Mastodawn

Ken Doyle Mar 27

@BigJackBrass wrap self in bubble wrap and drink medicinal tea from a travel mug.

Roger BW 😷Mar 27

@Kendoyle @BigJackBrass Iced medicinal tea (scalds). With a straw.

Jon Hancock

@RogerBW @Kendoyle It's a dice roll, chaps, not an augury.

Roger BW 😷Mar 27

@BigJackBrass @Kendoyle Spoken like a man who hasn't noticed the black cat crossing his path. (Probably hoping for food.)

Jon Hancock Mar 27

@RogerBW @Kendoyle Black cats are lucky, and I'm especially lucky to have mine.

Ken Doyle Mar 28

@BigJackBrass @RogerBW they are actually seen as good luck in Norway.

Jon Hancock Mar 28

@Kendoyle @RogerBW Same in Britain on the whole, especially with sailors and actors. The universal notion that they are bad luck is primarily an American thing, but of course it spreads because of the US dominance in film and TV, a bit like Halloween as a costume party with pumpkins.

@BigJackBrass @Kendoyle The history of ships' cats is very under-documented, perhaps because it was often unofficial. @garius has an episode of #UntitledHistory about it.

@RogerBW @BigJackBrass @Kendoyle @garius

There are weirdly quite a few children's non-fiction books about them. My younger daughter was fascinated by them for a time.

@RogerBW @BigJackBrass @Kendoyle @garius

Charnock 6d ago

@BigJackBrass @Kendoyle @RogerBW

On the whole except all the Black Cat Sithe that wants to steal your soul type myths?

@Printdevil @BigJackBrass @Kendoyle The cat that sits on your chest in the night (sleep paralysis) is default black because it's at night, I think. (In some cultures it's an old woman.)

@RogerBW @BigJackBrass @Kendoyle

Surely "in the dark all the cats run grey" is the expression.

Jon Hancock Mar 28

@Printdevil @Kendoyle @RogerBW Hey, I'm not pretending that there haven't been a few isolated individuals who have rather let the side down…

@BigJackBrass @Printdevil @Kendoyle "All shipwreck survivors who have reported meeting dolphins in mid ocean have said the dolphins were friendly." "All shipwreck _survivors_."

@RogerBW @BigJackBrass @Kendoyle

@RogerBW @Printdevil @Kendoyle

Jon Hancock Mar 28

@BigJackBrass @Kendoyle Make Halloween real again. The spirits of the unquiet dead roving the land to steal souls, probably of naughty children (it.s never been clear to me why everything wants to eat naughty children, I'm sure well-behaved ones are much more tender and less able to defend themselves).

Kale

Mar 27

@BigJackBrass @RogerBW @Kendoyle Exactly, Jon. Exactly right.

*subtly takes a 'don't hit me with the lightning bolt' step away from Jon*