220 Comments

Not to defend the NYT, but the newspaper was originally the Manchester Guardian and reliably Labour-supporting.

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Codger-Dodger is pronounced Throatwobbler-Mangrove.

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But it's spelt 'Luxury Yacht.'

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Ta, Sara. Oh, FFS!!

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What if I put on a beard and wig from Party City and my dad’s old suit and tie and affected a VERY bad accent and showed up claiming to be the Duke of Fuckingshire and then just threw pudding at them? (Am doing this now.)

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If throwing pudding means getting it on your hands (fingers), you may as well stop and taste the pudding.

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"Roger Roger"

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Reminds me of the olden-days Cosmos Club in Washington DC. I was a woman guest there (lunchtime only, mind you) just often enough to realize it was a good idea to eat something in the cab. Ditto the olden-days Press Club, except the booze made up for the shitty food.

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Women can join as of about 2000.

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BERRIES AND CREAM, ROGER!!! MUMMY! Anyway this was fun to write.

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I skipped they byline, and thought it was Robyn but then it morphed into Evan, so I had to scroll up to discover you'd written it!

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It is fun to read!

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Ahhh Grazie!

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Way to make me regret giving you all a recipe for proper British crumpets in next weekend's baking post.

Thanks for that.

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YESSSSSS

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This is so curious, I read an article just last week about an artist, Kirsha Kaechele who created an installation called "Lady's Lounge", open to women only who are served champagne by men dressed in tuxedos in an opulent setting. It referenced old pubs in Australia that wouldn't admit women until 1965. The museum was sued by a man because he wasn't allowed in. There was a court hearing. A large group of women in power suits, wearing red lipstick showed up at the hearing in support of Ms. Kaechele. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-68572280

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I would eat of a live toad to visit that place.

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You’re awesome👏‼️👏‼️‼️

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In the 1980s, we had in Illinois a wannabe pol named Adlai Stevenson II, or maybe it was III, I don't remember. He was either the son or grandson of the guy who lost twice to Eisenhower. This dude physically resembled his ancestor, and had political instincts to match.

In one campaign, he got in trouble when it was revealed he belonged to a club, headquartered in downtown Chicago, that had no Blacks or women (maybe no Jews either, I don't remember). He offered the hilarious defense that he only ate lunch there because "it was hard to find a good spot in the Loop for lunch."

The Loop is the heart of Chicago's downtown business district, and in those days, there were at least three places to eat on every block. Collectively, the Loop had restaurants with every conceivable combination of food, price, ambience and service. Stevenson got mercilessly roasted by columnist Mike Royko for being such a ninny and insulting everyone's intelligence.

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Mike Royko is my spirit animal.

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My spirit animal is a caffeinated squirrel in traffic.

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Of course there were no Joos, are you some kind of Commie agitator?

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Wow, I read this as 'M' had to quit his club...where will he meet 007 now for drinks?

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M wouldn't put up with that silly 'no wimmin allowed' crap, she'd just silently glare at anyone who dared try to stop her.

(and yes Dame Judy Dench is the best M ever, fight me)

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I liked the first 'M', but I won't fight about it...

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Sean Connery's M was closest to the original Fleming written version, but RHPS will forever color my memory of the actor :-) Dench was the one most appropriately ruthless with Bond.

(and I honestly think that Daniel Craig was also the closest to the literary Bond character.

Sean Connery played him much less ruthlessly; and that was a central characteristic of Bond, especially in the first novel, Casino Royale, which wasn't made (in non satire form, the '67 version is...wildly non-canon) until Craig's debut in the role, but because Connery was the first, he set the mold.

I MIGHT be JUST a teensy bit of a Bond nerd :-)

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I have all the Bond paperbacks from the 1960's and I agree that Craig was a good Bond and that our more modern and mature cinema makes for a better interpretation, but Connery in Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger created amazing and iconic scenes even hamstrung with 60's Playboy mores.

Connery was a bully boy and very physical and, to me, that is what Craig returned to the franchise.

But Craig's villains are mostly shitty and weak and easily the worst parts of his adaptations.

I also like my Bond.

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The Drones Club

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Pretty sure they're all fucking in there and just don't want the ladies to know.

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Gurls have cooties.

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Dodgy, innit?

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I am pretty sure the practice of men repairing to the drawing room whilst ladies did whatever they were expected to do after dinner was so the men could be alone and let off their after-dinner farts and compare who had the most voluminous ones. At least that the picture I have in my mind. May not be historically accurate.

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You're not missing anything when those farts are ignited, either.

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And blow cigar smoke in each others' faces, which the ladies were too genteel to want to be in the same room with. Yeah, I've heard the same thing as you. Probably also it was so they could talk what we would now call locker room talk, things you could NOT say in mixed company back then.

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