Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. ‘Tis 34 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 70 and N.O.S. for the day. No real big plans for the day though I do have Vestry Meetin’ tonight at six. I get to talk about HVAC replacements. I’m all atwitter with excitatement! Sup shall be beastloaf, steamed cabbage, mac 'n cheese, and cornbread. I found an already made out beastloaf in da freezer last night, which inspired me.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
OK, that’s all I got. Take this MMP and hijack away!
Beat me to it. I found something that I felt is worthy of discussion:
DEAR MISS MANNERS: Does it still hold true that one should blacken the wick of candles before displaying them? I think it looks nicer to have fresh candles on display, but a friend pointed out this is not correct. Is this practice archaic and obsolete?
GENTLE READER: Archaic and forgotten, possibly, but that does not mean that Miss Manners has taken it off the books. The rationale is to indicate that the candles are actually used, and not just there for show.
Are your candle wicks blackened? Don’t make me rush to my fainting couch!!!
Thought about starting one at 5:30 this morning, while enjoying the second half of my prep. But I don’t feel worthy.
As they failed to find a vein in my left arm, I now have matching bandages on both my left and right arm. Other than that, the colonoscopy was mostly an opportunity to read a book as I spent a lot of time reading. They found another polyp, and will send it out for analysis, but they expect it will be benign. So in 5 years I’ll be back.
Then I left, went to the store across the street (natural food store), and then had to go back to get a doctor’s note for my work absence. Then I went to the chocolate store and then McDonalds. I think that’s a balanced diet.
Now I have the rest of the day off. Waiting for the espresso machine to warm up so hubby can make me a latte.
Which reminds me. I bought a box of Anna’s mac and cheese. Was going to make it for lunch today, as a comfort food treat. Forgot about it until I read Swampy’s post.
Sorry Moooooooom, I only use tea lights. And I usually burn them until they go out. So there are only empty tea lights on display, which do have blackened wicks. I don’t use candles for decoration. I prefer pretty candle holders. And if I do receive some sort of decorative candle, it’s getting burned. Can’t be bothered to keep something around that is just taking up space, when it should be functional.
My grandmother kept some magnoloia Yankee Candle tea lights so long that they wouldn’t burn any more.
Even thought I even visited the Yankee Candle factory outlet, my favorite specialty candle is Root Candles from Ohio.
I got some serious loafing to do. Gotta get going.
Depends on whether they’re “on display” or simply “sitting on a shelf waiting to be burned” which - to the casual observer - may be impossible to discern.
I used to have big, fat pillar candles all over the place - some of the scents were really nice. But now, I think there’s a box of tapers somewhere in the basement and I keep thinking I should have them upstairs with a box of matches just in case we lose power. Yeah, I’ll get right on that.
I have nothing against etiquette and manners, but I think Miss Manners went off the tracks a long time ago. I try to avoid talking with my mouth full, but I have no problems with resting an elbow on the table. There’s a line between “Don’t gross out the people around you” and “Let’s pretend we’re pretentious pretenders from a pretentious era” and she apparently doesn’t see it. I have more important things to get wound up about.
Well, that was an incredibly short sort. Y’all need to up your Tarjay.com game.
: rubs cajun spice on candles :
Yes!
Story:
When I was in Nashville for the hockey convention(hi red!), one of the trips had a stop at a very old school Southern restaruant. One of the New York girls put her elbow on the table, causing the hostess to give a Bless your heart stare. Which cause the local lady in our group to give the hostess a Double Secret Bless Your Heart stare.
What about those flickering, battery-powered candles? I’ve never examined the “wick” of one up close, but I doubt they’re blackened. I’ve been thinking of getting a few for my Christmas decorating, because they seem so easy to deal with.
This is an eventful week: Mr. brown is getting his second Moderna shot on Tuesday, and I’m getting an ultrasound to look for kidney stones on Wednesday. The fun never ends!
Yesterday I made homemade street tacos for dinner. And I do mean homemade - I made corn tortillas by hand, and green tomatillo salsa, and braised a chunk of pork shoulder for hours. The result was carnitas tacos, and very good they were.
Which is an Americanism that I have struggled to lose. Here in Switzerland the other hand stays on the table, not kept in your lap. So Miss Manners can take a hike.
Also most Americans practice fork switching (there’s a name for everything) which boggles the minds of most Europeans.
And in other news, Miss Manners is still alive. So available for hikes, it seems.
Morning all. Haven’t had candles in my house since…forever. Probably would burn the place down if I did…
Up early, solved a problem with soccer, and the week is looking like 70F highs with little chance of rain…so yea! On the other hand, at this rate I may have to start mowing the yard before April, so Boo!! (( N.O.B.(Not Our Boo)).
Need to get a few Moanday provisions (bananas and milk) and procure the Jersey Mike’s sub sammich for sustenance in a couple hours, and maybe see if the 7U soccer practice starts OK tonight, but that’s about it.
Dicey, glad the anal probing went well…(that doesn’t sound quite right, but I ain’t changing it). And chocolate and Mickey D’s sounds like a great combo to me…
OK, back to life, such as it is. All y’all have a good Moanday.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s bright and shiny out there today, after a bit of a grey start. Weather app says “Are you tired of talking about the fucking weather? I’d be more than happy to tell you all about my cats” and promises me 9C/48F all the mostly sunny day.
Thank you so much everyone for the lovely birthday wishes yesterday, I had quite a good day, some fab gifts, and a friend came over for a chat on the drive. It was very different to my last birthday when I had a weekend of gigs lined up, but still good fun.
Moooom my candles wicks are mainly blackened because most of the candles have been used. I have a couple of decorative ones (pumpkin, cat and a dragon) that I will not set light to, and a box of emergency candles in case of power failure. Other than that, they get used.
Moanday has brought with it some absolute work delights that require us to placate some anxious students who think they’re meant to be back on campus already when they should be staying at home. Big flap going on with senior management about who sent what out…fortunately it came from the accommodation service and not us so I can sit back and watch the entertainment unfold.
A momentous two weeks ahead: this Wednesday the washer repair man returns to install the parts that arrived last week. This is the most excitement around here since the pandemic started. A couple of months without a washing machine reminds you of when you were poor and single, and not in a good way.
Then the following Wednesday, we get our second dose of joy juice. While it’s not a cure-all, and we will still observe precautions, at least we’ll be comfortable going to the grocery or the hair cutter or the dentist or many other places we’ve avoided. I estimate we’ve spent about $1500 over the past year just for delivery charges and tips for groceries.
Oh, and Miss Manners can kiss my non-fork-switching, elbow-on-the-table butt.
Is it stuffed with real Greeks? Hey, somebody had to say it!
Happy next birthday, boofae!
And speaking of days, how in the world did it get to be Monday again already?
I read both Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt cover to cover when I was in high school, but blackening candle wicks isn’t one of the things I remember – not that I would bother if I did. (One of the few things that I do remember is that a gentleman doesn’t shake hands with a glove on.) I’ve also read Miss Manners from time to time, for amusement; the only thing I remember from any of her books is that one should not say “Excuse me” after farting.
I normally don’t watch telly, but Lady SCAdian and I have been amusing ourselves by watching Resident Alien – Alan Tudyk is wonderful as an alien posing as a small-town doctor whilst trying to find the device he is supposed to trigger in order to wipe out all human life (said device having been lost when his ship crashed into deep snow after being hit by lightning). Unfortunately, we’ve watched all of the available episodes and are now forced to wait from Wednesday to Wednesday to continue…
So, I even had a cotillion when I was younger and formally “came out” in society and I have never heard that you’re supposed to have candle wicks blackened when guests arrive. I’m now clutching my pearls and swooning in embarrassment.
However, if someone were to walk in the house, the candle wicks would be blackened because I like the way they smell. If I don’t like the way a candle smells, you won’t see them at all because I will already have thrown them away already.
'Tis a beautiful day and promises to be about 70F. I’m doing compensation reviews with employees. I’ve already done my most challenging one (with the exception of my own) and keep obsessively checking to make sure I sent them the right statement (I did). Once I’m given my own review, I’m probably going to take a long, long walk.
The weekend was nice-ish. A do over would be nice, though. Teenagers don’t listen, and trying to make them listen is like slamming my head against a wall over and over again, but I feel obligated to say whatever it is I’m saying because I’m the parent, dammit. And as I told overlyboy, I have to say it if only so at age 30, he’ll go, “Oh! That’s what mom meant.”
I remember reading about other people’s anal probing (metal mouse’s term) and it seems many people had to get tested for Covid before proceeding.
Not only did I not get a Covid test, they didn’t even take my temperature. They did take my blood pressure and pulse and gave me oxygen (single nostril, underneath my mask) before sedating me.
Oh, and the nurses complemented me on my socks, which are an older version of SmartWool’s Sulawesi Stripe in blue. How old? They have the Smartwool logo on the arch of the foot (woven in), but they don’t have Smartwool written across the toes. Or, if they did, it’s faded.
Back from erranding. I got my hair cut (at last!!) and mailed off our passport renewals. Then I ran into the new McKay’s that opened in the old Shopper’s Warehouse location. Big store, quite pricey, but if you sign up for their shopping card, you get decent discounts - I scored 2# of 16-20 count shrimp for $14.50!! So I’ll just watch for sales before shopping there.
Driving home, I discovered a whisp of hair that hadn’t been cut. It had been tucked behind my left ear, trapped by my mask. I cleared my right ear, but obviously not the left. Anyway, it was just a few strands and I snipped it to match the rest of the hair on that side, so it’s all good. The stylist did a good job and she gave me the geezer discount. I gave her a really good tip because of the discount - I paid what I would have anyway, so win-win!
And I just finished a bowl of soup because I was hongree!! Now I’m thinking I’ll clean the bathroom floors and the kitchen floor, because why not? Still too chilly to do much outside, yanno.
I had a busy and productive weekend. The boys and I spread eighteen bags of mulch under the shrubs, around the roses, and around the day lilies in the front and back yards. They hauled and spread without complaint, AND they didn’t do a half assed job. Mrs Magill and I are still looking for the pods.
I also started my seeds. I’m looking forward to plenty of Roma tomatoes (for homemade sauce), a least one plant of Purple Cherokee tomatoes (for my BLTs), a couple of zucchini, eggplants, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelons.
Candles - we have plenty out with black wicks, but they are used regularly. Growing up, my mother would have tapered candles on display with blackened wicks, not because it was proper, but because it looked nicer.
Elbows - They do not go on the table. Why? Because there is probably a brother sitting next to you, and if that elbow strays over just a little bit, he will start something. Let’s just nip that shit in the bud. I try to enforce good table manners at dinner. Fang wants to be an Air Force officer, and there is a non-zero chance that he will end up at a fancy dinner with a senior or general officer, and if he eats like a fieldhand, it would not reflect well on him.
If you want a laugh about the correct way things should be done, you cannot beat Mrs Beeton’s Advice on household management:
“IN CONVERSATION, TRIFLING OCCURRENCES, such as small disappointments, petty annoyances, and other every-day incidents, should never be mentioned to your friends.”
"- in our estimation, than such as enter into a knowledge of household duties; for on these are perpetually dependent the happiness, comfort, and well-being of a family. In this opinion we are borne out by the author of “The Vicar of Wakefield,” who says: “The modest virgin, the prudent wife, and the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens.”
First, I logged into irk. I have a screen saying I need to enter a security code to open MS-Office. I get up and go to my phone to get the code. I enter it into the computer, and nothing happens. So I use the alternate method, a phone call. My phone rings and I get up to answer it. It’s plugged in, and Mrs. L.A. put a paper back full of tortilla chips on the cord. I can’t hear the recording. I sort that out to find that the message is choppy. I take the phone back to my work area (the couch) and try text again. No signal. I finally get one bar and am able to log in. I freakin’ hate that security code thing!
In Outlook, I get a message from a member. They want to report one account that they have not been able to collect. First, we don’t do that’ We need their whole portfolio. Second, they haven’t sent any data in five years so they’ve been cancelled as a contributor. To report data, we’d have to have their contributor number reinstated at Big Credit Agency. That requires them to send us a new, signed, consent form allowing us to load their data, and a new, signed, contract so BCA can accept their data from us. I booted that up to the Account Executive so that she can try to convince the VP to send us all of their data.
Then I see four quarterly reports from BCA for last year. We made less than 40 kilobucks off the data we sent last year, which is less than my salary. The second quarter was notably poor. (That’s when everything shut down due to COVID.)
I sent a file to BCA and it failed because I sent the wrong file (same data, different name). The data upload system will not allow users to delete their own files, so I had to send them an email to have it removed from the queue. I went to send the file to Other Big Credit Agency and there was an internal error on their site.
A member sends files every week via FTP. He’s getting an error. I’m sure it’s not onour side, since he’s the only one who ever has trouble with FTP.
My dad was a ‘Mustang’ in the Navy. After a stint in the Army, he enlisted in the Navy and rose to Lieutenant (O-3). His little brother enlisted in the Navy, but didn’t want to be an officer and got out as a Chief. Unk called Officers Candidate School ‘Knife-And-Fork School’ because that’s where they teach you table manners.
