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

I've only just got into creating images on AI, so please bear with me while I practise

The sleep gerbils did a good job here, and the dream gerbils crept in and out unnoticed as is their wont.

Your image of gerbils in training was lovely, Damson - I actually miss the Days of Yore when AI added extra limbs, couldn't spell etc - the more realistic the images of the Bluey and Bluestockingers get, the less fun they are.

Glad to hear the Sleep Gerbil did her job last night, Errol - after hearing that you had been* vomiting the night before, *she brought along the No Nausea Gerbil, who happens to be her aunt Emily - Auntie Em Etic😁
['Emily' is her second name, her first name is Grínkyphkánthialliam, so....]

Hope everybody has woken up with renewed vim and possibly even vigour and that the sun is shining as it is here.

Perfect. Oh yes, saving the planet and not laziness is definitely my motivation too 😇

Helau, liebe Närrinnnen und Narren (only in the Staunch Ally) !!!!!
Any Rosenmontag parties happening at the Bluestocking today?

I’d never heard of that, but now we have and wiki has informed us it means ‘frolic Monday’ - of course the gerbils are enthusiastically onto it. Being herbivores, ‘carnival’ is their normal state of being, I suppose.

Gosh… is it that time of year already?

There are parades and parties and drunkeness and Krapfen (or Berliner if you insist), it's fun.

We have sunshine!
We've had it now for four whole hours.

AND I had a good night's sleep. Congrats to everyone else who also had a sleep gerbil visit, and commiserations to those who did not.

And Rosenmontag has reminded that it is pancakes all round tomorrow. When the DC were younger, I'd sometimes do pancakes stuffed with leeks and ham in cheese sauce for their main course, and unlimited pancakes with golden syrup etc for dessert. They were so reliably stuffed with first course that there was plenty of batter left over for breakfast. Which is probably not the point, but it worked for us.

Pancakes with leeks sounds lovely @EdithStourton I always insist everyone has a savoury pancake first on pancake day.

I think I must have had a sleep gerbil around last night. My best nights sleep for ages!

New to me, Igneo, - learning anything new is great, and when it involves parades and fund and frolics, so much the better, so happy Rosenmontag to you, and to all.

Given that the Sleep Gerbils seem to have excelled themselves last night - back at HQ there's a big horizontal map and a gerbil with headphones on is receiving reports and a gerbil with a long stick is pushing 🌝signs into position - great, there's another rested Bluestockinger to put on the map😄
[they could do it digitally but they've seen too many WWII films and they like the uniforms and saying things like 'Rather!' 'I should say so!' and 'Tirriblly']

where was I? oh yes - given that the gerbils excelled themselves last night, let's make this Rosenmontag all about them, celebrating them and giving them a holiday full of fun and frolic. A bit like the role reversal in medieval festivals,
today we'll serve the gerbils - they deserve it.
And we can recite the Ode to the Gerbils:

I sing the gerbil.

They can defy the laws of physics by carrying vats of our favourite tipples to us.
They can do synchronised massages on creatures many times their size.
They have no fear in the face of felines.
They have restored the reputation of Furries.
They bring us sleep and sometimes dreams.
They are prepared to dress up in ra-ra skirts and form gerbil pyramids.
They accompany us to hospital appointments and job interviews.
They dressed in black and lined the quay to meet a galleon freighted with grief.
They go where we cannot go - into each others' hearts.

I sing the gerbil.
💙

I didn't know it was Rosenmontag, though I should have done for Ash Wednesday is almost upon us.

If I had poetic abilities, I would be channelling my inner Burns right now and composing a seasonal Address to the Gravy Ring.

This always confuses English folks, but every child in Belfast knows that if it's got jam in it then it's a doughnut, and if it's got a hole in the middle it's a gravy ring.

I believe some Norwegian dialects use "lard ring" to mean the same thing.

Thursday was Weiberfasching/fasnacht when women traditonally storm the Rathaus, cut the mayor's tie off and take over. My brother, who started his career as a mayor, always made sure to wear a tie he really didn't like on that day.

It's a strange time of year for me, because I always expect to turn on the TV and be confronted with Markus Söder in some exotic costume. This is bad for my sleep, because I end up having weird dreams where the Bavarian maximum leader turns up in costume, and I try to have a sensible conversation with him, but he just drones on and on about sausages.

I could give the late Martin Luther King a run for his money in the "I had a really odd dream last night" stakes.

Ha, at the Frankenfasnacht in Veitshöchheim, all the politicians are there. At least der Söders Margus usually looks like he is enjoying himself a this kind of event. It's not over with Ashwednesday either, there is still the Starkbieranstich am Nockherberg, but they don't dress up for that.

Over here in Maine it’s Presidents Day today, which I think is a public holiday only here and in Massachusetts and is date-related not Easter related (they really don’t do much in the way of religion-based public holidays here except for Christmas). I had totally forgotten that it’s Shrove Tuesday tomorrow and I have both leeks and ham inthe fridge so I think we’ll have that tomorrow for dinner. Thank you for the thought!

Oooh the symbolism is delightful!
Next time I see Trump with his exaggeratedly-long red tie......😄

That's very Lord[Ladies!] of Misrule, isn't it?

I love that old traditions still have their place in the 21st century.
I followed a few myself recently for St Brigid's Day, e.g. I left a handkerchief out overnight to become a Brat Bhríde, Brigid's Cloak, which is supposed to bring me good health.
The jury is out, but so far it's not very working very well😏

I do still say "white rabbits" when I wake up on the first of the month.

I have a sudden urge for a savoury pancake, with smoked salmon and cream cheese😋

Followed by a plain one drenched in sugar and lemon juice 🙃

Sugar and lime juice is even nicer than sugar and lemon juice, @AuntieMsDamsonCrumble.

When I lived in Manchester, there was a restaurant called the Dutch Pancake House - the pancakes were enormous, and it’s where I first had a pancake with bacon and maple syrup. My friend and I had the bright idea of going there on Shrove Tuesday - and no-one will be surprised to learn we weren’t the only people who had had this bright idea, and so the queue was massive!. We never made that mistake again. 😂😂😂

Given that the Sleep Gerbils seem to have excelled themselves last night - back at HQ there's a big horizontal map and a gerbil with headphones on is receiving reports and a gerbil with a long stick is pushing 🌝signs into position - great, there's another rested Bluestockinger to put on the map😄
[they could do it digitally but they've seen too many WWII films and they like the uniforms and saying things like 'Rather!' 'I should say so!' and 'Tirriblly']

Gosh, I'd forgotten about Rosenmontag. I remember my German teacher explaining all about it in the context of something we were reading. In my own defence that was over 60 years ago. 😉

The late Pope Benedict's brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, wrote a nice short book about them growing up together in pre-war Bavaria. He mentioned all the local festivals and observances, and I couldn't help feeling that he was looking back at a world that had disappeared.

I kind of feel that I'd like to preserve a lot of those old observances, even if I don't personally believe in them. Because we lose something when they're gone.

I remember going to funerals of elderly relatives, and being surprised at women going to the graveside. I don't know if this is a Belfast thing (as opposed to a rural Ulster thing) or if it's a specifically Belfast Protestant thing, but my default was always that the men went to the graveside and the women went ahead to the dinner and drinks, and the men caught up after the burial. Or maybe it's one of those peculiar family things. I'd love to know.

Wonderful, Android, thank you!!
It's funny - weird in a nice way - that I had this mental image of the gerbils doing that WWII map thingy, I wrote it down, and then hey presto! there it is!

I assume the tanks fire blasts of lavender essence to help induce sleep?😄

I suppose I'm exploiting you - I could learn how to do AI images myself instead of writing something down and waiting for some cleverclogs to picture it for me.... 🙃