The Autumn Bluestocking - mist, mellow fruitfulness and hot chocolate!

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Welcome one and all - as the nights draw in, pull up a chair to the fire, and the gerbils will be along soon with hot chocolate and Tunnock’s teacakes.

There’s a glass floor panel in the shopping centre in Gloucester over some Roman ruins.

Exactly the sort of thing I meant and I like, @ErrolTheDragon

Swash! I missed you and hoped you were OK and just sailing in different seas
That table is wonderful, and an excellent idea - I now have a Real Bluestocking I'm very proud of, but I live in a small house with nowhere to display it properly and also, it's The Bluestocking Arms, it's a tad ...outing, isn't it?
I'm thinking of renaming it for general display.

I'll keep an eye out for glass-topped tables and display cases for my next modelling obsession project.

Tbh the gerbils etc are more outing than the name😂 - ‘Bluestockings’ is a recognised term that’s why the originators of this pub used it.

Yay; glad it had inspired you @MarieDeGournay
Your real life Blue Stocking is phenomenal!

I fell asleep whilst trying to catch up on this thread last night. I was fighting sleep to stay awake because it was all so dramatic, but I failed.

I am indeed sailing in different seas.

I hope your seas are becoming calmer.

There aren't many Irish pubs called The Bluestockings, though, so it would attract attention!
The gerbils have all been removed and it just looks like an ordinary pub interior now. But they are all on standby to resume their roles at a moment's notice

'The Woman's Heart' would be an okay pub name.

Love it Deano! And it already has the heart over the door - which is for you, don't forget, Swash💙

But I'm now split on whether that's our song for a round-the-piano chorus, someone's (not mine) karaoke specialty, or an item for the gerbil choir with quokka orchestral accompaniment.

I don’t know the song but can’t it be all three?

It wasn't just a song in 1992, but it became a social phenomenon - it brought together a group of women performers who made a best-selling album and toured the country, and it was all about women which was hugely daring in the music business in the early 90s.
The song was denounced at the time as sexist because it said that 'Only a woman's heart could know' the emotions described.
These days it would be denounced as transphobic. Unless sung by drag artistes of course😒

Progress? No, it's going round in circles, always arriving back at the point where a woman's place is in the wrong😠

There's a shot on the Radio Times website which includes arms and hands, and they do look quite convincingly male.

It's sad that the activities of the TRAs have brought us to this point. I know a trans identifying woman and didn't know for years that she wasn't a man, until she told me, and I still think of her as him.

Her background is very sad which explains the transition, and if that's who she wants to be, that's fine.

Wishing you fair winds and following seas.

I think generally speaking a trans-identified woman is more likely to “pass” than a trans-identified man unless she’s very small and dainty, particularly if she goes for the bearded and tattooed look. A lot of trans-identified men don’t have a clue how to dress appropriately and a male physique is harder to hide.

I was going to wish Swash 'fair winds and full sails', but if 'following seas' are also A Good Thing, this landlubber wishes her those too.

[are the sailors here rolling their eyes at that display of ignorance? I've also heard 'fair winds and tight lines' but I suspect that's to do with fishing.]

In short, and in non-nautical language* - sending you love, dear Swash, *wherever you are on your journey💙

Just caught up. We decided to go on holiday in the UK so i've been out a lot.

Hello Swash 👋

For the record, I think I use heart for commiserations and affection for the most part. If someone posts something adorable, like the real Bluestocking or the cough sweetie story, I might heart it.

I'm not sure what to do if someone posts something funny. None of the remaining emoji are really suitable. The pedant in me doesn't like that. Although I think you know when you're being funny and don't need my attagirls, it rankles that there isn't a way to show that without using an unsatisfactory emoji or cluttering the thread up with laugh posts. You're all so funny I reckon at least 50% of most threads would be me posting '😂'.

So take it as read that I think you're funny when you're being funny. In the interim I'll try to get over myself.

I use hearts for commiseration, for love, for laughter, for someone scoring over 4,000 on chronophoto, for someone getting a three-figure score on chronophoto, for cute animals, probably for other stuff too.

I have posted a few actual laughs in the last couple of days when eejits made particular tits of themselves.

Thanks to being an app user, I’m the epitome of the quip ‘old chemists never die, they just fail to react’.

Gilbert & Sullivan, The Gondoliers, ‘Kind sir, you cannot have the heart’

Ah me, you men will never understand
That woman’s heart is one with woman’s hand.

@ErrolTheDragon , I’ve just ‘hearted’ your last post.

I find that I just rattle through the Bluestocking posts 'agreeing' or 'loving' them all, because that's the way things are here
Sometimes I think it's devaluing the emojis and I stop doing it for a while, or sometimes somebody posts something that thanking agreeing or loving just wouldn't be appropriate..
but I'm quickly back to agreeing or loving everythig!

As I said previously, I use the emojis like a 'Um hmm' or a 'Really?' in a conversation, to show I'm listening and paying attention and finding what's said interesting...
now there's a challenge: an emoji that says ' I'm listening and paying attention and finding what's said interesting'

I think a shocked reaction would be a help too.

😮

As in, your DH did what?!
Or that happened to your DC? etc.

Hard to see if it could be abused, but maybe someone would think of it.

I don’t often put reactions on posts because so many of them are funny or wise or well written or in so many other ways excellent. But when I do it’s because I think it’s exceptionally good in some way or because it really resonates with me or I want to give the poster a hug without having a hug reaction available.