discoveries from the internets and some stuff I wrote too
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recent quotes i like
"Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." - ? | | | | | | |
"If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice. " - shane claiborne | | | | | | |
"If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell ||||||
"On Facebook, no one can hear you scream." - I dont know ||||||
"The reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it." - Machiavelli ||||||
Chest of Drawers
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This chest of drawers is to replace the cheap stand (with no storage) that
was previously holding up our parrot's travel cage. She only lives with us
a few...
An important message from Consumer Reports
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This is our last post on Consumerist.com. We’re deeply proud of all the
work we’ve done on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by
secretive ...
It Is Accomplished
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As Gandhi never quite said, First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.
Then they attack you. Then you win. I remember one of the first TV debates
I had...
My Milk Toof Travel Update
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*Dear International readers from Southeast France!*
ickle, Lardee & myself will be traveling around the southeast of France
area from 06/02-06/20. If anyo...
Saint Francis of Assisi
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… everyone who follows Christ receives true peace, the peace that Christ
alone can give, a peace which the world cannot give. Many people, when they
think ...
X-Factor Auditions, Part Two: The registration...
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Kind of creepy to be walking around White Plains at 4:30 in the morning. No
lights on, no cars, no people. I felt like I was in a zombie movie. And,
really...
Though it’s not exactly independent, the tiny Republic of Kalmykia is a self-governing member state of the Russian Federation. Located just west of the Caspian Sea and not far from Ukraine, it’s a bit of an oddity in über-secular Russia for the prominence that Kalmykian leaders give to spirituality — all the more so because rather than Russian Orthodox Christianity, most Kalmykians follow Tibetan Buddhism.
"It has also become famous because its current government has made it the chess center of the world....
...the unfolding collapse in housing values has obliterated an estimated $4 trillion in home equity, which will cause millions of households to lose their homes through foreclosure. The bear market - the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 40 percent from its peak - has eliminated additional trillions of dollars in stockholders' wealth. Also, last month the unemployment rate reached its highest level (6.7 percent) in more than 15 years.
But by comparison, at its nadir the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 90 percent of its value in the Great Depression, when the unemployment rate peaked at 24.9 percent and economic output declined by 13 percent in a single year. (Even if the gross domestic product plunges by an annual rate of 5 percent during the fourth quarter, GDP will still be 1.2 percent higher in 2008 than it was last year.)
louie got a big letter C and a matching letter P - man was he happy with it!
look at all the baskets of christmas cookies!
the booze was in short supply though, only three bottles. and i didn't want to mention it in front of everybody but jeez christina and johnny, don't you think your outfits were a little risque for a family party?
but everybody forgot about that when the entertainments showed up.
finally everyone crashed from a massive sugar overdose...
upon firther consideration I have found the following britisms to be a problem for my ears:
knickers
Sod off. take some grass away from here? ok, no problem, whatever....
a quote from a brit
In rural Yorkshire I always liked, when addressed to people who jumped the gun, "Ye're a bit previous, love". Delicious. It speaks exactly to the Yorkshire ear. It is thus perfect. Do not be previous, dear readers.
and the following amerisms to likewise present a problem:
Happy Holidays - perhaps it is an inevitable result of America being the reciever of lost souls the world over, VS Britain which has the luxury of an "indigenous" culture. If we truly wanted to "Go American" we would be obliged to say ------insert native American phrase here--------. another point to be considered is that it arose first as a way of wishing someone BOTH a Merry Christmas and also a Happy New Year and was only later transferred for usage as a generic religious sentiment meant not to offend.
"Knowest thou not that tongues change with the passage of years?" What Englishman would have understaood the "Queens, or rather Kings, English" of the Middle Period? If there is a language that cannot complain about adoption of "foriegn" usages and words it is the english language, the mutt of the world. Comprised of Celtic, Norse, French and Latin words even before Shakesphere arrived on the scene, can anyone claim to speak the "original" English of England? And then we have all of the words we have inherited from our various colonial excercises - Barbeque, Voodo, ...........
American english has also picked up words from the BBC programs. Absolutely Fabulous and Little Britain among them. Not to mention Monty Python and friends... It's usually the "dregs" who pick up these words first - the gays and the druggies. They use them often enough that they eventually transfer over to "American."
Many Americanisms are simply hold-overs from the immigrants who brought Scottish and Irish style English to America, as are many of our "American" pronunciations. The Scottish very open "A" and "E"...
Americans have developed the art of cordial introduction to strangers because we are a nation of immigrants. and immigrants that, once settled, do not stay settled long, but often continue westward. When you have moved from a foriegn country, then to Northeast America (NY, Philly, Boston etc) and then later move to the South or Midwest or West Coast. You needed to develop politeness and common everyday courtesy even if it was insincere, just to survive in your new locale. it's still very common for American to move from one coast to the other "without thinking twice" about it. This move would be the geographical equivalent of moving from London to Moscow, so a friendly and informal means of communication is necessary unless one wants to languish in social exile for 20 years before the neighbors accept you as one of them.
a very common Americanism is to transfer a noun into a verb - such as "Meeting," "Gift," "Lunch," "Let's have a to-do" (party,) but is it so different from "Let's go for a run?" or "Let's have an outing?" i do agree that simply adding the suffix "-ize" to a noun does not make it an accepted usage.
Restroom. "Powder my nose"
"In 1898, when Otto von Bismarck was an old man, a journalist asked him what he took to be the decisive factor in modern history. He answered, "The fact that the North Americans speak English."
Pretty prescient for 1898.
English isn't the 'world language' because the Brits speak it. Its the world language because the Americans speak it. (Segue ... 'American' really means anyone from the Americas, but this plays to a point that I'm about to make. Language is what works in the ears of the listener, the eyes of the reader).
So if Americanisms (or Geordieisms or my native Yorkshireisms) transmit precisely to the listener the sentiment in the mind of the broadcaster the job is well done.
But lower, lowest, on the totem pole are the picky who think English is static, has much to do with England anymore. Who affect an unwarranted superiority by virtue of accident of birth. The English language is simply a tool most of the time - less importantly a study and even a delight for relatively few. Kinda like stamps. Or cow creamers.
Here's an economical example of perfect communication I enjoyed between married professionals in upstate New York some years ago. Each had returned to their home wherein I was a guest, exhausted from trying days in the world of psychology, their profession.
"Jeet?" "Jew"" "Seat""
"Americans themselves ...generally admit that a British accent sounds smarter and more sophisticated)"
Some Americanisms are actually more faithfully "old-school" "British" than the modern current Britisms. For example:
More southern English - pronunciations etc.
As for the whole bathroom problem: May I partake of your chamber of Excremeditation?
I will have more to say on this subject soon and will add a second post but for now....
I was inspired by an article in the UK based Telegraph concerning annoying Americanisms that the British cannot stand to write the following article:
First, the original article located here lists some rather lame "americanisms", one in particular that I myself have never heard. But it sparked off a very lively debate in the comments section.
First I will give my take on this subject and later I will include a few illuminating quotes from the comments.
My take:
I signed up as a member from all the way over here in New Jersey just so I could comment on this article :)
I actually found the examples of Americanisms and Britisms in the comments section to be much better than those in the actual article. (Sorry Toby.) As for those in the article I also have never heard "let's visit" - a better example would be something like "let's do lunch" - it captures the insincerity much better and is a common phrase among the "lady's who lunch" and American businesspeople who have no intention of ever having lunch with said invitee. Saying "You're welcome" is standard American usage and I was surprised to hear that it was grating at all - what does one say on your side of the pond in response to "thank you?" Perhaps in some shops and other crowded public places a non-response is normal? Maybe "Bitte" or "De Nada"?
I agree with our overly euphemistic "bathroom" used in place of toilet. But I must add that the Germans use WC for toilet because they learned the phrase "water closet" from the Brits - water closet is completely meaningless here in the states.
Some Americanisms I myself hate are:
"New and Improved!" used on advertisements - how can something be entirely new and yet also improved at the same time?
"I could care less" or "I could give a sh_t" - when it should say "couldn't care less"
"You's guys" - this one I don't hate but in fact cherish as a colloquial localism centered mostly around New York and New Jersey that Americans from other areas would also balk at. And I can concede that it would be grating on the ears of non-users. My friend Colleen moved from New Jersey to West Virginia (about a 2-3 hour drive, short for us!) and took a job as a waitress. She walked up to a table of older southern women and said "What would yous guys like?" Their silent look of bewilderment at the inappropriate gender usage cured her of that habit. However, within the NY/NJ area both "yous" (plural you - akin to the southern use of "ya'll") and "guys" for anyone of any gender are completely commonplace - and perhaps even a bit cutting edge "politically correct" (another Americanism I don't care for.)
And of course there are the various American pronunciations of words that set certain regions in the states against one another as well as against Britain. For example - one can immediately identify a fellow southern New Jersey/Philadelphia native by the pronunciation of water as "wooder." And there is the ongoing division of calling beverages such as Coca Cola either Soda or Pop. If you say pop in my region people would automatically inquire as to where you were from.
And the Britisms (and Australisms and Kiwi-isms and Canadian-isms) are:
"Bloody" - reminds me of "gosh" - too afraid to say "damned".
"Mate" - I know it's along the lines of a pair of gloves or shoes but it just makes Americans think of mating animals and thus carries a subtle homoerotic undertone.
"Care for a SPOT of tea?" - not really, I would prefer an entire cup, not just a spot accidentally spilled on the table cloth.
"Bonzer," "Walkabout," "Joey" and the many other silly Australianisms out there. I mostly hate these because there is a chain of restaurants here in the States called "Outback" that makes a big point of using these phrases in their marketing. If I actually met an Australian, like, for instance, Hugh Grant, and he said that he found me to be simply "Bonzers," I would probably melt on the spot as there is nothing sexier than an Australian accent (except maybe an Italian accent or perhaps French)to an American.
"Eh" and "Aboot" as Canadianisms.
...and I'm sure that's just the beginning as I could think of many others given a little more time.
for now, Matt p.s. let's do lunch some time ok?
The below mapto the left shows the percentage of Americans who list their ancestry as "American" on their census cards. Note that it has no correlation to native American populated areas but rather to the "hick belt" or "bible belt" and would probably indicate something along the lines of general education and sophistication.
ok, and here are some quotes i liked from the other folks:
"In 1898, when Otto von Bismarck was an
old man, a journalist asked him what he
took to be the decisive factor in modern
history. He answered, "The fact that the
North Americans speak English."
Pretty prescient for 1898.
English isn't the 'world language' because
the Brits speak it. Its the world language
because the Americans speak it. (Segue ...
'American' really means anyone from the
Americas, but this plays to a point that
I'm about to make. Language is what works
in the ears of the listener, the eyes of
the reader).
So if Americanisms (or Geordieisms or my native Yorkshireisms) transmit precisely to the listener the sentiment in the mind of the broadcaster the job is well done.
In rural Yorkshire I always liked, when addressed to people who jumped the gun, "Ye're a bit previous, love". Delicious. It speaks exactly to the Yorkshire ear. It is thus perfect. Do not be previous, dear readers.
But lower, lowest, on the totem pole are the picky who think English is static, has much to do with England anymore. Who affect an unwarranted superiority by virtue of accident of birth. The English language is simply a tool most of the time - less importantly a study and even a delight for relatively few. Kinda like stamps. Or cow creamers.
Here's an economical example of perfect communication I enjoyed between married professionals in upstate New York some years ago. Each had retruned to their home wherein I was a guest, exhausted from trying days in the world of psychology, their profession.
"Jeet?" "Jew"" "Seat"
or in my hearing of the story - "jeet? no jew? i did, jew?"
i came across this email exchange from the same folks who tried to pay thier bill with a drawing of a spider. this one starts out as per below and continues on and on and gets pretty darn great .
From: David Thorne Date: Monday 8 Dec 2008 11.04am To: Matthew Smythe Subject: R.S.V.P.
Dear Matthew, Thankyou for the party invite. At first glance I thought it may be a child's party what with it being vibrant and having balloons but I realise you probably did your best with what little tools were available. I wouldn't miss it for the world. What time would you like me there?
I wonder: instead of forced divorce in California, why not civil unions or civil marriages for all?
Now our Attorney General Jerry Brown fights forced divorce (arguing in part that the initiative was in fact a Constitutional amendment requiring a higher threshold for ballot placement and passage so should be nullified on procedural grounds). And we will be told repeatedly that while Proposition 8 proponents support civil unions for same sex couples, they must force divorce because same sex marriage violates their religious beliefs. That to me sounds like a great argument for rendering civil contract rights unto Caesar and marriage ceremonies unto God. Let loving, consenting adults form civil unions under a common law while clergy perform marriages for some of those couples under the covenants of their faith. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-pelosi/prop-8---instead-of-force_b_152614.html
now a review of the film with an atypical take from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/movies/19wond.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss:
MR. ELLMAN didn’t tell us why he wanted us to stay after school that December afternoon in 1981. When we got to the classroom — cinderblock walls, like all the others, with a dreary view of the parking lot — we smelled popcorn.
...Mr. Ellman started the projector whirring. “It’s a Wonderful Life” filled the screen.
I was not a mushy kid. My ears were fed a steady stream of the Clash and the Jam, and I was doing my best to conjure a dyed-haired, wry, angry-young-man teenage persona. But I was enthralled that afternoon in Brooklyn. In the years that followed, my affection for “It’s a Wonderful Life” has never waned, despite the film’s overexposure and sugar-sweet marketing, and the rolling eyes of friends and family.
Lots of people love this movie of course. But I’m convinced it’s for the wrong reasons. Because to me “It’s a Wonderful Life” is anything but a cheery holiday tale.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.
and then we have some trivia about the film from http://www.neatorama.com/2008/12/21/its-a-wonderful-post/
• You’ll never hear him referenced by name in the movie, but the script for IAWL says the head angel (not Clarence’s boss Joseph, but his superior) is named Franklin. Why Franklin? Well, originally, the head angel was going to be Benjamin Franklin. He was going to be shown up in heaven, tinkering away at one of his many inventions.
• The movie started as The Greatest Gift, a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern. RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story and started to rewrite some of it, but it was going nowhere fast. Ideas including Uncle Billy committing suicide and a “Good George” battling “Bad George”. Frank Capra loved the story, though, and used his own cash to buy the story from RKO. Although a few of the RKO scenes were kept, including the scene at the dance, Capra and his writers (including Dorothy Parker, who was never credited) rescued It’s a Wonderful Life and made it the classic it is today
• When you see the boys sledding near the beginning of the movie, there’s a lot going on here. First of all, all of them are wearing caps with skull and crossbones. That’s because they all belong to a secret club (boys only, I’m sure). And among the boys there are Ernie and Sam Wainwright. Ernie isn’t ever referenced in the movie, but you know it’s Sam because he gives his “hee haw” sign. Also, if you look close, you’ll see that they are trespassing on old man Potter’s territory. In an earlier version of the script, Potter let his attack dogs loose (”Smithers, release the hounds.”) on the boys, and when they started running, Harry fell through the ice.
• Donna Reed grew up just outside of Denison, Iowa (not too far from Des Moines) and won a bet with Lionel Barrymore, the actor who played Mr. Potter, when he bet her that she couldn’t milk a cow. Apparently she was also an accomplished baker - her rolls won a coveted blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair when she was just 13.
• Sure, the movie looks like it takes place in a snowy December setting. But it was actually filmed during a heat wave in California (that gym with the swimming pool under the floor is Beverly Hills High School). It got so unbearable that Frank Capra actually gave everyone a day off to recover from a hard, hot day of shooting.
• The FBI kept a file on Frank Capra because they felt that It’s a Wonderful Life was nothing more than Communist propaganda. Comments included the observation that the Mr. Potter character was obviously an attempt to discredit bankers.
• Zuzu’s name comes from ZuZu gingersnaps. Jimmy Stewart cleverly calls her a little ginger snap near the end of the movie, alluding to the origins of her name. Also, there used to be an all-girl band called Zuzu’s Petals - the lead singer of the band, Laurie Lindeen, is married to former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg.
• Since Sesame Street first introduced our favorite Muppet odd couple, there has been speculation that they were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the cab driver from It’s a Wonderful Life. Not true, says longtime Muppet writer and puppeteer Jerry Juhl. It’s just a coincidence.
• And, finally, a bit of thievery from my mental_floss post on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation - The Capra family must have Christmas in their genes. The assistant director of Christmas Vacation, Frank Capra III, is the grandson of the legendary Frank Capra, who directed It’s a Wonderful Life. The part where Clark “fixes” the newel post by sawing it off with a chainsaw is an homage to It’s a Wonderful Life – the newel post at the Bailey’s house was also loose. Also, Russ is watching It’s a Wonderful Life on TV when his grandparents arrive.
UPDATE: Mellissa's own words regarding Rick Warren and Saddleback Chruch:
Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world's attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don't hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.
let's say i am wearing a baseball cap. now what if i want to call it a yamaka? you know- it's basically the same thing, but one is missing the sun visor. i don't call my caps yamakas... cuz that is a religious name for a hat that is worn by religious people. now if i apply that thinking to this situation.... i would like to think of it as.... if they afford us the EXACT SAME RIGHTS, then who cares what it's called? my friend joel can wear his yamaka. i can wear my hat. joel can light his menorah, i'll light my candle. joel can eat his matzo ball soup, and i can break crackers into my soup. joel and hanna can have a piece of paper with the word MARRIAGE on it, and all 1200 rights... and i can have a piece of paper with who-cares on it, and all 1200 rights. the word marriage is a religious, holy, word that people who go to church on sundays are told belongs to them. like yamaka, menorah, or matzo.
rick is not a televangelist. rick is not falwell. rick spoke of some "stupid" things he's said (his word, not mine), some missquotes that were given, and lots of ammunition from the media. all excellent points. (we're all war-minded right now, you know. it's easy for the media to distract us by throwing us into our own verbal wars here at home.) ) what to do, what to do.... the rest of the public is given an animation of rick warren... and then my wife meets the man behind the projections, the quotes, the "OTHER SIDE". and he is warm, caring, effusive, and LOVES gays. since he nearly swallowed honey when he hugged her, i tend to believe him. he wants our gay marriages to be just as respected and embraced as the straight marriages. he just wants to wear his yamaka, and me wear my hat.
anway. hath hell frozenth over? rick warren was humble and kind. honey and i are to go to his church sometime soon. and honey invited him to our house for an afternoon, to be with our family. (w.t.f.) her full blog post.
at first i thought these video personal ads were tragic and depressing - but you know what - i decided they are truly inspiring because you know what, God Bless 'Em, they are still trying and looking and optimistic enough to put themselves out there and, well, some of them could probably really enjoy each other's company so go for it! "Hope springs eternal!"
here are a couple more hotties who are most likely currently looking for YOUR love!
"trenita": "Ronald, The Questionably Blind Pirate":
"Audrey, The Lady With The Hormones Of A 14-Year-Old Boy":
"David, The Androgynous Rosie O'Donnell Impersonator And Human Equivalent Of NyQuil":
and oh, there are so many more collected at the site below:
Dating On Demand, as it turns out, is a national VOD service offered by cable provider Comcast that airs three to five minute-long profiles of those who are single and looking. What's great about the service is that it not only gives love-hungry viewers the opportunity to see and hear their possible mates in a manner not necessarily afforded to them by Match.com or Chemistry.com, but the videos get leaked online! Score one for me!
see how many strange things and odd expressions YOU can find in this photo - was this the result of a very clever post-modern photographer or just an accidentally genius photo?
a lot is not obvious in this little version of the pic that blogger will allow me to post on the home page so you can either click the photo to see a higher resolution version or - here is a full size copy of the photo and lots of comments on some of the weirdness you might not notice at first glance:
This is a photo released by China's official news agency, in what one can only assume was a misguided attempt to demonstrate how bad-ass their anti-terrorism cops are.
she is a bit sensitive about the whole "you-can't-possibly-be-12-thing" so don't mention it! but she is rather brilliant and extremely up to date on culture and makes some wonderful observations about society and herself. I won't go on any further because she recently had a post asking people not to write about her - so i will let her write for herself:
17.12.08 i am a thing-finder, and when you're a thing-finder, you don't have a minute to spare Today I was Pippi Longstocking for my week of book characters, something my mother was quite happy about because Astrid Lindgren was Swedish and to my mother that is technically Norway so basically since she's from Norway that makes her a groundbreaking author that wrote about some red-headed chick that never went to school and lived in a sick house with some random monkey and horse. Obvz.Pippi does not have nearly as much depth to her as Blanche {yesterday she dressed inspired by Blanche from Streetcar Named desire} does. Or at least, not any I'd try to go into now. Her signature look was twisted red braids and freckles, and she lived in a big house called Villa Villekulla with her monkey (Mr. Nelson) and horse (Alfonso). Sounds like my kinda BFFZ. Pippi Longstrompe was quirky and fun. She lived to go on adventures with her friends Tommy and Annika and liked being independent. She was rather curious and enjoyed giving people a taste of their own medicine when it was necessary. Pippi was quite rude and spiteful to mean adults that were unfair to her or her friends or questioned her carefree ways. Sound like someone you know? Hintidy. Hint. She was also very epicly cool and ridiculously ill. Still sound like someone you know? No? Um okay, moving on then...Physically I am not like Pippi at all. I don't have freckles or long, fiery red hair. I do not have the "strength of ten policemen" either, unless you are talking about Playmobile policemen, and even then I'm at the strength of about eight. Regardless, I tried to capture her most acknowledged outfit of a jumper, mis-matched stockings, and large manly shoes (O HAI Docs). The color combination I would use myself in any outfit.Every female in my family has been Pippi Longstocking for Halloween at least once, but I tried not to use any of the homemade costume we wore. I also tried not to wear my two-tone American Apparel tights because that would have been the easy way out, and instead stole Belle's idea of creating two-tones. I ended up wearing my mom's old top, my grandmother's old blazer, a dress I found in our childhood dress up box, my sister's old camo tights, H&M floral tights, and my Doc Martens.I also wore my bloomers for warmth because today our choir went caroling. We went to a retirement home and a resident raised his hand before we started and asked, "Why is that girl's underwear showing?" He was VERY concerned. Oopsy.
Rom-coms have been blamed by relationship experts at Heriot Watt University for promoting unrealistic expectations when it comes to love.
They found fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Notting Hill often fail to communicate with their partner.
Many held the view if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you telling them.
Psychologists at the family and personal relationships laboratory at the university studied 40 top box office hits between 1995 and 2005, and identified common themes which they believed were unrealistic.
English is all the rage in Germany -- the height of fashion, except that many people don't understand it. Consumer groups would like to see the language banned from German ads altogether.
If you spend much time in Germany, it won't take long before you notice that speaking the language really isn't that difficult. Any time you're at a loss for a German word, just throw in some English and move on. For one thing, it's the height of coolness to sprinkle your German with English. And for another, even if your German friends don't understand, they'll smile and nod for fear of looking dumm.
Plus, they do it too. Words like "office" and "meeting" long ago entered the German vocabulary. "Babysitten" and "downloaden" have been adopted. Even the word "people" has been molded to suit the needs of the German language -- the term has a negative connotation to indicate folks who are disagreeable and tiresome.
But when it comes to advertising slogans, the use of English is becoming passé. Some advertisers have realized that many Germans just don't understand -- or even worse, misunderstand -- their hip slogans. Even such straightforward lines like "Come in and find out," for a chain of perfume stores, can be dodgy. It seems most Germans cycled the slogan through their spotty understanding of English and thought it meant, "Come in, but then go back out again."
On Thursday, Germany's federal consumer advocacy and protection body held a symposium in Berlin to discuss the issue. The group -- whose name "Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.V." might also benefit from a bit of simplification -- pointed specifically to the use of English in advertising and said that consumers should not be made to feel excluded just because they can't understand foreign slogans.
Study after study has indicated that many cannot. The Vodafone slogan "Make the Most of Now" has weird associations with fruit juice ("Most") for many Germans. "Welcome to the Beck's Experience" didn't work so well because many thought the last word meant "experiment." The grand prize for slipshod slogans, though, goes to German television station Sat1, which used the catchphrase "Powered by Emotion." This was taken by many to be a modern version of "Kraft durch Freude," the Nazi party's leisure organization, often translated into English as "strength through joy."
The Thursday symposium comes just a week after delegates to the Christian Democratic party congress called for German to be written into the constitution as the country's official language. Among other arguments, the encroachment of English on the German language was noted. Conservative mouthpiece Die Welt wrote that "you don't have to be a nationalist or an anti-American to feel that the English advancing into German officialdom is a sign of the neglect of our own language."
The encroachment into officialdom, in fact, was one of the problems under discussion on Thursday. Consumer protection head Gerd Billen even called for a ban on English-isms during speeches in the Bundestag, the German parliament. He said he wasn't interested in purifying German, but in helping comprehension.
Berlin may be a good place to start this campaign. The German capital has just chosen a new -- English language -- slogan for the city: "Be Berlin." But at least that catchphrase doesn't exclude any part of the population. No one, after all, seems to have the slightest idea what it means. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,596128,00.html
The first marriages in America were civil, not religious in nature:
When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, among the first things they did for the well-ordering of their new commonwealth was to institute the Dutch custom of civil marriage with which they had become familiar during their long sojourn in the Netherlands.
The Dutch made civil marriage the law of the land in 1590, and the first marriage in New England, that of Edward Winslow to the widow Susannah White, was performed on May 12, 1621, in Plymouth by Governor William Bradford, in exercise of his office as magistrate.
Now it is true that the churches have conflated civil and religious marriage ever since and this has become part of the messy civil-religious aspect of marriage in contemporary America. And Camille, as usual, has a point: a cleaner solution would be civil unions for everyone, gay and straight, with everyone also free to marry subsequently in a church or synagogue or mosque or temple of their choosing.
it's longish (5 minutes) but people actually had attention spans back then....
marital bickering as high art. i think this was WAY ahead of it's time and perfectly youtube-ish. and to be able to pull this off on live 50s tv took some real talent. kudos!
the very end i dont understand - does she pick a koodie out her little kids hair?
... the all powerful importance of inflection! I think is one of the simplest most redundant videos ever and also one of my favs of all time, but i think it would only be funny if you really do know this woman, i know several of them:
Let’s take a moment for nostalgia. I’m talking bout a little show called “The Price is Right.” There we go, let’s bring it back. Go grab a Sunny D and let’s talk about it. What an amazing show, right? First off, I like how they keep it real. And by that I mean all products used, circa 1983. Remember those days when you were home sick from school? It was in your genetic code to watch at least one episode of “The Price is Right.” It really meant you were home when you should be in school. There stood Bob Barker, 135 years old. I think he just stopped aging back in 92’. With that teeny tiny mic that just makes ya giggle. The gag’s over Barker, it’s not cool anymore. You know what always annoys the crap out of me, when people can’t spin the wheel with enough umph. Doesn’t it just make you angry? Man if that were me, I would whip that thing around so hard it would be spinnin for days, just spinnninnnnn. Everyone knows you have to start up high to spin the wheel. You gotta go up to go down. It’s always like 65 year old Nancy from Boca, spinnin the wheel with the energy of a snurtle (that’s the offspring of a female snail and a male turtle, look it up!) Nancy never gets the wheel to do a full spin. It barely makes it half way around, and Bob has that look on his face like “You have GOT to be fucking kidding me.” And what about those cracked out T-shirts made by the Superfans. Chuck from Minnesota rockin a silkscreened tee that reads “Bob, I spent my children’s college education to fly out here today. Put me in the showdown!!!!” Way to go man, you’ve officially lost your mind. I’m sure when your kids are old enough and attending classes at ITT Tech to become an airconditioner repairman, they’ll be thrilled to know where all the money went. But here’s my point. Most of these prizes, it’s like hey, figure out your demographic. You’ve been on the air for like 140 years. Don’t you get it by now? Have you ever noticed during the Showcase Showdown it’s always like fat toothless people with perms, winning ridiculous prizes you know they can’t possibly keep. The announcer’s all “Tina-Ray, in your showcase today you’ve won a Kawasaki Motorcycle, a grand piano, a 5 day trip to Russia, and a Jukebox!” Meanwhile Tina-Ray has this crazy ass look on her face. Maybe that’s because she lives in a trailer park in the middle of Arkansas. She wants to be like “Hey Bob, what the FUCK am I supposed to do with this?! Yeah, great, lemme just pay crazy ass taxes on this motorcycle, and then I’ll just get lessons how to ride it, oh and don’t forget my motorcycle license. And perfect, I’ll put the piano in the foyer, and stick that huge jukebox in my game room! Oh wait, that’s right….I live in a one bedroom trailer, you bag of douche.” Don’t the producers know better? Like how about just stick with cash, cars, and vacations. Stop giving away boats and motor homes. Who the FUCK is gonna keep a boat? I’m takin a wild guess, but I’m assuming if you’re a contestant on the “The Price is Right”, you’re not really the “owning a boat” type.
The other day I was reminiscing again and something popped in my head. At first I got all warm and fuzzy inside for it made me think of childhood. But then came a tidal wave of disgust and confusion. Do you remember rabbit foot keychains? Who’s bright ass idea was this? Who the fuck would give a child an animal’s sawed off foot coated with colored fur as a good luck charm? I remember when it was cool and the fur would be dyed funky colors. Now, not only is poor bunny-foo violently murdered, but we’ve made a mockery of her by attaching her florescent pink knub to a key ring. And it’s like “Hey, got my good luck charm.” Call me kooky, but I can’t imagine hauling around a dead animal’s foot is an A+ in the karma department. I wonder if this is just an American thing. If I happened to be chillaxin in Italy, eating some spaghetti at a café, would my waiter Antonio Dominick Frappachino give me the stink eye if he saw me lugging an animal’s hoof along with my car keys? And I was all “But itsa my-a gooda lucka charma.” I plan on developing that accent if I ever go to Italy. I don’t really see them as much anymore, but I know they’re still around. This is because I was walking to my car the other day, and a limping rabbit crossed my path. He stopped for a moment and we caught eyes. He motioned his eyes down to his paw and I noticed his foot was missing. Then he shrugged his shoulders, and just kind of shook his head back and forth. I could see his eyes get all glassy like he was about to cry. I just mouthed “I’m sorry.” I think he understood. Probably because he looked up at me and said, “Hey, what are your gonna do?” I’m kidding, that never happened… I never said I was sorry. Sucka.
Here’s the problem with finally getting Tivo or DVR. You now find it virtually impossible and unfathomable to live without it. I was fine before I had it. I lived a decent life. I had friends, and a social life, I worked my around it. You miss a show, so what, you get over it. But now, it’s amazing. My life is just so great I just wanna roll down a grassy hill giggling like a small Asian child. That’s how happy I am about DVR. If someone makes some awkward drunken move on the Real World, rewind that shit! Or how bout, I gotta pee, pause it like it’s hawt! But there’s a downside. The judgment you feel for others that don’t have it. When I was home over Christmas, I literally got angry with my parents for not having DVR. I went to go into the kitchen for a minute while we were watching some program I was apparently “really into.” I’m gonna say it was “The Dog Whisperer,” because man, that Ceaser Milan walks amongst the Gods. Anyway I was all, “Hey, pause it real quick.” To which my Mom replied, “We can’t.” Ah, I didn’t understand. I seemed to be missing something. “No, pause it, I’m going to the kitchen.” “Lauryn, this is a TV show.” “Ok, good, it’s a TV show, now that we have that established, pause it.” She had no clue what I was talking about. I was angry that she could live without DVR. I just wanted to get right in her face, breath all heavy for a minute and say “How do you even get up in the morning.” All week their lack of DVR didn’t register in my head. “Rewind that.” “We can’t.” “Pause this.” “It’s impossible.” “Record this, I’m not gonna be home.” “Well then, you miss it.” I think from here on in, all TV’s should come with a digital recorder. Do you hear me technology? I’m talking to you…
Is anyone else seriously disturbed by this new trend in car commercials? You know what I’m talking about, for VW and Allstate. I don’t know about you, but there are a few things I like in my commercials. I like those that can make me laugh. If advertising can make me chuckle, you’ve won. Congratulations random companies, you’ve done it. Geico Cave-men, you can come over for coffee anytime. I don’t ever remember thinking,” Man when are they gonna start showing graphic car crashes in advertising?” So what made you think I would love to see what an actual car crash looks like, as it’s happening, with no fair warning. I hate to get all Sally Struthers on ya ass, but WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN? I don’t think it’s fair for 8 year old Timmy to be watching a happy couple driving to a fun little concert, when BAM they are careened by another vehicle, and SURPRISE, we get a first hand look at what’s going on inside and out of the car. Spinning, screaming, screeching, hair flying, whiplash. Just a scary mess. No bueno. Me no likey. It seems like they finally got on the ball and have a disclaimer before the commercial, but still. VW is even worse. Their slogan is “Safe Happens.” Because after showing the shocking accident, no one is really hurt. Quick cut from crazy accident to them all standing out of the car, chillin like villans and all “whoa, that was crazy.” Guess what? I smell bullshit. Because I have a vivid memory of my VW Jetta ending up on someone’s front lawn after being side swiped by another car. My lip busted up, airbag out, crying like a bitch, and surprise, my car, completely totaled. Safe happening? Not so much. It’s a fucking car, not a titanium rocket ship. I can’t imagine it’s going to keep you that much more secure than any other car. Maybe a Jeep Wrangler…..without the doors…and no top. Way to go graphic fucked up car crash commercials. Maybe VW’s slogan should be. “Safe…possibly happening.. if you get in a fender bender, going 8 mph, on a side street.”
Cuteness alert. Call the snuggly wuggly police. Ok, I’ve figured it out. The cutest thing to have graced this planet. My obsession started from this special on Discovery a few years back. I think it was called, “Animal Friends.” Aw. Basically it was random home videos of strange animal friends. Cross-species companions. Inter-species lovas if you will. The one that sticks out in my head..mainly because I have it on tape…was a bunny and a deer. Best Friends Forever. I swear, these guys became buddies and just hung out in this woman’s backyard, and she would always tape them. They were inseparable. They would eat together, play together, and even relax in the Sun’s warm rays, just cuddling. What do you when something is so adorable to look at, you almost can’t take it? Now, the new one is this Hippo and a Tortoise. Pictures are flying all over the Internet. It was on the news, and even Oprah. This baby Hippo was saved from the Tsunami, put in this zoo, and now thinks the Tortoise is it’s Mom. The Tortoise quickly adopted it and now they love each other. Have...you... ever? HAVE YOU EVER? (I’m screaming at you right now.) The cuteness is so far off the Richter scale, it’s fallen beyond all that is adorable and into violence. I would most likely have to brutally murder all of these animal friends, just, blow their heads right off…puppies with kitties, deers with bunnies, and of course…let us not forget…hippos and turtles….Sorry guys, this cuddly wuddly snuggly adorable friendship love fest will have to continue…from the grave. Exhibit A. Makes you wanna rip through the computer screen and bite their heads off.
So a couple years back I talked about the mysterious one glove phenomenon on NYC sidewalks in the winter. I tried to understand and explain where I thought they came from. After that a year or so later, I discussed the lone black sneaker I would often see on the side of LA streets and highways. Again, tried to find some explanation. Well folks, I guess for the new year I have a new mystery item. The other week I was driving and I saw something I’ve seen a few times before, that just puzzles the shit outta me. I saw a huge mattress on the shoulder of a highway. Listen, when it’s in front of a house of an apartment complex, I totally get it. But what sort of situation would cause a massive fucking mattress to end up on the side of a highway? Is it like some gag? Is there evidence on it from some crime scene? I mean, first off, it would have to take man power to even get it there. And why the shoulder of a highway? Well actually, here’s the backstory to one of the mattresses. So there’s this dude and one day he’s all “Fuck this mattress, we gotta get it outta here! I’m so sick of this stupid bed, just look at it.” And then his bright ass friend is like, “Dude, just load it in my truck, I got a great idea.” But he never says what the idea is. And so they get all their dumb ass friends together and toss it in the back of his pick-up. But meanwhile Doogie (that’s what I named the guy with the idea) is giggling the whole time. He’s the one driving the pick-up. And everyone is like, “Doogie man, what is it, where are we going?” And he’s like “Just wait”….And they finally get to this little forest, and end up at the edge of this lake. They all jump out to go get the mattress. But it’s gone. Why? Because they’re all fucking high, and they tossed the mattress at the edge of the truck, with nothing tieing it down. It was just chillin on the edge. Those guys are such stoners. So the mattress flew of the truck, landing on the shoulder of some highway. Oh…You prolly wanna know what Doogie’s idea was, don’t you? He wanted to toss the mattress in this little lake and him and his friends would jump on and pretend they were white water rafting. It’s probably better off. But ya know what, that is SO Doogie.
“Say wha?” Moment of the Week
Today it drizzled out. It was slightly chilly, a little overcast. I myself wore long sleeves. This evening as they had the coming attraction for the News, I couldn’t believe my ears. I swear on my mother’s leotard, the weatherman stood in front of that green screen map, with the most concerned stone cold face and said “Tune in at 11 to find out when this COLD Winter Storm is going to end.” Really? Seriously? Los Angelans, do you really consider the weather going on, a cold winter storm? If so, sit down, because we need to talk. This is not a cold winter storm. This is a chilly overcast day. If you wanna know a cold winter storm, why don’t we stop by Ithaca, NY, my alma mater. We can go anywhere between the months of September and April. Then we can stand outside and understand what cold feels like…together… That’s when the snow is up to your knees and even your teeth are freezing. That’s a cold winter storm. When just the trip from your house to the car is torture, because although you have 14 layers of clothing on, and even your socks are wearing socks, and nothing is showing but your beady little eyes, you can still somehow feel the crispy cold air sneaking into to the creases of your clothes, whipping against your body like you’re swimming in a fucking Glacier. That’s cold. After you’ve lived through THAT for 4 years, you see things a little differently. So why don’t you just grab a fucking zip up, buy an extra hot Half-Caf Non-Fat Latte, and get the FUCK over it.
Quote of the Week- (Scrubby old actor dude shows up in the office I work at to audition for a role, he’s talking to some guy looking at his headshot.)
Scrubby Dude- “Well, I’m really cast a lot as a homeless man….I’m not homeless though, I just play one on TV.”
Way to go dirty old guy, you’ve really made it…I guess.
Song That Makes Me Wanna Strangle a Hamster. Carrie Underwood- “Jesus, take the Wheel.”
Ok, I really haven’t intensely listened to the lyrics, so maybe I’m not quite qualified to judge this song, but fuck it. I’m sorry Carrie Underwood, but I’m going to have to politely disagree with you on this one. First off, what a stupid song, Jesus take the wheel? No. I’m thinking Jesus should not take the wheel. Carrie, I don’t think your song is good advice for your young listeners either, cause they don’t understand metaphors. Listen, if you wanna believe in him, and pray for him, and pray TO him, well I think that’s just swell. I don’t, on the other hand, believe you should let him take the wheel, or drive your car at all for that matter. This is because…Jesus doesn’t know how to drive…At all….He’s really shitty and he always speeds. He’s had like 4 speeding tickets just this year, and has 6 unpaid parking tickets. Last time Jesus and I went on a Roadtrip, he made me play Chinese fire drill at every light, AND raced some Mexicans when the light turned green. If he got pulled over..Jesus would most likely get your license suspended. Carrie, you country bumpkin, why don’t you do your research next time. If anyone should take the wheel, it should be Moses. That dude knows can drive stick!
This reminds me of a story either my older brother J or D told me - basically he said "When you were in middle and high school every single friend you had was a girl and they were always swarming to your room, we decided you were either the most amazing stud ever or completely gay, we couldn't decide."
this video doesn't EXACTCTLY correlate wit that story but... well, it's close enough.
(I'm on an all video roll today, and there's at least two more coming up soon):
I think the genius of these characters is that you either think you're watching a spot-on excoriation of new feminism's indulgences, or you think that you're watching a mirror.
it's totally a love it or hate it sort of thing.
meetings at the fictional feminist book co-op "Women and Women First"
episode 1, consensus approval of what flyers get posted: Feminist Bookstore
episode 2, consensus approval of what cds get shelf space:
not an episode but the same two actors do - writing the perfect song (via voicemail): The Perfect Song
Bettie Page, the brunet pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85.
Page, whose later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state mental institution, died Thursday night at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been on life support since suffering a heart attack Dec. 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.
A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel -- or nothing at all.
Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products -- Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses -- and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, "The Notorious Bettie Page."
Then there are the idealized portraits of her naughty personas -- Nurse Bettie, Jungle Bettie, Voodoo Bettie, Banned in Boston Bettie, Maid Bettie, Crackers in Bed Bettie -- memorialized by such artists as Olivia de Berardinis.
"I'll always paint Bettie Page," De Berardinis said Thursday night . "But truth be told, it took me years to understand what I was looking at in the old photographs of her. Now I get it. There was a passion play unfolding in her mind. What some see as a bad-girl image was in fact a certain sensual freedom and play-acting - it was part of the fun of being a woman."
"The origins of what captures the imagination and creates a particular celebrity are sometimes difficult to define," Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner said Thursday night. "Bettie Page was one of Playboy magazine's early Playmates, and she became an iconic figure, influencing notions of beauty and fashion. Then she disappeared. . . . Many years later, Bettie resurfaced and we became friends. Her passing is very sad."
In an interview 2 1/2 years ago, Hefner described Page's appeal as "a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern."
According to her agents at CMG Worldwide, Page's official website, www.BettiePage.com, has received about 600 million hits over the last five years.
A religious woman in her later life, Page was mystified by her influence on modern popular culture. "I have no idea why I'm the only model who has had so much fame so long after quitting work," she said in an interview with The Times in 2006.
She had one request for that interview: that her face not be photographed.
"I want to be remembered," she said, "as I was when I was young and in my golden times. . . . I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form."
Bettie Mae Page was born April 22, 1923, in Nashville. She was the oldest girl among Roy and Edna Page's six children. Her father, an auto mechanic, "molested all three of his daughters," Page said in the interview.
Her parents divorced in 1933, but life didn't get any easier for Bettie.
"All I ever wanted was a mother who paid attention to me," Page recalled. "She didn't want girls. She thought we were trouble. When I started menstruating at 13, I thought I was dying because she never taught me anything about that."
After high school, Page earned a teaching credential. But her career in the classroom was short-lived. "I couldn't control my students, especially the boys," she said.
She tried secretarial work and marriage. But by 1948 she had divorced a violent husband and fled to New York City, where she enrolled in acting classes. She was noticed on the beach at Coney Island by New York police officer and amateur photographer Jerry Tibbs, who introduced her to camera clubs.
Page quickly became a sought-after model, attracting the attention of Irving Klaw and his sister, Paula, who operated a mail-order business specializing in cheesecake and bondage poses.
In an interview published in Playboy magazine in 2007, Page expressed mixed feelings about her achievements. "When I turned my life over to the lord Jesus I was ashamed of having posed in the nude," she said. "But now, most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude. So I'm not ashamed of it now. But I still don't understand it."
She spent most of her final years in a one-bedroom apartment, reading the Bible, listening to Christian and country tunes, watching westerns on television, catching up on diet and exercise regimens or sometimes perusing secondhand clothing stores.
Occasionally, however, Page was persuaded to visit the Sunset Boulevard penthouse offices of her agents at CMG Worldwide to autograph pinups of herself in the post-World War II years of her prime. The agency controls her image and those of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, among others.
During one such event in early 2006, Page needed about 10 minutes to get through the 10 letters of her name. As she pushed her pen over a portrait of her in a negligee with an ecstatic smile, she laughed and said, "My land! Is that supposed to be me? I was never that pretty."
As Ford and Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding returned fire, Walding was hit below his right knee. Ford turned and saw that the bullet "basically amputated his right leg right there on the battlefield."
Walding, of Groesbeck, Tex., recalled: "I literally grabbed my boot and put it in my crotch, then got the boot laces and tied it to my thigh, so it would not flop around. There was about two inches of meat holding my leg on." He put on a tourniquet, watching the blood flow out the stump to see when it was tight enough.
Once in a Blue Moon: A neat description of "not very often," it refers to the second full moon within a month - a rare thing indeed. Full moons happen about every 29.5 days, and since a typical month runs between 30 to 31 days, the likelihood of two in a month is slim. But over the course of a century there'll be 41 months with two full moons, so once in a blue moon really means - if you want to get literal - once every 2.4 years.
Mad as a Hatter: Today we know enough to keep clear of mercury, but hat makers once used it to make the brims of hats. When absorbed through the skin, it could wreak havoc on the nervous system: tremors, fatigue, not to mention behavioral dysfunction - that is, crazy behavior. Just think of Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Raining Cats and Dogs: In 1600s England it was common practice to discard any waste into the streets - even dead household pets. Once it rained so much that the now-deceased Tabbies and Fidos became buoyant and floated along the streets, thus inspiring writer Richard Brome in 1651 to record, "it shall rain dogs and polecats."
Saved by the Bell: Before modern medicine, it was hard to determine if a person was really dead or simply in a really, really deep sleep. As a precaution, the presumed dead were buried with a string that ran from the corpse's finger to a bell. If there was a mistake, the person could twitch the finger and thus be saved from being buried alive. {matt: i thought it was cause the bell at school rangand you didn't have to answer something u didn't know when called on}
The Acid Test: Gold Rush miners tested possible gold nuggets in acid. Unlike other metals, gold won't corrode in acid, so if the nugget didn't dissolve it passed the acid test and therefore must be pure gold. If a person passes a figurative acid test, they're telling the truth, as opposed to the literal acid test, which would be quite painful, not to mention corrosive. In the Limelight: Theater stages used to be illuminated by heating lime (calcium oxide) until it glowed brightly. Lime has a high melting point, and when heated, gives off a brilliant white light. The light was then focused into a spotlight, so if an actor was in the limelight, he was certainly the center of attention (and probably very hot as well.)
Dog Days: The ancient Romans noticed that the Dog Star, Sirius, rose at the same time as the sun on the hottest days of the year, so they made the natural assumption that Sirius in the sky added to the heat of the day. Today it's generally accepted that the "dog days" of summer are July 3 through August 11. But they have nothing to do with Sirius. Chew the Cud: If you figuratively chew the cud, you're chatting with an acquaintance. If you literally chew the cud, you're regurgitating food from your stomach to be chewed a second time (don't even try it). Cows are ruminants - this means that to properly digest grass to pass through their four-chambered stomachs, they need to rechew it. Consequently, a cow's mouth seems to go nonstop, just like a person who is "chewing the cud."
Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth: In other words, don't be ungrateful when someone gives you something. You can tell a horse's age by looking at its teeth, particularly the incisors, but if someone gave you a horse as a gift, it would be considered rude to examine its teeth. (This would be like looking for the price tag on the present.) The Bee's Knees: It's 1920s slang for something wonderful - but why would the knees of the Apis mellifera, the common honeybee, be something to be excited bout? Well, when bees find pollen they carry it back to the hive on pollen baskets located on their hind legs near their knees (yes, bees have knees.) The pollen is then used to make honey.
Cold Turkey: To completely abandon an addictive habit is to go cold turkey. As a result, the habit-kicker may experience cold sweats and goose bumps as blood rushes from the surface of the skin to internal organs. That bristling gooseflesh looks like the skin of a plucked goose (which looks quite similar to a plucked turkey). And doesn't it sound better to go cold turkey than to go cold goose?
Fromn Barry Ritholtz, a funny and surprisingly plausible way to pay for national health coverage in the US:
1. Set up a large, well capitalized hedge fund. About $5B should do it.
2. The prospectus of the fund should note its purpose is to “Seek out profit opportunities via arbitraging inefficiencies in the markets and health care system of the United States.” Include standard “Socially Conscious” fund language in clauses such as Do well by doing good.
3. Launch the fund — and promptly max out your leverage. Today’s environment makes it difficult to go 50 to 1, but getting 10 or 20 to 1 should not be much problem.
4. Use the money to write Credit Default Swaps with a notational value of $3 trillion dollars. The premia on these CDS should be about 10-15% or so.
5. Rollover the cash premiums — about $350 billion dollars worth — into a national fund. Use it to buy health care insurance for all US citizens.
6. Declare that due to current credit conditions, your unfortunately must announce to your counter-parties that you will be defaulting on these CDS. Note that significant amounts of this paper are held by JP Morgan and Citi. Another trillion is held by China and Japan, with Sovereign Wealth Funds owning the rest.
7. Send out a press release announcing “systemic risk.” Tell the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve Chief that your imminent collapse will wreak global havoc. Apply for bailout.
Police officers thought they were raiding a weed growing house in Odessa, Texas, but instead found two tiny Christmas trees surrounded by grow lights and a poster saying they were caught on camera by Kop Busters. The show, created by an ex-drug officer, aims to expose crooked police officers by setting them up in ridiculous situations like this one.
the main thing being that within 24 hours after setting up the grow lights police entered the house with a warrant - how did they know the grow lights were there and what specific reasonable cause could they have come up with in just 24 hours to secure this warrant? the most likely scenario is that they used drive by FLIR cameras to detect the grow lights. this technique has been previously declared illegal by the Supreme Court. They would then manufacture some testimony that would be admissible as sufficient to have a judge issue a warrant. your tax dollars at work! http://kopbusters.com/ site might be down due to traffic surge. it was last time i checked. there is a full story with further details below:
'KopBusters' is a reality TV program that aims to sink crooked officers.
"KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana," claims a release from NeverGetBusted.com "When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house."
"The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster's attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster's secret mobile office nearby.
"The attorney was handcuffed and later released when eleven KopBuster detectives arrived with the media in tow to question the illegal raid. The police refused to give KopBusters the search warrant affidavit which is suspected to contain the lies regarding the probable cause.
"It is not illegal to grow plants under a light in your home but it is illegal to lie on an affidavit and plant drugs on a citizen. This operation was the first of its kind in the history of America. Police sometimes have other police investigating their crimes but the American court system has never dealt with a group of citizens stinging the police. Will the police file charges on the team who took down the corrupt cops? We will keep you posted." http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Excop_Barry_Cooper_launches_Kop_Busters_1206.html
r state of the Russian Federation. Located just west of the Caspian Sea and not far from Ukraine, it’s a bit of an oddity in über-secular Russia for the prominence that Kalmykian leaders give to spirituality — all the more so because rather than Russian Orthodox Christianity, most Kalmykians follow Tibetan Buddhism.
