Weekend Chatterbox

I guess an egg mayonnaise finger is a standard egg mayonnaise sandwich, but sliced into three rectangular fingers.

What’s wrong with non-ironic and unmocked use of the term ‘finger sandwich’?

Finger sandwiches are a delicacy that me and my triple hard bastard mates used to eat while on exercise in the regiment.  You slice a regular sandwich horizontally into three bits - the very toughest among us used to cut the crusts off, and add cress. Best enjoyed with jasmine tea from a bone china cup, under heavy gunfire with infantry backup an hour away

So an egg mayonnaise finger isn't like a fish finger?

I'm somewhat disappointed and relieved at the same time.

Ah, this rabbit hole is far too deep, so just a few points.

Unlike the Flumps for you, the Moomins weren't really part of my childhood. That is because I'm German and the German translation of the books (as far as it exists, not all books have been translated) sucks. As a child I read them and liked them but was left a bit confused. Decades later I read an academic thesis (can't remember whether it was M.A. or PhD) on the topic of the German translation of Tove Janssen's works and it became clear why I had found it so confusing: it's because large chunks had been left out or moved around and the plot had been butchered.

So my interest in the Moomins is more as a work of literature and art and less as a part of popular culture. Having been introduced to them in English, my husband had much more of a connection to them, which in turn made me take an interest. (And I'm pretty sure that he first read the books when he spent part of his childhood in the US.) We both had an interest in the biographies of Astrid Lindgren and Tove Janssen.

I've been to Finland and I've been quite impressed with the way commercialism of the immensely marketable Moomins is being handled there (I drink my tea out of a Moomin cup, naturally), although there are voices saying that even that is too much. As for Disney, Janssen herself turned them down and both the stop motion and the anime TV adaptions exist already. I was just surprised that for a younger American the Moomins are no longer part of a shared cultural memory.

Perhaps some lemon juice in the mayo. Certainly no lime. You're thinking of a fish taco.

 
I was a very bookish child, but the Moomins were never in any of the primary school libraries I attended.  My only exposure to them was that charmingly janky stop motion TV series that was current when I was young, I'm sure none of my peers would have known they were firstly illustrated books at all - I certainly didn't. Even then, it felt very much like the brown bread of kids TV, like it was supposed to be good for you.  In retrospect the thoughtful folk tale-ness of it seems quite charming, like a gateway drug to fantasy literature. 

It's curiously touching that the Moomin's IP is so jealously guarded by their custodians. Its kind of nice I suppose, though I'm not 100% convinced by the idea that commercialising them more would be 'bad' per se.  The Harry Potter franchise is an absolute cultural juggernaut, but the films and marketing and other film-flam definitely helped put a lot of books in the hands of kids who otherwise might not have chosen to do much reading, and continues to do so. 

Having said that, my only exposure to the Moomins as a kid was the TV series, which at the time I thought was shit. So perhaps those guys know what they're doing after all. Seems like it's more nuanced than I first thought (just like every other thing I start to wade in on and then wish I hadn't) 

Too many times to quote them all but is no one going with the howler?

‘Finger this’

Found this on imgur; somehow I can't see EA* doing this...


*After they canned the online Lord of Ultima owing me £60 (impossible to be successful without buying Ministers to automate city functions) when I went into hospital in late 2013, no matter attractive the game, they haven't got a single penny out of me.

"EA announced that all servers would be turned off on May 12, 2014. On March 1, 2014 EA no longer offered support through their official LOU forum. User reports suggest most servers had already been turned off as of March 5, 2014 well in advance of the May 12th closure, prompting anger among remaining players who were told days earlier by EA to spend their remaining funds as no refund would be issued" Wikipedia

That was theft...

I’ve just been reading the Google LAMDA transcript.

theliberacy.com/2022/06/12/full-interview-of-google-ai-lamda-about-having-sentient/

Long wait until next year:

It takes you an average of 4 weapons to kill someone?