(no subject)

My nascest beard is about three weeks old now. I've had mixed responses.

* Normally whenever anyone changes in appearance, even a haircut or wearing different sorts of clothes, no-one they meet can resist pointing and dropping jaws in shock. I'm very impressed that everyone, friends and family, didn't.
* There were a few guardedly optimistic responses
* There were a few shocked negative responses, though the shock may be from the change, rather than the negative.
* If any of the poleaxed people want to put some tactful words to their reaction, I'm listening, and appreciate the honest feedback :)
* We had a play with the camera, but didn't get any nice pictures yet. I might as well let it fill in as much as possible before admitting it online :)
* I rather like it. I think it *does* make me look distinguished. Of course, it's something like being a ukulele-master, being good at something ridiculous rather than average at something normal, may or may not be desirable. I certainly don't care if I'm fashionable, on the other hand, I certainly care what people I like think.

(no subject)

Did you know, kipper is a sort of smoked haddock?

OK, you do know that. But in twenty-five years, no-one told me that. It's the sort of thing that it seems odd to run up to someone in the street and say "Hey, just in case you don't know, Haddock is a sort of smoked kipper (or vice versa)!") And yet, it would have been useful if someone had. It came up in conversation, and it suddenly clicked when I realised those two fish being discussed were the same.

(Being vegetarian, I've never known any of the details about quite a lot of sorts of meat, just enough to know I didn't eat it. I had a vague impression you didn't want to get slapped in the face with a wet one, but none at all what they were like to eat. And it never happened to come up in any book I was reading or work I was doing. Well, until yesterday; you'll be unsurprised to learn that it was a literary allusion that finally did bring it up.)

Conversely, someone (iirc) didn't know that the horse's head in the bed was from the Godfather. That, people (mainly the simpsons) really DO run up to me and tell me, despite never (yet) seeing the film. (It's near the top of my list.)