The Off Topic Topic

[Sheilbh]

There's something joyful about people being enthusiastic about things like this

Yeah - UK Tik Tok has a really prominent train watcher and I think it started as possibly mocking/taking the piss but has transformed into popularity and affection beecause it's basically just a guy being really enthusiastic and excitable about his hobby. And there's something really nice/heart-warming about that.

Especially after the trainspotting guy was kind of doxed as a former model and "normal" teenager so, it was implied, not a real trainspotter but a con artist. He did a video of with footage of him trainspotting and building model trains with his dad when he was a kid and saying it was something he really loved and then repressed as a teenager to fit in, but got back into both as Tik Tok thing but just during lockdown. I'm sure all of us had something like that and it's really sad when you tamp down those enthusiasms that every kid has.

It's a bit like that - I won't necessarily get why someone's so excited about a Class 43 HST or an A380 - but I can get really behind their excitement. Especially when it's matched with something that is obviously super-impressive (and sligthly terrifying/nauseating) like pilots landing planes in high winds.

Edit: And it is just quite funny that at its peak I think he had about 300k people watching - which is more than two and half times the most watched program GB News have ever put out. So I think GB News should now be replaced with Big Jet TV.

Separately economists continue to ponder why the UK has such low productivity

[Admiral Yi]

I don't think I've ever eaten an artichoke.

They're lovely.  Eating them requires a bit of technique though.  Heart of palm is similar and not as much work.

[Malthus]

Heard a really amazing bit of gossip from my parents today. Apparently, it had the elderly Jewish population of the Forest Hill neighborhood of Toronto all abuzz.

A very elderly Jewish lady recently died (at the advanced age of 105). She was a wealthy woman, what they used to call a "spinster", and described charitably as "formidable". The Temple ran an "in memorium" website where mourners can write comments - most were of the usual type, but one was very different.

It started out "Cecilia was a woman of many secrets, and I was one." Went on to explain that the writer was the natural son of this woman, who was adopted as a newborn - and he wasn't the only one: he found out through 23 & Me that he had a full sister, 12 years older, also adopted - they have the same father. The two did some research, and found out that their mother had an affair (at least 12 years) with a man she met in the 1940s - who worked in a stable.

The amazing thing is that she was able to conceal two pregnancies. Apparently, no-one knew. (My mother added that the really amazing thing was that this woman had an affair - apparently, she was the last person you would expect of having any such feelings for anyone, and "bone ugly" - her words).

The kids approached their biological mother when they found out (their dad was long dead). However, she wanted nothing to do with them, and refused to say if there were any other siblings out there. So the son wrote on the in memorium page, hoping to find other siblings, if any.

Apparently, some moderator took this posting down, but not before someone took a screenshot, and so everyone in the community heard about it.

[HVC]

So are the kids going to be rich now?

[Malthus]

So are the kids going to be rich now?

I get the impression they already were well off - both were adopted by other wealthy Jewish families.

No idea who will inherit the old lady's cash. I doubt it will be them.

[Jacob]

She sounds like the kind of person who would've written a will.

[Josquius]

What a horrid woman.

[merithyn]

What a horrid woman.

You don't know her circumstances. It could have been intensely painful to her to see these children. It could be that it wasn't an affair, but rather rape.

Don't judge what you don't know.

[Malthus]

To me, it's interesting how these genetic testing services are actually uncovering old secrets like that.

[Sheilbh]

To me, it's interesting how these genetic testing services are actually uncovering old secrets like that.

There's a lot of secrets to uncover. There's a whole trend on Tik Tok, for example, of young Americans discovering that x grand parent chose to pass as white. I feel like that side of things is only going to increase as more people do these tests.

[HVC]

I found about a secret turkish cousin when a family member used a kit.


On the other side of my family a secret daughter showed up and got a third of the inheritance.

[mongers]

Fancied having a new wool blanket, looked on line, when did they get expensive?

I think the price range is between £30-60 per square meter. 

[Josquius]

What a horrid woman.

You don't know her circumstances. It could have been intensely painful to her to see these children. It could be that it wasn't an affair, but rather rape.

Don't judge what you don't know.

And the children?
Their whole lives wondering who their mother is, they finally track her down and all they get is a fuck off?

[Syt]

Picture from a meal at the Munich Security Conference.



This forced diversity everywhere these days is completely out of control! 

[Eddie Teach]

Hey, they've got some with hair and some without.