TexAnne @ 378: What is it about badly-done retellings of the French Revolution that arouses the book-flinging urge so strongly? For me it was Paula Volsky's Illusion — partway through, I slammed the book (paperback) shut and threw it against the opposite wall while yelling "oh for pete's sake, it's the freaking French Revolution!"
There's a swell Ethiopian place within a mile
Not the one on Franklin between 14th & 15th, I hope — that seems to have closed down (sadly, while the "grand opening!" banner was still up).
Unfortunately, a previous commitment on the 19th will likely keep me from attending. Fooey.
We picked up a lump of solid lotion at the farmers' market last weekend — this is the vendor we got it from. It's made of beeswax and olive oil and is unscented (other than the faint honey scent of the wax). It's nice: absorbs well, non-greasy, and keeps my cuticles from getting dry and cracking. (Ow.)
pericat @ 235: People actually hesitate to comment here? Really?
Oh, gosh, yes. Speaking only for myself, at least — there are so many smart, funny, sharp folks here that I definitely consider whether what I'm considering posting is worth adding to the conversation.
But I kind of think that's a good thing, y'know?
Tim Walters — as someone who grew up in Palo Alto but now lives in Oakland, my immediate reaction was "disgusted but not surprised". Since reading this, I've been having idle daydreams about inviting a bunch of my oh-so-scary urban friends to go visit my dad (a PA resident) and hang out in the park being urban. Not doing anything wrong or threatening, just being obviously enough not from around here to cause the nervous suburban sorts to clutch their pearls.
By the way, EVERYBODY is welcome in Oakland parks. Harrumph.
Kim @ 416 — Ha! That reminds me of the time I was in a department store's shoe section and couldn't get anybody's attention. After a while, I picked up two display shoes and started trying to juggle them (I can't juggle, by the way). Within seconds, there was a salesperson there acerbically saying "May I help you??" with a deep, annoyed sigh. I smiled sweetly, put the shoes down, and got them to get me what I needed.
When somebody is vocally advocating beating liberals with a baseball bat, I tend not to bother analyzing whether they are actually planning to assault me — I'm willing to take them at their word and treat them as actively dangerous.
This seems in line with the idea that "no matter what the original purpose of an organization, before long the purpose will have shifted to 'preserve the organization's existence'".
Does that have an actual name (like "Overton Window" or "Whoozit's Law")?
The "hmm, chicken-foot leather — what's that look like?" feeling was too strong to resist, and I managed to find a page on exotic leather. From the shape of the piece, I'm guessing that this page shows a piece of chicken-foot leather (not merely chicken leather). Abi, does this look like what you have?
Caroline @ 63: I have a Sunray II lightbox from these people that's made a big difference for me in the winters. They're not cheap (I got mine second-hand), but they are solidly made and put out a lot of light (10,000 lux at 14" distance). I spend 15 minutes in front of it every morning to help keep me going when it gets dark outside.
(Huh. The page says to replace the bulbs every few years to maintain the correct light output. I think I last replaced the bulbs in mine... um, never. Off to order some replacement bulbs.)
Craig R #333: Like others, I'd be more inclined to give you points for noticing and working on it, rather than dock you points for not managing 100% equity at all times.
My calculus prof related a similar story to me once. What made it even more eye-opening for my prof was that this was at a women's college whose undergraduate programs are women-only; graduate programs admit both women and men. One of Prof. B's classes was made up of all undergraduates plus one male graduate student, and Prof. B started keeping track of how often each student was getting called on during class.
A couple of weeks into the class, Prof. B requested a meeting with the graduate student in order to tell him, "Don't take it personally, but I'm basically going to stop calling on you in class. This class has 19 female students and one male student, and the male student — you — has been taking up almost 50% of the class discussion time. That's not right, especially in an undergraduate-level class at a women's college, and I feel I can't allow that kind of imbalance to continue." (As Prof. B related it to me, the student understood the reasoning and didn't take offense.)
A quick check of the prices at Penzey's shows them selling ground chipotle for a little more than twice the cost of ground cayenne, in case that helps decide whether your local store's price is reasonable.
I love ground chipotle. Because it's hotter it's not quite as omni-useful as smoked paprika, but it's definitely one of the spices I turn to regularly.
Disclaimer: this is anecdotal, and one problem with being an only child with no cousins who grows up not to have children of her own is that you're working with only one data point. That said...
When I read excerpts from Dobson, or things others have written about his writings and method, what stands out to me is the assumption that children must be made to comply with their parents' orders immediately and without question, or they'll never do what they're told to. (That's a bit of a simplification, I recognize.) What's interesting to me is that that's basically the exact opposite of how my mother raised me. Apparently (she told me this later), when I was just learning to speak, she decided that if she told me to do something and I asked "why?", if she didn't have a reason for it she had to back down. Because she almost never invoked "because I said so" or "because I'm the mom, that's why", I never got into the habit of rebelling against her when she said to do something (or not do something). And the seemingly counterintuitive result was that on the rare occasions that she did say "just do it because I say so", I'd hop to and do what she wanted me to, knowing that there'd be opportunity to discuss it later (and argue about it, if necessary).
(Note, I did flake off on things like raking the leaves and other household chores like any other kid — "have a reason for what you tell them to do" isn't a magical child-rearing technique that yields perfectly-behaved offspring, unfortunately.)
Did somebody say mega shark?
Charles Pergiel @ 52: Drugs are never going to be legalized. There's too much money in keeping them illegal.
Over the years, I've come to be highly dubious about statements like "[x] will never happen." It's just too difficult to predict the future. When I was a teenager and becoming politically aware, if you had asked me, "Will the US elect a black president in your lifetime? What about a woman as president?" I would have said no, of course not, and what kind of starry-eyed idealist are you, anyhow?
I'm very pleased to have been wrong about the first point, and I hope to be wrong about the second.
And as for too much money to be made in keeping them illegal, there's a lot of money to be made in legalizing it. California has an estimated $10-15 billion of unregulated, untaxed cannabis sales every year. Cannabis users here have been voting to impose sales tax on cannabis sales already, so the state's already had that first taste...
From the CBC: Doubt cast on cannabis, schizophrenia link.
And NORML's comment about this.
pericat # 35 — thanks, that makes it clearer.
I think that just as jokes about rope are likely to be received badly by relatives of the hanged, analogies about fires in California may well be misinterpreted (badly) by Californians when there's a wildfire currently burning.
Apologies for misinterpreting the intention of your comment, Charlie.
Charlie Stross @ 31: If it had happened in California, given the way things work there I bet that student would have ended up on death row for arson in the royal dockyard ...
It sounds as though you think it's unreasonable to have strict penalties for carelessly discarding a burning cigarette butt. Is that accurate?
Because as a Californian looking at the latest wildfire (alight for more than a month; 160,000 acres/250+ square miles burned; more than 90 homes destroyed; 2 firefighters killed; firefighting costs estimated at US$70 million), I strongly, strongly disagree.
How on earth does an anecdote about drunken students starting a small garden fire and being charged appropriately generalize to "California's penalties for starting fires are too strict"?
Relatedly, Google Video has Britain BC and Britain AD, hosted by Francis Pryor. (One-sentence summary of AD: "Britain did NOT descend into the dark ages after the Romans left, dammit; if anything, the Britons turned up the lights!")
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| 2006 | 80 |
| 2005 | 39 |
| 2004 | 3 |
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