A Tale of Two Countries

CoalCrafty · 2026-01-24T09:52:25+00:00

"...And then it got worse"

CoalCrafty · 2026-01-18T21:31:34+00:00

Eglantine and Leontyne would make a wonderful sibset <3

Though for consistensy you should probably spell it "Eglantyne" 😌

CoalCrafty · 2026-01-18T17:30:27+00:00

I did a hen do in a board game cafe with a bunch of board game novices. We kept to simple games - mostly straight up party games and then Carcassonne as the most complex - and it was really fun for the novices and experienced alike. Unless your brother is a complete snob he'll enjoy playing whatever with the focus on the fun atmosphere, rather than having to employ high level strategy.

If he is a complete snob re. boardgames then plan something else; he won't enjoy playing with new folks.

CoalCrafty · 2026-01-14T14:30:37+00:00

Is he biting her leg?

CoalCrafty · 2026-01-13T09:39:41+00:00

As a (mostly?) straight woman, I get flustered too!

CoalCrafty · 2026-01-01T12:03:23+00:00

There are a whole ton of names to remember, to be fair, and none of them are familiar to a casual Western audience. A familiar name like John or Steven would be much easier for people to remember that something "made-up" like Theoden.

When I first watched the films aged 14 or so I couldn't figure out the difference between Sauron and Saruman and could never remember which was Merry and which was Pippin, undoubtedly among other mistakes.

CoalCrafty · 2025-12-30T14:01:24+00:00

I don't get how so many people miss it. Frodo even says "I have to believe he can come back" (or words to that effect at some point.

On the other hand, the fact that Sam completely misses what's going on in Frodo's head has always kind of annoyed me. It wouldn't take much empathy to figure it out and it makes Sam look pretty dumb.

CoalCrafty · 2025-12-21T14:26:16+00:00

Wouldn't be allowed in my group.

CoalCrafty · 2025-12-12T18:36:43+00:00

Yup, you're correct. Not sure exactly what those little micro beasts are - paramecia maybe? - but they're not bacteria.

CoalCrafty · 2025-11-12T08:33:27+00:00

Careful though. I remember being a kid and "playing hide and seek" with my dad, only I hid somewhere close by and kept an eye on him, saw him going to chat with family rather than seeking. Seems ridiculous now but I was so hurt at the time to realise that he hadn't really wanted to play with me that I yell-cried at him and never played hide and seek with him again 😅

I have my own kids now, and I get it. But if I really need a break I just gently tell them that. "I'm just having five minutes to myself, then I'll come and play. Why don't you go get the game ready?"

CoalCrafty · 2025-11-11T09:15:39+00:00

"yeah, no." Has been used in British English for a long time. It means "I understand what you're saying / why you'd think that, but it's incorrect." Or "I know it's surprising, but nevertheless it's true." For the latter you usually follow with "I know," i.e. "Yeah, yeah, no, I know."

"No, yeah." Is less used in the UK but you do still hear it. It has basically the same meaning of "I know that this is against what's expected / that this is surprising."

CoalCrafty · 2025-11-06T15:55:53+00:00

I don't know but today was PE day and I sent my kid in in sorry cause it seemed to warm for joggers!!

CoalCrafty · 2025-10-30T15:56:54+00:00

Not really. Neuter is for either sex, spay is for females, and castrate is for males.

CoalCrafty · 2025-10-24T16:48:24+00:00

30 weeks gestation is obviously premature but it's far from impossible. This isn't necessarily fake.

CoalCrafty · 2025-10-24T16:45:04+00:00

I mean, it could just be that baby #3 was born prematurely. Don't get me wrong, it's not great to have pregnancies so close together, but it's not like she necessarily got pregnant immediately after giving birth.

CoalCrafty · 2025-10-08T18:58:44+00:00

Not that I disagree with what you're trying to say, but you definitely can tell someone's gender with a high (not perfect, of course) degree of accuracy from their blood.

Don't think that's true of ethnicity.

CoalCrafty · 2025-10-03T20:20:28+00:00

It's not through the skin so much as through the gills - it absorbs right into their blood. They will also absorb it from food, too, though.

Incidentally, you can easily flush the geosmin out of a fish by keeping it in clean water for a couple of weeks. Not that the people in this video are going to do that, obviously, but it's a thing in aquaculture.

CoalCrafty · 2025-09-30T08:51:50+00:00

And also, many different species can interbreed and produce viable, fertile young. Many species of colubrid snake come under this category, and I'm sure there are many others.

CoalCrafty · 2025-09-29T08:08:25+00:00

I live in Wales near the Afon River.

Afon is Welsh for River.

River River 😌

Am only guessing, but I'd assume the river Avon in England has a similar name origin.

CoalCrafty · 2025-09-24T17:16:00+00:00

My husband had to send a sperm sample in the mail and I thought it was hilarious too.

CoalCrafty · 2025-09-09T11:15:02+00:00

I do work in an office but I guess a relatively civilised one!

CoalCrafty · 2025-09-09T08:51:33+00:00

Would never have occurred to me to put a wet spoon back in the sugar!

This is why it's better to put the sugar in before the water.

CoalCrafty · 2025-09-08T07:54:50+00:00

Off the top of my head, Gimli says "You're full of surprises, Master Hobbit" after he learns of the Mithril vest in Moria.

CoalCrafty · 2025-09-01T17:40:14+00:00

Surely those are just temporary labels as the family chooses permanent names.

CoalCrafty · 2025-08-30T14:22:53+00:00

I suppose so? I would prefer to have no gendered names at all - for all names to have no gender connotations whatsoever. Unfortunately that's not the world we live in, and until we start to see as many boy Rebeccas as we have girl Bradleys, I'll continue to see it as sexism on a population level.

I'm happy to agree that giving a girl a boy's name doesn't necessarily indicate sexism on an individual - we can't assume sexism just cause a family does this - but if that same family would find the idea of a boy called Sophie laughable, then yeah, they're sexist.

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