tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post515118907319600070..comments2024-02-06T07:57:54.467+00:00Comments on underdogs bite upwards: Drink!Leg-ironhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932361799889315359noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-19742050611809461272010-09-06T10:53:17.265+01:002010-09-06T10:53:17.265+01:00Leggy, might I suggest a spot of reading material ...Leggy, might I suggest a spot of reading material for you? "The Healthy Dead" by Steven Erikson, fantasy set in the Malazan Empire storyline. In this series, there are many and varied drugs enjoyed by the population and given the assorted magical and conventional problems that beset them, nobody can really blame any of them.<br /><br />However, in one city-state the ruler has enacted a reign of Righteous terror, banning anything which might harm the populace and making living saints of those who almost die whilst working. Saints are forbidden work, which makes surviving something of a challenge, so two of them scrape together a small fortune to pay a trio of fairly famous characters to end this king's horrendous regime; all drugs, drink and even red meat are now also banned for the good of the populace and almost nobody likes the regime.<br /><br />However, when hiring people to do in a king, a little caution is possibly advisable; you might end up with a noted necromancer, a raiser of demons and their harried and excessively nervous manservant as your assassins...<br /><br />Read it, Leg-iron; you'll not be disappointed. The collected stories of these trio is funnier yet, but this novella is a nice intro. The series from which they are drawn is the usual collection of fantasy door-stops, although not without quite a lot of dark humour along the way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-13004104526189536542010-09-04T23:24:59.442+01:002010-09-04T23:24:59.442+01:00Fair point. Still, I suppose it was a lesson in se...Fair point. Still, I suppose it was a lesson in selfishness. Mine that is, because I was expecting to get a warm glow from my munificence. Then again I've seen a bunch of disabled kids on a flight calling each other spastics and monkeys, loudly with great good humour in the most appalling language and wonderful lack of political correctness. My heart was warmed, and I was ashamed because I had felt sorry for them as pitiful objects before I suddenly realised that they didn't in the least feel sorry for themselves, and that they were human beings in the noblest couldn't-give-a-fuck-what-people-think tradition, and that I wasn't.richardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-32833890941794004002010-09-04T22:17:39.160+01:002010-09-04T22:17:39.160+01:00Anon- yes, it's how smokers are increasingly v...Anon- yes, it's how smokers are increasingly viewed, with a few differences. Such as, children are not encouraged by their teachers to attack homeless people in the street. Yet.<br /><br />Stan - for me it was the Aberdeen area in Scotland. There was some urgency to get off the street as the year drew to a close.<br /><br />Richard - as I said, they are human too. So they do include some twats.Leg-ironhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04932361799889315359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-937773926358716062010-09-04T14:55:46.802+01:002010-09-04T14:55:46.802+01:00I gave a pound to a gent at Glesga Central Station...I gave a pound to a gent at Glesga Central Station after being moved by his brief but eloquent hard-luck story. Whereupon I received the following response - "Thanks cunt, Ah'm awa' tae place a bet". <br />Which is why I prefer to use spare change for bets instead of Scotsmen.richardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-80436390002680845132010-09-04T12:50:20.699+01:002010-09-04T12:50:20.699+01:00Top post Leggy,
I was homeless and pennyless just...Top post Leggy,<br /><br />I was homeless and pennyless just over a decade ago,with a little determination and focus I dragged myself out of that situation,fortunately I was living in the Med at the time so the weather worked for me not against me.<br /><br />Sleeping on the beach had its pros and cons,beautiful night skies,camp fires for cooking fish I had caught with my fishing pole,the waves lulling me to sleep, and the commaradere of others.<br /><br />I guess i could have lived like that for years and some did,but it is a struggle with dangers,in the end I sold some of the fish to resturants, bought and then started selling cold drinks and slices of mellon to the tourists on the beach,I rented a small flat and the rest is history.<br /><br />I learnt a lot from that time,about myself and others,cant say its made me sympathetic though,probably the opposite.I am Stanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04101757111187294588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-79262685962014605442010-09-04T10:04:48.217+01:002010-09-04T10:04:48.217+01:00if you still think it's health you are either ...<i>if you still think it's health you are either a moron or an MP. I'm not sure which is worse. Or whether there's a difference. </i><br /><br />A person does not have to be an M.P to be a moron<br /><br />But "Moron" is a prerequisite for being an M.P.Furor Teutonicushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13856575077967523322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-24443790329757786962010-09-04T10:02:46.442+01:002010-09-04T10:02:46.442+01:00Follow upsFollow upsFuror Teutonicushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13856575077967523322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-83484544186803336252010-09-04T10:02:09.498+01:002010-09-04T10:02:09.498+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.Furor Teutonicushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13856575077967523322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-61273515083864185532010-09-04T09:17:48.258+01:002010-09-04T09:17:48.258+01:00A long time ago I spent, for complicated reasons, ...A long time ago I spent, for complicated reasons, a couple of weeks without home or money. I was lucky, it was temporary, I was given a way out or back. During that time I met some of the most damaged and most generous and humane people I've ever encountered. They had nothing but still they would give you some time, or encouragement, or just a friendly silence. I have, since then, never regarded those street people as 'other', as trash to be swept away, but as the ones who look on the work of Ozymandias and despair, while clinging, as best they are able, to their meagre trappings of humanity.PT Barnumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-454044204189877702010-09-04T09:02:18.743+01:002010-09-04T09:02:18.743+01:00'He is disgusting, he is filth, he will spend ...'He is disgusting, he is filth, he will spend it on booze and drugs'.<br /><br />I think that we smokers get a taste of that kind of attitude, nowadays. I've sat on a public bench and had a complete stranger tell me that if I didn't smoke I'd be richer. You can guess my response.<br /><br />I used to come across (probably) the same winos between the station and my workplace in the centre of Glasgow. I once tried to put one into the recovery position to which he protested strongly. I was well-meaning but patronising. As a smoker, I've now been kicked out of the righteous gang and feel that I've joined the swelling ranks of those the Righteous regard as lesser beings. I'm not a kinder person for it but I'm less patronising....<br /><br />Jay<br /><br /> <br /><br />JayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com