Culture
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Evolution?
The other day, while listening to a backlogged To the Best of Our Knowledge (TTBOOK) on my beloved iPod, I was struck yet again by the argument between the creationists and the Darwinists. TTBOOK has been running a series called From Electrons to Enlightenment, and if you’re interested in how religion and science work together and where they argue bitterly, you might find this series interesting. Anyway, I was yet again hearing people argue about the beginning of the universe, and of life on Earth. Was the Earth and life on it created by God, in 6 days, as described in the Old Testament? Was the big bang the cause…
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A Question…
Me: Why do you think some people start their Christmas shopping in August, while others wait until December 23rd? Ted: Because some people are women, while others are men. Me: That sounds about right.
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I’m not sure how I feel about this…
I’m such a huge Buffy fan, and yet…and yet, not so sure that I’ll be enjoying reading about the adventures of the Scooby Gang via the comic book genre rather than seeing them on Tuesday evenings via my TV screen. Will it satisfy me? Will it satisfy Maya, who was crushed by the idea that Buffy was no longer the only slayer (well, aside from Kendra, who died, and Faith, who didn’t, but I digress…)? Will we become obsessed, I mean, MORE obsessed than we already are? Will we become huge comic book fans? I shudder to think. I’ve never really been a fan of comic books, except maybe Betty…
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WTF?
I wasn’t going to write about this today…I like the happy date-a-versary thing, and why be a downer and take away from the fun? But this story I read in the paper is needling me, threatening to drive me nuts if I don’t write something about it, to get it on ‘paper’ and out of my head. Iran is holding a two day conference to determine whether the Holocaust indeed happened. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a ‘myth’, and Israel a ‘tumor’. Clearly, the goal here is to show that he is a President who can stand up to the West, as well as to support claims that…
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Holiday Depression…
I’ve been hearing lately about how the holidays are a hard time for so many people…how they depress people and stress the hell out of people, and I’ve been wondering, what is it about Christmas (and Hannukah…do any of my Jewish friends get depressed around this time of year?) that brings folks down? Isn’t this supposed to be a happy time? So I thought, what is it that we do to ourselves around the holidays? 1. Maybe too much pressure put on shopping and gifts, you think? In a culture where the majority of retailers go into the black finally in the last month of the year, and our whole…
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Wish They All Could Be…
What American accent do you have?    Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you’re a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta. The Midland Boston North Central The Inland North Philadelphia The South The Northeast What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz I tried to make the text more readable, and only made it smaller…so here we go, I’ll paste it here, in case you’re wondering what the…
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Blogaversary
I first (well, not first) came to the bloggy world one year ago today. (I say not first, because I actually started a blogger account, wrote one post, then promptly lost interest back in the summer of 2002.) If you look at Cherry and Autumn’s Mom‘s archives, you’ll notice that they started the same month that I did. I’d like to claim that I started it all, that I was the leader of our little group jumping into this world, but the truth is that I was the holdout. I felt like if I started a blog, I wouldn’t really have anything to say. People would be bored and no…
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What’s He Building In There?
 Without gossiping too much about our neighbors, let me just say that I was reminded recently that the identity that we show to the world is not always the identity that we show inside our homes. We recently found out that one of our neighbors has been leading a life that we merely had hints of, and the depths of which we had not imagined. Thinking of this reminded me of a day last year…I was walking back to work, after walking Maya to school. I passed by a house with its alarm going off. I used to work for an alarm company, so I know that there are…
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Idaho? No thanks.
Not to lump a whole state into one nutty town, but I’m thinking no. Has anyone read about this news story? Here’s the gist. The tiny town of Greenleaf Idaho has passed a law that residents “who do not object on religious or other grounds…keep a gun in the home.” What? OK, don’t worry, all you have to do is object on any grounds you want to be exempt from this law, so it’s pretty much gutless. But what is the reason behind this law? “…citizens should be armed in case Greenleaf, which sits on high ground, is overrun by refugees in a Katrina-like flood.” Get that? Because when your…
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An Open Letter to the Democrats
Dear Democrats, Congratulations! I am delighted that you have come in to serve as a balance to the freaks that have been running this country for the last 6 years. We desperately need some moderation out there, someone to keep things under control so that we don’t end up in a theocracy or a monarchy anytime soon. I find it distressing, however, that it appears that you could not have won this race without the Republicans shooting themselves in the face. As I see it, you won because some Republicans couldn’t keep themselves from harassing young boys, or at least being complicit in allowing it to continue. You won because…
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Stupid Grammar Rules
English grammar is a tricky field to negotiate, with many little rules that can easily bug the hell out of you…I have my pet peeves, which would be rules that make sense to me, and people misuse them and abuse them and drive me crazy, but also, there are many rules that just make no logical sense whatsoever. I was thinking this would be a Thursday Thirteen, but I couldn’t think of enough stupid rules to make my list. So I turn the question over to my loyal readers…besides the five below, any really stupid grammar rules that you think need to be retired? Split Infinitives. I never even understood…
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Time to Vote
Tomorrow is election day, and while I’m cautiously hopeful that the Democrats will be able to wrest control of Congress from the Republicans, and hopefully grow a collective spine while they’re at it, and stop the rapid decline of our country and loss of freedoms, I’m having trouble getting revved up about the local elections here in California. The most exciting part to me will be that the constant barrage of political phone calls will stop. I’m not a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His ‘special elections’ showed a complete disregard for the will of the voters, and they cost California a LOT of money that should have been much better…
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Learn Where You Can
I had an interesting vocab lesson the other night…I learned the following words: parvenu – one that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it. I think I’ve always used the other French term, “nouveau riche“, though in looking at the definition, it is slightly different in meaning. dyspeptic – showing a sour disposition. I think I’ve always used “sour puss”.  I think I need to try to use these words in conversation…that’s how you keep them, right? Anyway, the funny thing is where I got these new words…from the Netflix jacket…
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Screw You, I’m NOT “Uncovered Meat”.
I’m assuming you’ve all heard of the uproar in Australia, regarding comments made about women by Sheik Taj ElDin Hamid Hilaly. I’ve been trying to figure out what to say about this, but I’m having trouble because it makes me want to vomit every time I think about it. So, I decided to copy and paste someone else’s words for you instead. Here then, straight from Salon’s Broadsheet: When are women like “uncovered meat”? What a nasty, nasty development in the now-global controversy over Muslim women’s dress. On Thursday, reports surfaced that Australia’s lead Muslim cleric suggested that women who do not wear hijabs are responsible for rape. The chronically…
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Eastern State
Yesterday, I had a sudden craving for Orange Chicken from Panda Express. So good, and so bad for you. So I hopped in my trusty car and drove over to the local PE. On the way, I was listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR. The few minutes that I heard were discussing Eastern State Penitentiary. I remember when we lived in Philadelphia, once in awhile we would drive past this prison, and I knew a little bit of its history, but not a lot. They have tours of the prison, which are supposed to be pretty amazing, but I was unaware of that at the time. And I’m…