BOOK TOUR UPDATE: SOMEWHERE IN WISCONSIN

Good name for a rock band.

Comments

[Sarcasmo]

Yet, we were taught how noble and heroic the pilgrims were for seeking religious freedom. Why were the plundering details left off?

Can it really be considered plundering if the inhabitants of the village were already dead?

[Eleanor]

Uh-oh, Sarc's going all Zen on us! :)

in Fourteen Hundred and Ninety Two
Columbus sailed the Ocean blue...

*sits down and waits for Gold Star*

[«LabSpecimen»]

The vacation starts... NOW.

[Sarcasmo]

Also, my grandpa always says "Believe NONE of what you hear, and HALF of what you see."

[Leetie]

I never said he wasn't real, Jeff.

As for plundering: wouldn't you look for any food you could possibly find if you were suddenly in a strange new world?

[Eleanor]

Vacation from what, Lab?

[Sarah J]

if the villagers were dead before the Mayflower landed, how would that make the story of the Pilgrims any less powerful? They still escaped religious persecution, and half of them still died, even though they were lucky(?) enough to land in a place that had food etc already there.

OK, I'm done. Where are we going for vacation? How about my cabin?

[slyeyes]

Sarah, I've heard the space alien abduction theory before; and that the aliens were the ones who gave J. Smith the golden plates. And something about a white lizard, but I can't remember.

[Leetie]

And the internet said that it shall be forbidden to visit the cabin... and the bloglits were not pleased.

[Sarcasmo]

Sarah J, I don't know what's in that pic, but it's FORBIDDEN for me to look at it. Are you sure that's not a typo and it should be BARE Lake?

[Leetie]

Perhaps he was served lizard on a golden plate?

[Sarcasmo]

Also, Leetie, I'm with you "plundering" is not exactly the word I would use to describe their actions. Maybe "foraging".

[Sarah J]

it's just a picture of my cabin I don't know why it wouldn't work.

[Eleanor]

*neener*

I saw the picture - lovely!

[Leetie]

We're still plundering plenty of graves nowadays. What's the difference? Maybe the pilgrims thought they'd learn something about the natives that way.

[neophyte]

Foraging in somebody else's pantry... But then, the folks who had stocked the pantry unfortunately weren't going to need the food, were they?

[Leetie]

Wow! That link worked. That's not a cabin; that's an estate.

[Sarcasmo]

Nice cabin Sarah. Is it a permanent home, or just a vacation home? Either way, it's pretty cool.

[bbescuela]

Can we get back on topic? The A's just beat the Twinkies again, and today is Tony LaRussa's birthday.

[Sarah J]

It's just a vacation home near a lake (I'll find some pictures of the lake, it's really pretty) My grandfather and uncle built it and all the stone around the bottom was collected and cemented into place by my Grandpa Max. The stones are labeled with their original location and the date he found them. The cabin was built the year I was born (1984) and the stones were all in place by 2002

[slyeyes]

If plundering kept them alive and gave them enough energy to have wild monkey sex (pilgrim style) to procreate, which eventually led to my entry on the earth, then I'm OK with it.

Lab, since you've had a heyday debunking history today, I'm curious as to where you got all of your information on our forefathers' plundering and disease-spreading habits. Not that I disagree with you. The arrival of the 17thentury Euro-trash was the beginning of the end for the original inhabitants.

[euro trash Leetie]

*snork @ monkey sex (pilgrim style)*

[DDi]

Wow Sarah! Beautiful!

So your uncle and g-pa built it, but they gave it to you? Thats awesome! I can't wait until B and I have a place like that. Though, it will probably be by my paycheck since I'm the primary bread winner between the two of us. That's not a complaint mind you, I could never imagine being "taken care of"... whether I'm primary or we're both equal financial contributors doesn't matter to me.

[Sarah J]

well, it's not technically mine, but it belongs to my parents. I've added a couple of pictures of the lake, taken from the balcony at dusk (couldn't find any with lots of sunshine, the water is caribbean blue but absolutely freezing!)

[Sarcasmo]

Love the pictures of the kitty. Our cats try to get into our suitcases too.

[Sarah J]

I'm trying to add a picture of my grandpa putting up the stone. He's 85 in the picture. for some reason I'm having problems, but hopefully they'll work themselves out soon

[Leetie]

Ok. Google tells me that Joseph Smith is the martyred organizer of the LDS, author (ok transcriber) of the Book of Mormon. Is that right? Why couldn't anybody say that?

[slyeyes]

Sarc! Welcome back.

[Eleanor]

*loves Leetie a xanax*

*takes one herself*

[Sarah J]

Oh, I didn't know you didn't know who he was, or I would have told you.Sorry!

[Leetie]

The conversation was fast and furious up there, so it was easily missed. Thanks for the linky!

[slyeyes]

Leetie, maybe due to fear that if we said anything, Lab would tell us how Smith plundered the pilgrims, Indians and space aliens?

JK, Lab!!!!

[Leetie]

Where did he go, anyway?

[Jamester]

Sarah - if there is a God, it always struck me as ridiculous to try to ascertain what might be God's will or His will. It's a given that this is unknowable, isn't it? "Maybe this means I'm not supposed to have a therapist" isn't any more helpful than "Maybe he wants me to call the next therapist in the book", is it?
The cabin is lovely. How's the fishing?

[insomniac]

on the flip ,of the education debate, university professors quite often have no education classes at all... like me! (but 23 years of experience, (26 including teaching in grad. school have made up for it)

[Leetie]

It's nice to use "God's will" when trying to understand the unknown.

God must want me to criticize religion.

[Mad Scientist Weasel]

Dodgers tied it up!!!

[slyeyes]

My own personal "brand" of religion doesn't cope well with the "God's Will" philosphy. I read where the Amish families are comforting each other with "It was God's will".

If I honestly thought that God wanted to torture a man's soul so much that he would go do that to those young girls, then I would have to resign from Christianity.

My thinking; stuff happens, always has, always will. Nothing is going to stop it. But my faith gets me through it all. I can't describe to you how comforting and soothing it is when all of the yucky stuff starts. Why? I'm not good at expressing it, except to say that I know that on the other side will be peace.

/end pontificating from The Church of Sly.

[Sarah J]

It's not unknowable if you believe He communicates with people on earth, which I do. I believe in continuing and personal revelation and that it is sometimes possible to know what His will is.

/religion discussion

[Eleanor]

Mad, I'm rooting for the Dodgers too, and just saw that they tied it up!!!!

Go Dodgers!

CG came over yesterday and we watched part of the Pads game. Not good.:(

[Jamester]

well, OK, but if you have to ask "Was that God expressing his will?" it still seems to me by definition that it wasn't. Unless he whispers. Then you're still not sure.
Back to first step...

[Sarah J]

when I say "God's will" I mean what He would have me do. I don't use the phrase to explain tragedies or things that befall me, I use it to describe my reasons for what I do, as in, "I try to do what He would have me do"

[Jamester]

As long as someone's religious beliefs help them be the best person they can be, good deal, I say. If my beliefs tell me God wants me to slaughter the infidels...or sacrifice my son to prove my faith...
pass.

[Leetie]

But Jamester... those other ones are the wrong religions!

/sarcasm

[slyeyes]

I have a hair appointment in an hour; and I'm trying to find a new hairstyle. I checked out some websites, but they are just scary, manely (get it?) because it appears that the 80's frizzy big hair is coming back.

eeek!

[slyeyes]

OK, I just went to Yahoo and searched for "hairstyles for normal people".

One of the first hits is a website "Prom Hairstyles for Black People". Prom Hairstyles --- normal?

[Marie in Kourou]

80s hair is coming back? Oh no.

*whimpers*

This conversation is too heavy for someone in my state.

*curls up in corner of couch, periodically swigging from a cough syrup bottle*

(jk, people, jk!)

(but not about the hair)

[Mad Scientist]

dodgers lost they tried hard though

[Marie in Kourou]

Emmanuelle Béart on TV... mmmm... Bixente Lizarazu, too...

[Leetie]

This was our family cabin ... until Granddaddy shot up them fellas over at the John Deere dealer while huntin' and we got fore-closed.

I'm unna miss our old cabin on Suet Crick

[bbescuela]

I guess that God wanted the Dodgers to lose. YAY God!

[Leetie]

TFSM must not want my family cabin to be viewed.

[Jeff Meyerson]

it's just a picture of my cabin I don't know why it wouldn't work.

That's your family cabin?

No, that's a cabin. (Darn you, Leetie, you beat me to it!)

Sarah, you are right to think for yourself and glad to see you have no problem in standing up for yourself. I learned those lessons in college. We were on strike and the reporting in the newspapers was appallingly inaccurate and one-sided. The college President, Jacqueline Wexler (known to us as "The Lying Nun" - she went into education after quitting the church), gave out bs statements and the newspapers accepted them at face value.

I learned never to trust the news media again without investigating for myself first.

Where did he go, anyway?

Maybe the space aliens took him away for blaspheming.

*snork* at bb for I guess that God wanted the Dodgers to lose. YAY God!

And Yay for the Dodgers losing! And for the Church of Sly, which sounds a lot more sensible than most religions I know.

We were catching up on last week's tapes when we were away: Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy.

[Jeff Meyerson]

Receptionist: Thank you for calling Widgets Inc.* How may I help you?
Customer: I got a letter from my insurance company telling me to fill out a paper with my social security number on it and send it to you. Who are you?
Receptionist: We work with the government to help you with your appeal.
Customer: Oh. So you won't be selling my social security number to anybody in Nigeria?
Receptionist: No, sir, not today.

[Jeff Meyerson]

Girl #1: So we had sex last night and we didn't use a condom and I'm ovulating.
Girl #2: Uh huh.
Girl #1: Should I be worried?

Nah, You've Got Nine Months to Pick a Name

[Jamester]

I'm hoping God is just torturing the Mets a little bit...he'll do that kind of stuff, you know...

[Mad Scientist Weasel]

*snork* @ BB and Jamester.

[Jeff Meyerson]

Hey guys, ever wonder who your Dead Celebrity Soulmate is?

According to this, mine is Grace Kelly. Or maybe Agatha Christie.

[bbescuela]

What does it mean that my Dead Celebrity Soulmate is Mata Hari?

[Eleanor]

It means you must be a lawyer,
boom boom! :)

[bbescuela]

I object!

[Eleanor]

Overruled! Take a seat, counselor!

[bbescuela]

But I'm already sitting your Honor. May I approach?

[Sarcasmo]

Mine was also Mata Hari . . . tramp.

[bbescuela]

Sarc, are you a lawyer? Eleanor might be going down in flames here.

[Eleanor]

Down in flames?? Me??

Never gonna happen! But I'm not so sure about you, my friend.

pssst, have you ever noticed when people call you "my friend", nothing good ever happens. :)

[bbescuela]

OK then, Madame Chuckletrousers. What does it mean that Sarc's Dead Celebrity Soulmate is Mata Hari?

[slyeyes]

Edgar Allen Poe?!?!

Nevermore.

[slyeyes]

Madam Chuckletrousers?!?!? Are you channeling Christobol?

[bbescuela]

No, I'm channeling Mata Hari.

[Eleanor]

What does it mean that Sarc's Dead Celebrity Soulmate is Mata Hari?

You're the smart lawyer, you tell me. :)

I'm just a little lady trying to get along in this big, scary world.

[bbescuela]

It must mean that Sarc is charming, intelligent, witty and handsome.

[Blogchik]

First the Huguenots fled France and ended up in England, then the Mormons in West Yorkshire fled England to Nauvoo (so did the one's in Missouri) then everyone fled to Utah, where they had to deal with the US army coming.

You wanna talk persecution? My ancestors in Armenia were persecuted for 1200 years, culminating in the Genocide (the 20th century's precursor to the Holocaust). Murder, rape, pillage, conversion-by-sword, the whole ball of wax. *muttering under breath*

Maybe God isn't helping me find a counselor because he knows that I can do it without one as long as I have His help.

A very wise person told me once that you should pray as if everything depended on God, and act as if everything depended on you.

[Blogchik]

I was given the choice of Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Allen Poe, and Leonardo Da Vinci as Dead Celebrity Soulmates. I chose Da Vinci as he was slightly less wacko than the others.

Family History: My great-great-ancestor on my mom's side was the ship captain who brought Lords Fairfax and Culpeper to the New World. I grew up in Fairfax County. Isn't that weird? We're the first ones in my mom's side of the family to live in Virginia since the 1600s. My grandmother has looked all this stuff up. There's a book, even, published by some distant relative or other.

On my father's side there's a poster-sized family tree with only the male line on it, written in Armenian (it has it's own alphabet). My brother's on it. I'm not. Chauvinists!

[Kibby F5™]

Are there any shows that are really different? I'd like to find one. That would be cool.
Posted by: «LabSpecimen» | 02:13 PM on October 4, 2006

kibby watches, in order, SNL, Star Treck, Murder She Wrote and Family Guy thinking they're all episodes of Little House on the Praire.

This insures there's no plot repetition. Also makes for interesting Season's Finals.

*wonders what sarahj's Comparitive Finance is like*

*wonders if that would help him plan for retirement*

*agrees with Scarc. Plundering only happens immediately after affecting death (see blogchiks history). Scavaging is finding something to eat to postpone impending death*

[Kibby F5™]

kibby arranged dates with

Cleopatra
Grace Kelly
Mata Hari

*wonders what this means of him*

I only wanted a small island and to travel!

[Kafaleni]

My Celebrity Soul Mates were Poe, Van Gogh and Rudolph Valentino. Is it just me or was Valentino not the kind of guy who'd be looking for a woman like me? Or a woman at all.

I can sew on buttons quite well. I can't sew much else, although I can do basic hemming and seam repairs at a stretch. I can knit, but I get bored quickly.

The only thing they teach when you're 6 that you can use to get a degree in university is elementary education.

I don't want to open up the can of worms again, but I believe that we all have free will. We use it to choose what we do and don't want to believe (religion or lack thereof included, naturally), and to control our behaviour and the environment around us. Of course, at the same time, everyone else is doing the same thing everywhere else in the world. Some people use their free will to hurt others or cause pain or damage. Some people choose to work with AIDS orphans or build lowcost housing or work in slums. Others choose to shoot up schools or drive drunk, steal, rape and destroy. To say that any of these choices are God's will is wrong and totally unfair to God.
Some thing are a result of the choices we make, others are a consequence of the world we live in and the way we treat it. Some things happen just because some people in the world are complete b@st@rds.

[Kafaleni]

I have little or no idea what this says, except I see gateau and Bon Anniversaire, Marie!

If we need more gateau... I thought this one looked incredible. I told them to write Marie on it, but they seem to have spelled it wrong. ;)

[slyeyes]

Good morning!! Happy Birthday, MiK!

Chilly today, gas jumped from $1.93 to $2.17 and the Cardinals take on the Padres today and Kafaleni will bring us the entertainment report. But first, over to you, Kibby, for the latest in European news.

[slyeyes]

And thanks to Lab, I had *this* earwig last night:

Oh well I'm the type of guy who will never settle down

Where there's loot to be had, that's where I'll dig around

I steal 'em and I rob'em 'cause to me the dough's the same

I scam 'em and I trick 'em they don't even know my name

They call me the plunderer yeah the plunderer

I plunder around around around...

[Kibby F5™]

OH YEA! Crap!

Happy Birthday MiK!

here I'd thought of being the FIRST! and still missed it

"Gno gnews is gnood gnews" - this it from Europe, back to you sly!

[slyeyes]

Thanks, Kibby; and now to Jeff for our traffic report and I hope traffic is flowing smoothly 'cause I'm heading out the door right now.

Later!

This is slyeyes, signing off.

[neophyte]

Yeah, the plunderer...
dang. That one's catchy. I know what I'll be singing all day.

[Jeff Meyerson]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MiK.

They did a story on the local news this morning saying that more people have October 5 has a birthday in the U.S. than any other single day.

There was some speculation that it had to do with New Year's celebrations.

And if you come to 42nd Street with proof that today is your birthday you can get free ColdStone!

Oh yeah, I forgot. That slut Mata Hari was my third choice as Dead Soul Mate. For someone dead nearly 100 years she sure gets around.

Traffic: no major tieups.

Who's got the weather?

[Jeff Meyerson]

neo?

[Jeff Meyerson]

"more people have October 5 as a birthday..."

[Kibby F5™]

AAAAAAAAHHH!

WCRE's playing Marry Banalow AND Barbara Streisand!

AAAAAAAAHHH!

[wolfie]

I had weather once. I've given it up for lent this year.

Happy Birthday MiK!

he has a point.

[Kibby F5™]

He sure does!

And so do these.

[Jeff Meyerson]

This isn't right. It's humiliating to me and degrading," Roach said. "You know, I'm a man and I don't want to be paying alimony to a man. If you can't be married to a man legally, how can you legally pay alimony to a man?"

Interesting point. Perhaps one of our resident weasels attorneys can give us the sleazy legal viewpoint.

Did anyone watch the first episode of Lost last night? And if so, did you find it as annoying as I did? (I doubt if you did, because I was steamed.)

They promised over the summer that: (paraphrasing) no more games, we're going to explain what went on the first two years.

NOT!

Not even close, as they added new characters, new settings, new situations, new confusion. Frankly, if they continue in this vein, they've LOST at least one viewer.

The first episode of The Nine was quite interesting, but I'm not sure where they can go from here. And as Jackie asks, even if they're successful how can they go more than one season?

[Jeff Meyerson]

And if that wasn't annoying enough...This season opener was the first of six new weekly episodes that will air before "Lost" takes a hiatus until February, when it will continue without a break through May.

By the way, I hope you caught The Daily Show last night (or see today's rerun). As Jackie put it, this Foley story could have been invented with Jon Stewart in mind.

[wolfie]

help

I need someplace I can order blueberry muffins from. That ships. Suggestions anyone?

[neophyte]

none of my posts are going through. I'm not getting error messages or anything. I hit post, and they just vanish. I'm getting mad.

[neophyte]

Frack.

[slyeyes]

Roach said he should no longer have to make alimony payments because his ex-wife is no longer the person he married.

If he wins that argument, NO ONE will be paying alimony anymore, sex change or not.

And Jeff, why the dig at the attorneys?

Lost isn't one of "my shows" mainly because I don't need anymore shows. But I keep up with it from all of the talk in the office. It seems I'm one of the few who doesn't watch it. I'm trying to keep Wednesdays TV-free. Well, except for The Daily Show. That is the show I missed the most during the "antennae only" months.

[neophyte]

Instead of muffins that ship, how about a ship that muffins?

[neophyte]

alimony for life? dang. I missed the boat.

[slyeyes]

Me, too, Neo. All I got was a dinghy.

[Jeff Meyerson]

sly, it was a joke. A weak one, admittedly, but I hadn't had my coffee then.

Just pretend it didn't happen, OK?

Wolfie, I would suggest my cousin DeDe's place but I don't know if they ship out of town.

[Kibby F5™]

*packs blueberry muffins into bubble pack*

*squeezes the air out*

*looks quite thin*