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Margaret Brown

@magstheobscure.bsky.social

900 followers 670 following 7.7K posts

Absolute nuisance. MA History. Online quizzer. Opera lover. Scottish in Ireland.

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · Mar 19

Pinned Post about my research.

The Tyrant of the Bar: The 1902 Glasgow Licensing Courts and the Barmaid Question

In 1902 Glasgow tried to prohibit barmaids. Read about the panic behind it, the legal realities and the working class women affected.

oro.open.ac.uk/100192/

A newspaper cartoon of a 1902 barmaid pouring a glass of beer while two men look on with consternation

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1h

What did you do after the student production of The Matrix?

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1h

Ye olde worlde slang. See also Christ on a Bike.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1h

And things like Pongwiffy

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1h

And before anyone says it was because I studied it in High School, I didn't.

I studied Lewis Grassic Gibbons (who I hate) and then Thomas Hardy (who as the handle shows, I love)

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 2h

To poke the bear even further, if you think Jane Austen speaks universally about women then you are almost always a white and middle class woman. She speaks to you. That's fine. It's not universal.

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 2h

All my dad's side is George, Robert and David. He only has his name because my grandmother was so convinced she was having a girl that she didn't choose male names, so named him after the doctor who delivered him.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 2h

Why why why couldn't you been called Euphemia?

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 2h

Have you ever chased a woman with the name Jean through the Scottish genealogical data. It's a bloody nightmare Jean, Jeannie, Jane, Janie, Janey, Janet, Janette, Janet, Nettie, Netta,

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 2h

Or during the drive of Irish Nationalism of the early 20thC he may have decided to reclaim the Irish variant as a statement. So he becomes Padraig

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 2h

Oh yeah, anyone just need to go back to the Ireland and see how many people born with one name end up with another because *the family* has too many Bridget's.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 3h

We're all waiting round the bend.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 3h

Written by the same people who praised going to the Young Man's Christian Association and that song about Manifest Destiny.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 3h

But In The Navy was just fine

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 3h

The whole "someone left the cake out in the rain" explanation of brewing.

Feck me old boots

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 4h

My literary opinion is akin to my opera opinion. I really don't like a popular artist and I have tried.

So I sound like a contrary bollox but my god you all won't stop going on about them.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 6h

If you can figure people over 50s childhood landline number you have a pretty good chance of breaking their passcode

John Andrews @jkaconductor.bsky.social · 7h

I can still remember my parents (now non-existent) landline…

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 8h

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 16h

I think the biggest problem is that they are trying to turn over audiobooks far quicker than they used to.

There are far more mistakes and editing errors creeping in.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · Dec 26

“May your favourite authors get big enough that their audiobooks get a cast of more than one actor.” - ancient Cockney curse.

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1d

And music, things available that were only on 78s, where were you going to find them and if you did how were you going to listen to them. And ream after ream of books. I have all the Agatha Christies on something the size of a novello

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1d

A lot of this stuff is based on disability tech. I'm seeing features that were developed to help with disabilities being hyped as AI when it was available over a decade ago

When the backlash comes, chances are it'll take a lot of disability progress down with it. I'm not going back to an Alphasmart

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1d

I'll be basic and say the Verdi Requiem. That's a hard performance to beat, the whole lot of them

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1d

Oh I showed you my creation, didn't I?

A rainbow striped Hexi cardigan cardigan with rainbow ombre back and trim hanging in front of a white door

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1d

self-striping looks great in the ball like swirls in an ice-cream store but you will have to judge your work carefully to get the stripes to work. Better going for the stuff that changes colour every inch or so, then you get a lovely riot

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Reposted by Margaret Brown

JudithFlanders @judithflanders.co.uk · 1d

Is there a dish from your childhood that you now know was badly cooked, but you love it that way anyway?

It used to be overdone chicken livers for me. (Though I now undercook them like a civilized person.) For @regulaysewijn.bsky.social it’s her mum’s terrible moussaka. What’s yours?

Regula Ysewijn @regulaysewijn.bsky.social · 1d

And yet… her moussaka is still my favourite food and I can’t replicate it.
Who else loves a dish their mother made that isn’t quite right but you crave it nonetheless

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Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1d

Mum used to dust her scones in flour at the end, for some reason probably Scottish related. They were so dry and headache making, you needed a load of butter and jam on it

Margaret Brown @magstheobscure.bsky.social · 1d

So they say leave the fat on as it will melt into the pork. Remembering that you don't need a lot of liquid in a slow cooker. Nothing boils off, the fat will keep the pork moist

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow...

Slow cooker pulled pork

Succulent pulled pork spiced with paprika and cinnamon is oh-so simple when you make it in the slow cooker. Serve with fennel and apple slices in bread rolls