For newcomers, some items from the archives:
Powder Room Scenes.
He’s a transgender activist, so there’s nothing to worry about.
And remember, ladies, when a male bedlamite pushes his phone camera under an occupied bathroom stall in order to livestream to his admirers a woman who is unhappy about a male bedlamite’s presence in a ladies’ toilets – and when said bedlamite’s phone is kicked away and he then claims victimhood, specifically injury to his penis, which he mentions quite a lot – this is totally normal and nothing to worry about. It’s just how things are now.
The Kind Of Creature You’ve Chosen To Be.
An “independent thinker” applies make-up, smashes patriarchy.
Apparently, it’s outdated and oppressive for a young woman to be walked down the aisle at her wedding by her father. And so she can insult him and embarrass him by taking away that role. But of course it’s not outdated or oppressive for that same father to be expected to pay all of the bills for the wedding at which he’s being so pointedly sidelined and insulted.
Let’s Do It, But In A Way That’s Less Likely To Work.
Guardian columnist plans to “redefine the family unit.” Complications ensue.
Providing the sperm. A joyous and maternal turn of phrase. Also of note, the idea of wanting a baby, but with only a third or a quarter of the responsibility. A kind of low-commitment parenting. Bodes well.
Readers are invited to ponder the appeal, for any gentleman with fatherhood in mind, of effectively becoming a sperm donor who is also expected to perform household chores, for many years, and to pay child maintenance. In a sexless relationship with random lesbians who may find him barely tolerable, a necessary complication. But this, it seems, is “the ideal parenting setup.”
Just Let Me Check Who I Am.
Banking and mental illness, together at last.
The NatWest bank, we learn, “allows staff to identify as men and women on different days. The bank offers double-sided lanyards to non-binary employees so they can alternate between personas when they please.” This is part of an “LGBT-friendly diversity measure,” endorsed by Stonewall, the cutting edge of corrected thought. And employees who aren’t sure who or what they are at any given time must be encouraged to enact their “masculine and feminine” personas according to mood and medication. Hence the double-sided lanyards, obviously.
Tongue Action.
A tale of erotic mollusc-gobbling.
This goes on for quite a while, longer than seems strictly necessary. Droplets on chins, alluring eyebrows, lemon wedges being
squeezed. Yes, the situation was “hot and vulnerable,” and “profoundly intimate,” with the object of intrigue covering her face, leaving her
breathless and
gasping. She was “performing the act for the first time” – and in public, no less.
Should readers need a moment to steady themselves, I quite understand.
“My memory of that first time,” writes Ms Maratha, “echoes that special frisson of noticing your femininity.” You see, “Something about the discovery of the oyster’s flesh, the patience needed to harvest it from its shell, and the fortitude required to enjoy it, feels intrinsically feminine.” We’re told, by an obliging editor, that Ms Maratha’s “love of oysters grew alongside her queer identity.” And that, “For her, the act of eating an oyster uniquely and intimately expresses her queerness.”
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
I’m seeing things I wasn’t previously aware of.
It’s an old film-industry term to refer to unfortunate views of human crotches. The idea is to avoid them, edit them out, fix them in post.
They use the term frequently on Mystery Science Theater 3000. That’s how I learned it.
[ Dicentra puts on shades, leather jacket, rides away on motorbike. ]
I learn so much from our little chats.
ARGH!
Eye cleanser!
Eye cleanser!
Eye cleanser!
By the way, in garden-squirrel news, one of the critters has realised that if he sits on the very end of a particular tree branch, it will bend in such a way that it bounces gently about two metres from the living room window, thereby allowing him to study the human occupants.
Glancing out of the window to discover that you’re being watched by a gently bobbing squirrel was, at first, slightly disconcerting. But being all manly and fearless, I’m getting used to it.
[ Checks supply of peanuts. ]
Rodents who stay outside are no problem. Me, I’ve got a pair of mice in my house, and I discovered their nest this morning.
The rotten things are wise to the traps so far (though I did catch one last week), so I’ve purchased some new traps along with nitrile gloves, and this time maybe I’ll set them out without covering them with my scent.
I’d really rather rent out a rat snake for a week. Let it loose in the house so it can slither into the little crevasses.
Unfortunately I’ll probably have to hire an exterminator. Stupid rapscallions. Just my luck I’ll catch hantavirus or leptospirosis.
Sadly, my uncanny wildlife-taming powers seem to extend only to squirrels, which I can conjure from the trees, much to my neighbour’s amusement.
Oh, and the cat from two doors down.
A fatal blow to flat-eartherism.
The Other Half finds perverse amusement in watching flat-earther conspiracy videos on YouTube. I just find them vaguely aggravating. I’d assumed they must all be trolling, but apparently not.
[ Orders more peanuts, just in case. ]
So you can’t link to sources any more? Sounds mad.
You can, but if you include a link to an external source – say, a relevant blog post – that X post’s visibility will be limited, quite severely, by the X algorithm. The suggested solution is to include the link in a reply, but that also reduces the likelihood of it being seen or followed. If there’s no immediately visible link to a source, most users will continue scrolling.
Again, the idea is to keep users scrolling endlessly on X:
But if X is supposed to be “the media,” your go-to news source, as Mr Musk claims, then you need external links. Being able to verify a claim or find relevant examples, and being able to do it quickly, is how you establish trust. It’s effectively punishing users who do their homework.