Rum Doings Episode 202: Untouchable Cultural Gems
by John Walker on Oct.19, 2015, under Rum Doings
In our 202th ever Rum Doings, our topic is how can they be thinking about building a base on the moon when there are starving children in Africa?
After a short Autumnal hiatus, we’re back with aplomb, discussing The Martian movie, something about shouting insults at Laura, and… and… no, we’ve forgotten already.
Oh yeah, there’s something about a wedding John went to, and about how Toby is a screaming idiot, and – oh yes – we bang on about teaching handwriting again.
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October 20th, 2015 on 09:07
Yes to the bed thing. 13 years ago we bought a bed of, frankly, quite vulgar size. 3 children down the line it’s a god send. Separate duvets obviously wrong though. Finally if you obeyed the first bed size rule you don’t need the perverse popper misalignment: you shouldn’t be able to reach the poppers with your feet.
The BNP passing shot reminds me of the David Sedaris line whereby his sister would see him off in a full train carriage with the final line “Goodbye David. Good luck beating that rape charge”.
October 20th, 2015 on 09:58
I’ve never touched the buttons at the end of the duvet. What kind of a disgusting freak would have them at the side meaning all you could do is lie directly under the duvet and not curl it or do anything at all to it’s shape because you’d end up cuddling the buttons.
October 20th, 2015 on 20:15
I’ll be the sole voice in favour of the button perversion then.
Being relatively tall, I find myself constantly opening the poppers at the end of the duvet. Unfortunately, I have a single bed, and hence duvet, so I can’t use this trick.
Frankly, if I could turn my duvet sideways, I would. I think you should all show a little respect, and check your privileges.
October 21st, 2015 on 19:28
Even though I wholeheartedly agree regarding people with perfect handwriting, I can’t concur when it comes to cursive. My handwriting has always looked appalling, but I still use cursive, I’m afraid. And I assure you I am a perfectly cromulent person — all pro cream teas, etc.
In fact I remember noticing at some point in my secondary school how almost everyone had switched to some weird combination of cursive and lower case block letters.
October 25th, 2015 on 08:18
There isn’t any reason why you can’t have a double duvet with a single bed! In fact it’s much better.
November 4th, 2015 on 15:00
I’d like to point out that in the UK, the biggest bed you can afford is mostly determined by the size of house you can afford.
In Cambridge, for example, you are very lucky if you can afford a place to live with a bedroom that is big enough to admit a double bed with 6 inches of space on each size to squeeze round it.
November 4th, 2015 on 15:50
Also, I feel like you are a bit excessively harsh on Theresa May.
I hate her policies. But on the other hand she has been the Home Secretary for five years, and that post seems to do something particularly terrible to politicians. It’s hard to say what exactly, but post-Snowden I feel compelled to imagine that it involves meetings with scary people from the security services who politely explain the very personal reasons why the Home Secretary should do exactly what they say.
Looking back at how awful all the Labour Home Secretaries were, I feel like she’s an improvement in some admittedly very minor ways. I don’t think any of the Labour Home Secretaries would have risked their neck getting Gary McKinnon off the hook, for instance. Theresa May was legally obliged to pretend that she blocked his extradition on mental health grounds, but I’m pretty sure the case simply offended her personal sense of right and wrong and she took her only opportunity to put an end to it.
In general the policies Theresa May espouses as Home Secretary should be condemned (as should those of the Tories in general). But I don’t think she is so personally evil as is made out. Am I giving her too much credit?