Another Reviewer Hits the Streets...

 

Do They Vote, Too??

 

Using machine learning, researchers have been able to decode what fruit bats are saying--surprisingly, they mostly argue with one another.

Another pearl of wisdom from Bored Panda.

How They're Grown...

 

More then-and-now family photos here, thanks to Bored Panda.

I'll bet Mom and Dad are proud.

The Gentle Approach

 Of course, politics were much kinder centuries ago... right?

Monday Stuff On the Way to Other Stuff: January Recovery

     After weeks of flu...am I feeling better? I think maybe I am! But we both can get really tired, with just a little effort.

     (No, it's not Covid.)

     A little snow. A lot of cold. A good recipe for soup, staying inside...and working on reports. 

Meanwhile:

'Cheap but impressive' recipes.

'The cabbage' -- from Barbara Brackman!

Frugal hacks for grocery shopping -- 

Submarine incidents -- 1960s style.

Things done 'just to be safe' -- that paid off.

Top flavors in Pop-Tarts, as least according to The Kitchn.

Trisha Yearwood's Sloppy Joes.

"I would rather play chicken with my bills, than with my savings."  (From Budgets Are Sexy)

Have a great week. 

Quacked Up

 

Rats...

An Australian garrison in Tobruk during WWII that became infamous during an 8 month siege against an armored German/Italian Afrika corps.

The tactics of the soldiers surprised the Germans in that usually when the lines are pieced by armored forces the enemy retreats. Not so the Tobruk Garrison, who instead advanced and attacked the infantry running behind the tanks while letting the armored division over-extend itself without support.

>" I cannot understand you Australians. In Poland , France and Belgium once the tanks got through the soldiers took it for granted they were beaten. But you are like demons. The tanks break through and your infantry keeps fighting."

Eventually they got a Nazi war propaganda specialist to broadcast radio messages in Radio Berlin in an attempt to lower morale and deride the defenders, calling the soldiers in Tobruk 'cornered rats' because of their tactics in using tunnel networks to flank and steal supplies, and their supply ships 'floating scrap iron'.

But rather than be demoralized the Australian's started calling themselves Rats and their supply ships 'the scrap iron flotilla'. Because in typical Australian dry humor they figured it was more insulting to the Germans to be beaten back by a bunch of rats. They gave themselves unofficial rat medals with metal from a scrapped German bomber shot down with stolen German guns.

"I like to think it was a long 8 months of Australians and their allies holding a giant middle finger to the Axis."

My guess:  now we know how the tv series 'Rat Patrol' got its name. Other feisty moments from history are here.