The Off Topic Topic

[celedhring]

Fascinating what some people can find enjoyment in.

Seems a way to add some fun and silly excitement to a routine trip he did every week.  Good on him.

[Admiral Yi]

Can't decide if it's totally zen or totally anal retentive.

[The Larch]

The OCD must be strong with him.

[Agelastus]

Fascinating what some people can find enjoyment in.

Seems a way to add some fun and silly excitement to a routine trip he did every week.  Good on him.

I agree.

I don't think the OCD is strong with him at all given the circumstances.

[Malthus]

I find kitchen islands are just more convenient. If my kitchen was walled off I would spend more time just taking things to/from the dining room.

We have a 90 year old house with such a plan - the kitchen is tiny by modern standards, purely utilitarian, and can be closed off from the dining room.

I'm kinda used to it. The kitchen could certainly be larger, but the sad fact is that we mostly eat in front of the TV in the living room, not in either the dining room or the kitchen ...

[Sheilbh]

For Yi - an architectural historian on Twitter has explained one of the possible explanations for "terraced housing" in the UK. Apparently the name was stolen from the Georgian Adelphi Terrace (largely demolished in the 30s) which was actually built on a terrace:


The ground floor level was taken up with docks and warehouses, and houses were build on a terrace on top of them:

[Valmy]

Why was such an architectural masterpiece demolished I cannot imagine.

[Sheilbh]

A little bit survives:


And, rather pleasingly, it was largely replaced by an Art Deco mansion block of the sort I imagine houses David Suchet's Poirot

[Sheilbh]

Was reading a piece in the Guardian about the number of top UK ambassadorships held by women - the new Ambassador to France will be a woman which means we have our woman in x for all of the G7, all of the Security Council, the UN, NATO and other key countries like Australia and Nigeria.

It included this bit of history

Until 1946, the Foreign Office banned women from diplomacy and until 1973 it required them to resign if they married. A rule requiring female diplomats to return to the UK – without keeping the job open – if they had a child in post was abolished even later. The first married female ambassadors were not appointed until 1987, 12 years after Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party. [...]

Among the arguments put to a Foreign Office commission in 1934 for women not working in the diplomatic service included the idea that many countries were so different from Britain that "it would be extremely difficult for a woman to make the contacts, which form a large part of the work of diplomacy".

It was also claimed that the introduction of a female officer into the intimate life of missions abroad would present difficulties in that she might have to live alone, which would excite "undesirable comment", or she might have to share government-owned accommodation with another junior officer, which would be embarrassing unless the other officer was also female. Some held that "the physical constitution of women is not such as to enable them to bear the strain of continuous overwork in hot and unhealthy climates".

[The Larch]

"the physical constitution of women is not such as to enable them to bear the strain of continuous overwork in hot and unhealthy climates"

This has to be said while wearing a monocle.

[Josquius]

Hmm, you know I can sort of see the logic to an extent. There is a lot of sexism out there in the world and back in the day when ambassadors didn't have the homeland immediately available by phone it was tough.
Obviously kept much longer than it should have been though.

I'm honestly kind of surprised the excuse wasn't something even sillier about sexy foreign men enticing them to betray merry old England.

[Sheilbh]

I'm honestly kind of surprised the excuse wasn't something even sillier about sexy foreign men enticing them to betray merry old England.

Yes - of course they may just have been comfortable with that risk given that it was also present with every male British ambassador/spy in that period

[Valmy]

And, rather pleasingly, it was largely replaced by an Art Deco mansion block of the sort I imagine houses David Suchet's Poirot

Art deco

[Sheilbh]

Important reporting by the Guardian on Noel Clarke:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/apr/29/actor-noel-clarke-accused-of-groping-harassment-and-bullying-by-20-women?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Edit: Wrong thread

[Admiral Yi]

For Yi - an architectural historian on Twitter has explained one of the possible explanations for "terraced housing" in the UK. Apparently the name was stolen from the Georgian Adelphi Terrace (largely demolished in the 30s) which was actually built on a terrace:

Mystery explained.