Wednesday, April 20, 2022

This and That

 Since Kelly liked the dog carved at the end of a church pew, I thought that she'd enjoy Talbot. 



Talbot was a breed of hunting dog during the medieval times, described as a small dog with droopy ears, a long curly tail, big feet, and short legs, white in color.  


The species is now extinct, and the word has come to mean 'a good dog'. 

A name for the next dog you rescue!

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I have always loved Winnie the Pooh. 

"If people jump out at you suddenly, that's an ambush," said Owl.

Pooh said that a gorse-bush had sprung at him one day. and he had taken six days to get all the prickles out.  ~ A.A. Milne


After years of reading about Pooh's struggles with gorse-bushes
I was ridiculously pleased to see one in real life. 

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It was a momentous day for William today. He was talking to his friend when a bigger boy came up and said, "I ought to knock both your F****** heads together." His friend got an anxious look on his face. William said, "Don't worry. He won't do it." 

The boy stepped forward aggressively and said, "What did you say?" 

William said, "You will not knock our heads together." 

The boy then began to dare him to say the word he'd left out.

William said, "I won't say the word." 

The boy began to crash his shoulder against William who said in a loud voice, 
"Get out of my face and quit banging into me."

The boy unleashed a tirade which was interrupted by a teacher who grabbed the kid by the arm and dragged him away. "Man, she was quick!" William said, looking amazed even still. "She came back to ask us what he was doing, we told her, and he didn't get to play any games at all during free time. He just had to sit there and think about what he did."

We've always told him that bullies are looking for a fear response, and if they don't get it, they will go away and look for a different target. It's the first time he's put that to the test, as far as I know. 

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It is also a big day for Tim. It's his birthday. 


16 comments:

  1. Well, happy birthday Tim. Have a great day.

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  2. Glad things worked well for Will and his friend!! Sometimes bullies manage not to get noticed by teachers!!

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  3. Happy birthday to Tim.

    Your grandson sounds like a well grounded young man. It's so sad that there are still bullies at all. Good for him for standing up to the kid.

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  4. Winnie the Pooh would find lots of Gorse bushes in Ireland.

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  5. Well done William.
    And Happy Birthday to Tim.

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  6. Dog, not like.

    Continuing to be negative, I don't like prickly gorse either.

    Well done William. Such matters are fraught but it seems William handled it well, with some teacher support, as it should be.

    Happy birthday to Tim (the long suffering, haha)

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  7. Well Happy Birthday to Tim. Congratulations to William for taking a brave and sensible action in reaction to a bully. Prickly aren't they? gorse bush, but have a honey smell and are brightly yellow at this time of the year in the sun.

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  8. Good for William and happy birthday to Tim!

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  9. William has always been a bit fearful. We try very hard to show him how to reason his way through a situation. We've been discussing this for years, really. We've explained over and over again that most bullies are all mouth in a school setting because if they were to haul of and slug someone, the end result would be that they got in very serious trouble. Their goal is to make people afraid. It was a very big deal to us that he finally seems to have tested that theory and proved it to himself.

    Andrew: to quote a sage, 'Oh, bother!' It was exciting to see all these yellow flowered bushes and discover that they were gorse bushes. It was like the Sutton Hoo treasure, something that I'd heard about all my life, and finally got to see with my own two eyes.

    Tim is getting a prime rib dinner tonight. I've never made one before. It is a terribly expensive cut of meat, and I sure hope I don't mess it up.

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  10. PS: Bettina: The teacher's quick response was probably due, at least in part, by the fact that William was talking back loudly. We've told him that bullies thrive by not being noticed, and that being loud and calling attention to situation is a good way to protect yourself and ratchet things down a notch.

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  11. Happy Birthday to Tim!
    Glad that William listened to what you have said and the teacher heard him and intervened.

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  12. Way to go, William! He's going to do well in life, having that in his toolkit to deal with bullies.

    Happy Birthday to Tim!

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  13. Happy birthday, Tim, and good for William for standing up to the bully in a non-violent way!

    Interesting about the dog breed, Debby. I hope I won't need the name anytime soon, so I might have to contact you to remember it when the time comes! Sit, Talbot. Fetch, Talbot. No, no, Talbot!

    Pooh is very wise for a silly old bear.

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  14. You forgot one. "DOWN, Talbot!"

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  15. The Talbot sounds a little like a modern-day basset hound. Happy birthday, Tim. Hope he has a good one.

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  16. I saw plenty of Gorse bushes in England, but one day I will see Ireland's as well. It just tickled me. I see that there are gorse bushes in the mid Atlantic states, but I don't ever remember seeing one. If I did, I had no clue what they were.

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