Welcome to the bar! What'll you have?
Do they have to post more than David and me combined?
And shouldn't there be some kind of rule about quality? No stupid one-word posts. THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME KIND OF QUALITY CONTROL ON THIS BLOG!!!!
Yeah, there needs to be more clarification of the rules. Are you eligible to compete yourself, Pilgrim, because if you're to be judge and jury too, then how do we know you won't also try to exceute us too?
It's not an execution, exactly. She will make you walk the plank, Scurvy Dave.
I find it difficult to believe that anyone could possibly post more than jo(e) and me combined. Frankly, it's not terribly easy to imagine someone posting more than either one of us. Then again, if this becomes one of the 100+ comments threads, I don't see who's gonna wanna count all them up either, so who would ever know?
Not me, though. I don't have to walk the plank because I'm the nice one in this duo. I'm all sweetness and light.
I get the chocolate cupcakes.
Was the Scurvy Dave comment earlier meant to imply that it was the winner?
And maybe, if she gets to be a competitor, she can make herself walk her own plank for a prize.
As I said before, jo(e), you're funny tonight.
DAVID! HOW IS THAT YOU ALWAYS JUMP IN WHEN I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF A THOUGHT?
Stop interrupting me!
I hate when we do this overlapping comment thing. That means I have to try to reply to you before I know what you are saying. It's a little confusing.
If Scurvy Dave was the winning nickname, I believe that means that I get a prize.
Are you finished thinking? Can I get a word in now?
Maybe you just type too slow. Are you still on dial-up?
Yeah, I'm done. I only get one thought every couple of days ....
No, I got the cable connection to work again today after spending an hour talking to Jason at tech support .... he says my computer is slow because it's networked to my kids' computer ....
The cable people reset the connection a couple times and now it works. What's weird is when I called tech support, I happened to get the same guy and as I started explaining to him what kind of computer I had, he said, "oh, I know all that, I recognized your voice."
I HAVE SPENT WAY TOO MUCH TIME TALKING TO TECH SUPPORT.
But everything is working again now so I'm happy.
jo(e) and Scrivener
posting back and forth with speed
I can't keep up!
I think Pilgrim's gonna have to offer way more than double points for haiku for it to be worthwhile. But that's a nice one Rana.
Dial-up connections
Make posting fast too tricky
So I'll write haikus!
There once was a blogger named David
Whom with witty posts was gravid
But he couldn't come close
To the proliferation of jo(e)'s
When it comes to posting, she's rabid!
(or rapid)
(pardons for the initial slant rhyme)
It's a futile task
(Just had to have a hand in)
So have at it, guys!
David -- thanks!
There's something entrancing about that little chain of Ranatars...
Help meeeeee!
...dial tone
(saved)
Oooh, Ranatars, that's a great play on the name.
But I object to your third poem. My posts are way more rapid than jo(e)'s. I usually post more than once a day. Usually more than twice.
It's quality, not quantity, David.
And rabid? Who called me rabid? Was it that evil historian?
Ravished is more like it. As in hungry. Pass me that platter of cupcakes!
Damn. Now I want brownies. And eating will take me away from the game.
Heh.
*exeunt the evil historian*
Maybe.
Wait, should I have put that in Haiku?
Am. Really. Hungry.
Give me those cupcakes now.
Give me them, Rana.
See, this what I don't like about form poetry. It would have been better with one more line:
Am. Really. Hungry.
Give me those cupcakes now.
Give me them, Rana.
You evil historian.
I hereby lodge a formal complaint about that stupid haiku double points rule. I hate form poetry. Unless it's a least a hundred years old.
PILGRIM WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO IMPOSE STUPID FORMS ON US? ARE YOU TRYING TO DRIVE US TO ANOTHER BLOG?
I bet there are lots of other blogs who are just dying to take us in.
You're the one with the cupcakes.
I am the one with brownies.
(How many duplicate posts is this???)
Okay, a laughing face or whatever the hell that is DOES NOT COUNT as a whole comment.
With chocolate chips.
(none! good.)
And peeps. Mmm... peeps!
Cupcakes, brownies, peeps
The explanation for this:
We're high on sugar.
Haiku does not actually require set syllabic schemes. I don't have the text in front of me, but somewhere upstairs I've got a book on haiku which spends quite a bit of time knocking down that idea. Haiku is about simplicity and about minimal words, there is not any actual rule about syllable counts.
Peeps? What is a peep? Something edible I assume?
In my part of the world, peeps stands for peoples, as in your peeps, your friends.
Is the evil historian a cannibal? You gotta wonder.
peeps? Are those the yellow marshmallow duckies? How can you eat those poor defensless chicks?
I had a student last year in class who wrote Haiku in Japanese. It sounds so much better in Japanese.
Ah, jo(e). 1, 2, 3, jinx! Can't talk until I say your name!
How is it that you don't know what a Peep is?
Do I get extra points for my Google-fu?
But haiku is supposed to capture an image, or an action, or a thought .... I think if we use real haiku rules instead of sixth grade spelling book rules, then none of these count.
Or for posting with an actual LINK. 
I'm biting off the head of an innocent peep.
Right. Now.
mwahaha
I think extra points are warranted, myself.
Is there a time limit on this contest? Or is this another one of those things where Pilrim's not gonna show up for three weeks while we natter away on the comment thread and then she counts up the 1245 comments and scores them?
Aw, you're just afraid of my haiku-fu!
jo(e) that was exactly my point in saying it's not about syllabic structure. It's about technique, not really about form.
But the jinx rule works on BOTH PEOPLE. That's how we play it here. So you can't talk either.
Gad, I hope not.
I do need to go eat, and soon.
Why is everything a -fu with you?
Is it the influence of all that yoga?
Of couurse, we aren't really talking. We are writing.
And not just peep heads.
Yellow sugar on an empty stomach, num!
And for the record, I'm not playing Pilgrim's game. I am just hanging out here until the food and drink is gone.
Yoga would require the -asana suffix.
I'm just fu' of it.
No the jinx rule, as I played it as a kid, is that the first one to say 1-2-3-jinx is the controlling party. The other one is jinxed and has to be silent.
I suppose you could argue that typing comments isn't really talking, though.
And the leap-frogging comments are starting to crack me up. 
1-2-3-jinx, jo(e)
Yes, David, I was agreeing with you about the haiku thing. I know how unusual that is. It must be the presence of an evil enemy in our midst.
Uh-oh, Rana's gonna get hooked on this game too!
Mad posting chaos
Peeps, high-jinx, virtual booze
The cat is away...
When there's three of us, the comment counter really climbs fast.
Gonna?
What? You clearly learned to play childhood games in a red state. Here, both parities get jinxed if they say the same thing at the same time. The collision of their comments means they both have to stay silent and plead with someone to say their names.
I do really need to eat though.
Hmm... does this mean that you two have to beg ME to say your names?
*evil historian chuckle*
Cut off their tails with a carving knife...
(pleading, making begging motions, pointing to self)
Tails? Eee!
(pointing to David behind his back, motioning for you NOT to say his name)
Hmmm...
I don't know if it's in my best interests here.
(grabbing at your sleeve, yanking at your belt loop, making desperate motions)
I mean, how can I stop to eat dinner if you two keep talking?
(holding out chocolate cupcake as a bribe)
Catherine said my name, so I'm ok.
Well, you were the one who said the leapfrogging comments was starting to crack you up.
Hah! Tricked you! I have NO BELT LOOPS!
(motioning to my child, assuring you that I will be leaving to put him to bed soon. You have nothing to fear from me.)
Is there double fudge frosting on that cupcake?
(silently making the point that David is cheating)
The pulling at the belt loops thing is especially troubling...
(putting on my best innocent, deserving, should get to talk face)
Hallucinating, jo(e) is.
I'm cheating jsut because I thought ahead and had my wife in the room with me while I type? That's just forethought.
(hitting David, knocking him under the bar stool, then going back to innocent, pleading face)
Oh, damn!
(pointing to whole houseful of people who have been saying my name in this reality all evening)
I don't go down so easily, jo(e). I'm scrawny but scrappy.
Bar stool?
jo(e), we really need to get you a jo(e)tar
(laughing as she knocks David over again, this time into the sofa, and then resumes innocent, pleading face)
Ahhhhh! Nooooo! You've said her name, twice!
Oh, cool. Celestial Soda Pop just came up on my random shuffle.
I think that's my cue to leave now.
Really.
And she didn't even notice.
(silenting noting that Catherine does not in any way seem to be coming to the rescue of Scurvy Dave as he gets beat up in Piligrim's bar)
You said it too!
There you go with the Celestial Soda Pop again. Are you, like, obsessed with that Ray Lynch guy or something?
Well, damn. I was getting into the silent talking. I was on a roll.
We ought to play charades.
I know, but she didn't notice that either! She's not so good at these games, really.
It's tough to play charades on-line. I don't think I've played IRL for years--many, many years.
Oh, shut up, David, I have been playing these games since before you were born.
*spaced out, tranced voice* Raaay Lynnnnch issss myyy gooood *end voice*
No, not really.
Now I'm listening to Australian Aboriginal Fusion.
This is all futile, you know. Grandma Blue and I are going to take this place over when you're not looking.
Or we're going to go to bed.
You might have to stay up all night to see which it is.
We should play once -- and then really, I have go ....
It's hard to type out a stretched out version of "god"!
Where was Grandma Blue when I was trying to knock David around? I COULD HAVE USED A LITTLE HELP, PEOPLE!
Hi PS!
Butterflies, Custers
And gravatar-less jo(e)s
I like Ranatars
*jumps up to put dinner in microwave*
When I try to stretch out god, I go with "gaaaawwwwwwd."
Oh, great. Now the cat's yawning and making me sleepy.
As well as hungry.
No, I'm not eating the cat!
Come on, one game of charades before I go to bed.
That works.
I think your Ranatars are way cooler than my gravatars--which are Buffalo Bill Cody, not Custer, but the way.
Gawd, that is.
Holds up two fingers.
Which will be soon. I'm tired. I had to work today. I'M NOT ON SPRING BREAK.
D'oh! You're right!
*western historian slinks away in shame*
She was on the phone with Mr. Blue.
I'm so bummed out about haiku thing. I love counting syllables. I'm going to create a new form: bean-counter poetry.
Go to bed? It's only 10:30. You're not gonna stay up all night with me posting here to make sure Phantom doesn't come in and steal the show?
I'm tired, but it's because we're on spring break.
Maybe internet Hangman would work better than charades?
Everyone can tell which comments are mine because they are the ones without any weird image or floating head.
Rana, is that true--are you a western historian? A New Western Historian even?
I like Rana's floating head. I went over and got one for myself today. Haven't posted it yet, though.
Is this your break too, Rana? Isn't it nice?
David, come over here. You can be my partner in charades. I have an idea. Whisper. Whisper.
Ayup. Well, I was.
Patty Limerick bugs me, so my NWH cred isn't perfect, though.
STOP TALKING ABOUT HOW NICE SPRING BREAK IS!!!!!!!!
DAvid, are you just TRYING to annoy me?
Once you get more than three people going in here, it does it get tough to follow everything.
Ha, break.
That's the unfortunately thing about being staff now. The students go away, and we have to come in early.
I am NOT happy waking up an hour earlier.
Phantom, a floating head instead of a butterfly?
I wish I still had the link to the avatar maker I used to make my "head" -- it was a pretty cool site.
Lots of other folks have linked to it, though.
I thought it was just me. About trying to follow everything.
I will say, it's easier to follow the conversation when I'm part of it than after the fact.
You do have it. That's how I got there.
You had your turn with spring break last week, jo(e).
Rana's floating head is awesome!
Why does Limerick annoy you, Rana? Ok, this is gonna be too substantial a conversation for this space with all this going on and everything, but we should talk sometime about the F-word in American history.
I'm not sure I've ever read one of these after the fact. But I've always thought I was making such PERFECT sense.
Not replacing the butterfly. Replacing my "about" picture. You've noticed my lack-of-drawing skills.
What the hell are you all talking about now? The word fuck in American history?
Someone fill me in here.
Talk about the F-word someplace where I can eavesdrop. Remember, your job is to make me regret not going to graduate school.
You made your head with that hero maker thing, right? The hero I made was a big ole Nordic dude, not a representation of me.
yeah, we may have to move the frontier discussion elsewhere.
It'd also give me a chance to review my notes. It's been about three years since I've thought actively about this.
My lingering sense is that it had something to do with how she defined "West".
Okay, if we are going to play charades, we have to start now. Because I"m tired. And I said so.
Then after i go to bed, y'all can stay up and talk about fuck or frontier or whatever is ....
f = frontier
Ala Frederick Jackson Turner's "frontier thesis" and the problems therein
I made my head with an avatar maker that did just heads. Jill Smith (Writing or Typing) has one, and I think wolfangel had one for a while.
OK, ready.
This is a scene from a famous movie.
Oh, wait a minute.....
Ooh, one with jsut heads. COol.
Whisper ... can you braid my hair? I think that will help ... Whisper.
Whsiper ... do you know how to braid hair? Two braids, of course, with ribbons on the ends ....whisper
Okay, the juxtaposition of "a famous movie" and "one with just heads" cracks me up!
How many syllables, jo(e)?
Tangent: oh, I want in on the frontier discussion later ...
Pippi Longstocking?
This is sheer chaos! I love it!
Movie title has four syllables. But we are acting out a specific scene and you have to get the specific scene.
Standing to the side, silently. Blinking...
One or the other of us might have to start a post for the frontier thing, David.
You'd be the logical choice, but your commenting set-up isn't as good as mine. Hmm.
LoL. Pippi Longstocking was a terrific guess. But sadly, wrong.
Hey, this is a tangent but I actually have a sister with long red hair who performed as Pippi for years.
I'm serious, people. I want to know where this frontier discussion is taking place. So I can read it after the fact, when it wil, uh, make sense.
Whisper ... David, put your arms out stiffly ....
Wizard of Oz
Rana has to do it on her blog. Because David has blogger comments and they don't always work.
Ok. I'm standing off to the side, arms askew. Still.
Okay, my multitasking is out of control.
I'm
-following this conversation
-eating dinner
-googling avatar makers
-rating the music on random shuffle
I'm insane!
WOW! I AM SO IMPRESSED, PHANTOM. How did you possibly get that?
David didn't even start the tap dancing yet. And I didn't even start the skipping and singing.
I can get any movie made before 1950. Anything after that, I'm sunk.
Whatdya mean, it was frickin obvious.
The Wizard of Oz?
I'll post a note here if I end up hosting the thing.
I'll write it BIG LIKE THIS so it will be easy to see.
We didn't even have to do the whole rhymes with blizzard thing.
RANA I FOLLOWED THE LINK FROM YOUR BLOG. CHECK YOUR SIDEBAR!
Poop. Beaten to it.
Is it the scene where Dorothy takes the Scarecrow down from his perch in the field?
David, it had nothing to do with your acting ability ... although I must say you do look a bit like the Scarecrow.
HOW ARE THEY GETTING THIS?
David, did you cheat and tell them?
No one ever gets charades this fast in real life.
Rana: I'm put up a post a few minutes ago
:I'm having a conversation with my wife about the bonus structure reform conversation at her firm
:She's wathcing Dr. 90210, a show about plasitc surgery, so there's this mother-daughter team getting breast implants and there's graphic surgery scenes on, followed by the daughter admiring her mom's new cleavage. Yuck!
:And I'm trying to respond to some comments on another site
:And I'm trying to follow my own SiteMeter stats because maybe the GOP wingnut asshole who I left three comments for yesterday is on my site now.
Oh. D'oh. There was a reason why I made those images links, wasn't there.
Here's the avatar link, for the lazy.
You are all insane. All I've been doing is trying to convince cranky sick baby that she really wants to nurse to sleep, so that I don't have to get up. Didn't work.
Maybe I'll be back. You might need to stay up all night to find out...
Come on, I've been wrting about Wizard of Oz on my site for months now. I've got picutres of myself dressed as the scarecrow from Halloween. You say famous movie, braided hair, stick your arms out stiffly. I would've gotten it about 5 minutes faster than Phantom.
Jo(e), maybe we're just smart.
Oh, duh. I kept thinking that was stuff I knew about you in real life and not on your blog. I keep getting those things mixed up.
Sorry about the cranky baby.
David, I'll be sure to read that post. I might not post a response to it until tomorrow, though, so don't feel neglected if I don't post a comment right away.
I dunno, did you guys see the Halloween pics of my famliy dressed up in Wizard of Oz theme?
Well, Rana, I was about to give you both crredit for being smart but David says it's all obvious ....
It's not much of a post in and of itself--mostly just a link and repetition. But scary shit. Not new, really, but sad, sad, sad.
Maybe I'm just assuming it's so obvious because I'm assuming everyone reads my blog daily at least and has for months.
I have to go now and convince my teenagers to go to bed. And feed the cats. Not up for any more sad post tonight ... will read that stuff tomorrow or perhaps in the middle of the night....
Oh! I thought you meant a frontier post. Yes. It's both sad and awful.
This conversation gets more and more confusing the tireder I get ....
I think the post should be yours--why you're annoyed by Patty Limerick
*yawn*
I don't remember any scarecrow pictures, so it must just be that I'm spifty keen.
Yay me.
I'll try to think of a post to jumpstart a Limerick/frontier/NWH discussion.
(Some of it, if the details get too clearly linked to my real identity, may have to move to email, but the general outlines should be fine.)
G'night jo(e). Will you be back by in a couple of hours?
Dunno how long I'll be up either, really. Maybe for a while. Maybe I'll just go to bed.
I'm fine having that conversation via email, and then we can digest it and forward it to Phantom and/or jo(e) if they want, too. But a post to at least kickstart it might be good.
g'nite.
I'm sleepy too.
Which is sad, sad, sad, because it's only 8pm here on the West Coast.
Okay. I'll think about the initial post, and we'll take it from there.
Dang. I may have re-read the diss. Heh!
8:00! So your sleep schedule is sorta like my wife's? (Though she's still awake now--sorta)
Good night! Oh, cool, re-read your dissertation! I will have done a good deed if I can get you to do that, right?
No, not normally. My usual schedule is to stay up until midnight or one (while vowing all the while that I will be asleep by 10:30), then get up at 8:30.
But I got thrown off by (a) going to a play with D. last night (a rather horrible musical ala Andrew Lloyd Weber about James Joyce) and (b) having to be in to work an hour earlier (because we close at 5pm during break week) -- usually I get in to work around 9:30 or 10:00 and stay until 6:30 or 7pm.
So I stayed up later than my usually late schedule and got up earlier. Yug.
Yah, I understand that kind of dissonance. I was gonna say weren't you the one trying to work on getting to sleep a little earlier.
Hee. That "no not normally" works there, too.
I'm sort of tired with the diss and the mss it became, honestly. It never went anywhere; it's been nicely revised and was ready for contract, but at the last minute my editor and I realized our understanding of the book was at 90 degrees to each other. Since I was no longer in academia at that point, it didn't seem worth distorting it just to get it published. So that means it's still unpublished, but someday I hope to look into other publishing options. Someday.
Oh, I try to go to bed early all the time. I think it amuses D., how I tell him "I really need to go to bed early tonight!" but I never do.
Ok Phantom, now you're gonna start repeating yourself?
Sorry, cranky sick baby kicked the keyboard with her foot.
I say the same thing to my wife and fail the same way. But it does not amuse her, it just pisses her off.
Heh. If you're not careful, she's going to end up like us someday.
Yeah, yeah, blame it on the baby. Always a good tactic
Well, if he needed to go to sleep early too, I suspect he'd be less amused. But he's a worse nightowl than I am -- and having separate apartments does help.
The cat, meanwhile, is thrilled when I stay up late: it puts off the hour of doom when I boot her out for the night.
Our cats are indoors all the time. But they are loving having me home for break. Whenever I've been inside one of them's been in my lap or trying to get in my lap or at minimum right next to me.
I wish I could let the cat stay in. But she's not actually mine (complicated story) so I don't want to worry my neighbor (her real owner) unduly.
By the way, Scrivener, I got when jo(e) said she was putting her hair in two braids. Just because your kids are in bed like civilized folk when mine are still up being cranky does NOT mean you could have guessed 5 minutes before me.
All the loratidine in the world wouldn't help me if I borrowed the neighbor's cat.
The braids was pretty telling. But it was a toss-up for me between Dorothy and Laura Ingalls, and I don't know where Pippi came from.
Braids plus scarecrow...
So, had you read back in my archives at all? Did you see all my Wizard posts from June - December?
Hee. Loratadine is eeeevil. Well, at least for me.
I am profoundly grateful that it's not cats that get me.
She's a pretty good cat; if she weren't already someone else's, I'd adopt her in an instant.
The annoying thing is, the cat knows this.
For example, there's this picture of Ella, Chloe, and me in Oz garb for Halloween.
Oh, that's so cute!
I don't know about PS, but I hadn't seen it.
Ella saw Wizard of Oz on tv over the 4th of July and was instantly obsessed!
Okay, The Gods of Musical Coincidence just shuffled to "Big Bad Banksia Men", one section of which says, "We're made of sticks and bits."
Heh.
(It's from an album of Australian kids' songs.)
I promise that tomorrow I will read all of your Wizard posts from forever to forever. But right now I need to oh-so-carefully make my way upstairs with the nursing/sleeping cranky baby. You aren't the only one whose spouse gets irritated by the staying-up-all-night-on-the-blogs thing.
Good night, John Boy!
And good night, Rana. Give not-your cat a kiss for all the allergic cat lovers in the blogosphere.
222 comments! How does Pilgrim get us to do this?
Good night Phantom. Give your baby an extra kiss for all us.
Nite, PS!
Nite, baby PS! Sleep quietly!
222? Good lord. I haven't been refreshing the main page, so I had no idea.
It's like a chat room, only not.
P/H has created a monster! (No, worse, several monsters. Who all talk/compete with each other. I think jo(e) is the original monster, though -- since she's not here to defend herself from the evil historians. )
I really should log off though. Even if I don't sleep, I should at least work on my knitting.
So... g'nite!
It's mostly jo(e)'s fault. She's the one who keeps egging us all on.
G'night, Rana.
When you guys come back: Here is the first of the Wizard posts. Ella was seriously obsessed with the movie for months.
Very cute, Scrivener. But tell me: did she have nightmares? Scary flying monkey in her dreams requiring you to spend every night for a month in her room? My nightmare is that I finally convince Mr. Blue to kick the cranky baby out of our room, only to see LG take her place because I let him watch Wizard of Oz and he has nightmares for months to follow...
Anyone else awake around here? No? Oh, right, I'm the only one sharing my bed with a cranky baby.
Oh my god, you people are INSANE!
(Of course I'm just jealous b/c I only ever find these parties after they're over. )
Totally, NK! I had no idea this was going down n shit.
I think insanity would be someone coming and reading all this in the morning.
I just figured I'd add a post or two in case Rana talked more than me when I was sleeping.
She's got her time zone on her side, that evil historian.
Phantom: No nightmares at all. She really didn't pay a whole heckuva lotta attention to the monkeys the first dozen times or so that she watched it. She was so excited about the ruby slippers that she didn't have time to be too scared.
We spent many months singing "We're off to see the Wizard" every time--and I mean literally, every single time--we walked--sorry, skipped--across a parking lot. Pretty much anytime we walked anywhere.
Wow, this was amazing. Sorry I missed the party.
Man, I missed a party. And I'm on vacation!
My father is in his 70s and still has nightmares from the time he watched Snow White as a little kid.
Hey, David, I've only been reading your blog for about a month or so. I didn't realize you'd posted so much about the Wizard of Oz. When I surfed through awhile back to look at photos of your kids, I saw the Halloween costume, but I thought it was an isolated post ....
I stopped watching scary movies after the first Friday the Thirteenth. The very first girl that gets killed in that movie looked just like me and it gave me the creeps. I cannot watch scary movies without getting nightmares.
I'm okay with the Wizard of Oz because I happen to like witches and flying creatures. And I always assume that magic will be on my side.
The movie that my kids loved and watched over and over again was the Aristocats. I can watch it over and over again too. I love that movie.
OH MY GOD. Why is it doing that when I reload? I am going to get kicked out of this bar...
Wait -- jo(e): "The movie that my kids loved and watched over and over again."
Movie. Singular. One movie.
Damn, I am such a bad mom.
Post to follow.
And, jo(e), I can't watch scary movies, either. Or movies with violence. Which pretty much eliminates everything, except for the occasional Jane Austen remake...
Phantom, you are becoming like the drunk regular who sits in the corner and every once in a while repeats the exact same line.
My husband hates it that I won't watch anything scary or with violence. He always has to find someone else to go to the movies with. My fourteen-year-old is like me too. Spouse took him to a scary movie once and he had nightmares for weeks. I of course have never let Spouse forget this incident.
Phantom: You can only reload the comments page if you have not posted a comment yourself. Once you type a comment, if you hit reload it wil repost the data you entered, resulting in a repetition of your comment. I usually get a little warning box asking if I'm sure I want to repost the information I entered. You don't?
jo(e): Ella was utterly obsessed with Wizard of Oz from July 4th until after Halloween. Actually, it was only the movie off and on. We've read the book more than twice now (which means twice all the way through in order, and then chapters here and there sometimes). It's really died down since Christmas time, though.
I must have a dozen or so posts on some aspect of Ella and the Wizard of Oz. I haven't counted them or anything, but that's my guess.
My youngest son is currently obsessed with Harry Potter. He just reread all of the books. He took a day off from school last week because he was tired from staying up late reading.
Little fanatic.
I'd never do anything like that.
David, I just tried reloading the comments page, expecting to see my comment twice, but it didn't happen. I think your theory is suspect.
Let me rephrase that. You are Just. Plain. Wrong.
I am not exactly opposed to scary movies or depictions of violence, but I really don't watch them much at all. I almost never watch horror movies--but because they are never scary. At most they go for startling you, which I don't see the point of: haha you made me jump, so frickin what.
I have become much more conscious of how much violence I am exposed to on tv and in movies--I think especially since the kids were born, even though I haven't done any conscious avoiding violence in media because of them (besides not watching that stuff when they're around, of course). I can still enjoy a good action film sometimes even if it's fairly violent, but not very often and if the violence seems gatuitous to me, which all too often it is, nowadays it does really bother me, though it didn't much when I was younger. I don't know how much this has to do with movies simply getting more and more graphic.
I didn't see the Passion precisely because I read enough about it to know that it was extremely graphic in its depictions of violence. You know, I really don't need to watch a 15 minute long close up of flesh being flayed from a person's body--Christ or otherwise. I kind of wanted to see the movie, because I certainly did an awful lot of putting it down and I should've seen it in order to say such bad things about it, but I decided to spare myself the exposure to the violence.
OK, I just held down the mouse and choose "Reload" and got a dialog box that said "The page you are trying to reload contains POSTDATA. If you reload this page, any data you entered will be resent..."
I used to think I had to watch something before I mocked it out or criticized it, but then I changed my mind. I am an anti-porn feminist and at one time felt bad that I had never actually seen any porn, so one time at a hotel (years ago, not recently, let's make that clear), Spouse and I watched some porn for the sake of analysis. Ugh. It made me feel kind of sick. And totally killed any romance that might have been going on.
Yes, the same thing happened to me -- the error box -- and I went ahead anyhow and NOTHING reposted.
Sometimes HaloScan recognizes that you've tried to repeat a comment, in which case you get an error message in bold at the top of the comment bax that says "You've already said that [duplicate post]" and it does not repeat your comment. But sometimes it misses that it's a duplicate--especially if time has elapsed.
OH, I never let time elapse. Perhaps that was it.
I had no desire to see the Passion of Christ. Stupid, violent, manipulative film.
So I'm not "Just. Plain. Wrong," then, huh?
Someone asked one of the monks if he had seen the Passion of Christ, and he said no, none of the monks wanted to see it. But they really loved Finding Nemo.
I knew I'd hate the movie, and I only wanted to see it in the sense that I wanted to be able to critique it more effectively. But I didn't want to see it badly enough to subject myself to that sado-masochism for two-plus hours.
David, you are always
Just. Plain. Wrong.
I thought you said you WANTED a nickname!
I think Pilgrim needs to restock the bar. Do they serve french fries here? I thought I smelled some earlier. It's getting close to lunch time and I'm getting hungry. And I have to work to do, so I am NOT BLOGGING today.
You know, thinking more about why I began to avoid graphic depictions of violence, I think this is what happened: I used to think it was no particularly big deal to see that kind of violence in movies--I like the choreography of a big explosive fight/shoot 'em up scene, whatever. Then I hit a stage when the kids were born and we watched ery little tv and went to only a few movies, and since we got to go so seldomly when we did go we saw "good" films instead. Then I saw a cheesy, violent movie and it bothered me, much more than I was used to.
Which fact made me realize how inured I had been to the violence previously. That it did, in fact, make a big difference that I saw it all the time and was therefore untroubled by it. And I didn't want to be numb to the violence and pain.
Work to do? What is this whereof you speak?
I actually just got home from working out a little while ago. On the way home, went to the handy-dandy store to get stuff and now they've added a donut shop inside the handy-dandy store! So I had a couple of donuts, for the first time in, like, years. They were actually good. I'm now gearing up to go lay down some pine straw.
Sometimes I wish I was more numb to violence and pain.
I am agreeing with you, actually. It's why I don't let my kids watch much television. We usually put it out on a shelf in the garage in the summer.
I could not protect them from the horrors of September 11th .... the schools had televisions on. So they had to watch the World Trade Center come down, again and again, without knowing whether or not their favorite aunt was inside the building. My youngest two had nightmares for a long time.
I know what you mean. But no you really don't. You could be if you wanted to be. But it would mean giving up your ethical standards and dismissing other peoples' (other life-forms' better word?) suffering. And you don't want to do that. But you can. That's what makes you so virtuous--you don't act and think as you do because you have no choice.
That last post was in response to your next-to-last comment.
But I also don't think that kids need to be 100% protected from the violence on tv and in films. Certain levels (and what those levels are need to be determined, ultimately by the parents). But we are far too lackadaisical about assuming ti doesn;t affect us.
My theory about kids and violence is innoculation rather than incubation.
That is: don't totally shield them On occasion, give them small doses of the dominant culture, being sure to take the time to analyze it.
Or, since you mention 9/11, I don't know exactly what to do with that. This is provisional:
If you had managed to protect them from seeing images of 9/11, from not feeling that horror, wouldn't that be problematic too? I meant, watching those images and feeling the pain and horror of 9/11 is going to be one of the definitive moments for our generations of Americans. I don't think that pain needs to be warped the way the shitheads in the White House are doing so, but the fact of that pain and fear is very important for us.
Obviously, kids should only be exposed to so much of that, and I don't know what I'd've done if Ella was a couple of years older and at home with me--could I have watched Dora on tv and ignored those images? Would that have been right? I don't know?
I know what you are saying (going back a few posts). And no, I don't really want to be the kind of person who ignores all the suffering in the world. Sometimes I have to take a break from it for my own sanity.
I am so exposed to politics while I am teaching. So in the summer, I take a break. I don't read newspapers. I don't watch tv. I go off camping with my kids and pretend the dominant culture doesn't exist. It's very restorative.
I do think finding ways to mark off that space are important--time away, segregating it into only certain times or spaces in a day, whatever works for you. That's why I resist your complaints about my to-do list on my blog being on top of the political stuff. I care about that stuff, but I can't go back to waht I was like last January - October when I was really, honestly obsessed. I need to mark that stuff off and subjugate it.
About september 11th -- the difficult part was that the phone lines were jammed. It was a good 24 hours before we knew who was dead and who was alive. I would have preferred that my younger kids not be exposed to what was happening during that period. But so many people here have friends and relatives in Manhattan, they would have been exposed to it one way or the other. I felt paralyzed for about two weeks.
The kids were already exposed by seeing my grief and the grief of so many people around me. I'm not sure my first grader needed to see all the media images.
Yeah, that's why I don't post political stuff that often. I could easily get obsessed with it. And I am surrounded by it where I work.
But you gotta give me grief for putting my to-do list up anyway, huh?
Well, I hate it when people put up to-do lists. It sort of implies that other people are getting work done.
Although clearly you are just blogging instead of getting anything done, so I don't know why I am worried.
So there's the real heart of the matter: simple jealousy and self-criticism. I doubt many people ever need worry that I'm getting too much done for htem to keep up.
And that'd make a lot more sense if my list was like everyone else's: write four chapters, revise the article, put together three talks, conference proposal, blah-blah-blah. Mine's all about putting down pine straw and building steps fer cryin' out loud! How threatening is that?
It gets to be a pain to navigate these comment boxes once there's almost 300 comments in em. We need a new open thread!
Sure it's threatening. You are outside in warm weather doing fun stuff. I am in here grading papers. You expect me not to be jealous?
I am not, for the reocrd, jealous of much else about you.
I mean, your tap dancing last night was absymal.
Who taught you to dance? Michael Stipe?
Hey, jo(e), it's warm here today. You could grade papers here. Sometimes Mr. Blue and I go to the beach when he has to grade a lot of papers.
Ok, not in March. But in May we do. It's a lot of fun.
And where are the french fries? Hard to get any service in this place. I WANT HOT SAUCE WITH THOSE FRIES.
I expect you to be jealous (god, I hope someone, especially you , gets to be jealous of me for once!), but not to feel like me being outside means I'm getting work done and you're not. You're the one doing work, grading papers. I'm the one keeping house. Duh, we all know domestic labor counts for jack shit, right?
HEY, Phantom, I'm glad you are joining us for lunch.
Talking to just Daivd makes me a little crazy someitmes.
Yes. Yes we know that.
LOL at the Michael Stipe comment. Didja read my post about going to see R.E.M. with spouse last year? In it I reveal that in fact, if I were a rock star, I would dance exactly like Michael Stipe. It was the first time she'd seen REM live and that was her comment afterwards--oh my god, you dance exactly like he does. And, no, I don't think that is a compliment.
Outdoor work is manly, David, and manly tasks count in this culture. Duh.
Phantom!!!! How ya doing!?
I can't keep up with you guys. I'm so afraid that I'll just repeat myself again. The "yes we know that" was in response to "domestic labor=jack shit."
But you knew that.
If by "this culture" you refer to my primary culture--academic culture--have to disagree with ya.
Yes, I was actually referencing that post. See, I do it without putting in links.
Because I'm subtle.
ACADEMICS HAVE NO CULTURE. THEY ARE ALL NERDS.
It's nice to see you guys. THough I miss Rana's floating head. I have to get in my commenting pixie fix now, before we get to GO OUTSIDE. Because it's WARM OUTSIDE. Hallelujah!
Phantom, what is cool is that your reply worked for both posts.
I alrready took a walk in the woods. I didn't wear snowshoes but I should have. I kept sinking in about a foot. We still have a lot of snow but it's warm here ... 40s at least.
Where is Rana, anyhow? Actually getting some work done? That is what I need to do. Before the school bus gets here and my house gets too noisy for work.
I had to stop to go bring in my tools from outside because it jsut started poring. There goes my time working outdoors. Shit, what else is on my to-do list that I can manage indoors?
Phantom: I love the most recent post.
Damn, jo(e) you are so much cooler than us. You already took a walk in the snowy woods today. I, uh, I already drove past a strip mall today.
I mean on your blog of course, the Family Time post.
Scrivener: now you can watch Dragon Tales. Isn't that on your to-do list?
I went to the gym and ran some virtual miles up and down virtual hills. And I purchased Manly Outdoor Work Tools.
I don't watch Dragon Tales. Dora only. Didja see the big episode yesterday? Dora's a big sister now!! What wonderful news. How dramatic and intriguing!
What was your favorite part of Dora yesterday? . . . . . Yeah, I liked that part too. My favorite part was when the woman who had given birth to twins literally ten minutes earlier jumped out of bed and danced some version of the Funky Monkey with everyone!
I also liked the part when the two ten-minute old twins--who, we are told, will drink out of a bottle because all babies drink out of bottles!!!--were laying smiling and wide-eyed in a crib next to each other. And then indicated that they would like to go to sleep now by smiling some more and then drooping their eyes.
Well, I guess I am out of touch because I have never seen Dora.
Hah! We have much the same conversation here. "So, Mama, what do think of these new Dragon Tales DVDs?" "I think I would shoot myself in the head if I didn't have commenting pixies to talk to while you watch them."
Oh come on, those last three riffs on Dora were funny. Where'd everyone go?
Phantom is cooler than me though because she went to a strip mall today. That's like a strip club, right?
Every Dora episode ends with Dora and Boots looking out at the screen and asking, "That was fun! Waht was your favorite part of the show?" They pause a couple of beats and say, "Yeah I liked that too. My favorite part was..."
OH, no, I am hearing David in stereo now.
The last 3 riffs on Dora were very funny. And yes, a strip mall is like a strip club, only seedier.
Okay, if you have to explain your jokes, they Aren't. That. Funny.
Then they dance some vaguely disco combination of the twist and the monster mash.
Oh, what a great show!
So do you work at the strip mall or just frequent it?
It was 3 in the freakin' morning when you guys started posting again! Of course I wasn't awake!
I have to warn you; I won't be able to keep up the insanity this morning, at least not at the same rate. Work is already piling up on my desk.
I did put up a post about the frontier stuff today -- so come on over when y'all want to play smart n shit.
FRONTIER POST HERE.
Maybe I jsut need friends who are more in tune with two-to-four-year-olds' pop culture.
I came back here to talk about the family time post so I'm not sure how I got onto the strip mall tangent.
Geez...where do you people find the time for this? [bitter dissertation-writing PhD student slumps off to her office to work while the big kids get to play]
Rana!!! Hooray for Rana! Hooray for the Ranatar!
Rana! So nice to see you.
(side whisper) That evil historian bitch.
You all did read my comment about how bitch is a compliment now, right?
Rana, you like Dora the Explorer, right?
God, I am getting to be like David. Assuming that everyone has read all my posts and comments and has some clue what I am talking about ....
Ok, getting back to the Family Time post: you're gonna do that every night? No commenting with us between 6 and 9?
Are your kids still up at 9 usually? When do you put them to bed most nights?
We didn't have a television in my house until my daughter was in first grade so I missed out on a lot of kids' shows.
I think "missed out" is a poor choice of words there.
Hey, Phantom, we're in the same time zone, aren't we? Maybe I'll not blog during your family time either. I keep trying to think of ways to set limits on this.
My kids NEVER go to bed. Or it just feels that way. Between 10 and 11. LG doesn't need much sleep, and we are not morning people.
Of course, I usually put my youngest to bed at nine, so that means no blogging until about 10 pm.
Then again, last night as we were eating, Ella explained--completely unprompted--that Dora calls red rojo and she calls blue azur because those asre the SPanish terms, She followed it up with, "I learned that on tv"
Oh, now you're both going to abandon me!
Hey, missing Sesame Street is missing out. Or it was before the Elmofication of the show.
When Sesame Street first went on television, some experts predicted that kids would learn so much that schools would have to revamp their curriculums.
Ha! Somehow schools have survived these super bright televison watching children.
Don't worry, Sweet Davy Brown, I will never abandon you.
Tonight I may get a reprieve, 'cause we're watching women's basketball and getting pizza. But yeah, we're thinking of making it permanent. But we'll probably revisit that decision once we're back on a Spring schedule -- i.e., afternoons spent at the playground rather than in front of the TV.
Where did Friday Mom go? I thought I heard her voice, but when I turned to hand her a cupcake, she was gone.
I laughed out loud at the Dora riffs. Something about our house, I think.
Hey, I was one of those super bright television watching children. Seriously, my parents would not BUY THEIR HOUSE until they checked with the neighbors to make sure that they could pick up PBS with a rooftop antenna. Sesame Street was one of my first words.
Did I already explain what we do with the tv in the summer time? On the last day of school, we cermoniously carry it out to the garage. We used to just put a pillowcase over it. We called it the pillowcase ceremony.
I've never watched Dora, but I like the idea of the show.
Never underestimate the lingering effects of early exposure to foreign language bits. I picked up a fair amount in the form of nouns and verbs as a kid, and these words sit in the same part of my brain as my English words, unlike my hard-learned after-the-fact flashcard words (which live in a mental box where Russian, Spanish, and Japanese live all jumbled together).
Hi lawmom!
I was pushing for a Friday Night Blackout from all tv. My wife would never agree to turning off the tv every night--frankly, I've think I've only succeeded at getting one Friday night without tv. (Meaning, if we're at home.) My wife was raised in one of those households where if you're at home there's a tv on in every room and no one every turns the tv off unless you're leaving the house altogether or going to bed. She's weaned herself off of that to some extent, but she has a pretty hard time being in the house without tv.
Hey, lawmom -- are you joining us for lunch? We hardly ever get to talk to you.
And you are so much funnier than David.
Hey lawmom, I was just talking about you!
My Spouse was raised in a house where the television was always on. I was raised in the once-a-week television show household. I made him agree to NOT have a television in the house before we got married. So we had no television at all for the first six years of our marriage.
Jumbled together is right! I know about 30 words in Hindi and in Hebrew, and inevitably when I reach for one, the other comes out.
Looking forward to reading your frontier post during Dragon Tales, Rana. (They've just added a more explicit bilingual component to the show, so now it really IS educational. Rana said so.)
At least my wife thought the Dora jokes were funny.
I can swear in several different languages. And ask "where's the bathroom?" which is all you really need to know ...
Gotta go pick up the kid from the strip mall where I left him. Don't be too funny while I'm gone.
D.'s a tv junkie. He watches aaaallll kind of crap.
Actually, I will too, if the tv gets turned on by someone else. (I've been known to stay up hours watching some horrible junk just because it's on.)
I had one roommate who liked to turn the tv on for the sound, and it was terrible; I'd walk in, see the tv on, get hooked on something stupid I had no real interested, then get annoyed when she later walked by on her way out and turned it off.
I don't like watching tv by myself, so I'm usually safe.
I at least will evidently have no trouble being not-funny while you're gone Phantom.
Donde esta el bano?
(phonetic) Oo'e la sal du bain?
Gde nahoditsa tualet?
(I love my mother's favorite French lesson earworm: J'sui fatigue.)
Yes, I know my French spelling is atrocious. My pronunciation is even worse!
I have watched so little television that I miss most references to pop culture when people tell jokes.
But it does leave me all kinds of time for commenting on blogs.
In French, I always mix up how to say I am hungry and end up saying I am woman instead.
People give me funny looks in Paris when that happens.
I'm sort of like you Rana. When I'm at home alone, I almost never even turn the tv on. And when I do, I flip through the program guide and say, all this is crap and turn it off. But then Catherine will turn it on and I will sometimes end up sitting there for more than an hour watching something I'm not actually interested in for no good reason.
Then again, much of what Catherine watches these days actively irritates me (American Idol, eg), so I can't get sucked into it.
But in Spanish, instead of saying I am hungry in comes out I am man. Which is even weirder.
IS ANYONE FOLLOWING THESE SOPHISTICATED LANGUAGE JOKES?
And to think I learned none of it on television.
That Russian just looks so freakin' WRONG spelled phonetically.
If I turn off my computer now, I can get one hour of work donebefore the school bus gets here.
Why do they let the schools out so early?
I had a vegan friend who went to Spain speaking no SPanish. She was out wandering about with no food, and was seriously close to passing out because she needed something to eat, so she went into a restaurant and couldn't find anything vegan, until she saw a dish which her Spanish-English dictionary showed her meant "scrambled mushrooms," so she ordered that. It turned out to be some kind of egg-ground meat dish. Which she ate anyway because she didn't want to faint on the floor of the place.
I got the hombre/hambre one.
My French is crap, what can I say?
I think the highlight of D's bad tv crap watching was the crap he watched in Spain. I have to admit it was quite compelling, B-grade celebrities and all.
How stupid was she to go to another country without a phrase book? I leanred "Je voudrais un salade verte" and "Je suis un vegeterrienne" before going to Paris and ate fine.
In french, femme is woman and hunger is faim. They sound the same but you have to remember to say I have hunger instead of I am hungry.
Oh, God, I have become like David, explaining my jokes... this is not a good thing.
Mmm... hunting for food in Spain -- brings back memories.
Realize first that D. and I both fare poorly when hungry -- cranky, unable to make decisions, etc.
Now imagine us wandering lost in the streets of Toledo trying to find a working ATM and a restaurant with food we think we would like.
Thank heavens for serendipity, in the form of a place that happened to serve the best meal I ate in all of Spain.
It was an unplanned, last-second trip. She was supposed to go move in with her fiance, but then she hooked up with a guy who was about to leave to spend the summer in Spain and ran off with him instead. I think she literally decided to leave 24 hours before her plane left.
David, your whole life is like every bad movie I've ever seen.
I mean that in the nicest way.
Which is to say, especially given the guy she went to Spain with, she was pretty fucking stupid.
Rana: I am pretty much a camel--I can go days without eating if I need to. I like food and all, but I don't ahve to have it.
My life? I was just talking about some girl I knew in grad school. I was neither the guy she was engaged to nor the guy she ran away with.
I faint if I don't have food. Or get a migraine. I have to eat every couple of hours.
I have this sense of deja vu. I know we have had this converstion before. But maybe not with Rana here.
We've had a very similar conversation, right here in Pilgrim's very small conversation boxes, stuffed full of inane chatter.
Yeah, but it is still a story you get to tell.
Inane chatter? Is that what this is?
I have eaten three times in front of the computer today. I have the dirty dishes to prove it. I tell myself I can come and eat in here and it will just take a few minutes ....
Ok, here's the better part of the story. The guy she ran off with was a friend of mine, and moved into an apartment together, along with Catherine and two other grad students, literally a couple of days before he left. A great place in Park Slope. But just before he left, he adopted a puppy with this girlfriend who ran off with him to Spain. He went to each of the rest of us and told us that the other roomates had agreed to watch the dog for him while he was gone.
Wait, haloscan just deleted one of my comments. The one about insane chatter.
It had an S in it, you HaloSCan freaks! It was not the same comment!
Park Slope in Brooklyn? I have a friend who lives there. (Tangent I know) So did you all watch the dog?
Then he passed along the vet's instructions: the dog was not allowed to go outside for 6 weeks (the same lenght of time he'd be gone). So we couldn't take him to the park or anything, and had to clean up his shit all summer. None of the roommates had actually agreed to take him.
He told me that he would leave me blank checks to pay for his vet visits and food and stuff. Then he didn't and expected me to pay and he'd reimburse me, but it was summer and I had no $$.
The dog howled whenever he was left alone and out new landlord was pissed as hell. So someone had to stay home with the dog all the time. He wouldn't sleep in his crate, so one of us had to sleep on the floor next to him every night. Wheneer he was out, he chewed up all our stuff. He chewed through every set of sheets in the place. And he tortured my cats, who hated him.
So did one of you keep the dog after the jerky guy returned?
By the time my friend came back, he'd decided the girl was moving in with us too. And all of us who'd been there taking care of his damned dog all summer hated his guts.
But just as he got back, the dog got to be 8 weeks old or whatever, and could go outside and started to control himself and was much better behaved.
We spent the rest of the year together, all of us hating him and eventually kind of hating each other. And then we all moved into different places at the end of the year.
That's one of the best dog stories I've ever heard actually.
No, he kept that shitty dog. We all hated that dog--especially my cats.
Same Park Slope, in NY. Great, great neighborhood. I wish we could've afforded to stay there. Teh only way we managed to get the apt in the first place was the guy who went to Spain and stuck us with his pooch had a multimillion $ trust fund, so his credit check allowed us to get the place.
There are many nice neighborhoods in NYC. My sister is buying a place on the upper east side, in a neighborhood that still acts like a neighborhood.
Whoa. Abusive dog-inflicting!
(since I'm interrupting anyway)
My main problem with regard to not eating is that I get this weird combination of intense concentration and lack of focus. So I tend to jump from thing x to thing y at the drop of a hat, and obsess about each as it comes.
Needless to say, this makes it entertaining when I need to make food for myself:
I need to make food! Oh, wait, the newspapers need putting away! No! Make food! Oh, the floor needs sweeping! Make food! Resume knitting project! MAKE FOOD! etc.
I also get faint if I don't eat breakfast and then do anything physical. However, not eating breakfast is not detrimental when it comes to doing something that requires mental focus, like writing.
I also get emotional and cranky.
And my stomach almost never growls to warn me. I just get more and more spacey. 
(A large part of D's job as boyfriend is keeping me fed.)
Most dog stories are so dreadfully sentimental and all about how the dog brought a community together. Because of Winn Dixie and all that crap. So I liked your story ....
Thanks. I remember it like it was yesterday all of a sudden. I cannot describe to you the level of stress and anger of 5 English PhD students at Columbia, plus my wife (then girlfriend) who had actively decided to avoid grad school, plus that shitty dog and three cats, all living in this wonderful brownstone in Park Slope that should have been idyllic if we didn't just all hate each other and ourselves so much.
Roommates. Heh.
Did either of you ever experience the dreaded Toilet Paper Wars?
David, it sounds like a sitcom.
Toilet Paper Wars? I have a houseful of adolescents. That is part of my present reality.
jo(e) -- it does, doesn't it?
No, but the guy we shared a bathroom with was incapable of getting ready in the morning without leaving water all over the bathroom--the sink'd be full, water all over the counters and floor. It never bothered me all that much, but Catherine went ballistic on that one, which meant I eventually got all annoyed about it too because I heard about it so much.
TP wars do mean about who changes the roll, right?
I would hate sharing a bathroom with a bunch of messy guys.
Wait, what am I talking about? That is, again, my present reality.
The worst part about a toilet paper war is wondering, as you hoard your carefully purchased tp so that your roommate, who never bought any, ever, how that roommate is managing the utter absence of tp in the bathroom.
For several weeks.
O.O
And jo(e), when you say " Toilet Paper Wars? I have a houseful of adolescents. That is part of my present reality," do you mean what I think you mean?
Changing the roll is part of the tp war (as is over/under the roll, though in my family the rule was that the person who changed it got to pick).
The case I'm thinking of is more in the sense of one roommate having to buy all the communal supplies (tp, dish soap, paper towels, etc.) and the other one never does.
So I started keeping the tp for my own personal use, hoping that she'd get the clue and buy some herself.
She never did!
Okay, it's bad enough that Phantom and Scurvy Dave are always talking about poopy diapers....
Rana, how did she manage? And how does one hoard tp? Did you bring it into the bathroom with you each time? Did you put locks on the cabinet?
Didn't that get really annoying?
In my world, toilet paper wars involve taking rolls of toilet paper and doing bizarre thing with them. Like taping long strands to overhead ceiling fans. (An effect, actually, that is rather cool.)
Oh, it was HUGELY annoying!
Yeah, I kept it in my room. I have NO idea how she dealt with it on her, um, end.
David, I think it is sad that you are asking such earnest questions about this, as if you really want to know ....
That would be cool. The tp streamers, that is.
Am I always talking about poopy diapers?
hey, you should check out the post from yesterday at Dream Kitchen (that blog you found from my blogroll, jo[e], and thought you'd discovered before me). Al about poopiness. It's funny.
Hee. jo(e) -- how about me? I'm actually willing to answer his questions, seriously.
(I always do better answering questions than just posing my own thoughts in a vacuum.)
yes, all manner of things can be taped to the tips of a ceitling fan, but toilet paper is the coolest affect. Try it sometime.
I'm just trying to be an active listener, jo(e).
Like I have time to surf blogs. Sheesh. You people think I have all the time in the world.
I will. When I have a fan.
BTW, jo(e), you did not mean what I had thought you did, then, if you were referring to TPing the ceiling fans.
Rana, you are almost as pathetic as Davy Boy. Almost, but not quite.
Yeah, did you get everythign done you needed to before the bus gets there?
I have a Ranatar! How could I be pathetic?
Um...
Hey, I wrote a big ol' post for you frontier folks. Why aren't you reading it???
I meant doing all kinds of cool fun things with toilet paper because it is sort of cheap and disposable. Dental floss is like that in my house too. And duct tape. What did you think I meant?
Are you saying Rana is pathetic because she's answering my questions or because she doesn't have a fan? I do have a ceiling fan--5 of them in fact.
6 ceiling fans.
I'm not reading it because you people are pestering me here.
BTW, 429 comments on this thread!
Six ceiling fans? How big is your house? We have only one.
Yeah, I do have to go. I will come back later and read the frontier post. Hey, the mailtruck just went by! Maybe I'll walk out to the mailbox and get the mail. I am so easily distracted.
It's 3 BR/2.5 baths. One in each bedroom, one in the dining room, one in the living room, and one in the family room. The one in the family room doesn't work because an electrician who was supposed to be fixing some other stuff cut the wires and I haven't managed to fix them yet. Don't know it I will, actually.
For the record, Rana is pathetic for taking you seriously David.
Sounds like your house is bigger than mine. Perhaps I should send you some of these kids. Really, they could come in quite handy for babysititng and shit.
Awww...
My apartment is tiny. Maybe 1000 square feet, max.
But then, I'm the only one who has to live in it.
With my stuff.
2/3rds of which is still in storage.
*sigh*
Hey, perhaps Pilgrim could give Rana a ceiling fan as a prize for playing with us on this thread.
The last house I lived in (with four kids, spouse, and cats) was only 1200 feet. This one is bigger, 1700 feet I think.
Heh. I suspect I'm more like the toilet paper, swept along as y'all move the air around.
Or those numbers could be completely wrong. I used to have a good head for numbers but then I burned a lot of brain cells during my wild college days.
That's a lot of people to stuff in a small space!
Perhaps I should get the ceiling fan award then. For just spinning aimlessly.
I'm going to have to leave for a bit. Work and all.
Plus I have to pee.
I like having everyone live in a farily small space -- more communal. Our downstairs is just one big room. I don't like the separate family room or dining room or kitchen idea. I prefer the family be all together.
School bus is coming down road so I must go ....
Our place is a split-llevel contemporary, also an open floor plan. I hate the boxy, traditional houses so preferred around here--walk in the front door, on the left is the formal dining room, on the right is the formal living room.... Ugh.
Your house may be small jo(e), but you've gotta bunch of land. So the small house makes the kids go play outdoors right?
And sorry I was gone and missed everyone--was leaving a long comment on Rana's post. Now I'm gonna go get those Xmas trees into the back of my car... and measure a door frame ... and do some other important stuff too.
Sigh. I come back and everyone is already gone. jo(e), I am going to need to talk to you in a few years if your house is really 1700 sq. feet. Like, where do you keep all of your kids' stuff? We got 1600 sq ft., no attic, basement floods, small shed out back taking up half the postage-stamp yard.
My kids don't have a lot of stuff. That's why they play with toilet paper and duct tape. Seriously. We don't buy them much. We have no basement or attic. We keep our possessions to a minimum by dontating stuff to the salvation army or whatever. I'm sort of into the simple lifestyle. Books are the biggest problem. Always building new bookshelves.....
My house is small by some standards, but to my sister who lives in manhattan and to my urban friends, it's a mansion.
And I have 50 acres of land ... which makes my home seem absolutely huge ....
Just posting to bring it up to 450.
And to remind jo(e) that the frontier post's now up.
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