Linkmeister @208, thanks for the link--that appears, touch wood, to have ended the exchange. But people remain stranger than anybody.
O-o-o-k. Just got this (off topic message on a Yahoo discussion list, purporting to be from an M.D. I know slightly):
'FW: Page 16 of the "Health Care for all Americans Bill"
'Call your senators and congressmen. another freedom going by the wayside.
'Well, on page 16 of the new House Health Care bill, it does the anticipated - outlaws private insurance coverage. Time to put our representatives in Washington on speed dial.'
It gives a link, to something called ibdeditorials, which I'm not inclined to follow, since the format of the message suggests it's been copied and pasted out of something he's received, and if he believes this nonsense he might click on anything.
But this notion appears to be in circulation.
Or their philosophy is "I'm for whatever I want right now", and as they get older their wants drift from fixing the world to profiting from it. The latter group are the ones who set the peer-group standards for the former.
Yes. When my brother quoted that to me last year (from a client of his) I told him it sounded to me like nothing more than a version of "I'm all right, Jack." (Which I then had to explain to him.)
While we're accumulating anecdata, I've shifted to the left in my old age, if anything.
I don't know whether he coined the expression--I doubt it--but for a reference point, Tom Wolfe's Mid-Atlantic Man was published in 1969. My recollection is that I first encountered it in the New Yorker and likely about that time.
Bugtussellmom, if anyone else has made this point I've missed it--but for AIDS patients to be around unimmunized children can lead to life-threatening infections for the AIDS patients.
Steady the Buffs: Japanese knotweed (genus Polygonum) is not the same thing as kudzu (genus Pueraria). Google will clarify this better than I have time to do.
Joel Polowin @450: Yes, I actually thought of that as well. Also forgot to mention that this got by Postini's spam filter. Very little does (including a fair amount that I want).
Wow. This is a clever phish:
Customer Satisfaction Survey
You have been chosen by Walmart to take part in our Customer Satisfaction Survey.
If you decide complete this survey, Walmart will send $150 to your confirmed Credit or Debit Card Account – Just for your time.
Helping us better understand how our customers feel, benefits everyone. With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve and expand our services.
The Survey form is attached to this email. Please download the attachment, open it, and follow the instructions on your screen.
I mean, apart from the fact that I don't believe for a minute that Wal-Mart, of all entities, would pay that much for a survey, and the fact that I never patronize them (the only time I can remember was an emergency a couple of years ago, when they were the only place open at 7:30AM--and I was careful to pay cash).
It looks pretty good, although the paragraph breaks are wonky, and it's "Wal-Mart" in the sender line and "Walmart" in the text. And they've left out a "to" in front of "complete" and thrown in an arbitrary capital on "Just." (Well; now I'm looking closely, a person could see it as a bit oddly punctuated.)
But I'll bet they get some responses.
Sen. Dodd quoted Sen. Kennedy as "bellowing" that he didn't want to be taken away from the scene of the action.
ABC just quoted Sen.Kerry as saying he thinks Sen. Kennedy is "fine." Apparently he held him down during a seizure.
Antony, I laughed until I cried.
Madeleine and Janet, yes!
Does no one else think of the stock phrase "the banality of evil" in conjunction with the Bush administration? The petty vindictiveness and venality with huge consequences, the self-serving self-centeredness--the list could go on.
As You Know Lee, it's not really necessary in the greater scheme of things that any given person eat any given thing. Still, if you're curious, you might try a pummelo some time. It is, almost exactly, grapefruit without the bitter. (Less juicy, as well, but we're talking flavors.) But then I may be a biased witness, since I love both grapefruit and pummelo.
Back to Green Tobacco Sickness (for which I'd found a Wikipedia entry: by that, a major hazard is getting soaked by dew or rain wet tobacco, which in my experience was more likely to happen during topping and suckering than at harvest), I don't mean to be contrarian. I'm fascinated by the implications, and still puzzled that I'd never encountered the concept.
But then we did all grow up around the Indian weed (one of my earliest memories involves tobacco gum, disliking same) and virtually everyone, barring my mother's children, did smoke (most of my grandfather's generation chewed as well). Clearly we all were simply acclimated to a background level of nicotine.
Fidelio @55, wow. I grew up on a tobacco farm; we never wore gloves and, never mind long sleeves, going shirtless was not unheard of. I distinctly remember broken blisters in the course of topping and suckering. I have never heard of nicotine poisoning in connection with growing and harvesting tobacco.
Is Maryland tobacco that much lower in nicotine than the deeper south varieties?
Couple of weeks ago I visited "Dollar Mark" Hanna's granddaughter (Hanna was caricatured as a puppet master for the wealthy interests, with McKinley as the puppet, and if anyone's forgotten, Hanna is Karl Rove's hero).
She was wearing an Obama button. In the past she was politically active for the likes of Taft and Goldwater.
It was a real conspiracy to take out several figures, but it was presented as a lone deranged individual in order to reassure the Public.
It may have been presented (or emphasized) as a conspiracy against Lincoln only, for the reason you state--but it's difficult to square the "lone deranged individual" part with the fact that several conspirators were variously hanged and imprisoned.
Not trying to change the subject, at all, just puzzled.
I've had excellent luck (touch wood) saying "Go away!" as I shut the door in their faces.
My daughter will be 25 tomorrow.
Talk about making a person consider alternative histories.
Mary Aileen, in brief:
The young curate was visiting the bishop's palace for the first time. At breakfast, the bishop observes They've given you a bad egg.
The curate replies Oh no, my lord, parts of it are excellent.
(This appeared in Punch and if my memory serves was accounted the first comic cartoon, at least in that publication.)
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