The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by J MacQueen:

mcz @ 803: it's been a very strange day here in Newcastle too. The sky was awful, in any sense of the word. Even without asthma, it was not a good day to be outside.

Did I really see joggers running in all of that on the evening news? I admire their dedication, but am unlikely to ever imitate them.

J MacQueen @ 834... my brain is too muddled
Serge @ #837: Mine too. I went to bed late last night because of a programming project that's due in a couple of weeks.

My best wishes for the good impression on the new manager, let alone the project itself. I hope you've caught up on sleep and are not getting to the stage where you see what is supposed to be there rather than what is actually there. (I'm about to start on an essay for one of my uni subjects, and anxiety about my mother's current physical state is not going to help me develop a coherent argument about anything, let alone the doctrine of the separation of powers, heaven help me.)

Serge at #833: By the way, you have joined the Faces right HERE.

There's a Mods and moderators joke in there somewhere. A pity my brain is too muddled to make it coherent...

Xopher @ #2, Linkmeister @ #9 mentions the movie my mother is watching as I type this, so your chant makes sense to me this morning as it might not have on some other morning.

Faren @ #21, it's not sweltering here to the north of Sydney just now (lots of rain, instead), but I appreciate the photos anyway. The snowman made me grin.

Regards
Jo

It's also been borrowed to sell cars in Australia. If that's supposed to be an imitation of the US's newly installed President in the voiceover, well, I don't recall him sounding vaguely like Kermit the Frog, which this voiceover does, unfortunately.

Ginger @ #19
May a good thyme be had by all, including yourself. 'Though garlic might also be good for the Northern Hemisphereans battling lurgis. (For those who can stand it, that is.)

Regards
Jo
(posting from Boxing Day)

Thank you, Theresa. I just wish I could watch them all now. I did watch the cat, which led on to me watching one of the raw videos, about a child receiving a welcome surprise on seeing his father, who had been serving in the Middle East, a surprise that made the boy cry. Nonetheless, that footage was powerful enough to prompt me to feel so pleased for the kid and his family for the safe return of a loved one, and not feel like I was being manipulated for cynical purposes. Maybe it's because the camera wasn't in the kid's face all the time, because the camera pulled back to show that it was taking place in a classroom with the boy's classmates, one or two of whom seemed near tears too. I don't know, really, but that's how it felt.

At this time of year, when Australian television has moved out of the ratings period for the summer and is inclined to show the dodgier examples of US television production, this is a welcome antidote.

Erik @ #83: The reference is the British comedy Are You Being Served?, which took place in a (in Britain, though not in Australia) fictional department store called Grace Bros. Captain Peacock and Mrs Slocombe were members (ahem) of staff at this store, in the clothing department. Mrs Slocombe often talked about her cat, though not by that word...

Regards
Jo

Serge @ 43: Let's ask Mrs. Slocombe about this.

You've just made me happy that a certain Australian department store chain is no longer called Grace Bros, in which case you've all done very well...

Regards
Jo

coffeedryad at #19: knit hat without a bobble on top

I see, what many Australians would call a beanie, though they can have pompoms/bobbles/whateveryouwanttocallthem on top too. The alternative form of 'chook', speaking of unfortunate concepts, is likely to cause Australians to picture someone wearing a barnyard fowl on their head, however.

Regards
Jo

xeger at #596, it doesn't help that the name of the drug being injected is "lovenox" either...

Regards
Jo

For Southern Hemisphere readers, today is yet another day when your experience is overridden by the thoughtless majority, which is an equally valid reason.

We'd be better off celebrating that around Christmas time, in that case. All that 'White Christmas' and sleighs jinglebelling and so on in 30 degrees or more Celsius. It can get intolerable unless you're in the freezer section at the supermarket [insert frownie here]

Given that we (well, we who are in Australia, at anyrate) do Mothers Day and Fathers Day at different times to the Northern Hemisphere, doing Dysfunctional Families Day at another time has a precedent.

John Chu @ #23, a spiral-bound notebook recently reminded me of that bias. While studying for a university exam, I'd turned to the back of the notebook to write in, but not turned it upside down. Right-hander gets painful lesson in what left-handers already know all too well. (Trying to write this way in a rattletrap of an intercity train did not help either...)

Regards
Jo

Fragano @#776, arms? How about tentacles instead. That could be where the LOLthulhu site comes in and I bow gracefully out...

Regards
Jo

Eeh, I know something, that is. I'll blame keyboard dyslexia, but we all know what it is, really...

Regards
Jo

Ooh, I know somethng, just for a change.

Owlmirror (#255), your first story is The Ring of Thoth, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You can find it at the Gaslight website. Much good to be read there, yes!

Regards
Jo

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