Sunday evening OT

 

This little swaddled bat is a good mascot for our sleepy Sunday. It's a nice day for walk around here- nothing is on fire, the rain stopped before noon, and the temperature is in a comfortable jeans-and-hoodie range. Woot! 

Elder bat living a good life. (ETA link properly)

 

Friday Morning Open Thread

 It's almost here,

Merry Christmas 🎅🏿

 

Or should I say Nadolig Llawen?

😸🦇🐢🐑 I wonder what's on the menu?

 They didn't have anything listed in the window.

🎶 Have a Saxy Saturday 🎷🎷🎷

 

It is Saxaphone Day. And don't forget to blow up that Pumpkin! 🎃  

👻 Before the Curse of the 23-hour Day 🎃

 

Bill and Ben were never like this! Is this the sacrifice the Great Pumpkin demands for Halloween? Last week there was a strange fluid emanating from the monster pumpkins at work. I wonder what's was under all those golden balls? 

Got any plans for Nos Galan Gaeaf or Samhain? 

Saturday Chat

Spoken to any good lampposts lately? Ours are getting chatty.

Saturday chinwag

The other month a little black kitten with red collar took a peek into the storeroom at work. Then she ran away when she saw I had spotted her. So cute. Her name is Betty and she sometimes follows her owner to the shops. Lots of covert surveillance of what the humans get up to. Come in and say hello Betty.

Saturday Open Thread

 

This week's work has involved Christmas puddings, mince pies and seasonal sweets. And frozen chickens. The build up to Christmas has started, though I guess some folk are waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive. It's Peanuts Day, sso his herald is just round the corner.

Saturday Honey Pot 🍯 🐝🐝🐝

Welcome to World Honey Bee Day. Hopefully sting free.

Dragon though Saturday 🐲

Like a cat, the dragon waits silently for its prey.

Glug some Gog Grog this Saturday

It's Spring Astronomy Day and apparently the Moon and Mars will be at their closest point this year tonight. Here's hoping for clear skies. Also World Whiskey Day, though more importantly the first whisky from North Wales for over 120 years goes on sale this week.  Also Penderyn are getting excited about their new distillery in Llandudno. There is another company getting in on the whisky act round here. 

Lost Saturday Bridges to a Great Escape

We should be getting the last of the election results today, including the London Mayor. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly will be revealed. Debating if I can get to the dam without being drenched. Probably not if the forecast is correct.  As long as that rocket doesn't fall on your head, do you have any hills to climb this weekend?

Have a belting Beltane, Batman!

It's Batman Day. Does that mean it is a Utility Beltane? Blessed be.

The Bat And The Cat Sat(urday) On The Mat With A Hat

 Come in and hang out! It is International Bat Appreciation Day. Not sure Cousin George would approve after meeting a bat-poop bacterial fueled flesh-eating demise. It is also National Haiku Poetry Day, though C'estLaVie will have that covered later. Bat poems away? 

Don't despair, it's Saturday

Happy Cheddar Day! Fancy a 40lb block of cheese? It's Global Movie Day as well. Got any decent flicks lined up?

What ice cream did your cat have for breakfast?

Saturday already?

Pour yourself a Pisco Sour to go with that breakfast bowl of ice cream or frozen yoghurt (don't forget to cover it in Canadian Maple Syrup) which I hope you are eating with chopsticks. Today is all those days and more. 

Are you going to wing it or sing it on Ding-a-Ling Day

Want to buy a pub? The Lion Inn, with around 400 years of history behind it, is up for sale. The 17th Century building is in Gwytherin, near Llanrwst. A nearby monastery was the setting for A Morbid Taste For Bones by Ellis Peters. That's the first of the Cadfael novels. And guess what? It used to be home to a lion. 

Saturday Stuffing

 

https://youtu.be/deSPDfdVSxo?t=3

Get stuffed! It's National Stuffing Day in some quarters. So get out that pack of Paxo and plump up some poultry. Why is Paxo called Paxo? Not quite sure, but butcher John Crampton from Eccles, Manchester concocted the herby breadcrumb mix as an extra for customers in 1901 when chicken was still a luxury meat. Come the Fifties, popularity began to snowball.

Of course, this time of year you need a big bird.

It is also Gingerbread Cookie Day, World Television Day, Red Mitten Day, Adoption Day, Pumpkin Pie Day, Guinness World Record Day, Alascattlo Day, False Confession Day, International Games Day and others.

You might need to indulge in some time travel to check these out.

Odd stuff!

Tomorrow is the day for mixing mincemeat to use in pies, puddings and tarts.

#OnThisDay 1978: Miss Piggy was in town and her mind was very much set on Mr Parkinson. Poor Kermit! pic.twitter.com/57Auidvns7

— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) November 20, 2020

Pretty sure that Frank Oz later reminded Parky that he had been making love to his left arm.

Beyonce is ladling the love for the December Vogue. Her gear is inspired by Welsh lovespoons, the colour of cottages at St Fagans Museum, and fabrics on display. Last year I could say "Amgueddfa", this year it has gone.

A hero of the Resistance.

Jan Morris dies. Obituary.

Translating the cat's meow! 

I can tell them that Tiddly has more than 13 ways to say feed me.

And as for this chap ...

You could get philosophical about this.

Not just mice then ...  

Sack o' Bats.

Dozy Dormouse gets stuck.

The World of Pygmy Sea Horses.

Shiver me timbers, lover. It's Blackbeard.

There is a tv version of this, but I'm not sure it travels so well.

Barak Obama talks to David Olusoga. 

Obama takeaways.

Radio 4's Book At Bedtime will be serialising Obama's memoir in December and it will be available online after broadcast. It usually comes in 15 minute chunks.

Some years back, the buzz word was "imperial overstretch", broadly the idea that empires had a finite life expectancy, hence the end of the Roman, Ottoman and British empires, to name a few, and part of the forward projection was about America reaching that tipping point, if it could be averted, and so on. Wondering if that deserves a relook?

So what do recent years tell us about America? 

Hidden figure behind GPS.

In Scotland there is no sympathy for Margaret Ferrier, MP after her Covid flit to London and back.

#OnthisDay 1985: Glyn Worsnip caught up with the “pictorial poet” Norman Thelwell to chat about his career as a cartoonist. pic.twitter.com/8NAV0oKlPN

— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) November 20, 2020

Just in case you were wondering ...

Last week I asked who was the swish chick knocking down a baddy henchman? No guesses, no answers given, no points awarded. It was, of course, tennis champ Jamie Sommers as played by Lindsay Wagner in the tv series The Bionic Woman. Jamie's dog was Maximillian the Bionic Dog, commonly known as Max. I don't think she had a cat. 

The image was from the comic version as drawn for Look-In by John Bolton before he went on to Night-Raven, Hulk, Kull, Black Dragon, X-Men, Books of Magic, Man-Bat, et al. They had a bit of a bionic overload in Look-In for what felt like an eternity. There was a Six Million Dollar Man feature upfront and then The Bionic Woman later on. The two eventually combined as Bionic Action. Simple days!

This week, who voiced Teller in the Penn & Teller episode of Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?

Over to you folks!