Recent Discussions — Ship of Fools http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/ Thu, 21 May 2026 19:55:04 +0000 en Recent Discussions — Ship of Fools Wordle http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4080/wordle Wed, 12 Jan 2022 20:03:33 +0000 The Circus Piglet 4080@/index.php?p=/discussions Wordle?

I got into it when my nephew posted a link to it on our family Whats App group, and to be honest, it's just as well they only offer one per day, or I'd be doing nothing else!

I'm not sure quite how it'll fly here: I'm thinking of people posting about their successes and failures.

Just remember: try and avoid spoilers - bearing in mind that we're in several time zones.

For the church music geeks, someone on Farcebark has set up a spin-off called Byrdle.

I'm not usually one to boast, but I got the first Byrdle in one guess. :smirk: ]]> The New, New Crew's Quiz http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/186/the-new-new-crews-quiz Sun, 25 Feb 2018 20:40:43 +0000 The Circus Ariston 186@/index.php?p=/discussions Guessometers ready?
Blasted Fillums are too hard
Dram of Highland Park.]]> What have you inherited? http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6926/what-have-you-inherited Sun, 17 May 2026 13:07:22 +0000 Heaven Boogie 6926@/index.php?p=/discussions @Puzzler 's comment -
Yesterday we had a most enjoyable conversation in French on inheritance - not the financial kind, but traits and artefacts we have inherited.

What have you inherited?

(In English please 😉)]]> spring http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/187/spring Sun, 25 Feb 2018 20:41:54 +0000 The Circus Ariston 187@/index.php?p=/discussions The Trivial Round, The Common Task - the British thread 2026 http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6726/the-trivial-round-the-common-task-the-british-thread-2026 Thu, 01 Jan 2026 04:31:12 +0000 All Saints Nenya 6726@/index.php?p=/discussions
What we're doing with our day, what we're having for tea - bring it on!]]> Alliterative Antics http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6779/alliterative-antics Sat, 17 Jan 2026 15:10:55 +0000 The Circus Boogie 6779@/index.php?p=/discussions Rules of the Game:

every round of the A to Z Two-Word Game has its own theme, or subject, throughout: e.g. animals, cars, cities etc.
each round goes from A-Z, using in order the letters of the English alphabet
each participant posts 2 words, an adjective and a noun, where the noun fits in with the theme, and where both adjective and noun start with the same letter of the alphabet
the next participant posts (in a separate post) 2 further words, both starting with the following letter of the alphabet, again an adjective and a noun (with the noun going along with the same theme as the previous post and current A-Z round)
the person who arrives at Z suggests please a new subject for the next round of A-Z

Special Rules

usage of an English dictionary or thesaurus book or online is explicitly allowed, as one of the fun elements can be to discover new adjectives, and possibly even new nouns. However, a dictionary or thesaurus is by no means necessary to participate.
There are some tricky letters, e,g, X and Y, or perhaps Z, where it is difficult to find words that fit the current theme. Just do your best. We will see how far we get.
if you can, avoid using the same adjective as in a previous round - if possible. It's about creativity!]]> Platform 9 and 4/4: A New Railway Appreciation Thread http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/5411/platform-9-and-4-4-a-new-railway-appreciation-thread Sat, 11 Nov 2023 12:29:51 +0000 Heaven Wesley J 5411@/index.php?p=/discussions
Ready for departure now. :)]]> Canada's Political Landscape - 2026 http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6763/canadas-political-landscape-2026 Sun, 04 Jan 2026 23:12:43 +0000 Purgatory Marsupial 6763@/index.php?p=/discussions
Happy New Year everyone. Hope 2026 brings better things for Canada and for all of us. ]]> Illegal Children’s Homes and their costs http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6929/illegal-children-s-homes-and-their-costs Thu, 21 May 2026 16:36:15 +0000 Purgatory sionisais 6929@/index.php?p=/discussions Cost of children In unregistered care homes.
I read this with a mixture of disbelief and anger. How has this happened on anybody’s watch? I know from personal experience (through my grandchildren) that when things get difficult, social workers have to simply find the least bad option but surely it cannot cause such harm to vulnerable children and riches to the owners of some of these homes? A figure of £2 million a year per child is mentioned- go read it.
Further words fail me.
]]> Is God Disabled? http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6923/is-god-disabled Sat, 16 May 2026 15:23:11 +0000 Epiphanies Gramps49 6923@/index.php?p=/discussions
I take it Disability Theology does not see a disability as an obstacle to be overcome, but as a lens through which we experience God in different ways, like how feminine theology has allowed us to find the feminine side of God. As such, it reinterprets a number of the healing miracles.

The discipline is not new. It started up in the 80s from what I can see.

Many of us have admitted some of the barriers we have. Some of them are medical. Others are social, but, but, ultimately, we all have limitations. For me, the question is not how do we reach perfection, but how God uses our imperfections for his ultimate good?

This is something I am wanting to explore more. I hope this can be an interesting exploration for everyone too.

https://joniandfriends.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/BYS-01-A-Theological-Introduction-to-Disability.pdf

https://www.christiancentury.org/books/when-ableism-and-racism-intertwine

The article I was reading is not yet online. But these two links do give you a taste for what Disability Theology is like.]]> Reform(ed) http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6928/reform-ed Tue, 19 May 2026 00:14:01 +0000 Purgatory Gracious Rebel 6928@/index.php?p=/discussions
Is this a good idea to be applauded? Sad but necessary? Or what?

What other examples can you think of where the name of a religious entity has changed in response to secular politics? Another one that springs to my mind is a Baptist Church in my town that used to be called 'Mount Zion Baptist Church' but is now simply known as xxxxx rd Baptist Church.]]> Stealth Drivers http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6925/stealth-drivers Sat, 16 May 2026 23:34:42 +0000 Hell sionisais 6925@/index.php?p=/discussions There’s just one thing that gets her goat on the road, and that is drivers who do not use their lights. This evening, a dingy overcast, light rain but there were still cars with no lights on. None, not even side lights. Worse still, they were all black, grey or silver, the very colours that are hardest to see against wet tarmac in half-light. And my wife has decent, legal, eyesight (she’s diabetic and has annual checks).
What is it with these people? Are they saving energy?]]> Headlines of Utter Weirdness http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/470/headlines-of-utter-weirdness Sun, 08 Apr 2018 11:15:05 +0000 The Circus Wesley J 470@/index.php?p=/discussions this thread on strangely worded headlines from the papers we read, respectively their online counterparts. These could also be quotes Shipmates saw in an article, put into amazingly bizarre and/or funny ways. Some are conscious choices by a clever author, many are simple negligence and thoughtlessness.

A few of these curious wordings may be changed shortly after publication by a responsible and responsive proofreader, but more often than not, they aren't.

I hope this thread might make us wonder and marvel about the language used, and the entrapments thereof. Have fun!

* * *
Here's my gift for today, from the Washington Post, in an article about a fire in NYC's Trump Tower:
Sixty-seven-year-old Todd Brassner, 67, who was in the apartment, was taken to a hospital and died a short time later.

May he rest in peace, twice-agespecified Todd.]]> UK lifelong smoking ban for all born after 2008? http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6896/uk-lifelong-smoking-ban-for-all-born-after-2008 Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:44:06 +0000 Purgatory ChastMastr 6896@/index.php?p=/discussions
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn08jy6w0l5o
Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

Children aged 17 or younger will face a lifelong ban on buying cigarettes, as the Tobacco and Vapes Bill clears Parliament.

Both the Commons and Lords have settled on a final draft of the "landmark" legislation that aims to stop anyone born after 1 January 2009 from taking up smoking by making it illegal for shops to sell them tobacco, to create a smoke-free generation.

Thoughts?]]> Book and Film Titles with One Letter Changed http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6784/book-and-film-titles-with-one-letter-changed Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:08:16 +0000 The Circus RockyRoger 6784@/index.php?p=/discussions
'Far from the Madding crow'
'Schindler's Lisp'
'The Wild Lunch'
'A Suitable Bog'
'Cold Comfort Fart'
My own favourite, Thomas Hardy's only erotic lighthearted sex comedy, 'Toss off the D'urbervilles' doesn't (quite) fit the rules, but what the hell.

More, please!

*Rules of the game: Change, add or leave out one letter of a film or book title in order to create a possibly light-hearted new version of the same.

* * * * *

[Hostly Add-On, 4 February 2026, 13.49 GMT]

Note: OP and thread title edited for clarity: a) Thread title adapted from 'Book and FilmTitles with one letter Changed'; b) implicit rules explicitly stated*, as per Circus Guidelines: [...] If you are starting a game, please spell out the rules in the opening post. [...] - Thank you.

Wesley J, Circus Host

[/Hostly Add-On]]]> Evangelizing other Denominations http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6927/evangelizing-other-denominations Mon, 18 May 2026 13:58:43 +0000 Hell The_Riv 6927@/index.php?p=/discussions Bad jokes http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4572/bad-jokes Wed, 31 Aug 2022 21:50:38 +0000 Heaven HarryCH 4572@/index.php?p=/discussions
Why won't Dracula attack Mick Jagger? Because you can't get blood from a Stone.

Why won't Dracula attack Gene Simmons? Professional courtesy.

How can we diagnose the difference between bubonic plague and pneumonic plague? Ask
the patient to return tomorrow.

How can you tell whether the bear chasing you is a brown bear or a grizzly bear?
Climb a tree; the brown bear will climb it after you and the grizzly will just knock the tree down.]]> Earworm? 🐛 http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6050/earworm Fri, 15 Nov 2024 12:03:05 +0000 Heaven Boogie 6050@/index.php?p=/discussions Donald ******* Trump http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6020/donald-trump Tue, 29 Oct 2024 07:02:06 +0000 Hell ChastMastr 6020@/index.php?p=/discussions
The Madison Square Garden stuff seems like a new low.]]> Fucking Guns http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/146/fucking-guns Thu, 08 Feb 2018 23:00:35 +0000 Hell Doc Tor 146@/index.php?p=/discussions The Labour Government - 2025 http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6201/the-labour-government-2025 Tue, 14 Jan 2025 13:07:43 +0000 Purgatory Louise 6201@/index.php?p=/discussions
One of the reasons I was glad to be in Scotland and not feel I had to vote Labour at the recent election was because their whole 'we will pay for better public services out of economic growth' pitch looked like obvious snake oil.

If you wanted any decent chance of significant economic growth, the realistic thing to do would be to start reversing Brexit. Brexit is such a clear and colossal case of self-harm that any politicians who start from the position that it's fine or beneficial or we should keep it are right out of the gate the political equivalent of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers or the kind of grifter who adopts that colouration as advantageous never minding the harm it does.

Now it looks to me like they've gone full snake-oil on economic growth over AI. There's a current thread on AI itself. Some AI applications do specialist things well but the kind being pushed by the big corporate firms at the moment tend not to be of that sort and have many issues.

But two people I know who are professional IT experts both basically said the same thing to me - I give the pithier version- "Nothing makes me sweat like the three words "Government IT Project". There's a huge history of getting government IT projects disastrously and incredibly expensively wrong with a big side-order of corruption and deals for mates and donors.

Starmer himself has been quoted in the Financial Times saying
I don't think it's going to take five or ten years to double productivity, not for a moment", adding that he was "absolutely confident that the timeframes we're talking about are much, much shorter.

And while he pours money into this mirage, Rachel Reeves is basically going to be telling people who need public help 'Let them eat AI!' as she looks for cuts to benefits and public services, and the magic economic growth fairy promised by Starmer fails to appear.

There have been lots of posts previously tallking about how and where Labour use scapegoating to attack minorities. This is another more toxic form of snake oil and magical thinking: attacking migrants and immigration doesn't improve public services. It's immoral and acts as a distraction and a false solution to real problems when people are encouraged to blame real hardship on imaginary causes.

It also has the well-known harm seen in many other countries that if you accept the far-right framing and analysis behind scapegoating and offer a 'lite' version of that which fails to improve people's lives (because the whole framing was false in the first place), then it positions the far right with their full-fat version to win. You admitted they were right in their analysis of the problem but you just didn't go far enough. And your opponents have the advantage of not just having failed for all to see to improve anything.


The latest You Gov poll is now

LAB: 26% (-9)

RFM: 25% (+10)

CON: 22% (-2)

LDM: 14% (+1)

GRN: 8% (+1)

SNP: 3% (=)

Labour are only 1% ahead of Reform.


I honestly think this economic snake oil and social scapegoating approach is going to be catastrophic. It's the definition of a Right Wing party to me. And I simply don't know how it can be turned round by the next election because the flaws in this way of thinking go so deep.

(In depth discussion of the scapegoating side would belong in Epiphanies unless this thread is placed under dual rules)


]]> Thank you awesome people http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6919/thank-you-awesome-people Tue, 12 May 2026 16:36:06 +0000 All Saints Pants 6919@/index.php?p=/discussions
:smile: ]]> Casey at the Bat. Baseball 2026 http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6755/casey-at-the-bat-baseball-2026 Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:12:54 +0000 The Circus Gramps49 6755@/index.php?p=/discussions Casey at The Bat written by Ernest Thayer, published in 1924. I remember learning it in sixth grade. I dedicated this thread to that poem.

Spring training yet to start. I hope the Mariners go all the way this year, but like Casey, they tend to strike out at the last moment.]]> May Book Club: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6907/may-book-club-crying-in-h-mart-by-michelle-zauner Fri, 01 May 2026 02:05:07 +0000 Heaven Mili 6907@/index.php?p=/discussions The end of liberal democracies? http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6908/the-end-of-liberal-democracies Sun, 03 May 2026 10:58:50 +0000 Purgatory WhimsicalChristian 6908@/index.php?p=/discussions
His article here argues his theory quite persuasively imo.

"Economic performance is one of the strongest predictors of satisfaction with democracy. Populism, declining trust in institutions, and the pervasive sense that the game is rigged, are symptoms. The disease is the end of material well-being that made democracy feel worthwhile."

The decline of productivity, low birth rate, ageing population in western liberal democracies is seeing massive amounts of government debt, which is not sustainable in the long term.

To win government, you're not going to be popular introducing austerity measures. So you're automatically stuffed in a democracy.

Is there a solution? Or do we just keep getting into further debt and pass it on to the next generation?

Is AI increasing productivity a solution? I think it might be what the governments are thinking because it is the new arms race.

Your thoughts?
]]> Why do we seem to vote against our best interests! http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6913/why-do-we-seem-to-vote-against-our-best-interests Thu, 07 May 2026 06:12:40 +0000 Purgatory Hugal 6913@/index.php?p=/discussions Brexit caused no end of problems and made things worse for us. It was well known that that would happen. Why do we seem to vote against our best interest? I am sure shipmates in other countries have a similar experience. ]]> "Action!" Films of 2026 http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6753/action-films-of-2026 Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:19:24 +0000 Heaven Doublethink 6753@/index.php?p=/discussions
(ETA late because my own typo was doing my head in.)]]> What is this I hear about an Alberta separatist movement? http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6912/what-is-this-i-hear-about-an-alberta-separatist-movement Tue, 05 May 2026 20:03:50 +0000 Purgatory Gramps49 6912@/index.php?p=/discussions
I do understand some people in Alberta are upset with the federal government control over natural resources.

I get the impression when about 1/3 of our electricity and 60% of our oil imports come from Canada.

What does this all mean for us down south?]]> Prayers of the Faithful 2026 http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6742/prayers-of-the-faithful-2026 Thu, 01 Jan 2026 14:23:10 +0000 All Saints Piglet 6742@/index.php?p=/discussions
Last year's thread for reference.]]> 2026 Celebrity Death Pool http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6698/2026-celebrity-death-pool Sun, 14 Dec 2025 22:01:38 +0000 The Circus Sipech 6698@/index.php?p=/discussions
The rules are simple. You must pick up to 13 well-known people who you think will join the choir invisible during 2026. That is, starting from 00.01 GMT on 1st January 2026 and ending at 23.59 GMT on 31st December 2026.

The definition of "well-known" is that their deaths will be reported by at least one major news outlet. This would include (but is not limited to) The BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Church Times, Baptist Times, Private Eye, etc.

All selections must be real natural born people. No fictional characters, abstract entities or "corporate persons" will be accepted.

Points are awarded according to the following formula: 100 minus the celebrity's age at the time of death. For example, if the person you choose dies at the age of 67 you will earn 33 points. Should you pick someone who is 100 years old when they die you will receive no points; should your person be over 100 you will lose points.

You cannot choose anyone under the age of 18.

You are disqualified if you contribute in any way to the death of one of your chosen candidates. So no poisoning the Archbishop of Canterbury if you work in the catering department of Lambeth Palace.

All entries must be submitted on this thread no later than 23.59 GMT on 31st December 2025. No entries will be accepted after this time. No exceptions. You may make changes to your list up until this time but only if someone pops their clogs before the beginning of the year or if you've put someone in twice.

There are also some bonus awards:

Inside Track with the Grim Reaper Award: given for picking the first death of 2026.

Quantity Not Quality Award: given for picking the most people who croak in 2026, regardless of their points value.

Sudden Death: given for picking the last death of 2026

This is only a game. The Ship, its management and their associated minions do not necessarily endorse the death any human being. This is not in any way a "wish list". Reviewing past years will show that truly evil and nasty dictators seem to have a habit of lingering while those figures we truly respect and admire often don't. The Circus is a place for games, not discussion of the rights or wrongs of those games. If you want to discuss the ethics of this one there are other places you can do that. If you find the game distasteful, that’s fine - you’re under no obligation to take part.

There are no prizes other than the warm fuzzy feeling you get for being a winner.

Good luck to all players and bad luck to your nominees.]]>