The Bluestocking - Best Pub on the Internet

[EdithStourton]

Welcome to the Bluestocking women's pub. Excellent (if sometimes wilful) gerbil bar staff, varied cocktails, splendid cakes, cracking Sunday roasts...

Voted Best Pub for the umpteenth thread running, join us for conversation about tractors, units of measurement, films, wildlife, and even, sometimes, women's rights.

Just keep Glenda off the gin.

Any men, you can trot along to the Staunch Ally just up the road.

What did you do there?
[I'd advise you to take the 5th rather than answer that😄]

Re my reading of a proper academic work about Marie de Gournay,* rather than Jenny Diski's unpleasant novel about her:

I'm not going to bore you with numerous over-excited updates '..and then she said this! and then she did that!'

but I will say that I am really really taken with MdeG's style of writing - she took no prisoners, e.g. accusing male critics of women writers as 'thinking with their beards rather than their brains'😄

I think we'd have loved having her here in the Bluestocking - a bit tetchy, but we can cope with that n'est-ce pas, a searing analysis of sexism and misogyny, a wonderful way with words, and a good sense of humour - what's not to love?

And I read somewhere that she loved cats, but I'll have to confirm that🐱
And she wore Crocs - OK so I made that up, but she was [in]famous for her choice of footwear.

I used to regret having chosen MdeG as my username cos I look boring in AI images, but now I'm pleased to represent her here

*Marie de Gournay, philosophe morale et politique à l’aube du xviie siècle
Isabelle Krier

I think MarieDeGournay is a brilliant username. As for being boring in the images, not at all! Just that we are limited by the AI, which although it can produce sophisticated images and even get the spelling right sometimes, is a very poor substitute for human imagination.

I am fed up with "being" a cutesy creature really. It's okay as far as it goes but I've invented a whole array of different usernames for supposedly different subjects in here and have almost lost my identity, if I ever had one!

I don't think I'd ever change my username, I have used variations on it, but I think it lends itself better to architecture than anthropomorphism. Although the one with all the sunglasses upthread was hilarious. It's also quite funny if someone takes issue with something I've posted and @s me. The juxtaposition of a rather silly name with the telling off is usually quite amusing.

@MarieDeGournay is raising the profile of an historical figure in a style that seems in keeping with the little I know about her with humour, intelligence, whimsy and empathy.

I only chose my username because I like sparkly things, but actually I do very much like being a magpie. Elegant but slightly menacing.

Mine was originally EmpressOfTheSevenOceans, after my favourite book, & I changed it several times but always kept Empress. Then it stretched to Empressaurus when dinosaur names became the thing in FWR. And then Kitty moved in.

Thank you Cake - every day a school day at the Bluey and I'm happy to share an outline of what I'm finding out about MdeG

Thank you knittedsloth... when I picked MdeG it didn't occur to me that I'd be wearing frocks and ruffs and that kind of thing in the midst of cutesy animals [I like them, knitted sloths included😄]and exciting androids and things like that.
Whereas in real life, the last frock I wore was my school uniform.

You're stuck with being a cutesy creature for now I fear - though perhaps AI could come up with a more sassy, takes-no-shit sloth??
Yep, it already has! I just googled 'cool sloth with sunglasses' - that worked for Hedgey as well😄

edited to correct 'kitted sloth' - are baby sloths called 'kits'? and are mammy sloths called 'kitted sloths'?😁

I’ve had this name a long time - I didn’t imagine it becoming a sort of avatar. And a lot of the images aren’t very much like Errol from Discworld.

Well kitted (-out) sloth! Slightly menacing and mysterious .... thank you
The orange and turquoise suit me very well preens

I think 2 toed sloths have a reputation for being aggressive assertive, albeit slowly.

I don't know the Discworld Errol so I googled it - very impressive!
Not surprised though that it gets dialled down a bit in Bluestocking images to something a bit less epic and more clubbable, and easier to sit on a barstool😄

Yes, when I was looking for images of a cool sloth, there was a video of a sloth attack. I didn't watch it but I guess a sloth attack would only be scary if you were another sloth, anybody else would just say 'Whatever!' and walk slowly away.😄
I didn't notice the number of toes. Maybe the two-toed sloths are aggressive because they're jealous 'Snot faaaaiiiir! They got three toes and I only got two! I hate you!'
<exits, slamming door... yes, a slamming door - a talking adolescent sloth having a melt-down is OK, but you're stuck on where the door came from??😁>

The usernames I wanted were gone, & I thought of Data & used this:

"If I were not a consummate professional and an android, I would find this entire procedure insulting." - Data, commenting about the engineering consultation. (This para taken from a fandom site, as the AI claims Data never said it. 😱)

Other favourites from Data, which I didn't use, were 'spotty at best' &
'There was a young woman from Venus
Whose body was shaped like a'
at which point he was loudly interrupted by a rather hasty order from Captain Picard, & Warf sympathised that he doesn't understand human's sense of humour either.

Iirc, Discworld Erroll was a bit of a runt of a dragon with enormous nostrils. I think Guards, Guards might be one of the few Discworld books I don't own. So it's been a while since I've had a read of it.

But that’s nothing like Errol! He’s an apparently runty little swamp dragon with stubby wings, who (spoiler!) internally redesigned himself to be jet propelled rather than emitting flames from the front end.

Yes! He wound up flying backwards.

Nostrils are for intake of air, required for the burn👍

I found this drawing by an artist called Paul Kidby (available as a print for £45*)

*not affiliated

I chose my username because I’m both boring and unimaginative in that regard. I ought to change it to something more flamboyant but I am horribly practical (according to my DC). I may change it to Chickadee on the next thread if Mumsnet hasn’t already used that one, purely because I have the rather nice picture of a chickadee with a Mohawk in suffragette colours.

I always thought the nostrils were the jet exhaust, like the Apollo rockets but I'd never thought about air intake🤔

That's the chap who does the Pratchett covers, I think?

If I were not a consummate professional and an android, I would find this entire procedure insulting." - Data, commenting about the engineering consultation. (This para taken from a fandom site, as the AI claims Data never said it. 😱)

AI is completely unreliable on book quotes, @ifIwerenotanandroid, so I bet it’s not much good on TV quotes either.

I re-read the Guards series last summer. It was like holidaying with old friends. And also Nobby.

Thanks! You'd think that was an easy thing for a computer to check, but maybe that's not the way AI is trained.

Oh no! does this mean that something I found on the Internet is <gasp> inaccurate??
I saw those runty little dragons with enormous nostrils but I went for something more impressive - and wrong, it turns out.😏