The Bluestocking Womens Pub in an Adventure with Pirates!

[Magpiecomplex]

New thread. You know the deal - women's pub, men to the Staunch Ally next door.

Some of us are currently on the trail of an international seed smuggling ring, just for background information.

I've just read the crossing-dressing thread, which explains a lot and made me laugh. Well done to Boily and Magpie for the graphics and as for HedgehogYou all certainly scared him off.

What these men don't realise is that there is a very good reason that women don't wear frilly dresses and petticoats these days. Before WW1, one of the most common causes of early death in women, other than childbirth, was having their clothes catch fire when cooking on open stoves. That and catching their clothes on machinery in cotton mills. When women started to do "men's " jobs during the war their clothes were impractical and had to be adapted for safety. WW2 accelerated the process (e.g. Women's Land Army uniform) and women realised that plainer and less frilly clothes were much more comfortable.

Men never had to contend with these issues because they never had to do housework or cooking and were not the main workers in the cotton mills.

I remember them well...." I left my heart in Papworth General"

It's gotta be the lace!

Ah yes. Back in the DHSS!

Actually I do agree with this. If I had to "woman" a certain way, then Magpie's dress would be just the thing I'd go for. If I had to.

I loved the ‘gypsy’ style skirts and dresses, followed by Laura Ashley in my late teens/early 20s ca 1980. But obviously mostly wore jeans etc very much the worse for wear with acid and alkali splashes acquired during undergrad chemistry labs. My uni sweatshirt was more hole than cloth at the front after 3 years.😂

Young rooks are called branchers - when they first fledge they hop about in the trees. I'm not sure how well they can fly at that stage.

I’ve seen live cams of baby barn owls in - well, barns - so my guess is that they stay safe inside for longer.

Oh, the acid washed jeans! What were we thinking??

Sorry, just saw that you had an actual reason for having acid washed jeans, unlike the rest of us who just made some seriously bad fashion choices!

Although you in pigtails is a bit scary!

Men often describe me as scary (not suggesting you're a man BTW) so in this case I think that's probably a good thing!

and carefully. Also of necessity.

I remember my older sister sitting in the bath wearing her new jeans to shrink them to fit. It must have been in the early 1960s. Thankfully, by the time I started wearing them, Levi's were being sold pre-shrunk😁

I rather pissed a man off on the tube home.

It was standing room only, several people standing already, & he was sitting with luggage spread over the seat next to him & his small boy in the seat beyond. I asked nicely if he could clear a space & he did, but reluctantly & with much huffing & explaining to the kid that they were going to have to pile it all up ‘because she wants to sit down.’

He looked even more annoyed when I immediately offered it to an older woman, but she refused so I sat down & enjoyed my book.

After all that the train terminated early. I hope for his sake that it was his stop, because he & the kid & the luggage would have had a hell of a time squeezing onto the next train otherwise. I’d have more sympathy if he hadn’t been hogging the seats.

Good. Luggage does not require a seat! Lots of people do. I would have done the same.

Manspreading by proxy! Good for you.

💜

I've been called intimidating and kind of scary, which I took to be a good thing at the time.

I'm the least physically threatening person, but my vocabulary is broad and I wield it confidently. This can put some people on edge.

Sadly, I also have a VERY easy to read face (poker will never be my game) so every thought is also broadcast clearly, which sometimes gets me into trouble.

Incidentally, it's rosemary focaccia, salad and spinach and ricotta cannelloni tonight. Who's joining me? There's plenty.

I am definitely enjoying the new oven that makes such nice focaccia.

Now I'm hungry! Yum!! 💙

Yes please! I’ll bring honey flapjacks for pudding.

Splendid - I assume they follow the Bluestocking convention of being free from calories as I have to lose 7 kg in 13 weeks for knee surgery!

Yes please. That's my kind of meal.

Of course!

Apparently I am intimidating.

I think it’s my self-possession and confidence.

And the stick I use to point at people’s mistakes.