Fashion Board 11-2-03 - 12-09-03

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
These folks led lives of idle idiocy and self absorbtion.

This really stands on its own, but what I'm wondering, dtb, is whether there should be a hyphen in self-absorbtion, or whether I'm thinking there should be one merely because self-absorbed as a modifier has one.

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Austen fans are like Journey or Rush fans.

This is the kind of line that makes Sebby worth reading.

Not since Eddy Cochran summed up the futility of the human condition with the ever resonating "I fought the law... and the law won" had any group really spoken to us like Steve Perry and Geddy Lee.

Eddie Cochran was already long dead when Bobby Fuller wrote "I fought the law."

Ollie (Rock 'n Roll Timmy) Ramone

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
This really stands on its own, but what I'm wondering, dtb, is whether there should be a hyphen in self-absorbtion, or whether I'm thinking there should be one merely because self-absorbed as a modifier has one.

Oh Christ, I teed that up for you.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by tax_hottie
As un-American as this may sound, I don't really like turkey and no one in my family is crazy about it either. I find it to be too "gamey" tasting. We always end up with a shitload of leftover turkey that never gets eaten, since no one really likes it. I'd rather have roast chicken instead. Has anyone ever had a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner? What about a pot roast? I LOVE all the Thanksgiving side dishes, so we would definitely have things like apple-sausage stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, pumpkin pie, etc. Anyway, I am leaning towards the pot roast idea... Any other recommendations out there?

T(turkey-hater)H

We did a ham one year. Kosher, of course.

[ThrashersFan]

So I see a breaking news alert stating "Durst Not Guilty of First Degree Murder" and think

1. Who was Fred Durst accused of killing?
2. Does anyone still care about Fred Durst?
3. Is Fred Durst still alive?

and then think

1. His career
2. No
3. Who cares

Then I discovered that the news flash was about some millionaire accused of chopping up an old person and chucking the parts in Galveston Bay.

Nothing to see here.

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by baltassoc
(were there turkeys in Europe? - this is from memory and so approximate)

The answer is apparently no:

"The turkey was originally domesticated in Mexico, and was brought into Europe early in the 16th century. Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs."

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
rule 18 of faking your way through college, is that literary analysis is better described as "rote regurgitation."

the first lit class I had, I loved the first book. I knew the prof's theories, but disagreed. on the exam I acknowledged her theories but put out my own. C+.
The next few weeks I was involved in some rather heavy drinking and didn't read the second book. I did have someone's notes and just repeated what she had said- Jesus figures, etc. A-.


Has anyone who has written any short stories or novels ever put in a Jesus figure or other symbolism intentionally? I think the whole field is pretty much B.S.

I took a class that was HALF Joseph Conrad. Let me tell you, once you get past "Heart of Darkness", Conrad is akin to getting your teeth pulled. Anyway, we had a day at my school where the bars opened at 5:30 AM. Most people don't go to sleep the night before. Usually there's drinking throughout the night. I took my Conrad exam at 9 AM, completely housed. I don't remember it.

When I got it back, I read it. It was drunk blathering and mostly incomprehensible, although I have to admit it seemed to be inspired.

A-

English teachers love blathering.

[dtb]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
This really stands on its own, but what I'm wondering, dtb, is whether there should be a hyphen in self-absorbtion, or whether I'm thinking there should be one merely because self-absorbed as a modifier has one.

Interesting point you raise....

Compounds with "self" are usually hyphenated. I will also note that when a compound adjective (not the case here, I realize) follows the noun it modifies, there is usually little or no risk of ambiguity and the hyphen may safely be omitted (whew!).

(This is the U of Chicago rule -- but Strunk & White disagrees.)

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by dtb
You know, that is EXACTLY the author I was thinking of when constructing one of my rabid defenses of dear Jane -- I must have erased somewhere along the line. I have never been able to get through one Dickens book. I can never make it past the third chapter, and I have tried.

It was the best of times, it was the wor...st ...of.....t...i...m..e...s...(snore).

I am uniquely qualified to enter this discussion at this point.

Why? Well, in the past year or so, I have read Austen (Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility) and Dickens (Tale of Two Cities) for the first time.* (My reading of Dickens in "Classic Comics" doesn't count.) Both authors, in my opinion, rock. Jane is quite funny and incisive and Chuck is a master storyteller.

As noted previously, Jane writes about what she knows (uh, knew -- I suppose she's probably dead by now) which was the world of the precariously landed gentry, especially the hot chick daughters of dead guys who remarried and had assholes for sons whose wives were controlling shrews. (Apropos of nothing, the first chapters in her books could be used for Real Property I exams by a cruel feminist law professor, but I digress.) She may not be the only author to note that love and marriage don't necessarily go together like a horse and carriage, but she does it well and amusingly.

Senor Dickens, on the other hand, was the Stephen King of the 19th Century. His output is astounding, and if his prose ain't the most well-crafted, who cares? That dude can (could) tell a story. I couldn't disagree more about finding "the best of times" book boring -- the chilling needlework of Madame Defarge, the sacrifice of a cynical barrister (the whole "tis a far far better thing" line) --makes up for the fact that he could maybe have used an editor or two. Plot is what Dickens is about. I read this one on a plane, and couldn't put it down.

In short, to-may-to, to-mah-to.

*I satisfied my liberal arts requirement at the Univeristy of Podunkville with good old AMERICAN literature, thank you very much.

[dtb]

Originally posted by baltassoc
The answer is apparently no:

"The turkey was originally domesticated in Mexico, and was brought into Europe early in the 16th century. Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs."

For the next time you're on Jeopardy, the word for turkey (the bird) in Turkish is "Peru" (I think it sounds like "P'doo" or something like that -- but it's the name of the South American country -- which makes a lot more sense than Turkey, given the noble bird's origins....).

(For some reason, my head is filling with turkey trivia -- here's another one: Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the turkey the national bird, instead of the bald eagle. Kudos to whomever put the kabosh on that plan!)

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Why go to a butcher when goose season started two weeks ago?

Note: If you choose to take a retriever with you, make sure that the retriever doesn't try to retrieve the ducks/goose before you shoot said ducks/goose. Otherwise the retriever will just scare off the ducks/goose and then be pissed off at you for missing.

I understand that a load of birdshot in the dog's ass will put a stop to that right quick. Of course, it may also be the origin of the expression "that dog won't hunt."

[robustpuppy]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
* Who ever knew pride could be sooo mean???

Dammit Sebby!

I can put up with your ceaseless streams of ludicrous similes and metaphors, hyperbole, bluster, and bullshit; I can tolerate your opining on literature; I can even forgive you some of your more offensive fattie-bashing; in short, I have developed a strange taste for the intellectual scrapple that is your posting style, but this time, this time you have gone too fucking far.

For planting a goddamned Rush ear worm, I daresay you yes YOU, are history's greatest monster.

Damn you to hell!

[robustpuppy]

Originally posted by taxwonk
I understand that a load of birdshot in the dog's ass will put a stop to that right quick. Of course, it may also be the origin of the expression "that dog won't hunt."

I may never speak to you again.

<------------------

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
... ceaseless streams of ludicrous similes and metaphors, hyperbole, bluster, and bullshit.

You want fries with that?

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
rule 18 of faking your way through college, is that literary analysis is better described as "rote regurgitation."

the first lit class I had, I loved the first book. I knew the prof's theories, but disagreed. on the exam I acknowledged her theories but put out my own. C+.
The next few weeks I was involved in some rather heavy drinking and didn't read the second book. I did have someone's notes and just repeated what she had said- Jesus figures, etc. A-.


Has anyone who has written any short stories or novels ever put in a Jesus figure or other symbolism intentionally? I think the whole field is pretty much B.S.

I wrote a 30 page term paper comparing Milton's Satan to "Sympathy For the Devil" and got a fucking A on it. I felt dirty for about a week afterward. Some things simply should not be allowed, and that's a new low in the world of scholarship.

Ever take a poetry seminar? One prof said it was ok for us to get high before class or bring booze to class. Of course, everyone did both. I recall sitting in the seminar thinking "Unreal... this is a joke, right?" Then I'd get up, read some non-sequitur nonsense I'd scribbled earlier that morning and get full credit. Higher education is a disaster.