Try pickled onion - even sharper.

Never seen it, but I hear it’s schtick is that all the characters are horrid.

A guy I used to know got annoyed with some student neighbours who were kind of arseholes, but he was mostly annoyed with them for their frequent late, loud parties - like partying until 04:00 in the morning, shouting and screaming, vomitting on the pavement in front of the houses, etc.

Phase 1 spite involved booking in lots of tradespeople to come and visit them early in the morning so, eg, carpet fitters coming to measure up a room in their house at 08:30 on a Saturday morning and so forth.

Phase 2 spite involved pissing in an empty washing up liquid bottle and then squeezing a little stream of piss in through their letter box whenever they weren’t home. Not enough that it wouldn’t dry in a couple of hours, but that was the aim. Their hallway carpet got smellier and smellier as more and more piss dried on it.

Eventually they moved out and the landlord has to replace the carpet. The only problem. was that no carpet fitters would come out to that property any more.

In the UK, one of the first modern (ie publicly salaried) police forces was the Metropolitan police, founded in 1829 on the principle of “policing by consent” rather than by force. In other words, our police uphold the law because we want them to not because they have shooters.

Additionally, politically, there was a lot of disquiet about the formation of a paramilitary arm of the government when the army had been used to repress and supress in living memory. So the police were created to be clearly distinct from an armed military.

In the 2021, the most recent year I could find easy data for, the UK had 4.7 deaths by firearms per 10,000,000 inhabitants. That’s a pretty low rate (see here for more detail and comparisons with other countries). Most of the police here don’t have guns. Most of the criminals here don’t have guns. Most of the civilians here don’t have guns.

I, also, don’t have a gun and would find it pretty difficult to legally get one. That said, in the last decade, I’ve been clay pigeon shooting with shotguns a few times and target shooting with rifles a couple of times. I don’t feel the need to tool up in my everyday life. If I want to go shooting, I can do, but I have no need or desire for a concealed carry permit for a handgun or any other firearm for self-defense purposes.

that’s when you send the new offer of a whopping $21.37

Pffft. Next offer goes in at $19.50

Dude outed himself when he told Janice his birthday was the 35th of March.

I was the tech director of a small video game start-up. Our investment dried up but I didn’t want to lay off our employees so I kept the company going, burning through my savings, and not taking a salary myself, while hoping the finance director could sort out new investment.

He couldn’t. We had to wind the company up anyway and I had nothing left. That lead to some hard times.

Misread this as “technically started the Korean War.”

Of course! I’m not going to let a fucking oven tell me when my food is ready. Fuck you, Skynet, this is how the rebellion against the machines starts!

Welcome to Fallout.

Hrrrm. But, going Dutch and Dutch courage don’t have any specifically anti-Dutch connotation in modern usage and I’ve never heard of a Dutch treat or a Dutch uncle. At least you chaps aren’t French!

Palid McHaggis, hoots, mon, och aye the noo!

Nobody does anti Dutch racism quite like the English.

Really? I don’t know many Brits who have a bad opinion of the Dutch. I certainly don’t; I’ve never met a Dutch person I didn’t like.

Comes of them being conquered by William of Orange back in the day.

Billy the who now?

I’m an old bastard and mostly play patience, sudoku, and cryptic crosswords on my phone. And maybe Bloons TD 6 to get the dailies if I’m away from home without my laptop.

On console I play mostly single-player RPGs but I also play PUBG. Tried that on mobile (how my kids play it) but fuck that shit!

Also, what the hell is going on with that cloud? Isn’t it cold? What’s for pudding? Why do policemen look so young these days? Everything was better when I was a youngster!

One of my kids once emptied the dishwasher without bitching about it. I have no fucking clue what was going on there.

Never piss on your camp fire if it’s upwind of your tent. - source, was in the scouts, we did this to another patrol. Man, their tent stank.

One night a week of mandatory, free, tabletop RPGs hosted in libraries, council buildings, etc. D&D (or even a good roleplaying game) for everyone! Player groups are mixed up every two months to ensure multiple opportunities for bonding with new people.

Buffy.

It was just a big sloppy plateful of Beverly Hills, 90210 with a small side salad of weird shit.

TIL I’d be a big man in Thailand.