I keep saying that about the 25 yr old who broke my heart last year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_(insect)

One of the things I love about Missouri is the constant sound of crickets chirping. There have got to be tens of thousands in my neighborhood alone. Their songs are a soothing synchrony, and it's easy to forget they're just insects, not the soul of the forest. I've become so used to it I often sort of forget about them altogether, only to be reminded upon return from a trip out west or to a big city. I don't recall noticing, are there (non ball playing) crickets in the UK?

Speaking of Brian, I was hoping you would have dropped in on the safe space thread in P to weigh in on the psychology of safe spaces and censorship. I remember a couple times elsewhere you dropped us a link to Jonathan Haidt's talk on the psychology of conservatives vs liberals, and now he is one of the liberals leading the charge against the ever growing movement of censorship on college campuses and beyond promoted by many progressives.

This guy is worried too:

The idea that Trump is to some extent a reaction to tyranny of the left is intriguing because I sort of get that, and have even argued that case. But I also have to admit I have trouble understanding how anyone who is sane enough to see him as the joke he is, could ever actually be motivated to vote for him just to get back at the meanies who called them racist. In other words, wouldn't they be to voting for Trump anyway?

It is mostly tribalism. People will give their stated reasons, but those have little-to-nothing to do with who they support.

Fortunately, the radical left that the right is worried about is composed of approximately 14 people and the radical right that the left is worried about is pretty much Clive Bundy.

Why would you take away someone's safe space in a world with plenty of space?

Solar energy will wind up destroying the Earth. All scientists agree on this.

'Very British Problems' is an excellent show.

I finally broke my record: was propositioned by 5 middle-aged women while at work today. One offered to pay, which was nice. A friend of another asked to pay because "it is her birthday and she deserves nice things," which I thought was a very nice gesture.*

On an unrelated note, I met David Tennant today. Overall, he seemed very nice, except that he kept making various remarks like "I'm not David Tennant. The Australian accent sounds NOTHING like the English accent and I just happen be a tiny man with spikey hair and beady eyes" in a more and more exasperated voice each time I called him David Tennant or mentioned how much more spacious my cab is than it appears from the outside.

*this would be a brag, except for 1) Las Vegas and 2) middle-aged women and 3) something about me not being a prostitute.**

**I've got nothing against prostitutes. They are generally excellent tippers and make for excellent conversation when they are off the clock.

Trying to write a better-ending real-life verse to Cat's in the Cradle is really hard work.

As a matter of interest, why?

From wiki:

Tennant made his professional acting debut while still in secondary school. When he was 16, he acted in an anti-smoking film made by the Glasgow Health Board which aired on television and was also screened in schools.
________________________


This forever soils whatever other acting accomplishments he is currently glorified for*, or for any future exaltation. So he is wise to say he is not David Tenant.

Congratulations. Middle-aged women and causal sex go together like Beer and Pizza. Was there any mention of handcuffs and whips and leather goodies? Or were the negotiations cut short before any details could be worked out?


*Even for Dr. Who.

People then still thought of war in personal terms. There is no way a twenty-first-century citizen can oppose fleets of modern missiles, but in 1940 one Briton with a weapon, however primitive, could make a difference in the defense of the island. If the Nazis established a beachhead, King George was prepared to lead a resistance movement. The King ordered a shooting range built in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, and there the Royal Family and royal equerries practiced daily with small arms, including submachine guns and a carbine given to the King by Churchill. The young royal princesses took their target practice with their parents. The delightful mother was a crack shot. On July 10, Harold Nicolson noted that the Queen “told me she is being instructed every day in how to fire a revolver. I expressed surprise. ‘Yes’, she said, ‘I shall not go down like the others.’ I cannot tell you how superb she was………We shall win. I know that. I have no doubts at all.”

From: The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965. Little, Brown and Co. London, 2012, p 123-124.
_________________________________

Great book by the way. The Brits used to have Balls. What the hell happened?

And all war is personal, always has been and always will be so.

We became a nation of shopkeepers?

edit: also strictly come dancing

Some deplorable divorcee from Baltimore, I think.

The Queen Mother is the one on the left:

Ending an unpleasant cycle.

That explains why he was denying it so vociferously, I believe. He even brought out what I can only imagine is a fake ID to try to convince me that I was wrong.

I'm only allowed to bring home strays that meet specific requirements.

You told her that baseball is English?

I read about this band and the name controversy about a year ago. It was convoluted then but now its gone all the way to the Supreme Court Oligarchs. We will hear what slant they take on this for sure. But it is months away.


The Slants

They are racist against themselves, not uncommon

In the book I mentioned above some detail is given about good old Edward VIII and his ultimate appointment as Governor of the Bahamas during WWII, which Churchill approved and was happy about - to get the Duke of Windsor out of the way. He still caused troubled but only in little waves that just disturbed the small and the silly.


From Wiki about Edward VIII:

After his abdication [Edward VIII], he was created Duke of Windsor. He married Simpson in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Germany. During the Second World War, he was at first stationed with the British Military Mission to France but, after private accusations that he held Nazi sympathies, he was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. After the war, Edward spent the rest of his life in retirement in France.
_______________________

Wallis Simpson, she kicked the Brits in the teeth and they are still pouting about it.

Wallis Simpson

USA #1

But the Royals won the war for Winston and the rest of the UK, with their pistols. Simpson was just a nice bitter icing of the cake.

Governor of Bahamas, wp.

Seems that the opposite is true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slants

Everything is not as it seems.

Let's say it like this: sophisticated introspective racism. Not fooling plaaynde. You?

Obama is on my side.