discombobulated at the new layout though.

There seems to be an unspoken taboo about naming your child after the Prophet.

Same sort of thing —
In Ireland there are/were lots of Marys. Interestingly, Mary translates as Máire in Irish, but this name was never used for the mother of Jesus who was Muire. This was a name only to be used for her.
So there was a name distinction in Irish, but not in English. I’m not sure why.

That's an interesting point about Máire/Muire, Dryeroo, must research it...
This is such an educational day so far and it's only lunchtime!

'Jesus' was much too sacred to be given as a name in Ireland - I remember my elders bowing their heads briefly every time 'Jesus' was spoken - a little link to Islam: when I hear Muslims saying 'Peace be upon him' after they say the name of Mohammed, I see my granny bowing her head at 'Jesus'
Another similarity is that we also prayed a specific prayer several times a day at fixed hours, 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight if you were still up, but we had the Angelus bell instead of the muezzin. And then there was the fasting...

Me too. And the wit is the icing on the cake of wisdom!

LOVE the Permanent Bluestocking, Marie.

One of the most popular names for women in medieval Ireland was Mór - big, great, a name signifying a woman of power - Mór gradually morphed into Máire, but the original wasn't marian at all. I suspect that some Máirín/Maureens would have started out as Móirín - Little Big.

@SionnachRuadh I have a distant branch of family in Utah as well. I believe they recruited new members from poor communities around 100 years ago and paid their passage. In my case this was the coal mining communities in South Wales.

@FarriersGirl In my case the converts were mostly poor agricultural labourers in Kent whose passage got paid, plus some Irish who were already in North America and converted in the early years of the church. My cousins in Utah are fairly distant but thanks to 19th century polygamy there are zillions of them.

The only Meredith I've ever known is male, Welsh on one side.

I hope the other occupants will excuse the swearing earlier in the Knitting Knook (Gosie made the sign and put it up, poor spelling runs in her family. She was so pleased with it that I didn't have the heart to pass her the Tippex...) I had to unpick a third of a square as it was coming up too small, and it was stranded colour work as well...

Gosie also commented that she was much interested in our conversation about nuns, and if she ever has a daughter, she will call her Gymnastica.

Inspired by Gymnastica & Sister Scholastica, if I ever have a daughter I shall name her Knickerelastica. Maybe as a second name; it would be kinder.

This event is unlikely, given that I'm late 60's & have had a full hysterectomy, but nil desperandum, eh?

Gymnastica is a lovely name, Edith! In the same vein, may I suggest Gonorrhoea?

Greetings to @teawamutu ! I'll join everyone in the Nook in a bit, but first I have to look up jasmine stitch & then tackle a pile of ironing.

I really don't think we need Gonorrhoea the gerbil at the Bluestocking, Magpie. That's a gerbil too far.

Oh wow, jasmine stitch is really beautiful!

Please don't mention ironing. I'm trying to ignore the post-holiday mountain of it.

Gerbil names I'd use..

Geranium
Gypsophila
Gazania
Gardenia
Gerbera
Gladiolus

And I've sort of managed it! It's not the squarest square ever but there's a lot of honest toil in it.

I read that as Gynaecomastia.

I'll get my coat.

It can also be spelled Meredydd, pronounced Mer E dyth, with the emphasis on the second syllable.

oh! So I just this second realised Meredith is Muiredach is Murdoch.

as you were

Have a cross

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muiredach%27s_High_Cross

That's a beauty of a Celtic cross, Deano.