Fashionistas you have arrived 3-25-03 - 10-3-03

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
I'm not out of town yet, lover, so stop flirting with Fugee!

Busted. I am so embarrassed. I thought you were out of town already. I feel so indiscreet. I guess I'm going on a few ignore lists.

[Connect_the_Dots]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
This isn't a ruckus.

If you don't like "black" and don't use "colored" or "African-American," what exactly do you say? And that's an honest question.

TM

It depends on their shading. You can use caramel, coffee, mocha, cafe au lait for blacks. For hispanics / latinos /spanish/ centralamerican you can use dulce de leche, flan, cafe, cafe con leche etc.

Halle berry = caramel
Selma hayek = dulce de leche
Penelope Cruz = flan
Wesley Snipes = mocha

Only someone reallllly sensitive could be offended by something as innocuous as Flan.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
15 seconds. Oil line somehow exploded. Don't ask me how. Oil pressure gauge took about 5 seconds to drop completely. It was one of those "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON??!!!!" things, and then it was over...

Ouch.

Just . . . ouch.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by Not Bob
Well, in defense of Annie, that might not be true. Here in Podunkville there's a pretty strong and growing sentiment that "black" is not acceptable, and that one must use "African American" instead. I have had people correct me. Even when I was talking about a dude from some St. Somewhere island that wasn't part of the good old US of A. By the way, I never did get an answer from the African American as appropriate term person as to what to call a person from, say, Haiti.

You've had people correct you? So what? Even though I wasn't there, I'm pretty sure they weren't offended. If it was someone you know or were friendly with, take a mental note and don't refer to them that way again. If it's someone you'll never see again, no big deal. It's impossible to please everyone. But it's very possible to keep from offending people. "Black" may not fit everyone's requirements, but I doubt you'll ever offend anyone using it.

People from different places want to be referred to in a way that makes sense to them. I sense that many white people are frustrated because they can no longer classify people as easily and may have to put some effort into actually understanding any given person's background. Don't blame me if I shed no tears for the inconvenience.

Originally posted by Not Bob
The irony is that "black" used to be considered almost as bad as the n-word (at least according to some pre-WWII history books I have read). My saintly yet racist grandfather was a cop in a machine-run Northern city in that era, and "black bastard" was the preferred racial epithet used by him. Meanwhile, polite society used "colored" (see e.g. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and then "Negro" (as in the United Negro College Fund) before "black" was adopted. I could be wrong, but I think that it was Elijah Mohammed and the Black Muslims who first started using "black" and it was quite controversial.*[/SIZE]

I believe people were upset with the trend towards "black" because so many fought so hard to get "negro" and "afro-american" accepted and "nigger" and "colored" wiped out. Needless to say, "black" has been an accepted term every place in this country I've been all my life. I have heard people say, "I prefer to be called African-American," but I've never heard anyone get upset about being called "black" (cue posts from people who ran into that person from Nigeria who doesn't like to be called "black" and prefers "African" or "Nigerian").

And you can make any word sound bad if you're a racist. So, I don't really understand your point regarding your saintly grandfather. The point is, the term is accepted today and has been for a very long time.

TM

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I've been mainlining stomach medication for years due to a genetic condition. Does this mean I'm probably of Mayflower lineage?

No. Just coat your stomach with mayo and you should be okay.

TM

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
How would you interact socially with a man who impregnated a seventeen year old girl, but refused to acknowledge parentage? I would not even return the smile of such a person. Would you?

Actually, she was 16. I beat the shit out of him. No warning, no chitchat, just walked up, threw him to the ground and started pounding on him. The extent of my courtesy was that I didn't bring a weapon with which to inflict permenant damage (in retrospect, a very smart thing). I was still young enough that I got away with my actions. He was old enough that he did not.

10 years (and a bar admission) later I helped her put a garnishment on his wages for back child support.

If I were to run into him on the street, and he were to try to speak to me, I'd probably try to beat his ass again. Some things are just wrong. Fuck polite.

-balt(only fight I've ever been in)assoc

[purse junkie]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
why, because it's wrong to judge others?

And where did this idiotic concept even come from? Of course it's fine to morally judge others, to the extent that you don't harm or restrict the rights of consenting adults. I judge that someone I think is a sexist asshole will not be allowed as a guest in my house. I judge that my friend's gf is a cheating bitch. I judge that my friend is a wingnut to think that birth control's a mortal sin, but I won't force her on the Pill and stop her from her perpetual pregnancies. And I expect that all of my behavior will be likewise judged in return and that people will react accordingly. What's the big deal?

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
No. Just coat your stomach with mayo and you should be okay.

TM

Someone please make a joke involving "County Mayo" and Catholicism (esp. Irish Catholicism). I can't come up with anything but it needs to be done. Atticus?

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
If you're in a service industry and need to avoid alienating them for monetary reasons, you've made a choice.

Particularly in this day and age, this is a very easy choice to make. One can keep them as a business acquaintance and still shun them as a social acquaintance. In a world where "business entertaining" is so readily confused with actual social interaction, a majority of the people in the US won't even know the difference to be offended.

W/r/t/ the observation that something more "obvious" than the cut direct would have to be invented to get through thick modern skulls ... I don't think so. I think, particularly when the old ways are so infrequently practiced, they become even more effective. Which, really do you think, is more likely to be lost in the background drone of everyday irritations and rudeness: someone who says "I think you're repulsive, the way you blah blah blah, you should do blech blech blech instead!" or just curses at you, or the person who draw themselves up with frosty dignity and formality and says "I do not know you, sir/madam" and stalks away with no self-righteous explanation? Oh, the latter, to be sure. And the modern must also realize, with bland, meaningless, non-confrontational professional courtesy so generally rampant, someone willing to go to the effort to cut you must be REALLY, EXTRAORDINARILY offended to go to such unnecessary lengths. The shock-value is huge.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
W/r/t/ the observation that something more "obvious" than the cut direct would have to be invented to get through thick modern skulls ... I don't think so. I think, particularly when the old ways are so infrequently practiced, they become even more effective. Which, really do you think, is more likely to be lost in the background drone of everyday irritations and rudeness: someone who says "I think you're repulsive, the way you blah blah blah, you should do blech blech blech instead!" or just curses at you, or the person who draw themselves up with frosty dignity and formality and says "I do not know you, sir/madam" and stalks away with no self-righteous explanation? Oh, the latter, to be sure. And the modern must also realize, with bland, meaningless, non-confrontational professional courtesy so generally rampant, someone willing to go to the effort to cut you must be REALLY, EXTRAORDINARILY offended to go to such unnecessary lengths. The shock-value is huge.

Well, that might be true with "old ways" that are well-known, but I'd venture that a lot of people wouldn't even recognize the cut direct if it was staring them in the face (or not, as the case may be). It's like one of those uh people who don't eat with their left hand eating with their left hand at your table (or shaking hands with you with their left hand or whatever) -- if you don't know it's an insult, it's ineffective.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
15 seconds. Oil line somehow exploded. Don't ask me how. Oil pressure gauge took about 5 seconds to drop completely. It was one of those "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON??!!!!" things, and then it was over...

I was helping someone move when the same thing happened to me. They've since repaved that particular road, but I swear the oil spot is still on the highway whenever I pass. The car was full of furniture, dogs, boxes and people. There was even a windsurfer on the top of it. I think the new engine cost more than I paid for the car.

Speaking of cars, I found out today that, sometimes, my instincts for choosing the faster lane don't work. Generally, I refuse (if I can help it) to get behind dumptrucks, busses, cement mixers, flatbed trucks with makeshift plywood sides, garbage trucks, tractors and anything with a mattress tied on top of it. You'd think that getting in the lane that doesn't have the tractor in it would be the faster of the two. Today, that wasn't the case.

[purse junkie]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
"business entertaining"

This whole concept is an abomination, particularly where participation is a tacit political requirement at one's workplace. People hardly have enough time for their actual friends/family as it is. If a coworker makes that transition, great. But if not, don't we all spend enough time during the week with Bob from Corporate?

OTOH, make me schlep across the country for a meeting that would work just as well by telephone, and you damn well better buy me dinner. But I won't oblige you to join me.

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Well, that might be true with "old ways" that are well-known, but I'd venture that a lot of people wouldn't even recognize the cut direct if it was staring them in the face (or not, as the case may be). It's like one of those uh people who don't eat with their left hand eating with their left hand at your table (or shaking hands with you with their left hand or whatever) -- if you don't know it's an insult, it's ineffective.

But it is self-evidently an insult (the cut indirect isn't, however, to the uninformed). People just no longer know what it means, which makes it stick in the mind.

Or, if you still think it's not extreme enough, buy some gloves, smack them in the face and name your second. Remember that the challenged party gets to choose weapons.

Edited to add: the Clonmel rules: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/sf...ofdueling.html

[Replaced_Texan]

A relative looks like she's getting screwed by her company and I was wondering if they're legitmately doing so. She got a memo that the company is shutting down for the week of Christmas, but she's being asked to use vacation time for every day but Christmas or otherwise it is unpaid time off.

Anyone ever heard of a policy like this one?

[evenodds]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
A relative looks like she's getting screwed by her company and I was wondering if they're legitmately doing so. She got a memo that the company is shutting down for the week of Christmas, but she's being asked to use vacation time for every day but Christmas or otherwise it is unpaid time off.

Anyone ever heard of a policy like this one?

Yes. Tech companies have done this routinely, including shutting down the site from time to time for forced vacations.