[grendel meme] seven good things in life

Sorry it took so long, Grendel, old chap - seven good things in life. You want a serious reply or a funny one?

1. Finding the truth vis a vis my Maker before it was too late.

According to a literary anecdote, the author Nancy Mitford had asked Waugh how he could behave so abominably and yet still consider himself a practising Catholic. "You have no idea," Waugh had replied, "how much nastier I would be if I were not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being."

There is a Comforter, He [She?] exists and is free online for all.

2. A special woman/girl.

My mate phoned me yesterday and was suspicious. "Is it snowing? No? Er ... am I interrupting anything?" He knows the two things here which put me into a jolly mood.

Why not? Might be wrong about it but I enjoy this maybe more than the average man.

3. Snow.

Lots of it, in huge droves, walls of the stuff, all year round. Sun shining, minus ten - heaven. Let me slip nature generally in here too, particularly the forest in summer and particularly if N2 is involved.

4. Real life and blog friendships.

Communication and intellectual stimulation plus touching base are assuming greater and greater importance. I don't rate what I write as all that important but the communication is. Just adore the way a blogger posts about a prat like Darling, broods, then runs another post on the theme just for good measure. In the end, we're all BS-ing.

5. Sailing.

It's my sport and as I wrote to an Indonesian girl, it's the second best feeling - the sound and feel of the spray is blissful and the whole motion is both harsh and beautiful. Skiing is very close too.

6. My work.

It's certainly varied and from the sweet part of it [uni] to the tough part of it [trade], it's never, ever boring and I give thanks for that. Also that I'm semi my own boss and that I work the hours I choose to.

7. Variety.

Everything from 1 to 6, excluding N2. The buzz there is one at a time. I was playing ICQ once and two girls made contact at the same time. So I was running a split screen, one in Russian and one in English. Both were impatient why I didn't reply. Both turned out to be from the same city. That was the city I was in. Both were online from the same computer room, sitting beside one another. Never tried that again.

Unable to fit these in

* Travel - tired of it now.

* Trenchermanfests - used to enjoy them.

* Football/rugby/cricket - love them but not in the seven.

* One's family - well you know, that's a long story and not for the blog.

* The Novels, creativity - up there but not in the seven.

* Music - adore it and can't live without it but can't fit it in the seven. All cultural pursuits - theatre, ballet etc. are in here.

[alcopop test] as useful as the mcdonalds test

Iain Dale asks the question, appropriately on his current poll on the best and worst chancellors since 1945, "Should alcopops be taxed more."

I'm going to extend that to a wider poll below:

Should alcopops be:
	Banned from sale
	Taxed higher
	Taxed lower
	Provided free
pollcode.com free polls

The Economist's Big Mac Test was, of course, as a comparative determiner of the state of countries' economies.

[mutual understanding] first lock the militants up

Over the weekend, if you'd read the posts and comments at this site, there was some pretty useful mutual understanding shown between our genders and the mood was quite upbeat and positive.

I ended the weekend more pro-women than ever before and as a male, wanted to look at the real rights and wrongs of the issues confronting women.

It was a lovely weekend, especially on the personal front.

Then the Feminists kicked in today, destroyed all the good work and the result is my post further down the page which has gone right back to the "you know where you can stick your equal pay" style. Am I so fickle as to be pro-women on the weekend and yet against them today? No, I'm even more for women, as I said above but this:

Ignore us and neglect us. Keep your societies pitiful, needy, and backwards. If we are not loved, we will not love back; and if we are not nurtured, we will neglect. If we are not valued - we have no values to instill. Women who are treated with cruelty give birth to murderous intolerants and oppressors. If we are destroyed, we destroy too.

... just re-polarized a debate which was going nicely and in these words, the woman showed about as much negotiating ability as a Rottweiler. So let's first get it clear what this blog actually believes and stands for:

I personally believe in equal pay for equal work and despite the post below, I do believe that women are still short of this. I believe the men in a position to do so should address this question.

Now if the Feminists would stay the F out of it, then this could possibly be achieved far more quickly because most reasonable men would agree.

However, if you're going to assault men with completely one way, oh how we're so oppressed, misandrist, men are bastards material, then the male reaction is predictable. We'll stonewall, pay lip service, oppose and quietly stymie anything the blinkered Feminist demands. We'll write posts like the one below which we don't completely believe in but post anyway to stick it up the Feministi.

I see no mention of oppressed children or the totally iniquitous and laughably named Child Protection Agency or the anti-father family laws in their diatribes. I see no mention of the difficulty men have of adjusting in this new society where respect for men has flown out of the window and only hatred remains. You won't find a post for men on this site of mine either. I've never bothered fighting for men and heaven knows we've needed it in some ways.

Kelly Mac can be my champion:

Hope chests spring eternal

According to those paragons of all that a woman should be, wanting to make a comfortable home for your family means that you don’t value education, or accomplishing anything on your own. It seems that if you don’t fit their narrow definition of what a woman should be, ladies, you should be belittled and criticized.

I think I love that woman.

It's as clear as the nose on your face - if you're going to be strident, shrill, all one way, intolerant - forget feminism just now and let's use a different issue, maybe "smoking" - then people will quietly and angrily oppose you, especially when you try to bludgeon legislation through.

My father and mother both died from smoking related diseases and I have the beginnings. I don't smoke myself so here is a prime candidate to join the anti-smoking lobby. And yet I'm at the forefront of the anti-anti-smoking lobby because the other side polarized the debate and used heavy handed tactics.

That's all.

I had some quite deep discussions with women on the weekend and was in a pensive mood. Enter the bloody Feminists this morning and I've angrily typed up the post below.

Kelly Mac again:

The feminist movement had and has very little to do with how I as a woman live my life. Women and men have always had rights, and they have always had responsibilities. You’re only supposed to know the part where women got shafted.

To paraphrase British journalist Julie Burchill - any woman who says she isn’t a feminist should be summarily stripped of her right to vote (since this right was won for her by feminist activism)...

This actually isn’t true, about women’s right to vote. As gwallan pointed out, women were voting in this country (US) as early as the 18th century. Also, it’s not like every man could vote here either. From what I understand, each landed family had one vote – and it went to the head of the household, whether that person were a man or a woman.

Gwallan also mentioned Emily Pankhurst, one of the more prominent suffragists, and her “White Feather” campaign. You said that she was misguided in her patriotism, but that it didn’t negate the suffragist cause. I say if she were such a patriot, instead of shaming men into fighting and dying for her, she should have taken up a rifle herself, and recruited other women to do so. You can’t pick and choose where you want to be “equal” and where you want chivalry. Let her earn that vote.

Another lady, Michelle S:

Now, because of the bra-burning women's liberation movement, girls are routinely slovenly and ill-mannered (though I think people in general are ruder now than they have ever been) and the phrase "that's not ladylike" is all but extinct.

And as far as the impact on the nuclear family: households are now more likely to have two-incomes from both parents being in the workforce, leaving no one at home to raise the children. Couples are more likely to divorce now, further fracturing the family (for the first time, there are more single/divorced ladies then there are married ladies in the U.S.).

I think core family values are disintigrating, and I think the pebble that started this landslide is the feminist movement.

Nunyaa, who incidentally features a pic of Germaine Geer nude [aaaagh]:

Women like Germaine Greer haven't done me as a woman any favours and I dare say I am not the only woman in the world to think same. In an ideal world we would learn to accept that not everyone shares our ideals and that is their given right , so why place scorn and contempt upon those just because they do not agree with us.

This from KatrinaB:

I think male and female motivations are quite different (thank heavens) and the fact that we often use salary as an arbitrary indicator of gender value (or discrimination) incenses me. Clearly, *individuals* should be paid equally for identical jobs.

However, there is nothing in the literature that suggests the distribution of talent for a particular job will be split evenly between men and women.

This from a girl who blogs as Purple Fire:

In my opinion 21st century feminists are a dying breed and those that do exist are simply trying to cause trouble. Everyone has a right to their opinion, the right to speak out against what is wrong; but who has a right to say that just because we are women, we are weak, or overly emotional, or constantly searching for a way to reach the same equality level as men?

It may be my unique school, or great variety of friends but I have never felt oppressed or treated unfairly by others simply because I'm a girl.

From Grace Chong:

I had difficulty writing my speech as I don't usually define myself as a woman. I define myself as a person, more particularly a creative writer dependent on God's grace.

Now surely, surely, the Feministi might pause to consider what's gone wrong with their movement. One of them today accused me of having issues and that they were the sane ones. Other way around, in fact. I have no issues being with women and having them as my mates.

Is that insane?

Finally - the Post Below

Is this report on Wimbledon equal pay or over the odds and inequitable? The women's event is not equal, i.e. they are not the top competition, i.e. they'd lose in a final with the men. So this is pay over and above equal.

This, in the NYT illustrates the [alleged] 77% dilemma but nothing is necessarily as it seems..

Strangely, in this patriarchal society over here in the former SU, where the women are not Feminists, there is equal pay for equal work, e.g. tram drivers.

And in the west, teachers' pay scales are gender neutral, i.e. they depend on years of service and brownie points. We paid our teachers equally, given the equal work, i.e. a third year primary teacher did not earn as much as a male Headmaster but did earn the same as her male counterpart.

So, reviewing the efficacy of militant Feminism, in Feminist besieged countries there are only two conclusions - either they've succeeded, vindicating Feminism and all is equal or else it's not equal and the Feminists have shown themselves to be largely irrelevant and quite possibly detrimental to the process.

After all, it's the unions who go in to bat for the equal pay and they contain men too. Which brings us to the question of "equal work" and how it can be measured:

As reported by money.cnn.com, Warren Farrell, author of Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap – and What Women Can Do About It, believes this is a case of comparable pay versus equal pay, or apples and oranges. He says men are more likely to make life-decisions that will lead to a higher annual salary.

He says males are more apt (than women) to relocate or travel for work, take on more dangerous jobs (over 90 percent of workplace deaths are reportedly men), work in the difficult (read boring) sciences, seek jobs that require financial risk and work jobs in unpleasant environments.

In contrast, he says, "women commonly prefer jobs with shorter and more flexible hours to accommodate the demands of family. Compared to men, [the majority of] women generally favor jobs that involve little danger, no travel and good social skills. Such jobs generally pay less.”

For women who earn over $100,000 per year, Farrell says they are more likely [than men at the same pay] to give up a portion of pay to spend more time with their families. Of course, not all women choose to forgo pay, as my post on top paid female executives discussed. In some careers, Farrell says women actually earn more than their male counterparts do, and he's not just talking about the field of modeling.

According to Farrell, the median salaries of women exceeded that of men's by at least 5 percent, and in some careers, up to 43 percent in 39 occupations. Some of the 39 professions include: sales engineers, statisticians, legislators, transportation workers, automotive service technicians and mechanics, speech-language pathologists and library assistants.

However, to play fair:

A Carnegie Mellon study found that female job applicants were less likely to be hired by male managers, if they tried to negotiate a higher salary, unlike men. Some years ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that female scientists were paid less than men are.

And so on. Where the women do become CEOs or are in the more dangerous professions, they do earn male salaries - e.g. Carly Fiorina and the like. Just how much money did she need for bringing down a company?

One of the commenters on the Dr. Salary article said:

I have been fortunate enough to have worked in several fields, including the military, police, and now in the private software arena. In the military and police I saw equal pay for equal work, but based on merit (job performance and testing). Yet in the military and police work women candidates physical fitness standards were half of what was expected of a man.

Further reading here and here.

[tri-nations] three losses

Now I wonder if the Scottish bloggers would have run the photo if the result had been different? Do they also have a magnificent sense of fair play?

France

President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP conservative party is trailing in the first round of French local elections. However, the socialists' lead is smaller than some predicted, and the outcome in some large cities in particular remains finely balanced.

Spain

With nearly all the votes counted, the Socialists had won 169 seats, short of the 176 needed for an absolute parliamentary majority.

Disunited Kingdom

We've played pish all this tournament but it seriously wouldn't matter if we didn't win another game again because today we trampled the English - well that is of course until next time we play the English, then we'd better win there too.

National differences are alive and well, I see. Interesting how a Scot can be induced to say the words England or English under certain conjunctions of circumstances. :)

I was at a Rugby dinner once on the same day England played Scotland at Murrayfield so naturally we watched it. The instant the Scots turned out onto the park, it was as clear as day who was going to win - there was a mania in the Scots' eyes, quite different to the grim determination of the English.

[telemarketers] how to deal with them

Get thee over to Colin Campbell to find out how:

Click on pic

There's plenty of advice today on how to deal with these pests but in Britain there's another type of pest as well - the double-glazing salesperson:

The Double-Glazing salesperson along with the life insurance salesman, estate agent and used car salesman has often been the 'butt' of a comedian's joke and the general public's 'loathing'.

Or how about the Jehovah's Witnesses? How do you deal with those suits and ties?

[birdman rally] wings across the water

There's a bridge across Melbourne's upside down river and off that bridge fly the intrepid Birdmen, the event a televised highlight of Melbourne's annual and very parochial festival, Moomba.

Every year, madmen fling themselves off this bridge for the honour of having taken part in the Birdman Rally.

There are always party poopers though like the hang gliders who fly 17 metres and win the trip to to Thailand but generally it's people like the "mild-mannered 36-year-old banker from Hawthorn", Simon Spinks, who flew as Super Unicorn Man.

In my years in Australia I always wanted to ahve a go at this but was more interested in being the party pooper and winning that trip to Thailand with my own kite design. Alas, it never happened.

There are always people doing these things. You remember Eddie the Eagle of course.

Were you for him at the time or did you think he was making a right prat of himself?

He came last, of course - too heavy, short-sighted and self-funded - an amateur in a professionally amateur world:

His lack of success endeared him to people all across the globe. The worse he did, the more popular he became. He subsequently became a media celebrity and appeared on talk-shows around the world. The press nicknamed him "Mr. Magoo", and one Italian journalist called him a "ski dropper".

The widespread attention that Edwards received in Calgary turned into a large embarrassment for the ski jumping establishment. Many athletes and officials felt that he was 'making a mockery' of the sport.

Shortly after the Olympics finished, the entry requirements were greatly toughened, making it next to impossible for anyone to follow his example.

At the closing ceremony the president of the Games singled him out for his contribution: "At this Games some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle."

At that moment, 100,000 people in the stadium roared 'Eddie! Eddie!'. It was the first time in the history of the games that an individual athlete had been mentioned in the closing speech.

Excuse me but I find that simply fabulous.

[out of control] danger of hypocrisy

High Priestess of the New Youth Culture

I was out of Britain for years from before the time of Pink Floyd's "We don't need no ejucashun" and if what we read in Australia was any indication, the ASBOs have been around for quite some time.

Not that it was any picnic in Oz but there seems to be an element to the Brit of the sort of provocative behaviour in the young which didn't get to the colonies till later. The Sex Pistols were no accident and the Ramones emulation was more like posturing - in Britain it was the real thing, with razors and so on.

I had a British "girlfriend" at the time from Sutton Coldfield and she used to write to me about Brummieland and her inner city school. There were some wild things going down it seems and when I got back to the U.K. in '88, the acid house parties were starting up - you know, you listen to the DJ on the radio and he gives the venue for the rave - hundreds of cars turn up.

So the Gemma Anscomb thing did have its precedent. When you think it out, if she's 15, it's likely the boys are 17 to 19 or even older but even so, it gets you thinking of how bad we were [or not]. When I was teacher training at 19, there was a girls' school not far away and there was a house - probably belonging to one of them - everyone knew what happened at lunchtimes in there with up to eight or nine girls.

I never got to the party, more was the pity but my mates did.

Grass, acid and coke were rampant down to maybe senior school level - 17 or 18 but this sort of thing at a much lower age wasn't really all that prevalent. My parents bought me a house when I was 22 [with my saved pittance thrown in] and I had an 18 year old guy in with me to help cover costs.

Gemma Anscomb

These guys partied but the really rampant stuff was at other parents' places and I spent half an hour at one party and felt out of place - the boys were 17 to 19 but the girls were 16 on average - although they didn't seem fazed by me being there. Then one night I was elsewhere, as it was Paul's birthday and they were having a stripper.

Even now I think I should have stopped the whole thing before it started but hell - my mates were getting married and having stag nights - well, all right. I should have said no.

They trashed the place and when I got back, paralytic myself from my do, mid morning, there were two couples in my room, the stripper had used my bed but next door was insane.

One girl called Ruth, maybe 15, was being used by virtually every boy in the house and the living room had other couples round, most out cold on the floor by now, evidence of coke was about, they'd urinated over the kitchen bench and so on. Things had been torn off walls.

The fact that I still remember that girl's name is because I was shocked to the core, not because of the sex, per se but because it was indiscriminate. She was from a good family and apparently she'd gone outside to phone home at intervals.

The little b-g--rs were playing on my reputation to give them the room to move with parents.

It stopped there and then, the neighbours were relieved when that crew moved out lock, stock and barrel and I never saw them again. But I feel guilty about that kid. Really bad. Even now.

Which brings me back to Gemma Anscomb. Even on our floor here in this building, there are teenagers of 14 and we had a recent incident when the parents went out and local boys were let in from the downstairs security door by the three girls in neighbouring flats.

I'm certain the parents would not believe in the least that their little Alina, in whose mouth butter wouldn't melt, would be up to gang bangs. I know and she knows that I know and gives me strange but defiant looks when I sometimes see her.

So I've read people's comments to the Mail - oh how could the parents be so naive and so on. Hey, c'mon - your kids are angels, aren't they? They'd never do such a thing, just as you'd never if you were that age again. Yeah?

I wish I had a pound for every time a parent's said, "I know my son/daughter and he/she would never lie to us."

All kids lie, all kids try to feed off the gravy train for their expensive lifestyles, all kids have a separate, dark internet world to their parents who themselves think they're pretty cool dudes and eminently broad-minded. It's trendy to completely trust your kid.

It's not just the age though which upsets me and the way parents facilitate these things today through their own naivety. It's the totally lost way in which it's all being done now. - kids don't even go to a separate room any more, to the toilet or to the back of the car. It's a gangbang. Any vestige of decency does not exist any more because it's not been taught, not instilled.

Adults are terrified of appearing uncool in their kids eyes and the kids are becoming hedonistic monsters, turning savagely on anyone who tries to stop them. I had a 15 year old girl here for English, again from a good family and she didn't want to do one exercise.

When I said we needed to, in order to get to the next part, she turned apoplectic and threw her pen across the room. This sudden anger at being thwarted is all part of the culture enveloping kids now. Confirmed by my students who have kid brothers and sisters.

When I was in a boarding school, I once told my colleagues about what I knew was happening behind the girls' boarding house and what was the reaction? Suspicion of how I could have known that, when they'd not seen or heard anything. This was an ego thing - each thought he/she was savvy enough and trendy enough to know, so how could Higham know?

It was bleedin' obvious. Plus kids did use to say things or give things away and I'd never shopped them until this point. I was never trusted after that, the kids didn't say anything at all any more, anywhere near me and I went back to being one of the ignorant - until the night fifteen of them were caught in the sixth form room. Hell, I could have told them that.

One lunch time I'd gone up there and there were two boys studying at desks and one in bed with two of the day girls, sisters. I let the girls get out of there but a note one had written to a boy saying what she was going to do with him was apparently dropped in the driveway and picked up by the school dragon woman.

It hit the fan.

So - kids are kids and they'll always test the limits, push against the barriers and try to find out who they are that way. If adults are just jelly or even putty, the kids have no limits - over here they call it "byespryedyeli" - and they'll descend to the bestial within a few years.

While they'd curse you for opposing them, for being a brick wall, while they'd find ways of circumventing you, some part of them would eventually forgive you once they grew up.

There's decency inside there somewhere but no one seems interested in it these days.

Election Time! Guest Post by Matt

Well, tomorrow the general elections will be held in Spain. Attempting to hold on to his position at the head of the government is Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Now, I might have only been here two months but it seems awfully strange that the man´s podium are the initials of his last name (originally it was ZP then changed to just Z).

Hoping to get his position is Mariano Rajoy. Zapatero is from the PSOE (Spanish Workers Socialist Party), Spain´s version of the Democrats or Labour. Rajoy is from PP (Popular Party), Spain´s version of the Republicans or Conservative. I just make that comparison so you all will have an idea, as the two parties are not completely alike their US or UK counterparts.

Both sides have pulled out all the stops as far as posters are concerned. I could also list what each party wants to do but I figured you all would probably have looked for the info if you really did care. So, I´ll just stick to posters. Here are two that can be found in the metro line near Plaza de España for PSOE.

"It´s not the same (without PSOE in power)," says the poster. Note the Z I was talking about earlier.

"The eighth most powerful economy (in the world, if I´m not mistaken), the number one in social rights. Motives to create." Note that someone defaced this poster.

Popular Party´s HQ as seen from the street.

The gigantic poster of Rajoy in Puerta del Sol. I thought I had seen it all in terms of gigantic posters. I was sorely mistaken. I´m writing this at 5:38 p.m. I went to Circulo de Bellas Artes for lunch (I´m a member there). As I was walking towards the metro station here in Argüelles, I saw this!

That´s on Princesa Street right before you hit the metro station in Argüelles. That poster is by my estimate at least seventy five feet in length. As you can see, it basically spans the enitre building. Here´s one of Zapatero in the metro:

Unfortunately, this campaign didn´t end on a happy note. Yesterday was the day the campaigning must end, in accordance with Spanish law. ETA decided that they needed to get involved (maybe they were ticked that two of their parties were banned for three years). So they killed one of the ex-advisors of Zapatero´s party in broad daylight in front of his wife and kids. They shot him twice in the stomach, once in the throat, and twice in the arms.

A friend sent me a text message right as I got out of class telling me what had happened. I didn´t understand at first, as he gave me the name of the city in Basque, not Spanish. After asking someone where the city was, I immediately understood. Another friend sent me a text message later last night which read, "Han vuelto a asesinar, a pocos días d las elecciones. Así llevamos 40 años."

In English, "They´ve gone back to killing a few days before the elections. That´s how it´s been for us for the past forty years (in reference to how long ETA has been around)." So, on that note, I end the post with this image, the monument to those killed on March 11, 2004. I hereby use it for Isaías Carrasco who needn´t have died yesterday. I´ll be in a high school tomorrow, checking ou the elections for my own benefit. I´ll send photos later on.

The Metro - Guest Post by Matt

Having never lived in a city with a well developed mass transit system (I just use my car in Indy and the surrounding suburbs), Madrid´s metro subway is a jewel. It is fast, efficient, and always reliable. Even though we´ve had the occasional hiccup due to construction (like line 1, my line, being stopped for a few hours (I wasn´t on it at the time) due to a water pipe being struck during construction on the streets above), I am told it is the most reliable subway on this side of the pond (sorry James!). Having not gone to the United Kingdom, I´ve yet to see if it´s true or not.

The metro has it´s own TV channel with gigantic projectors in the tunnels, like this one:

They often run their own version of news, showing the top stories from around Spain. Occasionally, they´ll run their own ads to encourage you to use the metro. Generally these are transmitted on TV but they show this one, which is relatively new, all the time (it´s one of my favorites).



For those who don´t speak Spanish, here´s a translation.

The guy comes back from Madrid, Spain to Madrid, Phillipines and the town sees him, saying, "Hey, he´s here!" They´re gathered around a table and they ask, "How´s the other Madrid?" The guy says, "La Cibeles (a plaza here in Madrid) is good. The Prado Museum is good, too. But what really makes the difference is the metro." They ask, "Metro?" and he lays down the map of the routes. The old guy looks up and says, "So, let´s build one!"

They bring in all the stuff and someone says, "Hey, the tunnel (for the subway car) is here!" They´re inside the tunnel and the guy says, "Hey, it´s just like the one in Madrid!" So, they get in the subway and this is the truly funny part. The car moves maybe ten meters and the new station tone (which is the real deal from the metro, as well as the sub way car) sounds and the automated voice says, "End of the line (also genuine)."

The voiceover says, "The metro that every city wants to have when it becomes big. Metro of Madrid, let´s go!"

A final thought: they had to have shot that commercial in one of the metro tunnels here because the scene where they step in to the car and it moves ten meters has too many aspects of one of the tunnels I frequent. Plus, I doubt they had an extra 30.000.000€ lying around to build everything again.

International Day of Women

Today is International Women's Day and my thoughts are here. They're long. Better I prefer this simple statement by Nunyaax:

As much as a source of frustration men can be and likewise women, I'm all for the recognition men do deserve. The age old saying , you can't live with them but sure as hell can't live without them either. Yes women and men maybe equal but we are not the same, I believe there is many things you can get from man, excluding breeding , that women just cannot provide.

By the way, her post shows that there is indeed an International Men's Day. Never knew that. The Soviet February 23rd is not exactly the same thing.

To the women, those I adore and even those I don't, of course men must try to stop the abuses your sisters suffer but as friends, not as the enemy. What's the point on standing on rights if one half of humanity won't listen? Work with us, not against us.

To my mates - hey, you're sick to death of these posts on women but just this weekend, suspend any little niggles and tune yourself into her - she might not be expecting it. Shower her with attention and give her what she wants. Hell, it's just one weekend - go out on a limb and work her all weekend.

Or else phone your ex and suddenly go soft on her. Sudden, strange surrenders.

Whatever. We'll get back together for a beer on Monday.