Friday Ephemera

Cat is wise.
Maybe, with time, the cat can train her human to be less of an ass.

Gibsmedat
She wants to live in a place where the normal laws of civilization do not apply? Maybe we could accomdate her by building walled communities for people like her: They can live according to whatever rules they wish, and the police will never go in. But her kind will not be allowed out except during daylight hours and while wearing prominent identifying marks under threat of maximum punishment. There must be a name for that sort of setup…ghetto?

“Loveliness detected.”
See what happens when kids aren’t taught grammar?
“Transparent lifeform.”
Yeech. Mind you, it’d make medical examinations a lot simpler.
“Feel the love.”
Wouldn’t it be fun if some Lenape Indians showed up?
More suited to an open thread than ephemera, but I’m definitely going to steal “That reeks of strange politicaleyness” (4:12).

Loveliness detected
Is ‘bitch’ a pronoun? Asking for a friend.

Morning, all.
How are these f*ckwits taken seriously?
Ah but, you see, menacing a woman at gunpoint and stealing her car, and endangering other road users, and trying to shoot passing drivers, and then shooting at police officers… it’s a basis for sainthood, according to the moral gurus of Black Lives Matter. At least, it is provided the person doing all this isn’t white.
Sometimes people really do tell you who they are.

[ Slurps coffee, considers toast. ]

Ancient ritual enacted.

Brilliant. 🙂
Ah, the wooing game. After a hesitant start, his confidence blossoms. I do hope it worked.

the surprise loss of the floor.
Don’t you hate it when that happens.

Ancient ritual enacted.
The reactions to it downstream were pretty sweet, too. Mad props for trying.

Cult detected.
https://twitter.com/Gee2TheAitch/status/1385445409791873030

In fact, none of the leftist “solutions” have actually solved anything–quite the opposite.
Nonsense, what could possibly go wrong ?

The theory was that by allowing such people to live in open society amongst the functional and sensible majority they would learn to adapt and function better, i.e. more normally.
Oh, adaptation has definitely taken place, but unfortunately it’s the formerly functional and sensible types who have been taking on the behavioural patterns, especially those blessed with a university “education”.

Radical view aired.
I did not know that tea towels were controversial.

Loveliness detected
I haven’t seen Shoe On Head videos recently. Has something possibly gone terribly, terribly wrong?

Oops, that’s one pronoun violation already!
Heh. Reminded me of the omnipresent foul language monitor in Demolition Man.

This is where I usually type ‘Mission Accomplished’.
For the hardcore left it is indeed “mission accomplished”. For their dumbshit liberal tools it is “why are things worse???”

“She has a knife !”
“Quick, officer, throw a Nerf football at her !” RTWT…
Unrelated, music video of note (NPI).

I only know Lozza Fox as a tier 2 level Home Counties Detective Sergeant.
His campaign for Mayor of Londonstan seems to be of middling success so far. I mean, obviously he would have an uphill battle against Sadistiq Khan and the Beeb anyway.
His latest campaign video seems… okay.
Wondering what the take is from current inmates of the capital ?

Tea towel rage is real, people.
Is there some weird practice with tea towels I’m unaware of? I always have a stack of simple flour sack towels for all manner of hygienic tasks.

Oh, and about that black girl who was shot by police as she tried to stab another black girl to death? A morbidly obese black communist female explains to us that the girl was killed not only by “whiteness” but also by “fat phobia“. (rolls eyes)

Is there some weird practice with tea towels I’m unaware of?
I’ll speculate that some people launder their towels very infrequently.

I’ll speculate that some people launder their towels very infrequently.
What – once a week isn’t enough? Although I rarely use mine to dry dishes, unless the air drying hasn’t done the job. Mostly I use them (tea towels) like hand towels to dry my hands after washing them, or the dishes.
We are still talking about tea/kitchen towels, I think. Because doesn’t towel have a different meaning over yonder side of the Atlantic – like napkin over here?

Although I rarely use mine to dry dishes, unless the air drying hasn’t done the job. Mostly I use them (tea towels) like hand towels to dry my hands after washing them, or the dishes.
That is, I believe, the customary function, albeit unofficial. I don’t think ours have ever approached a piece of crockery.

like napkin over here?
When I was a boy we called a napkin a serviette. Sadly it’s not used any more–the word not the object.
As for tea towels, We have about a dozen. Mostly used to dry hands and dishes that come out of the dishwasher wet. Which brings me to the miracle of Jet Dry. Our dishes suddenly started coming out of the dishwasher dripping wet. Couldn’t figure out why. Then realized we stopped using dishwasher tabs that contained Jet Dry and the machine’s Jet Dry holder was empty. I loaded up the container and the dishes came out dry again. It’s a miracle.

When I was a boy we called a napkin a serviette. Sadly it’s not used any more–the word not the object.
I never encountered “serviette” until I visited England–aside from a reference encountered in one sf novel.

It’s a boy!

When I was a boy we called a napkin a serviette
For those who remember the U/Non-U era, serviette was classified as non-U and to use the term indicated that you were NOCD (Not Our Class, Darling)

Chesterfield vs Sofa, Pop vs Soda and Chips vs Fries
I, too, have never heard “serviette” even from my late grandmother – who called the refrigerator “icebox”, the sofa was the Davenport and the squares of cloth (or crocheted doilies) on the arms/back of the sofa or chair were “antimacassars”.
Tea towels aside, I wonder how many people under 30, if they threw a dinner party at their home, would know how to set a proper dinner table?

Attempt at Bryant-baiting the cops doesn’t go as planned.

I wonder how many people under 30, if they threw a dinner party at their home, would know how to set a proper dinner table?
I’m over 60, and I don’t know how to do that.

I wonder how many people under 30, if they threw a dinner party at their home, would know how to set a proper dinner table?
…or fold a napkin, or know the difference between plate service and family style? Hell, how many could even prepare a complete meal so that everything was properly cooked and ready at the same time? It’s a lost art. So many under 30s use Uber Eats or DoorDash these days. They even struggle with the meal services that pre-prep everything for you.
There are still a dedicated few who, either on their own or because of the their family, can pull this off and enjoy it. My wife and I will entertain 12-14 people 4 to 6 times a year for a sit down dinner. It’s a lot of work, but we’ve got it down. My wife sets a beautiful table.
We used to belong to a dinner club with 5 other couples. We would rotate hosting meals and setting themes for the evening. We have a large family room in our house. One evening, we cleared out the furniture and set up an old style French Bistro with tables for two. We did a classic Steak Frite dinner. The key to the successful evening was an apertif of Absinthe at 124 proof followed by copious amounts of red wine.
Television taught me how to cook. I would wake up early on the weekend to watch the 2 to 4 hours of cooking shows on PBS from WNED Buffalo — Julia Child, The Frugal Gourmet, Yan Can Cooks, Martha Stewart, Maryanne Espisito and more. Then the food channel came along and spoiled everything (though to be fair, in it’s early stages it just stole what PBS did). Today’s cooking shows (with the odd exception) don’t teach you anything. They’re mostly competitions designed to embarrass as many of the participants as possible. Even when the competitions are between professionals the focus is on entertainment and not information. If you know a little bit about cooking you can pick up the odd technique by watching. But if you’re a newbie you’re not going to learn anything. Still, if you really want to learn YouTube and its specialty channels have it all.
As I was typing this my son, just back from university, said we should try our hands at making sushi again–we’ve done it a couple times in the past. It warms my heart.

Did BLM’s useful idiots just assume that a carjacker would be black?
I truly hate to be fair to them at all, but they probably assumed (wrongly and maliciously, of course) that someone shot by police would be black.

Laurie Penny has really let herself go.

I would wake up early on the weekend to watch the 2 to 4 hours of cooking shows
Yes, actual cooking shows. I, too, watched The Frugal Gourmet and Yan Can Cook and Julia Child – later Emeril Lagasse and Alton Brown. I can’t stand most of Gordon Ramsey’s shows but I thoroughly enjoyed his Ultimate Cookery Course.
If you like something a little less high strung, Amazon prime also offers Michael Hutchings, “The Santa Barbara Chef”.
What I liked about growing up in the 60s was it was still the era of people entertaining at home — people dressed nicely, cocktails before dinner and music afterwards with coffee and dessert. And while the husband and I have put on dinners for a few friends now and then complete with a well appointed table, there just doesn’t seem to be the same enthusiasm from others to actually eat at someone’s home. They’d rather everyone gather at a restaurant.
So now holiday dinners seem the only gathering where the good china and silverware is brought out.

The Frugal Gourmet was a creepy pervert. The unhealthy looking diet food he was always gushing about was equally vile.

Yes, actual cooking shows.
I’ll just leave this here.

Laurie Penny has really let herself go.
You know I had quite forgotten she even existed.
So prompted by something like nostalgia to see what you meant, I came across this:

My Highly Unexpected Heterosexual Pandemic Zoom Wedding

So, at the age of 35, Laurie Penny has got herself married.
And not just married, but married to a man, just the one, ad not one part of a polyamorous huddle or whatever they call it.
An actual man, not a transman, a biological male; one noticeably taller than herself in that traditional could-be-mistaken-for-patriarchal male-female, husband-wife dynamic.
And in a ceremony involving a traditional exchange of wedding vows (from the article: ‘…“by the power vested in me by the state of Utah, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”’).
The only thing “highly unexpected” about this is that she seems to think this state of affairs would be seen as highly unexpected to anyone at all instead of being, as it is, drearily predictable.
Who did she think she was convincing with those regular announcements of her being genderqueer, or polyamorous, or nonbinary polyamorous toaster-kin or whatever it was that month?
And this is why I’m bringing this up at all.
If it were just that she had got married, this would be a kind of ‘So what? Just let her be’.
But it irks me because Penny, and all those activists cut from the same cloth, not only never express the slightest regret for having berated others in the most insulting, the shrillest and most blood-curdling tones, even up to and including accusations that you are literally killing them for not accepting whatever gibberish they happen to think is in vogue that day, but they always just laugh off all their hypocrisies with a kind of “Oh, well, Tee-hee, oh, you didn’t think I was being serious did you?” kind of shrug.
All that venom, all that vitriol, they drenched you in with such vehemence turns out, apparently, to have meant next to nothing to them at all.
And moreover, they seem to display ingenuous surprise should you still seem aggrieved at them for having put you through all that tortuous bullshit.
Without any irony, naturally, this is an actual line taken from her piece, but with my italics:

THE MOST DEVIANT commodity on the modern internet isn’t sex, it’s sincerity. By definition, it can’t be manufactured, and it’s difficult to replicate and resell, both of which make earnest enthusiasm suspect.

As ever, I see she’s still telling us far, far more than she intends.

As ever, I see she’s still telling us far, far more than she intends.
Years of practice.

So, at the age of 35, Laurie Penny has got herself married.
Want to place bets on how long it lasts?

Laurie Penny’s recent nuptials reminds me that The Clash had her number several decades before:
He who fucks nuns, will later join the church.
I watched the cooking shows as a sprong, possibly influenced by my mum’s watching of Graham Kerr, a.k.a. the Galloping Gourmet. I grew interested in cooking when I moved out and realized that, if I put out a little effort, I could make a pepperoni pizza the way I like it, any time I liked.
But what really interested me were the home shows. “This Old House” was on top of the list. My Sunday TV watching was an afternoon of “TOH,” “Hometime,” “Victory Garden” and whatever else came along.
I came to realize that homes were pretty tough, and you could pretty much take down and put up anything your imagination can conceive, bar weakening the load-bearing wall to the point that it collapses around you.

My two cents:
1st cent: Laurie Penny probably enjoys needlepoint and scrapbooking in her spare time. She daydreams of owning a suburban house with a white picket fence and having four or five children playing happily in the yard.
2nd cent: Dollar General and Advance Auto parts locate in lower income areas to provide access to goods that would be unaffordable or inaccessible otherwise. Even Walmart (Always low prices) locates in high-traffic areas. A lot of people can’t drive to Walmart. Auto Dealers and “Brand Name” garages charge $95 or more per hour for labor plus retail prices on parts. Advance and other autoparts retailers will often let customers do their own repairs in the parking lot and sometimes even lend the tools or assist in repairs.
Don’t you just hate that colonialist, patriarchal, supremacist, capitalist mentality? I do.

Amazon prime also offers Michael Hutchings, “The Santa Barbara Chef”.
I remember watching Michael Chiarello and his show about cooking in Napa on PBS. He was very laid back Cali. The only salt he would use was grey salt. There was a video I saw recently (it was probably here) where the cook says, “it’s important to use sea salt because it’s chemically identical to all other salts.” lol
I always enjoyed watching Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Whenever we planned a trip south of the border we would look up the city on the show’s website to see if they had featured any restaurants in the area. If they had we’d check them out. Always fun.

Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

“Africa.”
Maybe not. Consider:
Theodore Dalrymple has written about his travels in Africa in which he liked and respected the people he met.
Africans who come to America tend to have a low opinion of race-obsessed blacks born in America, and have no patience whatsoever with “ghetto culture”.
America and England have multigenerational dysfunction in some white “communities” too. Again, Theodore Dalrymple has written extensively about this.
The whole topic is very depressing. The left and race-hustling black “leaders” have been pushing American society into problems for which there are likely to be no solutions which do not have horrible consequences.

“Laurie Penny has got herself married.”
Did she wear all white?
In regard to the term ‘serviette’ we had table-napkins, neatly rolled and presented at the left of each place at the table in a silver holder. That was a long time ago; my mother was a proper English lady and of the style and period of the inimitable Hyacinth Bucket.

Laurie Penny got herself married.
Does this mean the Penny finally dropped?

I believe every word of this, don’t you?
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/24/how-racism-found-my-son-on-fortnite/
I am never sure if the Woke don’t have kids, or if they think their readers don’t have kids and so are unaware that 5-year-olds do not talk like miniature Woke adults.

I believe every word of this, don’t you?
File under ‘things that never happened’ or ‘parody account’. My big take away is that it is one of the most overtly racist screeds I have come across in a long time. As usual though, I feel sorry for the kid, but at least he only has to spend one night a fortnight with him.

What did Penny drop?
A lesser man might say her knickers but not me, oh, no siree, not me.