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[connie @connie Participant]

I used to get awful migraines and the doctor prescribed me with this drug. It worked infrequently and I didn’t rate it much at all.

In the end, I took drastic action and stopped all medication. I then took myself off the Pill. I think coming off the Pill is what finally allowed me to begin life migraine free.

[connie @connie Participant]

Anita Roddick. Both by showing my generation that women could build a big business from scratch and for being the first retailer to put it onto every high street that the earth mattered. She left every penny to charity when she died, as well.

[connie @connie Participant]

Queen Victoria?

[connie @connie Participant]

While I am not financially independent I am very independent in that I don’t do the little woman thing very well.
I am very straight I say what I think I was once told I communicated like a man It was Intended as a compliment i did not really feel it was.
I lived most of my life with my husband away so I am used to sorting stuff without reference to anyone, that’s made for interesting moments since he’s retired.

[connie @connie Participant]

@anne I have no opinion about Phil Neville, except that he used to be an international football player and used to play for Manchester United (?) as a midfielder or defender, that is about it.

I just read about about the controversy surrounding his appointment in the Guardian website before it cropped up here, and to me it is very clear that you have to be a severely unpleasant character if you think it is OK to jokingly claim in public to have battered your wife.

This is simply inexcusable behaviour, and should, if the FA had any integrity, exclude him from being considered for a post that involves holding power over a group of women.

What I do not get is people defending this a “black humour” or “irony”, it is not. To qualify as such the joke would IMO have to be made in a context where domestic violence was relevant, e.g. between social workers dealing with the consequences, and in front of the right audience (e.g. not including the victims).

To bring up the topic of abuse as a joke on twitter is gratuitous, but I am not surprised that famous people can be arses, too.

[connie @connie Participant]

@everyone Keep on defending a complete arsehole, it does not paint you in a good light.

[connie @connie Participant]

@sophie Not malicious gossip, but proof of their unsuitability for the job in question (even worse in the case of SA) obligingly provided by the candidates themselves. Seriously, what was SA thinking?

[connie @connie Participant]

@anne A bit difficult arguing the same thing to PMP and you, but I almost get the feeling that you are being willfully obtuse.

Can you not see the difference between making gratuitously offensive jokes and black humour as a coping mechanisms because it deals with a situation that is distressing (and yes, it was distressing to have worried looking young couples or mothers with their teenage sons come in and wait for their appointment with the head of department that stood a good chance of being a death sentence).

We always made a point of offering them tea and coffee from our tea kitchen, because we knew that we were not running a risk of infection, at least not after the cups had gone through the dishwasher), and being nice and friendly and treating them as humans not some infectious zombies would be the minimum we could for them.

I have no doubt that, say, social workers may similarly joke about domestic violence in their professional environment, but it would then be in a situation where the topic of the bad taste joke is at least relevant.

However, in either case the jokes must remain private!

edit: Just to add one example of medical black humour going wrong: A few years ago it became public that doctors at a well known NHS hospitals labelled some of their patient GFS, “good fen stock”. Cynical, but probably largely nail on head, and most importatly something should have never appeared on a patient note. Generating a paper trail of your bad taste is the hard copy version of PNs idiocy.

second edit: AFAIK it had disciplinary consequences, and quite rightly so!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by connie .

[connie @connie Participant]

@jess I guess we have to agree to disagree. But even if I am wrong and it does not reveal underlying misogyny it reveals his stupidity and lack of judgement. IMO that should be more than enough to exclude him from a job for which the topic of his “joke” is particularly inappropriate.

I also still maintain that the very idea that such a joke could be appropriate and funny tells you something about the “lad culture” and the attitudes towards women ingrained in football, which I have seen first hand playing Sunday league pub football.

Again, the FA should be seen to make an effort in tackling these issues after the long overdue sacking of Sampson, but as usual they manage to pick the one candidate that, in this context only, carries baggage.

All that aside, parachuting in a male celebrity with no documented managerial skills is an insult to all qualified coaches, regardless of whether they are male or female. Sticking with that choice when the candidate also proves an idiot with respect to his social media handling adds insult to injury.

[connie @connie Participant]

I make and enjoy jokes in bad taste all the time, and some jokes that circulated my old virology department back when AIDS was still a death sentence would be beyond the pale if we had told them in front of any patients or relatives.

The difference is, we did not, because we knew it would have been unacceptable.

Football player makes a shit joke about domestic violence, shares it via twitter, and then whines over the backlash when being hired for a job that hands him power over a group of women.

What an idiot.

Also, and this probably should have been part of the previous reply, I fully appreciate the value of black and tasteless humour as a coping strategy. However his “joke” was not about coping, it was merely gratuitous mentioning of wife beating that revealed his lack of respect for women, and his expectation that this would endear him with his followers.

To me it is the gratuitous nature of the joke that grates most. IMO black humour is only OK if it is pertinent (to the extent that in some context even jokes about AIDS, disability or the even the holocaust could be fine).

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by connie .

[connie @connie Participant]

Plus no it is not black humour or irony, both of which I “get” and enjoy.

It was a misogynist joke in extremely bad taste, that revealed him as a complete arse, and is quite informative about his character. Since he obviously expected that his audience/followers consisted of similar arses who would find the joke funny, it is also revealing about them.

It is also not about intelligence, but about attitudes to women, and a general sense of decency that should tell you whether a joke is on or not.

[connie @connie Participant]

@becke No I do not, but I would expect his employer to have a word with him about his duties to corportae image, especially as a person who knows that he is exposed to media scrutiny.

However, I do think that there are certain jobs and circumstances for which, if the employer had any sense of integrity and decency (which the FA manifestly has not,) jokes of that kind should kick you off the short list.

Specifically, the FA are looking for a replacement for a coach sacked because of racist bullying and inappropriate sexual relations! The same joke would be pretty much irrelevant if he were considered for a coaching role for the men’s team.

[connie @connie Participant]

@beckye You are trolling, I hope, because you cannot really be serious. Making jokes painting domestic violence against women in a positive light (Let’s hope he was joking and did not in fact beat his wife) mainly proves that he is a colossal arse.

That would not make him unsuitable for any job ingeneral (I guess he might fit right in as a professional footballer….), but it definitely makes him unsuitable for a management role where he specifically wields power over women.

This applies even more so when the position became vacant only because his predecessor got himself sacked through a mixture of sexism, inappropriate relationships, and racist bullying.

[connie @connie Participant]

When I went to that website, I saw a full-page advert for “The How Not to Die
Cookbook”… I dismissed the ad and started poking around…

It looks like a typical American “health” website. At the risk of over-generalizing, websites of this kind tend to be single-issue, agenda-pushing vehicles for somebody who wants to get rich from TV appearances and book publishing. The man behind that website, Michael Greger, seems to be an ardent promoter of veganism.

I’m neither a critic nor a promoter of veganism, but I have no patience for the kind of sales pitch that tries to win me over by bombarding me with one message, drowning out any other, with the aim of preventing me from making comparisons and arriving at a balanced opinion.

I’d much rather read a book on the subject of milk and dairy products in general if it was written by Gary Taubes. But he’s not written that book, yet; I hope he will do so one day. Taubes is not without his critics, but his writing seems much more balanced and presents references to enough source material that you can check up on the research (if you have time for that).

As for milk being responsible for early onset of puberty, I don’t believe it’s the sole or even main cause.

When I lived in the US, I heard a few friends and acquaintances claim that hormones in milk (left over from hormone treatments given to dairy cows) were causing girls to become pubescent at an unnaturally early age and were responsible for so many American teenage girls and very young women having bigger breasts than was the case twenty or thirty years ago. I seem to remember reading something similar about Brazilian girls, and it being attributed to eating papaya seeds.

I’m not convinced, anyway. Onset of puberty is retarded by malnutrition, and for centuries a large part of the population of Europe suffered episodes of malnutrition when crops failed. Food rationing in the UK continued in a limited form until July 1954.

With the increase in consumption of food in general, and in fat- and calory-rich foods in particular (meat, cheese, eggs and milk), it is normal for the onset of puberty to happen at a younger age.

With the change in fashion, maybe women’s breasts are simply more visible than they were twenty or thirty years ago. There is certainly more breast augmentation surgery today than back then, and I’ve read reports of girls of sixteen being offered it for a birthday present by their parents.

I seem to have drifted off topic… What was the question, again?

[connie @connie Participant]

I’ve had massive issues with metatarsalgia over the last 5-10years. The single worst thing for setting it off was stiff winter boots, with or without crampons (although with crampons resulted in excruciating pain like two of my toes were on fire!!), also climbing shoes without a stiff enough sole.

I have dropped metatarsal heads which are largely genetic (or obesity related) by the time I saw a physio the arch of my foot was visibly higher even to the untrained eye. I know you said you can’t afford custom insoles at the moment, but the £230 i spent on the physio/ insoles was the best money I’ve spent in years, and worth forgoing a holiday for. I just left it and left it due to cost and being to busy and reached the point of struggling to walk some days.

[connie @connie Participant]

Are you wearing them before you start running in them. Maybe your feet need time to get used to them if you aren’t a trainer wearer usually. Also you could try road race trainers. I have a pair of these think they are Peter Merrell. They were about 60 from Tiso and I really like them. They are a bit more like a walking shoe than a trainer.

[connie @connie Participant]

I had trouble with an impingement last year-had a steroid shot and some physio, now have regular massages and its mostly behaving. Wearing a shoulder support whilst playing soccer and sports can help a lot. I wear this one shoulder support and it has really helped me especially when playing soccer.

https://nuovahealth.co.uk/shop/shoulder-support/

[connie @connie Participant]

I suffer in my right heel too and have found correct shoes helps me a lot. The Clarke’s Unstructured have been brilliant and I live in them. Not pretty but very comfy. Their summer sandals are good too.
If I wear anything else for a day it hurts like mad. Have to be careful with boots and when running.

[connie @connie Participant]

I work in foot care product design and development
Ideally you need orthotic insoles, lots of anti inflammatory drugs and to relieve the acute pain get a really cold can of coke and stretch your arch over it regularly by rolling it backwards and forwards under your foot

If you haven’t already you need to see a podiatrist not just a GP!

[connie @connie Participant]

I might be wrong but I did read it somewhere that she mainly identifies as male but also identifies as female. Either way I do feel for her but unfortunately I’m not sure how else you protect female sport?

[connie @connie Participant]

football brings out the absolute worst in people

More a sad indictment of the herd mentality of crowds. If people weren’t so sheep-like, en masse, then 90% of that crowd would have acted on their natural inclination and shouted those idiots down from the vehicle.

[connie @connie Participant]

Thing is with one of the Kane corner tussles, just before that disgraceful rugby tackle, Stones, also waiting for the corner to swing in, pushed a Tunisian in the back and he fell to the ground. So if the VAR were to give it to Kane, they’d have had to have given the Stones foul moments prior to it. So they left it all well alone. Wise.

Not sure about the other one.

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