It’s not easy being dull. A post I submitted to the Dull Men’s Club (UK) last night was rejected by one of their admins. It’s going to take me a while to recover. Here’s the post, followed by the rule they claim it violates.
Wife and I enjoyed excellent burgers last night. The menu said they came with fries, which I believe you call chips in the UK. I asked the waiter if we could get something instead of the fries and he said a salad or sweet potato fries. So we asked for a salad for one of us and sweet potato fries for the other. When the check came I saw we were charged $2 for the salad and $3 for the s/p fries. I was not happy about that, but I didn’t make a fuss.
Now, it’s true, I didn’t ask — will there be an extra charge? But the waiter also didn’t tell me there would be. I wasn’t adding to the fries, just replacing them.
The meal was excellent, so I can’t be too upset at the place. And it’s the sort of thing I’ll calm down about over time. Still. . . any thoughts?
Group rules violated
Keep it dull, not controversial and not a moan…
Posts and comments that are not dull (e.g. simple statements without a dull back story, jokes, memes, general moans and groans, pictures of your flash car etc.) will be removed, as will opinions/statements/questions/theories that are designed to (or are very likely to) provoke conflict/confrontation/argument – this includes posts/comments mentioning electric vehicles.
Hrrrrrumph!
It’s not Phil. Hard to believe, I know, but for the second time in two months the man arrested for stalking an attractive woman basketball star was not our staff photographer Phil. Last month Paige Bueckers was the stalkee. This time it’s Caitlin Clark. Phil wants to make it clear — it’s not that he isn’t stalking them — it’s just that he hasn’t been arrested for it yet. It’s sort of a “get in line” situation.
It’s not a joking matter. (But, don’t worry, we won’t let that stop us.) A 55-year-old Texas man named Michael Lewis was arrested in Indianapolis for sending threats and sexually explicit messages to CC via social media.
The creepy part is Lewis traveled from Texas to Indianapolis with the “intent to be in close proximity” to Clark. When confronted by police in a hotel room, Lewis claimed to be in Indianapolis on vacation. The police were immediately skeptical, noting “who the hell comes to Indianapolis on vacation?”
When asked by officers why he referenced Clark in so many social media posts, he said “Just the same reason everybody makes posts.” (Makes sense.)
Clark told the police she “has been very fearful since learning of the messages and that she has altered her public appearances and patterns of movement due to fear for her safety.”
Concerned for Clark’s safety, our Phil tells us he plans to spend the next few months staying as close to her as he can all the time — following her every move and staying in constant touch with her via social media to make sure she isn’t being stalked. Seems reasonable.
Here’s a shot of Caitlin pointing out the creep who has been following her to teammate Erica Wheeler. Wheeler said, “OK, CC, if the cops don’t grab his white ass soon I’ll have some brothers ‘reason’ with him.”
Here’s a poem about chickens by Tom Healy from Poets.org. It’s called “Sonnet for the Chickens.”
The picture of elegance, my grandfather.
I wanted his photograph in the dictionary.
Alone of the men I knew as a kid,
he always wore a shirt with a collar,
always shined his shoes. Equanimity
in a family on the run from itself.
He amazed me once with a cardboard box
of baby chicks, each in a small square as if
he’d waved a wand over a carton of eggs.
A fuzz of feathers, beaks and fragile lives.
No more afraid than all of us, he said.
Just sit with them, tell them apart, listen.
Only if you see someone, can you become
someone. Long gone, he still is and they are.
The puzzle today had a quidditch theme — the game from the Harry Potter books. I didn’t read them and it left me cold. Rowling is viewed as the devil by many for her anti-trans stance. Rex cited an article in Glamour today for a good discussion of the issue: https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy. And he quoted it:
Rowling is still “not the final boss of transphobia. A movement can’t get along without a devil. And across the whole political spectrum, there’s a misogynistic tendency to choose a female devil. Whether it’s Anita Bryant, Hillary Clinton, Marie Antoinette, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or J.K. Rowling.” The real threat to trans people is the Republican party. Rowling and others are “useful idiots who put a concerned female face on the patriarchal violence against trans people that will ultimately be enacted by right-wing men.”
It generated a discussion on whether a work of art can be appreciated independently of the noxious character of the artist.
Commenter DR J (who I am guessing is not Julius Erving) wrote:
I read the first page of the first Harry Potter book in a bookshop back in 1997 and decided not for me. I also tried one of Rowling’s adult detective books and was disappointed by the weak plotting. Still l agree that the works of writers or artists should not be judged by their views. In this connection l can cite the Talmud (finalized c. 500 CE) which tells of Rabbi Meir (c.
150 CE) who insisted on continuing to study with his former teacher, Elisha ben Abuya, a great Torah scholar who had become an outspoken heretic. When asked why he did so, Rabbi Meir replied: ” l eat the inside of the pomegranate and then l throw away the rind.” (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Chagigah, 15b, redacted).
Hey, what are the odds? Today’s stalkee, Caitlin Clark, was in the puzzle too. The clue was “Signature Caitlin Clark shot, informally,” and the answer was THREE.
At 33A today, a “poorly behaved child” was the clue for BRAT.
DR A says:
Calling a misbehaved child a BRAT is horrible and should be stopped. The child is either hungry, tired, overwhelmed, bored, poorly parented or neurodivergent. Every time I see this in a puzzle my blood boils.
Anony Mouse responded: So you are.. hungry?
We’ll give the Ramones the last word on it.
[Note from our legal department: Owl Chatter does not advocate beating brats with baseball bats.]
Once in great while we treat ourselves to hot dogs here at Owl Chatter. Hebrew National, from the freezer. Today was the day. We had nice rolls from Costco, honey mustard, and Irish Cheddar. But when I went to open a new bag of sauerkraut, I saw that it had inflated like a balloon — like a football before Tom Brady got his hands on it.
I remember hearing somewhere that it’s not good if a can inflates, so I feared the kraut went bad. But google tells me it’s a natural result of fermentation and not a problem. It said I should rinse it with cold water, which I did. The dogs were delish!
Eight towns in the Midwest are listed in Wikipedia as celebrating “sauerkraut days” each year. These babes are at one in Illinois.
Just three hours ago, Daniel Kingdon of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) posted the following: I’m doing an old house up, including relining the roof and I found this tile.
Jon Kasch wrote: Frame that now!!!
Kingdon replied: I’m going to have dinner first.
Jon: Okay. I got excited.
And I couldn’t resist posting the following: I have one grandson named Isaac (4), and another named Morris (3). Can’t be a coincidence. But what does it mean?
Tomorrow in the Prudential Center in Newark the NY Sirens will take on the Minnesota Frost and Owl Chatter will be there. Can’t wait!!
Thanks for popping by!
The Wellington Files 