The Bluestocking, where the short days shorten and the oaks are brown

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all, regulars and newcomers, to the Bluestocking Women's Pub, a place of refuge and inspiration and camaraderie and silliness, where all alcoholic drinks are non-intoxicating, cakes contain no gluten, sugar or calories, but still taste yummy, and the attentive staff are small but very professional rodents wearing snazzy little outfits.

Other roles - such as acting as foot stools, looking decorative in the garden, or just being impossibly cute when you need something impossibly cute to go awwww at - are filled by a team of miniature pigs, quokkas, wombats, etc etc.

If real life is difficult, you can bring your troubles to the Bluestocking and a comfy chair will be found for you at a roaring fire, a miniature pig will settle down happily to support your tired feet, and a gerbil will serve you promptly with a comforting drink - very large G&Ts or massive mugs of hot chocolate with extra cream and marshmallows are popular choices [don't forget: no calories in the Bluestocking].

I read it quickly, and as a typo, but now you mention it, Errol, it is a very evocative phrase. Very Halloween/Samhain-ish
So Jane, was this evidence of fast typing, or of a fascinating knowledge of the dialects of English on these islands?

The third option is that you've invented a phrase which will, I believe, be cherished in the Bluestocking

I'm not Scottish, except for having family who live there but I gather the phrase is "drees her own weird." As you say, very evocative.

I'm on X today reading Tribunal Tweets, as well as being on the thread dedicated to following the Darlington nurses ET.

I've just seen this wonderful post - here.

It reads
We are the Cambridge University Society of Women. As the only openly and proudly single-sex society for women at the university, our mission is to facilitate women speaking freely in an all-female environment. We will be campaigning and fundraising to help women's sex-based causes. Launching today, we are now offering membership to female students of Cambridge University! Please contact us via X or Instagram for more information.

Screenshot to follow in my next post.

Their president @MaeveHalligan has tweeted

Really proud of us for today launching the Cambridge University Society of Women! As president, I'm keen to get started and create a space where women can speak freely and question unashamedly. Any and all support appreciated.

I have sent a PM in support following a link on X to here.

If you can think of somewhere else in FWR to post about this, please do.

I’m not sure how to balance encouraging support for these students without it them getting a lot of negative messages from TRAs. Those have already started on X, as you might expect.

I hope the C U Students Union does agree to their request to be registered. How likely that is I don’t know.

CUSocOfWomen on X

No typo. I'm guessing that it is Northumbrian in origin as I heard it from my DGF who hailed from the far north of Northumberland. I'm not sure that it translates easily into English and, depending on context, could mean either 'you can't run away from your problems' or 'go your own way' or 'get over yourself'.

Good news! Hopefully lots of other groups of women students in other unis will do likewise.
Theres a thread already.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5434092-new-female-single-sex-student-society-launched-at-cambridge-university?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

It's Bank Holiday here in Ireland and I've been swanning around with friends, it's funny how when you're doing that, you think the whole world is too!
In fact life goes on elsewhere, including the Darlington tribunal, and Cambridge Uni and the Bluestocking.

I had fun trying to to work out 'drees her own weird'.
'Weird' originally meant fate, destiny etc.
'Dree' means to bear or to endure BUT looking further back in the etymology, it could also mean to do or to make, so Boily making her own destiny might be the intended meaning?

Thank you for the oppo to chase an unfamiliar phrase and words through the centuries, Jane

Seventeen. 17. The latest total of emails about one item I ordered online...
Still haven't actually got the item yet, but 17 emails😠

Thank you, Errol. That’s all very interesting to read. I’d been trying to do two things at once this morning and hadn’t got beyond the Darlington Nurses thread.

Last week I was seriously thinking of signing up for a MPhil (or a PhD, because that’s available part-time and that’s all I could cope with) in Cambridge University’s Gender Studies department. For various practical reasons it’s the only place I could do it. Until recently I thought they no longer had a Women’s Studies or Gender Studies department but that’s only because it doesn’t offer any undergraduate courses.

I was interested in looking into the rise and fall of opportunity-trans, and ‘no debate’ .
While I was thinking of this I heard Naomi C’s beautiful summary at the start of Kelly v Leonardo. I’m on the “don’t do it, it would be such hard work,” mindset now, but wavering.

Glad, a PhD is indeed hard work, especially part time, but I really enjoyed mine. Granted mine was full time, and entirely quantitative, and funded. There's a book, How to get a PhD, which you might find useful to get a handle on the process.

Happy to have provided the opportunity for a bit of digging. That's exactly what I meant. The difference between 'dree' and 'drew' was probably just Grandad's accent. I actually thought that he was saying 'draw' as in 'drawing water'.

I saw the consultant today and he's very clear that MSSA is a nasty infection I'm battling, with some very heavy duty antibiotics for the next three months. I may not feel well again until it's over.

I slept most of the day and hope to sleep more over the next few days. Unfortunately I'm not allowed any supplements, including iron and Vitamin D, despite mild anaemia, and I've had to come off my HRT as well, so I do feel very grotty.

I'm speaking to the Outpatient Antibiotics Team on Thursday and every week following a blood test, so I'll ask them about recovery times. The stitches will come out next Monday.

I'm emotionally really upset as well and still having to apply for jobs but there are so few of them in my field. I hope I feel able to do any interviews.

I'm delighted to hear about the Cambridge University Society of Women. I hope the SU recognises them. We may have to fund a suit against them on the grounds of discrimination on the basis of gender critical belief.

I also miss Boily. I think it's the longest she's been away from the Bluestocking and I hope she's OK.

Sorry you are still suffering Myrtle. Sending you healing vibes and comforting Bessie (who may have bandaged the wrong paw but clearly Grok cannot cope with “hind paw” and “front paw”).

Bar-gerbils please bring me a very stiff gin with lots of ice. I am currently stranded at Carlisle waiting for a new train driver. The driver has been delayed coming from Glasgow due to what was initially described as “animals on the line” but has evolved into “an animal on the line preventing any trains getting into or out of Central station”. I am destined to miss my connection in Haymarket and be v v v late arriving at my destination. Sigh. But it is at least good for knitting. At this rate I will have knitted all three Forth bridges before I cross one of them.

@MyrtleLion I'm sorry you're feeling so poorly. Even ordinary antibiotics have the effect on me of making everyone else beastly and unreasonable. You are allowed to cry. Sleep is a healer, and you need it after the hospital.

Mega-sympathies @Myrtle - a steady climb towards feeling better will happen in the end.

Oh @MyrtleLion you really have been through the wars. I feel so sorry for you - especially after the Trojan service that you provided copying TT. Just look after yourself. I'm sure that the Walrus will continue to step up to the plate.

Thank you, Magpie. I did a part-time Masters (not MPhil) when I was working full-time, in school seven days a week, teaching for six of them. I was also the secretary to a hobby group with a difficult chairman. At times that took more time than either my teaching or my Masters.

When I first retired I considered doing more postgraduate study and attended a series of conferences on one topic, but that project ended and I couldn’t identify an interesting subject area. Had I been on MN then things might have been different - my health was a lot better then, too.

Very sorry to read that you may have such a long path to feeling properly well again, @MyrtleLion . Let’s hope there’s steady improvement all the way.

I find it easy to forget that, however very intelligent these students are, they are still young and many don’t have much life experience to draw on.

On the news today it said Ireland has a new President who is very “progressive”. What’s the atmosphere there around gender stuff at the moment?

Ireland will be the last country, except maybe Canada, to snap out of the ideology.

How popular it all is... well, an Omnicause woman has just been elected to the ceremonial presidency, but on a low turnout and with a huge number of spoiled votes after the big parties (a) screwed up finding a centrist consensus candidate and (b) blocked a conservative outsider candidate who probably wouldn't have won but would have shaken things up a bit.

So it looks like a landslide, but it's a bit of a Keir Starmer landslide, built on sand.

Sceptical rumblings among those of the public who know about it, massive (?imposed?) silence from the media and the politicians, a Minister of State for mental health with a transitioned child. There will be no discussions until a detransitioner comes along and sues the state.

That saying about asking a busy person if you want something done springs to mind, Glad! I had two children at primary school and was chair of governors at that school, when I started my PhD, and that combination tended to horrify people, but I just treated it like a job and made sure I was prioritising practical work when the kids were at school.

Poor Myrtle, the road to recovery is proving to be longer and twistier than hoped. I'm really sorry to hear that the effects of the antibios may stay continue for so long

I hope you are in a position to focus 100% - well, high 90s, anyway! - for a while on your health. It's the basis for doing anything else, like jobhunting and interviews, so do you think you can 'clear the decks' for the next month, say, and concentrate on nothing but taking extra special care of yourself with lots of rest and good food and being pampered by the Admirable Mr Walrus?

It's a game of two halves - the legislation, media, etc. is totally TWAW including self-ID, but I think the general public never bought into to it.
But President-Elect Omnicause - a clinical psychologist and barrister - is TWAW, though the gender issue did not feature much in the campaign.
So I think the electorate voted one way in the parliamentary elections, and went for a more radical choice for the [largely ceremonial] Presidency.

I don't like some aspects of our President Elect's politics, Sionnach's 'omnicause' is very apt, but I was heartened by her acceptance speech, in which she sounded very stateswomanlike, and hopefully she'll do an OK job and won't promote her own political 'hobbyhorses' too much when in office.

I realise I'm being a total hypocrite here because I wouldn't mind her promoting the hobbyhorses I agree with, like climate change and the Irish language, but not others...That's not very fair of me, is it?

MN is misbehaving for me ( looks like it's not just me) so reading, posting and reacting is very hit and miss. If i go awol im just hiding out til it gets fixed.