Robert Poste's Child

Just made beef broth. Serves 4 very hungry people. Ingredients: 450-500g stewing steak, diced 5 peppercorns Bay leaf 1.5 litres water 200g pearl barley 2 sticks celery 2 carrots 1 parsnip 2 potatoes Salt, pepper, tabasco, Worcester sauce Total cooking time: 1 hr 30 mins Method: 1. Put first 4 ingredients in a big pan and bring to the boil. Skim. Reduce to simmer. Timing starts from here. 2. At same time, wash barley, cover with cold water, bring to boil, simmer 5 mins. Drain, rinse under running water and add to big pan. (Barley needs about 1 hr 15 mins in total.) 3. Dice veg and add to pan about 30 mins before end of cooking time. 4. Season at end. Next time I'd add half to a whole leek and maybe a bit of kale or Savoy cabbage for green. If I had a bigger saucepan I might also add another half litre of water and a stock cube.

Spoor

Sober

Come to think of it, that pretty much describes my own part wardrobe. Might run to a lipstick.

Women, don't attempt to buy normal work clothes until January as the shops are now full of party clothes. Visit the men's department and it's a different story. Why?

On the grounds that women are victims, men are perpetrators? That wouldn't appear to apply in Kevin Spacey's case - unless any of the beards genuinely thought they were girlfriends. Of course, there may be more to it if you know the people involved and the context. One recent female victim - whose story is perfectly plausible, knowing the industry - at about the same time came on to someone I know and hit her in the face when she was turned down with a jokey remark. (I wasn't a witness but the person told me immediately afterwards).

Skill

If they're a group you could go back next week at the same time, or perhaps slightly earlier, and see who the dog arrives with.

He has apologised for quote 'deeply inappropriate behaviour' and he's 'seeking evaluation and treatment'. Doesn't look like a denial to me, and sheer number of stories must be enough to worry the producers about box office. Editing people in and out of films isn't uncommon given CGI and the use of body doubles and stunt people.

Mass hallucination - really? More true to say the dam of mass cover-up finally wore thin enough for decades of suppressed incidents to flood out! Surely with increased awareness around mental illness in recent years we all realise how sexual abuse and exploitation can ruin people's lives. Trauma often makes itself felt a long time after the event. I certainly remember plenty of inappropriate comments and touching, and strippers in the office for people's birthdays (in the morning!) in the late 80s, and pretty colleagues being sexually harrassed up to maybe early 00s (I well remember the married head of legal who tried to make one of his juniors agree to have children with him). It went on for decades after attitudes and company policies had superficially changed. Ml My own concern is that it feels fundamentally misguided to judge what happened in the past from today's viewpoint. It should be seen in the legal and social context in which it is alleged to have taken place - unless it involves children or other vulnerable people, in which case fire away.

'If required'? Not sure what that's implying but if it was in response to my post it was really just about good manners. I'm probably older than you, though, and I realise that popular culture has moved on due to what people see on TV and in films, not to mention the wedding industry.

You and me both.

Total

DaveR Wrote: ------------------------------------------------ > *except for the guys who drive the red Royal Mail > vans. What is it with them? Is there a psycho > test you have to do before they give you the keys? They are, or anyway used to be, above the law in a way as they're 'on the Queen's business'. A friend's family ran a post office for a while and the local postman would refuse to stop for police checkpoints.

Lynne Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Aye, Robert Poste's Child. I imagine a mort of > junketing and prancing when that there ring do be > a-gleaming and a-winking in it's liddle box. > > Sorry, just finished "Conference at Cold Comfort > Farm". Not as good. Did they go a-mollocking when the sukebind was in flower? In my next EDF incarnation I'm coming back as Aunt Ada Doom.

Silky

You could look for the DM online article not long ago, one of those 'tired hack trawls Reddit/Instagram' jobs. Isn't it a bit, well, vulgar to buy the ring in advance and thrust it in the woman's face at the moment you propose? Used to be, anyway - on such an important topic you wouldn't want to imply that you're too sure of yourself or (worse) that she's open to a bribe. If the woman accepts, she then chooses the ring.

I had an email today from the Museum of London inviting me to visit Father Christmas's grotto. Actually I think they said Santa. *retching noise*

Rabid V amused by three grinds.

Chock

Looks like M&S has done for them.

Perhaps some of the coaches could park off-road on the edge of the playing fields either side, where you often see the school minibuses?

Beginning at the National is worth seeing: funny in an excruciating kind of way and you could really hear individual lines resonating with people in the audience. Perfect for people in their 30s and early 40s particularly.

Slippery slope. I have a jar of Biscoff Crunchy in one hand and a teaspoon in the other. Bliss.

Roach