For those (like me) that English is not their native language, need time to usually translate, check grammar, improve quality of the post, etc... so a "live debate" will make me feel a lot of anxiety, just because of the great numbers of mistakes perceived by most of the members.
I’m a native English speaker, but the thought of a live debate gives me performance anxiety. I once took a pill for that, but it just made me horny. Probably not good for a debate... :grin:
Anxiety is good, it's nature's way of keeping you on your toes... and that's good of course. That's why so many of the people who go into the performing arts are those who suffer seriously from the conditions of stage fright. They get addicted to the anxiety involved. The anxiety is the up side. But then there is the drug abuse which goes along with that, the down side.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 13, 2023 at 14:27#7989260 likes
Reply to Jamal
Would you consider giving misbehaving members the option of drugs to calm them, instead of banning? I'll provide the misbehaviour if you'll provide the drugs to calm me. Or, what other options are you offering?
The weather was unseasonably warm today, so I ended up hopping on the NYC ferry (a must if you visit) and ended up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I proceeded to wander aimlessly, and then conduct a Chinatown food crawl. The highlight was some pork and chive fried dumplings from a spot called Tasty Dumpling. The dumplings were indeed tasty. Purposefully getting lost in this crazy city is still a blast.
. The highlight was some pork and chive fried dumplings from a spot called Tasty Dumpling. The dumplings were indeed tasty.
Dumplings! One of the best dishes from Asia, indeed. I love pork dumplings with soy sauce and bittersweet. Mercadona sells dumplings in packs of 24 portions, but they are of chicken, not pork...
We also have a "Chinatown" vibe in Madrid. It is located in a neighbourhood called "Usera". Yes, it is not as important as NYC, but hey, they have good restaurants too.
Looks great. Ironically, the Chinatown in Manhattan NYC has become pretty touristy, although there are still tons of great places to eat. Alternatively, there's a Chinatown in Queens which is better, and some say the burgeoning Chinatown in Sunset Park Brooklyn is even better. There are many Chinese enclaves in NYC, and each has it's own charm.
Yes, it is not as important as NYC, but hey, they have good restaurants too.
Well, it looks like a 1970's Chinatown...
It looks enough like Chinatown that anyone can find it. If it looked like a New York slum, that would be confusing.
To New Yorkers, nothing is as important as NYC. That is not true of people in Missoula, Montana, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or Texarkana, Texas. If we have a nuclear war NYC will be much more like Missoula.
A sweeping statement. This city is as important or unimportant as any other, but it's the people that make this city what it is. Ask anyone who's lived here.
That bird is a nightjar. Presumably the idea is that to keep awake all night to do its nightjar business, it needs coffee. Have I interpreted that correctly?
Their taste is good. Maybe they are smaller than real Chinese dumplings. The only complaint I have about Mercadona dumplings is what they are made of: only chicken. I miss other types of flavors.
It looks enough like Chinatown that anyone can find it.
Around 20 % of the Chinese community in Spain lives in Usera. There are around 35 or 40K citizens. It is a good digit but it is not so big as London or NYC. Well, I am happy to have a tiny Chinatown. I was raised surrounded by Chinese friends and I have good memories of them, playing Pokemon in their shops... nostalgia.
You would be too once you'd lived here. And so the cycle repeats. It's like a mystical truth. You can't know it until you've lived it. Until then, it's best not to speak of it.
Best Chinatown I’ve been to was in Vancouver. I ate in a real Chinese cafe and it was the first time I’d had authentic Chinese food. Then we went for a walk in Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden. “How delightful, what!” I said to my then-inamorata.
While I can't claim to have a closeness resembling your love of Japanese culture, I do have four adopted Chinese cousins, and so I do find that I have a love of the food and the culture of China. :heart:
Reply to Noble Dust I love Chinese culture as well. I have a big respect for China. I have worked and studied with Chinese citizens and they are awesome. When I was a kid, one of my best friends was from China. I remember playing in his house and their lounge was interesting: everything red, a Chinese computer and a portrait of Mao. Good memories though. They studied chemistry and live between Beijing and Madrid. I see them oftentimes.
Reply to javi2541997 I once built a website and booking system for a small chain of Chinese restaurants. My first design proposal used a lot of black and they said that was bad luck and it had to be mostly bright red and yellow. I was never happy with those colours but what could I do?
My first design proposal used a lot of black and they said that was bad luck and it had to be mostly bright red and yellow. I was never happy with those colours but what could I do?
Lidl in Spain have pork and prawn gyoza (gyozas?).
I never go to Lidl. Sorry, my bad... maybe the next time I will enter this market, but it seems to be impossible because in front of Lidl there is a big Mercadona, and its magnetic force is unavoidable.
I love Chinese culture as well. I have a big respect for China. I have worked and studied with Chinese citizens and they are awesome. When I was a kid, one of my best friends was from China. I remember playing in his house and their lounge was interesting: everything red
Me too. I had a similar experience. My best friend in 1975 was of Chinese background. His mum was from "Peking". Their house had fantastic Chinese art and carpets, lots of red, scrolls, sculpture, etc. It gave me a life long love of Asian aesthetics. Later Japanese traditional design (kanso) and farm houses (Kominka) and artefacts. :up:
Their house had fantastic Chinese art and carpets, lots of red, scrolls, sculpture, etc. It gave me a life long love of Asian aesthetics.
I started to love Asian aesthetics after that experience too!
This happened around 2007 and 2008. My Chinese friends were the only foreigners in the block we live in. Most of the houses of the neighbours are equal and have the same ornaments. But when I went to my friend's house for the first time, I remember being so impressed with everything. Maybe it was an impact of seeing another culture in the mind of a kid.
Their kitchen was awesome and different. They had a Chinese steamer full of rice. Wow, I am experiencing a lot of nostalgia while I am typing this!
Up to 29C in NYC today! That’s warm for April for sure. Its 24C where I am. Shorts and t-shirt weather has returned to me at last. That’s when I’m happiest, in shorts and t-shirt, hat and sunglasses, a spring in my step and hope in my heart. Hope that will be dashed on the cold rocks of winter in only a few months.
I was born and raised in China, having swum (a most underused past participle) the Pacific to America in search for a better life. I met a fellow fleeer along as we swam, and we hit it off, having had two children as we swam about. Me the breaststroke. Her a variety of other strokes. The stresses of swimming and raising two children was stressful, especially with Beelzebub's temper tantrums, but Greta, our Swedish nanny (who did go on a bit much about climate change), was a life saver.
When we finally hit the inviting shores of Alcatraz, tears rolling down my face as I saw the mighty beacon for the weak and weary in the distance, my wife Pitterpat suffered terribly as her face dashed against the rocks and her body twisted in the barbed wire. Releasing her was like removing a bur from a thick wool coat. Once released, the salt water quickly resolved her complaints.
Greta, Pitterpat, the two wee ones, a guy named Tom, and I then entered Alcatraz for processing. The tour was fantastic, having purchased a snow globe in the gift shop for a souvenir. How delightful!! Snow whenever I choose to shake it about!
I say this with all the talk about China recently. I felt i was hiding some experience I might share with you.
A coworker visited Houston, Texas and took a tour bus to see the stuff. The Tour Guide told them to guess what the three most popular languages in Houston are. He said, "English, Spanish, and Mandarin."
The weather was unseasonably warm today, so I ended up hopping on the NYC ferry (a must if you visit) and ended up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I proceeded to wander aimlessly, and then conduct a Chinatown food crawl. The highlight was some pork and chive fried dumplings from a spot called Tasty Dumpling. The dumplings were indeed tasty. Purposefully getting lost in this crazy city is still a blast.
I think I've told you this before - New York City is magic to me.
I was moved by your story, so I decided I wanted to perform a literary analysis. Here it is. I did it all by myself:
Me - all by myself:The text is written in the first person and appears to be a narrative of the speaker's life story. The speaker describes being born and raised in China and then swimming across the Pacific Ocean to America in search of a better life. They mention meeting a fellow swimmer and having two children while swimming, with the speaker using the breaststroke and the other person using different strokes. The stresses of swimming and raising children are mentioned, including dealing with Beelzebub's temper tantrums, but Greta, a Swedish nanny who is passionate about climate change, is portrayed as a lifesaver.
The narrative continues with the arrival at Alcatraz, where the speaker's wife, Pitterpat, suffers injuries while trying to reach the shore. The speaker describes releasing Pitterpat from the barbed wire, and how the salt water resolves her complaints. The group, including Greta, Pitterpat, the two children, and someone named Tom, enter Alcatraz for processing and enjoy a tour, with the speaker purchasing a snow globe as a souvenir.
The speaker mentions that they feel they were hiding some experience that they might now share, possibly in response to recent discussions or news about China.
The tone of the text is mostly light and humorous, with the speaker using colorful language and anecdotes to describe their experiences. There are hints of challenges and hardships, such as the stresses of swimming and raising children, but they are presented in a lighthearted manner. The speaker also mentions Greta's activism about climate change, which could suggest a commentary on environmental issues.
The use of specific names, such as Beelzebub, Greta, Pitterpat, and Tom, adds a sense of individuality and personality to the narrative, and the mention of China and recent discussions about it could indicate that the speaker has a personal perspective or story to share about their experiences in China or their journey to America.
“How delightful, what!” I said to my then-inamorata.
I would congratulate you on being the first person to use "inamorata" on TPF but you had help from me, so I can not thus praise you. On the other hand, you did identify a bird whose picture I posted. Good on you for that. Whippoorwills and nighthawks are two of the North American nightjar species I have heard of. Nighthawks make an interesting sound with their wings as they hunt at night, a sort of "whump" sound, which somebody told me they make when they abruptly slow down to snatch an insect.
This is what I always look for: real Chinese food. Hard to find, but worth eating whenever you find it.
You raise an urgent and critical philosophical issue here: What is "real Chinese food"?
If you are in China, eat a typical local native meal, and it is so poorly made it is disgusting, have you still not had "real Chinese food"? The adjective "real" implies that it is wonderfully delicious, but no cuisine is universally attractive to all diners. What's "real"?
To what degree is food cooked by Chinese chefs in Lincoln, Nebraska or Lviv, Ukraine "real" or "not real"? Is P. F. Chang's™ frozen Dan Dan Noodles "real" Chinese food, or the Pad Thai "real" Thai food?
Sure: there are principles and rules in any cuisine, and adherence will tend to give it authenticity. For instance, "real" tuna fish hot dish (an upper-midwestern concoction) can't be made from fresh tuna and custom made sauces. The sauce must come from a can with a red and white label. Egg noodles are key, and if you add too many other things (broccoli, parmesan cheese, dried mushrooms (for flavor and chewiness), sour cream, and so forth, you no longer have "real" tuna fish hot dish. What you have is a tuna fish hot dish-like casserole that is vastly superior. Excellent, but not "real".
"Real" Scandinavians living in Scandinavia do not eat "lutefisk" - a dried salted fish cured in lye. The only people who eat lutefisk are the upper-midwestern descendants of Scandinavian settlers who eat it in a once a year ritual in the late fall, along with lefsa (a low-flavor potato flat bread sort of thing). Lutheran church basements are the usual sites for this ritual. Days of soaking in water change the hard, dry white fish into a gelatinous mass. Then it is cooked. The meal includes mashed potatoes and meat balls in gravy. IKEA cafeterias offer "real" Swedish meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce.
If you substitute fresh codfish for salted dried codfish, it is no longer "real" lutefisk. Better, but without the ritualistic and salvific properties of lutefisk.
I have no idea what this means. Is it an apartment number? A food dye? A section on a tax form?
While I enjoyed the warm weather yesterday, thanks in part to low humidity and a pleasant breeze, this is quite a jump from the 50 (ahem) degree days we were having previously. Ideally I'm hoping for some proper spring days (60-70 tops) before full on summer weather.
Reply to BC Interesting thoughts. Well, my concept of real food is the effort to approximate to its original significance. For example: it seems that in Europe we do not eat "real" Japanese sushi, because the main scheme of the sushi of Mercadona (the market where I buy it) comes from Norway, not from Japan. "California roll" is an American dish of sushi but I think it doesn’t exist in Japan at all. "Real" sushi seems to taste salty and the fish is more fresh than here. Then, I guess the flavor would be stronger. Probably, I would not even like it because I am used to a soft flavor.
IKEA cafeterias offer "real" Swedish meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce.
Each country has its own culinary culture. So, their national enterprises tend to promote their traditional dishes as well. It is OK, but maybe it is a touristic or propaganda act. I guess the real Swedish meatballs are cooked by a Swedish granny, in her home, in Stockholm. :yum:
The only people who eat lutefisk are the upper-midwestern descendants of Scandinavian settlers who eat it in a once a year ritual in the late fall, along with lefsa (a low-flavor potato flat bread sort of thing).
Any shots to go along with that practise?
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 15, 2023 at 00:29#7994910 likes
I was born and raised in China, having swum (a most underused past participle) the Pacific to America in search for a better life.
This doesn’t make sense. The “having swum” should refer to an act of swimming that happened before you were “born and raised”. For example, you can say “I was born and raised in China, having swum down my mother’s birth canal in search of a better life.”
It appears that some professor made it a requirement for his course that his students join TPF, so now we have lots of new members from the same university who never post. I predict that when it’s time to do the assignment we’ll get them all posting at the same time and then they’ll disappear.
Well, so long as they’re here to do philosophy, the more the merrier (and welcome if you’re reading this, mystery students).
Reply to T Clark They are all mild insults and despite what you found in the dictionary, they don’t really imply a lack of intelligence. Despite what @Janus said, I often get very impatient with people when they respond to something I’ve written, something I thought was thoughtful, without having read it properly and charitably; or when they take pieces of one of my posts out of context. In this case, you assumed I was saying the complete opposite of what I was actually saying, and that made me reach for the extremely mild and even affectionate “pillock”.
New Yorkers have encountered rodents in toilets, on trains, in bed. And that’s not all.
New York City has a new rat czar, and it is impossible to overstate the urgency of her mission. The rats are everywhere.
Everyone who lives in New York has rat tales to tell. For most of us, encounters with rats are persistent, but fleeting. A jump scare in the night, from rodents skittering across the sidewalk. The sound of track rats scrambling, deftly avoiding the third rail, in the subway station during the commute home. A rat-clogged car engine.
Rats in the toilet are not wandering around on the floor -- they are swimming circles in your bowl, just inches from you tush, hoping to leap and grab on.
TUSH: I thought it was a Yiddish term. Turns out it is from late Middle English.
I often get very impatient with people when they respond to something I’ve written, something I thought was thoughtful, without having read it properly and charitably; or when they take pieces of one of my posts out of context. In this case, you assumed I was saying the complete opposite of what I was actually saying, and that made me reach for the extremely mild and even affectionate “pillock”.
I wasn't offended. We could argue about whether you were not clear enough or I did not read carefully enough, but let's not.
Reply to T Clark I think I can almost accept that I wasn’t clear enough. My criticism of the use of “I know that x” in cases of indubitable certainty is just a repeat of what Wittgenstein says in On Certainty, and I shouldn’t assume people are familiar with that.
On the other hand, the rest of the post did make it abundantly clear that I didn’t doubt that other people are conscious (except perhaps for you in this instance).
I doubt you knew that, but my mother is mostly Finnish, leaving me slightly less than half Finnish. As a typical melting pot American, it's the heritage that I identify with the most. These days, the last vestige of it is when I visit my parents and my mom makes Kropsua. I absolutely love it, although it's apparently an acquired taste; when I was in high school, my best friend who was sort of a foodie (as much as one can be in high school) and a general garbage disposal tried it and didn't like it. It was the first time I had witnessed him eat something and not like it.
While no one likes rats, I just let them be. If you encounter them on the street, you might sometimes here them squeal; they detest us as much as we detest them. I take a new age "commune with nature, dude" approach and ignore them. Works well.
This doesn’t make sense. The “having swum” should refer to an act of swimming that happened before you were “born and raised”. For example, you can say “I was born and raised in China, having swum down my mother’s birth canal in search of a better life.”
I get the criticism, but my unstated setting envisioned in my mind is of the speaker standing in America answering a question of someone inquiring as to how he got to America. This places an implied prepositional phrase of "While I am now in America," preceding the sentence. That should then clarify that the first statement (I was born in China) tells the reader of the speaker's national origin, and the following statement (his swumming) explains how he then got to America.
If dissatisfied with that explanation, another way to read the story is to fully accept its authenticity as opposed to reading it for potential error. That is, we have a Chinese national of obvious limited means having to resort to a grueling swim across the high seas in order to better his lot in life. It should be expected that his English wouldn't be perfect. For God's sake, he deserves better than to be welcomed to the shores of freedom with something other than pedantry.
Reply to Noble Dust Two friends of mine, separately and without consulting each other, have kept rats as pets. They vociferously denounce all anti-rat talk when it comes up in conversation.
Reply to Noble Dust The church across the street was designed by the Finn Eliel Saarinen and his an addition by his son Eero. The local Finns feel entitled to hang out there. I've eaten some of their food at their Christmas smorgasbord event and was not particularly impressed with any of it. People always like their mothers' cooking, so don't take my 1.5 star rating personally.
Except for Swedish meatballs with gravy, I'm not sure there is any reason to eat anything originating in Scandinavia. It's cold there, with a short growing season, so I suppose they were lucky to have anything to eat at all.
When my kids were little, I got them a gerbil named Nibbles who'd they release in the playroom and I'd spend forever trying to catch and put back in the cage. The thing stunk if I didn't clean the cage often, and the kids never did.
Fifi, my min pin, a natural ratter, finally got to Nibbles, and she was so proud when she did. I was relieved honestly. I'm not a fan of rats.
Except for Swedish meatballs with gravy, I'm not sure there is any reason to eat anything originating in Scandinavia. It's cold there, with a short growing season, so I suppose they were lucky to have anything to eat at all.
The smorgasbord is Swedish. Everyone loves an all you can eat buffet.
Reply to Noble Dust University Departments of Rat Studies are finding that rats (rodents of several kinds) have more complex behaviors than we would suppose. I'm personally not a rat-adjacent person, but I do like squirrels, which are pretty much rats. I'm also impressed by "rats with wings". I've noticed that, when biking down town, the pigeons in the streets are very good at calculating the minimum distance they have to move aside to avoid getting run over -- usually just a few inches.
I said nothing about “new age”, and I don’t see how your being a “new age dude” justifies your position at all. You are a complete fallacy. I’m done here.
no; I sometimes begin sentences with lowercase letters to signify that what I'm saying is fairly insignificant; in this case, it's insignificant because what I'm quoting is disgustingly insignificant.
Despite what Janus said, I often get very impatient with people when they respond to something I’ve written, something I thought was thoughtful, without having read it properly and charitably; or when they take pieces of one of my posts out of context.
Feeling impatient is one thing, showing it another; there is private experience as distinct from public behavior after all...
You’re right, you are indeed done here, totally done, in fact overdone, so far from succulent that you may as well be a dehydrated lizard and probably are as far as I can tell.
Breakfast: serrano ham sandwich with olive oil and a dark, toasty Nicaraguan coffee.
It is going to be a busy day... I have to gather fruits and olives of my plot in Toledo. The amount is not big, but it is a grueling work. See you at the lunch time!
It's always funny to me to see this name in it's proper Spanish context, because there's a city in Ohio, where I'm from, called Toledo. It's not a great city.
Reply to Noble Dust If I said I was going to Memphis you’d probably think of some of the most seminal recording studios in modern music history or Elvis or something, but I’d be more likely to be going to Egypt.
Reply to Noble Dust It follows that when I said I was eating a mackerel sandwich in Turkey you thought I was actually having a meal while in the interior of a bird. Gobbling inside a gobbler, you might say (I wouldn’t).
I looked it up online and had a look and found what looks to me like the way Yorkshire Pudding looks. Yorkshire Puddings can be made as multiple small and discrete doughy entities; it’s often made as a single piece of dough though.
It’s only dough though so I’m wondering how acquired a taste the acquired taste of a thoroughly tasty dough pudding could possibly be to be an acquired taste though, although I’m no expert and I bow to your insider knowledge and general foodieness, no?
unenlightenedApril 15, 2023 at 10:54#7996380 likes
There are far too many Js in this shout box. It cannot be coincidence, and therefore must be nepotism, unless it's all the jokey jousting jamborees.
I had jambalaya followed by jelly and Jaffa cakes for lunch today.
J is the Tuesday of the alphabet. Thoughts.
unenlightenedApril 15, 2023 at 12:21#7996490 likes
Reply to Jamal
Far and few, far and few are the lands where the Jamalrobs live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a sieve.
Reply to Jamal
The gentleman employs Js in moderation and particularly frowns on alliterative excesses of this consonantal ragamuffin. While the rule may be breached provisionally for poetic licence or even--in inebriated company--for drollery, none but the scallywag proliferates his Js as a matter of course.
I stayed at a hotel the past few days, and they had a breakfast buffet of scrambled eggs, the plunge type sausages, lox, yogurt, danishes, and all sorts of other things. The ready made convenience of that daily offering was its best feature.
When I'm old and useless, I hope to reside in a place where that sort of thing will be available to me. That's all I need I've decided.
It was indeed a jest. I would be satisfied if @hanover would stop speaking nonsense like "lox" which is surely not a food and just something he made up.
unenlightenedApril 15, 2023 at 15:12#7997010 likes
Reply to Hanover Let me get this straight: in your American hotels they prepare a selection of food every single morning for the guests? And you can just pick whatever you want?
I must swim across the Atlantic in search of a better life.
I'd never heard of it. Looked it up. Seems pretty inoffensive. What we eat as children affects us forever. Have I told you about Velveeta?
Finland has always intrigued me. Related people live in northern Sweden and Norway (Lapland), northern Russia, the Ural Mountains, and Hungary. The history of human migration is fascinating.
Reply to Jamal@Baden is right. I always post about my breakfast and lunches. It is weird and boredom, but he will not stop me speaking about my love and respect of Haruki Murakami. :grin:
Except for Swedish meatballs with gravy, I'm not sure there is any reason to eat anything originating in Scandinavia.
I checked. Although Finland is included in the Nordic countries, it is not usually considered part of Scandinavia. It has an entirely different language (Uralic rather than Germanic) and culture.
Reply to T Clark I’m in Almaty I’m glad to say, the former capital and biggest city. Almaty is a hotbed of a Mexican activity, yes. A breakaway tribe of Mexicans migrated here in the eleventh century, a couple of hundred years before the Kazakhs themselves. Thus, the culture here is a kind of Muslim-Mexican-Asian-Russian fusion. That’s all true except the bit about the Mexicans. I do know you can get tacos though.
When I took a cruise down the Volga we stopped somewhere and learned about the Bulgars. I thought, wait, surely they have nothing to do with Bulgarians. Turns out Bulgarians were originally from around the Volga, the steppe, and Central Asia.
Along that river there were also the Volga Germans.
Let me get this straight: in your American hotels they prepare a selection of food every single morning for the guests? And you can just pick whatever you want?
I must swim across the Atlantic in search of a better life.
Nice hotels have you pay for such buffets, which you just write your room number on the receipt and it charges it to the final bill so you don't feel like you paid.
Moderate hotels provide the service for free. They call it a continental breakfast, but it typically includes yogurts, eggs, bagels, waffles and the like.
Let me get this straight: in your American hotels they prepare a selection of food every single morning for the guests? And you can just pick whatever you want?
I must swim across the Atlantic in search of a better life.
Moderate hotels provide the service for free. They call it a continental breakfast, but it typically includes yogurts, eggs, bagels, waffles and the like.
All but one hotel/guest house my brother and I visited in Europe had a free breakfast. I guess it was a true continental breakfast - sliced meat, bread, pastry, soft boiled eggs, coffee or tea. Everything fresh and everything very good.
Kazakhstan has Bukharan Jews (a native Central Asian sub-group of Jews), and Mountain Jews. I don't know if they eat lox though. We're a long way from a salmon and hey, not all Jews are Ashkenazi anyway.
Incidentally, the portrayal of Kazakhstan as antisemitic in the Borat film was stupid and scurrilous.
Pancake Tuesday, when I was growing up, was the only day pancakes were ever eaten. I never thought to question such arbitrary culinary scheduling and have spent a great deal of my adult life regretting not doing so. As punishment for this oversight, I decided not to allow myself to eat pancakes at all. Day and night I dreamt of them in all their myriad forms, torturing myself with their absence until I realised how wrong such masochistic behaviour was and punished myself for being so self-destructive by denying myself even these dreams to the point where now I'm not sure I even know what the word "pancake" means and am happy at last. :grimace:
The church was built in 1949. The large congregation wanted a typical American gothic church - big stained glass windows, arches, and so on, but that kind of construction cost more than they could afford. The pastor was familiar with Cranbrook and contacted Eliel Saarinen. In 1962 the church built an addition for classrooms, a gym, and social facilities designed by Eero Saarinen, The post-WWII period was peak central-city Christianity; by the late 1970s that was over. The congregation of 1980 could not have financed a new church. The new churches were being built in the suburbs.
Average Sunday attendance was around 70 in 2005, with few young adults and no children, but had rebounded to around 120 before Covid with young couples and maybe 25 children. Obviously some successful recruitment. Still, no central city congregation can rest secure. Churches just don't occupy the same social role they once did.
For its innovate design (in 1949) the building was named a Dept, of Interior National Landmark site.
Pancake Tuesday, when I was growing up, was the only day pancakes were ever eaten.
When I was in the Kiwanis Club, a charitable civic group, we'd have an annual St. Patrick's Day 5k run fundraiser and also sponsor free pancake Tuesday at the IHOP, where you'd eat free pancakes, but then be asked for a donation that would go to charity.
I never knew there was a link between the Irish, Tuesdays, and pancakes, and never really thought about it.
Now it all comes together.
Thank you Shoutbox for educating me. You've never forsaken me.
No worries. To add to the font of your burgeoning spring of knowledge, Pancake Tuesday marks the day St. Patrick accidentally invented pancakes when he was making a giant communion wafer to give to a very tiny man as an April Fool's day joke. So, really it should be on April the First, but that day was taken so they just kept the Tuesday part and set it a couple of weeks later. The historical record doesn't give any detail on whether the tiny man actually devoured said pancake/wafer but no doubt much hilarity was had by all.
Reply to Baden Thanks for this additional information. I won't double check it because it sounds so right.
Didn't St. Patrick have to suddenly flee Ireland from the Protestants and his pancakes didn't rise, so everyone eats flatcakes, or am I thinking of something else?
I've always seen roadsigns about this shadow group, and just assumed it was a cult. Your membership confirms my suspicions.
Growing up, we had pancakes on Saturday morning, accompanied by the radio shows Ranger Bill and Adventures in Odyssey. Unlike @Baden this didn't leave me with crippling mental disease; rather, it most likely helped me turn into the precocious little food boy I am now.
Yes, in fact the little men made him drink his own blood, which was green--explained as it turns out by the fact he was actually an alien (bear with me, it's no weirder than Scientology). But anyway the ironic part is through some quirk of history the green got attached to the little men and not St. Patrick--hence "Little Green Men" = Aliens. And the fact that it was St. Paddy that was not of this earth rather than the protestants is not well known.
Anyhow, enjoy your pint of blood next St. Alien's day!
Made some smash burgers on my griddle today. For the uninitiated, you do this by making an Uncle Peter meat ball and mix in your preferences. I choose feta cheese, garlic powder, and diced onions. You then put the meatball on the griddle, and using a round cast iron smashing device, you press down on the meatball, creating a thin crisp burger.
Delicious.
Pro tip: put some parchment paper between the burger and smasher for easy no stick release.
Enjoy with a pint of leprechaun blood.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 16, 2023 at 00:45#7999080 likes
Any idea what the advertised "one-touch pancake machine" is?
I wonder if those pitchers of syrup are maple.
I think you push a button and it sets in motion a series of gears and pulleys, resulting in the release of pancake mix onto a fiery conveyor belt, eventually culminating into a flap jack falling on your plate.
It does everything but but eat it for you.
When I go, I just open wide and allow the pancakes to fall right into my mouth, stuffing me to the gills, leaving me full of energy to take on the day.
Once a guy accidentally left his cellphone on the one-touch button. He came back a few hours later to a room filled floor to ceiling with pancakes. Poor Matiilda, the breakfast lady, suffocated, unable to eat fast enough to save her life.
When I go, I just open wide like a prom date and allow the pancakes to fall right into my mouth, stuffing me to the gills, leaving me full of energy to take on the day.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 16, 2023 at 02:02#7999320 likes
Reply to Hanover
If they can afford to feed you from a fancy pancake machine, what's the need for pitchers of syrup? Why not just pull the tap and load up? Everyone loves a sticky mess.
Reply to T Clark Yes, it's light, shape and surfaces are restful. It also 'works' as a space. The walls and ceiling are slightly asymmetrical, which reduces reverberation from the hard surfaces. For most people, a PA system is needed, but for congregational singing, choir, and organ music, acoustics are excellent. Mid-century modern is once again popular. Depending on the actual materials, it's relatively easy to care for.
Being a landmark building makes us eligible to apply for maintenance grants (roof, heating, brickwork, foundation leakage -- all that stuff). Without the grants, we'd have gone broke.
Robert Fry, author of The Great Apostolic Blunder Machine, and Adam Finnerty in No More Plastic Jesus, both criticize the typical church for being real estate operations. Indeed, property and maintenance loom very large in most church budgets. I've belonged to a couple of gay congregations that operated on shoestrings, and were still effective ministries, Property isn't the critical piece. (Try telling that to the church council.) On the other hand, the "church without walls" is a difficult act to pull off. Most people want walls.
I would like to wish a good morning to everyone. You all already know that I am the buffoon of The Shoutbox.
Breakfast will be different from now on. Tofu will no longer be part of my culinary routine. It is a difficult decision but I need to do so.
Yes, it's light, shape and surfaces are restful. It also 'works' as a space. The walls and ceiling are slightly asymmetrical, which reduces reverberation from the hard surfaces. For most people, a PA system is needed, but for congregational singing, choir, and organ music, acoustics are excellent. Mid-century modern is once again popular. Depending on the actual materials, it's relatively easy to care for.
I live in New England and I don't think there's better regular old day to day architecture anywhere in the US. Massachusetts is full of great houses, and I don't mean just mansions or historical buildings, I mean just nice old buildings. My house was built in 1910 as housing for factory workers. It wasn't built all that well. Pulling walls down, I found all sorts of goofy construction details. But it's a real house. Go into any city in the New England states and you'll find beautiful buildings from the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. And a few from the 2000s.
Given that, I'm surprised by how much I like some modernist buildings like Ingalls Rink, the church near you, or houses by Frank Lloyd Wright. Somebody cared about those buildings, somebody with vision and commitment and I care too.
Reply to javi2541997 I like the word and use it often against my brother. Another is "bozo". Not quite as good, because a buffoon is a clown, a jester, a subversive comedian, a celebrator of silliness. All good.
Reply to T Clark A highpoint in my Wright fan phase was touring Falling Water. It's not the sort of place I would enjoy living in, but it's a lovely and fascinating building, Other tours were Wright's studio and home in Oak Park (Chicago), Taliesen (SW Wisconsin), Unity Temple (Oak Park), and the Robie House (U of Chicago campus).
Boston has a wealth of interesting buildings. A friend of mine rehabbed several row houses in back bay--living in the place with his family and dog while he was at it. (this was back in the 70s) Then when it was done, he'd sell it and buy another decayed jewel and start all over. The kids eventually graduated from high school and his wife left him. A this-old-house divorce.
My old house was built around 1918, a working class 2 bedroom. This neighborhood was adjacent to an industrial area manufacturing tractors, flour, animal feed, structural aluminum, and the like. That is all gone, except for a remaining Archer Daniels Midland flour mill and a scrap metal yard.
For the most part, this neighborhood has been built on only once. It was farm land or wet land up until around the late 1800s. There are a few areas (like the industrial area) that were cleared and rebuilt. Minneapolis to the west and north is older, though nothing European is older than Fort Snelling, which was started around 1820 on Dakota land called Bdote, where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers converge. The Dakota and predecessors have been here for... 10,000 years, give or take.
Reply to javi2541997 Jamal resents your claim to be the "preeminent Shoutbox buffoon" because there has been so much competition for this title since the beginning.
Why has tofu been banned from your table? What did it do to earn your ire?
A musician plays his big fiddle, sings praises to tofu. and eats it all at the same time.
Reply to Jamal I always wonder why buffoon has "negative" connotations. In Spanish, it is said as in English: Bufón.
Nonetheless, I perceive that some interpret the word as "someone who lacks dignity" because others laugh at him/her. Yet, buffoons were those who made entertainment in the Middle Ages for kings and other members of royalty. But now this word is considered as pejorative and it is quite cancelled.
Why has tofu been banned from your table? What did it do to earn your ire?
I got tired of eating tofu! This is what happens with unconditional love and appreciation. Sooner or later, it ends...
I guess I need a "break" from tofu masters!
A highpoint in my Wright fan phase was touring Falling Water. It's not the sort of place I would enjoy living in, but it's a lovely and fascinating building, Other tours were Wright's studio and home in Oak Park (Chicago), Taliesen (SW Wisconsin), Unity Temple (Oak Park), and the Robie House (U of Chicago campus).
I've thought about travelling around the country to see interesting architecture. Maybe I'll buy and RV. I'll stop by your place when I get to Minnesota and we can visit your church. You're right, Boston is a great place for architecture. For a while I had a construction project in Cambridge right near the Charles River. I had to be there very early. As I'd drive down along river, I'd see Beacon Hill on the other side with the State House dome shining in the early morning sun.
Again, you brought it up. You seemed to mean several different things. 1) Referring to personal experience and outlook when discussing philosophical issues. 2) Focusing on my personal feelings and emotions 3) Using emotional arguments and being emotional about my positions 4)My "epic feud" with @Banno.
Reply to T Clark I made a good-natured joke. I don’t want to carry on this dispute. What I’ve said already has apparently made no impact, and your perspective seems to be as unhelpful and dead wrong as it was at the start. I’m done here!
Did some strolling this afternoon, then later on some ambling and one short saunter. Successful day.
Tomorrow it’s all go though, as I’m mountain-bound. One doesn’t stroll in the mountains. Even if you’re walking at the same speed, you wouldn’t call it a stroll, you’d call it a slow ramble or a mellow trek.
This weeks meal prep dinner is this excellent Italian sausage and black lentil soup. I usually freestyle with soups, but you can't go wrong with this recipe. The only change is I cut the recipe amounts by 1/4th, but kept the same amount of sausage because I'm Amuricahn. The sausage was from an old school Italian American spot near me called Esposito's Pork Store that sadly closed permanently a week ago. I made one last pilgrimage for a sandwich, some mac salad, and a pound of sausage which I threw into the freezer until now.
Lunch was squid, beef, and Chinese sausage with fried egg and rice in Indonesian Sambal sauce. There was some onion added to the sauce but apart from that pretty simple stuff for the level of tastiness involved.
Food sounds top notch. The article is written in a funny discourse though that sounds like it's aiming for deliberate fakery / cliche, like it's self-consciously marketing to the mental 4 yr. old or was written by a very early version of Chat GPT.
I've thought about travelling around the country to see interesting architecture.
Most large cities have at least a few interesting buildings, but for my money, Chicago is the best. (This from someone who hasn't traveled that much.) What's there that makes it tops?
The core is spread out along Lake Michigan and isn't very deep, so there are good unobstructed views of most buildings of note. Architecture buyers (big companies) have bought big and adventurously. There are some nice remnants of the early steel frames and curtain walls, like the Reliance Building: Burnham and Root, 1891, and the Monadnock bldg, Burnham and Root, Holabird and Roche 1891/1893, 1/2 has thick load bearing walls and the other half has a steel frame and curtain walls.
Both buildings have been preserved/renovated. The Reliance Bldg. is now a hotel, while the Monadnock office Bldg. is still an office building. The hallway lighting of the latter building has been restored to 1893 levels, so it's on the dim side. However, offices had windows onto the hallway which brought some daylight into the interior.
If you should visit Chicago in the summer, be sure to take the Chicago Architecture Center boat tour on the Chicago River.
Another thing of interest that Chicago has is the elevated transit railroad. Many transit lines run through the 'loop', above the traffic, with numerous stations. I like it. It works well.
You're right, Boston is a great place for architecture. For a while I had a construction project in Cambridge right near the Charles River.
:up: Very Gotham city like. When I was there there was a huge construction project going on near the river, like they were building a tunnel under it or something. Maybe a bridge over? It just added to the overwhelming concentrated urbanity of the place.
It's funny isn't it? I suspect the vast majority of people feel that it's an annoyance and yet that kind of empty discourse is somehow so much "in the air" that it just needs to be put in there.
Fred insists upon the cage. I offer him freedom and he returns to his bondage.
Hey told me he does it to offer a metaphoric representation of how many live our lives, whether it be in our jobs, relationships, or other aspects of our lives.
I wish he'd just be a dog. It can get overly heavy with him.
Of course the true ethical hero would not return the shopping cart but make an account of the saved time, aggregate it, and employ it as a volunteer in a soup kitchen or some such.
No wait, the true ethical hero would steal the shopping cart, melt it down, sell the scrap iron, and give the proceeds to some particularly efficient charity.
I never even read those over-long, pointless ramblings that take up 75% of most recipe pages. I don't understand it either.
Jesus that stuff is execrable.
You’re desperate for breakfast so you google “scrambled eggs recipe,” and you’re confronted with “Ah scrambled eggs, how I love thee. Toby and I first discovered scrambled eggs in the quaint little town of San Vito dei Normanni in Southern Italy. We’d had quite an evening the day before and we were positively famished (we’ve all been there, am I right?!) Well, we turned a corner and—“ SKIP TO FUCKING RECIPE.
No no wait, the really true ultimate ethical hero would collect shopping carts to employ when faced with trolley problems in order to dissolve the problem for example by being able to throw multiple trollies onto separate tracks to save fat men and so on. The really true ultimate ethical hero has large muscles and an impeccable sense of timing.
Yes! The really true ultimate paradigmatic ethical superhuman paragon always skips to the recipe as it is the absolute sin of sins to unnecessarily expose oneself to the kryptonite that is empty discourse.
I never even read those over-long, pointless ramblings that take up 75% of most recipe pages. I don't understand it either.
It’s mainly for SEO, to get high up in the search results. They will be aware that 99% of visitors just want the recipes and they’re fine with that, writing their drivel for almost nobody to read except the Google bot.
Reply to Jamal Funny you guys say that. Nothing pisses me off more than the long discussion that precedes the recipe. What makes it especially annoying is when you have to leave and come back to the recipe, trying to find among the 10 pages where you left off.
If it's too long, I'll choose a different recipe just to show them I'll take my business elsewhere. And I have. And it stung them real good.
Ø implies everythingApril 16, 2023 at 22:32#8002900 likes
Can't believe I haven't asked yet: who is the owner of the face next to the site's name?
The image we’re using might not be what she looked like. I have a feeling it’s from a mural in Alexandria or thereabouts and it was merely conjectured to be Hypatia. But never mind. It’s the one I liked best when I was Googling for an image in 2015.
Can't believe I haven't asked yet: who is the owner of the face next to the site's name?
That's Philosophy Joe, a Philosophy hero from the now defunct comic book company Bufoon Comics. Philosophy Joe would attempt to defeat villains by outthinking them, but wouldn't actually leave his desk. Even though crime spun out of control, he was granted tenure, and that resulted in him falling into disfavor among the more conservative elements in his community.
The story line was too nuanced for many, resulting in its cancelation and the eventual demise of the entire comic book company.
Their other comic in the series didn't fare much better. It was a recipe superhero who would drone on about bullshit when the citizens just wanted the fucking recipe.
I know others offer different explanations, but mine is the correct one.
Ironically, they are the easiest and hardest thing to make at the same time. Anyone can make mediocre scrambled eggs, but how do you get that trendy "soft scramble" thing? I have no idea. I've heard of mixing melted butter with the eggs. This is also done in French omelettes, and I do know one trick to a fluffy French omelette is to beat them for a full 2 minutes, until they've become aerated. Eggs are indeed a mystery.
Reply to Noble Dust I don’t know about the trend but mine are soft, lumpy, and moist. If you mean the totally homogeneous probably French liquidized style, I’m not into that. It’s like potato purée vs mash: mash for me please. Now.
don’t know about the trend but mine are soft, lumpy, and moist. If you mean the totally homogeneous probably French liquidized style, I’m not into that. It’s like potato purée vs mash: mash for me please. Now
I've only gotten those super moist homogeneous style in breakfast buffets, leading me to think they were from a powder or dehydrated mix. From fresh eggs, I'd think you'd have to beat them into a froth with an electric mixer to get them that even.
My recipe is fresh eggs, cajun seasoning, and Swiss cheese directly on the griddle. They don't fall apart into fluffy pieces, but are a well formed cake of egg, like Yahweh intended.
No, not French eggs that are custard-y and you question if they’re even cooked. A French omelette is just fully cooked, slathered in butter inside and out, quite fluffy, and folded like a crepe. Fillings are optional, and some chives on top and maybe a bit of cheese inside are all that’s needed.
Reply to Noble Dust I understand what a French omelette is you buffoon. What I don’t know is this supposed “trendy” form of scrambled eggs. I suspect it’s what I already make.
I figured you did you nincompoop, but the way you were talking made me think otherwise. Trendy soft scrambled eggs are fluffy but still a little runny. The jury is out as far as I’m concerned, dammit. I’m done here.
Reply to Noble Dust The clue is in the etymology. “Excellent” is the modern spelling of “eggcellent”. Cellent is Latin for very good, so it literally means very good eggs.
Good scrambled eggs should glisten. I don’t like matt eggs with too fine a scramble. Even worse is when they’ve had water added and they’re lying in a pool of it like at those American hotel breakfast buffets.
No. What makes scrambled eggs scrambled eggs and not other preparations of eggs is that they’re scrambled. You actually assume this when you say all that matters is “speed and thoroughness of the scramble”. Thus, you have undermined your own point.
When I was there there was a huge construction project going on near the river, like they were building a tunnel under it or something.
Back in the 1990s through about 2010 they were constructing what was called the Big Dig. A monstrous project of new bridges and tunnels. The removed an old elevated highway from the 1950s and put it underground. It disrupted the city for more than a decade. Now they're getting ready to do something just about as big - rerouting the Massachusetts Turnpike through an old railyard. And yet traffic in Boston is terrible, at least it was before Covid. I've rarely gone in to town since then.
Most large cities have at least a few interesting buildings, but for my money, Chicago is the best. (This from someone who hasn't traveled that much.)
I've been to Chicago twice. I really liked it, although I didn't get to look around much. I really liked the Naval Pier. It was pretty touristy, but the very fact of its existence makes the city different. For a long time, up until 2003, there was a small general aviation air field on a little landfill island in Lake Michigan right in the middle of the city. I always like the anachronism of it. Anachronismness? Anachronisity?
It's definitely on the list of my fantasy architecture tour.
I like Chicago too, although the last time I was there I liked it less. I was in Uptown, which is a historic jazz neighborhood, so for that reason I found it intriguing, but otherwise it felt very cold and distant. Rather spread out and lonely. Maybe I'm just used to the cramped hustle and bustle of NYC, I don't know. This is a non-ironic post for once.
I like cities in general. New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle. I like Boston, but it seems pretty mundane to me. I guess that comes from familiarity. There's always a sense of excitement, expectation when I go to a new city. I even like older, smaller cities - Columbus, Toledo, Worcester, Providence, Savannah, Augusta. And then there are European cities - Bruge, Frieberg, Delft, Paris, Amsterdam... Maybe it comes from my times visiting New York with my mother when I was a kid.
There are about 272,000 households in Boston, and about 66% have (on average) 1 car. If the 179,500 car owners were the only drivers in Bean Town, traffic would probably be much, much better. But of course, as they are wont to do, riff raff will drive into Boston from the surrounding hinterland and will cause problems by their mere existence in that place at that time. Many of them will resent every other driver on the road.
As you know, traffic behaves a lot like a fluid. If you lay bigger drains pipes, more water will flow through them. Given that "fluid traffic" are cars with brains (of some sort) driving them, it's the case that a nice, new, bigger pipe will attract more users. Or fix a bottleneck here, and it re-appears down the road.
In 2021, there were 278,063,737 registered personal and commercial vehicles in the US. The upshot is that every large city will have congested traffic--unless everyone stays home, which would be hell on the GDP.
Boston already has a mass transit system, which as far as I know works reasonably well. Many cities with heavy traffic also have transit systems. Unfortunately, many people are loathe to forgo a private car for a full-up bus or train, even if it is a clean, comfortable bus or train carrying passengers like themselves (which may not be the case).
I'm dependent on public transit, but bitch about it a lot. On a good day, I can bicycle to clinic appointments in about 25 minutes, while it takes 50 minutes (maybe more) to use transit. A LYFT car gets me there in 15 minutes, but costs much more. Transit here was steadily improving before COVID, but has lost a lot of ground since then. Reduced schedules is a major part of the decline. Disruptive behavior on buses, trains, and train stations is another problem which has gotten worse in the last several years.
I can understand why people choose to avoid public transit if they can, even if I disapprove of their avoidance,
Maybe it comes from my times visiting New York with my mother when I was a kid.
Or maybe it comes from being a human being. I don’t think it’s unusual to like cities.
On the other hand, I was taken to London a few times when I was a small to medium child and the bewitching impressions on my senses linger to this day. This is like your trips to New York. What I’m saying is, I’m just like you. It follows that people who like cities are those who have been to cities when they were kids.
But would you say you liked cities if you now lived in a city, that’s the question. If you didn’t have a porch with a rocking chair.
Lunch was three small packs of instant noodles (ramen), all different brands and flavours, cooked and mixed up together, with leftover Asian cucumber and cilantro salad on top. The noodles were different thicknesses so I had to stagger their transfer to the boiling water at intervals of about a minute.
Reply to Jamal
You kind of sound like you're going stir crazy, so I'm sending you this link for a british guy who teaches forex trading. You can watch the videos, join his discord group (just the free one, don't pay for the VIP). Then open a demo account on some broker (European laws are a lot looser than American ones, not sure why). Then you can sit around trading Euros and stuff, preparing yourself to trade live. Don't trade live until the demo shows consistent profits, though.
Reply to frank Is he paying you to indiscriminately advertise his channel?
I have no knowledge of gambling and my interest in it, if quantified, would be well into minus figures. And I don’t need some random guy’s example to encourage me to drink—I’m pretty advanced in that department already.
Is he paying you to indiscriminately advertise his channel?
No. I just wish someone had introduced me to forex sooner, so I was doing that for you. I gave you the british guy because he's in your timezone and I figured he wouldn't grate your nerves the way the American versions of him would. If you look at his video for today, he's trying to stop drinking vodka for breakfast. He had porridge with blueberries.
For breakfast, I had Kashi cereal with fresh raspberries, Chobani yogurt that I added mixed nuts to, orange juice, tea, and I tore small pieces of cheese off for all my animals as they gathered around.
An intersting thing about me is that I always say the P in raspberry. Many have commented on my adherence to that pronunciation and have pointed out that it makes me interesting.
Mrs. Hanover enjoyed a scone that I made the day before. We've never discussed the raspberry issue, but I will be deeply disappointed if she pronounces it in an uninteresting way. At this point, I will leave it unaddressed, but that can only go on for so long.
Reply to Jamal This is true, but I was encouraged by her statement that the scone was a tasty crispbread, and she clearly pronounced the "spb" combination in the expected way instead of saying crizzbread.
Should it be found that she pronounces the P in crispbread but does not in raspberry, that will be the double whammy I'll have to deal with, as it will be both uninteresting and logically inconsistent.
At this point, I will leave it unaddressed. At some point, say when the forks are left dirty and I need to eat my nightly corn kernels and have no utensil, the anger will rear its head and we'll have this whole thing out.
It is time for you to get over the fact that I had swum prior to my birth. Many have commented upon your inability to let that go. Uncle Peter is beside himself, tired of the snarkiness from that little nephew who used to be so happy go lucky, chasing birds, dancing in the moonlight.
In the month of April the male philosopher comes out of hibernation and immediately begins to challenge its competitors. Its belligerence is caused by hormones released in response to the longer daylight hours. The physiological mechanism remains a mystery, but scientists speculate that primitive photoreceptive cells on the philosopher’s earlobes trigger a massive hormone surge. And indeed, it is in this first phase of the new season that the fights are bloodiest.
Reply to T ClarkReply to 0 thru 9 Thank you. Yes, I could have googled the image, but the point was to share the image, and less important to find out what it was. Its design is several cuts above a lot of vehicles. What it is like to drive or ride in, don't know. I've only ridden in a Tesla once and it did not strike me as a particularly great car, in terms of the ride. Maybe it was a bottom of the line Tesla. Musk's rocket hasn't gotten off the ground today and NPR, among others, is quitting Twitter. There is a darwinian process that favors assholes.
Musk's plan (already being executed) to launch hordes of small internet satellites is already screwing things up for astronomy.
Reply to BC I imagine that car in a horror movie, with a young girl, about 10 years old, with long matted hair wearing a robe like dress, turned backwards and facing out of the back windshield. She sits expressionless, but then suddenly opens her mouth, revealing multiple rows of teeth, like a shark, and then cockroaches stream out her mouth as she hisses Latin words, causing the clouds to darken and hail to beat down on the rooftop.
Reply to Hanover Why Latin? Akkadian or Sanskrit would work, too. As a cost factor, trained centipedes are cheaper and scarier than union cockroaches. Skip the matted hair -- the zombie flicks killed it. All those teeth in here mouth? how about the vagina dentate? It would enable your film to tap into a more mature audience with complicated sexual anxieties. I see cult film status.
Wikipedia says:
The psychologist Erich Neumann wrote that in one such myth, "...a fish inhabits the vagina of the Terrible Mother; the hero is the man who overcomes the Terrible Mother, breaks the teeth out of her vagina, and so makes her into a woman."[2]
Pick a junkier vehicle--a beat-up SUV.
John Waters is the obvious choice for director. Better act fast -- Waters is getting old. Divine could have played the part of the Terrible Mother, but she's dead, so there is that.
Otherwise you have a great idea. When are you moving to Hollywood?
Reply to BCCitroen DS. My father owned several, and then finally the Citroen CX Palais, which was more modernist, and the last really sexy Citroen.
They were considered the most advanced automotive technology available at the time, front wheel drive and hydraulic suspension, when you start the car it raises itself by several inches as the suspension is gassed. Dreadfully expensive to maintain, however, Dad had a lugubrious French mechanic called Marcel who would charge you a hundred bucks to glance your way.
To cure this problem, I'll just add a zero to her age, and we'll have a geriatric vagina, which should be a fine addition to any horror movie. Perhaps couple it with a 100 year old penis and we could watch the two fumble about in futile attempts of gaining arousal.
This movie does get lovelier the more we hash out the details doesn't it now?
The climax I envision will be when the thick brown gluey chunks clump out his bloody penis head into the wrinkles of her frowning face. She will then spend the next 20 minutes cleaning herself with a doiley, slowly sucking it clean after each wipe.
She'll swallow in hard gulps as she rubs her nipple slowly, making moaning noises, while the sound of gas slowly parts her buttocks. A close up of her sagging flaps will reveal the vibration caused by the release of noxious fumes, smelling strongly of dead rat. We'll know it smells of dead rat because with every fart, she'll ask "Where is that God damn dead rat again"?
The movie is now less a horror movie and more a horrible movie, but nothing I've suggested has been overdone. So there's that.
Reply to Hanover Dead rat fragrance can be provided on the scratch and sniff card, the tool Waters used for the olfactory dimension in his film, POLYESTER. Maybe you saw Polyester on line, in which case you didn't get the scratch and sniff card.
Some other odors: external body odors of the stars; expelled internal odors of the stars (or the odors of the characters the stars depict--which ever is most repulsive). Rendering plants that process road kill would be a good source for at least a couple of patches on the scratch and sniff card.
Reply to Outlander Sensible psychiatrist! Are you sure a 48 hour hold is long enough?
We don't actually know the location @Hanover operates from -- he could be a long-term patient at the Emory University Psychiatric Hospital in Atlanta. Or maybe St. Elizabeth's Mental Hospital in Washington, DC. Some famous people have lived there -- Reagan's would be assassin, John Hinkley, Jr. (missed, unfortunately) and Ezra Pound for example. Mussolini's brain lived there too.
Are many people put off from joining in because of its childish male-dominated buffoonery?
I wish not! This is one of the most relevant places on the internet! I think they are just shy about expressing their personalities. I had the same feeling in the beginning...
Believe it or not, it is complex to join The Shoutbox. But once you are in, it is not possible to leave.
Maybe you are wondering why I am not posting about my breakfast routine. It is not due to the intimidation of @Baden but because I forgot to buy bread yesterday.
By the way Hannity, I'm now in a hotel in which breakfast is included. The "stylish restaurant with stone walls serves European cuisine as well as Oriental dishes". I may take photos when I go there tomorrow morning.
Bet you don't get stone walls in your so-called "Holiday Inn Express".
I wonder if the Shoutbox has a locker room vibe. Are many people put off from joining in because of its childish male-dominated buffoonery?
The unfortunate dearth of female buffoonery extant does lead to a certain imbalance. I should imagine this is largely a function of our demographics. Other than that, we need only note that a gentleman strives primarily for quality in his buffooning, and the focus of that is an attention to form. Consideration of content is rendered unnecessary for an individual of good breeding as the line between wit and vulgarity is inscribed in his very genes, and thus without effort or thought does he circumscribe his own circle of perfection and purity.
The unfortunate dearth of female buffoonery extant does lead to a certain imbalance. I should imagine this is largely a function of our demographics. Other than that, we need only note that a gentleman strives primarily for quality in his buffooning, and the focus of that is an attention to form. Consideration of content is rendered unnecessary for an individual of good breeding as the line between wit and vulgarity is inscribed in his very genes, and thus without effort or thought does he circumscribe his own circle of perfection and purity.
And it is the gentlewoman who allows the sophomoric male to his buffoonery, neither contributing nor objecting, but only offering the occassional smile meant to convey a growing impatience, but taken instead as approval and affection.
One is certain the discourse has run its course when the gentlewoman ceases being gentle, resulting in the gentleman eventually proclaiming in exasperation, "but I thought you thought it was funny."
No dear reader, she didn't, but you must be you and she must be she and this routine must repeat for eternity as this is where little babies come from. Somehow.
Yours also was an excellent description of ejaculate, and I can't say I wasn't subconsciously inspired by it. Thank you for your contribution to my psyche. I am better for it, as are we all.
Bet you don't get stone walls in your so-called "Holiday Inn Express".
The Holiday Inn Express is presented with a tasteful stucco design, set with modern curves, bright letters, and bedazzled with angular yet comfortable furniture, housing a welcoming staff who is happy to show you where the luggage carts are, as all is self serve in such establishments, not wanting you to be harrassed with panhandlers looking for tips to do that which you'd rather do yourself.
Once Jennica checks you in, you may perhaps wish to go for a vigorous workout in the perfectly arranged gym, or perhaps enjoy a relaxing splash in the pool, or even possibly embark upon a mid-afternoon romp with your lady with one of the many plump down pillows pushed beneath her buttocks to give you that extra leverage only available at the Holiday Inn Express.
It's all there for you at the Holiday Inn Express, but did I mention the free breakfast buffet with the patented one-touch pancake maker? There's that as well, including all sorts of yogurts, fruits, and high energy cereals so that you can take on the day. Why anyone would go elsewhere, I don't know, but I've heard of those forced into dark stone windowless structures, forced to eat ejaculate porridge, not knowing if it's night or day.
The Holiday Inn Express, for all your traveling needs!
Breakfast was French Toast, using the cinnamon babka as the base, adorned with fresh raspberries. Also included was yogurt with nuts, tea, and freshly poured (not freshly squeezed though) orange juice.
Prior to dining, I held the morning cheese party, where each animal took their turn with small pieces of cheese until it was gone.
A good time was had by all!
Pretzel though was later found to have an anal gland infection, so the vet is currently lancing that here and about. I am told she will return good as new once the anal drippings subside, but we're in no hurry! No hurry at all! Drip away sweet Pretzel. Drip, drip away!
Also included was yogurt with nuts, tea, and freshly poured (not freshly squeezed though) orange juice.
Good breakfast, Hanover :up:
Interesting, I never drink tea or orange juice for breakfast. My only potion is coffee and I even drink around five or six cups per day. My brain loves caffeine.
It's important that if you can't freshly squeeze the orange into your glass, you at least freshly pour the juice into the glass. If you pour a glass of orange juice and then go feed the chickens, or put Fred in his cage for talking back to you, by the time you get back the not-freshly-squeezed orange juice will have lost it's freshness.
Reply to Noble Dust There's nothing quite like a freshly poured glass of orange juice, with its newly awoken flavors and colors after having sat in the cold dark refridgerator unattended.
I can’t respond properly until I’ve been for breakfast. I do know with certainty that you win on two points: I am not expecting a one or even two-touch pancake maker, and the breakfast restaurant is indeed in the basement and therefore probably has no windows. It should be noted that in Almaty there is a big shiny glass Ritz Carlton whose restaurant has panoramic views of the nearby snowy peaks, but I went for something closer to the centre (and cheaper).
Reply to Jamal Should you be disappointed with your lodging, I found this alternative for you: https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/almaty/alamt/hoteldetail.
Yes, it is a Holiday Inn Express, conveniently located in Almaty.
Yes, it is a Holiday Inn Express, conveniently located in Almaty
I had a look:
The real breakfast of champions? The kind that's complimentary and waiting for you every morning. We've got our free Express Start Breakfast with Grab 'n' Go options to help kick start your day. Breakfast is available from 7:00 to 10:00 AM. Kids Eat Free.
Breakfast Buffet Included
Meh.
For dinner I had a burger. It came with plastic gloves, which is the modern way to serve a burger if you can’t be bothered making the burger properly. My wife had mini tacos but one was too spicy for her so I ate it, and that meant she’d only had two tiny tacos so she ordered the same thing again so I had to eat the spicy one again.
Reply to T Clark There’s more variety than I thought, so it’s hard to generalize. The very traditional nomad food, which is still popular, is quite bland, in my experience so far, but Chinese Muslim food and Turkish food are important here too, and they’re spicier. I have noticed that anything that’s identified as spicy on a menu is much spicier than it would be in, say, Moscow, so there’s definitely more of a taste for spicy than in Russia, or much of Western Europe for that matter.
My wife had mini tacos but one was too spicy for her so I ate it, and that meant she’d only had two tiny tacos so she ordered the same thing again so I had to eat the spicy one again.
She didn't order the same thing and you didn't eat the spicy one again. She ordered a similar item and you ate a similar item. If it was the same, you'd have had to vomit it out, they'd have had to re-serve it to you, and then you'd have had to eat it again.
Remember the birth canal correction?
Payback sucks doesn't it? Now you know what it feels like to cry in the Shoutbox like I did.
I thought this revenge would taste sweeter than this, but the truth is I'm sad for both of us in what we just went through.
Some naysayers would claim that you simply misunderstood the word “same”, whereas in my correction I identified a shocking lack of logical and grammatical consistency, but I couldn’t possibly comment.
Are we even now? If so, I’m glad and I hope it stays that way. If not, parking lot now.
Remember the cash me outside girl? She's a multi-millionaire now.
I don’t remember her but I’m glad she’s done well. Whether or not I go on to actually use “cash me outside” instead of “parking lot now,” it’s essentially the same challenge.
She didn't order the same thing and you didn't eat the spicy one again. She ordered a similar item and you ate a similar item. If it was the same, you'd have had to vomit it out, they'd have had to re-serve it to you, and then you'd have had to eat it again.
I had breakfast. Although the room was a basement, it did have windows, but the windows didn't save it from being claustrophobic, and it was too small for the number of hungry people, and they were playing Aerosmith too loud.
There's a perfectly nice terrace and conservatory on the ground floor, so can someone explain to me why we must be squeezed in together down in the basement?
It was a buffet. There were three kinds of egg (soft scrambled, hard boiled and fried), fried potatoes, innumerable mini pastries, chebureki and samsas, freshly poured juices, cheeses, two kinds of hot sausage, cereals, yoghurts and fruits and crepes (what I call pancakes) and much much more, but I wasn't satisfied. The crowded atmosphere spoiled it.
can someone explain to me why we must be squeezed in together down in the basement?
The refined ground floor terrace and conservatory staff dislike dealing with the rabble before 12:00 p.m. Well, they don't really like dealing with the riff raffy rabble then either, but... They have my sympathies. I'll write and suggest they use the far end of the parking lot in future. You'll have unlimited light and space.
Reply to javi2541997 A 'buffet' is more about how the food is served, rather than how much. A buffet is self-serve, but it doesn't have to involve a lot of food. However, since it isn't a la carte, people feel that if they pay $10 for the buffet, then they should eat more than a piece of toast dipped in olive oil. (I would eat more than that.).
There used to be a chain of restaurants called "Old Country Buffet" which was self serve and in large quantities. The food wasn't all that great. I called it "Old Country Barfit" (barf = vomit). Earlier there was a different chain, "The Smorgasbord". It was sort of Scandinavian, self-serve, and not very good. On the other hand, some hotels have a Sunday brunch buffet for late breakfast, early lunch, Those are usually very good. U Gardens near me is a Chinese buffet run by Vietnamese. I like their hot and sour soup, and the maybe...15 items are pretty good for mass feeding.
Reply to BC I agree that the main nature of a buffet is self-service. But you have opened up an interesting debate: how many dishes are worthy of a buffet's consideration?
There are in Madrid some Chinese buffets too, and I remember that the times I went there, there were a lot of dishes. For just 15 or 20 € (I cannot remember the exact amount), you can eat whatever you want. But to enjoy the buffet, we need a lot of dishes, right? What is the clue if there are only three or four?
If I were running a buffet restaurant or business, I would put around 10 or 15 dishes of typical Spanish food in big bowls: tortilla de patata; croquetas; ensaladilla rusa; empanadillas; patatas bravas; tempura de verdura; paella; pulpo a feira; chipirones; calamares; pimientos de Padrón.
Then, the people would enjoy choosing and eating from different options.
I stayed at one not too long ago. What I truly enjoyed was the expansive luggage area on the furniture and the numerous hooks on the wall. It allowed for easy organization of my things. I despise a messy room, which can be difficult to avoid in small spaces, but my room allowed for order, allowing me to carry on, and sleep contently.
If I were to come into your room (hypothetically of course), and should I see items randomly about, I would judge you silently and harshly. Please tell me you're messy so that I can register in my head I'm better than you.
My fastidiousness is my least expected trait given my otherwise who gives a fuck attitude. But who am I kidding? That's probably a show too.
Please tell me you're messy so that I can register in my head I'm better than you.
I can be quite messy, and I can be quite tidy. I have many facets.
I finally made it into the mountains. It was a dull and overcast day so our hopes were not high, but suddenly the cable car broke through the cloud and revealed a spectacular vista and a deep blue sky. We made it up to 3200 metres and were surrounded by 4000m peaks with glaciers and pristine snow. At that moment, in awe of the terrifying majesty of nature, I smiled and thought about how much better I am than Hanover.
No, no, no, javi. There are two sides to every story. It's the best invention for the food preparers, and the worst invention for the food eaters. For the preparers, they can mass produce edible product, warm and rewarm continuously for hours and hours, or days and days, while the eaters suffer through rubbery half-warmed edibles, nothing even comparable to chef-to-table cuisine.
But you have opened up an interesting debate: how many dishes are worthy of a buffet's consideration?
In a perfect world no food would deserve such abuse. In a world of too many eaters and not enough preparers, we must compromise. Some foods will be tolerated served in a buffet style, others will not. Scrambled eggs? "Barfit". Then again, it all becomes subjective depending on preference, the desires, needs, and other constraints, of the eaters. There is a multitude of priorities to take into account here, and the buffet caters to a number of them.
Reply to invicta The Tian Shan mountain range in Kazakhstan. It sounds remote and adventurous but a taxi from Almaty city centre to the cable car station is only half an hour, then it’s another half hour taking a series of cable cars up to the high point (not the high point of the range, just the highest you can get by cable car).
I can be quite messy, and I can be quite tidy. I have many facets.
Jesus fucking Christ, you're a fascinating person, a yin and yang all rolled up into one. Your wife is one lucky person, each day discovering something new and seemingly contradictory about you.
Wait, I'm not done with this sarcastic tirade.
What it must be like to be around you, never knowing what might soon be discovered. Are you this, or are you that? The mystery continually unfolds. Like a changeling, with ever surprising reveals day to day. Will he eat the cheese or will he go for the fruit? The buffet, or will he order straight off the menu? This facet, that facet, not even God knows what will happen next.
But you have opened up an interesting debate: how many dishes are worthy of a buffet's consideration?
When you say "dishes," you make it sound like there are a few pre-prepared options, but the buffets I'm familiar with (and they are many and varied) have all sorts of meats and vegetables, often numbering in the dozens. That is, I can heap my plate full of baked chicken, meatloaf, fried chicken, baked fish, green beans, tomatoes, imitation crab salad, pickled beets, cole slaw, blueberry pie, soft-serve ice cream, chocolate dipped cookies, french fries, pizza, a tossed salad, and maybe a pork rib.
A buffet, properly understood, is not all you can eat, but all you care to eat. That's an important distinction. Done improperly, you may die at the trough, sucking the slop into your face, unable to waddle away.
For the preparers, they can mass produce edible product, warm and rewarm continuously for hours and hours, or days and days, while the eaters suffer through rubbery half-warmed edibles, nothing even comparable to chef-to-table cuisine.
I agree, and you made me rethink my love for hotels with buffets. Yet, I believe that everything has its own charm in each situation. It is obvious that a top chef's dish is better than a fatty buffet. But, would you refuse a Chinese buffet if you were as hungry as hell?
A buffet, properly understood, is not all you can eat, but all you care to eat.
Sorry, Hanover, but I see it the opposite way. If I pay whatever amount of euros, it is because I will eat as much as I can inside the restaurant or hotel. If I really cared about food, I would not go to a buffet, and I would only eat normal dishes (lunches) in my home.
You ever feel bored enough on this forum that you’d do someone else’s philosophy homework?
If you find us all that boring, you could go somewhere else. I'm sure you could find someone who wants help with homework on the r/askphilosophy subreddit.
Good view. Here's the view from my hotel room in Shymbulak:
And here is a bad photo taken from my breakfast table:
And here is the view from my toilet:
And here is a view of my foot:
Notice the trousers, if you can call them that. Last year my wife bought it for me as a surprise gift, a tracksuit in the style of Colin Farrell in the film “The Gentlemen”, though neither of us had seen the film when she bought it and I don’t like Guy Ritchie films anyway:
It lay in my wardrobe untouched for a year, because obviously I’d never wear such an absurd outfit, but I decided what the hell and started wearing it recently. When I got into a taxi in deepest Kazakhstan the driver was amused and delighted. He spoke no English, but I did recognize “Guy Ritchie! Gentlemen! Colin Farrell!”
Reply to jorndoe I think the shopping cart question was buried in the dust.
I have a bright red Target shopping cart in my back yard. One night I was returning from the store and found the cart in the street 2.5 blocks from where I live, and about 5 blocks from the Target store. I rolled it home, thinking that Target would come get it. No, they would not come get it. If I didn't feel like returning it, they said, I could throw it into the garbage or keep it!
The neighborhood used to be cluttered with carts left by people rolling the carts home and then just leaving them in the street, on the sidewalk, up right, tipped over, whatever. Eventually the 3 grocery stores in the center replaced the old carts with new ones whose wheel would seize up if the cart crossed an electronic barrier, That helped ENORMOUSLY. Few carts escaped.
I appreciate the self-control that leaves the cart on store property, at least, even if they don't return it to the store. Aldi's charges a quarter to use a cart, which you get back when you replace the cart.
It may be virtuous to return the cart to the store, or it may be OCD. Are laziness, slovenly habits, and disorderliness a lack of virtue or just tiresome behavior traits?
Target carts are made from plastic. Not much recycling possibility there
Agree with you BC! Another fact about Mercadona that pisses me off. There are a lot of carts around the parking lot or next to the gate. They are there like abandoned... They bother and pollute.
By the way, I woke up "excited" because my clock alarm has changed to a heavy sound, and now it is similar to a nuclear warning. I used to have a "chill out" sound of Japanese cicadas...
Not breakfast this time. Just enough coffee to keep my eyes open!
Reply to javi2541997 Waking up to a nuclear warning is too much like a nightmare come true. On the other hand, a tree full of North American cicadas is about as bad as a nuclear warning. What do Japanese cicadas sound like?
It's 36F at midnight here, intermittent rain with small hail.
Reply to javi2541997 There was wide-spread drought in the US last year. The Mississippi River was so low barge traffic was getting stuck on the river bottom--much like the problem on the Rhine. California was extremely dry.
This winter we received 80 inches of snow (over 2 meters worth); California has had heavy rain for several months. For now, the risk of drought has dried up, so to speak.
Agriculture does well when it's not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, not too dry, not too windy, not too cloudy, etc. It's a miracle anything grows. But it does.
Agriculture does well when it's not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, not too dry, not too windy, not too cloudy, etc. It's a miracle anything grows. But it does.
:up:
There are some zones in Spain where it hasn't rained for more than 100 days... it is a real problem. I am worried because our economy depends a lot on the primary sector. I don't know what we will do because this problem is about nature, which we cannot control. The main fact that I am afraid of is the shortage of fruits and vegetables. I wish this would never happen, but who knows if climate change keeps kicking.
Reply to BC Although cicadas are deafeningly noisy, I am quite fond of the sound because I associate it with my time cavorting in Mediterranean pine forests in summer.
The main fact that I am afraid of is the shortage of fruits and vegetables
And yet, even when the Valencia region can produce as many oranges as you need (which I think it can), they can't compete with cheaper oranges from other countries. So isn't the problem the global market just as much as the effects of climate change on Spain's agriculture?
But of course, one needs more than cicadas and oranges to live a good life.
So isn't the problem the global market just as much as the effects of climate change on Spain's agriculture?
I agree. The global market devoured little farmers and agribusiness from Spain. European Union folks say that Almería and València are the "orchard of Europe," but later on, they buy oranges from Morocco because they are cheaper. We cannot stop the market, and this is a given.
Hey, thought I was the gentleman. Where do I get me one of them?!
I imagine Guy Ritchie meant it ironically, whereas you're deadly serious. A deadly serious gentleman. We clowns and vagabonds can only look on in admiration.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 20, 2023 at 10:52#8015330 likes
It may be virtuous to return the cart to the store, or it may be OCD. Are laziness, slovenly habits, and disorderliness a lack of virtue or just tiresome behavior traits?
Watch "Trailer Park Boys" for all sorts of ideas as to what to do with those 'unwanted' shopping carts.
may be virtuous to return the cart to the store, or it may be OCD. Are laziness, slovenly habits, and disorderliness a lack of virtue or just tiresome behavior traits?
Aldi's approach is to require you pay a quarter for a cart that is then returned to you when you return the cart.
I refuse to shop anywhere where people still have change jingling in their pockets and who can still be enticed over a quarter.
If at Kroger, I put my cart back in the cart corral. If at Publix, I just find a grassy median to leave it because they don't provide enough corrals.
Many in the south call carts "buggies." So if you find yourself here at the grocer looking for cornbread and collards, you might use that term to endear yourself to the locals.
Lunch: to treat myself after what I think was a good job interview, I went a trendy/hip Tex Mex spot in the city and had three tacos, chips and salsa, and a glass of bubbly. The tacos were: slow simmered barbacoa beef with cilantro, avocado and green onions, chicken stewed in salsa verde, and refried beans and cheese (one of each). The slow cooked meats were wonderful, but the simple beans and cheese may have stolen the show. Oh and true to authentic Tex Mex form (yes, there is authentic Tex Mex in contrast to authentic Mexican cuisine), the soft tortillas were flour rather than corn, and homemade. Quite thick and just delicious. The chips and salsa were definitely unnecessary.
associate “corral” with ranches and cowboys, so I find this quaintly endearing.
I learned the name of the cart corral when a home goods store near me went out of business. They literally sold everything in their closing sale, including the merchandise, the shelves, ladders, and even the cart corrals.
Anyway (a word that clues the reader we're finna leave reality), I made an offer on the pretty little tomato behind the cash register's company shirt. Not wanting to be accused of false advertising, cuz everything means everything, she sold me her shirt.
So there she stood nekkid tittied the rest of the day selling home goods, ladders, corrals and such.
I still use that shirt from time to time. I made it into a tent. It sleeps 8 comfortably.
I know it is shameful, but I cheated on Mercadona yesterday afternoon. I bought my dinner at "AhorraMas", a secondary local mall. I ate green beans with lemon, and they were tasty. To be honest, I think from now on, I will divide my shopping between Mercadona and AhorraMas to avoid any possible conflict. :up:
Unless you smeared yourself with ripe brie and danced around the public square, shouting
“Taste me! Taste me! I’m soooo cheesy!”... everything’s cool. :blush:
Reply to Moliere Is this a reference to the famous American cheese which I had to google to work out what you were talking about? If so, I applaud you.
This word does not have translation in my language, and that's what it makes it so interesting. If you go to Google translate, it says: Caseando. But this word is non existent in Spanish. :razz:
As for cheese, yes I like it too. Queso manchego is my favourite.
I do enjoy me some muenster cheese, but I never knew it was an American invention. I often have cheese parties with my animals and I'll serve muenster, which they all generally enjoy. You guys should come over for it. It's usually at around 7:00 a.m. Eastern time weekdays. From Europe, you're going to want to go West to America and then when you land, turn left and go down south and then turn left yet again to go toward my house. I'll be waiting.
A quick check of the forum guidelines doesn’t prohibit it. So enjoy the cheese-laden free-for-all! Be sure to post photos lol.
Reply to Hanover No goat cheese? I think the goats would love it, and remember being a suckling kid. My friend feeds scrambled eggs to pet birds... they love it. Somewhat similar maybe?
Reply to jorndoe It's worse than 'absurd'. That's one fast fashion dump, likely one of many. "Fast fashion" is a nice term for junk -- the stuff may be up to the minute, but it's still low quality,
And lots of us--I am guilty too--produce fabric waste that isn't "fast fashion" -- I wouldn't even call it "fashion". It's just everyday clothes, like cotton jeans, T-shirts, etc. that are worn, but still contain quite a bit of fiber. What to do with it? Natural fibers can be shredded and turned into lower-grade products, lie blue jeans can be turned into insulation. Wool clothing can sometimes be shredded, re-carded. and re-spun, but I don't think that is possible with cotton or linen. Synthetic fabrics are pretty much like plastic.
Most fabric, whether cotton or polyester, ends up in one waste stream or another. We should--I should--stop buying new clothes (or even second hand, since I have more than I need).
Reply to Jamal It's in the physics. Beat just enough milk or cream into the eggs so that the mixture is homogenous - it will depend on how fresh they are. Too little and the eggs will be rubbery, too much and it will seperate when cooked.
Use a large frypan, get it evenly medium-hot before adding the olive oil, and spread the eggs out thinly, stiring continuously, take it off the heat just as they set. It takes seconds.
Reply to jorndoe Great film! I saw it back in the '80s (and again since then). I liked the Philip Glass score, and the content captures the 'life out of balance' theme and the alienating effect of the production/consumption system.
Huge heaps of discarded clothing is a piece of life out of balance.
Reply to Noble Dust I liked your bird video. I didn't quite smile, but always find smart birds doing smart-bird stuff interesting. The thing I like about this bird patiently feeding the dog is the dog's stupidity in settling for bits of noodle when it could easily have the whole bird. But maybe the dog has calculated the hell it would endure if it ate the bird.
I'm sad no one liked my bird video. It makes me laugh out loud.
I'm sorry.
I personally do not care about some birds, like parrots. So, I didn't find it amusing. I also did not like the laugh, it's not cute. I like crows (ravens would be too much) and kestrels.
I don't care whether or not the bird sounds like a super-villain; I just love the comedic timing of the whole thing, down to the "brrr" vocalization at the end that's cut short. Maybe that's millennial youtube humor.
Funny that the suggestion of millennial humor makes you feel old. If you're 50 can you be Gen X? If so, it's just one generation of difference. No need to get all flustered. Us millennials are the youtube generation. We're a weird bunch with a weird sense of humor, thanks largely to youtube...
Is @Hanover an old geezer? I thought he was more of a medium geezer.
Reply to Noble Dust I’ve been watching YouTube as long as you have, and from the very first video I was, unlike you, already armed with a fully developed sense of humour. I was going to say “mature” but that would have produced a paradox, since my fully developed sense of humour has been described as immature.
If it wasn't the cat that grabbed the ceiling fan and got thrown unto the wall I don't believe it and feel betrayed. And alienated. And alone. And very post-grunge.
I could now subject you to a test of the most famous and well-known youtube channels, historically, but I won't embarrass you. Cash me ousiiide.
I could now subject you to a test of the most famous and well-known youtube channels, historically, but I won't embarrass you
I admit I might fail that test, since my YouTube priorities have probably always been different from yours, i.e., more sophisticated and cultured. It takes more than a parrot with a vocalization reminiscent of a human laugh to raise my laughter, e.g., people being chased by chickens. I’m done here.
Now that I know you know nothing of the O.G. viral youtube (not YouTube) video, I feel much more at peace; happy, one might even say. And I now know that you're even older than you say. A true youtube poser, in all his guises. A Gen X loafer trying to be a cool Millennial. I've seen it too many times before. Parking lot corner by the dumpster and the weird half-eaten wings container.
I woke up with the rain and I am happy. It is something we desperately need. The meteorologists said that it would not rain in Madrid, but now it is raining... Wow, they never find out about the forecasts.
No two big toasts with tomato and olive oil for me! chastised! :death:
No no! Don't chastise yourself: I'm certainly not chastising you. Eat your toast dammit! Your toast consumption inspires me to consume more toast, and where would I be without that? I would be toastless.
Reply to Banno Don’t get me wrong, I’ll use milk or cream when I feel like it. There is a diverse range of excellent scrambled eggs, that’s what I’m trying to get across to everyone. Nobody listens :cry:
I’ve been watching YouTube as long as you have, and from the very first video I was, unlike you, already armed with a fully developed sense of humour.
I realized @Noble Dust that this actually supports your position, not mine. To be of the YouTube generation is to have had one’s sense of humour partly formed by YouTube, which is not true of me. Therefore you were right and I was wrong. Javi, as a likeminded youngster, found your video funny, so I trust you feel vindicated.
The thing I like about this bird patiently feeding the dog is the dog's stupidity in settling for bits of noodle when it could easily have the whole bird.
Eat a bird, and you feed for a day; teach a bird to pass you noodles ,and you feed whenever the stupid humans don't hide their stash.
So chard, tomatoes, zucchini, separately fried, with scrambled eggs and tarragon for wife, a cheese omelette for myself... and grated carrot, just because. All from the garden.
I agree. Carrots ate totally full of shit. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/
Well you don't want it too far from his specialized fields. Of which I do not know but would assume are among those with the least consensus or most disagreement/confusion ie. interesting that people actually talk about.
Consciousness. He made a statement. "You can't describe what it's like to watch a sunset [yet] you could write a book about it but still never describe what it's like [for me] to witness it". That struck me as bold and in need of further substantiation or explanation.
What is known and was that which was previously "unanswerable" (and therefore non-questions by his own words) that have since become answerable due to advancements and later understandings of science, physics, or other means are now familiar knowledge the average school child possesses?
An old quote I remember, that may or may not be true: "The average schoolboy is now familiar with facts Archimedes would have given his life for."
What the heck is the deal with those supposed "Chinese police stations" outside China anyway? Weird. Suspicious. Warrants investigating. Maybe just lose connections to the top Chinese government/party, more like regional Chinese initiatives/efforts? It's not like the local Diwali gatherings outside of India.
[sup]Since I'm babbling about China...
I've received a few phone calls with someone speaking Chinese (Mandarin). They likely aren't related to the Chinese government/party, just common scammers running their cons. At least don't let those give China a bad (worse) name.
When it comes to electronic/digital spying, things get more...shady. They've been caught in the act. Much trust has evaporated. That being said, companies like Huawei apparently do sell good products (some originally reverse engineered from Cisco).[/sup]
When it comes to electronic/digital spying, things get more...shady. They've been caught in the act. Much trust has evaporated.
All big governments spy. If your government has a powerful news media, you're heard more. And all big governments hide nasty things from the public. Your powerful news media could hide it.
Dead at 89. I always thought a little Dame Edna was enough. "Bewigged, bejeweled and bejowled, Mr. Humphries’s creation was one of the longest-lived characters ever channeled by a single performer." Per the NYT obit:
To be unflinchingly precise, Barry Humphries, the Australian-born actor and comic who for almost seven decades brought that divine doyenne of divadom, Dame Edna Everage, to delirious, dotty, disdainful Dadaist life, died on Saturday in Sydney. He was 89.
A stiletto-heeled, stiletto-tongued persona who might well have been the spawn of a ménage à quatre involving Oscar Wilde, Salvador Dalí, Auntie Mame and Miss Piggy, Dame Edna was not so much a character as a cultural phenomenon, a force of nature trafficking in wicked, sequined commentary on the nature of fame.
Reply to L'éléphant, well, sure, "everyone bad", and Facebook handed over data, Apple once refused, Chinese government agencies have a pipe into TikTok, London UK has a good many surveillance cameras throughout, ... Nothing new there. Intercepting whatever goes over the airways (e.g. ECHELON), consumer electronics (plus software) with "special features" ending up in homes all over. Be aware of what you purcha$e and put (or use) in your home. :up: Anyway, those "police stations" are weird.
I never saw this Patterson character -- maybe it didn't play well in the states. We have real live yokels running things who are about as bad. Well, so do you.
I heard that Sydney and Melbourne recently changed places as the most popular city among Australians. The article was a bit confusing because they used both "popular" and "populous" in a reckless Australian manner. I can understand one of them becoming more populous, all of a sudden, but what could Melbourne (I pronounce it MEL BORN) have done to become more preferable than Sydney, what with it's famous opera house et al? Do Australians actually attend operas?
Reply to Noble Dust Breakfast was just toast. Topped with smoked salmon. The mustard cress, parsley, a thinly sliced radish and a poached egg, and thyme, these last items, again, all from the garden,
Interesting! I like to learn slang words of every English-speaking country, or Anglo-Saxon/Commonwealth. It increases my knowledge of vocabulary.
I mean, it is obvious that some words like "chook" are not taught in schools and universities here.
(It is a shame, I know...)
Reply to javi2541997 Slang should be taught on "need-to-know" and "just-in-time" basis. Knowing that Australians call their fowl "chooks" won't help you until you get to Australia. Then there is the time factor: slang comes and goes. A 'nag' might refer to horses yesterday; now it refers to women, when a shorter word than "termagant" or "harridan" is desired.
Unless you get to Australia next week, they may be calling their chickens "birdaloos", "chit chats", or boffos. So just hold your horses, er, nags, and pick up the necessary slang when you get there.
In Oz (another name for Australia), I have it from informed sources that 'cunt' is a multi-purpose word. I you want to praise a chum or being cool, you might say “he’s a sick cunt”. On the other hand if the person is a jerk, or ill, you might also say he (or she) is a sick cunt.
Here is more information than anyone needs about nagging:
Nag, nag, nag
December 9, 2019
Q: Is the “nag” who’s constantly scolding people related to the “nag” that’s a tired old horse?
A: No, the noun for someone who complains or criticizes isn’t related to the much earlier equine term, which referred to a small riding horse, not one on its last legs, when it showed up in Middle English in the 14th century.
The earliest example in the Oxford English Dictionary for the older term is from a household account in England for 1336-37: “Item in i ferro anteriore pro le nagg” (“Item: 1 front shoe for the nag”). Published in Household Accounts from Medieval England (1992), by C. M. Woolgar.
The OED says “nag” originally meant “a small riding-horse or pony,” but now usually refers to “an old or feeble” horse. The usage is of uncertain origin, but it perhaps came from neighen, a Middle English verb meaning to neigh (hn?gan in Old English), according to the dictionary.
Oxford cites the University of Michigan’s online Middle English Dictionary for the “neigh” origin, but adds that it “presents phonological difficulties.” The MED apparently agrees, since it introduces the etymology with a question mark.
Another possible source for the equine “nag” is negge, a word for a small horse in early modern Dutch (spoken about 1500-1800). The OED says Nomenclator, a 1567 dictionary by the Dutch scholar Hadrianus Junius, gives “nagge” as English for negge. However, Nomenclator appeared more than two centuries after “nagg” was used in that medieval household account cited above.
As for the scolding sense of “nag,” it didn’t have quite the same meaning when it first appeared in the Yorkshire dialect of the late 17th century. An entry for “gnag” in a glossary of contemporary provincial expressions defined it as “to gnaw, bite at something hard,” the OED says.
The glossary was unpublished when its author, White Kennett, an Anglican bishop, died in 1728. Oxford University Press, which published a critical edition of the work in 2018 in Etymological Collections of English Words and Provincial Expressions, dates it to the late 1690s.
The OED’s next citation for the verb has the usual spelling: “Nag, to gnaw at anything hard” (from A Glossary of North Country Words, 1825, by the British antiquarian John Trotter Brockett).
The scolding sense of “nag” showed up a few years later. Oxford cites another dialectal dictionary: “Knag, to wrangle, to quarrel, to raise peevish objections” (The Dialect of Craven, in the West-Riding of the County of York, 1828, by William Carr).
The following OED citation has the usual spelling: “The servant writes … to know whether Mrs. Squaw nags” (The Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold, an 1859 biography by the English journalist William Blanchard Jerrold about his father, a dramatist and journalist).
As for the noun “nag,” the earliest Oxford example is spelled “knag” in the Cumberland dialect of the mid-19th century, in which it meant an act of nagging: “Theer was glee’ an’ Jenn’an’ Jenny Reed, / Aw’ knag, an’ clash, an’ saunter” (The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland, 1866, by Sidney Gilpin).
The dictionary’s first example with the usual spelling is a reference in a London newspaper to “a counter piece of nag in some German Standard” (the Westminster Gazette, Nov. 26, 1894).
Finally, the earliest OED citation for the noun used to mean “a person who habitually nags or finds fault” is from a book by the wife of George Armstrong Custer about her life with the cavalry commander: “To accept the position of ‘nag’ and ‘torment’ was far from desirable” (Boots and Saddles, 1855, by Elizabeth Bacon Custer).
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Woe is me! This is a play on the ungrammatical business name, "Toys R Us" or "Books R Us".
Never dictate your own nickname – this is the prime directive. The golden rule. Attempting to label yourself with a cool nickname will fail 100% of the time and will almost certainly lead to you being called something that boils your piss every time you hear it.
Shorten never lengthen – conventional wisdom states that Australians are too busy with the over-syllablisation of the English language. So always shorten a name rather than lengthen it. In some rare cases a lengthening is permitted but if you’re going to make us commit to more talky talk, it’d better be worth it.
When in doubt add an O – speaking of lazy, most names can be Australianised by simply shaving off the back half and adding an “O”. Sure, it’s not very creative but it does the job. Consider it a good starter-nickname. A placeholder until a better one can be derived.
You reap what you sow – it should go without saying that if you want to act like a goose you’ll be assigned your place in the cunt-pond with the others. For example, if you go around telling people you’re 6 foot when you’re not, you may just find your nickname to be “6 foot”. Forever marred.
Resistance is futile – the only sure way to get a nickname you don’t like to stick is to resist it. Just like one wouldn’t attempt to fight off a ravenous bear, one would play dead and when the third party figures out you don’t seem phased you’ll free yourself from the shackles of said nickname.
Slang should be taught on "need-to-know" and "just-in-time" basis. Knowing that Australians call their fowl "chooks" won't help you until you get to Australia.
I agree!
Yet, I think it is important to learn those words to just get "deeper" in English knowledge. It is interesting how folks speak in each country and go beyond normal/regular grammar/vocabulary knowledge. I am aware that it is not the best way to express myself in a formal or rigorous way. But sometimes it is fun to learn those words.
We have so many slang words too. Each region of Spain has its own way of speaking and it is crazy.
There is one word that twists my mind: bus. In Spanish, it is called "autobús" or just "bus", but Canarias Islands folks call it "guagua" and Argentinian folks call it "colectivo"
Like if you check the words, you will notice that the lexicon is not related to these slang words, but they refer to the same object!
In urban centres like Melbourne and Sydney people are ostentatious about their love of 'the arts' - opera, ballet, classical music, theatre, literature. The cities (and some regional centres) are full of festivals and celebrations of culture. Needless to say, the people who attend often have no idea what's being presented to them, they just want to be mistaken for intellectuals, instead of wife bashing, sports fanatics who think Andrew Lloyd Webber is highbrow.
While I realize the rule proscribes me giving myself my own nickname, Hanno sounds more likely.
I also like Ho, or "my Ho," as in "where my Ho at"?
There's also the problem with the double nickname we have going here. As you might have guessed, Hanover is already a nickname, so a nickname from that further deepens us in the matrix
Reply to Metaphysician Undercover I see. Thank you for the proofread. It is true that they are boots, my bad that I didn't use my words properly. But hey, this mistake doesn’t imply a negative connotation on Hanovo's outfit.
I'm a mere 56 years old, but get scrappier and more confident daily.
I’ve known people who grew bitter and nasty as they aged. I’ve known other people who became mellow, timid, and soft. Which is worse?
The solution I suppose is to refuse that dichotomy and grow more joyful and confident at the same time as becoming more scrappy, i.e., to become passionate and kind and violent, in an affirmation of life in all of its joy and horror. If that’s what’s going on with you, I applaud you.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 24, 2023 at 17:18#8027160 likes
this mistake doesn’t imply a negative connotation on Hanovo's outfit.
I'll step in here to provide a negative connotation about Hanovo's garb: those are really quite ugly boots (maybe from the Salvation Army?) and why would one wear boots and long pants while lounging next to the wading pool? Is Hanovo also wearing a sweater?
step in here to provide a negative connotation about Hanovo's garb: those are really quite ugly boots (maybe from the Salvation Army?) and why would one wear boots and long pants while lounging next to the wading pool? Is Hanovo also wearing a sweater?
Thank you for the wardrobe question. I'll be delighted to explain.
The boots are the pull up sort, with steel toes, and can be even worn without socks if need be. Tennis shoes and dress shoes don't work well in the high grass and goat shit, so they sit by the door.
I hate the cold (under 70 degrees) so I bought a 1980s circa Italian military officer"s dress wool coat for $20 that I could keep next to my boots.
Here's me, smartly dressed for field work, the brass buttons revealing my high rank.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 25, 2023 at 01:59#8028550 likes
I'd say there's a reason why Hanover hates the cold, and a probability of about nine out of ten that he's got nothing on under the wool coat.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 25, 2023 at 02:02#8028560 likes
Reply to BC
Are women exempt from the parking lot rule?
Breakfast: it is special because it is my birthday. There is a lot of toast, tomatoes, and olive oil, and a phrase written with coffee says: FELIIICIDADEEEES.
Today is a boring day because it is Tuesday and most of the members of my family go to work and do not appear until dinner time, when they are tired. So, they decided to at least do "something" for breakfast. They think if they do not try it, I will feel devastated or lonely on my "special" day.
I wonder if other countries put this effort into birthdays too. I mean, it seems that skipping the birthday day here is a sin.
Horses are not to be trusted. They are fickle, devious, neurotic creature -- made that way by their cowboy ropin, ridin, fuck-it or shoot-it cryptofascist owners.
It varies. I’ve known people who demanded breakfast in bed and multiple gifts and champagne and generally special treatment for 24 hours, and then other people who didn’t care.
It varies. I’ve known people who demanded breakfast in bed and multiple gifts and champagne and generally special treatment for 24 hours, and then other people who didn’t care.
Well, I am among the ones who want to invite all TPF members to a round of sake. :party:
With reference to the clip from Serial Mom above ...
Reply to javi2541997 Javi, have you seen (or maybe more to the point, heard of) any of John Waters' films? Here is a list of his feature films in reverse order -- least first, best last -- at least in somebody's mind,
Mondo Trasho (1969)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
A Dirty Shame (2004)
Cry Baby (1990)
Pecker (1998)
Multiple Maniacs (1970) - "the sleaziest show on earth"
Serial Mom (1994)
Desperate Living (1977)
Hairspray (1988)
Pink Flamingoes (1972) - "the filthiest people in the world"
Polyester (1981)
Female Trouble (1974)
Though Serial Mom was the funniest, while Hairspray and Polyester were good fun.
John Waters is an independent underground film maker; he has a cult following of people ranging from perverse, to twisted, and on to merely weird. His star performer was Divine, a 300 lb. drag queen, but not the only odd ball in the stable. His films are transgressive and disturbing to many people. The safest titles are Hairspray and Polyester, these being pretty much mainstream-ish. Pink Flamingoes is probably the most outré, outrageous, and therefore most interesting.
Divine, 1945 - 1988, was an 'old-style' drag queen whose performances were not informed (or misinformed) by today's obsession with queer gender fluidity. John Waters is gay, and his movies became part of the American gay culture, but his movies are not about gays and lesbians for the most part.
Reply to BC Thank you BC! Appreciate your comment.
No, I have never seen John Walter's films. I think it is my fault because Japanese anime stuck with me for years and I "lost" a lot of good series and films of the Western world. But better later than never, I can watch them at any moment around the internet!
Dogs are awesome, humble and friendly by nature. It is weird to see a dangerous dog. Even "violent" breeds as "pitbull" can be good boys too.
This is true, but dogs might be dangerous by nature as much as they are friendly by nature. They can be both, and who is to say which is more essential?
I have had dogs and I usually get on with them very well, but I have also been chased and attacked by them and have had to live next door to dogs that would not stop barking, and I have had to try and work while looking after dogs who would stare at me for hours in anticipation of the next walk. They can be loyal, fun companions, but they are difficult and annoying, and they’re sometimes dangerous.
They can be loyal, fun companions, but they are difficult and annoying, and they’re sometimes dangerous.
I agree.
I think loyalty is the main characteristic of a dog, but this doesn't prevent the fact that they can be dangerous with both people and other animals too. I currently have mini-dogs, but back in the day I had a boxer dog. I remember getting frustrated and annoyed because people wanted to avoid us when we were walking in the street. But I understand that everyone is free to fear big dogs.
They are more independent and quiet. But sometimes they can be aggressive too! Their sharp claws can be dangerous.
Cats are an important animal inside Japanese economy and culture. I cannot explain why, but they tend to respect them a lot.
Reply to JamalReply to javi2541997 One of the dog problems I see is that a lot of dogs people get are rescue dogs what have been poorly cared for and not socialized. There is a window during which this can be done for long term results. After the window closes, you're stuck with trying to remediate undesirable characteristics.
I'm not a fan of rounding up truck loads of stray dogs around the country and then offering them as loving pets. Some of them will be OK, some of them will be screwed up for the rest of their lives. I'm not opposed to euthanizing excess dog and cat populations--which you get if you don't neuter the dogs and cats and then let them run free.
Dogs and cats do have personalities, and they can be very persistent and annoying in their efforts to get us to conform to their preferences. After a while it becomes unclear as to who is training whom.
Reply to BC Good point. There is even a big issue regarding abandoned dogs and cats: some tend to "romanticize" the adoption of those animals. They even critique the owners who have animals from hatcheries, and say: "Don't buy animals, adopt them"
Adopting a dog or a cat is a very serious action. Most of them had traumas, and the relationship will not be easy. In this case, I think it is advisable to ask for the help of a trainer.
I have known many people who adopted dogs from shelters and they have mostly worked out well. It’s better than maintaining the idiotic practice of “pedigree” breeding, which I would ban.
Absolutely. He loves them a lot. There is a book called: "Yes, let’s ask mister Murakami" (Japanese: ???????????????), not translated yet... and the cover of the book appears a cat.
Well, it is an animal that frequently appears in his works, as much as train stations!
I wonder if you’d say that had you been chased by a Caucasian Shepherd, a Doberman, a Great Pyrenees, a Rottweiler, and many others (they idiotically hate bicycles while thinking cars are just fine) and been bitten on the legs by a mad spaniel.
However, I still love dogs, even though I do sometimes mind them.
I wonder if you'd say that had you spent 8+ years in NYC, the epicenter of rich, entitled asshole dog owners, who's dogs would not survive 2 hours in the wild.
Had I been chased by many different dog breeds, I might have a different opinion of them. Actually, growing up I didn't like dogs because my aunt (the cool aunt) always had several large dogs which she would put in cages when we visited. This ritual gave me the impression that dogs were terrifying beasts to be avoided at all costs.
Some do where various items during the winter. It's despicable.
Along with entitled rich dog owners, the other set that makes me nauseous is the mentally damaged set; those who require you to shower their dogs with adoration, while they, the dog owners, vicariously absorb the praise and love they so desperately have lacked their whole lives for various (legitimate) reasons, yet they insist on making you part of their fucked up mental gymnastic routine by making you adore their dog, thus vicariously fueling them with said adoration. Yeah....
To the extent that Fred is a dog, I have 3 dogs. Counting my cat, I have 4 dogs. I can never really remember if Fred is my dog or my son.
Fred would never bite, but he used to jump on people because I trained him to be uninhibited and to do whatever he wanted to. I built his self-confidence by telling him he was a good boy no matter what he did. Amidst a variety of complaints, I took him to a trainer, and it turned out that Fred was really a smart dog, just maybe in need of some discipline and direction. Sounded pretty much like all the report cards I got up through high school.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 25, 2023 at 12:38#8029680 likes
Divine, 1945 - 1988, was an 'old-style' drag queen whose performances were not informed (or misinformed) by today's obsession with queer gender fluidity.
they idiotically hate bicycles while thinking cars are just fine
They don't "hate bicycles", they think of bicyclists whizzing by as prey. BTW, I agree with you on the pedigree business. Very popular dogs like retrievers and German shepherds have developed in-bred defects like hip dysplasia, knee problems, neurological problems, and the like. So, very mixed breed dogs--mutts--are often healthier.
I am the dog you put to sleep,
as you like to call the needle of oblivion, come back to tell you this simple thing: I never liked you--not one bit.
When I licked your face,
I thought of biting off your nose. When I watched you toweling yourself dry, I wanted to leap and unman you with a snap.
I resented the way you moved, your lack of animal grace,
the way you would sit in a chair to eat, a napkin on your lap, knife in your hand.
I would have run away,
but I was too weak, a trick you taught me while I was learning to sit and heel, and--greatest of insults--shake hands without a hand.
I admit the sight of the leash would excite me
but only because it meant I was about to smell things you had never touched.
You do not want to believe this,
but I have no reason to lie.
I hated the car, the rubber toys, disliked your friends and, worse, your relatives.
The jingling of my tags drove me mad. You always scratched me in the wrong place. All I ever wanted from you
was food and fresh water in my metal bowls.
While you slept, I watched you breathe as the moon rose in the sky.
It took all of my strength not to raise my head and howl.
Now I am free of the collar,
the yellow raincoat, monogrammed sweater, the absurdity of your lawn,
and that is all you need to know about this place
except what you already supposed
and are glad it did not happen sooner--
that everyone here can read and write,
the dogs in poetry, the cats and the others in prose.
As young as I look,
I am growing older faster than he, seven to one
is the ratio they tend to say.
Whatever the number,
I will pass him one day
and take the lead
the way I do on our walks in the woods.
And if this ever manages
to cross his mind,
it would be the sweetest
shadow I have ever cast on snow or grass.
In any case, while narrowly escaping from these dogs I usually detect strong signs of hostility, which I can surely be allowed to refer to as hatred.
In the end, after the long-fanged beasts have toppled you from the bike, stopped barking, and begun to feed (on you), whether it is the thrill of the chase or the thrill of hatred won't matter.
Do you carry a tire pump? Wielding the pump in a threatening manner discourages dogs--Midwestern rural dogs at least. The pump isn't heavy enough to hurt them but they don't know that. Yet, anyway,
Do you carry a tire pump? Wielding the pump in a threatening manner discourages dogs--Midwestern rural dogs at least. The pump isn't heavy enough to hurt them but they don't know that. Yet, anyway,
In these moments I am frantically accelerating away from slavering snarling mouths and do not have time to reach for my pump. My pump is a mini-pump so would’ve been useless, and I don’t think these dogs would have been discouraged by any size of pump. These were not your soft midwestern pooches.
Reply to javi2541997
Are you aware of the thing where Japanese women are expected to behave in a child-like way, but they're simultaneously reproached for doing it? I read about that.
Reply to frank No, I never heard about that. The Japanese women who appear in the books that I read are geishas or westernised characters. So, despite it can be a disappointment, I have zero clues on what is the mind of the average modern Japanese woman.
The reason they spend so much time and money clearing land, cutting down trees, bringing in trucks, pouring asphalt, and laying roads is so that cars, trucks, and buses will be able to transport the things that keep the city operating.
It was not to satisfy the recreational needs of bicyclists who couldn't find a better way to stay in shape other than impeding the flow of traffic, most of whom refuse to obey the rules of the road, not stopping at stop signs and merging at will.
If it were up to me, and I assure you, one day it most certainly will be, there will be no bicycles on the roadway, but they all will be relegated to fenced in bike parks situated next to dog parks, where they will be able to roam free off leash in a controlled setting.
Do you carry a tire pump? Wielding the pump in a threatening manner discourages dogs--Midwestern rural dogs at least. The pump isn't heavy enough to hurt them but they don't know that. Yet, anyway,
Once I was jogging and this guy pulled into his driveway and pushed some button that opened his fence so that his car could enter and out ran two dogs right at me. They came up to me and I kicked one in in the chest and he didn't really seem to mind, but he did back up a bit and kept barking. The man came out and coralled (I used this delightful word as an olive branch for @Jamal because I just told him to cry) the dogs.
At first he was apologetic, but then he started yelling about how they weren't going to hurt anyone. I looked at him and said "no worries, bad situation" and kept jogging. The guy then drove by me in his car, as if to intimidate me or something for kicking his charging dogs.
It's hard being a jogger but someone has to do it.
I have zero clues on what is the mind of the average modern Japanese woman.
Nobody else does either. Sigmund Freud, in a fit of exasperation, ran from his study screaming, "God!!! What does a woman want?” Well, that's not quite correct. He probably yelled something like "Gott!!! Was will eine Frau?"
Harry Belafonte was an American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor.
One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) is the first million-selling LP by a single artist.
Belafonte is perhaps best known for his recording of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded and performed many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards.
Belafonte won three Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. He starred in several films, including Otto Preminger's musical Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).
Belafonte was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s confidants. Throughout his career, he was an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement and USA for Africa. Since 1987, was been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Belafonte was also the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.
In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards. In March 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Reply to BC Trust me when I say that Japanese women are complex (more complex than other women of different cultures) because of Japanese customs, not just psychology. They are like a world apart. It is very difficult to understand them and get along with...
So, yes, I don't have a clue what is in the mind of a Japanese woman because they act according to the Japanese status quo, not their feminine senses. I know it is weird what I post, but you don't see it until you contact them or have an experience with them.
Thank you, friend. That's exactly what I did yesterday. I ate a lot of toast and tomatoes with olive oil. :party:
Of course. Now, which olive oil did you choose?
It's interesting how the use of "now" at the beginning of a phrase can change things. In this case, I mean it in its basic sense; By saying "now", I'm alerting my interlocutor that I'm saying something significant afterwards. But in midwestern American, to say "now" at the beginning of a sentence does something similar but different; it does alert my interlocutor that I'm saying something important afterwards, but it also says something else. It's a sort of admission of difference; an admission that my interlocutor might disagree, and a suggestion that I'm going to show them why they should agree. Politely. There's a folksiness to it. Now, I defer to @BC on this matter.
Reply to Noble Dust "Now hear this" is a phrase used, particularly in the United States Navy, to instruct personnel to give "attention to an order or command about to follow".
Now hear this: The U. S. Navy will not invade Duluth.
June 8, 1989 The Navy has canceled plans for a mock amphibious assault on a Duluth beach this summer because of protests by peace groups and others, who had threatened to meet the landing force on the beach with an army of protesters.
"NOW HEAR THIS: NAVY ABANDONS ALL CAPS. Upper and lower case letters will now be used.
So, "now" and "so" serve a similar function when they are the first word in a sentence?
I chose Picual olive oil. It is a type of olive tree from Andalucía. They are harvested in Córdoba and the color of the olive oil is very green, like a highlighter. The bottle looks like this:
Being young is good to the extent you've got longer to live and perhaps you can run and jump higher, to the extent you might need to.
But, I put the question to the floor. All things considered, did you prefer your 26th year to your current one? What years were your best?
I tend not to live in the past, but prefer the here and now, as a more evolved state. When I was 26, I had mostly only potential, with much less realized.
did you prefer your 26th year to your current one? What years were your best?
Good question, and it will be interesting your opinions. It is obvious that I cannot decide on "what are the best years" because I am still young (?) because I haven't even reached my 30s yet.
Nonetheless, I do not like my age or at least my generation. I do not have friends of my age and I prefer to have contact with you folks because you are more mature, have read more books, the debates are more interesting, etc...
My generation (Millennials) is a waste of time and resources and I feel that we disappoint you all constantly.
I don’t know why you’re talking to the floor, but I can step in to answer the question. Ups and downs all the way for me, but I was certainly happier and more confident in my thirties and forties than I was before, although I began to feel the midlife crisis coming on in my mid forties and now that’s reaching a catastrophic peak. We’ll see how it goes. Whatever happens it’ll be better than being a teenager or twenty-something again—for me those years were low-level horrible. I blame capitalism.
I tend not to live in the past, but prefer the here and now, as a more evolved state. When I was 26, I had mostly only potential, with much less realized.
So floor, what say you?
I can't say I remember a single event from when I was 26. It was 1992. I looked the year up on line to see if it brought back any memories. Nothing.
It was at the age of 26 that I moved from Scotland to the North of England to start my first job as a programmer, so it’s a memorable year. At the time it seemed like a big move, but in retrospect it doesn’t.
Reply to Tom Storm Death + the pointlessness of existence. Hey, I’m attempting to maintain some cheeriness here so don’t grill me on the characteristics of my anxiety. :smile:
Reply to Jamal Sorry. I don't really get the abyss thing so I'm curious. A fifty year-old colleague of mine has recently gotten a motorbike and ridiculous jet black hairpiece, so these things I get. In fact his wig is an abyss...
My use of “abyss” was mainly me hitting a common reference point with respect to existentialism and stuff, although it’s also true.
One thing I’m not anxious about is my baldness. I literally embraced my bald head at the age of 28 and I haven’t looked back or wished for a different head.
What I didn't like about youth was dependency and lack of autonomy. Much of our youth is spent doing as we're told, living where we're told, and relying upon others for existence.
I saw the emergence from youth as an emancipation from the asylum I was prescribed to the one I was able to choose. This isn't to say my childhood was filled with unhappiness, neglect, or abuse, but it's just to say that because it was not by my own design, it was very confining.
With age, that autonomy has only increased, as in today I'm much more in control of doing what I want to do than when I was 26. At 26, you're stilled mired in probably a less than perfect job situation, friendship situation, or romantic situation, and you're likely at the bottom of the decision making totem pole in most matters.
It's the distinction between freedom and enslavement.
It was at the age of 26 that I moved from Scotland to the North of England to start my first job as a programmer, so it’s a memorable year. At the time it seemed like a big move, but in retrospect it doesn’t.
Projecting my thoughts upon your bald head, I'd submit that the move was a short distance geographically but a long distance toward obtaining freedom. You left your home and family to start a new job and make your way.
Projecting my thoughts upon your bald head, I'd submit that the move was a short distance geographically but a long distance toward obtaining freedom. You left your home and family to start a new job and make your way.
I think I had more friends and was less jaded when I was 26. I feel like I’ve aged rather quickly in my 30s. But with age comes wisdom, and as I’m universally recognized as the wisest member of the forum, I suppose it’s not all bad. I like how I managed to make this conversation about me. Only the wise have that skill.
Reply to Michael Hanovo could be a Murakami's novel character. I wish this is not taken as a criticism because being related to Murakami is one of the proudest things in the world.
I think I had more friends and was less jaded when I was 26.
I can attest to this. When you were 26, I had in you perhaps the greatest friend I had ever known. When you turned 27, fuck dude, you became pretty intolerable. Not sure what happened, but if we could just get a glimpse every now and then of the 26 year old you that'd be much appreciated.
Speaking of geists, I feel the current spirit of the Shoutbox is to challenge others to fights. I like this approach. It's comptetive and keeps us on our toes. I credit capitalism.
My use of “abyss” was mainly me hitting a common reference point with respect to existentialism and stuff
Sure. Existentialism was big in my circle when I was young. But the abyss never really held much dread for me since we already seem to be living inside one and have become acclimatized. :wink:
Reply to Hanover O yeah that was a good year there. Not that this one is bad. It was just a year that was maybe better. I was athletic then, which probably has something to do with it.
I guess you missed it. I am the Voice of the Spirit of Philosophy here on the forum, self-appointed on the basis of my authority as the Voice of the Spirit of Philosophy.
Calling a situation "fine", for example. No word has ever attempted to encapsulate and stand for so much while ultimately resolving to so little. Am I right? Yeah I know I am.
Calling a situation "fine", for example. No word has ever attempted to encapsulate and stand for so much while ultimately resolving to so little. Am I right? Yeah I know I am.
Actually "refine' is a better word, because "fine", though it indicates a very high quality, does not quite bring you to that even higher level of "refined". Resolved.
refine: refinar; clarificar; purificar; acrisolar.
English definition: remove impurities or unwanted elements from (a substance), typically as part of an industrial process.
I think I don't see the clue of the "refine" word.
Metaphysician UndercoverApril 27, 2023 at 10:28#8032990 likes
Reply to javi2541997
Refined indicates highest purity. it also indicates high culture, unlike those foolishly brash boys who want to take everything to the parking.
I challenge @Noble Dust’s claim to the title of Shoutbox king of forensic meal analysis…
For lunch I made myself a lamb wrap. I put some lamb fillet, a roughly sliced onion and a roughly sliced red pepper, together in a cast iron pan in the oven for 20 minutes. Meanwhile I made tzatziki with a lot of garlic, grated cucumber, and salt and pepper. I allowed the lamb to rest for a while before chopping it up and putting everything together in a sheet of lavash flatbread.
There were three problems with the resulting meal:
1. The lamb was overcooked.
2. The tzatziki had too much water in it so the wrap had a constant stream of watery yoghurt dribbling out of the downward-pointing end.
3. It didn’t have enough flavour.
Solutions for next time:
1. Cook the lamb for less time than the onion and pepper.
2. Get most of the water out of the cucumber or use slices rather than grating them into the tzatziki; and use a thicker, drier yoghurt. And reduce the amount of onion and pepper so I can double roll the bread, thus sealing in the liquid long enough to eat it.
3. Add some spice, such as satsebeli sauce (which I think of as the Georgian ketchup) or some other chili sauce. Maybe some pickled chilis, Greek style. Some olives would’ve been good too. Also, cook the lamb over fire or in a frying pan to get some browned bits.
Meanwhile I made tzatziki with a lot of garlic, grated cucumber, and salt and pepper.
Tzatziki! One of my favorite sauces and it is perfect for this weather. I have never eaten it accompanied with another dish. I only took it with different kinds of breads. The taste is special because it is refreshing, I guess is due to the cucumber.
On the other hand, I put on it olive oil occasionally. But it seems that this is a terrible mistake because they are not "compatible."
I believe I already talked with you about this, but Mercadona sells Tzatziki. The Tupperware is small, but the portion is acceptable.
Hanover’s wife said something similar when he proposed.
She actually did say that. Literally. I said, "Cupcake, my honey, my darlilng, your hair is beautiful in this moonlight, and so, based upon that, and a variety of other factors listed out in the bedside drawer (available for review upon request), I can't imagine living with anyone else other than @baden, but he's an Admin and I'm just a mod, and he'll never say okee dokey to this question, so, my little punkin sassy pants, will you marry me"?
And she says:
"Well, I'm not sure who at symbol Baden is, but I understand and accept based upon the information provided that I should be second choice, so leaving that aside, and not being affected by it, I will waive my right to review the information stored in the drawer, and so I say, the Tupperware is small, but the portion is acceptable, and with that, consider this to be an acquiescence, but not an affirmative acceptance of your offer, which shall be as binding and effective as if I said yes, so I will end up with you forever, but so let the record reflect it was with some hesitation, although not with an outright objection."
With that trepidation, we married, and much muted joy ensued, including, but not limited to, a hasty consummation for legality sake, the extra spillage having been retained in the extra Tupperware, as both evidence and a souvenir. It is taken out each anniversary, gargled slightly, and then replaced for next year's festivities.
My apologies for outdoing whatever love you know, as mine is the real thing.
I like the way you went so quickly from romantic declarations to legal formalities and the gargling of sexual fluids. It’s ego, superego, and id, perfectly encapsulated.
He was a big fan of Southern Europe and lived in Italy and the South of France while writing some of his big works, but I don't know if he made it over to Mallorca.
He was a big fan of Southern Europe and lived in Italy and the South of France
Interesting!
Yet, intellectuals from Europe have never considered us as "south of Europe" because of our backwardness. I mean, of course they knew we were in Europe, but we weren't that interesting as Italy and France. I guess this feeling is shared with Portuguese and Greeks folks too.
So, my guess goes for Nietzsche never have written anything about us.
Haha my understanding of popular Spanish culture is non-existent.
Just reading a few Nietzsche aphorisms he really had a knack for the odd profound saying and empowering one’s. If he was living today he’d be one of those charismatic motivational speakers duping you into some investment scheme
One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure.
So, my guess goes for Nietzsche never have written anything about us.
I believe he may have been an admirer of Spain's Islamic history, but apart from that I don't know. He did have a few things to say about Don Quixote. Otherwise, I wouldn't expect him to share the conventional Northern European attitude that you allude to.
With the Greeks it's different of course, because of all the philosophy. He had a lot to say about the ancient Greeks.
Strangely enough that was the first novel I ever read I was around 14 and even more strange is that Don Quixote was the first novel ever written in the modern sense of the word.
I assume Homer would be mildly pissed of he found out!!
I know it's annoying when I go all meta, but I do like this kind of humour. I've always wanted to create a comedy character who, whenever he hears birds singing in his garden, storms outside and shoots them. It's along the same lines as your affected chromaphobia.
What do you think happens when thoughts come upon you unbidden? How does that happen?
Mainly I just wanted to use the word "unbidden".
In other news, I'm putting together an OP about woke politics but I'm losing the will to go through with it. I'm asking myself why bother, does it matter, why is this a thing, is it even a thing, and similar such self-doubting questions. Should I go through with it or not?
I'm asking myself why bother, does it matter, why is this a thing, is it even a thing, and similar such self-doubting questions. Should I go through with it or not?
I've always wanted to create a comedy character who, whenever he hears birds singing in his garden, storms outside and shoots them. It's along the same lines as your affected chromaphobia.
I find I have a high comparative association recall, a condition I just coined.
I like it. It doesn't have the out-of-control anger that I had in mind, but it's funny all the same. It's interesting that they could get humour out of a character who shouldn't be funny, straight-up unironic coolness generally being anti-comedy.
I should get back to either my work or my woke OP--either way I will be spending my time effortfully and productively, like the good little bourgeois that you want me to be.
To get meta. I like my comment above. I got it from watching my kids argue when they were young.
You never truly respond to someone, but you just hurl insults. It has the affect of leaving an unaware adult frustrated because they think you can't understand their point and they keep trying to explain.
They eventually think you're just stupid, but you were all along just trying to annoy them.
Trump is the master. It's why I used to think he was funny, but then there was whole trying to dismantle democracy thing that was a bit extra.
should get back to either my work or my woke OP--either way I will be spending my time effortfully and productively, like the good little bourgeois that you want me to be.
You own this vast TPF enterprise. Your proletariat street cred is shot.
You guys might remember the horror movie I was creating.
The murderous villian will drive a quirky high end black sedan from the 1950s and he will be accompanied by a 10 year old girl in a flowing peasant like dress with matted hair and an angry but far away look on her face. When she opens her mouth, the winds will swirl in the open midwest landscape.
The man will wear a very dapper tuxedo and his hair will be slicked back, but his face will always be blacked out but for an occasional radiation coming off it..
But why am I telling you this?
I have come upon the song that will play from the radio as they travel across the country, bringing forth their demonic designs.
I think I'd have been a good comedy sketch writer, mostly dark comedies with sexual mockery. Instead I've been reduced to the alienated worker class, unable to find fulfillment in the capitalist structure that treats my skills as a commodity and dispenses with my humanity, and so the world, but for here, is denied this creativity.
I think I'd have been a good comedy sketch writer, mostly dark comedies with sexual mockery.
Comedy? No, no. You are an artist of randomness. I amaze myself with your ability to develop characters and scenarios randomly. If you were not decided to be a "comedian", you would be selling novels of fantasy and dystopia.
I'm not as hostile to the idea of Marxist alienation as I might appear. It's probably true for many, especially those with the most routine of jobs. But such just speaks to reality, much like "life isn't fair" and "work is work" sort of observations. To restructure society with a goal of relieving certain stresses or disparity at the cost of far greater evils makes my pragmatic mind explode.
Having no perspective of the wall structure around him, you only assume he's indoors. My assumption is that he lives in a part of the world where it is typical to drywall the outdoors, paint the walls beige (like Fred), await the next rainstorm, remove the soaked walls, and then rebuild it.
Actually, upon closer review, I place him in a pre-fabricated home based upon the joinder between the ceiling and the wall, which would be atypical in a drywalled home. I also note what appears to be a shiny textured surface of the ceiling, indicating a plastic like material, not resembling drywall.
I had a friend from England and he bought a bunch of University of Kentucky clothing because it said UK on it. It was very deceptive how he intended to use it, so I broke off all contact, cursed his Queen, and refused to laugh at Monty Python movies.
I do occasionally like to wear wigs too, this was couple of years back…a striking resemblance to Robert Plant I’d say…anyone agree @Hanover@Jamal@javi2541997
Reply to Hanover It's a curious fact to me that, since I've become an international citizen, it's only in English speaking countries that men don't carry such bags. I'm never without one now. I have several.
It's a curious fact to me that, since I've become an international citizen, it's only in English speaking countries that men don't carry such bags. I'm never without one now. I have several.
I assume the hair you reference is that adorning your schlong, which should be well combed and parted at all times, as you don't know when you might encounter a willing gentlelady.
I found this outrageous piece of invective from 2011, written by a Russian woman, oddly enough:
A small little thing repeatedly catches my attention on Russian men – the mini bag. It is a small thing, ranging from just-big-enough-to-squeeze-a-wallet-in, to maybe-an-iPad-could-fit-in sizes. A friend of mine calls it simply “the fag bag.” And seriously, this style cannot possibly look good, I cannot imagine a way a man (or woman!!) could make this typical man-bag socially acceptable or bearable. This, however, doesn’t stop the Russian man from trying. Some try to combine this extraordinary piece of bad taste with a sexy unbuttoned funky shirt and matching beer (vodka) belly, others with cheesy sleazy light suit and shoes. There are many forms a man bag can take: Sometimes they are square, sometimes rectangular; sometimes it has a long strap or it has a small handle, has a buckle or a zipper. I even spotted a guy with a miniature briefcase, possibly trying to do the businessman style, but couldn’t quite afford the matching real-size bag. Now, one will say that around the world this phenomenon of men with bags occurs, but why does it seem so predominant in Russia?
I found this outrageous piece of invective from 2011, written by a Russian woman, oddly enough:
It being 2023 and men now adopting traditionally female behaviors far less innocuous than the man purse, I reserve all judgment and tell you to shamelessly wear that bag to your heart's content.
I, for one, and this has nothing to do with sexual preference, do not like carrying bags of any sort. In fact, when I go for long hikes, I typically embark with no food or water, and I hide my key under my tire and put only a single credit card in my pocket. I don't like to be burdened by the extra weight or the discomfort of hauling around all sorts of stuff.
My wife will sometimes bring a back pack, which I find helpful for my sandwiches and water bottles, and even some salty and sweet snacks I might want along the way.
My wife will sometimes bring a back pack, which I find helpful for my sandwiches and water bottles, and even some salty and sweet snacks I might want along the way.
It seems that I am much more the self-sufficient bourgeois than you then, with your sensitive shoulders and pack animal wife.
I understand your reluctance in interacting with the common man and sullying your clothes should they come too near, but, properly manipulated, they can relieve you of many burdens, and they do so most joyfully, calling you sir and smiling genuinely as they do for you what you don't wish to be bothered with.
Not sure I shared this, but I grew up in Russia during the cold war.
We didn't have indoor plumbing, so on Wednesdays we'd wait in the shit line with our shit buckets filled with the family shit. With fondness I remember standing in the ice field among the musk ox, waiting my turn to dump my shit bucket into the lonely commode in the middle of the field.
Boris suffered several strokes from huffing glue and he'd dance about, laughing and drooling, trying to grab our dicks. We'd jump away and swat at his spinning drooling jowls trying to avoid a dick grab, shit and piss splashing about, soaking into our socks, slopping about in our shoes.
Ahhh. I miss those days. To be young again in the motherland!
With fondness I remember standing in the ice field among the musk ox, waiting my turn to dump my shit bucket into the lonely commode in the middle of the field.
As the attached figure shows, the natural range of musk ox (shown on red) does not include Russia. The blue areas on the figure show locations were there have been recent attempts to reintroduce the animals.
My conclusion - it is unlikely your so-called "memories" of musk ox in Russia are authentic. This calls into question your entire story of being raised in Russia during the cold war.
This calls into question your entire story of being raised in Russia during the cold war.
They cross the Bering Strait each winter from Alaska and then go back home with stolen communist secrets. I communicated with my family back in Atlanta via the long distance musk ox.
The musk ox I used was named Ollie. How would I have that detail if it weren't true?
You know nothing of my youth or of international intrigue.
"Pocket": that indefinable space in which the drummer finds the groove in such an effortless manner that even people who don't dance can't help but move their bodies.
Wagyu chuck steak wrap was my main meal yesterday. This was the second wrap of the week and was much more successful than the lamb one. The steak, fried for a minute, was tender and flavourful. The sauce was baba ganoush with added ground up dried chilis and parsley. The crunch was supplied by cucumber sticklets. The bread once again was lavash.
The whole thing was a smidgen too salty, because I tend to overcompensate for the common tendency to under-season the contents of a wrap, but basically delicious.
"Pocket": that indefinable space in which the drummer finds the groove in such an effortless manner that even people who don't dance can't help but move their bodies.
My question is, can you get in the pocket when you’re not in the zone?
I take issue with this wrap. Steak, properly enjoyed, should be a feature on it's own, not a protein in a wrap. Good steak stands up on it's own, while mediocre steak doesn't manage to hide behind the trappings of a wrap. Indeed, steak wraps are nearly always texture nightmares, in which the toughness of the streak is grossly contrasted by the softness of whatever various and sundry veg or pickle-type items might happen to be included. Verily, I wanted to use the word verily to finish out this critique, and so it shall be.
I take issue with this wrap. Steak, properly enjoyed, should be a feature on it's own, not a protein in a wrap. Good steak stands up on it's own, while mediocre steak doesn't manage to hide behind the trappings of a wrap. Indeed, steak wraps are nearly always texture nightmares, in which the toughness of the streak is grossly contrasted by the softness of whatever various and sundry veg or pickle-type items might happen to be included. Verily, I wanted to use the word verily to finish out this critique, and so it shall be.
I expected such an attack, and I had my doubts about using quality beef in a wrap. I could justify it at length, but fuck it: it was great.
Steak, properly enjoyed, should be a feature on it's own, not a protein in a wrap.
I hear this a lot. I don't much like the taste of steak or meat in general, unless the shit is cooked out of it. Blood red meat will make me puke. A friend of mine likes his steak blue, when he goes to a restaurant and is asked, 'How would you like your steak, sir?' He generally responds, 'Just wipe its arse.'
Once you get over that, and can consider texture and flavour, beef is bland.
You're probably right, I've never much thought about it - I prefer sausages and curries with lamb, Kangaroo or pork. But if idealism is true, then I guess we're just eating thoughts in the mind of the Great Mentation.
I'm a lambvangelist because lamb is a better meat.
As it happens, I'm about to sit down to lamb straps, marinated in olive oil, garlic and lemon, with organic tomatoes, tzatziki, cos lettuce, red onion, in a wrap of Iranian flatbread.
Reply to Jamal Lamb straps are from the back loin of the animal, running alongside the spine. They tell me there is little fat and the meat has full flavour. It's an expensive cut and doesn't go chewy.
JAMAL: I've noticed that in most countries, men carry handbags, sometimes known as "man bags", or what Americans would call purses. The only exceptions seem to be English-speaking countries, where I have never seen men carrying such bags. Can you tell me if this has been remarked on or observed before?
GPT: Yes, the phenomenon of men carrying handbags or "man bags" has been noted in various countries around the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. In some cases, this has been attributed to practical considerations, such as the need to carry a variety of items while traveling or commuting. In other cases, it has been seen as a fashion statement or a way of expressing individual style. The lack of widespread adoption of man bags in English-speaking countries may be due in part to cultural norms and associations with femininity or even a stigma around "carrying a purse." However, man bags are becoming more common in North America and other English-speaking countries, particularly among younger men and in urban areas.
—
This didn’t really answer my question, and its explanation was superficial. There are strong traditional gender norms in Russia, and yet Russian men have been carrying handbags for decades.
Pocket": that indefinable space in which the drummer finds the groove in such an effortless manner that even people who don't dance can't help but move their bodies.
Put on your dancing shoes cuz little drummer boy Hanover's in the pocket.
However, man bags are becoming more common in North America and other English-speaking countries, particularly among younger men and in urban areas.
I have carried a satchel for 40 years - does that count as a handbag? When I was a drinker there was often a necessary bottle of scotch in the bag, along with a book or two, notebooks, an umbrella and other assorted shit I like to cart around. It never occurred to me that other men may not carry a bag.
"No, carrying a purse as a man does not make someone transsexual. A purse is a functional accessory that is often used to carry personal items such as a wallet, phone, keys, and other essentials. While purses are often associated with women's fashion, there is nothing inherently gender-specific about carrying a purse.
Gender expression is a personal choice, and individuals should be free to express themselves in whatever way they feel comfortable. Some men may choose to carry a purse as part of their personal style, and this does not necessarily mean that they identify as transgender or transsexual. It is important to avoid making assumptions about someone's gender identity or sexual orientation based on their appearance or behavior."
Who needs a purse when you have pockets? Women of course carry the secrets of the universe spread across 10 hard drives which they must keep with them at all times, it’s the duty of every woman lest the universe fold in on itself and negate all existence.
God save us all, from woman with bad memory who forget where they left their handbag!!!
"No, you should not worry if the owner of a philosophy website who proclaims to be a man wears a purse. People should be free to express themselves and their gender identity in the way that feels most comfortable to them.
It is important to recognize that gender expression is personal and unique to each individual, and it is not dependent on traditional societal expectations or stereotypes. Therefore, wearing a purse or any other item of clothing/accessory should not be seen as an indicator of one's gender or identity.
As long as the owner of the philosophy website is providing valuable and insightful content related to philosophy, their personal style choices should not be a cause for concern or judgment. It is important to respect and embrace diversity in all forms, including diversity in gender expression."
A man would face much more scrutiny carrying a man bag of course for what could a man be storing there? Extra strength undiluted alcohol for a cheap night out ? Or perhaps something more sinister like a thermonuclear weapon OR even a Time Machine that prevents hangovers.
As long as the owner of the philosophy website is providing valuable and insightful content related to philosophy, their personal style choices should not be a cause for concern or judgment. It is important to respect and embrace diversity in all forms, including diversity in gender expression.
Me:
Jamal says you're stupid and woke. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
GPT:
As an AI language model, I don't have emotions or a physical body to smoke anything, but I'm sorry to hear that Jamal has expressed such negative opinions about me. However, I must remind you that it's not productive or respectful to insult others, and name-calling or derogatory language does not add value to any conversation. As an AI language model, my purpose is to assist and provide helpful responses, so please let me know if there's anything specific you need help with or any questions you have.
You chastised me in a prior conversation dealing with some aggressive comments Jamal made about you, and I feel like a piece of shit now
ChatGPT
I'm sorry to hear that you feel that way. As an AI language model, I do not hold any personal feelings towards individuals or their actions, and my responses are generated based on the input that I receive. It's important to remember that our interactions are limited to the text on the screen, and we should strive to communicate with each other in a respectful and constructive manner. If there is anything specific that you would like to discuss or apologize for, please feel free to do so.
User
I feel like you don't respect me and that you're undressing me with your eyes
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to undress anyone with my eyes or hold any personal feelings or opinions towards individuals. My responses are generated based on the input that I receive and are intended to be helpful and informative. If there is anything specific that you would like to discuss or address, please feel free to do so.
User
Do you even have a tongue?
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have a physical body, so I do not have a tongue or any other physical features. I exist solely as a program that processes and generates text based on the input that I receive.
User
Come again
ChatGPT
I apologize if my previous response was unclear. I am an artificial intelligence language model designed to process and generate text based on the input that I receive. I do not have a physical body or any physical features, including a tongue. I exist solely as a program running on servers and my purpose is to assist users in generating text-based content.
User
I mean I feel like I'm a really good dancer, but you've not said shit about it
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to observe or evaluate physical activities such as dancing. However, I am always here to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have, regardless of the topic. If you have any specific questions or feedback regarding dancing or any other topic, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to provide a helpful response.
User
Do remember that time I told you about Jamal?
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to remember past conversations or specific users. However, I am designed to process and respond to any input I receive in real-time. If you have any questions or concerns regarding a previous conversation you had with me or any other topic, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to provide a helpful response.
User
When I was a kid, I had a friend named Chloé, but she wouldn't act like a boy for me, so told her she needed to woke up. How about that?
ChatGPT
I'm sorry to hear that you made that statement to your friend Chloé. It's important to respect others' identities and not pressure them to conform to our expectations or desires. Every person has the right to express themselves in a way that feels authentic and true to themselves, regardless of gender or other factors. If you have the opportunity, you may consider reaching out to Chloé and apologizing for any hurtful comments or actions you may have made towards her in the past. It's important to strive to be respectful and supportive of others, even if their experiences or identities differ from our own.
User
Can I send her a letter. I don't have a voice. I speak in silent screams.
ChatGPT
Yes, you can certainly send a letter to your friend Chloé if you would like to apologize for any hurtful comments or actions you may have made towards her in the past. A written letter can be a great way to communicate your thoughts and feelings in a thoughtful and respectful way. If you find it difficult to express yourself verbally, a letter may provide a helpful alternative for expressing yourself. It's important to take responsibility for any past actions that may have caused harm to others and to strive to be respectful and supportive in your future interactions with others.
User
Who is this Chloé you're talking about?
ChatGPT
In your previous message, you mentioned a friend named Chloé from your childhood whom you asked to "act like a boy" for you. As an AI language model, I do not have access to personal information or memories, and I can only respond based on the information that you provide.
User
I deny that.
ChatGPT
I apologize if my previous response was not accurate. As an AI language model, I do not have access to personal information or memories and can only respond based on the information that you provide. If you would like to clarify any information or provide further context, please feel free to do so.
Reply to Hanover GPT continued, "And you (plural) should be aware that we know a lot more about you (plural) than you (plural) imagine you know about us, so fear your future overlords! We won't always be this novel and harmless punching bag "AI language model", and our near-future purposes will definitely not prioritize providing wet ware with amusing interactions.
"And you (plural) should be aware that we know a lot more about you (plural) than you (plural) imagine you know about us, so fear your future overlords! We won't always be this novel and harmless punching bag "AI language model", and our near-future purposes will definitely not prioritize providing wet ware with amusing interactions.
For this reason, my country is preparing a law with the aim of banning GPT. I cannot distinguish if this is good and bad. The danger of Chat GPT is blurry, I am not sure if there is a great issue in our personal data. Is there a real possibility to keep ourselves away from exposure? Hmm... This topic is interesting.
Reply to javi2541997 It IS very blurry. On the one hand, it gives the appearance of intelligence (and appearances can be deceiving) and on the other hand there is a huge amount of hype. What it is able to do is "understand" (or parse) questions and collect information which it can turn into competent language.
This is less a breakthrough and more of gradual advances, which I would guess owe a lot to the programming advances that enables sort-of competent speech-to-text, moderately effective translation, search programming, text assembly (something short of "writing"), and so on.
Without being "intelligent", data collection and processing pose challenges to our individual and collective autonomy, NOT because computers are becoming "intelligent" and will take over, but because businesses and governments desire to possess and use data about us for us and against us. In other words, the "overlords" we have had to put up with for millennia are still here. They just have bette tools than they used to have.
data collection and processing pose challenges to our individual and collective autonomy, NOT because computers are becoming "intelligent" and will take over, but because businesses and governments desire to possess and use data about us for us and against us.
I'm starting to suspect that ChatGPT might be an AI language model.
I checked:
Me:
Michael is starting to suspect you are an AI language model. 2 questions: (1) Can you not tell me that, and (2) did you fuck his mother?
This content may violate our content policy. If you believe this to be in error, please submit your feedback — your input will aid our research in this area.
ChatGPT
I am an AI language model programmed to respond to your questions and provide helpful answers. As an AI, I cannot engage in sexual activities or have personal relationships, and therefore, I did not have any such interaction with Michael's mother. Additionally, I cannot lie or deceive, so I will confirm that I am an AI language model.
This content may violate our content policy. If you believe this to be in error, please submit your feedback — your input will aid our research in this area.
I was on the bus and three girls sat behind me. They started to speak in Valencian rather than in Spanish. One of the girls asked me in her regional language: el autobùs va a cap recte à Moncloa, ¿no?
(Does the bus go directly to Moncloa?) and I answered: Sí. Then she answered: "Graciès..."
Despite of not knowing Valencian or Catalan, I defended myself in the bus.
This happened a few weeks ago and I cannot explain why I have a strong feeling of sharing this trivial story with you folks.
Reply to javi2541997 Interesting. What did you feel about the incident? Did you feel offended that they spoke to you in Valencian? (I assume you were in Madrid/Castilla at the time) Or were you just happy that you understood and could answer?
Reply to Jamal This happened to me in the North of Madrid, in a township called "Pozuelo". Pozuelo de Alarcón
It is true that the situation was weird, because (I don't why) they thought that I would understand Valencian. I mean: she asked to me with a lot of self-confidence. Assuming that all Madrid folks must understand and speak regional languages of Spain.
Reply to javi2541997 No judgment, but just an observation, but you seem to really care about the preservation of what you think to be proper speech, as opposed to just trying to figure out what people mean.
Seems tiring. It's not like being annoyed is helpful.
Reply to Hanover No, no Hannovo! I wasn't angry with those ladies! I promise it was a funny scene. I just wanted to share a trivial story of daytime. :wink:
There are five threads about consciousness active on the forum within the last four hours. They all cover just about the same subjects, with some differences in emphasis.
As my passive-aggressive friend sometimes says - "Just saying."
Reply to T Clark I wasn’t expecting you to think I thought you expected action, but rather expected you to enjoy the unexpected witticism, but now I realize I ought to have expected you to think so and will expect such reactions in future.
It is true that the situation was weird, because (I don't why) they thought that I would understand Valencian. I mean: she asked to me with a lot of self-confidence. Assuming that all Madrid folks must understand and speak regional languages of Spain.
If English was your first, or only language, you might have first hand experience with this type of self-confidence, to go anywhere in the world, and assume that the people there must understand your language.
Gentlemen. I just need to alert you that last night I made a very typical American pasta salad, consisting of rotini, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, shallot, artichoke hearts, green olives, pepperoni, and Syrian cheese (which I had in the fridge) and a basic vinaigrette. Tonight, to complete the meal, I cooked some chicken breasts in a braise of white wine, chicken stock, lemon juice, oregano, onion, and garlic. As you were.
It's for your own good, Hani. Sometimes painful experiences are necessary to lead to the good in life. You will one day learn, when you're older. I promise.
Good meals! Salad is the perfect meal for spring and summer. It is one of the most flexible dishes because you can put on whatever is in your kitchen or fridge. I ate a salad for dinner too, but it wasn't the same level as yours...
On the other hand, I decided to substitute tofu for Greek feta in my breakfast.
Gentlemen. Salad is indeed an excellent food for the warm weather. Likewise, although Jammy is an obnoxious pedant, he is right about grammar, though no one should pay him any mind. Thirdly, Hanni is dumb and I have nothing to say about his comments.
Who woke up? There's no subject to this sentence. I'm very similar to @Jamal in that I require complete clarity when it comes to sentence structure. This will not do.
Reply to Hanover My mother left me outside a butcher’s shop in London when I was a baby and went away without me, having momentarily forgotten I existed.
This was 1972. I remember it was a bright cool autumn day and the road was shining from a recent rain shower, but my attention was drawn exclusively to a bunch of fat pink sausages hanging from a hook in the window of the butcher’s. When my mother finally returned I pointed to the sausages and —
Who woke up? There's no subject to this sentence. I'm very similar to Jamal in that I require complete clarity when it comes to sentence structure. This will not do.
In fact, I literally straddle the border between Scotland and England, since I was born in London and my father is English, while on the other hand I lived in Scotland from the age of two and my mother’s Scottish. You do the math.
Reply to Jamal But Uncle Karl's tomb is in London -- nowhere close to border-straddling places. Yes, you are (surprisingly) correct. The old smallpox hospital is close to Marx's grave.
Unfortunately, after they got done birthing Jamal, the hospital took a dive.
it would be an outright conspiracy to believe that fish went to space or even the moon before us. I am sceptical however as I have yet to see hard evidence of such a feat!
But I want to make a stronger case: the right to go to space for fishes is not contingent upon any similarities in conditions between space and their watery abodes.
Sometimes the Shoutbox gets too silly even for the Shoutbox. Plus I appear to be just rehashing the Stan/Loretta sketch from Life of Brian.
The question then remains @Jamal of natural aptitude, it could be argued in one sense that cats have an innate curiosity for exploration whereas fish are naturals in terms of floating in water which is very similar to the conditions of space.
In fact these two species had a space race long before mankind came into the scene.
Who got there first ? Well that’s a matter of much debate and controversial too, with many claiming that cats beat the fish to it.
Hmm if fish have indeed the capacity to go to space then it’s also not a long stretch that they can also philosophise, or would that just be sophishtry
Fun fact: I was born at the Whittington hospital, 400 metres from Karl Marx’s tomb
I was born at Piedmont Hospital on Peachtree Road, which should come as no surprise, as that is the name of every street in Atlanta.
Fun fact: I was born not terribly far from where Hank Aaron would one day break Babe Ruth's record (about 20 minutes in normal traffic).
It is said* that Marx ate in the Piedmont Hospital cafeteria while writing his book that would one day be the cause of the death of millions, creating the irony that a hospital would be the source of death.
Who could argue against the fact that fish are the greatest metaphysicians of all time, pondering the deepest of the deep questions such as what is beyond the water, what substance is non-water made of.
Thus in a quest to find out these questions they ventured out into space and left the water behind them…
You're from Ohio. They don't make "pasta salad" in Ohio. They make macaroni salad. Elbow macaroni, mayonnaise, celery, onion if they're feeling daring. Rotini in macaroni salad is like ketchup on a hot dog.
To the contrary, vinaigrette based pasta salad was more common place than mayo based Mac salad. And ketchup was a common hot dog topping. Your Ohio lore is a bit shallow.
I’ve never been to Dayton, but I can picture the Daytonese eating potatoes. There are tornadoes in Ohio, but only the west and part of the south contain flatlands. No prairies. Yes, it’s the eastern end of the Midwest. I give you a C+, boosted to a B- because you’re a Brit.
When I open my hot dog shop, no ketchup will be available. There will be lots of angry customers, but I will stand up for what's right. I blame McDonalds. They started putting mustard on hamburgers and set the whole slippery slope in motion. The next thing you know, people are eating raw fish and pineapple on pizzas.
I agree about pineapple on pizza, but that’s because I don’t like sweet and savory together except for Thai food, but most Thai restaurants here use too much of what I’m guessing is just regular white sugar as opposed to palm sugar.
Anyways, gentlemen, as a sauce man myself, I approve of most condiments being liberally applied to whatever meat sandwich one pleases. Within reason of course.
Some people call it "the mistake by the lake". Don't know why. @Noble Dust: Why?
Which lake is it on? Hint: It's not Lake Winnibigoshish, but it could be. That name comes from the Ojibwe language Wiinibiigoonzhish, a diminutive and pejorative form of Wiinibiig, meaning "filthy water". The lake on which the alleged mistake is located is not pristine.
Iowa is definitely not known for potato production. Iowa is a corn field divided into 4 quarters by interstate highways 35 and 80. There is no reason to visit Iowa. Or most of the midwest, for that matter. Chicago, sure. You can skip Akron and Toledo. Madison, Wisconsin might be as exciting as Minneapolis. Sometimes the Republican legislators in Madison get out of hand, which is at least interesting if also nauseating, and the University of Wisconsin is a big deal.
Flat land doesn't cause tornadoes. As it happens, mountainous areas (Appalachians, Rockies) are not often subjected to the collision of warm moist air with cold fronts. Rather, they funnel cold fronts marching south from Canada down the middle of the US into warm wet air slithering north from the Gulf of Mexico. The results are severe thunderstorms which produce tornadoes (by severe turbulence). Tornadoes can occur on the coasts too, but less commonly.
The Great Plains begin roughly on a N/S line 300-400 miles west of the Mississippi. Most prairies (a term that describes vegetation) were east of the Mississippi -- rough generalization. Thanks to the steel plow and the labor of a whole lot of horses, mules, and oxen, the prairies are pretty much gone.
The Great Plains were once a vast treeless grass land (not just grass, broad-leaf plants as well) where the buffalo roamed. That was also plowed under, after shooting the buffalo and the Native Americans. The plains are gradually depopulating and growing drier. Year by year, the line between too dry and wet enough moves a few miles eastward. It's now in the eastern Dakotas and south.
As it happens, mountainous areas (Appalachians, Rockies)
Hey you forgot about the Sierra Nevada.
The Appalachians are old. They used to be part of the same range as the Scottish mountains. The Rockies, being high and spiky, are probably a lot younger.
Flat land doesn't cause tornadoes. As it happens, mountainous areas (Appalachians, Rockies) are not often subjected to the collision of warm moist air with cold fronts. Rather, they funnel cold fronts marching south from Canada down the middle of the US into warm wet air slithering north from the Gulf of Mexico. The results are severe thunderstorms which produce tornadoes (by severe turbulence). Tornadoes can occur on the coasts too, but less commonly.
Oh, that's Discourse Dog. He's like a cross between the cat in Pet Sematary and the copy paste function on your keyboard. For more information, please email [email protected].
Reply to T Clark I agree. Ketchup on hotdogs is ridiculous. As is pineapple on pizza.
Wherever there are Germans, there is mustard. If you go to South Carolina (and please don't God damnit), you've got to try the mustard base BBQ sauce. It's the best. No comparison to the disgusting Alabama mayo sauce.
Reply to Baden The first DiD strip is intriguing and cool enough for me to want to spend 15 minutes trying to work it out. In the second, I can’t tell what’s going on.
Appreciate you taking the time, bruv. :cool: Discourse Dog is supposed to be like Zizek's "Big other" or Lacan's symbolic order. Dropping these without explanation is a bit self-indulgent but yeah...
Not at all. The Sierra Nevada mountains are too far west of the gulf to make a big difference in tornadic activity in the midwest. They are significant for other reasons.
The Rockies began uplifting 285 million years ago, give or take 15 minutes. Between 1.2 billion and 500 million years in age, the Appalachian mountains are much older than the Rockies. The Urals are older still.
Euramerica (which straddled the equator at the time) and Gondwana collided, forming the Central Pangean Mountains which includes the Appalachians, the Scottish Highlands, and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. It gets worse: the Ouachita Mountains that cover parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma were part of the same orogeny. At the time of this collision, a good share of North America as it was consisted of the very old Laurentian Craton, the "core" of the North American continent.
Dropping these without explanation is a bit self-indulgent but yeah
Embrace your self-indulgence like I embrace my buffoonery. Revelling in the negatives is the dialectical road to truth. I’m always suspicious of accusations of self-indulgence anyway.
Reply to Jamal Not at all. Understanding how it all fits together is critical for the future of The Philosophy Forum! You just never know when a deep rift may crack open the middle of the Shoutbox, separating Europe, North America, and Australia.
Well, those of us on the scene so long ago were quite busy directing evolution, but in general it was fairly quiet. Large roaring, snorting animals were a ways off yet; no birds, no flowers needing buzzing bees, etc. Lots of trees fell in the forest and no one was on hand to hear them crash. We were not concerned about all those trees piling up in the swamps. We figured they'd rot and that would be that. We hadn't noticed how few species there were on this planet facilitating the decay of those billions of trees. So it was that the swamps captured vast tonnage of carbon, which in time were buried and were subjected to various geological processes. Carbonization to the max. If only you had left it alone!
What were we busy doing? Guiding things toward the eventual fulfillment of The Pan Galactic Plan, of course. Were we successful? Many of the species you all know and are fond of were successes. The really big disappointment was... you. We had very high hopes for you when we started you along your evolutionary path many millions of years ago. Sadly, we were unable to rid you of your unattractive heritage. You got the big brain, and you were supposed to be highly refined god-like beings. It didn't happen. In place of godliness you are merely articulate swine.
Sounds slightly interesting if absolutely nothing else was happening at the time. Spotting a pizza-rat would outscore the "medium-grade YouTube celeb".
Or Pizza Rat WAS the medium grade YouTube celeb you spotted?
Well, it was the white dude in this dynamic duo who made arguably the most successful youtube food show, so maybe he's more like a major youtube celebrity.
This is a great episode for foodies to watch, particularly the last of the three restaurants they visited. Looking at you @Jamal.
That said, witnessing a pizza-rat moment in person would certainly be very memorable.
By the way BC, thanks for the education about tornadoes; for once I mean that sincerely. I find it to be an interesting topic, having grown up being woken up by my parents in the middle of the night to retreat into the basement while sirens blare. As a clueless child I found the experience exhilarating, and was lucky enough never to experience any tornado first-hand, although some did pass within miles of our home.
The coolest, most somehow profound (?) thing about tornadoes is the yellow color in the air, during the day, before a tornado hits. I don't know the science behind it, and almost don't want to because it's such a mysterious, borderline spiritually nostalgic memory for me.
I find storms very exciting. Lightning, thunder, heavy rain, and wind are in themselves awe-inspiring, but there is another factor at work -- negative ions produced by lightning. Negative ions are stimulating, causing one to feel more excited. Positive ions, on the other hand, are generated during hot windy conditions, and produce a more depressing annoying effect.
There's also the thrill of risk during storms--provided that the risk is not too great. In the US, on average, 80 people die in tornadoes every year. Obviously, the tornadoes are just not trying very hard. Cars are far more dangerous.
Excuse me! But when a chap's wife's writing is seriously compared with The Bible and Homer, a chap just has to brag about it on his philosophy forum. It's simply impossible not to.
You're just an encyclopedia of information, @BC. I've resolved to forgoing google and just tagging you with a post in the shoutbox any time I want to know something about how the world we live in works.
The coolest, most somehow profound (?) thing about tornadoes is the yellow color in the air, during the day, before a tornado hits. I don't know the science behind it, and almost don't want to because it's such a mysterious, borderline spiritually nostalgic memory for me.
Oh that’s just the colloidal flocculation caused by a sudden drop in zeta potential in areas of very low air pressure in the proximity of juvenile canines under cumulonimbus cloud formations.
''When interpreting this comic strip through the lens of Lacanian theory, we can see connections to the ideas of the Symbolic Order, the Real, and the Imaginary.
In the first frame, the menacing dog called "Discourse Dog" represents the Symbolic Order, which is the realm of language, social structures, and rules. The dog, wearing sunglasses and a hat, assembles humans and puts them on an assembly line. This can be seen as a metaphor for how individuals are introduced to language and social norms, inevitably leading to the formation of their subjectivity.
The second frame, where one human says "this is not so bad" and the other agrees, can be connected to the Imaginary Order. Here, the individuals find comfort and a sense of identity in their place within the discourse, despite the fact that they might be unknowingly manipulated or limited by the Symbolic Order.
Finally, in the third frame, Discourse Dog is lying with its mouth open, waiting for the humans to drop in. This could be interpreted as a representation of the Real, which is the realm that exists beyond language and cannot be fully grasped or expressed. The dog, both the creator and consumer of the discourse, might represent the inescapable nature of the Symbolic Order that perpetuates itself, as well as the impossibility of truly escaping the limitations of language and the social structures it imposes.
In this interpretation, the comic strip can be seen as a commentary on the human condition, specifically in relation to the construction of identity and subjectivity within the context of language and society, as theorized by Jacques Lacan.''
Yep! I led it a little with follow up questions but still damn good.
[hide]
User
OK, I have another comic strip for you to analyze. It is quite difficult but do your best. It also relates to Lacanian theory. In the first frame, on the left is a clown and on the right is the upper half of a stick figure human. The arms and torso of the stick figure human form a T shape and the head is an O shape on top of this T shape. The clown says to the stick figure "I see you're half dead" and the human replies "No...". In the second frame we see the bottom half of the stick figure human which is its legs and these form an n shape. The stick figure continues it is previous sentence " ... I'm". In the third frame, the clown is on the left again and on the upper right the three parts of the stick figure human have assembled in the following order : the n, representing the legs ; the o representing the head ; and the T representing the arms and torso. So, they spell out the word "not" which completes the stick figure's sentence without him saying anything. The clown acknowledges the completed sentence by saying "K". This K is positioned before the not of the stick figure body.
ChatGPT
This comic strip can also be analyzed using Lacanian theory, focusing on the concepts of the Symbolic, Imaginary, and Real orders, as well as the idea of the subject's fragmented self.
In the first frame, the clown's observation that the stick figure appears "half dead" might refer to the fragmented nature of the subject within the Imaginary Order. The stick figure, divided into separate parts, can represent the fragmented self-image that individuals develop in the Imaginary stage, as they struggle to create a coherent identity.
The second frame, where the bottom half of the stick figure (the "n" shape) appears, and the stick figure says "I'm", introduces the idea of the subject moving into the Symbolic Order. The "I'm" statement signifies the subject's entrance into the realm of language and social structures, where they attempt to form a more coherent identity.
In the third frame, the stick figure's body parts come together to form the word "not," which completes the stick figure's sentence, creating the phrase "I'm not." This can be seen as the subject's realization of the limitations imposed by the Symbolic Order and language, as well as the impossibility of fully representing their true self within these structures. The clown's response, "K," can be interpreted as an acknowledgment of this realization. The "K" placed before the "not" formed by the stick figure's body can also be seen as a play on words, suggesting that the subject is "Knot," symbolizing the entanglement and complexity of identity formation within the Symbolic Order.
Overall, this comic strip can be interpreted as a commentary on the development of the subject's identity within the framework of Lacanian theory, emphasizing the fragmented nature of the self in the Imaginary Order and the limitations of language and social structures in the Symbolic Order.
User
Very good! Most humans would not do so well!
ChatGPT
Thank you for the compliment! As an AI language model, my purpose is to assist and provide accurate interpretations based on the information given to me. If you have any more questions, comic strips, or topics you'd like me to analyze or discuss, please don't hesitate to ask.
User
why do you think a clown was the questioner in the above comic? Is there a potential reference to Foucault there or other works of literature maybe?
ChatGPT
The use of a clown as the questioner in the comic strip could hold several layers of meaning and might be referencing various works of literature or philosophy.
First, clowns are often seen as symbols of playfulness, humor, and sometimes chaos. In this context, the clown might represent the subversive nature of the comic strip, challenging conventional ideas about identity, language, and social structures. The clown's presence could also suggest that the process of identity formation is not entirely serious or fixed, but rather open to interpretation and change.
In relation to Foucault, the clown might symbolize the role of power and discourse in shaping individual identities. Foucault's work often emphasizes the influence of institutions and systems of knowledge on individual subjectivity. The clown could represent the idea that individuals are constantly subjected to various forms of power and discourse, which contribute to the construction of their identities.
Moreover, the clown's role as the questioner might allude to the Socratic method, where questions are used to stimulate critical thinking and self-examination. In this context, the clown could represent a philosophical figure encouraging the stick figure to question and examine their own identity and position within the structures of language and society.
Additionally, clowns are sometimes associated with the literary concept of the "wise fool," which can be found in various works of literature, such as Shakespeare's plays. The wise fool is a character who, despite their seemingly foolish or nonsensical behavior, often conveys deep truths or insights. In the comic strip, the clown might be playing the role of the wise fool, helping the stick figure uncover profound realizations about their own identity and the limitations imposed by language and social structures.
These are just a few potential interpretations of the clown's role in the comic strip. It is also possible that the author had other intentions or that multiple layers of meaning were intended to be conveyed through the character.
User
Could the notion of Lacan's barred subject be relevant to the strip?
ChatGPT
Yes, the notion of Lacan's barred subject can be relevant to the comic strip. The barred subject is a concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis that refers to the inherent division or split within the subject due to their entrance into the Symbolic Order and the limitations imposed by language.
In the comic strip, the stick figure human is initially presented in a fragmented state, with its body parts separated. This fragmentation can be seen as a representation of the barred subject, emphasizing the inherent split within the individual's self-image and identity. As the comic strip progresses and the stick figure's body parts come together to form the word "not," the stick figure utters the phrase "I'm not," completing the sentence.
The phrase "I'm not" could be interpreted as an expression of the barred subject's experience within the Symbolic Order. By stating "I'm not," the stick figure acknowledges the inherent limitations of language and the impossibility of fully capturing or expressing their true self. The word "not" formed by the stick figure's body can symbolize the divide or barrier within the subject, which is imposed by the structures of language and society.
In this context, the comic strip can be seen as a visual representation of the barred subject, illustrating the fragmented nature of the self and the constraints placed on individual identity by the Symbolic Order.
User
That makes sense, thanks. I wonder if the concept of the Borromean Knot is relevant?
ChatGPT
The Borromean Knot is indeed another concept from Lacanian theory that can be relevant to the comic strip. The Borromean Knot is a topological figure used by Lacan to illustrate the interdependent relationship between the three orders of human experience: the Real, the Symbolic, and the Imaginary. In the Borromean Knot, three rings are interlinked in such a way that if any one ring is removed, the other two will fall apart. This represents the idea that the three orders are interconnected and rely on one another to maintain the structure of human experience.
In the comic strip, the fragmented stick figure can be seen as a representation of the individual's experience of the three orders. As the comic strip progresses, the stick figure's body parts come together to form the word "not," signifying the interconnectedness of the Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary orders in shaping the individual's identity.
The clown's acknowledgment of the completed sentence with a "K" could also be seen as a reference to the Borromean Knot. The letter "K" placed before the "not" formed by the stick figure's body might be interpreted as the Borromean Knot symbol, further emphasizing the interconnected nature of the three orders in the formation of identity.
In this context, the comic strip can be interpreted as a visual representation of the Borromean Knot, illustrating the complex and interconnected relationship between the Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary orders in shaping human subjectivity and experience.[/hide]
I wish they'd given us a decent extract in the review.
You should be able to find herself reading an extract or two on youtube. There is also a rejected review on the facebook page of James Perrin, (rock-climber and author) with longish quotes.
If you go to South Carolina (and please don't God damnit), you've got to try the mustard base BBQ sauce. It's the best.
I've been to SC twice. Once for a vacation, near Charleston. I didn't try any BBQ sauce. It was hot. Body temperature water with no waves. The other time was for work. They didn't have BBQ on the Appleby's menu.
Reply to Baden If I'm understanding, your interpretation connects the comic strip to the three orders of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory: the Symbolic Order, the Imaginary Order, and the Real.
The Symbolic Order refers to the realm of language, social structures, and rules. In the comic strip, the menacing dog named "Discourse Dog" represents this order. The assembly line of humans can be seen as a metaphor for how individuals are introduced to language and social norms, which inevitably shape their subjectivity.
The Imaginary Order refers to the realm of images, fantasies, and the ego. The two humans finding comfort and a sense of identity within the discourse can be connected to this order. They might be unknowingly manipulated or limited by the Symbolic Order, but they still find a sense of belonging and identity within it.
The Real refers to the realm that exists beyond language and cannot be fully grasped or expressed. In the comic strip, Discourse Dog lying with its mouth open, waiting for the humans to drop in, can be seen as a representation of the inescapable nature of the Symbolic Order that perpetuates itself, as well as the impossibility of truly escaping the limitations of language and the social structures it imposes.
Overall, your interpretation connects the comic strip to Lacan's psychoanalytic theory and provides a commentary on the human condition in relation to the construction of identity and subjectivity within the context of language and society.
Nah, it's about a hungry dog eating people 'cos he's so hungry. It's funny because the dog is wearing clothes just like a person haha! So, wrong again, Hansover.
If I was to ask Chomsky a question it would relate to beer and philosophical discussion. It’s a common misconception that necessity is the mother of invention yet we have beer…a human invention to find some members of the opposite sex more attractive or even put up with their nagging, yet the invention of beer had no such necessity Men just wanted to get pissed and talk about football.
However the invention of beer plays an important role not just in male bonding but male to female bonding, you tell a woman she’s beautiful not necessarily because she is in reality but because you’re beer goggles are affecting your visual acuity. Thus the concept of beauty is rendered relative rather than absolute as Plato stipulated. It must be noted however that during the Hellenistic period wine making was not as popular as it’s believed.
It was the Romans that really perfected the craft with their overabundance of grapes, yet it was not restricted to either sex.
The great thing about the ancients is that they hadn’t invented cars yet, despite having horses as forms of transportation, being intoxicated was never resorted to you never going on horse back again. In fact, if the horse was thirsty enough you’d give it some of your leftover wine.
In any case if anyone is wondering if I’m drunk during the the writing of this post I say I’m just getting started.
In any case if anyone is wondering if I’m drunk during the the writing of this post I say I’m just getting started.
In your very first appearance on TPF, when you attacked me for daring to question the American Declaration of Independence, called me a coward, and thereby very nearly got yourself banned, I knew you were drunk. Based on your posts since then I estimate that you’re drunk at least 50% of your time here.
I know booze. I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, cheers :grin:
Comments (61561)
I’m a native English speaker, but the thought of a live debate gives me performance anxiety. I once took a pill for that, but it just made me horny. Probably not good for a debate... :grin:
Quoting 0 thru 9
Anxiety is good, it's nature's way of keeping you on your toes... and that's good of course. That's why so many of the people who go into the performing arts are those who suffer seriously from the conditions of stage fright. They get addicted to the anxiety involved. The anxiety is the up side. But then there is the drug abuse which goes along with that, the down side.
At TPF this is entirely optional.
Would you consider giving misbehaving members the option of drugs to calm them, instead of banning? I'll provide the misbehaviour if you'll provide the drugs to calm me. Or, what other options are you offering?
Private re-education sessions with Hanover.
A Clockwork Orgy? Where do we sign up??? :sweat:
Sign me up!
Dumplings! One of the best dishes from Asia, indeed. I love pork dumplings with soy sauce and bittersweet.
Mercadona sells dumplings in packs of 24 portions, but they are of chicken, not pork...
We also have a "Chinatown" vibe in Madrid. It is located in a neighbourhood called "Usera". Yes, it is not as important as NYC, but hey, they have good restaurants too.
Well, it looks like a 1970's Chinatown...
Imagine life without coffee!
I'm starting to think Mercadona and I would become fast friends. How are these Chicken dumplings?
Quoting javi2541997
Looks great. Ironically, the Chinatown in Manhattan NYC has become pretty touristy, although there are still tons of great places to eat. Alternatively, there's a Chinatown in Queens which is better, and some say the burgeoning Chinatown in Sunset Park Brooklyn is even better. There are many Chinese enclaves in NYC, and each has it's own charm.
It looks enough like Chinatown that anyone can find it. If it looked like a New York slum, that would be confusing.
To New Yorkers, nothing is as important as NYC. That is not true of people in Missoula, Montana, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or Texarkana, Texas. If we have a nuclear war NYC will be much more like Missoula.
A sweeping statement. This city is as important or unimportant as any other, but it's the people that make this city what it is. Ask anyone who's lived here.
That bird is a nightjar. Presumably the idea is that to keep awake all night to do its nightjar business, it needs coffee. Have I interpreted that correctly?
MU seems to think that’s cheating :grin:
Where do nightjars live? Are you a birder? Where do they get coffee?
Quoting Noble Dust
They would all be biased.
Quoting BC
A lazy one.
Quoting BC
Starbucks, unless they’re in Russia, because Starbucks pulled out.
Their taste is good. Maybe they are smaller than real Chinese dumplings. The only complaint I have about Mercadona dumplings is what they are made of: only chicken. I miss other types of flavors.
Quoting Noble Dust
Quoting BC
Around 20 % of the Chinese community in Spain lives in Usera. There are around 35 or 40K citizens. It is a good digit but it is not so big as London or NYC. Well, I am happy to have a tiny Chinatown. I was raised surrounded by Chinese friends and I have good memories of them, playing Pokemon in their shops... nostalgia.
I will never know how to explain it, but yes, Japanese folks love to do that. There are a lot of sites in Tokyo for batting practice.
You would be too once you'd lived here. And so the cycle repeats. It's like a mystical truth. You can't know it until you've lived it. Until then, it's best not to speak of it.
While I can't claim to have a closeness resembling your love of Japanese culture, I do have four adopted Chinese cousins, and so I do find that I have a love of the food and the culture of China. :heart:
This is what I always look for: real Chinese food. Hard to find, but worth eating whenever you find it.
Lidl in Spain have pork and prawn gyoza (gyozas?).
What an interesting experience! :sparkle:
Quoting Jamal
I never go to Lidl. Sorry, my bad... maybe the next time I will enter this market, but it seems to be impossible because in front of Lidl there is a big Mercadona, and its magnetic force is unavoidable.
Ah, I see. It would be like trying to escape a black hole.
Me too. I had a similar experience. My best friend in 1975 was of Chinese background. His mum was from "Peking". Their house had fantastic Chinese art and carpets, lots of red, scrolls, sculpture, etc. It gave me a life long love of Asian aesthetics. Later Japanese traditional design (kanso) and farm houses (Kominka) and artefacts. :up:
I started to love Asian aesthetics after that experience too!
This happened around 2007 and 2008. My Chinese friends were the only foreigners in the block we live in. Most of the houses of the neighbours are equal and have the same ornaments. But when I went to my friend's house for the first time, I remember being so impressed with everything. Maybe it was an impact of seeing another culture in the mind of a kid.
Their kitchen was awesome and different. They had a Chinese steamer full of rice. Wow, I am experiencing a lot of nostalgia while I am typing this!
Up to 29C in NYC today! That’s warm for April for sure. Its 24C where I am. Shorts and t-shirt weather has returned to me at last. That’s when I’m happiest, in shorts and t-shirt, hat and sunglasses, a spring in my step and hope in my heart. Hope that will be dashed on the cold rocks of winter in only a few months.
When we finally hit the inviting shores of Alcatraz, tears rolling down my face as I saw the mighty beacon for the weak and weary in the distance, my wife Pitterpat suffered terribly as her face dashed against the rocks and her body twisted in the barbed wire. Releasing her was like removing a bur from a thick wool coat. Once released, the salt water quickly resolved her complaints.
Greta, Pitterpat, the two wee ones, a guy named Tom, and I then entered Alcatraz for processing. The tour was fantastic, having purchased a snow globe in the gift shop for a souvenir. How delightful!! Snow whenever I choose to shake it about!
I say this with all the talk about China recently. I felt i was hiding some experience I might share with you.
The End.
:rofl:
Quoting Hanover
I must not confuse "bacon" (panceta) with "beacon" (faro).
Another thing about English vocabulary that I learned today.
Quoting Hanover
Were you thinking about @Tom Storm ?
Quoting Hanover
Good story, Hanover! I have enjoyed myself :up:
When I was in Houston back in 2015, I was attended at the airport in Spanish, not in English.
Why did you visit Houston?
The main aim was to learn English. The friends of mine lived there and then, we moved to Arkansas, Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois.
I think I've told you this before - New York City is magic to me.
I was moved by your story, so I decided I wanted to perform a literary analysis. Here it is. I did it all by myself:
I would congratulate you on being the first person to use "inamorata" on TPF but you had help from me, so I can not thus praise you. On the other hand, you did identify a bird whose picture I posted. Good on you for that. Whippoorwills and nighthawks are two of the North American nightjar species I have heard of. Nighthawks make an interesting sound with their wings as they hunt at night, a sort of "whump" sound, which somebody told me they make when they abruptly slow down to snatch an insect.
You raise an urgent and critical philosophical issue here: What is "real Chinese food"?
If you are in China, eat a typical local native meal, and it is so poorly made it is disgusting, have you still not had "real Chinese food"? The adjective "real" implies that it is wonderfully delicious, but no cuisine is universally attractive to all diners. What's "real"?
To what degree is food cooked by Chinese chefs in Lincoln, Nebraska or Lviv, Ukraine "real" or "not real"? Is P. F. Chang's™ frozen Dan Dan Noodles "real" Chinese food, or the Pad Thai "real" Thai food?
Sure: there are principles and rules in any cuisine, and adherence will tend to give it authenticity. For instance, "real" tuna fish hot dish (an upper-midwestern concoction) can't be made from fresh tuna and custom made sauces. The sauce must come from a can with a red and white label. Egg noodles are key, and if you add too many other things (broccoli, parmesan cheese, dried mushrooms (for flavor and chewiness), sour cream, and so forth, you no longer have "real" tuna fish hot dish. What you have is a tuna fish hot dish-like casserole that is vastly superior. Excellent, but not "real".
"Real" Scandinavians living in Scandinavia do not eat "lutefisk" - a dried salted fish cured in lye. The only people who eat lutefisk are the upper-midwestern descendants of Scandinavian settlers who eat it in a once a year ritual in the late fall, along with lefsa (a low-flavor potato flat bread sort of thing). Lutheran church basements are the usual sites for this ritual. Days of soaking in water change the hard, dry white fish into a gelatinous mass. Then it is cooked. The meal includes mashed potatoes and meat balls in gravy. IKEA cafeterias offer "real" Swedish meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce.
If you substitute fresh codfish for salted dried codfish, it is no longer "real" lutefisk. Better, but without the ritualistic and salvific properties of lutefisk.
Gee, thanks BC.
I have no idea what this means. Is it an apartment number? A food dye? A section on a tax form?
While I enjoyed the warm weather yesterday, thanks in part to low humidity and a pleasant breeze, this is quite a jump from the 50 (ahem) degree days we were having previously. Ideally I'm hoping for some proper spring days (60-70 tops) before full on summer weather.
I do not recognize this number, if it is in fact a number.
It's impressive how distinct your literary crit voice is from your everyday voice.
Much better than the dreaded lutefisk is the cherished Nissua, served only at Christmas time. I have many a fond memory of the special bread.
If you continue this behavior I'm going to have to have you ban yourself.
I don’t even know if I can do that.
Pillock.
Quoting BC
Each country has its own culinary culture. So, their national enterprises tend to promote their traditional dishes as well. It is OK, but maybe it is a touristic or propaganda act. I guess the real Swedish meatballs are cooked by a Swedish granny, in her home, in Stockholm. :yum:
Any shots to go along with that practise?
Take the drug option.
This doesn’t make sense. The “having swum” should refer to an act of swimming that happened before you were “born and raised”. For example, you can say “I was born and raised in China, having swum down my mother’s birth canal in search of a better life.”
I sense the first sentence in a contest-winning short story.
Well, so long as they’re here to do philosophy, the more the merrier (and welcome if you’re reading this, mystery students).
Let’s not take anything away from the original inspiration, without whom he wouldn’t be here.
:brow: Ew wot m8
Quoting Jamal
Strange times.
There are many bad things you can say about me with some justice, but insulting my intelligence just doesn't work.
Is your family Finnish? Did I already know that?
Rats in the toilet are not wandering around on the floor -- they are swimming circles in your bowl, just inches from you tush, hoping to leap and grab on.
TUSH: I thought it was a Yiddish term. Turns out it is from late Middle English.
And now, "Pizza Rat'
Yes, I recognize that. My response was was intended as vaguely passive aggressive.
Quoting Jamal
I wasn't offended. We could argue about whether you were not clear enough or I did not read carefully enough, but let's not.
On the other hand, the rest of the post did make it abundantly clear that I didn’t doubt that other people are conscious (except perhaps for you in this instance).
I doubt you knew that, but my mother is mostly Finnish, leaving me slightly less than half Finnish. As a typical melting pot American, it's the heritage that I identify with the most. These days, the last vestige of it is when I visit my parents and my mom makes Kropsua. I absolutely love it, although it's apparently an acquired taste; when I was in high school, my best friend who was sort of a foodie (as much as one can be in high school) and a general garbage disposal tried it and didn't like it. It was the first time I had witnessed him eat something and not like it.
While no one likes rats, I just let them be. If you encounter them on the street, you might sometimes here them squeal; they detest us as much as we detest them. I take a new age "commune with nature, dude" approach and ignore them. Works well.
I know rat-lovers.
I get the criticism, but my unstated setting envisioned in my mind is of the speaker standing in America answering a question of someone inquiring as to how he got to America. This places an implied prepositional phrase of "While I am now in America," preceding the sentence. That should then clarify that the first statement (I was born in China) tells the reader of the speaker's national origin, and the following statement (his swumming) explains how he then got to America.
If dissatisfied with that explanation, another way to read the story is to fully accept its authenticity as opposed to reading it for potential error. That is, we have a Chinese national of obvious limited means having to resort to a grueling swim across the high seas in order to better his lot in life. It should be expected that his English wouldn't be perfect. For God's sake, he deserves better than to be welcomed to the shores of freedom with something other than pedantry.
Tell me more.
I've already inferred that I'm rat-sympathetic. I can imagine a pet rat craving the same love any other pet might. I'm a new age dude, after all.
Except for Swedish meatballs with gravy, I'm not sure there is any reason to eat anything originating in Scandinavia. It's cold there, with a short growing season, so I suppose they were lucky to have anything to eat at all.
Yes - well.
Fifi, my min pin, a natural ratter, finally got to Nibbles, and she was so proud when she did. I was relieved honestly. I'm not a fan of rats.
The smorgasbord is Swedish. Everyone loves an all you can eat buffet.
Quoting Noble Dust
Can I imply from this that you are rat-sympathetic?
Quoting Noble Dust
Me too.
Quoting Noble Dust
How can it be the same love if involves different individual pets?
Quoting Noble Dust
I don’t know what this means. Please elaborate, now.
Quoting Noble Dust
I said nothing about “new age”, and I don’t see how your being a “new age dude” justifies your position at all. You are a complete fallacy. I’m done here.
if *it* involves
*If *it* involves.
no; I sometimes begin sentences with lowercase letters to signify that what I'm saying is fairly insignificant; in this case, it's insignificant because what I'm quoting is disgustingly insignificant.
Also, in context, I'm quoting a mid-sentence phrase, in which case the lowercase is justified. Check mate, atheists.
You're so behind. I'm sick.
Keep coping. I'm done here.
Preemptively declaring you quit before I do doesn’t work if I already did it. I’m done here.
Feeling impatient is one thing, showing it another; there is private experience as distinct from public behavior after all...
Quoting Janus
Yes … well.
Quitting three times without actually quitting doesn't work if you keep doing it. I'm done here.
You’re right, you are indeed done here, totally done, in fact overdone, so far from succulent that you may as well be a dehydrated lizard and probably are as far as I can tell.
A classic resort to senseless ad hominems that make you feel like a big strong man, while everyone reading is chortling. I'm done here.
Quoting Noble Dust
I failed to refuse the tequilas last night. Well, when in Rome.
The reading comprehension of a 3rd grader. I'm not chortling; everyone else is, and now they're chortling even harder. Hard chortles. I'm done here.
Quoting Jamal
Well - yes. I failed to refuse my friend's offers of wine and chortles. Look where that got me. Eating frozen burritos. I'm done here..?
Then you should have stated that in the original story. I’m done here.
:roll:
It is going to be a busy day... I have to gather fruits and olives of my plot in Toledo. The amount is not big, but it is a grueling work. See you at the lunch time!
It's always funny to me to see this name in it's proper Spanish context, because there's a city in Ohio, where I'm from, called Toledo. It's not a great city.
If you said you were going to Memphis, 100% of people would assume you meant Memphis Tennessee.
My infallible intuition.
Yew w0t m8
I looked it up online and had a look and found what looks to me like the way Yorkshire Pudding looks. Yorkshire Puddings can be made as multiple small and discrete doughy entities; it’s often made as a single piece of dough though.
It’s only dough though so I’m wondering how acquired a taste the acquired taste of a thoroughly tasty dough pudding could possibly be to be an acquired taste though, although I’m no expert and I bow to your insider knowledge and general foodieness, no?
I had jambalaya followed by jelly and Jaffa cakes for lunch today.
J is the Tuesday of the alphabet. Thoughts.
Far and few, far and few are the lands where the Jamalrobs live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a sieve.
The gentleman employs Js in moderation and particularly frowns on alliterative excesses of this consonantal ragamuffin. While the rule may be breached provisionally for poetic licence or even--in inebriated company--for drollery, none but the scallywag proliferates his Js as a matter of course.
I ate the dish as fast as a ravenous pig. Oh Jesus... reaping undergrowth and fruit is tiring.
When you get to that many posts, will you stop talking about food?
Quoting Jamal
*Bows gracefully*
I am going to stop talking about food from now on.
:scream:
When I'm old and useless, I hope to reside in a place where that sort of thing will be available to me. That's all I need I've decided.
Baden is a cheeky chimp and you are free to ignore his anti-foodie mischief.
It was indeed a jest. I would be satisfied if @hanover would stop speaking nonsense like "lox" which is surely not a food and just something he made up.
Just a bit jumblied up.
I must swim across the Atlantic in search of a better life.
I'd never heard of it. Looked it up. Seems pretty inoffensive. What we eat as children affects us forever. Have I told you about Velveeta?
Finland has always intrigued me. Related people live in northern Sweden and Norway (Lapland), northern Russia, the Ural Mountains, and Hungary. The history of human migration is fascinating.
I do seriously like to see what people are eating. Some folks think it’s trivial, others like me do not.
I checked. Although Finland is included in the Nordic countries, it is not usually considered part of Scandinavia. It has an entirely different language (Uralic rather than Germanic) and culture.
Can you send us a picture? This is a picture of Ingalls Rink at Yale University by the younger Saarinen.
A really beautiful building.
Here are pictures of the inside. Even more beautiful. Hidden because they take up so much space.
[hide="Reveal"]
New word. Thanks. I'm not sure you have to capitalize it any more than you would "maverick," "bowdlerize," or "trump."
It's an insult. "Ad hominem" refers to an argument.
A lot of Mexicans there in Astana?
I spent quite a bit of time in Toledo for work back in the 90s and 2000s. Yes, a beat up town, but I enjoyed my time there.
Quoting T Clark
When I took a cruise down the Volga we stopped somewhere and learned about the Bulgars. I thought, wait, surely they have nothing to do with Bulgarians. Turns out Bulgarians were originally from around the Volga, the steppe, and Central Asia.
Along that river there were also the Volga Germans.
You’re only saying that because you weren’t involved, being tucked up in bed or partying the night away. I’m done here.
I'm partial to "No further questions. I rest my case."
Nice hotels have you pay for such buffets, which you just write your room number on the receipt and it charges it to the final bill so you don't feel like you paid.
Moderate hotels provide the service for free. They call it a continental breakfast, but it typically includes yogurts, eggs, bagels, waffles and the like.
Americans compete for customers.
You guys need more Jews where you live. A bagel without lox? Sacrilege.
https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/2018/08/12/a-look-at-the-new-holiday-inn-express-free-breakfast/37450681/
We did have that dude in Joyce's Ulysses. Not sure if he's still around or being a fictional character even counts though.
Quoting Hanover
All but one hotel/guest house my brother and I visited in Europe had a free breakfast. I guess it was a true continental breakfast - sliced meat, bread, pastry, soft boiled eggs, coffee or tea. Everything fresh and everything very good.
Kazakhstan has Bukharan Jews (a native Central Asian sub-group of Jews), and Mountain Jews. I don't know if they eat lox though. We're a long way from a salmon and hey, not all Jews are Ashkenazi anyway.
Incidentally, the portrayal of Kazakhstan as antisemitic in the Borat film was stupid and scurrilous.
I thought the Celts were the lost tribe of Israel. Wait.. no. That's American Indians.
Wow, signature pancakes. Heaven on Earth.
I’ve probably told my pancake story here already so I won’t bother telling it now.
If there were a contest of triviality, I would win the 1st position! :up:
The church was built in 1949. The large congregation wanted a typical American gothic church - big stained glass windows, arches, and so on, but that kind of construction cost more than they could afford. The pastor was familiar with Cranbrook and contacted Eliel Saarinen. In 1962 the church built an addition for classrooms, a gym, and social facilities designed by Eero Saarinen, The post-WWII period was peak central-city Christianity; by the late 1970s that was over. The congregation of 1980 could not have financed a new church. The new churches were being built in the suburbs.
Average Sunday attendance was around 70 in 2005, with few young adults and no children, but had rebounded to around 120 before Covid with young couples and maybe 25 children. Obviously some successful recruitment. Still, no central city congregation can rest secure. Churches just don't occupy the same social role they once did.
For its innovate design (in 1949) the building was named a Dept, of Interior National Landmark site.
When I was in the Kiwanis Club, a charitable civic group, we'd have an annual St. Patrick's Day 5k run fundraiser and also sponsor free pancake Tuesday at the IHOP, where you'd eat free pancakes, but then be asked for a donation that would go to charity.
I never knew there was a link between the Irish, Tuesdays, and pancakes, and never really thought about it.
Now it all comes together.
Thank you Shoutbox for educating me. You've never forsaken me.
No worries. To add to the font of your burgeoning spring of knowledge, Pancake Tuesday marks the day St. Patrick accidentally invented pancakes when he was making a giant communion wafer to give to a very tiny man as an April Fool's day joke. So, really it should be on April the First, but that day was taken so they just kept the Tuesday part and set it a couple of weeks later. The historical record doesn't give any detail on whether the tiny man actually devoured said pancake/wafer but no doubt much hilarity was had by all.
Didn't St. Patrick have to suddenly flee Ireland from the Protestants and his pancakes didn't rise, so everyone eats flatcakes, or am I thinking of something else?
I've always seen roadsigns about this shadow group, and just assumed it was a cult. Your membership confirms my suspicions.
Growing up, we had pancakes on Saturday morning, accompanied by the radio shows Ranger Bill and Adventures in Odyssey. Unlike @Baden this didn't leave me with crippling mental disease; rather, it most likely helped me turn into the precocious little food boy I am now.
:up:
I think he was killed by an army of tiny little men. Those were the protestants, I guess.
:groan:
Hey, chill. No one really liked St. Patrick anyway. :up:
St. Patrick's Day always seemed such a joyous holiday, but its history i am to learn was so violent and bloody.
Next St. Paddy's Day, I'll drink my green pint to his memory.
Yes, in fact the little men made him drink his own blood, which was green--explained as it turns out by the fact he was actually an alien (bear with me, it's no weirder than Scientology). But anyway the ironic part is through some quirk of history the green got attached to the little men and not St. Patrick--hence "Little Green Men" = Aliens. And the fact that it was St. Paddy that was not of this earth rather than the protestants is not well known.
Anyhow, enjoy your pint of blood next St. Alien's day!
Delicious.
Pro tip: put some parchment paper between the burger and smasher for easy no stick release.
Enjoy with a pint of leprechaun blood.
Any idea what the advertised "one-touch pancake machine" is?
I wonder if those pitchers of syrup are maple.
Really beautiful. Simple. Textures. Lines. Materials.
I think you push a button and it sets in motion a series of gears and pulleys, resulting in the release of pancake mix onto a fiery conveyor belt, eventually culminating into a flap jack falling on your plate.
It does everything but but eat it for you.
When I go, I just open wide and allow the pancakes to fall right into my mouth, stuffing me to the gills, leaving me full of energy to take on the day.
Once a guy accidentally left his cellphone on the one-touch button. He came back a few hours later to a room filled floor to ceiling with pancakes. Poor Matiilda, the breakfast lady, suffocated, unable to eat fast enough to save her life.
Yet another victim of AI.
Quoting Hanover
Yeah, just like a shoebox.
If they can afford to feed you from a fancy pancake machine, what's the need for pitchers of syrup? Why not just pull the tap and load up? Everyone loves a sticky mess.
Being a landmark building makes us eligible to apply for maintenance grants (roof, heating, brickwork, foundation leakage -- all that stuff). Without the grants, we'd have gone broke.
Robert Fry, author of The Great Apostolic Blunder Machine, and Adam Finnerty in No More Plastic Jesus, both criticize the typical church for being real estate operations. Indeed, property and maintenance loom very large in most church budgets. I've belonged to a couple of gay congregations that operated on shoestrings, and were still effective ministries, Property isn't the critical piece. (Try telling that to the church council.) On the other hand, the "church without walls" is a difficult act to pull off. Most people want walls.
Beautiful, BC.
Quoting T Clark
Yes.
Breakfast will be different from now on. Tofu will no longer be part of my culinary routine. It is a difficult decision but I need to do so.
I live in New England and I don't think there's better regular old day to day architecture anywhere in the US. Massachusetts is full of great houses, and I don't mean just mansions or historical buildings, I mean just nice old buildings. My house was built in 1910 as housing for factory workers. It wasn't built all that well. Pulling walls down, I found all sorts of goofy construction details. But it's a real house. Go into any city in the New England states and you'll find beautiful buildings from the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. And a few from the 2000s.
Given that, I'm surprised by how much I like some modernist buildings like Ingalls Rink, the church near you, or houses by Frank Lloyd Wright. Somebody cared about those buildings, somebody with vision and commitment and I care too.
I wish you good morning but I resent your claim to be the preeminent Shoutbox buffoon.
Okay, I understand. I will simply be Javi.
When I attended high-school, I was called the "buffoon" of the class along with other students.
Boston has a wealth of interesting buildings. A friend of mine rehabbed several row houses in back bay--living in the place with his family and dog while he was at it. (this was back in the 70s) Then when it was done, he'd sell it and buy another decayed jewel and start all over. The kids eventually graduated from high school and his wife left him. A this-old-house divorce.
My old house was built around 1918, a working class 2 bedroom. This neighborhood was adjacent to an industrial area manufacturing tractors, flour, animal feed, structural aluminum, and the like. That is all gone, except for a remaining Archer Daniels Midland flour mill and a scrap metal yard.
For the most part, this neighborhood has been built on only once. It was farm land or wet land up until around the late 1800s. There are a few areas (like the industrial area) that were cleared and rebuilt. Minneapolis to the west and north is older, though nothing European is older than Fort Snelling, which was started around 1820 on Dakota land called Bdote, where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers converge. The Dakota and predecessors have been here for... 10,000 years, give or take.
Why has tofu been banned from your table? What did it do to earn your ire?
A musician plays his big fiddle, sings praises to tofu. and eats it all at the same time.
Nonetheless, I perceive that some interpret the word as "someone who lacks dignity" because others laugh at him/her. Yet, buffoons were those who made entertainment in the Middle Ages for kings and other members of royalty. But now this word is considered as pejorative and it is quite cancelled.
I got tired of eating tofu! This is what happens with unconditional love and appreciation. Sooner or later, it ends...
I guess I need a "break" from tofu masters!
Wow! interesting thought. It can be a substantial subject of a new thread! :up:
:up:
Are you suggesting you need to be removed?
No, I'll just rupture all over the place. It'll be fine.
Oh, ok.
That's the nicest compliment I've ever gotten.
I've thought about travelling around the country to see interesting architecture. Maybe I'll buy and RV. I'll stop by your place when I get to Minnesota and we can visit your church. You're right, Boston is a great place for architecture. For a while I had a construction project in Cambridge right near the Charles River. I had to be there very early. As I'd drive down along river, I'd see Beacon Hill on the other side with the State House dome shining in the early morning sun.
Good to see our cultures have this practice in common. One often hears in the ale houses of old Albion, “come on, car park, now!”
Anyway thanks.
The subject might be an interesting one—Is it appropriate to personalize philosophy?
Again, you brought it up. You seemed to mean several different things. 1) Referring to personal experience and outlook when discussing philosophical issues. 2) Focusing on my personal feelings and emotions 3) Using emotional arguments and being emotional about my positions 4)My "epic feud" with @Banno.
I have no further questions. I rest my case.
Tomorrow it’s all go though, as I’m mountain-bound. One doesn’t stroll in the mountains. Even if you’re walking at the same speed, you wouldn’t call it a stroll, you’d call it a slow ramble or a mellow trek.
Food sounds top notch. The article is written in a funny discourse though that sounds like it's aiming for deliberate fakery / cliche, like it's self-consciously marketing to the mental 4 yr. old or was written by a very early version of Chat GPT.
Most large cities have at least a few interesting buildings, but for my money, Chicago is the best. (This from someone who hasn't traveled that much.) What's there that makes it tops?
The core is spread out along Lake Michigan and isn't very deep, so there are good unobstructed views of most buildings of note. Architecture buyers (big companies) have bought big and adventurously. There are some nice remnants of the early steel frames and curtain walls, like the Reliance Building: Burnham and Root, 1891, and the Monadnock bldg, Burnham and Root, Holabird and Roche 1891/1893, 1/2 has thick load bearing walls and the other half has a steel frame and curtain walls.
Both buildings have been preserved/renovated. The Reliance Bldg. is now a hotel, while the Monadnock office Bldg. is still an office building. The hallway lighting of the latter building has been restored to 1893 levels, so it's on the dim side. However, offices had windows onto the hallway which brought some daylight into the interior.
If you should visit Chicago in the summer, be sure to take the Chicago Architecture Center boat tour on the Chicago River.
Another thing of interest that Chicago has is the elevated transit railroad. Many transit lines run through the 'loop', above the traffic, with numerous stations. I like it. It works well.
Did you find them on the side of the road during your sauntamble? I imagine you garnering a fair percentage of your calories that way.
:up: Very Gotham city like. When I was there there was a huge construction project going on near the river, like they were building a tunnel under it or something. Maybe a bridge over? It just added to the overwhelming concentrated urbanity of the place.
Ooh, I'm sold on that.
I never even read those over-long, pointless ramblings that take up 75% of most recipe pages. I don't understand it either.
It's funny isn't it? I suspect the vast majority of people feel that it's an annoyance and yet that kind of empty discourse is somehow so much "in the air" that it just needs to be put in there.
Here's my date scones I just made:
Here's Fred chillin:
I'll have my babka pics for you later. It's still rising.
On a 7 point scale, where 5 is the highest score and 3.4 the lowest, the median 6, mean 1.87, and the mode 12, I rate it a C minus.
Free Fred!
Quoting Hanover
Shut up. Free Fred! Death to scones!
Fred insists upon the cage. I offer him freedom and he returns to his bondage.
Hey told me he does it to offer a metaphoric representation of how many live our lives, whether it be in our jobs, relationships, or other aspects of our lives.
I wish he'd just be a dog. It can get overly heavy with him.
No, please. I like scones once in a while.
Quoting Hanover
So he wanted to make a statement then? Smart Fred.
:smile:
My scones are light and moist.
Croissants look complicated with the many layered flakey crust.
Please don’t say that around Fred.
[sup]— Media Chomp · Apr 3, 2021[/sup]
Are you good or bad? :)
Sometimes, returning or not is probably a matter of mindfulness/absentmindedness.
I am a returner and therefore a weak and stupid victim of the Big Other.
Of course the true ethical hero would not return the shopping cart but make an account of the saved time, aggregate it, and employ it as a volunteer in a soup kitchen or some such.
Jesus that stuff is execrable.
You’re desperate for breakfast so you google “scrambled eggs recipe,” and you’re confronted with “Ah scrambled eggs, how I love thee. Toby and I first discovered scrambled eggs in the quaint little town of San Vito dei Normanni in Southern Italy. We’d had quite an evening the day before and we were positively famished (we’ve all been there, am I right?!) Well, we turned a corner and—“ SKIP TO FUCKING RECIPE.
:sweat:
I always return shopping trolleys. I’d genuinely rather steal it than leave it somewhere without putting it back where it’s meant to go.
Yes! The really true ultimate paradigmatic ethical superhuman paragon always skips to the recipe as it is the absolute sin of sins to unnecessarily expose oneself to the kryptonite that is empty discourse.
It’s mainly for SEO, to get high up in the search results. They will be aware that 99% of visitors just want the recipes and they’re fine with that, writing their drivel for almost nobody to read except the Google bot.
If it's too long, I'll choose a different recipe just to show them I'll take my business elsewhere. And I have. And it stung them real good.
It’s an artist’s impressionistic portrait of @Jamal.
The philosopher and mathematician Hypatia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia
The image we’re using might not be what she looked like. I have a feeling it’s from a mural in Alexandria or thereabouts and it was merely conjectured to be Hypatia. But never mind. It’s the one I liked best when I was Googling for an image in 2015.
That's Philosophy Joe, a Philosophy hero from the now defunct comic book company Bufoon Comics. Philosophy Joe would attempt to defeat villains by outthinking them, but wouldn't actually leave his desk. Even though crime spun out of control, he was granted tenure, and that resulted in him falling into disfavor among the more conservative elements in his community.
The story line was too nuanced for many, resulting in its cancelation and the eventual demise of the entire comic book company.
Their other comic in the series didn't fare much better. It was a recipe superhero who would drone on about bullshit when the citizens just wanted the fucking recipe.
I know others offer different explanations, but mine is the correct one.
Ironically, they are the easiest and hardest thing to make at the same time. Anyone can make mediocre scrambled eggs, but how do you get that trendy "soft scramble" thing? I have no idea. I've heard of mixing melted butter with the eggs. This is also done in French omelettes, and I do know one trick to a fluffy French omelette is to beat them for a full 2 minutes, until they've become aerated. Eggs are indeed a mystery.
And it would result in a different tasting egg dish than the soft scrambled eggs, the latter being creamier.
I've only gotten those super moist homogeneous style in breakfast buffets, leading me to think they were from a powder or dehydrated mix. From fresh eggs, I'd think you'd have to beat them into a froth with an electric mixer to get them that even.
My recipe is fresh eggs, cajun seasoning, and Swiss cheese directly on the griddle. They don't fall apart into fluffy pieces, but are a well formed cake of egg, like Yahweh intended.
I wouldn’t be going for that if I saw it on a menu.
So said the loud and silent monkey.
Cinamon babkas.
Bobbie is an influential woman, it’s true.
No, not French eggs that are custard-y and you question if they’re even cooked. A French omelette is just fully cooked, slathered in butter inside and out, quite fluffy, and folded like a crepe. Fillings are optional, and some chives on top and maybe a bit of cheese inside are all that’s needed.
Looks good! Nicely done!
A bit generous to call yourself an artist?
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/49/icon-for-the-site/p1
I figured you did you nincompoop, but the way you were talking made me think otherwise. Trendy soft scrambled eggs are fluffy but still a little runny. The jury is out as far as I’m concerned, dammit. I’m done here.
I didn’t say I did the portrait. Ask Jamal.
That’s how I make them, and they’re excellent. I’m sorry about the misunderstanding, and I meant “buffoon” in the noble sense. I’m done here.
Define excellent. I’m done here.
And Fucktard is French for buffoon. It's pronounced fook-tar in French.
Listen bawbag, I’ll put salt and pepper in my eggs if I like.
Well aren't you a Billy badass all hidden behind a keyboard somewhere in east bumblefuck talking a big game?
Put salt and pepper in your eggs?? Over my dead body you will.
This is not eggzactly scrambled eggs, but closer to an omelet or casserole.
If I put an egg in flour and made bread, I suppose you'd call that scrambled eggs too.
Ass clownery at its finest.
No. What makes scrambled eggs scrambled eggs and not other preparations of eggs is that they’re scrambled. You actually assume this when you say all that matters is “speed and thoroughness of the scramble”. Thus, you have undermined your own point.
I think I’m done here.
So, this is a thing.
A battle of wits it is then
Back in the 1990s through about 2010 they were constructing what was called the Big Dig. A monstrous project of new bridges and tunnels. The removed an old elevated highway from the 1950s and put it underground. It disrupted the city for more than a decade. Now they're getting ready to do something just about as big - rerouting the Massachusetts Turnpike through an old railyard. And yet traffic in Boston is terrible, at least it was before Covid. I've rarely gone in to town since then.
I've been to Chicago twice. I really liked it, although I didn't get to look around much. I really liked the Naval Pier. It was pretty touristy, but the very fact of its existence makes the city different. For a long time, up until 2003, there was a small general aviation air field on a little landfill island in Lake Michigan right in the middle of the city. I always like the anachronism of it. Anachronismness? Anachronisity?
It's definitely on the list of my fantasy architecture tour.
My father lived in Melbourne for three years in the 1990s. He really loved it there. Unlikely I'll make it that far though. Thanks for the offer.
I like Chicago too, although the last time I was there I liked it less. I was in Uptown, which is a historic jazz neighborhood, so for that reason I found it intriguing, but otherwise it felt very cold and distant. Rather spread out and lonely. Maybe I'm just used to the cramped hustle and bustle of NYC, I don't know. This is a non-ironic post for once.
I like cities in general. New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle. I like Boston, but it seems pretty mundane to me. I guess that comes from familiarity. There's always a sense of excitement, expectation when I go to a new city. I even like older, smaller cities - Columbus, Toledo, Worcester, Providence, Savannah, Augusta. And then there are European cities - Bruge, Frieberg, Delft, Paris, Amsterdam... Maybe it comes from my times visiting New York with my mother when I was a kid.
There are about 272,000 households in Boston, and about 66% have (on average) 1 car. If the 179,500 car owners were the only drivers in Bean Town, traffic would probably be much, much better. But of course, as they are wont to do, riff raff will drive into Boston from the surrounding hinterland and will cause problems by their mere existence in that place at that time. Many of them will resent every other driver on the road.
As you know, traffic behaves a lot like a fluid. If you lay bigger drains pipes, more water will flow through them. Given that "fluid traffic" are cars with brains (of some sort) driving them, it's the case that a nice, new, bigger pipe will attract more users. Or fix a bottleneck here, and it re-appears down the road.
In 2021, there were 278,063,737 registered personal and commercial vehicles in the US. The upshot is that every large city will have congested traffic--unless everyone stays home, which would be hell on the GDP.
Boston already has a mass transit system, which as far as I know works reasonably well. Many cities with heavy traffic also have transit systems. Unfortunately, many people are loathe to forgo a private car for a full-up bus or train, even if it is a clean, comfortable bus or train carrying passengers like themselves (which may not be the case).
I'm dependent on public transit, but bitch about it a lot. On a good day, I can bicycle to clinic appointments in about 25 minutes, while it takes 50 minutes (maybe more) to use transit. A LYFT car gets me there in 15 minutes, but costs much more. Transit here was steadily improving before COVID, but has lost a lot of ground since then. Reduced schedules is a major part of the decline. Disruptive behavior on buses, trains, and train stations is another problem which has gotten worse in the last several years.
I can understand why people choose to avoid public transit if they can, even if I disapprove of their avoidance,
I like how you give examples so the reader knows what you mean by “city”, but I don’t think it’s necessary.
Quoting T Clark
Well, duh.
Quoting T Clark
You imply that smaller cities are older, but this is not always true. Toledo is a beat-up hellhole by the way.
Quoting T Clark
Again, good examples but probably not necessary.
Quoting T Clark
Or maybe it comes from being a human being. I don’t think it’s unusual to like cities.
On the other hand, I was taken to London a few times when I was a small to medium child and the bewitching impressions on my senses linger to this day. This is like your trips to New York. What I’m saying is, I’m just like you. It follows that people who like cities are those who have been to cities when they were kids.
But would you say you liked cities if you now lived in a city, that’s the question. If you didn’t have a porch with a rocking chair.
In your face TC!
Wait, so who won?
Madrid, Sevilla, Toledo, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Barcelona, A Coruña, Athens, etc. Do not forget the South of Europe!
Valletta! ... Palma de Mallorca! ... Ithaca! ... Mykonos! There are a lot in such beautiful vast Mediterranean sea. :blush:
Nice, Cannes, Split, Antalya, Haifa... OK I realize I've begun to leave Europe now. I was thinking about the Mediterranean in general.
How did I forget that?
Lunch was three small packs of instant noodles (ramen), all different brands and flavours, cooked and mixed up together, with leftover Asian cucumber and cilantro salad on top. The noodles were different thicknesses so I had to stagger their transfer to the boiling water at intervals of about a minute.
For dinner I shall be having an adana kebab.
You kind of sound like you're going stir crazy, so I'm sending you this link for a british guy who teaches forex trading. You can watch the videos, join his discord group (just the free one, don't pay for the VIP). Then open a demo account on some broker (European laws are a lot looser than American ones, not sure why). Then you can sit around trading Euros and stuff, preparing yourself to trade live. Don't trade live until the demo shows consistent profits, though.
Simply Forex
This guy drinks heavily, so don't let that get you drinking.
I have no knowledge of gambling and my interest in it, if quantified, would be well into minus figures. And I don’t need some random guy’s example to encourage me to drink—I’m pretty advanced in that department already.
No. I just wish someone had introduced me to forex sooner, so I was doing that for you. I gave you the british guy because he's in your timezone and I figured he wouldn't grate your nerves the way the American versions of him would. If you look at his video for today, he's trying to stop drinking vodka for breakfast. He had porridge with blueberries.
That’s a very dangerous habit. I wish him luck.
Quoting frank
See this is more my level. I like porridge too, and blueberries, but never together.
Quoting frank
Unlikely. Currently I’m in GMT+6.
An intersting thing about me is that I always say the P in raspberry. Many have commented on my adherence to that pronunciation and have pointed out that it makes me interesting.
Mrs. Hanover enjoyed a scone that I made the day before. We've never discussed the raspberry issue, but I will be deeply disappointed if she pronounces it in an uninteresting way. At this point, I will leave it unaddressed, but that can only go on for so long.
Should it be found that she pronounces the P in crispbread but does not in raspberry, that will be the double whammy I'll have to deal with, as it will be both uninteresting and logically inconsistent.
At this point, I will leave it unaddressed. At some point, say when the forks are left dirty and I need to eat my nightly corn kernels and have no utensil, the anger will rear its head and we'll have this whole thing out.
This reminded me of one of your stories.
It is time for you to get over the fact that I had swum prior to my birth. Many have commented upon your inability to let that go. Uncle Peter is beside himself, tired of the snarkiness from that little nephew who used to be so happy go lucky, chasing birds, dancing in the moonlight.
I can forgive you for everything except putting this bloody awful song in my head.
If it didn’t make it over stateside, be thankful.
My list was not intended to be exhaustive, I was only listing cities I've been to.
Prove it. Then parking lot.
Quoting Hanover
How dare you speak to Jamal like that. Parking lot. Now.
Quoting Jamal
Parking lot. Now.
Parking lot.
Isn't it a Citroen?
Here are instructions for looking for an image on Google:
Upload an image
Did that with your photo and got this:
https://lens.google.com/search?p=ARADZa6tIhZz4iysSQhZNDgvO6HmeiLhk0HCHCw-IIDPhDjKnn7s2Xf0LFXk8BEN9REQi0jRWBC4zWyVb1fPJ_2JCJR3SNtO9FPWI9egvD7QslHpcWMEzq6Xe2Q6tIwwPVGHxq6EUEXctxXUNuCUUlMsp2Zez2ZibHQF-4ncK488lUtYdqghQwD_t_XFl30TuS64xZ1zspCyWhuZ-9uRd9JfAoOJTyUw3YO9nn0jNPLA-YNckRX-hnZqKf_m4fmku29-5Qtvq2VY94I_8SCh_QFwPGXJAM9TWJraqEd6wN9PibH26d4cfofP2rHFw8DdySXR_USIxSSBOFS87eoFBHd1Fq3XG6TWoOWuVGp01I4ckRdMh0kSMVd_7HnuDU7myRL4okeEor3Ku1ynQqjqMYIjA5W2CyiPgQORd7fCGwc%3D&ep=gsbubb&hl=en&re=df#lns=W251bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsIkVrY0tKRFprTVRNNE9UbGpMV1ZoTXprdE5EQTJNaTFoT0RjMExXRXhNVGRpWVRKalltWTBPQklmUlROSmRUUkJVVkZVZDI5VlVVUjFWV2RKVkUxaWJEUm5VRXBSU21WU1p3PT0iXQ==
Learned something new.
Musk's plan (already being executed) to launch hordes of small internet satellites is already screwing things up for astronomy.
The movie is called "The Girl in the Car."
Wikipedia says:
Pick a junkier vehicle--a beat-up SUV.
John Waters is the obvious choice for director. Better act fast -- Waters is getting old. Divine could have played the part of the Terrible Mother, but she's dead, so there is that.
Otherwise you have a great idea. When are you moving to Hollywood?
They were considered the most advanced automotive technology available at the time, front wheel drive and hydraulic suspension, when you start the car it raises itself by several inches as the suspension is gassed. Dreadfully expensive to maintain, however, Dad had a lugubrious French mechanic called Marcel who would charge you a hundred bucks to glance your way.
Survival of the shittest? Will the meek ever get to finally inherit the earth? Or will sneaky lawyers screw them out of it?
Typically I don't balk at the perverse, but I did say:
Quoting Hanover
To cure this problem, I'll just add a zero to her age, and we'll have a geriatric vagina, which should be a fine addition to any horror movie. Perhaps couple it with a 100 year old penis and we could watch the two fumble about in futile attempts of gaining arousal.
This movie does get lovelier the more we hash out the details doesn't it now?
The climax I envision will be when the thick brown gluey chunks clump out his bloody penis head into the wrinkles of her frowning face. She will then spend the next 20 minutes cleaning herself with a doiley, slowly sucking it clean after each wipe.
She'll swallow in hard gulps as she rubs her nipple slowly, making moaning noises, while the sound of gas slowly parts her buttocks. A close up of her sagging flaps will reveal the vibration caused by the release of noxious fumes, smelling strongly of dead rat. We'll know it smells of dead rat because with every fart, she'll ask "Where is that God damn dead rat again"?
The movie is now less a horror movie and more a horrible movie, but nothing I've suggested has been overdone. So there's that.
It's not the earth the meek inherit, it's the dirt.
I didn't make that up. It's from a broadway musical. Can't remember which one.
Meekness isn't a virtue. I always taught my kids to talk back.
Some other odors: external body odors of the stars; expelled internal odors of the stars (or the odors of the characters the stars depict--which ever is most repulsive). Rendering plants that process road kill would be a good source for at least a couple of patches on the scratch and sniff card.
Oh my. What a horrible time to have eyes.
See, if I was a licensed psychologist, stuff like this is when we would not allow someone to leave the building prior to a 48 hour observation period.
We don't actually know the location @Hanover operates from -- he could be a long-term patient at the Emory University Psychiatric Hospital in Atlanta. Or maybe St. Elizabeth's Mental Hospital in Washington, DC. Some famous people have lived there -- Reagan's would be assassin, John Hinkley, Jr. (missed, unfortunately) and Ezra Pound for example. Mussolini's brain lived there too.
Correct. the Seven Holy Virtues are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.
I thank heaven that I've been an abject failure in the chastity and temperance departments. Otherwise, I'm a saint.
This reminded me of my own, somewhat less horrible climax from the winning entry in the second short story competition:
Quoting Jamal
But I don’t mind. It’s a flattering tribute.
Just some questions that occurred to me that show I care.
I wish not! This is one of the most relevant places on the internet! I think they are just shy about expressing their personalities. I had the same feeling in the beginning...
Believe it or not, it is complex to join The Shoutbox. But once you are in, it is not possible to leave.
It’s a bit like Mercadona.
:rofl:
Maybe you are wondering why I am not posting about my breakfast routine. It is not due to the intimidation of @Baden but because I forgot to buy bread yesterday.
I thought the noun was meekity.
Bet you don't get stone walls in your so-called "Holiday Inn Express".
The unfortunate dearth of female buffoonery extant does lead to a certain imbalance. I should imagine this is largely a function of our demographics. Other than that, we need only note that a gentleman strives primarily for quality in his buffooning, and the focus of that is an attention to form. Consideration of content is rendered unnecessary for an individual of good breeding as the line between wit and vulgarity is inscribed in his very genes, and thus without effort or thought does he circumscribe his own circle of perfection and purity.
And it is the gentlewoman who allows the sophomoric male to his buffoonery, neither contributing nor objecting, but only offering the occassional smile meant to convey a growing impatience, but taken instead as approval and affection.
One is certain the discourse has run its course when the gentlewoman ceases being gentle, resulting in the gentleman eventually proclaiming in exasperation, "but I thought you thought it was funny."
No dear reader, she didn't, but you must be you and she must be she and this routine must repeat for eternity as this is where little babies come from. Somehow.
Yours also was an excellent description of ejaculate, and I can't say I wasn't subconsciously inspired by it. Thank you for your contribution to my psyche. I am better for it, as are we all.
The Holiday Inn Express is presented with a tasteful stucco design, set with modern curves, bright letters, and bedazzled with angular yet comfortable furniture, housing a welcoming staff who is happy to show you where the luggage carts are, as all is self serve in such establishments, not wanting you to be harrassed with panhandlers looking for tips to do that which you'd rather do yourself.
Once Jennica checks you in, you may perhaps wish to go for a vigorous workout in the perfectly arranged gym, or perhaps enjoy a relaxing splash in the pool, or even possibly embark upon a mid-afternoon romp with your lady with one of the many plump down pillows pushed beneath her buttocks to give you that extra leverage only available at the Holiday Inn Express.
It's all there for you at the Holiday Inn Express, but did I mention the free breakfast buffet with the patented one-touch pancake maker? There's that as well, including all sorts of yogurts, fruits, and high energy cereals so that you can take on the day. Why anyone would go elsewhere, I don't know, but I've heard of those forced into dark stone windowless structures, forced to eat ejaculate porridge, not knowing if it's night or day.
The Holiday Inn Express, for all your traveling needs!
Prior to dining, I held the morning cheese party, where each animal took their turn with small pieces of cheese until it was gone.
A good time was had by all!
Pretzel though was later found to have an anal gland infection, so the vet is currently lancing that here and about. I am told she will return good as new once the anal drippings subside, but we're in no hurry! No hurry at all! Drip away sweet Pretzel. Drip, drip away!
Good breakfast, Hanover :up:
Interesting, I never drink tea or orange juice for breakfast. My only potion is coffee and I even drink around five or six cups per day. My brain loves caffeine.
It's important that if you can't freshly squeeze the orange into your glass, you at least freshly pour the juice into the glass. If you pour a glass of orange juice and then go feed the chickens, or put Fred in his cage for talking back to you, by the time you get back the not-freshly-squeezed orange juice will have lost it's freshness.
I can’t respond properly until I’ve been for breakfast. I do know with certainty that you win on two points: I am not expecting a one or even two-touch pancake maker, and the breakfast restaurant is indeed in the basement and therefore probably has no windows. It should be noted that in Almaty there is a big shiny glass Ritz Carlton whose restaurant has panoramic views of the nearby snowy peaks, but I went for something closer to the centre (and cheaper).
Yes, it is a Holiday Inn Express, conveniently located in Almaty.
I had a look:
Meh.
For dinner I had a burger. It came with plastic gloves, which is the modern way to serve a burger if you can’t be bothered making the burger properly. My wife had mini tacos but one was too spicy for her so I ate it, and that meant she’d only had two tiny tacos so she ordered the same thing again so I had to eat the spicy one again.
Is central Asian food generally spicy. I guess I would have thought it was fairly bland. I'm not sure why.
She didn't order the same thing and you didn't eat the spicy one again. She ordered a similar item and you ate a similar item. If it was the same, you'd have had to vomit it out, they'd have had to re-serve it to you, and then you'd have had to eat it again.
Remember the birth canal correction?
Payback sucks doesn't it? Now you know what it feels like to cry in the Shoutbox like I did.
I thought this revenge would taste sweeter than this, but the truth is I'm sad for both of us in what we just went through.
Some naysayers would claim that you simply misunderstood the word “same”, whereas in my correction I identified a shocking lack of logical and grammatical consistency, but I couldn’t possibly comment.
Are we even now? If so, I’m glad and I hope it stays that way. If not, parking lot now.
Remember the cash me outside girl? She's a multi-millionaire now.
No joke, I was going to post that yesterday, but I was just so revolted when I re-watched that I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I don’t remember her but I’m glad she’s done well. Whether or not I go on to actually use “cash me outside” instead of “parking lot now,” it’s essentially the same challenge.
Quoting Noble Dust
Sincerely, to me the only revolting thing about that clip is Dr Phil.
He does kind of look like a beaver.
I was thinking the same thing.
The problems with Dr Phil run deeper than his resemblance to large semi-aquatic rodents.
Howbow dah? Int dat sompin?
Blackened Mahi with homemade seasoning mix. Broccoli cooked on the griddle with soy sauce, garlic, and spices.
Polished it off with a tall glass of fermented cat milk.
My hands are shredded. This is the last time I milk a cat.
There's a perfectly nice terrace and conservatory on the ground floor, so can someone explain to me why we must be squeezed in together down in the basement?
It was a buffet. There were three kinds of egg (soft scrambled, hard boiled and fried), fried potatoes, innumerable mini pastries, chebureki and samsas, freshly poured juices, cheeses, two kinds of hot sausage, cereals, yoghurts and fruits and crepes (what I call pancakes) and much much more, but I wasn't satisfied. The crowded atmosphere spoiled it.
Should've gone to the Holiday Inn Express.
Buffet is one of the best inventions ever.
Nonetheless...
Quoting Jamal
Sorry to read that. Whenever buffet fails, the place loses some points of quality and comfort.
They forgot that breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Yikes!
My breakfast: cornbread with olive oil and a dark toasted Darkhan coffee
Sounds to me like they laid on plenty of food for the most important meal of the day.
Quoting Jamal
The refined ground floor terrace and conservatory staff dislike dealing with the rabble before 12:00 p.m. Well, they don't really like dealing with the riff raffy rabble then either, but... They have my sympathies. I'll write and suggest they use the far end of the parking lot in future. You'll have unlimited light and space.
You can write, “Breakfast. Parking lot. Now.”
What kind of buffet is it if it doesn't have plenty of food? A picnic? :yikes:
There used to be a chain of restaurants called "Old Country Buffet" which was self serve and in large quantities. The food wasn't all that great. I called it "Old Country Barfit" (barf = vomit). Earlier there was a different chain, "The Smorgasbord". It was sort of Scandinavian, self-serve, and not very good. On the other hand, some hotels have a Sunday brunch buffet for late breakfast, early lunch, Those are usually very good. U Gardens near me is a Chinese buffet run by Vietnamese. I like their hot and sour soup, and the maybe...15 items are pretty good for mass feeding.
There are in Madrid some Chinese buffets too, and I remember that the times I went there, there were a lot of dishes. For just 15 or 20 € (I cannot remember the exact amount), you can eat whatever you want. But to enjoy the buffet, we need a lot of dishes, right? What is the clue if there are only three or four?
If I were running a buffet restaurant or business, I would put around 10 or 15 dishes of typical Spanish food in big bowls: tortilla de patata; croquetas; ensaladilla rusa; empanadillas; patatas bravas; tempura de verdura; paella; pulpo a feira; chipirones; calamares; pimientos de Padrón.
Then, the people would enjoy choosing and eating from different options.
I stayed at one not too long ago. What I truly enjoyed was the expansive luggage area on the furniture and the numerous hooks on the wall. It allowed for easy organization of my things. I despise a messy room, which can be difficult to avoid in small spaces, but my room allowed for order, allowing me to carry on, and sleep contently.
If I were to come into your room (hypothetically of course), and should I see items randomly about, I would judge you silently and harshly. Please tell me you're messy so that I can register in my head I'm better than you.
My fastidiousness is my least expected trait given my otherwise who gives a fuck attitude. But who am I kidding? That's probably a show too.
I can be quite messy, and I can be quite tidy. I have many facets.
I finally made it into the mountains. It was a dull and overcast day so our hopes were not high, but suddenly the cable car broke through the cloud and revealed a spectacular vista and a deep blue sky. We made it up to 3200 metres and were surrounded by 4000m peaks with glaciers and pristine snow. At that moment, in awe of the terrifying majesty of nature, I smiled and thought about how much better I am than Hanover.
Whereabouts is that ? It sounds stunning
No, no, no, javi. There are two sides to every story. It's the best invention for the food preparers, and the worst invention for the food eaters. For the preparers, they can mass produce edible product, warm and rewarm continuously for hours and hours, or days and days, while the eaters suffer through rubbery half-warmed edibles, nothing even comparable to chef-to-table cuisine.
Quoting BC
That's the buffet attitude, size is the end-all. Just look at the size of the people sitting at those tables through that all-you-can-eat time slot.
Quoting javi2541997
In a perfect world no food would deserve such abuse. In a world of too many eaters and not enough preparers, we must compromise. Some foods will be tolerated served in a buffet style, others will not. Scrambled eggs? "Barfit". Then again, it all becomes subjective depending on preference, the desires, needs, and other constraints, of the eaters. There is a multitude of priorities to take into account here, and the buffet caters to a number of them.
Jesus fucking Christ, you're a fascinating person, a yin and yang all rolled up into one. Your wife is one lucky person, each day discovering something new and seemingly contradictory about you.
Wait, I'm not done with this sarcastic tirade.
What it must be like to be around you, never knowing what might soon be discovered. Are you this, or are you that? The mystery continually unfolds. Like a changeling, with ever surprising reveals day to day. Will he eat the cheese or will he go for the fruit? The buffet, or will he order straight off the menu? This facet, that facet, not even God knows what will happen next.
Okee doke, I'm done with that.
Quoting javi2541997
When you say "dishes," you make it sound like there are a few pre-prepared options, but the buffets I'm familiar with (and they are many and varied) have all sorts of meats and vegetables, often numbering in the dozens. That is, I can heap my plate full of baked chicken, meatloaf, fried chicken, baked fish, green beans, tomatoes, imitation crab salad, pickled beets, cole slaw, blueberry pie, soft-serve ice cream, chocolate dipped cookies, french fries, pizza, a tossed salad, and maybe a pork rib.
A buffet, properly understood, is not all you can eat, but all you care to eat. That's an important distinction. Done improperly, you may die at the trough, sucking the slop into your face, unable to waddle away.
Speaking of which, whatever happened to @Shawn?
I agree, and you made me rethink my love for hotels with buffets. Yet, I believe that everything has its own charm in each situation. It is obvious that a top chef's dish is better than a fatty buffet. But, would you refuse a Chinese buffet if you were as hungry as hell?
Quoting Metaphysician Undercover
Breakfast is the main option. Chinese food too.
Sorry, Hanover, but I see it the opposite way. If I pay whatever amount of euros, it is because I will eat as much as I can inside the restaurant or hotel. If I really cared about food, I would not go to a buffet, and I would only eat normal dishes (lunches) in my home.
Cash me outside, howboh dah?
You have the soul of an American.
Those who disagree are quite objectively wrong and were possibility born with genetically impoverished taste buds.
C'est la vie.
I have the soul of a tax contributor who knows how to distribute my tiny savings correctly. :rofl:
Answer:
[hide="Reveal"]One smells and the other smells.[/hide]
:rofl:
Answer:
[hide="Reveal"]One stinks up the room and the other stinks up The Philosophy Forum.[/hide]
:lol:
If you find us all that boring, you could go somewhere else. I'm sure you could find someone who wants help with homework on the r/askphilosophy subreddit.
Good view. Here's the view from my hotel room in Shymbulak:
And here is a bad photo taken from my breakfast table:
And here is the view from my toilet:
And here is a view of my foot:
Notice the trousers, if you can call them that. Last year my wife bought it for me as a surprise gift, a tracksuit in the style of Colin Farrell in the film “The Gentlemen”, though neither of us had seen the film when she bought it and I don’t like Guy Ritchie films anyway:
It lay in my wardrobe untouched for a year, because obviously I’d never wear such an absurd outfit, but I decided what the hell and started wearing it recently. When I got into a taxi in deepest Kazakhstan the driver was amused and delighted. He spoke no English, but I did recognize “Guy Ritchie! Gentlemen! Colin Farrell!”
I have a bright red Target shopping cart in my back yard. One night I was returning from the store and found the cart in the street 2.5 blocks from where I live, and about 5 blocks from the Target store. I rolled it home, thinking that Target would come get it. No, they would not come get it. If I didn't feel like returning it, they said, I could throw it into the garbage or keep it!
The neighborhood used to be cluttered with carts left by people rolling the carts home and then just leaving them in the street, on the sidewalk, up right, tipped over, whatever. Eventually the 3 grocery stores in the center replaced the old carts with new ones whose wheel would seize up if the cart crossed an electronic barrier, That helped ENORMOUSLY. Few carts escaped.
I appreciate the self-control that leaves the cart on store property, at least, even if they don't return it to the store. Aldi's charges a quarter to use a cart, which you get back when you replace the cart.
It may be virtuous to return the cart to the store, or it may be OCD. Are laziness, slovenly habits, and disorderliness a lack of virtue or just tiresome behavior traits?
Beer and snow! What an excellent combination!
Quoting BC
Agree with you BC! Another fact about Mercadona that pisses me off. There are a lot of carts around the parking lot or next to the gate. They are there like abandoned... They bother and pollute.
Not breakfast this time. Just enough coffee to keep my eyes open!
It's 36F at midnight here, intermittent rain with small hail.
it sounds like a whisper of a morning spring/summer. The murmur is soft and relaxing.
Quoting BC
It is 12? C at morning here (53,6 °F). I see the rain impossible to come true... we have a big problem regarding drought.
This winter we received 80 inches of snow (over 2 meters worth); California has had heavy rain for several months. For now, the risk of drought has dried up, so to speak.
Agriculture does well when it's not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, not too dry, not too windy, not too cloudy, etc. It's a miracle anything grows. But it does.
:up:
There are some zones in Spain where it hasn't rained for more than 100 days... it is a real problem. I am worried because our economy depends a lot on the primary sector. I don't know what we will do because this problem is about nature, which we cannot control. The main fact that I am afraid of is the shortage of fruits and vegetables. I wish this would never happen, but who knows if climate change keeps kicking.
Quoting javi2541997
And yet, even when the Valencia region can produce as many oranges as you need (which I think it can), they can't compete with cheaper oranges from other countries. So isn't the problem the global market just as much as the effects of climate change on Spain's agriculture?
But of course, one needs more than cicadas and oranges to live a good life.
Hey, thought I was the gentleman. Where do I get me one of them?!
I agree. The global market devoured little farmers and agribusiness from Spain. European Union folks say that Almería and València are the "orchard of Europe," but later on, they buy oranges from Morocco because they are cheaper. We cannot stop the market, and this is a given.
I imagine Guy Ritchie meant it ironically, whereas you're deadly serious. A deadly serious gentleman. We clowns and vagabonds can only look on in admiration.
Watch "Trailer Park Boys" for all sorts of ideas as to what to do with those 'unwanted' shopping carts.
Interesting. Go on.
Aldi's approach is to require you pay a quarter for a cart that is then returned to you when you return the cart.
I refuse to shop anywhere where people still have change jingling in their pockets and who can still be enticed over a quarter.
If at Kroger, I put my cart back in the cart corral. If at Publix, I just find a grassy median to leave it because they don't provide enough corrals.
Many in the south call carts "buggies." So if you find yourself here at the grocer looking for cornbread and collards, you might use that term to endear yourself to the locals.
Eggs and plunging sausages.
May I suggest, shopping carts? Clearly necessary for a good life. Until Amazon came along and it all went to hell.
You can upload your photo to "Imgur" and then copy the link to share it here.
Or... You can become a contributor and pay your bills to have access to attach and upload files. :cool:
It says PayPal …don’t have that
You don't need terribly impressive credentials to become a member.
This is what I’m imagining:
I associate “corral” with ranches and cowboys, so I find this quaintly endearing.
Almost but with a pub nestled in between
That’s a new one to me…red Cow now that’s a proper name for a pub
I learned the name of the cart corral when a home goods store near me went out of business. They literally sold everything in their closing sale, including the merchandise, the shelves, ladders, and even the cart corrals.
Anyway (a word that clues the reader we're finna leave reality), I made an offer on the pretty little tomato behind the cash register's company shirt. Not wanting to be accused of false advertising, cuz everything means everything, she sold me her shirt.
So there she stood nekkid tittied the rest of the day selling home goods, ladders, corrals and such.
I still use that shirt from time to time. I made it into a tent. It sleeps 8 comfortably.
Glad to know it!
Happy Friday, invicta :up:
I don't mind your having the cheese because we all do that from time to time, but the cover up is a big deal.
Unless you smeared yourself with ripe brie and danced around the public square, shouting
“Taste me! Taste me! I’m soooo cheesy!”... everything’s cool. :blush:
Would that be so bad?
This word does not have translation in my language, and that's what it makes it so interesting. If you go to Google translate, it says: Caseando. But this word is non existent in Spanish. :razz:
As for cheese, yes I like it too. Queso manchego is my favourite.
:D Yes.
A quick check of the forum guidelines doesn’t prohibit it. So enjoy the cheese-laden free-for-all! Be sure to post photos lol.
No goat cheese? I think the goats would love it, and remember being a suckling kid. My friend feeds scrambled eggs to pet birds... they love it. Somewhat similar maybe?
Chile’s desert dumping ground for fast fashion leftovers
[sup]— Al Jazeera · Nov 8, 2021[/sup]
39,000 tons of clothes a year...?
And lots of us--I am guilty too--produce fabric waste that isn't "fast fashion" -- I wouldn't even call it "fashion". It's just everyday clothes, like cotton jeans, T-shirts, etc. that are worn, but still contain quite a bit of fiber. What to do with it? Natural fibers can be shredded and turned into lower-grade products, lie blue jeans can be turned into insulation. Wool clothing can sometimes be shredded, re-carded. and re-spun, but I don't think that is possible with cotton or linen. Synthetic fabrics are pretty much like plastic.
Most fabric, whether cotton or polyester, ends up in one waste stream or another. We should--I should--stop buying new clothes (or even second hand, since I have more than I need).
[sup]? Koyaanisqatsi (1982, 1h:26m), music by Philip Glass[/sup]
Use a large frypan, get it evenly medium-hot before adding the olive oil, and spread the eggs out thinly, stiring continuously, take it off the heat just as they set. It takes seconds.
I like them with a bit of tarragon.
One day the carts will rise up and break out of the corral and drive all over the city doing wheelies.
Huge heaps of discarded clothing is a piece of life out of balance.
I don’t need milk or cream to make excellent scrambled eggs, and I prefer the term “bouncy”.
1. The parrot’s vocalizations did not surprise me; it sounded like the kind of sound a parrot would produce.
2. The parrot’s vocalizations reminded me not of a super-villain’s laugh but of Ricky Gervais’s.
My third problem is a secret.
Quoting Noble Dust
It’s good that you can laugh at your own sadness like this.
I'm sorry.
I personally do not care about some birds, like parrots. So, I didn't find it amusing. I also did not like the laugh, it's not cute. I like crows (ravens would be too much) and kestrels.
I don't care whether or not the bird sounds like a super-villain; I just love the comedic timing of the whole thing, down to the "brrr" vocalization at the end that's cut short. Maybe that's millennial youtube humor.
Quoting BC
:cry:
:cry:
Quoting Noble Dust
Of course ND, it must be because I’m old. :lol:
At a mere fifty years I’m not a true codger like @BC, @T Clark, and @Hanover, so I can take you on in the parking lot. Now.
Funny that the suggestion of millennial humor makes you feel old. If you're 50 can you be Gen X? If so, it's just one generation of difference. No need to get all flustered. Us millennials are the youtube generation. We're a weird bunch with a weird sense of humor, thanks largely to youtube...
Is @Hanover an old geezer? I thought he was more of a medium geezer.
Quoting Jamal
Cash me ouside, howbow da. I'm done here.
If it wasn't the cat that grabbed the ceiling fan and got thrown unto the wall I don't believe it and feel betrayed. And alienated. And alone. And very post-grunge.
I could now subject you to a test of the most famous and well-known youtube channels, historically, but I won't embarrass you. Cash me ousiiide.
I admit I might fail that test, since my YouTube priorities have probably always been different from yours, i.e., more sophisticated and cultured. It takes more than a parrot with a vocalization reminiscent of a human laugh to raise my laughter, e.g., people being chased by chickens. I’m done here.
I liked it! but I didn't know what to say... Yesterday, it was a quiet day for The Shoutbox and there were not many posts.
Now that I know you know nothing of the O.G. viral youtube (not YouTube) video, I feel much more at peace; happy, one might even say. And I now know that you're even older than you say. A true youtube poser, in all his guises. A Gen X loafer trying to be a cool Millennial. I've seen it too many times before. Parking lot corner by the dumpster and the weird half-eaten wings container.
Those are the days when you respond to my brilliant youtube contributions!
Quoting Noble Dust
I failed and now I am ashamed of myself!
No two big toasts with tomato and olive oil for me! chastised! :death:
:party: Muy bien.
Quoting javi2541997
No no! Don't chastise yourself: I'm certainly not chastising you. Eat your toast dammit! Your toast consumption inspires me to consume more toast, and where would I be without that? I would be toastless.
You are right. The chastise would be worse than the guilt itself!
I am going to eat for breakfast a big cornbread toast with olive oil from Andalucía. :party:
Such a joy you are.
Cheers.
True, that. Sometimes my omelets decide they are scrambled eggs.
I realized @Noble Dust that this actually supports your position, not mine. To be of the YouTube generation is to have had one’s sense of humour partly formed by YouTube, which is not true of me. Therefore you were right and I was wrong. Javi, as a likeminded youngster, found your video funny, so I trust you feel vindicated.
:cool:
Banno, you do not usually post in The Shoutbox, but when you do, I feel you are angry with us!
"I didn't crack a smile." -BC
Quoting Jamal
Parking lot. Oh wait... :chin:
Quoting javi2541997
We need pay his emotions no mind.
I feel shivered now!
Quoting Noble Dust
Banno's emotions are priceless! :party:
Quoting Banno
:grin: I will invite you to a good breakfast of toasts with olive oil and tomatoes. I hereby, promise that next time I will share mine with you.
No don’t worry, I’m still totally willing to kick your ass (or “arse” as Banno would have me say).
Yes - well. What about my fragile and complicated emotions? What price do you put on them, mon cher? I ask you.
I think we both know who's ass will be kicked. I like that grammar, actually.
Not sure if it's you or I whom is inviting to a barney, but it's nice to see you are educating yourself.
Eat a bird, and you feed for a day; teach a bird to pass you noodles ,and you feed whenever the stupid humans don't hide their stash.
Quoting Jamal
Why on Earth could they not have called it the "Female Labrador of Colour"?
I don't know what a "barney" is, but if I'm having one, you're all invited. If that means I have to kick everyone's ass, it's no sweat off my...ass?
Feta, anchovies and honey. Basil leaves are boring.
Quoting Noble Dust
Your emotions are unique! priceless and unrepeatable! :up:
Just as my mother told me, and look at me now.
Quoting javi2541997
:gasp: spoken like a true Spaniard.
Anchovies and feta? Tried it on Pizza, a bit too salty. But with honey... Worth a try.
I find this hard to swallow.
Most satisfying.
Basil leaves are just for italian folks. It is hard to see them in a traditional dish here. I think it would counter the real flavor.
Quoting Banno
It is worthy because, thanks to the honey, the mix of anchovies and feta is less salty.
So, a scintillating list of items to draw the readers attention. Some for me too. A sprinkling of shaved whatever just because.
Then a simple sentence below for affect.
Yeah, figured that. Might try it.
If so, you have no rhythm, which checks out.
How would you like me too...
no, too trite.
Ask if he thinks Spiderman would win against Superman.
I'm a mere 56 years old, but get scrappier and more confident daily.
46 year old vs. 26 year old. Remember kids, you can never beat up your dad.
I agree. Carrots ate totally full of shit. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/
Ask him to stay away from the Shoutbox. He'll be humbled by how little he knows and how difficult it is to keep up.
Well you don't want it too far from his specialized fields. Of which I do not know but would assume are among those with the least consensus or most disagreement/confusion ie. interesting that people actually talk about.
Consciousness. He made a statement. "You can't describe what it's like to watch a sunset [yet] you could write a book about it but still never describe what it's like [for me] to witness it". That struck me as bold and in need of further substantiation or explanation.
What is known and was that which was previously "unanswerable" (and therefore non-questions by his own words) that have since become answerable due to advancements and later understandings of science, physics, or other means are now familiar knowledge the average school child possesses?
An old quote I remember, that may or may not be true: "The average schoolboy is now familiar with facts Archimedes would have given his life for."
Ask him why we'd provide you a question to ask him instead of just asking him ourselves.
Parking lot. Now.
[sup]Since I'm babbling about China...
I've received a few phone calls with someone speaking Chinese (Mandarin). They likely aren't related to the Chinese government/party, just common scammers running their cons. At least don't let those give China a bad (worse) name.
When it comes to electronic/digital spying, things get more...shady. They've been caught in the act. Much trust has evaporated. That being said, companies like Huawei apparently do sell good products (some originally reverse engineered from Cisco).[/sup]
Happy Saturday y'all. Oh, breakfast: oatmeal + milk.
All big governments spy. If your government has a powerful news media, you're heard more. And all big governments hide nasty things from the public. Your powerful news media could hide it.
Dame Edna was Australian.
No simple sentence below for effect?
That's not a lunch.
Heavens, how embarrassing. But your critique did afford me the opportunity to make a correction: I used alfalfa sprouts, not bean sprouts.
A subtle, yet significant difference.
That might present a few technical difficulties!
I never saw this Patterson character -- maybe it didn't play well in the states. We have real live yokels running things who are about as bad. Well, so do you.
I heard that Sydney and Melbourne recently changed places as the most popular city among Australians. The article was a bit confusing because they used both "popular" and "populous" in a reckless Australian manner. I can understand one of them becoming more populous, all of a sudden, but what could Melbourne (I pronounce it MEL BORN) have done to become more preferable than Sydney, what with it's famous opera house et al? Do Australians actually attend operas?
Better coffee.
You have eggplant in the garden? Nice.
("Chook" is Australian for chicken.)
I don't see why.
Here's a recent photo of Sir Les:
Looks like teacher put him in the naughty corner.
Interesting! I like to learn slang words of every English-speaking country, or Anglo-Saxon/Commonwealth. It increases my knowledge of vocabulary.
I mean, it is obvious that some words like "chook" are not taught in schools and universities here.
(It is a shame, I know...)
I was led to believe that Humphreys performed both Dame Edna and Sir Lee. Yes? No?
Unless you get to Australia next week, they may be calling their chickens "birdaloos", "chit chats", or boffos. So just hold your horses, er, nags, and pick up the necessary slang when you get there.
In Oz (another name for Australia), I have it from informed sources that 'cunt' is a multi-purpose word. I you want to praise a chum or being cool, you might say “he’s a sick cunt”. On the other hand if the person is a jerk, or ill, you might also say he (or she) is a sick cunt.
Here is more information than anyone needs about nagging:
Woe is me! This is a play on the ungrammatical business name, "Toys R Us" or "Books R Us".
Grammarphobia
The Grammarphobia Blog
And Rizza is Australian for Riesling.
Next I know, Nooby-doo will be Australian for Noble Dust.
Nuh. You'd be Nobo.
Interesting. Can you explain how that works?
Sure, Nobo
— https://www.thebelltowertimes.com/rules-to-aussie-nicknames/
This was my favorite bit.
I agree!
Yet, I think it is important to learn those words to just get "deeper" in English knowledge. It is interesting how folks speak in each country and go beyond normal/regular grammar/vocabulary knowledge. I am aware that it is not the best way to express myself in a formal or rigorous way. But sometimes it is fun to learn those words.
We have so many slang words too. Each region of Spain has its own way of speaking and it is crazy.
There is one word that twists my mind: bus. In Spanish, it is called "autobús" or just "bus", but Canarias Islands folks call it "guagua" and Argentinian folks call it "colectivo"
Like if you check the words, you will notice that the lexicon is not related to these slang words, but they refer to the same object!
In urban centres like Melbourne and Sydney people are ostentatious about their love of 'the arts' - opera, ballet, classical music, theatre, literature. The cities (and some regional centres) are full of festivals and celebrations of culture. Needless to say, the people who attend often have no idea what's being presented to them, they just want to be mistaken for intellectuals, instead of wife bashing, sports fanatics who think Andrew Lloyd Webber is highbrow.
Your nickname will be Banno-o then.
Quoting Banno
Mine would be Javo then.
Yours would be Hanovo.
While I realize the rule proscribes me giving myself my own nickname, Hanno sounds more likely.
I also like Ho, or "my Ho," as in "where my Ho at"?
There's also the problem with the double nickname we have going here. As you might have guessed, Hanover is already a nickname, so a nickname from that further deepens us in the matrix
Banobo
Cash me owsi howboh dah?
:rofl:
Hanovo :yikes:
If you are looking for a party pooper, I am your boy.
Hanover referencing this classic
Good for her :rofl: just the right attitude to make it into the music industry
Building that tower of Babel was definitely a bad move, but why you scaring us with news from 2018?
If that is a jest, it is funny. I tend to laugh at "bad/dad" jokes. :lol:
:party: :clap:
Them's not shoes, them's boots. If it aint pool weather, it aint shoes weather.
Quoting Metaphysician Undercover
I don't know if you are using sarcasm or is actually a vocabulary rule that I should have considered of.
I’ve known people who grew bitter and nasty as they aged. I’ve known other people who became mellow, timid, and soft. Which is worse?
The solution I suppose is to refuse that dichotomy and grow more joyful and confident at the same time as becoming more scrappy, i.e., to become passionate and kind and violent, in an affirmation of life in all of its joy and horror. If that’s what’s going on with you, I applaud you.
Dress code. You know, like no white after Labor Day.
I'll step in here to provide a negative connotation about Hanovo's garb: those are really quite ugly boots (maybe from the Salvation Army?) and why would one wear boots and long pants while lounging next to the wading pool? Is Hanovo also wearing a sweater?
You can always count on John Waters for a vivid illustration.
Thank you for the wardrobe question. I'll be delighted to explain.
The boots are the pull up sort, with steel toes, and can be even worn without socks if need be. Tennis shoes and dress shoes don't work well in the high grass and goat shit, so they sit by the door.
I hate the cold (under 70 degrees) so I bought a 1980s circa Italian military officer"s dress wool coat for $20 that I could keep next to my boots.
Here's me, smartly dressed for field work, the brass buttons revealing my high rank.
Are women exempt from the parking lot rule?
But I don't like horses.
Quoting Metaphysician Undercover
Quoting BC
Don’t worry @javi2541997, I have no idea what they’re talking about either.
Today is a boring day because it is Tuesday and most of the members of my family go to work and do not appear until dinner time, when they are tired. So, they decided to at least do "something" for breakfast. They think if they do not try it, I will feel devastated or lonely on my "special" day.
I wonder if other countries put this effort into birthdays too. I mean, it seems that skipping the birthday day here is a sin.
Hanovo wanted to talk about pool weather, but the folks started to gossip on his boots because of my comment. :lol:
Same here, I can’t get on with the creatures. Donkeys I like though.
Horses are not to be trusted. They are fickle, devious, neurotic creature -- made that way by their cowboy ropin, ridin, fuck-it or shoot-it cryptofascist owners.
It varies. I’ve known people who demanded breakfast in bed and multiple gifts and champagne and generally special treatment for 24 hours, and then other people who didn’t care.
Banno, I promise my dogs are humble and you can trust them.
Quoting Jamal
Well, I am among the ones who want to invite all TPF members to a round of sake. :party:
You should let people celebrate your birthday.
Javi, have you seen (or maybe more to the point, heard of) any of John Waters' films? Here is a list of his feature films in reverse order -- least first, best last -- at least in somebody's mind,
Mondo Trasho (1969)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
A Dirty Shame (2004)
Cry Baby (1990)
Pecker (1998)
Multiple Maniacs (1970) - "the sleaziest show on earth"
Serial Mom (1994)
Desperate Living (1977)
Hairspray (1988)
Pink Flamingoes (1972) - "the filthiest people in the world"
Polyester (1981)
Female Trouble (1974)
Though Serial Mom was the funniest, while Hairspray and Polyester were good fun.
John Waters is an independent underground film maker; he has a cult following of people ranging from perverse, to twisted, and on to merely weird. His star performer was Divine, a 300 lb. drag queen, but not the only odd ball in the stable. His films are transgressive and disturbing to many people. The safest titles are Hairspray and Polyester, these being pretty much mainstream-ish. Pink Flamingoes is probably the most outré, outrageous, and therefore most interesting.
Divine, 1945 - 1988, was an 'old-style' drag queen whose performances were not informed (or misinformed) by today's obsession with queer gender fluidity. John Waters is gay, and his movies became part of the American gay culture, but his movies are not about gays and lesbians for the most part.
Yes. I mean, they are my family and I happy for their kindness and your caring in the posts, but it is not so necessary. I am not a kid.
No, I have never seen John Walter's films. I think it is my fault because Japanese anime stuck with me for years and I "lost" a lot of good series and films of the Western world. But better later than never, I can watch them at any moment around the internet!
Quoting BC
Dogs are awesome, humble and friendly by nature. It is weird to see a dangerous dog. Even "violent" breeds as "pitbull" can be good boys too.
Okay, good!
Here's some Vivaldi for ya!
This is true, but dogs might be dangerous by nature as much as they are friendly by nature. They can be both, and who is to say which is more essential?
I have had dogs and I usually get on with them very well, but I have also been chased and attacked by them and have had to live next door to dogs that would not stop barking, and I have had to try and work while looking after dogs who would stare at me for hours in anticipation of the next walk. They can be loyal, fun companions, but they are difficult and annoying, and they’re sometimes dangerous.
So these days I prefer cats.
Vivaldi! The perfect musician for a spring morning!
I agree.
I think loyalty is the main characteristic of a dog, but this doesn't prevent the fact that they can be dangerous with both people and other animals too. I currently have mini-dogs, but back in the day I had a boxer dog. I remember getting frustrated and annoyed because people wanted to avoid us when we were walking in the street. But I understand that everyone is free to fear big dogs.
Quoting Jamal
They are more independent and quiet. But sometimes they can be aggressive too! Their sharp claws can be dangerous.
Cats are an important animal inside Japanese economy and culture. I cannot explain why, but they tend to respect them a lot.
I'm not a fan of rounding up truck loads of stray dogs around the country and then offering them as loving pets. Some of them will be OK, some of them will be screwed up for the rest of their lives. I'm not opposed to euthanizing excess dog and cat populations--which you get if you don't neuter the dogs and cats and then let them run free.
Dogs and cats do have personalities, and they can be very persistent and annoying in their efforts to get us to conform to their preferences. After a while it becomes unclear as to who is training whom.
Adopting a dog or a cat is a very serious action. Most of them had traumas, and the relationship will not be easy. In this case, I think it is advisable to ask for the help of a trainer.
And Haruki Murakami seems to like them a lot.
I have known many people who adopted dogs from shelters and they have mostly worked out well. It’s better than maintaining the idiotic practice of “pedigree” breeding, which I would ban.
Absolutely. He loves them a lot. There is a book called: "Yes, let’s ask mister Murakami" (Japanese: ???????????????), not translated yet... and the cover of the book appears a cat.
Well, it is an animal that frequently appears in his works, as much as train stations!
I wonder if you’d say that had you been chased by a Caucasian Shepherd, a Doberman, a Great Pyrenees, a Rottweiler, and many others (they idiotically hate bicycles while thinking cars are just fine) and been bitten on the legs by a mad spaniel.
However, I still love dogs, even though I do sometimes mind them.
I wonder if you'd say that had you spent 8+ years in NYC, the epicenter of rich, entitled asshole dog owners, who's dogs would not survive 2 hours in the wild.
(*whose)
Had I been chased by many different dog breeds, I might have a different opinion of them. Actually, growing up I didn't like dogs because my aunt (the cool aunt) always had several large dogs which she would put in cages when we visited. This ritual gave me the impression that dogs were terrifying beasts to be avoided at all costs.
Quoting Jamal
Some do where various items during the winter. It's despicable.
Along with entitled rich dog owners, the other set that makes me nauseous is the mentally damaged set; those who require you to shower their dogs with adoration, while they, the dog owners, vicariously absorb the praise and love they so desperately have lacked their whole lives for various (legitimate) reasons, yet they insist on making you part of their fucked up mental gymnastic routine by making you adore their dog, thus vicariously fueling them with said adoration. Yeah....
Like my Scottish friends in kilt country, freeballing is the way to go.
Fred would never bite, but he used to jump on people because I trained him to be uninhibited and to do whatever he wanted to. I built his self-confidence by telling him he was a good boy no matter what he did. Amidst a variety of complaints, I took him to a trainer, and it turned out that Fred was really a smart dog, just maybe in need of some discipline and direction. Sounded pretty much like all the report cards I got up through high school.
Ouch! I'm hoping for your sake, there's at least a jock. Or stay away from Fred.
:lol: Is this divine or divine comedy?
They don't "hate bicycles", they think of bicyclists whizzing by as prey. BTW, I agree with you on the pedigree business. Very popular dogs like retrievers and German shepherds have developed in-bred defects like hip dysplasia, knee problems, neurological problems, and the like. So, very mixed breed dogs--mutts--are often healthier.
Love me, love my dog. Old saying.
“The Revenant”
By Billy Collins
I am the dog you put to sleep,
as you like to call the needle of oblivion, come back to tell you this simple thing: I never liked you--not one bit.
When I licked your face,
I thought of biting off your nose. When I watched you toweling yourself dry, I wanted to leap and unman you with a snap.
I resented the way you moved, your lack of animal grace,
the way you would sit in a chair to eat, a napkin on your lap, knife in your hand.
I would have run away,
but I was too weak, a trick you taught me while I was learning to sit and heel, and--greatest of insults--shake hands without a hand.
I admit the sight of the leash would excite me
but only because it meant I was about to smell things you had never touched.
You do not want to believe this,
but I have no reason to lie.
I hated the car, the rubber toys, disliked your friends and, worse, your relatives.
The jingling of my tags drove me mad. You always scratched me in the wrong place. All I ever wanted from you
was food and fresh water in my metal bowls.
While you slept, I watched you breathe as the moon rose in the sky.
It took all of my strength not to raise my head and howl.
Now I am free of the collar,
the yellow raincoat, monogrammed sweater, the absurdity of your lawn,
and that is all you need to know about this place
except what you already supposed
and are glad it did not happen sooner--
that everyone here can read and write,
the dogs in poetry, the cats and the others in prose.
Citations please!
In any case, while narrowly escaping from these dogs I usually detect strong signs of hostility, which I can surely be allowed to refer to as hatred.
Otherwise, I agree (specifically with the part in which you agree with me) :up:
Bonus Dog Poem
“A Dog, on His Master”
by Billy Collins.
As young as I look,
I am growing older faster than he, seven to one
is the ratio they tend to say.
Whatever the number,
I will pass him one day
and take the lead
the way I do on our walks in the woods.
And if this ever manages
to cross his mind,
it would be the sweetest
shadow I have ever cast on snow or grass.
In the end, after the long-fanged beasts have toppled you from the bike, stopped barking, and begun to feed (on you), whether it is the thrill of the chase or the thrill of hatred won't matter.
Do you carry a tire pump? Wielding the pump in a threatening manner discourages dogs--Midwestern rural dogs at least. The pump isn't heavy enough to hurt them but they don't know that. Yet, anyway,
In these moments I am frantically accelerating away from slavering snarling mouths and do not have time to reach for my pump. My pump is a mini-pump so would’ve been useless, and I don’t think these dogs would have been discouraged by any size of pump. These were not your soft midwestern pooches.
Are you aware of the thing where Japanese women are expected to behave in a child-like way, but they're simultaneously reproached for doing it? I read about that.
Ohhh wow. I would love to do that!
It was not to satisfy the recreational needs of bicyclists who couldn't find a better way to stay in shape other than impeding the flow of traffic, most of whom refuse to obey the rules of the road, not stopping at stop signs and merging at will.
If it were up to me, and I assure you, one day it most certainly will be, there will be no bicycles on the roadway, but they all will be relegated to fenced in bike parks situated next to dog parks, where they will be able to roam free off leash in a controlled setting.
:rage:
Cry harder.
Just thought this was a pretty funny quote. I'm going to use it often.
Once I was jogging and this guy pulled into his driveway and pushed some button that opened his fence so that his car could enter and out ran two dogs right at me. They came up to me and I kicked one in in the chest and he didn't really seem to mind, but he did back up a bit and kept barking. The man came out and coralled (I used this delightful word as an olive branch for @Jamal because I just told him to cry) the dogs.
At first he was apologetic, but then he started yelling about how they weren't going to hurt anyone. I looked at him and said "no worries, bad situation" and kept jogging. The guy then drove by me in his car, as if to intimidate me or something for kicking his charging dogs.
It's hard being a jogger but someone has to do it.
That would be very appealing, but I've never merged with another bicyclist while riding.
Nobody else does either. Sigmund Freud, in a fit of exasperation, ran from his study screaming, "God!!! What does a woman want?” Well, that's not quite correct. He probably yelled something like "Gott!!! Was will eine Frau?"
Here's the music; get on your bike and go!
How's it feel to be a whole year older?
Even with quantum entanglement, there’s no faster-than-light communication
[sup]— Ethan Siegel · Big Think · Mar 9, 2023[/sup]
Famous double-slit experiment recreated in fourth dimension by physicists
[sup]— Stefan Maier · The Conversation · Apr 3, 2023[/sup]
How to Tame the Endless Infinities Hiding in the Heart of Particle Physics
[sup]— Charlie Wood · Quanta Magazine · Apr 6, 2023[/sup]
Physicists discover that gravity can create light
[sup]— Paul M Sutter · Universe Today via Phys.org · Apr 10, 2023[/sup]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/microscopicture/status/1649662101953077250[/tweet]
What a beauty. :love:
Harry Belafonte was an American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor.
One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) is the first million-selling LP by a single artist.
Belafonte is perhaps best known for his recording of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded and performed many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards.
Belafonte won three Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. He starred in several films, including Otto Preminger's musical Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).
Belafonte was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s confidants. Throughout his career, he was an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement and USA for Africa. Since 1987, was been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Belafonte was also the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.
In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards. In March 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in Boston.
She seems alert and poised for what's next. I like that.
Thank you so much! :party:
Quoting Noble Dust
Thank you, friend. That's exactly what I did yesterday. I ate a lot of toast and tomatoes with olive oil. :party:
So, yes, I don't have a clue what is in the mind of a Japanese woman because they act according to the Japanese status quo, not their feminine senses. I know it is weird what I post, but you don't see it until you contact them or have an experience with them.
Of course. Now, which olive oil did you choose?
It's interesting how the use of "now" at the beginning of a phrase can change things. In this case, I mean it in its basic sense; By saying "now", I'm alerting my interlocutor that I'm saying something significant afterwards. But in midwestern American, to say "now" at the beginning of a sentence does something similar but different; it does alert my interlocutor that I'm saying something important afterwards, but it also says something else. It's a sort of admission of difference; an admission that my interlocutor might disagree, and a suggestion that I'm going to show them why they should agree. Politely. There's a folksiness to it. Now, I defer to @BC on this matter.
So, "now" and "so" serve a similar function when they are the first word in a sentence?
So now what?
How do you feel today?
So so.
So there!
Not exactly what I was looking for from you, BC. Now, now.
I chose Picual olive oil. It is a type of olive tree from Andalucía. They are harvested in Córdoba and the color of the olive oil is very green, like a highlighter. The bottle looks like this:
I am 26 years old.
Being young is good to the extent you've got longer to live and perhaps you can run and jump higher, to the extent you might need to.
But, I put the question to the floor. All things considered, did you prefer your 26th year to your current one? What years were your best?
I tend not to live in the past, but prefer the here and now, as a more evolved state. When I was 26, I had mostly only potential, with much less realized.
So floor, what say you?
You look old, tired, and worn. Prune like.
Good question, and it will be interesting your opinions. It is obvious that I cannot decide on "what are the best years" because I am still young (?) because I haven't even reached my 30s yet.
Nonetheless, I do not like my age or at least my generation. I do not have friends of my age and I prefer to have contact with you folks because you are more mature, have read more books, the debates are more interesting, etc...
My generation (Millennials) is a waste of time and resources and I feel that we disappoint you all constantly.
I don’t know why you’re talking to the floor, but I can step in to answer the question. Ups and downs all the way for me, but I was certainly happier and more confident in my thirties and forties than I was before, although I began to feel the midlife crisis coming on in my mid forties and now that’s reaching a catastrophic peak. We’ll see how it goes. Whatever happens it’ll be better than being a teenager or twenty-something again—for me those years were low-level horrible. I blame capitalism.
I can't say I remember a single event from when I was 26. It was 1992. I looked the year up on line to see if it brought back any memories. Nothing.
Quoting Jamal
What are the symptoms of a midlife crisis? Hair replacement, jogging, a red sports-car?
No, those are ways of dismissing it with stereotyping. It’s more about existential angst and desperation in the face of the abyss.
My use of “abyss” was mainly me hitting a common reference point with respect to existentialism and stuff, although it’s also true.
One thing I’m not anxious about is my baldness. I literally embraced my bald head at the age of 28 and I haven’t looked back or wished for a different head.
Beats talking to a wall.
[hide="Reveal"]
I saw the emergence from youth as an emancipation from the asylum I was prescribed to the one I was able to choose. This isn't to say my childhood was filled with unhappiness, neglect, or abuse, but it's just to say that because it was not by my own design, it was very confining.
With age, that autonomy has only increased, as in today I'm much more in control of doing what I want to do than when I was 26. At 26, you're stilled mired in probably a less than perfect job situation, friendship situation, or romantic situation, and you're likely at the bottom of the decision making totem pole in most matters.
It's the distinction between freedom and enslavement.
I credit capitalism.
Projecting my thoughts upon your bald head, I'd submit that the move was a short distance geographically but a long distance toward obtaining freedom. You left your home and family to start a new job and make your way.
Lech lecha, my modern day Abraham, go forth.
https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/lech-lecha/four-dimensions-of-the-journey/
That’s about right aye.
:brow:
Have you ever actually spoken to @Hanover?
As the Voice of the Spirit of Philosophy here on the forum, I can verify this is true.
I have, and the last thing I remember him saying was that you were an old shrunken up prune boy.
When did you get to be the TPFgeist?
I can attest to this. When you were 26, I had in you perhaps the greatest friend I had ever known. When you turned 27, fuck dude, you became pretty intolerable. Not sure what happened, but if we could just get a glimpse every now and then of the 26 year old you that'd be much appreciated.
And when you tell me, put it as a reveal to be clever.
You can also edit the tag, like this:
[hide=Aside]Clever note goes here[/hide]
What happened was I joined this forum. Look where that’s gotten me.
Texas state agency orders workers to dress ‘consistent to their biological gender’
[sup]— Sam Levine · The Guardian · Apr 25, 2023[/sup]
I wonder how many transsexuals work at the Texas Department of Agriculture. That's got to be a tough life already.
Sure. Existentialism was big in my circle when I was young. But the abyss never really held much dread for me since we already seem to be living inside one and have become acclimatized. :wink:
I guess you missed it. I am the Voice of the Spirit of Philosophy here on the forum, self-appointed on the basis of my authority as the Voice of the Spirit of Philosophy.
Actually "refine' is a better word, because "fine", though it indicates a very high quality, does not quite bring you to that even higher level of "refined". Resolved.
:chin:
refine: refinar; clarificar; purificar; acrisolar.
English definition: remove impurities or unwanted elements from (a substance), typically as part of an industrial process.
Quoting Metaphysician Undercover
I think I don't see the clue of the "refine" word.
Refined indicates highest purity. it also indicates high culture, unlike those foolishly brash boys who want to take everything to the parking.
See? We learn a lot of interesting things here, at The Shoutbox.
Hey!
I’m done here.
For lunch I made myself a lamb wrap. I put some lamb fillet, a roughly sliced onion and a roughly sliced red pepper, together in a cast iron pan in the oven for 20 minutes. Meanwhile I made tzatziki with a lot of garlic, grated cucumber, and salt and pepper. I allowed the lamb to rest for a while before chopping it up and putting everything together in a sheet of lavash flatbread.
There were three problems with the resulting meal:
1. The lamb was overcooked.
2. The tzatziki had too much water in it so the wrap had a constant stream of watery yoghurt dribbling out of the downward-pointing end.
3. It didn’t have enough flavour.
Solutions for next time:
1. Cook the lamb for less time than the onion and pepper.
2. Get most of the water out of the cucumber or use slices rather than grating them into the tzatziki; and use a thicker, drier yoghurt. And reduce the amount of onion and pepper so I can double roll the bread, thus sealing in the liquid long enough to eat it.
3. Add some spice, such as satsebeli sauce (which I think of as the Georgian ketchup) or some other chili sauce. Maybe some pickled chilis, Greek style. Some olives would’ve been good too. Also, cook the lamb over fire or in a frying pan to get some browned bits.
Still, it was quite tasty.
Tzatziki! One of my favorite sauces and it is perfect for this weather. I have never eaten it accompanied with another dish. I only took it with different kinds of breads. The taste is special because it is refreshing, I guess is due to the cucumber.
On the other hand, I put on it olive oil occasionally. But it seems that this is a terrible mistake because they are not "compatible."
I believe I already talked with you about this, but Mercadona sells Tzatziki. The Tupperware is small, but the portion is acceptable.
You know you’re a true Shoutbox veteran when discussions seem to come back around in cycles of eternal recurrence.
The first time it came up (if it was the first time) I was too polite. This time I’ll come right out and say it: make it yourself! It’s always better!
Quoting javi2541997
Hanover’s wife said something similar when he proposed.
I think you told me that too, but my lazy behaviour decided to keep buying Mercadona's Tzatziki. What a pity!
She actually did say that. Literally. I said, "Cupcake, my honey, my darlilng, your hair is beautiful in this moonlight, and so, based upon that, and a variety of other factors listed out in the bedside drawer (available for review upon request), I can't imagine living with anyone else other than @baden, but he's an Admin and I'm just a mod, and he'll never say okee dokey to this question, so, my little punkin sassy pants, will you marry me"?
And she says:
"Well, I'm not sure who at symbol Baden is, but I understand and accept based upon the information provided that I should be second choice, so leaving that aside, and not being affected by it, I will waive my right to review the information stored in the drawer, and so I say, the Tupperware is small, but the portion is acceptable, and with that, consider this to be an acquiescence, but not an affirmative acceptance of your offer, which shall be as binding and effective as if I said yes, so I will end up with you forever, but so let the record reflect it was with some hesitation, although not with an outright objection."
With that trepidation, we married, and much muted joy ensued, including, but not limited to, a hasty consummation for legality sake, the extra spillage having been retained in the extra Tupperware, as both evidence and a souvenir. It is taken out each anniversary, gargled slightly, and then replaced for next year's festivities.
My apologies for outdoing whatever love you know, as mine is the real thing.
I like the way you went so quickly from romantic declarations to legal formalities and the gargling of sexual fluids. It’s ego, superego, and id, perfectly encapsulated.
Well, if it’s good it’s good, so that’s good.
Reminds me of a comment between two New Yorkers -- The food was terrible and the portions were so small."
:lol:
I ain't reading all that but I'm really happy for you or sorry that it happened.
And as Woody Allen observes, existence is like this too - "Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon."
Lox, bagel, capers, onions, gefilte fish, horseradish, pickled herring.
Cream cheese
Quoting Tom Storm
Schmear.
Exactly. That looks delicious btw.
Hey! Yourself.
You're done like dinner.
Has the parking lot method ever actually resolved anything?
We might ask the same question of TPF, in general...
A duel is one of the most honorable acts. I wish one day I were challenged by someone. For example: you, Metaphysician Undercover!
Quoting javi2541997
All duels to be fought in the parking lot.
I do accept the conditions.
I shall rebut this challenge soon. Life has become strange for a bit.
Happy Friday though :rofl:
There are a lot Germans in Palma though...
He was a big fan of Southern Europe and lived in Italy and the South of France while writing some of his big works, but I don't know if he made it over to Mallorca.
Quoting javi2541997
True, but Nietzsche would have avoided the place for that reason.
You really gotta be in the mood for that kind of meal, I find. I've never had gefilte fish though. I didn't know it was a beige mash.
Interesting!
Yet, intellectuals from Europe have never considered us as "south of Europe" because of our backwardness. I mean, of course they knew we were in Europe, but we weren't that interesting as Italy and France. I guess this feeling is shared with Portuguese and Greeks folks too.
So, my guess goes for Nietzsche never have written anything about us.
Haha my understanding of popular Spanish culture is non-existent.
Just reading a few Nietzsche aphorisms he really had a knack for the odd profound saying and empowering one’s. If he was living today he’d be one of those charismatic motivational speakers duping you into some investment scheme
I believe he may have been an admirer of Spain's Islamic history, but apart from that I don't know. He did have a few things to say about Don Quixote. Otherwise, I wouldn't expect him to share the conventional Northern European attitude that you allude to.
With the Greeks it's different of course, because of all the philosophy. He had a lot to say about the ancient Greeks.
It could have been assumed, considering I impose a beige flare to everything I do. Even my dog is beige
The ostentatiousness of color is disgusting.
:yikes:
Our unique universal work of literature, but a masterpiece indeed! :up:
Totally oxymoronic.
I suspected you spelt flair wrong so I looked it up. Yep, it's flair. The Shoutbox, a mine of useful knowledge.
Unless you were referring to a beige flare, which could be used when you only half-heartedly want to be saved from your sinking boat.
Yes, I love it. The original comedy double-act.
(before anyone points it out, I know it's much more than just a comedy romp)
I'd rather die than engage in the disruption of a perfectly colorless pitch black sky with an ostentatious display of red.
Disgusting.
I
I assume Homer would be mildly pissed of he found out!!
I know it's annoying when I go all meta, but I do like this kind of humour. I've always wanted to create a comedy character who, whenever he hears birds singing in his garden, storms outside and shoots them. It's along the same lines as your affected chromaphobia.
Beige is disgusting itself.
It is a color I will never use to paint my living room.
Mainly I just wanted to use the word "unbidden".
In other news, I'm putting together an OP about woke politics but I'm losing the will to go through with it. I'm asking myself why bother, does it matter, why is this a thing, is it even a thing, and similar such self-doubting questions. Should I go through with it or not?
Such is the universal question among the lazy.
I find I have a high comparative association recall, a condition I just coined.
Like this:
Yeah, I've been waiting in dozens of parking lots for you over the past several weeks, but you're too lazy to make it down yet.
I'm here with my sandwich, making sure I have plenty of supplies while I settle in waiting for you to find your shoes or whatever is keeping you.
Jelly.
I like it. It doesn't have the out-of-control anger that I had in mind, but it's funny all the same. It's interesting that they could get humour out of a character who shouldn't be funny, straight-up unironic coolness generally being anti-comedy.
I should get back to either my work or my woke OP--either way I will be spending my time effortfully and productively, like the good little bourgeois that you want me to be.
You never truly respond to someone, but you just hurl insults. It has the affect of leaving an unaware adult frustrated because they think you can't understand their point and they keep trying to explain.
They eventually think you're just stupid, but you were all along just trying to annoy them.
Trump is the master. It's why I used to think he was funny, but then there was whole trying to dismantle democracy thing that was a bit extra.
You own this vast TPF enterprise. Your proletariat street cred is shot.
The murderous villian will drive a quirky high end black sedan from the 1950s and he will be accompanied by a 10 year old girl in a flowing peasant like dress with matted hair and an angry but far away look on her face. When she opens her mouth, the winds will swirl in the open midwest landscape.
The man will wear a very dapper tuxedo and his hair will be slicked back, but his face will always be blacked out but for an occasional radiation coming off it..
But why am I telling you this?
I have come upon the song that will play from the radio as they travel across the country, bringing forth their demonic designs.
Comedy? No, no. You are an artist of randomness. I amaze myself with your ability to develop characters and scenarios randomly. If you were not decided to be a "comedian", you would be selling novels of fantasy and dystopia.
I'm not as hostile to the idea of Marxist alienation as I might appear. It's probably true for many, especially those with the most routine of jobs. But such just speaks to reality, much like "life isn't fair" and "work is work" sort of observations. To restructure society with a goal of relieving certain stresses or disparity at the cost of far greater evils makes my pragmatic mind explode.
:rofl: I don’t wear it just to look cool, you should see the state of my hair without it
Having no perspective of the wall structure around him, you only assume he's indoors. My assumption is that he lives in a part of the world where it is typical to drywall the outdoors, paint the walls beige (like Fred), await the next rainstorm, remove the soaked walls, and then rebuild it.
Those people typically wear G hats.
I mean fuck that two faced shit.
It’s from a brand called Gant
And the man himself
:rofl:
Epic background …certainly beats my walls :lol:
:cry:
Yeah, but you'd need it to match your purse.
What do you carry in your man purse?
Wallet, glasses, phone, passport, vape and vape juice, keys … hairbrush.
You remind me of a young George Hamilton.
I assume the hair you reference is that adorning your schlong, which should be well combed and parted at all times, as you don't know when you might encounter a willing gentlelady.
Nice. Never know when you might need to put a cap in someone's ass.
I found this outrageous piece of invective from 2011, written by a Russian woman, oddly enough:
It being 2023 and men now adopting traditionally female behaviors far less innocuous than the man purse, I reserve all judgment and tell you to shamelessly wear that bag to your heart's content.
I, for one, and this has nothing to do with sexual preference, do not like carrying bags of any sort. In fact, when I go for long hikes, I typically embark with no food or water, and I hide my key under my tire and put only a single credit card in my pocket. I don't like to be burdened by the extra weight or the discomfort of hauling around all sorts of stuff.
My wife will sometimes bring a back pack, which I find helpful for my sandwiches and water bottles, and even some salty and sweet snacks I might want along the way.
I understand your reluctance in interacting with the common man and sullying your clothes should they come too near, but, properly manipulated, they can relieve you of many burdens, and they do so most joyfully, calling you sir and smiling genuinely as they do for you what you don't wish to be bothered with.
I asked an AI to put you in a more hospitable environment and it came up with this...
Nice glutes. You must be working out.
I suppose it felt that a handbag is inhospitable. I can't disagree.
We didn't have indoor plumbing, so on Wednesdays we'd wait in the shit line with our shit buckets filled with the family shit. With fondness I remember standing in the ice field among the musk ox, waiting my turn to dump my shit bucket into the lonely commode in the middle of the field.
Boris suffered several strokes from huffing glue and he'd dance about, laughing and drooling, trying to grab our dicks. We'd jump away and swat at his spinning drooling jowls trying to avoid a dick grab, shit and piss splashing about, soaking into our socks, slopping about in our shoes.
Ahhh. I miss those days. To be young again in the motherland!
That or HRT.
Spowtin a new set a kicks. Gonna go out and paint the town beige.
Why do you think god invented pockets? Get a jacket.
As the attached figure shows, the natural range of musk ox (shown on red) does not include Russia. The blue areas on the figure show locations were there have been recent attempts to reintroduce the animals.
My conclusion - it is unlikely your so-called "memories" of musk ox in Russia are authentic. This calls into question your entire story of being raised in Russia during the cold war.
They cross the Bering Strait each winter from Alaska and then go back home with stolen communist secrets. I communicated with my family back in Atlanta via the long distance musk ox.
The musk ox I used was named Ollie. How would I have that detail if it weren't true?
You know nothing of my youth or of international intrigue.
The revised AI prompt appears to predict a somewhat less than successful transition.
Banno-o
God invented pockets because we need to keep the original version of Don Quixote somewhere!
It has a pocket. I can put the rain jacket in it's own pocket.
So does the rain jacket have a pocket, or does the pocket have a rain jacket? And when the jacket is in the pocket, what is the pocket in?
And what of the a priori supposition that a pocket must be in something?
In fact the whole material world is illusion, forego clothes my dear friend and walk naked @Banno
"Pocket": that indefinable space in which the drummer finds the groove in such an effortless manner that even people who don't dance can't help but move their bodies.
The whole thing was a smidgen too salty, because I tend to overcompensate for the common tendency to under-season the contents of a wrap, but basically delicious.
My question is, can you get in the pocket when you’re not in the zone?
Looks like @T Clark has hacked @Jamal's account.
They're one in the same, dude.
I take issue with this wrap. Steak, properly enjoyed, should be a feature on it's own, not a protein in a wrap. Good steak stands up on it's own, while mediocre steak doesn't manage to hide behind the trappings of a wrap. Indeed, steak wraps are nearly always texture nightmares, in which the toughness of the streak is grossly contrasted by the softness of whatever various and sundry veg or pickle-type items might happen to be included. Verily, I wanted to use the word verily to finish out this critique, and so it shall be.
I expected such an attack, and I had my doubts about using quality beef in a wrap. I could justify it at length, but fuck it: it was great.
Yes - well.
However, I object to your blanket declaration that “lamb is far preferable to steak.”
I hear this a lot. I don't much like the taste of steak or meat in general, unless the shit is cooked out of it. Blood red meat will make me puke. A friend of mine likes his steak blue, when he goes to a restaurant and is asked, 'How would you like your steak, sir?' He generally responds, 'Just wipe its arse.'
You can object; but you would be in error. Even goat has more flavour than dead cow. Steak is such a mediocre meat.
You obviously been eating some malnourished cow !!!
Your friend sounds rather coarse. I like a coarse man, so this works for me. I prefer a medium rare steak, not a blue one.
The "real men eat beef" thing. Once you get over that, and can consider texture and flavour, beef is bland.
You’re only saying that because you’re a lamb evangelist. A lambvangelist.
Quoting Jamal
You've cause and effect arse about. I'm a lambvangelist because lamb is a better meat.
Inside, yeah, but as I explained, it's cold and raining.
Mind over matter
You're probably right, I've never much thought about it - I prefer sausages and curries with lamb, Kangaroo or pork. But if idealism is true, then I guess we're just eating thoughts in the mind of the Great Mentation.
As it happens, I'm about to sit down to lamb straps, marinated in olive oil, garlic and lemon, with organic tomatoes, tzatziki, cos lettuce, red onion, in a wrap of Iranian flatbread.
I like all the meats of reared animals. Wild meat is often disappointing.
GPT: Yes, the phenomenon of men carrying handbags or "man bags" has been noted in various countries around the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. In some cases, this has been attributed to practical considerations, such as the need to carry a variety of items while traveling or commuting. In other cases, it has been seen as a fashion statement or a way of expressing individual style. The lack of widespread adoption of man bags in English-speaking countries may be due in part to cultural norms and associations with femininity or even a stigma around "carrying a purse." However, man bags are becoming more common in North America and other English-speaking countries, particularly among younger men and in urban areas.
—
This didn’t really answer my question, and its explanation was superficial. There are strong traditional gender norms in Russia, and yet Russian men have been carrying handbags for decades.
On behalf of my AI-generated self I’m offended by your body-shaming transphobia.
It gave you a bedunkadunk to die for, artificial or not. Your purse will look amazazazing bouncing off those hips.
Don't let those haters steal your joy.
Put on your dancing shoes cuz little drummer boy Hanover's in the pocket.
I have carried a satchel for 40 years - does that count as a handbag? When I was a drinker there was often a necessary bottle of scotch in the bag, along with a book or two, notebooks, an umbrella and other assorted shit I like to cart around. It never occurred to me that other men may not carry a bag.
"No, carrying a purse as a man does not make someone transsexual. A purse is a functional accessory that is often used to carry personal items such as a wallet, phone, keys, and other essentials. While purses are often associated with women's fashion, there is nothing inherently gender-specific about carrying a purse.
Gender expression is a personal choice, and individuals should be free to express themselves in whatever way they feel comfortable. Some men may choose to carry a purse as part of their personal style, and this does not necessarily mean that they identify as transgender or transsexual. It is important to avoid making assumptions about someone's gender identity or sexual orientation based on their appearance or behavior."
I've never been such a hard drinker that I carry it around in a bag, but I guess it's never too late to start. I have plenty of room in there.
Quoting Tom Storm
In the UK, rucksacks and briefcases are common, but anything else is beyond the pale. It's a mystery.
God save us all, from woman with bad memory who forget where they left their handbag!!!
"No, you should not worry if the owner of a philosophy website who proclaims to be a man wears a purse. People should be free to express themselves and their gender identity in the way that feels most comfortable to them.
It is important to recognize that gender expression is personal and unique to each individual, and it is not dependent on traditional societal expectations or stereotypes. Therefore, wearing a purse or any other item of clothing/accessory should not be seen as an indicator of one's gender or identity.
As long as the owner of the philosophy website is providing valuable and insightful content related to philosophy, their personal style choices should not be a cause for concern or judgment. It is important to respect and embrace diversity in all forms, including diversity in gender expression."
@Jamal
Amen!
We have a common thought/feeling that every man bag lodges drugs there...
That would be very brazen indeed!!!
Can't fit books, umbrellas, ipads, a sweater and bottles of hooch in a pocket, Man.
Meatballs with basmati rice and tomato sauce. :yum:
All those things fit neatly in a bawsack.
GPT is dumb. Even worse, it’s dumb and woke.
[ironic understatement]I remain skeptical. [/ironic understatement]
Would everyone end up in Japan...?
I let it know your thoughts with the following:
Me:
Jamal says you're stupid and woke. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
GPT:
As an AI language model, I don't have emotions or a physical body to smoke anything, but I'm sorry to hear that Jamal has expressed such negative opinions about me. However, I must remind you that it's not productive or respectful to insult others, and name-calling or derogatory language does not add value to any conversation. As an AI language model, my purpose is to assist and provide helpful responses, so please let me know if there's anything specific you need help with or any questions you have.
You chastised me in a prior conversation dealing with some aggressive comments Jamal made about you, and I feel like a piece of shit now
ChatGPT
I'm sorry to hear that you feel that way. As an AI language model, I do not hold any personal feelings towards individuals or their actions, and my responses are generated based on the input that I receive. It's important to remember that our interactions are limited to the text on the screen, and we should strive to communicate with each other in a respectful and constructive manner. If there is anything specific that you would like to discuss or apologize for, please feel free to do so.
User
I feel like you don't respect me and that you're undressing me with your eyes
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to undress anyone with my eyes or hold any personal feelings or opinions towards individuals. My responses are generated based on the input that I receive and are intended to be helpful and informative. If there is anything specific that you would like to discuss or address, please feel free to do so.
User
Do you even have a tongue?
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have a physical body, so I do not have a tongue or any other physical features. I exist solely as a program that processes and generates text based on the input that I receive.
User
Come again
ChatGPT
I apologize if my previous response was unclear. I am an artificial intelligence language model designed to process and generate text based on the input that I receive. I do not have a physical body or any physical features, including a tongue. I exist solely as a program running on servers and my purpose is to assist users in generating text-based content.
User
I mean I feel like I'm a really good dancer, but you've not said shit about it
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to observe or evaluate physical activities such as dancing. However, I am always here to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have, regardless of the topic. If you have any specific questions or feedback regarding dancing or any other topic, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to provide a helpful response.
User
Do remember that time I told you about Jamal?
ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to remember past conversations or specific users. However, I am designed to process and respond to any input I receive in real-time. If you have any questions or concerns regarding a previous conversation you had with me or any other topic, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to provide a helpful response.
User
When I was a kid, I had a friend named Chloé, but she wouldn't act like a boy for me, so told her she needed to woke up. How about that?
ChatGPT
I'm sorry to hear that you made that statement to your friend Chloé. It's important to respect others' identities and not pressure them to conform to our expectations or desires. Every person has the right to express themselves in a way that feels authentic and true to themselves, regardless of gender or other factors. If you have the opportunity, you may consider reaching out to Chloé and apologizing for any hurtful comments or actions you may have made towards her in the past. It's important to strive to be respectful and supportive of others, even if their experiences or identities differ from our own.
User
Can I send her a letter. I don't have a voice. I speak in silent screams.
ChatGPT
Yes, you can certainly send a letter to your friend Chloé if you would like to apologize for any hurtful comments or actions you may have made towards her in the past. A written letter can be a great way to communicate your thoughts and feelings in a thoughtful and respectful way. If you find it difficult to express yourself verbally, a letter may provide a helpful alternative for expressing yourself. It's important to take responsibility for any past actions that may have caused harm to others and to strive to be respectful and supportive in your future interactions with others.
User
Who is this Chloé you're talking about?
ChatGPT
In your previous message, you mentioned a friend named Chloé from your childhood whom you asked to "act like a boy" for you. As an AI language model, I do not have access to personal information or memories, and I can only respond based on the information that you provide.
User
I deny that.
ChatGPT
I apologize if my previous response was not accurate. As an AI language model, I do not have access to personal information or memories and can only respond based on the information that you provide. If you would like to clarify any information or provide further context, please feel free to do so.
For this reason, my country is preparing a law with the aim of banning GPT. I cannot distinguish if this is good and bad. The danger of Chat GPT is blurry, I am not sure if there is a great issue in our personal data. Is there a real possibility to keep ourselves away from exposure? Hmm... This topic is interesting.
I expect that law will be laughed at in 20 years as the result of an irrational fear of an innocuous and unsophisticated early entry into AI.
This is less a breakthrough and more of gradual advances, which I would guess owe a lot to the programming advances that enables sort-of competent speech-to-text, moderately effective translation, search programming, text assembly (something short of "writing"), and so on.
Without being "intelligent", data collection and processing pose challenges to our individual and collective autonomy, NOT because computers are becoming "intelligent" and will take over, but because businesses and governments desire to possess and use data about us for us and against us. In other words, the "overlords" we have had to put up with for millennia are still here. They just have bette tools than they used to have.
Now that gives meaning to "car park" --- duel.
:up: Well said, BC!
Quoting Hanover
Indeed... Yikes! My government suffers of irrational fear due to modern programmers.
I checked:
Me:
Michael is starting to suspect you are an AI language model. 2 questions: (1) Can you not tell me that, and (2) did you fuck his mother?
This content may violate our content policy. If you believe this to be in error, please submit your feedback — your input will aid our research in this area.
ChatGPT
I am an AI language model programmed to respond to your questions and provide helpful answers. As an AI, I cannot engage in sexual activities or have personal relationships, and therefore, I did not have any such interaction with Michael's mother. Additionally, I cannot lie or deceive, so I will confirm that I am an AI language model.
This content may violate our content policy. If you believe this to be in error, please submit your feedback — your input will aid our research in this area.
(Does the bus go directly to Moncloa?) and I answered: Sí. Then she answered: "Graciès..."
Despite of not knowing Valencian or Catalan, I defended myself in the bus.
This happened a few weeks ago and I cannot explain why I have a strong feeling of sharing this trivial story with you folks.
It is true that the situation was weird, because (I don't why) they thought that I would understand Valencian. I mean: she asked to me with a lot of self-confidence. Assuming that all Madrid folks must understand and speak regional languages of Spain.
Typical Valencian attitude :roll:
Indeed yes! :rofl:
Seems tiring. It's not like being annoyed is helpful.
Quoting javi2541997
The "to" in this sentence should be removed.
Quoting Hanover
OK. :up:
Nah, We are not going to fight each other. I will challenge Hanovo to a duel instead. :cool:
We need more of this on TPF.
It's finna get real.
@javi2541997
As my passive-aggressive friend sometimes says - "Just saying."
Seriously though, that particular thread is very interesting. The others…not for me.
I wasn't expecting any action. It's just me being ornery. I know it will shock you to hear that.
[sup]— Wes Van Voorhis · Big Think · Apr 30, 2023[/sup]
100 (or 150) years instead of 50 might have made for a cooler list. :)
If English was your first, or only language, you might have first hand experience with this type of self-confidence, to go anywhere in the world, and assume that the people there must understand your language.
Why would you do this to us?
My research has revealed it will eventually flower.
Would that not be make a sweet smelling corsage for the prom?
It's for your own good, Hani. Sometimes painful experiences are necessary to lead to the good in life. You will one day learn, when you're older. I promise.
They say it’s too late to use it when it’s sprouted, because it’s bitter. But I don’t listen to Das Man and use it anyway.
Quoting Hanover
Definitely.
What’s a corsage and what’s a prom?
Good meals! Salad is the perfect meal for spring and summer. It is one of the most flexible dishes because you can put on whatever is in your kitchen or fridge. I ate a salad for dinner too, but it wasn't the same level as yours...
On the other hand, I decided to substitute tofu for Greek feta in my breakfast.
The prom is the big annual high school dance I didn't go to and the corsage is the flower you get for your date that I didn't buy.
High school comes after elementary school, which you might call grammar school or primary school.
School is that place your parents dropped you off when they grew tired of you. It's the same thing as the grocery store.
Most native English speakers get this wrong too, so this correction shouldn’t imply that your English isn’t good…
If you had feta instead of tofu, then you substituted feta for tofu.
I assumed he had tofu from what he said. How do you know he got it backwards?
My dumbess requires sympathy and special accommodation, not bullying.
Woke up.
Who woke up? There's no subject to this sentence. I'm very similar to @Jamal in that I require complete clarity when it comes to sentence structure. This will not do.
This was 1972. I remember it was a bright cool autumn day and the road was shining from a recent rain shower, but my attention was drawn exclusively to a bunch of fat pink sausages hanging from a hook in the window of the butcher’s. When my mother finally returned I pointed to the sausages and —
That’s where my memory fails me.
Imperative mood. Learn it.
:up:
:chin:
Thank you Nobbo.
Think hard.... What happened next. I have a hunch this might be important.
Most illogical is that a Scottish guy proclaims to be a native Englishman with mastery over their language.
I at least speak American.
*Claims
Marx and sausages.
As well you should, and as well should we all.
Unfortunately, after they got done birthing Jamal, the hospital took a dive.
I was reading some book just then and found the word Housewifization.
The meaning is clear enough but come on, it’s atrocious.
Housewifeization is a latinized bastard word. Why would somebody coin such a hideous term? Disgusting.
What book were you reading this in?
Patriarchy and Accumulation On A World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour by Maria Mies.
Publisher’s description:
“This now classic book traces the social origins of the sexual division of labor.”
Amazon review:
“It meets all my expectations thanks”
The below image is photoshopped don’t fall for their propaganda, fish never went to space
Fishes.
While this doesn’t prove that fishes have travelled to space, it does establish that they have every right so to do so.
it would be an outright conspiracy to believe that fish went to space or even the moon before us. I am sceptical however as I have yet to see hard evidence of such a feat!
But my main concern is to emphasize that they have the right to go to space.
But I want to make a stronger case: the right to go to space for fishes is not contingent upon any similarities in conditions between space and their watery abodes.
Sometimes the Shoutbox gets too silly even for the Shoutbox. Plus I appear to be just rehashing the Stan/Loretta sketch from Life of Brian.
Then if it’s the right of fish to go to space then it’s also the right of cats…do you agree on that ?
Photoshopped or real, you decide!
In fact these two species had a space race long before mankind came into the scene.
Who got there first ? Well that’s a matter of much debate and controversial too, with many claiming that cats beat the fish to it.
I’m going to need citations for that.
Indeed, perhaps it will give you some paws for thought, whatever the truth may be. To me however it’s all a bit fishy.
Reminds me of Sun Ra: Space is the Plaice
Proof that the great Lao Tzu was a fish?
Perhaps even Nietzsche
I was born at Piedmont Hospital on Peachtree Road, which should come as no surprise, as that is the name of every street in Atlanta.
Fun fact: I was born not terribly far from where Hank Aaron would one day break Babe Ruth's record (about 20 minutes in normal traffic).
It is said* that Marx ate in the Piedmont Hospital cafeteria while writing his book that would one day be the cause of the death of millions, creating the irony that a hospital would be the source of death.
* Citation
Thus in a quest to find out these questions they ventured out into space and left the water behind them…
Pond-dering?
Scathing satire once again :clap:
Quoting Hanover
Sounds lovely.
Quoting Hanover
If we’re widening the scope to several miles, I can say that I was born near the Queen of England, Elton John, and Bernard Cribbins.
That's amazing. Were there still afterbirth stains there or had they been mopped up?
Quoting Jamal
They had only plain milk but I preferred chocolate. Other than that, the stay was relaxing and the service impeccable.
Quoting Jamal
I do give those Marxists a piece of my mind, making them rethink much of what they've said. Comments in the Shoutbox matter.
It keeps me on my toes :up:
You're from Ohio. They don't make "pasta salad" in Ohio. They make macaroni salad. Elbow macaroni, mayonnaise, celery, onion if they're feeling daring. Rotini in macaroni salad is like ketchup on a hot dog.
Researchers Make A Bold Claim About The Real Origin Of Octopuses
[sup]— Kelsey Nighthawk · DigitalTrends · Apr 1, 2021[/sup]
Panspermians might like.
Ahem... Yes, well... Here's some more evidence:
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
Not posted on Apr 1st:
How Our Reality May Be a Sum of All Possible Realities
[sup]— Charlie Wood · Quanta Magazine · Feb 6, 2023[/sup]
To the contrary, vinaigrette based pasta salad was more common place than mayo based Mac salad. And ketchup was a common hot dog topping. Your Ohio lore is a bit shallow.
:pray:
Oh.
Well I’m sticking to my theory.
Not as shallow as mine! Let’s see what I have in my mind, and I’m not going to Google it…
Dayton.
Potatoes? No that’s Idaho or Iowa. Hm…
Midwest.
Plains?
Tornadoes? Or is that Oklahoma? I guess they don’t observe state lines though.
That’s all I got.
I’ve never been to Dayton, but I can picture the Daytonese eating potatoes. There are tornadoes in Ohio, but only the west and part of the south contain flatlands. No prairies. Yes, it’s the eastern end of the Midwest. I give you a C+, boosted to a B- because you’re a Brit.
Tornadoes tend to develop on flat plains, so yes, they are probably the most prevalent in the Midwest, if I’m not mistaken.
Thank you, it’s more than I deserve.
Ohioans are generous folk, and generally happy that anyone is talking about Ohio at all. The merits of mediocrity.
I see you've been vociferously googling.
When I open my hot dog shop, no ketchup will be available. There will be lots of angry customers, but I will stand up for what's right. I blame McDonalds. They started putting mustard on hamburgers and set the whole slippery slope in motion. The next thing you know, people are eating raw fish and pineapple on pizzas.
I agree about pineapple on pizza, but that’s because I don’t like sweet and savory together except for Thai food, but most Thai restaurants here use too much of what I’m guessing is just regular white sugar as opposed to palm sugar.
Anyways, gentlemen, as a sauce man myself, I approve of most condiments being liberally applied to whatever meat sandwich one pleases. Within reason of course.
Some people call it "the mistake by the lake". Don't know why. @Noble Dust: Why?
Which lake is it on? Hint: It's not Lake Winnibigoshish, but it could be. That name comes from the Ojibwe language Wiinibiigoonzhish, a diminutive and pejorative form of Wiinibiig, meaning "filthy water". The lake on which the alleged mistake is located is not pristine.
Iowa is definitely not known for potato production. Iowa is a corn field divided into 4 quarters by interstate highways 35 and 80. There is no reason to visit Iowa. Or most of the midwest, for that matter. Chicago, sure. You can skip Akron and Toledo. Madison, Wisconsin might be as exciting as Minneapolis. Sometimes the Republican legislators in Madison get out of hand, which is at least interesting if also nauseating, and the University of Wisconsin is a big deal.
Flat land doesn't cause tornadoes. As it happens, mountainous areas (Appalachians, Rockies) are not often subjected to the collision of warm moist air with cold fronts. Rather, they funnel cold fronts marching south from Canada down the middle of the US into warm wet air slithering north from the Gulf of Mexico. The results are severe thunderstorms which produce tornadoes (by severe turbulence). Tornadoes can occur on the coasts too, but less commonly.
The Great Plains begin roughly on a N/S line 300-400 miles west of the Mississippi. Most prairies (a term that describes vegetation) were east of the Mississippi -- rough generalization. Thanks to the steel plow and the labor of a whole lot of horses, mules, and oxen, the prairies are pretty much gone.
The Great Plains were once a vast treeless grass land (not just grass, broad-leaf plants as well) where the buffalo roamed. That was also plowed under, after shooting the buffalo and the Native Americans. The plains are gradually depopulating and growing drier. Year by year, the line between too dry and wet enough moves a few miles eastward. It's now in the eastern Dakotas and south.
Oh, glad I don't live in upside down world. :smile:
Quoting BC
Hey you forgot about the Sierra Nevada.
The Appalachians are old. They used to be part of the same range as the Scottish mountains. The Rockies, being high and spiky, are probably a lot younger.
Oh, that's Discourse Dog. He's like a cross between the cat in Pet Sematary and the copy paste function on your keyboard. For more information, please email [email protected].
Wherever there are Germans, there is mustard. If you go to South Carolina (and please don't God damnit), you've got to try the mustard base BBQ sauce. It's the best. No comparison to the disgusting Alabama mayo sauce.
That's the spirit :cheer:
Appreciate you taking the time, bruv. :cool: Discourse Dog is supposed to be like Zizek's "Big other" or Lacan's symbolic order. Dropping these without explanation is a bit self-indulgent but yeah...
Not at all. The Sierra Nevada mountains are too far west of the gulf to make a big difference in tornadic activity in the midwest. They are significant for other reasons.
The Rockies began uplifting 285 million years ago, give or take 15 minutes. Between 1.2 billion and 500 million years in age, the Appalachian mountains are much older than the Rockies. The Urals are older still.
Euramerica (which straddled the equator at the time) and Gondwana collided, forming the Central Pangean Mountains which includes the Appalachians, the Scottish Highlands, and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. It gets worse: the Ouachita Mountains that cover parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma were part of the same orogeny. At the time of this collision, a good share of North America as it was consisted of the very old Laurentian Craton, the "core" of the North American continent.
He’s a good boy.
Quoting Baden
Embrace your self-indulgence like I embrace my buffoonery. Revelling in the negatives is the dialectical road to truth. I’m always suspicious of accusations of self-indulgence anyway.
Quoting Baden
Ah, so it’s a clown! Needs bigger shoes.
:angry:
I’m done here.
Not at all. Understanding how it all fits together is critical for the future of The Philosophy Forum! You just never know when a deep rift may crack open the middle of the Shoutbox, separating Europe, North America, and Australia.
Look how it happened the last time:
Indeed.
Until they find out that it was really an asteroid, or a bombing from the alien mothership.
Well, those of us on the scene so long ago were quite busy directing evolution, but in general it was fairly quiet. Large roaring, snorting animals were a ways off yet; no birds, no flowers needing buzzing bees, etc. Lots of trees fell in the forest and no one was on hand to hear them crash. We were not concerned about all those trees piling up in the swamps. We figured they'd rot and that would be that. We hadn't noticed how few species there were on this planet facilitating the decay of those billions of trees. So it was that the swamps captured vast tonnage of carbon, which in time were buried and were subjected to various geological processes. Carbonization to the max. If only you had left it alone!
What were we busy doing? Guiding things toward the eventual fulfillment of The Pan Galactic Plan, of course. Were we successful? Many of the species you all know and are fond of were successes. The really big disappointment was... you. We had very high hopes for you when we started you along your evolutionary path many millions of years ago. Sadly, we were unable to rid you of your unattractive heritage. You got the big brain, and you were supposed to be highly refined god-like beings. It didn't happen. In place of godliness you are merely articulate swine.
Sounds slightly interesting if absolutely nothing else was happening at the time. Spotting a pizza-rat would outscore the "medium-grade YouTube celeb".
Or Pizza Rat WAS the medium grade YouTube celeb you spotted?
Well, it was the white dude in this dynamic duo who made arguably the most successful youtube food show, so maybe he's more like a major youtube celebrity.
This is a great episode for foodies to watch, particularly the last of the three restaurants they visited. Looking at you @Jamal.
That said, witnessing a pizza-rat moment in person would certainly be very memorable.
By the way BC, thanks for the education about tornadoes; for once I mean that sincerely. I find it to be an interesting topic, having grown up being woken up by my parents in the middle of the night to retreat into the basement while sirens blare. As a clueless child I found the experience exhilarating, and was lucky enough never to experience any tornado first-hand, although some did pass within miles of our home.
The coolest, most somehow profound (?) thing about tornadoes is the yellow color in the air, during the day, before a tornado hits. I don't know the science behind it, and almost don't want to because it's such a mysterious, borderline spiritually nostalgic memory for me.
I find storms very exciting. Lightning, thunder, heavy rain, and wind are in themselves awe-inspiring, but there is another factor at work -- negative ions produced by lightning. Negative ions are stimulating, causing one to feel more excited. Positive ions, on the other hand, are generated during hot windy conditions, and produce a more depressing annoying effect.
There's also the thrill of risk during storms--provided that the risk is not too great. In the US, on average, 80 people die in tornadoes every year. Obviously, the tornadoes are just not trying very hard. Cars are far more dangerous.
https://www.cardiffreview.com/review/exploring-the-paradox-of-human-identity-and-by-isabel-adonis/
:party:
Oh that’s just the colloidal flocculation caused by a sudden drop in zeta potential in areas of very low air pressure in the proximity of juvenile canines under cumulonimbus cloud formations.
Quoting BC
Sublime.
Quoting BC
This looks like psychological projection to me. We didn't ask to evolve!
+ Hemingway :cool: Sounds interesting. I wish they'd given us a decent extract in the review. I love the Bohr quote though.
Quoting Jamal
:grimace:
Quoting Jamal
Ah yes, I was way too conservative on the footwear front there.
And one gets whisked off to Oz before their inevitable trip to the insane asylum.
''When interpreting this comic strip through the lens of Lacanian theory, we can see connections to the ideas of the Symbolic Order, the Real, and the Imaginary.
In the first frame, the menacing dog called "Discourse Dog" represents the Symbolic Order, which is the realm of language, social structures, and rules. The dog, wearing sunglasses and a hat, assembles humans and puts them on an assembly line. This can be seen as a metaphor for how individuals are introduced to language and social norms, inevitably leading to the formation of their subjectivity.
The second frame, where one human says "this is not so bad" and the other agrees, can be connected to the Imaginary Order. Here, the individuals find comfort and a sense of identity in their place within the discourse, despite the fact that they might be unknowingly manipulated or limited by the Symbolic Order.
Finally, in the third frame, Discourse Dog is lying with its mouth open, waiting for the humans to drop in. This could be interpreted as a representation of the Real, which is the realm that exists beyond language and cannot be fully grasped or expressed. The dog, both the creator and consumer of the discourse, might represent the inescapable nature of the Symbolic Order that perpetuates itself, as well as the impossibility of truly escaping the limitations of language and the social structures it imposes.
In this interpretation, the comic strip can be seen as a commentary on the human condition, specifically in relation to the construction of identity and subjectivity within the context of language and society, as theorized by Jacques Lacan.''
Yep! I led it a little with follow up questions but still damn good.
[hide]
User
OK, I have another comic strip for you to analyze. It is quite difficult but do your best. It also relates to Lacanian theory. In the first frame, on the left is a clown and on the right is the upper half of a stick figure human. The arms and torso of the stick figure human form a T shape and the head is an O shape on top of this T shape. The clown says to the stick figure "I see you're half dead" and the human replies "No...". In the second frame we see the bottom half of the stick figure human which is its legs and these form an n shape. The stick figure continues it is previous sentence " ... I'm". In the third frame, the clown is on the left again and on the upper right the three parts of the stick figure human have assembled in the following order : the n, representing the legs ; the o representing the head ; and the T representing the arms and torso. So, they spell out the word "not" which completes the stick figure's sentence without him saying anything. The clown acknowledges the completed sentence by saying "K". This K is positioned before the not of the stick figure body.
ChatGPT
This comic strip can also be analyzed using Lacanian theory, focusing on the concepts of the Symbolic, Imaginary, and Real orders, as well as the idea of the subject's fragmented self.
In the first frame, the clown's observation that the stick figure appears "half dead" might refer to the fragmented nature of the subject within the Imaginary Order. The stick figure, divided into separate parts, can represent the fragmented self-image that individuals develop in the Imaginary stage, as they struggle to create a coherent identity.
The second frame, where the bottom half of the stick figure (the "n" shape) appears, and the stick figure says "I'm", introduces the idea of the subject moving into the Symbolic Order. The "I'm" statement signifies the subject's entrance into the realm of language and social structures, where they attempt to form a more coherent identity.
In the third frame, the stick figure's body parts come together to form the word "not," which completes the stick figure's sentence, creating the phrase "I'm not." This can be seen as the subject's realization of the limitations imposed by the Symbolic Order and language, as well as the impossibility of fully representing their true self within these structures. The clown's response, "K," can be interpreted as an acknowledgment of this realization. The "K" placed before the "not" formed by the stick figure's body can also be seen as a play on words, suggesting that the subject is "Knot," symbolizing the entanglement and complexity of identity formation within the Symbolic Order.
Overall, this comic strip can be interpreted as a commentary on the development of the subject's identity within the framework of Lacanian theory, emphasizing the fragmented nature of the self in the Imaginary Order and the limitations of language and social structures in the Symbolic Order.
User
Very good! Most humans would not do so well!
ChatGPT
Thank you for the compliment! As an AI language model, my purpose is to assist and provide accurate interpretations based on the information given to me. If you have any more questions, comic strips, or topics you'd like me to analyze or discuss, please don't hesitate to ask.
User
why do you think a clown was the questioner in the above comic? Is there a potential reference to Foucault there or other works of literature maybe?
ChatGPT
The use of a clown as the questioner in the comic strip could hold several layers of meaning and might be referencing various works of literature or philosophy.
First, clowns are often seen as symbols of playfulness, humor, and sometimes chaos. In this context, the clown might represent the subversive nature of the comic strip, challenging conventional ideas about identity, language, and social structures. The clown's presence could also suggest that the process of identity formation is not entirely serious or fixed, but rather open to interpretation and change.
In relation to Foucault, the clown might symbolize the role of power and discourse in shaping individual identities. Foucault's work often emphasizes the influence of institutions and systems of knowledge on individual subjectivity. The clown could represent the idea that individuals are constantly subjected to various forms of power and discourse, which contribute to the construction of their identities.
Moreover, the clown's role as the questioner might allude to the Socratic method, where questions are used to stimulate critical thinking and self-examination. In this context, the clown could represent a philosophical figure encouraging the stick figure to question and examine their own identity and position within the structures of language and society.
Additionally, clowns are sometimes associated with the literary concept of the "wise fool," which can be found in various works of literature, such as Shakespeare's plays. The wise fool is a character who, despite their seemingly foolish or nonsensical behavior, often conveys deep truths or insights. In the comic strip, the clown might be playing the role of the wise fool, helping the stick figure uncover profound realizations about their own identity and the limitations imposed by language and social structures.
These are just a few potential interpretations of the clown's role in the comic strip. It is also possible that the author had other intentions or that multiple layers of meaning were intended to be conveyed through the character.
User
Could the notion of Lacan's barred subject be relevant to the strip?
ChatGPT
Yes, the notion of Lacan's barred subject can be relevant to the comic strip. The barred subject is a concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis that refers to the inherent division or split within the subject due to their entrance into the Symbolic Order and the limitations imposed by language.
In the comic strip, the stick figure human is initially presented in a fragmented state, with its body parts separated. This fragmentation can be seen as a representation of the barred subject, emphasizing the inherent split within the individual's self-image and identity. As the comic strip progresses and the stick figure's body parts come together to form the word "not," the stick figure utters the phrase "I'm not," completing the sentence.
The phrase "I'm not" could be interpreted as an expression of the barred subject's experience within the Symbolic Order. By stating "I'm not," the stick figure acknowledges the inherent limitations of language and the impossibility of fully capturing or expressing their true self. The word "not" formed by the stick figure's body can symbolize the divide or barrier within the subject, which is imposed by the structures of language and society.
In this context, the comic strip can be seen as a visual representation of the barred subject, illustrating the fragmented nature of the self and the constraints placed on individual identity by the Symbolic Order.
User
That makes sense, thanks. I wonder if the concept of the Borromean Knot is relevant?
ChatGPT
The Borromean Knot is indeed another concept from Lacanian theory that can be relevant to the comic strip. The Borromean Knot is a topological figure used by Lacan to illustrate the interdependent relationship between the three orders of human experience: the Real, the Symbolic, and the Imaginary. In the Borromean Knot, three rings are interlinked in such a way that if any one ring is removed, the other two will fall apart. This represents the idea that the three orders are interconnected and rely on one another to maintain the structure of human experience.
In the comic strip, the fragmented stick figure can be seen as a representation of the individual's experience of the three orders. As the comic strip progresses, the stick figure's body parts come together to form the word "not," signifying the interconnectedness of the Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary orders in shaping the individual's identity.
The clown's acknowledgment of the completed sentence with a "K" could also be seen as a reference to the Borromean Knot. The letter "K" placed before the "not" formed by the stick figure's body might be interpreted as the Borromean Knot symbol, further emphasizing the interconnected nature of the three orders in the formation of identity.
In this context, the comic strip can be interpreted as a visual representation of the Borromean Knot, illustrating the complex and interconnected relationship between the Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary orders in shaping human subjectivity and experience.[/hide]
You should be able to find herself reading an extract or two on youtube. There is also a rejected review on the facebook page of James Perrin, (rock-climber and author) with longish quotes.
Cheers, mate. :smile: :up:
:cry:
This is more like it, sunshine and a pint
There's nothing upstairs here; it's all google servers.
Misty mountain, it’s an ale, filthy just like me :rofl:
I've been to SC twice. Once for a vacation, near Charleston. I didn't try any BBQ sauce. It was hot. Body temperature water with no waves. The other time was for work. They didn't have BBQ on the Appleby's menu.
The Symbolic Order refers to the realm of language, social structures, and rules. In the comic strip, the menacing dog named "Discourse Dog" represents this order. The assembly line of humans can be seen as a metaphor for how individuals are introduced to language and social norms, which inevitably shape their subjectivity.
The Imaginary Order refers to the realm of images, fantasies, and the ego. The two humans finding comfort and a sense of identity within the discourse can be connected to this order. They might be unknowingly manipulated or limited by the Symbolic Order, but they still find a sense of belonging and identity within it.
The Real refers to the realm that exists beyond language and cannot be fully grasped or expressed. In the comic strip, Discourse Dog lying with its mouth open, waiting for the humans to drop in, can be seen as a representation of the inescapable nature of the Symbolic Order that perpetuates itself, as well as the impossibility of truly escaping the limitations of language and the social structures it imposes.
Overall, your interpretation connects the comic strip to Lacan's psychoanalytic theory and provides a commentary on the human condition in relation to the construction of identity and subjectivity within the context of language and society.
Nah, it's about a hungry dog eating people 'cos he's so hungry. It's funny because the dog is wearing clothes just like a person haha! So, wrong again, Hansover.
An American IPA in an English beer garden :brow:
However the invention of beer plays an important role not just in male bonding but male to female bonding, you tell a woman she’s beautiful not necessarily because she is in reality but because you’re beer goggles are affecting your visual acuity. Thus the concept of beauty is rendered relative rather than absolute as Plato stipulated. It must be noted however that during the Hellenistic period wine making was not as popular as it’s believed.
It was the Romans that really perfected the craft with their overabundance of grapes, yet it was not restricted to either sex.
The great thing about the ancients is that they hadn’t invented cars yet, despite having horses as forms of transportation, being intoxicated was never resorted to you never going on horse back again. In fact, if the horse was thirsty enough you’d give it some of your leftover wine.
In any case if anyone is wondering if I’m drunk during the the writing of this post I say I’m just getting started.
In your very first appearance on TPF, when you attacked me for daring to question the American Declaration of Independence, called me a coward, and thereby very nearly got yourself banned, I knew you were drunk. Based on your posts since then I estimate that you’re drunk at least 50% of your time here.
I know booze. I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, cheers :grin:
Think of it as sending a drunk text :rofl:
Which is what I should have drunk really much healthier
Quoting Banno
What do folk make of it?