Touchdown at the Newest Bluestocking Inn. Pudding, cups of tea, the vegetable garden coming into its own, and gerbils beautiful gerbils all furry.

[DeanElderberry]

All females welcome for intelligent discourse and non-harmful comestibles.

I've just discovered the button on top of a baseball cap is called a squatchee! I don't know what the etymology is but I thought I should tell you before I forgot.

I've been reading PG Wodehouse for decades, and I knew when Bertie would ask Jeeves for his whangee he was talking about a cane, but I only just discovered that the whangee bit refers to a particular type of bamboo, and the late great Terry-Thomas used to use a lacquered whangee cigarette holder.

I can't think why I would need to know about types of bamboo, but this pleases me.

Whangee - Wikipedia

Do the bar gerbils have the recipe for Jeeves’s magic hangover cure?

Jeeves' cure seems better than some of the others on this list

www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/literary-hangover-cures-67593

We finally have daffodils, but it’s pouring with rain so I don’t feel like going for a walk to look at them.

Lovely words, both new to me, thank you Cake and Sionnach!

The Elan Valley isn't very far from where we live and is somewhere we always recommend to visitors. The drive from Rhayader to Aberystwyth via the Elan Valley takes you through a remote, empty, wilderness landscape which always makes me feel I've fallen off the edge of the world.

“Old Biffy in Paris? What’s he doing here?”
“He did not confide in me, sir,” said Jeeves —a trifle frostily, I thought. It sounded somehow as if he didn’t like Biffy. And yet they had always been matey enough in the old days.
“Where’s he staying?”
“At the Hotel Avenida, Rue du Colisée, sir. He informed me that he was about to take a walk and would call this afternoon.”
“Well, if he comes when I’m out, tell him to wait. And now, Jeeves, mes gants, mon chapeau, et le whangee de monsieur. I must be popping.”

The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy, 1924

Gotta say, I've not been very well lately, so I've been indulging in a bit of cinematic comfort food in the form of Airplane.

I am in awe of Leslie Nielsen's ability to keep a straight face no matter how ridiculous the events happening around him. Of course, his older brother was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (I am not making this up)

From a quick Google thorough investigation it seems that 'squatchee' might be a joke word like thagomiser or flange (as relates to a collective noun for gorillas) that has entered common parlance.

That's a new one on me! (not in my dictionary, either)

<starts wondering if I got a defective dictionary...>

Popping in to send my best wishes and strength to the Pasta family during their difficult times ❤
On my hols at present. There's a pretty courtyard here, very tranquil with seats and a bird feeder filled with seed. I can honestly say that I've never seen such fat pigeons!!!! The little birds aren't getting a look-in. DH says we shouldn't feed the birds at this time of year though. Those pigeons might need a diet soon.
Weather good too.
Cheers to all in the Bluey! 🍷🍹🍺

I thought of Phoebe out of friends when o saw the word flange.

Regina Phlange being her pretend person

I thought of the underrated classic Carry On Abroad, starring Sid James in the role of Vic Flange, with supporting characters Stuart Farquhar (Kenneth Williams), Eustace Tuttle (Charles Hawtrey) and Stanley Blunt (Kenneth Connor)

One of the few movies where you can guess the actors just by the names of their characters

I keep meaning to revisit the 1979 Canadian disaster movie City on Fire, starring Leslie Nielsen (in one of his last non-comedy roles) as the corrupt mayor.

It's not a good film, but there's a very weird aspect to it. If you watch lots of Hollywood movies you'll know that it's often more economic to make movies in Canada, so a movie set in "Los Angeles" or "Chicago" or "Generic American City" will often have been made in Toronto or Vancouver, and nobody is any the wiser unless you know the skylines of those cities.

City on Fire is a weird example of Canadian nationalism, because it was filmed in Montreal, but it's very insistent that its dysfunctional urban setting is "Generic American City (that definitely isn't in Canada)"

I think Due South had Toronto standing in for Chicago except when they had a storyline set in Toronto. That was filmed in Chicago.

Hope you feel better soon, Sionnach
Though on the plus side you've had lots of opportunities to extend your already impressive store of film trivia😄

Do we have any reverse ferrets at the Bluestocking?

I wondered if we might keep them to be deployed as required.

We could hire them out. I suspect there will be a roaring trade in them over the next few years. ('Me? No, no, I never said that about gender and if I did what I meant was <grabs reverse ferret hired from The Bluestocking Women's Pub Mustelid Rental Services> er, what I meant was... [lots of waffle].')

ETA, we could use the income to fund further legal challenges, leading to increased demand. Win-win.

That sounds like a good plan.

I could run the business, with help from the staff. I like animals, have experience of ferrets, and can do enough Sums to work out the profit.

Brilliant. What about their working conditions? Would they need contracts?

Quite probably. Any Stockingers with legal expertise?

Couldn’t Genius handle it?

Ah, sorted.
I think she could knock a business plan out by lunchtime (once she's finished The Times cryptic), then draw up an advert. Reverse ferret interviews could start tomorrow morning.

Should they be freelancers, gig economy and all that, or do we employ them on a fixed wage? If so, what should they do when not working outside the Bluey? Because if they're just lounging about, it will annoy Grünhilde and Gosie, and they might end up joining Glenda at the bar.

PS Is Gosie back? Or did she decide to take the sports car for a quick spin up to Scotland?