En Passant

Gz Mary. I'm in it in 2021, so you have no chance of retaining your title. None. None at all. No sir.

To be fair, if Iain were to wish death on everyone who has called him a dickhead Rush Limbaugh probably wouldn't make the top 10.

Does being hopeful work better in bold? I'll have to try that because as ever I'm getting nowhere at all in standard Times New Roman. Perhaps I'll try impact even Comic Sans. Yes, I'm at a bit of a loose end for a minute.

I wondered the same thing, so I emailed The Pew Research Center asking about it and they have in fact just replied. "We are an American institution (that's why we can't spell center) and Donald Trump just bought Greenland (technically, the transaction is still in process), therefore its current status as an independent state is irrelevant going forward. Also, the blue felt-tip ran out".

Gerald Ford. (Succeeded both Spiro Agnew as vice president and Richard Nixon as president when they respectively resigned).

I've no doubt of a 'bounce back', especially once that utter tit is out of office (even if it doesn't silence him), nor that this is the first blip they've ever had, clearly it isn't. However, this one is different enough to at least put a pretty big dent in their practice of preaching democracy to the rest of the world for a while. At least you might have thought so. Out of interest in exactly how democratic the world is today, I dredged up this.

How is anyone going to know?

Yeah, no worries Deathers, I didn't know the history of this pool and rightly or wrongly joker and wildcard have never been directly interchangeable in my mind so thought it might be two different things here as well, Sorted anyway.

Ah good, we are joined by yet another hyper-aggressive twat. Your name doesn't contain any variation of 'kenny' does it? Are you US based? Are you over 20? Take your time.

Tough Crowd.

Which is indeed what I was basing it on, released 1979 so presumably mostly shot in 78/79 making him 26'ish if born in '52 and 18'ish if born in '60. Just a young looking mid 20's then I guess.

Which say's he was 68? Seems unlikely, wiki has 60 ....

Making overpriced headphones.

Don't see it toasty. Sure Garden Centres are useful, but I can't see any argument for essential. Gardening sure, going to the garden centre? Nope. Same goes for planes since TQR brings it up at least those carrying people rather than food. Supermarkets have to be open, people have to eat, that they carry other lines is incidental. I don't care if they close those aisles off to be honest, though once you are there.... I can't get the idea out of my head that if nobody saw anybody else for the length of the virus infection period, what is it? 14 days they decided now? 10? Whatever. Boom, no virus. I know it's impractical. But we should be able to get closer than we have. People arguing to keep the one or two things they like open just gets in the way.

Garden Centres? Really??

I try quite hard not to be a hater. But honestly? You do a reasonable job of that without outside help.

Not a trace Eliza. Though you can keep the fiver, I knew well enough the fallacy of my claim. Unsurprising really.

Mark Twain will be turning in his grave (now that he's actually in it).

Jerry! It is you and icm £5.

Despite what it may appear from these boards, I don't hate the place, my father and uncle lived there for decades and I spent a fair amount of time there myself in various locations, Missouri, even Texas and California and I thought the people were mostly wonderful. But they do have a propensity for being a little, hm, not cosmopolitan maybe? Insular? Don't know exactly but something like that.

Gawds Mary, you do have the absolute darkest sense of humour on occasion. Are you Jerry Sadowitz in disguise? I'll admit, that affair does rather jaundice me on any holier-than-thou US pronouncements (as if I weren't before). It's not as if they are even claiming our justice isn't up to their almighty standards and they want to ensure she faces a fair trial there, they've just let her walk. No crime committed in the US so no foul. And our lot just accept it. Rules of the game old chap, diplomatic immunity what what? And in the meantime 2 parents are grieving a kid who was killed by a woman driving on entirely the wrong side of the road. So yeah, fuck the US and their extradition request. Bugger all to do with Assange though, sorry about that. Oh, and incidentally, I erred, it can't even be treasonous of course, he's an Australian.

Not particularly cynical in my view. He's just yet another self-absorbed twat, albeit one with a supposedly humanitarian agenda. However, the US isn't known for being what others might call 'fair' in its treatment of people it considers have acted treasonously. So personally I'm glad that so far the extradition attempt has failed. The things Assange and Manning (even Snowden) have exposed don't to me show that the US is exactly an unimpeachable 'good guy'. Illegal wars, unjustifiable invasions, questionable meddling in other nations affairs in general etc etc. Besides, they won't even countenance handing over Anne Sacoulas for a trial here. So fuck 'em. Balls, I got political. Damn. Still I suppose it's hard not to in a thread about Assange.

Ach, AIUI, A joker in cards is a specific type of wildcard, i.e. one that's always wild or isn't used at all. Any other card or even set of cards (trumps) could be a wildcard, depends on the game. I don't know the history of how the term joker came to be used as a modifier for double points in a quiz, as here, though that doesn't seem to me to be the same thing really? . In any event, I said I wasn't gonna play pedants, and I'm not, not least because clearly I'm not certain where I really stand here (to be corrected probably ). That they are interchangeable here, no matter how much that confuses me, is settled and I'm sorted (and still won't trouble the leaderboard).