Three otters are hosting our Open Thread today. This wee Oriental short-clawed otter is all tuckered out.
But this one’s ready for a game.
And lastly, this one looks interested in a game – with human children.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
Aww, very nice otter pics!
Question about a TV show a few people have recommended to me now: Orange Is The New Black. When I saw trailers for it a few months ago they just didn’t grab me, but the recommendations are accelerating in frequency from meatspace peeps. So, cyberspace peeps, are any of you watching it?
BTW, wasn’t Piers Ackerman kind to feminists this week? With one sentence he provided much needed snark fodder to take us through the Silly Season.
Two years in a row I have organised my Christmas party around the date of my singing teacher’s end of year concert at which I, Ms15 and Mr12 were to perform and two years in a row it’s been cancelled. I’m feeling just a little bit peeved. But also just a little bit relieved that today has suddenly become a lot less stressful.
Had the stitches taken out of my little finger on Thursday and I washed my hand this morning for the first time in 2 weeks – luxury! All seems to be healing up well, surgeon reckons it’ll be good as new as long as I take it easy and don’t mess up the tendon repair.
Glad to hear the finger is healing up nicely, Mim. Sad to hear the singfest has been cancelled.
I enjoyed Orange is the New Black (I’ve watched the whole first season), especially after the first couple of episodes. It opened to a lot of criticism that it was racist due to its portrayal of the non-white inmates. I thought that portrayal was actually intentional, because my read on the show is that the point they are making is that prison brutalises and makes people into stereotypes. While in contrast, the white heroine finds her ‘true’ self, which turns out to be brutal. So I thought that was quite interesting – plus a show which is mostly about women.
Glad to hear things are healing up nicely Mim.
TT I have heard good and bad things about OITNB. I haven’t seen it yet. The good from the white crowd and the not so much bad but ‘we’ve seen this before, ugh’ from the WOC crowd (none of whom I know but who I follow in Twitter).
I am also awaiting the expected backlash against Beyonce’s new film clips. She has released an entire new album on iTunes (without any notice, the B fans went wild with joy) plus a film clip for every single song which is apparently unheard of. The black US tweeps that I follow love the album but were talking about the backlash they expect from places like Jezebel (aka white monolith feminism). They were listing all the things likely to be said, like what will Ivy Blue think when she is old enough to watch the clips, B is doin it rong: motherhood, blackness, feminism etc. It sounded so much like one of those articles I am quietly dreading their predictions coming true. I suspect they are too.
I hope that this is her biggest album ever, just to silence the critics who believe that you must market everything constantly. She has already copped criticism that I have seen for only releasing on iTunes (I think the CD will be in the store soon). I reckon this is a great thank you to her fans who spread the word very fast as soon as the songs popped up on iTunes.
Just wanted to quickhit this post by Miri at FTB where she takes on the meme of religion being equivalent to mental illness.
[borked link added by mods – **link**]Sorry, nothing to do with this – but it’s an open thread; someone just shared https://hoydenabouttown.com/20110813.10389/repostcrosspost-because-this-psa-is-still-needed-can-i-talk-to-you-troll/ with us as admins for a gmail group that discusses early 20th Century girls fiction – including Blyton. In the past, we’ve banned Paul Austin – he’s just reappeared under the guise of John Foster Kennedy.
(Incidentally, no doubt someone else has mentioned to you that the Genette Tate in comment 2, that someone else thought was familiar could have been Genette Tate who vanished in the 70s on her paper round in Devon. (I remember it distinctly, as she was a very similar age to me & then a few years later I ended up doing a teaching practice in the school in the village she’d vanished from)