‘The central premise of Being Human is that various types of supernatural beings exist alongside human beings, with varying degrees of menace; that three of these supernatural beings are opting to live amongst human beings rather than apart from them; and that these three characters are attempting (as much as is possible) to live ordinary human lives despite the pressures and dangers of their situations. They are constantly threatened with exposure or persecution, with pressure from other supernatural creatures, and with problems caused by their attempts to deal with their own natures.’
‘One of the five founding Avengers, Janet Van Dyne is the wondrous Wasp. Born of science to battle an incomprehensible enemy, she’s Earth’s tiniest titan!
‘Take in a tale to astonish, as we present the first appearance of the impeccable inspect Avenger, the Wasp! Then, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes endure the fight of their lives – when the fearsome Masters of Evil come knocking! The Wasp leads the charge as the team find themselves… Under Siege!’
property (n.) c. 1300, properte, “nature, quality,” later“possession, thing owned” (early 14c., a sense rare before 17c.), from an Anglo-French modification of Old French propriete“individuality, peculiarity; property” (12c., Modern French propreté; see propriety), from Latin proprietatem (nominative proprietas) “ownership, a property, propriety, quality,” literally “special character” (a loan-translation of Greek idioma), noun of quality from proprius “one’s own, special” (see proper). For “possessions, private property” Middle English sometimes used proper goods. Hot property“sensation, a success” is from 1947 in “Billboard” stories.
waif (n.) late 14c., “unclaimed property, flotsam, stray animal,” from Anglo-French waif (13c., Old French guaif) “ownerless property, something lost;” as an adjective, “not claimed, outcast, abandoned,” probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse veif “waving thing, flag,” from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from PIE *weip- “to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically” (see vibrate). Compare Medieval Latin waivium “thing thrown away by a thief in flight.” A Scottish/northern English parallel form was wavenger (late 15c.).
Meaning “person (especially a child) without home or friends” first attested 1784, from legal phrase waif and stray (1620s), from the adjective in the sense “lost, strayed, homeless.” Neglected children being uncommonly thin, the word tended toward this sense. Connotations of “fashionable, small, slender woman” began 1991 with application to childishly slim supermodels such as Kate Moss.
Now if you add all this mayhem up, you could be forgiven for concluding that the two government institutions Britain should steer completely clear of are The United States of America, and the European Union. And if you then look at their disgraceful citizen rights record and parlous econo-fiscal positions, you’d probably add Saudi Arabia, Turkey and China to that list. So it does say quite a lot about the judgement of the so-called British élite that they continue to laud the Special Relationship with the US, are desperate to stay in the rapidly collapsing EU bed, like nothing better than selling arms to the Saudis, have hired Beijing to oversee our nuclear power development, and toddle off to Ankara at regular intervals in order to praise Recep Erdogan to the Heavens.
*Clicky! Where are you? I’ve got you a gift…*
*Do you like it? It fits rather well, although it looks a little dangerous…*
*Only £2.50? How many shillings is that, Clicky? You’re such a rascal…have a Song 😉 *
Twitter buddy Mhehed Zherting sent me a Direct Message last night. “My 15 seconds of fame”.
In the Wail, no less and flagged up on Twitter. Mhehed, always on his toes, had spotted and responded to some first-class fucktwattery on Twitter – a Politically Correct McNanny calling out a non-descript supermarket for stocking a
“They make Gin & Tonic flavoured crisps?!” I replied in wonder, fingers clicking. I’ve never even tasted a G&T in my life, but I had a sudden urge to try it now, and in crisp form. As luck would have it, there’s an Aldi store right next to The Office. I thanked Mhehed and told him I’d check them out and get back to him.
“Have a good day at work tomorrow. Don’t get drunk on Aldi’s crisps. CYL”. He’s so sweet, my twinkle toes, Mhehed.
This morning I forewent my smoke break in order to hunt down the irresponsible crisps. And as I stood forlornly in front of the meager selection of potato snacks at local Aldi. I was wishing I’d just gone for a fag instead.
“Psst.” A short chap with more hair on his chin than on his head approached me from behind. “Are you looking for the Gin & Tonic crisps?” He subtly shifted a frozen meat feast pizza on the top of his basket to reveal three packets of the sought after (and probably soon to be banned) snack.
“Yes! Where can I find them?” Elation, closely followed by the Second Thought: are those the only packets, and could I persuade him to share? “Are those the last ones?”. I noticed his substantial wife nearby clean and jerking boxes of lager into a trolley and decided not to risk a lip tremble.
He didn’t give me his crisps. “I’ll show you,” he said instead. So off we sidled to the center aisle, to a huge wire basket housing ‘Gourmet, Hand-Cooked’ crisps. But the only flavour it offered was ‘Camembert and Caramelised Onion’. They looked nice; I decided to get a packet of those, but they weren’t what I came in for. I rummaged through the top layers, coming up empty. Was I to be thwarted after all?
Again, my helpful stranger decided to assist and delved head first in for me. He eventually surfaced, after much waggling of feet, with an elusive packet of Gin & Tonic crisps clasped in his hand. Success! I thanked him, shook his hand and asked him his name.
“Steve”. Ah, another Thoughtful Man.
Okay, I did have a cigarette before I returned to The Office. But I never take a lunch break anyway.
Once back, I decided to find out if these potentially dangerous crisps really do taste like gin and tonic, and whether they have an intoxicating effect. If these were as harmful as PC McNanny was suggesting they could be in her tweet, I had better canvas some adult opinion. So that I could responsibly take what was left home to my house, containing two impressionable teenage boys, with hollow legs.
I decided to draw up some questions, set out two bowls and put out a plea for help from my Office co-workers…
Free food usually grabs their attention 😉
I was fairly certain that cheese and onion (caramelised or not) wouldn’t get anyone drunk, so they would be sampled, too. And a cheese and onion crisp might soak up any alcohol if the first G&T sample proved too potent.
Four questions per bowl were asked;
For half and hour or so, my usually quiet side of the Office filled with the noise of crunching, munching and considered opinions. Not only desk jockeys; the workmen renovating our toilets chipped in with their valued opinions also. In all, 29 people on the third floor of the building were surveyed, and spent the rest of the afternoon picking their teeth. The results, below, include 3 more – Thoughtful Man, Lupus and Kitler:
Make of it all what you will. It’s what the Experts do 😉
Clicky, I need a Song… oh, you’ve already got it.
Literally “Costume Play.” Dressing up and pretending to be a fictional character (usually a sci-fi, comic book, or anime character).
There are anime cosplay conventions around the world.
by Mario Rogic January 15, 2003
costume (n.) 1715, “style of dress,” an art term, from French costume (17c.), from Italian costume “fashion, habit,” from Latin consuetudinem (nominative consuetudo) “custom, habit, usage.” Essentially the same word as custom but arriving by a different etymology. From “customary clothes of the particular period in which the scene is laid,” meaning broadened by 1818 to “any defined mode of dress.” Costume jewelry is first attested 1933.
OMG, Clicky! How can you be bored with language? And English is the language of angles. Let’s carry on, shall we? If you can be bothered to, Click.
custom (n.) c. 1200, “habitual practice,” from Old French costume “custom, habit, practice; clothes, dress” (12c., Modern French coutume), from Vulgar Latin *consuetumen, from Latin consuetudinem (nominative consuetudo) “habit, usage, way, practice, tradition, familiarity,” from consuetus, past participle of consuescere “accustom,” from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + suescere “become used to, accustom oneself,” related to sui, genitive of suus “oneself,” from PIE *swe- “oneself” (see idiom). Replaced Old English þeaw. Sense of a “regular” toll or tax on goods is early 14c. The native word here is toll.
play (v.)Old English plegan, plegian“move rapidly, occupy or busy oneself, exercise; frolic; make sport of, mock; perform music,” from West Germanic *plegan “occupy oneself about” (cognates: Old Saxon plegan “vouch for, take charge of,” Old Frisian plega “tend to,” Middle Dutch pleyen “to rejoice, be glad,” German pflegen “take care of, cultivate”), from PIE root *dlegh-“to engage oneself,” forming words in Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and possibly Latin.
Meaning “to take part in a game” is from c. 1200. Opposed to work (v.) since late 14c. Related: Played; playing. To play up “emphasize” is from 1909; to play down “minimize” is from 1930; to play along“cooperate” is from 1929. To play with oneself “masturbate” is from 1896; play for keeps is from 1861, originally of marbles or other children’s games with tokens. To play second fiddle in the figurative sense is from 1809 (“Gil Blas”). To play into the hands (of someone) is from 1705. To play the _______ card is attested from 1886; to play fair is from mid-15c. To play (something) safe is from 1911; to play favorites is attested from 1902. For play the field see field (n.).
Mary Jo, I like the title, I want to use it for a post at the LoL – I will quote some of this email, just so’s you know 😉 It’s how WE get to write the script 😉 …Vik’s ‘crack the code’ *shakes head*. And it’s all true – this is an after thought, another level… Clicky!
Now MJ, what do you and Charlie have cooked up, costume-wise for this Halloween? The boys did costumes once for a Halloween party that some woman at work threw. It was horrendous. The less said, the better. If I wrote a post about it for the LoL, it would be called ‘A Freakishly Boring Night Out’.
We don’t do Halloween, so wishing to live vicariously… MJ, you are my only hope!
I love your Charlie photo updates – he’s a gorgeous child and you are a gorgeous mum. You’re just the sort of mum I never was to my boys. I made a decision, you see, to treat them exactly the same. Very noble of me 😉
As it happens, they are complete opposites to each other and have very different interests, and to split my time and energy in half… no, there’s Steve and WORK (a huge amount of my time is spent there)… to give equally, I just let them get on with their own play. Mostly I did homework with them or painting. Costumes were for school trips & photos and mostly shop bought. Cheap and cheerful and the boys weren’t really that interested in them anyway. Now if it was Star Wars school trips…
Also, Halloween is not that big of deal in the UK and the night itself is celebrated more by adult- kids than children-children. Well, where I live anyway. And Steve will tell me all about that when he gets home from driving them about that night 😉
So spill, I want to enjoy knowing what I didn’t get or choose for in my life… a proper Mother and Child run up to Halloween… 😉
Roobee! So good to hear from you! About to run some errands so this won’t be as long as it should be. Charlie is going to be
and I’m going to be
But we probably won’t look just like that. We will probably look more like
😀 😀 😀 😀
It doesn’t mean we aren’t “super” though!
Shambles
1. (Informal) a state of total disorder. “my career was in a shambles“
2. a butcher’s slaughterhouse (archaic except in place names): “the shambles where the animals were slaughtered”
Library of Libraries 