THE BRITISH THREAD II

Hahaha.

So much for the Sisterhood then.

There is no sisterhood Mac. It's every woman for herself and let the Devil take the hindmost.

I think all the sistaz in the hood were busy rioting.

There you go. London the centre of everything. Not 0.1 % of the girls of the British were rioting.

I'm taking my little boy to London Zoo tomorrow. We'll have a look round Camden afterwards. (Not the same since they closed down Compendium Books.)

My God, the British Thread was languishing on Page 3. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Where's Smorgs when you need her? In an ideal world, she would rise like Drake's Drum or was that Boadicea, restore her creation to its rightful place among nations, and make all things right.

So spendius, tell us, how come you switched pubs? What was wrong with
the old one and why a new one now? I thought you hated changes?

He moved.

he recently moved to a new crypt. or crib. or whatever old limey blokes call their pad nowadays...

And I'm off there now.

Oh he moved! Spendius, do tell us all about it, don't be shy now!

It's probably something like this.

I'm not shy Cal. I don't want to bore everybody with a subject as trifling as moving house. Suffice to say that my previous one (25 years) was far too big. It had rooms I never went in. And I had neglected it. My new one has a walled garden with lawn, vegetable patch, greenhouse and bushes, stained glass windows and bathroom fittings of Balmoral class. And I have an open fire once again. I have downsized for ease of the bone. At my age that's very important.

A house is a machine to stop the papers blowing away.

I think the word you're looking for is oubliette.

Well read as I am I had to look that up. Now I know why I had to look it up.

I forget things as well. I'm quite chuffed that I gave you a new word. I was originally going to write dungeon, but I like the sound of oubliette.

I had not forgotten what it meant. I never knew what it meant. That word wasn't used in the descriptions of what the Empress Theodora used to punish males who had incurred her displeasure. Which was very easily done.

The lady was a cultural marker for what power does to a female mind. It's necessary, not to say easy, to be sweet and virtuous when power is denied. Only females who had power provide a reliable guide to its effects on their behaviour.

Perhaps we should consider the long and weariesome list of ladies who had power before we grant our ladies much more of it. The simperings are just an easy route to power. Pure aggression.

You didn't pick up on the word play. The French word 'oublier,' meaning to forget, is the root of the word 'oubliette.' Those unfortunate to be placed in an oubliette were soon forgotten about.

I have enough trouble with word play without trying it in a foreign language.

You were talking about one of my rooms before you entered this digression about how clever you are. Was it one of those circular pieces of self flattery which sneaks up on the listener? We go from my rooms to you being a brilliant bi-lingualist in short order.

It's not as crude as those women who find a way to tell you that the offspring of their loins is at university within two minutes of first meeting them. Or that the little monsters go to boarding school. It's more macho than that.