I plan to wear a blue suit - I have court.
But you should wear brown shoes, LB.
Do you have Night Court? You could go as Christine or Dan.
I plan to wear a blue suit - I have court.
Wow, me too! What a coincidence that we had the same costume idea.
You mean you're not going to use pregnancy as a hook for a clever costume?
Maybe fake blood, maybe not.
Ah go ahead and use the real stuff. It's all about edge.
I don't really look pregnant yet - I'm still at the, "Pssst, someone's packing on the pounds" stage.
i'll go to see Luis Miguel in regular clothes i guess
coz the row is pretty far from the stage
or i'll dress up and wear a skirt
6 reminds me of a punk I saw wandering down the street one day putting fish hooks through his cheek. His state of sobriety unknown (but not obviously messed up), nor his later state of infection.
The hook's going in her face, SP. Maybe she could be a caviar-bearing sturgeon, but then the rest of the get-up wouldn't make much sense.
I've only dressed up for Halloween once since I was 11 or so. Either '90 or '91.
12: In [previous town], I had friends who through a costume mandatory halloween party every year, which was pretty fun.
I've felt so free ever since I realized I don't have to do a damn thing for Halloween.
I usually have my costume picked out by the end of summer.
I don't have to do a damn thing for Halloween
*Somebody* doesn't have any children.
I haven't dressed up for years -- I think my last real Halloween costume was back in the Peace Corps. (Black habit and a clipboard, I was the Nun of Your Business).
"Pssst, someone's packing on the pounds"
Also a good premise for a costume.
16: I was about to type almost exactly the same words.
*Somebody* doesn't have any children.
Just think: that's just one of the myriad benefits!
I was thinking of maybe going (nowhere in particular) as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Graduation gown, lacy napkin-foulard, severe hair, giant spectacles, pearl earrings: done. I could even wear long underwear underneath.
Would it offend the court if you went dressed as a judge, LB?
Blue jean shorts, white t-shirt, sandals, gimme-cap. I'm pretending to be an ancient redneck/hippie.
I'm handingout the goodies to the rugrats.
Dogs have angel & devil costumes and several years of charm practice. Bark, wag, sit pretty.
Living-room widescreen gets used once a year. Last year was 300. This year Cloverdale? (what's that movie)
Oy! Yes. It would. I would not do that. One does not fuck with the dignity of the judge.
The judge may show up dressed as a ballerina -- it's Halloween. But I'm not going to make any guesses about what level of goofiness would be accepted.
(Black habit and a clipboard, I was the Nun of Your Business).
AB once went as Mothra Stewart.
21: And for Ginsberg, you'd also want to be kneeling. She's tiny beyond words.
The judge may show up dressed as a ballerina
Get a picture!
"Miss Piggy goes to church in Dallas" shoes. They are pink with a kitten heel
Made with actual kittens?
They go "mew, mew" when I walk.
re: 12
Ditto, more or less. Twice I think, in my entire adult life.
Once in about 1992, and once in 1997.
I have a black eye and beard right now, though. I could probably dress as a tramp.
I'm going to walk around with a cane. When someone asks me what I am, I will explain that I am lame.
Ginsberg would be a great costume, since she's a genuine party animal.
I have a black eye and beard right now, ....
That's the national (male) dress code, though, right?
The fi and I are going to go as opposing-party Ashley Todds. Another friend recently got a makeup-artist certificate, and she's going to do very good scars and bruisies for us.
Still deciding: B and J for Barry and John or R and B for Ralph and Bob?
We were going to go as Drill and Baby Drill but I couldn't figure out quite how to do it without, you know, making something.
Living-room widescreen gets used once a year.
bob, don't you watch a lot of movies? This sounds perverse to me.
re: 3
Not really. The dress code, strictly speaking, calls for black eyes for all our companions and people we encounter. And a bottle of fortified wine.
Is the wine for yourself or for your companions and the people you encounter?
40: You could carry a bamboo pole with a kerchief sack tied around the end, containing all of your earthly posessions.
re: 41
The wine is for myself.
re: 42
Yes. A camera, and a little notebook and one soiled student ID card.
12, 29: Yeah, me too. Goes double given that in the U.S. Halloween is just about getting dressed up in some costume or other, whereas when all this were nowt but fields the whole point was to be something scary.
Last year I was on answering-the-door duty while the others went around begging, and while I didn't have a costume I put a ring of fake blood around my neck together with a dozen or so little strips of duct tape (to hold my head on). Extremely minimal but surprisingly effective with the kids in a double-takey way. This year I'm flying on the afternoon of the 31st on Southwest, whose gate agents and flight attendants get dressed up every year, so maybe I'll do the same thing and score a drink coupon or something.
I've only dressed up for Halloween once since I was 11 or so. Either '90 or '91.
That's just sad.
I'm volunteering for the 4th grade class party. I suppose I really should come up with something that will be suitably embarrassing (but not permanently scarring) to Rory.
That's just sad.
This is a common reaction. I, on the other hand, am happier about it with every passing year. Also, I hate Christmas.
re: 47
Ditto.
I like parties and drinking, though.
Apo uses the free time to meta-ruminate about his role in feminism. I saw a poem of his once that began, "Oh look at me, I'm soooo crotchety!"
I suppose I really should come up with something that will be suitably embarrassing (but not permanently scarring) to Rory.
IME, in that case it's enough to just go as yourself.
47: I hate the presents, but I like the food. Mmmm. Goose. Mmmm. Pie.
46: Guaranteed Halloween delivery.
I hate the Christianity of Christmas. I hate the conflation of "goodness" with "being Christian" that I feel drowned in that time of year.
On the other hand, I really love seeing my family and having free time during break.
"Oh look at me, I'm soooo crotchety!"
I tone it down for here.
Oh, the songs. I also hate the Christmas songs. Really really.
I hate the Christianity of Christmas.
I mostly just hate the Halloween-to-New-Years Christmas music gantlet.
I think I might rehash last year's costume: Clark Kent. (A set of glasses with rims all the way around, hair gelled into a firm part, a more formal suit than usual, but the shirt opened to reveal a Superman t-shirt underneath.) And in a pinch it can meet the office's dress code if it turns out that people were just giving the new guy a hard time when they told me we could wear costumes to work.
Oh, the songs. I also hate the Christmas songs. Really really.
I LOVE the songs. I sing them loudly. Sometimes publicly. Always way off key.
I am assuming 52 is NSFW.
I am assuming 52 is NSFW.
Depends on where you work.
I hate the Christianity of Christmas
Unclear on the concept? Or are you one of those types that hates the way the Xians have co-opted the wonderful pagan solstice rituals for their nefarious, peasant controlling purposes?
Halloween costuming is M-fun.
I'm dodging it all this year - I'll be on the road for a weekend mini-vacation.
Mmmm. Goose. Mmmm. Pie.
Yes! Gonna have goose this year, dammit.
Living-room widescreen gets used once a year. Last year was 300. This year Cloverdale? (what's that movie)
If you live on Rochelle, I'm gonna shit a brick.
Ontopic: goddammit! EVERY day is Halloween!
max
['Time to pull out the leather pants again!']
62: Uh, I work in rural Texas. Perhaps I hate the teXianity of Xmas?
I'm deep in despair.
And I'm fucking disgusted.
Got your back, SP.
Have you had your heart checked, Apo? It might be two sizes too small.
I hate the Christianity of Christmas. I hate the conflation of "goodness" with "being Christian" that I feel drowned in that time of year.
I can't say that I even notice this effect.
Maybe a difference between Texas and Pgh?
Where on the face is the piercing?
Uh, I work in rural Texas. Perhaps I hate the teXianity of Xmas?
Also, between the freshman class (being a non-math class) and the election, I've had an assful of political discussions with students. I want to retreat to my math bubble and never find out what they think ever, ever again. I'm currently feeling hostile towards my environment.
Can't help ya, heebie. Just go full Sundbloom Santa, Rudolph from the marketing department of Monkey Wards, and commercialize the heck out of it. No Santas praying at the manger, please.
http://www.forbes.com/1997/12/24/feat.html
55, 57: Oh yeah. I hated Christmas music before I worked retail for every major college vacation. Imagine what it's like now.
Halloween's always sweet because it's the best time for parties in the city. This year I was planning on getting tearaway tuxedo pants, a tuxedo jacket, black bowtie, monocle, top hat, and craploads of Monopoly money in order to go as a sexy oil tycoon (no shirt under the jacket, possibly other modifications). This came from a conversation with some of my friends joking about the horrendous proliferation of weird costumes of the "sexy" variety, and how there should at least be some equally tacky male versions. I still like the idea, but I'll be on a bus or a car down to Indianapolis this year.
Where on the face is the piercing?
It is my lip.
59: Damn. I've been Clark Kent for three years running.
Now, though, I have to explain Halloween in English to pueblo Andalucian secondary schoolers, & I'm not sure I want to be in costume for the hour-long bus ride.
Christianity is a pagan holiday worshiping Santa Claus, Heeb. Don't worry about that part.
Have you had your heart checked, Apo? It might be two sizes too small.
The heart's normal-sized. It only looks small in comparison to certain other organs.
It only looks small in comparison to certain other organs.
An enlarged liver is nothing to mess around with, Apo.
Well, from Samhain and Winter Solstice to Halloween and Christmas isn't that big a leap. I expect know nothing peasant Emerson to ritually butcher a hog and spread some blood around during a bonfire, or something.
I love Christmas carols but hate pop music Christmas songs. And I thinking that shoes for your dying Mom is the weirdest Christmas present ever.
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/carlisle-bob/christmas-shoes-10186.html
I'm currently feeling hostile towards my environment.
Truth be told, it can be a pretty hostile environment.
If you hate your environment, Heebie, buy an SUV and quit recycling.
"I don't think I'm going to vote. McCain is bad for the economy but I work at a shooting range and I'll lose my job if Obama's elected."
Me: "I believe Obama supports 2nd amendment rights."
Student: "He's gonna outlaw a specific type of bullet and tax guns and we'll go out of business."
Me: "...."
Student: "I voted for PALIN! And McCain."
Me: "..."
Student: "They're both so bad, it's like, the lesser of two evils thing. They both just lie constantly."
Me: "..."
And all three of those were yesterday. Granted, I was wearing my "I voted!" sticker.
Thanks HBGB. I wasn't sufficiently depressed yet.
I've heard 82.3 basically word for word from an older McCain supporter.
An enlarged liver is nothing to mess around with, Apo.
Do you have any idea how much Apostrofoie gras sells for on the open market, Di?
re; 82
Bah. The world is full of idiots.
Halloween costuming is M-fun.
It should be, although since I'm not up for doing it right, I'm skipping it. I told my sister I'd babysit.
(Also, forced fun isn't fun.)
I've heard 82.3 basically word for word from an older McCain supporter.
Right. The kids are impossible to engage with because they are clearly parrotting an older friend or relative. I can't quite put my finger on what makes it so obvious, but it really is.
If I still feel as shit on Friday as I do today, I'll make a very convincing zombie. Otherwise, I'll be in North face down and pretending to be invisible whilst my kids trick or treat (one pumpkin, one zombie, one murdered cheerleader, one undecided).
How did the dressing up bit get so unthemed in North America? You definitely still have to be something spooky here.
Also, forced fun isn't fun.
The Fun Force Experience begs to differ, Megan.
Bah. The world is full of idiots.
True. The distribution is not uniform, though.
How did the dressing up bit get so unthemed in North America? You definitely still have to be something spooky here.
I don't know, I've been to a few parties where the girls were definitely aiming for 'sexy' with little thought of spooky, and most people were going for quirky/amusing getups rather than scary.
I can't quite put my finger on what makes it so obvious, but it really is.
Is it when they say, "My dad told me that..."?
Do you have any idea how much Apostrofoie gras sells for on the open market, Di?
Delivered from the vulture's beak, fresh to your door!
I've been to a few parties where the girls were definitely aiming for 'sexy' with little thought of spooky
There is a definite trend here towards prefixing "slutty" to damn near anything and calling it a costume. In practice this means the commercial availability of a lot of essentially identical costumes (same short skirt, same low neckline) with different details tacked on.
Lab coat, shirt, tie, orange wig == Beaker.
How did the dressing up bit get so unthemed in North America?
Costume parades at school are not allowed to be scary. Also, the Xians don't want to promote pagan rituals, but don't have the political firepower to get rid of Halloween, a several billion dollar industry now.
Do you have any idea how much Apostrofoie gras sells for on the open market, Di?
About $15.95/lb. mid-market, for this sort of thing.
I'm dressing as myself; that's scary enough.
Back in my law-office days, I used to wear punny costume - tall black hat w/scraggling "hair" made from the financial pages & a clock-face pendant with three hands verging on the 12; Egyptian dress with dangling "necklace" saying "No/nyet/nein/non/never/no way/nay/ne/uh-uh; propeller and feathers tied to my left wrist.
I may, however, put orange bows on the kittens, who will be sitting in their travelling cage in order to be shown off to our lone trick-or-treater. [We do not live in a neighbourhood that has a lot of Hallowe'en-sized children. There are babies, but they seldom appreciate the custom-made cupcakes.]
Seriously, the number of Christmas-haters here is troubling me. Do you just generally dislike happiness, or is there something special about Christmas cheer?
Christmas is a manifestation of the devil, Brock.
I get irritated by the things like "sexy student" costumes that are basically a bra and plaid boyshort/skirt underwear because they totally miss the point that the "sexy student" thing is about slovenly/accidentally-coquettish innocence. Sexy devil, sexy cat, I can see, but if you're trying to tap into an existing fetish, wouldn't you want to show an appreciation for what that fetish is about?
You're going to have to elaborate, ben.
How did the dressing up bit get so unthemed in North America?
Three theories/possible sources:
1. Christianists discouraging scary, and esp. ghoulish, costumery.
2. Media-themed costumes for kids, eventually spreading upwards to grown-ups. In particular, once you've got babies dressed up, it seems creepy to dress them as corpses. So, instead, teddy bears (or whatever).
3. The death of other opportunities for adults to wear costume. Masquerades and theme parties used to be more common, whereas now they're almost nonexistent.
These may all be wrong, of course.
The idea that late December is a time of increased happiness runs contrary to evidence.
AWB is a purist. Defend the standards, AWB! Show em how it's done!
wouldn't you want to show an appreciation for what that fetish is about?
Apparently not, if your goal is to sell a bunch of costumes at $25 a pop.
I'm volunteering for the 4th grade class party. I suppose I really should come up with something that will be suitably embarrassing (but not permanently scarring) to Rory.
How about going as Miss Frizzle from The Magic Schoolbus? That should go over well with the fourth grade demographic.
I also hate Christmas. Thanksgiving is great, and I'm doing the moonshine-and-bluegrass-jams T-day again with a buddy of mine and his wife and friends. But I've managed to avoid celebrating Christmas for several years and intend to do so again this year. In fact, I'll be on a plane.
82: I once had a student tell me she was voting for Reagan "because I like his movies".
headdesk/headdesk
Knecht, I knew you'd come through for me! I can totally do Frizzle!
111: I actually do have the outfit, I say with shame. My ex and I went through a weird phase.
I guess I'll be Matthew Lesko for the third straight year.
"Slutty" costuming has gotten to the point where my annoyance with it outweighs my desire to see sexily-clad young women.
Cheer up, Brock - not everyone here is a grinch. I'm all-in on the whole Xmas bit (well, not the Christ part), including getting weepy at It's a Wonderful Life and Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. Last year Iris & I went to see IAWL at a real theater - she still talks about it with pride at having done such a grownup thing. And since she was on my lap, she couldn't see the tears streaming down my face.
I love Xmas - the lights glittering on the palm fronds, pink flocked Xmas trees, mall Santas in shorts, the ritual bonfire and technical-virgin sacrifices...
"Slutty" costuming has gotten to the point where my annoyance with it outweighs my desire to see sexily-clad young women.
Now that's just crazy talk, JRoth.
Why would people want to see sexily-clad young women?
In fact, I'll be on a plane.
This is the one reason I wish I didn't love Xmas so. Lucky Jews/Eastern Orthodoxers/non-culturally Xian atheists, with their empty airports.
Brock, fwiw: I have a lot more problem with christmas(TM) [coming soon, if not already, to a mall near you] than I do with christmas per se. Though the dipshit charismatic prosperity `christians' can fuck off, too. In practice, an awful lot of people seem to have such a dysfunctional relationship with the season and its expectations that it seems to be a loss.
Thanksgiving is great
Yes, I love Thanksgiving (family! gluttony! drunkenness! football!), and not just because I was born on it. Though that helps.
Costume parades at school are not allowed to be scary.
What?
Anyway, who cares about the schools?
This country is weird.
123: It's a great day to fly, absolutely.
126: It's true. No make up or weapon-like props. I believe masks are likewise prohibited. But they do hold "intruder preparedness drills," so it's not like the youngsters are totally deprived of the opportunity to enjoy a little mock terror during the school day.
I tried to fly home from Rio on Christmas once about ten years ago, and it was sort of a disaster due to cancelled flights (which were demand-related, not weather-related).
You definitely still have to be something spooky here.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg IS a scary bogeywoman to some people.
And I also love Christmas, and Christmas carols, and especially Christmas lights. The earlier christmas songs are the best because they preserve some of those wacky pentatonic scales.
"God rest ye merry Gentlemen/ let nothing you dismay/ remember Christ our savior, was born on Christmas day/ to save us all from Satan's power/ when we are gone astray/ oh, tidings of comfort and joy!" That one has a nice little crescendo on "Satan's Power!" which I enjoyed singing as a child, back when we were discouraged from mentioning satan's name out loud.
The one thing I love about Slut-O-Ween is that I can wear a shortish skirt and boots without getting harassed. I figure if one is always in the bottom third of sexy women on the street, one is safe from constant harassment, so I mostly only wear frumpy, boring clothes. But on Halloween, one can theoretically wear dramatic intense outfits without calling attention to oneself. The last time I "dressed up" for Halloween, I just wore all my favorite and underused pieces of clothing, so grateful to be able to without anxiety.
124: well, right, you have to ignore the consumerist elements.
they preserve some of those wacky pentatonic scales.
and modal, if you're really lucky.
107: here's a fourth theory, totally ex recto: the rise of the anti-hero. The archetype has always existed, but I think it's become more prominent in the last couple decades. A killer robot like a Terminator would be a good "traditional" Halloween costume, for example, but in the second movie Schwarzenegger was the good guy. It's a short step from there to comic book anti-heroes like Batman and Wolverine, and that opens the door to any kind of superhero.
How did the dressing up bit get so unthemed in North America? You definitely still have to be something spooky here.
But don't you run out of "spooky" ideas after not too long? Ghost, serial killer, etc. It seems like you might branch out after awhile for variety's sake alone.
One of my earliest costumes, ca. kindergarten, was Maverick—as in, Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun, not John McCain or Sarah Palin.
120: I'll admit that Christmas in Australia is much more palatable. Beaches and BBQs are traditional. Even the songs become tolerable when they're self-consciously stupid ditties about Santa being pulled along by six gigantic white kangaroos.
Christmas is definitely a great travel time. It's a shame that I can't really afford to do so anymore. At least this way I get NYE in the city, plus a week or two of technical vacation when my bosses, coworkers, and all the business reporters and clients are gone, so I only have to poke my head in for a few hours a day.
And I also love Christmas, and Christmas carols, and especially Christmas lights.
I hate the lights. Really, really hate them. I used to enjoy them until we moved to suburbia, where each street in the subdivision has a theme and each homeowner is expected to decorate in conformity with said theme. (Eg., tree trunks wrapped in white lights, upper branches generously draped in red. A couple blocks over, candycane striped red and white trunks.) I hate it, so, so thoroughly hate it.
I do love Christmas carols. I'm a rotten singer, but I enjoy it, and it's the one time of the year when enthusiastically incompetent singing is acceptable.
Yes, I love Thanksgiving (family! gluttony! drunkenness! football!)
But Christmas is just this same list, only with "presents!" instead of "football!". May or may not be a fair trade, but certainly shouldn't push one from "love" to "hate", I wouldn't think.
The kids were way cute in years past. This year they are insisting on straight commercial costumes, a princess for the larger one and spider man for the smaller one.
well, right, you have to ignore the consumerist elements.
Which isn't actually that easy, if you're a parent of young children. And for a lot of people these days, there isn't much left when you take away the consumption.
Also, it astonishes me how many people have extended family traditions that are both immutable and guaranteed to fail explosively, every year. It's a pretty messed up time of year for a lot of people.
Ages ago I had a girlfriend whose grandfather killed himself xmas morning. As far as anyone could tell, he timed just to make it harder on the family. She was in the house (age 6 ish, I think), but I think they kept her from the body at least.
How do you get in that kind of head space? Apparently it's a very popular time of year to off yourself.
not just because I was born on it.
Twin!
Not exactly, because it was different years, but I'm also a Turkey Boy. Mom always appreciated getting to skip the cooking that year.
I keep thinking that one of these years I'm going to have a christmas party where everyone gets tipsy and sings carols. We have a piano, after all, and that's what pianos are for.
Apparently it's a very popular time of year to off yourself.
Big break-up time, as well (actually, when my only non-distance-related breakup happened). Pretty much the whole stretch from Christmas through Valentine's Day is trouble.
On the bright side, everyone can embrace Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
One of my earliest costumes, ca. kindergarten, was Maverick
Holy Halloween, [some of] you people are young!
where each street in the subdivision has a theme and each homeowner is expected to decorate in conformity with said theme
This is the most insane thing I've ever heard.
When Bill O'Reilly started the whole "liberals hate Christmas" thing in 2004, I volunteered to be his Christmas hating straw man.* I haven't managed to get up a good head of grinchiness going any year since.
____
* In the original haloscan comments to that post, my friend Thomas corrected my repetition of the urban legend that suicide rates go up at Christmas.
148, well then I'll correct 141.very last. Apparently *not* a popular time, and the old gaffer was just a bastard without extra company on the day.
This is the most insane thing I've ever heard.
Subdivisions do turn out to be a sort of crazy idea, yeah.
I get broken up with on or around my birthday. I'm not a big birthday princess, so I'm not sure why it seems to create so much stress, but roughly half of my longer-ish relationships have ended in September.
Pretty much the whole stretch from Christmas through Valentine's Day is trouble.
Well, that's a dark, cold, nasty time of year. We need a tradition of lighting giant public bonfires and dancing around it waving fireworks and cheap rum, sometime around late January. Is there a saint we could corral into this? When is Saint Barbara's day?
Which isn't actually that easy, if you're a parent of young children. And for a lot of people these days, there isn't much left when you take away the consumption.
Also, it astonishes me how many people have extended family traditions that are both immutable and guaranteed to fail explosively, every year. It's a pretty messed up time of year for a lot of people.
As with a lot of things, my love of Xmas goes back to my happy, functional family. It's still weird to me not to have my sister not be there Xmas morning, even though we've only lived in the same time zone for 2 of the last 12 Xmases.
The internet has made the consumer thing 100X more tolerable - what I don't handmake, I order online. Incidental excursions to chain drug stores can freak me out a bit, but it's passing.
I spent the December of 2000 field measuring mall spaces for Verizon Wireless stores - that was hell.
each street in the subdivision has a theme and each homeowner is expected to decorate in conformity with said theme
I'm going to conjecture that this practice serves much the same purpose as the public consumption of sausages made from pork in Spanish villages.
Is there a saint we could corral into this? When is Saint Barbara's day?
Early December. One of my former clients (mining company in a heavily Catholic area) used to have a St. Barbara celebration instead of a Christmas celebration (St. Barbara being the patron saint of miners).
But Christmas is just this same list, only with "presents!" instead of "football!"
I don't have to endure the same twelve Thanksgiving carols pumped into every public space, including the bathroom at my office, for three solid months.
Apo cannot properly relax in a stall due to the sphincter-clenching effect of his chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
We need a tradition of lighting giant public bonfires and dancing around it waving fireworks and cheap rum, sometime around late January.
If we could shorten the NCAA basketball season so that the tournament would be in January...
I spent one christmas drinking in a bus stop (alone, for the most part. It was out of the wind). That wasn't the worst one in memory.
St. Barbara is also the patron saint of artillery and scholars.
152 Dec. 4.
http://www.fieldartillery.org/usfaa_awards/index.html
160, 161: As previously discussed. Everything's in the archives somewhere.
152, We need a tradition of lighting giant public bonfires and dancing around it waving fireworks and cheap rum, sometime around late January. Is there a saint we could corral into this?
meet
145, On the bright side, everyone can embrace Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
For the last 5 years, we and our best friends (another family with 2 kids - we met childless, but had our first 10 weeks apart) have been renting a cabin in the Cook Forest for MLK weekend. Fires, snowy hikes, and visiting this really cool little farm. Not quite what JM calls for, but a highlight of our winter.
JM- Jan 4, 2009 falls on a Friday. It is the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, an American
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1250
So have a big party to celebrate. Don't know how you can get to bonfires, though.
Apo cannot properly relax in a stall due to the sphincter-clenching effect of his chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
Your problem is more one of timing, apo.
Apparently it's a very popular time of year to off yourself.
Even if you didn't have Christmas, the shortest day of the year would probably be popular for suicide.
Halloween: Annoyingly fake terror. Fratboy sex. Blah.
Thanksgiving: Dull. Turkey: evil.
Christmas: The opportunity to build tasteless Vegas-style light displays in total disregard for what anyone else thinks. Religion: ignore. Christmas carols: ignore. Goose: tasty.
New Year's: Fratboy drunkeness. Annoying. Save it for Mardi Gras.
max
['Christmas wins, by default.']
St. Agatha (Feb. 5) has volcanoes!
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1282
St. Anthony of Egypt (Jan 17), patron saint of amputees, swineherders, gravediggers, and ergotism. Also, you can appeal to him for protection from herpes zoster!
New Year's: Fratboy indiscriminate drunkeness. Annoying. Save it for Supplementary to Mardi Gras.
There ya go. New Years' Eve and Halloween are the two nights when friends and/or great bars feel compelled to throw sweet parties. I condone this practice. They're pretty much exclusively good holidays for late teens and twenty-somethings though.
I hope to be dressed as a Phillies fan, marching down Broad Street....
And St. Patrick's day!
170: Swineherders?
My parish growing up was St. Agatha's outside of Pittsburgh. They never told us about the volcanoes, but it was close to a chemical plant and railroad tracks.
They never told us about the volcanoes
There they go again, hiding all the good stuff.
You're supposed to have sex with fratboys on Halloween?
One of the reasons I like Christmas is because the Southern and Western aesthetic hegemonies of the United States recede and allow the Yankee sensibility to dominate for a brief and peaceful chestnutty interlude.
I also like the tunes. Everything from the goose-is-getting-fat singalongs to the great Jewish pop standards to the Jackson 5. I thought I uploaded a couple of mixes, but I couldn't only find expired sendspace links without track lists.
I'm think of wearing the same as last year -- there's a link in the 'chives, I suppose. We're having some adults over -- I suppose half will dress.
One of the nice things about the Obama administration will be watching the exploding heads of the demented.
I suppose half will dress.
Won't the other half get cold?
Besides being the swineherd's saint, Agatha is also Ernest's cucumber-sandwich-eating aunt. I guess I should get me an Agatha medallion.
Growing up in California but singing all the old songs, I was really disappointed in chestnuts when I finally tasted them. Sort of how Turkish Delight can never quite measure up.
I think Emerson would admire St. Ansgar, patron saint of useless prostelitizing in Scandanavia
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1278
Besides being the swineherd's saint, Agatha
Anthony, not Agatha.
Won't the other half get cold?
Depends on the party, doesn't it?
177: very perceptive, I totally agree. I like Christmas music too.
On Jewish Christmas standards -- "White Christmas" is brilliant in how it completely excises Christianity from Christmas.
"White Christmas" is brilliant in how it completely excises Christianity from Christmas.
I wonder if it would have caught on the way it did if "the boys" weren't half a world away, thinking of home.
One of the nice things about the Obama administration will be watching the exploding heads of the demented.
My current worry is that Obama's lead is not fraud-proof. We have nice paper ballots here in Cuyahoga county. but 44 of 88 counties are using Deibold machines. These machines have already been caught red handed changing Obama votes to McCain votes in three states.
Anyway, who cares about the schools?
As I've mentioned, Halloween was replaced by "Harvest" at my wife's school. There are fundie children there who curl up in the corner in the fetal position at the mere mention of witches and ghosts. Way to raise your kids, you morons.
We go out caroling every year in a small group, with four-part arrangements of some of the better songs. I had to draw the line at the Coventry Carol after the girls were born, though, because no way was I going to sing about the Massacre of the Innocents with my babes in arms. The horror.
My parish growing up was St. Agatha's outside of Pittsburgh. They never told us about the volcanoes, but it was close to a chemical plant and railroad tracks.
Posted by: William McKinley
St. Agatha is so renowned for its depraved services that its parishioners dare not self-identify in polite company.
I love all those holidays. I'm going to be racing home on Friday to hand out candy. I'd probably dress up but I'm pretty sure '30-something, costumed, grinning, holding candy and waiting for kids' gives off the wrong kind of creepy. I love Halloween, though. I love love love Halloween. Thanksgiving I find kind of annoying but the food is good and I love Christmas and lights and driving around looking at light displays. Rah and I have a bunch of lights we hang on the front porch and a big-ass star we hang up. No Yule tree but only because the cats would destroy it.
I thought I uploaded a couple of mixes
You did - I downloaded them post-Xmas (or maybe downloaded but didn't unzip for a few weeks) and haven't actually listened to them yet - another reason to get excited about the season.
My biggest beef with Xmas is also the tritest - its early arrival. Fall is my favorite season, and I like celebrating it from Labor Day to T-giving. But Nov. 1 it'll be fake snow and red-n-green everywhere. Sigh.
188: Well, fuck. This is why I will not sleep easy until the results are in.
190: Self-identify as a church-goer at Unfogged? You betcha not. Anyhow, I just googled the parish - turns out it merged with, of all other parishes, St. Anthony in 1994 and is now called "Holy Child." Nothing short of miraculous.
173
And St. Patrick's day!
That's my sister's birthday, actually. She is (was, maybe) a student at Northeastern college, so she got to spent her 21st birthday in Boston on St. Patrick's Day. It worked out well.
Won't the other half get cold?
See, that's why we ought to have a bonfire. But no. Instead, we have cheerful orange webbing stretched all over the interior. It's like living inside a pumpkin.
Costume picture posted.
Rah and I have a bunch of lights we hang on the front porch and a big-ass star we hang up.
First openly gay person I remember meeting was one Christmas when we visited my grandparents who had retired to St. Croix. We were invited to the neighbor's, and the host greeted us in his front garden with one of those sticky bows on his forehead. "I am the Star of the East" he proclaimed. "Follow me, pilgrims". We had a lovely evening with these two old queens, but nothing topped that first impression.
I'd probably dress up but I'm pretty sure '30-something, costumed, grinning, holding candy and waiting for kids' gives off the wrong kind of creepy.
One guy in my 'burb dresses up like a scarecrow, then sits motionless on a bench on his porch with the bowl of candy for the trick-or-treaters and a "Take one!" sign on his lap. When they get close enough to grab for the candy he jumps up and scares 'em silly.
Self-identify as a church-goer at Unfogged? You betcha not.
This makes me a little bit sad.
I was thinking I would be the Monopoly "Money Guy," because it would be pretty easy to do and recognizable, but I am having a devil of a time finding a top hat. I'm fairly certain that real "Money Guys" don't wear plastic hats.
The alternative is to dust off either my Darth Vader or Mad Max post apocalypse biker outfit.
Or does anyone else have any good ideas?
Decisions decisions.
198. Can be dangerous:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/man-dressed-as-a-scarecrow-gets-punched/2238136850
We had a lovely evening with these two old queens, but nothing topped that first impression.
For us it's actually a pagan Solstice star but whatever. I don't feel a need to put a big sign up in the yard that explains it and I'll take well wishes any day of the year.
Self-identify as a church-goer at Unfogged? You betcha not.
Anybody who would directly rebuke you for having beliefs or the absence thereof has enough issues of their own, I think, to keep them occupied. If they make fun of you I suspect they're just projecting onto you all the issues they have with others of the same belief/unbelief they've known in other circumstances. That's been my experience, anyway, enough times that it would be dumb to let it bother me.
Self-identify as a church-goer at Unfogged? You betcha not.
That surprised me a bit. Second 199.
My other idea is some sort of Joe the Plumber thing, but that might be a little iffy, because of the plumbing jobs around the house that are just beyond my abilities.
Self-identify as a church-goer at Unfogged? You betcha not.
This makes me a little bit sad.
Wrongshore,
Don't worry. He/she doesn't want to be associated with me. I can understand that. I'm used to it.
One guy in my 'burb dresses up like a scarecrow, then sits motionless on a bench on his porch with the bowl of candy for the trick-or-treaters and a "Take one!" sign on his lap. When they get close enough to grab for the candy he jumps up and scares 'em silly they realize to their horror that his erect penis is protruding up through a hole in the bottom of the bowl.
Wait! RMM is a churchgoer?
infidel!
More seriously, I assumed 194 was a joke. There are a number of openly religious here, even B. Not a big deal.
||
You know we live in a brave new world when students submit their outlines as jpegs of their handwritten notes.
|>
207: Had to say it out loud, didn't you?
I've had "Veni Immanuel" stuck in my head for about a month now.
199, 203, 206: I was assuming that line was tongue-in-cheek and the poster just went presidential because the hometown parish was personally identifying.
Of course, I also thought the crazy mom jealous of 9-year old girls' crushes on her son was speaking hyperbolically for humorous effect, so.
because of the plumbing jobs around the house that are just beyond my abilities.
Don't you dare go out dressed like that until this dripping faucet is fixed!
Wait! RMM is a churchgoer?
Heavens no, I'm in a far flakier religion than that.
201 -> 207
Video is firewalled at work. I missed the pwnage.
213: fwiw, I wasn't convinced that was meant straight either, but ti struck me as entirely too plausible for some reason.
Better 206:
My self-deprecating joke bombed.
I meant that I am a church-goer and if anyone else is afraid to self-proclaim that they are too, well, they should not be afraid.
I have seen no evidence that unfogged is anti-church or anti-religion. I think we're anti-crazy and anti-hating.
217: no so much pwnage, exactly.
Self-identify as a church-goer at Unfogged? You betcha not.
Uh, I probably contribute to the atmosphere of intolerance. I apologize for that. I do have a lot of anger at the religious extremism I come across, and tend to make over-generalizations when i'm venting.
Heavens no, I'm in a far flakier religion than that.
To be fair, you can get nearly arbitrarily flaky and still have a church to go to.
222:
heebie,
I've seen intolerance. You ain't it. Seriously.
Besides, feisty math professors get a pass anyway.
But you don't need one.
Saint of swineherds and gravediggers? An appropriate combination in my case. But in my pantheon that saint will be Saint Agatha of the cucumber sandwiches. Apo can have his own fusty, outdated, derivative pantheon if he wants.
Saint Olaf knew how to convert pagan Norsemen. Those reluctant to convert were thrown into snakepits. Christian and secular Norsepersons respond well to this form of persuasion even today.
The Troll of Superficiality brought its B game today, at best. Hope it's not ill.
Not ill, just stupid and proud of it.
I used to like dressing up, but I've lost interest in it lately.
Also, the Xians don't want to promote pagan rituals, but don't have the political firepower to get rid of Halloween, a several billion dollar industry now.
What's also funny about this is that trick-or-treating is often viewed as wrong, because something-mumble-Satan-mumble, but "trunk-or-treating" at the local church parking lot is fine. It's like they knew they had to get worked up about Satan worship, but when they got right down to it realized it was just a holiday about candy.
It's like they knew they had to get worked up about Satan worship, but when they got right down to it realized it was just a holiday about candy.
Reminds me a little bit of one of my hardcore Christian cousins-by-marriage who is really into Christian martial arts, i.e. the same exercises and fighting moves as conventional martial arts, but stripped of the heathen Eastern spirituality.
Feburary 2nd is Candlemas/The Purfication of the Virgin. The end of the Christmas season and clsoe on to the start of Lent. A good time for a bonfire or lighting some candles. St. Lucia's feast is in December. The Swedish Embassy in DC is doing something that day that invloves setting young girls on fire.
(I know we've discussed these feasts beofre. I can't find it.)
because something-mumble-Satan-mumble,
Don't forget that it looks like a ritualized mob shakedown! While you are mumbling about Satan, you have to make up a story about gangs of heathens demanding protection money in the old country.
Rory has a friend who is not allowed, for religious reasons, to trick-or-treat (or otherwise celebrate Halloween). Cool kid. Her mom's pretty cool, too.
Iris, BTW, will be in the Bloomfield Halloween Parade tomorrow evening! As long as it's not disrupted by crowds of knife-wielding muggers/Obama supporters.
In Taiwan the Christians celebrate Halloween roughly the American way, whereas the traditional Chinese there have more than one ghost day, which the older ones take seriously and literally. The Christians haven't been informed yet that Halloween is Satanic, or that it is basically a joke version of the stuff their pagan neighbors do straight.
Increasing numbers of Christians apparently take ghosts and demons seriously and are worried that Halloween behavior might actually succeed in evoking an evil demon.
I though that Sigourney Weaver was a cute evil demon in Ghostbusters.
Where I grew up, around Halloween the Hebrew school teachers at the reform and conservative synagogues would beg their students not to go trick-or-treating. They all did. I'm betting the yeshiva kids didn't though. We didn't have the kind of Christians who would forgo it.
Many years ago, when I was a young waif, my future mother-in-law's sisterhood sent me a book on how to be a Good Jewish Wife & Mother. Among its pearls of wisdom was "Do not let your children celebrate Hallowe'en or Valentine's Day, as these are Christian holidays."
The rest of it was mildly nauseating; I guess my future MIL had been afraid to mention to the laydeez at temple that I wasn't converting. [When she suggested it, I suggested that my then-fiancé convert, instead, and become an Episcopalian. There was no further discussion.]
BTW, I forgot the PS re: the costumes descibed above: Triple Witching Hour/Cleopatra, Queen of Denial; Left Wing Agitator.
We went trick-or-treating, but my mom discouraged us from dressing up as devils or witches. It wasn't that she believed in Satan's power, but more that entirely disregarding the traditional spiritual influence of Satan would be crass. Kinda like building tract houses over an Indian burial ground.
230: Now that you suggest it, I'm considering Rick Warren, as the Nation's Qi Gong master.
114, 123, 226: Go as snake, and revel in the ironic coolness of being six memes-ago.
Reminds me a little bit of one of my hardcore Christian cousins-by-marriage who is really into Christian martial arts, i.e. the same exercises and fighting moves as conventional martial arts, but stripped of the heathen Eastern spirituality.
I saw some guy at a competition on TV try to break a stack of blocks and he dedicated his attack to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love things like that. It's like multiculturalism on crack.
Iris, BTW, will be in the Bloomfield Halloween Parade tomorrow evening! As long as it's not disrupted by crowds of knife-wielding muggers/Obama supporters.
Is she going as a Greek goddess?
Increasing numbers of Christians apparently take ghosts and demons seriously and are worried that Halloween behavior might actually succeed in evoking an evil demon.
The central Texas Christians I knew who were against Hallowe'en were mainly concerned that the satanists were especially busy kidnapping/poisoning/ritually sacrificing kids that time of year. Which is its own special brand of crazy, I guess.
Is she going as a Greek goddess?
Just remembered that my eldest went as Athena to a Halloween party 3 years ago. That wasn't a very spooky choice.
And yes Otto, you mere child, spooky gets boring. We're just not that into Halloween I guess - comes just too soon before Bonfire Night.
Ooooh - it's snowing!
239 exactly describes my family's attitude to Halloween. My mother loves to hand out candy and decorate and see the costumes and in the absence of kids in their area these days she buys costumes for my sister's dogs. In 5th grade she whipped up a very simple but incredibly awesome red shirt to dress up as a vampire and I still have it somewhere. Devils were completely not allowed, however.
My favorite year dressing up as an adult was the year several friends and I went as vampires and another friend went as an incredibly decked-out vampire hunter and he took turns chasing and being chased by us up and down Franklin Street. I am extremely excited that next year it's on a Saturday so I can actually dress up and go out and party.
It's like multiculturalism on crack.
Defeat must be hard. It's like direct evidence that your faith, or your god, is weak.
Since the scifi channel can't get enough scifi movies and it is October they are pretending that horror films are the same as scifi, which they aren't, but I watch anyway so my question is what is up with the Hispanic day of the dead thing? In the movies they make it look creepy but is it really? I know they make summer camps look creepy too, so horror movies are not really a good gauge on reality.
they are pretending that horror films are the same as scifi
can be though, e.g. Alien.
Defeat must be hard. It's like direct evidence that your faith, or your god, is weak.
Fortunately, Christianity has a tradition of celebrating martyrdom that comes in very handy under such circumstances. It's a no-lose proposition, really.
Only Christianity, Knecht? I seem to remember a monotheistic culture that made some reference to 31 virgins, or raisins depending on translation. Pretty handy for inspiring cannon fodder.
Since the scifi channel can't get enough scifi movies and it is October they are pretending that horror films are the same as scifi, which they aren't,
The SciFi channel has always shown horror and fantasy in addition to scifi. And why not? They are all closely related genres discussed extensively at Making Light.
It would be nice to have a good umbrella term that captured them, but excluded mysteries and romances. It should probably also include superhero fiction. Really all the genres that go out of their way to defy the laws of nature belong together.
Surrealism, pataphysicalism and absurdism also go out of their way to defy the laws of nature. I would be happy to see a meta-category that includes both surrealism and scifi, but I think others would be more hesitant.
It would be nice to have a good umbrella term that captured them, but excluded mysteries and romances. It should probably also include superhero fiction. Really all the genres that go out of their way to defy the laws of nature belong together.
The term I know here is 'speculative fiction'.
238: My MIL2B keeps getting her way on various elements of the ceremony with appeals to Jewish tradition. I may convert to Episcopalianism out of spite.
I took communion at a gay Episcopal wedding three weeks ago, so maybe it's already done. "Strength for the journey ahead," the groom said to me as he handed me the wafer. I liked that.
252: or just SF which preserves the ambiguity between scifi, speculative fiction, speculative fantasy, etc.
But excludes Surrealism as it's usually categorized.
"Strength for the journey ahead,"
There's not a lot of nutritional value in communion wafers, though. If you adopt this ceremony for your own wedding, you should consider a communion of tiny bits of Power Bars.
Really all the genres that go out of their way to defy the laws of nature belong together.
Call it Mystery Science Theater! What?
I was at all all-day Vietnamese wedding for a girlfriend of mine. We had already sold the bride to the groom's family in the early morning and had had the Catholic service. I was going to sit out the Buddhist service in the afternoon and return for the Chinese banquet, but the bride's brother was in for the whole long day. Walking out of the Catholic service and back to his car, the took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and said "Halftime."
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in."
I'm going to be toxic mortgage assets.
I hear that Alameida is going to be the TED Spread, and her fella is going to be LIBOR. They and I came up with these plans independently, but there should be a group picture.
Oh, and it's really too bad that I don't get to teach on Friday. I always liked teaching in a Halloween costume. Well, I'll use this opportunity to be unduly salacious toxic mortgage assets.
264: All good ideas for my work.
I was just going to go as a sort-of mod Baron Samedi, but maybe I should be an Iron Butterfly Spread. Oh, wait, that's probably exactly the kind of thing the email was referring to when it said "keep the Respectful Workplace policy in mind".
I'd go, hypothetically, as The Man Who Curses The Darkness, and I'd explain to everyone that if there'd been enough of me, there would have been no bubble and no crash.
It was those goddamn goody-goody candle-lighting optimist shits that made this all happen. I blame Eleanor Roosevelt, as channeled by the Republican Party.
240: 114, 123, 226: Go as snake, and revel in the ironic coolness of being six memes-ago.
As if. As if anyone would get it.
I've chiefly adopted AWB's attitude in 131:
on Halloween, one can theoretically wear dramatic intense outfits without calling attention to oneself. The last time I "dressed up" for Halloween, I just wore all my favorite and underused pieces of clothing, so grateful to be able to without anxiety.
The last time I dressed up, it was in a layered series of silk and lace sheaths, large swirly silk scarves knotted here and there over the top; and face, neck and armed painted with trailing ivy, generally in the green/blue/purple spectrum. Pretty fun; some reasonably well-known acquaintances didn't recognize me after 10 minutes of conversation, which was hysterical.
But that was a while ago; not so much into dressing up these days.
171: New Years' Eve and Halloween are the two nights when friends and/or great bars feel compelled to throw sweet parties. I condone this practice. They're pretty much exclusively good holidays for late teens and twenty-somethings though.
I have been to one or two adequate parties on New Year's. None on Halloween. I've been to a lot of bad parties around those times. Possibly so many people attempting to engage in the counter-cultural version of conspicuous consumption (as opposed to the regular culture stuff at the mall) just gets on my nerves. (Please to insert here, '...looking into someone's eyes and seeing something nailed down and screaming.') That plus the crazy drunks on New Year's and the crazy fundies on Halloween really just takes the fun out of it. Not going to parties on those nights improved my good party/bad party ratio considerably.
Christmas doesn't bother me the same way because I just don't care. Yay... let's send a message in lights ('ELVIS LIVES!') and maybe buy some shit and eat some decent food and ignore the rest.
191: No Yule tree but only because the cats would destroy it.
But... but... that's the fun part!
200: The alternative is to dust off either my Darth Vader or Mad Max post apocalypse biker outfit.
I have the post-apocalypse outfit. But I also have the German/Russian army uniform, sorta. Sadly, they arrest you for toting a rifle around.
226: Those reluctant to convert were thrown into snakepits. Christian and secular Norsepersons respond well to this form of persuasion even today.
I've already been in a snakepit, what else you got?
235: Increasing numbers of Christians apparently take ghosts and demons seriously and are worried that Halloween behavior might actually succeed in evoking an evil demon.
Christianity is a dying/mutating religion; back to the old ways, sorta!
max
['Jesus on a voodoo candle is where the action's at!']
269: I've been to a lot of bad parties around those times. Possibly so many people attempting to engage in the counter-cultural version of conspicuous consumption (as opposed to the regular culture stuff at the mall) just gets on my nerves.
What is the counter-cultural version of conspicuous consumption, please? Do you mean hipsters, or swipple aesthetes, or something else?
I think I'll go as a Power Ranger, or maybe one of the Jonas Brothers.
I hear that Alameida is going to be the TED Spread, and her fella is going to be LIBOR.
It seems like this is missing the mark just a bit here. He could be LIBOR, she could be 3-mo T-bills, and then together they would be the TED Spread, which would grow and shrink as they got farther or closer to each other.
Is she going as a Greek goddess?
Alas, no. Last year she was Iris*, but this year a generic fairy.
* Gah! Inexplicably, no pics of this online.
269: I've been to some good parties on both of those nights, but they were atypical of good parties ime, and probably doesn't counteract your thoughts on it. I think it was mostly working only because it was a bunch of typically undersocialized/overachieving students and academics blowing off steam (good time of the term for it) and having fun without trying to be anything.
271: Alastair! What are you doing here? I was just talking elsewhere about the Evuls of the New Age, and how Obama is clearly a representative of such.
(Turns out that one Victoria Jackson of SNL fame is a wingnut of epic proportions.)
'Sup, parsimon. Was I too obvious? I thought the mullato thing might be too clever by half, but then the spell kind of backfired, so I left it.
Betcha didn't know this:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/04/george-w-bush-barbara-bush-and.html
MWAHAHAHA
Alistair, I am massively entertained by that link.
276: That's sad. I remember her as fairly funny, at least by comparison with the rest of SNL at the time.
Also sad: her filmography.
Goggle proofing? Umm, ya know it's really hard posting from the grave. Cut a boy some slaack.
272: 'sokay, crowley, your name is spelled some way or another.
Someone much cleverer than I should do Aleister's blog. I think he would have some interesting comments on the day's events. Sort of like when Allah (pbuh) had a blog.
see, tos knows how to google
Naw, Crowley was Plymouth Brethren, not Episcopalian.
Hm, actually Aleister's blog would be dreadful. Nonetheless, his appearance here has amused and intrigued me, in conception, anyway.
What was most interesting to me about Victoria Jackson's diatribe is the line "Your [Obama's] statements are New Age, relativist, & humanist." That (secular) humanist and (supposedly) relativist views should go hand in hand with New Age ones here is interesting: we know that many Obama supporters also hate New Ageism. What's that about, then? That a wingnut such as Jackson should use the same term, "New Age", for something decried across political boundaries. I haven't worked this out, particularly.
Aleister Crowley, Garrison Keillor, what more could you ask?
New Age = Satan = secular = humanist = relativist ≠ Christian = moral
Crowley was an Alpinist and in 1902 led the most successful K2 expedition until that time or for 20 years after.
we know that many Obama supporters also hate New Ageism.
We do? I mean, surely a bunch of us find New Ageism annoying, but I think hating New Age concepts falls to the kind of wingers in 284.
286: We do?
I thought we did (know this), per the thread about the anonymous questioner who considered dating a new ager. Also the general dismissal of Kucinich: is that just because he renders himself unelectable? I thought it was because it means he's a fruitcake, irrational, wrong-headed.
Kucinich is short, funny looking, New Age and right. Any one of the three would disqualify him.
I didn't know that Victoria Jackson was an evangelical. Shows that talent can overcome bigotry.
I don't know who hates the New Agers more, the bible beaters or the secular humanists. Of course the bible thumpers hate everybody that is not in their particular sect, so I guess they get the nod. On points.
287: John, are you trying to lighten my mood? How dare you.
Small-value coins stuck all over my jacket.
I'll be "Change you can believe in."
OT:
I read that you need tickets to attend the big election-night party in Grant Park, Chicago and they're already out. Does anybody know an alternative?
I'm currently torn, costume-wise, between The Cat in the Hat and Fidel Castro. Third party candidate: Zombie Castro, but that sounds like an awful lot of makeup.
Fidel Catsro in a Hatsro. It'll just be really confusing.
You call your cigar "Thing One" and ask if people want to see Thing Two.
What is the counter-cultural version of conspicuous consumption, please? Do you mean hipsters, or swipple aesthetes, or something else?
I am thinking quasi-swipple quasi-hipsters. The sort of the people who watch (or did watch) the reality TV show about plastic surgery with breathless enthusiasm and catalog the various sugeries they're going to get if they get on the show.
Swipple-aspirants?
Also: Joseph Cannon is a bigger fruitcake than Crowley.
max
['The dead Crowley, not the live commenter.']
The Crowley-Bush conspiracy theory linked above is probably my favorite conspiracy theory of all time. I also really really really really really want it to be true.
I also once about knocked the socks off a Thelemite at a party in DC when I mentioned it and we looked up pictures of the two of them for comparison. I think he hyperventilated a little. Good times.
Low-slung jeans (ass-crack optional), "California or Bust!" sign, plunger.
Joad the Plumber!
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