A positive thread

[Cugel]

Apparently the reason that some people cant stand sprouts is that they have more very sensitive taste buds on their tongues. My pal, who is fantastic at blind tasting and correctly identifying wines cannot abide sprouts.

Al

For a start, the taste buds do very little tasting of the subtle flavours. It's our sense of smell that does that.

Secondly, my own experience as a taster and sniffer of, oh, all sorts tells me that the more one can taste, the more one seeks out the varieties. Did I catch you out there? Of course this generalisation is as false as all the others.

Cugel

[Cugel]

They do swapsies.

I hope they don't do it on a Sunday or they'll have the EU after them

Yes, I have seen suspicious characters hanging about the back of the allotment sheds. They have dark mackintoshes and one had a moustache! I imagine they are spies from "The Fourth Reich" as a Torygraph-reading friend of mine likes to describe the EU. Sovereignty destroyers, ready willing and able to stop many of out traditional, if filthy and dangerous, local allotment habits with not just those with the sprout but also the growing of rude-shaped carrots (highlight of the annual Village Show).

On the other hand, they may be sprout-thieves. Or even addicts seeking out rhubarb. On an allotment one encounters some very strange folk. The ladywife keeps a particularly sharp and vicious dibber handy, just in case.

Cugel

[Vorpal]

It's not specific to sprouts, but supertasters (people with more taste buds) tend to be especially sensitive to bitter tastes, so they often dislike vegetables from the cabbage family.

https://supertaster.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

[Cugel]

As this is supposed to be a positive thread, I'd just like to announce that I positively intend to stay upwind of Cugel, wherever he (or she?) is.

I only exude pleasant wafts, generally redolent of violets, roses and certain exotic fungi. Any other wafts are almost certainly emitted by the person standing or riding next to me. Oh yes they are!

Anyway, better out than in. Have you ever studied the mechanisms that operate within our biota should we be unwise enough to adopt middle-class attitudes concerning our wafts? Horrible - and perhaps an explanation of why people become Tories!

Cugel

[reohn2]

Apparently the reason that some people cant stand sprouts is that they have more very sensitive taste buds on their tongues. My pal, who is fantastic at blind tasting and correctly identifying wines cannot abide sprouts.

Al

For a start, the taste buds do very little tasting of the subtle flavours. It's our sense of smell that does that.

Secondly, my own experience as a taster and sniffer of, oh, all sorts tells me that the more one can taste, the more one seeks out the varieties. Did I catch you out there? Of course this generalisation is as false as all the others.

Cugel

I love the smell of Proofhide first thing in a morning.......

[Pastychomper]

I only exude pleasant wafts, generally redolent of violets, roses and certain exotic fungi. Any other wafts are almost certainly emitted by the person standing or riding next to me. Oh yes they are!
Cugel

It is earnestly to be hoped that those fungi don't include the fabled Magic Mushroom. Otherwise following riders may find themselves on more trips than they expected!

The theory about sensitivity to bitterness may well apply in my case. I understand people lose taste buds as they age, and I've become much more brassica-tolerant over the years - I even rather like some of them now, especially the Swedish turnip (with the proper condiments, like butter, haggis and spud, of course).

Maybe sprouts will come when I leave my teens (currently 14 with 26 years' experience).

[Cyril Haearn]

I used to like Cornish Pasties, haven't had one for many years, I am a vegetarian now unfortunately

[Cugel]

I only exude pleasant wafts, generally redolent of violets, roses and certain exotic fungi. Any other wafts are almost certainly emitted by the person standing or riding next to me. Oh yes they are!
Cugel

It is earnestly to be hoped that those fungi don't include the fabled Magic Mushroom. Otherwise following riders may find themselves on more trips than they expected!

The theory about sensitivity to bitterness may well apply in my case. I understand people lose taste buds as they age, and I've become much more brassica-tolerant over the years - I even rather like some of them now, especially the Swedish turnip (with the proper condiments, like butter, haggis and spud, of course).

Maybe sprouts will come when I leave my teens (currently 14 with 26 years' experience).

The Fly Agaric is too much for moi. There are good patches in certain Lakeland dells but I confine myself to photographing them. A flatmate, many, many moons ago, did once ply me with psilocybin tea made from those wee mushrooms he collected on a fell walk. (They are prolific, or were, in The Bowland Fells). He didn't bother telling me what the constituent of his tea was and we spent a day giggling at everything. I thought I was just in a particularly good mood.

The bitterness-sensitivity thing may well be true but why would one necessarily eschew "bitter"? I have a liking for many bitters, particularly the super-hoppy beers but also the sauerkraut and other brassica-laden things that have been processed in this fashion and that. The only bitter I dislike is that often found in stuff containing various spices, which have got too old and somehow amplified the bitter under-taste of the spice into something nasty. Too much paprika in frozen goulash is the worst.

Perhaps these bitter things have a homoeopathic effect in that they allow one to absorb but excrete bitter experiences from life? This is why me and you are still 15 & 3/4, after all these years. Just below the age of legal responsibilities but old enough to appreciate the many pleasures of the variety sometimes called "adult", including the bitter beer and "a well-turned ankle".

Cugel

[pwa]

I did the Magic Mushroom thing in my youth, and though I don't regret it and see it as an interesting experience, I won't be recommending it to anyone. I had a friend who did it more often than me and blamed it for mental health issues he had shortly after.

[pwa]

After many impolite utterances, my daughter's bike now has its replacement left Claris STI lever fitted and working, all properly adjusted and bar ribbon back on. A small job but fiddly. I'm glad to have that out of the way.

[pwa]

Cycling home last night, around 10pm onwards, I had several miles of wonderful pitch black lanes to do. No cars, not even a dog walker. Just me and the stars. And the best front light combination I have ever used. Two lights, one battery and the other dynamo.

Cyo T Premium (Senso Plus) dynamo light giving a wide beam that is shaped to allow it to be directed quite a long way down the road without spilling upwards to blind oncoming traffic. And a AA rechargeable battery Hope Vision One directed lower than it would be if it were the main light. On the second setting for about 6 hours run time. The Hope light provides the nice pool of light on the steepish climbs when the Cyo is weakest, and the Cyo does its thing when the pace picks up.

Together they create a wide but low beam that reaches far enough down the road for me to safely let the bike roll at 30mph downhill, with hedges either side lit up to some degree. I've never had a more impressive light set-up and I don't think I dazzle anyone.

[Cyril Haearn]

The Umweltministerium, environment ministry, plans to spend € 200 m protecting insects
..
Cugel looks just like Marc Bolan, +1!

[Cugel]

The Umweltministerium, environment ministry, plans to spend € 200 m protecting insects
..
Cugel looks just like Marc Bolan, +1!

Marced Bolac was a yob but I am refined and nice, especially to the afflicted such as yourself. (Have I ever trod upon your ego? No!)

Were I a shocking fellow like that Bolac, I would post a pic or two of my youthful self, complete with far more hair than in the wee avatar you see here. Ex-policemen would reach for their now-absent truncheons. Old soldiers would express a desire to exterminate an obvious foe. Silly old cyclists would tell me to get a haircut (as Harry Hall often did - he was only jealous).

Luckily I am now almost normal and can blend in nicely with the other cycling oldepharts bereft of head-tuft.

Cugel

[Cyril Haearn]

The Umweltministerium, environment ministry, plans to spend € 200 m protecting insects
..
Cugel looks just like Marc Bolan, +1!

Marced Bolac was a yob but I am refined and nice, especially to the afflicted such as yourself. (Have I ever trod upon your ego? No!)

Were I a shocking fellow like that Bolac, I would post a pic or two of my youthful self, complete with far more hair than in the wee avatar you see here. Ex-policemen would reach for their now-absent truncheons. Old soldiers would express a desire to exterminate an obvious foe. Silly old cyclists would tell me to get a haircut (as Harry Hall often did - he was only jealous).

Luckily I am now almost normal and can blend in nicely with the other cycling oldepharts bereft of head-tuft.

Cugel

Yes but can you sing?

[Cugel]

The Umweltministerium, environment ministry, plans to spend € 200 m protecting insects
..
Cugel looks just like Marc Bolan, +1!

Marced Bolac was a yob but I am refined and nice, especially to the afflicted such as yourself. (Have I ever trod upon your ego? No!)

Were I a shocking fellow like that Bolac, I would post a pic or two of my youthful self, complete with far more hair than in the wee avatar you see here. Ex-policemen would reach for their now-absent truncheons. Old soldiers would express a desire to exterminate an obvious foe. Silly old cyclists would tell me to get a haircut (as Harry Hall often did - he was only jealous).

Luckily I am now almost normal and can blend in nicely with the other cycling oldepharts bereft of head-tuft.

Cugel

Yes but can you sing?

Well, I think so! But who am I to judge? I like to give full vent to various ditties, "Zardok the Priest" being a favourite. Also "Remember Me", a fine dirge concerning death and the associated worms.

Uncle Cornelius taught me, long ago, various other operatic snatches that he learnt whilst doing 5 years in the RAF. They were familiar tunes but the words were often non-standard. At the time he taught me I had no knowledge of the meanings of many of those words, although I did know that they were good for shocking old fuddy-duddies of every ilk & tittle.

But if you are once again referring to that Marked Bullock - well, he couldn't sing a note, could he? As I recall he droned out an incomprehensible monotone. I preferred other pop modes of the time, notably Captain Beefheart and Love. They were Yanks but in them days not all Yanks were insane, as they seem to be now.

Cugel