Jamie123

Big rounders fan, huh?
(BTW, "avunculicide". Yes, it's a real word, one that we should give you credit for coining.)

What? WHAT?!
"Glorified rounders?" Uncultured Philistine! HOW DARE YOU!!
Soccer (what you call "football") is just glorified Kick the Can! There! Take that! NOW you're sorry!
(I'm not actually a huge baseball fan, but I'm related to several. So for this response, I'm channelling them.)

Why do Americans think baseball is so awesome?
As far as I can make out, it's exactly the same game as rounders. OK there are a few differences I grant you - but baseball is still just glorified rounders.
And rounders is not even a proper sport. It's a game school kids play at lunchtime when they've got nothing better to do. (We used to play it using an old police truncheon as a bat. It belonged to a friend of mine, who claimed to have found it at the bottom of the school fields "covered in flesh and blood". That was by no means the only tall tale he ever told...that guy could have given Baron Munchausen a run for his money. But anyway, I digress...)
The point is, what's the big deal with watching a bunch of grown men playing rounders of all things? Not only that, but going gaga about famous rounders players, and collecting cards with their photos on? If you ask me, all Americans are crazy.
My American wife thinks otherwise, but she says she's fed up with arguing about it!

If like me you can't access that page, the story is also here: https://toofab.com/2020/02/12/woman-punches-retired-cop-in-bar-over-make-fifty-great-again-hat/

It reminds me of this quote from C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce.. The protagonist (a fictionalized Lewis) has a dream of arriving in Heaven, where he meets his literary hero George Macdonald. While they are talking, a lady approaches them:
 We learn as the story goes on that Sarah Smith was a very ordinary housewife who was kind to everyone. Every boy felt like a son to her, and every girl a daughter. In our world she was a nobody, but in Heaven she is one of the "great ones".

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

One of the area 70 told this story at youth conference:
There was this man who had a dog.  One day, the dog came to him all muddy carrying a dead rabbit in his mouth.  The man knew his neighbor had a family of rabbits and he was so upset that his dog killed one of them.  But he didn't want him nor his dog to get in trouble, so he jumped over the fence and returned the dead rabbit into the rabbit hutch.  The next day, he hears his neighbor scream by the rabbit hutch so he runs over there to give her comfort and she runs to him terrified - "I burried that rabbit yesterday and today he's back in the hutch!".
It was a joke but it had a lesson in it about repentance...

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The other day, my little boy came up to me and said: "Daddy...what will happen to my rabbit Thumper when he dies?"
"Well, son," I said to him, sitting him upon my lap. "Thumper will go to Bunny Heaven, where he'll have a lovely time, hopping about with all the other bunny-angels, eating the best lettuce and carrot and doing...well...all the things rabbits love to do. But he'll still think about us sometimes and he won't want us to be sad. So when that day comes when we lay Thumper to rest under the old apple tree, we'll have a big party to celebrate his life. All your friends can come, and we'll have party games and ice cream and jelly and balloons. And it will all be in honour of Thumper!"
Well, my little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes, and he said: "Daddy...can we kill him now?"

The big mistake was to put May in charge. OK, I quite like Theresa May. She's a nice woman. But the whole point of a leadership change was to put someone in who could - and would - implement Brexit. Someone who believed in it the way Cameron didn't. The obvious choice was Boris Johnson; crazy though he is, he would have made it happen back then the way he has now. Failing him, Andrea Leadsom would probably have done at a pinch. She was at least on the Leave side. But no, she was chucked out of the leadership race for the stupidest reason imaginable, which was blown up out of all proportion by the newspapers. And having one remainer resign, they put in another remainer - and no prizes for guessing what happened! We remained!

Gratz on Brexit, guys.  Glad to see that the people still have the final word.  

I have to admit that his sound effects add to the hilarity.

We went to see a pantomine on Saturday, by the same acting troupe I used to belong to myself. It brought back some wonderful memories. It was Puss in Boots - "Puss" played by a very very handsome young man I've acted with before. (Hah - my wife totally fancies him!!) Anyway, here are some of the running gags they had this year:
The king's herald has a very loud and irritating trumpet. Every time he blows it (which is often) the king and the princess screw up their faces and cover their ears. Sometimes the king says "Is that really necessary??" to which the herald comes back with some totally convincing reason why it is. (As you can imagine, they bring plenty of references to Trump in concerning the trumpet.) The ogre's two goblin-henchmen are a pair of Laurel-and-Hardyesque buffoons who fail to scare anyone at all - least of all the heroes! The "Hardy" of the pair is always toadying and simpering to the ogre, but trying (and failing miserably) to terrorize anyone else. The "Laurel" always misunderstands what the other has told him (actually her) to do and comes back with ridiculous excuses. Everyone has difficulty pronouncing "The Marquis of Carabas". They practice saying it over and over again, but still keep getting it wrong. I've been away from acting for nearly three years now! (I only intended to take a 1-year break from it.) I met the cast afterwards and it was great to catch up with old friends. I was surprised (and quite touched) that they said they'd all missed me! Anyway, that's definitely given me the acting bug again!

Can anyone spot the irony here?

"What infinite heart’s ease must kings neglect that private men enjoy?"

At the risk of saying "poor little rich boy", I feel honest sorrow for the UK's so-called Royal Family. Sure, they have money, fame, and power, three things that most people crave (though I may never understand the desire for fame or notoriety—sounds pretty awful to me). But they don't strike me as especially happy people. Watching the public drama of the Royal Family seems to be one shameful embarrassment after another. I would never want to subject my own family to that kind of public scrutiny.

From the Asian perspective:
The first lesson Asian children learn is Obedience (also tied to Honor).  Obedience without question.  This also goes with Trust.  As a toddler, you learn to trust your parents/elders so completely that you will Obey without having to understand why.  So that, when a 3-year-old is about to cross the street on the path of an oncoming car, the parent can say "STOP RIGHT NOW!" and the 3 year old stops without needing to ask "Why?".  This is what we refer to as "talking back" - the lack of trust, honor, and obedience.  Asian tradition don't normally send their toddlers to school.  That's too young to transfer the trust to someone else that even the parents can't really trust.  So this lesson gets to be learned line upon line, precept upon precept.
When the kid gets older, then the parents start to teach the Why of things.  So, "Don't cross the street without looking left and right" becomes the instruction that can come with the child asking, "Why?" and the parents explaining the why at the child's level.  This has now progressed line upon line to the point beyond Obedience through Trust to Obedience through Knowledge.  The child, of course, doesn't forget the Trust - the child still obeys the parents without question when the situation presents itself.  But this Trust doesn't easily transfer to Teachers.  So that, when a child enters school, the teacher first needs to gain the student's Trust before he can gain Obedience - and that Trust is gained by the parents teaching the child that it is okay to extend the trust to a specific teacher.
So when it comes to conflicting instructions - the instructions of the parents and those the parents extended their trust to gets listened to, the others will be listened to as long as it doesn't contradict the other instructions. 
And when it comes to things like "Don't talk back" and the teacher asking the child a question... the child would have been taught at home when to talk and when not to and how to talk and how not to before they start school.  That conflict only exists when you send off your child to be taught by strangers before he matures enough to learn when to talk and when not to talk which are basic behavior instructions learned at home.
 
 

Indeed - I only just learned about this now. Christopher Tolkien made accessible a huge body of his father's writings which might otherwise have been lost: not just stuff to do with Middle-earth, but also Norse mythology and the Arthurian cycle. There's rather a nice video about him from Men of the West here:  
 

Sadness.
https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/christopher-tolkien-son-of-j-r-r-tolkien-passes-away-at-95