Danskcolin: Tuesday September 22nd 2026 "Women, eh!!! Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em !!!!"

Yes, Friends, are YOU a woman? Or do you KNOW a woman? There are plenty around, I've discovered! Another thing is that you just can't keep women out of the news, and "in spades" !!!!

Take some of the headlines in today's Onion News - there are a few "doozies" to choose from, and this here is "Colin's Pick" (cue fanfare !!!!) !!!!

And, if nothing else, today's women-related "bombshells" bring a cheeky grin to the faces of me and my wife Lois here in semi-pastoral Liphook, Hampshire, as we take our near-daily walk, which today leads us into the trees and babbling waters of nearby Radford Park, which is nice!

my wife Lois and me this morning, as we take our near-daily walk,

today visiting, nearby, the trees and streams of semi-attractive Radford Park

And we're laughing particularly today, because we ourselves have never ever had any problem with feminism, and ours is very much 'a marriage of equals'.

I always allocate to Lois a full 50% share of both our sofa and our bed, where we spend most of our time, and why not! [That's big of you, Colin! - Ed]. Plus we know we've got a relatively easy day in front of us today, with a gentle walk in the park, an afternoon in bed, and an evening on the sofa watching the telly. So what's not to like!!!

me and my wife Lois - having one of our rare "quiet days" for once, if you please!!!!

Well, we reckon we've earned our 'quiet day' today, and "in spades" !!!

We're both still quite tired, actually. The last 8 days have been a riot of fun, hosting our 3 grandchildren for a week while their house has been in the charge of builders, and then speeding north east to Ipswich, Suffolk for 3 days to attend the wedding of my niece Lucy. And "old codgers" though we undoubtedly be (note the subjunctive!), we let our hair down, and finished the weekend with a hectic "boogie" at the post-wedding disco. Not to mention our attendance at yesterday's "class", as members, "for our sins" (!), of retired schoolteacher Joe's U3A group "Intermediate Latin for Local Old Codgers".

Busy busy busy!!!!

No wonder so many of our neighbours have quietly been dubbing us "possibly Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple" - but no surprise there !!!!

a look-back at mine and Lois's crazy week: (left) our daughter Alison and husband Edward

formally handing over to our care their 3 kids Josie Isaac and Rosalind, while their

crumbling Victorian mansion in nearby Headley is being renovated - what madness!!!;

and (right) Ipswich: the Saturday wedding of my niece Lucy to her fiancee Rosanna

flashback to Saturday in Ipswich, Suffolk: my niece Lucy with new wife Rosanna,

leading off the post-wedding disco, during which even "old codgers" Yours Truly and Lois

managed a crafty "boogie", shoulder-to-shoulder with the other guests, would you believe!!!

The Saturday wedding of Lucy and Rosanna, upstairs in the Ipswich County Library, surrounded by, like, a billion books - more probably! - was certainly a memorable experience, particularly when the celebrant ended the ceremony with the momentous words "I now pronounce you wife and wife".

And it was fascinating for Lois and me, at the post-wedding reception, to see a chart celebrating the major milestones in the long and difficult process eventually leading to the legalising of same-sex marriages in the UK, and allowing soulmates Lucy and her Anglo-American fiancee Rosanna to "plight their troth", as people used to call it!

It all started in 2003, Lois and I learn, when the so-called "Section 28" regulations were repealed in England and Wales, and in the same year also in the USA, when, after the results of "Lawrence v. Texas", the US Supreme Court struck down any laws criminalising private consensual same-sex intimacy.

chart depicting the major milestones of the LGBTQ movement's fight to legalise

same-sex marriages in the UK and US, ending with Lucy and Rosanna's "special day"

Certainly, Lucy and Rosanna are not going to have any feminist battles to wage in their marriage, either, seeing as how there won't even be a single (or otherwise!) man about the house, to "stick his oar in" (if I can put it like that!), that's for sure !!!!

It wasn't so simple for women 1000 years ago, however, as Lois and I learn from catching up with Sunday's edition of "Countryfile", which, for this episode, focuses on the current loan of the Bayeux Tapestry, by France, to the British Museum.

Although the famous tapestry was woven by Anglo-Saxon women after the Norman leader William the Conqueror's successful invasion in 1066, it's notable that the 230 ft long tapestry doesn't exactly highlight the women of the time, which is a pity, to put it mildly!

That deficiency - the almost complete lack of women in the tapestry's story - is shortly going to be remedied, however, because the tapestry is currently being "recreated", a thousand years later, by a group of enthusiastic modern-day embroiderers in East Sussex. The project, started in 2024, was the idea of local Sussex resident Tina Greene, who decided to replicate the tapestry using traditional materials, as a show of friendship with the people of Normandy. More than 1200 local residents have so far contributed at least one stitch to the tapestry, which will be handed over to Normandy next year to mark the 1000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror.

And perhaps the best part of the project is, that finally - finally!!! - women are going to be "photoshopped into" the tapestry, as the process might be called today! While the materials are still authentic for the time, Tina has reimagined a part of the story, stitching William's wife Matilda into the design, which is a nice idea!