I do like that Newfoundland!

It being Newfoundland, I’m not entirely sure that they weren’t trolling her.

I’m with her on the subject of bloater paste.

One of my aunts got married (second time round) in a tiny small town in Newfoundland. It was a low-key affair and the reception was pot-luck, the entire town came. And every woman in town had a distinctively personal recipe for potato salad.

A Distant Mirror is one of the great books. I read it while housesitting and I had the flu at the same time. By the time I got halfway through the book I was convinced I had the plague since so much of the book is concerned with it.

Given how many beers I have held in my life, this study indicates that I may have worked my way down to Australopithecus by now.

I friend of mine took too much - not mushrooms - but Valium before a particularly stressful move, and found herself essentially non-verbal and unable to move from her chair while she watched the moving guys merrily toss her belongings about like it was a Cirque du Soleil show.

My brain went immediately to the comic book character.

It won’t be David, partly because of Edward VIII (“Uncle David” to Lilibet and Margaret Rose) and also because King David must sound awfully ... Biblical to the Royal Family.

One more, then I’m out of the office, off to drink beer and dream of Clive Owen. Sir Clive, he is now.

no it cannot

Did you know Evelyn Waugh’s first wife was also named Evelyn?  their friends called them He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn.

Too Irish.

Clive will be rejected as too lower-class, but since you have mentioned my kryptonite, Clive Owen, here he is:

I’ve just lost my second dog in four years (first the pug, then the boxer) and I didn’t have enough time with Boswell to save a sufficient amount of fur. So I’m going to try felting what I do have.

I am absolutely fascinated by Victorian hair art. I have a mourning brooch with a lock of hair - not a show one, but I am very proud of it regardless. I’d have a dozen if I had the cash.

When I lost my pug, Mr Fusspot, I sent bags of his hair (that I had been saving for just this opportunity) to a woman I found on Etsy who spun it into yarn. Then my friend Betty crocheted a memorial to Fusspot out of the yarn. I also had two of his incisors (he lost a lot of teeth at ten) set as earrings. People…

yes

He was born in Canada and I went to high school with him. He was, unsurprisingly, a jerk even then.

Last I heard, Voltaire Casino was touring with Spandau Ballet. 10/10, would attend concert.