Paula, the warnings you get are to stay indoors. The warnings people get about hurricanes are to evacuate -- whether or not they are physically capable, have transportation, have the money for it, and any number of other factors. It is not as simple as you are making it out to be, for many people. Full stop. And, generally speaking, the people for whom it is not that simple are the ones who stay. You are making analogies to a situation which is not analogous, and you are refusing to listen to the people who do know what it's like.
Yes, in a perfect world, everybody would leave, and that would be good. It's not a perfect world, and incompetent authorities, money spent evacuating, health problems, limited mobility and other issues are entirely relevant.
Paula @100:
For people who live in areas regularly hit by hurricanes, the bottom line is that the forecasts are often wildly inaccurate, and leaving can risk death just as much as staying, if leaving is even possible. I understand that it's different in New England. Perhaps you should listen to people who live and have lived in hurricane-prone areas, and understand that it's different there.
JJ Fozz @89:
You're assuming a lot of things. You're assuming that people are capable of leaving -- something other commenters have already pointed out the flaws of -- you're assuming that "certain death" is an accurate and meaningful assessment -- ditto -- and you're assuming that evacuating is, in fact, reasonably easy for anyone -- something I can assure you is not necessarily so. Oh, and you're assuming that single=childless, which is a ludicrous assumption.
Seriously, as others have pointed out, there can be a great many good reasons not to evacuate. Darwin comments are both inaccurate and in poor taste.
I was born in 1977. I vaguely recall my parents being upset about the president being shot in 81, but I was much more interested in the new baby who'd be joining us in a few months. I remember Sally Ride going up on the Shuttle for the first time, because by then we were living on the Space Coast of Florida, and I watched the launch from the school playground, and we talked about it in class. Even more clearly I remember the Challenger disaster, which I also watched from the playground. We knew, all of us kids, that something was wrong. We'd seen every launch, and that smoke plume didn't look right. Some of the teachers had radios, and when the announcement came, I think everyone on that field, adult and child, cried. It was the first time I realized that being an astronaut was dangerous, and it really meant something to me. I had a cousin in the program, Kathryn Thornton, although she had yet to take her first flight then.
I thought the worst swear word in Britain was b***k. Jethro Tull told me so.
On Jinx-
Where I grew up, we used both the variant that forbade the jinxed person to speak, and one that was more annoying immediately but less frustrating over the next five or ten minutes for the jinxed person. The jinxer would say, "Jinx pinch poke, you owe me a Coke!" and suit deed to word. So far as I know, no Cokes were exchanged as part of this.
And Ginevra is Dutch for juniper (whence we get "gin," as juniper berries are one of the major flavorings), and juniper has certain magical uses, and also adds a sweet note to anything to which the berries are added. There's also a YA novel called Juniper, which is named for the main character, a Cornish witch.
Yes, I'm the sort who got all excited about the geomantic meanings of Albus, Rubeus, Fortuna Major, and even Draco (which has not one but two geomantic sigils).
anaea at 59:
"I'm dreaming rather idealistically of the day when people are people, where women don't get to cite wonky cyclical estrogen levels for moodswings"
A woman's hormone levels can and do change radically from one day to the next, and it DOES cause mood swings. One of the treatments I'm on for my bipolar disorder is Seasonale, precisely because it evens out those levels to a large extent for months at a time. Since my hormonal cycle was making my bipolar cycles more severe, it's helped a lot. And when it's time for the week of sugar pills, I can d*mned well fall apart.
While yes, women use it as an excuse to be assholes and men use it as a way to put down women, and both of those things are wrong, it's still a very, very real phenomenon. Acknowledging that both men and women are people doesn't and shouldn't mean ignoring the very real physiological differences between us. It should instead mean that we treat one another with respect and compassion.
Serge @295:
While occasionally Mignola lets others write their own Hellboy/BPRD stories for publication in graphic format (and there are some Hellboy plaintext novels out there written by others), both Hellboy and BPRD issues are still being written by Mike. I think he's got somebody else doing the art these days, but it's still very much in his style. (At this point, I have all the trades, and both titles go straight into my box at the comic shop, whenever they happen to come out.)
NBieswachs @81:
Oh, gods, the Christmas trees at the airport. Your link isn't working for me, so I assume you're talking about here in Seattle.
First of all, they were taken down because the airport couldn't be bothered with the mess. It wasn't, "oh, crap, he's gonna sue us, we have to taken them down," it was, "this isn't worth the time and trouble." Second, they went right back up again within a couple of days, after there was great public outcry and the Rabbi in question withdrew the objection. (A friend of mine knows that Rabbi, as it happens. She says he's known as "the young curmudgeon," with the emphasis on young as much as on curmudgeon -- he's not necessarily considered the wisest or most mature rabbi around.)
Personally, I'm a huge separation of church and state advocate. But I have no objection to purely secular decorations for the winter holidays. And so-called Christmas trees are secular. There's nothing Christian about them, unless they have specifically religios decorations on them (which I would object to, on government owned property).
I'm not in favor of ignoring religion when discussing history; that would be ludicrous. But I am damn sure against teacher or faculty led prayer in schools, because it IS discriminatory. The line isn't whether or not we're exposed to the religions of others, but whether or not we're subjected to them, compelled to participate in some fashion, and whether or not a representative of the government is actively promoting one religion while acting in his or her capacity as a representative of the government.
Something folks around here might be entertained by (if you're not already aware of it): Wiki Writ: The Holy Book Anyone Can Edit.
j h woodyat @31: Yes, but since we're all Popes here, we can rewrite our own Unorthodoxies.
Kevin @156: I have just put the second quote into my blue LED scrolling name badge.
Margaret @ 522:
Not all of the Art Institutes have culinary programs, and even where they do, I'm pretty sure that, like ours, it's very separate, almost a school unto itself. We don't mingle much, outside of gen ed classes, and most of us don't want to. Like I said, I'm just talking about my program.
And you're not the first to come up with Rachel as a name for me. I had one director call me that for three months straight. And I answered to it.
Lenora Rose @521:
Capo Ferro, at least, is most definitely not a "heavy swordwork style," but is fencing (a word which comes from "defencing," the art of defending oneself with a blade), although as Susan noted, the blades used were significantly heavier than modern epees. That's because modern fencing is very stylized, and isn't actually used for fighting. Its relationship to the fencing of Capo Ferro and other Renaissance masters is like that of T'ai Chi or Judo to, oh, Kung Fu or Jujitsu -- a stylized form intended for competition fighting only. The masters might be able to actually fight using the techniques, but the average student won't. Capo Ferro was teaching men who would fight for their lives; it's entirely appropriate to The Princess Bride.
(Um, I actually took a class or two in Capo Ferro's style, at a period amrtial arts academy in Redmond, WA. I'm nothing like an expert, and no good at fencing in any style, but I know a little bit about the history.)
Re: Spatulae
At culinary school we have been informed that any of the following may propering be called spatulas:
pancake flippers/turners/lifters, slotted or solid, of whatever material; metal offset spatulas for the grill, also called hamburger flippers; rubber or silicon scrapers (we almost always call these spatulas, because a bowl scraper has no handle); palette knives, both straight and offset (also known as cake spatulas or baker's spatulas); and fish spatulas, which are gently curved, slotted metal utensils used for lifting fish out of poaching liquid or off a grill. Any of those items may also be called by their other names, as long as whomever you're speaking to know what you're talking about. However, a spatula is always a cooking tool, never a serving utensil, such as a pie server or a fish slice.
I'm not saying that's definitive, I'm just saying what they told us at school. Yes, it does cause confusion, since you always have to specify which kind of spatula, or you're sure to end up with the wrong thing.
Margaret at 423:
I'm at an Art Institute (Seattle) right now for culinary, and it's pretty good. It's not the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) or Cordon Bleu, but then, if I'd wanted one of those, I'd've gone there instead. (The CIA scares me.) I won't speak for any of the other departments, though. I never see anything with which I am impressed up on the walls, and the general education classes are abysmal. (I'm currently in a Public Speaking class, taught by a man who averages 2.4 "um"s per sentence, who cannot coherently present a story or lecture, and who speaks in a monotone.)
Lexica @ #60:
And it isn't necessarily "or." A not-inconsiderable chunk of Central Florida was plagued by tornados on Christmas Day. I come from that area myself, and was in Florida visiting family that day. None of my loved ones were hurt, but neighborhoods to eitehr side of my grandmothers' in Daytona Beach were completely wrecked. I came back to Seattle, and discovered that no one here knew that Florida ever had tornados. (Florida has one of the most serious Tornado Alleys in the country, across the center of the state.)
I'm right there with you on all of it. I'm not a knitter, but I am a spinner, weaver and dyer, and I am well aware of how much sock knitters love their sock yarn (I used to take my spindle and wool to Knit Night at the local Borders, where the ladies graciously let me join in their fun).
BTW, it's not all that tough to paint variegated yarn. I haven't done any since I moved to Seattle (just silks, here), but I used to do yarn back in Tallahassee, a few years ago. It's an awful lot of fun.
JC @ 8:
Yes, they have been paying attention to the news. Fox News.
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