Wednesday, January 31, 2007

another thing in a newspaper I have to respond to

I read daily newspapers, as evidenced by my last post, which they say hardly any people my age do. Also, newspapers are read by people with greater income than myself. This is evident when I read the letters of people who write in to newspapers. They are all clearly two hundred years old, highly aristocratic and extremely crazy. Especially letters to advice collumns. Today I was amazed by this:

"Dear Miss Manners,

How does one respond politely to a couple (usually the wife) who earnestly inform you that they're trying to start a family?

Normally I assume that intimate activities should not be featured as a topic of conversation in party settings...I'd like to discourage further comments on the issue. Should I call attention to the fact that this is not an appropriate or comfortable topic? Should I simply and delicately change the subject."

Miss Manners (what kind of a name is "Manners" anyway?) apparently agreed that saying you want to start a family is a rude and obnoxious thing to say at a party. It's the sort of vulgar thing that Negroes do. (She didn't say that last part but it wouldn't seem out of place)

Who ARE these people?

Posted by Rory @ 01:26 PM CST [Link]

Saturday, January 27, 2007

In which the author literally cuts and pastes from Jim Anchower

Hola, amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya but things have been crazy.

Lots of people have asked me when I'm going to start blogging again, which is nice. I've been quite busy with a lot of things, among them trying to turn Lysistrata 3000 the play into Lysistrata 3000 the novel. That's going pretty well, I find that every time I return to that mythos it gets farther and farther away from the original Lysistrata. To look at what I've written so far, you would conclude that it was about a guy named Jeff. That's what people will remember centuries from now, when my version is definitive. They will forget about Aristophes' vision and they will remember Jeff.

I don't think I will be prolific here again for a while but while I'm here: I just read an article about Jeremy Piven, being presented by the Chicago Tribune as "finally" having "made it". I thought the framing was a little odd, because maybe he's been sidekick for many years but I think he's been an awfully rich and famous sidekick. But anyway, what I liked about the article was this:

"Jeremy Piven's a local boy, but he's no Chicagoan. He's a devout Evanstonian...Even now, Piven identifies intensely, very nearly ecstatically, with his north suburban hometown. He was late for our meeting at the Blind Faith Cafe because, he explained, 'I couldn't jump in a cab, it's so beautiful; I had to walk through Evanston.'"

A tear swelled in my eye when I read that. Damn right.

Posted by Rory @ 05:39 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

headlines

There was a headline in the Chicago SunTimes yesterday about how a "Baby Saved a Life". The story turned out to be boring, something about a blood transfusion from the umbilical cord and who the hell cares. But I was really hoping it was going to be about how the baby rescued someone from drowning, or used kung fu to fight off an intruder.

Those things never happen.

Posted by Rory @ 07:08 PM CST [Link]

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Everything will be different now

"Bush to replace top generals."

O Frabjous Day!

Posted by Rory @ 10:59 PM CST [Link]

other than that

The first major realization of 2007 is that I detest the word "wig". Joss Whedon used it a lot on Buffy as short for "the wiggins" something that mildly freaks you out, and you'd think I would respect that, but frankly even Joss has made his share of missteps (like the entire last two seasons of Buffy) but I don't like that bit of slang is any good. I hate it. But not just it's appropriation as slang, I hate the word "wig" in all it's forms, including when it means a hairy thing that goes on your head. Possibly because it makes me think of "earwig" which are among nature's most vile and loathsome creatures. Or I could hate earwigs partially because the word contains the word "wig".

I really hate that word for some reason.

Posted by Rory @ 12:27 AM CST [Link]

something is happening to me

A few minutes ago I *swept the hallway* of my apartment for absolutely no reason other than that it was hideously dusty.

I'm not the person I thought I was...

Posted by Rory @ 12:10 AM CST [Link]