Apparently she was named the legal guardian of Michael Jackson's children. So weird, you just can't make this stuff up.
It's about to come out that Levi is Trig's father.
Several of the poems in When We Were Very Young were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson. It seems there's a Gene Kelly album that includes a number of them; do you think this might be it?
Here's a contemporary recording of the Fraser-Simson compositions.
The Gene Kelly album is available at the iTunes store, but seems not to have the Milne poems on it. Odder still, there are two versions listed, one of which is certified "CLEAN".
The obvious reasons are:
(1) The multitude of scandal-tracking requests for email records are likely to yield something embarrassing, & Palin thinks resigning will lower the heat. Supporting evidence: apparently the courts recently ruled that her extensive use of non-government email accounts does not exempt messages from public records laws.
(2) Somebody explained to her about the truckload of money that could be backed up to her door with speaking fees, which would be hard to grab as a sitting governor or as a national candidate--so she's cashing in before the 2012 campaign.
I'm guessing it's 30-50% (1), 50-70% (2).
WHAT, A GUY CAN'T SING IN THE FUCKIN' RAIN ONCE IN A WHILE?
Did anyone watch through to the end of her speech? She had almost as many people up at the podium with her as there were in attendance.
Thing is, though, she seemed both angry and very unprepared and flustered. All of her key campaign/money people say they were caught off guard by the announcement. It's weird, and maybe a little too weird for standard Ted-Stevens style graft. Sure, she can go make tons of money of Fox or on the speaking circuit, and probably will regardless, but that wouldn't square with the strange demeanor of the press conference.
Maybe she's going to commit suicide. On the Fourth of July! Talk about a story! Talk about martyrdom! Talk about legendary!
From a Kung Fu Monkey commenter:
"She's going to transfer to the governor's office of a couple other states, and eventually rack up enough credits to complete the term."
There is a zip file here:
http://sapmusic.blogspot.com/2008/09/when-we-were-very-young-camarata-a.html
There is a zip file here:
http://sapmusic.blogspot.com/2008/09/when-we-were-very-young-camarata-a.html
Oh please let there be a pony somewhere under that pile of shit.
The stairs poem is titled "Halfway Down" and is indeed from When We Were Very Young.
Though not on the album that Lemmy linked, here's Robin to sing it for you.
As apo says, it is clear that the lead-up to the announcement was chaotic (probably indicating divisiveness within her inner "camp"). It is pretty clear that simply not seeking reelection was a strong option if not a tentative decision at one point per a twitter of hers and other information that has come out. The resignation decision was most certainly arrived at under great duress.
However, I can see this "simply" being their reaction to being caught in some Ted Steven-style corruption coming home to roost* (per a comment of mine in the other thread, I'm guessing it involves the construction of their house—which during the campaign Todd attributed to himself and some contractor buddies—and the Wasilla Ice Rink). Unlike Stevens who had decades of experience in politics, the Palins are relative newcomers and spent a few years strong-arming a town and a little additional time charming a small population state (and their act was already wearing thin *before* the nomination) and are relative neophytes at actually getting called on their shenanigans by forces that they can't bluff or intimidate. From everything that I have seen, she and her husband are stone-cold liars and bunko artists; a wife/husband political manipulation team that was probably too blatant and over-the-top to get as far as they did anyplace other than Alaska, and probably not for very long even there (I do think the national exposure probably hastened the inevitable implosion).
The truly sad aspect is that the modern "conservative" movement and National Republican party are so far gone in their calculating criminal insanity that they latched onto her (and from their reactions to this event, apparently many still do not want to spit out the hook). The scariest aspect of the whole thing is that McCain/Palin got 46% of the vote.
*There is a chance that it is related to something more personal/family; I have some definite ideas on that but will avoid speculating further here.
will avoid speculating further here.
BOO HISS.
will avoid speculating further here.
Dude, it would be irresponsible not to.
17, 18: Proximate cause is going to be the house construction (which is speculative enough).
Je suis en les vacances et occupé avec famille et je n´ai pas les temps chaluter les internets, ou les comments, mais j´ai agonisant de curiosité:qu`est-ce qu´il Sarah Palin?
She needs to be in the lower 48 so she can get on teevee and campaign for other Republicans.
Which is why she's going to South Carolina to serve out the rest of Mark Sanford's term.
This is not a move to crank up her political career. You heard that speech. It was fucking insane, and filled with desperation and fear. Her life is over, whatever this is. I'm guessing it's a combination of the house thing and some kind of weird family revelations. Palin will spend a little time away, possibly even from her family, trying to rest and hash out all that's happened to her in the past year. She may kill herself, but probably not. But she's over.
Quelle est l'histoire de McManus l'observation? Ai-je manqué quelque chose dans les archives?
Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter are running off to Canada to get married.
23:What is the history of McManus (observation, admonition, banning?) Am I missing anything in the archives?
25: Interesting parenthetical translations--the original English (before g00gle rendered it) was "comment". I was curious as to what your unaccustomed shift in language might be in aid of. Observing Canada Day?
22 has seen what I fear to watch. If it's truly a meltdown I feel sorry for her. Otherwise, as long as she doesn't throw in with the Alaskan Independence Party herself, she's only a danger to those foolish enough to kill $30 worth of trees for 15 minutes of her memoirs.
24. is evil. Shudder.
On preview: 26 gets it exactly right!
ps 12 & 13 thanks & thanks!
26:I was curious as to what your unaccustomed shift in language might be in aid of. Observing Canada Day?
Just an exercise. Three days into learning some French with many dictionaries and a huge wonderful terrible book of grammar once a day I will translate a sentence from a blog post. Once done, should I cut-and-paste as a new comment? Well, why not? I'll stop if it annoys people.
28: Sometimes, you really are in a situation where someone's hurt by your words or actions, but they're, you know, actually wrong. And you care about them, and wish they weren't hurt, but you genuinely aren't sorry. You know?
So. Yes, 24 was evil. On other hand, I'm not actually sorry.
But I hadn't then listened to Palin's resignation speech, and my god, that was painful. It had "I'm about to be indicted for embezzlement" written all over it. Hell yeah.
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Wonderful little find! Just watched:
Wim Wenders "9/11 movie". Nice little allegory, with Wenders usual expressive photography and tasteful soundtrack. I cried.
Here's a hearfelt review from Salon
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Fortunately, Mark Halperin is here to help.
Bob, if you're serious about learning French, I recommend picking up as large a run of Tintin comics has you can find. I hung out in the basement of my Quebecois host family's house and read them for a summer of afternoons when my friends were speaking English behind my back because they didn't want to disappoint me. (That was also a summer I studiously avoided getting laid.)
Along with the delightfulness, you'll have plenty of colonialism & such to complain about, too.
Erick Erickson for the win: "I've had this running thought all day, perhaps because I was watching it on TV in HD for the first time, that this is kind of like Ben Kenobi letting Darth Vader strike him down."
Beyond parody, I tell you.
Jes in 24: "Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter are running off to Canada to get married."
Jes in 29: "Yes, 24 was evil. On other hand, I'm not actually sorry."
That's some pretty tame evil. I've been entertaining a much more evil thought about those two all day.
It's clear that Palin is the kind of crazy person who is amazing in the sack, while Coulter is just mean.
Wow, Steve McNair (former Titans QB) and a yet-to-be-identified woman found shot to death in a Nashville condominium.
33: The living-in-quebec part probably did you more good than the tintin, honestly. It's really hard to learn a language well without being surrounded by it. It's not too hard to learn enough to read academic papers or something like that (i.e., where you have helpful context), but to really learn it, I suspect nothing compares immersion.
to really learn it, I suspect nothing compares immersion.
Not even translating a sentence of a blog post every day? I dunno, I think bob's on to something.
32: Why didn't he just write: "Woo, Palin! Woo! Every possible reason reflects well on her. So shrewd!"
Hey Bob - it's also neat to listen to Radio France (www.radiofrance.fr) - lots of stations to choose from and if it sets the mood for learnin', that's the best! I also found some "learn French" podcasts when searching the iTunes store for some actual French podcasts. (Can one find non-English language podcasts there anyhow?)
And re: 36, yeah, that's probably another reason not to head downtown to check out the fireworks tonight, aside from the craptastic weather.
I guess, to be fair, a couple Helperin's possible reasons didn't reflect that well on her. But the parenthetical aside about frivolous ethics complaints is a nice touch.
I dunno, I can't even manage to rub my hands in glee at the anticipated scandal soon to break with respect to Palin. AWB may well get it right in 22.
OT: Breakdown of 4th of July plans! I'd intended to go out on a friend's boat to watch fireworks over the Chesapeake Bay. Often fun! Bring snacks! Alas, though, the (motor) boat had to be hauled back to shore this morning on its test drive after having been put in the water yesterday. Apparently this involved the captain's swimming to shore with a rope between his teeth. Bummer!
41: But you are correct that it is stock Halperin analysis, in which one becomes more acquainted with the contours of his faux centrist rectum than the actual subject under discussion.
37:It's not too hard to learn enough to read academic papers or something like that
This is mostly what I want. Speeches of the assembly:Mirabeau, Danton. History, maybe philosophy, maybe Mallarme Verlaine. No time for novels. I am just becoming increasingly unhappy with translated material. Ambiguity is the best part of language.
Besides the blog sentences, and burrowing into conjugations and agreement, I am translating a Rouchefoucauld maxim a day; a verse of Baudelaire, and reading (not translating, staring at?) an article at Cahiers du Cinema. I wanted something more conversational, personal, and spontaneous, so the blog sentences.
Ask.com (what is the grammar for web-sites anyway?) has a useful French section, but I noticed that the training story, geography, was really limited in verbs to vars of etre. "The sea is warm. The castle is open til dusk. The people are generous and friendly." I probably do need a novel to get a variety of words and constructions.
It is just an enthusiasm. I usually abandon them, but I need something to obsess me, pull me away from the depressing news, from my Weltschmertz.
And this summer in Dallas is like a bad winter in Fargo. Housebound and cabin-feverish.
Mr. B says that she got confused and thought Donald Trump fired her.
Bob, are you using texts with French/English on facing pages? Very helpful.
My sister has our late mother's copies of two published Milne songbooks: 2 volumes: "The Hums of Pooh", signed, "To my dear wife, Marguerite, on her birthday with much love from Harry," Los Angeles, November 19th, 1942, and "Fourteen Songs from When We Were Very Young," un-inscribed, Thirteenth Edition, 1938.
Or I could just sing (many of) the songs to you over the Internet! ;}
One of the tricky things about translation as a language learning exercise is that you get attached to the grammatically correct but non-idiomatic.
Man, that was such a killjoy comment in 48. Ignore me, Bob.
What did Steve McNair know about Palin's future plans that caused him to get killed?
46:Separate translated (Proj Gut.) copies of Le Rouchefoucauld & Baudelaire so I can work without being influenced and then compare afterwards. The grammar books are page upon page of translated usage examples, usually idiomatic.
48:I am neither a prescriptivist nor idiomatic (?), but someone who believes there is no extraneous, redundant, or meaningless information in any text. That is kinda the point.
See h-g's lead sentence. She uses "trawl the web."
Now "trawl" was not among the more common verbs that English speakers would look for, but "surf the web" wasn't going to do it for me. She used "trawl." And besides a meaning of "deeper search" and "collecting" than "surf", amd maybe more slowly and more painstaking and more challenging than "search", well, "trawl" reminded me of "troll". "Chair" is always the leader of the meeting and the thing she is sitting on. Almost every verb or noun carries a cloud of meaning.
Here's today's Roche...
"L'amour-propre est plus habile que le plus habile homme du monde."
and the trans (Bund & Frisell, 1871)
"4.--Self love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world."
"Man in the world" rather than "man of the world"? Radically different meanings.
I would be very literal, if my goal was to translate, but my real goal is to read the effing French
Enough. Too much. No more. I feel guilty about being off-topic.
51: Whereas I would have translated it as "Amour-propre is more cunning than a fox who has been made Professor Cunning of Cunning University."
51.---Whereas I would have been tempted to use "shrewd" there. "Habile" is a mostly positive word. Also, Bob, here "homme du monde" almost certainly means "man in the world" rather than "man of the world."
Yes, isolated, "homme du monde" is a worldly man, but in a comparative phrase like "plus X que le plus X homme du monde," it's much, much more likely to mean "man in the world."
Duh.
I'm trying to learn a semester of Mandarin on my own. The raw memorization, which is usually the hardest part of Chinese, is going well, but the grammar and pronunciation bits are near impossible without help. I'm not even close to being able to translate anything meaningful, but I can spot things on menus occasionally, and I get a big kick out of it.
That was also a summer I studiously avoided getting laid.
Another crazy person.
45. Mr B FTW.
Bob, if you want to learn to speak French, the best thing is to find somebody fluent and talk to them for a few hours a week. Maybe you could do something for them in return - walk their dogs or something. Absent that, yeah, radio. Lots of it.
If you want to read the texts of the revolution, bear in mind that they're as archaic in French as the Declaration of Independence is in English. Not beginners' stuff.
A decent respect to the opinions of mankind never goes out of style.
To further derail, because I have no idea what is going on with SP, my secret recipe for reading French are the Petit Nicolas books.
When I was studying for my language competency exam I read a whole lot of them and oddly it seemed to help. I passed the thing, anyway.
62: How is 24 misogynistic or transphobic?
(Evil, yes, since doubtless Coulter and Palin are themselves homophobic and misogynistic enough to regard it as an awful insult, but...)
63: 62 doesn't suspect 24 of bias; 62 is still laughing at 45 & 24!
Laughter is always a revolutionary act--it can spread out of control!--& is thus never purely good or evil. So I guess 27 was way out of line! I retract it.
(& while I'm editing: can I have a couple of those exclamation points back?)
64: Laughing at people who have more privilege than you do is revolutionary; laughing at people who have less is just scummy.
65: Here: !!!!!! I get them free in for my committment to the use of correctly-used commas. And then I never use them before they go stale.
Hush hush
Nobody cares
Christopher Robin
has fallen down stairs
(Dorothy Parker, I think)
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What happened to Emerson? I go away to work for a couple of months, and when I return the waters have closed over him?
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He moved to Portland and is spending time away from the internet to write.
The simplest explanation for Palin's action is IMO the best: She's out of her depth, and she's something of a quitter by nature. She likes to win, but she can't handle responsibility, so she runs for elected office and then bails, the way she did as mayor of Wasilla (to run for Lt. Gov), then as governor (to run for VP), and now that she's stuck with actually running things she just can't handle the pressure. Also she can't handle the exposure of herself and her family as anything other than the carefully crafted image she wants to present. She's just a weak, shallow, stupid person whose vanity gets her into situations she can't handle.
66: Good point! But in the long run, an equalizer's an equalizer. Anyone who wants to split hairs over who is & isn't correctly subject to ridicule is subject to ridicule.
70: Thanks! (As long as he's not "spending more time with his family"...)
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I'm trying to find the magic cat puke remover that worked so well when I last used it, but which the pet store no longer carries. It's a watery mixture of chemicals you pour on the pukey carpet and blot up with paper towels. It's horrifically effective, leaving little clean spots on the carpet that remind you it's been quite a while since you last vacuumed. I can't remember the name of the product, so I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone has recommendations before I start just trying random crap from the pet store.
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70: Oh that's good news . I would rather have him writing in comment sections than not at all, but if he has a chance of getting paid for it, that's better.
74: We always used something called Nature's Miracle. Comes in a white bottle with red lettering.
Nature's Miracle is good. We've had even better luck with something called (alas) Anti Icky Poo.
74: That sounds right to me. I am now certain that the idea that this is some kind of crafty presidential strategy is just spin by Republican operatives who were totally caught off guard.
76: That's what I have as my fallback if I can't find the One True Carpet Depuker. I'll give it a try either way, since I've seen multiple recommendations, but I'm a tad conservative when it comes to giving up on things I know work well.
77: I like the name. In the same spirit my search turned up a website called planeturine.com
78: Sarah Palin is coming to my house to clean up cat puke? Makes as much sense as any of the other explanations I've heard. I should probably put on my pants.
78: Her spokesperson was on vacation in NYC and clearly had no idea at all. The poor bewildered woman's interview with Anderson Cooper was priceless (well, ok, but not as priceless as Anderson when the spokesperson started making a demented basketball analogy and he answered, "I'm sorry. I know nothing about sports.")
Well you know a good point guard knows when to pass the ball. Or to quit and walk off the court. Or to give a long, rambling statement to the press. Or something.
72: Yes, because it's ridiculous to suggest that a headteacher who ridicules one of his students is doing anything different from a student who ridicules the headteacher.
Your position, I suppose, is that when people in authority mock and jeer at people they have power over, this is just as revolutionary as the powerless making fun of those in authority. To me that looks like a ridiculous position... but I guess you would call that hairsplitting.
For some reason, to me, it's funnier when people tell jokes up than when they do it down. But hey: you're probably the kind of white guy who thinks if that if black comedians can tell white jokes, white comedians should be "allowed" to tell nigger jokes. Right?
Someday, someone's going to write a dissertation about that resignation speech. It really is the most freakishly inane thing I've ever heard. One image after another is drawn up for creating a similitude that is neither fitting nor witty, but is instead completely opaque. And yet what is expressed in it is abyssal terror and rage. The chirpier her similes get, the more I fear her and for her.
The cat vomit removal page at howtodothings.com has google ads for two Bulimia treatment centers and a Bridal Shower place. That's an algorithm that could stand some tweaking, methinks.
Jesurgislac: You are obviously right about the nature of humor. If one pays attention its easy to see that most humor is used by the powerful against the powerless. (Consider how many more derisive names whites have for blacks than vice versa.) Humor is most often a weapon of social control.
So you are correct in this argument. But you don't help your case by making nasty accusations about Rah, who is very well liked around here.
That's an algorithm that could stand some tweaking, methinks.
What! Sounds perfect to me.
67: Little boy kneels at the foot of his bed
Little blue eyes in a little gold head
Hush! Hush! Don't say a word.
Christopher Robin is bashing his bird.
--National Lampoon
86: Rah made the nasty accusation against himself, when he declared that "Anyone who wants to split hairs over who is & isn't correctly subject to ridicule is subject to ridicule" - if that's what he thinks.
And I used that example of Rah's thought - white people who think it's ridiculous that they're not "allowed" to tell nigger jokes if black people tell jokes on "white folks" - because if I'd said that it was like a cisgendered het couple thinking it was ridiculous that they weren't allowed to tell transphobic jokes, some people might have taken that personally.
"example of Rah's thought"? Shameless.
Oh, let's not fight. Let's help me figure out how to locate and befriend a honey I met last night, the pursuit of whom I was distracted from by other drama. If said honey is friends with the friends of my friends, and he did in fact sort of act rather interested, is it reasonable to look for him on FB? What if I don't actually remember his name? At what point is this a creepy thing to do?
I wish the friends of my friends had fewer friends on FB. It makes the pursuit of unremembered honeys overly difficult.
Maybe I'll ask Stanley. He was at the party, too, and may have conversed with the GIQ. (Stanley and eekbeat were great guests, btw, and left before the drama began.)
is it reasonable to look for him on FB?
Absolutely. It's what FB is for.
What if I don't actually remember his name?
You need to ask people who were at the party. Depending on who you ask, dropped hints about interest might make their way back to him, smoothing the whole process one way or t'other.
At what point is this a creepy thing to do?
When you go back to the location of the party looking for hair and fingerprints.
Seriously, putting some effort into finding someone you're interested in (even if it's sorta-kinda, not really sure, but maybe there's potential) isn't creepy. If it develops an obsessive edge it's bad, but creepy only comes when you've been rejected and keep pursuing.
If you need a way to convince yourself that it's OK, pretend you really have nothing better to do and it's either look up this vaguely interesting person or natter with hosers on the internets.
Most of the people who were at the party are probably not talking to me right now, unfortunately, and I'm not directly friends with the guy who brought the honey. Also, it's not like we talked much, so it's hard to be all "Oh remember that thing we were talking about?" I just thought he was ridiculously cute and he laughed at one of my weirder jokes.
96: Laughing at a weird joke is promising. It's a key test of compatibility for me. Weird joke laughing is both sufficient reason to stalk him like a wounded gazelle seek him out and an opening to conversation.
89
And I used that example of Rah's thought - white people who think it's ridiculous that they're not "allowed" to tell nigger jokes if black people tell jokes on "white folks" - because if I'd said that it was like a cisgendered het couple thinking it was ridiculous that they weren't allowed to tell transphobic jokes, some people might have taken that personally.
What I think is ridiculous is repeatedly bringing up a minor incident that happened months ago on another blog.
96: I had one of those encounters at UnfoggeDCon 2, thought a few times about trying to find out who the guy was, then reviewed our actual interactions and, yeah, became suspicious that what I thought might be provisional interest might just have been friendliness. So I wound up doing nothing. Boo, perhaps, but I think I'd also be really bad at contacting someone I met briefly, and at the tail end of a party at that, to suggest ... what, that we have coffee? Eek.
Togolosh is right. By laughing at your weird joke, he has implicitly consented to be pursued on FB.
Signs that he liked me:
He nervously misspoke several times.
He hung around when I was talking to my two close dude-friends and talking about our stuff.
He was embarrassed when some detail revealed that he is a dork of some sort.
It's not really enough to go on. Normally, I'd just let it slide and probably run into him in the future, but, as I say, there is a high likelihood that I may not get invited back with this group of friends for a while.
Also, 99 is fascinating. Was it... someone from Unfogged?
For once, I agree with Shearer! (In 98.) I don't follow B's blog (if that's where whatever transphobic-thing happened happened) closely enough to know what this is all about, but it seems to come up in a lot of threads here. I'm guessing I'm not alone in being mystified by it. Jes, is there a reason you keep bringing it up here? I mean, it seems not unlikely that I would agree with you if I knew what the hell the context was, but it keeps showing up in situations that seem out of place....
Pwned succintly by apo.
96, 99: I met M in similar circumstances. We talked very briefly at a party, before my cockblocking friend pulled me away, and I wasn't able to find him again. I didn't really remember his name, and he didn't really know mine.
A month intervened, during which time he found someone from my department and went through her facebook (her literal facebook, this being the days when stalking had to be done the hard way) until he found my face and learned my name. This he used to get my e-mail address through the university. He then e-mailed me, concocting some elaborate and utterly transparent lie about why he needed to talk to me. Because, apparently, I love stalkers and liars, I was utterly charmed. It has worked out well.
103: He was not! Though he's known to some unfoggeders, I gather, which is why he was there. Probably wouldn't have been too hard to find out who he was, if I'd tried at the time, but I couldn't really take myself seriously in that. I will say that there should be more meet-ups that include non-unfoggetarians.
Good Christ, there should be some kind of feature by which one could enter, say, three people on FB and find the subset of their friends that they have in common. Paging through these people who have 900+ friends (O RLY?) to look for someone whose name I cannot recall is requiring way too much effort, and would probably end in rejection anyway, due to the massive and possibly permanent cockblocking enacted against my person last night.
I get them free in for my committment to the use of correctly-used commas
Twice-used commas are never as effective, no matter how correct the initial use.
if I'd said that it was like a cisgendered het couple thinking it was ridiculous that they weren't allowed to tell transphobic jokes, some people might have taken that personally.
Instead you just outright accused Rah of probably being "the kind of white guy who thinks if that if black comedians can tell white jokes, white comedians should be 'allowed' to tell nigger jokes".
Good thing you didn't do anything that someone might take personally!
Wimbledon Men's Final at 11-11 in the 5th set.
Shearer gets it exactly right. Pwnage, I embrace thee.
Also AWB's proposed FB feature is cool. Does anyone have a Zuckerberg-signal?
89: Jes, do you manage to hang out *anywhere* online without getting into fights?
Good Christ, there should be some kind of feature by which one could enter, say, three people on FB and find the subset of their friends that they have in common.
That would be super useful, and they already have the functionality all but there, since it will tell you what friends *you* have in common with a given person.
The Friend Wheel app is cute in that respect, but, again, it's limited to data from one person and just their immediate contacts, and you can't run it on someone else's profile. Hrm. Maybe this feature I'm imagining would actually be a little too useful. Or it would be completely unnecessary if I could just remember people's goddamn names.
113, 109 and previous: In the interest of comity: I think this is just an issue of recurring interest for Jes, and -- not to speak for her -- I understand it as a real puzzlement on her part about when and why people consider some kinds of joke-telling to be okay, and when not okay. I'd have reacted to Rah's comment, if I didn't treat it just as a throwaway remark, by assuming that I hadn't fully understood his meaning, and asked for clarification, since I know Rah to be a thoughtful person.
Whatever, we all jump the gun around here from time to time. Jes's remarks about the nature of humor are still interesting. But we've also fought over the nature of humor and teh funny somewhat ad nauseam here.
115: There's got to be some reasoning behind FB's declining to provide cross-referenced data on friends other people have in common. Just privacy? You could suss out people's contact circles! Yeah, I could see that being a problem.
AWB, if you summoned the chutzpah to call the friends who don't talk to you and ask them who the dude was, I bet you could get his name out of them before they were sufficiently unflummoxed to deny you the satisfaction.
I have a pretty easy time imagining you summoning chutzpah.
113: That would be more convincing if I hadn't seen Jes do the exact same thing in contexts other than humor repeatedly over the course of many years.
Dang, Federer 16-14 on the first service break he had the whole match.
Hey, AWB, can you click the "show all" button next to the friend recommendation window? It's possible that if this person is friends with several of your other friends he'll show up there.
117: I don't think there are any FB features designed to protect people's privacy. It's all about getting information to sell to advertisers, after all. The advertisers are the customers, not the people giving up their information for free. I bet that advertisers have access to the kind of feature AWB is talking about. That plus some purchasing pattern information would be worth serious money.
116: It's not real puzzlement, parsi, it's trolling. Not a single person has ever defended B's joke on this blog. If Jes is puzzled over anything, it's that everyone but her seems to think the appropriate response to "a minor incident that happened months ago on another blog" is to recognize that it was dumb when it comes up and move on. She can't possibly believe that she's going to turn anyone against B at this point. She seems to have decided that since we won't join her in banishing B for her transgression, it's troll's breath for us.
119: You seem to be going into personal attack mode, which is uncalled for.
Not a single person has ever defended B's joke on this blog
Well, she's not funny.
(I don't know what you guys are talking about.)
Good Christ, there should be some kind of feature by which one could enter, say, three people on FB and find the subset of their friends that they have in common.
I thought to myself, that yes, that's a good idea; only problem is that it might be hell to implement. However, someone has built a network visualization for FB which may help. It's right here. Evidently that link lets you find the app on FB; I wouldn't know, I haven't got an FB account.
max
['Might help though.']
121: It won't work, I don't think, because it's at a three-deep level of friend removal. I am (or, before last night, was) friends with people who are friends with someone who is friends with this guy.
129: Ah. Well, then suck it up and make a phone call. Act like you think nothing is amiss!
You seem to be going into personal attack mode, which is uncalled for.
For fuck's sake. When you see someone engage in the same pattern of bad behavior over the course of a long period of time, parsi, at a certain point pointing that out rather than discussing any individual argument is the right thing to do. Doing otherwise is precisely what allows trolls to flourish.
Do you remember the name of the person who is friends with your friend? You could look up that person and put the inquiry to him/her.
{grumble} {bitch}
Or I could have just linked to the fscking blog post with the five friend network visualization tools listed.
max
['Sheesh.']
132: I could do that, but I am embarrassed that I don't remember his name. Stanley might, actually.
Also, I am embarrassed to have been in the center of drama, and the DIQ walked in on a sort of tense makeout scene.
126 is true. But I wouldn't even call what Jes is doing trolling. She's weirdly obsessed with denouncing B, despite people asking her to please just drop it already. But instead she clicks her steel balls in her hand and every fourth or fifth thread starts muttering about BitchPhD stealing her goddamned pint of strawberries.
124: Okay. I can see that. (Though people here have defended B's joke.) I don't really want to debate Jes's motivations any more, and will stay out of it.
129: I am (or, before last night, was) friends with people who are friends with someone who is friends with this guy.
Kevin Bacon problem for the win; at three removes, you are talking about a very large number of people, because at six removes, you're talking about every living human being. Gonna take some grunt work.
max
['Lemme see...']
...sort of tense makeout scene.
I cannot make sense of this phrase.
133. Thanks for fun links, Max. I just found out that an unfoggeder is friends with my camp girlfriend from 1988. (Granted, I could have done that with either of their homepages.)
137: You just filter on "honeys", max. Easy peasy.
So what's the joke in question, anyway? What the hell is going on?
140: That's the other FB feature that needs development. If I tag everyone I've slept with on FB, can it predict which of my friends' friends I would probably find attractive?
I will email you, Ben. Let's please not start this up again.
137 isn't quite right, max. One thing is that you're talking about the average collaboration distance, not the maximal distance, an other that what AWB is looking for is a pruning algorithm on the graph, i.e. a way to avoid (most of) the grunt work in the combinatorial explosion.
If I tag everyone I've slept with on FB, can it predict which of my friends' friends I would probably find attractive?
FB could license netflick's technology, I suppose.
Not to drag this thread vaguely back on topic, but I just watched the Sarah Palin resignation video for the first time. Wow. I'm openmouthed. I went into it feeling rather sorry for her, thinking how miserable it must feel to have so many people using up airtime to gratuitiously slam you.*
But wow. That was the most spectacularly incoherent speech I've ever seen (and apparently filmed by a beginner camera person, not that I'm blaming whatever smalltown Alaska TV station got the honor of getting summoned out to record this for posterity). The idiosyncratic word definitions are piled so high that they almost become an entire new language. Clearly she's not aware that "lame duck" is a phrase one uses for an official who's not allowed to run again. She's using in the astoundingly weird sense of "A person who's been elected to office." Does one become a lame duck as soon as one gets sworn in? Is there a grace period?
Not to mention the total bizarro-world set of assumptions about how governors just start taking international jaunts and ignoring their duties et cetera. Does the concept of agency hold no meaning for her? There's just some external tornado that sweeps you up and forces you to start ignoring your job? Nothing you can do about it?
It's the most peculiar set of assumptions about how the world works that I've ever seen somebody attempt to defend. Seriously, it's like listening to a particularly grandiose drunk, or someone in a manic state. Their own reality explains everything and you can only sit back while the tsunami of looniness washes over you. And she's volunteering to campaign for other people?
The whole thing is just stunningly weird. I realize this entire comment contains no new insights, but I just feel the need to say it aloud. Weird, weird, weird. Her poor kids.
*Particularly since there are thousands of hours of legitimate criticisms you can make of the woman; why bother with the cruelties?
127: I haven't the faintest idea what problem anyone has with B, so clearly I'm meant to RTMFA.
82 quite correctly identifies that ridicule can be a tool of oppression, which I learned early enough in life thanks very much. Of course "it's funnier when people tell jokes up than when they do it down"! Ridicule can come from anywhere, but laughter tends towards revolution because it can't easily be forced (& never for long!).
I suppose attacking me implies I don't get to decide what's funny--which was kind of my point, if you don't mind. Nor does anyone. Who decides? The people who laugh. That's either oppressive (as it was in most anybody's gym class, too, OK?) or it's liberating. But laughter can only be opposed, tactically, by silence: and what do I know of the revolution? Silence is not good strategy.
I will grant the revolutionary nature of laughter is stored up rather than inherent. But any audience so-called can turn on a dime. A bully can force laughter, but the worm turns. That's comedy.
What I meant to say, & all I meant to say? Let me give it in the French: "rira bien qui rira le dernier".
134: and the DIQ walked in on a sort of tense makeout scene.
And upthread at 94, GIQ?
Dude I Q-----? Guy I Q-----?
Oh, Dude/guy in question, it must be. I entertained myself with possible values for Q, in any case.
I'm going to have to turn in my non-traditional American sports and general media awareness credentials; I did not realize that Lance Armstrong was racing this year's Tour de France until I saw yesterday's prologue. (I had noticed his name being around a bit more, but assumed that if he were actually riding it would have been a bigger deal.)
147: 137 isn't quite right, max. One thing is that you're talking about the average collaboration distance, not the maximal distance, an other that what AWB is looking for is a pruning algorithm on the graph, i.e. a way to avoid (most of) the grunt work in the combinatorial explosion.
No, I know that's what she was looking for; what I meant was that the kind of app to (more or less) instantly prune the network as she wants would need access to all the data in advance, rather than what would actually occur... which would be going through the FB API and pulling all the friends data for all the friends three down the chain and then wiping out the unwanted. That could get problematic because it would an 'outside' app and pulling all that data through the external API would probably get ugly fast. However, if AWB does a hand prune starting at one remove, she can probably get it done, just slowly. The app to do exactly what she wants does not apparently exist.
max
['We're starting to get into query language territory, are we not?']
151-153: The quick Queen of Quincy and her quacking quacker-oo.
Stanley might, actually.
Hrm. The only names that come to mind for me (and for eekbeat) are people you seemed to be friends with from well before the party.
And considering when we left the party, you were all up on the roof merrily drinking, singing, and getting along swimmingly, I'm assuming that AWB got a bit out of hand and threw a couch off the roof, which, as we've established here long ago, isn't everyone's bag o' chips.
I know "IQ" means "in question", but that's all I know.
essear: Jes, is there a reason you keep bringing it up here?
I see BitchPhD's name, I'm reminded of her ugly behavior, I squash the impulse to make a nasty comment in her general direction, and at least 25% of the time it fails to get squashed.
I'm getting better at squashing the impulse (the failure rate used to be 90%), which is good because I recognise it's annoying for everyone else. So, sorry, everyone else except BitchPhD, who I can't say I care about annoying one bit.
Rah: Who decides? The people who laugh. That's either oppressive (as it was in most anybody's gym class, too, OK?) or it's liberating. But laughter can only be opposed, tactically, by silence: and what do I know of the revolution? Silence is not good strategy.
As others have noted: while silence isn't a good strategy, persistently raising the point about ugly bigoted jokes just gets everyone else at the party annoyed with you. Silence is the most socially acceptable response.
Wrongshore: Not a single person has ever defended B's joke on this blog.
BitchPhD herself did. Does she count as a single person?
Does one become a lame duck as soon as one gets sworn in?
Exactly her mindset, IMHO. Mayor, Lt. Governor, Governor, VP, and President are prizes to her. They aren't jobs, they are laurels. She loves competition, she loves to win, she loves being at the center of attention. It's all about collecting trophies.
139: 133. Thanks for fun links, Max.
No problem. Glad it's useful since I have no idea (other than in generalities) what that shit does.
140: 137: You just filter on "honeys", max.
I meant to say: would it possible to search on the name of the party? If this is FB, surely everyone is mentioning the party they were at last night.
max
['OK, maybe not.']
All I asserted in the first place was an equivalency between the school of humor exemplified in 24 & 45, which I'm yet willing to defend (though the argument would probably be boring).
In fact 45 relies on garden-variety dimness, to which all alike are subject--unlike 24's "tarring" of two outspoken women with an implication we've (haven't we?) come to see as not inherently insulting.
If my theorizing seemed personal, it was the result of baggage I didn't bring. I'm happy to laugh it off at Standpipe's blog or offer a generic apology.
155: As a young boy I had a stuffed giraffe called Kick Kettle. I believe that's from a few pages earlier...
Netfucks: the social network that finds your next partner, based on your previous history. And remeber, the more people who sign up, the better it works!
I have decided, upon reflection, that the DIQ has all the information he needs in order to stalk me, if he so chooses, while I do not have enough myself. He may have been put off by the drama, but, as I have discovered repeatedly recently, dudes are apparently way into chicks enduring tense makeout scenes with other dudes. I wash my hands of this pursuit.
BitchPhD herself did. Does she count as a single person
Which might justify bringing this up on *her* blog (though, really, just walk away). But bringin it up evry place she ver drops by ever kinda ends up shifting the sympathy in her directin and makes you look a little crazy.
bringin it up evry place she ver drops by ever
Still or already drunk?
...sort of tense makeout scene.I cannot make sense of this phrase.
They will have made out. They will make out. They are making out. They were making out. They made out..
stop me if I'm overdoing it.
165: I was attempting to model the concept of "dropping it" by dropping random letters? See? That "e" wasn't so important after all! Just let it go!
163: You seem to have enough options that letting one slide won't kill you...
171: I'm working on pissing them all off, one by one.
I think I get it, actually. The Palin speech thing. In her mind, I think it's at least partly an attempt to knock Sanford out of the race. He's the lame duck, taking international junkets on the taxpayer dime, while she's the stalwart true conservative, refusing to take more taxpayer money when something something.
Darn. I had it for a minute there. That felt really weird.
165: I vote for drunk. I've got Chardonnay chillin in the fridge if you want another glass.
Drunk would be good. Mostly, i think I'm dazed by the cost of the new refrigerator. It will be lovely, but wow.
(The lower case "i" above was totally intentional, you know. Emphasizing my humility.)
So, who's the next Republican governor to do something really freaky? I'm betting either Bobby Jindal or Haley Barbour.
Jindal might be out of the picture because his reply to Obama's address to congress might be already considered "doing something freaky", and now its someone else's turn to weird out.
I'm working on pissing them all off, one by one.
I betcha they still appreciate this more than my strategy of boring them slowly but inexorably to death.
"So, enough about me. What have you been up to?"
"Um. Well, work. Um, and Rory. Um...."
Jindal might be out of the picture because his reply to Obama's address to congress might be already considered "doing something freaky"
Oh, no. After the last few months, Republicans are fondly looking back at that reply as possibly the greatest media performance by a Republican since Bush landed on the aircraft carrier.
Also, my iPhone appears to be fucked*, and although I'm happy to get a fancy new one (the old one is 1st-gen), this is not the expense I've been looking for.
* Hooked up to a friend's car aux-jack; he started the engine, and ZAP! It works sporadically, but seemingly won't take a charge.
who's the next Republican governor to do something really freaky?
I'm taking the long odds on Butch Otter. He's shown talent previously, and he pays off way higher than Jindal or Barbour.
Also, he's a former "Mr. Tight Jeans" winner. You gotta at least consider a side bet, people.
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Spent the weekend at my mothers, and witnessed her discovering that she had a clam knife in the drawer of her nightstand for some reason. She couldn't decide if she was expecting to be attacked by marauding molluscs in the middle of the night, or if she was thinking of leaving a clam in there as well for a midnight snack.
It's nice knowing that my tendency to absent-mindedly leave my keys in the refrigerator comes from somewhere.
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It's nice knowing that my tendency to absent-mindedly leave my keys in the refrigerator comes from somewhere.
This does my hear good. Rory's response last time I couldn't find my keys: "Did you look in the dish drainer?"
this is not the expense I've been looking for
I think the 2nd-gen are now $99. Not nothing, but not $599 or whatever you paid for your 1st-gen.
My hearT. It does my heart good. Cripe. If I didn't have a brief to finish I'd admit defeat and quite trying to type right now!
Rory's response last time I couldn't find my keys: "Did you look in the dish drainer?"
What about the washbasin, did you look there?
No. I had already found them in the dishdrainer.
my tendency to absent-mindedly leave my keys in the refrigerator
Ha, you think this is funny, but having just spent an hour poking around all over the house with my roommate looking for my darts (real ones! in a black leather case!), it is not so much.
Roommate's method of "cleaning things up" and "putting things away" involves tossing random junk in a random box. What's this? Ah, a box filled with, let's see, a nice little ceramic, er, cup or pen-holder ... a couple of candles ... a pair of bookends ... ah, I see, and a spare glass pot for the espresso machine ... and, um, an extension cord, some pens, a few light bulbs, a deck of cards, an umbrella ... Yes! The darts could be in there, and how many more boxes like this have you put together?
Grr.
Yeah, I'm bad for leaving keys in strange places, but got really good at putting them on the window sill as soon as I walk in the house. Victory! Except now I have small children who find keys irresistible and have arrived at work late after finally finding them hidden in pairs of shoes and under the sink.
We once were missing our tv remote for a week because I had left it in the back of the freezer.
Yeah, I'm bad for leaving keys in strange places, but got really good at putting them on the window sill as soon as I walk in the house. Victory! Except now I have small children who find keys irresistible and have arrived at work late after finally finding them hidden in pairs of shoes and under the sink.
Maybe you could get really good at putting them on top of the refrigerator as soon as you walk in the house, instead.
Think how inconveniently placed the refrigerator would have to be, then.
191: A key hook might work well for this. Placed up high.
Our refrigerator is only one or two steps from the door, but I suppose it's true that not everyone enters his or her home through the kitchen.
It is strange that weekend-unfogged prattle should alight upon this issue mere hours after I extracted my phone from an 18 hour refrigeration. You all are an invitation to solipsism.
If I could place my children on high hooks for a weekend, I would consider it. Also, I'm on an island as I type this, though in a house with seven children ranging from 2 to 15.
I like the ledge on top of doors, or the top of bookshelves. Completely invisible.
I guess I shouldn't be rolling my eyes when my book-partner leaves the portable phone behind a stack of books on the second floor once a month or so.
Honestly, I do laugh about this stuff, except when I can't find, in my house, the flashlight or a candle or a light bulb or a screwdriver. I can't tell if it's prissy of me to feel that things have places in which they are supposed to live.
Is your book-partner four years old.
except when I can't find, in my house, the flashlight
Environmental dilemma: It is much, much more useful to leave the halogen flashlight, the cordless drill battery, and the cordless vacuum battery all plugged in, so you won't have to wait 4-8 hours to use them. Especially the flashlight, since you'll need it for emergencies.* Except -- this is so wasteful!
I compromise by leaving the flashlight plugged in and listening to my father complain when he comes to do carpentry and invariably finds the drill out of juice.
*I grew up using candles, and still will, for an ordinary power outage, but also feel the need to have a light source that does not involve flame and can go outdoors or down to the (gas) heater.
The flashlight … plugged in?
Following a clever ``tip'' from my mother, I keep the batteries in the flashlight, but with one of them in backwards. Ha!
I support the message of this website. I understand there are some people who dislike cilantro. These people do not live choiceworthy lives.
204
There are flashlights with a handcrank for recharging.
The flashlight ... plugged in?
People will be using electric cheese graters next.
202: Is your book-partner four years old.
This will be my new explanation to customers who complain of service they feel hasn't met their needs: Dude, we're four years old, and we lost the phone for a few days, OKAY? Don't tell me it hasn't happened to you!
206: I just wish my cilantro plants were growing faster. I feel like a baby killer every time I clip a few leaves.
206: Those people are all over here.
201: I can't tell if it's prissy of me to feel that things have places in which they are supposed to live.
I don't care if it's prissy or not, it drives me bugfuck angry when the DE doesn't put a tool back where it was and I have to go hunting for it before I can fix something. If I totally lose it one day and off her that will be the reason.
Flashlights: Get at least one good LED light with high and low power settings that runs on CR-123A lithium batteries. Then hide it so YOU can have it for emergencies.
Those cells have a shelf life of 7 or more years and the lights can be very bright on their high settings while lasting quite long on low output. Buy the cells on the net too, they're insanely expensive at Target or camera stores and other local places.
Not the cheapest place on the internet but reliable, IMX.
67, 88:
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down on Alice
Alice is marrying one of the guards
A soldier's cock is terribly hard
Says Alice
Stuff not being put away is the No. 1 source of discord in our household. And my wife does the same thing pars's housemate does with the randomly squirreling things away, which drives me batshit insane but which will make it seem like Christmas when I clean out the basement this summer. I anticipate a joyful reëncounter with things I haven't seen in years.
Most of the people who were at the party are probably not talking to me right now
No one should give AWB any more stalking advice until she comes clean on the DIQ (drama in question).
Those people are all over here. mildly insane.
212, 214:
I suspect that if I were ever to cohabitate seriously with someone that "things go in their correct places, goddamit," would be a constant argument if they were not as completely and totally anal as I am about such things. I like knowing where stuff is. I take pleasure in arranging my house - particularly my kitchen - so that things are sensibly arranged.
(Not to say that I don't occasionally misplace things or do stuff like put the cereal in the fridge. But I would have a hard time with someone who just put things away haphazardly).
212: Ah, excellent. Thanks, Biohazard.
My tolerance for misplaced objects is somewhat proportionate to time-sensitivity and usefulness. If you misplaced the scissors, eh, probably not that big a deal. If you can't remember where you put the spare housekey, and we're leaving on vacation in five minutes and must leave it for the pet-sitter....argggghhh.
I take pleasure in arranging my house - particularly my kitchen - so that things are sensibly arranged.
This reminds me that I know someone who is married to a person that literally never closes the kitchen cupboards. I think this would make me nearly homicidal (the risk of black eyes alone! The feeling like a maid or mother constantly clearing up behind him!), but the marriage has lasted 30+ years and seems happy. To each her own.
217: Also, the line between being totally anal about it and just having some general rules might be a fine one, but it's there. Not putting things away at all is tough but workable for me: I find the paper towels out next to the driveway, a coffee cup on the washing machine (in the basement), and so on. That's just .. leaving things where you last were. That doesn't bother me too much, most of the time; but sticking things just anywhere does.
What's really bad, though? I had a roommate years ago who left the kitchen cabinet doors all hanging open whenever she left the kitchen.
but the marriage has lasted 30+ years and seems happy.
Yeah, I don't think I am quite as intolerant as I paint myself to be here. But still. (And I have many faults, the worst of which, house-wise, is the failure to turn off the lights in the bathroom. And I occasionally leave the cabinet doors open. All the better to see everything all neatly lined up!).
Amazing -- 220.last pwned by 219. The kitchen cabinet thing infuriated me.
Heh. I do the kitchen cabinet thing. It makes CA insane and it is a joke in my family that all the open cabinets are the sure sign that I was in the kitchen. I am 5'2" -- I sail under them with no problem. CA nearly gets clocked.
Each night, as I circle the house locking up, I swing through the kitchen to close all the damn cabinet doors. I'm a fucking saint.
The kitchen cabinet thing infuriated me.
My blood pressure is going through the roof just thinking about this. Close the goddamn cabinet door! You're standing right there, for Christ's sake!
Happy birthday, Chopper, if it is your birthday!
The kitchen cabinet thing -- I nearly gave myself a black eye or a nice dent in my forehead once or twice. So yeah. I confess that I engaged in cabinet-door-slamming behavior one time, after having asked the roommate several times to please cut it out. Not my best moment, but hey.
I used to have the cabinet affliction. Not, leaving them all the way open, but also not shutting them soundly. It drove my wife crazy, I think partly because it's something her dad does. I'm somehow good about it now. Living in a smaller space where minor untidinesses echo and reverberate has helped.
Each night, as I circle the house locking up
I wonder if the time-use survey or whatever they're calling that big government data collection thing tracks this. I was an adult before it occurred to me that not everybody did the same pre-bedtime sweep through the downstairs that was common in my growing-up home.
Living alone, I often leave cabinets open while cooking, and then bend down to get something from near the floor, and raise my head back up to be impaled on the corner of a cabinet door.
I think the 2nd-gen are now $99. Not nothing, but not $599 or whatever you paid for your 1st-gen.
But I waited until the 1st-gen dropped to $399. And, frankly, I can't bear to buy the 2nd gen now that the 3rd gen is out (partly because I will keep it til it dies, so it's worthwhile to be at the front edge).
I was an adult before it occurred to me that not everybody did the same pre-bedtime sweep through the downstairs that was common in my growing-up home.
I frequently come down in the morning to find the back (kitchen) door wide open. When I tell you people I live in a dodgy neighb, bear that sort of thing in mind.
Sounds like it's not working out very well, Ned. Your lower cabinet self might have to break up with your upper cabinet self, unless you think you two can have a sober discussion about this.
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I think Iris' 4-y.o. neighbor friend (not the drug dealer's kid) is watching the new Transformers movie on bootleg. At least, that's my impression through the open window.
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Living alone, I often leave cabinets open while cooking, and then bend down to get something from near the floor, and raise my head back up to be impaled on the corner of a cabinet door.
Me too. Leaving cabinets open while actively cooking doesn't seem like such a heinous offense as walking away with them still open, and it's manifestly more dangerous to the person who leaves them open, so I feel there should be some amnesty here.
AB & I are generally compatible on picking up/putting away - or, perhaps, on average we are. She's better than I am on most things, but things that I use a lot - such as every single thing in the kitchen - I'm 10X where she is. She's annoyed that things aren't as tidy as they could be; I'm annoyed that something is burning and I can't find the damn tongs that belong RIGHT HERE.
The following is typical of neither of us: she lost her wedding ring at the zoo today (it was off for child-sunscreening purposes). We're not optimistic. I can't recall whether the ring cost more than a new iPhone. I'm quite certain that clients can't call me on her ring, however.
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Wow, the 3 obits listed on the NYT front page right now are ages 77, 88, and 99. Not a coincidence as such (I'm sure the editor knew it was happening), but still.
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234: Not true! Our last place had a tiny, tiny kitchen, with room for either two people or one person + an open cabinet door. My husband, who needs a pseud, always used to be terrible about forgetting to close the cabinet doors, but he's gotten markedly better since the day we were both in the tiny kitchen and he'd left an upper cabinet door open behind me and then I turned around and started walking. The bottom of a cabinet door is at about cheekbone height for me; I didn't get very far. I'd say it was worth it for the vindication, except that he felt so rotten.
Oh man, JRoth, poor AB. Reasoning from fairytales, you guys should catch and eat a lot of fish here for a while; her ring is bound to turn up in one of them via some convoluted pathway.
Seriously, here's hoping against hope that it turns up.
215: I told Bave, and he agrees that the entire thing is profoundly weird, even weirder than my usual shit. Part of it was a misunderstanding, and part of it was something I did that was sort of disturbing. But everyone reacted really strangely. It was confusing, and would not make a good ha-ha anecdote here.
Yeah, not really a good anecdote.
I'm going to pass out now.
Since AWB won't tell her anecdote, maybe I should tell the story of my recent adventures. I've referred to it obliquely on my blog, but haven't told the whole story because, well...
Of course, if there's no one out there reading this, I'm not going to bother.
I'm reading!
(But honesty compells me to admit that I'm going to bed soon.)
I am reading. Tell the story!
(I think I'll be up for a while. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't think through time zones when telling a colleague in Japan when I could get some results to him. Oops.)
AWB, sorry to hear that. Fun wierdness is good, but not all weirdness is good.
Okay, I'll tell. It'll take me a little while to write it up; it's pretty complicated.
So the background to the story is that every year the Sierra Club comes to the park and does projects for about a week. They make signs, work on trails, build benches, that sort of thing. This year they came for roughly the week before the Summer Solstice, which is a big deal here where there are sunrise events and dances by the modern Pueblos and, generally, a whole lot of visitors. (This year our campground is closed, which severely reduced the number of visitors, but there was still a lot going on.)
(I'm going to do this in a series of comments, since it would be insanely long as a single one.)
That way if teo doesn't type fast enough, others can fill in for him...
So anyway, about a week before the solstice the Sierra Club volunteers begin to arrive. They all arrive on their own, in separate vehicles, so they sort of trickle in over a couple of days. They're staying in the volunteer campground, and as they come in they stop by the visitor center to get vehicle permits and, if they are new, directions to the campground.
Most of the volunteers are middle-aged, as you might expect for the Sierra Club, and many have been doing this trip every year for a decade or more. It's an interesting group, but I find some of them a little hard to handle. One of them, however, is an attractive young woman, much younger than the rest of the group, who is traveling on her own and doing this as one of several activities over the summer. I'll call her "M." When she comes in to get her permit we chat a little bit, then she goes to the campground and sets up her tent.
Later that afternoon, after setting up her tent, M returns to the VC and asks about staying after the Sierra Club trip and helping out with the solstice events. They're always looking for volunteers, so that's unlikely to be a problem. She asks about camping in the regular campground during that time, since the volunteer campground will be taken over by the dancers, and we explain that the campground is closed and give her some information on alternative options.
Ooh, story hour! I got here just in time.
248: Should this start off "Dear Mineshaft, I never thought those stories were true..."?
As it happens, I'm doing a tour at 4:00 that day, which I don't ordinarily do. Around 3:45, as I'm preparing to leave, I suggest to M, who is at the VC talking about the camping thing, that she come to the tour. I'm a little concerned that there won't be many people coming on the tour, since we didn't really publicize it much over the course of the day. She seems agreeable, but when she finds out that it involves driving four miles she says that she doesn't have her car with her; she walked to the VC from the volunteer campground.
I offer to give her a ride. This is a spur-of-the-moment decision for me, and not something I've ever done before, but she's cute and I like talking to her, and I really do want to make sure there's a reasonable turnout for the tour, so I go ahead and offer. She accepts, and we head out down the canyon. We chat a bit in the car, and it's quite pleasant.
When we arrive at the site, there are a couple of other people waiting for the tour. Just then, however, it begins raining quite hard, with lightning and thunder very close, then hailing a little, and I immediately cancel the tour. We head back to the VC, and M walks back to the campground.
I certainly didn't expect the vietcong to play a role, but I'm fascinated.
After this point, things start to get pretty crazy in general at the park, what with the Sierra Club and all sorts of other stuff. I get busy with handling a variety of things, and I don't think much about M or the car ride for a few days.
258: You have your abbreviations, I have mine.
255: The ritual forms must be honored.
259 is a pretty boring ending to the story, dude.
The last day that the Sierra Club is around, I am tasked with staying with them. I'm a bit annoyed at this, since I've been given essentially no guidance about what I'm supposed to be doing except to show up at the volunteer campground in the morning then go on a hike with them in the afternoon (sort of a reward for their hard work).
So I show up in the morning, not knowing what to do. The volunteers are divided into a few different groups working on different tasks, and it appears I am to stay with the one working on stabilizing a shade shelter at the volunteer campground. I go to the VC to pick up a radio. While there I complain a bunch about the lack of guidance about what I'm supposed to do and how I'm not looking forward to the day.
While I'm at the VC, however, my coworker who lives in the apartment next to mine gives me a note she says she found on her windshield that morning. It is addressed to me, from M, and says that she stopped by the night before to ask if I wanted to come over to eat dinner, since they had lots of extra food, but that I didn't answer (I was taking a nap and didn't hear a thing), and that she hopes I can come by the next night for their margarita party on the last night they're in the park.
The note changes my mood considerably, as you might expect.
259: I get busy with handling a variety of things, and I don't think much about M or the car ride for a few days.
But one afternoon, a few days after the visit, Teo was attempting to get into his vehicl when he noticed the seat covered entirely in green, and a strange smell, like a combination of fresh pastries, rotten eggs and a newly-cleaned swimming pool permeated the vehicle...
max
['YUCK.']
265: now, filled with murderous rage, and tunelessly humming Jimmy Buffett songs to myself...
I go back to the volunteer campground and supervise the workers. M is not part of this group. It actually turns out to be a pretty restful morning.
After a lunch break (and some other drama that isn't really relevant to the rest of the story but that did stress me out again), I return to the campground to prepare for the hike. The other ranger who is coming along meets us, and we go on the hike. It's to a backcountry site that I haven't been to before, so it's pretty interesting, and while the other ranger (who has been to the site many times) does most of the explaining, he turns things over to me for a couple of topics where I happen to know quite a bit. I talk to M a bit, but can't work up the courage to mention the note.
Flashlights: Get at least one good LED light with high and low power settings that runs on CR-123A lithium batteries.
Word.
These are a fairly recent release from Cabelas. Look about the same size as the Surefire G2 and G3, which is what I use for building clearing. Same lumens with better battery life. Only problem with them from my perspective is that I'm not sure the Cabelas are the same type of pressure switch as the Surefire. I'm thinking I might get an LED for run of the mill stuff and only use the G2 for building clearing.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0063989518815a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all_NYR-search_redir&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ne=3&nyr=1&Ntt=flashlight&Ntk=Products&sort=all&PrevQuery=flashlight&N=4170+4294967277&redirect=true&Nty=1&cmCat=search_redir
About halfway through the hike, as we are walking, she turns to me and asks why my coworker and I don't park in front of the garages corresponding to our apartments. I laugh and pull out the note, which in my pocket, and we talk a little bit. The rest of the hike passes uneventfully, but I decide that I'm definitely going to that margarita party.
Another complication to the story, however, is that my mom and her sister and brother-in-law are coming to visit for the solstice weekend. They arrive in the afternoon of that same day, while I'm on the hike. When I return to the VC to return my radio, they are there, and we walk back to my apartment together.
When we get back, we have dinner, and I mention that the Sierra Club folks had invited me to their last-night dinner and that I should probably go. This is fine with them, so I head out there after dinner and they take a walk.
This story is much more interesting than flashlights.
When I arrive at the volunteer campground, M is there. She seems quite happy to see me and points me in the direction of the big pail full of margaritas. I take a cup and help myself to some, and we sit down and talk.
It is very pleasant, and we get along quite well. We have several margaritas each. It gets dark, and the Sierra Club begins to retire for the night. Clearly both M and I would like to continue talking, but we end up parting ways, she to her tent and me back to my apartment and my waiting family.
When I get back my family asks how the party was. I say it was nice.
I was going to go to bed. But now that we have a campfire story...
When I get back my family asks how the party was. I say it was nice.
And then mom demands to know if this girl is a virgin!
max
['Well, what. We got no tentacles, we got no screaming, and we have none of the thumpa-thumpa music.']
sleep is for the weak, md 20/400. Besides, it won't take much more than a couple of hours for teo to finish the story
The next day is the first solstice sunrise event. My family and I go to it, as do M and the rest of the Sierra Club volunteers. I don't talk much to M, since I'm busy with my family, but I catch her eye a couple of times. Because of my work schedule I'm able to show my family around a bit before going in to work, then my aunt and uncle go to the afternoon tour given by my colleague Joe. M goes too.
Over the course of the day, the Sierra Club volunteers leave. All of them, that is, except for M, who is staying to help with the solstice events.
A hook was caught in the door handle!
You see, when I read 'VC', I think Venture Capitalist.
I'm genuinely curious about the type of tequila involved.
The next day is the actual solstice. I don't go to the sunrise event, which turns out to be just as well since it is too cloudy to see the sun. I do have to help set up the stuff for the dances, which is kind of a pain because of the continuing lack of guidance and also because it starts to rain. We wonder if the dances will go on if it rains, but of course they will. Rain is good.
By the time of the actual dances, however, it has cleared up quite nicely. There isn't that much of a crowd, because of the campground closure and all. At the dances I see M, in her volunteer T-shirt. I walk up to her and say hi. We talk a bit. It's nice. She asks if I got my quiz. I don't know anything about a quiz. She says to check my windshield.
283: No idea. I didn't make the stuff, I just drank it.
Can I get the fixings for another s'more while there's a break in the story?
I don't go to the sunrise event, which turns out to be just as well since it is too cloudy to see the sun.
AIEEE OUR FIERY GOD HAS DESERTED US FINALLY RIOT RIOT RIOT
At the dances I see M, in her volunteer T-shirt.
This leaves much unsaid.
Only if you bring enough for everyone, Otto.
People always get s'mores wrong.
I assume that M does not look like Peter Lorre or Judi Dench.
Keep going! Keep going! Get to the quiz! Ooh if it's one of those stupid facebook quizzes I'll be pissed at the head secret agent lady.
Pwn: the sting, unexpected, burns.
Yup! And I brought back a-whole-nother bag of marshmallows and pack of Hershey Bars. Bug spray, too.
Bug spray - something I never used as a kid, something I can't be without as an adult. (Even with it, when I went camping two weeks ago, I came home with approximately 40 bug bites).
Next we could tell ghost stories, but the flashlight is somewhere else, plugged in.
Keep going! Keep going! Get to the quiz! Ooh if it's one of those stupid facebook quizzes I'll be pissed at the head secret agent lady.
Not as pissed as M was when he found out his wife had been doing the `which secret agent's a mole?' quiz on facebook...
Hey Boo Boo, Mr. Ranger is giving out s'mores.
I've got a handcrank one in my nightstand drawer ... and the ever dorky headlamp!
When I go home for my lunch break, I check my windshield. There is a note on it.
The note is indeed a quiz. Through it M expresses her regret at not having been able to attend the evening program I did the night before, on account of her solstice volunteering duties, and invites me to dinner at Joe's place the night after all the solstice excitement is over. (It turns out that she's camping in Joe's backyard, which nicely solves her camping problem.)
I'm scheduled to staff the VC in the afternoon. On my way back from lunch I stop by Joe's apartment, and find him and M there. I pull out the quiz and answer the questions. M grades it. A+.
Through it M expresses her regret at not having been able to attend the evening program I did the night before, on account of her solstice volunteering duties, and invites me to dinner at Joe's place the night after all the solstice excitement is over.
Through it how? Was the quiz hard? Did you deserve the A+?
Aw, a quiz. That's rather cute.
And the quiz said: "Who wants to sex Mutombo?!"
The afternoon and evening are fairly quiet and uneventful.
The next day we have dances again, but it's easier because we don't have to set up for them. Because of my schedule I don't have to take down anything either. Shortly after lunch my family leaves.
What kind of quiz? Pub trivia stuff? Cosmo quiz? Okcupid "r u teh man 4 me??" quiz?
"1. Are you aware that I regret not having been able to attend the evening program you did the night before, on account of my solstice volunteering duties?"
The quiz is hard to summarize without quoting verbatim, which I'm not going to do. Suffice it to say that I totally deserved the A+.
312 disproves 313. The first question was pretty much exactly that.
The second question asked if I was coming to dinner.
Geez man I woulda been like fuck all this test taking let's smoke a doob.
316: I guess that's just the difference between us, then.
During the day, Joe mentions to me that he has guests coming and he won't be able to have M stay in his yard any longer. He asks if I have space to put her up. I do.
317: well, that and the uniform.
She is thinking of staying a few more days to actually explore the park, which she hasn't been able to do while volunteering. I don't have a roommate at this point, and my family is gone, so I have plenty of space.
He asks if I have space to put her up. I do.
IYKWIMAITYD.
That night I come over to Joe's for dinner. It's just me, Joe, and M. M is rather well-dressed given the circumstances. Joe keeps the red wine flowing. At one point he goes over to a gathering in one of the other apartments and leaves us alone.
312: Apparently when he reported back to her he said that I "didn't really hesitate at all."
We hang out at Joe's place for a while, talking and drinking. After a while, I offer to give her a private showing of the presentation she missed the night before. She accepts the offer, and we head over to my place.
After a while, I offer to give her a private showing of the presentation she missed the night before
"Okay, you be the canyon..."
We sit at my desk and I go through the presentation on my computer. I haven't done it inebriated before, but I get through it fine. We are sitting very close and our legs brush against each other from time to time.
When I finish the presentation, we look at each other kind of awkwardly. We have talked about doing something together the next day, like a hike or something, so we say good night and that we'll see each other in the morning.
She starts to head out. I note that it's pretty dark out and ask if she has a head lamp. It turns out she didn't bring hers. I have one, so I offer to walk her back to Joe's. We head out the door.
It is indeed very dark, and, unlike most of the recent nights, very clear. We look up.
I go through the presentation on my computer
Powerpoint? Keynote? LaTeX Beamer Class? You're leaving out the important parts!
ACK! A quiz! I did that once... in 7th-grade.
max
['And the thumpa-thumpa is conspicuously lacking here.']
There are so many stars, and they are so visible with the lack of cloud cover or moonlight, that we lie on the ground in my driveway to look at them. She lies down first, then I lie down right next to her.
The stars are magnificent.
Yes! They are! But hockey season is over.
max
['We demand equal rights and human sacrifice!']
We talk. We see several shooting stars, and make wishes on them. We talk some more.
The stars are magnificent.
IYKWIMAITYD
After a while, I say "I'm very happy to have met you." She says "I've been waiting so long to hear that." She starts to run her fingers through my hair and mentions that she's finally getting to do that.
I kiss her on the cheek.
that we lie on the ground in my driveway to look at them.
Oh! This is fun, and rather romantic, too.
She never does make it back to Joe's that night.
She never does make it back to Joe's that night.
How does one make a cat call on a blog?
And the rest is history. She stayed with me a few more days. We did some hiking, and visited some sites both inside and out of the canyon. We also did other things.
Eventually she had to leave, to continue her adventures and do the other things she had been planning to do. We're still in touch, though, via e-mail and Facebook.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to tell it, guys. It's the sort of thing that never, like, actually happens, you know? Except that somehow it did. It was pretty amazing.
It is so sweet that I'm actually restraining myself from picking the low hanging fruit.
347: I gathered. That's a very sweet tale, teo. I hope the two of you keep in touch.
It is remarkable. Huzzah, romance!
That was a totally sweet and awesome story, Teo. Just the kind of thing you'd wish for someone. Huzzah!
Yay, Teo. Except that sort of stuff happens all the time.
max
['Well, it does.']
354: I am pleased that this story confirms that I was right both about what young people get up to when they work as park rangers and your particular appeal. If I could find it, I'd link to the particular comment where I told you you'd figure this stuff out sooner rather than later.
I have reason to suspect, eg the 264/265 sequence, that teo split his story up into many parts not because telling it integrally would make for a very long comment, but rather to manipulate the pacing for dramatic effect!
You know, I don't think I realized that it actually took over an hour to tell that story - it was that engrossing! (Or, you know, I was doing a lot of other things and hitting refresh every so often).
I guess I should start looking more seriously into doing a service trip.
Yay, Teo. That's a lovely story.
So but wait, why didn't she make it back? Was your car busted or something?
Nice try with the cockblocks there, Teo, though ultimately unsuccessful. Don't make a habit of this or we'll have to ban you.
Nice. But, tonight we want the expanded version of 241.last.
(I'm going to do this in a series of comments, since it would be insanely long as a single one.)
As practical as this surely was last night, it made it very difficult for me to find the beginning of the story what with all the intervening s'mores and such. But, damn, totally worth the effort. You are a gem, teo. Yay happy endings!
369: Yay happy endings!
And it sounds like it worked out romantically as well.
Excellent story, and made all the better by the fact that Teo apparently managed to carry off being devastatingly attractive while wearing a Smokey the Bear hat, which a lesser man might have found a handicap.
(And on the leaving things in funny places and leaving cabinet doors open front: I apologize not only to Buck, but to anyone else I've ever shared living space with. I know my conduct is indefensible, but I can't help myself.)
Woo, teo! (and yay, M, who sounds like a go-getter herself). I'm glad you shared the story.
Teo apparently managed to carry off being devastatingly attractive while wearing a Smokey the Bear hat,
That reminds me -- does the Flickr pool have a picture of uniformed Teo? Recent developments obviously cry out for one.
369: I just went to the top of this thread and searched down on Teo's handle until I arrived at the comment which was obviously the beginning of the story.
I was sad to miss all the S'mores, but it was a great story, well-told.
leaving things in funny places and leaving cabinet doors open
We really should have married each other, LB.
We really should have married each other, LB.
As a first marriage or second?
Huzzah, teo. Summer lovin', &c.
Notes on windshields is so 0.2.
One of the absolute highlights of my life, a hot 23-y.o. Russian left a note on my windshield when I was 20. She had seen me parallel parking, and basically all I did was give her a smile and make a little joke. I'm pretty sure I still have the note.
What coast is Sifu on, and how was he awake for the campfire story and for the morning crew?
teo! I had to bail last night (still sleep deprived from my trip, and had an early morning), but caught up this morning. Good story. See? This sort of thing does happen, you just didn't believe us before.
I was sad to miss all the S'mores, but it was a great story, well-told.
If you missed the s'mores, you missed the first chunk of the story, too.
382: What, was it on another thread? Which one?
357: I think it's more the person than the profession. Gregarious, kinetically-gifted* people have serendipitous romantic interludes whether they are park rangers or high school physics teachers**. Those traits may predispose people to certain careers, but it's far from determinative.
* Body-conscious? Physically-active? Outdoors-minded? Some Myers-Briggs phenotype? It seems like there should be some term to encapsulate what I'm thinking of, the kind of person who leads hiking groups, genuinely enjoys their body both sexually and not, etc. It's that attitude that correlates with natural attractiveness even if not necessarily with being tall, well-groomed and having symmetrical features.
** IYKWIM.
383: It started way before the s'mores, is all.
There is something to 384, but it's not all of it, I think.
276: Nah, despite the pangs of guilt, I like having a tidy person in the house to raise the children right and close the cabinet doors after me -- I approve of tidiness, I just can't achieve it. And it shortcircuits any conflict over housekeeping; I'm so far behind on any measurement of keeping the household running that the solution to anything left undone is that that bit should have been my problem.
I'm less clear on how Buck tolerates the arrangement, but so long as he hasn't tossed my stuff out on the stoop, I figure we're good. I do bake cakes and generate lace doiles, which is some sort of contribution, however useless.
I do [...] generate lace doiles IYKWIM.
Hooray, Teo. That sounds so, so lovely.
385.last: maybe. What are you thinking of? I think it applies to me pretty well, on both the negative and positive ends at various times. FTR, I think I have become more like that word I couldn't find over the past year, but who can judge themselves on stuff like this?
Hope I'm not raining on the parade or anything. Good for you, teo.
389:
Only that I've known many people for whom this:
Gregarious, kinetically-gifted*
is no kind of accurate description at all, yet who also regularly have serendipitous romantic interludes. So while I think your description is a pretty good outline of why some people do this, and some people don't, it's by no means complete.
kinetically-gifted
Bends spoons?
390 gets it right. Being extremely drunk also sometimes leads to such interludes. The mutual discovery that you can stand one another in the morning can seem like a huge romantic breakthrough.
Yes, what 390 and 391 said. General self-confidence is amazingly effective, it doesn't really matter what the source of the confidence is -- physical self-confidence is one of them, but it needn't be that. We all probably have physically unprepossessing friends who are nonetheless hoaching with members of the appropriate sex.
Plus, booze.
See how much more boring life, or at least vocabularly, would be without ttaM around, LB?
re: 393
Yes, sense 1 of the urban dictionary entry.
http://waf.eps.hw.ac.uk/Word%20of%20the%20Week%20pages/SWOW%20archive%20page%206.htm#hoach
Is quite a good definition.
"covered by a mass of living things/people, infested"
So, pretty much "lousy" in the "lousy with" sense.
Interestingly, hoaching has become hooching down South. As in "that kitten is hooching with fleas" (I'm assuming the Scots came up with the word first, 'cause Lord knows there is nothing else to up there besides drinking.)
385: It started way before the s'mores, is all.
Yes, I know. That's because I started at the top of the thread, searched down on Teo until I got to the comment that started the story, and read on from there. But when I got to the S'mores, I was sorry I'd missed them. Clearer now?
360: that teo split his story up into many parts not because telling it integrally would make for a very long comment, but rather to manipulate the pacing for dramatic effect!
Well, yeah.
'Dear Penthouse Letters,
I was trolling a blog when...'
Thus I was all waiting for the dramatic 'Teo gets laid' denouement so I could go to sleep.
max
['Stop teasing me, I'm tired.']
I guess I should start looking more seriously into doing a service trip.
I don't think you're teo's type, neb.
Thanks, everyone. I just uploaded some pictures of me in uniform to the Flickr group. This one is my current Facebook profile picture.
Precisely what I was thinking.
Yep, it fits the pattern exactly.
I realized after uploading it that you can see my nametag pretty clearly in that one, so I made it private. (It should still be visible in the Unfogged pool.) Here's a better one.
I contest your assessment of betterness.
"Better" in the sense of "less identity-revealing," Mr. Nosflow.
408: Yay, Teo. That's a lovely picture, and you look lovely too.
404: Damn, is that uniform working for you.
As a first marriage or second?
Will trawls even for imaginary divorce cases.
Be kind, Sir Kraab, there's a recession on and business is tough.
Probably plenty of divorces. It's just that minor "getting paid" detail that gets harder.
Hey soup, e-mail me at pseud at geemail, wouldya?
Awww, I just read the Teo story. That's so happy.
416: missed that, Sir Kraab --- mail sent now!