When my first child was born, we only had one cat. He was very attentive during pregnancy then left a dead mouse as a gift right by the crib. He was a mouser when he was young, but hadn’t hunted in a few years, so it was obvious that he understood there was a new “kitten” to take care of.

When he was gone and we had one of the cats we have now, I had my second child. Now this cat had never hunted so much ad a spider, but she caught her only prey to date, another mouse, and left it beside a gift bag of baby stuff I had from work.

I could have definitely done without dead mice, but I was pretty touched that they understood and wanted to do something “nice” for the babies.

Poor guy. I’m glad he has a happy ham-filled life with you now.

There’s another one in Sidmouth Devon:

The plant balls are amazing. Can’t say how they compare as I’ve never had the meat ones, but they’re tasty and savoury and delicious.

I love my steamer. It’s easier to use than an iron and less damaging. You can’t fuse beads with it though

Another one I think should be added is that she presided over the selling off of large amount of council housing (homes owned by local authorities and rented at controlled to people who needed them or for free in the case of some benefit claimants).

The scheme is called Right to Buy and was lauded as a way for everyone to own their own home, as they were sold to the tenants at way below market value.

However, housing stock was not replenished, as local authorities did not get all the money from the sales, and were further restricted from using what they did get to build new housing.

What we’ve been left with us severely depleted council housing. Where I live and work, we have a huge list of applicants, and only those with the very highest level of need can get a council property, leaving others to pay extortionate private rents or become homeless.

Furthermore, the rules around resale weren’t strict enough so you see ex council housing on property websites where people have made tens of thousands in profit on selling them. Many of these are now in the hands of private landlords.

Thanks for adding this!

Even if he had been able to return the forms, there’s a chance he wouldn’t have got it.

I used to do a load of reconsideration and appeals for work and the ignorance of the decision makers is staggering.

One claim was denied, among other reasons, because my client could play a guitar. Another client, with epilepsy, was told that he didn’t need supervision when showering, as he should just sit down in the shower to mitigate injury from seizures.

I found they ignored what we put in the form so frequently that it wasn’t worth doing more than the bare minimum and instead putting the work into the reconsideration.

This poor man had nobody to fight for him, but the system should not be set up so that so many people have to fight. I don’t believe anyone with any cognitive or learning impairment, or mental health condition, would be able to go through the application process without support; it’s that difficult.

And I would put money on them reinstating it after hearing of his death. The shit I have seen them pull, I think it’s likely.

These stories are about big black male cat and a white and tabby female.

We only had the girl a couple of months before the boy died. She had been mostly hiding out in the spare room; he wasn’t hostile to her, she was just so nervous. However, when she heard me crying, she came into my bedroom and stayed with me. She still comforts me, and likes to act as a weighted blanket by lying on me while I sleep.

When the first baby was born, the boy, who hadn’t shown hunting behaviours since he was much younger, somehow managed to find a mouse to leave as a tribute by the baby’s cot. He was the only cat we had then. When the second one was born, we only had the girl cat. She also found a mouse and left it right next to the gift bag of baby stuff. Apart from that, I’ve never seen her hunt even a spider. I’m sure they would both see that as a kindness!

Also paranasal sinuses.

Thanks for the reminder to take my allergy meds!

I’m from the UK but I have my own version of this.

I went to a Church of England school. When I was about 8, we had this super religious teacher start. She was Methodist so made us change the words of the lord’s prayer to her version. I loudly and defiantly said the old one every time.

It wasn’t long after, that I stopped saying prayers altogether, making sure to stare ahead with lips tight and hands unclasped, so nobody could mistake me as being pious!

I probably would have been that annoying kid had just been schooled in the USA.

I wrote my own comment before seeing yours. I see what you are getting at, but this is all theatre. Straight white Christians still hold the power and the wealth, it just suits the oligarchy to pretend they don’t.

American conservatives have been frighteningly effective at pushing this narrative that they are the outsiders, that they’re fighting against the status quo, so it doesn’t surprise me that they would steal punk.

They consider it a radical act to be straight, white, and Christian, when in fact that always has been, and still is the majority, as well as those who hold the money and the power.

From my perspective, this has been one of their most successful moves and it’s been brewing for decades - look at the tea party. There has never been a leftist or even liberal machine to rage against, but pretending that there is gets all the normies to feel special and oppressed at the same time, culminating in this fucking shitshow you have over there.

Fuck these Nazis

I would really love to try the Quebec type. Hopefully one day I will fetch to Canada to have the real stuff.

Fantastic advice, thank you!

Once again, it’s a right winger doing this heinous shit.

I relistened to a podcast episode about Sound Of Freedom movie the other day, and they were saying it suits the right wing narrative to believe child abuse is shady organisations using shipping containers. That way, it distracts them from the fact that most children are suffering because of a member of their family or someone in a position of authority (e.g. church leader). They get to feel righteous without having to look at the real causes or challenge the conservative ideals of the traditional family and religion.

Are cheese curds easy to make? I would really like to make pouting but I won’t be able to get the curds round here. Or is there a good substitute that’s easier to acquire?

Hear hear!

I could tell this was Lidl just from the font on the prices.

If I want to boycott American, buying Lidl and Aldi own brands is an easy way to do this, yes? I’m doing this by default because I have an easily navigatable Lidl that I can walk to.