MrsDoyle

A lot of Nazis were Christians.

Here’s an example of “mansplaining”: I’ve been beekeeping for close to ten years. A gentleman joined our group recently who has had maybe a few months’ experience. Wearing a brand new bee suit and gloves, he proceeded to tell me how to carry out a basic hive inspection. He was not assuming I shared his exact knowledge, he was assuming I knew even less than him.

The term mansplaining came about because it encapsulates a very common scenario. I know a few chaps who constantly explain stuff to me that I know a lot more about than they do, and in a very condescending way. One old codger even patted me on the head and said, “A young thing like you wouldn’t know about MS-DOS.” I bought my first computer in 1984.

I haven’t found mansplaining as prevalent among young men, I must say. They seem more open and egalitarian in their approach, more respectful. Though a friend told me, “It’s because you remind them of their granny.”

We live in a society. I believe that a predisposition to empathy, compassion, love, all those good things, is inbuilt in us to help maintain a stable, cohesive society. They are taught to young children, who learn to share, care, co-operate. It seems like some people never grow up, and still need a “parent” to guide them.

I’m never bored. What’s it like?

Morality matters, friend, even for atheists like me. The trouble with the “only believers can be moral” standpoint is that believers can end up doing the most heinously amoral things in the name of their god. Like burning people alive for example. Stoning sinners to death.

Isn’t that just poached eggs?

Now there’s an idea.

I wish my windows worked like that!

Edit: And my DOORS!

Time to get a hive! It’s only very slightly addictive, honestly. (My friends have stopped asking me about bees…)

We get free use of a spot next to an apple orchard, so I guess pollination is our “rent”, plus some honey. I don’t know what arrangement commercial beekeepers have - near us they move 60+ hives in when the oilseed rape (canola) is flowering, then move them again when it’s finished. A guy I was talking to said they reckon they can break even with 300 hives, because one person can deal with that many. More than that they have to employ someone else, and bang go the profits. Sounds like a nightmare. I struggle to cope with 7 hives!

No, you’re helping all the other pollinators too! Keep a corner of your garden nice and rough, with tumbled bricks or rocks, twigs, dead leaves etc to make a wee nesting spot for bumblebees.

Lol, I was the computer genius in my office job because I knew how to change the paper size on the printer from Letter to A4. Soak up the praise!

That’s a swarm - get in touch with your local beekeepers group/organisation and someone will probably come and collect it.

Otherwise don’t fret, the bees will do their thing. Scout bees will leave the swarm and look for a new home for the colony (the queen plus a third to a half of the original hive). They report back with details, and a collective decision is made on the best choice. The swarm will then leave. (Honeybee Democracy https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691147215/honeybee-democracy is a good read on this.)

Back home the rest of the colony have a new queen pupating. She’ll eventually hatch out, go on a mating flight, and come back to start laying eggs.

People praise me up for “saving the bees”. Honey bees don’t need saving. It’s the other bees that do, the hundreds of species of bumblebees, mining bees, solitary bees etc etc. Bees that are outcompeted in some areas due to the number of hobbyist beekeepers and commercial bee farms. I’m one of the baddies.

Same. I was very much in the wrong.

Scots is full of wonderful words - glaiket, baffies, birl, coorie - it’s hard to pick a favourite. But I’ll go for “thrawn” - it’s a kind of perverse stubbornness, a grim grip on a point of view.

I stayed out later than normal one time and missed one of my dog’s walks. He tore up a newspaper while staring at me. Rip, rip, rip. He knew I spent time looking at newspapers so he chose to destroy one, while heavily implying that if I fucked up his schedule again he would rip ME up.

I vote for your comics to stay here. Not to my taste exactly, but variety is a good thing, and I do appreciate your art. I probably wouldn’t subscribe to a separate community though. Stay!

My mouth is actually watering. That looks delicious!

I heard some of those NI rioters being interviewed the last time this sort of thing kicked off, and they were going “There’s too many immigrants! But the Polish family next door are ok, decent people, and the Khans across the road too…” The people they were talking about had to board up their windows and barricade the door. How can you keep both those ideas in your head?