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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Remembering Erin
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Six years ago today, we lost our beloved and fierce and brilliant Erin. But we hadn't known it yet.
There are a lot of Shipmates who never knew her. Hopefully they've read some of her posts and were able to get a taste of what our Blessed Gator was like. I personally lived in terrified fear of displeasing her! Yet, she was always showing her huge heart, gifting us with words of caring and comfort and spreading festive anthrax at Christmas. She also had NO problem with using those gator jaws to bite, chew and generally destroy those who really needed a dose of Come to Jesus.
One of my favorite memories was when the weather was being obnoxious, (we are both Floridians), she would pitch a fit even bigger than mine! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
She was a sister of my heart and I really miss her!
What great (or terrifying) memories do you have?
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
Several of us traveled to attend her memorial service. Here is the link to the MW report we filed.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Anselmina
Ship's barmaid
# 3032
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Posted
Recollections? Just the fact that Erin was always honestly herself. She took no prisoners, called a spade, an effing shovel. But was more than capable of a very humane compassion, often in the face of others' insincerity or contrived emotions. Some people found her hard to debate with. They couldn't comprehend how, with her sometimes difficult and uncompromising approach to discussion, and her challenging use of vocabulary (ahem), she could also claim to be one of God's little sunbeams! She didn't care. I thought she was fabulous, and I still miss her. ![[Tear]](graemlins/tear.gif)
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Irish dogs needing homes! http://www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/ Greyhounds and Lurchers are shipped over to England for rehoming too!
Posts: 10002 | From: Scotland the Brave | Registered: Jul 2002
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
Thank you Judy for this thread. I was one of those who learnt early of her death because of international time differences. I burst into tears when I read about it, quite surprising myself.
I was never threatened by rusty farm implements or felt her sharp bite, but she kept this place running smoothly.
At Christmas I take the time to read the Christmas play script and also Fields of Gold for Miss Molly, another thread which makes me weep. So many others too, Gambit, Ken, Kenwritez, Genevieve and more.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
She overawed me a bit too but my overall impression is what a HUGE star she was in the Ship firmament. I was [one of] the last Hosts she appointed and for some bizarre reason that means a lot to me.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
Our first visit to Florida was in early December 2010. We promised to wave when the plane passed over Jacksonville, which we did.
On our last day we went to the cinema at Downtown Disney, and I spotted loads of Green & Black's chocolate for sale. I was the one who introduced her to G&B Maya Gold, and when I saw it for sale I remember thinking 'Must tell Erin'. Alas, I never got the chance.
She would probably love the fact that I think of her whenever I smell urinal cakes. You have to be a pretty old Shipmate to get that reference!
[ 31. December 2016, 07:12: Message edited by: Gill H ]
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I miss her and think of her often. All the more as I may find myself in need of a Gator if I can talk the powers-that-be at my new job into a particular community project. She was so awesome for this place.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
She was very encouraging when she asked me to host Keryg. I wasn't sure I could manage because I have nerve damage in my hands that makes it difficult to type fast.
Here is the famous thread about the urinal cake.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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sold
Apprentice
# 14667
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Posted
I'm a long time lurker who even before registering enjoyed her posts and it seems fitting to unlurk on yet another thread she inspired.
May she rile in peace.
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What, is it over? Is that ALL?
Posts: 1 | From: Spaced: the final frontier | Registered: Mar 2009
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I've just read one of her posts on that thread about the smell in her flat, and, God love her, she didn't like GIN.
How on earth did she rise so far in the Ship's ranks???
I hope* there's a plentiful supply of Cabernet Sauvignon in Heaven.
* well, of course there is.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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RuthW
liberal "peace first" hankie squeezer
# 13
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Posted
Welcome aboard, sold!
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
I've just read one of her posts on that thread about the smell in her flat, and, God love her, she didn't like GIN.
How on earth did she rise so far in the Ship's ranks???
She was here before there were ranks.
Goes off muttering, "What do they teach them at these schools?" ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posts: 24453 | From: La La Land | Registered: Apr 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:
Welcome aboard, sold!
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
I've just read one of her posts on that thread about the smell in her flat, and, God love her, she didn't like GIN.
How on earth did she rise so far in the Ship's ranks???
She was here before there were ranks.
Goes off muttering, "What do they teach them at these schools?"
If you want to know Erin's role in the early days of the Ship, read page one of the History of the Ship thread in the Styx.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
I just remembered one of Erin's sayings.
"Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya."
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
I think "Jesus Christ on a cracker!" was one of hers too.
To be honest, I was always a little intimidated by Erin. But she was very supportive of me, and when I made a couple of mistakes as a rookie Host she stuck up for me.
I think it not an exaggeration to say that the Ship exists largely because of Erin's hard work and fierce dedication, and that all of us owe her a debt of gratitude.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
Thanks for that link to days gone past. I knew about Joanne - is she Castilian by any chance?
It may not be able to answer this, and I can understand if it is not, but the Gordon Cheng days preceded my joining. Is that his name IRL? If it is, he's still authorised to officiate in Sydney, and most recently was a part-time assistant minister at St Andrew's Cathedral. He used be a prolific writer of letters to the editor of various Sydney daily newspapers. Very much a Sydney Anglican at heart, theology degree from Moore College, although deaconed and priested in Melbourne.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
Thanks, thought so but good to have the confirmation. I am very unlikely to meet him.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
Erin is often remembered for her Alligator nickname (for which I was partly responsible) but she could be very funny as well. One of my favourite posts of hers was describing how to administer a pill to a cat, and who could forget the "my apartment smells like a urinal cake" thread?
I still have the PM she sent inviting me to take up the role of Admin on the boards only a few weeks before her untimely death. It was written with her special brand of wit.
I still miss her.
![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif)
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
Shortly after I joined the Ship I lost my job. Erin sent me a kind and helpful PM, which I still have. In public she often was "the ship's alligator" but there was a softer side to her as well.
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
I still have the PM conversation in which she asked/told me to return to Hosting after I'd been on a work-related absence from duty.
She was as wonderful, witty, scary, honest and caring as any other Christian in history. The whole planet, never mind this website, is worse for her loss.
I will always remember her coining the phrase "great googly-moogly, you are crazier than a shithouse rat". And to me, this thread will always be one of her greatest moments. Who else could have turned a throwaway April Fool into a fundraiser that made over a thousand pounds for the Ship?
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Emma Louise
Storm in a teapot
# 3571
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Posted
Wow I remember that thread. Can't believe it was 12 years ago! All the familiar names.
I loved my early years on the ship community and Erin was a huge part of that. Had so hoped to meet her!
Posts: 12719 | From: Enid Blyton territory. | Registered: Nov 2002
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Emma Louise:
Had so hoped to meet her!
You and every other person on the Ship. She avoided Meets like the plague.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ferijen
Shipmate
# 4719
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
quote:
Originally posted by Emma Louise:
Had so hoped to meet her!
You and every other person on the Ship. She avoided Meets like the plague.
I have no idea what I believe any more. But part of me hopes that Ken, Kenwritez, Miss Molly, et al., have finally cornered her...
Posts: 3259 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
quote:
Originally posted by Emma Louise:
Had so hoped to meet her!
You and every other person on the Ship. She avoided Meets like the plague.
She also avoided posting any pictures of herself.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
She also avoided posting any pictures of herself.
Moo
You mean that's NOT her real picture in the Gallery?
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
While she was alive no picture of her appeared on the ship, after here death then her memorial page contains one.
I think the difference between the one in the gallery and the one on the memorial page give a good indication of the difference between the public and the private personas.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
Thanks, Jengie, I'd missed that somehow.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Callan
Shipmate
# 525
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Posted
I remember that someone asked Erin if there were any Shipmates she actually liked. She promptly reeled of a list that included yours truly. I felt a bit like Victor Crosby in 'The New Statesman'.
CROSBY: She knows I exist?
ALAN B'STARD: She knows everything, Bing!
CROSBY: (sobs) I love her!
B'STARD: She knows that too!
It's not, ahem, an exact analogy. But she was completely bloody magnificent. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.
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How easy it would be to live in England, if only one did not love her. - G.K. Chesterton
Posts: 9757 | From: Citizen of the World | Registered: Jun 2001
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Tubbs
Miss Congeniality
# 440
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
quote:
Originally posted by Emma Louise:
Had so hoped to meet her!
You and every other person on the Ship. She avoided Meets like the plague.
She always said that she couldn't do what she did if she actually knew people and they knew her ... Not going to meets was one way of maintaining that distance.
When I was a new host, I managed to close the boards whilst tidying some threads. I rang her in floods of tears, she fixed it instantly and was so nice about it. I still miss her.
Tubbs
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"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it up and remove all doubt" - Dennis Thatcher. My blog. Decide for yourself which I am
Posts: 12701 | From: Someplace strange | Registered: Jun 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I have kept her PMs, they were lovely too.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
So why did this recording appear on the BBC yesterday?
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Let Shakespeare teach us:
Melania. Donald, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A Gatoress hath walked in the streets;
And spies have yawn’d and yielded up their tapes;
Fierce fiery women march on Washington,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
With signs and placards on the Capitol;
The noise of booing hurtled in the air,
Children did fear, and troubled men did groan,
And pussycats did shriek and squeal about the streets.
O Donald! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.
[ 17. January 2017, 13:03: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
The people taking that gator's picture were just as unwise as those who crossed our Erin. ![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
I remember that once someone posted a link to what was described as a nude picture of Erin.
When you clicked on the link, you saw a picture of an alligator.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Sadly, the BBC being what it is, the video in Jengie's link doesn't work outside the UK.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
Sadly, the BBC being what it is, the video in Jengie's link doesn't work outside the UK.
Hmmm, it worked here in Arizona, and I don't think we've moved across the Pond.
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Maybe it's just me they don't like ... ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
Actually, now I think about it, it may be to do with this computer - it either doesn't like or doesn't have Adobe, so it might be that.
[ 18. January 2017, 02:49: Message edited by: Piglet ]
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
Check the CBC website -- they ran the video last night on The National, and I'm reasonably sure it will be available somewhere on the site.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
I presume it's that gigantic gator that was in the news yesterday? That ain't no gator--it's a small dinosaur! 13 ft. long, and IIRC estimated at 1000 lbs.! 13 ft. is the length of the room I'm in.
![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
And I miss Erin, too. Currently, I wish she were here to comment on the US election and the inauguration.
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Amos
Shipmate
# 44
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Posted
I miss Erin too.
She changed my vocabulary, for good or for ill forever.
I have a small scar where she nipped at me once.
She sent me a big box of cookies all the way from the US, which came at an opportune time.
Above all, she was the adult in the room. Now we all have to be the adults.
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At the end of the day we face our Maker alongside Jesus--ken
Posts: 7667 | From: Summerisle | Registered: May 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
She sent me a big box of cookies all the way from the US, which came at an opportune time.
And Oreos, sent to anyone who asked. All the way from America, that was really generous. And I didn't find teeth marks in a single one...
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Matrix
Shipmate
# 3452
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
And to me, this thread will always be one of her greatest moments. Who else could have turned a throwaway April Fool into a fundraiser that made over a thousand pounds for the Ship?
Was a great thread indeed!
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Maybe that's all a family really is; a group of people who miss the same imaginary place. - Garden State
Posts: 3847 | From: The courts of the King | Registered: Oct 2002
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