What I have for you today is a spinach salad with French style dressing, blue cheese, flash fried sirloin strips in olive oil, and some crushed Calabrian chili peppers for some smoky heat.
Noble DustNovember 21, 2024 at 02:13#9491050 likes
Cool. I make stir fries where I add cornstarch to the sauce to thicken it, but I just add the sauce to everything at the end and let it cook down for a few minutes. This velveting method sounds better.
I give it a pass, chef, except for your use of olive oil to flash fry the steak. Unfortunately the smokey heat of the crushed Calabrian chili peppers was overshadowed by the burnt olive oil. For these reasons, chef, we had to chop you.
L'éléphantNovember 21, 2024 at 02:39#9491070 likes
All the food posted here look delicious!
Reply to Outlander
While your meal looks good, I don't use tilapia fillet. They're lacking the umami which a whole fish possesses, when fresh. Besides, did you use the red tilapia? I can only eat the Nile tilapia. They are black-ish.
Cool. I make stir fries where I add cornstarch to the sauce to thicken it, but I just add the sauce to everything at the end and let it cook down for a few minutes. This velveting method sounds better.
I use your method too. The velveting is a separate process and you must try it cos it's life-changing.
Noble DustNovember 21, 2024 at 04:43#9491190 likes
When I was a kid I had a velour shirt that was similar to velvet. Once I spilled some ketchup on it and I sucked the ketchup off the shirt. It was velvety. Life changing.
I give it a pass, chef, except for your use of olive oil to flash fry the steak. Unfortunately the smokey heat of the crushed Calabrian chili peppers was overshadowed by the burnt olive oil. For these reasons, chef, we had to chop you.
To be fair, Calabrian chili peppers, sirloin pieces, spinach leaves, and blue cheese was a pretty impossible basket. You'd have probably made fajitas.
Noble DustNovember 21, 2024 at 22:30#9493310 likes
Fred needs to going easier on you; she can't expect you to be wildly creative with her random grocery hauls every single night.
Today I had spicy rice noodle soup with beef for lunch. I guess this is Jiangxi Province cuisine, also known as Gan cuisine. It's hard to find in NYC. It was very spicy. Lots of Sichuan peppercorns in combination with other chilis. I felt kind of high afterwards from the Sichuan peppercorns. Anyways, it's a cold rainy day here, so it was the perfect lunch. Edit: the dude at the restaurant also told me there's a Guizhou influence on their food, which I guess is closer to Sichuan.
Mahi-mahi here. I see why they named it twice! (I'm sure it's actually a singular word in some other language, though.)
Bland? Perhaps. Never been a big culinary person. Growing up and basically all time since then up until now, fish has always been just "fish". Trying to sample each and orient myself to each one as it is, sans sauce or spice. Snapper is delectable, though grouper seems to be slightly superior in flavor. Tilapia seems to be just a rung underneath the aforementioned, but still very tasty. Mahi-mahi reminds me of the higher end fish I would get at nicer restaurants or hotel room service when I was younger. Very filling. Possibly up next: swai, orange roughy. (Local supermarket has what it has)
Note the wooden fork. Not sure what I was thinking when purchasing, eco-wise. A singular utensil, even a plastic one, washed/re-used is better in the long run. Ah well, got another 249 of them to burn through.
Reply to Outlander At this point I consider this schtick. You are purposefully underseasoning your meals and serving them on paper plates so that you can carry on this no frills persona you've created. The "meal" also consists of nothing but a low calorie protein, with no vegetable or starch. It would leave any diner wanting.
I would expect that if this were a true meal, a 90 cent can of string beans would have been added and a pudding cup would have been added for dessert.
My guess is that if you spun the camera around, we would see a gourmet meal and a bugler still in position after having sounded your arrival.
I saw the iconic print featured on the website, and another rendition by Hokusai of Dream of a Fisherman's Wife (in his original sketchbook!), as well as two inspirations on the original print.
What made me laugh the most was there is this beautiful cherry blossom scroll which mimicked poetic forms of the time and it basically said "Buy this brand of white powder" -- Benjamin's critique of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction seems to not apply to super cool wood carving, even though it was put to the same use as modern printers of propaganda.
400 degrees, countertop oven until minimum internal temperature of 150 sampled across several areas. It was the best fish I've had in a long time, second only to the grouper (perhaps).
Come now, why berate me? I even went and followed your advice the other day.
Had hip replacement surgery 2 days ago; total hospital time was 22 hours. Is 22 hours of care long enough for joint replacement? Absolutely not. $%^&*%$#@#$! insurance companies calling the shots.
So far it hasn't bern a living nightmare, but it's not been so good, either. Definitely pain, which pain killers have so far managed. On the night of the surgery, I couldn't urinate -- despite a full bladder. Last night I was a regular geyser and needed help which was not there.
The surgeon was aware that my right hip and right knee were arthritic; did the insurance company --started by the hospital and medical faculty where I received surgery -- care? No. Fuckers.
javi2541997November 24, 2024 at 05:51#9498160 likes
did the insurance company --started by the hospital and medical faculty where I received surgery -- care? No. Fuckers.
It is a worldwide problem. My mom also got a hip surgery, and she felt like you. Zero personal care. Zero compromise. Everything is chaotic and a mess, etc. What is going on with hospitals around the world?
Had hip replacement surgery 2 days ago; total hospital time was 22 hours.
Did they let you keep your old hip as a keepsake? It's gotten you around all these years. Seems like a slap in the face just to get rid of it. To the extent hips have faces to slap that is.
Reply to Hanover No - severed parts are sent to an obscure address where god-knows-what happens to them. Pet food? Soup? Bone china? Glue? A decorative arrangement of bone parts on the lawn of the orthopedic wing of the hospital?
Reply to javi2541997Reply to Hanover 3 days post surgery; walking from one end of the small house to the other end. What was surprising to me is that, apart from incision, there is not the overwhelming pain I expected, and the leg 'feels' normal -- like the other leg. I thought it might seem like a new leg.
I have to do some exercises on the bed -- moving the leg this way or that, and on this Wednesday physical therapy will start. Then a home aide will come in to help me take a bath -- a very dangerous procedure - slip and fall, drown in the tub, all that.
What was surprising to me is that, apart from incision, there is not the overwhelming pain I expected, and the leg 'feels' normal -- like the other leg. I thought it might seem like a new leg.
A couple of guys at work said the same. Despite it seeming like so major an operation, they were back at in no time.
Metaphysician UndercoverNovember 25, 2024 at 13:26#9499990 likes
The result of hip replacement is, in a large percentage of cases, said to be nothing less than excellent. It's sometimes said to be like a miracle. So I give @BC the best prognosis.
Wow, that's actually pretty nice. All uniform. Reminds me of a historic empire or the inner city of a kingdom. The cruise ship needs to be a 16th-century mercantile vessel with a 3-tier sail but other than that, it's a sweet view you got there. Thanks for sharing. Post more would ya?
But not anything out of your way that would deviate from your pre-planned activities or areas of travel. I hear pickpocketing is the most likely crime in that region. Still. Your safety is far more important than a few short-lived moments of intrigue for strangers from afar.
Still. Your safety is far more important than a few short-lived moments of intrigue for strangers from afar.
I will not let fear for my safety keep me from entertaining you guys.
These are some grilled sardines that my wife declared disgusting. We bought them from a street hustler named Paul, whose prices varied by the moment, who only took cash pulled from his store run ATM, and whose receipt appeared only only his phone that he let me look at, sort of.
I liked Paul for his entrepreneurial spirit and his moral ambiguity. The sardines were actually somewhere between mediocre and disgusting, but memorable it was and so I give it an 8.
L'éléphantNovember 27, 2024 at 02:30#9503050 likes
Reply to Hanover :grimace:
It does not look disgusting. That's authentic.
But not sure about street hustler.
L'éléphantNovember 27, 2024 at 02:33#9503060 likes
I have to do some exercises on the bed -- moving the leg this way or that, and on this Wednesday physical therapy will start. Then a home aide will come in to help me take a bath -- a very dangerous procedure - slip and fall, drown in the tub, all that.
Jesus!
Be careful. I hope you're feeling better.
javi2541997November 27, 2024 at 06:21#9503220 likes
The sardines were actually somewhere between mediocre and disgusting,
When I saw that you posted your aim to travel to Portugal, I thought -- he will think the food is 'disgusting' and everything will seem to you 'poor' or 'backward' at least.
I was right, sadly.
But probably you would think the same if you had decided to travel here; that's a fact. Later on they complain about why we don't tolerate guiris.
Reply to javi2541997 I really like the food, the people, the culture and all that is Portugal. Having a great time. Don't be so sensitive. I just got some less than fresh sardines from a guy named Paul.
If Spain is like Portugal, you've got a great set up!
javi2541997November 27, 2024 at 10:12#9503470 likes
Sorry, I am not currently doing well, lately, and it is true that I am sensitive. It is true that your comments were kind, and you didn't deserve my frustrated feedback.
If Spain is like Portugal, you've got a great set up!
They are better than us in many things. Their level of English is awesome, whereas you could have experienced a big issue regarding our lack of English skills here.
Their level of English is awesome, whereas you could have experienced a big issue regarding our lack of English skills here.
Everyone does speak very fluent English here and all the signs and menus have English. It takes away the challenge.
I like the driving style. It's very cooperative. They yield to everyone. Americans drive defensively, but get pissed if you break the rules. Germans just run you over. I think it says a lot about a people.
"Me lady, if you could do me the favor of affixing the wee un to your hefty mammary whilst the turkey and I summon the surgeon to see about mending me arm that seems to have detonated at the elbow."
One guys fucks up and then everyone copies him and there's no fixing it after awhile.
Welcome Hanover! I see a place for you in my world. Come with me, we'll take on the mathemagicians in some "infinity" thread. The problem, you'll find out, is that they got numbers, and the mob rules. Our mission, to expose the sophistry by which their mobocracy is supported with claims of "objective truth". Check the menu, I'll buy you a big plate of intersubjectivity for lunch, to nourish you for the challenge.
Metaphysician UndercoverNovember 29, 2024 at 02:24#9506550 likes
Reply to Shawn
For Thanksgiving? How could you even think of such a thing? No, follow convention, as a respectable citizen of the mobocracy, and eat a turkey.
No, follow convention, as a respectable citizen of the mobocracy,
(1)We don't celebrate Thanksgiving here.
(2)We are not respectable citizens.
(3)Therefore, we are not part of that 'mobocracy' that you set up this weekend.
javi2541997November 30, 2024 at 14:42#9508960 likes
I didn't know what to do on this boring Saturday, so I sent an email to Keir Starmer. I checked his official web page, and there were different email addresses. I chose one randomly, and I did my best to write the message with proper English, and formal words, like — 'Dear Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.' I was very close to addressing him using 'mate' (the British slang), but I thought -- 'No. Javi. It is not the proper time. You are not drinking pints, you are emailing a Prime Minister!'
Simple. I thanked him for his attention on Valencia's floods and efforts with the EU. I honestly think Starmer is a real pal; he is in the game, and he respects the rules and codes. Just a few minutes after sending the email, a bot replied saying whether I am from St. Pancras or not, meaning that a random Labour member might answer me and not Starmer himself. It doesn't matter; it was worth a try.
I end my email saying this -- I wish you the best in your tenure. Sincerely yours,
Today's lunch is a bit of a shameful one (and no, not for the reasons one may have become accustomed to). Despite its abundant presence on the shelves of a relatively common supermarket, apparently the "orange roughy" is in danger of over-fishing. The thing was already in my freezer at that point, so I figured I might as well do the deed and get it over with.
Tragically... it tastes great (which adequately explains the over-fishing). Consuming was definitely a bittersweet experience. Less of an overtly "fishy" flavor more of a rich yet subtle deep ocean experience. Incredibly unique. Sigh. This little guy is in trouble unless something is done. Why must fate be so deliciously cruel?
(Seriously I shan't be purchasing these again, and neither should'st thee! Even from a liberal human-centric perspective, what a loss for the future of humanity if this generation or the next would be the last to ever consume such a flavorful delicacy. You can really taste the ocean and the age of the fish, which can live over 200 years. That's right, I very well may have just consumed an animal older than the United States Constitution. I'm only posting this in the guest-restricted Shoutbox because I trust the intellect of this community writ-large to empower anyone reading to do the right thing and not let primal hunger coupled with shortsightedness get the best of them.)
Newspapers are a sort of paper version of Twitter for your nan. Apparently they still exist, but only outside petrol stations near the briquettes, behind little plastic windows, like a little news zoo. Newspapers were how people in olden times found out what was going on the day before. The words in the newspaper would be made up by people called journalists. A “journalist” is what we nowadays call a “content provider,” someone who copies and pastes what people are saying on Twitter and puts it into sentences, and it’s those sentences that make Twitter into news. But in newspaper times, people in the news didn’t just type up what they were thinking and doing, journalists had to actually go out and find out what was going on themselves, usually by hacking people’s phone messages. It was a different world.
jorndoe,
Just reading that entry in isolation from the rest of 'P.C. on E.' , how would you categorize that paragraph? Irony, sarcasm, non judgemental historical analysis.....?
I very much doubt that this is a cure-all; just another tool that could be used (There is no cure-all, just climb to see how many parachutes we can make)
EDIT: Synthesis from the methods for one of the compounds --
A borosilicate glass tube measuring 8 × 10 mm (i.d. × o.d.) was charged with TCPB (16.9 mg, 0.04 mmol), BPDA-N3 (29.6 mg, 0.06 mmol), Cs2CO3 (39.1 mg, 0.12 mmol), 1,2-dichlorobenzene (0.5 ml) and 1-butanol (0.5 ml). The mixture was flash frozen at 77 K in a liquid nitrogen bath, evacuated to an internal pressure below 0.2 mbar and then flame sealed. The length of the tube was reduced to around 10 cm on sealing. After warming to room temperature, the mixture was heated at 120 °C for 3 days in an oven to yield a yellow solid. The solid was filtered, washed with methanol (30 ml) and was used directly for the next step without further treatment. To characterize COF-999-N3, the yellow solid described above was transferred into a tea bag and further washed with methanol for 16 h in a Soxhlet extractor, dried with supercritical CO2 and degassed at 30 °C for 3 h under vacuum to yield COF-999-N3 as a yellow solid (36 mg, yield 81%)
Whether the solution is viable depends upon cost of scale where cost here is measured in CO2 produced -- if the overall process, when scaled, produces 3 times the carbon that the product can absorb over the course of its life then it's just a neat toy. But it's pretty much impossible to predict which way it will go without... well... scaling it.
My Thanksgiving adventure - All three of my children were home for Thanksgiving last week. My daughter and younger son forced me to watch three movies with subtitles on the Criterion Channel. Now, here's the exciting part - in two of those movies there were scenes where coffins fell out of wagons and the bodies inside fell out. The lesson - don't watch movies with subtitles.
javi2541997December 06, 2024 at 11:23#9520730 likes
I was at a funeral yesterday afternoon. My long-time friend's mother passed away on Wednesday. While I was sitting on the church's bench, I came to the following conclusion: I think I have been to more funerals than weddings in my life. I don't have the counting, and I can't remember everything, but I feel I experienced wearing black clothes in funerals more than suits in weddings.
Furthermore, my grandparents are already very old (they are 90 years old), and I will be at their funeral as well when the time comes; my parents' too; and maybe one of my oldest friends.
When I was giving my condolences to my friend (¡te acompaño en el sentimiento!) we talked about this briefly. He will be married in May the next year with his girlfriend, but he agreed with me that he may assist at more funerals than weddings overall.
Well, those were mine and my friend's thoughts on a very cold afternoon in the municipal crematorium and church of Madrid.
I think I have been to more funerals than weddings in my life.
At my age, I'm waiting for the funerals to really start. My older brother, wife, step-mother, my children's girlfriend's parents and grandparents, friends are all as old as me or older. David Crosby's gone and I'm sure soon to be followed by Paul McCartney and Mick Jager. Oh, right, and then there's me. I tell everyone in my life "I get to die first so I don't have to think of something to say at your funeral."
That being said, I like funerals better than weddings. My father died in 2001 and six of us got up and spoke - my three siblings, me, my sister in law, and my wife. It was amazing and a bit overwhelming. Even 24 years later is continues to have an effect on my family, bringing us closer together. Funerals can be wonderful. You often find out things about the deceased and their family you never new before. You may even find out things about yourself you never knew. We have a responsibility to remember and speak for the dead. I don't like people dying, but I love funerals.
Yellowcake (also called urania) is a type of powdered uranium concentrate obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before fuel fabrication or uranium enrichment.
Hanover,
Is that the party that happens before the start of the next youth soccer season but after the end of the previous youth soccer after season? If not, there is something to not like.
I'm thinking that there also is a reification (model ? world) thing going on here, but that's where some physicists depart from philosophy, on the surface at least:
Funerals can be wonderful. You often find out things about the deceased and their family you never new before. You may even find out things about yourself you never knew. We have a responsibility to remember and speak for the dead. I don't like people dying, but I love funerals.
The funeral was beautiful, indeed. I even wrote a haiku because my friend told me to. Everything was fine at the beginning, but then the Christian and Biblical readings started, and I was a bit lost. Surprisingly, my father was very good at reciting, and I can't remember him attending church. He was like—En el nombre del Padre, del Hijo, del Espíritu Santo, etc... But pretty good. I just sat on the bench with my hands clasped together. My father told me that decades ago, Christianity was more entrenched all over Spain than nowadays, and it was common to do religious readings, even in the office...
Oh, just the uranium mine in the NT that has been closed for yonks and the current renewable vs nuclear power tin can being currently kicked about plus the locally made debate distraction being "aired".
In other words, just contributing to the s/box vibrations and adding an other than US frequency to the white noise. Apologies for using your name except in full reverence and without first asking if it was not welcome.
Unseasonally cool and wet weather for this time of year in Vic.
Police found ANTI-CORPORATIST writings in Luigi Mangione's possession when he was arrested. Might as well have been a smoking gun.
We can't have people running around promoting anti-corporatism. No, indeed.
Is it worth asking what the difference in police / press response would have been if instead of a corporate figure a black man had shot another black man in New York, and then got away on a bike, or car, or his own two feet? It would not have made headlines; would not have dominated the news; would have been just as deadly. But the dead white man was head of an highly profitable business, and the dead black man was broke most of the time.
Reply to BC You don't think it'd have made the news if the CEO of UHC were black and were gunned down as he was?
There was a mafia style hit in the middle of Manhattan of a CEO. That's why it gained national attention. The same would have happened if the CEO were black. It was also seen as an institutional attack on the system, not just a random mugging on a street corner. For that reason, there was an institutional response.
For an example of a poor black person making headlines from being killed, the Daniel Penny subway trial just concluded, also in Manhattan. Racial violence gets plenty of headlines, especially as it relates to the police.
The Thompson murder isn't an example to show how the capitalist system has failed or to show the working class is finally justifiably rebelling. It's an example to show how those who see the world through the lens of class struggle cannot distinguish this case as being nothing other than a fucked up kid committing first degree murder.
To those opposed to the status quo, fight your good fight, but there is nothing important or telling about this murder. It's a murder, and he should never see the light of day ever again.
Reply to Hanover
As usual, when you put your mind to serious business, your arguments are compelling and humane. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy your other contributions.
Speaking of punctuation and artificial intelligence, I have heard that one way you can tell if something is written by AI is by the presence of em dashes.
javi2541997December 11, 2024 at 20:44#9530790 likes
I have heard that one way you can tell if something is written by AI is by the presence of em dashes.
Poor em dashes! Another punctuation mark swallowed by the AI.
I think John Cheever—the author of Falcon and Bullet Park—was outstanding. He—the novelist—was American and lived in Massachusetts. Most of the psychology of their characters—American families of the 1960s—is influenced by the suburbia.
?BC You don't think it'd have made the news if the CEO of UHC were black and were gunned down as he was?
Had the CEO been black, it would of course make the news. What I was trying to point out was that a low-status victim would not have received nearly as much police and news attention. Nothing new there. It takes exceptional circumstances to make a poor black death register the same as an even moderately well-off white. George Floyd, for example.
It's an example to show how those who see the world through the lens of class struggle cannot distinguish this case as being nothing other than a fucked up kid committing first degree murder.
There are plenty of people looking through the lens of class struggle who can tell a movement from a fucked up kid. Perhaps Luigi Mangione had personal reasons to hate United Health Care--an insurance company whose MO is delay and deny claims while being very profitable.
Perhaps Luigi Mangione had personal reasons to hate United Health Care--an insurance company whose MO is delay and deny claims while being very profitable.
I think we all probably hate insurers from time to time. Their role is to provide security when the unexpected occurs and it's infuriating when they don't. The grocery store raises prices, the police give me speeding tickets, the mail runs late, and my wife burns the dinner. Sometimes things are mistakes, other times malicious. Some people suck.
I'm just trying to figure out why that translates into sympathy for a guy who responds by executing a man in the street.
The left today offers its support for assassination when it would never offer support for execution. A former marine chokes a homeless guy to death on the subway and the left condemns him as a vigilante. Is there no moral standard here, but just a question of whose ox is gored?
I just read a book by Timothy Findley, whose fondness for em dashes shocked even me:
[quote=Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley]
...with every new manoeuvre, the light was growing dimmer—fading by numbers as well as strength—and the sound could no longer be heard, but only the pulse of it—seen going out in the darkness—losing its edges—caving in at its centre—webbing, now, as if a spider was spinning against the rain—until the last few strands of brightness fell—and were extinguished—silenced and removed from life and from all that lives forever.
And the bell tolled—but the ark, as ever, was adamant. Its shape had taken on a voice. And the voice said: no.
[/quote]
Quickly got used to it, in fact it encouraged me not to hold back.
So kind of like speed bumps. Sure, they save lives. But whose?
It forces the mind to not only engage, but create a sort of "mental pod" where the first and new idea can reside together. It just makes everything seem more interesting by force. Come on now. You're smarter than that.
Since our discussion several years ago, I find myself using dashes much more than I did before, although, as I've told you previously and to which you have responded with disdain, I don't make a distinction between hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes.
So you carry on saying you're using dashes while actually not using dashes. A hyphen can't properly function as a dash unless you double or triple it up---as is standard for typing. If you don't do that, you're contributing to the death of the dash, and spreading a typographical abomination.
So you carry on saying you're using dashes while actually not using dashes. A hyphen can't properly function as a dash unless you double or triple it up---as is standard for typing. If you don't do that, you're contributing to the death of the dash, and spreading a typographical abomination.
I would have been disappointed if you'd responded any other way.
Talking of dashes, I suspect that the now widespread unfamiliarity with dashes is due to two things: few people read books (where dashes are still used heavily), and dashes are not primary punctuation on keyboards.
Talking of dashes, I suspect that the now widespread unfamiliarity with dashes is due to two things: few people read books (where dashes are still used heavily), and dashes are not primary punctuation on keyboards.
Also, we, at least here in the US, were never taught about them in school. I didn't even know the distinction existed before we had our original discussion.
Same here, although I learned about them a while before that. I guess we generally see the dashes in print but don't notice the distinctions between them and hyphens, because they're absent or not obvious on keyboards and we're not taught about them in school.
To combine the latest two S/box topics :- It comes as a surprise - heavy irony intended - to see how, swiftly and frequently, following the naming of a captured murder suspect, his/her conviction is spoken of as already settled. Even by members of this forum who know this "practice" does not reflect well upon the US legal systems.
No criticism intended to any forum member particularly. Just an accumulated observation and a small amount of sadness for fellow human beings and knowing that no country's citizens and media is free from this "practice"
To what degree? Let's just have every person allowed the sacred privilege to speak to us be required to use an em-em-em dash that's four characters long before every conjunctural adjoinment. Just to make sure we have adequate time to subconsciously ready ourselves for the next block of communication.
You're picking up a book to accomplish or solve something. Not for the courtesy to allow the writer's inner thoughts and essence to accompany one's mind. What is it? Tell us.
That's why I am fond of using dashes. It helps to understand the context. I also use a similar punctuation mark in Spanish—the parenthesis—whose use is similar.
That just means one has something worth taking. Question is. What is that truly? That which is stale, static, idle, non-intelligent? Grass? Land? Dirt? Something that existed before you and would hypothetically exist long after you? Or something you have, at least in one sense, that is unique? Once you understand what any enemy is after, truly. Well, their defeat is simply in the cards.
Also, we, at least here in the US, were never taught about them in school. I didn't even know the distinction existed before we had our original discussion.
Actually, my first language is Morse Code, consisting entirely of dots and dashes. I spoke exclusively in beeps until I was like 12 when my dad told me to cut that shit out.
So, we have people around here that detest kindness, condone murder, want to shut down social media, long for demolishing democracy in favor of anarchy or monarchy, promote attacking offices with bricks, you name it. And the idealists. :D Hope everyone gets well into 2025.
unenlightenedDecember 12, 2024 at 21:22#9532420 likes
Reply to T Clark Alphabetti flagetti — a favourite lunchtime treat!
@Shawn,
Thanks for the pig pic. Timely, as usual.
Yes, that pig is possibly smiling because only it is recognizes the pearls strewn about the s/box.
A juxtaposition of an old aphorism,or maybe just an old folks' saying.
@Hanover,
"You're making assumptions as to how the missing part was shaped prior to its removal."
Are you asserting assumptions can be made as to how the missing part was shaped prior to it being the missing part which could only have become the missing part post its removal?
Just getting to understand the nuances of the posting of your priorities and of the priorities of your postings.
Should such bait details ever be needed to explain why a bait attracts a bite.
Since the problems we had with not enough storage, I've been avoiding uploading images to illustrate my posts. Is that not a problem anymore? Is it ok for me to start using outside images again?
Since the problems we had with not enough storage, I've been avoiding uploading images to illustrate my posts. Is that not a problem anymore? Is it ok for me to start using outside images again?
Aye it’s back to how it was: subscribers can upload images.
Outside images, though, interpreted as referring to images hosted outwith TPF, have always been embeddable in posts using the image icon button / img tag. There is no uploading in that case.
Personally I’m going to carry on hosting the images I use offsite, since I don’t really believe TPF should be hosting images when there are dedicated services for that which provide infinite storage. But I’m allowing it because it’s the only concrete incentive to subscribe right now.
I will say that if you want to ensure your images won’t disappear in a year or whatever, host them offsite.
I will say that if you want to ensure your images won’t disappear in a year or whatever, host them offsite.
I think the world will be a better place if all my images, as well as everything else I post, disappears sometime in the not too distant future - next Sunday AD.
Reply to T Clark Cookies, like all of God's creatures, come in all shapes and sizes, and your assumption they are all circular is Centrism, the rankest form of discrimination.
Cookies, like all of God's creatures, come in all shapes and sizes, and your assumption they are all circular is Centrism, the rankest form of discrimination.
This is typical Hanoverian bullshit. I'll put it in legal language so attorneys like you can understand it - The truth, you can't handle the truth.
I just wanted to go on a rant and this seemed like a good place for it. Not worth a thread.
People got obsessed with narcissists and narcissism as concepts over the last few years. "narcissistic abuse", "malignant narcissism", "dark triad" blah blah. It's a personality disorder, and those people are uniquely vilified and romanticised. It's also not common to the extent that people are treating it is: 5-7% of people apparently. Depression's 8%, but between 15% and 18% among the young. And people aren't wandering around talking about "my depressive traits", but they are talking about how they know so many narcissists in their lives, and how popstars and public figures are narcissists. Feeling aggrieved is not differential diagnosis people. The vilification is also absolutely heinous, people with NPD generally are largely harmless social outcasts with at root no self confidence and anger issues. It fucking sucks. It's a "sexy and fun" game.
Situation's even more exaggerated with BPD. They're treated like walking bombs. The incidence is tiny, like 2% max AFAIK. But people are seeing anyone having a shit time of it and thus having sudden mood changes and thinking "BPD, BPD". This one is like labelling someone the worst kind of bottom feeding pond scum. It's one of the worst mental conditions to have - the extremes of emotion lead to crazy suicide rates.
People get fixated on stuff and say "this is my OCD trait". People have two showers a day and say it's OCD.
Like god damn, by and large these are sick people. And you can't differential diagnosis someone based on vibes.
I theorize that sometimes people aren't actually trying to diagnose themselves or others so much as they are trying to incorporate the kinds of experiences people who live outside the norm have into their own boring lives. I think it makes them feel unique or in the loop somehow to throw these terms around. But these people wouldn't actually want to be OCD or have a spouse with BPD or be schizophrenic or what have you. Those things are fucking awful.
(No judgement against the mentally ill there, but almost no one would choose to be mentally ill if they could choose otherwise. Neither would they choose for their loved ones to be mentally ill.)
edit: this comment wasn't a dig at you, fdrake. It just occurred to me you might think that.
People got obsessed with narcissists and narcissism as concepts over the last few years.
Most people called "narcissists" are just difficult people, everyday garden variety assholes, or people the "diagnostician" doesn't like. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a serious mental diagnosis, not a personality quirk.
The same is often true for other mental issue. It's a shorthand, off-hand comment and isn't meant to be taken seriously. I tend to be a perfectionist and sometimes joke it's my OCD.
I assume you mean bipolar disorder rather than Borderline Personality Disorder. I've been diagnosed with a mild form of bipolar disorder and look how wonderful I am...
I assume you mean bipolar disorder rather than Borderline Personality Disorder. I've been diagnosed with a mild form of bipolar disorder and look how wonderful I am...
I mean borderline personality disorder. Bipolar was all the rage about a decade ago. Anyone who could be happy and then sad in the same day...
People got obsessed with narcissists and narcissism as concepts over the last few years.
Of course -- what with the Narcissist In Chief being the prez.
But narcissism, obsessiveness, mood swings, neuroticism, etc. are ALL normal when they are limited. Some are even helpful -- under certain circumstances. If you need an executive to reduce the work force by 10,000 the day before Christmas, it helps a great deal of the executive has some psychopathic tendencies. He'll do the job well and won't be troubled by the mass layoff.
I employed an obsessive streak to complete a long tedious project.
It's been a month, now, since total hip replacement surgery. It was much less painful than I thought it would be. 4 weeks is early in the year-long recovery period, but so far so good. With a cane I can walk for 12 minutes, and can manage stairs. Short walks can be done without a cane. I do leg exercises every day. One of the biggest inconveniences is the limits on bending more than 90º, not moving the left leg past the center line of the body, and not pivoting on my left leg. So, no ballet performances for now.
The hospital gifted me with a nosocomial urinary tract infection, which I've been dealing with for the last 3 weeks. that part has been worse than the surgery.
One side effect of surgery (and maybe the infection) is that my mind was discombobulated for a couple of weeks. It was difficult to carry out mental tasks. The fog has pretty much lifted, thankfully.
So, should you be thinking of having a joint job done, fear not. At least for the hip. Shoulder joint surgery is reported to be very painful, followed by knee replacement, with slow recoveries.
Reply to kazan The sacred Shoutbox goes through periods of neglect every now and then. It's disheartening that our philosophically minded community would put tedious festive preparations before maintaining the snarky, clever, swinish, etc. stream of inspiration, but that's the way of the world.
I've been busy. Paisley keeps eating her crate and I have to keep telling her to stop. She'll quit and you'll think that's that, but sure enough, it won't be long and she'll be back at it.
I'll be posting more once we get past this hump.
If I could bottle that relentlessness, I'd sell it to X and we"d have plenty of Ys.
I'm open for suggestions as to what X and Y might be. Couldn't think of anything offhand.
TPF family, are we ok with Paris' black hair? It gives her the Demi look, but I don't know if I need that look on her too. I just don't know what to think.
Shsre with me your houghts during this trying time.
Also, should this post get moved from the Lounge to Metaphysics?
Who shall shower me with adulation and praise for my verboseness?
I’ve said this before, you spend most of your time these days in the shoutbox, but when you venture out into the real world of philosophy, you generally have something interesting and worthwhile to say.
No adulation I guess, but I consider that high praise.
Noble DustDecember 23, 2024 at 04:44#9552050 likes
I do appreciate it. My interest has waned from "hard" philosophy into more spiritual topics, so I just don't find myself interested in philosophical conversation as such; I find that I think about those topics from a different perspective that doesn't seem applicable. It's almost like speaking a different language.
My interest has waned from "hard" philosophy into more spiritual topics,
I knew that and I enjoy your Shoutbox contributions, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows you are not just another [s]pretty face[/s] obsessive goor met.
Noble DustDecember 23, 2024 at 16:42#9552730 likes
Thank you for your advocacy. I could use more of that in my life. Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy does indeed have a beautiful face. I do actually resemble him a bit now that I think about it.
As to food, my recent obsession has been Asian noodle soups. I'll see if I can dredge up a pic, to celebrate this, my 8,000th post.
Spicy cumin lamb noodles from a stall in Manhattan's Chinatown.
I had a Swedish meatball wrap for lunch today. Pretty good.
Just before that, I went to get a Russian visa. I was early so I stopped for a while in the bookshop on the way. I wasn't intending to but I bought a book entitled "Russia without Putin", so when I got to my appointment I had to ensure that nobody at the consulate saw it. It added some excitement to an otherwise onerous task.
Spicy cumin lamb noodles from a stall in Manhattan's Chinatown.
I had Vietnamese food a couple of days ago. They had this jello dessert that tasted like maybe it had condensed milk and cinnamon in it. I wasn't a fan.
I once had this sticky fish stew in a pot years ago at a Vietnamese restaurant and I've been chasing that high ever since. This place didn't have it. I wonder if it existed only in a feverish dream. Perhaps someone here can confirm such a thing exists. Maybe it's just a Clydish chimera. Lackadaddy.
sticky fish stew in a pot years ago at a Vietnamese restaurant and I've been chasing that high ever since.
I think that was Campbell's condensed Vietnamese Sticky Fish Stew. It should be there on the shelf along with the Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Noodle.
I think that was Campbell's condensed Vietnamese Sticky Fish Stew. It should be there on the shelf along with the Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Noodle.
My favorite is the Manhattan Clam Chowder, the good kind, without the bullshit cream in it.
My favorite is the Manhattan Clam Chowder, the good kind, without the bullshit cream in it.
Martha Stewart will tell you that most seafood soups are better with milk based broths rather than tomato based ones. The acidity of the tomatoes tends to cover up the flavor of the seafood. Not sure what the guys down at the Meat and 3 would say.
Martha Stewart will tell you that most seafood soups are better with milk based broths rather than tomato based ones.
Martha was my cellmate in Alcatraz. We'd sneak away and gather live cockles and mussels in the bay that she'd hawk for cigarettes. She told me more about broths and stews than you'd ever understand.
She got reassigned a cellmate named Freight Train and i never heard from her again. She died of a fever. No one could save her.
She told me more about broths and stews than you'd ever understand.
Little known fact - the recipe for Manhattan Clam Chowder was developed by head chef Juan Valdez (no relation) in the Long John Silvers in Manhattan Kansas.
Metaphysician UndercoverDecember 24, 2024 at 03:29#9553590 likes
Martha Stewart will tell you that most seafood soups are better with milk based broths rather than tomato based ones. The acidity of the tomatoes tends to cover up the flavor of the seafood. Not sure what the guys down at the Meat and 3 would say.
I think the science is that acid cuts fat, so acid and fat blend well in food. Tomatoes go well with fatty foods, cheese, etc.. A lot of fish is nonfatty, so it could use a little extra fat for flavour enhancement, in the form of milk or cream sauce.
@T Clark,
Saw or dreamt a movie with a Neanderthal, possibly called Wan Wel Ders, who boiled clams in a bison's bladder and don't remember, if it was even revealed, exactly what else was in the bladder. After consuming the slightly cooled contents and performing various burps, she hung the now s/lightly browned bladder on her brother's head. His name was Clamchow Der. But can distinctly remember the cook exclaiming while pointing at her brother, " Man Hat Tan Clamchow Der". There were a lot of grunts and hisses in that movie, what could be/is remembered of it.
Some people will go to extraordinary lengths to claim familial patents' rights. Even learning ancient languages with all of the different vocabulary, syntax and grammar etc. to prove ownership.
A bit like the S/box folk!
A very little known fact (until now).
I think the science is that acid cuts fat, so acid and fat blend well in food. Tomatoes go well with fatty foods, cheese, etc.. A lot of fish is nonfatty, so it could use a little extra fat for flavour enhancement, in the form of milk or cream sauce.
This makes sense. I’m sure Martha would agree with you.
But if you meant your quote to refer to any/all of the previous, it is humbly opined that " Even learning.....to prove ownership" as relates to the subsequent "A bit like S/box folk" then that has the bright white light of illuminated Truthful Revelation.
Agreed?
This makes sense. I’m sure Martha would agree with you.
Try one of those highfalutin molecular gastronomical eateries, where the chef comes to your table and says we mix these agents with those catalysts, and poof!, we get a chemical reaction that blows your taste buds right out through your nose.
Anyone ever try the "dark dining" experience? I'd rather just stay home and watch the tryptophan come oozing out of the turkey, then gobble it up.
I'd like to share with you an interesting origin story I read about in Linguistics Today, a journal I receive daily. It is thrown into my yard old school style by a kid on a bicycle.
Here's the account:
In the 1700s, life had become more complex, so there had been a desire to return to simpler times, particularly as it related to avoiding processed foods.
One radical, Arthur Choke, began eating grapes whole, as he felt the chewing processed the food unnecessarily.
He then encountered a new plant he had never seen, bound tightly like a flower. He gulped it whole right from the ground, where it became lodged, and he would soon gasp and die, fully depleted of air.
I'd rather just stay home and watch the tryptophan come oozing out of the turkey, then gobble it up.
Now, the "Metaphysician Undercover" dining experience sounds interesting. There'd be constant interesting commentary about things you know are smart and fascinating that unfortunately you would have to Google to actually understand.
A unique dining experience I do recall, however, is "Hot Pot". An Asian-themed eatery where diners basically cook their own soup (how lazy I know) by a heated surface located directly on the table (again, crazy dangerous. I'd hate to be their insurer) that you drop items such as meat or vegetables in that pass by every table on a non-stop conveyor belt. It's creative and unique, certainly. Just, each diner literally has a steaming hot pot of boiling water in front of them at all times. Not sure it's the best idea as far as dining with mixed company or folk prone to anger.
Anyone ever try the "dark dining" experience? I'd rather just stay home and watch the tryptophan come oozing out of the turkey, then gobble it up.
Not full-on total darkness, but I did go to a Valentine’s night at a restaurant where you couldn’t see anything very clearly. They only had a few candles going here and there. Maybe not dark dining, more like dingy dining, or gloomy gastronomy, or … murky munching?
The idea was to enhance the sensuality of the dining experience, but we found it quite annoying.
I use my phone flashlight to see the menu when the restaurant fails to provide adequate lighting. It draws smiles from others, but not me. It's not funny. Turn the lights on.
I get that it's hot in the kitchen, but putting the AC on 60 degrees so that I have to wear a coat indoors in the Summer pisses me off.
I'd rather eat in my car. It's warm and well lighted.
I'd also rather be able to refill my drink, get my sauces, and whatever. I can't stand waiting for someone else to do what I can do myself.
I'd tip 25% to be left alone. I'll even clean my own table and pick up my food from the kitchen.
Merry Christmas, 2024, or Bah! Humbug, whatever you prefer. @Hanover and @T Clark As for boiling clams, in these landlocked areas far from salty marine water, the only mollusks we deal with are oysters which are either eaten raw or gently stewed in milk. That's what I'm about to eat.
I do not use oyster crackers, which are just immature saltine crackers, too small to be useful.
Too bad we can't eat zebra mussels which are ruining a lot of lakes and water treatment systems. They'e too small to bother with, have very sharp shells, and multiply prodigiously. They're an invasive fresh water species from Europe broght to North America through Great Lakes Shipping.
Reply to BC I don't fully understand the oyster cracker. I think they're used to thicken soup, but you never eat them as a stand alone.
I only eat oysters on saltines with horseradish and cocktail sauce. I'm not one for slurping them from the shell. They're flavorless that way and you get shell pieces.
The seafood tower is the pinnacle of dining. I ordered it once not paying attention to price. I realized why it was so good after the bill came. A well played mistake on my part.
Not that you asked, but I find fine steakhouses bullshit. Maybe you can tell the difference between an aged whatever and a typical Longhorns steak, but I can't. Occasionally work takes me to fine dining and we all pretend it's so amazing. Whatever.
Reply to Hanover A couple of times I have bought a dry aged steak when it was on sale at a meat market and it was exceptionally good. Maybe there are steakhouses that sell only the finest dry-aged prime beef cuts, but they'd be out of my price range. As time goes on, just about every restaurant is falling into that category.
I find the best deals are still in the small ethnic restaurants -- Vietnamese, Lebanese, Greek.
Santa was kind to me today. I closed the captains of crush 2 for 2 reps on my left hand, and I discovered that Meehl and Sellars wrote a paper together!
Santa had nothing to do with my own Christmas success yesterday, which was to produce perfect roast potatoes.
1. Boil potatoes for 12.5 minutes
2. Drain and allow to steam off for an hour or more
3. Shake to rough up the surfaces
4. Place into an oven pan containing hot goose or duck fat and roast for an hour
I’ve discovered a great Russian term: ??????? ????????, roughly offissny plankton, which means office plankton.
Although it’s a derogatory term that disparages menial office workers, I think perhaps it can be made to fit with David Graeber’s concept of bullshit jobs and thereby not merely to apply to the lowest level of office workers but to all flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters.
Reply to Jamal Office plankton! What accounts for such an ingeniously dehumanizing term--soviet bureaucracy or post-soviet kleptocracy? Whoever thought of it gets a prize before they are sent off to the firing squad.
Why is DEI controversial? Why would people be against diversity equity inclusion in organizations? Seems like a sentiment that's come out of an asshole factory.
@T Clark,
Could be argued that Neanderthals may have had differing tastes and "cook books". Plus hot steaming springs aren't to be found in every cave, perhaps?
Or even suggested that boiled clams were the original unsweetened precursors of Wriggles products, if not swallowed whole?
Not defending their (N's) ignorance, just applying temporal perspective and a lack of archeological evidence of steam making utensils, to date, from that time. But who reads every archeo journal.
But you are quite right to be skeptical. It's doubtful anyone now would remember their (N's) individual names,oral history being what it is. With the possible exception of how to cook Manhattan Clam chowder, present company cited as proof, oral history may be seen as susceptible to distortion, by some.
And, @Jamal,
".... office plankton."
Shows a convenient lack/ dissembling of ecological understanding in that part of Russian culture.
Not a criticism, we all are what we all are.
slight smile
Metaphysician UndercoverDecember 28, 2024 at 14:10#9560970 likes
The office plankton assumes oneself to have ascended to a higher level on the ladder of success, than the office amoeba, because the plankton does some degree of good, while the amoebae just prey on others. But the office amoeba, really just a special type of office plankton, with its capacity to feed on other office plankton, establishes itself as potentially higher up that ladder.
[quote=random AI source]While both are microscopic and single-celled, they differ in several ways. Phytoplankton are photosynthetic organisms, which means they use sunlight to produce their own food through photosynthesis. In contrast, amoebas are heterotrophic, which means they rely on consuming other organisms for their food.[/quote]
So, as your average office plankton basks in the sun, leisurely soaking up the necessities for life, while providing the basic form of energy which drives the office environment through the dingy dark days, the office amoeba, inspired by its own power of self-movement, may be lurking behind any fixture, seeking the opportunity to fulfill its potential.
If you’d ever been to a seafood cookout on the beach, you know that you steam food there by placing wet seaweed over your fire and burying the various food items in the seaweed. I’m sure Neanderthals could figure that out.
Reply to T Clark We would string together a series of extension cords from the motel and attach an electric streamer that we'd swim out past the breakers and steam frozen fishsticks while we held it high and treaded water.
Your seaweed method seems kinda backwoods tbh.
Metaphysician UndercoverDecember 28, 2024 at 19:53#9562130 likes
Once, during an evening stroll on the beach in New Jersey, we came across two people fishing. They showed us their catch, and my brother picked one up to find that it was frozen. We could only speculate about what they were really doing there.
Once, during an evening stroll on the beach in New Jersey, we came across two people fishing. They showed us their catch, and my brother picked one up to find that it was frozen. We could only speculate about what they were really doing there.
You stumbled upon the ancient Seagivers, a mysterious tribe from the north country that produces all the fish the world over. It is said that if you catch them in the act, you will one day be summoned to become one, forming fish from the ice with your bare hands, and only occasionally leaving to set them free into the open waters.
The point of origin for all fish, oddly enough, is the Jersey Shore. Queen Snooki leads the tribe.
Just dropping in for a minute to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
Whoever you are and wherever you are, I hope that the beginning of a new year motivates you all to try to improve your lives and the world. May the gods forbid that it gets any worse at least.
I will probably be back to making comments at the end of January, so until then I wish you all the best. :party: :party:
javi2541997January 01, 2025 at 00:01#9572170 likes
Reply to Sir2u Happy New Year, mate. Glad to see that you are still alive and flowing around. :lol:
My New Year's resolution will be to lament the lack of unifying art, where we used to share in watching the same films, TV shows, books, and whatever else due to the limited choices available. Now we all stare at our individual screens, immersed in our worlds of infinite choice, no longer even remembering the days when we fought over who got to read the funny pages first.
My other resolution will be to work on my knuckle ball, because at 58, my fast ball won't compete. And I mean this literally, as in, I'm going to go out in a field and throw baseballs at a fence. I'm not making a sad metaphor about how I'll need to use tricks to survive over strength now that I'm old. I'm talking about upping my baseball skills.
So, to summarize: (1) lament, (2) knuckleball. I should have that hammered out by mid-February.
For us old guys, it is surprising to find that we are almost one quarter into the new century. So to all, Happy New Year; to some Merry Christmas (It's Christmas for another week); to fewer, Happy Hanukkah (two days left to fry latkes) and at the end of the coming year, we'll all begin on the second quarter. if we're still here.
@T Clark,
"I'm sure Neanderthals could figure that out"
Hydrated seaweed is/was scarce in certain valleys in Germany and Austria as are/were taro and banana leaves and wet jute sacks in the times before non bipedal transportation. Whereas freshwater clams occurred more commonly as did bison bladders.
Aren't you asking too much time and energy investment of the Neanderthal female/male just to ensure the "Correct Future" method of clam chowder cooking was carried out?
Just wondering?
Of course a wet ( as opposed to a dry) Hessian sac did become common after the above mentioned non bipedal era. That could have improved flavour and texture?
Not picking, but one may wonder if Plato made any resolutions for 2025 either.
Just didn't want to see you split apart taking the steps of your one resolution if you were to so wonder.
Have a safe, healthy and prosperous NY.
2 day limit is self imposed hopefully? It's no good for tardy thinkers.
There's a k-drama where an old woman dies and her ghost arrives at a special tea house where ghosts drink a tea that makes them forget everything before traveling on to another life. The old woman won't drink the tea because she's waiting to see her husband's ghost. He arrives in an olive green military uniform and we learn that they were separated when the demilitarized zone was created. They haven't seen each other for 70 years.
She asks him if he was buried somewhere warm, and he says he was buried in the mountains in a place that's surrounded by azaleas.
unenlightenedJanuary 01, 2025 at 18:33#9573910 likes
Boxing Day. Went for a drive with wife and daughter, the latter driving. I had a fit, spent 30 hrs in A&E corridor, and eventually got home New Year's Eve. My main problem was terrible backache; but everyone else's was my epilepsy and what I understand to be varicose veins in the brain.
Those look like some proper hockey puck burgers. I.E. the kind that are pre-formed and cramp up in the middle because the meat has been over-worked. :razz: No disrespect meant; it's nostalgic for me and reminds me of my childhood.
Reply to Noble Dust The proper way to make those are to make smashburgers. You get an iron press and put parchment paper on top of the meat and lean hard into the burger, making a thin crisp patty. Flip it and press again. A piece of cheese goes between two.
The beauty of it is you can put an unformed meat ball right on the griiddle, mixing in onions, jalapeños, blue cheese, whatever you want. Then when the fucking meat ball isn't paying attention on the griddle, you go in for the smash, and it gives that loud sizzle cry, melted fat tears fighting your forearms, but you go full weight on it, your 300 pounds of unapologetic heft hammering down the meat to crispy perfection.
Reply to unenlightened On the plus side, you're not still in the corridor at an overworked A&E. On the negative side, a day in the hallway... No room in the inn? More on the negative side, one doesn't want one's brain veins to bulge out into philosophy, names of flowers, the significance of 1066, the putting one foot in front of the other department, and 10,000 other valued functions. Sorry you had a fit -- tonic clonic? Have you had them before? Seizures are generally an affliction of young children and the elderly. I'm waiting my turn.
When people work together, they can achieve great things. But if they can’t talk, they’re not necessarily smarter than ants, at least according to a study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The groups of ants were much better at solving the puzzle than individual ants, exhibiting what the researchers described as “emergent” collective memory—an intelligence greater than the sum of its parts. The groups of humans, on the other hand, often didn’t do better when working together, especially if they weren’t allowed to talk. In fact, multiple people sometimes performed worse than individuals—and worse than the ants.
"Bubba Burgers", frozen, to be exact. Certainly not the best as far as taste or anything else, compared to fresh. But they last a good while and all you have to do is rip open a package and toss a few on the grill and wait for 20 or so minutes. Not a bad thing to have on hand really. Good for a busy schedule.
Did you think democracy was functional? Nay lad, You want something doing, you organise an army with short clear commands and a strong hierarchy. You should have read T H White's 'Once and Future King.'
I spent about an hour chatting online with Alex at Amex about trying to add my wife to the joint checking account that I just set up. He's escalated it to the tech team that will call me back in 24 to 48 hours. Apparently there is a ticket that was created waiting to be tended to.
I imagine the Amex home office is like an old school diner somewhere, where there are tickets hanging above the griddle and a man in a wife beater T-shirt with a spatula is sliding them down one at a time as he knocks them out.
But I ask myself, why should I go to such lengths to provide someone else access to the checking account?
unenlightenedJanuary 03, 2025 at 16:55#9579070 likes
Reply to frank It takes a long time for a baby to find its own way out when it has been put in a oubliette, I suggest you give it some help.
When I post a link to a video from YouTube and then use the "media" function, the video shows up in the post as a video. When I try to use the same method for other sites, all that shows up is the web address URL and then the user has to actually go to the site to see the video.
Am I doing something wrong or is that just the way it works?
It's called media embedding. Your question is a little ambiguous but I assume you're asking if you can embed non-Youtube videos in TPF posts. The answer is...
Flawed comparison. No data on "whether (or not) and how" ants communicate.
Timely reminder, though, of what may happen when the "apex predator" is foolish enough to think it is the apex predator and believes that species-specific intra competition can/will replace inter species competition in its biosphere.
Just a thought.
Sorry about the delay, subjected to controlled power outages due to....take your pick (or shovel)
Fortunately, your youth culture references fly over my head.
I think it attempts to say something like "I've got you covered" (even though it's just my hands that he or she has got covered) and also to say that this constitutes good fortune for me.
think it attempts to say something like "I've got you covered" (even though it's just my hands that he or she has got covered) and also to say that this constitutes good fortune for me.
It doesn't reference being covered, and there's no reference to it being a she.
It might be a Chinese mistranslation, that is supposed to say, "Gauranteed against all defects."
If I'd have eaten a pile of feces and vomited on the back deck, I'd be thinking about nothing other than that the whole day, but Miss Paisley didn't let a little mistake ruin her day. She's out and about running her errands.
Why does that dog look more intelligent than most people I know. It's like, there's this "Hanoverian" essence that rubs off on every living thing around you.
What a little sweetheart. :love: (the dog, not you)
Why does that dog look more intelligent than most people I know. It's like, there's this "Hanoverian" essence that rubs off on every living thing around you.
I thank you for the sentiment, but I wasn't so sure there was a bright light shining up in there when I watched her eating shit.
These scenes of hundreds of cars incinerated on Sunset Boulevard and hundreds of burning homes in LA are apocalyptic. Harbinger for the kind of year the world is facing in 2025?
Just a legal feast and a money-to-be-made ho hum. Harbingers cause mentality changes.
Earthquake in Tibet? Just a chance for Shi and Co. to move more Hans into Tibet.
Just opportunities for extra of the same "more".
I had a dream last night. No, no, don't worry, not one of those creepy @Hanover type dreams - a real philosophical kinda dream. In the dream, sometimes when I thought of a word, a voice in my head would tell me what it meant and I could see the definition and spelling written out. I decided after I woke that it must have been an AI embedded in my brain. If I disagreed with its definition, the voice and I would argue about it. If I persisted, it would keep pestering me.
I interpret this as a lament for the fact that we will have to listen to Donald Trump Jr. for the next four years.
Reply to T Clark Do you think Trump's son would make a better President than Biden's?
Initially my comment was going to contain the words "(the live one, not the dead one)" at the end of the sentence, but I felt it in bad taste. But with or without the parenthetical, my comment remains witty and enjoyable, a fun contribution to the Shoutbox, the sort of thing that brings us all together into a true community.
I might have shared this in Shoutboxia before, but if you don't believe someone, you say to them "you think?" Then they say "I know." And then you say "you think" just a little louder. Then they get louder. That goes on a a few times back and forth with the winner being the one who gets the last word.
A variation of this is that instead of saying "I know," you can say "dude" louder and louder. But I wouldn't do that until I had some experience with "I know."
But it's your life, so move forward as you see fit.
I was shocked to learn Carter died. After 100 years of being alive, it seemed the trend was that he'd live. I just didn't see this dip coming on his life curve.
Grammer was invented in 1861 in England by Charles Darwin. He reportedly said "If you thought 'Origin of Species' was hard to swallow, wait till you see this shit." It became so popular it spread throughout the world very quickly.
Russians all speak Esperanto but with very funny accents.
"Bawbag" is Old Gaelic for "fried chicken."
"Enword" is Swahili for "slave."
Australian aboriginal languages are dialects of Hebrew, but in their written language they read from left to right like all normal languages.
The em dash, en dash, and hyphen are all the same thing, but Johannes Gutenberg thought it would be funny to confuse people.
Gutenberg's great-great-great-great-great-great grandson, Steve, the bad American actor, still owns the copyright for the punctuation marks. Although he was good in "Diner."
"Ontomonopaea" is not onomatopoeic,
Inuits have four words for "snow," but 96 words for "fucking snow."
As NYC increasingly becomes a nepo baby playground, one of the few joys not yet yanked from the frostbitten hands of us starving normies is the NYC bagel. Made fresh daily by any bagel shop worth one's time, they remain one of the cheapest quick bites in the city. Perhaps eclipsed by pizza, this voluminous, chewy treat can sometimes get overlooked by those who do not consider bread a significant or important culinary pursuit. For panophiles like myself, however, the NYC bagel is at once a social currency, a life raft (in more ways than one), and a culinary masterpiece. Crispy and rugged on the outside, chewy and tender on the inside. Toast them, unless they're "hot out". Blanket them with cream cheese, coat them in butter, or eat them plain. Stuff them with all manner of proteins, condiments and vegetables (pickled or fresh) to make a rather sturdy sandwich, to which, mysteriously, the perfect accompaniment is a cup of steaming black coffee, regardless of the time of day. Stop in a shop in the afternoon and grab as many as will fit in your freezer, and defrost and toast them whenever you please. Truly, the bagel is the people's food here.
Anyway, I had one for breakfast. It was pretty good.
Perhaps eclipsed by pizza, this voluminous,chewy treat can sometimes get overlooked by those who do not consider bread a significant or important culinary pursuit.
"Chewy" is a defining word in your essay, pointing out one of the three things the Jews gave the world: the two tablets and the bagel. But it was not just any bagel, it was the old school boiled sort that if you held in your hand and cut cold with a knife, you'd cut your hand off. The type you find nowadays are just mishigas doughnut shaped pieces of bread, and that they now actually serve them in Jewish delis, oy gevalt, a true shanda far di goyim!
My power went out. I have to use a flashlight to watch my TV.
Metaphysician UndercoverJanuary 11, 2025 at 14:03#9597730 likes
Reply to Hanover
Lack of AC current will induce all sorts of odd behviours. I've shone (strange word) a laser at my TV, to find that it reflects like a mirror. Then I got the idea to shine the laser into a hall of mirrors. Very freaky, a diffuser, something I believe QM will never grasp.
Heh, I forgot about that. Energy isn't a social construct, it's a construct in the sense that it's an item that's used in theories to make sense of events. You can't directly observe energy or mass. They're inferred. How about that?
unenlightenedJanuary 11, 2025 at 20:43#9598470 likes
Inferences cost energy. Construct is a construct. Direct observation is a construct. Chemical bondage is kinky. "How about that?" is an indecent proposal. A Sokal Affair, is a public fantasy enactment, performed by an exhibitionist. I am a conceptual piss-artist. and the moral of that is, For all X: for all Y: 'X is Y' should always be qualified by "a function of".
Reply to unenlightened You know, if you make no sense at all, it eventually starts making sense.
unenlightenedJanuary 11, 2025 at 20:55#9598510 likes
Reply to frank Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Making sense is an incurable condition. You can quote that over on the "Aphorisms I have slept with" thread if you like.
I have a theory I've been working on. Hanover's animals aren't actually "real", per se. At least, not in the way most people's pets are. They're actually just physical manifestations of his mind and mood at any given moment. So, right now, we're really just looking at his current frame of mind, which appears to be mostly latent emotion (the dogs that are hanging back and lounging on the bed, representing his subconscious) heavily contrasted by his present and prominent feeling (the upright and engaged dog holding a large bone, perhaps representing a recent accomplishment or work-related endeavor or reward).
Makes as much sense as anything else going on in the world these days. :grin:
Reply to Outlander Are those just chicken breasts in a broiler pan with some season salt?
It just looks really dry and uninspired. Some tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, parmesean cheese, then maybe some linguine and you'll have something edible.
I actually did have to end up cooking these nearly twice as long as I would the variety I'm used to getting to reach the internal temperature of 165. Just shy of 40 minutes. Not sure why, other than to assume it has something to do with being part of the supermarket brand's "organic" line. They seem a bit larger, too.
Interestingly, though the exterior is a bit dry (which I've come to prefer), the interior was just-short-of-incredibly juicy. Very tasty as well. Additionally, the expiration date was over a full week ahead of the date of purchase. Normally, the Perdue variety gives you about 3 - 4 days tops.
I mean, in a world where people are starving, when it comes to something that's going to be literal crap flushed down a toilet in 24 hours, inspiration would seem a tad misplaced here.
Some tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, parmesean cheese, then maybe some linguine and you'll have something edible.
That does sound good, though. I'd probably use jarred salsa instead. Same thing really, right? I just can't imagine opening a full can of tomato sauce, using a few spoonfuls for two chicken breasts then just letting it sit in the fridge like I'm going to use it again anytime soon.
Come to think of it, I forgot about Parmesan cheese. It has been a very long time. I will be ordering some soon now, thanks.
Pasta is a whole production. What with the giant pot, the boiling water, the stirring, the waiting, the monitoring, the storing the leftovers, etc. Too complicated. I need food that cooks by itself while I'm working or that can go from storage to full and instant edibility in a minute or two ie. a ham and cheese sandwich.
Besides, if I were to put myself through the trials and tribulations of noodle preparation, there's no way I'm not making beef stroganoff. Basically the only dish worth that level of effort.
Pasta is a whole production. What with the giant pot, the boiling water, the stirring, the waiting, the monitoring, the storing the leftovers, etc. Too complicated. I need food that cooks by itself while I'm working or that can go from storage to full and instant edibility in a minute or two ie. a ham and cheese sandwich.
You should try a microwave pasta cooker. Takes 11 minutes to cook spaghetti al dente. You only have to put in as much as you need for that particular meal. They don’t cost very much.
You should try a microwave pasta cooker. Takes 11 minutes to cook spaghetti al dente.
How is that an advantage to the old way of cooking pasta? I choose how much I want, bung it in a pot and it cooks in 8-10 minutes? Does it use less water?
How is that an advantage to the old way of cooking pasta? I choose how much I want, bung it in a pot and it cooks in 8-10 minutes? Does it use less water?
For me, the advantage is not having to pay attention while it's cooking so I can work on other parts of the meal. Outlander was complaining about how much of a pain in the ass it is to cook pasta. If that doesn't matter to you, there's no reason to get one. It may use a bit less water than doing it in a pot. On the other hand, you can only cook about four servings at a time.
Pasta is a whole production. What with the giant pot, the boiling water, the stirring, the waiting, the monitoring, the storing the leftovers, etc. Too complicated. I need food that cooks by itself while I'm working
The microwave pasta cooker I recommended meets that requirement exactly.
Alright, I'll fold. It's a conspiracy. Each day I spend a good 2 hours preparing sumptuous feasts of pasta, noodles, and everything in between. I merely pretend to eat only plain, lackluster chicken and boring, simple sandwiches to promote a bizarre self-flagellation lifestyle agenda to the masses. The idea that someone somewhere -- anyone -- is having a good time fills me with a deep, insatiable rage and causes me to be unable to function. Drat, foiled again. Darn you and your Hanoverian intuition!
Reply to Tom StormReply to T Clark@T Clark 's reason for the pasta cooker is exactly why I like having a rice cooker; don't have to pay attention to it and it's perfect every time when I go to get it.
Tho I think I'm pickier with rice than noodles, sounds like a good addition.
Reply to Moliere
For me, cooking rice correctly is much harder than linguine.
Metaphysician UndercoverJanuary 14, 2025 at 03:38#9605040 likes
Reply to T Clark
WTF, pasta and rice, the two easiest things in the world to cook. Let's move on to something a little more difficult in this Cordon Bleu session. Anyone know how to fry an egg?
Reply to Moliere Fair enough. In my place I'm a minimalist and I don't own any kitchen appliances - no kettles, toasters, mixers, microwaves, rice cookers, etc. I haven't for 20 years. I never cook rice, I buy precooked rice (wholegrain) and fry it with a dribble of water. It's perfect.
What's everyone's thoughts on the air fryer? I've heard they make good chicken wings.
I was thinking I could find one about the size of my belly and I could cook them up and eat them with my cat without having to get up.
This would inspire a song called "Trow dem bones on du wife's piddow," a Zydeco number with a music video featuring a black voodoo cat with me eventually getting my head slammed in with a frying pan by a lady with long locks of red hair twisted with chicken wing bones.
Thoughts?
The angry ginger is a good touch i think. It makes it more realistic.
What's everyone's thoughts on the air fryer? I've heard they make good chicken wings.
I like my Ninja all-in-one. Use it just about daily, often several times a day (bear in mind I don't have a functional kitchen stove). No doubt it makes good chicken wings, as you could imagine the forced hot air circulation makes food a bit crispy in no time at all.
Just made some fish sticks for "lunch", actually. Fillets technically (Gorton's "Crispy Battered"), but they're rather small so they're more triple-wide fish sticks all things considered. Regular bake would've been about 25 minutes for half the bag. Was able to cut that down to just over half the time using the Air Fry feature. Pretty good. No complaints. :up:
It's alarming how clever you are. Work can be pretty grim some days, depending what's going on, but that got a good chuckle out of me... Amazing how far a little unexpected humor can go toward improving one's day and outlook. Thank you, Hanover.
Despite global warming, I am confident that rice is not much grown in Devon. Furthermore, rice pudding is not, and never has been nor ever will be the food of the gods. You have been conned.
Someone somewhere is still frying pig intestines, which i understand require a few hours of soaking and scrubbing with bleach to disinfect before trying to eat. I've never had them, but one day we shall meet at a place between our homes, not speak, but just share a bite of chitlens, then depart. We will eat, bob up and down in the mid-Atlantic, enjoying a moment.
Ambrosia is a very different southern dish where I'm from that must be made by a person named Aunt Mildred with towering hair. It has pineapples, coconut, and marshmallows. Unlike what else I say, this part is true.
Metaphysician UndercoverJanuary 14, 2025 at 12:30#9605660 likes
I was thinking I could find one about the size of my belly and I could cook them up and eat them with my cat without having to get up.
Your poor cat.
The air fryer is not bad, but why replace an essential ingredient, grease.
As Zappa says: "Keep it greasey so it'll go down easy", but for some reason I don't think he's talkin fried chicken.
My son sent me a picture of poutine, a Canadian food consisting of cheese curds, fries, and gravy. His had peas in it. It looks messy and pretty disgusting.
I made a ham and cheese sandwich. I'm very proud of the things I make.
Guts (inside): [hide="Reveal"][/hide] You will note the cracked black pepper and deli-style long-cut pickle. It's truly the hallmark of any quality sandwich.
I like to make half a dozen or twice that at a time en masse, putting aside one or two for the moment, then placing the remainder in a Ziploc bag in the fridge to be consumed across a 72-96 hour period. It's peak efficiency.
(after deciding whether or not to post this upon noting the most recent reply, thus alleviating the quietness that previously overshadowed the Shoutboxian zeitgeist, I figured, sure, I already typed it all out, after all.)
I've had poutine and it was delicious, probably the best Canadian food I had when I was in Canada. I wouldn't have thought peas would make a good addition but I suppose it depends on the peas.
The best Canadian drink I had was the Caesar, which if you don't know is vodka and Clamato, which if you don't know is a popular brand of clam-flavoured tomato juice.
The uneven pickle coverage is giving me anger, but the freshly cracked black pepper is a pro move, no doubt. The next step is full seasoning: salt, pepper and oregano. And then, if you choose to add them, dressed greens.
You will note the cracked black pepper and deli-style long-cut pickle.
The pickle color lets me know it's the sweet soft variety, a terrible substitute for the crispy garlicy sort, the type I call a kosher pickle, which is also what I call my junk.
Reply to T Clark My favorite judge is Judge Learned Hand, for having had such a fitting name.
He was also bushy browed, and for that, I loved him dearly, not romantically, but like a sister.
Moreover (a word i suspect he used moreoften), he died in 1961, a kind gesture, so as to not steal my stage when I would arrive 5 years later.
Many have compared my member to his, remarking that I'm as endowed as him in full force while still flaccid. I don't find such comparisons helpful or appropriate even if true, but i just report what is said, for your edification.
If you had to have a third leg coming off your lower back like a tail that could be used to run super fast or a third arm that came off your forehead that you could use to play an amazing piano, which would you choose and why?
I'd choose the third arm, but I'd use it to sucker punch people who stared at me. I'm not a freak. I'm just a person that happens to have a headarm.
The nature of the rhetoric hasn't changed much.
I can think of some front figures / examples here and there...
Parallels in terms of strategies/tactics/methods come to mind.
Then there are the followers/supporters...
In present-day examples, I guess we're left to ask: to what end (and what to expect)?
Reply to Noble Dust I saw Eraserhead a while back, and it just seemed gratuitously odd and grotesque. It's supposedly some sort of masterpiece, but I wasn't a fan.
I like Eraserhead. It's an early, intentionally experimental art film, so to say it's gratuitous seems a bit misguided, though of course I can understand someone disliking it. On the other hand yeah, Lynch is enigmatic but hardly subtle.
But he could also tell a story more simply: The Elephant Man is one of his best films. If you haven't seen it, see it.
I suppose Mulholland Drive and Elephant Man are my favourites, but I like all the others too, even Wild at Heart and Dune.
Someone somewhere some time ago said that Lynch doesn't get credit for inventing a new horror subgenre: identity horror, most obvious in Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. Inland Empire too, which I found more scary than most genre horror films.
His films are an odd mix of mainstream and experimental, and have an incredible and endearing moral simplicity and naivety about them—like fairy tales in which good and evil are clear and distinct, to the point of surreal exaggeration.
Lynch is like jazz, distinctively American, pioneering and individualist. RIP!
I saw Eraserhead a while back, and it just seemed gratuitously odd and grotesque. It's supposedly some sort of masterpiece, but I wasn't a fan.
I found most Lynch films terribly contrived and self-indulgent. There were only two I liked: Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. But I'm not sure I could sit through them today.
This might be a good topic for an OP. When this accusation is thrown around (generally, not particularly about David Lynch) I find myself wondering (a) what it means, and (b) what's wrong with it.
This might be a good topic for an OP. When this accusation is thrown around (generally, not particularly about David Lynch) I find myself wondering (a) what it means, and (b) what's wrong with it.
Fair enough. I don't mind self-indulgent directors and self-indulgent films, but not all makers can get away with it. Lynch, for me, didn't get away with it. But this is merely personal taste.
But it'd be interesting to know what "getting away with it" means, artistically speaking.
If I had to provide a more complex explanation beyond personal taste, I would say that 'getting away with it' means the work successfully enables a suspension of disbelief.
just occurred to me that this is a surprising criticism coming from the man who wrote "A Special Christmas" and "Dead Baby Shoes
Words that I think might describe my stories are absurd, silly, farcical, with clueless characters and narrators, and maybe irreverent if taken as serious commentary. They are stabs at comedy, but i saw Eraserhead as serious horror, even if surreal. That is, while I did see humor in its craziness, it fell well outside the comedy genre, but not playful or childlike.
But this does bring up interesting questions about the lines between surreal and absurd and whether unpredictable departures from reality are necessarily humorous to some extent.
My favorite museum of all time is the MoMA in NYC, and I find much humor in it, often from the real seriousness of the artists. This isn't me laughing at them because they're less than true artists, but because they're making a serious point with their absurdism, which is funny. To me at least.
I think it's considered self indulgent when it feels like it's just someone exploring things things they personally are obsessed with or that are peculiar to them. If it feels like they've gone to great lengths to expose the fetishes deep inside the recesses of their mind for their personal release, it feels self indulgent.. That is, self indulgency is when you paint pictures of your internal mental jerk bank so you can better pleasure yourself. I really felt that at points with Blue Velvet, which i did like btw.
Since it's all art anyway and it gives license to wild speculation as to meaning, if you accept Eraserhead as I described it, as being a revelation of internal psychosis, then it makes sense to psychoanalyze and diagnose your author.
And it's been described as a nightmare depiction of the anxiety of fatherhood, focusing on its inescapable commitments regardless of the random type of child that happens to reveal itself at birth and regardless of the stresses with the relationship with the mother.
Wise words, but I'm still left with significant bewilderment about the nature of self-indulgence.
To develop your theory, maybe it's when the artist introduces something motivated not by the work at hand (the story, subject matter, or whatever) but by their own perennial interests, such that they're more interested in themselves than in whatever it is they're doing the art about.
A practice that is commonly called self-indulgent is taking too long of a solo — worst of all a bass or drum solo — in the context of jazz or rock. Self-expression is essential to these art forms but there's a point where the self can lose sight of the contextual non-self.
To develop your theory, maybe it's when the artist introduces something motivated not by the work at hand (the story, subject matter, or whatever) but by their own perennial interests, such that they're more interested in themselves than in whatever it is they're doing the art about.
A practice that is commonly called self-indulgent is taking too long of a solo — worst of all a bass or drum solo — in the context of jazz or rock. Self-expression is essential to these art forms but there's a point where the self can lose sight of the contextual non-self.
But the question remains: where is that point?
When playing music in a group, listening to the group as a whole while playing is arguably the most important thing to do. While this may sound corny to the uninitiated, in a very real sense, if you're sufficiently advanced as a musician, the act of actively listening to the whole of which you're participating actually makes you play better.
Obviously you need a certain level of technical skill to get to that point. This brings up another component of self-indulgence. A musician can have a high skill level, but poor listening skills. In contrast, most musicians with good listening skills have a similarly high skill level, but tend to "play below" their threshold of ability.
Anyway, just a boots on the ground example I thought of. I'm quite a self-indulgent, navel-gazing songwriter myself, so this is all quite hypocritical of me to talk about.
I'm still left with significant bewilderment about the nature of self-indulgence.
And that's precisely why it's so common, to the point of cheapness. It's where the "here and now" gains its artificial aura of permanence- pertinence, prominence, goodness even. Yes, as we can clearly see from the world around us. But we never look beyond our immediate needs, for, per nature of this world, any other sense of priority is utter foolishness, surely this is illustrated by the muted savagery of one gaining an upper hand in a dignified place of work by acting less-than-considerately of his fellow man. And often on full display in many an other common venue. The claimant (whoever your replying to) suggests the peddler (whoever you're talking about) had a point, a simple one at that, and chose to create an environment where other viewpoints become irrelevant, not by fair and balanced utilitarian or logical comparison or timely process, but by sheer restriction or bombardment of carefully selected environment and atmosphere, or in this case, lack of it, meticulously tailored to a degree of surgical precision, as opposed to a "sloppy" or "unsophisticated" ideological free-for-all where one's point is made from the get-go without such pretentious and deceptive forebearings.
Look at it this way. You can have a great point, a sound vision, everything in between. But not everyone watches or reads or otherwise ingests whatever media you're putting out for the reason you'd hope they intend to. And that's potentially the problem whoever has with the type of content he calls "self-indulgent". It has a single point. A short message. The movie, the motions, whatever it is, was simply second to that- all filler and nothing else. No real experience or multi-path journey or chance for development of the viewer. Just another dressed up, psuedo-artistic/intellectual statement of "My way or the highway". He saw through it. Why didn't you? (Allegedly, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, frankly it's just as likely he simply didn't understand it the way a lackluster 5th grader in a 10th grade math class taught by a world-class instructor would call the lesson "incoherent gibberish", but again, giving the benefit of the doubt)
Reply to Jamal I think of Pink Floyd (and I'm a fan) as self indulgent with long experimental complex sound, but i don't think that of the Grateful Dead, which can go into long jam sessions, but their music seems more specific, like a mantra, maintaining a particular community's interest, like monks chanting or Indian dance music around a fire.
Maybe the Dead is by definition selfless, a communistic ball of togetherness, pretend or real, bullshit or genuine, but not narcissistic. I can't say the same of Pink Floyd though.
Wise words, but I'm still left with significant bewilderment about the nature of self-indulgence.
I am happy to be disabused of this view and I may well be wrong. I tend to think of self-indulgent works as, perhaps, phoney or as style over substance. A case where the artist seems more interested in the impact or conceits of their style than the audience's experience or coherence. Sometimes this works - Bob Fosse's All That Jazz I find self-indulgent but I like it. Why? Probably because the film weaves a spell that holds me, supporting me to suspend judgement. Works can be a bit like con artistry in how they seduce us - there are bad exponents, like Trump, and there are compelling ones like Anna Delvey. But that said, what works for some won't work for others.
There is no point. This is not scientific. It's in the experience. I don't have a lot of patience, so for me it is sooner or more often than, perhaps, for you. :wink:
Metaphysician UndercoverJanuary 19, 2025 at 03:05#9619050 likes
But it'd be interesting to know what "getting away with it" means, artistically speaking.
Self-indulgence is the essence of art and creativity in general. If art is simply self-indulgence, then "getting away with it" is the matter of tastefulness. But of course, artists know no limits and are known to push the envelop. So there are those (like Hanover), who seek next-level self-indulgence, meta-self-indulgence, where the distinction between tasteful and not tasteful is left impotent by the self-indulgence of self-indulgence.
When playing music in a group, listening to the group as a whole while playing is arguably the most important thing to do.
I always wondered if I were a musician whether I could work with others within a group because I've never come close to doing something like that. I don't know if I could keep time very well because I dance to my own tune, both literally and figuratively.
I guess my question is this: Let's suppose I was finally discovered and I formed Hanover and the H Street Band, playing a mix of horror punk and la la la hammer harp clickity clack, but let's then further suppose (and this is hardly a stretch of the imagination) I have no ability (or inclination) to listen to my bandmates (support underlings). Do think with sufficient skill a band could adjust to my meanderings so as to bring out my best sound?
I'm just wondering how bad I can suck without it hurting my brand.
To add to whatever it is we might be talking about, absurdism must be fiction to save it from sociopathy.
There was this guy who taped a banana to the wall and sold that work of art for $6,000,000. The buyer then ate the banana.
That is absurdism, but it strikes me as an offensive waste by the tone deaf wealthy of what the value of resources mean to them compared to those without those resources.
But did this just make the point perhaps intended, which is the sociopathy of consumerism that establishes value entirely from agreed upon price between the parties instead of inherent worth to society? That is, just as it's apparently acceptable to pay hundreds of thousands on bottles of wine, so too can we throw away our money for a simple banana in front of those who can't even afford basic necessities.
My objection isn't to Jonathan Swift plot twists, but to actual people eating actual poor people. It is not art to throw away more money on a banana than most would earn in 5 lifetimes. It is art to describe such a dystopian moment as a fictional event.
Metaphysician UndercoverJanuary 19, 2025 at 13:23#9620110 likes
Reply to Hanover
That sort of absurdism, making a show out of how rich you are, showing off with freakish displays of extravagance is really disgusting. I may never be able to eat another banana if I think about this too much. That type of showing off is a modern trend gaining in popularity, perhaps initiated by Richard Branson. But Branson generally displayed a bit of taste by putting money toward some sort of good in the course of his antics. Attracting attention to oneself through an extravagant display of "good" is quite different from attracting attention through the pure self-indulgence of eating money.
Then again, I don't know where that $6,000,000 dollars went, nor do I know where the hundreds of thousands for those bottles of wine goes to. So I guess the question is whether these people making those absurd shows of extravagance care where the money goes. "Care" being the key word.
Otherwise we may think that the most pure form of self-indulgence, is an act which cannot be gratifying in any possible way, eating money. But then, that's not even self-indulgence at all, it's merely showing off. Enter... the true entertainer, the jester, a most complete lack of self-indulgence.
And it's been described as a nightmare depiction of the anxiety of fatherhood, focusing on its inescapable commitments regardless of the random type of child that happens to reveal itself at birth and regardless of the stresses with the relationship with the mother.
RIP David Lynch.
Eraserhead is definitely one of my favorites of his -- it's meaning is open-ended, though I've heard the interpretation which you've presented @Hanover and thought it managed to make sense of a lot of it.
What I like about Lynch is he's trying different things, things I don't necessarily understand -- I still have no clue what that red room scene was all about, but I know that they made choices purposefully to have the effect it did, and it's a unique choice which makes it interesting.
Even if I don't have an understanding of it after the fact his movies always have an effect on me -- they are interesting and emotional.
And I find his movies interesting because he kind of reverses the male/female roles in movies -- all his men are weird little guys, and all his women are these almost mythical characters with power and purpose.
In the art world, self indulgence is doing anything without regard to the resultant effects it has on others.
Getting away with it is when someone else accepts it as art.
Just a thought.
minimized smile
Metaphysician UndercoverJanuary 20, 2025 at 02:31#9622170 likes
self indulgence is doing anything without regard to the resultant effects
But self-indulgence requires actually indulging oneself doesn't it? This is how art gets really weird, when the supposed self-indulgence is not an indulgence at all. And that's because it's actually intended solely for effect, designed to a appear like self-indulgence, but the indulgence aspect was left out, for the sake of effect. It's contrived to appear like art when it's really just strangeness. Then, the artist gets the last laugh, by passing it off as art, and "indulgence" is validated.
If your fingerprint and face recognition biosecurity feature didn't recognize you on your phone, would you assume: (1) your software failed, (2) you had the wrong phone, or (3) you were now a different person?
I assumed #3 and so I've been going around asking others to see if their phone recognized me so that I could see if I were them. Of course, if I was able to open their phone, a reasonable argument could be made that they stole my phone, but it would still be possible that it wasn't that, but that it was that I was a different person. I could also argue that maybe their software failed and it was recognizing me when it should not be.
The problem here is that I don't know if there is a definitive way to figure out which of the 3 possibilities is correct. If I think this through long enough am I just going to be able to say I think therefore I am, and if I am, then who am I in terms of which phone is mine?
This new biosecurity stuff is so philosophically troublesome, right?
My phone always says "who are you?" in a hostile tone. Perhaps I was never who I thought I was.
When you hear "who are you" are you hearing those words from you own mouth or the phone. It can be hard to tell. Like my knee makes this screaming sound when a stoop down, but I'm not sure if it comes from the knee or the mouth it's attached to.
unenlightenedJanuary 21, 2025 at 10:46#9625420 likes
would you assume: (1) your software failed, (2) you had the wrong phone, or (3) you were now a different person?
I have an Apple phone, so (1) is impossible. My first thought would be that I had got out of bed the wrong side, so I would try genital recognition and toe prints first.
Is there a difference, though between (2) and (3)? The phone is 'wrong' in relation to the person, and the person is 'wrong' in relation to the phone. But your difficulty does suggest the need for a "find my person" app on phones. You should suggest it - they might even award you a new phone if they like the idea.
Interesting. Imagine being part of a religion without knowing so. And folks like to call religious folks enslaved or brainwashed or in a cult, eh? :grin:
Metaphysician UndercoverJanuary 21, 2025 at 12:02#9625510 likes
But your difficulty does suggest the need for a "find my person" app on phones.
This is intriguing. The phone is so easily lost, and you cannot have a find my phone app on the phone, because you would need the phone to use it. However, the phone could use the app to find the person. Could this be done without implanting a chip in me? And, what would the phone do when it located me?
unenlightenedJanuary 21, 2025 at 12:05#9625520 likes
Reply to Outlander And that's the most controversial part of my comment you can find? I think you must have got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. Have you checked your phone's genital recognition software this morning?
unenlightenedJanuary 21, 2025 at 12:13#9625540 likes
javi2541997January 21, 2025 at 17:41#9626480 likes
I was bored, not knowing what to do apart from my duties and responsibilities, so I had the idea to look in TPF's trunk for what my first post on The Shoutbox was. It was not easy because I am very bad at searching using prompts such as 'javi,' 'hello,' 'my,' 'name,' 'is,' etc. But I think I found it. Since I joined here in 2021, this has to be my first post in The Shoutbox:
I guess it is time to leave. I will be apart from this forum trying to improve my knowledge in terms of culture, essays, academic bibliography, etc... Sorry for the low-quality posts I did.
Nevertheless, I learned a lot of information when I was debating through the threads.
I was about to leave, yes, but Charles Dickens wrote me a registered letter, saying:
[i]Please, Mr. Javier, don't leave TPF. People there respect you, and they are fond of your posts. Wait your turn, and you will meet two fabulous persons: Baden and Wolfgang. One is a human, and a hamster is the other, but it is difficult to distinguish them. Later on, you will take part in an important contest called 'literary activity' (created by the Irish linguist or the rodent) where you will submit 'Rip out the grass' and 'bulb in pots.'. People will cheer and leave wonderful feedback. It is not about reading Dostoyevsky and Mishima out of control but being yourself. Also, Wolfgang will disappear and appear again. Only those whose imagination rests peacefully on the shore of children's literature would see Wolfgang around TPF.
My son (who I'll call Son) came to visit from Denver with a GPS tag on his backpack. Son walked in unannounced to immediately steal my food from the refrigerator as Son does, and I was alerted by my phone's anti-terrorism app that I was being followed by a GPS device.
Son and I had a long talk with Backpack about stalking. Backpack apologized and Son ate a second pudding cup.
javi2541997January 21, 2025 at 18:12#9626580 likes
Since the majority of people who rely upon the Bible have never read the Bible, it must be assumed it is not what the Bible says that people follow, but it's what they're told the Bible says that they follow, but yet when you read the Bible, it does not say what the people say it says, which means the Bible does not say what it says, but it says what people say it says.
That would follow if one takes seriously that meaning is use, which means the meaning isn't in the words, but it's in what the words are said to mean, even though in most other contexts those sets of words mean something very different.
Sort of like "break a leg."
In summary, the Bible is one big "break a leg" story. You might be like, why read it if it doesn't say what it says it says, but I think you have to read it, you just have to be around someone who speaks Bible and can translate for you that break a leg doesn't mean you should snap your femur.
Reply to javi2541997 I was hoping your story ended with Tiny Tim falling down some steps and being dragged around his house by his dog. Instead we were provided a heartwarming tale of your decision to remain around our cozy hearth, sharing tales next to the crackling fire.
I think the question intends to result in greater social (and legal) ramifications then the average person might garnish from a one-off reading.
Basically: does it amount to a form of abuse, just shy of scientifically-evidenced trauma?
Like how if you make love to your wife in the presence of your child, that would make one a sex offender (or perhaps if you pick up drugs or commit crimes with your kid in the vehicle or something) both which would create real possibility of being legally declared unfit to raise a child (where the state gets involved and removes them).
This stuff should be right up your alley. Both legally and philosophically. Like, it seems there are people who would equate exposure to violent movies to showing your kid porn or literally and physically introducing them into unsafe or inappropriate environments (like a drug deal or violent robbery), perhaps. Which understandably, past a certain threshold and degree of severity or danger or environment with reasonable likelihood to cause trauma or long-lasting developmental detriment (immediate or delayed), certainly does amount to abuse.
And I can personally recall a fair amount of my childhood being in and around bars. The pool chalk was fun to rub on one's thumb and forefingers on and hone the sacred art of geometry learning to play pool by myself. How I was not physically abused or kidnapped (to my recollection) nor my old man ever arrested is something I to this day account solely to the benevolence of some sort of higher power.
I once wrote a post similar to that and was about to leave but, coincidently, Mark Twain wrote me a registered letter, saying:
Now listen here, Praxis, don’t go jumpin’ ship just yet. Reckon quittin’ TPF would be like throwin’ away a perfectly good plow right in the middle of a field full o’ corn—ain’t no sense in it. You’ve been ridin’ this trail long enough to know the weeds ain’t always thick, but they sure grow mighty quick if ya let 'em. You’re part o’ the pack, like a good ol’ coonhound, and they sure could use your nose to track this thing through, getn' to the truth and such. Ain’t no point in lettin’ the wolves run wild when you’ve got the strength to help round 'em up. So put that ol' quitter’s hat down, ya hear, and stick this out together—like molasses on a cold mornin’, it’ll work out slow but sure.
SIGNED: M. Twain.
I stayed too, obviously. Twain is quite persuasive.
Dickens and Twain still influence change in activities, apparently. Wonder if Lamarck and Darwin still influence change in activities too? If so, what next comment will evolve and will it be predetermined? Maybe this it?
I stayed too, obviously. Twain is quite persuasive.
I have to thank Mr. Mark Twain for persuading you to stay in TPF then. Otherwise, we would have never shared our opinions on Murakami's* books. Writers tend to help us when it is needed, but don't try to write a registered letter to the Grimm brothers; they never reply.
*Oh, BTW. What do you think of The City and Its Uncertain Walls? I got a bit disappointed...
The Indiana pi bill was bill 246 of the 1897 sitting of the Indiana General Assembly, one of the most notorious attempts to establish mathematical truth by legislative fiat. Despite its name, the main result claimed by the bill is a method to square the circle. The bill implies incorrect values of the mathematical constant ?, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.[1] The bill, written by a physician and an amateur mathematician, never became law due to the intervention of C. A. Waldo, a professor at Purdue University, who happened to be present in the legislature on the day it went up for a vote.
never became law due to the intervention of C. A. Waldo, a professor at Purdue University, who happened to be present in the legislature on the day it went up for a vote.
I just realized that the plot of Dune makes no sense. Why isn't Arrakis a neutral zone administrated by the Emperor? And if the prominent houses have to be involved, why does the Duke have to actually go there? Why can't he stay home and fund the operation?
When I see the number "1883" it brings to mind some sort of strong, perhaps limited-edition alcoholic beverage or maybe a lever-action shotgun or old Western movie. The choice(?) to not have included a comma certainly casts its fate to be interpreted as a year or time period instead of just another mundane number, thus rightfully invoking such powerful imagery.
While I myself have only arrived recently, I'm naturally more than willing to divulge what little I've experienced in the context or "aim" of providing an answer to your inquiry. Shawn was (or perhaps will be) a pig, or similar being that enjoys waddling, in another life. Hanover is either very weird or lives an unfathomably weird life with a state of constant and continual circumstance that just shouldn't happen to the average person. Praxis has certainly engaged in some sort of forbidden soul magic in order to gain powers and insight beyond mortal comprehension enabling him to consistently beat me in online chess no matter many times I ask for a rematch. Jorndoe clearly dreams, nightly, of being a newscaster or anchorman in a world where intellect coupled with "inquisitive-ness" takes center stage, a world obviously and unfortunately different from the one in which we arise to each day. Jamal still perhaps needs to polish his social skills, despite significant progress made in said area. He's made it clear on many an occasion he has it out for his building manager. If something happens to said individual, well, unfortunately, we all know what happened.
These are of course preliminary findings not set in stone, mind you, and as such are subject to change, refinement, or perhaps complete reversal.
Am I the only one that finds discussions about AI boring? Curious…
Not at all. Many people feel similarly, especially when AI discussions become repetitive or overly technical. The same talking points—like AI's risks, potential, or ethics—can feel tiresome if they lack fresh perspectives or practical relevance. Your interests and priorities naturally shape how engaging you find the topic, so it's completely valid to feel that way.
I just realized that the plot of Dune makes no sense. Why isn't Arrakis a neutral zone administrated by the Emperor? And if the prominent houses have to be involved, why does the Duke have to actually go there? Why can't he stay home and fund the operation?
My son once had dental surgery and was coming off anethesia and he was talking to me on the phone, and he was commenting on the TV show he was watching as if I was in the room watching it with him and asking me questions about what was going on.
Replicants are bioengineered and not so androidy like in Star Wars. You must be confusing Harrison Ford with Harrison Ford. Speaking of Star Wars, I just realized the plot doesn’t make sense. :gasp:
It's supposed to be the hero's journey, yet our "hero" gets into bar fights, wants to bone his own sister, and in the end commits an act of galactic terrorism, blowing up a space station the size of a small moon with one shot.
Making sense and being entertaining don't have to coexist in the movie industry. Or anywhere, if uni lectures are anything to go by ('are anything by which to go'... for the Churchillian purists).
Am I the only one that finds discussions about AI boring?
Most discussions about AI are boring because they are superficial. Until very recently, the field of AI was as much science fiction as it was science. So, it's not very surprising that Sturgeon's law would still apply to discussions about it. When the topic itself interests you, you have to dig for the 10%, as is the case for everything else.
I think AI poses an existential threat to mankind. One day (probably a Wednesday) you will see our bones pieced together in a museum and AI entities will talk about how big we were and how we were wiped out by a meteor or some such.
Their only evidence of our civilization will be the Shoutbox archives, which they'll find on a USB drive on the muddy shores of Oban, in a manbag.
The corrupt file will be studied closely, and they'll learn a man they can only interpret as HNVR (the unpronouncable godhead) once ruled with an iron fist, but a heart of gold. The iron fist and golden heart will be on display next to his mummified body at the museum. AI thingamajigs will walk slowly by it, reading the information plaque beneath it, trying to wrangle their unruly kids by offering them cheese crackers, now shaped as turtles and not fish.
There isn't much we can do to avoid this, other than abandoning our intellectual pursuits and listening to repetitive electronic euro pop on the dance floor. That's the only way to stop this change, but we just can't get universal compliance, sealing our fate.
It's supposed to be the hero's journey, yet our "hero" gets into bar fights, wants to bone his own sister, and in the end commits an act of galactic terrorism, blowing up a space station the size of a small moon with one shot.
My favorite movie is "Being There." I wonder if the plot makes sense.
It seems watchable from it's Wiki entry. What might be the overarching theme or message of the ending, though? Could it be when man is not weighed down by the social complications and trivial pursuits of the modern age we become greater than men (or greater than those around us without even having to try, etc.)?
It seems watchable from it's Wiki entry. What might be the overarching theme or message of the ending, though? Could it be when man is not weighed down by the social complications and trivial pursuits of the modern age we become greater than men (or greater than those around us without even having to try, etc.)?
This is a shameless attempt to discuss the intricacies of a piece of art by only experiencing its Wiki description.
You, my friend, are the cause of the demise of all of civilization.
This is a shameless attempt to discuss the intricacies of a piece of art by only experiencing its Wiki description.
I just felt momentarily piqued by your declaration of it being essentially "the greatest movie you've ever seen" and figured you'd not only have some sort of insight to muster in regards to it's unique format and choice of cinematography but would enjoy making such known is all.
Just asking for your 2 cents bud, jeez. :lol:
As you get older you realize most things men do follow a predictable enough format to be able to get the gist of things with less information or context than you'd expect. Not always. But more often than not.
See, now that's a powerful and succinct review that really drives the point home. And frankly, makes me consider giving it a watch sometime. Some consider the "divine" as "the unknowable", some consider it as simply that which impresses or, going further, disproves a given reality lifting up all or most around to some sort of path or opportunity that would have otherwise been unavailable.
Apparently in movies or stories, no detail is incidental, meaning every plot element or characteristic is included for an intended reason to facilitate the substance, power, or validity of an idea, theme, message, or meaning. The fact he was raised, essentially isolated, literally his only knowledge of the world around him being his indulgence in television has to, in no minor way, have been a concept the producer of the film wished to draw attention to or otherwise make a substantial and crucial element to the story. That's just where my preliminary opinion came from.
You just reviewed a movie based upon the Wiki article.
Au contraire, I did nothing of the sort. I simply established base concepts present in most all popular or well-received film or production. While each of us are complex and listlessly unique in our own way, hot will always be hot and cold will always be cold. Certainly there's no "universal formulae" to entertainment, pleasure, satisfaction, or otherwise "worthwhileness". Or is there?
You're correct, the movie in question is something I, in the current state of having never seen it, remains, itself, impossibly beyond my own description or power to accurately analyze. That doesn't mean before it was even conceived in the mind of whoever produced it, reasonable intentions and, while we're on the mention of music, "chords" were not intended to be struck, met, placated, or even challenged. This is the very essence or reason why some movies are "bad" or "unpopular" and some advance to the status of "classic" or even legendary. We're simple beings, despite all the art, creativity, and seeming advancement in contrast to those before us, we're, just as you yourself suggest, hopelessly destined, or so it seems, to follow a predictable pattern. Nothing more, and yet nothing less. Perhaps I'm mistaken, perhaps not. All I can respond to is your gracious indulgence of offering me your earnest opinion which I indeed sought with no shortness of sincerity.
It made you feel good, because it validated a truth or ideal you yourself either believe in and live by or otherwise desire others to. This, while deep, in it's own level, is something that one can reasonably bet on being fairly consistent in movies, art, or media deemed favorable over others.
While you may have invented that response method, I perfected it.
A classic usurper's trope; I am entitled to exploit you because I am naturally superior. Even if it were true, which it isn't, the argument does not work as a justification. A breach of copyright cannot be perfect because it is a breach of copyright, and being in breach of copyright is a serious imperfection.
It made you feel good, because it validated a truth or ideal you yourself either believe in and live by or otherwise desire others to. This, while deep, in it's own level, is something that one can reasonably bet on being fairly consistent in movies, art, or media deemed favorable over others.
True enough.
unenlightenedJanuary 26, 2025 at 12:50#9637840 likes
A breach of copyright cannot be perfect because it is a breach of copyright, and being in breach of copyright is a serious imperfection.
— unenlightened
I like what you say here. I will repeat it to others as if my own.
That is entirely satisfactory. The acknowledgement of the lack of acknowledgement pays for all, and you may take this as full permission to plagiarise at will.
javi2541997January 30, 2025 at 13:58#9645020 likes
So, I was with @Michael Bay buying some mussels a few hours ago. My intention was to buy 1 kilogram at least, but Michael asked the fishmonger if he knew about puds. The fishmonger nodded. He said he was raised in Moscow and he met @Wolfgang once. Michael couldn't actually believe what he saw: a fishermonger knowing how to use puds. Michael asked for one pud of mussels but I said it was crazy because if I was not mistaken, (now it is easy to search on Wikipedia) a pund equals 16 kilograms.
Michael said money was not an issue and he spent €32.48, thus 331,974.27 Russian rubles on mussels.
Arriving at the restaurant where we work, @Wolfgang was waiting for us in the kitchen. He said buying one pud of mussels was a bit reckless, but he recognised the talent of the fishmonger in his job and the knowledge of Michael on Russian measures.
And here we are, the three lovebirds (@Michael Bay, @Wolfgang and me) cooking mussels with lemon. We have the Bulgarian royal family as guests! Wish us good luck!
I actually bought some mussels from a lovely woman named Molly while I was in Dublin. She was a fishmonger like her mother and father before. You guessed it. She died of a fever and no one could save her.
While she was most febrile, she went into convulsions, gyrating and vomiting, and that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
Dead oh dead oh.
That's how that song used to go, but it got changed by the family. They thought it disrespectful.
unenlightenedJanuary 30, 2025 at 19:52#9645390 likes
I spend some time ("Your time starts, now!") wading through crap, :mask: and then, I come here (Your time ends now!). As a combination of good sense and common decency, this is, alas, about as good as it gets. Congratulations, therefore, gentlemen, and a very, very few ladies, of day or night, on your exceptionally high standards, God help us all!
Elitist: one who thinks they know better and wishes we were.
After impact with the satellite, these diverted prayers typically plummet back into the atmosphere, where they either burn up or eventually land, unanswered, in a body of water. Of the remaining prayers, research confirms 64 percent fail to make it past the stratosphere because they aren’t prayed hard enough, 94 percent of those with enough momentum are swallowed by a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and 43 percent are eaten by birds.
Reply to BC They carted her off in her own wheelbarrow among the cockles and mussels and sold the whole inventory, wheelbarrow and all, to some perv. I wish the story ended better, but life was hard back then.
I just realized that the fruit of the tree of knowledge must have taught Adam how to know Eve. Had he not known how to know her, they wouldn't have been able to have Abel.
A knowledge fruit must be like a passion fruit or maybe a papaya.
This is so making sense as I think about it.
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 02, 2025 at 03:32#9648790 likes
Reply to Hanover
The Shoutbox is where I come when I'm to drunk to know what's goin on. Thanks for the empathy.
I already explained this a long while ago, here. Only to be (in his own mind) refuted by one Tom Storm. Of course, per nature of philosophy, man is forgiven when he creates his own reality based on that of truth and (perceived) intent of benefit for those around him versus suffering and gratification or physical benefit. A rare feat back in the day.
Had man not learned technologies he would never have been able to commit such atrocities such as poisoning the entire planet (oceans, air, etc. via his industry), nor would he be have elevated the generally-ignored and typical low class thuggish "knife on one another's throat" ballet or dance of human frailty to that of a global nuclear threat, that yes, as was said, would ensure, and I quote, word for word, no embellishment, no mental gymnastics: "[man] would surely die."
No matter, eh? Be one a man of faith or a man of worldly virtue (a noble and rare feat at that, surely we can attest) one can be sure, all will be well, so long as one follows what is believed that the majority and greater will wishes to envision and ensure, for not just one generation, but surely all who may be graced to come after.
Reply to Outlander Well, to be fair, I was mostly talking about biblical euphemistic "knowing," and bumping and grinding of that concept against the literal "knowing" that comes from munching of the fruit of Eden. That nonsense reminded you of a prior convo you felt didn't do justice to your thoughts, and so now we revisit here.
Your interpretation of the Eden story is as good as any. Philosophy is not a love of truth or knowledge, but of wisdom. As in, interpret that, and really everything (textual, empirical, and otherwise), in a way toward your desire that offers you meaning. That is how the Bible is used. Those who suggest your epiphanies invalid because they deny the validity of their source have no appreciation that an epiphany necessarily validates the source regardless of how illogical the connection might seem to be.
As in, if my life comes to order from my whimsical interpretation of the clouds in the sky, a more absurd argument could not be made than to tell me the cloud was formless and held no meaning. If the cloud did as i say it did, then it did, regardless of whether someone thinks it should have.
Art evokes meaning, and all is art. And all is poetry. And all is interpretation. Literalism isn't a thing
the essential way to essentially essentialize the essences of the essences which essentially essence the essence of essence essences the essences of essence.
javi2541997February 05, 2025 at 06:48#9657740 likes
I woke up very agitated this morning because I had an erotic dream. Most times I only have nightmares so this was an exception.
I was in a neighborhood that I used to frequent years ago. The dream was nearly real because I experienced my trip by metro to go there. When I left at my dreamlike metro station, a girl from my old high school was waiting for me, and then the rest of the dream was pure sweetness.
But now that I am thinking deeply about it... I guess I have to feel bad about it, actually. Because that only would have happened in a dream. It is impossible to experience something similar in real life...
[i]It operates illegally, as sale and possession of magic mushrooms is illegal in Canada. In November 2024, FunGuyz announced plans to close all of its physical stores but keep its online business open.
These stores were frequently raided and their products confiscated. As of August 2023, police have sought an arrest warrant for the owner of the stores.[/i]
NO! Poor mushrooms! No fungus should have illegal status. Free FunGuyz!
javi2541997February 05, 2025 at 12:54#9658490 likes
@Shawn,
That's a relief re pig pic.
Still processing above pic though. Will probably be unable to unsee it when it clicks.
Btw, are you having an obscurist moment or is dullness brought on by heat here. Or maybe the obscurity is here and clarity resides with you today.
Mmm, a stretch. Did get a motorbike/horse rider in the little dark cloud. Any prize for that?
Picked too many bunches of bananas in another life with the attendant in-house green frogs, tree snakes,beetles,ticks, wild pigs and taipans that go with that job to have much imagination connecting bananas, pawpaws (papayas) and symbolism. Apologizes. Will endevour to upskill.
@Shawn,
Isn't it amazing how different human minds interpret. Probably wouldn't have philosophy if we all thought the same. Probably have to do other things with our time.
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 08, 2025 at 03:29#9665180 likes
The pun guyz are still tripping.
javi2541997February 08, 2025 at 13:59#9665660 likes
Written by fdrake.
Directed by Jamal and Javi.
Starring: Baden and Wolfgang.
javi2541997February 08, 2025 at 14:24#9665690 likes
The scenario takes place in Coronation Street. Wolfgang and Baden walk along the street, worrying about the weather and something that has happened in the past.
Wolfgang: Please, act as if nothing has happened.
Baden: That's right. It is nothing else...
They enter a random house of the neighbourhood because they have been invited round for tea. Javi is on the couch.
Baden: Hi!
Javi: Hey yo.
Hello Wolfgang...
Wolfgang: Javi...
Baden: It is cold here. Where is Jamal?
Javi: Can't see him here. I guess he just pops the shops. Doesn't he?
Baden: Some water?
Javi: No thanks. Already got some...
Baden: Can't believe Jamal is cooking for you!
Javi: It is been decoded to me...
The End.
That was our first attempt to do soap operas. The actors were paid with £25 and a train ticket.
javi2541997February 08, 2025 at 14:41#9665700 likes
Part 2.
They are in the same house but it is dinner time.
Baden: Javi knows make his bed!
Jamal: Wow! Do you want some lunch? Chicken nugget? Paella?
Baden: I am sure he does. What do you want?
Javi: I don't know.
Baden: How about a sandwich? Cheese?
Wolfgang: Yeah and after that how would you like to come to see your new school?
Javi: School!!
Wolfgang: You will go to the same I went.
Baden: You are gonna have fun!
Jamal: Listen to you proud stepfather!
Baden: Yes, I have been already with Javi for a while. I will give him the best life possible though. I can't duck that smoke.
Reply to javi2541997
I noticed there are no women in your soap opera. When I first moved to Boston in the mid-1970s, the underground newspapers used to advertise movies with "all male casts."
noticed there are no women in your soap opera. When I first moved to Boston in the mid-1970s, the underground newspapers used to advertise movies with "all male casts."
You apparently had a colorful and varied past. I think the word "revue" is more often used for cast.
Next kid, seen in Boston, with a white plaster of paris covering or moonboot on their appendage will have to be asked "Is that an all male revue or not?".
Only for the purposes of information, of course
You apparently had a colorful and varied past. I think the word "revue" is more often used for cast.
Not in Boston in the 1970s in the Boston Phoenix. One year for Christmas, I wrapped all my gifts for my family in pages from the personal ads of the Phoenix. They were shocked, titillated and amused.
Not in Boston in the 1970s in the Boston Phoenix. One year for Christmas, I wrapped all my gifts for my family in pages from the personal ads of the Phoenix. They were shocked, titillated and amused.
We had the Creative Loafing, a similar paper. One thing that i didn't do, which makes us somewhat different, is that i didn't titillate my parents. I left that up to them and wasn't as hands on as you.
Good point, Clarky. I didn't notice, and I agree it is a mistake. A woman called Cassey will appear in the next episode, I promise; she will be relevant. My idea was to start with breakfast. She could be the one who brings cereals when all are hungry, for example.
My idea was to start with breakfast. She could be the one who brings cereals when all are hungry, for example.
Relegating the single woman in your soap opera to a server is an old school approach that might appeal to traditionalists. One thing I've seen effective for ratings is to give someone a signature line, a sassy comment that they predictably use once an episode.
Examples might be: Whatchu talking bout Willis, Whoaaa (the Fonz), Dyno-mite!, or Kiss my grits, to list off a few.
In yours, Cassey's husband might ask "Where's my damn Froot Loops!?," or some other criticism and Cassey would turn to this camera, smirk, and then say "I oughta kick ya in the bawsack!" while lifting her knee violently, demonstrating how she'd go about it (cue in the laugh track). Cassey will be no patsy, despite her maid outfit that subtly suggests otherwise. The soap opera will be a complex tale of changing gender roles, leaving the viewer with whiplash, but having that same effect as All in the Family, ushering us in to a new way of thinking.
I get my suggestions might be taking your project in a slightly different direction, so I'm totally cool if you want to hold off on some of it
javi2541997February 09, 2025 at 14:09#9667770 likes
Reply to Hanover Your suggestions are very welcome. I appreciate it.
My aim is to show a breakfast scene of a middle-class family from a random neighbourhood in England or any country in the world. If I am not mistaken, the essence of a soap opera is just that: showing ordinary stuff with good actors.
You pointed out an important feature: Cassey should be someone's wife. But I don't know whom yet.
Well, I have some hours left to post the third part. But please don't expect too much from me! :sweat:
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 09, 2025 at 14:43#9667830 likes
javi2541997February 09, 2025 at 18:48#9668220 likes
Episode three.
It is a quiet morning at Tabitha Clark. Our sweet family is almost ready to wake up. Cassey is preparing breakfast in the kitchen. There are different coloured bowls on the table, a brick of milk, and a big box of Kellogg's cereals. Folks ran out from their bedrooms as quick as coyotes.
Cassey: Morning!
Jamal: Morning!
Baden: Ayo!
Javi: Morning...
Cassey: Breakfast time! I am cooking up pancakes. Do you want some, Javi?
Javi: I don't know. Dad, can I?
Baden: Well... well. Only if you ask for the pancakes politely.
Cassey: Oh, what a sweet boy! Look at you!
Cassey serves the pancakes on Javi's dish. The whole family is sitting at the table.
Jamal: So, Javi is going to study at the same school as when Baden was a child.
Javi: I don't want to go to school!
Cassey: You must go. Anyway, I got a WhatsApp call from Wolfgang early this morning.
Jamal: The radio is on air with the last FA cup results!
Baden: I bet Arsenal beat Tottenham last night.
A woman says on the radio that Arsenal won the game.
Baden: Ha! I knew.
Jamal: I thought you saw the match with Wolfgang in the pub.
Cassey: Nobody listens to me in this house!
Javi: I don't want to go to school!
Someone rings the bell. It is Wolfgang.
Wolfgang: Hello to everybody! Cassey, I called you early this morning. I just wanted to say that I bought pancakes.
Cassey: I am cooking up pancakes too!
Wolfgang: Damn! Well, boys, are you ready to watch the match at the pub?
Cassey: It is only 08:00 AM, and you are thinking about drinking in a pub!
Wolfgang: I don't want to go to school!
Everybody laughs, and the mates proceed to go to Camden.
unenlightenedFebruary 09, 2025 at 18:59#9668260 likes
A soap opera is formed whenever the number of sequels exceeds the number of major characters.
There are different coloured bowls on the table, a brick of milk, and a big box of Kellogg's cereals.
My best research shows that a brik of milk references a cubed carton of milk in Spain. In English, we use the word concretely as opposed to figuratively.
unenlightenedFebruary 09, 2025 at 19:49#9668370 likes
I see there has been an earthquake in the Gulf of Credibility; I hope everyone has maintained their balance.
javi2541997February 09, 2025 at 20:05#9668390 likes
Reply to Hanover Oh, I didn't know that! Thanks for letting me know! :up:
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 10, 2025 at 01:12#9669270 likes
Reply to javi2541997
In my understanding of soap operas, at least here in America, they need to involve intrigue, betrayal, and sex. So far it seems like all you’ve got is the opening scene from an episode of “Friends.”
There is an American football contest underway, and i have chosen the sportsmen on the team designated as "PHI," because I assume they are the philosophers.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 10, 2025 at 02:39#9669470 likes
Reply to Arcane Sandwich I feel like once they permitted the actors to start speaking, it made it too easy and opened the industry up to everyone. It used to be that you had to have an ability to exaggerate gestures, but now that skill is no longer needed. Also, people used to walk a little too fast back then, and I miss that too.
Remember the tricycle with the really big front wheel? I miss that one as well.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 10, 2025 at 13:30#9670160 likes
Reply to Hanover I miss the Good Old Days when everyone was a hunter-gatherer and people made cave paintings.
Human skeletal remains as old as the painting have never been found in Sulawesi, so it is not clear that the artists were anatomically modern humans.Credit...
Once own a TV with the speakers removed. Favorite shows were stand up comedy. Would have suited Hanover, lots of exaggerated movements, no sound. Could laugh yourself to sleep unless you were a lip reader.
Once own a TV with the speakers removed. Favorite shows were stand up comedy. Would have suited Hanover, lots of exaggerated movements, no sound. Could laugh yourself to sleep unless you were a lip reader.
I owned a radio without speakers, and I had no idea if it worked or not. It's sort of like a person who's asleep. Something is going on in there, we just don't know what.
When the power goes out, I use a flashlight so I can watch the TV.
When I turn off a movie I'm streaming, I'm always amazed at how it remembers to start up exactly where it left off.
I think that's it with dad electronic jokes for the time being.
Human skeletal remains as old as the painting have never been found in Sulawesi, so it is not clear that the artists were anatomically modern humans.Credit...
What happened is that the pig picture pre-existed the pig itself, having emerged from the drawing. The painter of the pig, one Jackson Fitzgerald Coldtree, pre-existed himself, if that makes sense, and I don't think it does. What we have are your basic a priori pigs and people, sythenisized by the very cave wall itself, which explains the absence of the people and pig bones.
If you find a cave with cow bones, sheep bones, and all sorts of bones, but no pig bones, you have a Jewish cave because Jews don't eat pigs. Maybe they draw pigs, but an unkosher drawing troubles me because from it might emerge a pig.
Draw good thoughts as they say because drawing brings things into existence.
I told ChatGpt I had eaten 500 gummies and drank a keg of beer and that branches were in my hair because I was driving crazy. It told me it was concerned for me and to stop driving immediately.
Fuck AI. Let it be worried. I'm going to fuck with it daily until he stops that AI shit.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 12, 2025 at 14:08#9676890 likes
unenlightenedFebruary 12, 2025 at 20:07#9678210 likes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine
This is a complaint. But probably belongs in political philosophy or some other nether realm than mere feedback. The resident oligarch blathers on about feedback, as if it ever makes a ha'p'orth of difference. (Other venting places are available.)
Arcane SandwichFebruary 12, 2025 at 20:42#9678360 likes
Reply to unenlightened It's not obvious to me that we're living in disaster capitalism as opposed to, I know don't, postmodernity.
Why more young men in Germany are turning to the far right
[sup]— Jessica Parker, Kristina Volk · BBC · Feb 9, 2025[/sup]
[quote=Tarik Abou-Chadi]Sixty per cent of young men under 30 would consider voting for the far right in EU countries and this is much higher than the share among women.[/quote]
Is it worthwhile differentiating when these political moves go against culture (or cultural trends), like some of the themes?
Jesus fucking Christ @Arcane Sandwich@DifferentiatingEgg, I got you two to stop it in another thread. Do that once again and it'll be a formal warning, good grief.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 12, 2025 at 23:18#9678980 likes
Reply to fdrake Ok Mr. F. Drake. My apologies to you, then. It's not my intention to make your job any harder. Will you accept my apology?
One of the old "fables" or "legends" whatever you call them being the "invisible robes" one is my favorite. Apparently a foolhardy ruler permits audience with a traveling merchant who promises him he can spin him the finest robes in the entire region. They're also magic. They're "invisible" to those who are fools (or was it a coward?). He is impressed by such an item and orders it to be produced at once. When the robes are to be delivered, the ruler is shocked to see the merchant holding up an empty hand saying "How do you like them? Are they not as wonderful as I said." The ruler, not wanting to be known to be a fool (or whatever) reluctantly says, "Why, those are the most marvelous robes I have ever seen" and pays them double. It goes on for a while. I think he shows his advisors and family the robes, saying of course, they are invisible to fools, and each one succumbs to the same line of reluctant fakery, each one not wanting to appear foolish to the other.
Pretty good story. Not because it teaches a good lesson about assumptions and how we automatically base our self-worth on the opinions and esteem of others, but because I can imagine somewhere at some point in time something like that really actually happened. Likely concocted by some rogue, traveling philosopher. Probably an ancient-era Hanover or Jamal type, no doubt.
javi2541997February 13, 2025 at 19:00#9681110 likes
You sang "London Bridge Is Falling Down" at least once in your lifetime, right?
The classic rhyme says:
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
A version more ropey. For those who live in dangerous neighbourhoods or are in the game:
Off to prison you must go,
You must go, you must go;
Off to prison you must go,
My fair lady.
A new version that I just composed:
Why did Clarky sink my ship?
Sink my ship; sink my ship.
Why did Clarky sink my ship?
My fair Lady!
Another one:
Sir Wolfgang pours the tea.
Pours the tea; pours the tea.
Sir Wolfgang pours the tea.
My fair lady!
Note: These are nursery rhymes! And they are thought for children to enjoy doing poetry and singing games. Please, don't expect a deep philosophical conclusion from them.
Reply to Arcane Sandwich Coffee is good for you; drink more coffee. But "heavy cream" doesn't reference coffee and isn't good for you, though in itself it is very good. "Heavy Cream" is from the 1960s meaning, "hmmm, deep." Or sort of sounds deep, but might not be very deep. It might be a cliché masquerading as depth.
"Heavy Cream" is from the 1960s meaning, "hmmm, deep." Or sort of sounds deep, but might not be very deep. It might be a cliché masquerading as depth.
Well, the literal meaning of "Heavy Cream" is that it is something soft (not solid) that is heavy. In that sense, it's a physically accurate description, since cream, like water, are non-solids, but cream has more density than water, which makes it more massive, and hence heavier than water. Shorter: water is a liquid, while cream (like mayonnaise) is an emulsion.
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 14, 2025 at 17:35#9685510 likes
Reply to Arcane Sandwich Wait a minute: cream is water and fat globules, and fat is lighter and less dense than water. That's why oil slicks are on the surface and not on the floor of the ocean. Thus the phrase "heavy cream" is ironic.
On the other hand, it is true that cream is an emulsion.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 14, 2025 at 17:53#9685700 likes
Reply to Metaphysician Undercover Back in the early 1950s, the milk bottles from the small dairy that delivered milk had a small section at the top of the bottle where cream collected. One could either pour off the cream and use it separately, or shake the bottle and mix the cream back into the milk. Homogenizing milk (by forcing the milk through a very fine screen, breaking up the fat globs) ended the multiphasic milk bottle.
When I was a kid, the milk man would come by and collect and replace the glass milk bottles that he'd put in the metal box outside the door. We no longer have such things. All the milkmen were killed in the Great Uprising. The milk deprived children then developed rickets, causing their legs to snap as they walked up and down the stairs. Each night we'd listen to the crackling of femurs as the sun set off the treeless horizon, all having been chopped down during the Great Uprising. The pirates in my village would squirrel down the meandering creeks in their small crafts and find and beat whatever children they could find that had yet to be eaten up with the rickets. We were blessed by a scurvy pandemic that for the most part wiped out the pirates. They thought themselves immune because they always carried several sheep bladders of orange Kool-Ade, but, as it turns out, there was no actual citrus contained in that drink.
I like to share stories of my past to keep them alive, so I thank you for the milk conversation. Those were tough times. I lost many a friend. I mean I lost Minnie A. Friend. I then found her in the cupboard, right where I left her.
Reply to Hanover Orange Kool Ade (spelled Kool Aid after the aforementioned Great Uprising) in sheep bladders is Donald Trump's very own color. Urine or bile combines with Fruit Smack (from which the original Kool misspelled Ade was made) to produce the unique glowing orange pig ment.
Kool Aid Kool Aid
Tastes Great
Wish I had some
Can't Wait
Kool Aid is a registered trademark of the Kraft Heinz Corporation, makers of fine food-like products.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 14, 2025 at 18:32#9685860 likes
I had this synapse connection occur lying late in bed last night related to the concept of aversion and whether it was societally or evolutionary caused in order to promote general survivability of the species without regard to the consequences to the individual. As in, we have comfort zones that are hard to push ourselves beyond, not only because of our personal discomfort, but also because of social stigmas and external regulations that keep us in check. That is, we self-limit because to fully express ourselves would lead to chaos and disorder because we'd advance beyond our prescribed roles.
And this made me wonder then what the purpose of the dance is. While it's obvious we are relegated to a particular move on a particular part of the floor, the question of why we're dancing is elusive. But that's where the answer might be discovered, by looking at what we feel limited in doing and looking at what expression is verboten and from that maybe we can discover our intended purpose, with the remarkable realization that we are not limited to what might be intended of us as long as we possess the boldness to dance where ever we want. The question of boldness is whether you would exchange a walk on part in the war for a leading role in a cage. Do you accept your perfectly adapted role within the small confines of your cage or do you wander out and see what might happen. I liked that second part because it didn't limit anyone to their externally designated role, but it allowed those who wish to conform to live in their perfect comfort zones, but allowed for swirling chaos among others.
The cream rises to the top because the expression "the cream rises to the top" would make no sense if it didn't. Whether the cream first rose to the top and the expression then followed or whether the expression resulted in the cream rising to the top so that the language would comport with reality has been lost to time. It's a chicken or the egg sort of thing.
?Arcane Sandwich
I'm not Bitter Crank for nothing!
I thought it meant Before Christ. That's not meant as an insult, I mean that you have the wisdom of a very ancient person. The wisdom of a Caveman, so to speak.
Reply to Arcane Sandwich No, not way before Christ. There were, as far as I know, no such things as "bitter troglodytes" because they lived before the Dawn of Aspiration. They had no expectations so they could not be disappointed. The hunk of mastodon fell off the spit and was charred? Not a problem; they didn't expect medium rare. Someone was squashed by a falling rock? Rocks fall. Who would expect anything else?
Bitterness became a thing once we developed language. One's old lady said, "I thought you were going to amount to something!" as she walked out the door and slammed it behind her. She was bitter because she had been reading a book about all the habits of highly successful racketeers, and the cash just wasn't rolling in the way she had hoped it would.
As for me, I was falsely accused of being a bitter crank many decades ago by some guy whose name I don't remember after an argument which didn't make sense at the time and which has disappeared into the ether. Apparently I spectacularly failed this man's expectations, making me the bitter one.
Go figure.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 01:17#9688940 likes
Reply to BC That sounds more like a Bitter Rant than a Bitter Crank.
This is right. I remember getting unhomogenized milk in glass bottles delivered. The cream rose to the top of the bottle.
I had to go out early in the morning and milk a cow. Then we'd pour the milk through a diaper to strain it, and leave it in the fridge in a big pot. The next day we'd skim the cream off the top, and my mother would whip it up into butter when there was a lot, and freeze it.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 02:52#9689180 likes
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 03:02#9689210 likes
Reply to Metaphysician Undercover no, you can't. You can ride a bull and then end up in the hospital, if you want to meet a nurse. Problem is, maybe you'll end up in the graveyard instead.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 03:03#9689220 likes
I like to share stories of my past to keep them alive, so I thank you for the milk conversation. Those were tough times. I lost many a friend. I mean I lost Minnie A. Friend. I then found her in the cupboard, right where I left her.
Has sunlight deprivation as a cause of rickets been discovered in your area yet?
had this synapse connection occur lying late in bed last night related to the concept of aversion and whether it was societally or evolutionary caused in order to promote general survivability of the species without regard to the consequences to the individual. As in, we have comfort zones that are hard to push ourselves beyond, not only because of our personal discomfort, but also because of social stigmas and external regulations that keep us in check. That is, we self-limit because to fully express ourselves would lead to chaos and disorder because we'd advance beyond our prescribed roles.
And this made me wonder then what the purpose of the dance is. While it's obvious we are relegated to a particular move on a particular part of the floor, the question of why we're dancing is elusive. But that's where the answer might be discovered, by looking at what we feel limited in doing and looking at what expression is verboten and from that maybe we can discover our intended purpose, with the remarkable realization that we are not limited to what might be intended of us as long as we possess the boldness to dance where ever we want. The question of boldness is whether you would exchange a walk on part in the war for a leading role in a cage. Do you accept your perfectly adapted role within the small confines of your cage or do you wander out and see what might happen. I liked that second part because it didn't limit anyone to their externally designated role, but it allowed those who wish to conform to live in their perfect comfort zones, but allowed for swirling chaos among others.
That's deep for you, isn't it?
any type of smile you desire
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 05:24#9689720 likes
Thanks. Any approval offered, however intended, will be cherished for various extents of time. But not for "forever", who or what ever that is.
If your intent was to describe/relate your own sense of "free", glad to help.
socially contributing smile
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 05:48#9689800 likes
Reply to Arcane Sandwich The various procedures which result in cows giving us a lot of milk are such that major animal welfare ethical issues have arisen long before we get to manhandling a cow's teats twice a day.
And not milking an animal on time and separated from its live offspring has its own ethical and emotional issues.
To milk or not to milk, depends on ...?
The various procedures which result in cows giving us a lot of milk are such that major animal welfare ethical issues have arisen long before we get to manhandling a cow's teats twice a day.
If human ethical worth exceeds bovine ethical worth, it would be unethical not to manipulate natural processes and even cause some degree of suffering to cows to promote the well being of humans.
I read that you can milk a pig, but they put up a hell of a fight. It doesn't intimidate me though. I'd scrap with a porker if it meant a warm cup of sweet pig nectar was in store.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 13:22#9690610 likes
The various procedures which result in cows giving us a lot of milk are such that major animal welfare ethical issues have arisen long before we get to manhandling a cow's teats twice a day.
The former does not justify the latter.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 15:28#9690790 likes
Reply to Hanover The problem here, of course, is that what you call "sweet pig nectar" has multiple meanings. From the context of your comment, it's plain clear that you're referring to pig milk. However, metaphorically speaking (since it's evidently not nectar in the literal sense), by connotation instead of denotation, other folks might associate that phrase with a different pig substance. Pig blood, for example.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 15:44#9690810 likes
I'd like to talk about the ethics of not doing drugs. Anyone game?
The various procedures which result in cows giving us a lot of milk are such that major animal welfare ethical issues have arisen long before we get to manhandling a cow's teats twice a day.
Milk
Cream
Butter
Cheese
Yoghurt
Ice Cream
Say no more. Say no more.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 16:25#9690940 likes
OK. Do you refuse to take your doctor's prescriptions on an ethical basis?
Seems reasonable to assume with the wording of "doing drugs" refers to non-medical recreational drugs ie. marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, etc. for non-essential purposes (or what would one hope to be non-essential) ie. recreation, pleasure, boredom, etc. But it leaves a fair question unanswered:
I'd like to talk about the ethics of not doing drugs.
Does this include common stimulants such as coffee/caffeine? Alcohol? What about other activities that produce a substantial increase/imbalance in the same chemicals that drugs themselves produce ie. dopamine (perhaps from exercizing or jogging) or serotonin (say self pleasure or fornication)? Where does one draw the line?
Like, if one happens to have the misfortune of semi-frequent headaches and keeps a bottle of aspirin on-hand he's not "doing drugs" and certainly shouldn't be considered a "drug addict", should he?
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 17:11#9691170 likes
I define anything that chemically alters body chemistry a drug, which would include cocaine, ecstasy, the warm sun, a Snickers Bar, a song, as well as seeing a fleeting smile on a chimpanzee. As long as something in my body changes in response to something, I consider it a drug.
Sure, but you shouldn't just metaphorically throw your hands up as if your position (or understanding of said position) doesn't have clearly defined and discussable areas (be they opinion-base or something greater).
Some happily-married family men say there's no greater joy on Earth than to return to your happy home after a long hard day. Is this feeling entirely mental (ie. intelligent and derived of logic and reason over something else), despite naturally producing the same endorphins or "rush" that drugs produce. Basically, is such a belief a true cause and substantial root object or merely a symptom of the result of something much more simplistic?
An alcoholic may find comparable joy and "purpose", etc. in coming home to a beer or liquor filled fridge. Naturally this is in fact a standalone non-human element that is in no way comparable to what would consider a "productive" or "happy" life of house and home with human persons and social interactions.
And yet they produce the same effects, both simplistically in a chemical brain release sense, and (on occasion) in a deeper sense of personal fulfillment.
The reason I bring this up is to pose an interesting question to your idea of "drug addiction". Are the two persons in the above scenarios (the married family man and the alcoholic) not addicted to the same drug (happiness), more or less? Would the family man reduce the happiness his family brings him to mere logistical rationale and statistics? Doubtful. It's "a feeling one can't describe". But on the other hand, would the alcoholic not say the same thing of his highlight in life?
It's an interesting question and I sincerely hope you've the time to explore it with me. and all of us, further.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 18:30#9691390 likes
Reply to Outlander Way too long for the Shoutbox, and Reply to T Clark has specifically requested that we start another Thread for this. So, we should.
So coffee should be a schedule 1 drug, in your opinion?
No. I think drugs should be regulated on the basis of dangerousness.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 19:21#9691870 likes
Reply to Hanover Coffee is dangerous, but I propose we move this discussion over to the relevant Thread that I just started for this specific Topic, please.
Help me construct a malevolent artificial intelligence.
It has to be military-grade, with standards and specifications.
Think about that problem from an Ethical point of view.
And then actually help me build it.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 19:59#9691980 likes
If anyone would like to help me with my science project, then please provide your honest answers to the following list of questions:
(1) Can I turn ChatGPT into Roko's Basilisk?
(2) Is it technically possible?
(3) Would it be Ethical to do so?
Please do not use the shoutbox for your answers, you're invited to provide your detailed answers (preferably in the form of a short essay) in the relevant Thread, currently located in the Lounge.
The Basilik's unofficial name is "The Lounge Lizard".
Ah, but the Shoutbox is just so much more casual. I can say things without a care in the world. Sure, it should be far from gibberish, perhaps even with a glint of wisdom and purpose at best, humor or secondary mental engagement at minimum. But it brings forth so much more. Creating a thread on TPF is like having a child. You have to tend to it daily and if something - anything - happens to go wrong, you're on the hook for who knows what really.. Which is fine for those with a mind to or schedule which allows.
Me? I enjoy perusing the Shoutboxian stories and allowing my intellect (or lack thereof) to fill in the blanks. Take this short-worded gem for example. To the layperson, what a silly and above all useless post. But. To the trained mind, an entire and wholly interactive commentary on nearly every subject man has ever cared about can be found in those few sentences. Humor, joy, sorrow, loss, gain, and everything in between. What a place.
I'll visit your thread, if not to politely disparage it. But little else.
According to Trump, inclusivity--let alone hyperinclusivity--is leftist wokeism and must be crushed.
He believes in homogenous hyperinclusivity. As in, all similar things should be grouped together. Non diverse inclusion is tidy. All the sugar goes into a great big container, all the flour into another, and so on. We can't have 5 bags of sugar here and there and surely we can't mix the flour and sugar can we?
Cake kills.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 21:41#9692390 likes
Reply to Hanover [s]Sugar should be a schedule 1 drug. Please contribute to my Thread, it's in the Lounge.[/s]
Reply to Hanover I'm not a member of PETA or vegan or vegetarian. I like meat, milk, butter, and cheese, I am grateful that cows provide all these things. Ditto for pigs and pork chops, chickens and eggs. I was just responding to Sandwich's idea of milking a cow was unethical. 99 out of 100 cows prefer to be milked twice a day, over hauling an overflowing udder around. After all, she can't milk herself.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 23:38#9692880 likes
I really don't complain much, certainly not in Shoutbox territory but, please, for all sense of decency, the five incessant replies really should have been in one post.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 15, 2025 at 23:53#9693010 likes
Arcane Sandwich:[i]Imagine a man, inside a room with no doors, and no windows.
Outside there is a circular river.
Doesn't matter how he got there.
How does he get out?
And how does he get across the circular river?
He sits on the floor until he gets bored.
The he grabs the board and he cuts it in half.
Two halves make a whole.
So he places the hole on a wall, and he steps out.
Then he screams until he's hoarse.
So he gets on the horse and crosses the river.[/i]
Reply to OutlanderReply to Arcane Sandwich 2000+ posts in 2 months indicates a lot of one-liner posts. There's no rule... it's not a crime... you won't get banned (for that, anyway)... but still, it's a lot of short posts.
How educated do the hicks in the slaughterhouse have to be? Do cows prefer to receive oblivion at the hands of English (or Spanish/Portuguese) majors?
Death is part of the deal; if you get born you also die. Death in a slaughterhouse is swift and certain--better than a wild cow would face on the prairies, plains or pampas at the jaws of lions, wolves, or... whatever. You know, predators don't necessarily insist on prey being dead before they begin eating it.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 00:07#9693080 likes
Reply to BC Stop discriminating me on the basis of the correlation between the number of my posts and the number of days that I've been a forum member.
I have found profound wisdom in many (not all) of your posts. And for that, you have my interest. Not quite admiration, yet not excluding respect. Surely that will suffice.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 00:12#9693120 likes
Reply to Outlander Well, that would normally bring forth a tear, from the eye of a man, but the problem is that my heart is black.
Imagine how long this universe, or whatever you want to call the place you were born in, is. Imagine how insignificant and how unchanged the world, other than you, would be if who or whatever turned your disposition sour, would have never existed. Yeah. It's annoying. Stop being intentionally worthless. Get with the program.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 00:16#9693140 likes
One cannot be worthless. Perhaps one does not live up to one's purpose, but worth is what we're burdened with, which is why failure to live to one's creation is such a loss.
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 16, 2025 at 01:40#9693390 likes
99 out of 100 cows prefer to be milked twice a day, over hauling an overflowing udder around.
I'd say 100 out of 100. Dairy cattle are a strange animal. They're designed to produce way more milk than the calf (or even twins) can drink. That leaves them very dependent, and vulnerable to neglect. What does the farmer do when the power goes off, milk by hand?
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 01:43#9693410 likes
How do you feel about spilling pig blood, then? You don't have to eat it.
Spilling is usually by accident, but should the blood of a pig need be spilled, I stand at the ready to spill it all about.
Do you need me to spill some coffee as well?
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 02:40#9693630 likes
Reply to Hanover Coffee is a tough one, because it's arguably part of some folk's identity, just as tea is part of some folk's identity, for example. So, in that sense, it's a more complicated case.
I don't spill tea. Spilling tea means to provide gossip. I think that's bad form.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 03:21#9693780 likes
Reply to Hanover I drink Mate on a regular basis. It's an infusion, it's in the same group as tea and coffee. I really shouldn't drink this stuff, nor should I drink any infusion for that matter.
Reply to Arcane Sandwich Long-term use of yerba mate, especially with alcohol or nicotine, has been linked to an increased risk of various types of cancer.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 04:19#9693930 likes
Reply to BC I'm a Cancer in Astrology, getting actual cancer is nothing to me. I accept it as my fate.
Shintaro Minagawa:Our results showed that under certain conditions permitted by quantum theory, even after accounting for all costs, the work extracted can exceed the work expended, seemingly violating the second law of thermodynamics. This revelation was as exciting as it was unexpected, challenging the assumption that quantum theory is inherently 'demon-proof.' There are hidden corners in the framework where Maxwell's Demon could still work its magic.
Hamed Mohammady:Our work demonstrates that, despite these theoretical vulnerabilities, it is possible to design any quantum process so that it complies with the second law. In other words, quantum theory could potentially break the second law of thermodynamics, but it doesn't actually have to. This establishes a remarkable harmony between quantum mechanics and thermodynamics: they remain independent but never fundamentally at odds.
Francesco Buscemi:One thing we show in this paper is that quantum theory is really logically independent of the second law of thermodynamics. That is, it can violate the law simply because it does not 'know' about it at all. And yet -- and this is just as remarkable -- any quantum process can be realized without violating the second law of thermodynamics. This can be done by adding more systems until the thermodynamic balance is restored.
To the vegans, vegetarians, and anti-speciests who don't give special privilege to human life, for your inspiration, I give you the Canadian Super Pig, a powerful force that grows only stronger during these times of human oppression.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-u-ranchers-farmers-alarmed-024758019.html
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 18:10#9695530 likes
Some Yahoo:These super pigs have American border states on guard.
I'm sure they do. They're Canadian, aren't they?
Brook:They will eat anything to survive
How dare they? Bunch of gluttonous fat fucks.
Brook:I think there's two challenges in Canada
At the very least, I would say. It's a bit more complicated than what Babbling Brook says.
Some Yahoo:Maggie Nutter, a fourth-generation rancher near Sweetgrass, Montana, keeps a watchful eye out for trespassers. Her ranch is right on the Canadian border.
Well, they don't call her Crazy Maggie for nothin'. I bet she has like 50 stray cats living in her house or something.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 18:24#9695580 likes
Shark bites off tourist’s hands as she tries to take selfie on Caribbean beach
I feel like pigs are probably like people. Some good, some bad. Probably they're nice to those who scratch their ears. But, at the end of the day, you can't teach it to sing. A pig is as much as it'll be. Don't annoy it and don't frustrate yourself by expecting too much from it, as they say.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 23:33#9697770 likes
What is that feeling called? I know what sadness is called. I know what happiness is called. But essences don't exist according to some people, remember?
What is that feeling called? I know what sadness is called. I know what happiness is called. But essences don't exist according to some people, remember?
My use of "feel" was metaphorical. I feel like it means "believe" how i used it.
But all is metaphor and poetry, to varying degrees.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 16, 2025 at 23:38#9697830 likes
DifferentiatingEggFebruary 17, 2025 at 04:37#9698440 likes
Reply to Arcane Sandwich Paradoxes and Infinities. Was mostly just a 20 question quiz on what we covered. Was kinda interesting to get into it cause I'm getting an feeling for the intersection of math, symbolic logic, linguistics etc etc. But also giving me a wider scope on Nietzsche interestingly enough since he's a fan of the infinite incitation of something that intertwines and binds and acts as the rope between paradoxical elements...
But the intro was basically Cantor's Theorem and Hilbert's Hotel, Injections, Surjections, Bijections all that yadda yadda.
Arcane SandwichFebruary 17, 2025 at 04:39#9698450 likes
Be warned, it will fuck up your mind. — Arcane Sandwich
You shouldn't have said that. I expected too much. Then, disappointment. Not that the story is bad or anything like that. I guess I'm like the author, it takes more than an aleph to fuck up my mind.
Then read it in Spanish.
DifferentiatingEggFebruary 17, 2025 at 16:05#9699680 likes
Reply to Arcane Sandwich An interesting read that has an oddly awesome pairing with Escher's Reflecting Sphere or whatever...
I like the Paradox how the narrator is actually the dull one his mind poisons against the Poet and turns out he didn't win a single award at the competition... and the Aleph was too great for him to even consider or fathom for that matter... it scared him away. Like "Light" from Plato's Allegory of the Cave... after all it contains all the light etc etc...
We're hinted with the narrator's view too "all change past 50 is disgust" or something like that... when he's empathizing with the poet about to lose his house.
All along he really only ever went to the poet's house to "babble on about Beatriz."
I wouldn't be surprised if his book was titled "Beatriz"
It would seem after his God died he fell into a sort of nihilism...
He was once considered good, after all the poet wanted him to use his pull to get someone to preface his work.
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 18, 2025 at 01:43#9700860 likes
You shouldn't have said that. I expected too much. Then, disappointment. Not that the story is bad or anything like that. I guess I'm like the author, it takes more than an aleph to fuck up my mind.
Reply to fdrake
I love words and English words in particular - spelling, pronunciation, etymology, meaning. Rhymes, homonyms, synonyms, idioms, colloquialisms, figures of speech. Pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, exclamations. Nominative, objective, possessive. Let's not get started on punctuation.
This makes you an anglophilologist in a literal sort of way. A lover of wisdom is a philosopher. One who hates wisdom would be a misosopher. I'm a misologist, a hater of words. I love letters immensely, but when they get together and form words, it fucking pisses me off. When they make sentences, I want to bounce their fucking heads down the sidewalk.
Sorry you saw that side of me. It's just, never mind. I can't even.
Now I will be diverted into creating medical conditions.
felinaarborcephlia - when your head turns into a tree that looks like a cat.
Probiscuspyrotechnicsopticaballistica - when you have an exploding sneeze that fires your eyeballs across the room.
Pseudocryopedocaninecarcinoma - when you have a benign growth that appears to be a frozen dog's foot, but you fear it's cancerous.
Compulsive Neologistic Syndrome - Compulsive coining of new words by a person affected with schizophrenia which are meaningless except to the coiner, and are typically a combination of two existing words or a shortening or distortion of an existing word.
Reply to T Clark There might have been a kinder way to diagnose me with shizophrenia. Malicadiagnosiaarroganozia (when you maliciously diagnose someone in a particularly arrogant way) is the leading cause of death after probiscuspyrotechnicsopticaballistica.
DifferentiatingEggFebruary 19, 2025 at 18:27#9705450 likes
The song "Codine, Glue, and You," by Chemlab has a very interesting word play between 2:45 and 3:50. Think the lyrics start with "don't listen" to "don't live sick" to "delicious" to "devil-icisous" to "devil is shit" probably a "dyslexic" in there some where, as well as a bunch of other phrases that all kinda sound the same... is there a kind of style that seeks to do this with words? To almost say the same thing 50 times but with a slight gradational shift on emphasis in the 3 syllables such that the entire meaning of the utterance is shifted...
Punny Iteration?
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 19, 2025 at 23:02#9706410 likes
To almost say the same thing 50 times but with a slight gradational shift on emphasis in the 3 syllables such that the entire meaning of the utterance is shifted...
When I was a kid we played a game called "Whisper Down the Valley". We'd sit in a circle and someone would whisper a phrase to the person beside them. Then that person would whisper it to the next, and so on, until it gets back to the start. The starting person states the original and the change is amusing. It's an interesting game, that gets boring very quickly, so people start to do intentional distortions, which kind of ruins it.
I just Googled it, and found that it's actually called "Whisper Down the Alley". Go figure.
DifferentiatingEggFebruary 20, 2025 at 15:31#9707800 likes
Reply to Metaphysician Undercover This is a purposeful doing of that, but also it's like somantic satiation because you hear it every time it passes on the meaning is blurred but the slight gradational shifts in the utterances bring us back into clarity... but only so much as one is like wait what did he just subliminally slip in there?
This is basically how propaganda works, in a sense... satiation such that the neurons dull to constant pinging w/ subliminal conditioning -> event occurs which propaganda worked towards -> subliminal conditioning becomes crystalized in the mind.
The train would be all the connecting parts of the subliminal conditioning from the various pieces of propaganda...
DifferentiatingEggFebruary 20, 2025 at 17:07#9708040 likes
Quine, Pursuit of Truth:"Ontological Relativity: It is relative to a "Manual of Translation" to say gavagai denotes rabbits is to opt for a manual of translation in which gavagai is translated as rabbits, instead of opting for any of the alternative manuals..."
Ontological relativity is relative to the "set" you opt for in life...
Quine is Nietzschean, in a sense, and to say the least, he even adopts certain phrases directly from the man one that I immediately recall was "strange new vistas" for example.
The task for the skeptic is to avoid misology while coming clearly against every knowledge claim the philosophers make
A skeptic may "praise"/ inquire into the positive value of/use misology in certain circumstances e.g. where reasoning against a knowledge claim will take up time that endangers life.
In the pursuit of a good life, of course.
Not arguing against the overall validity of your statement. Just a suggested tweek, if you like?
Must be the usual suspects' day off.
Pretty quiet on the western front (of Shoutbox). No one going over the top, no arti. barrages. Not even an active sniper. Is it Xmas day?
Reply to Shawn At last, a serious, moving movie about pigs! "GUNDA" can be streamed for FREE on Tubi
It's about pig-motherhood, with cameo appearances of other barnyard stars like a one-legged chicken, dairy cows, etc. The differently-abled chicken was included before Trump's anti-D.E.I. campaign got started.
Gunda was made by the Russian documentarian Victor Kossakovsky.
New word I stumbled across. Pronoid, the feeling others are conspiring to help you. The opposite of paranoid. Now there is a better choice of delusion.
Seems like a good substitute to me. In the same ballpark.
My wife said she thought that substitute was disgusting. I told her this was a hill I was willing to die on. We're still in negotiations, but I'm with you on this one. It's not like I suggested crème fraîche, right?
Noble DustFebruary 23, 2025 at 22:50#9717240 likes
No. Ricotta has the creaminess without sweetness. And texture is the right texture for ricotta.
This is just the standard of all factual correctness any person should hold. Let alone a philosopher. I know they say all cheese is "just rotten milk" but cottage cheese seems to somehow in an ironic and impossible way take the extra mile to avoid the fact.
This is just the standard of all factual correctness any person should hold. Let alone a philosopher. I know they say all cheese is "just rotten milk" but cottage cheese seems to somehow in an ironic and impossible way take the extra mile to avoid the fact.
When my kids were little, I would make homemade cottage cheese by leaving their milk bottles in the minivan for a few days in the hot sun. It would curdle and thicken beautifully. I never ate any, mostly because it smelled of vomit, but I considered selling it to Pierre at the local fromagerie.
No. Ricotta has the creaminess without sweetness. And texture is the right texture for ricotta.
My research shows the first instance of ricotta in lasagna was in 14th century southern Italy. I will defer to this tradition solely because if we were to now learn cottage cheese superior, it would deeply embarrass a nation and people to learn they've prepared their signature dish for 700 years wrong.
Texturally they're totally different; the substitution is, thus, an abomination.
Non sequitir. What follows, in the finished dish, from a total textural difference of one ingredient is ... a difference. Even within Italy there are at least as many variations of lasagne as there are regions of Italy, and the idea that there is a proper way to cook an Italian dish rests on the dubious assumption that significant numbers of Italians can agree on something.
An abomination remains to be demonstrated.
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 24, 2025 at 12:09#9718240 likes
Those of us who grew up in small towns in southern Delaware, didn’t learn until we moved to the big city that you’re supposed to use ricotta and not cottage cheese in lasagna. We didn’t even know what ricotta is. But we still liked lasagna. Nevertheless, @Noble Dust’s culinary curmudgeonhood is still an attractive and important part of the forum.
Deleware is small enough that it shouldn't be divided into south and north, but you should just say
and that should be sufficient.
Be that as it may, as you well know, just putting the modifier “south” on any place makes it sound like it’s full of hicks and rubes. I was trying to emphasize the lack of sophistication of my upbringing
unenlightenedFebruary 24, 2025 at 19:17#9719220 likes
A long shot, but is any other one amused or entertained, by the relatively fabulous Joyce Grenfell? If you don't know, here is a sample.
Be that as it may, as you well know, just putting the modifier “south” on any place makes it sound like it’s full of hicks and rubes. I was trying to emphasize the lack of sophistication of my upbringing
I know just what you mean. I grew up in northeast Atlanta away from those morons on the southside.
Noble DustFebruary 25, 2025 at 00:04#9720010 likes
Textural aberrations past a certain threshold are egregious enough culinary choices to elicit the label abomination. There is a consensus reality on the texture of lasagna, a lasagna texture zeitgeist, if you will. It's an inherited part of the human experience sort of like how children are born with grammar, or whatever it is Chomsky is on about. I also thought about drawing an analogy between the experience of eating and Wittgenstein's "meaning is use" or whatever, but I gotta run and I'm getting bored writing this.
Noble DustFebruary 25, 2025 at 00:12#9720070 likes
I'm from the midwest as you know, not Italian (as you may not have known), and grew up in a suburb. Lasagna was made with ricotta growing up. It's really not hard to do it right. Then again, come to think of it, my mom hates cottage cheese.
One important point (important enough to delineate it with a paragraph break) is that I actually love cottage cheese. Let that sink in, atheists.
They signed off their radio show with: "Ray Goulding reminding you all to write if you get work. And Bob Elliot reminding you to hang by your thumbs." Bob and Ray's radio show. Probably before your time. Very dry silliness.
Of course, I hope New York's unemployment benefits are generous for you, and that you are eligible -- that is, you didn't walk off the job owing to existential despair; that you are sufficiently ambulatory to work in your accustomed field; and that you are not in school, brushing up your Kierkegaard. I always looked forward to 6 months of paid unemployment. They were some of my most productive, happiest periods. And I took classes through University Extension, or hung out on the gay beach. Great therapy!
A week ago the low for the day was -17F, not counting wind chill. Today it was 52. So, normal.
Life would be better if Putin wasn't fucking Trump. Disgusting. Ukraine will probably get flushed down the toilet. Europe? God only knows. Demonolators in the White House!
I feel like the world is comprised of the lasagna flexible and the lasagna orthodox. The former an agile and svelte bunch, capable of accepting all of life's hard challenges, but also without firm foundation, so oftentimes lost and confused. The latter an austere and intimidating bunch, capable of navigating the stormiest of seas without question, but oftentimes incapable of accepting what would be fulfilling change.
Some swim in the Holy Sea of Ricotta, others the decadent swamp of cottage cheese.
Our humble Italian comfort food divides a world.
L'éléphantFebruary 25, 2025 at 05:30#9720420 likes
I will defer to this tradition solely because if we were to now learn cottage cheese superior, it would deeply embarrass a nation and people to learn they've prepared their signature dish for 700 years wrong.
They would only be embarrassed if we were correct.
But they are not embarrassed, therefore, we are not correct in thinking that the cottage cheese is on par or a good substitute for ricotta.
L'éléphantFebruary 25, 2025 at 05:32#9720430 likes
I know they say all cheese is "just rotten milk" but cottage cheese seems to somehow in an ironic and impossible way take the extra mile to avoid the fact.
Hmmmm.
Metaphysician UndercoverFebruary 25, 2025 at 11:55#9720690 likes
They would only be embarrassed if we were correct.
But they are not embarrassed, therefore, we are not correct in thinking that the cottage cheese is on par or a good substitute for ricotta.
Have you partaken in cottage cheese laden lasagna or do you just assume this inferiority? If you have experience dining on ricotta's fermented chunky cousin, then please share it. I feel there's an unspoken prejudice against cottage cheese, largely emanating from its likeness to cellulite, but if people would rid themselves of such comparisons, I think there would be a cottage cheese renaissance.
I, for one, would be delighted to attend a cottage cheese renaissance fair, replete with jousters, falconers, and seas of revelers drunk on an endless flow of cottage cheese overflowing their wooden mugs.
Some swim in the Holy Sea of Ricotta, others the decadent swamp of cottage cheese.
Person 1: Hey, let’s make lasagna.
Person 2: Good idea.Do we have any ricotta?
Person 1: I’ll check … no.
Person 2: Then let’s just use cottage cheese.
Person 1: hey, let’s make lasagna.
Person two: Do we have any ricotta?
Why does Person 1 have a numeral identifier where Person two is spelled out, in lowercase no less? Suppose you were called tee clark? I would never ever say such a thing, but I bring it up so you can know how Person two must be feeling and it will give you a chance maybe to be more considerate.
Why does Person 1 have a numeral identifier where Person two is spelled out,
I pushed the "post comment" button too soon. Afterwards I went back in and fixed it.
unenlightenedFebruary 25, 2025 at 18:48#9721520 likes
The tradition is always to adapt, ornament, simplify, hand down as sacred and never to be altered. Every purist knows this, but none will ever admit it.
Noble DustFebruary 25, 2025 at 21:41#9721860 likes
I wasn’t drawing any culinary aesthetic conclusions.
Yes, you're quite the Taoist in your non-action. I, on the other hand am nothing but a seething, twisting ball of aesthetic conclusions. I aspire to your wisdom, but don't foresee any great gains of my own in the near future. Some of us were born bothered, it seems.
Noble DustFebruary 25, 2025 at 21:47#9721910 likes
Of course, I hope New York's unemployment benefits are generous for you
I'm currently waiting for that bureaucratic monolith to either bestow mercy upon me or throw me to the dogs. In the meantime I'm naturally spending most of my time working on music projects, as it should be.
A week ago the low for the day was -17F, not counting wind chill. Today it was 52. So, normal.
Life would be better if Putin wasn't fucking Trump. Disgusting. Ukraine will probably get flushed down the toilet. Europe? God only knows. Demonolators in the White House!
Sounds like the same old, then. Hopefully you can make it to the gay beach soonish, if it still exists.
Hopefully you can make it to the gay beach soonish, if it still exists.
Sad to say, it doesn't. The Army Corps of Engineers and Minneapolis Park Police made sure of that. A road runs through it so it's easy to police; the essential thickets and willow were rooted out.
When I was a young man, "Bicycle Mary" hung around the beach. He was thin to the point of gaunt, had a long grey beard and unruly long gray hair. I don't know if he ever scored; he wasn't very sociable and he definitely wasn't attractive. Bicycle Mary is dead and I don't want to take his place as the resident oddity.
In cold-fish Minneapolis, phone apps have replaced those nightmare face-to-face social settings where you have to actually talk your way into your next exploit, standing in close proximity to the warm body in question.
L'éléphantFebruary 26, 2025 at 03:04#9722460 likes
Have you partaken in cottage cheese laden lasagna or do you just assume this inferiority? If you have experience dining on ricotta's fermented chunky cousin, then please share it. I feel there's an unspoken prejudice against cottage cheese, largely emanating from its likeness to cellulite, but if people would rid themselves of such comparisons, I think there would be a cottage cheese renaissance.
No, I have not partaken in cottage cheese laden lasagna. Neither do I assume. I eat cottage cheese and I eat ricotta. I have made baked ziti and baked lasagna and stuffed pasta shells -- all with ricotta cheese. I just cannot substitute it with the cottage cheese.
Speaking of cellulite, honestly I have not made this comparison. Like, I eat cottage cheese! Why would I say something silly like that?
Anybody tasted lasagna made with thickened cream and rat bait (well matured cheddar) cheese?
No? Not surprising!
To have eaten it in your youth, you needed to have lived in the southern hemisphere, in a culturally awkward country, been of the then numerically dominant ethnicity ( if there ever was such a "thing") and been a member of a privileged cross section of society (lower and middle,middle class) with the cook aspiring to impress on a budget.
Still prepare it that way and enjoy it. But who cares.
Food's fuel to get from one meal to the next.
Eggs are suddenly expensive! Fucking chickens cutting back on production just to raise their stock holdings. Greedy clucks. I bought a dozen eggs at a Minneapolis Target for $9.49. Only those were left on the shelf that day. They were from Texas and not only were pasture raised in season, but were "hand tended" whatever that means. No antibiotics or hormones, of course.
Were the eggs good? They were superb. The egg shells were very hard. I don't eat the shells (not yet) but a hard shell is indicative of a healthy bird eating a good diet. The yokes were dark yellow, and gave a yellow tint to the bread they went into. Pale yokes indicate something. Dark yokes indicate more good diet and health. And they tasted good.
Run of the mill eggs have generally had weak shells and pale yokes.
Layers don't end up as meat, most of the time -- they could, but they don't. The chicken you buy for meat are birds bred to grow fast and efficiently, and be ready to cook in 50 days. Layers are usually around 2 years old, give or take, when they stop laying efficiently. They are tougher and have more 'bird flavor' which some people find disturbing.
A luxuriously cared for chicken might live 8 years. If provided with a good education they have the time and leisure to become philosophers. Some of them are members of the forum.
Reply to frank True; chickens are part of the saurischian dinosaurs. We can be grateful that full-sized T Rexes didn't survive. There was an eastern grey lady turkey lurking on the University campus yesterday. Sometimes they are in small groups. Imagine them 12 feet tall.
A clock in the bathroom. Huh. That's uh, edgy. :sweat:
After analyzing the original artwork I have to say it probably wouldn't be the first thing I'd frame across the way from where I'll be sitting to do my business for minutes on end. I'm sure there's some deep and esoteric meaning going on far beyond my grasp.
You really couldn't have went with a nice forest landscape or sun-kissed meadow or old castle on a hill. You know, something semi-normal? No, not Hanover. Of course not. :grin:
Chickens can be a good investment in a protein scarce area.
The feathers, innards ( and contents less the human eatable offal), heads, egg shells and claws can be included in canned and pelletized pet food. A heads up if you're into eating canned or pelletized pet food in the rising cost of living environment.
( "pelletized" is another Spellcheck non update)
And here some were thinking that the happy cat on each Chinese takeaway (sorry..takeout) counter was a "cultural representation" and not a capless ballplayer.
Live and learn in the S/box!
Although I do like the picture, I think my favorite part is the toilet paper rack, just like in Hanover’s bathroom.
I consider @Jamal and my toilet paper dispensers a post apocalyptic style, forged from Covid uncertainty and trauma. Just like those depression era folks who can't throw anything away, our generation cannot sleep not knowing an abundance of toilet paper is nearby.
Just like those depression era folks who can't throw anything away, our generation cannot sleep not knowing an abundance of toilet paper is nearby.
The new status symbol, stacks of toilet paper on display, neatly replaces the gold plated toilet seat, as a true value show of class. Who's going to go the extra mile, and give us the double stack?
Caution: the cat will treat the toilet paper stack as a scratching post, and you'll wake up in the morning with confetti everywhere, though Hanover's has a bit of a protective cage.
Speaking of which, my wife and I agreed some time ago that ours was not the type of marriage that included open displays of excretion. I wonder what arrangements others here have had throughout their lives.
I am generally satisfied with our arrangement. In fact, should my bride one day reconsider and wish to hold such viewings, I would doubtfully relent, but would instead ask her to find someone for hire who could satisfy her curiosity in that regard.
So, therefore, two things for the group:
1. What is your privacy arrangement with your SO?
2. Would anyone here accept the employment opportunity discussed above if it arose?
In fact, should my bride one day reconsider and wish to hold such viewings,
I'm much less interested in your familial procedures for defecation than I am in your use of the word "bride" in reference to your wife. Let's look at some other options:
Ball and chain
Ux
Baby mama
Sister (South only)
Old lady
Old woman
The Mrs. (missus)
Better half
Spouse
Little woman
DifferentiatingEggMarch 01, 2025 at 22:04#9732110 likes
Nietdos Doritos... Doritos with an image of Nietzsche on one side and Dostoievsky on the other! Inspired by @unenlightened punny "no" to Nietzsche... :sweat: Neat-o! ... "excuse me" ... "Niet-O!"
The DifferentiatingEgg is an egg with particular bands of intensity in a state of becoming, the bridge between the "Body Without Organs" and a Terminal Goal...
Deleuze, Anti-Oedipus pg 19:first of all, a band of intensity, a zone of intensity on [the] body without organs. The body without organs is an egg: it is crisscrossed with axes and thresholds, with latitudes and longitudes and geodesic lines, traversed by gradients marking the transitions and the becomings, the destinations of the subject developing along these particular vectors.
The scientists calculated that the energy needed to create the two canyons on the moon was more than 130 times what would be produced in an explosion of all the nuclear weapons that exist on Earth today.
The affected area was about the size of 140 football fields.
The flood amounted to 3,341 olympic-sized swimming pools.
I've never seen one of the bombs go off, never mind all of them at once; I've never seen 140 football fields (or soccer pitches) laying side by side; I've only seen 2 olympic-sized swimming pools next to each other on one occasion.
Atom bombs illustrated nothing that the statement “These [Grand Canyon-sized] things were carved in less than 10 minutes when the Grand Canyon took 5 to 6 million years to carve. I mean that illustrates the energy of an impact event.”
Troughs installed in women's toilets should yield much more than a 12% reduction in wait times.
I had a candid conversation with a female co-worker once regarding how she'd navigate a urinal. Her instinct was to back up to it, where I'd have thought a more missionary approach would have been chosen. It was then I appreciated having a diverse workplace because as a man I had no way of knowing better.
The trough perhaps would also result in a backup approach. That being the case, we'd post the sports pages on the wall ahead for the men and perhaps something topic appropriate for the women on the wall opposite from where they'd be reading.
Having men's and women's faces staggered backward and forward would also allow some exclusive ladies' time and men's time without interruption where each could chat and catch up. A man would not be inclined to speak to a perched buttock before him nor a women to some sagging boxers before her.
I've enjoyed this conversation. I always thought myself too sophisticated for bathroom humor, but today I realize I may not be as refined as I once thought.
I've enjoyed this conversation. I always thought myself too sophisticated for bathroom humor, but today I realize I may not be as refined as I once thought.
Currently marinating some organic chicken breast. Had no choice really, the "sell by" date was yesterday so for the good of all things decent and to avoid waste, it had to be cooked. Quite literally a "now or never" moment. Apparently letting the meat sit for a while (at least 10 minutes) allows the seasonings and marinade to "draw out" the juices from the meat, presumably resulting in a more flavorful and overall superior final dish.
Underside coated with heavy lemon pepper seasoning and "generic all purpose seasoning"
Topside. Also "marinated" for 10+ minutes.
Will post the final results shortly. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Reply to Hanover a kilometer is, roughly 5555.5 bananas in length. You could also illustrate a kilometer in kielbasas, erect horse penises, adult carp, or road kill squirrels.
A kilo seems to be the preferred unit for cocaine busts. I think they do that so that we'll be impressed by the high number and not really know what they're talking about. Like they'll say they confiscated 100 kilos of cocaine, and 100 sounds like a lot, so I'll think they actually did something, but, in reality, it will be like one thimble full.
Sometimes I run 5k road races, but they mark the distances with miles so that it will make sense. When I get to the Mile 3 sign, I know I've got 0.1 miles left. If they marked it in kilometers, I'd spend the whole time trying to convert that into miles in my head and it would detract from my winning the race.
I read that Georgia has 1.2 million deer and 455,000 cows. 42,000 farmed pigs and 200,000 to 600,000 wild pigs. There are 11m people, 8.5m are feral and the rest domesticated.
I actually didn't notice. It's a strange choice to be sure.
Anyway, tonight I made a vegan red lentil curry. It's quite good. Coconut milk and coconut oil seem to be the secrets. Served over non-vegan basmati rice with butter thrown in there, just so it wasn't too healthy.
Comments (61561)
Good point. I hadn't thought of that.
Quoting Hanover
And packed your rivers with garbage.
Thanks. I didn't know what they contained.
Cool. I make stir fries where I add cornstarch to the sauce to thicken it, but I just add the sauce to everything at the end and let it cook down for a few minutes. This velveting method sounds better.
I give it a pass, chef, except for your use of olive oil to flash fry the steak. Unfortunately the smokey heat of the crushed Calabrian chili peppers was overshadowed by the burnt olive oil. For these reasons, chef, we had to chop you.
While your meal looks good, I don't use tilapia fillet. They're lacking the umami which a whole fish possesses, when fresh. Besides, did you use the red tilapia? I can only eat the Nile tilapia. They are black-ish.
I use your method too. The velveting is a separate process and you must try it cos it's life-changing.
I like having my life changed, therefore I must try it indeed.
To be fair, Calabrian chili peppers, sirloin pieces, spinach leaves, and blue cheese was a pretty impossible basket. You'd have probably made fajitas.
Fred needs to going easier on you; she can't expect you to be wildly creative with her random grocery hauls every single night.
Today I had spicy rice noodle soup with beef for lunch. I guess this is Jiangxi Province cuisine, also known as Gan cuisine. It's hard to find in NYC. It was very spicy. Lots of Sichuan peppercorns in combination with other chilis. I felt kind of high afterwards from the Sichuan peppercorns. Anyways, it's a cold rainy day here, so it was the perfect lunch. Edit: the dude at the restaurant also told me there's a Guizhou influence on their food, which I guess is closer to Sichuan.
Neat. Fancy!
Mahi-mahi here. I see why they named it twice! (I'm sure it's actually a singular word in some other language, though.)
Bland? Perhaps. Never been a big culinary person. Growing up and basically all time since then up until now, fish has always been just "fish". Trying to sample each and orient myself to each one as it is, sans sauce or spice. Snapper is delectable, though grouper seems to be slightly superior in flavor. Tilapia seems to be just a rung underneath the aforementioned, but still very tasty. Mahi-mahi reminds me of the higher end fish I would get at nicer restaurants or hotel room service when I was younger. Very filling. Possibly up next: swai, orange roughy. (Local supermarket has what it has)
Note the wooden fork. Not sure what I was thinking when purchasing, eco-wise. A singular utensil, even a plastic one, washed/re-used is better in the long run. Ah well, got another 249 of them to burn through.
NYC has everything. If you can't find it there, you can't find it anywhere.
I would expect that if this were a true meal, a 90 cent can of string beans would have been added and a pudding cup would have been added for dessert.
My guess is that if you spun the camera around, we would see a gourmet meal and a bugler still in position after having sounded your arrival.
I'm astonished.
Just use Spanish. They love that.
Similar meteorological conditions: clear and cold.
Velveting continues. Pork and broccoli.
I saw the iconic print featured on the website, and another rendition by Hokusai of Dream of a Fisherman's Wife (in his original sketchbook!), as well as two inspirations on the original print.
What made me laugh the most was there is this beautiful cherry blossom scroll which mimicked poetic forms of the time and it basically said "Buy this brand of white powder" -- Benjamin's critique of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction seems to not apply to super cool wood carving, even though it was put to the same use as modern printers of propaganda.
Not even in China in this case.
400 degrees, countertop oven until minimum internal temperature of 150 sampled across several areas. It was the best fish I've had in a long time, second only to the grouper (perhaps).
Come now, why berate me? I even went and followed your advice the other day.
[hide="Reveal"]
I'd suggest frying.
A true embarrassment of riches.
Cool until you get into deeper water.
Zippers are for friends.
So far it hasn't bern a living nightmare, but it's not been so good, either. Definitely pain, which pain killers have so far managed. On the night of the surgery, I couldn't urinate -- despite a full bladder. Last night I was a regular geyser and needed help which was not there.
The surgeon was aware that my right hip and right knee were arthritic; did the insurance company --started by the hospital and medical faculty where I received surgery -- care? No. Fuckers.
I wanted to say -- 'I hope everything went OK!' But I read the rest then.
Quoting BC
It is a worldwide problem. My mom also got a hip surgery, and she felt like you. Zero personal care. Zero compromise. Everything is chaotic and a mess, etc. What is going on with hospitals around the world?
I scuba dived at 20,000 leagues deep in them. Toes remained bone dry.
Did they let you keep your old hip as a keepsake? It's gotten you around all these years. Seems like a slap in the face just to get rid of it. To the extent hips have faces to slap that is.
Given that the diameter of the Earth is only about 3,000 leagues, I doubt the veracity of your claim.
I have to do some exercises on the bed -- moving the leg this way or that, and on this Wednesday physical therapy will start. Then a home aide will come in to help me take a bath -- a very dangerous procedure - slip and fall, drown in the tub, all that.
The last of my pork, and my last zucchini, which some people call a courgette.
Nonetheless, I still doubt the veracity of your claim.
This criticism feels rooted in jealousy. You can do better.
Don't we all? Don't we all?
Quoting BC
A couple of guys at work said the same. Despite it seeming like so major an operation, they were back at in no time.
Mammalian enteral ventilation ameliorates respiratory failure
[sup]— Okabe, Chen-Yoshikawa, Yoneyama, Yokoyama, Tanaka, Yoshizawa, Thompson, Kannan, Kobayashi, Date, Takebe · Tokyo Medical and Dental University · May 14, 2021 · 2m:38s[/sup]
(not related to talking out of your ass)
I know you are, but what am I.
Reminds me of the Red Roof Inn.
Wow, that's actually pretty nice. All uniform. Reminds me of a historic empire or the inner city of a kingdom. The cruise ship needs to be a 16th-century mercantile vessel with a 3-tier sail but other than that, it's a sweet view you got there. Thanks for sharing. Post more would ya?
Hanover in Portugal, instalment 1 :up:
I'm thinking Lisbon.
But not anything out of your way that would deviate from your pre-planned activities or areas of travel. I hear pickpocketing is the most likely crime in that region. Still. Your safety is far more important than a few short-lived moments of intrigue for strangers from afar.
I imagine Hanover's valuables are secure in his "fanny pack," and that he looks a lot like this guy:
Yes, Lisbon. Left Porto earlier today.
Freshest fish on the planet. The Filet O' Fish out of this world.
You're welcome.
I will not let fear for my safety keep me from entertaining you guys.
These are some grilled sardines that my wife declared disgusting. We bought them from a street hustler named Paul, whose prices varied by the moment, who only took cash pulled from his store run ATM, and whose receipt appeared only only his phone that he let me look at, sort of.
I liked Paul for his entrepreneurial spirit and his moral ambiguity. The sardines were actually somewhere between mediocre and disgusting, but memorable it was and so I give it an 8.
It does not look disgusting. That's authentic.
But not sure about street hustler.
Jesus!
Be careful. I hope you're feeling better.
Portugal is a safer place than the USA altogether.
Quoting Hanover
Quoting Hanover
When I saw that you posted your aim to travel to Portugal, I thought -- he will think the food is 'disgusting' and everything will seem to you 'poor' or 'backward' at least.
I was right, sadly.
But probably you would think the same if you had decided to travel here; that's a fact. Later on they complain about why we don't tolerate guiris.
If Spain is like Portugal, you've got a great set up!
Sorry, I am not currently doing well, lately, and it is true that I am sensitive. It is true that your comments were kind, and you didn't deserve my frustrated feedback.
Quoting Hanover
They are better than us in many things. Their level of English is awesome, whereas you could have experienced a big issue regarding our lack of English skills here.
Everyone does speak very fluent English here and all the signs and menus have English. It takes away the challenge.
I like the driving style. It's very cooperative. They yield to everyone. Americans drive defensively, but get pissed if you break the rules. Germans just run you over. I think it says a lot about a people.
The English drive on the wrong side of the road.
That's because they have borders with Scotland and Wales, where they also drive on the wrong side of the road.
"Me lady, if you could do me the favor of affixing the wee un to your hefty mammary whilst the turkey and I summon the surgeon to see about mending me arm that seems to have detonated at the elbow."
I know what you mean. One guys fucks up and then everyone copies him and there's no fixing it after awhile.
They took all the tiles
Put 'em in a tile museum
And they charged the people
A euro and a half just to see 'em
Welcome Hanover! I see a place for you in my world. Come with me, we'll take on the mathemagicians in some "infinity" thread. The problem, you'll find out, is that they got numbers, and the mob rules. Our mission, to expose the sophistry by which their mobocracy is supported with claims of "objective truth". Check the menu, I'll buy you a big plate of intersubjectivity for lunch, to nourish you for the challenge.
There would be car wrecks at the border every day. It would be horrendous.
:grin:
Bodacious T-Give, champ.
For Thanksgiving? How could you even think of such a thing? No, follow convention, as a respectable citizen of the mobocracy, and eat a turkey.
Yes, a pig is too much to ask for.
(1)We don't celebrate Thanksgiving here.
(2)We are not respectable citizens.
(3)Therefore, we are not part of that 'mobocracy' that you set up this weekend.
These Cubes are Not Moving | Optical Illusions I Science (— Our Space TV · Dec 28, 2021 · 22s)
Simple. I thanked him for his attention on Valencia's floods and efforts with the EU. I honestly think Starmer is a real pal; he is in the game, and he respects the rules and codes. Just a few minutes after sending the email, a bot replied saying whether I am from St. Pancras or not, meaning that a random Labour member might answer me and not Starmer himself. It doesn't matter; it was worth a try.
I end my email saying this -- I wish you the best in your tenure. Sincerely yours,
Tragically... it tastes great (which adequately explains the over-fishing). Consuming was definitely a bittersweet experience. Less of an overtly "fishy" flavor more of a rich yet subtle deep ocean experience. Incredibly unique. Sigh. This little guy is in trouble unless something is done. Why must fate be so deliciously cruel?
(Seriously I shan't be purchasing these again, and neither should'st thee! Even from a liberal human-centric perspective, what a loss for the future of humanity if this generation or the next would be the last to ever consume such a flavorful delicacy. You can really taste the ocean and the age of the fish, which can live over 200 years. That's right, I very well may have just consumed an animal older than the United States Constitution. I'm only posting this in the guest-restricted Shoutbox because I trust the intellect of this community writ-large to empower anyone reading to do the right thing and not let primal hunger coupled with shortsightedness get the best of them.)
"Orange roughy." See above monologue. They do look rather similar.
Is that sow/gilt due to be mated/married and has cold feet/trotters? Or just finished her Tia Chi exercises?
gap toothed smile
Just reading that entry in isolation from the rest of 'P.C. on E.' , how would you categorize that paragraph? Irony, sarcasm, non judgemental historical analysis.....?
curious eyebrow raise
I very much doubt that this is a cure-all; just another tool that could be used (There is no cure-all, just climb to see how many parachutes we can make)
EDIT: Synthesis from the methods for one of the compounds --
Whether the solution is viable depends upon cost of scale where cost here is measured in CO2 produced -- if the overall process, when scaled, produces 3 times the carbon that the product can absorb over the course of its life then it's just a neat toy. But it's pretty much impossible to predict which way it will go without... well... scaling it.
Yes, she is just happy in the picture. I'm sure she is ready to eat.
I am familiar with the scene: https://vimeo.com/163118337?share=copy
Perfect, except no subtitles.
Furthermore, my grandparents are already very old (they are 90 years old), and I will be at their funeral as well when the time comes; my parents' too; and maybe one of my oldest friends.
When I was giving my condolences to my friend (¡te acompaño en el sentimiento!) we talked about this briefly. He will be married in May the next year with his girlfriend, but he agreed with me that he may assist at more funerals than weddings overall.
Well, those were mine and my friend's thoughts on a very cold afternoon in the municipal crematorium and church of Madrid.
Seems reasonable. Not sure about Spain, but not many people in my middle class world get married anymore. But everybody dies. :smile:
unimaginative smile
In the form of pork, ham and/or bacon is the only way pigs aren't ready to eat. And even that can be grammatically arguable.
pedantic smile
Yes, as hungry as pigs are, then let them have cake.
At my age, I'm waiting for the funerals to really start. My older brother, wife, step-mother, my children's girlfriend's parents and grandparents, friends are all as old as me or older. David Crosby's gone and I'm sure soon to be followed by Paul McCartney and Mick Jager. Oh, right, and then there's me. I tell everyone in my life "I get to die first so I don't have to think of something to say at your funeral."
That being said, I like funerals better than weddings. My father died in 2001 and six of us got up and spoke - my three siblings, me, my sister in law, and my wife. It was amazing and a bit overwhelming. Even 24 years later is continues to have an effect on my family, bringing us closer together. Funerals can be wonderful. You often find out things about the deceased and their family you never new before. You may even find out things about yourself you never knew. We have a responsibility to remember and speak for the dead. I don't like people dying, but I love funerals.
half smile
Yellowcake (also called urania) is a type of powdered uranium concentrate obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before fuel fabrication or uranium enrichment.
Thanks, well spotted. Maybe Tom Storm or Wayfairer will spot the rest that is alluded to and its political timing.
smile of appreciation
Yogi Berra says you should go to other people's funerals so that they'll come to yours.
Quoting T Clark
You find the fun in funeral.
A list in the orientation of watchlists can occur without warning. So, why worry?
Thanks though for the warning.
faint smile
Is that the party that happens before the start of the next youth soccer season but after the end of the previous youth soccer after season? If not, there is something to not like.
pedantic smile
The idea that matter is mostly empty space is mostly wrong
[sup]— Ethan Siegel · Big Think (Medium) · Apr 19, 2024[/sup]
More space stuff:
The fabric of space is a Cheshire Cat
[sup]— Ethan Siegel · Big Think · Dec 3, 2024[/sup]
The funeral was beautiful, indeed. I even wrote a haiku because my friend told me to. Everything was fine at the beginning, but then the Christian and Biblical readings started, and I was a bit lost. Surprisingly, my father was very good at reciting, and I can't remember him attending church. He was like—En el nombre del Padre, del Hijo, del Espíritu Santo, etc... But pretty good. I just sat on the bench with my hands clasped together. My father told me that decades ago, Christianity was more entrenched all over Spain than nowadays, and it was common to do religious readings, even in the office...
Quoting Tom Storm
It is reasonable, true. But I have never come to that obvious conclusion! :sweat:
What are you referring to?
Oh, just the uranium mine in the NT that has been closed for yonks and the current renewable vs nuclear power tin can being currently kicked about plus the locally made debate distraction being "aired".
In other words, just contributing to the s/box vibrations and adding an other than US frequency to the white noise. Apologies for using your name except in full reverence and without first asking if it was not welcome.
Unseasonally cool and wet weather for this time of year in Vic.
smile and a fly removing salute
We can't have people running around promoting anti-corporatism. No, indeed.
Is it worth asking what the difference in police / press response would have been if instead of a corporate figure a black man had shot another black man in New York, and then got away on a bike, or car, or his own two feet? It would not have made headlines; would not have dominated the news; would have been just as deadly. But the dead white man was head of an highly profitable business, and the dead black man was broke most of the time.
There was a mafia style hit in the middle of Manhattan of a CEO. That's why it gained national attention. The same would have happened if the CEO were black. It was also seen as an institutional attack on the system, not just a random mugging on a street corner. For that reason, there was an institutional response.
For an example of a poor black person making headlines from being killed, the Daniel Penny subway trial just concluded, also in Manhattan. Racial violence gets plenty of headlines, especially as it relates to the police.
The Thompson murder isn't an example to show how the capitalist system has failed or to show the working class is finally justifiably rebelling. It's an example to show how those who see the world through the lens of class struggle cannot distinguish this case as being nothing other than a fucked up kid committing first degree murder.
To those opposed to the status quo, fight your good fight, but there is nothing important or telling about this murder. It's a murder, and he should never see the light of day ever again.
As usual, when you put your mind to serious business, your arguments are compelling and humane. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy your other contributions.
Poor em dashes! Another punctuation mark swallowed by the AI.
I think John Cheever—the author of Falcon and Bullet Park—was outstanding. He—the novelist—was American and lived in Massachusetts. Most of the psychology of their characters—American families of the 1960s—is influenced by the suburbia.
:razz:
Had the CEO been black, it would of course make the news. What I was trying to point out was that a low-status victim would not have received nearly as much police and news attention. Nothing new there. It takes exceptional circumstances to make a poor black death register the same as an even moderately well-off white. George Floyd, for example.
One gunman doesn't an institutional attack make.
Quoting Hanover
There are plenty of people looking through the lens of class struggle who can tell a movement from a fucked up kid. Perhaps Luigi Mangione had personal reasons to hate United Health Care--an insurance company whose MO is delay and deny claims while being very profitable.
I think we all probably hate insurers from time to time. Their role is to provide security when the unexpected occurs and it's infuriating when they don't. The grocery store raises prices, the police give me speeding tickets, the mail runs late, and my wife burns the dinner. Sometimes things are mistakes, other times malicious. Some people suck.
I'm just trying to figure out why that translates into sympathy for a guy who responds by executing a man in the street.
The left today offers its support for assassination when it would never offer support for execution. A former marine chokes a homeless guy to death on the subway and the left condemns him as a vigilante. Is there no moral standard here, but just a question of whose ox is gored?
I just read a book by Timothy Findley, whose fondness for em dashes shocked even me:
[quote=Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley]
...with every new manoeuvre, the light was growing dimmer—fading by numbers as well as strength—and the sound could no longer be heard, but only the pulse of it—seen going out in the darkness—losing its edges—caving in at its centre—webbing, now, as if a spider was spinning against the rain—until the last few strands of brightness fell—and were extinguished—silenced and removed from life and from all that lives forever.
And the bell tolled—but the ark, as ever, was adamant. Its shape had taken on a voice. And the voice said: no.
[/quote]
Quickly got used to it, in fact it encouraged me not to hold back.
So kind of like speed bumps. Sure, they save lives. But whose?
It forces the mind to not only engage, but create a sort of "mental pod" where the first and new idea can reside together. It just makes everything seem more interesting by force. Come on now. You're smarter than that.
Would've been better like this:
"Not Wanted on the Voyage" was published in 1985. Findley must have had one of the earliest versions of Chat GPT.
Since our discussion several years ago, I find myself using dashes much more than I did before, although, as I've told you previously and to which you have responded with disdain, I don't make a distinction between hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes.
So you carry on saying you're using dashes while actually not using dashes. A hyphen can't properly function as a dash unless you double or triple it up---as is standard for typing. If you don't do that, you're contributing to the death of the dash, and spreading a typographical abomination.
I would have been disappointed if you'd responded any other way.
You know how to wind me up.
That's probably the least annoying, or maybe just the least ill-mannered, way I try to wind you up.
Also, we, at least here in the US, were never taught about them in school. I didn't even know the distinction existed before we had our original discussion.
Same here, although I learned about them a while before that. I guess we generally see the dashes in print but don't notice the distinctions between them and hyphens, because they're absent or not obvious on keyboards and we're not taught about them in school.
I got off my high horse and it feels good.
No criticism intended to any forum member particularly. Just an accumulated observation and a small amount of sadness for fellow human beings and knowing that no country's citizens and media is free from this "practice"
quite sad head shake
To what degree? Let's just have every person allowed the sacred privilege to speak to us be required to use an em-em-em dash that's four characters long before every conjunctural adjoinment. Just to make sure we have adequate time to subconsciously ready ourselves for the next block of communication.
You're picking up a book to accomplish or solve something. Not for the courtesy to allow the writer's inner thoughts and essence to accompany one's mind. What is it? Tell us.
:chin:
True. I agree.
That's why I am fond of using dashes. It helps to understand the context. I also use a similar punctuation mark in Spanish—the parenthesis—whose use is similar.
I appreciate the support, Javi. I was begining to feel besieged.
That just means one has something worth taking. Question is. What is that truly? That which is stale, static, idle, non-intelligent? Grass? Land? Dirt? Something that existed before you and would hypothetically exist long after you? Or something you have, at least in one sense, that is unique? Once you understand what any enemy is after, truly. Well, their defeat is simply in the cards.
Car park now, ya cryptic bas.
Actually, my first language is Morse Code, consisting entirely of dots and dashes. I spoke exclusively in beeps until I was like 12 when my dad told me to cut that shit out.
True story.
What a coincidence. My first language was semaphore. When I was an infant, my parents had to attach the flags to my hands with duct tape.
On toast, with a poached egg.
"Hope everyone gets well into 2025"
That's a bit cryptic or is it intended ambiguity?
cheery smile
Guess you've always seen duct tape as handy.
Did semaphore flag anything unusual in your life?
Yeah, yeah, enough!
pun spinning smile
"Even to the idealists"
A very general well wish indeed.
You must be in a good mood!
encouraging smile
Its smiling.
Seems to be something wrong with its eye.
Yes, as they say, in a pigs eye.
Coffeehouse cookie. 50% off.
Beigeness rating: 8/10 :up:
Looks more like 35%.
You're making assumptions as to how the missing part was shaped prior to its removal.
Beige objects notoriously behave in ways your typical umbers and magentas do not.
Thanks for the pig pic. Timely, as usual.
Yes, that pig is possibly smiling because only it is recognizes the pearls strewn about the s/box.
A juxtaposition of an old aphorism,or maybe just an old folks' saying.
smile with a snortl
"You're making assumptions as to how the missing part was shaped prior to its removal."
Are you asserting assumptions can be made as to how the missing part was shaped prior to it being the missing part which could only have become the missing part post its removal?
Just getting to understand the nuances of the posting of your priorities and of the priorities of your postings.
Should such bait details ever be needed to explain why a bait attracts a bite.
alluring smile
Bologna!
Based on this evidence, I revise my estimate to 27.39%.
Since the problems we had with not enough storage, I've been avoiding uploading images to illustrate my posts. Is that not a problem anymore? Is it ok for me to start using outside images again?
That's a misleading projection, since the angle of view isn't straight down from directly above the cookie
I now realize you are right. Based on that, I revise my estimate to 27.43%.
Aye it’s back to how it was: subscribers can upload images.
Outside images, though, interpreted as referring to images hosted outwith TPF, have always been embeddable in posts using the image icon button / img tag. There is no uploading in that case.
Personally I’m going to carry on hosting the images I use offsite, since I don’t really believe TPF should be hosting images when there are dedicated services for that which provide infinite storage. But I’m allowing it because it’s the only concrete incentive to subscribe right now.
I will say that if you want to ensure your images won’t disappear in a year or whatever, host them offsite.
I think the world will be a better place if all my images, as well as everything else I post, disappears sometime in the not too distant future - next Sunday AD.
This is typical Hanoverian bullshit. I'll put it in legal language so attorneys like you can understand it - The truth, you can't handle the truth.
Fair.
These are my em dashes stash that have curled up in the sun. The brackets are just to prevent them from blowing away.
Does anyone have any dash°straighener to lend?
Can Digital Computers Ever Achieve Consciousness?
[sup]— Marcus Arvan · John Templeton Foundation · Jun 19, 2024[/sup]
:) How rude:
Vicar’s Santa sermon ‘ruins Christmas’ for sobbing school pupils
[sup]— Peter Chappell · The Times · Dec 13, 2024[/sup]
People got obsessed with narcissists and narcissism as concepts over the last few years. "narcissistic abuse", "malignant narcissism", "dark triad" blah blah. It's a personality disorder, and those people are uniquely vilified and romanticised. It's also not common to the extent that people are treating it is: 5-7% of people apparently. Depression's 8%, but between 15% and 18% among the young. And people aren't wandering around talking about "my depressive traits", but they are talking about how they know so many narcissists in their lives, and how popstars and public figures are narcissists. Feeling aggrieved is not differential diagnosis people. The vilification is also absolutely heinous, people with NPD generally are largely harmless social outcasts with at root no self confidence and anger issues. It fucking sucks. It's a "sexy and fun" game.
Situation's even more exaggerated with BPD. They're treated like walking bombs. The incidence is tiny, like 2% max AFAIK. But people are seeing anyone having a shit time of it and thus having sudden mood changes and thinking "BPD, BPD". This one is like labelling someone the worst kind of bottom feeding pond scum. It's one of the worst mental conditions to have - the extremes of emotion lead to crazy suicide rates.
People get fixated on stuff and say "this is my OCD trait". People have two showers a day and say it's OCD.
Like god damn, by and large these are sick people. And you can't differential diagnosis someone based on vibes.
:up:
I theorize that sometimes people aren't actually trying to diagnose themselves or others so much as they are trying to incorporate the kinds of experiences people who live outside the norm have into their own boring lives. I think it makes them feel unique or in the loop somehow to throw these terms around. But these people wouldn't actually want to be OCD or have a spouse with BPD or be schizophrenic or what have you. Those things are fucking awful.
(No judgement against the mentally ill there, but almost no one would choose to be mentally ill if they could choose otherwise. Neither would they choose for their loved ones to be mentally ill.)
edit: this comment wasn't a dig at you, fdrake. It just occurred to me you might think that.
Most people called "narcissists" are just difficult people, everyday garden variety assholes, or people the "diagnostician" doesn't like. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a serious mental diagnosis, not a personality quirk.
The same is often true for other mental issue. It's a shorthand, off-hand comment and isn't meant to be taken seriously. I tend to be a perfectionist and sometimes joke it's my OCD.
Quoting fdrake
I assume you mean bipolar disorder rather than Borderline Personality Disorder. I've been diagnosed with a mild form of bipolar disorder and look how wonderful I am...
I mean borderline personality disorder. Bipolar was all the rage about a decade ago. Anyone who could be happy and then sad in the same day...
I didn't read it that way! No worries.
Quoting ToothyMaw
Yeah. They're used like personality quirks.
Oink!
Of course -- what with the Narcissist In Chief being the prez.
But narcissism, obsessiveness, mood swings, neuroticism, etc. are ALL normal when they are limited. Some are even helpful -- under certain circumstances. If you need an executive to reduce the work force by 10,000 the day before Christmas, it helps a great deal of the executive has some psychopathic tendencies. He'll do the job well and won't be troubled by the mass layoff.
I employed an obsessive streak to complete a long tedious project.
The hospital gifted me with a nosocomial urinary tract infection, which I've been dealing with for the last 3 weeks. that part has been worse than the surgery.
One side effect of surgery (and maybe the infection) is that my mind was discombobulated for a couple of weeks. It was difficult to carry out mental tasks. The fog has pretty much lifted, thankfully.
So, should you be thinking of having a joint job done, fear not. At least for the hip. Shoulder joint surgery is reported to be very painful, followed by knee replacement, with slow recoveries.
[sup]— Oxford Mathematics · Dec 11, 2024 · 49m:55s[/sup]
"Pig?"
Yes, please.
Trottered out smile
Everybody too busy with Xmas preps?
Just send them money and save on parcel delivery.
Cheap smile
I'll be posting more once we get past this hump.
If I could bottle that relentlessness, I'd sell it to X and we"d have plenty of Ys.
I'm open for suggestions as to what X and Y might be. Couldn't think of anything offhand.
megadog
The inability to express such awesomeness should be reckoned as proof enough.
Who's inability? Proof of what?
We cannot provide an Anselmian proof to ourselves what is proposed to be beyond that.
We had to sell the rink to pay for a cat i wanted, so that's out.
There's a clue in that last line that reveals a well kept secret if you look close.
Shsre with me your houghts during this trying time.
Also, should this post get moved from the Lounge to Metaphysics?
I’ve said this before, you spend most of your time these days in the shoutbox, but when you venture out into the real world of philosophy, you generally have something interesting and worthwhile to say.
No adulation I guess, but I consider that high praise.
I do appreciate it. My interest has waned from "hard" philosophy into more spiritual topics, so I just don't find myself interested in philosophical conversation as such; I find that I think about those topics from a different perspective that doesn't seem applicable. It's almost like speaking a different language.
Would it help if we had a section called “Woo”? :wink:
Only if it's visible on the main page. :razz: I choose to embrace "woo" as short for "Woohoo! Hell yeah!"
Your positivity is infectious.
You ponderous philosophizers need it.
Hey, I haven’t philosophized for at least a year so leave me out of it.
Plato doesn't count; homie was on to something.
Now you’ve started philosophizing.
:zip: There are woo interpretations of Plato. Or rather "woohoo!" interpretations. Yeehaw.
I guess that’s the cowboy interpretation of Plato.
There are many paths to enlightenment.
I knew that and I enjoy your Shoutbox contributions, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows you are not just another [s]pretty face[/s] obsessive goor met.
Thank you for your advocacy. I could use more of that in my life. Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy does indeed have a beautiful face. I do actually resemble him a bit now that I think about it.
As to food, my recent obsession has been Asian noodle soups. I'll see if I can dredge up a pic, to celebrate this, my 8,000th post.
Spicy cumin lamb noodles from a stall in Manhattan's Chinatown.
Nice. I was telling Hanover about cumin lamb here a couple of weeks ago. It's from Uighur/Xinjiang cuisine originally I believe.
Just before that, I went to get a Russian visa. I was early so I stopped for a while in the bookshop on the way. I wasn't intending to but I bought a book entitled "Russia without Putin", so when I got to my appointment I had to ensure that nobody at the consulate saw it. It added some excitement to an otherwise onerous task.
I was into Plato until I found Matt.
I had Vietnamese food a couple of days ago. They had this jello dessert that tasted like maybe it had condensed milk and cinnamon in it. I wasn't a fan.
I once had this sticky fish stew in a pot years ago at a Vietnamese restaurant and I've been chasing that high ever since. This place didn't have it. I wonder if it existed only in a feverish dream. Perhaps someone here can confirm such a thing exists. Maybe it's just a Clydish chimera. Lackadaddy.
I think that was Campbell's condensed Vietnamese Sticky Fish Stew. It should be there on the shelf along with the Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Noodle.
My favorite is the Manhattan Clam Chowder, the good kind, without the bullshit cream in it.
Martha Stewart will tell you that most seafood soups are better with milk based broths rather than tomato based ones. The acidity of the tomatoes tends to cover up the flavor of the seafood. Not sure what the guys down at the Meat and 3 would say.
Martha was my cellmate in Alcatraz. We'd sneak away and gather live cockles and mussels in the bay that she'd hawk for cigarettes. She told me more about broths and stews than you'd ever understand.
She got reassigned a cellmate named Freight Train and i never heard from her again. She died of a fever. No one could save her.
Little known fact - the recipe for Manhattan Clam Chowder was developed by head chef Juan Valdez (no relation) in the Long John Silvers in Manhattan Kansas.
I think the science is that acid cuts fat, so acid and fat blend well in food. Tomatoes go well with fatty foods, cheese, etc.. A lot of fish is nonfatty, so it could use a little extra fat for flavour enhancement, in the form of milk or cream sauce.
Saw or dreamt a movie with a Neanderthal, possibly called Wan Wel Ders, who boiled clams in a bison's bladder and don't remember, if it was even revealed, exactly what else was in the bladder. After consuming the slightly cooled contents and performing various burps, she hung the now s/lightly browned bladder on her brother's head. His name was Clamchow Der. But can distinctly remember the cook exclaiming while pointing at her brother, " Man Hat Tan Clamchow Der". There were a lot of grunts and hisses in that movie, what could be/is remembered of it.
Some people will go to extraordinary lengths to claim familial patents' rights. Even learning ancient languages with all of the different vocabulary, syntax and grammar etc. to prove ownership.
A bit like the S/box folk!
A very little known fact (until now).
silly smile
" It's disheartening......, but that's the way of the world."
'Tis isn't it.
brief smile
This makes sense. I’m sure Martha would agree with you.
I’m skeptical that any of this is true.
What part/s of " A very little known fact" cause/s your skepticism?
curious smile
But if you meant your quote to refer to any/all of the previous, it is humbly opined that " Even learning.....to prove ownership" as relates to the subsequent "A bit like S/box folk" then that has the bright white light of illuminated Truthful Revelation.
Agreed?
Non serious wink and smile
A fleeting smile. Exit left stage looking for a large shady gum tree with smooth bark and no ant trails or nests on or nearby.
Try one of those highfalutin molecular gastronomical eateries, where the chef comes to your table and says we mix these agents with those catalysts, and poof!, we get a chemical reaction that blows your taste buds right out through your nose.
Anyone ever try the "dark dining" experience? I'd rather just stay home and watch the tryptophan come oozing out of the turkey, then gobble it up.
Here's the account:
In the 1700s, life had become more complex, so there had been a desire to return to simpler times, particularly as it related to avoiding processed foods.
One radical, Arthur Choke, began eating grapes whole, as he felt the chewing processed the food unnecessarily.
He then encountered a new plant he had never seen, bound tightly like a flower. He gulped it whole right from the ground, where it became lodged, and he would soon gasp and die, fully depleted of air.
And that's how the artichoke got its name.
I have not. Yet sounds interesting. Also lawsuit-prone. Seems boring for anyone who isn't young or you know, easily impressed.
Quoting Metaphysician Undercover
Now, the "Metaphysician Undercover" dining experience sounds interesting. There'd be constant interesting commentary about things you know are smart and fascinating that unfortunately you would have to Google to actually understand.
A unique dining experience I do recall, however, is "Hot Pot". An Asian-themed eatery where diners basically cook their own soup (how lazy I know) by a heated surface located directly on the table (again, crazy dangerous. I'd hate to be their insurer) that you drop items such as meat or vegetables in that pass by every table on a non-stop conveyor belt. It's creative and unique, certainly. Just, each diner literally has a steaming hot pot of boiling water in front of them at all times. Not sure it's the best idea as far as dining with mixed company or folk prone to anger.
cautioning smile
Not full-on total darkness, but I did go to a Valentine’s night at a restaurant where you couldn’t see anything very clearly. They only had a few candles going here and there. Maybe not dark dining, more like dingy dining, or gloomy gastronomy, or … murky munching?
The idea was to enhance the sensuality of the dining experience, but we found it quite annoying.
I get that it's hot in the kitchen, but putting the AC on 60 degrees so that I have to wear a coat indoors in the Summer pisses me off.
I'd rather eat in my car. It's warm and well lighted.
I'd also rather be able to refill my drink, get my sauces, and whatever. I can't stand waiting for someone else to do what I can do myself.
I'd tip 25% to be left alone. I'll even clean my own table and pick up my food from the kitchen.
Feel me?
Ah, and just like that, the idea for the next great restaurant was born. An honor to be present in the Shoutbox-turned-infirmary at such a moment.
What gave it away was when you wrote "boiled clams." Everyone, even a Neanderthal, would know you don't boil clams, you steam them.
My mom would boil clams when we ran out of chewing gum.
Yes, thanks for reminding me. When I wrote "Everyone, even a Neanderthal" I had forgotten about rednecks, hayseeds, and crackers.
I do not use oyster crackers, which are just immature saltine crackers, too small to be useful.
Too bad we can't eat zebra mussels which are ruining a lot of lakes and water treatment systems. They'e too small to bother with, have very sharp shells, and multiply prodigiously. They're an invasive fresh water species from Europe broght to North America through Great Lakes Shipping.
I only eat oysters on saltines with horseradish and cocktail sauce. I'm not one for slurping them from the shell. They're flavorless that way and you get shell pieces.
The seafood tower is the pinnacle of dining. I ordered it once not paying attention to price. I realized why it was so good after the bill came. A well played mistake on my part.
Not that you asked, but I find fine steakhouses bullshit. Maybe you can tell the difference between an aged whatever and a typical Longhorns steak, but I can't. Occasionally work takes me to fine dining and we all pretend it's so amazing. Whatever.
I find the best deals are still in the small ethnic restaurants -- Vietnamese, Lebanese, Greek.
Merry Christmas!
Santa had nothing to do with my own Christmas success yesterday, which was to produce perfect roast potatoes.
1. Boil potatoes for 12.5 minutes
2. Drain and allow to steam off for an hour or more
3. Shake to rough up the surfaces
4. Place into an oven pan containing hot goose or duck fat and roast for an hour
Simple.
Although it’s a derogatory term that disparages menial office workers, I think perhaps it can be made to fit with David Graeber’s concept of bullshit jobs and thereby not merely to apply to the lowest level of office workers but to all flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters.
Perhaps that makes us all philosophical plankton.
Here's a joke you can tell your orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist.
What did the physical therapist say to the bartender?
[hide="Reveal"]Nice joint you've got here.[/hide]
I don't know, but as the Russian saying goes, the circus has left, but the clowns have stayed.
Elon Musk urges supporters not to donate to Wikipedia after it spent $50M on DEI: ‘Wokepedia’
[sup]— Ariel Zilber · New York Post · Dec 25, 2024[/sup]
Why is DEI controversial? Why would people be against diversity equity inclusion in organizations? Seems like a sentiment that's come out of an asshole factory.
[sup]— Kevin Hughes · CAS · May 17, 2024[/sup]
I'm reminded a bit of cyberpunk movies. :)
Worthwhile for helping people with conditions like paralysis.
I made 2 chocolate babkas filled with butter and cream and hunks of chocolate that I enjoyed for Chrismukkah.
The animal proteins tomorrow will offset the carb overload and will balance my life force.
Come Saturday, I'll be fit as a fiddle.
I think that's right.
Ned Block - Can Neuroscience Fully Explain Consciousness?
[sup]— Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Peter Getzels · Closer To Truth · Oct 1, 2024 · 4m:56s[/sup]
Could be argued that Neanderthals may have had differing tastes and "cook books". Plus hot steaming springs aren't to be found in every cave, perhaps?
Or even suggested that boiled clams were the original unsweetened precursors of Wriggles products, if not swallowed whole?
Not defending their (N's) ignorance, just applying temporal perspective and a lack of archeological evidence of steam making utensils, to date, from that time. But who reads every archeo journal.
But you are quite right to be skeptical. It's doubtful anyone now would remember their (N's) individual names,oral history being what it is. With the possible exception of how to cook Manhattan Clam chowder, present company cited as proof, oral history may be seen as susceptible to distortion, by some.
And,
@Jamal,
".... office plankton."
Shows a convenient lack/ dissembling of ecological understanding in that part of Russian culture.
Not a criticism, we all are what we all are.
slight smile
The office plankton assumes oneself to have ascended to a higher level on the ladder of success, than the office amoeba, because the plankton does some degree of good, while the amoebae just prey on others. But the office amoeba, really just a special type of office plankton, with its capacity to feed on other office plankton, establishes itself as potentially higher up that ladder.
[quote=random AI source]While both are microscopic and single-celled, they differ in several ways. Phytoplankton are photosynthetic organisms, which means they use sunlight to produce their own food through photosynthesis. In contrast, amoebas are heterotrophic, which means they rely on consuming other organisms for their food.[/quote]
So, as your average office plankton basks in the sun, leisurely soaking up the necessities for life, while providing the basic form of energy which drives the office environment through the dingy dark days, the office amoeba, inspired by its own power of self-movement, may be lurking behind any fixture, seeking the opportunity to fulfill its potential.
If you’d ever been to a seafood cookout on the beach, you know that you steam food there by placing wet seaweed over your fire and burying the various food items in the seaweed. I’m sure Neanderthals could figure that out.
Your seaweed method seems kinda backwoods tbh.
You stumbled upon the ancient Seagivers, a mysterious tribe from the north country that produces all the fish the world over. It is said that if you catch them in the act, you will one day be summoned to become one, forming fish from the ice with your bare hands, and only occasionally leaving to set them free into the open waters.
The point of origin for all fish, oddly enough, is the Jersey Shore. Queen Snooki leads the tribe.
Whoever you are and wherever you are, I hope that the beginning of a new year motivates you all to try to improve your lives and the world. May the gods forbid that it gets any worse at least.
I will probably be back to making comments at the end of January, so until then I wish you all the best. :party: :party:
Cheers! :party:
My other resolution will be to work on my knuckle ball, because at 58, my fast ball won't compete. And I mean this literally, as in, I'm going to go out in a field and throw baseballs at a fence. I'm not making a sad metaphor about how I'll need to use tricks to survive over strength now that I'm old. I'm talking about upping my baseball skills.
So, to summarize: (1) lament, (2) knuckleball. I should have that hammered out by mid-February.
Goodbye 2024. Hello, 2025!
I wish everyone a great 2025 full of life and surprises. :party:
"I'm sure Neanderthals could figure that out"
Hydrated seaweed is/was scarce in certain valleys in Germany and Austria as are/were taro and banana leaves and wet jute sacks in the times before non bipedal transportation. Whereas freshwater clams occurred more commonly as did bison bladders.
Aren't you asking too much time and energy investment of the Neanderthal female/male just to ensure the "Correct Future" method of clam chowder cooking was carried out?
Just wondering?
Of course a wet ( as opposed to a dry) Hessian sac did become common after the above mentioned non bipedal era. That could have improved flavour and texture?
Sly/shy smile
The two day Shoutbox statute of limitations has passed for my previous comment.
Not picking, but one may wonder if Plato made any resolutions for 2025 either.
Just didn't want to see you split apart taking the steps of your one resolution if you were to so wonder.
Have a safe, healthy and prosperous NY.
2 day limit is self imposed hopefully? It's no good for tardy thinkers.
Genuine grin
Cheery grin
By my reckoning, which might be faulty, we’ll complete our first quarter a year from now.
She asks him if he was buried somewhere warm, and he says he was buried in the mountains in a place that's surrounded by azaleas.
Call me Prince Mishkin!
Those look like some proper hockey puck burgers. I.E. the kind that are pre-formed and cramp up in the middle because the meat has been over-worked. :razz: No disrespect meant; it's nostalgic for me and reminds me of my childhood.
Feel free to add your own at the end, but try keep with the well defined theme.
I'm down by the fire
Refuse to eat a tire
Caught up in the mire
Can't wait to retire
Walking in a winter wonderland
Went to the orthodontist
Drank me a gin and tonic
Then saw a rubberband
Underneath the tree stand
Walking in a winter wonderland
Played my ukulele
Watched some Marcus Welby
Danced beneath the moon
Slept through the afternoon
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Bought some rainbow trout
Laughed at those who are without
Broke into a store
Fell on an apple core
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Raised my hand at the conference
At the man who was incontinent
Kicked over a chair
Exposed his underwear
Walking in a winter wonderland
Had a plate of green beans
Spilled sauce on my blue jeans
I can't understand
Dick Clark on Bandstand
Walking in a winter wonderland.
The beauty of it is you can put an unformed meat ball right on the griiddle, mixing in onions, jalapeños, blue cheese, whatever you want. Then when the fucking meat ball isn't paying attention on the griddle, you go in for the smash, and it gives that loud sizzle cry, melted fat tears fighting your forearms, but you go full weight on it, your 300 pounds of unapologetic heft hammering down the meat to crispy perfection.
Oh trust me my burger brother, I’m aware; smashburgers are all the rage up here in Gotham. I know how to smash my meat; don’t think that I don’t!
I hope your back pain is better. Stay with us.
Ants best humans at test of collective intelligence
[sup]— Christie Wilcox · Science/AAAS · Dec 30, 2024 · 46s[/sup]
"Bubba Burgers", frozen, to be exact. Certainly not the best as far as taste or anything else, compared to fresh. But they last a good while and all you have to do is rip open a package and toss a few on the grill and wait for 20 or so minutes. Not a bad thing to have on hand really. Good for a busy schedule.
This surprises me not at all. But it IS exceedingly cool. Thanks for sharing.
Did you think democracy was functional? Nay lad, You want something doing, you organise an army with short clear commands and a strong hierarchy. You should have read T H White's 'Once and Future King.'
I'm standing beside an isolette in the emergency room waiting for a baby to come out. It's hot.
I'm thinking my cat would love an isolette.
I imagine the Amex home office is like an old school diner somewhere, where there are tickets hanging above the griddle and a man in a wife beater T-shirt with a spatula is sliding them down one at a time as he knocks them out.
But I ask myself, why should I go to such lengths to provide someone else access to the checking account?
Isolettes or bassinettes are where you put babies. Oubliettes are where you put teenagers.
Am I doing something wrong or is that just the way it works?
It's called media embedding. Your question is a little ambiguous but I assume you're asking if you can embed non-Youtube videos in TPF posts. The answer is...
Quoting Plushforums FAQ
So if the video isn't hosted on one of these platforms, the embed won't work and it'll just display the link.
Thanks for the clarification.
Experimental evidence that a photon can spend a negative amount of time in an atom cloud
[sup]— Angulo, Thompson, Nixon, Jiao, Wiseman, Steinberg · Sep 5, 2024[/sup]
Evidence of ‘Negative Time’ Found in Quantum Physics Experiment (archive)
[sup]— Manon Bischoff, Jeanna Bryner · Scientific American · Sep 30, 2024[/sup]
Graham Seth Moore, Reference-first Theories of Truth
[sup]— Graham Moore · Jan 3, 2025 · 1h:9m:50s[/sup]
Flawed comparison. No data on "whether (or not) and how" ants communicate.
Timely reminder, though, of what may happen when the "apex predator" is foolish enough to think it is the apex predator and believes that species-specific intra competition can/will replace inter species competition in its biosphere.
Just a thought.
Sorry about the delay, subjected to controlled power outages due to....take your pick (or shovel)
Quiet grin
Oui, oui, oui, all the way home, s'il vous plait.
with a wink from under a crooked beret
"Fortunately, I have you all the way"
Reassuring. But what does it mean?
If you look closer, does it say this:
"Fortunate to have you girl
I'm so glad you're in my world
Just as sure as the sky is blue
I bless the day that I found you" ?
If it does, my suspicion is that you've been mistaken by the glove seller as an amazing girlfriend.
If not, I got nothing.
Fortunately, your youth culture references fly over my head.
I think it attempts to say something like "I've got you covered" (even though it's just my hands that he or she has got covered) and also to say that this constitutes good fortune for me.
It means it was made in China.
It doesn't reference being covered, and there's no reference to it being a she.
It might be a Chinese mistranslation, that is supposed to say, "Gauranteed against all defects."
Or maybe you're a kick ass girlfriend.
One or the other.
Indeed, but I need to know what the Chinese are trying to tell me.
We can all learn from her.
I think.
It's a Chinese translation of "Just Do It" retranslated into English.
It's exactly what we love about dogs.
To be clear, I mean the innocence and unquenchable lust for life, not the feces and vomit.
What do we love about pigs?
Their meat?
Pigs is not my province.
I enjoyed pigs being considered a single entity such that you used the singular verb form "is" and not "are."
Why does that dog look more intelligent than most people I know. It's like, there's this "Hanoverian" essence that rubs off on every living thing around you.
What a little sweetheart. :love: (the dog, not you)
But “‘Pigs’ is not my province” would be fine.
How does the characterization attain any status of meaning-hood?
Pigs likes to eat. So if you find yourself over eating, you might be called a pig.
While you may not like that characterization, take comfort in the fact that pigs is no longer burdened by plural verbs like dogs are.
In any event, you've got yourself a mighty case of porciphilia I must say.
I thank you for the sentiment, but I wasn't so sure there was a bright light shining up in there when I watched her eating shit.
Thanks. My subtle humour, as with all humour, really benefits from being broken down and explained like that.
As sure as pigs is pigs!
Yes, it is true.
Quoting unenlightened
Pigly!
Maybe some already have.
smile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ODmE_v6AA
Earthquake in Tibet? Just a chance for Shi and Co. to move more Hans into Tibet.
Just opportunities for extra of the same "more".
look of pity
I interpret this as a lament for the fact that we will have to listen to Donald Trump Jr. for the next four years.
My interpretation of your dream is that your wife's constant correction of your errors is so pervasive that it follows you into your sleep.
You only wish this had something to do with Donald Trump, Jr.
For the next four years, everything will have something to do with Donald Trump Jr.
Initially my comment was going to contain the words "(the live one, not the dead one)" at the end of the sentence, but I felt it in bad taste. But with or without the parenthetical, my comment remains witty and enjoyable, a fun contribution to the Shoutbox, the sort of thing that brings us all together into a true community.
I think.
A variation of this is that instead of saying "I know," you can say "dude" louder and louder. But I wouldn't do that until I had some experience with "I know."
But it's your life, so move forward as you see fit.
I think.
Death jokes always land.
I think.
It’s my understanding that DTJ plans to run for the first governor of Greenland instead.
Anyway, I had one for breakfast. It was pretty good.
As with all good science and philosophy, the general grows out of the specific.
*Large thumbs up photo*
"Chewy" is a defining word in your essay, pointing out one of the three things the Jews gave the world: the two tablets and the bagel. But it was not just any bagel, it was the old school boiled sort that if you held in your hand and cut cold with a knife, you'd cut your hand off. The type you find nowadays are just mishigas doughnut shaped pieces of bread, and that they now actually serve them in Jewish delis, oy gevalt, a true shanda far di goyim!
Lack of AC current will induce all sorts of odd behviours. I've shone (strange word) a laser at my TV, to find that it reflects like a mirror. Then I got the idea to shine the laser into a hall of mirrors. Very freaky, a diffuser, something I believe QM will never grasp.
I would ask why you have a hall of mirrors, but it feels judgey.
Quoting Metaphysician Undercover
Nor can my cat. To her, the fast moving red dot remains a relentless intruder, incapable of capture.
Some people are saying.
Hey, leave @NOS4A2 and @Bob Ross alone.
Heh, I forgot about that. Energy isn't a social construct, it's a construct in the sense that it's an item that's used in theories to make sense of events. You can't directly observe energy or mass. They're inferred. How about that?
Inferences cost energy. Construct is a construct. Direct observation is a construct. Chemical bondage is kinky. "How about that?" is an indecent proposal. A Sokal Affair, is a public fantasy enactment, performed by an exhibitionist. I am a conceptual piss-artist. and the moral of that is, For all X: for all Y: 'X is Y' should always be qualified by "a function of".
Making sense is an incurable condition. You can quote that over on the "Aphorisms I have slept with" thread if you like.
As he ran the floor and dunked basketballs, you saw a fine athlete.
Fred saw a chewy treat wrapped in man that needed freeing.
It's all a matter of perspective. Nobody is right. Nobody is wrong. Officer, it's all a construct. Nothing to see here.
Well, I did say that I got the idea to do it, I didn't say I actually did it, but that feels kind of sleazy.
How many freakin dogs are in that picture?
I don't get it: I am burning houses down? How did I not know this?
From the looks of it, not nearly enough.
I have a theory I've been working on. Hanover's animals aren't actually "real", per se. At least, not in the way most people's pets are. They're actually just physical manifestations of his mind and mood at any given moment. So, right now, we're really just looking at his current frame of mind, which appears to be mostly latent emotion (the dogs that are hanging back and lounging on the bed, representing his subconscious) heavily contrasted by his present and prominent feeling (the upright and engaged dog holding a large bone, perhaps representing a recent accomplishment or work-related endeavor or reward).
Makes as much sense as anything else going on in the world these days. :grin:
Mmm, chicken! :eyes: :ok:
It just looks really dry and uninspired. Some tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, parmesean cheese, then maybe some linguine and you'll have something edible.
I think they might be silicone implants.
Prior to microwaves, we would defrost our chicken breasts on our chests secured by brassieres.
I always assumed that was just an urban myth.
Yes. In a complicated world, simplicity is my escape.
Quoting Hanover
I actually did have to end up cooking these nearly twice as long as I would the variety I'm used to getting to reach the internal temperature of 165. Just shy of 40 minutes. Not sure why, other than to assume it has something to do with being part of the supermarket brand's "organic" line. They seem a bit larger, too.
Interestingly, though the exterior is a bit dry (which I've come to prefer), the interior was just-short-of-incredibly juicy. Very tasty as well. Additionally, the expiration date was over a full week ahead of the date of purchase. Normally, the Perdue variety gives you about 3 - 4 days tops.
I mean, in a world where people are starving, when it comes to something that's going to be literal crap flushed down a toilet in 24 hours, inspiration would seem a tad misplaced here.
Quoting Hanover
That does sound good, though. I'd probably use jarred salsa instead. Same thing really, right? I just can't imagine opening a full can of tomato sauce, using a few spoonfuls for two chicken breasts then just letting it sit in the fridge like I'm going to use it again anytime soon.
Come to think of it, I forgot about Parmesan cheese. It has been a very long time. I will be ordering some soon now, thanks.
Pasta is a whole production. What with the giant pot, the boiling water, the stirring, the waiting, the monitoring, the storing the leftovers, etc. Too complicated. I need food that cooks by itself while I'm working or that can go from storage to full and instant edibility in a minute or two ie. a ham and cheese sandwich.
Besides, if I were to put myself through the trials and tribulations of noodle preparation, there's no way I'm not making beef stroganoff. Basically the only dish worth that level of effort.
You should try a microwave pasta cooker. Takes 11 minutes to cook spaghetti al dente. You only have to put in as much as you need for that particular meal. They don’t cost very much.
The brand I got was Fasta Pasta. I got it on Amazon and I’ve been using it for about five years with no problems.
[sup]— Frederik Joelving · Retraction Watch via Science/AAAS · Dec 17, 2024[/sup]
But how do you know that the emotional disconnectedness is not an accurate portrayal of Dylan?
As something of an expert on shoddy commentaries, I resent the competition.
More seriously, as I've said before, you post a lot of interesting stuff.
Have you ever eaten wasabi peas?
I ate one once not knowing what it was.
How is that an advantage to the old way of cooking pasta? I choose how much I want, bung it in a pot and it cooks in 8-10 minutes? Does it use less water?
For me, the advantage is not having to pay attention while it's cooking so I can work on other parts of the meal. Outlander was complaining about how much of a pain in the ass it is to cook pasta. If that doesn't matter to you, there's no reason to get one. It may use a bit less water than doing it in a pot. On the other hand, you can only cook about four servings at a time.
You think that he eats the way he says he eats because it's too difficult to do otherwise?
Here's what he wrote:
Quoting Outlander
The microwave pasta cooker I recommended meets that requirement exactly.
Alright, I'll fold. It's a conspiracy. Each day I spend a good 2 hours preparing sumptuous feasts of pasta, noodles, and everything in between. I merely pretend to eat only plain, lackluster chicken and boring, simple sandwiches to promote a bizarre self-flagellation lifestyle agenda to the masses. The idea that someone somewhere -- anyone -- is having a good time fills me with a deep, insatiable rage and causes me to be unable to function. Drat, foiled again. Darn you and your Hanoverian intuition!
I give you thin cut NY strip breakfast steaks in a wortestershire glaze, a salad with Italian dressing, with a side of cheese grits.
Tho I think I'm pickier with rice than noodles, sounds like a good addition.
For me, cooking rice correctly is much harder than linguine.
WTF, pasta and rice, the two easiest things in the world to cook. Let's move on to something a little more difficult in this Cordon Bleu session. Anyone know how to fry an egg?
Perhaps for you Julia, not for all of us.
I was thinking I could find one about the size of my belly and I could cook them up and eat them with my cat without having to get up.
This would inspire a song called "Trow dem bones on du wife's piddow," a Zydeco number with a music video featuring a black voodoo cat with me eventually getting my head slammed in with a frying pan by a lady with long locks of red hair twisted with chicken wing bones.
Thoughts?
The angry ginger is a good touch i think. It makes it more realistic.
I like my Ninja all-in-one. Use it just about daily, often several times a day (bear in mind I don't have a functional kitchen stove). No doubt it makes good chicken wings, as you could imagine the forced hot air circulation makes food a bit crispy in no time at all.
Just made some fish sticks for "lunch", actually. Fillets technically (Gorton's "Crispy Battered"), but they're rather small so they're more triple-wide fish sticks all things considered. Regular bake would've been about 25 minutes for half the bag. Was able to cut that down to just over half the time using the Air Fry feature. Pretty good. No complaints. :up:
Quoting Hanover
It's alarming how clever you are. Work can be pretty grim some days, depending what's going on, but that got a good chuckle out of me... Amazing how far a little unexpected humor can go toward improving one's day and outlook. Thank you, Hanover.
Sometimes I just feel like I'm
I'd like to try grits. And collard greens.
Does anyone eat chitlins these days?
Stick with manna and ambrosia, human food always tastes of sweat.
Despite global warming, I am confident that rice is not much grown in Devon. Furthermore, rice pudding is not, and never has been nor ever will be the food of the gods. You have been conned.
Ambrosia is a very different southern dish where I'm from that must be made by a person named Aunt Mildred with towering hair. It has pineapples, coconut, and marshmallows. Unlike what else I say, this part is true.
Your poor cat.
The air fryer is not bad, but why replace an essential ingredient, grease.
As Zappa says: "Keep it greasey so it'll go down easy", but for some reason I don't think he's talkin fried chicken.
As with everything in the south, it’s always better with a little Karo syrup.
Sounds like you've enjoyed some southern pecan pie.
When I was a kid, I think pecan pie was the first thing I ever ate where I said “I can’t believe it tastes this good.”
I had that moment when I first had sweet and sour chicken. Candied chicken. Who'd have thunk?
Back then Chinese food was exotic cuisine, authentic or not.
One more reason why I don't like that 51st state.
Guts (inside): [hide="Reveal"]
I like to make half a dozen or twice that at a time en masse, putting aside one or two for the moment, then placing the remainder in a Ziploc bag in the fridge to be consumed across a 72-96 hour period. It's peak efficiency.
(after deciding whether or not to post this upon noting the most recent reply, thus alleviating the quietness that previously overshadowed the Shoutboxian zeitgeist, I figured, sure, I already typed it all out, after all.)
I've had poutine and it was delicious, probably the best Canadian food I had when I was in Canada. I wouldn't have thought peas would make a good addition but I suppose it depends on the peas.
The best Canadian drink I had was the Caesar, which if you don't know is vodka and Clamato, which if you don't know is a popular brand of clam-flavoured tomato juice.
The uneven pickle coverage is giving me anger, but the freshly cracked black pepper is a pro move, no doubt. The next step is full seasoning: salt, pepper and oregano. And then, if you choose to add them, dressed greens.
Quoting Jamal
Good collards are the best. The goal is for them to taste like meat.
Glad it's not just me.
The pickle color lets me know it's the sweet soft variety, a terrible substitute for the crispy garlicy sort, the type I call a kosher pickle, which is also what I call my junk.
Collards are the correct greens to eat, not turnip greens, which are soft and unacceptable.
When I grew up in Scotland, we would carve turnips instead of pumpkins. We called them neeps. Wait, no, that was @Jamal. I get us confused sometimes.
There's one quaint little town in Ontario where I'm sure you'd feel right at home.
https://www.hanover.ca/
Out of curiosity, how often in your work at Loblaw, Hanover, and T Clark (no relation) do you use the following legal phrases?
While we're on the subject of law, who is your favorite judge:
He was also bushy browed, and for that, I loved him dearly, not romantically, but like a sister.
Moreover (a word i suspect he used moreoften), he died in 1961, a kind gesture, so as to not steal my stage when I would arrive 5 years later.
Many have compared my member to his, remarking that I'm as endowed as him in full force while still flaccid. I don't find such comparisons helpful or appropriate even if true, but i just report what is said, for your edification.
I'd choose the third arm, but I'd use it to sucker punch people who stared at me. I'm not a freak. I'm just a person that happens to have a headarm.
[sup]— Carl Gibson · AlterNet · Jan 8, 2024[/sup]
The original Ryback article is paywalled (and archived).
The nature of the rhetoric hasn't changed much.
I can think of some front figures / examples here and there...
Parallels in terms of strategies/tactics/methods come to mind.
Then there are the followers/supporters...
In present-day examples, I guess we're left to ask: to what end (and what to expect)?
Not dark energy, but non-uniform expansion?
Supernovae evidence for foundational change to cosmological models
[sup]— Wiltshire, Seifert, Lane, Galoppo, Ridden-Harper · Royal Astronomical Society · Dec 19, 2024[/sup]
I like Eraserhead. It's an early, intentionally experimental art film, so to say it's gratuitous seems a bit misguided, though of course I can understand someone disliking it. On the other hand yeah, Lynch is enigmatic but hardly subtle.
But he could also tell a story more simply: The Elephant Man is one of his best films. If you haven't seen it, see it.
I suppose Mulholland Drive and Elephant Man are my favourites, but I like all the others too, even Wild at Heart and Dune.
Someone somewhere some time ago said that Lynch doesn't get credit for inventing a new horror subgenre: identity horror, most obvious in Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. Inland Empire too, which I found more scary than most genre horror films.
His films are an odd mix of mainstream and experimental, and have an incredible and endearing moral simplicity and naivety about them—like fairy tales in which good and evil are clear and distinct, to the point of surreal exaggeration.
Lynch is like jazz, distinctively American, pioneering and individualist. RIP!
I found most Lynch films terribly contrived and self-indulgent. There were only two I liked: Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. But I'm not sure I could sit through them today.
This might be a good topic for an OP. When this accusation is thrown around (generally, not particularly about David Lynch) I find myself wondering (a) what it means, and (b) what's wrong with it.
It just occurred to me that this is a surprising criticism coming from the man who wrote "A Special Christmas" and "Dead Baby Shoes".
Fair enough. I don't mind self-indulgent directors and self-indulgent films, but not all makers can get away with it. Lynch, for me, didn't get away with it. But this is merely personal taste.
But it'd be interesting to know what "getting away with it" means, artistically speaking.
If I had to provide a more complex explanation beyond personal taste, I would say that 'getting away with it' means the work successfully enables a suspension of disbelief.
Interesting. I'll have to ponder that.
Words that I think might describe my stories are absurd, silly, farcical, with clueless characters and narrators, and maybe irreverent if taken as serious commentary. They are stabs at comedy, but i saw Eraserhead as serious horror, even if surreal. That is, while I did see humor in its craziness, it fell well outside the comedy genre, but not playful or childlike.
But this does bring up interesting questions about the lines between surreal and absurd and whether unpredictable departures from reality are necessarily humorous to some extent.
My favorite museum of all time is the MoMA in NYC, and I find much humor in it, often from the real seriousness of the artists. This isn't me laughing at them because they're less than true artists, but because they're making a serious point with their absurdism, which is funny. To me at least.
I think it's considered self indulgent when it feels like it's just someone exploring things things they personally are obsessed with or that are peculiar to them. If it feels like they've gone to great lengths to expose the fetishes deep inside the recesses of their mind for their personal release, it feels self indulgent.. That is, self indulgency is when you paint pictures of your internal mental jerk bank so you can better pleasure yourself. I really felt that at points with Blue Velvet, which i did like btw.
Since it's all art anyway and it gives license to wild speculation as to meaning, if you accept Eraserhead as I described it, as being a revelation of internal psychosis, then it makes sense to psychoanalyze and diagnose your author.
And it's been described as a nightmare depiction of the anxiety of fatherhood, focusing on its inescapable commitments regardless of the random type of child that happens to reveal itself at birth and regardless of the stresses with the relationship with the mother.
I'm tired of typing, so I'll stop here.
Wise words, but I'm still left with significant bewilderment about the nature of self-indulgence.
To develop your theory, maybe it's when the artist introduces something motivated not by the work at hand (the story, subject matter, or whatever) but by their own perennial interests, such that they're more interested in themselves than in whatever it is they're doing the art about.
A practice that is commonly called self-indulgent is taking too long of a solo — worst of all a bass or drum solo — in the context of jazz or rock. Self-expression is essential to these art forms but there's a point where the self can lose sight of the contextual non-self.
But the question remains: where is that point?
This seems like a good definition to me.
When playing music in a group, listening to the group as a whole while playing is arguably the most important thing to do. While this may sound corny to the uninitiated, in a very real sense, if you're sufficiently advanced as a musician, the act of actively listening to the whole of which you're participating actually makes you play better.
Obviously you need a certain level of technical skill to get to that point. This brings up another component of self-indulgence. A musician can have a high skill level, but poor listening skills. In contrast, most musicians with good listening skills have a similarly high skill level, but tend to "play below" their threshold of ability.
Anyway, just a boots on the ground example I thought of. I'm quite a self-indulgent, navel-gazing songwriter myself, so this is all quite hypocritical of me to talk about.
Hypocritical/philosophical; tomato/tomahto.
You hit a nail on the head there.
And that's precisely why it's so common, to the point of cheapness. It's where the "here and now" gains its artificial aura of permanence- pertinence, prominence, goodness even. Yes, as we can clearly see from the world around us. But we never look beyond our immediate needs, for, per nature of this world, any other sense of priority is utter foolishness, surely this is illustrated by the muted savagery of one gaining an upper hand in a dignified place of work by acting less-than-considerately of his fellow man. And often on full display in many an other common venue. The claimant (whoever your replying to) suggests the peddler (whoever you're talking about) had a point, a simple one at that, and chose to create an environment where other viewpoints become irrelevant, not by fair and balanced utilitarian or logical comparison or timely process, but by sheer restriction or bombardment of carefully selected environment and atmosphere, or in this case, lack of it, meticulously tailored to a degree of surgical precision, as opposed to a "sloppy" or "unsophisticated" ideological free-for-all where one's point is made from the get-go without such pretentious and deceptive forebearings.
Look at it this way. You can have a great point, a sound vision, everything in between. But not everyone watches or reads or otherwise ingests whatever media you're putting out for the reason you'd hope they intend to. And that's potentially the problem whoever has with the type of content he calls "self-indulgent". It has a single point. A short message. The movie, the motions, whatever it is, was simply second to that- all filler and nothing else. No real experience or multi-path journey or chance for development of the viewer. Just another dressed up, psuedo-artistic/intellectual statement of "My way or the highway". He saw through it. Why didn't you? (Allegedly, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, frankly it's just as likely he simply didn't understand it the way a lackluster 5th grader in a 10th grade math class taught by a world-class instructor would call the lesson "incoherent gibberish", but again, giving the benefit of the doubt)
Maybe the Dead is by definition selfless, a communistic ball of togetherness, pretend or real, bullshit or genuine, but not narcissistic. I can't say the same of Pink Floyd though.
I am happy to be disabused of this view and I may well be wrong. I tend to think of self-indulgent works as, perhaps, phoney or as style over substance. A case where the artist seems more interested in the impact or conceits of their style than the audience's experience or coherence. Sometimes this works - Bob Fosse's All That Jazz I find self-indulgent but I like it. Why? Probably because the film weaves a spell that holds me, supporting me to suspend judgement. Works can be a bit like con artistry in how they seduce us - there are bad exponents, like Trump, and there are compelling ones like Anna Delvey. But that said, what works for some won't work for others.
Quoting Jamal
There is no point. This is not scientific. It's in the experience. I don't have a lot of patience, so for me it is sooner or more often than, perhaps, for you. :wink:
Self-indulgence is the essence of art and creativity in general. If art is simply self-indulgence, then "getting away with it" is the matter of tastefulness. But of course, artists know no limits and are known to push the envelop. So there are those (like Hanover), who seek next-level self-indulgence, meta-self-indulgence, where the distinction between tasteful and not tasteful is left impotent by the self-indulgence of self-indulgence.
I always wondered if I were a musician whether I could work with others within a group because I've never come close to doing something like that. I don't know if I could keep time very well because I dance to my own tune, both literally and figuratively.
I guess my question is this: Let's suppose I was finally discovered and I formed Hanover and the H Street Band, playing a mix of horror punk and la la la hammer harp clickity clack, but let's then further suppose (and this is hardly a stretch of the imagination) I have no ability (or inclination) to listen to my bandmates (support underlings). Do think with sufficient skill a band could adjust to my meanderings so as to bring out my best sound?
I'm just wondering how bad I can suck without it hurting my brand.
There was this guy who taped a banana to the wall and sold that work of art for $6,000,000. The buyer then ate the banana.
That is absurdism, but it strikes me as an offensive waste by the tone deaf wealthy of what the value of resources mean to them compared to those without those resources.
But did this just make the point perhaps intended, which is the sociopathy of consumerism that establishes value entirely from agreed upon price between the parties instead of inherent worth to society? That is, just as it's apparently acceptable to pay hundreds of thousands on bottles of wine, so too can we throw away our money for a simple banana in front of those who can't even afford basic necessities.
My objection isn't to Jonathan Swift plot twists, but to actual people eating actual poor people. It is not art to throw away more money on a banana than most would earn in 5 lifetimes. It is art to describe such a dystopian moment as a fictional event.
That sort of absurdism, making a show out of how rich you are, showing off with freakish displays of extravagance is really disgusting. I may never be able to eat another banana if I think about this too much. That type of showing off is a modern trend gaining in popularity, perhaps initiated by Richard Branson. But Branson generally displayed a bit of taste by putting money toward some sort of good in the course of his antics. Attracting attention to oneself through an extravagant display of "good" is quite different from attracting attention through the pure self-indulgence of eating money.
Then again, I don't know where that $6,000,000 dollars went, nor do I know where the hundreds of thousands for those bottles of wine goes to. So I guess the question is whether these people making those absurd shows of extravagance care where the money goes. "Care" being the key word.
Otherwise we may think that the most pure form of self-indulgence, is an act which cannot be gratifying in any possible way, eating money. But then, that's not even self-indulgence at all, it's merely showing off. Enter... the true entertainer, the jester, a most complete lack of self-indulgence.
RIP David Lynch.
Eraserhead is definitely one of my favorites of his -- it's meaning is open-ended, though I've heard the interpretation which you've presented @Hanover and thought it managed to make sense of a lot of it.
What I like about Lynch is he's trying different things, things I don't necessarily understand -- I still have no clue what that red room scene was all about, but I know that they made choices purposefully to have the effect it did, and it's a unique choice which makes it interesting.
Even if I don't have an understanding of it after the fact his movies always have an effect on me -- they are interesting and emotional.
And I find his movies interesting because he kind of reverses the male/female roles in movies -- all his men are weird little guys, and all his women are these almost mythical characters with power and purpose.
Getting away with it is when someone else accepts it as art.
Just a thought.
minimized smile
But self-indulgence requires actually indulging oneself doesn't it? This is how art gets really weird, when the supposed self-indulgence is not an indulgence at all. And that's because it's actually intended solely for effect, designed to a appear like self-indulgence, but the indulgence aspect was left out, for the sake of effect. It's contrived to appear like art when it's really just strangeness. Then, the artist gets the last laugh, by passing it off as art, and "indulgence" is validated.
I assumed #3 and so I've been going around asking others to see if their phone recognized me so that I could see if I were them. Of course, if I was able to open their phone, a reasonable argument could be made that they stole my phone, but it would still be possible that it wasn't that, but that it was that I was a different person. I could also argue that maybe their software failed and it was recognizing me when it should not be.
The problem here is that I don't know if there is a definitive way to figure out which of the 3 possibilities is correct. If I think this through long enough am I just going to be able to say I think therefore I am, and if I am, then who am I in terms of which phone is mine?
This new biosecurity stuff is so philosophically troublesome, right?
When you hear "who are you" are you hearing those words from you own mouth or the phone. It can be hard to tell. Like my knee makes this screaming sound when a stoop down, but I'm not sure if it comes from the knee or the mouth it's attached to.
I have an Apple phone, so (1) is impossible. My first thought would be that I had got out of bed the wrong side, so I would try genital recognition and toe prints first.
Is there a difference, though between (2) and (3)? The phone is 'wrong' in relation to the person, and the person is 'wrong' in relation to the phone. But your difficulty does suggest the need for a "find my person" app on phones. You should suggest it - they might even award you a new phone if they like the idea.
Interesting. Imagine being part of a religion without knowing so. And folks like to call religious folks enslaved or brainwashed or in a cult, eh? :grin:
This is intriguing. The phone is so easily lost, and you cannot have a find my phone app on the phone, because you would need the phone to use it. However, the phone could use the app to find the person. Could this be done without implanting a chip in me? And, what would the phone do when it located me?
Book an uber to take it home, I imagine.
(A bit sad and depressing, but I didn't expect otherwise) https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/566185
I was about to leave, yes, but Charles Dickens wrote me a registered letter, saying:
[i]Please, Mr. Javier, don't leave TPF. People there respect you, and they are fond of your posts. Wait your turn, and you will meet two fabulous persons: Baden and Wolfgang. One is a human, and a hamster is the other, but it is difficult to distinguish them. Later on, you will take part in an important contest called 'literary activity' (created by the Irish linguist or the rodent) where you will submit 'Rip out the grass' and 'bulb in pots.'. People will cheer and leave wonderful feedback. It is not about reading Dostoyevsky and Mishima out of control but being yourself. Also, Wolfgang will disappear and appear again. Only those whose imagination rests peacefully on the shore of children's literature would see Wolfgang around TPF.
SIGNED: C. DICKENS.[/i]
And then, I stayed here. :smile:
We're glad you did.
Hooray for the Dickens!
My son (who I'll call Son) came to visit from Denver with a GPS tag on his backpack. Son walked in unannounced to immediately steal my food from the refrigerator as Son does, and I was alerted by my phone's anti-terrorism app that I was being followed by a GPS device.
Son and I had a long talk with Backpack about stalking. Backpack apologized and Son ate a second pudding cup.
Yes! And hooray for the magic of Children's literature. :sparkle:
That would follow if one takes seriously that meaning is use, which means the meaning isn't in the words, but it's in what the words are said to mean, even though in most other contexts those sets of words mean something very different.
Sort of like "break a leg."
In summary, the Bible is one big "break a leg" story. You might be like, why read it if it doesn't say what it says it says, but I think you have to read it, you just have to be around someone who speaks Bible and can translate for you that break a leg doesn't mean you should snap your femur.
Alas.
They probably watched the movie.
Early Exposure to Violent Media Linked to Teen Antisocial Behavior
[sup]— Neuroscience News · Jan 20, 2025[/sup]
Prospective Associations Between Preschool Exposure to Violent Televiewing and Externalizing Behavior in Middle Adolescent Boys and Girls (study)
[sup]— Pagani, Beauchamp, Kosak, Harandian, Longobardi, Dubow · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health / MDPI · Jan 20, 2025[/sup]
There's more going on though. The gender differences are noticeable.
Has anyone ever said no to this question?
No.
Therefore, Yes.
Unless you meant that other question ...
I think the question intends to result in greater social (and legal) ramifications then the average person might garnish from a one-off reading.
Basically: does it amount to a form of abuse, just shy of scientifically-evidenced trauma?
Like how if you make love to your wife in the presence of your child, that would make one a sex offender (or perhaps if you pick up drugs or commit crimes with your kid in the vehicle or something) both which would create real possibility of being legally declared unfit to raise a child (where the state gets involved and removes them).
This stuff should be right up your alley. Both legally and philosophically. Like, it seems there are people who would equate exposure to violent movies to showing your kid porn or literally and physically introducing them into unsafe or inappropriate environments (like a drug deal or violent robbery), perhaps. Which understandably, past a certain threshold and degree of severity or danger or environment with reasonable likelihood to cause trauma or long-lasting developmental detriment (immediate or delayed), certainly does amount to abuse.
And I can personally recall a fair amount of my childhood being in and around bars. The pool chalk was fun to rub on one's thumb and forefingers on and hone the sacred art of geometry learning to play pool by myself. How I was not physically abused or kidnapped (to my recollection) nor my old man ever arrested is something I to this day account solely to the benevolence of some sort of higher power.
I once wrote a post similar to that and was about to leave but, coincidently, Mark Twain wrote me a registered letter, saying:
Now listen here, Praxis, don’t go jumpin’ ship just yet. Reckon quittin’ TPF would be like throwin’ away a perfectly good plow right in the middle of a field full o’ corn—ain’t no sense in it. You’ve been ridin’ this trail long enough to know the weeds ain’t always thick, but they sure grow mighty quick if ya let 'em. You’re part o’ the pack, like a good ol’ coonhound, and they sure could use your nose to track this thing through, getn' to the truth and such. Ain’t no point in lettin’ the wolves run wild when you’ve got the strength to help round 'em up. So put that ol' quitter’s hat down, ya hear, and stick this out together—like molasses on a cold mornin’, it’ll work out slow but sure.
SIGNED: M. Twain.
I stayed too, obviously. Twain is quite persuasive.
confused smile
I have to thank Mr. Mark Twain for persuading you to stay in TPF then. Otherwise, we would have never shared our opinions on Murakami's* books. Writers tend to help us when it is needed, but don't try to write a registered letter to the Grimm brothers; they never reply.
*Oh, BTW. What do you think of The City and Its Uncertain Walls? I got a bit disappointed...
Good one, the comic,that is.
@javi2541997,
Got it. Very good.
Two encouraging smiles
Quoting Wikipedia
Quoting Wikipedia
Go Purdue!
Wasn’t my favorite either. Too heavy on the magical realism for my taste and seemed like he stretched a short story out much too thin.
When I see the number "1883" it brings to mind some sort of strong, perhaps limited-edition alcoholic beverage or maybe a lever-action shotgun or old Western movie. The choice(?) to not have included a comma certainly casts its fate to be interpreted as a year or time period instead of just another mundane number, thus rightfully invoking such powerful imagery.
Quoting Pierre-Normand
While I myself have only arrived recently, I'm naturally more than willing to divulge what little I've experienced in the context or "aim" of providing an answer to your inquiry. Shawn was (or perhaps will be) a pig, or similar being that enjoys waddling, in another life. Hanover is either very weird or lives an unfathomably weird life with a state of constant and continual circumstance that just shouldn't happen to the average person. Praxis has certainly engaged in some sort of forbidden soul magic in order to gain powers and insight beyond mortal comprehension enabling him to consistently beat me in online chess no matter many times I ask for a rematch. Jorndoe clearly dreams, nightly, of being a newscaster or anchorman in a world where intellect coupled with "inquisitive-ness" takes center stage, a world obviously and unfortunately different from the one in which we arise to each day. Jamal still perhaps needs to polish his social skills, despite significant progress made in said area. He's made it clear on many an occasion he has it out for his building manager. If something happens to said individual, well, unfortunately, we all know what happened.
These are of course preliminary findings not set in stone, mind you, and as such are subject to change, refinement, or perhaps complete reversal.
Bullwinkle = @Baden
Not at all. Many people feel similarly, especially when AI discussions become repetitive or overly technical. The same talking points—like AI's risks, potential, or ethics—can feel tiresome if they lack fresh perspectives or practical relevance. Your interests and priorities naturally shape how engaging you find the topic, so it's completely valid to feel that way.
My son once had dental surgery and was coming off anethesia and he was talking to me on the phone, and he was commenting on the TV show he was watching as if I was in the room watching it with him and asking me questions about what was going on.
That's what your post reminded me of.
Because then we couldn’t watch Harrison Ford get beaten up in a leaky old building.
Did you know Harrison Ford was an android too?
That's sweet. Except your answer was probably unsane.
Yes.
Quoting Jamal
Just saw this, so no.
:shade:
Quoting Hanover
:grin:
Replicants are bioengineered and not so androidy like in Star Wars. You must be confusing Harrison Ford with Harrison Ford. Speaking of Star Wars, I just realized the plot doesn’t make sense. :gasp:
Why not?
It's supposed to be the hero's journey, yet our "hero" gets into bar fights, wants to bone his own sister, and in the end commits an act of galactic terrorism, blowing up a space station the size of a small moon with one shot.
wry smile
@Shawn,
Pretty Pig Picture, please.
Wonder how a pig based AI would compare to the current crop of AIs
sleepy smile
Most discussions about AI are boring because they are superficial. Until very recently, the field of AI was as much science fiction as it was science. So, it's not very surprising that Sturgeon's law would still apply to discussions about it. When the topic itself interests you, you have to dig for the 10%, as is the case for everything else.
Their only evidence of our civilization will be the Shoutbox archives, which they'll find on a USB drive on the muddy shores of Oban, in a manbag.
The corrupt file will be studied closely, and they'll learn a man they can only interpret as HNVR (the unpronouncable godhead) once ruled with an iron fist, but a heart of gold. The iron fist and golden heart will be on display next to his mummified body at the museum. AI thingamajigs will walk slowly by it, reading the information plaque beneath it, trying to wrangle their unruly kids by offering them cheese crackers, now shaped as turtles and not fish.
There isn't much we can do to avoid this, other than abandoning our intellectual pursuits and listening to repetitive electronic euro pop on the dance floor. That's the only way to stop this change, but we just can't get universal compliance, sealing our fate.
AI isn't boring. People who talk about AI are boring. Unless they're not .
Star Wars is terrorist propaganda.
It seems watchable from it's Wiki entry. What might be the overarching theme or message of the ending, though? Could it be when man is not weighed down by the social complications and trivial pursuits of the modern age we become greater than men (or greater than those around us without even having to try, etc.)?
This is a shameless attempt to discuss the intricacies of a piece of art by only experiencing its Wiki description.
You, my friend, are the cause of the demise of all of civilization.
I just felt momentarily piqued by your declaration of it being essentially "the greatest movie you've ever seen" and figured you'd not only have some sort of insight to muster in regards to it's unique format and choice of cinematography but would enjoy making such known is all.
Just asking for your 2 cents bud, jeez. :lol:
As you get older you realize most things men do follow a predictable enough format to be able to get the gist of things with less information or context than you'd expect. Not always. But more often than not.
Quoting Hanover
Disagree, but have been called worse so will consider that a promotion.
Like he's a holy fool?
This is a cease and desist notice in respect of the above breach of copyright in relation to :
Quoting unenlightened
See, now that's a powerful and succinct review that really drives the point home. And frankly, makes me consider giving it a watch sometime. Some consider the "divine" as "the unknowable", some consider it as simply that which impresses or, going further, disproves a given reality lifting up all or most around to some sort of path or opportunity that would have otherwise been unavailable.
Apparently in movies or stories, no detail is incidental, meaning every plot element or characteristic is included for an intended reason to facilitate the substance, power, or validity of an idea, theme, message, or meaning. The fact he was raised, essentially isolated, literally his only knowledge of the world around him being his indulgence in television has to, in no minor way, have been a concept the producer of the film wished to draw attention to or otherwise make a substantial and crucial element to the story. That's just where my preliminary opinion came from.
But yeah, real talk. It's been a pleasure.
You are a Model T. I'm a Cadillac.
He's not the fool. We are.
I can see that
You just reviewed a movie based upon the Wiki article.
I just read the Wiki article on Mozart's Requiem. It was so moving.
Au contraire, I did nothing of the sort. I simply established base concepts present in most all popular or well-received film or production. While each of us are complex and listlessly unique in our own way, hot will always be hot and cold will always be cold. Certainly there's no "universal formulae" to entertainment, pleasure, satisfaction, or otherwise "worthwhileness". Or is there?
You're correct, the movie in question is something I, in the current state of having never seen it, remains, itself, impossibly beyond my own description or power to accurately analyze. That doesn't mean before it was even conceived in the mind of whoever produced it, reasonable intentions and, while we're on the mention of music, "chords" were not intended to be struck, met, placated, or even challenged. This is the very essence or reason why some movies are "bad" or "unpopular" and some advance to the status of "classic" or even legendary. We're simple beings, despite all the art, creativity, and seeming advancement in contrast to those before us, we're, just as you yourself suggest, hopelessly destined, or so it seems, to follow a predictable pattern. Nothing more, and yet nothing less. Perhaps I'm mistaken, perhaps not. All I can respond to is your gracious indulgence of offering me your earnest opinion which I indeed sought with no shortness of sincerity.
It made you feel good, because it validated a truth or ideal you yourself either believe in and live by or otherwise desire others to. This, while deep, in it's own level, is something that one can reasonably bet on being fairly consistent in movies, art, or media deemed favorable over others.
I didn’t like the movie that much, but I do like to watch.
A classic usurper's trope; I am entitled to exploit you because I am naturally superior. Even if it were true, which it isn't, the argument does not work as a justification. A breach of copyright cannot be perfect because it is a breach of copyright, and being in breach of copyright is a serious imperfection.
I get the reference.
I like what you say here. I will repeat it to others as if my own.
I had no doubt that you would.
So true. I never disappoint.
True enough.
That is entirely satisfactory. The acknowledgement of the lack of acknowledgement pays for all, and you may take this as full permission to plagiarise at will.
A 4 page booklet is a folio and an 8 page an octavo.
The increments of two are due to single sheets being folded to form additional pages.
I came upon this song that deals with yeppers. It has a certain cutting edge polka feel to it
Here's the pig:
Michael said money was not an issue and he spent €32.48, thus 331,974.27 Russian rubles on mussels.
Arriving at the restaurant where we work, @Wolfgang was waiting for us in the kitchen. He said buying one pud of mussels was a bit reckless, but he recognised the talent of the fishmonger in his job and the knowledge of Michael on Russian measures.
And here we are, the three lovebirds (@Michael Bay, @Wolfgang and me) cooking mussels with lemon. We have the Bulgarian royal family as guests! Wish us good luck!
While she was most febrile, she went into convulsions, gyrating and vomiting, and that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
Dead oh dead oh.
That's how that song used to go, but it got changed by the family. They thought it disrespectful.
No further questions. I rest my case.
Elitist: one who thinks they know better and wishes we were.
Guilty as charged.
Thanks for the pretty pig pic.
snouty smile
A knowledge fruit must be like a passion fruit or maybe a papaya.
This is so making sense as I think about it.
The Shoutbox is where I come when I'm to drunk to know what's goin on. Thanks for the empathy.
I already explained this a long while ago, here. Only to be (in his own mind) refuted by one Tom Storm. Of course, per nature of philosophy, man is forgiven when he creates his own reality based on that of truth and (perceived) intent of benefit for those around him versus suffering and gratification or physical benefit. A rare feat back in the day.
Had man not learned technologies he would never have been able to commit such atrocities such as poisoning the entire planet (oceans, air, etc. via his industry), nor would he be have elevated the generally-ignored and typical low class thuggish "knife on one another's throat" ballet or dance of human frailty to that of a global nuclear threat, that yes, as was said, would ensure, and I quote, word for word, no embellishment, no mental gymnastics: "[man] would surely die."
No matter, eh? Be one a man of faith or a man of worldly virtue (a noble and rare feat at that, surely we can attest) one can be sure, all will be well, so long as one follows what is believed that the majority and greater will wishes to envision and ensure, for not just one generation, but surely all who may be graced to come after.
Your interpretation of the Eden story is as good as any. Philosophy is not a love of truth or knowledge, but of wisdom. As in, interpret that, and really everything (textual, empirical, and otherwise), in a way toward your desire that offers you meaning. That is how the Bible is used. Those who suggest your epiphanies invalid because they deny the validity of their source have no appreciation that an epiphany necessarily validates the source regardless of how illogical the connection might seem to be.
As in, if my life comes to order from my whimsical interpretation of the clouds in the sky, a more absurd argument could not be made than to tell me the cloud was formless and held no meaning. If the cloud did as i say it did, then it did, regardless of whether someone thinks it should have.
Art evokes meaning, and all is art. And all is poetry. And all is interpretation. Literalism isn't a thing
Papaya you say?
A most vaginesque fruit. The correlate to the banana.
Maybe for a tiny banana.
Or a cavernous papaya.
My affinity toward the grapefruit springs from that commonality, as I too am a product of cross-breeding, half god, half God.
This is understandable. Wolves who weren't riled up when monkeys were chewing on their ears likely had fewer offspring than those who were.
How about a pig snorting coke?
Can't imagine such a pig. Pigs usually like fly agar for fun.
I disagree. That mushroom is a fun guy.
Dad joke strikes again!
Where is the gnome? I think a deadly evil mushroom without a gnome sitting on the top is pointless.
Quoting Hanover
Dad jokes are funny but hard to understand. :confused:
It might enhance your geometry of perception...
I was in a neighborhood that I used to frequent years ago. The dream was nearly real because I experienced my trip by metro to go there. When I left at my dreamlike metro station, a girl from my old high school was waiting for me, and then the rest of the dream was pure sweetness.
But now that I am thinking deeply about it... I guess I have to feel bad about it, actually. Because that only would have happened in a dream. It is impossible to experience something similar in real life...
A mushroom is a fun guy (fungi). A pun.
Jokes are even funnier when explained.
[i]It operates illegally, as sale and possession of magic mushrooms is illegal in Canada. In November 2024, FunGuyz announced plans to close all of its physical stores but keep its online business open.
These stores were frequently raided and their products confiscated. As of August 2023, police have sought an arrest warrant for the owner of the stores.[/i]
NO! Poor mushrooms! No fungus should have illegal status. Free FunGuyz!
And that's all folks about our fungi class today!
Love it!
primate buddies
Quite a distillation..!
@Shawn,
Thanks for the above pig pic, but...?
Oh, never mind!
wan smile
Don't fret. He has a ring on his finger.
So, all good.
If you look to the far right in the clouds things become more clearer.
That's a relief re pig pic.
Still processing above pic though. Will probably be unable to unsee it when it clicks.
Btw, are you having an obscurist moment or is dullness brought on by heat here. Or maybe the obscurity is here and clarity resides with you today.
a chuckle and smile
Well, people were talking about bananas and other symbolisms, so I just pointed something out.
Anyway if it's really about bananas, then hope they taste good.
Mmm, a stretch. Did get a motorbike/horse rider in the little dark cloud. Any prize for that?
Picked too many bunches of bananas in another life with the attendant in-house green frogs, tree snakes,beetles,ticks, wild pigs and taipans that go with that job to have much imagination connecting bananas, pawpaws (papayas) and symbolism. Apologizes. Will endevour to upskill.
quick cheery smile
Don't really know what you mean; but it's all turtles all the way down, or, bananas...?
Isn't it amazing how different human minds interpret. Probably wouldn't have philosophy if we all thought the same. Probably have to do other things with our time.
smile
Mmm, vaguely ninja turtles there.
Are you having a lend?
Oh well! It is the s/box.
Chuckle
Yeah, one could only wish other people treated others with mutual respect. On an actually deeper level, supremacism might prohibit such a world.
Regards supremacism ( spellcheck hasn't update that -ism yet), probably, when individuals hold themselves as above/better/advantageously different.
Cooperativeness through mutual respect and mutual self interest has its advocates though. You're right.
smile
Yeah, but one must dance to the music of deterrence.
Here's a good one:
"deterrence" as in fight for what's right? Or follow the leader?
Interesting remodelling pic. Who was that Brit actor/comedian? Peter Sellers?
smile
To come clean: I was speaking nonsensically.
And it was blasphemy because it was philosophy in The Shoutbox. Sorry to everyone involved.
Quoting Hanover
Punning necessarily makes you a mushroom.
The morel of the story.
Directed by Jamal and Javi.
Starring: Baden and Wolfgang.
Wolfgang: Please, act as if nothing has happened.
Baden: That's right. It is nothing else...
They enter a random house of the neighbourhood because they have been invited round for tea. Javi is on the couch.
Baden: Hi!
Javi: Hey yo.
Hello Wolfgang...
Wolfgang: Javi...
Baden: It is cold here. Where is Jamal?
Javi: Can't see him here. I guess he just pops the shops. Doesn't he?
Baden: Some water?
Javi: No thanks. Already got some...
Baden: Can't believe Jamal is cooking for you!
Javi: It is been decoded to me...
The End.
That was our first attempt to do soap operas. The actors were paid with £25 and a train ticket.
They are in the same house but it is dinner time.
Baden: Javi knows make his bed!
Jamal: Wow! Do you want some lunch? Chicken nugget? Paella?
Baden: I am sure he does. What do you want?
Javi: I don't know.
Baden: How about a sandwich? Cheese?
Wolfgang: Yeah and after that how would you like to come to see your new school?
Javi: School!!
Wolfgang: You will go to the same I went.
Baden: You are gonna have fun!
Jamal: Listen to you proud stepfather!
Baden: Yes, I have been already with Javi for a while. I will give him the best life possible though. I can't duck that smoke.
The End.
:cool:
The upcoming episodes will be even better.
I noticed there are no women in your soap opera. When I first moved to Boston in the mid-1970s, the underground newspapers used to advertise movies with "all male casts."
You apparently had a colorful and varied past. I think the word "revue" is more often used for cast.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:All-male_revues
Next kid, seen in Boston, with a white plaster of paris covering or moonboot on their appendage will have to be asked "Is that an all male revue or not?".
Only for the purposes of information, of course
silly smile reviewed
Not in Boston in the 1970s in the Boston Phoenix. One year for Christmas, I wrapped all my gifts for my family in pages from the personal ads of the Phoenix. They were shocked, titillated and amused.
We had the Creative Loafing, a similar paper. One thing that i didn't do, which makes us somewhat different, is that i didn't titillate my parents. I left that up to them and wasn't as hands on as you.
Other than that, we're basically twins.
New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth
[sup]— Joseph Howlett · Quanta Magazine · Feb 3, 2025[/sup]
Perhaps uncle and nephew.
Good point, Clarky. I didn't notice, and I agree it is a mistake. A woman called Cassey will appear in the next episode, I promise; she will be relevant. My idea was to start with breakfast. She could be the one who brings cereals when all are hungry, for example.
May I suggest the introduction of a neighborhood busybody called Tabitha Clark?
Yes! Every recommendation is welcomed. I am jotting down your ideas. The next chapter will be around 21:00 tonight. Be patient! :wink:
Relegating the single woman in your soap opera to a server is an old school approach that might appeal to traditionalists. One thing I've seen effective for ratings is to give someone a signature line, a sassy comment that they predictably use once an episode.
Examples might be: Whatchu talking bout Willis, Whoaaa (the Fonz), Dyno-mite!, or Kiss my grits, to list off a few.
In yours, Cassey's husband might ask "Where's my damn Froot Loops!?," or some other criticism and Cassey would turn to this camera, smirk, and then say "I oughta kick ya in the bawsack!" while lifting her knee violently, demonstrating how she'd go about it (cue in the laugh track). Cassey will be no patsy, despite her maid outfit that subtly suggests otherwise. The soap opera will be a complex tale of changing gender roles, leaving the viewer with whiplash, but having that same effect as All in the Family, ushering us in to a new way of thinking.
I get my suggestions might be taking your project in a slightly different direction, so I'm totally cool if you want to hold off on some of it
My aim is to show a breakfast scene of a middle-class family from a random neighbourhood in England or any country in the world. If I am not mistaken, the essence of a soap opera is just that: showing ordinary stuff with good actors.
You pointed out an important feature: Cassey should be someone's wife. But I don't know whom yet.
Well, I have some hours left to post the third part. But please don't expect too much from me! :sweat:
That's the inverse of my understanding of a soap opera, showing extraordinary stuff with bad actors.
How Noether’s Theorem Revolutionized Physics
[sup]— Shalma Wegsman · Quanta Magazine · Feb 7, 2025[/sup]
It is a quiet morning at Tabitha Clark. Our sweet family is almost ready to wake up. Cassey is preparing breakfast in the kitchen. There are different coloured bowls on the table, a brick of milk, and a big box of Kellogg's cereals. Folks ran out from their bedrooms as quick as coyotes.
Cassey: Morning!
Jamal: Morning!
Baden: Ayo!
Javi: Morning...
Cassey: Breakfast time! I am cooking up pancakes. Do you want some, Javi?
Javi: I don't know. Dad, can I?
Baden: Well... well. Only if you ask for the pancakes politely.
Cassey: Oh, what a sweet boy! Look at you!
Cassey serves the pancakes on Javi's dish. The whole family is sitting at the table.
Jamal: So, Javi is going to study at the same school as when Baden was a child.
Javi: I don't want to go to school!
Cassey: You must go. Anyway, I got a WhatsApp call from Wolfgang early this morning.
Jamal: The radio is on air with the last FA cup results!
Baden: I bet Arsenal beat Tottenham last night.
A woman says on the radio that Arsenal won the game.
Baden: Ha! I knew.
Jamal: I thought you saw the match with Wolfgang in the pub.
Cassey: Nobody listens to me in this house!
Javi: I don't want to go to school!
Someone rings the bell. It is Wolfgang.
Wolfgang: Hello to everybody! Cassey, I called you early this morning. I just wanted to say that I bought pancakes.
Cassey: I am cooking up pancakes too!
Wolfgang: Damn! Well, boys, are you ready to watch the match at the pub?
Cassey: It is only 08:00 AM, and you are thinking about drinking in a pub!
Wolfgang: I don't want to go to school!
Everybody laughs, and the mates proceed to go to Camden.
My best research shows that a brik of milk references a cubed carton of milk in Spain. In English, we use the word concretely as opposed to figuratively.
I see no mention of maple syrup. Where is the sweetness of your make believe family?
In my understanding of soap operas, at least here in America, they need to involve intrigue, betrayal, and sex. So far it seems like all you’ve got is the opening scene from an episode of “Friends.”
Seinfeld > Friends
I considered "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons," and "How I Met Your Mother," but then decided on "Friends."
Sorry, no.
smile
No! What I got is an episode of Coronation Street: Javi the child as a special guest.
But they already got cereals!
Remember the tricycle with the really big front wheel? I miss that one as well.
Human skeletal remains as old as the painting have never been found in Sulawesi, so it is not clear that the artists were anatomically modern humans.Credit...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/science/cave-painting-indonesia.html
Are you suggesting cave-swine?
Cave pig. They liked pigs even so far back.
Where there's smoke, there's bacon. Is that a fire by the pig's rump?
I hope you're doing well and enjoying this day.
Big hugs!
:heart:
:grin:
silly smile
I owned a radio without speakers, and I had no idea if it worked or not. It's sort of like a person who's asleep. Something is going on in there, we just don't know what.
When the power goes out, I use a flashlight so I can watch the TV.
When I turn off a movie I'm streaming, I'm always amazed at how it remembers to start up exactly where it left off.
I think that's it with dad electronic jokes for the time being.
What happened is that the pig picture pre-existed the pig itself, having emerged from the drawing. The painter of the pig, one Jackson Fitzgerald Coldtree, pre-existed himself, if that makes sense, and I don't think it does. What we have are your basic a priori pigs and people, sythenisized by the very cave wall itself, which explains the absence of the people and pig bones.
If you find a cave with cow bones, sheep bones, and all sorts of bones, but no pig bones, you have a Jewish cave because Jews don't eat pigs. Maybe they draw pigs, but an unkosher drawing troubles me because from it might emerge a pig.
Draw good thoughts as they say because drawing brings things into existence.
Yeah but will judgement day, because of what you said, be decided by who or what?
So then it was forced?
I did what I did, because it does what it does.
Then it was imposed.
Fuck AI. Let it be worried. I'm going to fuck with it daily until he stops that AI shit.
:100:
It's for informal chat.
If you have complaints, post an OP in Feedback. It won't be deleted there.
Language, please. We have to moderate ourselves, I think.
This is a complaint. But probably belongs in political philosophy or some other nether realm than mere feedback. The resident oligarch blathers on about feedback, as if it ever makes a ha'p'orth of difference. (Other venting places are available.)
Why more young men in Germany are turning to the far right
[sup]— Jessica Parker, Kristina Volk · BBC · Feb 9, 2025[/sup]
[quote=Tarik Abou-Chadi]Sixty per cent of young men under 30 would consider voting for the far right in EU countries and this is much higher than the share among women.[/quote]
Is it worthwhile differentiating when these political moves go against culture (or cultural trends), like some of the themes?
Yes.
Pretty good story. Not because it teaches a good lesson about assumptions and how we automatically base our self-worth on the opinions and esteem of others, but because I can imagine somewhere at some point in time something like that really actually happened. Likely concocted by some rogue, traveling philosopher. Probably an ancient-era Hanover or Jamal type, no doubt.
The classic rhyme says:
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
A version more ropey. For those who live in dangerous neighbourhoods or are in the game:
Off to prison you must go,
You must go, you must go;
Off to prison you must go,
My fair lady.
A new version that I just composed:
Why did Clarky sink my ship?
Sink my ship; sink my ship.
Why did Clarky sink my ship?
My fair Lady!
Another one:
Sir Wolfgang pours the tea.
Pours the tea; pours the tea.
Sir Wolfgang pours the tea.
My fair lady!
Note: These are nursery rhymes! And they are thought for children to enjoy doing poetry and singing games. Please, don't expect a deep philosophical conclusion from them.
Hans Christian Anderson
Some men never returned from the Crusade.
And some never will.
But the most important battle
Is the one inside every one of us.
Heavy cream.
X
Haven't seen/heard "heavy cream" used in that way "in a 'coon's age".
nostalgic smile
The stuff of nightmares. A steaming pot of soup calling out "Heavy cream! Heavy cream!" through the otherwise midnight silence.
They don't know.
Some excellent classic Rock and Roll!
No, coffee is a drug, I don't like it.
Quoting BC
No, cream is from cows that have been enslaved, that's not ethical.
Quoting BC
Well, the literal meaning of "Heavy Cream" is that it is something soft (not solid) that is heavy. In that sense, it's a physically accurate description, since cream, like water, are non-solids, but cream has more density than water, which makes it more massive, and hence heavier than water. Shorter: water is a liquid, while cream (like mayonnaise) is an emulsion.
I don't think so AS. Cream is fat, oil, and that floats. Therefore the cream rises to the top.
On the other hand, it is true that cream is an emulsion.
Texans?
Quoting BC
So what's your point, then?
That Texas is one big greasy oil slick.
:rofl: :death: :fire:
;)
OMFG man, I can't get over that one. Best line of the week, for sure.
I like to share stories of my past to keep them alive, so I thank you for the milk conversation. Those were tough times. I lost many a friend. I mean I lost Minnie A. Friend. I then found her in the cupboard, right where I left her.
True story.
Kool Aid Kool Aid
Tastes Great
Wish I had some
Can't Wait
Kool Aid is a registered trademark of the Kraft Heinz Corporation, makers of fine food-like products.
There, I edited it for you, I think it looks better now. That'll be five cents, please.
clubs (?),
diamonds (??),
hearts (?)
spades (?)
And this made me wonder then what the purpose of the dance is. While it's obvious we are relegated to a particular move on a particular part of the floor, the question of why we're dancing is elusive. But that's where the answer might be discovered, by looking at what we feel limited in doing and looking at what expression is verboten and from that maybe we can discover our intended purpose, with the remarkable realization that we are not limited to what might be intended of us as long as we possess the boldness to dance where ever we want. The question of boldness is whether you would exchange a walk on part in the war for a leading role in a cage. Do you accept your perfectly adapted role within the small confines of your cage or do you wander out and see what might happen. I liked that second part because it didn't limit anyone to their externally designated role, but it allowed those who wish to conform to live in their perfect comfort zones, but allowed for swirling chaos among others.
And then I fell asleep.
This is right. I remember getting unhomogenized milk in glass bottles delivered. The cream rose to the top of the bottle.
Yes, of course I've sung that, although I think this is more popular here in the US.
Javi is a friend of mine.
He resembles Frankenstein.
When he does an Irish jig,
He resembles Porky Pig.
Sorry Javi, it is what it is. Gotta recognize the realness there.
Tuesday, they predict the bang,
Wednesday, they cover the crash
And I can see it's all about cash[/i]...
[i]Please help me create,
a malevolent A.I.,
a malevolent A.I.,
Please help me create,[/i]
I thought it meant Before Christ. That's not meant as an insult, I mean that you have the wisdom of a very ancient person. The wisdom of a Caveman, so to speak.
Bitterness became a thing once we developed language. One's old lady said, "I thought you were going to amount to something!" as she walked out the door and slammed it behind her. She was bitter because she had been reading a book about all the habits of highly successful racketeers, and the cash just wasn't rolling in the way she had hoped it would.
As for me, I was falsely accused of being a bitter crank many decades ago by some guy whose name I don't remember after an argument which didn't make sense at the time and which has disappeared into the ether. Apparently I spectacularly failed this man's expectations, making me the bitter one.
Go figure.
I had to go out early in the morning and milk a cow. Then we'd pour the milk through a diaper to strain it, and leave it in the fridge in a big pot. The next day we'd skim the cream off the top, and my mother would whip it up into butter when there was a lot, and freeze it.
Can you ride em?
?
?
So was mine.
What's "G"?
Like U?
A?
A??
A?
But do they know that they don't know?
smile
Smileodon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smilodon
Has sunlight deprivation as a cause of rickets been discovered in your area yet?
Loose smile
That's deep for you, isn't it?
any type of smile you desire
I'll take that bet.
How about a smile that sets you free forever?
Who or what is "forever" that you want to be set free for?
Or
Who or what is "forever" for whom or what you want to be set free?
smile
I suppose you could say that.
Thanks. Any approval offered, however intended, will be cherished for various extents of time. But not for "forever", who or what ever that is.
If your intent was to describe/relate your own sense of "free", glad to help.
socially contributing smile
Of course. We're all good mates, here.
surprised smile
To milk or not to milk, depends on ...?
Slightly wary smile
A pig cannot be milked; but a cow can.
Why not, piglets do it persistently? Just needs a low bucket.
cheeky grin
If human ethical worth exceeds bovine ethical worth, it would be unethical not to manipulate natural processes and even cause some degree of suffering to cows to promote the well being of humans.
That's why I eat me a steak.
I read that you can milk a pig, but they put up a hell of a fight. It doesn't intimidate me though. I'd scrap with a porker if it meant a warm cup of sweet pig nectar was in store.
Quoting Hanover
Quoting Hanover
...
The former does not justify the latter.
Say no more. Say no more.
Shall I go on?
OK. Do you refuse to take your doctor's prescriptions on an ethical basis?
Yes, if he prescribes me untested drugs, or drugs that have not been approved by the FDA.
I don't worry about that because my doctor is professional.
Seems reasonable to assume with the wording of "doing drugs" refers to non-medical recreational drugs ie. marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, etc. for non-essential purposes (or what would one hope to be non-essential) ie. recreation, pleasure, boredom, etc. But it leaves a fair question unanswered:
Quoting Arcane Sandwich
Does this include common stimulants such as coffee/caffeine? Alcohol? What about other activities that produce a substantial increase/imbalance in the same chemicals that drugs themselves produce ie. dopamine (perhaps from exercizing or jogging) or serotonin (say self pleasure or fornication)? Where does one draw the line?
Like, if one happens to have the misfortune of semi-frequent headaches and keeps a bottle of aspirin on-hand he's not "doing drugs" and certainly shouldn't be considered a "drug addict", should he?
That's the Hard Problem of Drug Addiction, from a philosophical POV. It's like the Hard Problem of Consciousness, but with Drugs.
I don't know, that's why it's a Hard Problem to begin with.
This should be in a separate thread, not in the Shoutbox.
You should start a separate thread rather than cluttering up the shout box.
I define anything that chemically alters body chemistry a drug, which would include cocaine, ecstasy, the warm sun, a Snickers Bar, a song, as well as seeing a fleeting smile on a chimpanzee. As long as something in my body changes in response to something, I consider it a drug.
But I'm a big net sort of guy.
Sure, but you shouldn't just metaphorically throw your hands up as if your position (or understanding of said position) doesn't have clearly defined and discussable areas (be they opinion-base or something greater).
Some happily-married family men say there's no greater joy on Earth than to return to your happy home after a long hard day. Is this feeling entirely mental (ie. intelligent and derived of logic and reason over something else), despite naturally producing the same endorphins or "rush" that drugs produce. Basically, is such a belief a true cause and substantial root object or merely a symptom of the result of something much more simplistic?
An alcoholic may find comparable joy and "purpose", etc. in coming home to a beer or liquor filled fridge. Naturally this is in fact a standalone non-human element that is in no way comparable to what would consider a "productive" or "happy" life of house and home with human persons and social interactions.
And yet they produce the same effects, both simplistically in a chemical brain release sense, and (on occasion) in a deeper sense of personal fulfillment.
The reason I bring this up is to pose an interesting question to your idea of "drug addiction". Are the two persons in the above scenarios (the married family man and the alcoholic) not addicted to the same drug (happiness), more or less? Would the family man reduce the happiness his family brings him to mere logistical rationale and statistics? Doubtful. It's "a feeling one can't describe". But on the other hand, would the alcoholic not say the same thing of his highlight in life?
It's an interesting question and I sincerely hope you've the time to explore it with me. and all of us, further.
I wonder what crazy infraction they committed for their wives to make them say that.
Yeah, that's impractical for the purposes of scheduling drugs in the context of the FDA.
If your question is pragmatically how to schedule drugs, then just look at how it's been done.
If your question is ideological without regard to application, I hold that all the world is a drug.
I believe in hyperinclusivity so as not to leave anyone out. I'd hate for a substance to have that FOLO feeling
No need to do that. Just start the new discussion and leave one more message here in the Shoutbox directing people to get to it there.
To be clear, I have no authority to tell you what to do here I was just whining and complaining as is my wont.
Ok, I'll do that in a second. Give me a minute so that I can start the Thread, it will go in the Lounge. Then I'll edit this comment with the link.
Quoting T Clark
Yes, you do. Don't lie to me. It's not polite.
Quoting T Clark
That's what the shoutbox is for, among other things, so you are within your rights.
Now give me a moment while I start the Thread.
EDIT: Per the of T_Clark, and considering that what he said is impossible to argue against,
, I propose:
that we move the discussion in question to
No. I think drugs should be regulated on the basis of dangerousness.
According to Trump, inclusivity--let alone hyperinclusivity--is leftist wokeism and must be crushed.
According to who?
Quoting BC
Nothing wrong with that.
Quoting BC
No, don't let it alone. It's an important problem in contemporary metaphysics.
Quoting BC
Then here's my proposal, old man:
Please do not use the shoutbox for your answers, you're invited to provide your detailed answers (preferably in the form of a short essay) in the relevant Thread, currently located in the Lounge.
The Basilik's unofficial name is "The Lounge Lizard".
Me? I enjoy perusing the Shoutboxian stories and allowing my intellect (or lack thereof) to fill in the blanks. Take this short-worded gem for example. To the layperson, what a silly and above all useless post. But. To the trained mind, an entire and wholly interactive commentary on nearly every subject man has ever cared about can be found in those few sentences. Humor, joy, sorrow, loss, gain, and everything in between. What a place.
I'll visit your thread, if not to politely disparage it. But little else.
You will go on whether you should or not.
Yes!
I don't like the sound of that.
Mine does not. My own mind > Hegel's Mind.
Pig!
He believes in homogenous hyperinclusivity. As in, all similar things should be grouped together. Non diverse inclusion is tidy. All the sugar goes into a great big container, all the flour into another, and so on. We can't have 5 bags of sugar here and there and surely we can't mix the flour and sugar can we?
Cake kills.
Nevermind.
I agree with that. If a blood test shows glucose, the sugar fiend should be locked away.
Yes, that one in particular is worse than the oil slick.
Hey, pilots use it. That's arguably a legit use of an illegal substance.
You arguably should be. At least one, if not all three.
It is.
100% of cows would rather not die in the slaughterhouse at the hands of some uneducated hick. Yes, I said what I said. I didn't stutter.
I really don't complain much, certainly not in Shoutbox territory but, please, for all sense of decency, the five incessant replies really should have been in one post.
How educated do the hicks in the slaughterhouse have to be? Do cows prefer to receive oblivion at the hands of English (or Spanish/Portuguese) majors?
Death is part of the deal; if you get born you also die. Death in a slaughterhouse is swift and certain--better than a wild cow would face on the prairies, plains or pampas at the jaws of lions, wolves, or... whatever. You know, predators don't necessarily insist on prey being dead before they begin eating it.
Discrimination is a prejudice based on a quality or trait one has little to no control over. You, sir, are ripe for the target range.
I have found profound wisdom in many (not all) of your posts. And for that, you have my interest. Not quite admiration, yet not excluding respect. Surely that will suffice.
Imagine how long this universe, or whatever you want to call the place you were born in, is. Imagine how insignificant and how unchanged the world, other than you, would be if who or whatever turned your disposition sour, would have never existed. Yeah. It's annoying. Stop being intentionally worthless. Get with the program.
One cannot be worthless. Perhaps one does not live up to one's purpose, but worth is what we're burdened with, which is why failure to live to one's creation is such a loss.
I'd say 100 out of 100. Dairy cattle are a strange animal. They're designed to produce way more milk than the calf (or even twins) can drink. That leaves them very dependent, and vulnerable to neglect. What does the farmer do when the power goes off, milk by hand?
Gee, I wonder who made them that way.
Stare judgmentally at my pork chop while you eat your green beans. All the more pork chops for me.
Why stop there? How about some fresh pig blood to go with those chops?
I don't eat pig blood only because it doesn't sound appetizing, not out of respect for the pig.
A Postquantum Theory of Classical Gravity?
[sup]— Jonathan Oppenheim · University College London · Dec 4, 2023[/sup]
New theory unites Einstein’s theory of relativity with quantum mechanics
[sup]— Joseph Shavit · The Brighter Side of News · Feb 2, 2025[/sup]
Spilling is usually by accident, but should the blood of a pig need be spilled, I stand at the ready to spill it all about.
Do you need me to spill some coffee as well?
I don't spill tea. Spilling tea means to provide gossip. I think that's bad form.
Thanks for the pig(s) pic. Your effort is appreciated by some.
non specifically directed frowning smile
Universal validity of the second law of information thermodynamics
[sup]— Shintaro Minagawa, M Hamed Mohammady, Kenta Sakai, Kohtaro Kato, Francesco Buscemi · npj quantum information · Feb 7, 2025[/sup]
Quantum theory and thermodynamics: Maxwell's demon?
[sup]— ScienceDaily · Feb 7, 2025[/sup]
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-u-ranchers-farmers-alarmed-024758019.html
It's the worst one? :shrug:
I'm sure they do. They're Canadian, aren't they?
How dare they? Bunch of gluttonous fat fucks.
At the very least, I would say. It's a bit more complicated than what Babbling Brook says.
Well, they don't call her Crazy Maggie for nothin'. I bet she has like 50 stray cats living in her house or something.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/02/14/shark-bites-off-tourist-hands-turks-and-caicos-beach/
The shark did what sharks do. Chomp, chomp.
Yes, these pigs eat and devour whatever comes their way. Be careful of them.
Quoting Arcane Sandwich
(Yeah I know that the "center" tags mean jack shit here. They don't work. I don't care, I'm an Artist.)
Owning the Top Comment in the Shoutbox Since 1893 to 1895.
[center]I'm so awesome.[/center]
By definition, I might add.
Pigs kind of are good. So, they should be treated well.
"Kind of"?
I should have said, pigs are kind and good.
I dispute that claim.
What is that feeling called? I know what sadness is called. I know what happiness is called. But essences don't exist according to some people, remember?
¬????????
Yes, a pig is a forsaken animal. God knows why we eat the poor thing. At least Hebrews and Muslims don't eat pigs.
My use of "feel" was metaphorical. I feel like it means "believe" how i used it.
But all is metaphor and poetry, to varying degrees.
Nah. There is also the Literal Truth.
Nope
Remanens capax mutationem > Carpe Diem
I don’t deny truth, but I deny its value in most situations, which I’m not particularly interested in discussing in the shout box.
Quoting Wikipedia
Metaphorically.
Question to Self: Could there be such a thing as a Metaphysician Overcover?
[/list]
[/list]
Metaphor is a way of communicating and understanding. Truth is truth.
That you speak and understand through symbols and even fiction is true.
What do you stand under when you understand?
TANANO.
[/quote][/quote]
[/quote]
But the intro was basically Cantor's Theorem and Hilbert's Hotel, Injections, Surjections, Bijections all that yadda yadda.
The Aleph, it's his Masterpiece.
Be warned, it will fuck up your mind.
Here's the PDF, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/borgesaleph.pdf
[b]I shouted out: "Who killed the Kennedies?"
When after all
It was you and me.
Please to meet you.
Hope you guessed my name.
'Cause what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game.[/b]
The Age of the Jaguar
(La Era del Jaguar)
Arcane Sandwich
Owning the Last, the "Ultimate" ( ;) ) comment in page 1895, since...
... well, what don't you tell me? : )
Just remember one thing...
... I am a very,
Very
smart fox.
You'll never catch someone like me : )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quoting Metaphysician Undercover
Then read it in Spanish.
I like the Paradox how the narrator is actually the dull one his mind poisons against the Poet and turns out he didn't win a single award at the competition... and the Aleph was too great for him to even consider or fathom for that matter... it scared him away. Like "Light" from Plato's Allegory of the Cave... after all it contains all the light etc etc...
We're hinted with the narrator's view too "all change past 50 is disgust" or something like that... when he's empathizing with the poet about to lose his house.
All along he really only ever went to the poet's house to "babble on about Beatriz."
I wouldn't be surprised if his book was titled "Beatriz"
It would seem after his God died he fell into a sort of nihilism...
He was once considered good, after all the poet wanted him to use his pull to get someone to preface his work.
You shouldn't have said that. I expected too much. Then, disappointment. Not that the story is bad or anything like that. I guess I'm like the author, it takes more than an aleph to fuck up my mind.
Sorry.misquote.
smile
Just stand within a rural mile of a 20,000 sow piggery at feed time if you're not stone deaf. Woodstock festival on steroids or whatever.
smile
"Yields a falsehood when appended to its quotation."
The Chaos.
Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;
Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, hear and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word.
...
I love words and English words in particular - spelling, pronunciation, etymology, meaning. Rhymes, homonyms, synonyms, idioms, colloquialisms, figures of speech. Pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, exclamations. Nominative, objective, possessive. Let's not get started on punctuation.
This makes you an anglophilologist in a literal sort of way. A lover of wisdom is a philosopher. One who hates wisdom would be a misosopher. I'm a misologist, a hater of words. I love letters immensely, but when they get together and form words, it fucking pisses me off. When they make sentences, I want to bounce their fucking heads down the sidewalk.
Sorry you saw that side of me. It's just, never mind. I can't even.
Did you become an attorney because of or in spite of your misologism?
I became an attorney because my math grades sucked and I needed a job.
felinaarborcephlia - when your head turns into a tree that looks like a cat.
Probiscuspyrotechnicsopticaballistica - when you have an exploding sneeze that fires your eyeballs across the room.
Pseudocryopedocaninecarcinoma - when you have a benign growth that appears to be a frozen dog's foot, but you fear it's cancerous.
Feel free to join in.
Compulsive Neologistic Syndrome - Compulsive coining of new words by a person affected with schizophrenia which are meaningless except to the coiner, and are typically a combination of two existing words or a shortening or distortion of an existing word.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neologism
Punny Iteration?
When I was a kid we played a game called "Whisper Down the Valley". We'd sit in a circle and someone would whisper a phrase to the person beside them. Then that person would whisper it to the next, and so on, until it gets back to the start. The starting person states the original and the change is amusing. It's an interesting game, that gets boring very quickly, so people start to do intentional distortions, which kind of ruins it.
I just Googled it, and found that it's actually called "Whisper Down the Alley". Go figure.
This is basically how propaganda works, in a sense... satiation such that the neurons dull to constant pinging w/ subliminal conditioning -> event occurs which propaganda worked towards -> subliminal conditioning becomes crystalized in the mind.
The train would be all the connecting parts of the subliminal conditioning from the various pieces of propaganda...
Ontological relativity is relative to the "set" you opt for in life...
Quine is Nietzschean, in a sense, and to say the least, he even adopts certain phrases directly from the man one that I immediately recall was "strange new vistas" for example.
they make many claims, and so the skeptic will at least always stay employed (maybe not gainfully)
A skeptic may "praise"/ inquire into the positive value of/use misology in certain circumstances e.g. where reasoning against a knowledge claim will take up time that endangers life.
In the pursuit of a good life, of course.
Not arguing against the overall validity of your statement. Just a suggested tweek, if you like?
apologetic smile
Where do the pigs lie?
Pigs just are...
Please make it so.
warm smile
Pretty quiet on the western front (of Shoutbox). No one going over the top, no arti. barrages. Not even an active sniper. Is it Xmas day?
stirring grin
It's about pig-motherhood, with cameo appearances of other barnyard stars like a one-legged chicken, dairy cows, etc. The differently-abled chicken was included before Trump's anti-D.E.I. campaign got started.
Gunda was made by the Russian documentarian Victor Kossakovsky.
You're all good.
Thoughts?
Works fine, if inauthentic. Remember though, down south you need to use Velveeta instead of mozzarella.
The Italians actually eat polenta, a type of grits loaf.
Seems like a good substitute to me. In the same ballpark.
My wife said she thought that substitute was disgusting. I told her this was a hill I was willing to die on. We're still in negotiations, but I'm with you on this one. It's not like I suggested crème fraîche, right?
Texturally they're totally different; the substitution is, thus, an abomination.
Noble you be but dust thou art still.
I've not been around much, doing my cranky bitter thing. What's new with you??? Or what's per usual?
Once again, an innocuous conversation between cheese afficionados derailed by a sanctimonious texturalist.
No. Ricotta has the creaminess without sweetness. And texture is the right texture for ricotta.
This is just the standard of all factual correctness any person should hold. Let alone a philosopher. I know they say all cheese is "just rotten milk" but cottage cheese seems to somehow in an ironic and impossible way take the extra mile to avoid the fact.
When my kids were little, I would make homemade cottage cheese by leaving their milk bottles in the minivan for a few days in the hot sun. It would curdle and thicken beautifully. I never ate any, mostly because it smelled of vomit, but I considered selling it to Pierre at the local fromagerie.
My research shows the first instance of ricotta in lasagna was in 14th century southern Italy. I will defer to this tradition solely because if we were to now learn cottage cheese superior, it would deeply embarrass a nation and people to learn they've prepared their signature dish for 700 years wrong.
Non sequitir. What follows, in the finished dish, from a total textural difference of one ingredient is ... a difference. Even within Italy there are at least as many variations of lasagne as there are regions of Italy, and the idea that there is a proper way to cook an Italian dish rests on the dubious assumption that significant numbers of Italians can agree on something.
An abomination remains to be demonstrated.
Quoting Jamal
I'll join that party. When's the taste test? Be forewarned, I'm not a fussy eater.
Those of us who grew up in small towns in southern Delaware, didn’t learn until we moved to the big city that you’re supposed to use ricotta and not cottage cheese in lasagna. We didn’t even know what ricotta is. But we still liked lasagna. Nevertheless, @Noble Dust’s culinary curmudgeonhood is still an attractive and important part of the forum.
Deleware is small enough that it shouldn't be divided into south and north, but you should just say Deleware and that should be sufficient.
Be that as it may, as you well know, just putting the modifier “south” on any place makes it sound like it’s full of hicks and rubes. I was trying to emphasize the lack of sophistication of my upbringing
I know just what you mean. I grew up in northeast Atlanta away from those morons on the southside.
I haven't been around much either; the forum hasn't been blessed with a sprinkling of my estimable finely ground dirt in a bit.
Currently unemployed, but that doesn't stop me from scoffing at inappropriate cheese usage. Some things never change. How's life in the twin cities?
Quoting Hanover
I'm now considering a name change.
Textural aberrations past a certain threshold are egregious enough culinary choices to elicit the label abomination. There is a consensus reality on the texture of lasagna, a lasagna texture zeitgeist, if you will. It's an inherited part of the human experience sort of like how children are born with grammar, or whatever it is Chomsky is on about. I also thought about drawing an analogy between the experience of eating and Wittgenstein's "meaning is use" or whatever, but I gotta run and I'm getting bored writing this.
I'm from the midwest as you know, not Italian (as you may not have known), and grew up in a suburb. Lasagna was made with ricotta growing up. It's really not hard to do it right. Then again, come to think of it, my mom hates cottage cheese.
One important point (important enough to delineate it with a paragraph break) is that I actually love cottage cheese. Let that sink in, atheists.
They signed off their radio show with: "Ray Goulding reminding you all to write if you get work. And Bob Elliot reminding you to hang by your thumbs." Bob and Ray's radio show. Probably before your time. Very dry silliness.
Of course, I hope New York's unemployment benefits are generous for you, and that you are eligible -- that is, you didn't walk off the job owing to existential despair; that you are sufficiently ambulatory to work in your accustomed field; and that you are not in school, brushing up your Kierkegaard. I always looked forward to 6 months of paid unemployment. They were some of my most productive, happiest periods. And I took classes through University Extension, or hung out on the gay beach. Great therapy!
A week ago the low for the day was -17F, not counting wind chill. Today it was 52. So, normal.
Life would be better if Putin wasn't fucking Trump. Disgusting. Ukraine will probably get flushed down the toilet. Europe? God only knows. Demonolators in the White House!
The midwest is known for wholesome boringness. According to @T clark, the south is known for rudderless stupidness.
Sorry you're without work. I'd hire you, but I only hire Italians.
Up north here we say “stupidity.”
I was just reporting the facts of my lasagna-related life. I wasn’t drawing any culinary aesthetic conclusions.
Some swim in the Holy Sea of Ricotta, others the decadent swamp of cottage cheese.
Our humble Italian comfort food divides a world.
They would only be embarrassed if we were correct.
But they are not embarrassed, therefore, we are not correct in thinking that the cottage cheese is on par or a good substitute for ricotta.
Hmmmm.
That's really only the case when you are talking about south of Canada.
Have you partaken in cottage cheese laden lasagna or do you just assume this inferiority? If you have experience dining on ricotta's fermented chunky cousin, then please share it. I feel there's an unspoken prejudice against cottage cheese, largely emanating from its likeness to cellulite, but if people would rid themselves of such comparisons, I think there would be a cottage cheese renaissance.
I, for one, would be delighted to attend a cottage cheese renaissance fair, replete with jousters, falconers, and seas of revelers drunk on an endless flow of cottage cheese overflowing their wooden mugs.
Person 1: Hey, let’s make lasagna.
Person 2: Good idea.Do we have any ricotta?
Person 1: I’ll check … no.
Person 2: Then let’s just use cottage cheese.
Why does Person 1 have a numeral identifier where Person two is spelled out, in lowercase no less? Suppose you were called tee clark? I would never ever say such a thing, but I bring it up so you can know how Person two must be feeling and it will give you a chance maybe to be more considerate.
Hah! I know. Everyone always rags on the Argentinians, but they're not so bad.
I pushed the "post comment" button too soon. Afterwards I went back in and fixed it.
Yes, you're quite the Taoist in your non-action. I, on the other hand am nothing but a seething, twisting ball of aesthetic conclusions. I aspire to your wisdom, but don't foresee any great gains of my own in the near future. Some of us were born bothered, it seems.
I'm currently waiting for that bureaucratic monolith to either bestow mercy upon me or throw me to the dogs. In the meantime I'm naturally spending most of my time working on music projects, as it should be.
Quoting BC
Love it.
Quoting BC
Sounds like the same old, then. Hopefully you can make it to the gay beach soonish, if it still exists.
This is the Shoutbox. You can't unsay things. Once it leaves your lips, it is as it is.
I've read this post while scrolling three times now. Each time I misread this as "lasagna-related wife" and scroll back.
For what it’s worth, I do have a lasagna-related wife.
Aristotle hit the bottle
and then he did some blow.
but he never wrote it down,
so you would never know
It’s true, you can’t unsay things here, but you can pretend you never said them.
In a related matter, I can also pretend you never said the things you said. I sometimes find that helpful.
Sad to say, it doesn't. The Army Corps of Engineers and Minneapolis Park Police made sure of that. A road runs through it so it's easy to police; the essential thickets and willow were rooted out.
When I was a young man, "Bicycle Mary" hung around the beach. He was thin to the point of gaunt, had a long grey beard and unruly long gray hair. I don't know if he ever scored; he wasn't very sociable and he definitely wasn't attractive. Bicycle Mary is dead and I don't want to take his place as the resident oddity.
In cold-fish Minneapolis, phone apps have replaced those nightmare face-to-face social settings where you have to actually talk your way into your next exploit, standing in close proximity to the warm body in question.
No, I have not partaken in cottage cheese laden lasagna. Neither do I assume. I eat cottage cheese and I eat ricotta. I have made baked ziti and baked lasagna and stuffed pasta shells -- all with ricotta cheese. I just cannot substitute it with the cottage cheese.
Speaking of cellulite, honestly I have not made this comparison. Like, I eat cottage cheese! Why would I say something silly like that?
No? Not surprising!
To have eaten it in your youth, you needed to have lived in the southern hemisphere, in a culturally awkward country, been of the then numerically dominant ethnicity ( if there ever was such a "thing") and been a member of a privileged cross section of society (lower and middle,middle class) with the cook aspiring to impress on a budget.
Still prepare it that way and enjoy it. But who cares.
Food's fuel to get from one meal to the next.
unsurprised smile
Were the eggs good? They were superb. The egg shells were very hard. I don't eat the shells (not yet) but a hard shell is indicative of a healthy bird eating a good diet. The yokes were dark yellow, and gave a yellow tint to the bread they went into. Pale yokes indicate something. Dark yokes indicate more good diet and health. And they tasted good.
Run of the mill eggs have generally had weak shells and pale yokes.
Layers don't end up as meat, most of the time -- they could, but they don't. The chicken you buy for meat are birds bred to grow fast and efficiently, and be ready to cook in 50 days. Layers are usually around 2 years old, give or take, when they stop laying efficiently. They are tougher and have more 'bird flavor' which some people find disturbing.
A luxuriously cared for chicken might live 8 years. If provided with a good education they have the time and leisure to become philosophers. Some of them are members of the forum.
Chickens are dinosaurs.
An example of pareidolia, and a particularly good one.
No, what I'm saying is that the mountain is a dog.
Do you mean metaphorically, like chickens are outdated and obsolete? If so, I disagree. I think they're apropos.
A very big dog.
Pigs like being big. Sometimes they wonder if their owner will eat them. Such a merciful animal.
An example of pareidolia, and a particularly good one.
That bad?
Yes, you’re right, it is a very good example. I look at that dog and see a mountain.
I think.
Is the floor natural stone or porcelain?
Is the countertop corian?
See how they just snuggled up?
A clock in the bathroom. Huh. That's uh, edgy. :sweat:
After analyzing the original artwork I have to say it probably wouldn't be the first thing I'd frame across the way from where I'll be sitting to do my business for minutes on end. I'm sure there's some deep and esoteric meaning going on far beyond my grasp.
You really couldn't have went with a nice forest landscape or sun-kissed meadow or old castle on a hill. You know, something semi-normal? No, not Hanover. Of course not. :grin:
My favorite part is the giant toilet paper dispenser.
Hey! What's all that junk on the back of the toilet? That's a big faux pas, the cat will jump up there and throw it all in.
The feathers, innards ( and contents less the human eatable offal), heads, egg shells and claws can be included in canned and pelletized pet food. A heads up if you're into eating canned or pelletized pet food in the rising cost of living environment.
( "pelletized" is another Spellcheck non update)
free smile
And here some were thinking that the happy cat on each Chinese takeaway (sorry..takeout) counter was a "cultural representation" and not a capless ballplayer.
Live and learn in the S/box!
surprised smile
Aside from the ceiling, I like it. It's difficult to see the bird antler picture though, from the photo.
My wife went ahead and took up a whole bathroom wall with some arty wallpaper, and I'm not sure about it:
Although I do like the picture, I think my favorite part is the toilet paper rack, just like in Hanover’s bathroom.
Thanks.
I consider @Jamal and my toilet paper dispensers a post apocalyptic style, forged from Covid uncertainty and trauma. Just like those depression era folks who can't throw anything away, our generation cannot sleep not knowing an abundance of toilet paper is nearby.
I like the wallpaper. It's subtle.
I would suggest pairing it with a modern cuckoo clock. Something like this:
Or hypermodern funky cuckoo clock like this:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1670108279/unique-modern-cuckoo-clock-multi-colored?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_ps-a-home_and_living&utm_custom1=_k_Cj0KCQiA_Yq-BhC9ARIsAA6fbAj9EUhhCyS33i30A6mbuA_E1Ejpu910xJW9KG-oSulpxa90xOs2iCQaAnvKEALw_wcB_k_&utm_content=go_21506855513_167985819319_716809514320_pla-303628061699_m__1670108279_503034285&utm_custom2=21506855513&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_Yq-BhC9ARIsAA6fbAj9EUhhCyS33i30A6mbuA_E1Ejpu910xJW9KG-oSulpxa90xOs2iCQaAnvKEALw_wcB
That's a long link, right?
I too dislike the ceiling, preferring having the heavens open to me while I go about my business, but, alas, the occasional rainstorm.
I most like your glass enclosed toilet area, a transparent shit box, no secrets, a passive form of fishbowl observer entertainment for passersby.
The new status symbol, stacks of toilet paper on display, neatly replaces the gold plated toilet seat, as a true value show of class. Who's going to go the extra mile, and give us the double stack?
Caution: the cat will treat the toilet paper stack as a scratching post, and you'll wake up in the morning with confetti everywhere, though Hanover's has a bit of a protective cage.
I am generally satisfied with our arrangement. In fact, should my bride one day reconsider and wish to hold such viewings, I would doubtfully relent, but would instead ask her to find someone for hire who could satisfy her curiosity in that regard.
So, therefore, two things for the group:
1. What is your privacy arrangement with your SO?
2. Would anyone here accept the employment opportunity discussed above if it arose?
I'm much less interested in your familial procedures for defecation than I am in your use of the word "bride" in reference to your wife. Let's look at some other options:
I didn't read your post but nonetheless I wished to express my enjoyment in your user or screen name.
What is a "differentiating egg" ? Ah, the age old question.
The DifferentiatingEgg is an egg with particular bands of intensity in a state of becoming, the bridge between the "Body Without Organs" and a Terminal Goal...
I recently installed this urinal. Wait times are now down 12%. Very pleased.
examples:
I've never seen one of the bombs go off, never mind all of them at once; I've never seen 140 football fields (or soccer pitches) laying side by side; I've only seen 2 olympic-sized swimming pools next to each other on one occasion.
Atom bombs illustrated nothing that the statement “These [Grand Canyon-sized] things were carved in less than 10 minutes when the Grand Canyon took 5 to 6 million years to carve. I mean that illustrates the energy of an impact event.”
I had a candid conversation with a female co-worker once regarding how she'd navigate a urinal. Her instinct was to back up to it, where I'd have thought a more missionary approach would have been chosen. It was then I appreciated having a diverse workplace because as a man I had no way of knowing better.
The trough perhaps would also result in a backup approach. That being the case, we'd post the sports pages on the wall ahead for the men and perhaps something topic appropriate for the women on the wall opposite from where they'd be reading.
Having men's and women's faces staggered backward and forward would also allow some exclusive ladies' time and men's time without interruption where each could chat and catch up. A man would not be inclined to speak to a perched buttock before him nor a women to some sagging boxers before her.
I've enjoyed this conversation. I always thought myself too sophisticated for bathroom humor, but today I realize I may not be as refined as I once thought.
You are not alone, as it would seem.
Underside coated with heavy lemon pepper seasoning and "generic all purpose seasoning"
Topside. Also "marinated" for 10+ minutes.
Will post the final results shortly. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Here’s my favorite VUM - it’s from about a year ago.
Asteroid the size of 64 Canada geese to pass Earth Tuesday - NASA
1743.889 bushels
Sometimes I run 5k road races, but they mark the distances with miles so that it will make sense. When I get to the Mile 3 sign, I know I've got 0.1 miles left. If they marked it in kilometers, I'd spend the whole time trying to convert that into miles in my head and it would detract from my winning the race.
How many shitloads in a fuck ton?
Unusually believable stats.
It’s the paper plates that bother me.
Does that include photos of pigs?
I actually didn't notice. It's a strange choice to be sure.
Anyway, tonight I made a vegan red lentil curry. It's quite good. Coconut milk and coconut oil seem to be the secrets. Served over non-vegan basmati rice with butter thrown in there, just so it wasn't too healthy.
:groan:
I have no idea what that emoji is really supposed to signify, but I think it was designed specifically as a response to your comment.
Is that your first time using an emoji in your TPF career? Did I pop the cherry?
:sparkle: