Flying Shortbread

One other variable worth mentioning is that Bush was elected in 2000, a year in the 20-year cycle of Tecumseh's curse, which declared that U.S. presidents elected then would not complete their terms. In 1811, the Indian chief Tecumseh was defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe by William Henry Harrison. Legend has it he sent Harrison word that he - and "every Great Chief chosen every 20 years thereafter [would] die" - as a reminder of the death of Tecumseh's people….United States President Harrison did die of pneumonia in 1841. And with only one exception, all American presidents elected in a year divisible by 20 since that time have also died in office. This "curse" coincides with the astrological Jupiter/Saturn cycle, also a cycle of 20 years. The presidents who fell prey to the curse all were elected in years when Jupiter and Saturn conjoined in an earth sign. The lone president to survive the curse since 1840 has been President Reagan, whose 1980 election ...

In the late 1960's a Texas legislator became annoyed with his fellow legislators' habit of passing bills without giving them proper study and consideration. He therefore introduced a bill commending Mr. Albert DiSalvo for his outstanding work in population control. At the time, Mr. DiSalvo was on trial for a series of murders and was better known by his nickname, The Boston Strangler. The Bill passed unanimously.

Because when you teach you are paid no matter what, and because you are given the time, you can spend time working out what the best way is to communicate with students. You can experiment with different communication techniques, and put your hand on their arm. You are exposed to trillions of students, all different levels of grasping and you learn how to adjust yourself. Whereas in the commercial world you don't get paid no matter what, and you rarely have the time. People are so busy planning what to put on their CVs that they never think about what the best way to communicate something would be - their way is the efficient way and if you cannot understand then there is something wrong with you. You're fired.

A crowd is a queue that let go. Ellen Degeneres

"Stalkers don't listen well"... Why are you speaking to them? You care too much what people think. Just cut her off. Snip. Do it now, before you become emotionally involved. I had a friend that I did this whole trip with and eventually I had to cut her off anyway. There are only two ways: 1. Either you just snippety. 2. Or you enjoy the attention, smoke the cigarettes, make them cook for you, buy you chocolates, revel in the attention... and then ten years later, snippety. Either way it's snippety. Just one way you feel guilty and the other way you feel horribly guilty. I would send an email to the stalker, and apologize for sending one. Hi Hitler You are driving me bats, please will you f**off and leave me the hell alone. Thanks Froglet PS: I mean it, pig. ... I just nipped out to the video store and the counterperson made a nasty comment about Brokeback Mountain. Tip: What you need before writing the f**off letter is to get someone in a conversation abo...

A friend wrote: We have problem there. The way we watch movies (you and me) is very much the same way in which we approach new social situations. With anything new, you (Fetsiboomsticks) zone in on particular details / people, attach, interact. Your commitment to the interaction causes you to have to sacrifice some of the details and facts, no one can be everywhere at once. You walk away with a good idea of the all over 'vibe' that was present at the time and what views who held and what their interests were, those that got your attention anyway. But all the background noise and activity slipped by unnoticed. Me, new people, I withdraw, look on from the distance, expend no energy on the interaction, so there is quite a substantial bit of energy left to employ peripheral vision along with the normal absorption of details. I see who talks to who, where they're standing, who they're comfortable talking to, what they're drinking, who's hiding by omitting, who...

I like mine better... Froglet: ROFLMFAO? Roll Over Fuckhead and Leave Me the Fuck Alone Olready? Grin. Ruplestilt: ROFLMFAO = Rolling on floor laughing my f*ing ass off

It's like genes are to biology what memes are to sociology. Well semiotics is kinda like the study of memes. Semiotics assumes linguistic principles in everything - and my thing that I like is how movie construction is like a language, a visual language, with linguistic units, that become slang and get passed around like sluts.

TeenyPen lives in Texas, and has been to South Africa and loved it. He is writing a gender critical critique of the Bible: I wrote: Oh my goodness, that's brilliant. I am looking forward to your book. You are being cagey about the title I guess it's not settled yet, so I guess I shouldn't press you. I have filled it into my iCal (digital calendar) to remind me in 2 years time to check for it. It impresses me when people actually do something, like you. Cape Town is great. People are so open and sharing, if you know them. And the culture stuff is good too. And there is no more beautiful place in South Africa, unless you like desert. My favorite places are north. It's quiet and the roads are open and there are no people. Now and then you see strange looking bushes. People are helpful and don't try to take advantage of you. There's little or no racism up there, people have lived together, sharing minimal resources for decades, and it's made them generous. ...

Ruplestilt: ...is that if feminists did indeed open up and allow me in, and come to the realisation that men are indeed not ALL the same ... Froglet: Ditto (feminist) women. Ruplestilt: ...then the foundation of an often very deep-rooted belief system has been seriously shaken ... and this is something that is much, much harder to deal with than to keep holding onto the notion that all men are assholes. Froglet: As difficult for (sexist) men to deal with the notion that all women are not (and I intend the crude reference) assholes. (Ooh, that was aggressive, can I take it back?) I am actually in a wonderful mood and couldn't resist the parry.

(I was on top form the whole weekend, I was looking at myself astounded by my giftful gabbing). After Brokeback Mountain we went into Cappuccino's and had a coffee before going home. They have this circular smoking area. (I don't smoke but I prefer the vibe in the smoking areas, all those other verkrampte, "Eeeee, the secondhand smoke is killing me" whiners can sit together in the boring section if they want to). The smoking room opens without a door onto the outside of the restaurant (this is important for the next bit of the story... that there is a cave-like element to this layout, although not the design of the place.) But I didn't know that the movie was so long and I thought they were packing up the tables at, like, ten o'clock (it was closer to midnight). But no matter, the place where we were sitting was open and not-lock-upable) and the chairs built-in so I let them take the table and everything. But still the waiters hung around. Eventually the sig...

Ruplestilt TOE-CRUNCHING is an easier letter to respond to. I have Pisces in the 6th House which governs competence. And it is remarkable how many ideas we have in common ('selfish' notion). And how strangely differing the ones we don't agree on are ('titling' notion). Do you think that the ones we have in common are Astrological and the ones we don't are Genderal? I am a Libran, don't puke. I am fortunate that my Libran tendencies are mediated by my Gemini moon rising, and the cat-o-nine-tails universe I live in, cheerfully. I was also grinning. You can't just go around naming new friends by who is gushing on you. My goodness, have some discretion, man. I compliment where compliment is due, I am not shy. I know what hard work it took for you to think like you do, that you are even prepared to engage the issue is HUGE. Now prepare yourself, I am going to share my beliefs, but you will have to consider very hard if you are going to punish me for...

I love to read. But when I go into that world, I don't want to be thrown back into my chair every two minutes. I want to stay there and be there till the end of the book. I buy really thick books so that the end is delayed. What would be more convenient is if they wrote online into blogs for years until they died. I think John Irving should consider doing this, and Stephen King. That way I could wait until they died, quit my job and start reading. That is doing it to the max. What frustrates me is that when Homegirl sees my face behind a book, she will come into the room every two minutes and ask me something until I give up reading the book. So in defence I read books that are interruptible, non-fiction, bitty things. A novel is just too traumatic.

"Staging a persona" is such a good way of putting it. "It's not Tourette's, it's 'staging a persona'."

Just as it has been done for years in Hollywood, the roll of the black male in this movie is quickly reduced to that of weakness and ignorance. At every turn, the black man is portrayed as either powerless or out of control (Howard) while the white man gets away with murder, and more specifically in Dillon's case, saves the day (that is, saves the life of a black women he initially harasses both racially and sexually). Furthermore Dillon's cop character is classic American myth! Although it is established early on that he is deeply flawed, it is ultimately suggested that his sins are to be forgiven due to his heroics. Because Dillon's character is never held accountable for his repugnance and moreover in the end romanticized, "Crash" does more to uphold the subconscious structures of white supremacy than destroy them. Nate Mezmer

And if anyone reading this believes that gay men can actually become ex-gay men, I have just one question for you: Would you want your daughter to marry one? Evangelical Christians seem sincere in their desire to help build healthy, lasting marriages. Well, if that's their goal, encouraging gay men to enter into straight marriages is a peculiar strategy. Every straight marriage that includes a gay husband is one Web-browser-history check away from an ugly divorce. Dan Savage If not, you believe that homosexuality is innate, and that the homosexual cannot 'decide' to be heterosexual.

Newspapers, who are complaining about falling ratings, should think about this. Mediabistro and Savage were discussing that some or other newspaper censored a Doonesbury comic because it mentioned masturbation. If you don't have anything in your paper that's going to upset a five-year-old then 35-year-olds are going to look elsewhere for the kind of writing that appeals to them and speaks to them...I think the comics page is really the bellwether of the health of the daily newspaper. Dan Savage

What would happen, if, just because, one replaced a word with 'pants' in some of the Star Wars dialogue? We’ve got to be able to get some reading on those pants, up or down. The pants may not look like much, kid, but they’ve got it where it counts. I find your lack of pants disturbing. Many Bobans died to bring us these pants. These pants contain the ultimate power in the Universe. I suggest we use it. Han will have those pants down. We’ve got to give him more time! General Veers, prepare your pants for a ground assault. I used to bulls-eye womp rats in my pants back home. TK-421... Why aren’t you in your pants? Lock the door. And hope they don’t have pants. You are unwise to lower your pants. She must have hidden the plans in her pants. Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally Commander. Governor Tarkin. I recognized your foul pants when I was brought on board. You look strong enough to pull the pants off a Gundark. Luke... H...