Some middle-aged guy on the Internet. Seen a lot of it, occasionally regurgitating it, trying to be amusing and informative.

Lurked Digg until v4. Commented on Reddit (same username) until it went full Musk.

Was on kbin.social (dying/dead) and kbin.run (mysteriously vanished). Now here on fedia.io.

Really hoping he hasn’t brought the jinx with him.

Other Adjectives: Neurodivergent; Nerd; Broken; British; Ally; Leftish

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 13th, 2024

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  • So, there was this TV experiment where they served soup to a well-known scientist*, but, with his agreement, they stirred it first with an unused - and I stress unused - toilet brush.

    He couldn’t bring himself to eat it.

    Metaphorically speaking, our world is full of amazing things but they’re all stirred by clean toilet brushes. Sometimes, it’s worse than that and they’re used.

    Do not want.

    * Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, he was later cancelled for being old and out of touch on women’s issues among other things, which is kind of an example of this same trope when you think about it. His opinions and reactions on soup and food disgust aren’t linked to any of that but you might be tempted to ignore the result because of it.

    But then, that puts him in the same category as Louis CK and that’s what I’m responding to. Food for thought.





  • The reason, or at least a significant part of the reason, if not the complete reason, that Arthur derives that question in particular is because he’s a result of the corruption of the calculation caused by the arrival of the B Ark of Golgafrinchams on Earth.

    If Arthur had actually been a six foot tall Earth-ape descendant as described by the guide, his brain would have contained the actual answer rather than something almost but not quite totally unlike the true question.










  • Obligatory grammar call-out, basically repeating something I said a while ago, the last time this showed up:

    “cometh” is not grammatically correct in this context. The simple check is to replace “-eth” with “-es” which is what happened in English.

    “Now comes onward!” is clearly missing a pronoun. And if you put a “he” or an “it” in there, it develops a very “it puts the lotion on its skin” kind of vibe, which almost works here, but not really. We could drop the -s and have “Now come onward!” which would be just fine, but it loses a bit of that medieval flair the artist is going for.

    So, in panel two, she calls him “thee” which means they’re probably on familiar terms (I think I missed this last time, and its use and familiarity varies by era), but either way, it means she could use it again in panel three.

    “Now come thee onward!”

    Perfectly medieval-sounding. It even keeps that th, just in a different place.


  • There are certain things that I have to avoid thinking about in order that I don’t enter a depressive phase or become suicidal. You are asking me to think about those things.

    You are asking a hungry man with no legs to walk a thousand miles for food. “Grow new legs!” you say. “Find a way!”

    You are asking me to beat my head repeatedly into a wall until I get through it. I have literally and figuratively bounced my head off a wall. Both made me not want to do that again.

    Maybe you’ve got yourself out of this exact situation. Good for you. I am glad you managed it.

    I am not you.



  • all I can advise is make sure you get that shit sorted out or cleaned out before you pass away

    I know you mean well, and I hate to say it, but this is roughly equivalent to telling a depressed person to “cheer up”.

    I’m well aware of the burden this would leave someone having to clear out my house, because I’m the one with that same burden right now. This is not the motivation someone in good mental health might think it would be.

    Mental illness does not imply stupidity. I mean, I’m plenty stupid a lot of the time, but the two aren’t connected. And I can see the problem where a lot of hoarders can’t. And yet, if I was capable of fixing the problem, it wouldn’t have existed in the first place.


  • It’s not always about what it might be worth later. It’s often about what it’s worth to the hoarder right now, and how much anguish getting rid of it would cause.

    People will develop attachments to the most bizarre of things. Even a straw and a plastic lid.

    Source: I’m pretty much a hoarder. Thankfully I don’t develop attachments to rubbish and recyclables like the character in this comic, but I have far too many books, clothes, knick-knacks and household items that I can’t let go of. Many were gifts.

    The books are the worst because I feel like they’re tainted by having been in my house. If they ever leave here, the best place for them might be landfill or incineration and that feels like a waste. So here they languish where they might have some use.

    You can’t wash a book.

    I had a clear-out 10 years ago - anything that could be cleaned up went to charity - and still have regrets about some of that. The next one probably isn’t going to happen any time soon.