I hesitated to add it to the Afghanistan thread as the subject is related as about the old fashioned rural way of traditional rules based on Islam and local customs in comparison with the Westernized bubble of Kabul, but now in Turkey.
Some don't like that much deviations of the subject and indeed it is too long to add as an aside...

I watched this afternoon a documentary about the making of the Franco-Turkish film: "Mustang"
https://www.indiewire.com/2015/11/meet-frances-oscar-entry-mustang-a-controversial-5-headed-monster-of-femininity-50271/
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/079451-000-A/il-etait-une-fois-mustang/

Comment from the site:

Dans ce volet de la collection "Un film et son époque", Deniz Gamze Ergüven et ses cinq jeunes interprètes, toutes non professionnelles alors, racontent l’histoire d'un film courageux – qui a failli ne pas voir le jour –, depuis sa genèse jusqu'à sa sortie mouvementée en Turquie. Menaces et insultes ont en effet fusé à l'encontre de la jeune réalisatrice franco-turque, accusée, entre autres, de regarder son pays avec les yeux d'une étrangère. Spécialiste du droit des femmes, sa compatriote Gaye Petek souligne la scission à l'œuvre entre une frange traditionnelle, patriarcale et religieuse de la société, et une Turquie moderne, laïque et libérale. Une fracture que Deniz Gamze Ergüven a évoquée en puisant en partie dans sa propre enfance. La magistrale scène d'ouverture, qui voit les cinq sœurs quitter la lumière de l'été pour la réclusion, est ainsi directement inspirée de son vécu. Contrairement à ses héroïnes, elle avoue s'être tue face aux reproches de sa grand-mère.

And I found also the version of ARTE with English subtitles...it is a bit "langweilig" (tedious?), but what you don't want to hear you can always ommit with pushing the cursor   ...
https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/079451-000-A/once-upon-a-time/

Translation in English:
In this part of the "A film and its era" collection, Deniz Gamze Ergüven and his five young performers, all unprofessional at the time, tell the story of a courageous - which almost never saw the light of day - since its creation, genesis until its evenful release in Turkey.
Threats and insults have indeed fired against the young Franco-Turkish director, accused, among other things, of looking at her country through the eyes of a foreigner. A specilaist in women's rights, her compatriot Gaye Petek underlines the split at work between a tradional, patriarchal and religious fringe of society, and a modern, seculat and liberal Turkey. A fracture that Deniz Gamze Ergüven evoked by drawing in part from his own childhood.
The masterful opening scene, which sees the five sisters leaving the summer light for seclusion, is thus directly inspired by her own experience. Unlike her heroines she admits to having killed herself in the face of her grandmother's reproaches.

And as in the thread about Afghanistan, Istanbul stays to the traditional rural countryside as Kabul to the rest of Afghan Islamic countryside.
And in the film as you can read in the French version with English subtitles, the heritage of Ata Turk is each year more undermined by a Turkey ruled by Erdogan.

Paul.

And as I said  in the Afghan thread change will only come about from within - but a painful process. Turkey was such a great place of mixed cultures living in harmony - or so it seemed whrn I was there, I wonder if the head of the  Greek orthodox church still lives there. I went t their special day in January with a Jew, a Muslim and atheist - and good grief a Baptist from down under too... and we all lit candles... as one days in mixed company. And it was the ambiance of the entire place that I sensed at that time. I guess it is much changed ....Mre E. did it, I think. Not a diary entry  and do so hate muddled threads.

Watched this last night. Coincidentally, exactly 28 since its' UK release date. The last Western film to win Best Picture Oscar;

I suppose westerns will come into favour again eventually.  A few years ago there was a modern western cop series 'Longmire' on TV which I quite liked.  It dealt with a casino on an Indian reservation among other things.

In the real world I've been trying to think why we don't have many wooden houses in the UK.  I can think of the fact that wood as a building material was discouraged after the Great Fire of London and then forests were cut down in the agrarian/industrial revolutions.  I know houses have wooden beams.  There is a mobile home park fairly near to me (the site used to be a salt works) but are there any other historical reasons why wood as a building material does not feature greatly in the UK?

Unfortunately the solenoid valve that works the on/off mechanism for the water mains in my house is stuck in the off position.  I'm managing pro-temp with some large bottles of water.  I've texted a plumber who has done work for me in the past but I doubt I'll hear anything before Monday.  I'd rather leave this job to a professional because if I tried it and made a mistake I could be stuck in a position where I couldn't switch off the supply of water.  The valve stopped working suddenly though I suppose it had been deteriorating gradually without my realising it was doing so.

LiR, don't trust electrical solenoid valves.
If you have lime in your water the valve get blocked and the solenoid burns. I have in my own house and in the appartments for hire always old fashioned manual valves,  which are not that expensive to replace and have normally from my experience some 15 years or more life time.
And BTW: we are obliged overhere to have a non-return valve with an evacuation valve in case of frost after the manual valve from the supplying company.



Sorry LiR but I couldn't reduce the size...

Kind regards, Paul.

Hurrah! Plumber just called to say he would pop in any minute now to repair a flooding cistern. Normally  I do this kind of thing....  husband being a Fellow Engineer who said he designed stuff not mend it,  seems happy for me to  get him to fetch the string and other important  parts of my repair jobs. However after eye surgery this week am not up to doing it all by touch alone.  There are some joys in  living in  a small community of old families; instant plumber being one of them.

Even better... with repair came the Reith Lecture on repairing all that could go wrong with  our sort of cistern. I shall  be charging  signed in Res Historians 10% less for  call out. Form an orderly queue.

The shower head has come off my shower attachment in the bath. I am now using a jug to rinse my hair. I tried to mend it ( the shower head, not my hair), and even went to RGB's buy a new attachment - they tried to sell me a new bathroom, so I gave up.

I have phoned the plumber who is busy.

There is no end of drama to be recorded here, dear diary.

This is enough to drive one back to drink, after months of Covid-inspired abstinence. I must keep repeating: "Alcohol is a deadly neurotoxin, even when delivered via a delicious and expensive French red wine." I'm beginning not to care.

Temperance wrote:

...

There is no end of drama to be recorded here, dear diary.

This is enough to drive one back to drink, after months of Covid-inspired abstinence. I must keep repeating: "Alcohol is a deadly neurotoxin, even when delivered via a delicious and expensive French red wine." I'm beginning not to care.

Dear Diary,

I've had a showdown with a neighbour, who doesn't want to know that when she touches the beep-beep-thingy on my wheelchair she exposes herself as well as me to corona, "it's all done as a joke" she claims.

I've tried in a polite and friendly way to tell her that it's a no-no, but "it's all done as a joke"!

That I may have a different sense of humour is just a matter of me not having been educated the right way.

It ended with me telling her to stay two metres away from my wheelchair from any directions - and me not being moved by female tears!

Temperance, when I get back from the physio's I'll join you in keeping distance and agreeing to lowering the level in a bottle of wine, I shall then breathe on my chair in an attempt of disenfection.

I wonder if the management has made suitable arrangements in the bar re hand sanitisers and what have you? Are we all stuck outside now, huddled - or rather not huddled - with the shivering smokers?

I'm still being cautious and using rubbing alcohol, Temperance.  I decided against attempting to make my own hand sanitiser so use neat rubbing alcohol and then moisturise my hands (the alcohol is very drying).  I think the shops in my neck of the woods are stocking sanitiser again.

I have running water again.  I admire people who can do such tasks as replacing a stopcock themselves but I was scared of making a hash of it and possibly having a flood so decided to leave it to a professional.  If Paul reads this I have gone back to using a stopcock.  I think the chap who installed the solenoid valve may have thought he was making things easy for me (i.e. flicking a switch) but the water round here is very hard and so there is a lot of lime in it.  The valve probably did become furred up and of course it's harder to clear limescale from a solenoid valve than a kettle.  I even find clearing limescale from the water chamber of the steam iron harder than clearing it from the kettle.

LiR, indeed Paul is reading this and he is glad that you chose for a stopcock (first time I met the word "stopcock", a stopcock valve.)
And yes in my younger lifetime, you could even change the "leather" of the plunger in the valve. I remember even that it was an hexagonal at the upperside closed and curved screw...yes but nowadays in the throw away society...and yes in our time everybody was a bit of an all round man...

Kind regards from Paul.

I don't believe in reincarnation and that the tribulations we get in this life are because of naughty things we did in past lives, but if I did I might be forming the opinion that I must have been a bad lot in the past.  The joint in the pipe before the stopcock is attached is leaking - not a lot but it's a steady dribble so of course if left unchecked the water pools on the floor.  I'm soaking it up with old rags pro-temp but have texted the plumber to tell him the state of affairs.  I don't know if I'll hear back from him on a Sunday though.

I'm reading WikiHow at the moment.  It suggests epoxy putty as a temporary fix or a pipe clamp.  Only thing with epoxy putty is it has to be taken off when the proper mending is done.  I don't think I have a pipe clamp in stock though I suppose Wilkes would have one (I'm not sure how long they stay open on a Sunday).

LiR, tape "jong" (youngster: colloquial in our dialect for everyone you meet) will do it.

Not sure but nearly, if you have that 1 1/2 inch width tape which is common nowadays in every household and you put the tape around the area to fix, rolling it several times in a tight manner around the "joint" I suppose you will be save till the plumber comes. It can even be that the dripping is stopped. I knew an old automecanic (Belgian), who worked as an "exilé"during the war for the RAF and he would nearly everything on our old car fix with tape (and in the time it was not such spectacular adhesive as nowadays).

Kind regards, Paul.

And a good plumber can install a 'widget' of some sort in no time at all - just had three done here.

Thank you Paul and Priscilla for the advice.  I've done my best with some gaffer tape for tonight.  The plumber has texted me back that he'll 'sort' it so hopefully it will be attended to before too long.  I will see if I can get a pipe clamp tomorrow if push comes to shove.

One of my daily activities on Tuesday was to attend a Zoom meeting of the U3A French conversation group.  The French gentleman who has been joining us lately had sent some extracts from Le Canard Enchaine.  One of the articles was about something which was new information to me - that in China because of the one-child policy there are a lot of 'hidden' children whose births are not registered and miss out on formal education.  I have not found out much about this online. I did find mention of a book Abandonment, Adoption and the Human Cost of the One-Child Policy (c) 2016 by Kay Ann Johnson, University of Chicago Press.  I'll add my usual caveat that I apologise if this matter has been mentioned earlier on Res Historica.  My search of the site did not reveal anything but my searches are not always perfect.  Ms Johnson's book may find its way on to my 'to read' book.

I will look at Paul's reply to my thoughts on East Prussia shortly.  I look periodically (not every day) at some of the videos about 'lost places' - I started looking at those when I perusing abandoned videos about abandoned country houses in former East Prussia. I like the channel where I found the video I am linking here 'Broken Window Theory' - obviously no-one has to look if it doesn't tickle their fancy.  The abandoned building here is in Italy and had been abandoned for 5 years at the time of making the video.  Am I being sceptical but I thought there would have been more cobwebs about after 5 years (though it's possible the film-makers did a bit of tidy up before making the film).  From about 8:28 the building does look more derelict.  

I may know marginally more about 'apps' on the mobile phone than I did at the beginning of the lockdown but I still have much to learn but I received an advert on a 'Simon's Cat' app.  (Should that be on the moggy thread?).

The electricity tripped out today.  It seems to be the microwave that is causing it.  I had a look inside the microwave and it seemed that some of the metal (enamel?) on the base (where the turntable is) had buckled.  I don't know what's happened - I'll admit I've not cleaned it as thoroughly as I should the last few days because I've had a bad back and I think some liquid had bubbled over the rim of the container.  I hadn't thought any of the liquid was acidic.  Could it be repaired do you think?  I've only had it since February but it was a secondhand one (albeit in good nick) that someone had given me so not under guarantee.  Wilkinson's sell microwaves not too expensively (I wouldn't need a big one when it's just me and Tilly the cat).  The same person gave me a small electric oven so I can use that I suppose but I've been using the microwave for convenience I must admit.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

The electricity tripped out today.  It seems to be the microwave that is causing it.  I had a look inside the microwave and it seemed that some of the metal (enamel?) on the base (where the turntable is) had buckled.  I don't know what's happened - I'll admit I've not cleaned it as thoroughly as I should the last few days because I've had a bad back and I think some liquid had bubbled over the rim of the container.  I hadn't thought any of the liquid was acidic.  Could it be repaired do you think?  I've only had it since February but it was a secondhand one (albeit in good nick) that someone had given me so not under guarantee.  Wilkinson's sell microwaves not too expensively (I wouldn't need a big one when it's just me and Tilly the cat).  The same person gave me a small electric oven so I can use that I suppose but I've been using the microwave for convenience I must admit.

LiR, you don't know a friend, who can be trusted with repair of electroware? With my experience of 35 years of appartments for hire, I have many times repaired such related stuff when it was only the isolation of the feeding electrical wire which was damaged, but for all other stuff I spoke with knowledgeable people. Thus in my opinion better to speak with a technician. And in my case many honest! technicians said to me: "you would better buy a new one", "Het sop is de kool niet waard" (the suds are not worth the cabbage) (the game is not worth de candle)

Kind regards, Paul.

Finished reading the book, so decided to re-watch the film. Some episodes from the book are missed as the story is culled from its 700+ pages to a 143 minute running time. Still quite a long running film, the dvd is double sided.

The book was good and so was the film: Patrick McGoohan as Judge Noose ( honest!!)

I may have to see if I can find the book Trike mentions above in my local library (I'm not sure if it's fully in lockdown or not).

I'm not particularly a Greta Thunberg fan but I thought this come-back by her to Donald Trump was apt.https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/greta-thunberg-throws-insult-back-22967204

I also liked this editing by an enterprising YouTuber.  

One good thing my microwave oven is working without 'tripping' the electricity supply, so maybe all that was needed was a thorough clean of the machine so I am trying to make sure I don't miss any corners when I wipe it after use now.

I've realised that a couple of the books I borrowed from the library on my last visit were ones I had taken on loan before.  One of them is a book by Lindsay Davis set in ancient Rome.  If it's a long enough time since I read it before I might still enjoy it.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

One good thing my microwave oven is working without 'tripping' the electricity supply, so maybe all that was needed was a thorough clean of the machine so I am trying to make sure I don't miss any corners when I wipe it after use now.

I've realised that a couple of the books I borrowed from the library on my last visit were ones I had taken on loan before.  One of them is a book by Lindsay Davis set in ancient Rome.  If it's a long enough time since I read it before I might still enjoy it.

LiR,

yes that electricity always a tricky matter. For instance this morning...two light bulbs in the corridor..one immediately lightening up and one some time to warm up (nowadays all kind of types)...the partner asked for more light at the toilet door where the slow lightening up was placed...as I had only the two for the moment available, I just changed the bulbs...but in its new place the slow lightening one didn't lighten up at all...checking all the feeding and found no anomalies...and on its new place the fast lightening one near the toilet was OK...at the end I changed the two bulbs again in their old positions and all was OK again...after some disassembling of the fitting of the position near the sleeping room...I found out that the neck of quick lightening bulb near the sleeping room was blocked in the fitting before it could made contact with the second conductor wire in the innerside in the  middle of the fitting...so this particular bulb didn't fit in that particular fitting...

LiR, that said, I wondered how it still was with a lady in retirement, there, alone, in that big house of the Thirties during the second lockdown/confinement?

Kind regards, Paul.

The house is not that big Paul - an ordinary 1930s semi-detached.  It's called a 3-bedroomed house but one of the bedrooms is really a box room though that room is big enough for a child. I know that some of my neighbours with children have two children share the small room making use of bunk beds where one child sleeps higher than the other. I'm not too bad - I've had a seasonal cold but don't think it's Covid-19) and have read the comments on the site some days but haven't always had anything to say.  On the ragged staves thread I had thought about posting that there was a pub called 'The Bear and Ragged Staff' in Crayford which I think is now South London (Crayford) though it used to be part of Kent but it seems that there are a number of pubs with that name in the country.

I have been doing my food shopping (apart from the greengroceries I have delivered once a fortnight) in local shops for the most part. There is a brand of gluten free food called Juvela who have emailed me explaining that they are offering deliveries of partly cooked loaves and other items. I haven't ordered anything from them but I know that the option is there.  There is also an online shop in Yorkshire called The Gluten Free Kitchen.  I used them earlier in the pandemic.  Tonight I have decided to be a lady of leisure and order a gluten free vegetarian pizza from my local Pizza Hut (place that delivers ready-cooked pizzas).

I don't know what I have with Danish films. Now already the third one I watched and commented here as daily diaries. And even from three different TV channels. I think it is pure coincidence. The first two, not really my kettle of fish, but this one is for me! personal! the real thing. 
While MM is busy with his back quarter boar meat, it is perhaps not the moment to watch this dramatic but human film.
But perhaps if LiR has time for this heart warming film.
Or perhaps for Nielsen. after all is it a Danish film from 2016.
And played the grand British film fashion, that I so much prefer above the American one. But don't worry after all the misery there is a happy end (what I then from the other hand prefer at most American films)

https://theskykid.com/the-day-will-come-2016/

Der commer en dag (er komt een dag)

Has anybody seen the BBC version of Black Narcissus? I might watch if it's still available on the iplayer.  It has a cameo by the late, great Dame Diana Rigg.  I've seen the 1947 film though I haven't read Rumer Godden's source novel.  I don't know how realistic the story is though I did enjoy the film when I watched it.  Rumer Godden spent some of her life in India so had first hand knowledge of the sub-continent (the story is set in the Himalayas).

Post duplicated so deleted.

LiR, I think I have already seen a part of an episode of the BBC film overhere, can it be? We have here BBC First and BBC Entertainment on the TV cable distribution, both with Dutch subtitles and I guess that they both also are in other countries, as for instance France's cable distribution, with French subtitles. I think I found it not that extraordinairy special. But by the way, who am I? And coincidentaly I lost afterwards the track among all those interesting for me! TV emissions. And only now (second Covid wave) time to watch all what interests me...
And I think the BBC will repeat it anyway as it always do,  on one of these two channels. The difficulty for me, when I then start to see for a second time the same series as "Our Girl" or "The last Post" it enerves me to see the same twice (or it has to be extraordinary good.)

But that said, I did a quick research on the "net" and found this:

https://variety.com/2020/tv/reviews/black-narcissus-fx-review-1234838234/
https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film288434.html

I have here a Spanish uploaded original 1947 film with English subtitles
I could watch on my computer with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrZf7lZHNjU&list=PLAzx656SW-8Y1kfJuyRiJJoZ5vCDDQKce&index=2
, but here it don't work..



Kind regards, Paul.

PS: when you click on the link about the 1947 film it nevertheless works...

LiR, I edit this sentence to add a question about as I read in an entry "five Protestant nuns", but in this entry 
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_narcissus
I see:
"A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr)...

I wanted to ask to you, as I first saw "Protestant" nuns, if there exist "Protestant" nuns? From my continental knowledge, not with the Dutch Calvinists. Not sure about the Lutheran nuns?
From my recent knowledge of Anglicanism: nuns only in the Catholic leaning High Church? And no nuns in the Protestant leaning Low Church?

Kind regards, Paul.

Paul, here is a link to an article about Protestant orders https://www.biblia.work/dictionaries/religiousorders-protestant/   From memory (going back to the late 1960s) there was a town somewhere in Merseyside which had a Protestant convent and a Catholic convent located close to each other which sometimes caused confusion but I can't find any reference to such places now.  It would seem that Anglian nuns are mostly likely "high church" but I can't say with absolute certainty that that is the case.  Paul, I don't know if you are familiar with the British TV programme Call the Midwife but the nuns located in the fictional Nonnatus House in that programme were supposed to be an Anglican order.

LiR, thanks for the enlightenment and yes I followed a time "Call the Midwife". Your link seems to be more focused on the US.
And yes that monasticism seems to be a complex story and as always Wiki is many times a first guide. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_monasticism

And as mentioned in the wiki for Anglicanism also overhere the famous Roman-Catholic monasteries finished by lack of people.
Now it is more now overhere the new look: "Médécins sans Frontières" and exchange programs between nurses, educational personel with for instance Uganda, République Démocratique du Congo and so on.

Kind regards, Paul.

I joined in the local (to me) U3A French discussion group today.  I know nordmann isn't too keen on consp*racy discussions but the French gentleman who has been joining us had sent an extract from Le Canard Enchaine about such theories having flourished during the coronavirus quarantine.  I won't go into the actual theories as they were pretty similar to ones that have been put about in the UK except that there is a part of the 'complosphere' who think the Covid-19 vaccine was cooked up in the Pasteur Institute rather than a Chinese laboratory which I have come across people suggesting over here.  The stir-craziness seems to be international.

This afternoon together with the partner looking on BBC entertainment (with Dutch subtitles) to some episodes of the BBC series "Keeping up appearances"...with Hyacint...
We enjoyed it...good stuff...and light entertainment...just what one needs in these times...
Just one light "bémol" (from our dialect and a music term. MM, we use it as "a little problem, inconvenient", what would it be in English or in Dutch?)
Some years ago it wouldn't have diminished my pleasure...am I growing an old grumpy?...
Namely: the (obliged) laughter on the background after each "gag"...some years ago I had never difficulties with it...
Has the Americans learned it from the English entertainment, or do the English it now to seem a bit like the American way?

Paul, when I was doing my secretarial training I went with some fellow students to see a TV programme being made.  It was a pilot or test for a TV show and I don't think that show ever made the grade.  It was for a commercial station not BBC but they had a person (who was co-ordinating things generally) who mimed at the audience when it was time to applause or react in other ways the powers that be deemed appropriate.  That was back in the 1970s.  I think the BBC used to record in front of a live audience.  Some people say that they hold up notices saying 'applause' etc or at least did back in the day - well when I saw the commercial programme made the person 'warming up' the audience said something like not being like the BBC and holding up notices - although that could be interpreted as the BBC at least credited people with being able to read and not needing mimed instructions.

A couple of years ago I happened tp pass a glass fronted room in that BBC place off Oxford street. Around a long table was a group in hysterics - apparently, they were script writers and production staff clearly enjoying a load of stuff we would not get to share. 
Many years ago Dick van Dyke did a sit com where he was a script writer. I was so envious - and remain so - of that notion..... and in another life  perhaps........ 

It would make a superb sit com now when one could touch on all the non PC material to take out. .... there are times when getting old is such a bore. How I would love to do that one.

Not quite what you refer to Paul, sorry, just a ramble..... now that is an advantage of approaching senility.

Did anyone else wake up to snow this morning (28.12.2020)?  My feet have been cold despite wearing warm footwear so I thought I might try and knit some socks with some leftover yarn I have.  Said yarn had been in a drawer and I don't know how it happened but it looked as if it had been played with by a litter of kittens so I've had a mundane morning untangling and winding yarn.  It will be worth it in the end I tell myself.  Obviously my comment has nothing to do with Priscilla's preceding comment - it was coincidental we posted at around the same time but about different matters.

When bent on spendthrift time watching TV - mainly films, I knit with any tarn that comes to hand. Currently making Beanies - some with bobbles and today Fair isle. Like much else of what I do in life I male up the pattern as I go along..... not always successfully.  hope there is someone using the local Hospice shop with a very, very large head. This stuff I churn out by the sack load because it is often too dark to do much of The Christmas jigsaw .... that I can do whilst listening to the heap of CD's given as presents. I have never quite taken to the slowness of retirement after a frantically busy life.....have two books on the go. The one about me is already 500 pages long and I've only got to     being 4.......having an extraordinary memory couples  well with having a most interesting and hilarious family. I was merely a silent witness to it all; the quiet shy one. The book is intended for grandsons - and possibly to explain them, also.

Thank you both LiR and P for your explanations and daily diaries.
Kind regards from Paul.

I may have covered this in the Xmas wishes but in case not I'll wish everybody the best for 2021.  I still haven't taken on board all the salient points of the Br---t deal.  Perhaps if I try in small doses.

Anybody made any resolutions for 2021?  Not everyone may wish to share.  I'm trying to ration the time I spend on the internet unless I am using it to learn something - or for meetings or to watch a TV programme (though I'm back on Res Hist already and it's only the second day of the year).

I'm sure the hats you knit are fine, Priscilla; I've experienced pride going before a fall with both knitting and crochet.  I tend to knit with too loose a tension which doesn't matter so much in a winter jumper/sweater which is likely to have layers underneath but I knitted a hat (I have mentioned this before here but it was a while ago) with ear flaps like the World War II airmen used to have - in the films I've seen anyway.  People said it looked really nice while I was knitting it but when I had made it up it was too large and when wearing it I looked like John McCrirrick (?) who did the racing commentary on Channel 4.  The deciding moment was when someone who shot from the hip told me he thought his wife had ban choice in hats but mine was worse and when I made a crochet snood (I had longer hair then) a lady I knew from Wolverhampton said "Her's got a tea cosy on her head".  I only wore it at home after that.

Some midlands people will use "Her" for "She" as the subject went.  My late father said it drove him bonkers when he first moved to the midlands.

Well I'm 3 months behind the times but I was saddened to learn that the clothing firm Jaeger are struggling.  Not that I ever bought profusely from them but I always thought their merchandise was elegant.  I didn't realise that nowadays they are owned by Edinburgh Woollen Mill.  Now I have bought from that chain on occasion.

I hope it's okay to post this here - I don't think it warrants a new thread.  I re-read the Disappearing Skills thread  yesterday and was reminded that some while pre-Covid 19 nordmann had mentioned that dialectic discourse was disappearing.  Back in the 1960s (when single sex schools were more of a thing than they are now) there was a TV show where pupils from a couple of different schools would discuss subjects (not always serious - the length of girls' hair featured once).  I can't remember the name of the show - is there anyone here with a better memory than myself in this instance?  It was roughly contemporaneous with Top of the Form but TOTF was a quiz show.

LiR wrote:

  ...nordmann had mentioned that dialectic discourse was disappearing.

It is. Everything's gone all eristic these days and it's horrid. The purpose of argument is now victory rather than the search for truth. Squash, or be squashed - what a way to carry on!

I'm not starting off again - but would like to point out that Socrates, according to Plato, held that the first step to understanding was the recognition of one's ignorance. I blame the Marxists and the fundamentalists. No arguing nicely with any of them. Frying pan job.

I had to consult my dictionary but have now been reminded that Eris was the Greek goddess of chaos.

Temperance, I hope that after the pandemic (whenever that will be and if I'm still on the planet) people can rediscover dialectic discourse/debate.

Changing subject, has anyone else who is in the UK had a fresh bout of snow today?  I've knocked my daily walk on the head for today unless the weather brightens up.  I saw some kids from across the road going out on a sledge.  Though the snow where I live is probably minor compared to Norway and the Pyrenees.  I'm okay for food for the moment.

This being Burns Night, have tried something a little different with M&S Haggis, neeps and tatties en croute:

btw, mine is not described as British






Edit: that was actually quite good. Made some additional mashed spuds to bulk up the meal, and the whole thing was quite tasty, especially the whisky sauce. Yes, I know it's supposed to be for a Burns Supper, but am now in the habit of eating main meal in the middle of the day.

Watched this on Saturday night. With a run time of about 3 hours it takes up the entire evening:

Triceratops wrote:

This being Burns Night, have tried something a little different with M&S Haggis, neeps and tatties en croute:

btw, mine is not described as British

Edit: that was actually quite good. Made some additional mashed spuds to bulk up the meal, and the whole thing was quite tasty, especially the whisky sauce. Yes, I know it's supposed to be for a Burns Supper, but am now in the habit of eating main meal in the middle of the day.

Trike, sigh ...I see now that it will last perhaps some years before I know all the "finesses" and colloquial words from that land at the other side of our Channel. And it is even not that far away if you stay there on the "zeedijk (sea dike?) of Ostend...

"haggis" I already know thanks to MM...

But "Burns Night"...
https://www.visitscotland.com/about/famous-scots/robert-burns/burns-night/

And "mashed spuds"...
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/13090/why-are-potatoes-called-spuds...
Can "spud" also have to do with the Dutch word "spade"? OOPS and I see now that it is in English also "spade"...
I say still from my mother's dialect "gestampte pattaten" (pounded potatoes?), but my partner says "pattatepurée"...for mashed potatoes.

"Eating main meal in the middle of the day". We too now as retired ones. But before we had the choice as both our factories/clinics provided a choice of main meals at noon.
And people had tried us before to do as the English (the famous English breakfast) because that same people said that one needed a strong meal in the morning to start and be fit for the day, but nobody was convinced and followed always the French fashion as before...and I see now also as you before, along the French manner the main course in the evening...?

Kind regards, Paul.

Triceratops wrote:

Watched this on Saturday night. With a run time of about 3 hours it takes up the entire evening:

Trike I see now that I never saw the film and yes three hours perhaps a bit too long winding for me...perhaps better to see it in a "feuilleton" "series?" "in episodes?"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuilleton

And the film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lyndon
"the film recounts the early exploits and later unravelling of a fictional 18th-century Irish rogue and opportunist who marries a rich widow to climb the social ladder and assume her late husband's aristocratic position."
 
I can understand, as I read this that "turning?" on location could spark a bit fear for the IRA as mentioned in the wiki...
And I read further that they have had locations in the former DDR of the Seventies...those Americans seems to be able to work in a Communist block state. And it was not Yugoslavia or the more free Hungary (I was there somewhere in 1976 by car)...if one has money even the Communists seem...

Kind regards, Paul.