h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nah, they're gonna smell of grapes that smell of tuna.
I found out that the tuna-owner is pregnant, so she might quite like grape & tuna sandwiches in any case...

<BB<

Our fridge at work smells of BBQ.

That might sound , but I make ice for my tea in that fridge.

You drink tea?!

This isn't Britain, damnit. What did our ancestors fight the Revolution for?

You drink tea with ice?

What did our ancestors conquer the continent for?

It's worse than you think. I'm in the South... in Texas... and I'm drinking my iced tea... UNSWEETENED!

EGAD!

<>

To avoid paying taxes I believe. An entire country founded upon a tax dodge.

Especially that tax on hot beverages.

Nonsense.

They fought the revolution to avoid peonage to the Bardados sugar barons who'd taken over the British Parliament by means of buying out depopulated voting districts in Britain proper, that, and the consequences of 'the little ice age', including the year without a summer.

Much celebrated as Valley Forge was, people tend to forget that conditions were like that all around the north Atlantic rim.

Don't forget what happened to Marie Antoinette when she later made light of the problem.

Finally accepting that you can't get blood from a turnip that didn't grow because the snow didn't melt last summer, the British wrote off the American colonies and turned their attention to India, which was still producing food surpluses, with the consequence that rice and lentils began appearing in the British diet.

I just recently learned that Marie Antoinette didn't really say what everyone remembers her for.

http://www.britannica.com/story/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake

I'm not sure that article claims whether she did or didn't, to be honest. As the mythical character she has become in our minds, she certainly said it. As the real-life human being, she quite possibly didn't, but that has ceased to be important - the moral lesson has supplanted the truth.

That article was near the top of the list of a search. I can't remember exactly where I recently learned this, but I think they also said that Marie Antoinette actually cared about the plight of the poor and mentioned something she did that suggested so.

But my memory is like a... like a... Oh, one of those metal mesh things you strain stuff through. Stars with an S.


STEEL TRAP!


No, that ain't it...

Apparently, the phrase was first used by Rousseau, who attributed it to "a great princess", without naming her. As the work in question was written in 1765, it wouldn't have been Marie Antoinette. Aside from which, it's only an anecdote and the work, an autobiography, is reckoned to be unreliable.

I haven't the slightest doubt that Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were genuinely concerned and did all they knew of to do on the problem.

Its just that no one at the time knew just what had gone wrong with the climate, a consequence of volcanic disasters, first in what is nowadays Indonesia, then Iceland, producing global winter conditions, let alone what to do about it.

The French Royals became victims of the hysteria of the French mob.

People who stand for ages in the queue at the supermarket check out, pack away all their shopping......THEN start to look for their credit card

Smudger.

"I haven't the slightest doubt that Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were genuinely concerned and did all they knew of to do on the problem."

If only this was true. It doesn't pay to underestimate people's capacity to not give a damn, particularly the cosseted and disengaged wealthy elite.

And the orange cotton candy (floss) quaffed.

If they had been able to do anything about the catastrophic harvest failures it would have been in their interest to do it, simply on account of revenue issues, even disregarding human issues and conflict potentials.

Even today that would have been a very difficult climate problem to counter.

Stipulated, people are very prone to irrationsl expectations of others.

Humans suck!

nah - I think they would have just said "it's god's plan" pretty much like that iddiot of a Tsar and his equally oblivious (and imperious) wife the Russians had before they had their revolution.

re the open can of tuna in the fridge: I'd warn her. Then if it happened again I'd bin it. Fish in offices (cooking in the microwave) is just flipping well antisocial unless the rooms can be aired properly (as is Kimchi but we're fighting a losing battle there)

The two worse things I've smelled coming from the microwave at work are burnt popcorn and a Vietnamese fish dish.