Re: OPINIONATED GRANDPA

1

Wait, am I just being a persistent asshole here?

Um.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:22 AM
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Now I want to see if we can charter a boat to sail us from Phuket to those islands in the south of Burma that are rarely visited.

Isn't the reason they're rarely visited because you run a measurable risk of being accused of spying and disappearing into a Burmese prison forever? But, y'know, I expect they're really pretty (the islands, not the prisons), so maybe it's worth it.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:27 AM
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someone has to keep the flame of ogged alive, blume


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:28 AM
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anyway, jesus mcqueen and his family can meet us there.
2: I don't think the boat charter people let you choose a dubious route/destination. they do the sailing.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:30 AM
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Hannigan's costume there isn't significantly more silly than the things she wore as Willow around Season 4.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:39 AM
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4: Yay! After last night, I'm thinking one-way tickets.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:41 AM
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A friend is a managing a newly opened restaurant in Hoi An.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:42 AM
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I keep thinking that a trip to Hoi An to buy suits for like five years could be a net money saver. I can't afford NOT to travel! On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that's not actually, you know, true.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:45 AM
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A real net money saver would be if you paid for me to go to Hoi An and I bring back suits for you.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:46 AM
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do it!! the suits are worth it and hoi an is lovely and has delicious food. the beach is spectacular, too.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:58 AM
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Can one find more frequent orgasims there?


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:01 AM
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It's the tropics, there are more oragsims of every sort down there. Biodiversity and all that.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:19 AM
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Head for Indonesia and you'll find all the orangsims you want.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:20 AM
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Simulated organs! What will those inscrutable orientals come up with next?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:20 AM
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I'm slow today. I blame Rahm Emanuel.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:21 AM
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Follow me, don't follow me / I've got my spine I've got my orangesims.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:23 AM
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I've been waiting for apo to provide the link comparing the average number of monthly orgasms per person, based on where you live.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:27 AM
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The inverse of the refractory period is the frequency of organjism.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:31 AM
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1&: People who live in porn movie theaters have the most.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:31 AM
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17: "Last year, we got lost in the Foreplay. Powerline was kind of easy to follow. The first time Foreplay was done, was also confusing. A accurate map would be useful. Also I am interested to try the Multiple Orgasm mtb trail in the Gatineau Park and would like to do again the Foreplay one. I would like to have a map for those."


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:33 AM
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PLEASE NOT IN FRONY OF THE CHILDREN


Posted by: OPINIONATED GRANDPA | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:35 AM
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Also.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:39 AM
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does that indicate that you are going to have more orgasms if you live in the US than Burma?


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:40 AM
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Depends. Are you living in my house?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:41 AM
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you are going to have more orgasms if you live in the US than Burma?

More orgasms in Myanmar, than the US. You should see the fun we have at the re-education camps!


Posted by: Gen. Than Shwe | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:50 AM
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Do they look ruins? Probably not, the ignorant savages. But if they do, then both Thailand and Cambodia have interesting ones. Besides the obvious (Angkor Wat), there's Ayutthaya and Sukhothai.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:57 AM
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Fu-uck. I meant do they like ruins. I'm not meaning to suggest that your family would blend naturally into the background in any collapsed building.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 10:58 AM
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OT: Caffeine withdrawal, wow.


Posted by: Criminally Bulgur | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 11:00 AM
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I keep thinking that a trip to Hoi An to buy suits for like five years could be a net money saver

If you a) can be sure that your weight won't change materially in the next five years and
b) you don't mind having pretty crappy suits (ie, they're good suits for $100, but that's not the same thing as good suits), and
c) you are able to tell the difference between the grade of wool you're sold and the grade of wool-like fabric you're delivered and robust enough to complain if conned

it might work. But Honkers is a much better bet if you're really serious about that. Personally, I'd go for the food and the train journey over the mountains into Danang, and maybe think about picking up a couple of shirts.


Posted by: dsquared | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 11:06 AM
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Honkers

This sounds like a less dignified Hooters competitor.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 11:09 AM
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An old boss of Buck's used to get a disproportionate amount of enjoyment out of referring to HSBC as Honkers and Chancres. Come to think, I'm not sure what a proportionate amount of enjoyment would be there, but clearly much less than he was getting.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 11:12 AM
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This sounds like a less dignified Hooters competitor.

Where the staff have all caught streaming colds through not wearing enough.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 11:16 AM
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That's your food-meal period. OMG, I'm going to go home and make some dinner for my roommate so when he comes home, I can say, "THAT'S YOUR FOOD-MEAL PERIOD."


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 11:19 AM
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Honkers.

I spent at least a semester calling the American pragmatists "Praggers," but only a few people in class followed suit.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 1:15 PM
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If you a) can be sure that your weight won't change materially in the next five years

On our honeymoon, Mrs. K-sky and I got measured for suits in Chiang Mai. I got a black suit (a good one) and two fitted shirts. Mrs. K-sky, who actually needs work clothes, got a suit with jacket, skirt and pants; two additional pairs of slacks; a blouse and a pair of jeans.

We spent $450 on the above. (an extra $15 when I decided I wanted the jacket lining replaced with Thai royal pink.)

Unfortunately, Mrs. K-sky had slimmed down a bit for the wedding, and more recently had been throwing up from various turista syndromes for the week prior. Without realizing it, she'd gotten slightly smaller than she had ever been since the age of 22. About two weeks after we got back to USA, not one of the four pairs of pants fit her.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 1:55 PM
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||

Is this pwnd?

Ezra Klein is eating at El Bulli.

And getting married.

|>


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 5:49 PM
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I can't believe I posted that comment.

Sucked into vicarious celebrity bullshit. Those people, and their lavish lifestyle sucked out of the necks of workers, are less than nothing to me.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 6:20 PM
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I'm not allowed to drink, so you have to cut me some slack here.

For added endorphins, consider how much of a poisoned chalice the House is right now. The Republicans will infuriate their base if they manifest anything resembling new ideas or practicality -- but many of the people who protest-voted for them actually expect them to be bipartisan for bizarre some reason (apparently they must have never encountered this strange species called "Republicans" before). John Boehner just got a shittier job than Obama's.


Posted by: DS | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 6:25 PM
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dsquared has some points about relative quality. but if you do know exactly what type of wool you want, and are bitchy about it, and go back to get it fitted when it's partially done, all will be well. HK is world-renowned for having the best, though, and probably the best value to money. and its food is also delicious! except for the weird things.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 8:09 PM
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I can't even count the number of things I'm not doing, whereas I am doing very few things. In all likelihood, I stand in solidarity with Standpipe. Except that standing is one of the things I'm not doing.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 8:24 PM
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I swear there was a Standpipe comment here that I was replying to.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 8:24 PM
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Take it to Standpipe's Blog, explain train.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 8:31 PM
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I've actually been to Hoi An before, when I was on a mission to to recover Colonel Kurtz from up-river on a post-law school trip, and got suits made there. My fantasy is about going back, not going there for the first time. Not the world's greatest suits ever and definitely worse than the one bespoke suit I got from a HK tailor (through an agent who visits the west coast). But the quality was fine and the suits were 1/10 the cost of the HK suit. And the Hoi An suits were way, way better than off the rack Brooks Brothers. But then I got fat. And then skinnier again, but by then the suits had kinda deteriorated.

Anyway, this clothes-buying plan would all basically be an excuse to sit on the beach where Vietnamese ladies come up and cook lobster with spices for me. Although if I was actually going to do the trip for real I'd have to take my three year old on a 12 hour plane trip and blow my tuition fund and figure out how to get a babysitter in Vietnam and miss work and . . . fuck, this thing is never going to happen, is it?


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 8:49 PM
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44

I deleted my comment on the off chance that it would encourage someone in a roundabout way not to not do the thing I wasn't doing.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:01 PM
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45

Too late.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:02 PM
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46

I have complicated feelings. About things.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:03 PM
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I have whole bunches of feelings about things, but each individual feeling is pretty simple.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:08 PM
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I have complicated feelings. About things.

And "stuff".


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:09 PM
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I deleted my comment

What?!?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:12 PM
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Well, I protest, anyway. Off to bed!


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:13 PM
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My feeling is that several comments would have worked better if "stuff" had read "junk".


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:17 PM
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What?!?

That is one of the things.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:18 PM
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If you must feel, feel complicatedly.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:19 PM
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44: blow your tuition fund and miss work are the killers. (though maybe flights are cheaper than you think? and you must get some vacation days, like, ever?). taking your 3-year-old on a long plane flight is fine, people blow this shit all out of proportion. you can drink, right? that's half the problem solved right there. you'll have earned some bragging/complaining rights, but really, it's OK. portable dvd player (if they don't have on-demand video), massive boringness for you as you chat with him, lots of sleeping where you drug him with chewable dramamine and he passes out. getting a babysitter in vietnam: nothing could be easier. your hotel, no matter how cheap, will have an arrangement with one of its staff or their relatives. also, if you take him around with you, people will be way, way, way friendlier than they were to back-packer you. is he blond and/or blue-eyed? vietnamese grannies eat that shit up with a spoon. (my children are neither, so I don't have a dog in this fight.)


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 11- 3-10 9:19 PM
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Anyway, this clothes-buying plan would all basically be an excuse to sit on the beach where Vietnamese ladies come up and cook lobster with spices for me. Although if I was actually going to do the trip for real I'd have to take my three year old on a 12 hour plane trip and blow my tuition fund and figure out how to get a babysitter in Vietnam and miss work and . . . fuck, this thing is never going to happen, is it?

Sit on the beach. Pick a trustworthy looking Vietnamese spicy lobster lady. Leave the three-year-old with her. Axiomatically, any woman who can handle a lobster can handle a three-year old. Go off and get your suits done.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 4:46 AM
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37: Is that the same girl he was dating when he had his own personal blog and was finishing up at UCLA and then starting at TAP.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 4:58 AM
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If you believe that the shrimp are lobsters, you'll have no problem with believing the suits are wool :-)


Posted by: dsquared | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 5:37 AM
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Halford:

They also wont love you long time.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 6:15 AM
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37:Really don't think so. This one writes for Slate and freelance. I gather she's a roommate and partner, i.e., no huge surprise for people who know EK.

Is El Bulli the bigger deal? I guess you just have to plan it a year or more in advance, and with airfare and hotel, probably a couple thousand for the experience.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 6:55 AM
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1) The way I figure, a marriage and/or children has good odds of turning into a regret. 30 years later odds are you'll say I can't believe I was that stupid. El Bulli will be forever.

2)What, 50 thousand people have eaten there? 100k? Less than have climbed Everest. I don't know how easy it is to get reservations, even if you are willing to wait a year or two.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:05 AM
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Bob mcmanus, taking on the big issues of the day.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:08 AM
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The way I figure, a marriage and/or children has good odds of turning into a regret. 30 years later odds are you'll say I can't believe I was that stupid. El Bulli will be forever.

You should write ad copy for them. (But I guess El Bulli doesn't have to advertise.)


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:09 AM
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El Bulli will be forever

El Bulli is closing down next year. Adria can't afford to run it at a loss any more. Which is better - I ate in a great restaurant 30 years ago or I was in love 30 years ago?

Don't answer that.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:17 AM
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I guess if it turns out not to be that great, it's relatively easy to lie to yourself about a restaurant.

It's different with a marriage.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:32 AM
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64:s/b "The memory/experience of El Bulli/Barcelona will be forever." I presume a little weirdo architecture ogling is also on the Romantic itinerary.

I gave up collecting extreme experience when I quit acid. The image of wheezing my last breath into the ventilator "At least I saw Chartres" seems pathetic, grasping, and bourgeois, little different than collecting land or gold.

I lie. I feel the weakness, my desperation, my need for meaning and value, as I devour classic Japanese film, especially as I wander the sites of cineastes who have watched thousands. Will the 11066th film return that endorphic ecstasy of Tokyo Story? It's all fucking addiction, morphing vices into virtues. All of it.

Why the fuck can't I just sit under a tree and watch for squirrels with the dogs?

It's all shite or it's all good.

And I shouldn't be here.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:38 AM
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What, 50 thousand people have eaten there? 100k? Less than have climbed Everest

Everest has had less than four thousand ascents. Many guides and sherpas have multiple ascents so the total number of people who have reached the summit is significantly lower.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:41 AM
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What, 50 thousand people have eaten there? 100k? Less than have climbed Everest.

Alternatively, about 50 times as many as have climbed Everest. (roughly 1,400)


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:41 AM
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Pwned by the Pwle.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:42 AM
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I climbed Everest, but I didn't tell anybody.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:43 AM
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Moby Hick is George Mallory.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:45 AM
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70: What did you kill at the summit?


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:46 AM
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72: A six pack of Molson and some guy who wouldn't share his oxygen bottle.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:48 AM
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72: A lot of nerve cells, from what I hear of hypoxia.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:49 AM
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Presumably, the selfish guy had many now-deceased nerves.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 7:51 AM
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Moby Hick, therefore, was Robert Graves' school English teacher.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 9:16 AM
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55 is he blond and/or blue-eyed? vietnamese grannies eat that shit up with a spoon. (my children are neither, so I don't have a dog in this fight.)

What destroyed the Indonesian fieldwork experience for my blue-eyed (though not blond) kids was having their cheeks incessantly pinched by middle-aged women. It was a long time before they would let brown-skinned women get anywhere near them.

And now I get to go back, because I got a big grant. Or should that be Big Grant? Big Grant says 'quit your pinching!'


Posted by: Nakku | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 9:20 AM
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I CAN HAZ BIG TOMB?


Posted by: BIG GRANT | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 9:50 AM
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Why the fuck can't I just sit under a tree and watch for squirrels with the dogs?

bob mcmanus sits under a tree, hears the laughter of squirrels and attains enlightenment. If only Ozu were there to film it!


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 10:17 AM
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hey nakku that's great! I'll be seeing more of you...but you'll still be stuck with the "festive meats," right? erg. I'll feed you chilli crab to compensate.
also, bob, I love you sometimes.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 11- 4-10 8:24 PM
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