What did you eat today that you picked?

Colne perhaps refers to the overwrought state of political correctness on the other side of the pond, which I surely did notice when visiting family in FL this past winter. Too much severity becomes cruelty; but too much mercy becomes chaos.

Thank you for the encouragement, Colne. I am content with my lot. A capacity for contentment is something to be cultivated right alongside the tomatoes, and it has nothing to do with circumstances. Mind you, homemade blackberry jam does serve as an enhancement.

 

How is the usage of Miss? Is that what single women use, or everyone who does not use Mrs?

In recent days the European Parliament has again caused "outrage" in the British press after publishing a pamphlet asking staff to refrain from using the titles Miss or Mrs.

,
"The proportion of children born to unmarried mothers hit a record 47.5 per cent last year, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figure has risen from 25 per cent in 1988 and just 11 per cent in 1979.
If the trend continues at the current rate, the majority of children will be born to parents who are not married by 2016."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...dren-will-be-born-out-of-wedlock-by-2016.html

The world is getting on fast. When my father was a boy, (he is 94 now) his extended family farmed with giant draft horses and were very successful. 30 foot long threshing machines traveled the region and would set up on large farms - powered by long belts and a diesel engine they would thresh and winnow the grain, - separate the wheat from the straw and chaff - which was the biggest job of grain farming. The grain was cut with a massive scythe that had a catcher on it, a sweep would cut one shock. Women would then stand the shock and tie it with a string of the straw and 4 shocks piled, three making a tripod base, one laying over the top. The grain could cure then. Giant horses pulled huge wagons with 8 foot tall wheels wile men would pitch fork the heavy shocks onto the wagon all day wile men on the wagon stacked them high. And then to the thresher. All within living memory.




But then, off to feed the chickens and make an herb bed, today has gotten away from me somehow.

 

'Miss' is for unmarried women, and still in common use in more formal circles where title is appropriate. I've never once encountered a woman refer to herself as 'Ms'. That's not to say that some don't, but I think the vast majority of people are happy to use whatever title is appropriate for them. The only one that seems to have fallen out of use is 'Master', for an unmarried lad. I have no idea why that is. Maybe its because its hard to refer to someone as master when they have not achieved enough to be master of anything, or maybe its because of the implication that they are somehow in charge by default just because they are male and unmarried. Who knows.

The European Parliament is only taken seriously by two groups of people, people outside of Europe, and MEPs. Even then its questionable as to whether anyone takes them seriously. It didn't used to be unusual for them to cause outrage, but people mostly just laugh at them now. Other good examples of European Parliament 'outrage' would be the bendy banana fiasco, the square strawberry fiasco, and the almost universally flouted ban on imperial measurements which once saw a market trader get done by the law. In the future, people working in the entertainment sections of the media will make a huge amount of money by producing and selling very successful comedies based on the European Parliament. People will find it funny while they think it is pure fiction, but will find it even more amusing when they find it was based on factual events.

Might be true. If its in the papers, it often isn't though. But even if it is, kids being born out of wedlock does not mean that the title of 'Mrs' will vanish. Lots of people do things in 'the wrong order' nowadays, having kids first and marrying later.

 

Onion sarnie? No cheese or tuna with it?

 

Rocket with sandwich for lunch.

Steamed cauliflower with dinner.

 

I picked a bag of chard and Italian kale which were boiled in minimal water and had with butter - excellent. We eat a lot of greens, the Soul food of the South always has greens and after years here Soul food has become integral to my diet.

Every evening meal begins with soup at our house, mostly one I knock together just before eating and last nights had carrot and onion from the garden.

Then fish and microwave chips (from a real potato, never frozen)

I make a lot of pies and the black berries are forming up - if any survive the birds they will be fantastic as pies.

 

Even in 2014 when you'd have thought they'd have had years to get used to it. There's still a slight flurry of panic when I bravely announce my name to be Ms_____.

Ms tends to be used in several situations: 1.Where you are a woman who does not wish her marital status to be instantly revealed when she gives her name. 2. Where you are a woman who firmly believes her marital status to be absolutely irrelevant to any situation other than her domestic sphere and 3.Women who justifiably would like to have total parity with men with regard to naming and titles and 4.Women who believe that the two-tier naming and title system reflects society's patronising and belittling attitudes to women's roles in general.

Myself, I would be happy with several options:
1. All women to be automatically titled Mrs after the age of say, 18, 21, their choice. Therefore Miss would be reserved for children, in effect. A bit like France. The use of the title Mrs would then be associated with adult maturity, not marriage.

or

2.All men to be known as Master (like they are as small boys) until they marry, at whatever age, whereupon they are promoted to Mr. This would bring about parity in male and female titling, so I'm sure no-one would have any quarrel with that. I certainly wouldn't be so unreasonable as to insist that a man be encouraged to take his wife's family name upon marriage! That would be demeaning to him, wouldn't it, and make it look like he was a chattel by obliterating his previous identity?

Today I have mainly been eating cake, but sadly I didn't pick it off a cake tree.

 

Madahhlia, slippery slope here - I have been banned from a couple the main talk sites because I have opinions outside of conventional lefty PC - I like to think from a wide life experience (Lived in many countries and places - extremely well read). I managed to get banned from Urban75, the main anarchist site, for talking of the legal fiasco of parliament banning sex selection abortion because they were making up unjust law by picking and choosing their way through popular morality. Not everyone can boast of that achievement.

But other than adding that in the vein of the spirit of your post above; boys must be made to play with dolls and girls with toy army tanks, I disagree.

And that tonight I plan on having broccoli before it goes into flowering.

 

Can we keep on TOPIC please?
Jenny

 

I picked a slightly stale cheese and ham sandwich from our canteen vending machine today