Daily Archives: October 8, 2004

Something That Didn’t Go Boom

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Security forces in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar say they have thwarted an attack that could have killed hundreds of people.
A tanker carrying 40,000 litres of fuel and packed with explosives was intercepted on the eve of the country’s first direct presidential elections.

Okay, I imagine things are a little hairy over in the Spook Think Tanks just now, but they must be relieved over this one. All this stuff blowin’ up is a little nerve-wracking on the eve of the elections, and the US Residential debate, and so on.

I’m sure the Repubs are feeling even more unsafe than usual.

Unsafe! The world is unsafe! Sheesh, duh.

Aw! It’s The TARcon Recap

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Couch Baron and I agree to go to the party together, and about thirty seconds after he picks me up, I say this to him: “When it is 1:00 in the morning and I am cursing myself for wearing these shoes, you should feel free to remind me of this moment, which was my opportunity to go back to the hotel room and put on the perfectly sensible pair of black pumps that are under the edge of the bed right now.”

“Got it,” he says.

It’s been a while since I checked, but Miss Alli posted a recap of TARcon, the TAR finale party in New York, at TWOP.

Tackle Out, Honey Bunny!

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LONDON (Reuters) – Help is at hand for foreign doctors working in Yorkshire whose patients complain of sore “lugholes” or say they’re feeling “jiggered” and can’t stop “gipping”.

Health officials in Doncaster, South Yorkshire have compiled a guide of local dialect and slang to help a group of seven Austrian doctors — all fluent English speakers — better understand their sometimes thickly accented patients.

I miss Yorkshire. I loved hearing the local dialect when we were there last year. The last entry in my travel journal is staring me in the face from last year – literally propped up in front of the keyboard at home all this time, awaiting inspiration and a whole lot more photos to edit.

Other terms include “doofer” for penis, “tackle” for testicles and “popped his clogs” for dead.

Very useful information – I knew about “wedding tackle” but “doofer” is new to me. Well, that’s not strictly true, but never mind about that now.

As yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the day we met, my husband David and I are going out to dinner. I’m happy to have all these interesting new topics to keep the conversation peppy. 😉

Meanwhile, Back At The Rance

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In the absence of Rance, who is either off being a fabbleous movie sleb or starting fall semester after moving out of his parents’ basement, his readers have been writing a round-robin mystery story. This has been going on for about a month now, with submissions going up about every other day – sometimes, every day. It’s very organized, and there’s a list of people, so you know when you’re “on deck.”

Also, when you’re writing your submission, you get an advance copy of the previous one, which doesn’t get posted until you submit your own. It seems to be working out pretty well, with only a couple of narrative wobbles, both of which turned out to be entertaining. It’s still a fairly consistent mystery tale. I have my suspicions about the love letters, though. They don’t gibe with something else. My submission seems to be getting favorable reviews – nothing too earthshaking or new plotwise, but I did want to beat up on the deputy and ask him why he knows so much about an old murder case, so I had the protagonist do it for me. Fiction is fun!

I make no excuses for the Easter Bunny in the dream sequence.

Other news: Foot is a bit swollen, but I’ve been working the last couple of days. The bruises are coming up in a lovely variety of colors – they look like one of those icky-cam shots from CSI.

My sister Tudy out-gimps me – she had knee surgery yesterday and will be in the hospital for a few days yet.

It’s raining, and traffic is bad, with lots of accidents according to the radio reports. Why is it that people forget how to drive in “bad” weather after a long summer? It isn’t even all that bad – it’s rain.

News of note: Jebus, a lot of stuff blowin‘ up today, and other news that is not good.
Pols: I’m going to volunteer at the Democratic phone bank they’re setting up, to call “undecided” voters in swing states. Based on some stories I’ve read and heard on NPR, though, I think there won’t be many to find. So I’ll either be getting quickly off the phone rather than engage someone of the opposing view (and waste everyone’s time), or swapping quips with someone on my side of the fence.