Heat And Death And Gulls
Jun. 6th, 2023 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo It's a long time since it rained. The long established plants are flourishing in the heat and the newly installed ones are withering. Sooner or later I expect the media to start scaring us with tales of shrinking reservoirs but until they do I shall be wandering round of an evening with my leaky hose pipe, getting my socks and trousers soaked.
The Eastbourne Death Cafe met last night. Ailz and I got there an hour early to have a confab with the convenors- because we're junior management now- and eat an expensive, non-vegan meal. There were enough attenders to fill three tables. My table (the one I was wrangling) talked about suicide pills and preparing for death and spiritualism and churchyards and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. At one point we were in danger of wandering off into Biblical criticism and I had to twitch the reins...
Here's a word that was new to me: commensal. It means something like "table-sharing"- and it's applied to those animal species that have struck up a kind of relationship with humans and like to eat/steal our food. I had it introduced and explained to me by Marianne Taylor in her enjoyable book about gulls. BTW, you should always call them "gulls", not "seagulls". Serious bird people get exasperated if you call them "seagulls" though I'm not sure why...
The Eastbourne Death Cafe met last night. Ailz and I got there an hour early to have a confab with the convenors- because we're junior management now- and eat an expensive, non-vegan meal. There were enough attenders to fill three tables. My table (the one I was wrangling) talked about suicide pills and preparing for death and spiritualism and churchyards and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. At one point we were in danger of wandering off into Biblical criticism and I had to twitch the reins...
Here's a word that was new to me: commensal. It means something like "table-sharing"- and it's applied to those animal species that have struck up a kind of relationship with humans and like to eat/steal our food. I had it introduced and explained to me by Marianne Taylor in her enjoyable book about gulls. BTW, you should always call them "gulls", not "seagulls". Serious bird people get exasperated if you call them "seagulls" though I'm not sure why...
