I am 2 to the Duke of Edinburgh, which makes me a 3 to the royals and too many others to count. I shook hands with him while he was doing a walkabout.
I am also a 2 to the Beatles, through a man who jammed with them before they became famous.
My number is 3 to Jean Beliveau, which may not have much meaning to most of the people here, but it sure impressed the hell out of me. That was back in the day when Hockey Night in Canada was the entertainment highlight of the week. My aunt used to work with his sister in Montreal.
Charity @ 21:
There are four heat-seeking cats in this house who all seem to know when their warmth and weight will be most appreciated. I discovered, when looking for a word to properly describe their medicinal benefits, that a synonym for poultice - is cataplasm.
I wonder if Lessing is maybe being confused with Margaret Laurence, who also wrote stories set in Africa. I am hopeful that if the Nobel ever does go to a Canadian, it will be to Alice Munro.
CHip @281: I have a friend from Massachusetts who uses the term "grinder" to refer only to a sub made with meatballs. It makes sense that way.
Fragano @301, Carol Kimball @299: I was at a funeral recently where a boy recited what we thought was Ogden Nash - The Catsup Bottle. I see now that version was a bit Nash and a bit Armour. There is a Nash poem on the topic. I haven't been able to discover which came first.
The Catsup Bottle
First a little
Then a lottle
Ogden Nash
This is more on the matter of full names rather than the crunchy goodness of breakfast cereal. In his GQ application to run for president, Stephen Colbert reveals that his full name is Stephen Lee-Harvey Colbert. His wife is Mrs. Stephen Lee-Harvey Colbert.
Sorry - should have checked before posting.
Diana @ 759
I was kind of enjoying all of your comments until you got to the bit about the 14 year old child. Not wearing a seatbelt is one thing, not protecting a child is something else entirely. Sure, there are lots of other dangerous activities, and each of them demands that precautions be taken. Our kids wear helmets when they bike, roller blade, ski or snowboard. They always have money, a cell phone with emergency numbers, and a credit card in case of emergency. We paid a lot of money for defensive driving courses and made sure they had an emergency survival kit in the car. We talked to them about alcohol and other dangerous drugs. When they were babies we made sure they were inoculated against disease, that their cribs and car seats met or exceeded safety standards, and that there were smoke detectors in their rooms. We practiced fire drills. They spent a lot of time on beaches and on boats and fishing in a river very close to our house. They learned water safety, how to swim - up to and including lifesaving certification, and to always wear a life jacket. These are just the things that immediately come to mind. It is true that you can't protect against an unforeseen event, but if a disastrous outcome is foreseeable and you don't take steps to prevent it or to minimize the damage, it isn't an accident in my mind, it is a consequence of willful negligence.
A few years ago, a friend was sleeping soundly in his bed when he was awakened by the sound of a truck hitting a large tree in front of his house. There had been three students in the vehicle, two passengers were thrown clear, the driver was pinned in the truck, dead. My friend tried to make sure the woman didn't drown in her own blood and held the hand of the other passenger until he died. One consequence for him is a lifetime of remembering and agonizing over what he might have done to save the guy. Another is that the mother of the male passenger came to his house 4 or 5 times to plead with him to try to remember anything that her son might have said before he died. It is true that a seat belt would not have saved the driver, but very likely that they would have saved the other two. So would refusing to drive with a drunk.
I urge you to read and reread the original essay and the comments here. These people changed my position on handguns - I was a dyed in the wool, Canadian, anti-handgun zealot just a few short weeks ago.
As for God and religion and organ donation - as the saying goes - Don't take your organs with you. God knows you don't need them in Heaven.
One thing we do have in common - my punctuation is also a bit dodgy. There are consequences to that, but they are much less dire.
Avram - what everyone else said about Boomshine. I am ranked for the day! Ranked, I tell you. I have never been ranked at anything before and it only took me until 3:30 am! If no one plays for the next 20 or so hours, it could stand.
Mechanized Death was screened at my high school back in the sixties after a horrendous string of crashes involving students and teachers. Sounds and images from that film are in my head forever and I don't recommend the experience. Riding with a drunk driver had been a regular feature of my childhood. I have never been in a car with a drunk or without a seatbelt since I saw that film. When my daughter was 3, I once started the car while she was being buckled in, and she hollered bloody murder. She refused to ride in her grandparents' van because there were no seat belts.
A couple of years later we visited a high school friend who sat right beside me during Mechanized Death. As a special 'reward' for good behaviour, she allowed her three children to ride unrestrained in the back of her station wagon. Just before we decided to travel separately, my daughter asked her why she didn't want her kids to be safe.
Back in the day before seat belts, my aunt used to put her arm out in front of whichever one of us was riding shotgun when she needed to slow down or to stop quickly. She was the first person I knew to insist on seat belts (mid sixties), but for as long as she drove she continued to offer that extra protection that only the arm of an optimist who loves you can bring.
A friend wrote from Laos, describing the ongoing process of disarming unexploded ordinance remaining from the Vietnam War.
I am very late to the party, but I couldn't let this one escape notice. The writer asked his readers not to cow toe to people who recommended that Don Imus be fired.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 2 |
| 2007 | 15 |
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