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

I could of course involve the Esteemed Cousin in some unhealthy habits...

This is the problem with not visiting the Bluestocking for a bit, there's so much to catch up on. So, in no particular order,

Thank you for the new thread.i do like giving gerbils silly names that start with G, but I don't think Germoleen was one of mine.

That Bluestocking irl is absolutely stunning 😍

Hello all of the new Bluestockingers. I don't think anyone has mentioned the funicular railway that can take you up Peak Woo and the zipwire back down to the beer garden. And the bowsers.

My wool arrived this morning. I haven't knitted for years. I hope I can produce something half as good as Myrtle.

Was just reminded of and was listening to Pompeii by Bastille, which seems to have been huge but completely passed me by. Apparently it's two toasty corpses having a chat.

Neville is healing. I won't tell you what came out of him 🤢

Tesco kitkats are, imo, much better than kitkat kitkats.

Magpies are beautiful birds, we just take them too much for granted.

Always thinking of Swash ❤️

This is amazing!! Love the interior. You’re so talented!

Cake, you need to take your tales of Neville over to Sporner Corner.

I didn't get pictures. I couldn't bear their disappointment.

Of course, since it's the summer and the weather is warm, I may share a cold beer with my other esteemed cousin Sionnach Feinneach.

I'm seeing a strong family resemblance in you and your cousins. Obviously you all have the most magnificent coats (that would look lovely draped over my shoulders, but I digress) but your eyes and your noses! There must be some strong genes running through your family tree.

How was the eviction of Neville (God I so want photos)? Was it good? <rubs thighs>

I've said too much already...he left a hollow!

It made squidgy noises 😲

Pwhoar

SionnachRuadh I feel like I am missing something in your user name, and your cousins names, with the fox connection, probably due to my inability to pronounce anything Irish.
However in real life my name has a very close connection to foxes, so we have quite a few foxes around our house, so I feel a strong affinity to your Blue Stocking presence!

My mother would have grown up referring to a fox as maidrin ruadh, little red dog. Irish is still pleasingly variable across regions, a side effect of attempts to eliminate the language over the centuries.

https://irishlanguage.ie/sionnach-vs-madra-rua/

I don't know much about the Irish language (or Scottish gaelic either). I recall inna children's book a fox character was called something like Cua Rua? Red dog? Anglicised (for the kiddies) as CooRoo. It was the Hounds of the Morrigan. I've heard pronouncing Irish is difficult because of the regional dialects.

I would still refer to a dog as madadh. My Irish can be a bit spotty and what I have is mostly Ulster Irish, but I like the variations. From time to time I've tried to learn some Gàidhlig and I find it pleasingly familiar.

Well, for me cú is a hound, most often a greyhound, while madadh is like a normie dog. The Irish wolfhound is cú faoil, though I haven't seen one in years.

WHAT!

Thank you for all that talk about foxes, it brought to mind the very first song I ever learnt, apart from nursery rhymes - An Maidrín Rua, the little red fox.

The naughty little fox is lying in the rushes with just the tip of his ears showing [cue hiding behind some furniture with your fingers over your head like ears before being caught and slung over a parent's shoulder like a stolen goose]
and has a conversation in English - foxes are so clever they are bilingual - with the local gentleman, who is also bilingual because he lapses into Irish to say I will not touch a bit of the goose.

An maidrín rua rua rua rua rua
An maidrín rua atá gránna
An maidrín rua ina luí sa luachair
Is barr a dhá chluais in áirde
[lilting]
‘Good morrow, fox!’ ‘Good morrow, sir!’
‘Pray, what is that you’re eating?’
‘A fine fat goose I stole from you –
And will you come and taste it?’
‘Oh, no indeed – ní háil liom í
Ní bhlaisfead pioc de ar aon chor –
But I vow and swear that you’ll dearly pay
For my fine fat goose you’re eating!’

There's a phantom dog that haunts Peel Castle in the Isle of Man known as the Moddey Dhoo which is a pretty accurate representation of the Ulster Irish for 'Black Dog' - Manx is very close to Irish Gaelic.

There are some old recordings of the last Manx native speakers made in the 1940s, thanks to de Valera in one of his more romantic moods. It does sound to me very much like Ulster Irish.

I believe I've also discovered family members of mine in the census records who were monoglot Irish speakers, though it's hard to know for certain because there only are about six surnames in Donegal.

Look! I'd come to the end of the antibiotics and there was clearly still some yellow infection. I didn't want another course and I thought while I still had some in my system perhaps it would be okay to...it was open and a bit oozy anyway. I didn't have to take a blade to him. I just meant to dab off the bits I could see. Before I knew it I was squeezing! I should have weighed and possibly raised him.

Shocking behaviour. You can never show your face in Sporners' Corner again.

<shakes head sadly>

Marie,
There's a phantom dog that haunts Peel Castle in the Isle of Man known as the Moddey Dhoo which is a pretty accurate representation of the Ulster Irish for 'Black Dog' - Manx is very close to Irish Gaelic.
The roads in these parts are alleged to be haunted by a giant black dog. We call him Shuck. Black Shuck, sometimes.

I sometimes toy with getting a large black dog and calling him Shuck, just to see the local reactions...

I like your thinking, Edith 👻😄

Sionnach, thank you for that recording of Manx. I couldn't make out the words - [a] it's Manx [b] unclear recording [c] I can't hear properly anyway.

I think it sounds like the Lord's Prayer, from little bits and pieces I half recognised? I'm cheating a bit because I know that the Lords' Prayer was a standard text that scholars asked people to say in their own language.

Marie, it is indeed the Lord's Prayer, said by Ned Maddrell (1877-1974), who was the last surviving native speaker. I could probably have guessed that just from the rhythm of it.

The rhythm of the Lord's Prayer is incredibly identifiable in all sorts of languages. I don't speak a word of Ukrainian beyond 'Slava Ukraini!', but I watched a video on Twitter of a group of troops about to go into battle.

'De-de-dum, de-dum de dum-dum...'
I checked the comments and yep, Lord's Prayer in Ukrainian.