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The Celtic whiskey shop (naff name, great selection) in Dublin has started selling proper absinthe. Its going to be an interesting Christmas!

I've recently discovered my trove of old Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Anyone remember these? Playing through one of then now for the first time since I was about 10. Not as huge or as intricate now, 13 years on, as they seemed then but I'm having lots of nostalgic fun.

Seriously enjoyable prog,I thought! Dredd ends on a fittingly schlocky note (nice to have a bit of schlock sometimes!), flesh is as full of tits and gibberish as ever, and the slow pace of Brass Sun makes its universe feel way more expansive, I think, than if it were condensed; as a huge part of its appeal for me is the subtle ways the oddness of the world is portrayed, I wouldn't want it otherwise. And it's nice that Damnation Station is nearly intelligible now! Might even re-read the last few progs and try to make sense of it, rather than just admiring the pretty pictures.

I haven't drunk for ages but back in tha day, I used to like Coopers Ale and also an NZ beer called Steinlager.

Now the Italian soft drink Chinotto is as decadent as I get

yours Chinotto quaffingly,

Floyd

Chinotto is monstrous. I just can't decide if I mean monstrously good or monstrously bad...

The thing with Crabbies or most Ciders is they're so sweet that they're hard to drink more than a pint or two of. They're basically alcopops gone respectable.

True, and I've had a go at homebrewing ginger ale to get something a bit less sugary, but Crabbies is so nice that I just limit myself to two and treat it like soda

Any ginger beer fans here, actually? I remember my first pint of Crabbies being like gift from God...

Any of you cider fans drink the stuff they make in Spain, in Asturias? Never drank a cider as good as it in Ireland.

Sadly not, but I'll keep an eye out! And Bob, you're right about strongbow; one of the nicest pints I had was strongbow on two in rural Scotland.

lets keep it to beers / ales / stouts; your top three pints

No cider? pppffff

Didn't figure there were many tramps / teenagers / teenage tramps on the forum, but sure hey- why not?


*NB- the universal answer is a Bulmers pint bottle anyway. 

Tut tut Link, I'd've thought you knew better! Bulmers is utter gutrot, disguised with sweeteners and too many bubbles. You can't beat real cider though, the nearly flat kind strange English men brew in near-Wiccan rituals. Even a pint of Weston's or Breton cider can't be beat.

As a coeliac my choice of beer is limited, but the Hambleton Gluten Free Ale and Against The Grain's lager are things of beauty and yummies.

I don't bite. (Especially if you're willing to pay me money.)

As a conciliation prize, if you're still after a sketch, I'll happily do one final water colour at the DICE price (plus postage)...

Cus they're going up for London next week!

-pj

That's too kind of you PJ I'll PM you now.

I only got to go to the Sunday myself, but it was a lot of fun! A nice.expo in general, and the Tooth panel was good craic; a silly natter, peppered with Molch-R blithely flinging pre-release trades into the audience. Just what I'd hoped for. I'm just sorry I didn't have the confidence to say hi to any of the droids at the main hall-would've very much liked one of pj's sketches...

I downloaded Sweet Justice, a collection of stories from the old tooth annuals, the other day. Cracking stuff! Only €2.60 or so as well: damn I love ebooks sometimes

Chilling to Purity Ring, and feeling very hip altogether http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj5tPBnjVC8&feature=endscreen&NR=1

I've always wondered why (as i understand it) each country has it's own sign language, British, Swedish etc..?

Wouldn't it be easier to have one universal/global sign language?   

I'm sure Goaty would have more to say on this than I do, but my understanding is that different countries developed different signs in the same ways and for the same reasons that different countries develop different languages. I seem to recall a study that proved f you put groups of people with no language together, they'll create one, and one with a complete grammar and syntax, too. If they're deaf, it'll just be a gestural rather than an audial language.

Only just read this thread fully, interesting reading.
I dont know any deaf person, bar yourself.  One of my mates from work, his oldest had to have treatment for cancer and it damaged his hearing. I remember him been devastated, but now its no big deal. The school
supplied a system that worked with his hearing aid, and while not completly deaf, he still dosent hear some words, and now he lipreads to fill the words.
That alphabet is interesting, is the British the same in Ireland?
David

According to a deaf friend of mine, Irish sign language is actually entirely different to British Sign Language, but extremely similar to French Sign Language- the reason for this is really interesting actually.

Apparently, before any deaf schools were set up in Ireland, the Irish deaf community had a sign language system to some degree (I've no idea how unified or otherwise it was),  but when two deaf schools were set up (one for boys, one for girls), Sign Language teachers were brought over from France, and an FSL-ISL syncretic language developed!

The gender segregation in these schools (and they were set up in the 1840s, mind!) is also apparently the reason that in ISL, men and women have ome extremely variant signs sometimes, to the extent that girls will only know the girls' signs till a certain age, and then have to learn the boys' signs to communicate with the menfolk, and vice versa! 

My two cents:

Nice cover, certainly my favourite piece of recent Red Seas art (though that's not saying much; not a massive fan of how sparse it is).

Fun Dredd, and the chin looking eactly like I imagine it in my head- he looks a bit young for his age though, I thought.

Savage is a strip I've never read before this most recent run, so I found it very difficult to invest myself in the story or characters. It's been fun, and the [spoiler]twist at the end[/spoiler] was [spoiler]poignant[/spoiler].

Red Seas: I haven't really cared much about this strip in years;  I always enjoy reading it, but it's just not my cup of tea. The double-length finale was fun, and brought things together nicely, if a bit cheesily- I can just imagine a live-action version where at the end everyone laughs, high-fives, and the credits roll on the freeze-frame. Decent craic, but I'll be glad to see the back of it and Savage for the sake of fresh proggage.

The Gaeity School of Acting are also accepting them as part payment for courses, so I hear!