Hark! the melancholy sound of bagpipes in the evening

[oursin]

Yes, really, as I walked down State Street this evening, somewhere further along there was a bagpiper.

Am at Wiscon, which has started and I have done my first panel on Waves of Feminism (as I confide my dearios know, hedjog skorn utterly the wave theory of feminism, and may have mentioned that It's Orl Moar Complyk8ed).

Have remet with various auld acquaintance tho' there seem several of the old familiar faces not here this year - most of which I anticipated in view of health stuff, job changes, house moves, etc.

Have acquired from the soap shop some vetiver soap, which has been peculiarly unobtainable in my native land - Roger and Gallet stopped doing it, and so did L'Occitane de Provence, Y O Y do they do these things?

There is a poncey new place that sells, along with wine and other spirituous liquors, various culinary oils and fancy vinegars. I am so in the market for some fancy vinegars - one has great difficulty in finding fruit vinegars or lavender vinegar these days for some reason - but I nearly ran out of the place when surged up to by the owner or manager or sales person saying it was a tasting shop and let her know if I wanted to taste anything. (No, really, Just Looking.)

Dept of Lewd Smirking, at a book in a shop (no, no, it was a respectable knickknackery shop) window all about Pocket Billiards - is that like Pocket Pool? Get those 'ands out of yer pockets!

Comments

[davidgillon]

Dept of Lewd Smirking

I've always heard it called pocket billiards

[nineveh_uk]

Same here.

[slemslempike]

And another!

[supergee]

"pocket billiards" is an old euphemism, used because "pool" had connotations of lowlife and delinquency (cf. The Music Man).

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

"Trouble! Right here in River City! Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for POOOOOOL."

[cofax7]

Oh, I miss going to Wiscon. Maybe next year... Do have fun at the Farmer's Market.

[bibliofile]

Oh, Vom Fass? A German chain, I think. We got the second shop in North America a few years back, but it turned out to be the start of a great expansion and now they have thirty-plus stores in the US. Friends who cook like their products a lot, including some WisCon folks.

[clanwilliam]

There's a branch in Bath, and there's a couple on the M25 fringes as well.

[mme_hardy]

I live in a hotbed of fancy oils and vinegars; say but the word and I'll send you a package. (Olive oil pressed with Meyer lemon is wonderful.)

[quoththeravyn]

When, lo these many years ago, I was a grad student in Madison, living on the Isthmus, I would walk to the University along State Street. For a year or two, there was a piper who would practice his bagpipes in the plaza in front of the Historical Society, of a seven in the mornings, far from the ears of sleeping people.

[littlered2]

Demijohn does similar products and offers samples to taste in its shops, although they are not pushy, so I quite appreciate the free raspberry vodka (or whatever).

[oursin]

Ooooh! Thanks.