An Improper Solicitation

As the holiday of frights and horrors is nigh upon us, it seems an apt time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. For those wishing to express their love regularly, there’s a monthly subscription option top left. And if one-click haste is called for, my PalPay.Me page can be found here. Additionally, any Amazon UK shopping done via this link or the search widget top right, or for Amazon US via this link, or for Amazon Canada via this link, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you.

For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last decade or so, in over 2,500 posts and close to 90,000 comments, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start - in particular, the end-of-year summaries. If you can, do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.

Again, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company. 

Comments

[David]

Thanks to everyone who’s chipped in so far, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon links, including all those much too shy to say hello. It’s enormously appreciated and makes a big difference to how much time I can spend here with you heathens.

[Bad News Quillan]

Kai_ching!

-- Bad News

[David]

Kai_ching!

May your black, glass-backed phone always be free of unsightly fingerprints.

[Ian]

Something for your trouble, landlord.

[David]

Something for your trouble, landlord.

May you never be dismayed by a realisation that you’ve ordered rather a lot of the wrong size bin liners.

Right, I’m off to bed. Play nicely.

[JML]

My favourite blog. Pinged!

[Pst314]

Seems justifiable. :-)

Antarctica scientist stabbed colleague for spoiling book endings

https://nypost.com/2018/10/30/antarctica-scientist-stabbed-colleague-for-spoiling-book-endings-report/

[David]

Pinged!

Bless you, sir. When visiting a local curry house, may you never be faced with the choice of whether to ask a neighbouring table of burly and inebriated rugby enthusiasts if they’d mind keeping the noise down a bit.

[David]

Thanks, NielsR.

May you never forget how to alter the time on the microwave clock and then be unable to find the bloody instruction manual.

[Status Quo Vadis]

I give you the Ultimate Everyday Feminism Headline

I enjoyed the article. It will really help me make my conversations about reproductive rights more trans inclusive. I’ve been worrying about that a lot recently.

[Pogonip]

As have we all.

[Connor]

PING!

[David]

PING!

Bless you, sir. May your next outing to a restaurant not be memorable chiefly for a nearby patron’s catastrophic flatulence.

[Clam]

catastrophic flatulence

Band name.

[Pogonip]

https://nypost.com/2018/10/30/woman-who-had-sex-with-20-ghosts-is-now-engaged-to-a-spirit/

Slut.

Happy Halloween. 🎃

[Ray]

Great blog. Tip jar hit.

[David]

Great blog. Tip jar hit.

Bless you, sir. May you never know the aggravation of trying to dust a 1970s microscope.

[Pogonip]

Why are you trying to dust a 1970’s microscope?

[David]

Why are you trying to dust a 1970s microscope?

It’s sort of an ornament on a bookcase.

I’m not sure why it is, but it is.

[Pogonip]

Is it next to the flamethrower?

[Pogonip]

Did anybody read Stephen King’s new $20 short story? I didn’t. Looked at the 3 P’s—Price, Page Count, Premise—and thought “Dude, you can’t be serious.” Price: $20.00. Page Count: 160 and change, with small page size and wide margins. Premise: rich lesbians vs. small-town bigots. Ahem. I’ve been following Castle Rock ever since King invented the place, and he has stated numerous times that it’s a tourist trap. I can’t imagine why, what with rabid St. Bernards, vicious sun dogs, homicidal cops, salesman demons, and God knows what else running around, but he invented it, so if he says it’s a tourist trap, then it’s a tourist trap. Methinks the locals in tourist traps are not exactly unfamiliar with lesbians, and their first concern about same would not be “Are they married?” but “Is that fancy restaurant of theirs bringing any money into town?” So for me, skinny little story + fat price tag + poor premise = no sale. Anybody else?

[Pogonip]

P.S. I live 7 miles from a tourist trap and can thus speak with some authority on the priorities of residents in such places.

[Captain Nemo]

May you never know the aggravation of trying to dust a 1970s microscope.

Heh. I know the feeling. Although in my case it's a large oak clock from the 1920s, and not a piece of optical equipment from 50 years later.

[Pogonip]

On the other hand, now we know why the last headcount of henchlesbians came up 2 short.

They’ll be back. Maine gets noisy. All that screaming when the monsters are loose.

[WTP]

May you never know the aggravation of trying to dust a 1970s microscope.

Heh, I wondered what ever happened to that thing. It was a Christmas gift from my Aunt Dot you know. Never could get the 150 setting to focus right. Well take good care of it, mmmmk?

[Toxteth O'Grady]

Thumbs up for the work food recommendations. That Korean compo Farnsworth dropped into my lap is worth a try.

Not to worry, you'll thank me.

Yes, yes I will.

[Barry]

Tried the noodle cups and they're good. Thanks for the tip.

btw pinged you.

[David]

btw pinged you.

Bless you, sir. May you never know the aggravation, and the mortal hazard, of trying to move a two-metre-tall cactus with very sharp and poisonous spines.

Again, thanks to everyone who’s hit the tip jar, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon links, including all those much too shy to say hello. It keeps this place here, and ad-free, and is much appreciated.

[pst314]

Did anybody read Stephen King’s new $20 short story? I didn’t. Looked at the 3 P’s—Price, Page Count, Premise...

[pendatry alert] At 140-160 pages that's a novella, not a short story. [/pendatry alert]

I could understand $20 for a single short story, if it were published as a high quality limited edition by a small press. But a mass market edition, with a huge print run? Absurd.

[jabrwok]

Re: dusting.

https://www.amazon.com/Compressed-Air-Dusters/b?node=3012916011

For your hard-to-reach dusting needs.

[Pogonip]

You have a poisonous cactus? What species?

[Pogonip]

In February a few years ago, I was in a big box and spotted a lonely little Xmas cactus cutting on sale for $1. It was well rooted so I bought it and waited to see what color the flowers would be in the fall.

They were yellow, an uncommon color around here—the big-box plant buyers go for pink or white, and some years you see a few red ones. My cutting probably got shipped to my area by mistake.

It’s a shame I didn’t buy a lottery ticket that day.

[Pogonip]

Hi Pst314, if the book wasn’t 6 x 8, with margins wider than those you used on your 8th-grade English paper to make the required 3 pages, THEN it would be a novella.

Whenever it hits the library I’ll blow 45 minutes of my life, read it, and report back.

[David]

What species?

Not sure. Euphorbia Tetra, I think. One year, we used it as a Christmas tree, complete with lights and festoonery. Of course, removing said items after the holidays proved even more hazardous than attaching them, resulting in much muttering and cursing, and eventually the use of scissors.

[Mags]

Euphorbia Tetra, I think.

Don't get that stuff in your eyes.

[David]

Don’t get that stuff in your eyes.

Lord, no. The merest scratch on the hand and you’ll be itching for weeks.

[willers]

PING

[David]

PING

May your houseguests never drop cigarette ash onto your pale Ultrasuede sofa.