The Bluestocking Women’s Pub: Where Clever Women Sit and Think, While Gerbils Run the Bar.

[MyrtleLion]

Come in. Yes, you’re in the right place. No, you don’t need to explain yourself.

Coats will be drycleaned before you depart. Bags won't be stolen because Gubbins will play her triangle. And you really don't want to hear it.

The gerbils run the bar.
They are small, brisk, and unionised.
One is polishing a glass with unnecessary seriousness.
Another is keeping the tab and will remember what you ordered last time.
There is a triangle involved. No one knows why. It keeps Gubbins happy.

Sit. Think. Drink. Join in.

The gerbils have it from here.

Previous thread...
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5481554-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-definitely-full-of-ludicrous-halfwits-who-refuse-to-get-a-grip-with-unionised-gerbils

How did you know? I've never heard of it & had to ask Ms Google.

Hurray!!! And thank you because I can’t believe I didn’t know those existed.

o m g

BBBBBEEEEEETTTTLLLE!

I was just in the shower and wondering was it safe because you vanished down the plughole one day

Not the same without you

Oh Boily, how horrible for you, but I'm glad you're recovering. I hope the healing and sleep gerbils have been looking after you

Dry socket sounds horrible, every sympathy, dental woes are so overwhelming.

@Boiledbeetle I was so focussed on your poor tooth, that I forgot to congratulate you on your epic decluttering! 🎊

Wall-to-wall sunshine here this morning, although it's -3 degrees. 🌞❄

Oh dear. "I'll just finish my drink then let them know" Glenda🙄

I hope you are indeed over the worst - and it sounds like a bloody awful worst🤕- and that you'll start feeling much better soon. 💐

A footnote to last night's fare-thee-well shanty from the Gerrrrrrbils:
Goodnight Bluestocking Ladies
And all you rodents too
We're bound for South Australia
So we bid you all adieu

Just before I hit 'post', I realised I'd written 'South Austria' instead of 'South Australia'😂
Poor little gerbils, trying to sail the seven seas/raging oceans/etc all the way to South Austria!

Some gerbils prefer more urbane and sophisticated music over shanties, and Galaxia here prefers to sing Noel Coward songs as she sails her yacht-
🎶On the wings of the morning
With your own true love
Sail away! sail away!🎶

PriOn1, if you're lurking - you're more than welcome to pop in to the Bluey to query the gerbilicity of the rodent sailing the yacht in the photo above, it's all part of the silliness gerbil-related discourse that goes on here, and please feel free to join in any time. You obviously know your rodents

Urghhhhh - I have had dry socket too, @Boiledbeetle - you have my sympathies.

I am limping round the house, having added a strained hip muscle to my list of Bits That Are Faulty. Lashings of neurofen for me, please bar gerbils. And one of your delicious hot chocolates that won’t send my blood sugar soaring.

Dh decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day with croissants for breakfast in bed. It is not easy keeping control of all the fragments of croissant crust in bed, but I did my best, and the dogs finished up the crumbs I dropped - and do will change the bedding later today.

I have a day of sport viewing and knitting ahead of me - Winter Olympics and two Six Nations matches, including Scotland v England - can Scotland win the Calcutta Cup - it would be great, but I’m not holding my breath.

In that case, I shall have to do my not-watching-in-case-I-jinx-them trick. It worked for the football.

A summary:

The Good Law Project does not have standing to bring a judicial review because it doesn't directly affect them.
Three anonymous individuals did have standing.
They lost on every point.
The EHRC interim guidance on the use of single sex facilities (issued after the Supreme Court decision on FWS and now withdrawn) was lawful.

The single point of discussion which GLP is saying gives men who identify as women access to women's single sex facilities does not do that.

It says:
Women and transwomen may lawfully share facilities where:

1. The facilities are single-occupancy lockable rooms.
2. The service is mixed-sex.
3. A trans-inclusive facility is provided as additional provision to single sex facilities for men and women.
4. The arrangement is proportionate under Schedule 3 of the Equality Act. And that would depend on the facts of each situation, meaning it would be very difficult to demonstrate.
5. No sex-based less-favourable treatment arises on the facts. So if there are 5 toilets for women and transwomen and only one for women, women have less favourable treatment and that would be unlawful.

Also under the Equality Act companies do not have to provide single sex facilities if they are offering a service, but if they don't that might be discrimination towards women (either directly or indirectly, I would have to read closer to work it out).

Under the Workplace Regulations companies must provide employee single sex facilities for men and women.

A great analysis is here:
https://x.com/legalfeminist/status/2022278530403377363?s=61

I am poorly ick again with a cold. Let's hope I don't get asthma again.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius "I have a day of sport viewing and knitting ahead of me - Winter Olympics and two Six Nations matches, including Scotland v England"

For a few seconds when reading this, I had visions of a Winter Olympics event in knitting, probably Arran or Shetland designs. I reckon the Bluestocking could put together a pretty good team, given the number of serious knitters (not me unfortunately).

That went on to remind me of the village of Dent in North Yorkshire where, during the 18th and 19th Centuries, the main income of the village was derived from knitting, mainly socks for fishermen. I looked up the tale to remind myself and came across this local history entry: "Their knitting prowess was immortalised by poet laureate Robert Southey in a true tale he published in 1834, about two little girls who were sent to Dent in the mid 18th century to learn to knit from the town’s ‘terrible knitters’. In those days, rather like modern slang use of the word ‘wicked’, ‘terrible’ meant ‘great’. So “they er terrible knitters e’ Dent” (ie “they are terrible knitters in Dent”) was a compliment!"

The village of Dent is so remote that the railway station on the Settle/Carlisle line that bears it's name, is a good 5 miles from the village itself, much to the confusion of travellers.

Thank you @MyrtleLion for your very clear analysis of yesterday's judgement. Bits of it were starting to boggle my brain, especially given the "alternative" interpretations being quoted, including from some who should know better e.g MPs.

I hope your cold improves soon and is not one of the long and miserable ones that is going round.

Thanks so much for this and I'm sorry to hear that you are poorly. Fingers crossed that you don't get asthma.

Sorry to hear you're not well, Myrtle, take care of yourself so the cold 'doesn't go down to your chest' - I had asthma when I was a child and it was believed to be 'a weak chest' and the fear was that any sniffles would 'go down to my chest'.

The care-gerbils are on the case, I hope they help you feel better soon.

I am limping round the house, having added a strained hip muscle to my list of Bits That Are Faulty. Lashings of neurofen for me, please bar gerbils. And one of your delicious hot chocolates that won’t send my blood sugar soaring.

Hot chocolate is on its way, Woley. Meanwhile I'll pass on this message from the AI: 'This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.' Right, that's me legally covered. 😁

Inspired by Damson...

😂some of those combinations of craft and sport should definitely be a thing.

At the very least, a TV show.

That is me to a T, @ifIwerenotanandroid!

Glomeration is talking to some TV executives right now. A deal on this one could fund the Bluey for the rest of the year - or at least Magpie's use of the hot chocolate bowser.

Much more exciting than Tom Daley and his "Competitive Watching Paint Dry" series.

I could probably knit on horseback. I fall off skis.

Sympathies to all Stockingers with nasty colds, strained muscles, dodgy joints, dental woes and post-operative discomfort*. Dental woes are particularly horrible because you can't talk to distract yourself and you can't eat to distract yourself and you can't drink yourself into oblivion owing to oral pain + painkillers which aren't cutting it.

Today's major success Chez Stourton was Edith finally, after a mere four months, obtaining the appropriate stain remover and removing the wine stains from an item of clothing over which, in her cups towards the end of a very jolly evening, she knocked a glass in such a way as to spray lovely red liquid all over some very pale fabric.

Oops.

Other than, lots of gardening. And getting the okay from a local farmer to go and train the dogs on his land next week.

*When a medical person says, 'You may feel a little discomfort', they really mean, 'This will hurt.' When they say, 'You may feel quite a bit of discomfort', they really mean, 'This is going to hurt so fucking much that you will levitate off the examination couch.'