Status-Q

I do like firing up my RSS reader from time to time. Reading articles and blog posts, which may, in turn, be carefully-considered responses to other articles and blog posts.

It's like Facebook, but for grown-ups.

Oh wow! A wonderful thought has just occurred to me...

If we leave the EU, does that mean we don't have to see those notices about cookies on every website?

Getting rid of those surely outweighs any benefits we might get by staying in. Where do I sign up?

Got a quick snap of a DVLA van in our street the other day...

The things on the roof are cameras, looking out for the registration numbers of untaxed vehicles. Now that we no longer have tax discs, the traffic wardens can't easily do it.

One of my neighbours had let theirs lapse accidentally, and got a big sticker on their window...

A mistake reading poetry at night, I find,
   but not for fear of sleepless angst
   nor yet of haunted dreams.
Good verse needs concentration,
   yes, and coffee.
Bedtime is for prose.

Here's something that could do with a standards body. I don't even know what these are called. Quick-release webbing buckle? Something like that.

But wouldn't it be handy if you could clip any two (of approximately the same size) together? Buy extension straps and know that they'd work? Clip your camera case onto your rucksack and your dog lead onto your pushchair?

You know it makes sense. All you have to do is boycott manufacturers who aren't paying members of QIQRWBSC (Quentin's International Quick-Release Webbing Buckle Standards Committee).

This Guardian piece by Julia O'Malley gives a rather different viewpoint on Sarah Palin from the one we usually hear.

There was a time when Sarah Palin was normal by Alaska standards. Way back before the hoopla, and way before she endorsed Donald Trump, she made sense as a politician here. That's not the case any more. I'm told she lives in Alaska most of the time, but she's invisible in public life.

But back in the day, I liked her – and so did many in my community. I'm not conservative, but she grew on me when I worked as a reporter in Anchorage in the mid-2000s, and the reason had nothing to do with politics. She was a kind of regular person I recognized as of this place. Tough, funny, pragmatic. She loved Alaska like I did. If you didn't know her then, it's hard to explain or believe.

Worth a read. Especially for anyone thinking of going into politics...

Thanks to Hamid Farzaneh for the link.

OK - it's not often I'd post an advertisement here. But then it's not often I'd voluntarily watch one twice in a row, either :-)

I wonder if this came about as a result of courtship or combat? Rather a wonderful video, anyway.

I needed some staples.

I went to my stationery cupboard.

I discover that, in the past, I used to get everything from the same bricks and mortar stationery store, so everything in there is labelled 'Staples'.

Most confusing.