I was about to complain that Symphony of Science has yet another autotuned paean to physics, but then I found that I missed this one, that’s all about dinosaurs.
All right, not bad, but it’s easy to get people enthused about great big giant things. How about something with molecular biologists or microbiologists or biochemists getting enraptured over their work?
848 comments
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Dhorvath, OM
10 May 2012 at 10:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Some Funky Cold Amoeba?
Louis
10 May 2012 at 10:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dr Audley, Z. Darkheart, #212, second page, previous TET,
USB soup on its way to you as we speak. Home made using home made (i.e. not cube/shop bought) stock with minimal salt (i.e. none added).
It’s tomato and spring vegetables, as requested, with a hint of Mediterranean herbs and finished with cream.
It’s the only way to fly.
Louis
Louis
10 May 2012 at 10:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh and I am off work tomorrow, off to London town for debauchery. Third week in a row. This health kick is superb, I’ve been pissed as a fart for most of it. Although I might have to re-re-re-re-restart it again on Monday.
Sadly I can resist everything except temptation.
Louis
Matthew Prorok
10 May 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Gotcha covered; The Greatest Show On Earth. But yeah, he could stand to do more on the subject.
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
10 May 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis
Ah, but you know that the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Also you don’t know if the opportunity will return.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carrying the gazpacho discussion, another soup to try if you liked chilled soups a white gazpacho, which is made with almonds, stale bread, garlic, sheery vinegar and olive oil. It is traditional garnished with grapes.
Rick Stein’s version can be found here.
I have tried it, and it is utterly delicious.
chigau (違う)
10 May 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis
“pissed as a fart”
Are you seeing a doctor? , ’cause that shouldn’t happen.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 10:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
…pissed as a fart…
Um, Louis, just how fucked up is your body?
Louis
10 May 2012 at 10:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
LOL Ahhhh. I see my quaint British euphemism has caused some consternation.
“Pissed as a fart” is a euphemism for “being excessively and egregiously drunk”.
It’s one of my favourites. My favourite being “pissed as a mattress”.
Louis
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 10:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, after having it pointed out to me by chigau that the other thread I was in was not the Endless thread I find I’m confused (so, business as usual) and sure enough, this apparently is a distinct thread. Not that I didn’t trust chigau, but I think I didn’t fully grasp what chigau had meant.
Well, I’ve been saying (re)hello over there, but maybe I should have posted that here. So, with no small measure of uncertainty, I’ve missed many names and I apologize, and also, hello, Pharyngula and commenters.
Louis, thanks for your words of welcome in the “At a certain point” thread. I feel adrift (or awash, perhaps) in many different thread currents that it’s hard to keep up, but I wanted to say hello here. I was reluctant to stay in that thread and maintain a long line of introductory/re-acquaintance conversation when there is far more important substance to be discussed there.
Hence I keep ducking in and out of this thread and what appears to be the “Zombie” thread. Not being entirely familiar with the history of both the Zombie and Endless threads (though I remember back when the Endless started, I think), is there a protocol for one or the other for participation or content?
I feel a bit like I’ve just arrived at customs in a foreign land. I know what to do. I’ll speak LOUDER. AND SLOWER. IN MY NATIVE. LANGUAGE. BECAUSE THAT. ALWAYS BRIDGES. CULTURE BARRIERS!
Now I’ll point at my folded map and smile encouragingly, with eyebrows raised in a questioning manner. Also, may I take your picture?
Still learning,
Robert
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 10:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis,
Awesome! Here’s hoping USB soup is compatible with my phone.
Richard (last thread),
*sigh* I know what you’re saying. As shitty as Obama has proven himself to be, electing Rmoney would be far worse for gay rights/women’s rights/economic justice/etc.
That being said, it is still awfully tempting to cast a blank ballot as a protest vote this year. I mean, I live in New York. We’re going to carry Obama anyway, so why not?
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 10:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I figured that it was a Britishism, but damn, how could I be expected to not make a joke?
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 10:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fair enough. No self-respecting Brit is going to pass up the chance to make a joke at the expense of an American wearing a fanny-pack so turn about is fair.
consciousness razor
10 May 2012 at 11:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Look, we all love autotuning, so please don’t torture it any more. It should get a quick and relatively painless death.
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 11:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Robert,
Hello! The zombie thread is soecifically for gnashing your teeth at trolls and this thread (the Endless) is where we put our feet up and talk about whatever. Sometimes it’s important shit, sometimes it’s arguments, and sometimes it’s gazpacho recipes.
It’s good to see you back. I think I was still lurking when you were more active, but I’ve always appreciated what you had to say.
Soup?
consciousness razor
10 May 2012 at 11:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Also, regarding “symphony”: UR DOIN IT RONG.
thunk
10 May 2012 at 11:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Skrello, everyone. I’d like my soup with gold bouillon. Glenn Beck told me it’s good. :p
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Or, “specifically”. Damn tiny tiny keys.
Cuttlefish
10 May 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
How about something with molecular biologists or microbiologists or biochemists getting enraptured over their work?
Perhaps we could get JT to sing this:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2011/03/26/w-s-gilbert-meets-randall-monroe/
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine,
I second what Matt said. He’s right.
Mind you, when I tried to bum* a fag** off a guy in New York years ago, I did get some funny looks.
Louis
* Borrow.
** Cigarette.
P.S. Fanny pack….lol…I remember that one. Fanny in the UK means {ahem} “lady garden” (DOUBLE EUPHEMISM…WHOA…RIGHT ACROSS THE SKY). A fanny pack would be a bulk order of vulvas. Now I’m not saying that would be a bad thing per se, but haven’t we evolved beyond the commodification of women as simply the transport systems for their sex organs?
{Puffs knowingly on his pipe}
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If I had a fanny pack (in the BritEng sense), does that mean that I could swap them out depending on how I felt that day?
I’m reminded of Wanda Sykes’ routine detachable vulvae.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Desert Son,
Dude, it’s us that should be thanking you for your return. Pull up a beer and drink a chair.
Or something like that! It’s Thursday, my blood stream is running low on coffee, I’m off for a long weekend in an hour or so, frankly, I’m fuck all use to man or beast at the moment!
Louis
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 11:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This collector of vulvas is obviously an extremely misogynistic serial killer.
(I am not sure if this has gotten too silly or too icky. Perhaps both.)
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth,
Indeed. Indeed.
{Puffs on pipe again}
I’ve always thought that a Gentleman should have a selection of Gentleman’s Personal Genitalia. A variety of sizes, textures and shapes for the delectation of one’s partner, a diminutive and very tough set for dangerous environments and sporting occasions, and something the size of a sperm whale schlong for intimidating other men at the urinals/showers/nudist beach etc.
{Puffs on pipe again…looks in pipe}
Deary me, this appears to be crack!
{Puffs on pipe again}
Louis
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine,
Or perhaps a forensic pathologist…or a gynocologist who takes their work home with them…or…
Okay. I’m stopping NOW.
Louis
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Are there bubbles coming out of the pipe?
mudpuddles
10 May 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think Im going to start a religion to worship Alice Roberts.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There are now.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Louis
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis, I have a rather large collection of items that imitate the form of a Gentleman’s Equipment. I frequently swap them out depending on my mood.
Perhaps you’d like to come borrow one? The purple one with tentacles is my favorite.
Dhorvath, OM
10 May 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Err, Louis, have you seen the Stockroom? There are ways to make your thought reality.
Dhorvath, OM
10 May 2012 at 11:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And Hi all. It seems working agrees with me just fine, but leaves little time to visit. So I will just poke about a bit now and then.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mudpuddles,
This Alice Roberts?
If so, phwoar! Yeah! Look at the frontal lobes on that! Hummunuh hummunuh. She’s a bit of a professor and populariser of science all right. I bet she’d lecture well and do some research. Filthy little scientist.
Oh I am so weak, I only value her for her mind. Where can a female professor go for a good, hard, shag nowadays?* It’s misogyny I tells ya. Men like me, ogling her qualifications and erudition. Gazing longingly at her long, tenured position. Wistfully dreaming about taking her right up the Royal Society for some good hard discussion. I’m just objectifying her brain, not looking at the complete woman.**
Louis
* Practically anywhere is my guess.
** It should be apparent that this is a pastiche, a parody and not in any way designed or intended to be taken seriously.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 11:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Am I the only one picturing Louis like this?
Who knows what is in the pipe?
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 11:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I have to admit that I do find Alice Roberts incredibly attractive.
thunk
10 May 2012 at 11:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
oh dear, skrello Louis.
A pipe? A PIPE? Do you know that’s a sin *takes and whaps head with it*. Sinner.
Detachable equipment: sounds interesting, but I don’t know how anybody would react at my school. You keep them. etc.
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 11:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
E,
Oooo, swapping out vulvas, I like! Just think, if you felt like having red hair (or whatever) tomorrow, bam! There you go. :)
mudpuddles
10 May 2012 at 11:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ Louis:
Yes she is awesome. I would like her to come and teach me things and it could be Latin or text speak or how to paint a shrew’s toenails or even quantum woo and I would like it very much. I would just stare at her and allow all the knowledge in her beautiful head to wash over me and make me not so dumb. I want her to be Queen of the World.
My girlfriend agrees.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 11:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley, don’t they make merkins for that?
(Funny, my spellcheck does not recognize the word “merkin”.)
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 11:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
As Bush the Younger used to say: “My fellow ‘merkins”.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth,
I’ll be right over!
Louis
Markita Lynda—damn climate change!
10 May 2012 at 11:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Welcome back, Desert Son!
I’ve been skimming and skipping threads in the hope of having a Real Life and clean house.
So hi, all! See you soon. Take care of yourselves.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine,
Actually, I’m rather like this.
Louis
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 11:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine,
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 11:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Damned blockquote. *grumble*
mudpuddles
10 May 2012 at 11:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ Audley #43:
This beautiful lttle thing: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/merlin/index.aspx
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 11:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis,
I’d always had you pegged as being similar to Graham Chapman’s pipe-smoking Earnestly Proper Middle Class Guy in Monty Python.
In appearance, in any case.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Incidentally, a question, my British friend: do Brits actually address their mates as “old man?” Or is that something that TV/movies invented? Or is it a class thing, where some Brits do and some don’t?
In exchange, I’ll answer a question that has nagged you about American culture.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ummm…
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 11:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If they did, it would be because they are taking the piss. If a friend has been complaining about their aching, or some other complaint associated with old age, you might refer to them as old man, as in “Let’s you get home then old man”.
Another usage is in private schools, where the headmaster is often referred to as the “old man” by both pupils and staff. In the military also, the commanding officer is often called the “old man”.
But do we use it as an everyday term to refer to our mates ? No.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Matt, so you’re saying that Masterpiece Theater, Monty Python, the writings of P.G. Woodhouse are an inaccurate depiction of British culture then?
*head explodes*
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 11:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mudpuddles,
A tiny falcon! Awesome!
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 11:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I do have to wonder how US film and TV program makers can get things so wrong.
The other day I watching an episode of NCIS and they had a British character in it who kept referring to her “cell phone”. How fucking hard is it to learn than in UK they are called “mobile phones”. Also, they had a video conference with an inspector someone from MI5. MI5 is not part of the police, and does not have anyone with the rank of inspector, which is not very senior in the police anyway, something equivalent to an lieutenant in the army. It is not as though there is a shortage of Brits living in LA would could check script for such errors.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 11:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carry on, Esteleth. Carry on.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wasn’t that called a “bleeper” on an episode of Absolutely Fabulous? Do I need to say what Patsy did with it?
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
An inaccurate depiction of modern British culture. I am not familiar with Masterpiece Theater, but Wodehouse and Python are not totally inaccurate depictions of British culture pre the 1960s, although obviously exaggerated for comedic effect.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 12:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The only British character on NCIS I could accept using Americanisms is Ducky, but he’s depicted as having lived in the US for some time, which would make acculturation plausible.
But yeah, many Americans truly have no concept of the UK other than umbrella-toting, impeccably dressed people speaking the Standard Pronunciation (and talking about tea)
Markita Lynda—damn climate change!
10 May 2012 at 12:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There’s a link to Obama’s ABC Interview on this page and a field where you can enter your e-mail address to support the right to same-sex marriage. His rationalization is here, from a presidential e-mail.
It strikes me that this is a little like Lincoln freeing the slaves. His initial proclamation applied only to states that had seceded, which weren’t going to pay attention to it. But in the end, he effected a change.
He’s still your only chance to defeat the Republicans, who would be a complete disaster for civil rights.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A bleeper is somewhat different, and is rather older technology but still used in hospitals. It is a device you keep in your bag or pocket that bleeps when you get a message that is displayed on a scrolling one line display. Normally it is just provides the name and telephone number of someone who wants you to contact them. It cannot be used to send messages. The NHS uses them in hospitals because unlike mobile phones they cannot interfere with any equipment.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 12:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Masterpiece Theater is a program that airs on PBS. They frequently re-air BBC historical-type dramas – stuff like Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The odd thing is that when Ducky is talking about his life back in the UK the writers often get it spot on.
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A bleeper is a beeper?
Bleeper sounds much more… crass.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Actually, neither of those was made by BBC, unless you mean new Upstairs Downstairs and not the 70s version. They both aired on ITV.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 12:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Let us overlook Woodrow Wilson re-segregating the federal government. And the century of Jim Crow. It was but one action in a history of struggle.
Wrong. The fight was going on long before any of us heard of Obama and will continue despite him.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 12:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“Bleeper” is what an American would call either a “beeper” (no L) or a “pager.”
I’m guessing that Ducky using proper BritEng (or, more accurately ScotEng) and getting details right can be directly ascribed to David McCullom.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I knew there was another word for them, but could I remember it was pager ? I had not heard them called beepers though.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 12:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I stand corrected.
But that is the stort of stuff that Masterpiece Theater airs.
FWIW, I heard someone opine that Harry Potter has done more to shift American views of British people (i.e. clue them in to how the UK actually works) than just about anything in the past 30 years.
Make of that what you will.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 12:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth and Matt,
Well I, and certain of my long term friends, do call each other “old man” or “old bean” etc quite frequently. Mostly it’s an affectation, a bit of a pseudy call back to Wodehouse and that sort of thing. It’s a bit upper class and antiquated, and so completely deliberate.
Two of the reprobates that most do this will be visited tomorrow in the city. I fully expect, after suitable consumption of alcoholic libations, that such modes of speech shall be engaged.
Pip pip!
Louis
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 12:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey, where do you think I got my accurate view of England?
Patsy and Eddie.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oddly, HP is not a bad depiction of a certain aspect of life in the UK, despite all the magic. It is rather middle-class in its outlook of course, but then it is fiction aimed at kids and not a definitive survey of life in Britain at the turn of the century.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
10 May 2012 at 12:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Markita Lynda, I’ll be damned if I kiss the president’s ass for tepidly announcing that he “personally” favors same-sex marriage but would rather the states decide — especially since he’s been waiting for the most politically expedient moment to say it.
I know you said upthread that you’ve been thread-skimming, but at least look at the previous TET (bottom of 1st page, top of 2nd page) and this massive thread.
Also, “OOGA BOOGA TEH REPUBLICANZ!!!” is getting really fucking old.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis,
Well chocks away, and and chin up for tomorrow, old man.
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 12:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel:
Thanks for that summary, and the greetings. That’s exactly what I needed to know (also, excellent return on my part, if I do say so, myself, posting the Endless-style content in the Zombie thread. Now I really do feel like the Ugly American bumbling into another country and loudly asking where the McDonald’s is). I do remember you and have often remarked, in turn, your own posts with admiration (I remember so many names, and it’s rapidly apparent just how many I left off in my initial greeting in the inappropriate post in the Zombie thread). Also, thank you for the offer of soup! I’ll delay for now.
Since I fumbled the (re)introduction elsewhere, I’ll simply once again proffer a hearty round of clenched tentacle salutes, a doffed hat, enthusiastic waves, and warm embraces as deemed amenable to all and sundry.
Louis:
Thank you, again.
I could probably use the fiber. Safe travels to, within, and fro Londinium!
Markita Lynda—damn climate change!:
Hello, and thank you! Nice to see you again!
Still learning,
Robert
Louis
10 May 2012 at 12:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Matt,
Rather! What! I say! Tally ho! Hark for’ard! Yoiks!*
Louis
* Amazingly enough this sentence a) makes sense and b) I have beard it used in earnest.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 12:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am an avid watcher of the show Mad Men. One of the characters is a British guy, Lane Pryce. The show is set in the 1960s.
At some point, Lane and his wife (whose name escapes me) are talking about their new life in the US. Mrs. Pryce opines that their son (who has the most stereotypical British name ever – Nigel) is acting very American. She disapproves. Lane, not really responding, says, “You know, since we came to America not one person has asked me where I went to school.”
Some people were arguing about this online, taking it as a random non sequitur and evidence that Lane is not attentive to his wife and off in la-la land. I tried to explain that a man who is in his ’40s in the ’60s, depicted as a middle-to-top level manager for a big company, is probably of a middle class background. He strives for greatness, but he doesn’t really “fit” with his upper-class bosses (they are, in fact, shown to be downright abusive of him). Where he went to school (presumably not Eton) is emblematic of this. So, to him, the US is an amazing place where he can remake himself and the fact that he’s achieved wealth makes him upper-class and enables him to pass privilege to his own son – privilege that he wouldn’t have in the UK.
Yes, that was a random digression. It’s just something that hit me.
Richard Austin
10 May 2012 at 12:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Probably more specific an alpha-numeric pager, but yeah.
Hospitals also use them instead of cells because (at least at mine and a few others) they can set up their own independent networks cheaply. Our pager system is tied into the public grid and we piggyback on a national carrier (T-Mobile, I think), but on campus, we have our own “towers”. If T-Mobile went down completely, we’d still be able to relay pages around campus. You can theoretically do that with cell phones, but it’s a lot more expensive and harder to manage.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
10 May 2012 at 12:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Trigger warning: Mitt Romney gay-bashed a fellow student when he was in college.
Matt Penfold
10 May 2012 at 12:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[I clipped everything preceding for brevity].
The 1950s and 60s in the UK were when social mobility was probably at it highest. Bright kids from poor families who passed their eleven plus(1) could get into excellent grammar schools, and then go onto Oxford or Cambridge.
Sadly, such social mobility has become less common. Oxford and Cambridge take a greater percentage of students from fee paying schools now than they did in the 50s and 60s.
1. Exam taken at 11 that pretty much determined your future. Pass, and you went to a grammar school where the emphasis was on academic rigour and getting a place at a good university. Fail and you went a secondary modern, where the aim was to produce the workers that those who went to grammar schools would manage.
The system was not totally without merit. Not everyone is academically gifted, and an education aimed at someone who is would be unsuitable for them. The education offered at grammar schools could be very good indeed. The main problem came with the age at which the selection was made, and the almost impossibility of doing anything about it afterwards,
And now I find I have written far more about the British class system than I intended, so sorry for boring you all.
chigau (違う)
10 May 2012 at 12:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ducky.
Illya.
*sigh*
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 12:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, a real-world analogue of Pryce would have been a schoolboy in the 30′s and 40′s, when I’m guessing the system was a bit more rigid?
Anyway, yes. Random.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 12:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ms Daisy Cutter,
And it’s accompanied by one of the classic notpologies!
Ahhhh regrets, I’ve….left those to other people it seems.
Louis
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 12:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you so much, Robert.
And, hey, the zombie thread is rather topic-less, too, so your misplaced intro probably wasn’t a big deal. :)
(God damn my name is long. I might have to shorten it a bit.)
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
10 May 2012 at 12:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
RAAAAAGH!!
I hate phone tag, especially when it’s trying to get an appointment so you don’t become a raging ball of crazy. How difficult is it to understand “call me after 5 PM”?
consciousness razor
10 May 2012 at 12:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I had no idea the British use “beard” as a verb. How very odd.
Audley, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 12:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t mind me, trying a new summer look.
*twirls!*
Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle
10 May 2012 at 12:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*full on, floor-smacking fist-pounding, screaming tantrum loading*
I AM SICK AGAIN!!!!! I CAN”T FUCKING BELIEVE I AM SICK AGAIN!!! ANOTHER CTHUTHLU DAMNED COLD!!!!!
AND BEEROLOGY IS THIS WEEKEND!!!!
Okay, I can now compose myself and suck it up like an adult.
*sniffles* :(
Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle
10 May 2012 at 12:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Related question: anyone know how many seasons of The Tudors there were? I just watched Anne lose her head, and, now that I expect to be bed-ridden all weekend, might as well keep going. That’s only wife #2 – still four to go.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 1:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Consciousness Razor,
Well we do*, but in that instance I was paying homage to TYPO the GDO of Clerical Errors (May his corrective fluids pour across the page forever).
Louis
* See defs 6 onwards.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 1:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Illuminata, IMDB is useful for answering these questions.
Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle
10 May 2012 at 1:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t make it sound like a cold-medicine-addled brain can think of something so obvious and commonplace in times of need!
(and thank you. ;) )
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
10 May 2012 at 1:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was trying hard not to sound too snarky.
thunk
10 May 2012 at 1:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ouch illuminata.
Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle
10 May 2012 at 1:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh don’t do that. Snark is the main vitamin of my diet.
thunk
10 May 2012 at 1:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*hugs*
chigau (違う)
10 May 2012 at 1:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley, liar and scoundrel
Very nice.
May I say you look radiant?
*ducks*
Can we still refer to DarkFetus?
Audley, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 1:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Chigau,
:D
I think both Darkfetus and Mr Darkheart are keeping their names. I don’t think this is a permanent change– I’ll probably give myself the Darkheart back soon. :)
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 1:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heh. Audley, it took me until your latest comment to note that you’d changed your nym.
Observant, I am not today.
Audley, liar and scoundrel
10 May 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
E,
I’ve only got the two (or three now) comments in TET with the new ‘nym attached. :D
My problem is that “Audley Darkheart” is my favorite ‘nym EVAR (I’ve had a lot over the years), but it was getting too long with the extensions. But OTOH, I’ve liked using “liar” ever since a troll accuse me of being a Poe ‘cos Dr Audley Z Darkheart was obviously a name I found in a PH Woodhouse* story.
Maybe I’ll stick Darkheart back on.
*Yes, I know.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 1:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Y’know, I’ve been thinking that I need a new nym. The “neither dog nor ferret” story was awhile ago, and I’d be surprised if others remember it.
HMMMM
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 1:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley, you could totally go with Audley, dark-hearted liar and scoundrel.
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM
10 May 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Once again: Robert! :pounces and hugs and hugs and hugs: I don’t care which thread[s] you’re in, it’s fantastic having you back.
The Sailor
10 May 2012 at 2:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, after reading everything, boy, is my face red. It turns out that Obama is the worst president ever and I’m a horrible monster.
So I have no choice except to vote for Rmoney.
The fact that the President of the United States came out for gay marriage, something that no president in the history of the US has ever done so, makes him reprehensible.
and the fact that I wanted to read/hear it from his own lips makes me even worse.
Too little too late, he didn’t go far enough, he said “I respect the beliefs of others, and the right of religious institutions to act in accordance with their own doctrines. But I believe that in the eyes of the law, all Americans should be treated equally. And where states enact same-sex marriage, no federal act should invalidate them.”
Damn that centrist fellow. We thought he would bring us ponies and unicorns.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 2:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sorry, guys, sorry. Still trying to find a good fit.
*twirls again!*
Caine!
Thanks for the Bag Balm rec. My hands are already looking less like beef jerky, yay!
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
10 May 2012 at 2:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@The Sailor:
You are a complete asshole you know that. You’ve seen the transcript and the interview and still you’re throwing this tripe out?
Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
thunk
10 May 2012 at 2:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kat:
What does the poor horse have to do with this?
ibyea
10 May 2012 at 2:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@The Sailor
Way to miss the point, dude. No one said we would be voting for Romney or that Obama is the worst president ever (Bush II is worse than Obama).
The Sailor
10 May 2012 at 2:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And I thought I was the only one who remembered The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
I met Robert Vaughn once when I was a kid working on Bobby Kennedy’s campaign.
Pteryxx
10 May 2012 at 2:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sailor, there’s a whole thread for that. Would you please take it there because I don’t want to look at it.
The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa)
10 May 2012 at 2:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Jesus Christ, Sailor.
No. Just no.
At this point, ‘The Point’ has been made so obvious that missing it is like shooting up and missing the sky.
Conceding that it’s a state issue has done way more harm than his ‘personal feelings’ on the subject. It’s been iterated and reiterated in so many ways, particularly on the explosive “at a certain point” thread.
Just… stop digging your heels in. I don’t want to unfairly characterize you but it seems like you’re more interested in bullshit notions of ‘standing your ground’ and ‘not backing down’, instead of actually paying attention to what you’re missing.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
10 May 2012 at 2:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@thunk:
Good point, the horse doesn’t deserve it.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 2:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor,
Really? You’re going to double down, even after it’s clear that this was a cynical vote grab on Obama’s part? I mean, I’m sure that you and the nice, inoffensive NPR liberals are so pleased that Obama doesn’t think gays are icky anymore. Who cares that he said that he’s going to let bigots make it impossible to acheive marriage equality in all 50 states, right? The important part is the lip service.
Fuck, now I know that I’m not voting for Obama. I’m leaving that line blank.
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 2:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey Sailor did you miss the part where I answered your bullshit rhetorical question?
I am ALWAYS open to the idea that I have to change. I have changed a lot since being open to that idea.
You should consider it, because right now you fucking suck. You should be better than this.
Deer god with halo antlers, it’s even worse than originally reported. He “respects” them…DEEPLY. And they’re not coming at it from a mean-spirited perspective!? Hey, it affects them ZERO percent…how is it NOT mean spirited!? How can I possibly go over and shit on someone else’s icecream and it NOT be mean spirited!?
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
10 May 2012 at 2:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sailor, your efforts to offer a narrative of interpretation come off as condescending. And I say this as someone who is more than halfway supportive of Obama’s statement. I wish you would shut up about it real soon now.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 2:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Pteryxx,
Sorry, didn’t see your post. I’ve made my point, back to talking about ‘nyms and soup.
cicely. Just cicely.
10 May 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
birgerjohansson, I’m sorry to hear about your aunt. *hug*
-
Howdy, Desert Son. I’m not sure we ever “met”, though I recognise your ‘nym; maybe from lurking on other science blogs?
-
Dhorvath! *pounce/hug*
-
Wellll…he says it’s crack, but I suspect that something a bit more fungal has crept in.
-
*whispers*
Eeeeeevil.
-
thunk
10 May 2012 at 2:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Also: Shepard on Fox News:
What is going on? Is Fox News finally beginning to admit they are on the wrong side of reality? It is just a slip-up, i.e. they know that, but are doing this stuff to appease the 1%? Or something else?
I’
thunk
10 May 2012 at 2:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Bah. Linky fail.
Also: Shepard on Fox News:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/obama-supports-gay-marriage-shep-smith-warns-gop-203159510.html
What is going on? Is Fox News finally beginning to admit they are on the wrong side of reality? It is just a slip-up, i.e. they know that, but are doing this stuff to appease the 1%? Or something else?
Predator Handshake
10 May 2012 at 2:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@thunk:
Shep Smith is an anomaly in the world of Fox. Every once in awhile he says a perfectly reasonable thing, yet somehow he still has a job there.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 2:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nyms and Soup?
Called it for prog rock band name.
Also, Audley, I’m enjoying you twirling in new nyms, personally I just go for the boring old standard. I’ve tried having a nym and not being me…you know me me…and it never works. The inner Louis always escapes. I would make the world’s worst sockpuppet.
Louis
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
10 May 2012 at 2:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@cicely:
I’m still trying to figure out how to get our horse conversations into my book. Of course it dawns on me that to the main character who’s never seen a horse in his life, this thing would be a monster, especially cause it stands twice as tall as he is – at the shoulders!!!
Horses are big and scary… and breathe fire.
ibyea
10 May 2012 at 2:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@thunk
It’s Shepard. Out of everyone in Fox News, his head is the one in reality. Of course, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t support some of the harmful conservative policies, but at least he doesn’t live in another planet.
Pteryxx
10 May 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis, World’s Worst Sockpuppet
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM
10 May 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
Yes! I’m so glad it worked! I can’t stand having the skin on my hands dry or fucked up.
Sailor, I’ll fill in for Josh here: take your doubling down, along with your lying ass and plunge a barrel of tar covered, maggot infested porcupines up it.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 2:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cicley,
I never smoke mushrooms. I eat them…
…or drink them in a vodka…
…or…
I better stop, I’m incriminating myself again.
Louis
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 2:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thunk,
Shep is an anomaly and I’m not entirely surprised at his reaction. It’s a wonder he still has a job at Fox “News”, since he’s not hateful scum.
thunk
10 May 2012 at 2:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks. It just came up in my history class. It’s just weird he’s not getting fired.
The Sailor
10 May 2012 at 2:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
what did I miss? That the president of the USA came out in favor of gay marriage and that he said states shouldn’t be allowed to negate that? That he got a law passed that overturned a policy (DADT), that his admin has refused to defend DOMA because they thought it was unconstitutional?
+++++++++++++
Pteryxx, thanks, but no thanks. I get a bit upset when folks here think I should die. I take it a might personally.
I don’t care for bullies, and I really dislike groupthink.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sailor.
HE SAID NO SUCH THING.
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM
10 May 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kat Lorraine:
You could pattern them after Geryon’s horses in Riordan’s Battle of the Labyrinth. Those were fire-breathing horses with fearsome fangs, as they were also flesh-eaters.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 2:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sailor,
I don’t hate you, I don’t want you to die (far from it), and I’m pretty sure I’m not participating in any groupthink.
Is it okay if I still vehemently disagree with you?
Louis
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 2:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Really? You’re really going there? REALLY!? Sailor dump your old personality into the rubbish bin and pick up a new one. Also get yourself fitted for a saddle while you’re at it, ASS
thunk
10 May 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m lousy at creating cool nyms. This one just popped into my hand a while ago.
:P
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis,
Caine gave me this one, ‘cos I wasn’t thrilled with anything else I came up with and dang nabbit, it fits. Maybe you and I are in the same boat, only it was my alter-ego shining through, not my inner Louis. ;)
*twirls Louis!*
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes I don’t hate you Sailor and I don’t hold you to any standard I wouldn’t hold myself.
consciousness razor
10 May 2012 at 2:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
What he did was effectively say “I don’t hate gays, but….” If that’s enough to make you cream your pants, fine, but I think his statements are pathetic and counterproductive.
Fuck off.
Richard Austin
10 May 2012 at 2:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor:
Did you read the quotes? Watch the video? That bolded part is the exact opposite of what he said. At no point did he say that states shouldn’t be allowed to outlaw gay marriage.
That’s the point.
Pteryxx
10 May 2012 at 2:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Funny, so do I.
Last I heard this was TET. Sailor, if you want to argue about Obama’s statement, there’s a thread for that. If you want to keep arguing here, that can only be because you’re prioritizing your personal dispute (bullies, groupthink) over the actual topic.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
10 May 2012 at 2:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Caine:
Wait, what do you mean? Horses in real life aren’t fire-breathing flesh-eaters?
The Sailor
10 May 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think the President of the USA should stop extra-judicial killing of Americans. I think the President of the USA should stop propping up banksters. I think the President of the USA should prosecute the war criminals in the previous admin. I think the President of the USA should support gay marriage … oh, wait, that last one happened.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 2:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley,
a) I just typoed your nym as Audles and corrected myself. I think the correction was in error. I LOVE “Audles”!
b) You twirled me? Whoa you’re strong!
I…I…like that. If I giggle girlishly now is that a bad thing? ;-)
Louis
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 2:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Begging the question with a sprinkling of “obtuse jerkass” ontop.
Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret
10 May 2012 at 2:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Okay. Fuck all this.
Does the greasemonkey killfile script work in Chrome? Or is there an equivalent?
The Sailor
10 May 2012 at 2:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Richard Austin,
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
SAILOR
My expectations for you are lowering…I doubt you’ll consider that a compliment.
Richard Austin
10 May 2012 at 2:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor:
No federdal act. Nothing about the states.
He actually says it’s fine that states have reached “different conclusions” on the topic.
Again, at no point does he say that states should support gay marriage or that there’s anything wrong with states banning it.
Which is what you said he said. Which is wrong.
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 2:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth, I don’t know what you’ll do with your nym, however, think about joining the MQ (Motley Queer) brigade.
Richard Austin
10 May 2012 at 2:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Out of respect for others, I’ll stop talking about this here.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
10 May 2012 at 2:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@The Sailor:
“when states enact same-sex marriage, no federal act should invalidate them”
“states should not be allowed to negate gay marriage rights”
Do you not see the difference between what the president said and what you’re saying? Seriously?
Louis
10 May 2012 at 2:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
What does one have to do to join the Motley Queers? I mean, does one have to be full gay? Not a Kinsey 1? Kinky? Very kinky? VERY Kinky? Poly? Bi? Situationally bi?
Louis
consciousness razor
10 May 2012 at 2:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think they only work for Firefox, but here’s the link for it and a few other scripts. You have to use that one because it’s specific to FTB.
Esteleth, Fake Wife of the Motley Queer
10 May 2012 at 2:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
mmm?
What do you think of this hat?
Predator Handshake
10 May 2012 at 2:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis: I don’t know what that is, but it sounds like it could have been a rad gang from The Warriors. Flashier than the Baseball Furies, even.
Louis
10 May 2012 at 2:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oooooh spiffy!
Louis
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 2:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kat Lorraine:
Well…not the ones I have owned*. Yes, I am horse lover.
*There was Blitz, a little Mustang. Mean ass motherfucker, bit other horses, ripped huge pieces of hide right off of ‘em. I didn’t own Blitz though. Besides, I’d kill for a fire-breathing horse.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 2:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
For fuck’s sake, Sailor. Obama has no interest in stopping states from enacting laws that further discriminate against gay couples. He even said it was because of “religious folks”. That’s the fucking problem. Equal rights shouldn’t be left up to a vote or the whims of a state leg.
Okay, fine. Next time I see Obama I’ll give him a fucking cookie because he’s just the specialest, heart-throbbiest, coolest president ever. *spits*
Pteryxx
10 May 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Katherine, Richard A: I appreciate the try but I’ll take a break. Obviously the Sailor’s willing to SAY he doesn’t care for bullying, but not to act on the sentiment.
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth:
Quite stylish, fake Sister-Wife.
Louis, why not go with MQA (Motley Queer Ally)?
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
10 May 2012 at 3:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Or this? Is this too much?
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 3:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
Give him a spit-filled cookie. It’s still more than he deserves.
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 3:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I would never favor spitting on The President, but people I respect want to and I think we should realize they’re not acting out of mean spiritedness. I think it’s up to each person to decide whether or not to spit on The President
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 3:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There Sailor, I support Obama…happy?
Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden
10 May 2012 at 3:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth,
I love the RDoFM hat. I think you should keep it. I don’t think it will end up being expensive and, even if it does, it looks fabulous on you.
Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden
10 May 2012 at 3:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis –
You don’t have to be very queer or very kinky. You just have to be queer enough to find whatever queer is in front of you attractive and kinky enough so that you find any proposed kink activity kinda boring.
Then you’re a shoo in.
Less than that, you’re situationally MQ.
thunk
10 May 2012 at 3:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Crip Dyke:
Oh lol. I don’t think I know quite enough yet to know whether I would be included or not.
pentatomid
10 May 2012 at 3:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tomorrow I’m leaving on a camping trip to the north of France for the weekend. Looking out of the window right now, I’m getting a bit concerned about the weather.
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 3:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hooray! The above is correct.
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 3:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine, Fleur du mal, OM!
Enthusiastically and heartily returned, with many thanks! Lovely to see you!
The Sailor:
Fair sure there’s some stiff competition out there for Worst President Ever (U.S. executive division).
Andrew Jackson, for instance, who got along just [sarcasm] peachy [/sarcasm] with nations like the Muscogee and Seminole and Cherokee and Choctaw.
Or Franklin Pierce, noted Southern sympathizer and enforcer of the Fugitive Slave Act.
How about George W. Bush? After all, rarely is the question asked, “Is our children learning?” And that’s not even bringing up things like the War on Terra (what’s he got against geology, anyway?), “Mission Accomplished,” and a slew of other pollutants in recent memory.
The point isn’t that Obama is being unfairly called “Worst President Ever.” The point is that Obama is being called on something he did that is injurious but masked in a smokescreen purporting to be solidarity. The outcry against Obama is legitimate, critically measured, analytical, and lucid (it also happens to be passionately expressed, and rightly so), and it’s insulting to the people who are arguing critically against the political maneuver to suggest that it’s really just a mis-measure of great expectations.
It’s an issue of human rights. It’s already moving slow, it’s already taking “baby steps.” It’s been doing that since human sexuality was first expressed and considered in a socio-cultural context. Obama had an opportunity to shout for more movement. He shouted for less. There’s legitimacy in taking him to task for that. Doing so doesn’t suddenly invalidate the historicity of his achievement of the Chief Executive Office in a broad culture reticent about the melanin saturation in his skin, for example.
Pharyngula does this every day. It calls people on their mistakes every day, and it hurts to hear you’ve been called on a mistake, but it’s also a great chance to get educated and try to improve. Obama’s being called on his mistake, and calling Obama on his mistake doesn’t magically hand victory over to the assholes who are only too happy to declare their opposition to equality.
Still learning,
Robert
chigau (違う)
10 May 2012 at 3:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My cherry trees are beginning to blossom.
It was trying very hard to s-word a few minutes ago.
Canada, eh?
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 3:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And, fuck, I just got through catching up with previous notations and many others already got there before I did. One of the hazards of the speed at which I compose is missing the time during which other posts appear.
Pteryxx and others, I apologize for following up in this thread before seeing your requests.
cicely. Just cicely, hello, and thank you!
Still learning,
Robert
cicely. Just cicely.
10 May 2012 at 3:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And eat people. Don’t forget that.
They bring the Apocalypse.
And they hate kittens and puppydogs.
-
This guy Shepard is Faux Nooz’s token sane person?
-
*removing hat and looking somber*
I…I’m sorry. Is there nothing that can be done? Is it…terminal?
-
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
10 May 2012 at 3:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Shep Smith is the token sane person over at Faux Noise.
Quite frankly, I don’t understand how it is that he hasn’t been fired yet. Maybe he has dirt?
Crip Dyke, I’m glad you like my new hat. I think it suits me. *preens*
ruteekatreya
10 May 2012 at 3:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fox News would be far more interesting if it had byzantine politics to be amused by, at least.
@SAilor:
Are you illiterate? He outright stated, in your own quote, that states rights are tantamount, which is fucking useless status quo bullshit. Which is what he usually does.
Crip Dyke, MQ, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden
10 May 2012 at 4:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve lengthened by ‘nym myself.
Don’t know if I’ll keep it. It was already on the very long side. We’ll see.
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
10 May 2012 at 4:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good evening
Desert Son
I think we’ve met in other places, welcome here
Louis
Well, I actually always imagined you like Pippin in LotR
pretty new nyms all around.
And my camera is borked, I hope only temporarily.
No, I don’t have anything of substance to add.
At the moment, at least.
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 4:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes; I have a very interesting history class. The teacher is the well-educated and awesome type that loves to have us discuss topics, think, then write seven-page papers about it. Smith came up today.
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
10 May 2012 at 4:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There is an unexpected silver lining to this whole “why can’t you be grateful debacle.” I finally understand viscerally and personally what it feels like to be man-splained to. I have been Het-splained to so damned hard from so many straight men since last night it’s breathtaking. Holy fuck. At least I can better empathize with women.
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
10 May 2012 at 4:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Paging Gregory from Seattle!—Would you please email me at spokesgay at gmail?
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 4:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cicely:
I’m afraid it is terminal, Cicely. I love riding at a full run, feels like flying. I’m addicted. Besides, jumping. And horse nuzzles. They are nuzzly, cuddly critters. They are also stompy, evil critters. I approve of all that stuff. Also, they are beautiful and silly.
Robert, don’t apologize for that post. It was exquisitely crafted and a fine rebuttal. As Sailor won’t stop venting his farts, I see no reason for others to ignore the stench in the room. I’m afraid Sailor doesn’t have the integrity or honesty to remove his farting from the lounge and take it to the appropriate thread.
carlie
10 May 2012 at 4:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi Robert! Glad to see you wound your way back here.
So, hi everybody.
*looks down*
I don’t usually do anything like this, but…
*scuffs feet*
um…
it’smybirthday
*runs away to the corner to hide*
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 4:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy birthday carlie!
*pulls out spare cake*
*and sparklers*
Nutmeg
10 May 2012 at 4:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy birthday, carlie!
*balloons* *cake* *sprinkles* *glitter* *bacon* *beverages* *ice cream*
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 4:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy Birthday, Carlie! May this be a great and wonderful year for you and many, many happy returns. I, for one, am grateful you’re on the planet and I have the privilege of knowing you.
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
10 May 2012 at 4:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy Birthday, carlie
Caine
Now I’m torn.
I really like you.
And I like horses.
But donkeys are just so much better.
Cipher, OM
10 May 2012 at 4:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ee! Happy birthday, Carlie! *dance party and chocolate GIANT CHOCOLATE*
Welcome, Desert Son!
Sailor, stop using hyperbole to characterize other people’s arguments because it’s coming off like an exceptionally stupid strawman!
I should be working, but instead I’m just hanginout.
The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa)
10 May 2012 at 4:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell: Yeah, if I ever get my dream property, I’ve always mentally debated getting a donkey instead of a horse for riding-camping trips. Donkeys are supposed to be very trainable and loyal if treated with understanding towards their surprisingly sensitive natures. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 4:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell:
I don’t have much donkey experience. I did have a fabulous white mule, Sally.
:D
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 4:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carlie!
Hooray!
*champagne!* *sparkles!* *cheese cake!*
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 4:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Because this is too good to not pass on:
- RahXephon, An Assorted Motley Queer
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
10 May 2012 at 4:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
TLC
Two donkeys, please. Never have a sole donkey, they get lonely and unhappy (and noisy).
There’s a lot of bad press about donkeys. They’re called stubborn and dumb when actually they are cautious and sensible. People compare them to horses, but horses are animals of the savanna. They need to flee from dangers, that’s why they’re like Rincewid: run away, don’t look back.
Donkeys are animals of the mountains: one wrong step and you’re vulture-lunch, that’s why they will stop dead when they think they’re in danger.
Caine
Sadly, I’m not much of a rider, didn’t get much chance at it. I can stay on top of them and thoroughly enjoy it, but it really is a rich people’s pleasure here.
But I kind of spent my childhood-weekends around horses. Our caravan was at a campsite with a horsefarm and I was constantly in the stables.
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 4:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy birthday, carlie! Huzzah!
(and, many thanks! Nice to see you, as well!)
Still learning,
Robert
The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa)
10 May 2012 at 5:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This works out well for camping-riding type adventures like I dream of. One animal to ride, another animal to pack the gear.
The only hitch to the plan is that donkeys supposedly don’t like dogs, and there’d be no way such a trek would be complete without a trusty trail-hound or three. Mules would be a possible alternative.
carlie
10 May 2012 at 5:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you everybody, I am blushing.
I usually try to ignore my birthday on grounds of not wanting to be an attention hog, but I figured if I indulged in it just a little bit that would eliminate the ridiculous self-defeating pity party of “nobody noticed this thing that I refused to tell anyone about”.
mal099
10 May 2012 at 5:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There has been a Symphony of Science on DNA and Life, it’s just not very well known as it’s not on the main channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YltzGpQomug
Also one on TED: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDHET3aCI2U
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 5:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Have I ever mentioned how much I ♥ ThinkGeek? There were little “Geek Pride Day May 25″ buttons in the box I got today. :)
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 5:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell, not to be confused with the borg,
Thank you, and well met! We have, indeed, crossed digital paths elsewhere in the Freethought Blogs Nebula.
Cipher, OM,
My thanks, and hello!
Caine,
Thank you. My concern was also that Pteryxx had requested that the discussion be taken outside, and I only saw that afterwards, but it’s the kind of thing I would like to honor when I can.
As to horses (and you may already know this, so apologies if it’s old news), I’m not sure if the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies are your cup of tea, but there’s a wonderful “extra” section among the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King that’s all about the horses in that film: casting them, filming them, large-scale horse logistics, horses as actors, care and training, use of ersatz horses for certain scenes, and the relationship of cast and crew with the horses. Even if the movies themselves aren’t to your taste, that little 20-minute documentary-type extra was cool (though my knowledge of horses is not extensive so I don’t know how to evaluate that documentary section critically).
Back in 2008, I got back on a horse for the first time in probably 15 years or so, just for a two-hour ride. It was great fun, took place at a nearby ranch where customers can visit and ride in groups with a guide. I got to do something I’ve never done on a horse before: ride at a gallop (I learned in a veterinary lecture one time that horses have something like 9 or 10 different, distinct gaits).
What a blast! Big open field surrounded by live oak and scrub, nice space checked for burrows/holes, and we got to charge across. Exhilarating, and I reflected that my 88 kilograms seemed like nothing as the horse carried me across the field. Another one of those great “I’m tiny in the universe! Yay!” feelings. Haven’t been able to go back since, but that was fun.
Still learning,
Robert
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
10 May 2012 at 5:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy Berfday Carlie!!
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 5:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
carlie,
I strongly empathize. Many happy returns.
Still learning,
Robert
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
10 May 2012 at 5:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I had to rescue some levity from the recent debacle, so I present you with a screenplay for a commercial. Think of Amy Poehler in the woman’s part. Soft-
focus, glowingly lit cinematography.
opposablethumbs
10 May 2012 at 5:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy birthday Carlie! Many happy circumnavigations of the sun, and also cake! Hope you have plenty of booze and chocolate and presents and candles (and more cake). {{hugs}}, if I may, and dolphins.
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 5:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine! Just just just noticed on A trick of the light sidebar!
“So as you push off from the shore,
Won’t you turn your head once more
And make your peace with everyone?
For those who choose to stay
Will live just one more day
To do the things they should’ve done.”
Love that song!
(No prayer or universal minds needed!)
Still learning,
Robert
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 5:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That too. I’m happy; long weekend, and prom’s tomorrow. :)
birgerjohansson
10 May 2012 at 5:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Garret, P.I. is also convinced horses are out to get him.
(novels by Glen Cook)
— — —
If you like to learn about odd aspecs of British (especially London-ish) history, I recommend the Peculiar Crimes Unit series. Weird detetives.
— — — —
“Donkeys are animals of the mountains: one wrong step and you’re vulture-lunch, that’s why they will stop dead when they think they’re in danger.”
.
Critters that are careful about what they do???? Animals that might hesitate before invading something?
Can you elect one as president?
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 6:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Holy shit, guys. There’s a black bear stuck in a freaking tree a block from my apartment.
!!
thunk:
Ah, prom. I skipped my senior prom to go camping with a bunch of friends*. ;)
*Where I learned a valuable life lesson: Do not substitute Fluff for real marshmallows in hot chocolate.
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 6:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley: Weird, i’d never find myself going there, but I have very good friends*.
*strangely enough, everyone seems to think me and friend are in a relationship, which is not the case. Never wanted one anyhow.
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 6:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
As for the black bear:
Oh my. How did it get stuck in the first place?
Here, take this sharpened pole.
Nutmeg
10 May 2012 at 6:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
AAAAA! A bear!
*offers Audley a selection of bear spray, bear bangers, large knives, and big pointy sticks*
*waits for inevitable jokes about bear bangers*
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 6:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks thunk, but I think I’ll just stay away from the bear for now.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 6:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Bear… bangers?
I AM SO NOT GOOGLING THAT.
ruteekatreya
10 May 2012 at 6:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy birthday, Carlie!
Nutmeg
10 May 2012 at 6:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hmm. The search results are surprisingly, almost disappointingly tame.
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
10 May 2012 at 6:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m guessing that bear bangers are flashbangs designed for bears?
Desert Son, OM
10 May 2012 at 6:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
birgerjohansson,
Sadly ineligible: often dependable, too smart, not religious.
Audley,
Hope the bear hasn’t attacked any neighborhood pets, both for the sake of beloved pets and the bear.
I just looked this up on Wikipedia, and find it amusing that it is referred to in the opening line as “An American food item.”
Indeed.
Still learning,
Robert
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 6:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
OMG, Argentina!
(Gawker, sorry.)
consciousness razor
10 May 2012 at 6:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Bear bangers are sausages right?
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
10 May 2012 at 6:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Robert, marshmallow Fluff is not food. It is a “processed food product.”
The distinction is important.
For dinner tonight, I have scrambled eggs, fried eggos, fried applewood bacon, and Hornsby’s.
I burned the bacon. *weeping*
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 7:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I just got an email from avaaz.org – they’re looking to send a ‘huge’ thank you card to the prez who sold us out. They want 20k sigs so it will be delivered directly to the white house. Bah.
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 7:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
Eeeee! Must order something else. (I about float TG, I swear.)
Robert:
Me too, me too! On LoTR franchise, we have all the special edition/directors cut/extra discs all that stuff.
Esteleth, bangers = sausage.
consciousness razor
10 May 2012 at 7:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Someone should make him a nice big sammich too. He worked hard. He deserves it.
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 7:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
CR:
+8
I swear, every time I think I couldn’t possibly reach a new pinnacle of cynicism…
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
10 May 2012 at 7:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
::golf clap for Josh’s commercial screenplay::
Caine/Consciousness Razor: I’ve unsubscribed from at least half a dozen mailing lists today because of that shit. How politically effective can organizations like that be? I can find and sign plenty of petitions on my own, and I certainly know how to contact my congresscritters without help.
If I weren’t so tired tonight, I’d lovingly craft a detailed reply to MoveOn in particular.
In other news, I just maded a macro.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
10 May 2012 at 7:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sigh. <a href=, not <img src=. Let’s try that again:
In other news, I just maded a macro.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
10 May 2012 at 7:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Also, if Obama were to stage a press conference on the White House during which he ate a live baby, I swear there’d be people gushing over the organic grapefruit–basil dressing he drizzled over the baby first.
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 7:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Daisy:
Yeah, I know. I’m beyond weary of it all and I’m serious sick and tired of all the Uncle Fuckrockets out there.
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 7:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Daisy Cutter:
Yes, today’s standards have slipped.
Unrelated: Before I started reading this blog and its creative horde, I used to read slashdot a lot (and still do sometimes). I got exposed to quite a bit of blithertarian/privileged gobbledygook. Not only was that a giant skeptic fail, it was just crazy. Now when I look back, ugh. Most of it is sadly just ugh.
The worst part is that I know some of the techie folks (who have undoubtedly osmosed this BS), who bought into the libertarian fairy quite easily (with varying degrees of overt misogyny to boot). Because Ron Paul will save us, you know.
Ah well, I shouldn’t beat myself up for believing this; we aren’t perfect. That’s why we need to be skeptics. :)
Amphiox
10 May 2012 at 7:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
OBAMA-BOT MODE ENGAGED.
ORDERS, MASTER?
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
10 May 2012 at 7:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So…the Prince of Wales got bored and went on TV to give the weather report
Hilarious.
thunk can't settle on a nym
10 May 2012 at 7:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Amphiox:
O, the HOPE!
and the CHANGE!
How dare we question his actions?
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 8:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine:
Yeah, did you see the shit that Human Rights Campaign sent out?
[Emphasis mine.]
Oh barf. Yeah, LGBT families can flourish if they already live in a state that has marriage equality. That’s what? 6 states or something? Great.
I also got an email from Al Franken*, but I am not fucking opening that.
*I have no clue how I got on that mailing list. I don’t even get emails from my own senators.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 8:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine:
:D
I haven’t actually ever bought anything for myself from ThinkGeek yet– that would be whoa dangerous. I have bought a lot of gifts for family members, though, including my decidedly non-geeky mom.
Once these perfumes are back in stock, I will give into temptation and splurge a little on myself.
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 8:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
Oh FFS! Yeah, I feel just great for having their sticker prominently displayed and donating money every year. Thanks a lot, Auntie Fuckrocket.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 8:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine,
I’m seriously starting to reevaluate which orgs I give money to every year because of this shit. HRC might want to lick the president’s boots, but I’m not going to continue support any organization that’s willing to throw my friends and family under a fucking bus just so Obama can be reelected.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
10 May 2012 at 8:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
But, but, how can you stop giving to the HRC?! Joe Solmonese might need another dozen Brooks Brothers suits this year!!
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 8:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
Oooh, I love Vengeance and that’s in stock. :D When it comes to scent, though, I’m a sucker for Black Phoenix Alchemy.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls
10 May 2012 at 8:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carlie’s birthday? Set up one USB port for Grog and the other for Swill, as the Pullet Patrol sends their regards.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 9:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Daisy:
*snerk!*
I’m not going to give to the Obama campaign, either. MWAH HA HA HA HA! That money can go for something much more worthwhile.
Caine:
Me too! But I’m waiting on Frisky Pirate before I order it.
Ooooooooooooo. This is very tempting.
I used to think that I hated perfume, but no. I just hate artificial scents. I’ve become a huge sucker for natural perfumes.
carlie
10 May 2012 at 9:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth, that was a pretty cute video!
Thanks for the more well wishes, everyone. :) I had an extremely normal day at work, missed out on a concert I wanted to go to tonight because my child was sick, and my own mother even forgot to call me. :p But I feel entirely, honestly content about the day, which I think means maybe I’ve finally become an adult of some sort.
Also, the thing I was so overwhelmed and upset about the other day is shaking itself out, and at least a small chunk of it has been resolved in a way that stunned me and gave me some hope for the virtues of humanity (not a small feat after what’s been going on in the country the last few days). So there’s that.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 9:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*shakes fist at Caine!*
I want to buy so many of them!
carlie
10 May 2012 at 9:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Can we have Leslie Knope for president?
Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan
10 May 2012 at 9:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy Birthday carlie!
——————————————-
It’s been several years and I STILL don’t get just what is so intimidating about gay marriage. This must be because the mindset of someone who recoils in actual terror at the idea of two men or women marrying is something very foreign to me. I mean, intellectually I get it (if that can be applied to this), but otherwise . . . so what? I have a hard time believing one country houses so many people who are just that blockheaded and just that fearful. I just can’t summon even a facsimile of the outrage and whatever other feelings those people must have when they think about the possibility of two people of the same sex getting married.
Also, I’ll vote for Obama, but I’ll be looking out for someone who can do better than him. Has to be at least one person out there. Failing that, I’ll go look for a local donkey or mule and put their name on the ballot. Probably can’t screw up any worse than Bush did at least.
—————————————————–
I should be getting ready for bed, but I feel kinda restless. Off to try and tire myself out.
Caine, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 9:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
I know, I know! I wish I had enough money to buy them all. The ones I have right now are Dracul, Wrath, Calico Jack, Black Tower, Plunder, Dragon’s Claw, Dragon Hide and Dragon’s Heart. Mind, I’ve had several of those for effing years. I horde that stuff like it was gold.
Cipher, OM
10 May 2012 at 9:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Natalie has an article that addresses this subject, in the context of pro-marriage-equality messaging about the supposed threat to traditional marriage. This might already be what you mean when you say you get it intellectually, but it’s a pretty good article anyhow.
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
10 May 2012 at 9:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Natalie’s answer to that is right. It’s very simple. It’s greedy, shallow attempts to hog cultural privilege. Who was it who said it’s not enough to do as well as your neighbor; humans must see their neighbors to be worse off than them to be truly happy. That’s what it is. They hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate that they’re no longer special sacred cultural paragons. And they’re willing to ruin lives over it.
cicely. Just cicely.
10 May 2012 at 9:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine, I don’t deny that horses can be visually attractive (the better to sucker you in with, my dear!), but that in no way diminishes their Eeeeeevil. Don’t let cuddly nuzzliness distract you from the fact that they are known associates of Famine, War,
PestilencePollution, and Death.Run away. Run faster than the wind in Their manes*.
*Manes: the souls of the dead; shades. See what kind of company they choose to keep!
-
Happy birthday, carlie!
*cake* and *hugs*
-
They are the Lesser Evil.
Ponies, on the other hand, are the Mid-Sized Evil.
(I’m unsure whether zebras are Evil in Striped Pajamas, or innocent dupes in the Vast Equine Conspiracy.)
-
ibyea
10 May 2012 at 10:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Audley
So Argentina is better than the U.S. in gender equality. Next time someone tells me AMERICA IS NUMBER OOONNNEEE!, I will have a very hard time resisting punching their face.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 10:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine:
I had Burial, Event Horizon, and Highwayman in my cart before I stopped myself. One of these days, though. One of these days…
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
10 May 2012 at 10:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
ibyea:
Yup. Plus, Argentina has had marriage equality for two years now.
USA USA USA!
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
10 May 2012 at 10:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey Caine, Audley, for the record, Black Phoenix products are not “natural”. They’re a blend of naturally-derived and synthetic aromachemicals just like most other perfume houses. They used to claim they were entirely natural but under a lot of skepticism they have walked back that claim over the years and now they’re pretty much pretending that their position has always been “Well, we don’t use any worse stuff than the other guys”.
That said, I don’t give a damn if my stink-pretties are “natural”, and BPAL produces some very pretty blends. I honestly feel like if their catalog were thinned back substantially the real gems would shine more, but there’s like a thousand screaming fangirls who love the variety most of all and would collectively plotz if that happened.
I have the Neil Gaiman “Forbidden Brides” locket from the Trading Post and it’s my most beloved piece of jewelry. Completely gorgeous.
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
10 May 2012 at 10:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
In other “Esteleth Randomly Browses YouTube” news, apparently the “Hello ladies” Old Spice ad guy made an entire series of videos where he respons to YouTube commenters. And people on Twitter.
And /b.
And Isaiah Mustafa, because divide-by-zero errors are hilarious
…
He is wearing only a towel the whole time. I think I’m straight now.
Ing: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream So I Comment Instead
10 May 2012 at 10:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am stressed and on hair trigger…sorry in advanced.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
10 May 2012 at 10:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Went to class today with only a $5 in my wallet (need singles for the bus home). No problem, I thought, I’ll get a candy bar during break at the vending machine and make change.
Vending machine only takes ones. No problem, I’ll go to the bookstore after class, get a candy bar and make change.
Bookstore closes early on Thursdays. No problem, I’ll give Misterc a call on my cell and ask him to pick me up.
Cell phone turns on just long enough to tell me “Hi! My battery’s dead! Bye!” Oh …. kay. I’ll go to Student Services, beg the office phone and call Misterc.
Student Services is of course closed early on Thursdays. By this time I am talking to myself, pissily, out loud.
Half and hour and a quarter of a mile later, Misterc finally gets a call, from a payphone: “I’m in front of the Fred Meyer. I have Oreos and mixers for the new bottle of rum. Pick me up.”
BLARGH
Rey Fox
10 May 2012 at 10:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fortunately, my senator is doing things like going on Colbert to fight Super PACs.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
10 May 2012 at 10:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
Oh, I want all of those!
Kristinc, I know that. Their blends are fantastic though, and about the only stuff I can stand to wear, in the olfactory sense. Around here, I always end up assaulted by some woman wearing 5 kegs of some cheap ass rotted flower overdose.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
10 May 2012 at 10:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine: I have yet to see anyone do patchouli as beautifully as BPAL does. Their honey notes are also second to none. I don’t like aquatics, gourmands or white musks anyway so that stuff doesn’t impress me much but damn if they don’t have something for everyone.
My first love was Les Bijoux. I also have Hetairae, Cupid Complaining to Venus, Morocco, Sara Pezzini, Eisheth Zenunim (getting a little sweet for my tastes now), Anne Bonny, Clemence, and my favorite is Allison Gross. I also have one precious hoarded bottle of The Hesperides. Misterc wears Aureus and De Sade, both of which I gave him.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
10 May 2012 at 10:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
One thing I feel BPAL really does poorly is green scents. They all seem to smell like dryer sheets. I didn’t think I liked green scents — I didn’t know they could smell like green growing things until I smelled Chanel, and now I’m hooked on greens and chypres.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
10 May 2012 at 10:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh man, I just noticed they have Les Fleurs du Mal. I have to.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
10 May 2012 at 10:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kristinc:
I’m very fussy about green scents. That’s not the sort of thing I got to BPAL for – I like dark, fiery scents from them.
Nutmeg
10 May 2012 at 10:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth:
Checked it out. Still not straight. :) It’s entertaining, though.
The list of male celebrities who could catch my attention is very, very short (but not non-existent). So it always fascinates me when someone like the Old Spice Guy or Ryan Gosling becomes a sex symbol. Although I gather that the Old Spice Guy is more of a humourous marketing strategy. Is there a similar purpose to the whole Ryan Gosling thing? That might explain why he seems to be on Jezebel every other day…
d over d(thunk) = SQRRAWK!
10 May 2012 at 11:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Lol. kristinc: Ouch thursdays.
Caine 254: Something that comes up sometimes in quizbowl. When I first heard a tossup on Fleur Du Mal, I immediately thought “Oh, so that’s the meaning behind Caine’s nym!”
Nutmeg: I’m going to have to prompt on that.*
*You mean The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. That’s the actual answer one had to give on another tossup.
Nutmeg
10 May 2012 at 11:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ah, well, tastes vary. It’s always interesting when so many people’s tastes are in the same direction, though.
*****
Thunderstorm! Just a little one, but I love storms.
d over d(thunk) = SQRRAWK!
10 May 2012 at 11:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh and BTW, you do know sqrrawk has no closed-form antiderivative, so I didn’t bother to include it.
d over dx (thunk) = SQRRAWK!
10 May 2012 at 11:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There, forget what I said. Nym fixed.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
10 May 2012 at 11:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thunk:
So, you haven’t read Baudelaire, eh? Fleurs du Mal.
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
10 May 2012 at 11:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
See the comments on that page. Someone got it working in Chrome by cutting and pasting the GM EMU script into the killfile.
I think most commenters here can figure out how to do that (Greasemonkey scripts can be edited while in use, so it’s fine to install it first and then go edit the script file in the Firefox profile folder), but splicing it into the killfile script so it works automagically in Chrome is on my to-do list.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
10 May 2012 at 11:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hee. I was familiar with jokes referencing Baudelaire as raunchy (fi Music Man, Monty Python) but didn’t really know anything about his work until I looked up the translation for Les Bijoux. Boy howdy!
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
10 May 2012 at 11:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heh. Well, I don’t use Chrome so I’m not 100% positive that their userscripts can be edited while in use, but restarting Chrome should do it for sure. I suppose.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
10 May 2012 at 11:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kristinc:
Hee. There are four different English translations here:
http://fleursdumal.org/poem/119
It’s interesting, the differences.
d over dx (thunk) = SQRRAWK!
10 May 2012 at 11:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No, caine. I’m not too keen on classic lit. All I know about it is through quizbowl.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
10 May 2012 at 11:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thunk:
I provided a link, do some reading. It won’t kill you.
Cipher, OM, MQ
10 May 2012 at 11:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
All right, everybody. All of the fuckwits must stop their ignorant bullshit now. I have to do my work. *puts her foot down*
ibyea
10 May 2012 at 11:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Caine
Everytime I read classic literature during high school, I felt like my brain was swimming through an ocean with an anchor tied to its back. ^_^
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 12:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
ibyea:
So what? It takes under a minute to read, say, Les Bijoux, which is about sex. Hot, sweaty, naked sex. It’s poetry, FFS, not Moby Dick. And it never hurts to read, it tends to be good for the brain.
ibyea
11 May 2012 at 12:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Caine
It was just a hyperbolic response to “it won’t kill you” part.
ibyea
11 May 2012 at 12:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was trying to be funny, is what I am trying to say.
Nutmeg
11 May 2012 at 12:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think there’s something in the classics for everyone, but it sometimes takes some searching. Personally, I enjoyed plays and poetry from almost every period we studied, but struggled with most of the novels and essays written from roughly 1600-1900. I think some teachers focus too much on one era or one form, and students get the impression that they hate it all, when there’s probably something they’d enjoy.
Of course, sometimes you just don’t want to spend your time slogging through a bunch of stuff you don’t enjoy to find the bits that you do. That’s entirely reasonable.
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
11 May 2012 at 12:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Look at Big Baby Jason Thibeault—it’s comical:
What a buttload of maudlin crap. Poor Baby Menz Fee-Fees got hurt cuz we didn’t say Bender’s Great! And so self-centered he actually thinks any of us would waste time deliberately trying to alienate him. But he’s gonna keep fightin’ fer us, yessirree.
Straight folk, you’re sucking hard these past few days (decent humans excepted).
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 12:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cipher, at any given moment, some fuckwit is busy proving their nature. You have to learn how to tune the fuckwits out. Their is only so much time you can give to those energysuckers.
chigau (違う)
11 May 2012 at 12:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Does this horrifying “classic literature” include Lewis Carroll?
Charles Dickens?
Mark Twain?
all them Brontës?
etc?
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 12:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Josh:
Oh now Josh, call him Fuckrocket or something – there’s no need to drag Bender Bending Rodriguez into this. After all, Bender proposed, fought for and won Proposition Infinity!
Crudely Wrott
11 May 2012 at 12:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m threadrupt as usual but you all need to see this:
http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/05/10/what-is-that-underwater-drilling-camera-catches-giant-sea-creature/
PZ or anybody, do you have any idea what this thing is? The article has some sparse description that seems unsatisfying. At about four minutes in things get interesting.
Cipher, OM, MQ
11 May 2012 at 12:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
We’re way ahead of you, CW :)
Okay well slightly ahead of you
—
Janine, you’re right, of course. I just get so explody and can’t drag myself out of it.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 12:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Energy Sucker
Ignore the fucking shit video. Dig the song.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 12:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I bet teenagers would be a hell of a lot more interested in classic literature if they got more Baudelaire.*nodnod*
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 12:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kristinc, that is why there is A Series Of Unfortunate Events.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 12:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kristinc:
Agreed. Baudelaire had a bit of something for everyone, too. Hot, naked het sex, hot naked gay sex, sex on Lesbos, and so very much more.
Crudely Wrott
11 May 2012 at 1:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Cipher, OM, MQ, et al:
Ah. The perils of threadbankruptcy. Must pay more attention. But time . . .
I reviewed enough previous comments to wish a happy birthday to Carlie. Happy Birthday!
Your name is actually a feminine form of my real name. For that I feel close and my birthday wish is that much more festive. I just had one myself! Many happy returns to you. I give you this mysterious critter for a present. Well, I would if I had it in hand.
Large grins and usb cakes with your favorite frosting.
Crudely Wrott
11 May 2012 at 1:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Whoa. Stygiomedusa gigantea.
I had no idea. Now I’m blown away more that I was before.
The world just gets better, eh?
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
11 May 2012 at 1:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good morning
Camera is still borked. I’m annoyed, I wanted to show you something
grrrrrrr
kritinc
The term “all natural” usually makes me wonder what others use. Supernatural ingredients?
And the one make up ever I was allergic to was the “natural” one.
+++++++
Well, since I can’t show you what I wanted to, you’re getting the Denim Jacket that drove me nuts.
++++++
So, Obama managed to fool lots of people, obviously.
The thing I don’t understand, and maybe it’s because I’m lacking in the ‘merican department: Why didn’t he go for the full Monty? The bigots are certainly not giving him credit for actually not wanting to do anything about it.
Crudely Wrott
11 May 2012 at 1:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell asked,
As history shows, justice is not a phenomena. It is a process. This is just another step along the way.
It may take another generation or more for acceptance of all people to equal the acceptance it took to accommodate women voting and one drinking fountain quenching all thirsts.
Patience is required, as is not teaching children to hate.
I think Obama approaches the issue correctly, tossing his water on the fire of prejudice, cooling it by stages along with the water that others can contribute. Until it is out. Dead out. When leaving a fire in the wilderness you make sure that it is dead out; that you can stick your hands into the ashes and not get burned. That takes what water you may have and more time than you probably want to invest. That’s where the rest of us come in. That way we don’t set the whole forest on fire as we walk away from smoldering embers.
It’s a group effort and we know how unwieldly groups can be.
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
11 May 2012 at 1:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I can totally understand why Josh is freaking out.
Cipher, OM, MQ
11 May 2012 at 2:02 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Eesh. CW, this is one of those places where you don’t want to jump in if you don’t have time to read. I don’t blame you for not having time to read, but the argument has been had, complete with big fiery explosions, in TET and on this thread on this blog alone, plus in several other threads across FTB.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 2:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell:
Oh, it’s not just Josh. I think we’ve all been straightsplained to enough to last several lifetimes, to say the least. It’s still going on in the other thread.
As for why not the Full Monty? Well, I’d like an answer to that one, too. So would a lot of other people.
Crudely Wrott
11 May 2012 at 2:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
OK, Cipher.
Still, I think that the point cannot be made too often that the future is quite dependent on today and what we do with it and how we inform those who we hope will be doing better in the future what we are doing now.
I will try to review what has already been said. I just hope that the local server will stay on line. It’s been flaky of late and I’ve missed much as it goes off and on and off again. I’m just taking advantage of the moments that it is working.
Peace.
Beatrice, anormalement indécente
11 May 2012 at 2:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hello, other threads are making me angry, so I’m popping in here for a bit.
I admire everyone who keeps fighting the good fight. Just reading it, as someone not personally affected, is upsetting.
I’ll be all alone for almost three days and, instead of planing to relax, I’m thinking of all the things I could do around the flat. Apparently, I’ve been trained well. Hm… cleaning the carpets or painting the kitchen. Though choice.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 2:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
CW:
Yes, it fucking can. If you have any regard for anyone here, at all, drop that line of shit right fucking now. Thank you.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 2:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi, Beatrice. I’ve been swimming in fury up to my eyeballs for a couple of days now, and I had to get out of that thread.
Auugghh. Idiots.
I always go for painting, then I’m sorry I did.
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
11 May 2012 at 3:02 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, we shouldn’t do too well now so that future generations have room for improvement?
Bread AND roses!
Urgh, I’ll drop it now. This is the lounge.
So, looks like Mr.’s picked up the scarlet fever.
I’m sorry he did, but there’s a nasty little part inside of me that says “now you’ll walk 50 yards in my shoes”
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
11 May 2012 at 3:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nah, sorry, one more thing about that “future generation”: I’m raising it. I’m raising kids who, unlike me won’t have to learn some day that homosexuality exists and who, get to know “some of them” later. I’m raising kids for whom the fact that their uncle has a boyfriend and that two women have a child together is absolutely not noteworthy, and yes, we covered the basic “how are babies made thing”.
I really don’t want them to ask me in 10 years “Mum, what happened back in 2012, why did apparently your brain fall out?”
I’m wondering about whether Obama’s daughters will one day tell him “Dad, that day you really had the chance to do something. Instead you went ahead and said something”
birgerjohansson
11 May 2012 at 3:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The news of PZ;s future travels have stirred up the cthonians under Iceland. Note the earthquakes all along the rift between the western and eastern Atlantic plates.
http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2012/05/crack.php
— — — — — —
“So Argentina is better than the U.S. in gender equality. Next time someone tells me AMERICA IS NUMBER OOONNNEEE!, I will have a very hard time resisting punching their face”
And the Norwegians are richer (I am from Sweden, so I can be objective about it).
About black bears…the one in “Crash Canyon” seems sociable enough.
Cipher, OM, MQ
11 May 2012 at 3:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I tried. I tried my best. I reminded myself how big I am in comparison to it. I pointed out to my brain that in fact, spiders don’t want to bite you, and they eat things that do. I stood there frozen and envisioned it as a kitten, then as a puppy, and even tried to decide that it was cute how it was trying to edge under the oven, since that was so clearly evidence that it was more afraid of me than I was of it. I just had to make my lunch for tomorrow, wash my dishes, and get out of there, and it would be gone in the morning, back to its cute little house under my stuff. But when a motherfucking spider CHARGES AT MY BARE FEET, like “HEY LET’S PLAY TAG,” I cannot be expected to not run out of the room flailing and smash it with a box and then stand there flailing more. I’m frankly just happy I didn’t actually shriek.
I do feel kinda guilty now, but IT CHASED ME.
Cipher, OM, MQ
11 May 2012 at 3:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Which means I have to read this again before I go to sleep.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 3:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell, I do think that this is most important than electing politicians who make promises to the population. This is helping to make a population that is less likely to fall for the bullshit homophobia of the social conservatives.
Louis
11 May 2012 at 5:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I had to shoot off early last night, but I have a bit of time before I shoot off again to a weekend of booze and bullshitting.
Caine, #157:
Ally. Hmmm. Okay, lemme tell you the problem I have with that, although I have no doubt your intentions are perfectly decent and I am flattered by your suggestion.
Allies are arseholes.
I’m not an ally to the LGBTQ crowd. I’m not an ally to women. I’m not an ally to people with mental illness. I’m not an ally to people with disabilties. And so on and so forth.
I’m not an ally full stop.
I’m not an ally in the same way that I don’t give to charity.
Except that, yes, according to the dictionary, I am an ally to all those folks and I do give to charity (and do more than give). {Meta: SO FUCKING WHAT….as will become apparent}.
All this, ALL of this is what I consider the bare fucking minimum. I literally could not do any less. I want to look myself in the eye whilst I shave? I want to be able to consider myself a member of the human species? Then this is the lowest possible rung of the ladder I can occupy.
I don’t care what other people do, I don’t judge other people by my standards, I do harshly judge myself. Why? I am absurdly privileged, and have lead a life of luxury and lack of want. Even by most Western standards I have had opportunity after opportunity thrust before me like so many truffles. Not to consider these opportunities carefully, not to take them seriously, not to try to repay the luck and kindness and sheer graft on the part of others that I have benefited from is anathema to me. I would quite literally kill myself if I was not to do this. I could not face living in such bad faith, living as such a hypocrite. I’ve done it in the past and I feel utterly ashamed to the core of my being that I was so immature and selfish.
I already know I can’t do it all, that I am flawed and a hypocrite and imperfect. I can live with that. But to ignore, or not recognise my awesome privilege and to deny it so I can slack off? Fuck that with a rusty iron dildo of hate. Never again.
So for me to use a term like “ally” irks. I find it absurdly self aggrandising. Like the “I give to charity” thing. OF COURSE I give to charity to some degree. I have some leisure time and some money, I contribute what little I can. So what? OF COURSE I support the rights of people to live different lives than I might want to. OF COURSE I grant others the freedom of their conscience. OF COURSE I appreciate that other people will not come to the same decisions and conclusions as I have, they’re not me! All of this is so redundant and basic it astonishes me it’s not tattooed on people’s foreheads.
So no, I am both an ally and not an ally, if you catch my drift! If someone calls themselves an ally of a group they are not necessarily a member of it raises my suspicions. Both the suspicion that this person thinks too much of themselves and that I am about to hear a thudding “but”. As in “Oh I agree with you, BUT…”.
Oops that was an unintentionally passionate and serious answer to a very simply and frivolous question!
;-)
I appear to have woken up a bit ranty and righteous.
Anyway, to return to membership of the MQs, how do I put this delicately, I’m not 100% straight I’m more than situationally bi, but not properly bi. I’m definitely not 50:50, I’m not monogamous…my wife and I are not monogamous to clarify! I…okay tediousness boundary exceeded!
Where’s my fucking badge? ;-)
I kid, I kid.
I guess, when we all get down to brass tacks, talk turkey, stop using euphemisms and get on with it: how many cocks does a guy have to suck to be queer? Or bi? I want a number.*
Louis
* The possibility exists I am not serious.
John Morales
11 May 2012 at 5:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Sailor:
Therefore others should agree with you.
(Me, I don’t care for such self-serving, expedient innuendo, but there you go)
John Morales
11 May 2012 at 5:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis:
You neither care about what others do or judge them?
(Coulda fooled me)
‘literally’, eh? ;)
For mine, it ain’t what you do, it’s whether you want to do it.
(So the answer is ‘none’)
Louis
11 May 2012 at 5:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Crip Dyke, #162,
Hmmmm.
So you are saying that, let’s take Josh, my Fake Husband, as an example, if I were to meet Josh and we {ahem} “hit it off”, that any act Josh and I proposed was so prosaic, so everyday that my eyebrows remained down?
I cannot imagine that ever happening for two reasons:
1) This is Josh we’re talking about. He’s GORGEOUS, both as a person in text and looking. I should know, those photos of George Clooney he’s been sending me, telling me they’re him on a bad day, are proof positive!
2) I am male. Whilst I am not unattractive, I am still male. We have to beg for sex. I’m not one of those lucky, lucky straight women or gay men who can lah-di-dah walk down the street and casually pick up a person of their fancy as easy as tripping over a rock. Whenever anyone deigns to perform any sexual act with me I am so absurdly grateful I start crying. This extends all the way down to a casual glance across a room.
I may be exaggerating for comedy purposes.
I think you make an important point, actually. If what you and another person are about to do is standard, you’re in that club, like it or not.
In that case, if LGBT is the broad category for “queer”, I’m in the MQs. Sorry. I’ll hang at the back and not make any noise. You won’t even know I’m there.
Louis
Louis
11 May 2012 at 5:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
John,
Oh you are evil.
1) I don’t judge people by my standards. I do judge people, I’m human. I try to do that by their own standards as much as possible.
What I meant by “I don’t care what other people do” could use more qualification, you’re right. I’m not a Christian. I take the Jeffersonian approach that my neighbour’s religion neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket….until it does. So in so far as someone’s religion is simply yet another manifestation of human diversity and expressed as a democratic difference, I genuinely don’t care about it. As soon as someone’s religion becomes an imposition, privileged, then I care.
I don’t care if someone is gay, straight, whatever, or likes tomato juice. It’s just not my problem. If someone is a rapist, an abuser, this becomes my problem…our problem. I suppose the line for me is the line between imposition and difference. I don’t care about people’s differences, I do care about people’s impositions.
2) Yes literally. I quite literally could not do any less. I deliberately, literally deliberately, chose to use literally as emphasis in that manner, literally knowing it literally annoyed the literal shit out of me and others!
Perhaps the emphasis should be on the *I*. I could not be me and do less. It is for me part of the ground state of being who I am today. I’d have to change significantly for this not to be the case.
Louis
carlie
11 May 2012 at 5:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Although not serious, it is an interesting question that I’ve thought about. I’ve been given various definitions of being gay/bi that range from having sexual fantasies about the same sex, to having had physical encounters with the same sex, to having relationships with the same sex (i.e. “it only counts if you could see yourself fucking one” v. “it only counts if you could see yourself marrying one” v. “it only counts if you have actually done that”). So what does count, actually?
Louis
11 May 2012 at 5:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell, #173,
PIPPIN IN LOTR!?!?!!?!?!!?!?!!!?
Short and hairy? Sure. THAT short? Erm no. White? No. Predilection for carousing and ribaldry? Guilty as charged. More than a bit frivolous when pushed? My most major crime.
The hair is similar in curliness, although mine is a bit darker, much shorter and for some reason, grows almost exclusively upwards regardless of length.
Louis
John Morales
11 May 2012 at 5:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[meta]
Louis, nice response!
(And thanks)
Louis
11 May 2012 at 5:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carlier, #178,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
MWAH!
I am sending you USB gifts of wickedness and a sordid nature. But then I am that kind of deviant.
Louis
carlie
11 May 2012 at 5:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
…because I can see the value in saying if you’ve ever been attracted to the same sex, you’re part of the club because the more people who identify personally with the movement the better, but that also seems to smack of huge amounts of appropriation. Someone has an “I’d do this celebrity if I was gay” list, and then they feel entitled to claim being part of the gay community even though they’ve never had any personal repercussions from that, ever. It feels like Whitey McWhiterson buying a “Navajo” shirt from Urban Outfitters and then gravely talking about the horrors “their people” have suffered, or something, if that makes any sense.
carlie
11 May 2012 at 5:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks, Crudely and Louis and everybody. You all made my birthday the bestest ever. :)
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
11 May 2012 at 5:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis,
Well, it can be used that way. And frequently is. I almost always don’t mind when someone says “I want to be your ally.” What I don’t like is when someone says “I am your ally” and I’m like “no you’re not, thanks”, and they say “no I totally am and it’s just sad you can’t see that blah blah blah.” That grates.
But the term has its tactical uses. I do think it’s been effective in providing a space for some people to begin to think of themselves as being able to contribute to justice movements in which they do not have much personal stake. The easiest example is in high school GSAs, which really can create safety networks that help queer kids thrive, among fairly well-meaning straight kids who might otherwise be skittish if it were more apparent that queer kids only hang out with queer kids. Wish it wasn’t so, but there it is.
We really don’t need all the help we can get but we do need some help.
And then there’s the usefulness of “you’re not being much of an ally; go read this essay on how to be a better ally.” I think it’s slightly more approachable than “you’re not being much of a privileged person who should be doing the bare fucking minimum; go read this essay on what’s the bare fucking minimum”.
Plus I really don’t want those folks who are excessively prone to self-doubt to start judging themselves as zomg not really altruistic at all but just self-aggrandizing. That usually doesn’t help. You may have gone down that rabbit hole and come out safely from the other side of the abyss, but I dunno, not everybody will emerge.
Shorter me: it’s pretty okay to say you want to be an ally. Just please don’t insist that no see I really really am an ally when relations break down.
Louis
11 May 2012 at 5:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carlie (note correct spelling this time, although you do get Carlier and Carlier in my mind),
Ok, I’ll grant there was a tinge of seriousness behind my question!
I could not see myself monogamously marrying a man.
I could see myself and another man in a poly marriage with one or more women. Although, the longer term poly situations I’ve been in have all been, thus far, have all been FFM. Not currently in a poly relationship because neither my wife or I have the time to dedicate to it. Relationships take work, yo.
I could not see myself monogamously fucking a man. Except extremely situationally (think: long term prison sentence! Or exceptional man…super exceptional man. The visions behind my eyes never contain just men…except Josh. And Sean Connery in Dr No. And Harrison Ford as Han Solo…okay none of those are true…apart from Josh)
I have situationally fucked (for varying values of fuck, certainly a Dan Savage friendly version) men in polygamous situations. So I guess that counts as seeing it too! By “situationally” I mean that this was not intended, it just happened as part of the natural flow of the events.
Holy shit, I’m in confessional mood today. Well given how much you all share, I suppose it’s only fair I crack the wall a bit every now and again. Sorry for dullness.
If you were to ask for my definition of “membership of sexy group X” I’d say if, when you close your eyes and touch yourself in that special way, the predominant and consciously desired images that are just between you and your brain feature members of the same sex performing acts with you, then you’ve got a bit of Teh Ghey. For me, sexuality is more about who you are than what you do. I think there are gay men out there that never, ever, suck a dick (so to speak).
I think the “relationship” thing is a good test too, although how many people are “serial monogamists”/”serial one-night standers”? Quite a few I’d imagine.
I don’t see the “acts” thing as a good test, because, to take the prison example, I can see that men would engage in homosexual acts in extreme circumstances, but what was occurring behind their eyes was very different to what was going on with their parts.
Louis
Louis
11 May 2012 at 6:09 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
LILAPWL, #312,
Sure. And that is a standard “defence”, even for someone like me.
It’s an “intentions are magic” statement. I’ve done it, I know the feeling. It’s someone saying “how could I have fucked up? I didn’t mean to fuck up!”. Been there, got the T-shirt, and I’ll probably fuck up and go there again! It is tough to listen when the little inner voice is going “BUT I’M A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE WITH MAGIC INTENTIONS! HOW COULD I BE WRONG?”.
As for the penultimate paragraph, well I am a harsh self judge, but then so are a lot of people. I don’t apply those standards outside of myself because I can pretty much guarantee that many/most people lack my privileges and advantages. I can’t apply identical standards to different people. Although I do sometimes expect those better off than me to do better than me…I’m mean like that! ;-)
My concern over self aggrandisement is that it is so easy. I’ve seen it so often in others and myself. Especially noticeable in the religious. It all comes back to that doesn’t it?
It’s so easy to think “I’m a good person”, to identify with a group (let’s say “Christians”) because those people are considered good or moral. Or to identify with an oppressed group to feel noble or hard done by. That’s why I am more than a little tongue in cheek about my “desire” to be part of the Pharyngula Motley Queers. I’m not serious, I’m humorously wondering out loud what one has to do to tick the box, flaws of essentialism acknowledged. If I wasn’t tongue in cheek then I’d be more than a little concerned that my desire was to identify with an oppressed group for some egotistical reason as opposed to genuine membership. I think it’s important to question one’s motives this way, although it can become a little recursive.
Louis
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
11 May 2012 at 6:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t forget nonsexual romantic attraction. I remember I had crushes before I ever knew that sex existed. (I also didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to show so much attention to one person, so I became known as a “fag” before I knew what that meant either. That was odd.)
But anyway, what in fact counts is self-image. In retrospect I construct a life narrative by which I understand that I was a gay kid even when I was quite young, because that is evident to me now, but it wouldn’t have meant anything to me then. Even when I kinda learned what “gay” meant it was explained to me in terms of sex so I thought it was only for older people.
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
11 May 2012 at 6:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis, if queer is a label by which you honestly best understand yourself, then you’re welcome to it. We made extras just in case.
If you prefer mostly straight man who sometimes situationally fucks men in polygamous situations I’m pretty sure that’s okay too.
I sort of relate. There is no word for how I feel about gender. Not genderqueer either. Language? I’m against it!
Louis
11 May 2012 at 6:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
LILAPWL,
I can live with “queer”!
Just like I can live with “atheist”. It’s hardly the sum of who I am.
I tend to prefer, “Hi, I’m Louis.” Usually followed by “Yes, THAT one. Sorry!”. ;-)
Louis
P.S. Ahhh nonsexual romantic attraction. Now I’ve definitely had that with other men, the classic “bromance”. Had? I have it. One of the friends I’m seeing tonight I consider my closest friend, my wife aside of course. I feel no shame in admitting to loving him in a totally non-sexual way. Powerful emotions of love too. Another one of the friends I’m meeting tonight is one of the guys I’ve fooled about with in poly situations. Much mockery of this occurs.
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
11 May 2012 at 6:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, yeah, Mr.’s got the scarlet fever, which kind of ruins out aniversary totday completely. My mum in law can’t babysit, so no fancy dinner, I have my irregular, so no wild tantric full score sex, he has scarlet fever, so not even getting drunk with strawberry daiquiri. Yes, I’m frustrated.
Katherine
Thanx for asking about Gazpacho. I wouldn’t have tought of making any tonight without it.
Janine
Thank you for the cookie, but unfortunately, most people aren’t me. Or fortunately, depends on the situation ;).It will be great to see the numbers shifting within the next generation, to see the bigots get less, but people are hurting now, not only in the USA. In Germany gay men have to push back the idea of raising kids together so far to the back of their mind that it hopefully never appears again because it hurts. Lesbians and their sperm donors have to run high risks and that makes me angry.
carlie
11 May 2012 at 6:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That’s exactly what I meant about the appropriation bit in my second comment. Do I think some women are super sexy fantasy-level hot? Sure! Does that mean that, as a happily-monogamously-married-to-a-man middle-class suburban mom who, let’s face it, has always had a bit of a thing for playing the role of a martyr, I get to take on the queer label? I pretty much think not, because that’s appropriating a whole set of experience and viewpoint that I have no right to, just like a rich kid who loves serving at the food kitchen because that lets him be in on what it’s really like to be poor, man.
Louis
11 May 2012 at 6:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carlie,
Yes indeed.
In that case I modify my original “acts don’t make it” stance to “minimum one dick/pussy”. You must have committed acts at least *this* deviant to get on the ride.
;-)
Louis
Louis
11 May 2012 at 7:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh and incidentally, I don’t really consider myself part of the LGBT community, even though I might fit the B part to some degree. I think “queer” does enough for me, and although I know “LGBTQ” groups exist, I, like Carlie notes, unwilling to borrow oppression I do not suffer from a group who does suffer it.
I can easily pass for 100% straight and vanilla and monogamous, all I have to do is shut up. Therefore I have all that privilege and none of the oppression unless I volunteer information to the wrong people.
So to return to the original Important Question of Motley Queers Membership (IMPORTANT!!!!), if being a proper LGBT person is what is needed, then I’m out, I’ll be a groupie, I’ll organise a fan site, but I’m out. I have not earned membership. If being queer is enough, then I’m in!
Louis
StevoR
11 May 2012 at 7:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hope its okay if I provide folks here with this link :
http://www.stonekettle.com/2012/05/love-and-war.html
To the latest post on Stonekettle Station another of my favourite blogs written by Jim Wright?
It’s pretty durn spot on & gives North Carolina an appropriate new name as well as making rather a lot of rather good points.
Apologies &, please, let me know if not.
SQB
11 May 2012 at 7:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Incidentally, last year I was still trying to choose between Gaultier’s Le Mâle and Fleur du Male, when I got the former for my birthday, which settled it.
====
Happy birthday, Carlie!
====
ॐ, if the killfile is on your to-do list, please note that it can be made immune to ‘nym changes by making use of the fact that everyone’s username (as well as their ‘nym) is shown in the code. To use one of your comments as an example:
<li class="comment byuser comment-author-sgbm2 even thread-even depth-1" id="comment-334027">And now you all know my real name.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 7:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good news, everybody!
Mr Darkheart spoke to his mom about the whole “no gendered crap” for Darkfetus and she is on board! In fact, she only does the whole pink/lavender bullshit for my niece at my SIL’s insistence*. Plus, she’s going help us spread the word around the family. :)
*Oh, puke.
John Morales
11 May 2012 at 7:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
SQB:
No; we only know that you claim that your username is your real name.
(Also, people can log in under different usernames, should they choose to. It may even not be sock-puppeting!)
Muse
11 May 2012 at 7:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am officially irritated. I was listening to NPR on the way to work and they did a segment on a new drug that seems to prevent people from getting HIV/AIDS. They said that it would likely be used by people at high risk. Then, rather than saying something as an example like medical personnel working with people with HIV/AIDS or even uninfected partners of people with HIV/AIDS, they said people at high risk, like gay men. What are they, living in 1985?
SQB
11 May 2012 at 8:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and Janine, thanks for that Luscious Jackson song. I always liked City Song.
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
11 May 2012 at 8:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley
That’s great news. Sad about your SIL, but better for you!
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 9:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell,
Thanks! I’m pleased as punch right now. My MIL also thought that the dino theme for the nursery was a cute idea and she’s going to help me stencil the walls. :)
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 9:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
random: Entertaining comment left over at Ed’s.
From here
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
11 May 2012 at 9:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
grumble grumble thanks!
Rey Fox
11 May 2012 at 9:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Humbrity dumbrity doo, that’s what I have to say this morning. Take it as you will. Happy birthday to Carlie and happy ungendered Darkfetus to Audley. Happy portmanteaus to everyone!
opposablethumbs
11 May 2012 at 9:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yay! Things like that feel so good. It’s like one teeny tiny fraction of a great big ball and chain getting chipped off, a tiny bit less to struggle with dragging around, and instead an extra person to help haul on the chain. Or something. Somebody else gets it, and that feels good.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 10:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Opposablethumbs,
That’s it, exactly: she gets it. Now I know that both sets of grandparents are in agreement with how I want to raise Darkfetus and that’s a HUGE relief.
Rey,
Woo hoo! ;)
David Marjanović
11 May 2012 at 10:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Threadrupt as usual. What does MQ mean?
*carefully, lovingly even, removes all spiders from room*
*hugs Cipher*
Huh. I didn’t get that crap. Probably because I’m not in the USA. Anyway, my 2 cents on Obama’s announcement are here.
*chocolate*
*sweet chai*
*happiness tea*
*more hugs*
Ah, the ever-helpful Kinsey scale. Esteleth appears to be saying she’s 5. :-)
The usual complications hold. (That’s why I wrote “ever-helpful”.) The numbers don’t seem to be defined in repeatable ways; asexuality is not on the scale, at least not in the original version; and neither is the distinction of “bisexual” and “pansexual” when the former is taken as attraction to masculine men and feminine women (I now known at least one such person in meatspace, just in case anyone wonders whether that exists) and the latter as attraction to personalities/individuals regardless of primary or secondary sexual characteristics.
KG
11 May 2012 at 10:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A retroactive Happy Birthday to Carlie!
I’m surprised no-one at FtB seems yet to have commented on this story Why was the US military teaching ‘total war’ on Islam?. Has it not been covered in the US media, or what?
David Marjanović
11 May 2012 at 10:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yep, sexual and romantic attraction don’t line up for everyone either.
Cheers for Darkfetus, parents and grandparents!!!
…I’ll just say that’s not how it works for me. :-)
To me it was explained in terms of love, and in elementary school. (…Not by teacher.) I think it was explained in terms of adults.
Still, accusations of teh ghey were considered a random strong insult, and nobody I encountered in 12 years of school was out as anything but 0 on the Kinsey scale. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I lack a gaydar. (In the later years, I knew that statistically 10 to 20 % of people are “gay” by whatever definition, but I never found a reason to “suspect” anyone in particular.) Being 0 on the Kinsey scale, I think I only learned on Pharyngula how rare that condition actually is.
+ 1
Teh awsum.
Richard Austin
11 May 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Labels are there for convenience of communication.
Though I do think there is value in how we self-identify, I don’t even think that is all that important. Do what feels good, do it safely, and do it consensually, and fuck-all to the rest.
Robert Anton Wilson once wrote:
While I can quibble with the details (psychology in particular has a lot of personalization, for example), the general concept is one I think of as highly valuable: individuals are neither aggregates nor averages and shouldn’t be forced into such categories. It’s like the whole BMI concept: sure, we can use it to talk about populations, but as soon as people try to apply it to individuals, things can start to go *ping* in the corners.
I generally identify as “gay” to others, simply because I’ve never been attracted to a woman. In my head, though, I like people, all of whom so far have been identified as men (and generally of certain characteristics, though they’re mostly personality characteristics rather than physical).
I think my notion of gender is skewed in general, though. I’ve spent so many years talking with people who were just lines of text on a screen, with no basis for determining gender and no real need to do so, that the concepts of “person” and “gender” aren’t really tied, mentally. It probably “doesn’t help” that my best friend plays female characters online but is male in real life, so I spend half of our time “talking” referring to her and the other half referring to him and it’s the same person. I have trans friends for years who I will call by completely different names and genders depending on the situation (whether they’re presenting male persona or female persona), yet in my head they’re still the same person (she was at the club last night, but he hung out with me this afternoon).
It certainly leads to a lot of confusion for other people.
d over dx (thunk) = SQRRAWK!
11 May 2012 at 10:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley:
Skooray on how you want to raise Darkfetus! I’m happy for you :)
David Marjanović
11 May 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I mean, nobody ever put that into such clear words either. It simply was considered the default that need not be mentioned.
I remember using it myself: once I told a girl “what you’re doing isn’t even lesbian anymore, it’s already gay [explicitly male homosexual]“. What she was doing was fighting someone, with no even remotely possible interpretation as sexual or romantic interaction. She “happily” played along by trying to shift the violence to me. No lasting damage to anyone’s skin or brain resulted.
Note the implication that male homosexuality is somehow worse than female one. I remember being conscious of it and deliberately using it to further increase the absurdity of it all.
David Marjanović
11 May 2012 at 10:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I do remember you and Cipher talking about male actors when I visited, though… I’m pretty sure you were both talking about their faces. :-)
life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ
11 May 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kids telling kids about gayness in terms of love? I’m surprised.
As I recall, I didn’t fully believe what I was being told, and couldn’t really imagine the mechanics of it. I don’t know if the former resulted from the latter. Anyway, I promptly forgot about the whole implausible and somewhat unpleasant story for a couple of years, which I suppose is just as well; I think it would have done me no good to dwell on it.
Richard Austin
11 May 2012 at 11:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
David:
Actually, for most actors, I’m attracted to characters rather than the actors themselves.
Good example – Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) definitely “did it” for me. Steve Rogers? Not so much. Both played by Chris Evans, who seems to be a cool guy but, just walking down the street, probably wouldn’t attract my attention. The reverse is true for Colton Haynes: in real life, he’s definitely on my list (and he’s a really awesome person), but I’ve never been attracted to any of the characters he plays.
That being said, I can say someone is “attractive”, the same way I can say that Scarlett Johansson is attractive. Doesn’t mean *I*’m attracted to her.
But, yeah, I think that’s the conversation Cipher and I were having.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 11:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks, everybody!
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 11:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Richard Austin:
Thank you for this. I know, it’s just how you are; still, thank you. Also, that reminds me I need to tell PZ again to not gender me on the mollies.
Nutmeg
11 May 2012 at 11:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fishing season opens here tomorrow, and I’m taking off from work now to head to the river. No internet, limited cell phone reception, a variety of fish species, and 37 miles of river. Bliss.
Happy weekend, everyone. Catch you all Sunday night.
Lynna, OM
11 May 2012 at 11:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Another mormon Bishop gets off scott free after advising an abused teenage girl not to seek legal recourse against her abuser:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=20359261&title=prosecutors-drop-charges-against-lds-bishop-in-abuse-reporting-case&s_cid=featured
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 12:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Random happy things from BB:
Crafter turns children’s drawings into custom plush toys:
Sample image
Artist’s page with gallery
Glass gem corn, recently added to Seeds Trust:
Sample image
Link to BB article
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
11 May 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kitty rage!!
Whitman-Walker is open 9-5. I get out of work at 4.30ish. I get home around 5. I can’t get a callback from the guy who’s supposed to talk with me about an appointment cause he leaves the office at 5!
Raaage!
(Although I will call today as soon as I get off work)
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
11 May 2012 at 12:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis, Fake Husband! You make me blush. But if I keep showing up in your day dreams I’ma have to start demanding a licensing fee. Or you’re gonna have to be a Real Husband (mmm-hmmm).
On the
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
11 May 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis, Fake Husband! You make me blush. But if I keep showing up in your day dreams I’ma have to start demanding a licensing fee. Or you’re gonna have to be a Real Husband (mmm-hmmm).
On the whole sexual attraction scale thing—While I too have never been sexually attracted to a woman those of us who are all the way at one end or another are not as numerous as we tend to think we are. Way too much attention is paid to squeezing people into boxes. The hell is the point?
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
11 May 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dammit, sorry for the borked post.
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
11 May 2012 at 12:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Lynna!! Snurggles!
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 12:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My daughter’s school wants anyone who comes into the school ever to wear “unscented products”. Because of “chemical sensitivity”. Pfffffft good luck with that.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 12:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yet an other reason why I fucking hate the fact that I share genetic material with some humanoids.
A fucking shooting range target made up to resemble Trayvor Martin. Yes, there is Skittles and tea.
cicely. Just cicely.
11 May 2012 at 12:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Isaiah Mustafa is, indeed, a fine-lookin’ young man.
-
Cipher, if this actually works there’s a lucrative second income-stream beckoning you.
-
Audley, *cheers* for the “no gendered crap” accord.
-
Pteryxx, one of my friends recently posted a pic of Glass Gem corn on FB. Beautiful! Makes me think, “I successfully grew a tomato; maybe….”
-
d over dx (thunk) = SQRRAWK!
11 May 2012 at 12:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kristinc:
Oh hooray. Chemical sensitivity. Isn’t everything made of chemicals? *facedesk*
chigau (違う)
11 May 2012 at 12:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine
According to the article it was just capitalism.
Where’s the harm?
/sarcasm or irony
.
Seriously disgusting.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 12:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
thunk: oh no. Chemicals are the stuff that bubble in lab retorts and poison baby dolphins for fun, doncha know.
They can smooch my big white alien forehead if they think I’m going to stop wearing perfume and burning incense just so I can be sufficiently morally pure of “chemicals” for the three minutes a day I spend in the building.
Besides that, because I’m a person who loves well blended scents, I know how hard it is to find unscented products. I’ve invested a lot of energy in eliminating strawberrykiwimountainbreezevanilla glurge from my body and hair care. If the school thinks everyone is going to do that, they are off their freaking nut. So the noxious fumes of Bath&Body Works lotion and Suave hairspray will continue to waft down the corridor, but I get to be the evil one, because I’m the one wearing *gasp* perfume.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 12:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kristinc,
What the hell? I could see schools being a no perfume/cologne “zone”, but no scents? That is fucking impossible– have you tried finding unscented shampoo? Thanks to the Horde, I know it’s out there, but I’ve gotta order that shit online.
I saw your post about BPAL scents and it’s okay for me if they’re not 100% natural as long as they don’t smell too chemically, like department store perfume, you know?
Also, what did you mean by “green scents”?
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 12:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, I see that you’ve preemptively addressed my post.
Refresh, Audley! Refresh!
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 12:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
re: chemical sensitivity… *raises talon* As one of those mythical creatures who actually does get nausea and headaches within moments of exposure to certain perfumes, I apologize for jackholes who think they should ban even *visitors* who wear the stuff, instead of having say adequate ventilation. Sheesh.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 12:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Chigau, know what else would be a great money maker? A lawn decoration set up to look like Emmett Till’s open casket. That must appeal to the same type of festering wounds who fantasize about being able to shoot their own Trayvor Martin.
Richard Austin
11 May 2012 at 1:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, TPM has posted this (Immigration/citizenship; not sure if triggery for some people so be warned).
Specifically, this paragraph makes me squirm:
First, the idea that “you can['t] be married to two people at the same time” is cultural. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it.
But back to the individual point – that of citizenship. I know Walton’s got reams of information on how immigration and national identity cause discrimination and all sorts of problems.
But merely from the notion of “[i]f citizenship is purely transactional, the people who lack power are profoundly disadvantaged”… I’m not sure how to process this. Obviously, if you allow transactional citizenship (being able to change citizenship at will), the people who have more access to such citizenship are in a position of advantage. But that assumes one can pick which pieces of citizenship one wants when. I’m not sure dual-citizenship allows for that.
His later notion of “a national community” makes me nervous, though. That’s the kind of sentiment that perpetuates immigration problems and xenophobia.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
11 May 2012 at 1:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Alright, Greg Laden’s blog is now one of those I will never visit again. Did you see his latest post?
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
11 May 2012 at 1:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kitty I just commented about it on that other thread. . .the Obama one. Greg Laden is an embarrassment to FtB.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 1:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, Audley and Pteryxx, I’m happy not to spritz on a fresh layer of perfume just as I walk in the door, and if I’m going to a school assembly (like any place where I have to sit/stand in a crowd) I’ll skip the heavier scents. If someone reacted to a perfume I was wearing I’d remember it and skip that one too. But no perfume all day because I have to chat with a teacher for a few minutes in the afternoon? Fuck that.
Audley: as a perfume snob I find that some department store perfumes are gross, and so are some BPAL blends. It takes weeding and sampling. One thing a lot of people who dislike “department store” perfumes seem to object to is the initial blast of alcohol and volatile topnotes, which they describe as chemical-y and which makes oil state perfumes like BPAL a more attractive option.
Green scents are ones that intend to evoke a planty smell; chypres and fougeres are often but not always green. They’re hard to create, especially on a lower price scale, and a lot of them end up smelling dryer sheety. Ozone and marine/aquatic notes are also likely to suggest air fresheners and a lot of people find lemon and lily of the valley scents, especially when they’re combined with white musks, to smell bathroom-cleanery.
Josh, All Up In Your Faux-Liberal Librulism
11 May 2012 at 1:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I heart it so much every time you refer to your talon. It gives me such amusement!
Richard Austin
11 May 2012 at 1:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I won’t put on cologne before getting on an airplane. I even explicitly try to use unscented deodorants (frankly, talc usually works fine and unless I’m spraying it in people’s faces, they generally will never notice it). Can’t do much about shampoo and soap, but I do try to use ones that simply smell soapy rather than flowery or “manly” or such.
I once sat next to someone who literally was putting on perfume in her seat at the start of a 5 hour flight. That got her a stern look and a redirection of the air blower, as well as a talking to by a flight attendant who saw her doing it.
Sili
11 May 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, lookit! Prince Charles is finally trying to work for a living.
I’m sure he’ll do a better job of it than Paxo.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Kristinc,
Thank you! I’m new to this whole world of perfume (due to not realizing that there was a real choice in scents) and now I know who I’m going to with any questions! :)
ericthered
11 May 2012 at 1:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This is probably not worth anyone’s trouble, but sadly amusing, nonetheless.
http://www.naturalnews.com/Infographic-SOS-Stop-Out-of-Control-Science.html?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150936426607780_23984098_10150947143682780#f2729884eaf72fa
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 1:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
(rambling) I don’t actually know how *much* perfume is enough to cause me problems, from the perfume-wearer’s point of view. I’m not in a position to ask the person if they’re wearing five fresh squirts or if they put it on eight hours ago and I’m just that sensitive – though I noticed the morning commuter bus was much more of a perfume minefield than the evening bus. Often I can’t go into restrooms that have those automatic scent-spritzers… thank the gods those seem to be going out of favor nowadays. However, Axe is an abomination and sticks around in empty rooms for HOURS. Also, I’m prepared to hold my breath in any crowded elevator. One never knows. >_>
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You’re welcome Audley. I hope you get hooked good and well :)
I like http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/ for its articles on perfume ingredients and general jargon. The reviews are somewhat obscure but the articles taught me a great deal about what I might be smelling at any given moment.
If you’re at all interested in giving more conventional perfume another try I recommend Nordstrom, Saks or a similar high end store. They’re usually happy to help you smell things and make samples, and the good-stuff-to-crap ratio tends to be higher than at Macys or Sephora.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
11 May 2012 at 1:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ericthered:
I laughed at their “12 most DANGEROUS experiments” part.
NANO-MACHINES!! OH NOOOOOOES!!
Giliell, not to be confused with The Borg
11 May 2012 at 1:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good evening
So, my mum made it certain that she unmistakingly did not congratulate me to my aniversary. No, it’s not like she’d forgotten, everybody had forgotten and that’s OK because I really don’t expect anybody except Mr to remember, but I mentioned it, and my sister congratulated me and she made a point of looking in the other direction.
That’s stooping fucking low. That’s also the woman who claims that I must imagine that I got the silent treatment as a child.
Well, at least I remembered that it is also our old aunt’s birthday so she got a call.
kristinc
Well, since the unscented stuff is usually much more expensive, how do they expect people to manage? Also, where were they smoking pot when they did diffusion? Just because you can’t smell something doesn’t mean it’s not there. What’s true for scents is true for every other fucking chemical as well…
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If you are in the mood for shits and giggles, Right Wing Watch has a series of posts today that spells out the of Liberty University.
Having an abortion and committing a sexual assault brings about the same punishment. I am sure you are shocked to learn that.
Dancing is forbidden.
And so is watching a R rated movie.
Amazing how much protection “Warriors For Christ” need.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 2:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
KristinC,
I will definitely check out that blog. Gracias!
As for conventional perfumes, the highest end store we have around here is Macy’s (sad, I know), so for now I think I’ll keep experimenting with the weirder stuff for now. :D
d over dx (thunk) = SQRRAWK!
11 May 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hmm, very interesting reaction there. I have never experienced any sort of that thing, but it could be a weird allergy. Also, I love those talons of yours. Also the feathers. *thunk will stop gushing with praise sometime soon*
However, former roommate did use Axe all the time. No comment.
d over dx (thunk) = SQRRAWK!
11 May 2012 at 2:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
bah, forgot to name you, Pteryxx.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 2:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My fragrance experiences with Macy’s have not been cool. Once I went in looking for Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely (because I heard so much about it on the perfumeblogs) and they didn’t have it so they offered me a Jessica Simpson perfume instead. The fuck? And then they spritzed me with a lot of things that were all pink, and all smelled nasty. The bigger and fancier Macy’s a town away is more knowledgeable but everything is behind glass so I have to ask just to sniff it, and they haaaaaate to make samples.
Sili
11 May 2012 at 2:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sectarian ‘universities’ also do pretty well on academic freedom – as one’d expect.
Patricia, OM
11 May 2012 at 2:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Many years ago some movie star was plugging a perfume called Poison . It was a huge advertising campaign, so first chance I got I doused myself with it at the drug store. Gaaawd was it horrible! Smelled just like Raid bug spray.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Patricia, did it keep the flies away?
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 2:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ack! Axe!
I’m this close } { to considering Axe to be the work of the Devil*.
*Or possibly the Robot Devil.
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 2:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell, belated happy anniversary to you and Mr. I virtually wrapped this virtual anti-gaslighting 10,000-lumen heart candle for you. With trace amounts of virtual perfume.
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 2:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ooh, Poison. Probably your mistake was dousing. That stuff is nuclear-strength — exemplifies the 80′s huge-perfume trend. Which, incidentally, sowed the seeds for the 90′s anti-perfume trend: think CK Eternity and L’eau d’Issey, super light “watery” ozonic things.
The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa)
11 May 2012 at 2:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That glass gem corn is unreal. I had to keep reminding myself that it was an actual, biological ear of corn I was looking at, and not some elaborate glassblowing project.
What’s it grown for? It almost seems a shame to slather something like that in butter and chomp it down, those translucent gems ending up as so much mush between the teeth.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Audley, please never bring up the name of that product again.
*hiiiiisssssssssss*
Patricia, OM
11 May 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Poison kept everything away. It was every bit as strong as you said too.
The one old bottle of perfume I cherish from Nordstrom is called “Byblos”.
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
11 May 2012 at 2:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
On perfume: I really don’t like it. Unless the perfume-wearer wears the same perfume, in equivalent amounts, every day.
This is because (due to my oddly behaving brain) I recognize people by smell as much as anything else – I have a terrible time with faces, for example.
I’m told that when I was a kid I screamed and wailed and insisted that my mom wasn’t my mom. She had changed brands of deodorant.
So, I don’t really like perfume, but I’m not really allergic to it.
Well, I used to work with the guy who seemed to bathe in the stuff. It was overpowering.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Louis, I think you answered your own question – go with MQG (Motley Queer Groupie). :D
Audley, Yay!
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 2:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Heya TLC, these are for you (mostly, heh):
Little blog with more pictures of glass gem corn:
http://pakagri.blogspot.com/2011/06/glass-gem-corn-colorful-varieties.html
More Best of Toph:
youtube link
*and I said ‘watching’ a sightie explain, in the other thread. ROFL, I fail!
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 2:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
What, Janine? Axe?
*ducks!*
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 2:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine,
Yay!
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 2:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I hate the fact that a song I love was used in a commercial of that product that I shall not name.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 2:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
aims death glare at audley
The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa)
11 May 2012 at 2:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Pteryxx: Good stuff.
My favorite blind character will always be Zatoichi though. He’s badass. And a real humanitarian. I also like the thoughtful look he gets on his face whenever he’s ‘touched by kindness’. Great character.
Also, thanks for the link, but it still doesn’t explain what glass gem corn is grown for. Purely ornamental?
cicely. Just cicely.
11 May 2012 at 3:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
WTM-FF???
-
They are Delicate Flowers.
-
Happily, Son’s flirtation with Ass Body Spray was very brief.
-
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 3:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sorry, Janine. :p
I ♥ the ridiculous music choices in commercials. Like the Jeep commercials that use God’s Gonna Cut You Down. Or the commercials with kids that have I Want Candy (okay, that’s more creepy than anything else). Or the Budweiser (?) Platinum ad with Kanye West’s Runaway (a song about raising a toast to all the douchebags).
I get sad when I hear Massive Attack in Lincoln commercials, though.
(Sorry. Pet peeve of mine.)
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 3:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
TLC: Glass gem corn’s a newly (re)discovered heirloom variety. Right now there are only two people on the planet (that we know of) who preserved it and might know what it’s best for, or best-adapted for. I assume when all’s said and done that it’s edible, but there isn’t enough in existence yet to go around eating it – apparently Seeds Trust is trying to grow enough from the preserved seed to have a healthy stock and enough left over to sell. In a few months or years, as grower reports come in, folks’ll probably be finding out what it’s good for.
Janine: History’s Greatest Monster
11 May 2012 at 3:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I still get sad when I hear If I Should Fall From Grace From God in that Subaru commercial.
Desert Son, OM
11 May 2012 at 3:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton du la Mort,
The picture of that one was hilarious, too, with the little nano-monster.
And the Large Hadron Collider had me scratching my head. Is the fear of that some leftover thing when there was unfounded panic that even turning the thing on would cause a black hole in Switzerland that would swallow the Earth (though I do have days of frustration with life on Planet Earth when the prospect of that happening strikes me as, if not good, then at least a wash).
Hate to break it to the “NaturalNews” folks, but nuclear power? Totally natural. The giant mass of energy you often see lighting up the sky if you’re “outside” in “nature” that does all that emitting of heat and visible light and pretty much makes life possible on this accelerated boulder ride through the dust and vacuum of space? It’s nuclear power. Totally natural. It’s predicated on atoms and everything! No, really!
(In other news today, NaturalNews.com “journalists” dispatched a team via a totally natural spacecraft – made of ethically-gathered Eider down and sheep shit – to turn off the sun in an effort to stop dangerous nuclear power.)
Antibiotics? Really? Really? Not over- or mis-prescription of antibiotics. No. Need to stop the antibiotics.
Oh and stay away from the comments (though there are a couple of voices of reason in there, but the noise level of “This is so great!” is up around 120 dB). I was smirking at first, but now it’s just exasperation and sputtering incredulity.
Still learning,
Robert
Desert Son, OM
11 May 2012 at 3:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine at #377,
Well, sure. Too close to sex.
Still learning,
Robert
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 3:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Robert:
Mm hmmm. Nothing like a self-culling herd. I’d dearly love to send all the anti-vaxxer, omgwtfbbq antibiotics crowd to the 14th or 15th century. Bye now and have fun!
Desert Son, OM
11 May 2012 at 3:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
d over dx (thunk) = SQRRAWK!,
One of my nephew’s favorite products, that. He’s 14.
You can see where this is going.
Now, I’ve never actually tried to bathe in anti-persperant/deodorant before. I guess you wouldn’t bathe so much as baste, but the point is, herd animals and predators alike take run several miles before the lad arrives on scene because they can smell him coming.
Full disclosure, I suspect that my perception of, and understanding of, certain hygiene products when I was that age was not much more sophisticated. It doesn’t help that Axe seems to front-load their scents so strongly that proximity to the applicator, rather than actual contact, may be enough to get the full effect.
Still learning,
Robert
Desert Son, OM
11 May 2012 at 3:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine,
Apologies. I posted before I read this. The stuff is, oddly enough, appropriately named, because it hits like a battle . . . well, you know.
Still learning,
Robert
Richard Austin
11 May 2012 at 4:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Desert Son:
My ex-roommate loved That Which Shall Not Be Smelled. It gave him a constant nauseating scent. I couldn’t be in a car with him just after he’d showered; it was too overpowering.
There are reasons why he had his own bathroom.
Sili
11 May 2012 at 4:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh dear …
I use that which must not be smelt …
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 4:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Robert,
What? Axe?
*ducks!*
Desert Son, OM
11 May 2012 at 4:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
Yeah, just think how great life has been in the past!
Cholera! Typhus! Tuberculosis! Bubonic plague! How much would you expect to pay for this fabulous offer? Well don’t answer yet because there’s more!
Polio! Smallpox! Agricultural blight! Massive infant mortality! Massive partum mortality! Shorter average life spans!
Yes, friends, the list goes on and on, and it can all be yours for the low, low price of human progress.
Still learning,
Robert
Krasnaya Koshka
11 May 2012 at 4:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Not that anyone remembers so this is totally me me me:
Caine, I’m sorry for questioning your lovely condolences upon the death of my cat. I’m an ass. In my defense, in America my only cats were rescued cats. In Russia, MY cats are my girlfriend’s cats. Not that I love them less than she does, but Russians find deep pleasure in having more money, more expensive things, more expensive cats. Bragging is a good thing here, and mortifying to me.
I feel VERY guilty about my girlfriend and her expensive cats. Josef was a free cat because he was fucked up and she took him anyway because she loves Siamese cats, but I feel guilty.
My girlfriend has worked her ass off (a woman!) to be quite rich by Russian standards. Without a husband. (She was married. There are no Russian women who have not been married, in my experience. But that lasted two months and she’s been on her own since.) She’s been on billboards here (Saint Petersburg–I have photos if you require proof) as the most successful female construction boss.
She is the only woman I know here who has money without a man (besides her twin). Not to say that the women aren’t the ones making all the money. Just to say it’s quite rare for them to stand up as lesbians. Most stay married and have lesbian relationships on the side.
Again, I make no sense because the only time I feel comfortable posting here is when I’m hammered. Otherwise, I’m quite the lowly English teacher in love with Russia and my gf.
I was spit on by a babushka on the Metro for saying I was an American but Pharyngula intimidates me more than babushki.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 4:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Krasnaya Koshka:
I remember! Don’t worry about me, you owe me no apology. Wow, the cat/pet culture is very different. Well, maybe not that different. The rich and useless here tend to spend outrageous amounts of money for various purebred this and purebred that. Status is what you make it, right?
I’m very glad Josef made his way to you, he was a gorgeous cat and deserved a good life. Every Siamese I’ve had holds a deep and special place in my heart. They are amazingly intelligent, affectionate and mischievous as all hells. Wonderful creatures.
Oh, Babushkas. Bah. One of my great-grandmothers, Babushka.
Richard Austin
11 May 2012 at 5:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
… On the subject of That Which Shall Not Be Smelled…
carlie
11 May 2012 at 5:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ok, I think Louis and I are mostly simpatico on the topic, so I’ll go sit at the MQG table too. :)
Pteryxx, have you been watching Legend of Korra? Because OMG IT IS SO AWESOME.
I’m sorry your mom is being so rotten, Gilliel. That’s got to be difficult.
My mother called me today, completely ashamed of having not called me yesterday on my birthday, but her explanation made me laugh. She was on Pinterest all night and didn’t realize until it was too late. :D My mother didn’t go near a computer until about a year ago, so I like it when she finds something she enjoys.
I went to a local state park today (they’re not technically open yet, but the roads aren’t blocked and anybody can go in), and ran smack into a freaking military training exercise. There were a couple of dozen guys in desert camo lying around the campground with sniper rifles, and there were US government trucks so I assume it wasn’t some kind of weird current re-enactment group. What the hell? I guess I can see them using state park land in the off season, but they could have had signs up so nobody barreled into it. (by ran into, I mean I drove right up to the circle where it turned out they were, and then had to do a u-turn in the road because they had the rest blocked off)
Krasnaya Koshka
11 May 2012 at 5:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine, oh phew!
I was such a mess last time I posted (when Josef died) I was afraid I’d insulted both you and Janine. Thank you!
As much as I love my gf, and I do (she has an incredibly tender heart), we come from very different worlds. Bragging is a plus here. Bragging is horrible in the U.S. I will never be able to brag.
This past Wednesday we were in San Diego. My gf asked to go to a PetsMart (not by name, of course, it was on the road). I thought that would be a very bad idea. I know her. She wanted to adopt every cat there. She doesn’t understand pet culture in America.
“Does anyone adopt these old cats?” she asked. YES, they do! I used to.
She cried all night about these cats in “nets”.
In Russia, there are tons of homeless dogs but very few homeless cats. The homeless dogs are generally only seen in the snow, in winter, when they’re desperate.
carlie
11 May 2012 at 5:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Scents – I like them sometimes when they’re just about me and where I am (like my house, my bedroom, etc), I try to avoid wearing them when I’m out and could inflict them on others.
Audley, that’s great news!
carlie
11 May 2012 at 5:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think this would make Janine cry, but today while I was out, I was browsing through some used CDs at a store and ended up bringing home the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack AND Bette Midler covers of Rosemary Clooney.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 5:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carlie, what you saw were reserve troops, training. Around here, the reserves are found, bristling with weapons, trucks, soldiers (and once, a godsdamn tank!) down to desert (a conservation area along the banks of the Missouri and feeding into Oahe Lake.)
Krasnaya Koshka
11 May 2012 at 5:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Because my gf has to have the most expensive cat in Russia, always:
Here he is .
Muse
11 May 2012 at 5:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, those are some incredibly striking blue eyes.
birgerjohansson
11 May 2012 at 5:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Republicans are Prochlorococcus?? “Queen of spades key to new evolutionary hypothesis”
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-queen-spades-key-evolutionary-hypothesis.html
“…dump [their] responsibilities on the unlucky card-holders floating around nearby.” Sounds familiar.
Krasnaya Koshka
11 May 2012 at 5:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Just so you know,
1. I don’t agree with designer animals and am fully against inbreeding.
2. I understand I am in a different culture (Russian) and my objections are disregarded (as usual).
3. Toro-toro (this kitten) is the smoochiest, most affectionate cat I’ve ever seen. He sleeps next to me and paws my face. He slips under the blanket when I hold it up. He’s crazy smart. I adore him.
Patricia, OM
11 May 2012 at 5:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Just got back from a 1/2 hour staff meeting. My new propasal to our office manager is that NONE of the damned lawyers get to attend in person, they just get the minutes – via snail mail. Almost three frikken hours!
opposablethumbs
11 May 2012 at 5:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell, I’m really sorry you have that that horrible business with your mother going on :(
SonSpawn was given some Eau des Baux shower gel from l’Occitane as a present when a friend came to visit – it smells gorgeous to me. Do any of you who understand perfumes happen to be familiar with it, and know what category of smells it turns out that I like?
Patricia, OM
11 May 2012 at 5:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
propasal
Where the hell did that come from?
Krasnaya Koshka
11 May 2012 at 5:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Muse, thank you.
I wish I could show how smart he is. He’s crazy smart.
He slept beside me (a restless sleeper) his first night here and never got squished.
Every time I opened my eyes he pawed my eyebrows, gently.
I am officially in love with Siamese cats.
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 5:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
carlie: heck yeah I’m watching Legend of Korra, especially now that MLP:FiM is done for the season. They’re doing some Interesting Freakin’ Crap with the writing and character stresses. …But I admit the newsreel format for the “Previously on…” still creeps me out.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 5:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Carlie:
:) :) :)
I’ve been so happy about it all day!
Owlmirror
11 May 2012 at 6:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Huh.
I followed the boingboing link to the glass gem corn page (beautiful!), and then hit the boingboing home page… and the current first item is:
“Toxic cloud of Axe Body Spray triggers fire alarm in high school locker room”
Coincidence?
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
11 May 2012 at 6:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Went to a seminar. Was interesting.
Best part was the person who asked a question, starting with, “Now, I’m not saying that injecting semen into the brain would be a good idea…”
And yes, it made sense in context.
:D
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 6:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Krasnaya Koshka, if it helps you can reassure your girlfriend that the cats at PetSmart adoption centers are the lucky ones. They’re the specially selected most friendly and healthy cats, and they’re pretty much guaranteed to find homes. That’s what gets me through trips to PetSmart without needing to rescue them, anyway. I tell them all, “You’re going home!”
kristinc, ~ringy dingy~
11 May 2012 at 6:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
L’Occitane says Eau des Baux is cypress and incense; reviews mention amber, coumarin and even pipe tobacco. It would probably fall in the woody-amber or woody-incense family, sounds nice. Check out Diptyque Tam Dao or Black Phoenix Anne Bonny.
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 6:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Krasnaya Koshka:
Eeeeeeeeeeee. I’m in love with those ears! (I haz a thing for ears on critters, the bigger the better). And that face! You can see the intelligence just shining. That one’s a monkey. A happy, happy monkey. :D
Desert Son, OM
11 May 2012 at 6:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Recused myself from the thread at Lousy Canuck’s, so just came here to quietly stand at the back of the hall briefly and proffer – I hope without presumptuousness – clenched-tentacle salutes and thanks to Josh, Pteryxx, RahXephon, Gregory in Seattle, ischemgeek, David Marjanović, Setár, Dalillama. Apologies if I missed anyone. Everyday at these blogs is an education for me.
Congratulations also to Audley.
Ok, going for a jog.
Still learning,
Robert
Pteryxx
11 May 2012 at 7:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
wb, Desert Son, and thank *you* for all the scattered work I’ve seen you do. I too can only handle so much at a time, or I would’ve jumped in with the rest of you a day ago.
Cipher, OM, MQ
11 May 2012 at 7:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I got
this off MarkWatches the other day. It’s pretty adorable.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls
11 May 2012 at 7:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Welcome back Desert Son. To many OM’s fade into the bandwidth.
cm's changeable moniker
11 May 2012 at 7:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Google Doodle. Wave your runcible spoons.
(Sorry, I’m about seven threads behind.)
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 7:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Just gonna drop this here and ruin everyone’s night:
A State-By-State Guide to 2012′s Anti-Choice Laws (So Far)
I hadn’t even heard of some of the shit that’s on this list. Like in South Carolina:
[My emphasis.] The hell?
I guess we now know that taking away rights from half of the population is more important to these conservative fuckers than coddling big business. *spits*
(Not that the rest of it isn’t completely terrible, but the last bit is terrible and mind boggling.)
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 7:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You peoples in PET had best stop talking. Right now. SC doesn’t like it.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 7:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Caine:
*eyeroll*
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 7:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cipher:
Eeeee, oh yes, adorable. Absolutely.
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
11 May 2012 at 7:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So…the pic of my asshole that I just posted there needs to go here?
Just_A_Lurker
11 May 2012 at 7:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It makes me want to join just to spite him.
Audley Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)
11 May 2012 at 7:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
E,
Ha!
♥!
Caine, Gayluminati MQ
11 May 2012 at 7:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth:
*cough* No, it’s fine where it is, thank you. *cough*
J_A_L, SC is a she.
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain
11 May 2012 at 7:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Aw, but Caine, my asshole is pretty!
Just_A_Lurker
11 May 2012 at 7:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Called it!
Just_A_Lurker
11 May 2012 at 7:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, shit. I’m sorry.
I hate when I do that. >.<
Cipher, OM, MQ
11 May 2012 at 7:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I actually do wish you’d join, J_A_L, not to spite SC but cos I wish I knew you better.
*blushes*