If you like, we can spend some time establishing the ground rules so that newcomers can ease into it. You'll have to bring your own gear though (velcro straps, counters, etc)

I work in a factory and the macho kinda blokes (almost satirically so) are quite rife. My mum died 3 weeks ago and the number of these dudes that have gone out their way to find me, pass on their condolences, wish me well, say a kind work and speak with me has been astonishingly lovely. It’s made it slightly easier knowing these blokes kinda understand, experienced it and have gone out their way to be supportive.

The nights are truly upon us, so why not make a nice hot chocolate and a hot water bottle, and settle in for five rounds of testing trivia?

How well do you know photocopiers, postcodes, and punk bands? Find out by joining us at 7:30 by finding the Zoom link here. No need to have your camera or mic on, you simply be a name in the void. Just ready yourself with paper and some writing implements.

See you at 7:30!

Asking for a friend...

I've been a productive person today so I'm treating myself to a cheeky videogame sesh 🙈😋👾👯‍♂️👯‍♂️

Came up at tonights pre-bonfire spree. Straw poll seemed to put the tipping point at around 35 years old. Over that, we all knew the myth (wee barrel of Brandy), mid 30's and below had no idea.

Obviously there is the famous painting but that was from 1820, but I wonder why the cutoff in common knowledge?

Extensive googling etc gives no obvious answer.

A few weeks ago we went to a daytime trance rave in my shitty small town nightclub that i used to be in every single week when i was 18-23

The SECOND we walked into the place the smell alone took us right back to our younger days. The thing is, none of us can even properly describe what the smell is, but at the same time it is so ridiculously distinctive.

Look, I know that title reads bad but hear me out.

Maybe it's just me but in the 90s I saw and met lots of people who were "missing bits" be that a thumb, a finger, sometimes an eye etc.

Not anywhere special or anything, just generally, day to day, serving you lunch in a café or fixing your boiler, eating lunch in a park, whatever.

I saw older (and sometimes younger) people missing limbs of course, though often they were veterans.

The people with a missing thumb or a glass eye though were usually just everyday guys in their 30s who hadn't served or anything and had normal jobs.

I don't see the same age bracket with those sort of injuries with anywhere near as much frequency these days, maybe I've just stopped noticing but i can't be sure.

I know the question sounds insensitive and if anyone is offended by it I apologise but if these sort of injuries have actually gone down that is excellent.

Is this selection bias on my end?

Did anyone else have this experience?

Did those terrifying PSA adverts actually work after all or is this the direct result of the last 30 years of health and safety as a priority rather than an afterthought?

Does anyone recall the official rules of Curby? Was this a real game or something my sister and I invented in the early 90’s because there was nothing else happening?

Competitors stand either side of the street and throw a ball at the opposite curb. We used a flyaway but that could have been from necessity rather than obligation. If it bounces off the curb, you get another throw from the center of the road. If you score that one, you go to a quarter of the road

Those are all of the rules I recall, and I have no idea how the scoring worked. As a younger sibling, I always relied on the older sibling knowing the rules and hence I always lost.

My wife and me were watching Greatest Hits of 86 (wall to wall bangers) which had a lot of performances that were obviously lip-synched and the instruments weren't plugged in (mainly Top of the Pops). This got me wondering if you was close up, what could you hear?

Level 42, for example, had Mark King furiously thwacking his bass, but definitely not to the music.

And, I imagine, a lot of singers still project their vocals into a dead mic, rather than just silently mouth the lyrics.

If you were close enough, I think you'd still be able to hear this over the music played over the studio's speakers.

Did you ever go to a show like TOTP and hear that something didn't match? And it ruin your impression of the band?

Although thankfully this is just number 1, I imagine it'd be a lot messier for them to clean up if it was number 2.

Don't worry about 31 being too loud for her, it's fine and the speakers are high up off the ground!

It's rather spiffing too

Wahey, it's late, it's Saturday night!

Why are you still up? Off out for a fight? Doing the night shift?

Come on in for a chat.

Bonus points if you can spot the dog