BTW, anyone here apart from me read Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky's?
If not, you really need to do so. Trust me, it's marvelous.
Never heard about it that I can recall. This is something I am going to rectify soon, but not immediately because I am currently rereading the Foreigner series and I am currently on book 12 of the currently 19 published.
So, fairly soon though. C. J. Cherryh is one of my favourite "SiFi" authors partly becausee of he unique prose style and her treatments of her story subjects.
I was looking at a picture of Macaroon at the fire, and he had a badly-burned woman standing right beside him - I hope they can smooth out the fire damage to the skin of her face...
Brive1987 wrote: ↑
Is that where the Eiffel Tower is meant to be?
The distance going by foot between Notre Dame and the Eiffel tower is 4.4 km (2.7 miles). Just a few minutes if you catch the RER C at St Michel. The distance as the crow flies is 4.0 km or 2,27 miles.
MarcusAu wrote: ↑
Well worth a visit - even if you are only staying for a short while...
paris.jpg
So you're saying Hitler did Notre Dame?
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 4:42 am
by InfraRedBucket
Lsuoma wrote: ↑
FFS, the BBC hires illiterates - this sort of thing gets through far too often.
Image1.jpg
They should get someone posh and educated instead:
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 5:50 am
by Lsuoma
Boy, that add takes me back - non-captive tabs on cans (but then again, I remember when you used to need a can opener to make the triangular holes).
The free tabs were great for taking people's eyes out, though - snap off the ring and use the curved piece in the slot in the ring to launch it at some fucker like a tiny aluminium frisbee.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:29 am
by Bhurzum
Lsuoma wrote: ↑
Boy, that add takes me back - non-captive tabs on cans (but then again, I remember when you used to need a can opener to make the triangular holes).
The free tabs were great for taking people's eyes out, though - snap off the ring and use the curved piece in the slot in the ring to launch it at some fucker like a tiny aluminium frisbee.
There was one I had a mega-throbber for, "Linda" if memory serves me correctly, and I'd damn near start a riot looking for her whenever a "slab" was purchased. Ah, the joys of being a 15 year old fuckwit! I've searched the net and although I found a "Linda" beercan, it's an earlier version with a different model.
Also: speaking of stupid "tricks" with household items, next time you're feeling frisky/evil, try this: upend a beer glass and balance a disposable lighter on it. Set the lighter so that it's 50/50 hanging over the edge of the glass with the base/bottom of the lighter suspended over thin air. Also, ensure that the working end of the lighter is aimed towards the target(s) of the prank. Finally, before retreating to a safe distance (other bar), light the bottom of the disposable lighter using a second lighter/matches.
When the flame eats through the plastic and releases the fuel under pressure...well, I'm sure you can imagine the hilarity. I've been hit on the side of the head by one of these "mini RPG" attacks (it's a common prank in Army bars) and can confirm that it's extremely amusing. Not as funny as the classic "powdered CS tablet in the ashtray" gag (no pun!) but still worth a laugh.
Note: I'm in nowayresponsible for the results of anyone trying this jape. On your own head be it!
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 7:06 am
by Lsuoma
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Unless it's someone else that loses the eye.
There's a blood donor poster in the lifts at work right now that begins "Someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds."
I always add "Poor bastard!" when I see these.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 7:16 am
by InfraRedBucket
Lsuoma wrote: ↑
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Unless it's someone else that loses the eye.
There's a blood donor poster in the lifts at work right now that begins "Someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds."
I always add "Poor bastard!" when I see these.
Well judging by his picture , Hunt might need blood quite regularly,...
Brive1987 wrote: ↑
Threw a pile of my clothes into the wash including a pocketed iPhone 5.
Now it won’t work.
I’m sure there is a connection. Lesson learnt. Never do women’s work, it never ends well.
I think it was the late Jeff Freeman, who taught me what happens when you put a bra with a plastic underwire in the dryer: you don't have to do the laundry anymore.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:06 am
by screwtape
Bhurzum wrote: ↑
When the flame eats through the plastic and releases the fuel under pressure...well, I'm sure you can imagine the hilarity. I've been hit on the side of the head by one of these "mini RPG" attacks (it's a common prank in Army bars) and can confirm that it's extremely amusing. Not as funny as the classic "powdered CS tablet in the ashtray" gag (no pun!) but still worth a laugh.
Note: I'm in nowayresponsible for the results of anyone trying this jape. On your own head be it!
Talking of which, some of you may have been lucky enough to live in a time or place so unregulated you could buy ammonia and iodine crystals. Mix them together and the slurry that precipitates is nitrogen tri-iodide, which is safe when wet, but after drying is so unstable that simply looking at it will make it detonate. My father showed me how to do that, leaving it to dry on a sheet of paper in the sun. When a fly would land on it - crack! It seems that when he was in the RE '39-'46 he painted some on the door handle of a sergeants' mess. Bloody lucky the victim kept his fingers, but I guess they were all a lot more comfortable around explosives at the time.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:17 am
by Matt Cavanaugh
Bhurzum wrote: ↑
Also: speaking of stupid "tricks" with household items....
Ages ago, I worked at a Bombay Company™ store in a shopping mall. Us employees played pranks non-stop on each other. (We also damaged a lot of the merchandise.) My two co-workers were smokers, and they'd sneak a matchhead into the end of the other's cigarettes. Before long, they grew wary and checked each cigarette before lighting up. So I stole one of my bosses cigarettes, cut a slit with a box cutter about halfway down, buried three match heads, then sealed it up with a patch of roller paper and Elmer's glue. It blew up on him while enjoying a post-prandial smoke in a restaurant. His GF was trying to get him to quit and asked if I could booby-trap all of his packs.
The best prank was on this gal who was addicted to Godiva chocolate. I nabbed her giant, foil-covered easter bunny, removed the chocolate, filled it with crumbed candles in assorted colors, resealed the foil, remelted it in the microwave, then put it back in her bag. When she opened it she just stared at it for a long time -- it was bunny-shaped but all mottled green and yellow and orange and brown -- looked at us, then closed it up and put it away without saying a word.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:43 am
by SM1957
Lsuoma wrote: ↑
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Unless it's someone else that loses the eye.
There's a blood donor poster in the lifts at work right now that begins "Someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds."
I always add "Poor bastard!" when I see these.
Somebody in the US is told they have Alzheimer's every 3 minutes.
But he always forgets again.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 9:38 am
by Lsuoma
A man goes to the doctor with his wife because she's acting odd, and after a barrage of tests, the sawbones says "Well, it's either Alzheimer's or AIDS, and I can't tell which one."
Bloke says "Well, iff you can't tell which one, what's your advice?"
"Take her somewhere she's been before, and if she comes back, don't fuck her!"
BTW, anyone here apart from me read Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky's?
If not, you really need to do so. Trust me, it's marvelous.
Never heard about it that I can recall. This is something I am going to rectify soon, but not immediately because I am currently rereading the Foreigner series and I am currently on book 12 of the currently 19 published.
So, fairly soon though. C. J. Cherryh is one of my favourite "SiFi" authors partly becausee of he unique prose style and her treatments of her story subjects.
Brive1987 wrote: ↑
Threw a pile of my clothes into the wash including a pocketed iPhone 5.
Now it won’t work.
I’m sure there is a connection. Lesson learnt. Never do women’s work, it never ends well.
I think it was the late Jeff Freeman, who taught me what happens when you put a bra with a plastic underwire in the dryer: you don't have to do the laundry anymore.
In my case, the failure to properly separate colors before washing was sufficient.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:46 am
by Lsuoma
Regarding Cherryh, those authors who write series with about 6,732,019 volumes don't do anything for me. They are, in my experience, the same stuff recycled over-and-over, even if there are different story arcs. The only authors I've read who have a modicum of success in this area are Robert "Uptown Top" Rankin and Terry Pratchett.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:48 am
by Lsuoma
Full Qantas Boeing 737 Max starts its inevitable descent, and a young woman stands up and screams "We're all going to die, and I've never been with a man! Won't somebody help me feel like a real woman before I die?"
Brivo stands up, takes his strides of and throws them to her: "Wash these, y' bitch!"
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:54 am
by BoxNDox
Lsuoma wrote: ↑
Light and Nova Swing ebooks checked out from my local library. Support your local library!
Light is one of those rare books where I'm simply in awe of the talent needed to have written it. It's right up there with Bester's The Stars My Destination, Zelazny's Lord of Light, Farmer's The Riders of the Purple Wage, and Bank's The Wasp Factory.
(OK, I cheated there - The Wasp Factor isn't sci-fi, but Banks wrote a lot of great sci-fi and it's his best book.)
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:58 am
by BoxNDox
Lsuoma wrote: ↑
Regarding Cherryh, those authors who write series with about 6,732,019 volumes don't do anything for me. They are, in my experience, the same stuff recycled over-and-over, even if there are different story arcs. The only authors I've read who have a modicum of success in this area are Robert "Uptown Top" Rankin and Terry Pratchett.
Bhurzum wrote: ↑
When the flame eats through the plastic and releases the fuel under pressure...well, I'm sure you can imagine the hilarity. I've been hit on the side of the head by one of these "mini RPG" attacks (it's a common prank in Army bars) and can confirm that it's extremely amusing. Not as funny as the classic "powdered CS tablet in the ashtray" gag (no pun!) but still worth a laugh.
Note: I'm in nowayresponsible for the results of anyone trying this jape. On your own head be it!
Talking of which, some of you may have been lucky enough to live in a time or place so unregulated you could buy ammonia and iodine crystals. Mix them together and the slurry that precipitates is nitrogen tri-iodide, which is safe when wet, but after drying is so unstable that simply looking at it will make it detonate. My father showed me how to do that, leaving it to dry on a sheet of paper in the sun. When a fly would land on it - crack! It seems that when he was in the RE '39-'46 he painted some on the door handle of a sergeants' mess. Bloody lucky the victim kept his fingers, but I guess they were all a lot more comfortable around explosives at the time.
The purple cloud released is Iodine vapour. You don't want too much of that: I think septic pneumonia was the description of the effects.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 11:46 am
by John D
Tatania interviewed.
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:24 pm
by MarcusAu
It's Tits, you nong!
Re: You is all a bunch of poofs!
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:51 pm
by MarcusAu
I see that the BBC Radio 4 currently has an audio documentary up about Christopher Hitchens.
Actually, here it is for download for you and anyone else , a bit quicker than I expected to get it (was about to get an early night - unusually for me ) https://we.tl/t-tUyHGOcL0f
Full Qantas Boeing 737 Max starts its inevitable descent, and a young woman stands up and screams "We're all going to die, and I've never been with a man! Won't somebody help me feel like a real woman before I die?"
Brivo stands up, takes his strides of and throws them to her: "Wash these, y' bitch!"