That reminds me of a horrific scene in We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is a super but really freaky damn book.
I haven't read that book but I know what it's about. Fortunately, my brother's just a little spacey, not a psycho.
And fortuntately you're an adult, rather than a toddler, and you know enough to double-check....
That's still a pretty huge difference, considering that a teaspoon is a third of a tablespoon.
Remember that part, the part that make you go YEEEEEEEEE, in Poe's "The Black Cat"? I'd forgotten it until just now. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE oh god oh god.
Yeah, I don't remember which formulation I went with. All I know is that (1) I did not burn my eyes out and (2) whatever I did cleared up the pinkeye enough that I was able to go to the Sleater-Kinney concert the next night and actually see the band. Those are the only two things I really cared about.
Don't try to wall me off, Bridgeplate.
Oh jesus god, thanks so much for that.
Yeah, I occasionally think about how easy it would be for my brother to royally screw with me when I ask him to switch into Encyclopedia Mode. I can only hope I've adequately trained him.
I often fill the encyclopedia role, especially for my sister; she often calls me to ask about things like convenience stores in Philadelphia and how Southwest Airlines' online check-in works. No medical advice, though, so if I'm mistaken she's unlikely to permanently damage anything.
My most common call of this type is certainly directions or locations, because I leave the house and then realize that I never bothered to find out. Just today I made such a call to determine the location of a major metropolitan department store.
Second most common is to confirm items of trivia that came up either in conversation or, when I used to go on road trips or any car rides of moderate length more often, whether something being claimed to be true in a much simpler, but vaguely Botticelli like (doesn't involve 1st + 2nd order and you give both initials) guessing-game, simply called Initials, was correct.
I had never heard of Botticelli before, and will try to introduce it next time I'm in such a situation.
Shouldn't someone start a pay service for this kind of thing, for people who don't have computer-savvy mothers or spacey brothers? Kind of like OnStar but not just from your car.
Becks: So how was S-K? Did they perform mostly stuff from The Woods? Did my girlfriend Carrie rock out?
I served as the encyclopedia one time for a friend who had broken a mercury thermometer in her bathroom and was freaking out. You can imagine her reaction to the instructions "okay, get an index card. use the index card to sweep the mercury into a plastic bag. now put that plastic bag in another bag. put that bag in another bag. put the bag-in-a-bag-in-a-bag in a hard-sided container with a lid. now, find out the location of your community household hazardous waste facility..."
Man, that was a fun morning.
(A thousand eyes roll as they read 13 and pray that I won't go on about S-K for the next 10 pages now that the door has been opened for me.) Yes! They were awesome. I've seen them five(?) times so far on their current tour and all of the shows have been amazing - mostly The Woods but a lot of good older stuff mixed in, too, that they've reworked in a heavier, Woods-ish style. You're going to have to fight me for Carrie.
I really like the new style on The Woods. It's so open, so sprawling, so terrifying.
Rumor has it that Carrie has swung back to my team, so I have an advantage over you there.
Are you the picture encyclopedia of bras, B?
Now I feel really bad that I missed out on the couple times that Sleater-Kinney came through town.
Do they still play any of their older punkish stuff, like Call The Doctor era?
21 - Here's the set list for one of the SF nights I went to: Pompeii, Wilderness, Jumpers, One Beat, Rollercoaster, Was It A Lie?, The Fox, Everything, Night Light, What's Mine Is Yours, Get Up, Modern Girl, Let's Call It Love->Entertain, Good Things, O2, Combat Rock, The Promised Land, Turn It On, Milkshake n' Honey, Little Mouth
They've just gotten better and better as the tour has gone on. Don't know where you are but they've got some more US and European tour dates coming up. Looks like I'll be going to the Philly, DC (if they ever go on sale), and NYC shows. [Yes, I'm insane.]
14: When I was a kid, if you broke a thermometer you'd pour the mercury into a bowl and watch it roll around, try to pick it up, squash it with your thumb into smaller balls of mercury, and so on, until you inevitably spilled it and it broke into a million little pieces and disappeared all over your house. Yeah, we made our own fun.
mcmc -- and are you subsequently mad as a hatter? (Get with the program people -- glass thermometers filled with mercury? How 20th-Century is that?)
24: I'd say no, but why would you believe me?
22 - Sounds like a good setlist, heavy on the One Beat and The Woods, even if Call The Doctor is woefully underrepresented. I'm glad they develop as the tour goes on, too. Some bands get better and better at doing their songs live, and end up with some amazing new arrangements after a while.
Sadly, JAC stands for Just Another Chicagoan, and I don't want to shell out $140 for Lollapolooza tickets when I'm already going to Pitchfork and Intonation festivals this summer.
I'll go cry now.
23: Yeah, I left one in a window sill once and it burst all over the place. My sister and I played with it for a while until my mom found out and had a fit.
Speaking of something or other, where's FL?
26 - The biggest improvement has been in their improvisations, like during What's Mine is Yours and Let's Call It Love, and consistently going from LCIL into Entertain instead of Night Light. The first couple of shows on the tour, their improvs were like "hmm...could be better but I'll give you points for trying" and LCIL seemed a little overlong but now they're doing some great improvs and really commanding your attention.
(When The Woods first came out, I remember having a debate with a friend on the merits of LCIL and defending it as a 10 minute orgasm about female sexual empowerment. I eventually conceded that it was more like a 4 minute orgasm and six minutes of looking at your watch thinking "OK, you can wrap this up now..."** Now, they're up to about 9 minutes out of 10 of good stuff.)
** Just like sex with Fontana Labs.
I think the footnote in 29 deserved a longer string of asterisks.
Employees: Please********* wash sink after use.
********* Really, we mean it.
As an homage to Labs's enormous cock, O Ben.
It may give a lackluster performance, but let's give credit where huge dong due.
Persons who write or say "an homage" are dead to me.
"An homage"
I think there's a sliding-scale on these. I've seen an hospital and an history, and I think those affectations, because of long domestication and because the french is seldom heard.
Even if you are going to say hommidge, an isn't so bad there.
"An homard to Labs's enormous cock"…
Checkmate?
38: Hey, it's the first ellipsis of the thread.
Oddly, Becks manages to hit 1 for 2 in the main post. How do you only use one …?
There look to be two ellipses in the main post.
34: Dude, seriously?
What about "an historical"?
Checkmate?
I dunno, I think Labs's cock could fight it off. Or is that what you meant?
43: well you can say that but my browser thinks they are both a single character. And the source has both as ….
You're right about "an historical" being the common usage, even though "an history" is not. Since sound is probably not the reason, the first syllable being pronounced the same, could the reason be that "a-historical" exists as a word, and needs to be distinguished?
Since sound is probably not the reason
I thought it was sound that determined this. As in, you'd say "an umbrella", but "a unicorn". I say "an historical" with a mostly silent 'h', but the 'h' in "a history" is more pronounced. Of course, that might just be my habit, not the standard way of doing things. Interesting point about a-historical, though.
(I've been sounding out words for the past couple of minutes here at work, and people are starting to give me quizzical looks. I'm going to be quiet now.)
I agree with 47. I find that the "an historical" is usually used in the context of a phrase such as "an historical account of...", and I find I tend to elide the words together, and not much pronounce the 'h' as in 'history.' This is why "an homage" is correct.
Hmm. The second was three stops when I first checked. Methinks someone might be "taking advantage" of their "posting privileges".
47, 48: I say "historical" with the exact same sound as history when it appears not preceeded by "an;" when it is I soften it as you do. So perhaps a chicken and egg problem?
Just as likely all these french words took "an" in the past, some have lost it, like hospital, some have not. A possible reason is that "hospital" is a word much more likely to be used by all classes of people, "historical" not so much.
It's because of stress placement: a HIS-tory, an hist-TOR-ical. The /h/ is stronger when it's in a stressed syllable.
I say "historical" with the exact same sound as history when it appears not preceeded by "an;" when it is I soften it as you do.i>
Yeah, that's what I meant. On its own, I pronounce the h.
Teo's 51 makes sense, and answers all my questions; it also resolves homage. When people say it in the French way, as we often do these days, we stress the second syllable. In a decidely English context, say pronouncing Homage to Catalonia, stress is on the first. Yes, I would have pronounced SB's 32, not with French vowels exactly, but with a soft aitch and stress on the second syllable.
Why are all of you people discussing grammar when you could be talking about musical expressions of female sexual empowerment and/or the awesomeness of teh Kinney? Or even Labs's manhood?
I don't understand.
I just haven't been into Sleater-Kinney that much since they sold out and accepted corporate sponsorship.
What's that, I hear? This is an open thread?
I just want to link this.
All animals are sexy, but some animals are more sexy than others.
Two comments on apparently unrelated subthreads:
1) with mercury (escaped from thermometers) the absolutely cool, and therefore standard, thing to do was coat dimes and quarters with it. For some reason - and I'm no scientist - the mercury would stick to the silver (not to copper or nickel: we tried) and make for these wonderfully shiny coins! Eventually, of course, the glow would disappear - what a life-learning experience that should have been - as the environment (presumably including ourselves) absorbed the stuff.
2) I am by profession a historian. Except when I'm in the British Commonwealth, when I am an historian. It's just like driving on the opposite side of the road ... sheer bloody-mindedness.
Oddly, yes [a North Carolinian], but only for the last two years. The "shiny silver" phase of my life was lived in California, and the Commonwealth phase mostly in Australia and Hong Kong.
Why do you ask? Just the e-mail address?
Yeah, the email address. There's a cabal of them already.
It takes a nation of millions to hold us people back.
It takes a nation of millions to hold us people back.
You yearning masses, struggling to breathe free—
Wow, 65 is like a little story, with a happy ending.
I played with mercury in the Peace Corps -- my school's lab had a half-pint jar of it, and I couldn't resist. It's incredibly fun to mess around with.
I tried making a barometer (the lab had a long-enough glass tube open on one end, so I filled it and upended it in a little dish of mercury) but while it moved, its movements had no discernable relationship to the weather.
I haven't suffered any identifiable health consequences.
Apropos to the title of this thread: I need advice from the Mineshaft, my trusted source.
A ticket is about to be booked for me to go to London (paid) for two weeks later this summer. I have been toying with the idea of asking them to book my return ticket, say, a week later then when I actually complete my business, so I can go somewhere else on my own dime before I come back. Or, I could come back to the US and work for another week. So, basically, my options are, spend a bunch of money to go on a trip, or make another week's worth of pay (which is quite a bit, and part of the reason I am considering it, because this may be the only opportunity I ever have to make this much money).
But then I think hey, as a lawyer, and fuck, as an employed adult in general, it's pretty difficult to just take a week off and go somewhere. It's my instinct for "you're only young once!" pitted against "hey, maybe you should be financially responsible for once" - and I am torn!
If anyone has any wise words/cautionary tales, it would be much appreciated.
If you have an identifiable need for the week's pay (with that paycheck, the car gets fixed or something), don't be silly, work the extra week. On the other hand, which I think is more likely, if you're just thinking that it's more sensible to make the money than to take the vacation, take the vacation. It's easier now than it will ever be again, it's cheaper than it's likely to be when you have to pay for your own tickets -- take the week off.
this may be the only opportunity I ever have to make this much money
Umm, this part confuses me.
71: I may not go work at a law firm after I graduate.
Well then, take the vacation. The less money you make, the harder a trip like that will be. Seriously. You'll be working the rest of your life. Trips to other countries, not so much.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too.
Thanks, guys. Now the question is where to go?! But that's for another time. As of now, I'm thinking Barcelona (never been to Spain).
Well, you've never been to Spain, but you've been to Oklahoma?
I have not, in fact, been to Oklahoma.
Is this a joke I am missing.
Stupid seventies music, which you are blessed not to know. Your phrase dragged it up for me. "...never been to Spain"
That is not "stupid" seventies music. That is an American classic.
I misremembered the next line. Written by Hoyt Axton, once performed by Elvis, and it reads pretty good, I must admit. Do I remember a bad cover? lyrics here
More likely you just mixed and matched the lines. I do that all the time even on songs I still listen to.
Or to Nice, and the isles of Greece, and drink pink champagne on a yacht.
Italy is lovely, but since it's the only place in Europe I have been, that's a relatively uninformed endorsement.
It's possible the version I remember is Axton, although I doubt it, and it sure wasn't Elvis. Whoever it was managed to take the honky-tonk pathos I'd expect from either of them right out of it, leaving a residue "furred" as Cotton's Montaigne would say.
As Donovan might say, Spain is hot.
It's possible the version I remember is Axton
The version you recall is probably Three Dog Night.
Yes! that sounds right. Am I right in your est. about the tone of the performance?
I'm just back from Spain, first time there, and had a great time. Spent a week in Granada -- lots of cool things to see there but not as hip and vibrant, I imagine, as Barcelona.
(Black and white) photos I took, pimped here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85361107@N00/sets/72157594143970505/
I'm just back from Spain, first time there, and had a great time. Spent a week in Granada -- lots of cool things to see there but not as hip and vibrant, I imagine, as Barcelona.
(Black and white) photos I took, pimped here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85361107@N00/157316730/in/set-72157594143970505/
Crap, sorry for the double post (and the second has the wrong link).
Very nice. Place looks deserted. Got that "Rodrigo" thing going in my head.
Gorgeous pics, Matt. I really think Granada is one of the prettiest cities in the world.
(IDP, it looks deserted b/c most of those are of the Alhambra, rather than the city itself. Although the Alhambra is the primary tourist destination, and when I was there a jillion years ago, it was surprisingly untouristed. Which is another great thing about it.)
ben, aren't you going to Finland?
Italy and Greece are out, just because I've already been. I am thinking, too, about Berlin, Copenhagen, and Marrakesh (although I desperately want to go to Morocco, I am hesitant about being too conspicuous as a lone woman).
And those pictures are so awesome.
I haven't been to Copenhagen, but I've been to Norway in July, and I wouldn't miss Scandinavia in the summer. Everyone seemed so blissed out by the fact that the sun was up all day -- it was very happy. Cold, still, but happy.
Thanks! Actually, the palace of the Alhambra itself was pretty busy at the time. I had to time the photos really carefully to avoid large parties of tourists being led through. In some cases that required ninja like stealth and lurking for just the right moment and then running to catch up with my wife who'd wandered off. :)
The palace complex itself is so large, though, that outside of the main palace building and, particularly around the Generalife gardens and at the outer walls, there's quite a lot of peace and quiet and not so many tourists.
The photos of the Albaicin are quiet looking because it was mostly the middle of the day and all sensible people were inside fanning themselves in the shade.
Thanks! Actually, the palace of the Alhambra itself was pretty busy at the time. I had to time the photos really carefully to avoid large parties of tourists being led through. In some cases that required ninja like stealth and lurking for just the right moment and then running to catch up with my wife who'd wandered off. :)
The palace complex itself is so large, though, that outside of the main palace building and, particularly around the Generalife gardens and at the outer walls, there's quite a lot of peace and quiet and not so many tourists.
The photos of the Albaicin are quiet looking because it was mostly the middle of the day and all sensible people were inside fanning themselves in the shade.
Sorry, double post again.
Got a 500 error the first time, then reloaded the page a few times to make sure it hadn't been posted anyway. Waited a few minutes, checked again. Then finally hit Post. Grrr....
re: 96
Even in Scotland in the summer it stays light incredibly late. The school holidays run from June till mid-August and, in my street at least, the rule was the we came home when it got dark.
The pure joy of being outside playing football (soccer) at 10 or 11pm at night when you are 8 or 9 years old cannot be overestimated.
Scotland is lovely that way. One of the things I loved about grad-school city was that it would stay light in the summer until after 10 p.m. So luxurious.
My mother tells a story of visiting Irish relatives when my sister and I were little, and realizing that her eighteen-month-old was happily running around outdoors in the daylight at 10pm. She worried for a minute or so, until her cousin pointed out the dozen other toddlers doing the same thing.
Heh, a month ago we were out to dinner with PK at about 10, 11 pm and someone stopped by our table to comment about it. He was laughing, which made it not offensive, but the late-night kid thing definitely freaks out people who aren't used to it.
re: 101 - I didn't know you went to grad-school in Scotland. Now I'm all tempted to pry and find out which one of the 4 or 5 possible cities that might be.
re: 102 - Yeah. Also, the culture where I grew up was that unless it was actively pouring with rain or snow, we were outside. Sometimes miles and miles away from home even when we were quite little kids. It's somewhat unfortunate that culture of benign parental abandonment seems to have gone.
104: I didn't. Grad school city and my trip to Scotland are totally separate, it's just that both have northern latitutdes. And mild enough weather that the darker winters didn't really bother me all that much.
The pure joy of being outside playing football (soccer) at 10 or 11pm at night
... is matched by the pure despair of Radio 4 airing a series called "A Brief History of Darkness" every day at 3:45 PM in mid-December. I'll never underestimate the power of sunlight, or its absence, again.
re: 107
Yeah, there is that. Leaving the house in the morning to go to school in darkness, returning home from school in darkness.
Leaving the house in the morning to go to school in darkness, returning home from school in darkness
... makes you a man, my son. That island breeds very valiant creatures....