Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Glastonbury's ended and Wimbledon's begun, as the summer moves from one great British tradition to another.
But is that the topic of the day?
I cannot say. For, the choice is not mine. It is yours.
We have, after all, hit another Tuesday in the second half of a month, and that means it's time to re-unleash the beast that is Speak Your Brain, the feature in which only you The Reader can decide what we discuss.
That might be art, films, flans, plans, books, bagels, cooks, nooks, crooks, ducks, drakes, pixies, rocks, music, mucous, fairy tales, fairy lights, Fairy Liquid, fairy cakes, Eccles cakes, myth, moths, maths, magic, tragedy, comedy, dromedaries, murder, larders, Ladas, mystery, mayhem, molluscs, Moorcock, May Day, mangoes, bongoes, drongoes, bingo, Ringo, Pingu, Ringu, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Doris Day, Marvin Gaye, the Equinox, parallelograms, rhomboids, androids, asteroids, pomegranates, sofas, eggs, pegs, legs, dregs, sodas, sausages, eggs, whisky, broth, Bath, baths, Garth Marenghi, Garth Brooks, Garth Crooks, Bruno Brookes, Bruno Mars, Mars Bars, wine bars, flip-flops, flim-flam, flapjacks, backpacks, see-saws, jigsaws, dominoes, draft excluders, dunderheads, deadheads, webheads, flowerpots, flour pots, bread bins, bin bags, body bags, body horror, shoddy horror, doggy bags, bean bags, coal sacks, cola, cocoa, pancakes, pizzas, baking soda, sci-fi, Wi-Fi, Hi-Fi, sewage, saunas, suet, Silurians, Sontarans, Sea Devils, sins, suns, sans, sense, sludge, slumps, sunshine, slime, soup or sandcastles.
Then again, it might not be.
Do you still use cash? Would you welcome a cashless society?
ReplyDeleteDarn! I was going to ask everyone, “what was the strangest thing you ever swallowed? “Obviously, we would be on our best behavior answering that question.
ReplyDeleteAnon, my sister swallowed a balloon when she was about 7 or 8.
ReplyDeleteSweet jesus! What happened?
DeleteTo answer my own question: the last time I used cash was on May 25th 2021. That was the day I received my first Covid vaccine injection and on my way home I bought a can of beer costing £1.09 which I paid for in cash but I've never used cash since then and I've been fully cashless since last November.
ReplyDeleteI swallowed a roll of film today. The doctor's told me to wait and see if anything develops.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Colin, if you throw away your cash as easily as you just threw away your prestigious role as nominator of the big discussion subject, you're better off without it 😂
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ReplyDeleteI swallowed a washer as big as a 2 Euro as a kid. Never to be seen again! Just like those bits of gold when you do those schnaps shots of “Goldschlager!” Where do they go?
ReplyDeleteThe big bang, and then reality Anonymous - thats what happened.
ReplyDeleteColin - May last year?!? Wow. The last time I used cash was a few hours ago. And I ain't telling you or anyone else what I used it for.
I would welcome a cashless society in the Marxist sense, but in the current backward state of human society, no way. You'd have to be mad to want a digital record of everything you'd bought and done.
-sean
I still use cash occasionally, but there’s a very specific reason. My Dad, who is 79, has only rudimentary internet skills and lives in a small town where all the shops have shut down. He’s a big fan of films and music but there’s nowhere to buy them. So when he wants something he messages me and I order it for him used on Amazon or eBay and he posts the money up to me. So I usually have £10 or £20 in cash on me.
ReplyDeleteTakes a long time to use it, though. I broke a fiver yesterday in a charity shop, but even they take cards for even piffling amounts like 50p now.
I don’t welcome a cashless society because every time I see a homeless person and consider giving them some change, I haven’t got any. It reckon that’s probably true of most people.
That last bit nails it Matthew.
ReplyDeleteSo heres a more serious response from me: in 2017 my bank were doing id checks on their punters. They told me the easiest way to confirm my identity was to go to my branch with my passport - a simple formality.
Except when I did that it turned out my passport wasn't acceptable because I'm a bloody immigrant. Well, they put it more politely than that, but basically they gave me a month to prove who I am to their satisfaction or they'd close my account down.
Its bad enough as it is that you can't get by these days without a bank account, not unless you want to be totally marginalised. Cashless will be even worse.
-sean
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ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced cashless is the way to go either, there are issues with this as noted by Sean and Matthew. I still use cash although mostly for smaller items like coffee, charity shop purchases, coffee, magazines etc. Sadly I see cashless eventually happening as the banks always get what they want - every time I go to my local bank they try to get me to move to banking online.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing I swallowed was my pride boom boom! (that line is from a UK comedian noting a corny joke)/
Charlie here, interestingly enough five of us went to breakfast this past Sunday and paid cash. But we all remarked how funny it was that we had cash on us in the first place. And actually the discussion the next few minutes was essentially the same as Colin’s question.What a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteBeing a bit old school, I still use cash, albeit for small purchases. Indeed, I use the plastic for most transactions.
ReplyDeleteKind of like how I still collect compact discs, while streaming some music. That's me, one foot in the past and one in the present.
Worst thing I swallowed- when I was a wee tad, I saw what looked like a cup of root beer on the counter. Took a big gulp- and no, it was bacon grease. Ugh, still remember the revulsion, over 50 years later!
Colin and Anon, thanks for the topics.
ReplyDeleteI think the only time I've used cash in the last three years was a few weeks ago when I bought three orange Yorkie Bars for £1 in the local Moor Market. It would have felt extravagant - and lacking the authentic market stall vibe - to use cashless for such a purchase.
As for the second question, I don't think I've ever swallowed anything strange.
That sounds a bit sensible of you, Steve.
ReplyDeletePaul, banks do seem keen on pushing the cashless society thing, but theres also pressure going in the other direction, as the rich and powerful have an interest in having some forms of payment that are difficult to trace.
How would the royals get millions from dodgy Qatari sheiks if they couldn't hand it over in carrier bags full of cash?
-sean
Thanks for the comments. I used cash regularly until the arrival of the pandemic (which hasn't gone away whatever BoJo says) but using a card is so much easier that I've stuck to that method. I too feel guilty if somebody asks me for money and I can't give anything but there seems to be a lot fewer people asking for money now, at least where I live in South Wales anyway. It used to be the norm for people to sit outside Tesco asking shoppers for money but no longer - I suppose too many shoppers are using cards due to the pandemic. Sean, that's an excellent point about the super-rich needing untraceable payment methods, I'd never thought of that! By the way, my bank is Halifax and they haven't done any ID checks on their customers. But I doubt there'll ever be a fully cashless society - cash will always persist like LPs have persisted!
ReplyDeleteColin-
ReplyDeleteCash is KING. Whenever I deal with most folks and they shoot me a highball price ( sellers, collectors, mechanics, etc) if you have a few 20, 50, or 100 dollar bills on you, that price is more negotiable.
Probably the two worst things I ever swallowed was (1) a BOATLOAD of white moths at a party. I was huffing them down like M&M's, just to freak everybody out. Washed them down with alot of beer.
The next morning I had a few big hurls when I woke up, and each one saw large puffs of white powder coming out of me. Wings in my pavement pizzas.
The number (2) was when my dad's buddy (who would bring crap like smoked shark & fried newts to our house) brought homemade jerky. After we tried it he said it was made from human flesh. The guy was an egg-case, so I don't quite disbelieve him.
Tasted like bacon.
-Killdumpster
Smoked shark is very chewy & rubbery, like squid that's been under the heat lamp too long at a Chinese buffet. I wouldn't touch the fried newts.
ReplyDelete-Killdumpster
Man, virtually all I lived on till I was 17 was whatever wild game my dad could shoot. We had to eat like the Clampetts from the Beverly Hillbillies.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to art school in Pittsburgh I lived on Spagetti O's, McDonald's, and White Castle for months.
-Killdumpster
Can't say all wild game is bad, though. My upstairs neighbor from New York, when I was going to school, received some moose steaks from an animal that his pal bagged. It was, and still is, the best meat I've ever tasted.
ReplyDelete-Killdumpster
Moose sounds good KD. I quite like Bambi steaks but they're a little dear.
ReplyDelete*groans*
ReplyDelete-sean