mike carey

Beautifully put, PK.

Your mileage may vary.

I regularly listen to a British politics podcast in which they regularly choose a hero and villain of the week, usually British political figures. Last Tuesday the hero was Matthew Perry for his selfless work in helping addicts, despite not being entirely successful in helping himself. They noted that people who have lived experience with an issue have profound insights, whether they can use those insights to their own benefit or not. Anyone acknowledging the things for which he wanted to be remembered for is better than it being ignored by all.

You can chose to be Humpty Dumpty and say that it means what you chose it to mean — neither more nor less, but that doesn't make it so. A brief perusal of a dictionary will reveal that the basic meanings of the word queer are odd, strange, weird, eccentric or unconventional All of these connote difference from the norm, but at a far less contemptuous register than freak. A case can of course be made that freak is an extension of its meaning, but not that it is the only or original meaning. Most words gain and lose meanings over time and some end up meaning something completely different. Queer still carries the meanings it had when it entered English usage but it has been used about homosexuality for over a century (and in doing so retains the basic idea of difference from the norm). The history of the word 'queer', News, La Trobe University WWW.LATROBE.EDU.AU Reviled, reclaimed and respected: the history of the word ‘queer’

Good reminder, in general, and specifically for me. From today over 65s in this country are eligible for the new shingles vaccine free (paid by the national pharmaceutical benefits scheme).

No, not there, that's the Democratic Republic of Congo!

An unexpected side-effect of the RSAF using the large military training area near there!

I've been tossing up whether to post this here, as it's about football qualification for the Olympics, or in the football world cup thread as it's about the continuation of Australians' infatuation with the national women's team we saw during the world cup a couple of months ago. Anyhoo, Australia is playing a qualification round with Iran, the Philippines and Taiwan, in Perth. The three Australia games were scheduled to be played in a 20,000 seat stadium, and they quickly sold out. I saw an interview with the Iranian coach who said that her team had never played in a full stadium before. (Since you asked, the Iranian women wore hijabs of sorts and, wrist and ankle length kit.) The Australia-Philippines match was moved to the new 60,000 seat Perth Stadium and quickly sold out there as well. Six months ago, the idea of selling that many seats to a women's football game here, and in Perth rather than Sydney or Melbourne, would have been unthinkable, but here we are. It remains to be seen whether it will last, but the enthusiasm was expected to end after the world cup. We continue to waltz with the Matildas.

The chances that there are technical issues preventing him from receiving all three methods of communication from you are next to zero, so I would take the lack of a response as deliberate. Also, unless he gave you his street address 'finding' it and using it to contact him is tantamount to stalking, don't do it. Take the hint.

@Vin_Marco I agree that it would be nice if it were used more frequently. The forum is busier at some times than at others but I haven't seen any regular pattern in the variation. Note though that unlike other forums on the site there is no history contained in old posts. Ads are deleted once the visit period advertised is over.

One of the moderators (the change is listed in the thread), but we would only do that if the OP requested it.

I guess those of us who weren't eventing were on the wrong horse.

ROFLMAO

I loved the idea shown in, I think Friday Funnies, of wrapping brussels sprouts in gold tin foil for the occasion.

Yes it was, but it's been narrowed to a Prague (Praha) thread now.

Welcome to New Amsterdam!

Not in the US but there are other countries where such a place is at least possible. I had assumed that the question was about foreign resorts as this forum is about travel in general not just in the US. That said, I don't know of such a place in this country, but I hadn't been actively looking. At a guess, here and elsewhere one would be more likely to find a resort that wasn't exclusively gay but where no one would look askance at gay couples or at an escort being invited to join you there.

Dan the agent provocateur!

The search function is your friend!

No, not as many times as you want, only for 90 days in any 180 day period. So if you are there for 90 days, you have to wait a further 90 days before you can return and the limits apply now before the ETIAS comes into force. And it's not the EU but the Schengen area, and although for most travellers it's effectively the same, the overlap is not complete. It includes non-EU countries like Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, and excludes EU countries Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Gibraltar is not in the Schengen area. French and Dutch overseas territories, like those in the Caribbean (and St Pierre et Miquelon!) are also outside Schengen.

The subway was swipe as you enter with the old cards and still is when you tap on with OMNY, and it's on all subway stations and buses. It's a flat fare so there's no point in making you tap off. I assume it's the same on buses, and as I read it you get a free transfer if you tap with the same card (or device) on both modes on the same trip (I don't know what the time limit is for a transfer). If you take 12 trips within a week, regardless of what day your first trip is, any further trips in the week are free if you use the same card. You don't need to register, just use the same card each time. I'd say it is the way to go. Sydney has a more complex fare structure with distance based fares and separate fares on trains, buses, and light rail, so you have to tap on and off on each mode (ferries you only tap on before boarding). The credit card option works with that here and manages it, and applies transfer discounts between modes, cumulative fares (that is, not separate fares) if you have to change buses, and daily and weekly (Mon to Sun) fare caps.

Perhaps some people economise where they can so they can spend big on other things.

Gentlemen, while a discussion of whether to use the word 'faggot' loosely fits into this thread on whether we call ourselves gay or queer, the origins of that word do not. We know one of its usages is about gay men but that's the end of that discussion, but there could be scope for a thread to discuss the issue in its own right. Some posts have been removed where they clearly crossed that line. Please keep this thread on topic.

Or 'not the marrying kind'.

Quite so, that is the definition given of 'actor', and is one, although a 'non-state actor', which would include NGOs, and militias and terrorist organisations, are not pretending so that's already shown that there is more nuance to the meaning of the word than had been claimed. But 'actor' wasn't the word in question, it was 'acting', and if you consult a dictionary the definition of the word 'act' includes 'behave in the way specified'. To take it to an extreme, I doubt anyone would conclude that a fast-acting poison or drug was pretending. But this entire conversation is away from the subject at hand, which is hiring straight guys.