Heavenly
March 20, 2023 5:14 AM Subscribe
Hello fellow travelers, once again it's Monday, when, every week, we gather to throw off our yokes and comment freely. This week, though, I'd like to point out the occasional ambiguities and ambivalences that can accompany such headlong pursuits, with The Frog Prince, a poem by Stevie Smith.
Please enjoy your enchantments, your disenchantments, and your free thread, and have a good week!
Please enjoy your enchantments, your disenchantments, and your free thread, and have a good week!
My favorite poem: Overheard on a Saltmarsh. I don't know why I connected with this one so intensely, but I've loved it since I was in middle school, and I don't really consider myself a "poetry person".
posted by Night_owl at 5:29 AM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Night_owl at 5:29 AM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
Spring Break for me is over, though I had a week to attend to my (too) many hobbies. It's Monday, but it's a sunny day (a rarity here), I'm listening to selections from WWII V-Discs, and getting ready to head to school and welcome my students back.
posted by tommasz at 5:51 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 5:51 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
"Only disenchanted people can be heavenly" made me go "woof" out loud. I'm currently not sure if I'm a frog or a prince myself; I sold my car Wednesday as part of my six-month project to become someone else after my husband's death, and that was a doozy of a transformation. I didn't drive the thing much, but "car" appears to take up a larger space in my psyche, than I thought it did. Or perhaps culture influences me just as strongly as it does other people.
My favorite Stevie Smith is "The Singing Cat" - each of my lovely cats has reached that age of senescence when they sit and yodel at the universe periodically, whether in or out of a carrier.
posted by Peach at 5:53 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
My favorite Stevie Smith is "The Singing Cat" - each of my lovely cats has reached that age of senescence when they sit and yodel at the universe periodically, whether in or out of a carrier.
posted by Peach at 5:53 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
I’m an avid Magic: The Gathering player and I think the breakneck pace of product releases over the past 2 years finally broke me. New set in 2 weeks? Meh. Lord of the Rings set in the early summer? Dunno if any of those cards will make my existing decks better.
I am not contemplating selling out or anything like that (I recently cashed in my Unlimted Power 9 to fund my youngest’s university expenses starting in the fall when she brings the journey of becoming a teacher) but it does feel weird to be in a trough of not caring about your main hobby.
posted by grmpyprogrammer at 5:56 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
I am not contemplating selling out or anything like that (I recently cashed in my Unlimted Power 9 to fund my youngest’s university expenses starting in the fall when she brings the journey of becoming a teacher) but it does feel weird to be in a trough of not caring about your main hobby.
posted by grmpyprogrammer at 5:56 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
grmpy, yeah, Hasbro/WotC are really on a tear, are they not? I (like so many others) find myself looking elsewhere as they transition from D&D5e to their next big cash grab. I've been playing weekly since fall of 2015 but while 5e seemed like a huge step up from the AD&D I grew up with, the systems I've discovered in the meantime make it feel clunky. Once I finish up the current game I'm running, I might not ever run a 5e game again.
posted by rikschell at 6:04 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 6:04 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
I recently rediscovered Ronnie Earl & Duke Robillard's 2005 album The Duke Meets the Earl, which contains some wonderful interplay between these two stellar blues guitarists. The album's long instrumentals (like their version of T-Bone Walker's Two Bones & a Pick) are especially wonderful, and I thought some MeFites might enjoy them too.
posted by Paul Slade at 6:19 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 6:19 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Stevie Smith! Man, she's fierce. From her quotes, I had always assumed she was a proto-punk singer-songwriter from the 60s or 70s. Come to find out she was born in 1902.
Lynda Barry posted a couple of handwritten poems last night that moved me. Good to see handwriting in this time of AI terror. Although personally I have a lot of trouble composing longhand these days, for the same reason I don't like to hear my own voice. In handwriting you must trust your own authority to exist as a writer, which, outside of a grocery list, is nervewracking.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:24 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Lynda Barry posted a couple of handwritten poems last night that moved me. Good to see handwriting in this time of AI terror. Although personally I have a lot of trouble composing longhand these days, for the same reason I don't like to hear my own voice. In handwriting you must trust your own authority to exist as a writer, which, outside of a grocery list, is nervewracking.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:24 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
rikshell, I was running a Dungeon World game for a while with my monthly board game group and half the group was struggling with the more narrative and reacts-to-the-player style of the game. They are are old D&D players too. I recently started work on on an Index Card RPG super hero campaign for them and it seems to be a good pace for the frenetic action they seem to like.
posted by grmpyprogrammer at 6:32 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by grmpyprogrammer at 6:32 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
with The Frog Prince, a poem by Stevie Smith
Appropriate, given that today is World Frog Day!
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:33 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Appropriate, given that today is World Frog Day!
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:33 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Last week, I got on a plane to fly to Dubai from Istanbul, which took 4 hours. Then I waited for 5 hours for the next plane flying to Auckland. I was on the plane for 16 hours. Then, I waited for 3 hours and took another one to Wellington, which took 50 minutes to reach my final destination. It's 3am right now, I'm writing this to you in my girlfriend's flat. Life is crazy, and I love it.
posted by cihan at 7:13 AM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by cihan at 7:13 AM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Appropriate, given that today is World Frog Day!
and tomorrow is World Poetry Day!
I don't know if I still have a favorite poem. But for many years it was Ithaca.
Today, I was at a working lunch. It was very good, traditional smørrebrød. But now I have a headache, and I feel I have overindulged. Maybe I should take a nap. I don't feel I can be productive anyway.
posted by mumimor at 7:26 AM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
and tomorrow is World Poetry Day!
I don't know if I still have a favorite poem. But for many years it was Ithaca.
Today, I was at a working lunch. It was very good, traditional smørrebrød. But now I have a headache, and I feel I have overindulged. Maybe I should take a nap. I don't feel I can be productive anyway.
posted by mumimor at 7:26 AM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
Heading back to work today after a week of vacation in much sunnier climes. Most of our companions on said vacation were largely unfamiliar extended-extended family members of a more conservative bent than us, so there was some anxiety heading in to the trip. In the end everyone managed to get along well and great fun was had. I bonded with one sub-family over board gaming and will be running a D&D one shot for them to help get their own campaign running.
posted by calamari kid at 7:33 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by calamari kid at 7:33 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
we had a raucous St. Paddy's Day celebration at my buddy's place, there were kids all about and this year's leprechaun trap was the most advanced build yet. once the kids dispersed we got to the serious business of louder tunes and whiskey sampling, I woke up on the sofa bed to see the friend's boy quietly eating Lucky Charms, then I got the pleasure of serving Lucky Charms to his younger sister and a sleep-over friend before quietly letting myself out to make it home in time to read scripture during remote church. praises praises: verses 1-41 from one of the gospels where Jesus spits and makes mud and rubs it into a blind man's eyes to restore his sight. very funny.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:37 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 7:37 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Last free thread I mentioned the spring pots, and someone asked for pics. I have never before used Imgur and actually sent an Ask about it this morning because I am a fearful Luddite, but behold my pots!
All creatures, all the time this spring. Even a frog, suitable for your world frog day needs. (I am always thinking about frogs, so it's always world frog day in my heart.)
They have since been bisqued and now I am thinking about glazes.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:26 AM on March 20, 2023 [9 favorites]
All creatures, all the time this spring. Even a frog, suitable for your world frog day needs. (I am always thinking about frogs, so it's always world frog day in my heart.)
They have since been bisqued and now I am thinking about glazes.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:26 AM on March 20, 2023 [9 favorites]
rikshell, I was running a Dungeon World game for a while with my monthly board game group and half the group was struggling with the more narrative and reacts-to-the-player style of the game.
Just before COVID hit, I was invited to a fledgling Dungeon World game just starting up. I liked what little I saw of it, and I haven't really been much of a D&D guy since first edition AD&D. I would have been okay to continue with it, but it launched in February 2020, which was a bad time to launch a lot of things.
On the other hand, I am just beginning an online Traveller game on Discord -- second session tomorrow -- with a bunch of nice-seeming people. I learned subsequently that most of them are mefites (waves to these folks).
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:30 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Just before COVID hit, I was invited to a fledgling Dungeon World game just starting up. I liked what little I saw of it, and I haven't really been much of a D&D guy since first edition AD&D. I would have been okay to continue with it, but it launched in February 2020, which was a bad time to launch a lot of things.
On the other hand, I am just beginning an online Traveller game on Discord -- second session tomorrow -- with a bunch of nice-seeming people. I learned subsequently that most of them are mefites (waves to these folks).
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:30 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
I went to Meeting yesterday, which I hadn't been to for so long that there are very established members who didn't know who I was. Those few that knew me found me hard to recognize, but that's okay as I do look very different now. There was even ministry based on Everything Everywhere All At Once which, while the friend's observations were pretty much the exact opposite of mine, was comforting to hear.
Then we went out (!) of an evening, to see the 23rd annual Banjo Special. I hadn't been for a few years, and the players are still as good as ever, and the jokes remain well past their cheese-by date.
This is better than the electronics-involved injury I had trying to separate 8-pin DIP sockets that had been shipped stacked. The one I was trying to pry off with my thumbnail suddenly flipped and stabbed 8 bloody gouges into the pad of my thumb. This was during a build of an Altaid 8800 - an Altair 8800 8-bit computer than fits (nominally) into an Altoids tin. It's a hard enough build without the stabbies
posted by scruss at 8:31 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Then we went out (!) of an evening, to see the 23rd annual Banjo Special. I hadn't been for a few years, and the players are still as good as ever, and the jokes remain well past their cheese-by date.
This is better than the electronics-involved injury I had trying to separate 8-pin DIP sockets that had been shipped stacked. The one I was trying to pry off with my thumbnail suddenly flipped and stabbed 8 bloody gouges into the pad of my thumb. This was during a build of an Altaid 8800 - an Altair 8800 8-bit computer than fits (nominally) into an Altoids tin. It's a hard enough build without the stabbies
posted by scruss at 8:31 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
I haven't yet decided to put together the post that 100 Gecs' long-awaited new album would deserve/require for contextualization, but per the thread prompt, have Frog on the Floor.
posted by CrystalDave at 8:31 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by CrystalDave at 8:31 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm miffed, and I'll put my miffed-ness here for lack of a better place to put it.
My mother and father were invited by my mother's cousin to the wedding of her (the cousin's) son. The wedding is this fall at a ski resort that I'd never been to and would quite like to go. My 70+ father decided he didn't want to travel, so my mother asked her cousin if I could be her plus-one instead.
She told her no. Apparently the plus-ones are not fungible. Miffed I tell you!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:32 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
My mother and father were invited by my mother's cousin to the wedding of her (the cousin's) son. The wedding is this fall at a ski resort that I'd never been to and would quite like to go. My 70+ father decided he didn't want to travel, so my mother asked her cousin if I could be her plus-one instead.
She told her no. Apparently the plus-ones are not fungible. Miffed I tell you!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:32 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
I might even move beyond "miffed" to "irked."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:50 AM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:50 AM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
"Tomorrow is the most euphoria day, when the day of the 10 billionth day, the emperor day, and the day of the universe are overlapping. I'm thinking of going to visit the Ehime Shrine of the Buddha first thing in the morning."
posted by wmo at 9:11 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by wmo at 9:11 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
WARNING: SLIGHTLY TMI RANT WITHIN
So.
I hit the ground running when I got to work this morning; there is a package of random crap we have to send to our German office, and no one else was doing it and the guy who needs it will only be there until Friday so I was getting all that sorted. The problem there is that the guy in our shipping office who does all the tariffs and stuff is an older man who uses the hunt-and-peck method of typing, and he insisted I watch him complete the form "so you'll know how to do it yourself next time." That took an hour.
And on top of that - we have a whole bunch of people who are moving offices this week (We will set aside the fact that I am the office manager and was only informed of that on FRIDAY), and people are already starting to reach out to me about whether they can use the trash basket from their old office and how they need a lock on their new door and how they need the window rehung slightly to the left. I'm packing up my own office (I'm moving too, ironically to a shared office with hunt-and-peck shipping guy) so I'm trying to pack up my stuff and this pulls me away from all that.
And on top of everything else - I have to leave early anyway today, for one of those fun special annual health checkups that only the people with a certain kind of secondary sex characteristic need to get.
I am heading STRAIGHT HOME after the doctor, I am making an ENTIRE chocolate cake when I get there and I am eating THE WHOLE THING MYSELF.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:14 AM on March 20, 2023 [11 favorites]
So.
I hit the ground running when I got to work this morning; there is a package of random crap we have to send to our German office, and no one else was doing it and the guy who needs it will only be there until Friday so I was getting all that sorted. The problem there is that the guy in our shipping office who does all the tariffs and stuff is an older man who uses the hunt-and-peck method of typing, and he insisted I watch him complete the form "so you'll know how to do it yourself next time." That took an hour.
And on top of that - we have a whole bunch of people who are moving offices this week (We will set aside the fact that I am the office manager and was only informed of that on FRIDAY), and people are already starting to reach out to me about whether they can use the trash basket from their old office and how they need a lock on their new door and how they need the window rehung slightly to the left. I'm packing up my own office (I'm moving too, ironically to a shared office with hunt-and-peck shipping guy) so I'm trying to pack up my stuff and this pulls me away from all that.
And on top of everything else - I have to leave early anyway today, for one of those fun special annual health checkups that only the people with a certain kind of secondary sex characteristic need to get.
I am heading STRAIGHT HOME after the doctor, I am making an ENTIRE chocolate cake when I get there and I am eating THE WHOLE THING MYSELF.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:14 AM on March 20, 2023 [11 favorites]
I am in the D&D club at the community college where I work, mostly because I like the person who asked me to join; I played D&D enthusiastically some 20 years ago but since then have become the worst kind of "I'm only interested in weird experimental RPGs" hipster.
For the second time this semester, I had a group without a DM in need of something to do, so I brought out my bucket of indie RPGs. Fiasco was a moderate hit, again; what I've found is that it really works best with a bunch of people who have seen enough crime movies/TV to have some sense of, like, if you were going to embezzle from your employer, how would you do that? If you were going to blackmail somebody, how would you do that? (I am not sure that I ever get the balance right to draw out the right kind of details without implicitly discouraging them - to say "tell me more" without saying "that's not good enough.")
Microscope did not work so well.
I have to go looking around to see if there's a newer equivalent for the old defunct story-games forum - I really like reading about indie RPGs even if I never get a chance to play them.
posted by Jeanne at 9:16 AM on March 20, 2023
For the second time this semester, I had a group without a DM in need of something to do, so I brought out my bucket of indie RPGs. Fiasco was a moderate hit, again; what I've found is that it really works best with a bunch of people who have seen enough crime movies/TV to have some sense of, like, if you were going to embezzle from your employer, how would you do that? If you were going to blackmail somebody, how would you do that? (I am not sure that I ever get the balance right to draw out the right kind of details without implicitly discouraging them - to say "tell me more" without saying "that's not good enough.")
Microscope did not work so well.
I have to go looking around to see if there's a newer equivalent for the old defunct story-games forum - I really like reading about indie RPGs even if I never get a chance to play them.
posted by Jeanne at 9:16 AM on March 20, 2023
I have been running a DnD campaign for a bunch of kids, only 1 who has ever played it before. Every Friday with pizza. It's just been the best, but so much work. Last session was a bit of bust for the majority of the players, because one kid really didn't want to get back with the group.....
Haven't yet started considering the next campaign, but I am very much considering alternate RPGs.
posted by zenon at 9:34 AM on March 20, 2023
Haven't yet started considering the next campaign, but I am very much considering alternate RPGs.
posted by zenon at 9:34 AM on March 20, 2023
I am heading STRAIGHT HOME after the doctor, I am making an ENTIRE chocolate cake when I get there and I am eating THE WHOLE THING MYSELF.
I endorse this plan.
My birthday rolled around a few days ago. A friend on the day told me he hoped I would have some cake to mark my birthday. I told him truthfully that I made a cake the night before because I would not leave something as important as cake to happenstance and whim.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:41 AM on March 20, 2023 [9 favorites]
I endorse this plan.
My birthday rolled around a few days ago. A friend on the day told me he hoped I would have some cake to mark my birthday. I told him truthfully that I made a cake the night before because I would not leave something as important as cake to happenstance and whim.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:41 AM on March 20, 2023 [9 favorites]
ricochet biscuit
Your mother's cousin is an ass. Full stop. I think you're within your right to move up the scale to genuinely ticked off. Your mother should be getting close to outraged as I suspect she wouldn't go/wouldn't be able to go/wouldn't feel comfortable going unless she had somebody travelling with her. In essence, telling her that you can't go has uninvited her. That's not the way families should treat each other. And what does it truly matter? Somehow I doubt the bride has calculated your dad's presence as a vital part of her wedding day. He's just a live body and a familial obligation. You'd serve equally well in the role. It's total nonsense. It's just a ploy to get a gift without having to actually feed people.
posted by sardonyx at 9:50 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Your mother's cousin is an ass. Full stop. I think you're within your right to move up the scale to genuinely ticked off. Your mother should be getting close to outraged as I suspect she wouldn't go/wouldn't be able to go/wouldn't feel comfortable going unless she had somebody travelling with her. In essence, telling her that you can't go has uninvited her. That's not the way families should treat each other. And what does it truly matter? Somehow I doubt the bride has calculated your dad's presence as a vital part of her wedding day. He's just a live body and a familial obligation. You'd serve equally well in the role. It's total nonsense. It's just a ploy to get a gift without having to actually feed people.
posted by sardonyx at 9:50 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Mr hippybear and I endured two very long travel days and one day of intense my-family stuff for my parents' 60th wedding anniversary reception this past weekend. It was way too much packed into way too little time, but I'm really glad I went. There were a lot of people there I've known all my life, and it was amazing to see something like 200 people coming together to recognize my very Pillar Of The Community parents. I've promised Mr hippybear I own't drag him to any more family events like this, because he really doesn't know these people much at all.
Anyway, one thing I learned -- when you attend at 60th anniversary thing, most of the people there will be well above 60 years in age.
posted by hippybear at 10:08 AM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
Anyway, one thing I learned -- when you attend at 60th anniversary thing, most of the people there will be well above 60 years in age.
posted by hippybear at 10:08 AM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
@Sardonyx, I think your invective should be aimed at The Pluto Gangsta's mother's cousin
though I've heard things about ricochet biscuit's brother-in-law's great aunt
posted by elkevelvet at 10:24 AM on March 20, 2023 [7 favorites]
though I've heard things about ricochet biscuit's brother-in-law's great aunt
posted by elkevelvet at 10:24 AM on March 20, 2023 [7 favorites]
As a result of a chance conversation, this week I'm going to start learning how to ring church bells. I'm guessing there won't be much homework.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 10:27 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 10:27 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
And I am still stuck in the doctor office because no one told me I needed a referral.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:45 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:45 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
though I've heard things about ricochet biscuit's brother-in-law's great aunt
My second cousin once removed has a neighbour whose barber's half-sister owns a parrot which is argumentative and tends to side with the dog.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:49 AM on March 20, 2023 [7 favorites]
My second cousin once removed has a neighbour whose barber's half-sister owns a parrot which is argumentative and tends to side with the dog.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:49 AM on March 20, 2023 [7 favorites]
"He lifted up his innocent voice
He lifted up, he singeth
And all the people warm themselves
In the love his beauty bringeth."
Stevie Smith, 1902-1971
ahem
He hurled aloft his ball of hair
He hurled, he pukedeth
And in this house we brace ourselves
For further gifts he flingeth
posted by winesong at 10:50 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
He lifted up, he singeth
And all the people warm themselves
In the love his beauty bringeth."
Stevie Smith, 1902-1971
ahem
He hurled aloft his ball of hair
He hurled, he pukedeth
And in this house we brace ourselves
For further gifts he flingeth
posted by winesong at 10:50 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
ricochet biscuit
Your mother's cousin is an ass.
Hm. My mother's cousin Peggy sent me birthday wishes, despite us not having seen one another in decades. Do you know something about her I don't?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:51 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Your mother's cousin is an ass.
Hm. My mother's cousin Peggy sent me birthday wishes, despite us not having seen one another in decades. Do you know something about her I don't?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:51 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
elkevelvet
You're absolutely correct. I skimmed up the page (that I had read earlier) when I went to reply, and saw rb's reply about being "irked" right below The Pluto Gangsta's original post and didn't take in all the information I should have. (I swear getting older sucks. What I could formerly trust my eyes to take in a swift glance, I miss these days.)
The Pluto Gangsta, I stand by what I said. You deserve to be treated better by your distance relative. And so does your mother.
ricochet biscuit, glad to hear Peggy is such a wonderful, thoughtful person.
(I'm slinking away now before I make myself into more of an idiot than I already am.)
posted by sardonyx at 11:05 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
You're absolutely correct. I skimmed up the page (that I had read earlier) when I went to reply, and saw rb's reply about being "irked" right below The Pluto Gangsta's original post and didn't take in all the information I should have. (I swear getting older sucks. What I could formerly trust my eyes to take in a swift glance, I miss these days.)
The Pluto Gangsta, I stand by what I said. You deserve to be treated better by your distance relative. And so does your mother.
ricochet biscuit, glad to hear Peggy is such a wonderful, thoughtful person.
(I'm slinking away now before I make myself into more of an idiot than I already am.)
posted by sardonyx at 11:05 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
I like Peggy, even if I have not crossed paths with since a previous millennium.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:09 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:09 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
sardonyx, I think you said what many of us were thinking
such a shitty restriction on wedding guests, I don't get it either
posted by elkevelvet at 11:12 AM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
such a shitty restriction on wedding guests, I don't get it either
posted by elkevelvet at 11:12 AM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Your mother should be getting close to outraged as I suspect she wouldn't go/wouldn't be able to go/wouldn't feel comfortable going unless she had somebody traveling with her.
Lol nope. I love my dad, but he is a wet blanket on trips. My mother loves me, but she's just fine traveling on her own, and she has before.
The explanation I got is that the engaged couple is "keeping the wedding small" and my father was the only acceptable companion for my mother. If I, as a first-cousin-once-removed (I think?) were to attend it would cause too much drama with other cousins who weren't invited.
Although you have reminded me of a stand-up who once said "A destination wedding is the couple's way of saying 'DON'T COME. SEND GIFTS.'"
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:13 AM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
Lol nope. I love my dad, but he is a wet blanket on trips. My mother loves me, but she's just fine traveling on her own, and she has before.
The explanation I got is that the engaged couple is "keeping the wedding small" and my father was the only acceptable companion for my mother. If I, as a first-cousin-once-removed (I think?) were to attend it would cause too much drama with other cousins who weren't invited.
Although you have reminded me of a stand-up who once said "A destination wedding is the couple's way of saying 'DON'T COME. SEND GIFTS.'"
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:13 AM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
as a first-cousin-once-removed (I think?)
If they are one of your parents' first cousins, then they are your first cousin once removed. If their parents and your parent are first cousins, then they are your second cousins.
Pedantry or helpful tip? You decide.
posted by joannemerriam at 11:49 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
If they are one of your parents' first cousins, then they are your first cousin once removed. If their parents and your parent are first cousins, then they are your second cousins.
Pedantry or helpful tip? You decide.
posted by joannemerriam at 11:49 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Apropos of nothing, I find it interesting and mysterious that both cortex and jessamyn made FPPs on the same day, today. (unless of course everyone knew this was going to happen and I missed the memo.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:53 AM on March 20, 2023
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:53 AM on March 20, 2023
My understanding is that first cousins share a set of grandparents and second cousins a set of great-grandparents. If there is someone for whom one previous generation has a couple who are grandparents for you and great-grandparents for them, that makes the two of you first cousins once removed.
The explanation I got is that the engaged couple is "keeping the wedding small" and my father was the only acceptable companion for my mother.
A first cousin of mine got married some fifteen years ago and the invite was explicitly for me only, not my then-gf, now-wife. All the other cousins were likewise invited along solo, sans sweeties or spouses -- this was just to keep costs from spiralling out of control... it is a big family.
On the other hand, I once inadvertently crashed a family wedding: my aunt was getting married and the event was happening like a week after I returned unexpectedly from a lengthy stretch living on the other side of the continent. I assumed the lack of invite was because they reckoned I would not realistically want to fly several time zones for the event, but it turned out the bride and groom had invited only their siblings and siblings' spouses. I turned up in my smartest suit, gift in hand, and fully expected to see a gaggle of cousins. Instead I was there with a handful of aunts and uncles, the groom's brother and his wife, and that was it. A little awkward.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:59 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
The explanation I got is that the engaged couple is "keeping the wedding small" and my father was the only acceptable companion for my mother.
A first cousin of mine got married some fifteen years ago and the invite was explicitly for me only, not my then-gf, now-wife. All the other cousins were likewise invited along solo, sans sweeties or spouses -- this was just to keep costs from spiralling out of control... it is a big family.
On the other hand, I once inadvertently crashed a family wedding: my aunt was getting married and the event was happening like a week after I returned unexpectedly from a lengthy stretch living on the other side of the continent. I assumed the lack of invite was because they reckoned I would not realistically want to fly several time zones for the event, but it turned out the bride and groom had invited only their siblings and siblings' spouses. I turned up in my smartest suit, gift in hand, and fully expected to see a gaggle of cousins. Instead I was there with a handful of aunts and uncles, the groom's brother and his wife, and that was it. A little awkward.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:59 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
If they are one of your parents' first cousins, then they are your first cousin once removed. If their parents and your parent are first cousins, then they are your second cousins.
My understanding is that first cousins share a set of grandparents and second cousins a set of great-grandparents.
I avoid all such confusion by simply not keeping in touch with any of my extended family.
(My sister keeps up with ALL of the family dirt, so I just get the important info/gossip through her.)
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:11 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
My understanding is that first cousins share a set of grandparents and second cousins a set of great-grandparents.
I avoid all such confusion by simply not keeping in touch with any of my extended family.
(My sister keeps up with ALL of the family dirt, so I just get the important info/gossip through her.)
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:11 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
TPG, to be fair, from your initial comment I got the feeling you were much more bummed out about not being able to check out a ski resort than you were about missing the special day of a beloved cousin. I feel like I've missed something here -- does your family typically have big weddings with everyone invited?
I have cousins who couldn't pick me out of a police lineup if their life depended on it and we've all cheerfully ignored each other's weddings for decades, though my parents were invited out of courtesy.
posted by mochapickle at 12:33 PM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
I have cousins who couldn't pick me out of a police lineup if their life depended on it and we've all cheerfully ignored each other's weddings for decades, though my parents were invited out of courtesy.
posted by mochapickle at 12:33 PM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
LAWN BEAVER, yay photos! I love all those cretchur and chreature and critter and others! :D
Empress, feeling you on being the office manager and last to know things you should know sooner. HOWEVER, maybe start with like, one quarter of the cake and see how you feel.
So I had/have this plan to paint twenty paintings (imaginary animals!) in 20 weeks. This MAY still happen (10 started out of 20, 4 of those completed and 6 incomplete, deadline June), but I foolishly joined WoW again (WTF is wrong with you), and then played all night after work until midnight for about 5-days straight. However, I think it's out or nearly out of my system again, as yesterday I did not play much at all.
Only so much grind is "fun" on a game I played a TON 10 years ago and joining my sis in Classic on a not-well-populated server - not the ideal experience. So yay, I played some and it was fun, but (probably) not sucked in completely again. (To be updated, as I purchased a 60-day trial.)
posted by Glinn at 1:45 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Empress, feeling you on being the office manager and last to know things you should know sooner. HOWEVER, maybe start with like, one quarter of the cake and see how you feel.
So I had/have this plan to paint twenty paintings (imaginary animals!) in 20 weeks. This MAY still happen (10 started out of 20, 4 of those completed and 6 incomplete, deadline June), but I foolishly joined WoW again (WTF is wrong with you), and then played all night after work until midnight for about 5-days straight. However, I think it's out or nearly out of my system again, as yesterday I did not play much at all.
Only so much grind is "fun" on a game I played a TON 10 years ago and joining my sis in Classic on a not-well-populated server - not the ideal experience. So yay, I played some and it was fun, but (probably) not sucked in completely again. (To be updated, as I purchased a 60-day trial.)
posted by Glinn at 1:45 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Because if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, my washer and dryer are both acting up. The washer isn't draining all the way without multiple extra spin cycles and the dryer no longer has a temperature that isn't set at shrink all the things. They're only about 4 years old, so this is very annoying. Therefore, I called the local appliance repair recommended in glowing terms by many company. They were very nice: they don't repair Samsungs. At all. Nope. This was. . . not a factor I took into consideration when I bought the washer and dryer but clearly, in retrospect, it should have been.
They gave me an 800 number they clearly keep by the phone. I called it. It was all robots all the way down. It directed me to a website where I entered the information on the washer, which led the website to assign me a time period - a very long time period: 8 am - 5 pm on Wednesday. There was no option to add more than one appliance. I tried calling the customer service number to see if they could look at both. No, you don't exist, says the robot, good bye. I have gotten several robot texts telling me I have an appointment now but the customer service number says I don't and it hangs up immediately. There is no email account to contact anyone. I mean, why would there be? So I guess I have an appointment anyway and I'm hoping whoever shows up can be bribed into looking at the dryer as well as the washer. I have created a sign up sheet with instructions for the people in my house to take 3 hour shifts waiting for the robots - or maybe their human servants - to appear between 8 and 5.
this is a damn brave new world that has such robots in it. I am tired of the enshittification of all things and I would like one thing to be easy, like calling someone to fix a badly spinning washer.
posted by mygothlaundry at 2:57 PM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
They gave me an 800 number they clearly keep by the phone. I called it. It was all robots all the way down. It directed me to a website where I entered the information on the washer, which led the website to assign me a time period - a very long time period: 8 am - 5 pm on Wednesday. There was no option to add more than one appliance. I tried calling the customer service number to see if they could look at both. No, you don't exist, says the robot, good bye. I have gotten several robot texts telling me I have an appointment now but the customer service number says I don't and it hangs up immediately. There is no email account to contact anyone. I mean, why would there be? So I guess I have an appointment anyway and I'm hoping whoever shows up can be bribed into looking at the dryer as well as the washer. I have created a sign up sheet with instructions for the people in my house to take 3 hour shifts waiting for the robots - or maybe their human servants - to appear between 8 and 5.
this is a damn brave new world that has such robots in it. I am tired of the enshittification of all things and I would like one thing to be easy, like calling someone to fix a badly spinning washer.
posted by mygothlaundry at 2:57 PM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
I'm working on my map of states I will not go to, due to laws that may be used to criminalize me or the medications I take regularly for my extended psychological health. (Marking Minnesota as a big yes and Tennessee as a big no is the latest.)
I also realized that my reflexes continue to improve, probably because now that I am feeling more comfortable in my body it's a lot easier to pilot.
I need to schedule a sleep study and an X-Ray, and I continue to hunt for work.
My favorite poem is "Resumé" by Dorothy Parker, which I reproduce here in the entirety:
I also realized that my reflexes continue to improve, probably because now that I am feeling more comfortable in my body it's a lot easier to pilot.
I need to schedule a sleep study and an X-Ray, and I continue to hunt for work.
My favorite poem is "Resumé" by Dorothy Parker, which I reproduce here in the entirety:
Razors pain you;posted by mephron at 3:10 PM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
I just wasted my entire afternoon. You see, I'm trying to apply for a job, but the computer forms won't let me.
I should say it's not actually a job-job. It's a freelance position based in Canada.
It's also the kind of job where you can't just send in a resume. You have to write a very specific cover letter and you have to prepare a relevant portfolio. And not only do you have to pull all of the most suitable portfolio pieces, you typically have to bundle them up together because the stupid online application software doesn't give you the option to upload multiple files. Of course, putting them all together often presents challenges of its own because you can only compress things so much (believe me I've tried) and the file size ends up creeping past whatever arbitrary limits that the particular job-application site applies (and they all have different limits, and you never know what they are until you actually start the application process).
So fine, I got through all of that PITA stuff (which took ages). I got it all uploaded to Monster (because the company doesn't run its own job portal). Then I had to fill out the company-specific online form, which is just a repeat of the most relevant information that is contained on my resume: name, address, email address, phone number, most recent job, degree, etc.
The catch is the address portion is only a drop down menu listing US states and zip codes. There is no way to enter Canadian details.
At first I was going to just put in the company's own address as an FU to the system. Then I thought better of it, and thought I'd just email them my application.
That, of course didn't work. The system bounced my message back.
I tried again, this time without any attachments, just a note explaining my difficulty with their stupid system but once again, I received a bounce back.
I guess I'll have to try to actually call them tomorrow, but I suspect that I won't be able to get through the phone system.
I don't think this job is worth all of this trouble, but I quit my actual, real, full-time job because my boss screwed me over big time, and I figured that I'll pick up as much freelance work as possible until (if is probably more likely) I land another actual full-time job.
I swear it doesn't matter if I'm coming or going, I get run over no matter which way I turn.
posted by sardonyx at 3:36 PM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
I should say it's not actually a job-job. It's a freelance position based in Canada.
It's also the kind of job where you can't just send in a resume. You have to write a very specific cover letter and you have to prepare a relevant portfolio. And not only do you have to pull all of the most suitable portfolio pieces, you typically have to bundle them up together because the stupid online application software doesn't give you the option to upload multiple files. Of course, putting them all together often presents challenges of its own because you can only compress things so much (believe me I've tried) and the file size ends up creeping past whatever arbitrary limits that the particular job-application site applies (and they all have different limits, and you never know what they are until you actually start the application process).
So fine, I got through all of that PITA stuff (which took ages). I got it all uploaded to Monster (because the company doesn't run its own job portal). Then I had to fill out the company-specific online form, which is just a repeat of the most relevant information that is contained on my resume: name, address, email address, phone number, most recent job, degree, etc.
The catch is the address portion is only a drop down menu listing US states and zip codes. There is no way to enter Canadian details.
At first I was going to just put in the company's own address as an FU to the system. Then I thought better of it, and thought I'd just email them my application.
That, of course didn't work. The system bounced my message back.
I tried again, this time without any attachments, just a note explaining my difficulty with their stupid system but once again, I received a bounce back.
I guess I'll have to try to actually call them tomorrow, but I suspect that I won't be able to get through the phone system.
I don't think this job is worth all of this trouble, but I quit my actual, real, full-time job because my boss screwed me over big time, and I figured that I'll pick up as much freelance work as possible until (if is probably more likely) I land another actual full-time job.
I swear it doesn't matter if I'm coming or going, I get run over no matter which way I turn.
posted by sardonyx at 3:36 PM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
→
I love that one, especially the way the poet didn't intend it to be a children's poem, but everyone went there anyway. I have a memory of reading it with someone (possibly my somewhat theatrical sister) and we'd do voices and make it very silly
posted by scruss at 3:46 PM on March 20, 2023
My favorite poem: Overheard on a Saltmarsh
I love that one, especially the way the poet didn't intend it to be a children's poem, but everyone went there anyway. I have a memory of reading it with someone (possibly my somewhat theatrical sister) and we'd do voices and make it very silly
posted by scruss at 3:46 PM on March 20, 2023
sardonyx, back when I was still looking for public library jobs, I can't tell you how many local government websites I ran into that wanted me to input the state where I went to college (no, sorry, it was a province - and no option to select anything but the 50 US States!) or the phone number for every job I'd ever held (and tough luck if one of them needed a Japanese country code - the system wouldn't let you input it).
The people who make these systems really have a hard time conceiving of anyone whose personal details and resume don't accord with US postal and phone conventions.
Which would be fine, if you could talk to them, but it's frequently impossible!
posted by Jeanne at 4:17 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
The people who make these systems really have a hard time conceiving of anyone whose personal details and resume don't accord with US postal and phone conventions.
Which would be fine, if you could talk to them, but it's frequently impossible!
posted by Jeanne at 4:17 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Because if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, my washer and dryer are both acting up.
mygothlaundry
Eponysterical, if any ever was.
posted by Glinn at 4:20 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
mygothlaundry
Eponysterical, if any ever was.
posted by Glinn at 4:20 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
sardonyx that sounds so, so terrible. Perhaps you've dodged a bullet there, might be a nightmare job to match the nightmare application process!
posted by Glinn at 4:22 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Glinn at 4:22 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me!
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:32 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me!
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:32 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've been going through a prolonged breakup since Jan 1 of this year. The song that has been both my rock and catalyst for ugly cries is The Only Living Boy in New York -- which MeFi, via the linked post, turned me on to.
Tom, get your plane right on timeposted by treepour at 6:40 PM on March 20, 2023
I know that you've been eager to fly now
Hey, let your honesty shine, shine, shine now
Doh-n-doh-de-doh-n-doh
Like it shines on me (Here I am)
I ended up not seeing the doctor after all. I never got the referral for this visit, and by the time my doctor's office could have gotten one it would likely have been too late. We rescheduled for May and I have a bit note to myself to get the damn referral a week in advance.
I didn't have a whole cake when I got home, just one slice plus some cheese crackers and a primal scream and that did the trick.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:53 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
I didn't have a whole cake when I got home, just one slice plus some cheese crackers and a primal scream and that did the trick.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:53 PM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
primalicescream
posted by hippybear at 7:04 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 7:04 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Eating the ice cream too fast and giving yourself brain freeze enhances the screaming.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:07 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:07 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
I forgot I was going to tell a story. Too busy with my first day of unemployment.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 7:42 PM on March 20, 2023
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 7:42 PM on March 20, 2023
Story that amuses me, by Adam Kay, then a new doctor in the NHS, about a patient who’s arrived at hospital with symptoms after taking an herbal remedy:
“She is astonished. “I thought it was just herbal—how can it be that bad for you?” As soon as she says the words just herbal, the temperature in the room seems to drop a few degrees and Hugo barely holds in a weary sigh. It’s clearly not his first time at this particular rodeo.
“Apricot stones contain cyanide,” he replies drily. “The death cap mushroom has a fifty percent fatality rate. Natural does not equal safe. There’s a plant in my garden that if you simply sat under it for ten minutes, you’d be dead.”
Job done; she tosses the tablets. I ask him about that plant over a colonoscopy later.
“Water lily.”
posted by bendy at 8:36 PM on March 20, 2023 [11 favorites]
“She is astonished. “I thought it was just herbal—how can it be that bad for you?” As soon as she says the words just herbal, the temperature in the room seems to drop a few degrees and Hugo barely holds in a weary sigh. It’s clearly not his first time at this particular rodeo.
“Apricot stones contain cyanide,” he replies drily. “The death cap mushroom has a fifty percent fatality rate. Natural does not equal safe. There’s a plant in my garden that if you simply sat under it for ten minutes, you’d be dead.”
Job done; she tosses the tablets. I ask him about that plant over a colonoscopy later.
“Water lily.”
posted by bendy at 8:36 PM on March 20, 2023 [11 favorites]
Colonoscopic small talk is the best small talk.
posted by hippybear at 8:39 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:39 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Waterlily, as a punch line, sublime.
I tell you what, the normally dry, Kern River, is flowing bank, to bank, through Bakersfield. I took a tour of Kern Canyon, the oil fields which will be under two feet of water if they don't run the river at full speed, and then four different bridges over the river, to see the bigness, and it is lovely as far as the eye can see. It is going to rain and snow some more. There is sixty feet of snow, here and there on top of The Sierras, twelve feet of snow at Wrightwood, between the San Joachin and Los Angeles. Anyway what outrageous, lovely water!
posted by Oyéah at 9:11 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
I tell you what, the normally dry, Kern River, is flowing bank, to bank, through Bakersfield. I took a tour of Kern Canyon, the oil fields which will be under two feet of water if they don't run the river at full speed, and then four different bridges over the river, to see the bigness, and it is lovely as far as the eye can see. It is going to rain and snow some more. There is sixty feet of snow, here and there on top of The Sierras, twelve feet of snow at Wrightwood, between the San Joachin and Los Angeles. Anyway what outrageous, lovely water!
posted by Oyéah at 9:11 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Story that amuses me, by Adam Kay, then a new doctor in the NHS,
Kay published his diaries from his time in medical practice. In one he mentions overseeing a ward and watching a junior practitioner arriving on shift. The new arrival went around to each patient to see to them and update their chart.
According to Kay, the new arrival went to each patient, checked their pulse for a full minute, watching the elapsed seconds slowly climb to sixty, and then carefully wrote “60” for each patient’s heart rate.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:57 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Kay published his diaries from his time in medical practice. In one he mentions overseeing a ward and watching a junior practitioner arriving on shift. The new arrival went around to each patient to see to them and update their chart.
According to Kay, the new arrival went to each patient, checked their pulse for a full minute, watching the elapsed seconds slowly climb to sixty, and then carefully wrote “60” for each patient’s heart rate.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:57 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Colonoscopic small talk is the best small talk.
A joke a doctor told me once:
Guy goes in to see his doctor for a prostate examination. Patient disrobes to the degree necessary then bends over; the doctor inserts a finger, dictates a note into his recorder, and withdraws the digit.
Patient goes to straighten up; doctor says, “Hold on,” asks the patient to resume the position. Now the doctor repeats the examination, this time with two fingers. When it is completed, the patient asks nervously, “Is everything okay, doctor?”
Doctor says, “Hmm? Oh, yes, everything is good. I just wanted to get a second opinion.”
This was told to me by my GP. Guess what the occasion was.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:04 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
A joke a doctor told me once:
Guy goes in to see his doctor for a prostate examination. Patient disrobes to the degree necessary then bends over; the doctor inserts a finger, dictates a note into his recorder, and withdraws the digit.
Patient goes to straighten up; doctor says, “Hold on,” asks the patient to resume the position. Now the doctor repeats the examination, this time with two fingers. When it is completed, the patient asks nervously, “Is everything okay, doctor?”
Doctor says, “Hmm? Oh, yes, everything is good. I just wanted to get a second opinion.”
This was told to me by my GP. Guess what the occasion was.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:04 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
(if they think our butterfly erotica posts are saucy, they should read our colonoscopic small talk free threads)
posted by taz at 1:48 AM on March 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by taz at 1:48 AM on March 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
There's an old joke about a doctor teaching his baby students autopsy procedure, which I'd love to think might have its basis in fact.
He has a fresh cadaver wheeled into the crowded lecture hall, telling the students "It's very important you overcome your distaste for handling dead bodies. I want you to watch me first, then line up here at the front so you can all copy exactly what I'm about to do."
He uncovers the cadaver and sticks a finger very firmly up its asshole. Pulls it out again and takes a second to enjoy the students' shocked reaction, then sucks his finger. Students faint, vomit etc, then timidly queue up for their own turn. Finger up the bum, suck finger, return to seats.
When everyone's had a go, the lecturer calls for order again and says," Now I said it was important you get comfortable handling dead bodies, and that is true. Even more important, though, is that you learn to observe things carefully. How many of you noticed that it was my index finger I put in the cadaver's recturm, but myring finger which I actually sucked? No-one? That's what I thought..."
posted by Paul Slade at 5:41 AM on March 21, 2023 [7 favorites]
He has a fresh cadaver wheeled into the crowded lecture hall, telling the students "It's very important you overcome your distaste for handling dead bodies. I want you to watch me first, then line up here at the front so you can all copy exactly what I'm about to do."
He uncovers the cadaver and sticks a finger very firmly up its asshole. Pulls it out again and takes a second to enjoy the students' shocked reaction, then sucks his finger. Students faint, vomit etc, then timidly queue up for their own turn. Finger up the bum, suck finger, return to seats.
When everyone's had a go, the lecturer calls for order again and says," Now I said it was important you get comfortable handling dead bodies, and that is true. Even more important, though, is that you learn to observe things carefully. How many of you noticed that it was my index finger I put in the cadaver's recturm, but myring finger which I actually sucked? No-one? That's what I thought..."
posted by Paul Slade at 5:41 AM on March 21, 2023 [7 favorites]
All of my friends have their own loads to carry, so I guess I'm telling y'all that I'm worried about my mother. She has a blood clot, and it's supposed to be okay because she's under treatment &c., but I'm scared. I never met one of my grandfathers because he died in his sleep of a stroke or aneurysm (I'm a little unclear), and all my life I've been a little afraid that one of my parents would do the same. It's too early at her time to text and check on her. Rude to wake her up, and rude, too, to burden her with my being worried --
posted by Countess Elena at 6:17 AM on March 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 6:17 AM on March 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
43rdAnd9th, actually you can do homework for bell-ringing with handbells. A fact that comes to you directly from The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers, a mystery novel that turns on bell-ringing.
Also yesterday I posted only the tadpole pottery, not the frogs, so here is the frog content we all deserve. Bisqued frogs await glaze.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:38 AM on March 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Also yesterday I posted only the tadpole pottery, not the frogs, so here is the frog content we all deserve. Bisqued frogs await glaze.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:38 AM on March 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
This really isn't worthy of an FPP of its own, but I really have to share. Stephen R Donaldson's first book Lord Foul's Bane, from the Thomas Covenant series, has been published in Persian in Iran.
posted by hippybear at 8:46 AM on March 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:46 AM on March 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
a mystery novel that turns on bell-ringing.
sounds like an appealing story.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:49 AM on March 21, 2023
sounds like an appealing story.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:49 AM on March 21, 2023
I listed those Thomas Covenant books among my faves for ages until my sister pointed out the appalling way the women in the story accept main guy's rapey horribleness.
posted by Glinn at 10:34 AM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Glinn at 10:34 AM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
I had to add Georgia to my map today.
posted by mephron at 11:08 AM on March 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by mephron at 11:08 AM on March 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Finally got around to reading the Stevie Smith poem. And now I'm thinking of Peter Gabriel's song Kiss That Frog; it's a spin on the story he wrote when he read a theory that the "Frog Prince" story might have been a way to metaphorically brace young women for sex. I think the theory was that most other stories about love and sex deal with these glowing wonderful poetic things, but don't really deal with the fact that sex is just plain weird and freaky the first time you delve in there ("you want me to touch WHAT and put WHAT inside me WHERE?"). And the Frog Prince acknowledges that weirdness, with the moral that "I know it's really weird, but if you just go with it, it can get awesome. Trust me."
Plus the song slaps.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:15 PM on March 21, 2023
Plus the song slaps.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:15 PM on March 21, 2023
I used Kiss That Frog as exit music for a community theater production of Prelude To A Kiss that I directed a lifetime ago. I love that song. Love that album. Love PG.
posted by hippybear at 12:57 PM on March 21, 2023
posted by hippybear at 12:57 PM on March 21, 2023
Love PG.
There are rumblings that I/O is actually finally soon going to be released for real he means it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:11 PM on March 21, 2023
There are rumblings that I/O is actually finally soon going to be released for real he means it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:11 PM on March 21, 2023
Yes, it's being released, he has three singles out now each with three different mixes, and concert tickets are on sale for his entire tour starting Friday.
posted by hippybear at 1:43 PM on March 21, 2023
posted by hippybear at 1:43 PM on March 21, 2023
What do the French call wine with breakfast?
Le Pinot Dejeuner.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:17 PM on March 21, 2023
Le Pinot Dejeuner.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:17 PM on March 21, 2023
And now that I think about it, the title of the album is characterized as i/0, not I/O.
I mean, I don't know what he's naming it, but Gabriel putting "I divided by zero" as an album title feels very very Gabriel.
posted by hippybear at 7:23 PM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
I mean, I don't know what he's naming it, but Gabriel putting "I divided by zero" as an album title feels very very Gabriel.
posted by hippybear at 7:23 PM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Anybody in Portland who wants an absolutely fantastic pastrami Reuben had better get to Kornblatt's before the end of the month!
I just found out about this and I'm sad. I don't often get up to the NW corner of the city, but I'm now making plans to visit the place at least one more time in the next week.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:55 PM on March 21, 2023
I just found out about this and I'm sad. I don't often get up to the NW corner of the city, but I'm now making plans to visit the place at least one more time in the next week.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:55 PM on March 21, 2023
Le Pinot Dejeuner.
Which is what you have after reading about the cheese factory explosion and learning that De Brie was everywhere.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:46 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Which is what you have after reading about the cheese factory explosion and learning that De Brie was everywhere.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:46 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, man. I'd always dreamed of visiting that cheese factory, but I guess I can quiche that plan goodbye.
posted by mochapickle at 8:56 AM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 8:56 AM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
So today at work there is a massive multi-office shift happening, which a) I was only told about on Friday and b) affected me. I have had to give up my old private office and am now bunking with a guy from purchasing. My office is too small for my old filing cabinet (which actually was a boon, because I was only able to use half of it anyway and the other half was storing random crap of my boss's so I've boxed it up to give back to him, as expressly instructed).
But the people who planned this out did NOT include me in the planning or the timing, and the people being moved assume I WAS included so I've been fielding questions all day for which I do not have the answer and I can't look it up because they've caught me in the middle of lugging my shit to my new room.
....One thing shook down that may be a positive change - for whatever reason, on past moves our IT team insists that they will not MOVE people's computers, they will only confirm proper set up once the new computers are in place. In the past I've only had to cope with one person moving at a time, so that was easy enough to cope with (I ended up carrying the equipment more often than not). But when we were strategizing for this move yesterday, I responded to an email to clarify that "IT will not actually move anyone's CPUs or monitors, just FYI, but I can help there."
At which point the head of HR emailed me to ask "what's this about IT not moving the CPUs?" and I basically just said "shrug" and she said "that's weird" and I said "yeah" and she then emailed my boss to say "Hey did you know this" and he said "WTF, that's stupid" and he emailed the head of IT who also said "WTF, that's stupid" and so I think someone is going to be having a little chat with the IT department at some point about how they need to pitch in on moving the CPUs on future moves because COME ON, that is literally part of your JOB for god's sake.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:01 AM on March 22, 2023
But the people who planned this out did NOT include me in the planning or the timing, and the people being moved assume I WAS included so I've been fielding questions all day for which I do not have the answer and I can't look it up because they've caught me in the middle of lugging my shit to my new room.
....One thing shook down that may be a positive change - for whatever reason, on past moves our IT team insists that they will not MOVE people's computers, they will only confirm proper set up once the new computers are in place. In the past I've only had to cope with one person moving at a time, so that was easy enough to cope with (I ended up carrying the equipment more often than not). But when we were strategizing for this move yesterday, I responded to an email to clarify that "IT will not actually move anyone's CPUs or monitors, just FYI, but I can help there."
At which point the head of HR emailed me to ask "what's this about IT not moving the CPUs?" and I basically just said "shrug" and she said "that's weird" and I said "yeah" and she then emailed my boss to say "Hey did you know this" and he said "WTF, that's stupid" and he emailed the head of IT who also said "WTF, that's stupid" and so I think someone is going to be having a little chat with the IT department at some point about how they need to pitch in on moving the CPUs on future moves because COME ON, that is literally part of your JOB for god's sake.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:01 AM on March 22, 2023
So this was an adorable thing I saw happen earlier this week.
On Tuesdays I hang out at the local library for an hour (my roommate has a standing telehealth appointment and I give him space). When I got there this week, something was going down; close to the front door, a man was sitting at a table filling out a form, as two cops peered over his shoulder and offered advice. The library was small enough that I couldn't help but overhear - he was reporting a stolen laptop. He'd stepped away from the table, and when he got back it wasn't there. The librarians had called the police.
They asked him about the serial number and other details, and he was giving them what information he had - he apologized a couple times, ashamed that he didn't have all that information. The cops reassured him that "it's okay, you weren't expecting to have to do this." One of them called the sergeant on duty to update him on things while the other kept talking to him. My heart went out to him - I was already getting ready to head over to him after the police left to offer my sympathies and recommend a movie that cheered me up after a similar theft.
Finally the police asked him whether or not he wanted to press charges if they caught the suspect. "Gosh, I don't know..." he said, troubled. "I really just want my laptop back, that's really it. But would...would you do less if I said I didn't?" The police reassured him that no, they'd try to find the culprit either way, and he hemmed and hawed a while before saying that no, he didn't necessarily want to press charges, he just wanted his laptop back.
And that's when a 13-year-old kid came sprinting ran out of a side room where there was a kids' program going on. "OMIGOD DAD I'M SO SORRY!" the kid hollered. He flung himself at the man - and handed him a laptop. "I took it for just a second to use in there and I forgot to tell you and I'M SO SORRY!" He hugged his father, babbling apologies - father and police all cracked up, the father hugged his son and said it was okay. The kid apologized one more time and ran back into the side room. The man apologized to the police for wasting their time and apologized to the librarians for causing a fuss, but everyone told him that they were just happy everything worked out.
And then even I laughed when the man joked, "can I change my mind about pressing charges now?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 AM on March 23, 2023 [6 favorites]
On Tuesdays I hang out at the local library for an hour (my roommate has a standing telehealth appointment and I give him space). When I got there this week, something was going down; close to the front door, a man was sitting at a table filling out a form, as two cops peered over his shoulder and offered advice. The library was small enough that I couldn't help but overhear - he was reporting a stolen laptop. He'd stepped away from the table, and when he got back it wasn't there. The librarians had called the police.
They asked him about the serial number and other details, and he was giving them what information he had - he apologized a couple times, ashamed that he didn't have all that information. The cops reassured him that "it's okay, you weren't expecting to have to do this." One of them called the sergeant on duty to update him on things while the other kept talking to him. My heart went out to him - I was already getting ready to head over to him after the police left to offer my sympathies and recommend a movie that cheered me up after a similar theft.
Finally the police asked him whether or not he wanted to press charges if they caught the suspect. "Gosh, I don't know..." he said, troubled. "I really just want my laptop back, that's really it. But would...would you do less if I said I didn't?" The police reassured him that no, they'd try to find the culprit either way, and he hemmed and hawed a while before saying that no, he didn't necessarily want to press charges, he just wanted his laptop back.
And that's when a 13-year-old kid came sprinting ran out of a side room where there was a kids' program going on. "OMIGOD DAD I'M SO SORRY!" the kid hollered. He flung himself at the man - and handed him a laptop. "I took it for just a second to use in there and I forgot to tell you and I'M SO SORRY!" He hugged his father, babbling apologies - father and police all cracked up, the father hugged his son and said it was okay. The kid apologized one more time and ran back into the side room. The man apologized to the police for wasting their time and apologized to the librarians for causing a fuss, but everyone told him that they were just happy everything worked out.
And then even I laughed when the man joked, "can I change my mind about pressing charges now?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 AM on March 23, 2023 [6 favorites]
That is a lovely little piece of life, Empress. I'll keep it.
Today, I am failing at adulting. Yesterday I had a very full day, from 8AM to 8PM, and intense every minute. When I arrived home, I realized I had forgotten the charger for my laptop at the last meeting. So I watched YouTube videos on my desktop till I was ready for bed, which was too late.
And today, I have achieved nearly nothing, apart from retrieving the charger and a bit of practical stuff. I have a ton of stuff due tomorrow, but I just can't. My therapist would say it's all fine, I can only work 40 hours a week because of my condition. But if I don't deliver, it will start an avalanche of problems.
F***
posted by mumimor at 11:18 AM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Today, I am failing at adulting. Yesterday I had a very full day, from 8AM to 8PM, and intense every minute. When I arrived home, I realized I had forgotten the charger for my laptop at the last meeting. So I watched YouTube videos on my desktop till I was ready for bed, which was too late.
And today, I have achieved nearly nothing, apart from retrieving the charger and a bit of practical stuff. I have a ton of stuff due tomorrow, but I just can't. My therapist would say it's all fine, I can only work 40 hours a week because of my condition. But if I don't deliver, it will start an avalanche of problems.
F***
posted by mumimor at 11:18 AM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Once upon a time I had a double-cassette tape of Simon Jones, the voice of Arthur Dent in the original Hitchhiker's Guide BBC radio serial and TV miniseries, reading The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, the second Dirk Gently book by Douglas Adams. He does a wonderful job of it, doing both the narration and the voices of all the characters.
The tapes somehow disappeared years ago and I always wanted to replace them, but it's been nearly impossible to find it anywhere either for sale or to check out through the library...it's widely available in other editions with other people reading, but I want to hear Jones' voice again and the others just aren't the same. I tried again last night, and through multiple nested searches/references I finally found a direct link to a copy for sale on Amazon - even though I'd searched there many times and didn't find it. Weird. Anyway it was only $8 with shipping so I immediately snapped it up. I'm tickled pink and looking forward to a listening session next weekend.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:00 PM on March 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
The tapes somehow disappeared years ago and I always wanted to replace them, but it's been nearly impossible to find it anywhere either for sale or to check out through the library...it's widely available in other editions with other people reading, but I want to hear Jones' voice again and the others just aren't the same. I tried again last night, and through multiple nested searches/references I finally found a direct link to a copy for sale on Amazon - even though I'd searched there many times and didn't find it. Weird. Anyway it was only $8 with shipping so I immediately snapped it up. I'm tickled pink and looking forward to a listening session next weekend.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:00 PM on March 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
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I'm not excited about the commute, but I am a little excited to see friends and coworkers I haven't seen for years. It seems insane to me that I have to either give up $25 bucks (parking) or 90 minutes (public transport) to Go To Work, but at least it's just once a week for now.
I told everyone we should all have to wear the shirt we're wearing in our little MS Teams photos so I can recognize them, ha. I guess I'll have to change out of my PJ bottoms.
posted by kinsey at 5:27 AM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]