Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    I don't think Eddie Murphy is funny but I do think PeeWee Herman is
    a riot!
    
    Kate
    

    
    This doesn't really follow the form of the base note, but it _is_ a
    "true confession", so this seems to be the right place for it.
    
    I was walking around my sister's neighborhood after too much to eat
    last Sunday, and my companion pointed out (as strange) one of the street 
    signs that said name-of-street and then underneath, "Danger Private Way".
    
    When I was a kid, we lived on roads marked "Private Way Dangerous" and
    after I learned to read, and could read those signs, I'd wonder about
    them, and what they meant...  in sort of slightly-fearful, creepy, ah,
    look-over-your-shoulder sort of way.
    
    I've been told I was an "impressionable" kid!
    
    CQ                                 

    Credit for this topic goes to Bonnie Randall Schutzman in V2, who
    confessed her 20-year love affair with Neil Diamond.  :-)

    I, as a male, find The diceman repugnant.
    His blatent sexism (and any other ism you can think of) is about as
    ignorant as all hell.  I watched him slaughter a woman in the front
    row, and it bothered me.
    
    Shhhhhh don't tell anyone .... Kay?

            <<< Note 11.4 by CONURE::AMARTIN "MARRS needs women" >>>

I really don't understand.  What is a diceman, and was a woman really killed
in front of you?

      Carol (is this my age??  *sigh.  I thought I had caught up on all of
             the things that could give me away)

    
    	Carol, I have a vague impression that "Diceman" may be a stand-up
    	comic (so "slaughtering a woman in the front row" may mean that she
    	laughed considerably during the performance.)
    

    sounds like a professional wrestler

    re- the last few replies
    
    Andrew "Dice" "The Diceman" Clay is a 'professional' comedian who
    is funny in the same crude vicious way Sam Kinison is funny. He
    hits very hard and goes for the jugular, not the funnybone. It's
    not in my taste, nor do I understand why anybody of sound mind would
    think he's funny...but people go see him in droves and he *is* very
    popular right now. I *do* like Sam Kinison very much and have seen
    him live at the Long Beach Arena Theatre...but "Dice"? I think his
    act is about the cruel, crude, vicious attitudes we (humans) have
    towards one another...and he capitalizes upon those sick emotions
    and thus turns them into 'humor'. Like I said, I don't like him
    but I can understand why some people would like him...because he's
    an a**h*le and breaks the rules...that's what some people define
    as 'funny'.

>   Andrew "Dice" "The Diceman" Clay is a 'professional' comedian who
>    is funny in the same crude vicious way Sam Kinison is funny. He

My brother tried to explain to me that Dice was parodying a tough, backward
New Yorker.  He is supposed to be poking fun at people with these backward
attitudes.  

I have heard clips of Dice, and I still can't find anything funny in it.

I don't understand Pee Wee Herman's appeal either.  I DO understand Carol
Burnett, and am very glad she has a new TV show!

I watched "The Diceman Cometh" for the 2nd time Sunday night.  I hadn't noticed
it before but there's a rather nice thank you message from Dice to his fans at
the end.

I agree with -1.

Jim

    Greetings Womannoters,
    
    I couldn't figure out how the **())&*^&^%&*^&* to get to V3. I sent
    a couple of mail messages to various old WOMMANNOTES hands and for
    just as many reasons couldn't find the conference. Now realize 
    that I'm reputed to be the NOTES wizard in our branch.
    The solution?
    
     
                
    I was typing WOMENNOTES! Don't tell anyone...It'll blow my cover.
                
    Fred Mudgett

I've never seen "The Red Shoes"

However, I've heard it discussed soooo many times that I can fake it _real_
good

  Ann

    I simply *must* have the spoons stacked in the utensil drawer!  They
    cannot be messy!  I cannot *stand* having utensils out of place.  And
    if you think this is because I am a "neat-nik," a visit to my office
    will prove otherwise.  The rest of the house may be a mess, but those
    utensil drawers had damn well better be neat!
    
    RE: .9
    
    I heartily concur!

    I slugged down a $65 bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne, (no glass),
    to wash down a pizza.  Yumsters!

OK Sandy, what was _on_ the pizza? Sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese?
	Mez

    Good wine helps bad food more than good food helps bad wine. 
    
    Ray

    
    gee, sandy, my already high opinion of you goes up a notch!
    
    my true confession?
    i always eat food in order: first one thing, then when that's gone
    another thing, then when that's gone on to the next item. exception:
    i will actually interrupt my cheeseburger with a sip of chocolate
    malted.
    

    re. food in order
    
    you don't do, like, broccoli, then cauliflower, then MEAT, then peas
    and such... do you?
    
    ~robin(-:

    
    no, the ordering is based mostly on saving the things i like best
    for last. soup goes before salad, potatoes come after meat, dessert
    before tea.
     

    in re joe
    
    now that you mention it, I did notice that the night I ate dinner
    in your presence.
    
    bj

    I hate going to student awards banquets, and try to avoid them..
    
    only going when guilt baited by my kids
    
    tonite tho, I went to the student councel awards banquet
    and had a ball..
    
    (and was very proud of my son the president :-) )
    
    bonnie

Joe, I foresee an interesting Sunday evening in your immediate future.
You'd better not leave Abigail and I alone with your food.  =8-)

Carla

    
    my dear carla, i intend to keep my eyes on you at all times.
    

    OKAY!! OKAY!!  I confess, I do it, too!  I eat my food one thing
    at a time AND I can't stand for my food to touch each other.
    Yeah, yeah, I know it all goes to the same place and it all gets
    mixed together but I prefer to let my stomach do that.  My parents
    used to give me a hard time about it all the time and now it drives
    my husband nuts!!
    
    Shhh!(don't tell anyone) but I also put ketchup on eggs, macaroni
    and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches.  And...I love to eat in bed!
    
    Alright, so I'm different.  But that's what makes the world go round.
    
    pam :-}
    

    There's nothing wrong with ketchup on eggs, Pam.  Only thing better is
    salsa (try it!)
    
    							=maggie

    I confess! I'm perfectly happy to go out without makeup, wearing
    old crummy clothes, wearing a ripped up sweatshirt but I will not
    go anywhere without tons of jewelry.  I cannot live without my baubles.
    At LEAST three bracelets, two rings, and earrings.  If it jingles, all
    the better.
    
    Sometimes I'll go out without perfume (not often but sometimes) but
    NEVER without glittery stuff hung all over me.
    
       --Margaret (who was a gypsy in a past life!!)

    in re .27
    
    salsa on eggs..
    
    sounds yummy, kind of like a hot western omelet..
    
    years ago I decide to make an egg dish that was in one of the
    women's mags I bought and read...
    
    it required stewed tomatoes..
    
    I opened a can and didn't realize until the lid was off that I'd
    grabbed tomatoe sauce...
    
    so I dumped it in anyway..
    
    the taste was great, but the eggs turned out pink and we had
    to close our eyes to eat them because they looked like they'd
    been eaten once already!
    
    Bonnie

    
    RE:26
    
    My roomate always seperates the food on her plate, and like some
    of you noters has to eat it one thing at a time. but even worse
    she saves what she thinks will be the best bite for last.
    The whole thing just drives me crazy at the dinner table..
    
    Dawn

    re: eating habits
    
    I've always been somewhat, uh, enthusiastic about eating.  
    When I was younger, my mom would look over from time to time
    at my more-than-obvious gusto and remark, "Why don't you just 
    put your foot in it and growl?"  Fortunately, I've grown more 
    suave over time.
    
    I no longer growl. . .not audibly, anyway.
    
    Steve

    Sparkly things fascinated me.
    
    (hear the voice of Jeremy crow saying "I always wanted a sparkly of my
     own" from "The secret of nimh")
    
    I like collecting rhinestone things (although I seldom wear them, I
    *love* to look at them).  And I wanted a crystal in my car, dangling
    from my rear-view mirror at one point, but I get so distracted even
    seeing the multicolored sparkles in *other* people's cars that it'd
    probably trash my driving record.....
    
    -Jody
    

.28>  At LEAST three bracelets, two rings, and earrings.  If it jingles,
.28>  all the better.

Margaret, you'd be complimentary to Liesl and I.  We always wear jewelry
that jingles!  Have you ever worn Egyptian jewelry?  It's the *best*.

Carla (with an ankle bracelet on that REALLY makes noise!)

	re: leaving the best for last

	- when I eat a cheese danish, I eat all around the edges first, 
	  leaving a big bite of cheese for last.  YUM!

	- when I eat a Snickers, I nibble all the chocolate off (the two
	  long edges first, then the two short, then the bottom, then 
	  the top), then I eat the nougat, lastly I eat the nuts and
	  caramel.

	Does that make me weird?

	Sue

re: Eating -

I am the opposite of you folks - I am close to compulsive about making 
the different foods on my plate come out even.  One bite of this to two
bites of that, because I have more of that, one bite of this other, so that,
in the end, I have exactly one bite of each thing left.  Then, I eat those
last bites in the order that I like them - the best last.  Therefore I
get very upset when things don't go together, and tastes clash.  Because 
then I am forced to eat the seperately and it makes me nervous.

Steve, me too, very enthusiastic eater.  My fork never stopped moving till
Mom made it a *requirement* that I pause after each bite.  And not use my
hands.  :-)

re: Jody and sparklies

I have a similar interest. I like anything clear.  Glass, crystal, diamond,
rhinestone.  I used to collect nip bottles (those little tiny bottles of
alcohol you get on planes) from behind the liquor store, and fill them with
colored water and keep them on my windowsill. I had about 150 bottles, all
filled with a slightly different shade, in a rainbow.  I *love* crystals and
crystal figurines.  *Anything* with mirrors on it. Every year I get a glass
Christmas ornament (giving ornaments are a family tradition) from my mother,
because those are my favorite.  

D!

    RE .36 lack of 4-hour games
    
    Gee, and here I've been thinking it was the lack of honest work
    that explained the change from 145 to 2(mumble)
    
    Now I'll have to stop blaming DEC and start having more fun :-)

I have a nearly life-crippling compulsion to buy shoes -- pretty shoes, silly
shoes, colourful shoes, funky shoes ... heels, flats, sandals, moccasins, boots

But I hate wearing shoes.

    Wow - sounds like Imelda Marcos syndrome.....
    
    another quirk - I like to try to think up literal mnemonics for phone
    numbers I'm trying to memorize.
    
    -Jody
    

True Confession #1: I've never been able to figure out why I vote for certain
     		    people.  They all sound the same to me, and somehow I
     		    choose.

True Confession #2: I don't understand how the deficit, trade imbalance,
     		    interest rates, inflation or any other part of the
     		    U.S. 'economy' relate to one another.

True Confession #3: I never learned my multiplication tables (this may have
     		    some relation to #2).

True Confession #4: I love being married.

Susan Faccenda Peghiny

    re: ketchup
    
    I used to think ketchup was invented to go with eggs and grilled cheese
    sandwiches. I don't remember eating ketchup with anything else
    while growing up. So I couldn't figure out what my roommate found 
    strange when she saw me pour ketchup over my omlette

    with regards to D! (.35)
    
    sometime, when i notice the pattern, i am going to ask for a bite
    off of your plate.  i love doing that to my mother, and then watching
    as she winds down and everything thing is unbalanced!
    
    hey, i never learned my multiplication tables either!  nor did i learn
    my sines and cosines, so on tests i had to figure them out every time.
    being lazy took more work in the end.
    
    

    
    For those of you who like jingly jewelry -- I have seen some Indian
    women wearing lovely glass bangles.  They make a lovely sound.
    
    CQ

    
    True Confession:  I *love* buying smellies:
    
     Shampoo
     Bubble Bath
     Talc
     Body Lotion
     Perfume
     
    etc, etc, etc.......
    
    I'm also another jewellery fan, at the moment I can count:
    
    3 silver chain bracelets
    3 silver solid bracelets
    4 silver necklaces
    4 silver earrings in left ear, 3 in right (not all same!)
    4 rings - I usually wear about 7, must've forgotten to put them on this
    morning!!!!
    
    Not a bad collection!!
    
    Chris   :-)
    

    re food, I can't eat a sandwich without picking it completely apart
    first to make sure I don't eat any gristle or fat! Yuck!  Last week
    I had lunch with a particular friend for the first time in 4 or
    5 years and on the way to the restaurant he said, "Do you still
    pick your food apart?" :-)  I said, "Yes, of course I do!  You don't
    expect me to just take a big bite without looking first do you?"
     I also don't like the food on my plate to touch.  I hate it when
    something like cranberry sauce runs into the potatoes!  I also never
    eat an entire meal unless it's lobster, shrimp, swordfish or steamed
    clams.  When I see someone eat a huge amount of food really fast
    it takes away my appetite and makes me feel like throwing up.  As
    a child I ate almost nothing but ice cream, candy and cookies, and
    I was as skinny as a stick, but almost never got sick.
    
    Lorna
    

    Re jewelry, I think wearing and collecting jewelry is one of the major 
    pleasures of life!  I especially like antique rings.  I usually
    wear 6 rings, 1 or 2 pairs of earrings, either a necklace or a pin,
    and a bracelet and a watch.  I usually don't wear bangle bracelets,
    though, because they're usually too big for my wrists and fall off.
     I prefer antique "real" jewelry and vintage costume jewelry.  Jody,
    I have a couple of neat rhinestone necklaces from the 50's you might
    like.  I don't wear them often because they're kinda gaudy.
    
    Lorna
    

    Here's a somewhat sexist one. I enjoy spending money on women. I don't
    care how much and it isn't to prove anything. I just have fun doing it
    and it is a personal ego boost. I don't care what anyone thinks, it
    just fun. 
    
    This explains some of what I was saying about being a reclusive
    celebate in another note. I don't like always being broke. :-)
    
    If dinner isn't at least $150.00, I don't think it's worth it. If I
    know the person well enough (3-4 months) I suggest a shopping spree
    after. It's just fun and I don't care about the money.
    
    Phil Who says forget rhinestones,. Lets go for real jewelry.

    
    hear, hear on food not touching.
    

    re: .47
    
    Where do you live?  I might even consider getting rid of my former
    beau. :-)  (Only kidding!)
    
    Lori B.

    Mike, I haven't known you long enough. Besides, from other reolies, I
    hear you don't shave your legs or underarms. 
    
    ;-)
    
    Phil

    $150 on food!!!
    
    Wow!  That would pay for the Krups combo Coffee/Expresso maker that I
    want to get.........a bolt of expresso first thing in the AM.....
    
    I just pick apart my salads because I like to eat the veggies one at a
    time and not all mushed together....
    
    I also still separate Oreos and eat the white stuff first,
    
    I dunk my Chips Ahoy in milk,
    
    And I eat the chocolate covering off of Yodels before I eat the cake
    part.
    
    But if I wasn't so lazy as of late, I'd be baking all my sugar stuffs
    myself so the above wouldn't matter anyway.
    
    Lisa

    Perhaps I'm revealing my proletarian background here, but...
    
    where *can* you spend $150 for dinner for two??  Or is a hundred of it
    for a bottle of one of those wines that Mez knows about or some cheat
    like that?
    
    						=maggie

    Maggie, I'm not sure if your from the southern N.H./northern Mass. area
    but in Derry N.H., there is a gourmet style restaurant called "Promises
    to Keep". Lovely romantic name. I can easily spend $150 there and have
    and yes I, too, have spent over a hundred on a bottle of wine. I love
    Mouton-Rothschilde anything earlier than 1965. accept 63 which was
    soso. Just kidding on the wines. I don't know squat about them. I do
    love that restaurant though.
    
    Phil

Since you threw around my name Maggie, I could see spending something like the
following:

$5 on before dinner drink, $12 on appetizer, $20 on entree, $10 on dessert, $7
on after dinner drink. That adds up to $54 per person, or $108 for two. Add tax
and tip and that's $133. That leaves about $15 for the wine (tax and tip on
that too). Since wine sells in a restaurant for about %100 percent mark-up,
we're talking a $7.50 bottle of wine. Which would kind of be a waste with a
dinner like that. So, we could hit $200 real easy.

I bet people with bigger appetites could do even more (extra salad, cheese
course, palate cleanser). In fact, I can't even do this. I tend to split the
appetizer and dessert with Joe, and forgo the pre-chow drink.
	Mez

    RE .56 What in (bleep) are you drinking ? $7 on a (one!) drink
    I expect to get staggered, swacked even ! Must be them ole
    blue collar values...

Oh, the $7 is actually pretty conservative for a fine port or eau de vie [sp?]
or TBA (Trockenberenauslese) or cognac or armangnac [sp?]. I almost said $10,
but I didn't want to push the bounds of imagination.
	Mez

I laughed when I read that, mike. Actually, I work for the all-mightly dollar
so I can go out with who I please, and take the check when it makes sense.

	Mez

    Mez, now you've hit something I *do* know about:  where'n hell (or more
    particularly, Heaven) can you get a Trockenbeerenauslese for anything
    even *near* $7.-?   May as well talk about Eiswein for that!
    
    I'm astounded, folks, I would have made book that it wasn't easily
    possible to spend that kind of money on dinner.  Live and learn indeed.
    Thank you.

    
    	Since someone mentioned "ICED TEA", I have the recipe to
    	share from a well-versed bartender that I just happen to
    	know (actually, I gave birth to her).
    
    		LONG ISLAND ICED TEA
    
    	1/2 SHOT GIN
    	1/2 SHOT VODKA
    	1/2 SHOT RUM
    	1/2 SHOT TEQUILA
    	1/2 SHOT TRIPLE SEC
    
    	Some SOUR or DACQURI MIX
    
    	Splash of COKE
    
    	Garnish with LEMON and MINT LEAVES
    
    	AND HIDE THE CAR KEYS!!!
    
    	
    	justme....jacqi
    
    	P.S.  Only one per customer and use all light-colored booze!
    
    
    	

    Did y'all know there was a notesfile for mixed drinks?  It's at
    LYCEUM::GREEN_MONSTER.
    
    As for sparklies - I'd love to see them sometime Lorna!
    
    And as for spending money....the three times I've encountered gentlemen
    who took me to fancy restaurants it was so unlike any way I had been
    treated I kind of felt undeserving - it was all so dreamy.  I'm used to
    paying for them all the time (due to financial disparity) or at least
    going dutch!  And the time a gentleman tried to buy me a gift I was so
    flustered I wanted to pick the least expensive thing (comes from not
    being able to "treat myself" due to self-esteem stuff, probably).  So
    on the one hand, when a gentleman offers to pay my way, I'm wildly
    flattered, and yet I'm not sure I deserve it, and something in the back
    of my head keeps trying to keep a "running tab" as to the equity of the
    relationship....if you know what I mean....
    
    -Jody
    

I knew you'd notice that one Maggie. Obviously you can't get anything even
approaching a 1/2 bottle for $7. In fact, 1/2 bottle goes for about $100? So,
you're right; TBA is out. Eiswien is doable. I was just quoting the most
expensive liquors I'd consider for after-dinner supping.

In fact, I haven't noticed a TBA anywhere but Winecellar of Silene's.
	Mez

    Jacqui, will you make a tray and leave them in the fridge in the
    flotation tank please. I would be most appreciative, as would most of
    us.
    
    Thanks ever so.
    
    Phil

    
    
    
    Has the topic been changed to chit-chat?

    No, its just become a rathole. Mods, can we havwe a chitchat topic. I
    know that it's not FRIENDS here, although I hope we are all friends.
    
    I think we might need one just for fun. This is over and beyond the
    flotation tank of course.
    
    Phil

    This is a true confession, in that I'm embarrassed by it, but it's
    something I did and still do.
    
    I like getting dressed up and going to very fancy restaurants. I'm
    talking Black Tie and your best jewelry here. One memorable dinner was
    the night Janice and I went to L'Etoile in San Fransisco for my
    birthday. We provided our own wine ('63 Bollinger) and had a full blown
    multi-course French "Grande Cuisine" dinner. It was heaven. It was
    expensive. More expensive than has been discussed so far, and I'm too
    embarrased to admit just HOW much more expensive. It was a blast! (Then
    we got into the car and drove up to Yosemite for a weekend of rock
    climbing, which was cheaper and also a lot of fun.)
    
    It was NOT an isolated incident. I probably do something similar 3 or 4
    times a year. Jody's right - it feels like make believe, but it's so
    much fun!
    
    Wine is usually about 50% of the bill, which I don't find particularly
    outrageous... :-) Lately though, I've had to curb an appetite for good
    port, though it is kind of funny when you can be snide to the sommelier.
    
    	"I notice that you have the '60 Quinta do Noval. I'd like a glass
    	please."
    
    	"Ummm, sir, that's a very fine Port, but are you aware..."
    
    	"... that it's expensive?"
    
    	"Well, yes."
    
    	"What? I would expect it to be between twenty and thirty dollars a
    	glass, are you charging more?"
    
    	"Why no, it's twenty eight dollars."
    
    	"Thank you, that will be all."
    
    I guess a scruffy longhair in t-shirt and levis isn't supposed to know
    anything about good Port... :-) [I have a '63 Sandeman and a '70 Dow in
    my cellar myself, and some '83s that I have high hopes for. The '60
    Quinta do Noval though... that was a fine Port, now getting a little
    old, but still fine.]
    
    It's embarrassing to talk about food and wine and sound like some
    snobby rich old fart in a movie. :-) I guess I'm going to grow up to be
    a snobby rich old fart... :-)
    
    	-- Charles               

    Charles
    
    I'd love to see you in 30+ years as a 'snobby rich old fart'.
    
    and in re the chat note..
    
    the =wn= mods have thought that the 'general discussion unrelated
    to other topics' note filled that request.
    
    Bonnie

	I love glittery, dangling earrings full moons and stars.

	My favorite "trash" food is boneless spareribs and fried rice.

	Halloween is my favorite holiday.

	If I'm shopping when hungry, I buy cookbooks, not food.

	I love to cook fancy dinners for friends - or dress up and go out
	with a group of friends to a fancy restaurant.  (For my birthday
	last year, a friend treated me to lunch at Taillevant - airfare NOT
	included).  But I only do food, the friends are responsible for 
	the beverage (like the magnum of Chateau Latour 1949 for a friend's
	40th birthday last year).

	I've read "Pride and Prejudice" at least 20 times.

	I have enough yarn squirrelled away in my back room to knit
	sweaters for the next 30 years (and I knit fairly quickly...)

    I'd never have guessed.				Ann B.

    Cold pizza for breakfast. The more dried-up, the better.
    
    

    I workout/exercise like a maniac 3 times a week, and then 4 times a
    week I eat chocolate chip cookies!!  But don't tell anyone, 'K?
    
    
    -Dotti.

    
.53>    I also still separate Oreos and eat the white stuff first,

    This is not strange.  Years of noticing people's reactions to
    the way I eat oreos has taught me that what I do is *really* what's
    considered strange:


	break them open, scrape out the middle (leaving it on the side
	of my plate or pawning it off on someone who actually *likes*
	that stuff), and eat the cookies.

    
    	Another vote for sparklies.  I love to hit flea markets
    	and buy rhinestone jewelry.  I have quite a bit of it.
    	The older the better
    
    	re: a few back
    	What you do with a Snickers bar I do with a Three Musketeers.
    	First I eat the chocolate on the outside, then eat the nougat
    	on the inside.
    
    	I eat ice cream in the dead of winter while wearing my sweats
    	and wrapped up in a blanket.  My family thought I was nuts.
    
    	I love to watch my husband sleep (drives him nuts)
    
    	

        I know the prime factorization of my Social Security number.
        
        Dan

    in re .80
    
    Dan,
    
    Now *that's* weird!
    
    :-)
    
    BJ

 1. squirrels scare me (they're so flitty I'm terrified they'll bite me)
 2. I have some violently severe phobias surrounding my Achilles tendons
 3. I only have a vague idea what left-wing and right-wing mean
 4. I can eat more tortellini with cream sauce (my recipe) than anyone on
    this planet; same is true for mashed potatoes and gravy
 5. I'm unable to touch cats
 6. I cannot sleep in past sunrise
 7. I love the feel of someone's fingertips against my palm as they count
    back change to me
 8. I used to act out scenes with favorite actors ... who obviously were
    not in attendance
 9. my tuna and egg salad sandwiches have to be cut diagonally
10. I'd marry Billy Idol in a heartbeat

Carla

    I want to know Carla's recipe for cream sauce.
    
    							Ann B.

    
    I love to cook.  And I love to cook dinner for myself and my
    husband (but I probably wouldn't like it any more if he expected
    me to do it, neither do I do it every night or even every other
    night).
    
    I think on the whole that the people who work in ZK dress like
    slobs ... so go ahead, ZKers, flame me if you want.
    
    

>    I think on the whole that the people who work in ZK dress like
>    slobs ... so go ahead, ZKers, flame me if you want.
 
Hey, *I* dress like a slob, and I don't mind you saying so.

God, I love this company!

D! 

    Not only do we dress like slobs... we ARE slobs!

    
    	re: a few back...
    
    	I just started here at ZK a few months ago and was a tad
    	bit surprised.  I wouldn't go as far as slobs (although there
    	are some) but I would say VERY casual.
    
    	I still, however, dress up for work most of the time.  I
    	feel uncomfortable if I wear jeans and t-shirts to work
    	every day.  It just doesn't seem right to me.
    

    My husband and I have a couple hundred CD's and records, of every
    conceivable type, by every conceivable recording artist. Mike puts
    the CD's and albums on tape so I can listen to them in my car and
    he can listen to them at work on his walkman. 
    
    True confession #1: In my car, I have only listened to the tape of
     REM's "Green" and "Document". For the past 2 years. Straight. And
    I'm still not remotely sick of it. (Recently, though, I thought I
    might like something different, so I had Mike make me a tape of REM's
    "Fables of The Reconstruction" and "Reconing" for my car.)
                      
    True Confession #2 : I bought walkman for work. I also bought 2
    more REM CD's, "Murmer" and "Life's Rich Pagent". In an effort to
    be wild and crazy, I listen to that tape at work instead of "Green"and
    "Document". Sometimes.
    
    True Confession #3 : After about 10,000,000 straight listenings,
    I *STILL* can't figure out the words to "The One I Love". A simple
    *what* to occupy my time ?
    
    Mike thinks I'm obsessive. Nah, I think I just like REM.
    
    Dee     
    

    re: .88
    
    You're not crazy.  80% of my drive time is spent listening to Led Zep
    and Robert Plant.
    
    Sheesh, when the time comes for me to actually see Plant Live In
    Concert, they're probably going to be able to take what's left of me
    home in a baggie (see womannotes-v2 645.10)!  
    
    -Jody
    

    I think its "a simple *prop* to occupy my time"
    
    but you're right, their lyrics are very tough to decipher!
    
    DougO

>                       <<< Note 11.88 by MARLIN::RYAN >>>
>                          -< .....And I feel fine ! >-
    
>    True Confession #3 : After about 10,000,000 straight listenings,
>    I *STILL* can't figure out the words to "The One I Love". A simple
>    *what* to occupy my time ?
    
    Sounds like "prop" to me. A sad and rather cruel set of lyrics, I
    think. 
    
    	Andrew.

    
    i almost *never* listen to the words in popular music.
    

    re .92, oh, really????   then *you've* missed a lot!!! :-)
    
    (who would I have turned out to be without Bob Dylan?????)!
    
    Lorna
    

    
    sorry. i don't pay attention to the words in schubert lieder either.
    ;^)
    

    Whenever I change pocketbooks I ALWAYS leave a penny or two in the old
    one and then put it up on the top shelf.  I firmly believe that if I do
    this, I will never be poor again.
    
    If I throw away a pocketbook or give it to goodwill I always clean it
    out thoroughly to make sure I am not throwing out anything, especially
    a stray penny.
    
       Margaret

    I have a wonderfully resonant speaking voice.  I can't sing.
    I used to feel badly about it until I heard Paul Newman sing.
    
    Richard

    re .96 I have a deep voice. Unfortunately, having my nose
    broken several times puts a buzz over it. I *wish* *wish*
    *wish* I could sing (and not have dogs snarl at me.)

re: .96 .97

	Don't feel lonesome..I can't carry a tune in a bucket... :-|

Jenna

	When I saw "earcuffs" mentioned in 235.4 I pictured
	miniature handcuffs dangling from an ear.

	Dan

Those do exist, Dan, except I just call mine handcuff earrings.

Carla

    
    gee, he's taller, blonder and able to use sophisticated electronics...
    must be that natural charm....
    
    

    One night I took a service call at a customer with a dead 3900.
    I figured out that it needed a relatively easy to replace part,
    ordered it,was told the part wasn't in but we could get it by messanger
    in a couple hours. I ran it by the customer (hoping she would say
    "no problem come back first thing in the morning") and of course
    she wanted me to get it fixed now if not sooner. So I ordered the
    darned thing and told the customer I'd be back in an hour or so.
    There is bike shop nearby and I could hardly believe how much I
    was able to spend in that short time. All the time thinking "I'm
    making time and a half on this call." I think I lost money on that
    service call!

    Sometimes, when reading notes I don't realize that I have seen all
    the replies to a note and have gone onto another topic untill I
    read something really off the wall...
    
    Just now, for instance, I was reading the list topic, with people
    saying, "add me " .. and then I came to a note that
    said something like "Billy Joel, Elton John".....Hell, I didn't know
    they read Womannotes, let alone want to be on the list ! 
    
    Oh well, I thought it was funny.......
    
    dee (counting the days till vacation....7 days,13 hours, 19 minutes,
          more or less :-)
    
                                                                

    Dee,
    
    That's one reason why I don't use the Enter (a.k.a. the "Do the
    right thing") key.
    
    						Ann B.

    
    i was at one time in the distant past registered in the
    *conservative* party of the state of new york
    

    re .106 >the *conservative* party of the state of New York
    
    *You* were a registered 
    Democrat ?!

    
    403.11 reminded me.....
    
    I used to be regularly late for school, especially in the Autumn,
    because on the way to school I would keep stopping to take the
    stranded earthworms off the pavements and put them back on the soil....
    
    'gail

    
    Someone in another notesfile reminded me ... I think sandwiches
    taste much better when they're cut diagonally.
    
    I'm such a slave to aesthetics that I'd like to move to Oregon
    just because I think they have the coolest license plates.
    (Plus it's a gorgeous state!)
    
    Carla
    

    re .oh, yes!  I definitely agree on the sandwiches.  Diagonally tastes
    better.  :-)
    
    (Of course, I always pick my sandwiches apart anyway....)
    
    Lorna
    

    
    	OK, Carla, you found one of mine too.
    
    	I could never move to Connecticut because I'm such a slave to
    	aesthetics too. I think blue license plates just ruin the look of 
    	a red sports car. :-) 
    
    	Isn't that pathetic? Why don't you like CT - "Simple, blue plates." :-)
    
    	-Erik  

    
    But do you eat the crusts, Lorna?  =8-)
    
    Carla
    

    I would LOVE a blue plate!  Would you believe that I actually weighed
    the fact that Mass has a green plate (as does Colorado) when I decided
    to move to this state.

    As soon as my application for a vanity plate is approved (Mass takes
    FOREVER) I'll have this blek green ones off and sedate white/red/blue
    ones to match my blue car.


    Whew.....everytime I LOOK at the green plate, I CRINGE!


    kath    

    
    does anyone actually eat sandwiches cut horizontally? how awful!
    

    re .114, does anyone actually eat the crust?  how awful!
    
    Lorna
    

    
    Re: .114 - does anyone actually eat sandwhiches? how awful!
    
    Bruce

    re .116, I don't know!  I just pick them apart.
    
    Lorna
    

    Well, not only do I eat the crusts, my favorite sandwiches are made
    with two heels.  Yes, the dried-out ends that everybody else left
    behind.  So there.
    
    When you use bread with enough body, you don't have to worry about
    cutting it!
    
    --bonnie

    Yay Bonnie! Just the way I like them too. Diagonal cut is a special
    occasion. Diagonally cut into quarters is an event. The crust is the
    best part. I fold it up and slowly feed it in. Sometimes I bite it in
    half length wise and get twice as much crust. Only when I'm alone. It
    is pretty disgusting to describe it and I can imagine how it looks to
    someone else. 
    
    Phil

    I love liverwurst, onion and bacon sandwiches, with *lots* of mayo
    and dijon mustard...
    
    and they are better diagonally cut...I eat the middles out!
    
    BJ

    Yeah, I liked heels too when I ate bread.  *ah* I remember it fondly.
    
    *true confession* - after a while, rice cakes actually begin to taste
    good!  
    
    -Jody
    

    I eat only the crust....I throw/pick away the rest of the bread! 
    The harder and crispier, the better!!
    
    -Dotti

    Are you kidding?  In my family, when we get around the table to eat,
    and there is a fresh rye bread....you can bet that I've already gotten
    into the bagg, and devoured both of the "heels"....we call them the
    "tush" of the bread....kind of makes you wonder....
    
    Jill
    

    re .123 by Jill  >fresh rye bread
    
    yesyesyesyes still warm from the oven

    re: fresh rye bread . . .
    
    Ooooohhhhh.   I think I'm going to go home and bake instead of
    spending the day fighting with DOCUMENT. . .
    
    --bonnie

    I just had tuna on rye for lunch. Two of them, cut diagonally and I
    savored every bit of the crust. Took about 35 min to slowly devour
    them. I can't stand it. Now I'm hungry for more of the same.
    
    Phil

    Boy,  I didn't know I'd start such a riot over rye bread....
    
    I think I'll make a trip tonight to the bakery....my mouth is
    watering....
    hmmmmmmmmmm
    
    Jill
    

    peanut butter and jelly.
    
    on WHITE bread.
    
    this is civilization.
    

    re .128 white bread isn't civilization, it's decadence

    
    decadence, i am sorry to say, is BJVCC.  pure and simple.
    accept no substitute.
    
    
    
    
    translation: Ben and Jerry's Vanilla Chocolate Chunk.
    
    just saying it makes my mouth water.
    

    BJ's isn't really decadent.  Unless you eat more than 1 of those nice and 
    convenient single serving containers in a single sitting?  
    
    But my preference is for Cherry Garcia.  I just grab a pint and a spoon 
    and dive in...
    
    John

    
    Heath Bar Crunch!
    

    And one of the hardest to find....
    Ben & Jerry's
    cookie dough ice cream
    chunks of raw chocolate chip cookie dough in a buttery Vanilla....
    
    -Jody
    

    Jody, that sounds great!
    
    I love raw cookie dough, especially choclate chip!
    
    In college my roomate and I used to mix up small batches of it for
    snacks.
    
    Mary

    re .131
    
    sometimes, when i get together with friends, we count how many of us
    are present, add one, and try to get that many pints.  and even then,
    i am usually not happy..........maybe i should just get two pints for
    myself, and let them worry about their own stuff..........
    
    if BJVCC existed in theatres, i wouldn't mind going out to the movies
    more often.  hmmmm.....i wonder if they would mind if i brought my own?
    

    I like the B&J with the purple lid.  No, I don't remember the name!
    It has that incredible chocolate ice cream, and pieces of chewy,
    fudgey, brownies.  On top of Stacey's real brownies from scratch.
    Sitting in a puddle of raspberry infusion from Bonny Doon.  With more
    raspberry infusion on top. (*swoooon!*)
    
    DougO

    What is this RASPBERRY INFUSION?  I LOVE raspberry anything, and this
    sounds like something I could drizzle on anything.....mmmmmm...think of
    the possibilities?
    
    JayCee
    

    The purple lid wouldn't be Dastardly Mash, by any chance?
    
    I buy a container of Rainforest Crunch weekly.  I have yet to taste a
    single bite of it.......#$@^# teenage boys :-)
    
    Alison

    	My wife, who doesn't usually eat ice cream, loves
    	New York Super Fudge Chunk.
    
    	Scott

    ****GROAN!!!**** C'mon people!  You're driving me nuts!!! We don't
    have B&J's in Utah, so I can't even dream of trying it, and I LOVE
    ice cream!  This is a totally unfair topic for the rest of us.
    
    Drooling terribly;)
    
    Barb

    Don't worry, Barb, Ben and Jerry's isn't that good.
    
    It's too sweet and overloaded with junk -- sort of like a frozen
    candy bar. Nice in its place, but not worth going nuts over.
    
    --bonnie

    Toscanini's hazelnut ice cream, Herrell's chocolate pudding ice cream,
    ripe bananas, Myers rum, and whipped cream.  Double espresso on the
    side.
    

    I've never confessed this to anyone before, but when I'm eating, all alone
    at home, and I've finished my dinner, for dessert ...
    
    I lick my plate!

    Store bought ice cream. YYYUUUCCCHHH!!! Now if we were talking about
    Kimball's or The Keller Haus, then I would have to say "TRULY
    DELICIOUSLY, DELIRIOUSLY, DECADENT." I love that stuff.
    
    Phil (BTW I had to have another tuna on rye for lunch)

    re:  .145
    
    Way to go, Phil!!!  Me, too!
    
    
    -Dotti

>    I lick my plate!

???

Doesn't *everybody*?!?!

D!

Actually, I pride myself on never having finished an entire 
meal, so I never get to the point where I would lick the plate!

Lorna

    re "the purple lid", I had some last night, its not Dastardly Mash, its
    Chocolate Fudge Brownie (makes sense...).  re "raspberry infusion",
    thats a Bonny Doon product, sells for $7.50 for a 375 ml bottle, its a
    very sweet raspberry cordial, made with neutral grape spirits to an
    alcohol content of 16.5%.  Its delicious, and has a very concentrated
    flavor. 
    
    DougO

    
    re .148
    
    		why don't you just serve yourself less so you can finish
    it?
    

    
    	There was an ice cream out a couple of years ago that
    	was like frozen chocolate mousse.  you could get it 
    	with raspberries, nuts, chocolate chips etc....I loved
    	that stuff!  Unfortunately I guess not everyone agreed
    	with me because it was taken off the shelves about a year
    	later.
    
    	JJ
    

    
    re .148  How wasteful.
    

re -2, serve myself less?  But, I usually don't serve myself.
Usually somebody else serves me.  I don't even eat meals when I
serve myself.  And, anyway, it's psychological.  The thought of
eating all the food that is on a plate sickens me.  I probably
wouldn't eat it all even if there were less, unless it was only
a teaspoonful or something.  (This doesn't apply to lobster or
steamed clams though)   

Also:  I like plain chocolate ice cream, either Haagendas (?) 
 or Friendly's.  I hate ice cream that has a lot of weird 
junk in it.

And, I think rye bread tastes icky.

Lorna

Re Ellen, why is it wasteful?  If I ate it, it would be just
as gone as it is if it's thrown in the trash.

No.  I don't feel ashamed.  Anyway, I'd rather be wasteful than
fat and I'm not ashamed of that either.  

I think most people eat too much.  It makes me sick to see the
way some people stuff their faces.  

Lorna

    
    Well, Lorna, you've seen how fat I am.
    
    And I don't shamelessly waste food either.  If I can't finish
    it, I put it in the refrigerator or freezer and eat it some other
    time.
    
    Of course, this doesn't apply to places where you have no
    control over the portions like in a restaurant.
    

Okay, Ellen, from now on I'll send you my leftovers in interoffice
mail and you can put them in your freezer, too! :-)

Lorna

    	Oh man, am I having an ice cream craving right now!!!

    	amy

    
    I lick my plate, too, sometimes.
    
    And I like Herrell's Sweet Cream, with chopped almonds and whipped
    cream.
    
    CQ

    
    
    i enjoy gambling... mostly with $$$ though.
    
    ~r

	I used to race my sister to see who got the heels off that fresh
loaf of rye bread.  8{)   We also battled for the skin off of a boiled ham!
Burned a few fingers that way 8{)

		Kb

    I love the part of the roast turkey that goes over the fence last!

    justme....jacqui

    re .161 If the roast turkey is still jumping fences you might
    increase the cooking time a tad. :-)
    
    dana
    
    PS everybody knows the neck is the best part

    Dana
    
    no, it isn't the neck, it is the two little pockets of dark meat
    on the back that my mother called the 'oysters'.
    
    Bonnie

    
    RE: 'oysters'; I agree, Bonnie, but at least there is two of them, so
    we won't have to fight!
    
    						/R
    

    Rita
    
    Once when I was a grown woman with children and visiting at my
    mother's I flipped the turkey over and ate *both* of them! :-}
    
    sigh
    
    Bonnie

    i separate my M&M's, sometimes even count them.
    
    eat the browns first (they don't even get counted),
    then each color according to whichever had the most,
    but always saving the greens for last.
    
    jonathan (who is working on 13 yellows, 12 reds, 3 oranges, and 6
    greens)
    
    

    Johnathan,
    
    when I was a kid I used to make armies of the different colors
    and eat up the losing side!
    
    Bonnie

    that, Jonathan, is an idle passion. ;-)
    
    DougO

    I get confused between Mike_V and Mike_Z.  I know they are 2 seperate
    people (although for a while I thought it was the same person
    exhibiting split personality traits) but sometimes I don't know
    which one is which.
    	Linda

    Linda
    
    There are actually *two* Mike Zs as well, Zaharee and Zarlenga, tho
    Mike Zaharee doesn't note here very often.
    
    I've met all three of them so can vouch that they are different
    people.
    
    Bonnie

    I need help in TOOK::UU in the RAPE topics......can I get backup
    help from any sisters or brothers here PLEASE.  Education is 
    needed to enlighten some more males.  I don't have all the energy
    needed at this time to get specifics for myself and have to opt 
    out.  School is taking presidence in my life right now just behind
    my job which is first!

    Thanks gyns 'n guys for the help.

    justme....jacqui

    Linda, for your benefit, I am reposting my introduction note from the
    previous volume of Womannotes:
    
    
            <<< MOMCAT::PIGGY:[NOTES$LIBRARY]WOMANNOTES-V2.NOTE;1 >>>
              -< ARCHIVE-- Topics of Interest to Women --ARCHIVE >-
================================================================================
Note 3.146              Intros: the Men of our community              146 of 147
CSC32::M_VALENZA "Note while you lambada."           20 lines  17-APR-1990 20:24
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I would like to annouce right here, for the benefit of this community,
    that I am not Mike Zarlenga.  To the best of my knowlege, I have never
    been Mike Zarlenga, nor do I forsee that I will be Mike Zarlenga at any
    point in the near future.
    
    To help set the record straight, I have compiled the following list of
    differences between Mike Zarlenga and Mike Valenza:
    
    				Mike Zarlenga		Mike Valenza
    
    Location:			New England		Colorado
    Hair Length:		Short			Long
    Note signature:		-mike z			-- Mike
    # "v"s in last name:	0			1
    # "g"s in last name:	1			0
    
    I hope that this chart will help to resolve any confusion that might
    arise in the future.  Thank you.
    
    -- Mike

    My own true confessions:
    
    o  In the mid seventies, I owned a green polyester leisure suit.  Not
    only that, but I actually wore it.
    
    o  I have bought bought an issue of "People" magazine.
    
    o  I have never seen "The Blues Brothers".
    
    o  I sing along with "Yummy Yummy Yummy I've Got Love in my Tummy" when
    I hear it on the car radio.
    
    -- Mike

    --Mike
    
    you are beyond redemption...
    
    :-)
    
    Bj

	Oh my God!  There is another person as twisted and compulsive as I am!
In .166 Jonathan describes my M&M eating habits exactly!

	BUT!  At night, do you stand up in the bed and JUMP out so that the 
*whatevers* under the bed can't grab your feet?   (Sometimes (especially after 
a scary movie) even at the ripe old age of 29, I still do.)

Tracey

    Mike,
      Thanks for that handy reference chart but it doesn't help when
    recalling a notes conversation who was in it.  So I have started
    a list of my own:
    	Mike_V		Mike_Z
    
    	pacifist	verbal combatant w/ s.c.
    
    

    Re .175: Well, I don't exactly JUMP out of bed - but I never, repeat,
    *never*, sleep with a hand or foot hanging over the edge. (The Things
    That Live Under the Bed simply can't *resist* that kind of temptation!)
    
    -b

    Show me somebody who doesn't believe there is ever anything under
    the bed that will reach out and snag you unexpectedly ...


    and I'll show you somebody who's never lived with cats.

    Re: m&m eating

    	Well, when I eat M&M's (or other multi-colored candies), I
    have to eat them such that I end up with the same number of each 
    of the colors and then finish them off by eating one of each color
    in turn. (I even do it methodically - working down in sub-groups!)
    :^)

    	Also, when eating foods that come in different sizes (like
    French fries, for example), I eat them from the smallest to the
    largest.


    	amy

    Counting M&MS!?  Geesh..I eat em so fast, I don't have time
    to count em!  (I have an M&M addiction..)

>    	Well, when I eat M&M's (or other multi-colored candies), I
>    have to eat them such that I end up with the same number of each 
>    of the colors and then finish them off by eating one of each color
>    in turn. (I even do it methodically - working down in sub-groups!)
>    :^)


	Oh my God.  Amy, I thought I was the only one that did this
	with M&Ms.  But I wasn't willing to admit it.



	;-)

	kath

	Re .179

	Eek!  I eat them the same way - except I always pop them in mouth
	by twos.  And I swore off them completely during the period when
	there were no plain red M&Ms...they just didn't taste the same ;-)

							cathy

    Well, when *I* eat M&M's I always eat the colors I like best first.
    Reds, yellows, oranges, greens in this order with the ugly browns left
    for last.  With Necco wafers (a longtime favorite) its pinks, oranges,
    yellows, greens, whites and the ugly browns and blacks left for last.
    
    Lorna
    

    I eat M&Ms by color too, but from most common to least common,
    and when there are ties, I go by spectrum order.
    
    							Ann B.

    
    I don't *like* M&Ms.
    But when eating anything I will always save the bits I like best
    till last.
    
    In celebration of this fact a friend bought me a Garfield teacloth
    saying "Eat dessert first. Disaster can strike any time". :-)
    Despite this heavy hint, however, I still save the best till last...
    
    'gail
    

    Another M&M by color eater. I don't eat them since I've been dieting
    and I feel deprived. I used to eat all the brown ones 1st, then the
    dark brown ones, then the orange ones. I then took the red, yellow, and
    green and set them up like little traffic lights. I then would eat them
    by picking them up diagonally. 
    
    I also do cribbage scores on license plates and can't stop reading.
    Even in the bathroom I have to read cans or boxes. I am addicted to
    reading. Even while I am typing this I am reading my bookcase titles.
    
    Phil

    re .186:
	When I was young, my mother used to laugh at me for reading the
	old newspapers under the dog's dish when I was washing the kitchen
	floor.

		cheryl

    
    >>I also do cribbage scores on license plates and can't stop reading.
    >>Even in the bathroom I have to read cans or boxes. I am addicted to
           ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^   
    >>reading. Even while I am typing this I am reading my bookcase titles.
    
    >>Phil


	My mother and father are the fanatics about the cribbage/licence 
	plates; they were not happy when the 3 digit/3 letter plates came in.

	But thank God I am not alone!  I thought I was the only one who felt
the need to read ALL the time!

(*8

E Grace

    i have things living under my bed too.
    
    although sometimes they are under my sheets, and i jump out and
    turn on the lights, and will suddenly yank my bedsheets in all
    directions looking for the (whatever).............
    
    hiding under your blanket isn't always the safest thing.  you gotta
    keep in mind what Calvin (of "& Hobbes" fame) says....monsters don't
    like light.
    

    RE: .175, .177, .190
    
    Um, er, well, once I was so scared by the THINGS UNDER THE BED,
    I sent my teddy, Mycroft Holmes, out to investigate.  He has
    forgiven me, but he has not been quite the same since. When
    I ask what he saw, he just stares into space, glassy eyed.
    
      Margaret

    
    	The solution to "things under the bed" ...
    
    	A waterbed with drawers underneath.  
    
    	Then, there's no longer any such thing as "under" the bed (unless
    	the monster is strong enough to lift up a couple tons of water.) ;^)
    

	I'm also a compulsive reader.  I have different reading material
	in different places in my apartment:
	
	Bathroom: Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Consumer's Reports (short articles %^)
	Bedroom: One or two novels I'm currently reading.
	Next to couch: Met Home, Ms., catalogs, brochures, just about anything
		I've happened to pick up.  
	
	I have to read while watching most TV shows, they don't seem to hold
	my complete attention.  I also have to read while eating (nasty habit
	I've picked up since living alone).  I try to read while I'm cooking,
	washing my face, drying my hair, putting on my shoes, filing my nails,
	etc.  There are SOME activities that get my undivided attention, but 
	not many ;^)

	Sue

    
    	re: .192
    
    	But Sue, there is usually a space between the wall and where
    	the drawers start (at least on our old waterbed there was).
    	"Things" could hide there!  =)
    
    
    	ok,
    
    	I like to eat my french fries WITH my hot fudge sundaes...not
    	before or after but with...I also like to dunk my McD's fries
    	in my chocolate shakes.
    
    	I sometimes count how many steps it takes me to get from 
    	point A to point B.
    
    	JJ
    

    re .193, I guess I'm sort of a compulsive reader, too.  I like to read
    while I eat, otherwise it's often too boring...to just *eat.*
    
    I used to read while I fed my daughter her bottle when she was a baby. 
    I would hold her, hold the bottle, and prop the book on my knees.
    My mother thought that didn't seem right, but I found it incredibly
    boring to just sit and stare down at the baby's face.  
    
    Lorna
    

    
    I love hearing about all the things that Lorna finds boring :-)
    
    Justine

    I do license plate recognition games while driving.  I like to see how
    many different ones I see per day.
    
    I too am a reader, I learned to read from a Kellogs Corn Flake box, and
    graduated to the backs of packages of anything that came into the
    house, and then I got to go to school and read real books and go to the
    library. What a thrill!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    I arrange and eat food in some sort of linear order or pattern. For
    example, when I put cookies on the rack to cool, they have to be in
    straight lines with the same # of cookies in each row. When I am
    serving dinner, actually placing the food on everyone's plate, it has
    to be in the same order, like peas, potato, meat and carrots in that
    order.
    
    I sing high saprano only when I am driving at about 60MPH.
    

    Thank the Creator. I'm not the only one with license plate cribbage
    scores. On 3 digit and 3 letter plates. I figure out what number
    corresponds and use that. I reduce it to it's "magic number" if it's
    over 13. 
    
    On compulsive reading. I don't have magazines in the bathroom. I gotta
    read stuff on boxes and cans. I also read at the table. I even read
    when someone else is there. Not so it's rude or anything. If there is
    something on the table, say a can of parmesan cheese, I'll turn it so
    the most writing is facing me and read it where it sits. My best
    feature is my eye strength. But, that's another topic.
    
    Phil

	Gee, when I play license plate cribbage I divide the letters
	as follows

		a-i  Jack
		j-r  Queen
		s-z  King

	For six number plates, I do two hands, the left-most five and the
	right-most five.


						cathy

    I use all of the numbers. It's the only way I've been able to get over
    29 in a hand. It's also helped my game. I've become quicker at seeing
    what I have in my hand or my my crib and at seeing possibilities when 
    I'm discarding. Even with 6 or 7 numbers, I've still yet to get a real
    19 hand.
    
    Phil

    Well, I eat M&M's like Amy and kath (.179, .181)
    
    and
    
    I'm also a compulsive reader - read while eating, watching TV, etc.
    
    but
    
    my real confession is that I smoked cigars in grad school.  It was back
    in the early 70's which all the male CS grad students (at least at my
    school) thought it was cool to smoke pipes.  The classrooms would
    really get smoky.  My officemate and I were often the only women in the
    class and the only ones not smoking (we did cough a lot).  So we
    decided we had to get even and started smoking the foulest smelling
    cigars we could find.  We'd even get flavored ones (blueberry, cherry,
    etc.) because they even smelled worse.  When we smoked them in class we
    would blow our smoke and their smoke back at the guys.  We didn't start
    smoking until they did, and stopped when they did, and surprisingly,
    they did get the point (yes, we did try asking them to stop but that
    didn't work).
    
    The only drawback to the whole cigar escapade was that several of the
    students and professors thought we were really cool for smoking cigars.
    My thesis advisor was one of them, and you can read about him in the
    "Sexism in Academia" note!
    
    						Jan

    I read of all these license plate cribbage players, and smile, and
    think to myself, "I should confess..."
    
    1- I can't ever remember the rules of cribbage, though its been taught
    me at least three times, and
    
    2- I can't usually see license plates well enough to read them anyway.
    I have trouble with huge highway signs.
    
    DougO 

    I wish, just once, that in a silly note like "False Confessions" or
    its like that -edp would jump in and be silly with us. If we can't
    laugh together we are lost forever. liesl

>>Humor is God's gift, a way of defusing things that are too heavy to handle
>>otherwise.
    
Funny, that's how I would have described Maalox.

    I've got a question....
    
    
        ....what's cribbage?
    
    Hopelessly lost in Colorado
    
    :-}

    
    	RE: .206  Herb
    
    	>  =wm= is not very funny to a lot of folks
    
    	The subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) humor of this conference
    	is one of the things I love most about it!
    
    	Sometimes I break out in a full laugh elsewhere in my life just
    	remembering the funny things I've seen people say over the years.
    
    	It must be very sad to participate here without being able to
    	experience this aspect of the community.  It's one of our finest
    	=wn= jewels.
    

    Well, for those who don't find =wn= funny, there is always the Serious
    Topic.  :-)
    
    Mike

    re .206 All the more reason to lighten up at every opportunity.
    
    Laughter recharges the batteries of the soul. (Who said that?)
    

    
    Re .209
    
    Cribbagge (often just called "crib") is, as I remember, basically
    a card game. It's charm lies in the fact that you score it by moving
    little pegs around a rather elegant little board - fun to fiddle with,
    and some of the boards are really nice (especially old ones).
                     
    'gail
    

    I do concur that often laughter is the best medicine, and I also feel
    that sometimes if we can't laugh, we'll cry....
    
    But this is actually the "True Confessions" note   so could we return
    to the topic?
    
    -Jody
    
    
    p.s.  sounds like the "laughter" concept could make a great topic all
    its own...
    

    
    re: cribbage
    i was told that it is a very old game and its rise marked a
    distinct gentling of european society: traditionally, one does
    not cut the deck until *after* the cards are dealt, implying
    trust between the players. it is also a game that is passed
    on from adult to child. i still have the cribbage board my
    father gave me 25 years ago (and the 'hoyle's' we used that
    summer to learn the rules).
    
    truthfully, however, i think it's a pretty boring game. maybe
    we can have a =wn= 5th anniversary poker game...
    

    re .218 >a =wn=...poker game
    
    7-card stud ?

    RE: cribbage
    
    When my youngest son was having trouble learning basic 
    arithmetic (2nd, 3rd grade?) I taught him cribbage and
    within a few weeks, his teacher was reporting amazing
    improvement in his number skills.  We also  had a lot of
    fun playing, and I could play pretty well and still
    "lose" on occasion.  He got good at it.
    
    bill

    What's all this fuss about cribbage?  I must confess, I thought it was
    a vegetable related to broccoli and cauliflower.  But, now you're
    telling me its a card game scored on a board that resembles a piece of
    anal-retentive swiss cheese.
    
    (maybe I should have put this in false confessions)
    
    Mary

    Wow!  finally the connection is made.  My father was Swiss,
    and I play on an old wood board with ivory inlays, which
    he brought with him from Basel in 1923...   Thank you!  - bill

    Isn't it wonderful when you have one of those "Aha" experiences.
    
    Mary

    Now there's a game!  How about 7 card stud, aces and dueces wild!
    
    Nanci

    In our facility(NQO) we have a cribbage and uno tournament for United
    Way week. You make a pledge to participate and there are prizes for the
    winners. Usually a sweatshirt or restaurant coupons. $25.00 dollars off
    at Promises to Keep. My favorite romantic restaurant.
    
    I, too, learned to play on an old handmade board. My
    great-grandfather's. My grandfather taught me to play when I was four.
    
    Also poker and how to read and write. Cribbage is the most fun. Poker
    is not a game to me. It's to serious.
    
    Phil

    I have read all of the books in Frank Herbert's _Dune_ series, only the
    first of which was really good, only the first and last of which were
    any good, and with those exceptions, each book in the series was worse
    than the last.
    
    I once offered to lend the 4th or 5th or 6th book of the series to BJ,
    on condition that he not return it.  (He declined.)
    

    
    I think James Spader is very attractive; seductive-looking; there's
    just something about him that says "bedroom" (could be his eyes but
    maybe it's his pouty lips).
    
    CQ

    re .227, .228, and I confess that I agree! :-)
    (nice mouth...mmmm)  Can't wait to see White Palace.
    
    Lorna
    

    
    I have a nose and name fetish, and pay more attention to people
    who possess unique ones (either or both).
    
    whenever I see a Chevy Blazer, I long for a can of black paint
    so I can transform that R to a K.
    
    Carla
    

    
    i have always thought the correct name to be 'pollard bears'
    

re:  <<< Note 11.230 by FORBDN::BLAZEK "windswept is the tide" >>>

>    whenever I see a Chevy Blazer, I long for a can of black paint
>    so I can transform that R to a K.
    
    	Well, Carla, since this is the "True Confessions" note....I
    confess that lately, everytime I see a Blazer, I think of you!! :^)

    	amy

    
    That reminded me: 'Round about March 31 of any year, I get the urge to
    sneak down to the local police station parking lot with a large bottle 
    of white-out and there to white-in "UN' in front of the "OFFICIAL" on 
    their license plates. I'd probably get arrested...
    
    CQ

    true confession:
    
    I spelled "rabbit" with two t's (rabbitt) until I was 8.
    
    -Jody
    

    I guess I'm too old. The only Nelson boys *I* know of are Dave and
    Ricky, and they aren't even twins.
    
    --- jerry

    Come on --- jerry you are not that old!
    
    Happy Birthday!

    Jerry, the Nelson twins are Rick Nelson's youngest sons. 
    
    Their sister is also a very good actress -- she plays the nun
    sidekick in the tv series about the priest who's a detective.
    
    --bonnie

    	Father Dowling Mysteries, or something like that.
    
    	Scott

    re:.237
    
    Thanks, I didn't know that (either fact). I don't watch FDM, but
    I've seen bits and pieces, and I have to say that she is really
    cute. I suppose if her brothers look anything like her, you've
    got good reason for your opinion.
    
    --- jerry

    re Jerry, the twins look just like their father did when he was young
    only they have long straight light blonde hair, parted on the side and
    hanging down their backs.  It may sound like a strange combination, but 
    they are two of the best looking human beings I have ever seen, at least 
    in photos and TV.  Who would have ever thought Ozzie and Harriet's
    grandchildren would be so cool? :-)  Of course, I always thought Ricky
    was incredibly handsome, too.  But, he didn't dress or wear his hair as
    interestingly as his sons do.
    
    Lorna
    
    P.S.  (and I would just love to get my hands on one of them for just a
    little while....)  That's my confession.  :-)
     

    {blush}
    
    Well, after watching last night White Oaks performance -- Baryshnikov
    dancing in *silk pajamas*....sigh.  I can't write what I'm thinking :-)
    !
     

    How was Mark Morris?
    
    (My true confession:  I think Mark is MUCH MUCH cuter than Mikhail.)
    

    Oh there are no flies on Mark either....he's energetic, fun,
    irreverent.   A perfect match for the princely, and yet, comical at
    times, Misha.
    
    
     

    originally entered under the 'design your dreamlooks' note,
    until i realized that these have nothing to do with looks.
    
    this topic seems to be a more appropriate place for this note.
    
    -----
    
    I would drop the stutter that pops up when I get nervous.
    
    It isn't a big one, but it shuts me right up.
    
    I also wouldn't get nervous just from expressing myself. Sometimes
    even entering a note can leave me shaking for five minutes.
    
    But......my voice is a keeper too.
    

    I try to position the DECwindows arrow cursor to be invisible.  Y'know,
    put the tip of the arrow just barely scraping a thin white line between
    black bars so the arrow stays black and disappears against the black
    background.  Or vice-versa with white.  Then I lean back and pretend I
    can't see where the arrow is.
    
    Ray

    Re .245: Oh, NO!!! I thought I was the only one who did that... Another
    chance for uniqueness down the drain!
    
    -b

    I think uniqueness is highly overrated.
    
    Generic Rayness

    
    Re: all the much earlier notes about eating.
    
    I used to save the best bit for last too, but don't you find that when
    eating a hot meal the bit you've saved for last is cold by the time you
    get to it (and not so nice after all?).
    
    Sam
    

    Re several, but prompted by -1:  I save the best bit of food for last, 
    partly because I prefer lukewarm food.
    
    aq
    

	If you have fastboot installed, sometimes the pointer really does
just vanish - then it's real fun trying to get it back by randomly moving the
mouse and clicking trying to:

	1) get the session manager up
	2) pull down the customize menu (customize pointer)
	3) modify something on the customize pointer menu
	4) hit return and hope you pointer returns.


							--D

	I find a lot of women in "engineer drag" quite attractive - perhaps
that's why I know more lesbians than most of the folks I know (well, the
fact that I hang out here helps too...)


							--D

    
    for years, I've had a very powerful mental image of Ann Broomhead.
    no one in the noting world has conjured up an immediate 'picture'
    the way Ann has, for me.  I knew exactly what she looked like, at
    least in my mind.  she was tall and had shining, long, straight, 
    black hair.  she wore no makeup, except for dark coral lipstick.
    she wore deeply colored clothes and looked like a pagan goddess.
    
    yesterday, from Holland of all places, I received a photo of her,
    and I'm having problems reconciling reality with hallucinations
    (not an unfamiliar difficulty) ... at least the goddess part is 
    intact.
    
    oh yeah, and there's a great legs shot.  =8-)
    
    Carla
    

    Oh, that's funny, Carla!
    
    Of the few people from this file that I've met, I think Ann came the
    closest in person to my preconceived notions!
    
    (*8
    
    E Grace

>    oh yeah, and there's a great legs shot.  =8-)
    
    As a reply in the spirit of this topic won't be needed can anyone
    please guide me in the direction of the conference settee for me to
    hide under?
    
    Truthful registrator of IJsselstein, the Netherlands

    
    re: .252 Carla...
    
    
    I might add that she's terrific to work with. 
    And I hope it's alright to say that today she's wearing one of the
    lovliest blousess I've ever seen.
    
    								Hank

    Like, now.
    
    						;-)  Ann B.

    
    Whoops, sorry Ann.

    Well Ann,
    
    it was a lovely blouse!
    
    :-)
    
    BJ

    
    
    
    I just HAVE to spell my name whenever people ask for it.  People
    have a hard time believing that it's spelled C A N D Y  O L E S E N
    (pronounced Olsen).
    
    BTW...that is my married name - it used to be Candy Starr...I'm
    serious!  I also got a lot of wisecracks about it, too! =)
    

    Candy, you would be amazed how many people ask me to spell my first
    name!  And they're serious!
    
    (*8
    
    E Grace

Candy,

When did you get married??

grins,

clark.

(ps - I think I still have that message you sent me somewhere... :-)

    
    Clark,
    
    I was married this past July...don't you ever clean out your mail
    account??  =)
    
    Candy
    

Candy -

Not when the mail is from you...

grins,

clark.

    One of the reasons I got married is that I need someone to open those
    %#*@ vacuum sealed jar lids.
    
    Mary - the weakling

    i am a masochist.
    
    whenever i am near a cat, not just kittens, i will play with
    the beast even if it scratches me.  some people think that i
    am too rough with them, but if i were, wouldn't the creatures
    run away and not come back for more?  i kinda think that they
    enjoy being able to use their claws and not have a human yell
    at them for being natural.
    
    if the cat doesn't feel like playing, that is fine with me,
    i can be gentle too.  but i don't flip out if a cat decides
    that it wants to be rough.
    
    (of course, the day after my hands don't look so hot....like today)
    
    jonathan
    

	Reminds me of a button I saw recently.

	What good is it to have a cat, it you can't torture it.?"

	:-) :-) :-)

Tracey 
(roomate to 7 cats...)

    
    
    RE: .265
    
    Yo, Jonathan...Banzai is full of all sorts of energy from being cooped
    up inside for the last few days (since it's been so cold outside).
    
    Feel free to come over to our house and help him expend some of that
    energy! 8-)  (That why MY hands don't look like they've gone thru a
    meat cleaver).
    
    
    kath

    if you like to roughhouse with your cat and are willing to suffer
    the consequences, that's up to you.  We always discourage people
    from doing that with ours because it teaches them that hands are
    toys to be scratched -- and they don't discriminate between people
    who want to play and people who just want to give them a scratch
    behind the ears.  
    
    I won't even go into the story of the abused cat that we adopted
    that could only express affection through clawing and biting...
    
    	-td

    I know this is hard to believe, but yesterday, for the very first time
    in my life . . .
    
    I ate Devil Dogs
    
    -Mary

    
    I can beat that, Mary -- I don't even know what a Devil Dog is.
    
    C.
    

    I love devil dogs.
    
    Lorna
    

Well thereyago, Carla! An excuse for another trip out here!

Kathy, who also loves Devil Dogs
    

    Devil dogs:
    
    Two sawdusty brown-colored artificially cocoa flavored cakes held 
    together with a glue made of whipped lard and sugar.
    
    Delicious.
    
    D!

    
    Sounds like Hostess Suzi-Q's ...
    

    Infinitely worse and infinitely better at the same time
    
    Phil

    Carla, does this mean you've never had Funny Bones either?
    
    Sheri
    

    I finally gave in to Devil Dogs, but I'm still holding out on Funny
    Bones and Ring Dings.  Does anyone know if these are all New England
    delicacies?
    
    -Mary

    Ring Dings are *much* better than Devil Dogs.
    
    I thought they were national!
    
    					Ann B.

     Mary,
    
    Bones, twinkies, Ring Dings, and the junk foods perenial favorite
    the Ding dong are available everywhere I've ever been.  Caloric
    value about 5 billion, nutrition sub zero.  Anyone for an egg cream
    (NYC favorite) and pastromi rachel?
    
    Ny deli addict,
    Allison

    
    These things are definitely not staples, nor even known, to 
    the western diet.
    
    Sounds like a good excuse to pigout the next time I'm there.
    Snort, snort.
    
    C.
    

Well, beware of the funny bones, Carla. It would be awful to
start up an addiction you won't be able to feed when you return
to the northwest!

Kathy    

    
    Devil Dogs are made by Drake's, which last time I knew was a New
    England company with a limited distribution.  I liked D!'s 
    description best.
    
    CQ

    The wrapper is still in my trash can.  It says Wayne, NJ.  I certainly
    never saw 'em as a kid in Texas or Virginia.  We had Tastycake in
    Virginia, but, IMHO, they seemed a cut above Drake's Devil Dogs.
    
    Mary

    
    Egg Cream... yeah.. but that is REAL food  :-)
    
    Talking about NYC delis, the first
    time my husband came to visit me on Long Island he was
    amazed... You mean they just put pickles on the table and you
    can have as much as you want!!  :-)
    
    Amy

    
    	re: Cheyenne
    
    	wow!  I thought I was the only one that did that with Ho-Ho's
    	First, I eat all the chocolate coating (trying to do it in one
    	piece) and then I unroll the cake and cream part!
    
    	JJ
    

...I actually _like_ Edgar Rice Burroughs.
		Tarzan
		Barsoom
		Pellucidar
		etc

guilt, guilt...

no, and it's been years...

I do have copies of 2 tarzan books, the first one (exact title?) and one called
_Jungle_Tales_Of_Tarzan_.  Both are horrifically racist, hence my apologetic 
tone.  I also have a copy of _The_Chessmen_of_Mars_, which is really too 
far-fetched and idiotic to be offensive.

    When I went to feed the cats yesterday, Sinaed (rather "large" Garfield
    type kitty) wouldn't eat out of her bowl. I put Omie in front of her
    own bowl, and Sinaed came over and chased Omie away. This went on for
    a while until I eventualy had to separate them. 
    
    This morning, same thing happened. I went up to tell Mike(who usually
    feeds the cats) that we will have to start feeding the cats in separate
    rooms because Sinaed is such a bully. He said that he has never had a
    problem with them. After much discusssion, we discovered that Mike has
    been feeding Sinaed out of the Left bowl and Omie out of the Right.
    I'd been trying to get them to eat out of the wrong bowls!
    I've been confusing the poor kitties and even worse, accusing Sinaed of
    being a bully.
    
    I've just got to get *RIGHT* and *LEFT* learned, one of these days :-)
    
    dee

re: .289

I grew up on Edgar Rice Burroughs, mostly the science fiction stuff.  
Tales of weird civilizations under the clouds of Venus and that kind
of stuff.  Wonderfully silly.  I presume it was as racist, etc., as 
most other writings of that era, but I only remember one story, about
an intelligent, humanoid race that multiplied by dividing, like single-
celled plants and animals do.  Each half had its own consciousness, and
the society they formed gave the honor, the inheritance, the name, to the
right half.  The left half was a new person.  The story was about someone
who had always been a left half, a nobody, all his life, and how he
decides to use these earthlings to get revenge on all those people who
have laughed at him . . . I wouldn't say it was good but I still 
remember it 25 years later, which is more than I can say for some
much better "literature".

--bonnie

    since I made my getaway from the convent, lo these many years ago, I've
    always made sure to have _at_least_ one pair of black patent leather
    shoes ...

    ...you at least have the sense NEVER to polish them!!  :-)  Dan K

    Well, if you want some DOM to evaluate the axiom ...
    
    ed

    I'm pretty sure I know the intended context for D!'s personal name,
    "get used to it!"  (: >,)  but whenever I see it, I think of an old
    punk song which went:
    
    	WE'RE DESPERATE!
    	GET USED TO IT!
    
    I like both contexts, though, so it's a pleasant confusion.
    
    Ray

    Every time I see a little 2 seater car, I start drooling.  
    
    I've wanted one since 1971 when I got my drivers license and now it's 
    1991 and I've NEVER had one.   I bought my first brand new car in 1985, 
    I wanted a Fiero, my parents talked me out of it ("they're so small, they 
    can't be safe", etc.), so I wound up with a Mercury Lynx 2-door hatchback 
    (which I still have - sitting battery dead in my backyard - haven't touched
    it since june - NOBODY ever told me that you HAVE TO start a car that's
    just sitting so the battery won't die - besides I never had a "spare"
    car before).  Now I drive a 4 door company car and EVERYWHERE I go I see
    these little Mazda Miata's and they look SO CUTE!!!!!  
    
    Miriam
    

Miriam, I know the feeling. I wanted to buy a Honda CRX (two seater) last
fall when I was buying a new car, but I decided that it wasn't practical,
so instead I opted for a Sedan that seats 5.  I guess it was the best
choice, but I ache every time I see a CRX - and wonder if the 1 time out of
50 that I have more than one other person in the car was worth it!

D!

    yes, CRX's & Fiat's & RX7's & Mercedes Sports Coupe Convertables!!!!
    
    Been wondering about how years & years of catholic female upbringing 
    is involved with this only buying the things I NEED and never buying the 
    thing I REALLLLLLLLLLY WANT mentality.  Reading about female
    spirituality, wicca, goddess & the o.k. to WANT things mentality.
    
    Miriam

    Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh yes!
    
    A Jaguar XJS.

    re.297 Get a pickup truck ;-)

    I got tired of being practical and moved from a Mazda stationwagon to a
    CRX.  I've had my eye on CRXen for about two years.  Now I got one!
    
    I like my CRX.  It's the first fun car I've owned and it gets wonderful
    gas mileage too...50 mpg in the winter, 60 in the summer.  My 
    motorcycle only gets 45 mpg.  I do most of my driving alone and very
    rarely have had need to carry more than myself and occasionally one
    other person.  The registration says the model is a coupe, but a
    car-smart friend says it's not really becuz it's got two support
    thingies behind the seats.  A real coupe has one.
    
    Anyway, it's two seats, it's fun, and I'll buy another when I retire
    this one, hopefully not any sooner than 150,000 miles.
    
    Nancy

	True Confession:  I think CRXen are ugly.

	Even though it's kinda square, I love my '87 Subaru Gl Turbo Wagon
both for it's practicality and the frivolity of owning a station wagon that's
classified as a "sports car" by MA insurance.  Plus, it was 1/3 of the cost
of my dream vehicle - a Volvo 740 Intercooled Turbo Wagon.


						--Doug

    I peeked in there when I was po'd at what was going on here and wanted
    a break.  What I found was amusing, clever, rude, crude, wild, frivolous, 
    insulting, offthewall, serious discussion of issues, nonissues, politics, 
    historical and current events, and various politicians and (in)famous
    people (not excluding Soapbox contributors).
    
    In short, what I used to enjoy about lunchtime conversations, crossed
    with why I like Israelis in spite of how they exasperate me.
    
    I have said, here, more than once "Take It To SOAPBOX!"  and meant it
    in a deragotory manner.  I suppose it's some sort of justice that I
    liked what I saw when I took my own advice.
    
    I don't expect or get from there, what I expect and get here.  That's
    ok by me.

    Sara
    
    I like soapbox too, and most of my friends (hi E ;-) ) think I'm nuts.
    
    Bonnie
    
    p.s. I'm glad you are there ;-)

    Sweetie, *that's* not why I think you're nuts!
    
    (*8
    
    E Grace

    thank you dear ;-)
    
    Bonnie

    
    oh, no....  just when I thought I'd finally gotten over my overwhelming
    desire to have a CRX -- because they're so impractical, expensive (oh,
    please tell me they're expensive), and probably dangerous...  folks
    come in here and say how they want one and some even have one.  My only
    hope now is that it really is too small for me to carry all my music
    gear and that it DOESN'T come in the color that my next car MUST be.
    
    sigh...  
    
    Justine

Sorry, Justine, they are not especially expensive.  I could have gotten a
CRX Si for about the same amount I got Civic LX for - that is, about 12K.
Expensive, yeah, but only "nice car expensive" not "sports car expensive."
Not only that, they get 40-50 miles per gallon. 

Not only that, they have tons of room in the back - after all, they are
hatchbacks. The only thing they lack is rear seats - it isn't lack of cargo
space but lack of passenger space that make them impractical. 

I *just* bought a car, I won't be buying another for about 5 years.  We
should *not* be talking about this!!!  :-)

D!

    I too share an almost painful lust for a small two-seater sports
    car.    A CRX, an MR2, a Miata, a Karmann Ghia (sp??), Mercedes
    Benz: I'm really not picky, I'd take any of 'em. 
    
    A few years ago I came pretty close to getting an MR2.  Then I called
    my friendly insurance agent.  Found out that my insurance would
    triple.  When I added the insurance in with the payments and upkeep...
    I realized the only truly sensible thing was to ditch my apartment,
    put all my stuff in storage, buy a Jaguar 2-seater and live in the car.
    
    Alas, I have always been frivolous and did not do that.
    
    But one of these days....  oh yeah!
    
       Margaret  

    I don't even know what a CRX looks like.
    
    Cars interest me even less than most team sports. They are just
    expensive mechanised boxes that take me places. Given a choice I'd
    rather live in a city with good public transport.
    
    manisha

    An MG Midget....sigh....lust....pant...no, no, I am a Quaker!  We're
    not supposed to be materialistic!  but but but....an MG midget...sigh
    
    
    E Grace

    You can always buy a Civic Hatchback - the CRX is really 
    a chopped version. I loved mine, with the rear seats down
    it had lotsa space, got good mileage, and was a blast to
    drive. Didn't handle driving in the woods, tho'...

    Wow! so many of us!!!!
    
    Something about this new Miata..... it's like an egg, like a
    person-sized space ship, all the edges are rounded!
    
    That actually is one of my fairly regular diving to work in the morning
    in the fog fantasies!  That it's not a car, it's a space ship and I'm
    traveling between planets! And I have to be careful of all the other
    space ships up here traveling with me, cause it's a long way fall if
    you crash/bump each other.    I usually get to work with a really big
    smile on my face on foggy mornings.
    
    Miriam  

    E
    
    ever since I got a chance to ride around Houston in a classic MG
    i've wished I could have one of my own..
    
    and that was when I was only 20!
    
    ;-)
    
    BJ

    Well, I have a 75 MGB that is up for sale.
    
    Sign me depressed...
    
    Laura
                 

I went 12 years between my first ride in a 2-seater sports car (original 240Z) 
and finally getting around to buying one. I'm not sure whether the following 
advice applies to the CRX, but I'd bet it applies to the Miata: keep a second
car (e.g. front-wheel drive clunker) as a winter backup if you're in New 
England. RWD sports cars can be very tricky in snow. (Current car is a new-style
300ZX, and it stays home when there's snow in the forecast.)

If the CRX is front-wheel drive, this may not apply to it.

Ah yes, for the pleasure of driving an 8 cylinder Jaguar XKE.  I actually saw
a red one in the parking lot one day - it was a 12 cylinder - WOW!

If I had one of those I would also have a Jeep Cherokee or something similar
for off road/snow days/pulling the boat/lugging plywood.

Reality check - a Volkswagon.......

Martha

    cheyenne, I *knew* we had a lot in common!  (*8
    
    E Grace

    CRX are not good in snow.  When I was dating my old boyfriend he got a
    CRX (of course I was telling him how cool they were), he just slid into
    a pole this past winter.  It does have a good engine, I drove for a
    while and had to keep it in third gear on Mem Drive to keep from
    getting a ticket.  But then again, this was the Si engine, which only
    gets about 35 MPG.
    
    When I bought my new car, I considered a CRX, but I liked the look
    of the hatchback better, not to mention it was cheaper and had more 
    space (which is good for schleping around a bass guitar).  So now I
    have a Civic hatchback which I like very much.
    
    Lisa

>If the CRX is front-wheel drive, this may not apply to it.

I believe it is.  The CRX is just a version of the Honda Civic with a
slightly (well, not-so-slightly) different body and only two seats. But
it is still basically a Civic, which means, I would imagine, that it has
the same terrific handling that the Civic does. I have been driving a
Civic for years (still am) and have found that it handles winter driving
about as well as one can expect from a light sub-compact car.

D!

    Driving a front-wheel drive in snow is a lot like a 4-wheel-drive,
    you have to _drive_ out of a slide rather than brake. That is,
    you actually give it a bit _more_ gas to get the front going
    faster than the back. Takes some re-adjustment. (Actually it
    takes gobs of faith and you're scared spitless the first few 
    times.)
    
    The trouble with 4- or front-wheel-drive is that when you 'lose'
    it you *really* lose it.
    
    But I still want one ;-)
    
    dana
    

-d, isn't an ice storm an awfully strange time to be selling a car? ;-)

(thinking about what to do when I give up my DECwreck in May...
a CRX HF for 8K?  Hm...)

DougO

See "The CAR topic" #792 to get out of this rathole.

D!

    True confession - I used to love digramming sentences.

Did I really ask for that?  I suppose I did.

hmph.  I'm not gonna check it for accuracy, though.

DougO

    Another confession 
    Never heard of "diagramming a sentence" before. Most certainly never
    seen one.

    Manisha
    
    It is a common feature of American high school education. It is
    a way of illustrating that you know the subject, the verb, the
    adjective and adverb clauses etc... I found it kind of fun in
    high school English.
    
    Bonie

    High school?  I learned it in sixth grade!
    
    					andrew

>    It is a common feature of American high school education.

Actually it used to be. I don't know anyone my age who actually did it.  I
remember I was taking a computer course (Intro. to Formal Language, 
Computablility and Automata, to be precise) in which we were discussing
computer languages, and the instructor, by way of analogy, diagrammed
a computer sentance.  The idea was that we would all see how formal languages
compared to "natural" languages (in this case, English.)  But we all just
stared at him like he was crazy. He said "Didn't you diagram sentances in
school?"  We said "No, what are you talking about?"

D!

Oh Okay, I guess we did that differently. I'd break down -d's sentence 
something like this.

> ...my daughter has an '86 CRX Si that she bought after totaling
> the '84 CRX I sold her in that last big ice storm we had...

"she bought ........."  - adjective clause describing 86' CRX
"after totaling......." - adverb clause qualifying the verb "bought"
"I sold her" adjective clause describing the '84 CRX
"in that last big ice storm we had" adverb clause  goes with the verb "sold"
"we had" - adjective clause describing the storm

But I'm still having trouble with the diagram.

>Actually it used to be. I don't know anyone my age who actually did it.  I

	Well, I did.  (And I used to like it, too)

	Although I can't for the life of me remember how to do it now.



	-Andy

    	Egad...I had forgotten all about diagramming sentences!  I did
    it in school, too D!

    	amy

    re: D!
>>                                        (Intro. to Formal Language, 
>>Computablility and Automata, to be precise)                            
    
    I still think of this course as auto-tomato :-)  Everyone called
    the course automata.
    
    Amy
    
    

    >I still think of this course as auto-tomato :-)  Everyone called
    >the course automata.
    
    Really?  I thought you took it with the Andy and Laura crowd, who all
    called it ICFLA, also known as Automahell.  :-)
    
    Actually I loved that course.  And I think I would love diagramming
    sentances if I knew how, looks like just the kind of thing I would
    enjoy.  Anyone wanna teach me?
    
    D!

    I never did understand Andy and Laura  :-)
    
    It was another group that called it auto-tomato...
    mostly Bilbo..
    

    Continuing the rathole: when I was in high school in the early '60s,
    diagramming sentences was one of the most enjoyable parts of my
    education.  I went to college to become an English teacher and upon
    graduation in the late '60s found a job teaching high school English. 
    Somewhere between my high school graduation and the beginning of my
    teaching career, diagramming fell out of favor.  I never got to teach
    it, though I couldn't teach sentence structure and the parts of a
    sentence without mentally diagramming the sentence we were discussing.
    
    Never could figure out how my students could ever grasp the
    relationships between sentence parts without diagramming!
    
    Oh, yes, teaching and testing spelling had also fallen out of favor at
    about the same time.
    
    Karen

    
    This comment fits both the rathole and the confessions....
    
    I DON'T UNDERSTAND GRAMMAR!
    I couldn't tell you, until recently, what a noun, verb or adjective
    was (beyond the "naming word", "doing word" level).
    I wasn't taught English grammar in school, and as I never really got into
    learning a foreign language I simply never came across this stuff.
    
    Thing is, I went on to take an Honours degree in English Literature,
    and I got on fine without this stuff. I have always worked purely
    on the basis of whether a sentence "feels right" or not.....
    
    'gail
    

    no particular corollary between literature and grammer (except maybe an
    inverse one)
    

    re: .344
    
    You obviously know grammar or you wouldn't be able to speak with
    your friends or write notes.
    
    Now whether you understand the formal language used to talk about
    the structure of the language is another, unrelated subject.
    
    re: earlier
    
    -d, it's not necessarily true that there's only one correct
    diagram for a sentence.  English is capable of generating a great
    number of inherently ambiguous correct sentences in which it can
    be difficult to determine things such as which noun is being
    modified by a particular clause, or even which word is the noun. 
    A lot of humor, double-entendres, and unintentionally funny
    headlines illustrate this principle.
    
    --bonnie

    
    	True confession (not even close to what's being discussed)
    
    	While eating a chocolate Hostess cupcake I used to 
    	take the cream filling out of the middle and smear it
    	on top....kind of like a double frosting.  =)
    
    	JJ
    

Actually, English is not a Formal Language. It is a natural language.
C is a formal language.

:-)

There isn't a BNF in existence that adequately describes the English language.

D!

        I grabbed an old English grammar book to bring to the
        Happy Hour tonight (topic 723).  Sentence diagramming
        starts on page 20, which suggests the importance it was
        once thought to have.
        
        Dan

    
    
    God, oh God -- someone mentioned BNF -- I was hoping I'd never hear
    that phrase again throughout my entire life.  When I was in grad.
    school (University of Iowa) working on my masters we had to first write
    the specs. for and then write the compiler for an entire language
    (which was basically a subset of Pascal).  I've never learned so much
    (or drank so much!) during a course.
    
       GJD
    
    

Here's a *real* true confession for ya...

Compiler Design was my favorite class.

*shhhhh* Don't tell anyone.

D!

    Ha!

	Sharon (compiler developer for a living)

    re: hot pink & black sheets/quilt
    
    I can't sleep on bright colors, or really busy prints.  I can "see" the
    colors/patterns through my eyelids and my skin "feels" hot if the
    colors are bright and I have difficulty sleeping when i'm hot.  I
    always leave a window open a few inches even in the winter and at least
    one of my feet has to be out from under the blankets (to breathe).
    
    Miriam

    I'm awful with names.  Remembering them.  Connecting them with their
    respective people.  
    
    I can remember dates, places, authors of notes, titles of topics,
    verbatim discussions, but I'm truly awful with names.
    
    -Jody
    

    I got the phrase "vertically challenged" from Justine Sullivan.
    
    
    sigh.
    
    
    I wish I *had* made it up.  I always wanted to make something up that
    everyone then started quoting.  Sort of like Demosthenes and Locke in
    Ender's Game.
    
    
    E Grace

  re .-1:
    
> Do you still.....
    
Yup.
    
    
    

    
    I can't remember where I first heard it, but I didn't make it up.
    
    Justine

    RE: .357
    
    
         >> Do you still.....
    
         > Yup.
    
    
    why, *thanks* /Rita!
    
    
    E Grace

    
    I guess I qualify for being "veritcally challenged" too.
    
    But when I first read the phrase here, I thought it had
    something to do with rock climbing.  (-:
    

    
    re: .361
    
    A true confession - when I first met Ellen Gugel (at a =wn= party), I
    had a hard time believing that it was *really* her.  Ellen, you may be
    "vertically challenged", but, from reading your notes, you were at
    least 50 feet tall in my mind :-)  That's ok, I really love meeting
    strong, capable women that I can look straight in the eye without
    standing on a chair :-)
    
    re: E Grace, you're welcome, anytime ;-)
    
    							/Rita
    

    When my 3100 Vaxstation first showed up on my desk, I hated it.  
    Windows?  Who needs windows!  Heck, if you can't figure out what the 
    correct DCL command is between help and the manuals, then you shouldn't 
    have AN ACCOUNT AT ALL!!!!!  
    
    My manager finally absconded with the power cord from my VT240 and thereby
    forced me to use the 3100.  So I started using my 3100, I named it PENSAR 
    (THINK in spanish) and I'd hate to be without it!  
    
    Miriam
    
    Of course I only use it to open 4 decterm windows on it and log onto all 
    my different accounts and jump back and forth.  I still don't like
    menu's.                                         

    At the risk of displaying hubris, I believe that I was the one who
    introduced the term "vertically challenged" into =wn=, as a reply
    to something Bonnie said. I got the term from an sf/fantasy author
    of my acquaintance, Emma Bull, who used it to describe another member
    of a rock band she belongs to.
    
    A similar term was coined by author John M. Ford when he once uttered,
    "We're not lost, we're locationally challenged."
    
    --- jerry

    I just called my answering machine to listen to my new outgoing
    message, and instead of hanging up afterwards, I talked to my 
    dog, who was no doubt snoozing nearby.  I said hi and made woof
    noises and told him to be a good boy.  He's probably wondering 
    why he can hear my voice without seeing me, and I'm feeling 
    totally canineurotic for doing this!

    Carla

Sometimes I call home to leave a reminder for myself on my answering
machine, and I often wonder how Trav (my dog) is reacting to hearing
my voice, but not seeing me. And, I confess, I've been known to say hi
to him. ;-)

Kathy

    >>and I often wonder how trav (my dog) is reacting to hearing
    >>my voice, but not seeing me. And, I confess, I've been known to say hi
    
    He calls Jeremy and they laugh about how goofy humans are!!!
    
    My sister Carole makes me talk to her cat when we talk on the phone. 
    And I do. I often wonder what someone would think if they ever walked 
    in on *that* conversation... 
    
    Linda

    I love to watch my dog, Buffer, listen to the answering machine.
    
    I played my recorded message once for him, and he was really
    funny---he tilted his head toward the machine, listened 
    intently, and then came over to me and started giving me his
    paw. Then he ran back to the machine, and started touching it.
    It was like he was saying---"is this really you?  And if it
    is, then what's your voice doing in this box?"
    

    
    I cannot make microwave popcorn.  I don't have a microwave
    at home, so the only time I use one is here at work.  Still,
    what can go wrong?
    
    I don't understand what happens, why it never pops for me.
    
    Maybe 15 kernels popped, and I followed the instructions to 
    the letter.
    
    Baffled at modern technology,
    
    Lunch-less in Seattle
    

    Carla- 
    
    I'm a whiz at microwave popcorn!  I'll pop some for you in June but I'm
    afraid I won't make it in time for to take care of your hungries today.
    :-(
    
    Nanci

    It has to do with the wattage of your microwave...
    
    The ones at work are generally 750 watts.  The average home nuker is
    500.  And some of the smaller models are 400 which do not do popcorn
    well.

    
    Did a load of laundry this week and *everything* came out
    a lovely shade of light blue. If I'm lucky, these clothes will
    go nicely with the load of laundry I did last month that
    came out in some peculiar shade of pink.
    
    						Hank

    Hank
    
    have you considered using a cold water wash and the warm/cold
    cycle?
    
    things get just as clean, and it prevents such nasty accidents..
    
    Bonnie

    Wow, I did laundry and for once in my life the sockpairs came out even!
    
    true confession:
    
    when going somewhere in a T-shirt and slacks/jeans, I try to make sure
    the T-shirt is "pertinent" to the people I'll be seeing there
    
    
    -Jody

    
    I went home and beat up my teddybear because I was in a filthy
    temper.
    Because the network was down all Friday afternoon.
    I am aware that maybe some of you will choose not to speak to me
    now that I'm a self-confessed beat-beater, but I had to get that
    off my chest.
    Feel guilty as hell about it.
    
    'gail

    ...teddy bears *never* stop loving you!

    re .375, .376
    I'm worse than 'gail -- I'm a confirmed bear-bearer. :-)
    
    [My old personal_name ("Bear with me.") was almost always accurate,
    at home or at work.]
    
    Bob

    
    Well, he was still sulking when I go home last night 8-}
    I bought him a new bow-tie to try and make ammends.
    
    He didn't want to sleep with me either, but I emotionally
    pressurised him into it...;-) ;-) ;-)
    
    And I still love you too, E Grace!
    Cheyenne - you have a bear-soul :-*
    
    'gail

    'gail, I hope he's back to normal by now...try a hug and see!

    
    He's doing fine now, thanks. :-)
    Now all I have to do is talk him out of coming to the Party...
    
    'gail

    ...and now they say if they can't meet your bear, they want to see
    pictures;-)

Yay!  I can't wait to meet your bears, Bob!  I don't think
mine will fit into my suitcase.  :-)

Nanci

    Well-
    
      Henri Bientot- My monkey
      Selina- My Dog
      Russ - Eric Russell Jr.
      (They are all the most lovely, almost identical shade of tan,
    although "birthed" from the toy stores years apart.)
    
    Will not be able to socilize, even for the brunch.  I mean, I think
    they were looking forward to it, but ... I will have been too strung
    out to go.
    
    They are still brooding about it, missing a teddy bear brunch.
    
    I mean, they still haven't gotten over being replaced by the large
    Teddy Bear, Eric Russel Sr, and relegated to the living room.
    
    This is just the final blow.
    
    Now I think they will NEVER talk to me.
       and it is a shame...
           Henri seemed just on the edge of opening up.
    
    Cindi 

    Oh, Cindi!  Does that mean neither you nor they will be coming to _any_
    of the weekend's events?

    
    Bob - OK, I'll bring a photo for your bears :-)
    It's just that Buchanan (my hero) is quite a large-ish bear and
    it would be kind of hard work carrying him and kind of cruel
    trying to stuff him into an (already overcrowded) suitcase.
    And anyway, he gets air-sick...
    
    'gail

    That is right... I had thought I might try for the brunch, at the
    end of a hectic week...
    There are 9 Events scheduled during that interval, but, I
    realized that Henri, Selina, Russ and I would be being aproximately 
    as sociable I figured it was better if I not go. I would be less
    than spry.
    
    Henri would look on, very disaprovingly at my failure to network.
    Being a monkey, he is quite a swinger.---
    
    I will have to settle for asking for  =wn= tee shirt info.
    
    -----------------------------------
    For the true confession part...
       In the light of today's Presbyterian anouncement on pre-marital
    relations....
    
    Eric and I got Russ well over a year before we got married.  I
    wonder if he will have to carry a stigma with him as a bear,
    gathered out of wedlock?  
    What a blow!
    
    Cindi

    Believe me, you really do NOT want your teddy opening up to you.
    
    Mycroft did some years ago (I was about 32, he precisely a year
    younger). He opened up and I awoke, horrified, in a puddle of teddy
    bear cotton guts.
    
    I scooped him all back up and re-stuffed him, giving him a bona fide
    belly button in the process. But, since he opened up, our relationship
    just hasn't been the same.
    
    I can no longer sleep with a bear, no matter how beloved, whom I fear
    will spill his guts again one night.

My pig is rather too taciturn to open up like that, Margaret.

    
    Margaret, its a good thing you weren't planning on marriage. To let a
    little thing like gut leakage turn you off...
    
    My best beloved bear began to leave little deposits in my bed when I
    was around 14 or so. (He's now 24 years old to my 27.) I've never been
    much of a sew-er, so I just tied my favorite green tie-dye scarf around
    him. 
    
    Our 25 year anniversary is next year. I should plan a celebration. He
    and I have gone to some incredibly strange places together.

    A suggestion for restuffing Teddy Bears (The true rulers of creation
    BTW) My sister would save up old panty hose use that. That way if the
    bear opened up again, the mess wasn,t as bad. She had my mother, my
    wife, herself and lots of friends saving their pantyhose for her bears.
    
    PJ

    I leave all my teddy bears sitting on a shelf in my room, where they
    can't bust open or get hugged (poor things!).  That's because my bed is
    already too full of live cats (the true rulers of creation BTW...well,
    that's my belief anyway).  The cats can hug back and, thank goodness
    (!), haven't split open during the night either!  (which is good
    because they would be much harder to restuff)
    
    Lorna

    
    Well, here's the TRUE confession. My five or so bears are scattered all
    over the floor, under the bed, and other random places where they got
    thrown off the bed, and don't get back on the bed unless I make it
    up... i.e. once every 6 months to remind myself how.
    
    But the thing about bears that I love is that they are portable. Very
    unlike my cats, who do tend to sleep on the bed. My bears have come
    with me when I lived far from home, on vacations, to hospitals when I
    had to give blood or have operations, and in general, whenever I know
    I'm going to want a hug... so badly that I can stand the ridicule of
    being caught hugging my bear.
    
    Last time when I traveled and took my bear with me, the maid found it
    while making my bed and tucked it on top of the pillows. Another time
    in a hospital, the nurse came around to check my blankets, and saw my
    bear underneath them with me. "Oh! Isn't that CUTE!" Having the bear
    there was still worth the ridicule.
                                

    I installed a ceiling fan in my bedroom and now the fur face is too 
    frightened to come in.  I win!

    'ren, you're hardly alone.  When I worked as a hotel chambermaid one
    summer, I saw a *lot* of teddy bears - often in the form of a furry leg
    or ear sticking out of a suitcase - in the rooms, even of businesspeople
    there for a two-day conference.  Based on the number of bears I saw
    (and assuming that I didn't see all the bears), I would estimate that
    perhaps a fifth of all business travelers bring bears on trips.

        Sharon

    
    Was there any gender correlation?

>    Was there any gender correlation?

    Yes.  The men were more likely to attempt to hide their bears, whereas 
    the women were more likely to display them on the dresser or bed.  (One 
    brave woman even put her bear on her bathroom counter!).

    The bulk of the bears appeared to be owned by adults (either older
    models, or only minor wear-and-tear), but a few bears appeared to
    belong to small children left at home (newer models in bad shape, in a 
    single room obviously occupied by a business traveler).  These bears 
    were the ones most commonly on display in men's rooms, sometimes with 
    family pictures.

    I thought this was a nice touch.  My father traveled a lot when I was
    little, and I remember offering him one of my stuffed animals as a
    traveling companion a couple of times.  He always refused, saying he 
    didn't have the suitcase space.

    I don't think I cleaned enough rooms of female business travelers to
    conclude whethermen or women were more likely to bring bears.  But
    yes, guys had them.  A *lot* of guys had them.  I was amazed; sure
    taught me a couple things about stereotypes!

	Sharon

    G'Day,
    
    	When I was in Canberra for DECworld last year I took my bear with
    me (I need something to cuddle when sleeping and my bear was all my
    wife was willing to allow).  When I returned to the hotel room each
    night, the bed was made and Waldo was sitting up between the pillows. 
    This is where he usually stays at home so he probably wasn't even aware
    that he was 250km from home.
    
    David.
    

    happy faces make me smile!
    
    E Grace

    Well-
       I don't know.
    As I have said before, I removed Henri and Co. from the bed because
    I got an eating breathing teddy bear (I call him Big Fuzzy), and there 
    are just some things you can't do while your teddy animals are
    watching.
    
    We unpacked them after the move last week. We sat them back on the
    couch again.  Henri looked like he would almost break his vow of
    silence... but when I also placed him on the couch with Selina,
    and Russ, he just feel over on his face, and wouldn't even look
    at me.
    
    I think he is upset.  
       Being my oldest in Mass., he is the only one to remember the
    stigma of having a single mother.  I'm not quite sure he has adjusted
    to his step-dad (Eric) yet.  
      
    Raising teddy animals is never easy.
    
    Cindi

    >I got an eating breathing teddy bear (I call him Big Fuzzy), and there 
    >are just some things you can't do while your teddy animals are
    >watching.
    	Well, maybe _you_ can't...;-)  Our bears had to learn not to act as
    commentators, but we've learned to put up with a discreet audience...

    Oh, yes.  A `mishkin' is the proper term (in our house) for a member of
    the audience -- named after a friend's cat who seemed to find the, um,
    `show' absolutely fascinating.

    About half of the time when next/unseen pops up the "Martial Arts"
    topic, I read it as "Marital Arts".  Or even "Marital Aids".
    
    I don't think I want to know why...
    
    John

    RE: .397  -< not this cat >-

    >I installed a ceiling fan in my bedroom and now the fur face is too 
    >frightened to come in.  I win!
    
    I've got bad news for you.  Fur face will get over it.
    
    When we installed our "legendary" ceiling fan in the bedroom, our fur
    face looked up at it with a bit of mistrust, and then ...
    
    I turned it on.
    
    He did not return to the bedroom for many weeks, but eventually began
    to tolerate it even when it was on.
    
    And what is "legendary" about my ceiling fan, you ask?
    
    It can be turned on by static electricity from shaking the blankets.
    
    And what gets the blankets shaking, you ask?
    
    Well, err... umm
    
    Mary

    John,
    
    I do too!
    
    :-)
    
    Bonnie

    re .407
    
    Sounds like your fan should be named Mishkin, too!

    I still love jelly donuts and coffee with lots of cream and sugar ;-)

I sleep with a bare every night.

    	Bare what?
    
    	Scott

    Re: .406
    
    Along the same lines:  Every time I try to type "consult" it invariably 
    turns into "conslut"....

    >turns into "conslut"....
    
    Conslut!  What a great word!  I know a lot of people who fall into that
    category.  :-)
    
    D! who isn't because she missed Disclave

    
    last summer, I started doing situps every day
    
    this summer, I started flossing my teeth.  But you know what, I'd have
    started sooner if instead of saying:
    
    "It will help prevent gingivitus"
    	(sounds like a disease Genghis Khan might die of)
    "It will give you healthier gums"
    "You're teeth will last a lifetime"
    
    they had said
    
    "Gee, getting your teeth cleaned will take 1/3 less time, hurt half as
    much, and you won't spit blood the whole time"
    
    I'd have done it much sooner!
    When you talk about saving me PAIN in everyday life I LISTEN.
    
    -Jody
    

    I *loved* the Shannara series and the Thomas Covene(a?)nt series!
    
    E hanging_my_head_in_shame Grace

    E I love you anyway...
    
    major hugs my friend...
    
    BJ

    >E hanging_my_head_in_shame Grace
    
    No you aren't!  I just can't see it!  Hang your head in shame?  Never! 
    Not our E!
    
    D!

    I have an aversion to (actually I _hate_) books in the SF rack
    with fantasy covers and subtitles to the effect "Book 3 in the
    blah-blah-blah saga/series/chronicles." 

    
    E Dahling,
    
    "there's always one in every crowd", it makes my life worth living just
    knowing that you are the one... ;^)
    
    Hugs!
    
    Kelley

    re .419. I agree 100%. I really hate (hmm wrong string?) that. So many
    times, I'll pick up a book and see that it's really interesting and
    then find out it's book 3 in a trilogy and put it right back. With
    paperback costs up to 5 or 6 dollars in some cases and at least 3-4 in
    most cases, I'm being very selective in what I buy. Having to search
    out 2 other books to complete a story just doesn't make it for me.
    Especially when it might cost 15 dollars at one shot. Maybe, in a used
    book store, if I can find the other books in the series, but not brand
    new.
    
    PJ

I lovE somEonE who likEs *thosE* books

and I agree with you, D!  I just can't picture E's chin drooping over this one,
at least not without one of those little smiles and a sidelong glance ;-)

besides, *I* admit that I *love* the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, esp the Tarzan
and the John-Carter-of-Mars (don't ask) series.  Sexist, racist piggah stuff. I
even have copies of a few of them in my house now, alongside Green Mansions and
the complete works of Mark Twain and _Life_and_Letters_of_Ben_Franklin_, etc etc
so my kids have a bookshelf of variously entertaining and edifying stuff to
read.  (well, ok, ok, *I* like to browse there too)

Sara

    I'd rather read a book then go to a party.....
    
    HRH

    Hey, how's this for a true confession - I would rather go to a party
    *and* read a book.  It is an endless source of no little frustration
    that I can't read and socialize at the same time!  I like the idea of
    public readings of books - where one person reads to everyone else. 
    Social and booky at the same time!!  Never found such a group,
    though...
    
    D!

    Well, D!, there *are* poetry readings.  There are also groups that do
    play readings.  Of course, these are a little more formal than a party.
    How about, the next time I see you, I read to you?  (*8
    
    (Besides, there is always the host's bathroom and medicine chest!)
    
    E Grace

    Books 'n' parties: Books win. (Well, most of the time; I'm better at
    parties now than I used to be. 'specially once I realized that, at 
    parties, one might learn of new books.) But I do have memories of being
    dragged (er, "invited and encouraged") to go to parties, where I
    often found the entertainment (in college, usually drinking) to be
    lacking in interest. More than once I'd wind up in a corner somewhere,
    reading whatever I could find that had printing in it; yea, verily,
    even unto the Reader's Digest. [Second-level true confession: I have
    often enjoyed reading Reader's Digest; not the political commentary,
    which I always skipped, but things like "Drama in Real Life", which
    were often very gory indeed, and "I Am Joe's Left Kidney," etc. And the
    WWII-era Digests at the library were very entertaining...]
    
    There was a British series on PBS a few years back called "A Fine
    Romance," wherein the protagonists met at a party when each of them
    grabbed a book and fled to one of the bedrooms to get away from the
    crowd. (I really liked that series...)
    
    -b

    Ah yes, another True Confession...
    
    I finding reading with a friend or loved-one to be a truly wonderful
    experience.  One of *my* most romantic memories is the night that
    neither of us could get to sleep, so at 1 in the morning we turned on
    the light and silently read The_13_Clocks together.  And then there was
    the drive down to Florida, in which we devoured about 6 books aloud,
    taking turns.
    
    I love reading aloud and being read too!  My family did it...but I have
    only had one lover who was into it, and very few friends.  (E, I would
    *love* to have you read to me!)
    
    Any recommendations for good bed-time stories?
    
    D!

    
    D!, there is a book called "Lesbian Bedtime Stories", or
    something like that ... hey Laurie Langelo, you have it,
    don't you?  (Not that I've been near her bedside.  =8-})
    
    Carla
    

    Mostly we read each other horror stories in bed...we have volumes of
    them.  Right now Danny is reading the first Paddington book to me.  We
    just retrieved boxes and boxes of his childhood books from his mom's
    attic and I have a lot of catching up to do.
    
    N

    I have read both of the Lesbian Bedtime Stories books...I was thinking
    of something a little more, well, general purpose.
    
    D!

    Well, I am partial to reading anything fun aloud.  It is hard to find
    people who enjoy being read to though.  Last week I read my daughter
    Jen to sleep with Winnie-the-Pooh (bump, bump, bump).  I love to listen
    to reading aloud on PBS stations (when I get the chance).  If the
    chance ever occurs, I would gladly read to you (D!) or anyone else that
    enjoys it (or let you read to me).  
    
    jimc

    [Do we need a "reading aloud" note? Should this go in the "books"
    string? Or "Ratholes"? Oh, bother!]
    
    My family's always enjoyed reading aloud, but it's usually restricted
    to short works - kids' books, short poems or anecdotes. (As opposed to
    reading a chapter a night from a longer work, for example.) My father's
    very good at doing voices and characterizations; his rendition of
    "Eeyore's birthday" is truly memorable...
    
    True confession: I used to get absolutely boiling-mad-and-frustrated in
    school when the other kids had their turns to read out loud, since
    nearly all of them were terrible at it. I had neither patience nor
    sympathy for them, and could not understand why the teacher didn't just
    let *me* read everything. ;-)
    
    -b

    Hmph.  Normal People deserve whatever we / they get.  That's what books
    are FOR, is education...  (: >,)
    
    Ray

    RE: D! and reading aloud. Yes, yes! Reading aloud is a wonderful
    experience, and it doesn't happen enough does it? Whenever I 
    make a special friend, I usually end up reading aloud some
    of my favorite poetry to him or her, or maybe even reciting it!
    
    Eileen

    I love reading the Sunday Globe aloud in bed.

RE: .430 (Carla)
    
>>> D!, there is a book called "Lesbian Bedtime Stories", or
>>> something like that ... hey Laurie Langelo, you have it,
>>> don't you?  (Not that I've been near her bedside.  =8-})
    
    Yes, I do have that book and just got done reading it. I read one of
    the stories outloud once to some women I had over for a slumber party.
    I kept screwing up the words and it changed the story somewhat but it
    made it funny ;-) It was a blast reading it outloud!
    
    Some of them are erotic and some of them aren't. My favorite one is the
    one about a Rhododendron named Rhoda. This scrub gets planted in a
    supposedly unfertile area of a garden and grows wonderfully. All the
    other plants and flowers hate it because it's different and they're
    jealous of its growth under such circumstances. Really cute story. When I
    first read what it was about I thought it would be boring.
    
    Now I'm reading "Lesbian Love Stories". Carla, when you move out here
    I'll read you any story you want %-D I should bring this idea up to the
    members of the "Carla moves East" Committee. Oh, Ken...oops...wrong
    notesfile again.
    
    Laurie,Co-chair & treasurer of the "Carla Moves East" Committee

    
    Yeah - I love being read to. Especially Winnie the Pooh - I have the
    records.....blush....and other Milne stuff, and fairy stories
    (often from "Don't Bet on the Prince")...
    
    And, while we're confessing, someone mentioned eating and reading...
    I have a thing for sandwiches with tomatoe puree in them (puree and
    peanut butter, puree and cheddar, puree and avocado) and somehow it 
    always leaks round the edges so I end up with these suspicious-looking 
    red stains on my books. I don't mind much, but I get embarassed if I do 
    this to a book I've borrowed....
    
    'gail

    I never could stand being read to.  Or, having to
    listen while someone else read out loud in reading class.
    I was always so far ahead of them while they were reading 
    out loud, that the teacher used to notice I wasn't listening
    attentively and try to *catch* me out by choosing me to read
    out loud next.  Never worked, tho', as I could remember what
    I read and find were the last person left off reading pretty 
    quickly.... :-)

                                                          
    HRH

    Reading..Books...Here I go again - My confession - I have books in
    various states of finished-ness (is that a word?!) everywhere I might
    ever possibly be - There's one in the bedroom, one in each car, some-
    times two, several at my summer cottage, one in almost every room in
    the house - I can pick up a book I've left in the middle somewhere
    months later and know exactly where I've left off and what the story
    is about!  So I'm a bit weird.....
    
      -HA

    
    I have to be honest.
    
    A new ATM machine appeared on one of the access roads just outside of
    MR01.  It's white with red stripes, and just SITS there by the road, in
    the middle of nowhere.  
    
    When I first glanced at it all I could think of was 
    
    "hey, it's the Phantom Tollbooth!"
    
    -Jody
    

I read poetry to my new "friend". He thinks I'm quite strange but listens very
politely anyway. What can I say? It beats smoking a cigarette. ;*) liesl

p.s. Try reading ee cummings' "i like my body when it is with yours" to someone
you love. The proof is left to the student.

>    "hey, it's the Phantom Tollbooth!"


Whoopeee!  Please send directions by mail, TYVM!!!

But it isn't purple???

D! who can't wait!  I've got my coin and my car, I'm all set to go

[For those who don't know what we are talking about, go IMMEDIATELY to
your nearest bookstore, to the children's, or perhaps young adult section,
look under "Juster Norton" (or is that Norter Justin?  Something like that)
and buy the book called "The Phantom Tollbooth", take it home, and read it
aloud to your family, or if you have none, to your SO, or if you have none,
to yourself!!]

    I too, have books that are in mid-read all over the house. I start one
    and find another that I "just gotta" read and so on. The good thing is:
    I can put a book down for a year or more and pick it up right where i
    left off and not miss a beat. If you were to ask me to describe what
    went on up to that point before I picked it up again, forget it. When I
    pick it up, I don't miss a beat. 
    
    I don't know about others, but when I read, I see the action in my mind
    and hear the dialog in my thoughts, adding emotion, accent, where I can
    and inflection if I pick up on it. It's like watching a movie in my
    mind. All books are like this to me.
    
    PJ

    More than 1 book at a time?  Never!!!! :-)  Once I pick it
    up, I have to finish it (unless it's terrible, which means
    it *never* gets finished goes as a trade-in) before I can start 
    another book....I have the current one in my pocketbook, and
    it's actually calling to me; "I'm here, come read...." :-) 
    
    
    Re .447 - Yes!  That's exactly how I *see* a book, like a movie...
    Which is the reason I do not like books that have been written in
    the first person, singular.....
    

re: .444 (The Phantom Tollbooth)

     I saw this and thought it was a porta-potty.  Please don't try to
psychoanalyze that.

    Could it be one of the ATM's that was stolen in NH?  The last one
    was found in the woods.
    
    ed

    I had a tootsie pop today, and I bit it before I reached
    the tootsie roll center.
    
    HRH

    re .442, me, too.  I liked being read to when I was a little kid and
    didn't know how to read yet.  But, ever since then I absolutely *hate*
    having someone read aloud to me.  I find it incredibly tiresome.  I
    always feel like saying, "Just pass me the book.  I can read, too, you
    know!"  I find that most people's voices sound just awful to me when
    they read aloud.  They just seem to drone on and on monotonously.
    
    :-)
    
    Lorna
    

    My (unidentified) picture was in the NY Post yesterday.  I attended a
    protest at St. Patrick's and was wearing a gag to protest the gag
    ruling.  Plus, I was drenched cause it was raining.
    
    Maybe I'll get excommunicated???
    
    judy

    
    D!  There's also an organization that does nothing else but sitaround
    and talk about books.... it's called the "Great Books Foundation". 
    They have discussion groups EVERYWHERE.
    
    If you're interested in investigating, send mail.  I'll send addresses.
    
    Jamd

My father (from whom I inherited by book addiction) met his wife (as well
as numerous past lovers) through Single Book-lovers of America.

Oh, am I allowed to put *other* people's True Confessions in here? :-)

D!

    I very nearly used the buzz-word 'Inner City Youths' in a response
    today.
    
    But something Cindi said, and not knowing exactly where her office is
    in relation to mine, made me think better of it ...
    
      Annie

    RE: .457
    
    Oooooohhhh.... I thought I felt the hair on the back of my neck
    begin to rise .. I thought I had imagined it... NOW I know the
    source.
    Cindi ;->

    ... I'm no quite all set.
    
    _my_ loom is broken, but I know where I can acquire one on a moments
    notice so ...
     
      Annie

    Ratholed from the string on bras (nylon scaffolding):

    Attila. (Scourge of God, King of the Hun(nies)) :^)

    I get completely weak in the knees over men with long hair.  A long
    time ago at a boutique trade show (I was selling leather work and
    silver wholesale) I met Karl Langerfeld and completely lost my train of
    thought.  I had no idea who it was, but he is a very handsome man,
    great facial bones, slender, wearing an impeccably tailored
    double-breasted suit and a long gray ponytail down to his backside.
    Oooof!  Pant pant.  Only much later did I find out his name.

    In college I came this close (about the length of a gnat's eyelash) to
    a bad traffic accident because I was gawking at a male pedestrian who
    was wearing cut off jeans, sneakers, and two long black braids almost
    to his waist.  I almost hit a telephone pole! (Some amount of Freudian
    truth in that!) Spent the next few weeks trying to find him again. He
    was a grad student in another department and in person did not come
    close to living up to my fantasies. Sigh.  But oh, those braids!
    
       Margaret (indulging in some serious piggery, hey! it's Friday)

    
    re: .460  I'm too tense to go _completely_ week in the knees, but if 
    a man's gonna turn my head, it's probably 'cause he's got a pony tail.
    
    Who's that hair stylist who never takes his hat off?  He used to make
    the rounds on daytime shows.  Jose?  Jose (this is how it sounds, not
    how it's spelled) E-bear?  I wouldn't "woof" now, but then... well,
    maybe not...  I don't think I go "woof". :-)
    
    CQ

    re .460. .461, I like long hair on guys, too.  Three attractive famous
    guys I've seen on TV or movies (not in person) :-( in the last year:
    
     Jeff Bridges - with a ponytail and that magnificent body *sigh*
     Bono - always gorgeous
     Daniel Day Lewis
    
    (As a creepy Italian guy said about an attractive black woman after she
    walked out of a store in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, "I'd....****
    her"....well that's how I feel about the above 3...:-) hey, sometimes
    ya just can't *help* feeling that way...)
    
    Lorna
    

        Re guys with long hair...
        
        You could always check  out  two  "Soapbox"  vets  - Peter Cook
        (beyond the shoulders) and Charles  Haynes (waaaayyy beyond the
        shoulders) and both are (in my  opinion) good folks, having met
        them on various occasions.
        

You know, I was a veteran of Womannotes before I ever opened Soapbox.

Thanks for the nice words!

	-- Charles

    And a fair percent of womannoters already know how nice you look.
    
    Bonnie

    "Nice"?  NICE?  Is that namby-pamby word the best you can come up
    with to describe Charles?
    
    						Ann B.

    no ;-) .......

    I can't believe no one's mentioned Steven Segall!!(sp)  Mmmm, he makes
    me weak in the knees!  WOW!
    
    

    re: .469 SMURF::BINDER
    
    Well, -d, I wrote my reply here BEFORE I got to see the WOOF note.
    EXcccuuuuuussseee me.  
    
    -Dotti.

    Re: .470
    
    My apologies.  Please consider me chastened.
    
    -d

    Every time I encounter the "waddling mountains of flesh" subject
    in 58, I first burst into laughter, thinking about the disgustingly
    obese people I know, but then I feel sad because they're really not
    bad people, they're just fat.
    
                                      L.J.

    the first is probably the most common reaction.  the second is never
    arrived at by lots of people, I suspect, which is sad...

Well, I was thinking of Charles Haynes all the time you folks were talking
about this gorgeous long-haired fella.

*Then* I find out you only mean Attila.  ;-)

        Carol

re: .474
    
>Well, I was thinking of Charles Haynes all the time...
    
    you too, huh?  ;)
    
    tee hee
    
    -Jody
    

    Long hair on a man is a turn-off for me....but so is the
    current partly shaved, lopsided bangs w/zigzags carved
    into it hairstyle... I keep telling the kids in the 
    neighborhood that I can create that style for free with my
    horse clippers ;-) 
    
    I *love* the thick, feathered, somewhat short "disco" haircut 
    that was the early eighties look.....
    
    HRH
    

    
    
    RE: .476
    
    I'll take your rejects. ;-)
    
    k

    
    I don't like lobster.
    I also don't like clams, mussels, or crab.
    
    I keep trying them just to make sure.  But I still don't like them.
    
    -Jody
    

    
    I don't like lobster either.  Or mussels, or crab, or clams,
    or shrimp, or oysters, or caviar, or expensive French dessert
    wine.
    
    I was fed lobster one evening not too long ago, at an intimate
    restaurant on the Atlantic, by a musician's nimble fingers, and
    I must say that was the most enjoyable lobster meat I ever had.
    
    Carla
    

    	Ah, rejoice!  Others who don't like shellfish!  My dad used to
    tease me and tell me I was a cheap date, cuz I didn't like
    lobster or shrimp! (And I don't really go for prime rib, either! :^) )

    	The only way I can eat shrimp is mixed up in something like
    Chinese food.

    	amy

    New Englanders who don't like Lobstah. HERETICS! :-) I agree on the
    clams and oysters. As some know, I adore shrimp, lobster, and crab.
    
    Carla, I can understand. You don't live in New England. Jody, shame,
    shame. :-) Actually, some of these are aquired tastes. I was very sick
    the 1st few times I had lobster.
    
    We like what we like and no one can force us to eat what we don't want.
    
    PJ

    Affirming my faith in lobster!  Clams - yum  Mussels - double yum
    
    Oysters -- BLECH.  Cold slime.. And as I saw on the news recently, cold
    DISEASED slime!
    
    Shrimp - yum  Crab - yum...etc........
    
    In fact, the little known ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT clearly states that
    shellfish does not count on the Kosher laws!
    
    Daniel

The first person to ever eat a lobster must have been very brave.

    re .483
    
    ........or very hungry!!!
    
    -jer-

    Lobster is ok, but over-rated. Then again, that's how I feel
    about the Beatles ;-)

    So I was in Pier 1 Imports last night and I was looking at the nice
    wood bowl sets and Lazy Susans and was thinking, "Those are HOUSE
    things.  Nice things that you get when you have a house and are not
    moving around every year."
    
    This started off a thought tangent about me buying a house.  It seemed
    like a really scary thing because it would effectively "tie me down". 
    I couldn't just decide to get up and move because I would need to sell
    a house.  So I started thinking about things like if did buy one where
    would it be, and would my friends be around, and if I could handle
    living there for an extended period of time.  Then of course the "what
    if I lost my job, how could I make payments" thought, and the "I don't
    really want to actually own a house in Mass. because of the bozo things
    that the legislature does".  Just weird thought patterns.
    
    IT DID NOT OCCUR TO ME THAT I MIGHT BE SHARING THE HOUSE WITH
    ANOTHER PERSON.
    
    When the thought of actually sharing the house and responsibilities
    with an SO finally crept in (after about ten minutes of thought), it
    was really weird.  I absolutely could not imagine that as being a
    viable scenario.  Very similar to the feeling one gets when they
    think of being an Olympic downhill skier or championship surfer.  Nice
    to think about, but let's get back to reality.  
    
    The only reality I ever thought about was that if I ever wanted a house
    I would be buying it myself.
    
    Egads.  I thought you had to be at least 30 before you got jaded.
    And I quickly nixed the house idea too.
    
    Lisa

    Lobster is my favorite food.  (I also can't remember ever *not* knowing
    how to eat it.  I guess I watched people eat lobster from infancy on up
    so it seemed like something I was born knowing how to do.)
    
    Sat. before last when I spent the day in the Portsmouth-Kittery area I
    had twin lobsters for lunch and a lobster sandwich for supper.  :-)
    
    Lorna
    

    re:  .481 by CGVAX2::CONNELL
    
    Heretics!!  You're right.  I just love all that kinda stuff.  Lobsta,
    crab, and clams I can eat 'em raw, fried, baked, steamed - yum - and
    oysters, too.  Deeelicious.  But it does get a little scary, lately,
    with most of our harbors being polluted. 
    But last week I had raw oysters and cherrystones, anyway. 
    Absolutely fantastic!  
    
    -Dotti.

    The more people who don't like shellfish, the better!  More for me!!
    
    but, frankly, I just don't understand it.  I am not terribly fond of
    fish, but I love just about every kind of shellfish...lobster, crab,
    oysters (raw and smoked), mussels braised in red wine and garlic,
    clams stuffed with bacon and breadcrumbs and baked until sizzling,
    scallops swimming in a delicate savory cream sauce, sweet shrimp tossed
    with fettucini in rich garlicky butter sauce, succulent whole steamers,
    dunked lovingly in warm, smooth...
    
    er, ah, exuse me, I have to go take a cold shower now.
    
    D!

    
    re -2
    
    Raw lobster?!!!   Ouch.
    
    :-)
    
    Justine
    
    ps  I do think this is a regional thing.  I had dinner with a friend
    who moved to a coastal town (from PA) when she was about 6 or 7.  She
    (at the age of 29) had never had steamers.  I had to show her how to 
    eat it when she asked to try one.  We both giggled through the whole
    thing as she pointed out to me all the things it looked like.  And she
    didn't even like it after all that.

    re:.490...
    
    Justine, not raw lobster....raw oysters and clams...I guess I messed up
    grammatically.
    
    -Dotti.

    
    Dotti,
    
    I don't think you messed up -- I just saw the opportunity to be a wise
    gyn and jumped in.
    
    Justine

Sorry, I have to count myself in with the "fish-but-not-shellfish" crowd.
I just DIE for a good fillet of something-or-other, but lobsters, clams,
shrimp just don't do it for me.  My attitude about all those bivalves and
crustaceans is that I'll eat 'em if I'm starving, but I won't go out of my
way for them...

And I certainly won't pay $7/pound for the "privilege" 8-)

And yes, I was born and lived all my life in New England.

Funny thing is, this was the original attitude towards lobster... back
in the days when they were so plentiful that they washed up on the beach
(e.g. 1700's), they were considered trash.  They used to feed them to
prisoners because honest folk wouldn't touch 'em.  Even then, it was illegal
to serve lobster more than three times a week... something about cruel and
unusual punishment or something like that...

--jim

Lobsters and crabs make me break out in severe, potentially life-threatening
hives.

Bruce

    A REAL lobster lover can eat the whole lobster with out using
    any tools...   Steamers are great!!! King crab legs are right up
    there.. oysters raw are OK so are clams on the half-shell....
    
    REK

 I have gotten sick the last few times I've had raw bivalves and alcohol. Not
a fun experience. Not sure why, but it seems to be a trend. :-( This especially
sucks because I simply adore cherrystones.

 I don't especially care for crab, except snow crab legs and king crab. Lobster,
of course, is divine. :-)

 I am beginning to enjoy fish more now. As a kid I hated it. Of course, the
fact that my mother did not prepare it to my satisfaction contributed greatly
to my dislike for it. (I used to give the Filipino woman all my trout; she'd
give me candy bars. :^)

 The Doctah   (wishin' he was fishin')

    I have never had lobsters 'cause I can't imagine eating anything that
    looks like a bug. It just completely grosses me out.
    
    manisha

 What, is the exoskeleton off-putting? :-)

Well, I grew up in New England and I absolutely hate seafood. All of it,
shellfish and regular fish. But then again I grew up in Vermont and they
don't have those ugly lobster things in Lake Champlain. And I'm not sure
if Vermont is still part of New England anyway...

Jenna

    Re .486: Your note rang a few bells for me, although mine's a different
    case. I have a house, and live in it quite happily (for the most part)
    by myself. The tied-down factor didn't trouble me much because I don't
    tend to uproot myself very often, and if I did it would have to be for
    something that made it worth the hassle of ditching the house. But I
    have noticed that I've gotten very, very used to having the place to
    myself, and whenever I have guests staying over I have to go through a
    significant readjustment. "There are other people in the house; I can't
    assume that food that was in the 'fridge yesterday will be there today.
    There are other people in the house; I can't just ignore them, even if
    what I want most to do is to curl up in front of the tube and swill
    beer. There are other people in the house, so the bathroom may not be
    free when I want it, and there may be noise and clutter that I didn't
    make, or my own noise and clutter might bug somebody else...

    "Be careful. There are other people in the house."

    I guess I'm the prototypical introvert, for whom being with other
    people costs energy rather than gives it. I like being hospitable, and
    had a wonderful time when my parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephew
    all stayed with me over Christmas, but it - was - a - strain. A BIG
    strain. At this point in my life, it would take either a catastrophe or
    a miracle to get me to share my house with someone on a permanent
    basis. 

    If that's being jaded, it must be OK, because I'm well past 30. ;-)
    
    -b

    for the longest time I wouldn't eat fish or shellfish cuz it's alien
    flesh (not a mammal or bird).  Then I met Bob.  He got me started on
    baked stuffed shrimp, then fish.  I've recently started on lobstah.
    
    but crabs -- yech.  and anything raw, no not me.  not till I'm starving
    to death, thanks.

    
    Since I've discovered soft-shelled crabs, I'll pass on the
    lobster, thank you.
    
    -sigh- too bad they're only here a couple months a year.
    

    
    never et lobstuh. but did try oystuhs once, which were wasted on my
    coarse, chiliravaged palate
    
    the highest and best use of mussels is as bait to ketch the fishies..

    Love lobstahs, clams (raw or steamed), oysters, mussels, crab, soft
    shell crabs boiled with lots of spice, snails (ate 18 for my birthday
    in a slobber of garlic butter).
    
    I can dismantle and demolish a lobstah in what seems like seconds.
    
    Accompanied by ice cold beer or good white wine, depending on the
    locale.  Lobster mayonnaise and champagne is rather a delight.

    D and Dotti. Raw oysters I draw the line at. Raw anything non-veggie i
    draw the line at. Even I have my limits. BTW a question. Are raw
    oysters really an aphrodisiac? :-) Judging from D's note, yes. Just
    kidding. Have to keep some silly stereotypes and rumors ya know.
    
    PJ

    Raw oysters are not, in my experience, an aphrodisiac...
    
    Sushi, however, *is*.  Mmmmmmm!!!  Lemmee just tell you about the first
    time I had sushi...it was a second date with a guy who was soon to
    become my SO and...
    
    Oops, I can't talk about this sort of thing in the notesfile.
    
    D!

    D, you can to talk about it here. You'll just get set hidden by a mod.
    Probably yourself as soon as you've read what you've written. :-)
    
    
    Now to go elsewhere. Because of the ratholed talk about escalators, I
    remembered that ever since I saw them and to this day, I have a nearly
    uncontrollable urge to go up the down escalator and viceversa. I have
    never acted on this bizarrely perverted fantasy, :-) but someday...
    
    PJ

    rah, 
    
    *Why* would you want to boat fishies?
    
    
    E Grace

	Lobster is yummy when I'm in the mood for it, but I like crab better 
	(*real* crabs from Maryland, anyway).  Shrimp is up there too.  As 
	far as bivalves go, Ican take 'em or leave 'em.


	I have several times been unable to resist the temptation of going
	up the down escalator (to the great embarrassment of those with me 
	at the time).  But, now that Ithink about it, I've never gone down
	the up escalator.  I'll have to keep that in mind...


	*A*

    
    Lobster bisque !!
    
    Need I say more ?
    
    Rich

Now here is a true confession...

    I'd never heard of a bivalve before, and if it weren't so utterly
    obvious from context that it's a type of seafood, I would have
    thought it was something I should have had replaced long ago in my
    car.

        I have this mental image, probably from some long ago
        school book, of a "food pyramid" with stuff like plankton
        at the bottom and people on top.  And it just never
        seemed right to eat things more than a couple levels
        below ones spot on the pyramid. ;-)
        
        Dan
        
        p.s. in binary this is note 1011.1000000000 :-)

    
    I have pulled down the privacy blinds and danced naked in my
    new apartment *every* morning since I moved in (last week).
    
    Surely the only way to start the day?
    D'ya think anyone would guess how THRILLED I am to be there? ;-)
    
    'gail

    The best thing about lobsters and clams is that there is
    an industry that keeps people employed.  'Course the fishermen
    will always complain that they don't get enough $$$ but, hell, at
    least they're working and there's SOMEONE ELSE who likes the product.
    
    ed

    re: 513
    
    They would be even more thrilled if you left the shades up. %-}
    
    Bruce

    
    When I was 11, my aunt married in Boston, necessitating a trip east.  
    My parents took their three daughters to Amalfi's in Back Bay, and 
    ordered lobsters, figuring that they would get our leftovers.  (Kids
    then ages 11, 8, and 6).  Much to their surprise, there were none. 
    From then until we all moved east, the family rule was "If you're going
    through Logan, bring back lobster".  Back in the '60's, grocery stores
    didn't have tanks of the animal available, so that was our only chance
    to get them.
    
    My father was a native of Baltimore, and his mother taught me the joys
    of Maryland crab on visits to see her even younger than my intro to
    lobster.  :-)
    
    Bivalves, however, have never made it onto my list of favorite foods,
    and in fact I avoid them like crazy.
    
    Alison

    re: -1
    
    Ben,
    
    Where is that place you go to every summer - the island off the coast
    of NH?  Sounds too good to miss.  How does one get there???
    
    re:  a few back...Phil, yup, I think oysters are an aphrodisiac!! MHO!
    
    -Dotti.

    Dana (or whoever),
    
    *NO* food which requires enormous amounts of melted butter could
    possibly be overrated.
    
    Has anyone else experienced the greasy bliss of hot clamcakes --
    with lots of salt?
    
    					Ann B.

    I love lobster.  The one food I've tried to like (cos everyone seems to
    go bonkers over them!) that I just can't acquire a taste for is
    mushrooms.  Yech!  The texture of them in my mouth always reminds me of
    eyeballs, and then I have to spit 'em out.  :-)  Okay, so my manners
    could use a bit of improvement.  ;-)
    
    -jc
    

    The trouble with going up the down escalator or down the up escalator
    is that very often this confuses the escalator's teensy-weensy brain
    into shooting vast amounts of escalator adrenaline into the escalator
    bloodstream, whereupon it goes catatonic.  Completely and utterly
    stops. Not only to the embarrassment of the anti-goer, but to the
    dreadful inconvenience of those who can't walk up/down all those
    stairs. As with so many cool ideas, the resulting guilt is... just...
    Well.
    
    Don't ask how I know this,
    Ray

    I've packed more 'stuff' for my upcoming vacation on my own than I've
    ever packed for a vacation that I went on with someone[s].  Books,
    sewing, needlework, tapes, diaries, hiking boots, maps, ... it's going
    to be a time to indulge of a sort that I've not given myself in years!
    
    Now I find that I want to pack a bunch of friends, too.  Not for the
    whole stay, mind you.  Just to 'unpack' for certain activities or
    special things a want to show this one or that one or the next one.
    
    I hope my friends won't feel like commodities now ... I don't mean to
    reduce you to objects to be used for my personal gratification.
    
    Honest!
    
      Annie

I looove lobsters!  Especially since I brought some home from the _WN_ 
party and shared them with a friend who has since become my SO.  :-)  I
guess that means I like them for sentimental reasons as well as gastro-
nomic ones.  :-)

I spent all day Monday playing with my best friend.  We went to the mall
in Boulder to shop for lingerie and ended up buying these splatter balls.  
You throw them at any surface and they splat out and then sloooowly contract
back into balls.  We threw them at every surface in the mall and finally 
exhausted possible surfaces there so we went over to my Mom's office and threw 
them at her desk!  :-)  Later that afternoon we found another toy store that
carried intergalactic planetary ooze which I bought.  It's really dreadful
stuff and doesn't do much so i think I'll give it to my daughter for her 
birthday (aren't I a bad Mom?).  They also had these pieces of styrofoam that 
are painted to look like granite rocks.  We spent quite a while standing
there bashing each other over the head with them.  When we left and came back 
later to buy them, the man behind the counter looked up and said, "Oh!  It's
the rock ladies!"  :-)

I love to play!!!

Nanci

    
    
    i hate lobster - eating it or wearing it.

	The closest thing I have ever done to 'killing my own food' is to go
quahogging in the summer and scalloping in the late fall.

	Believe me, scallops taste really good after you've spent an hour in
the ocean, up to your chest, in November.  Even with waders, gloves, several
sweatshirts and a hat, it's a cold place to be.


						--D

    
    re .519
    
    One of the real summer treats when I was small - piping hot, salty
    clam fritters eaten while sitting in the car at East Beach in
    Westport, Mass.  
    
    Ann, thanks for the reminder.
    
    clb

    in re 'bivalves'.
    
    Bivalves are of the order Mollusca which includes the snails the 
    squids, the octopus, the slug, the sea slug (and presumably the
    'banana slug' ;-} ) the chambered nautalis, the cuttlefish, the
    oyster, the clam, the scallop, the muscle, etc.
    
    They have many things in common such as some sort of shell or
    rudimentary shell (only the octopus lacks one altogether).
    The 'bivalves' are characterized by having the shell split
    into two halves or 'valves'.
    
    Bonnie

    re .527
    
    > the clam, the scallop, the muscle
    
    oooooh, I'm covered with bivalves...little did I know, that while 
    doing aerobics and working out at the club, I was developing my
    bivalves....surprised I haven't heard anyone whistle and say, Hey,
    check out those bivalves!
    
    or, did you mean mussels?
    
    cheryl_the_hopeless_pedant

    Frankly scallop, I don't give a clam.  ;->
    
    I thought of about half a dozen witty replies to Dotti's note .518
    about oysters (as well as the others), but I'll be shucked and steamed
    if I can think of one that won't get me in serious trouble. ;->
    
    The best oysters and cherrystone clams I ever had were on a biology
    field trip in South Carolina.  Half the class was shuckin' an' slurpin'
    and the other half was gagging and turning green.  Golly those were
    good.
    
    8-)
    jimc
    

    re: -1
    
    	JIMC, thanks for sharing that with us!!!  #;-) hahahaha
    	
    	-Dotti.

    awwww, would you just clam up!

    What are you trying to do?  Give me a haddock?  I mean, what's the
    porpoise?  I think we should FINnish carping on this theme.  I warrant
    the scales of justice will kip in my favor!
    
    Daniel

    
    as we waltz to the strains of "Salmon Chanted Evening"....
    
    nah, this is just a fluke
    it won't continue.
    
    of course, when it comes to puns, ya gotta remember, I'm kelpless!
    
    -Jody
    

	And I always thought "Salmon Chanted Evening" was a reel,
	not a waltz..

					Tom_K

    Ya know, every once in a while, I get the feeling that the punsters in
    here are just fishing for compliments.
    
    keep it up gang, a good punfest makes my day.
    
    PJ

    what, do I look like I just came up the pike, here?  I know, I know,
    I'm really being shellfish, using up all the fish puns.
    
    But hopefully this isn't too deep for you to fathom ;).
    
    -Jody
    
    

You fell for it -- hook, line, and sinker.

I've haddock up to my bass with all that's going on in some other strings. Some
of these comments may fall flat, buit we won't carp on that. I won't dog with
my tale any more. It's been fin.

Bruce

    I love crab the way they prepare it a Tall Oaks in Pasadena, Maryland.
    Clean out the ickys and replace with a crabmeat dressing mixture.  
    Dunk the whole crab in batter and deep fry.  Geez, I miss this.
    
    Jan

    I don't like lobster, crab etc. etc. either.....I do like
    scallops, clams (no bellies) and fish, fried, of course!
    
    But what I do love, is catching the stuff!  Fishing is
    enjoyable, and going crabbing is lots of fun!  We go
    down to this *place*, put on wading boots and carry a flashlight
    and a net, and go out in the water when the tide is changing.
    Chasing the crab is half the fun...I let my husband eat my
    share of the catch! ;-)
    
    HRH              
    

    Wet Dreams 
    
    It was April the 41st, being a quadruple leap year. I was driving in
    downtown Atlantis.  My Barracuda was in the shop, so I was in a rented
    Stringray, and it was overheating, so I pulled into a Shell station. 
    They said I'd blown a seal.  I said, "Fix the damn thing and leave my
    personal life out of it.  OK, Pal?"
    
    While they were doing that, I walked over to a place called the Oyster
    Bar.  A real dive, but I knew the owner -- he used to play for the
    Dolphins. I said, "Hi, Gill!"   You have to yell -- he's hard of
    herring.
    
    Gill was also down on his luck -- fact is, he was barely keeping his
    head below water.  I bellied up to the sandbar; he poured me the usual:
    rusty snail, hold the grunion, shaken not stirred, with a peanut butter
    and jellyfish sandwich on the side, heavy on the mako.  I slipped him a
    fin -- on porpoise.  I was feeling good.  I even dropped a sand dollar
    in the box for Jerry's squids -- for the halibut.
    
    Well, the place was crowded; we were packed in like sardines.  They
    were all there to listen to the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsal.   What
    sole.  Tommy was rockin' the place with a very popular tuna, "Salmon
    Chanted Evening," and that stage was surrounded by creaming groupers,
    probably there to see the bass player.  One of them was this cute
    little yellowtail, and she's giving me the eye, so I figured this is my
    chance for a little fun.  You know, a piece of Pisces.
    
    But she was saying things I just couldn't fathom.  She was too deep,
    seemed to be under a lot of pressure.  Boy, could she drink.  She drank
    like a...she drank a lot.  I said, "What's your sign?"  She said
    "Aquarium." I said, "Great!  Let's get tanked!"
    
    I inivted her up to my place for a little midnight bat.  I said "C'mon,
    baby, it'll only take a few minnows."  She threw me that same old line: 
    "Not tonight.  I got a haddock."
    
    And she wasn't kidding, either, 'cuz in came the biggest, meanest
    haddock I'd ever seen come down the pike.  He was covered with mussels. 
    He came over to me and said, "Listen, shrimp.  Don't come trolling
    around here."  What a crab.  This guy was steamed. I could see the
    anchor in his eyes.
    
    I turned to him. I said "Abalone!  You're just being shellfish."  Well,
    I knew there was going to be trouble, and so did Gill, 'cuz he was
    already on the phone to the cods.  The haddock hits me with a sucker
    punch.  I catch him with a left hook.  He eels over. It was a fluke,
    but there he was, lying on the deck, flat as a mackerel.  Kelpless.
    
    I said, "Forget the cods, Fill; this guy's gonna need a sturgeon." 
    Well, the yellowtail was impressed with the way I landed her boyfriend. 
    She came over to me.  She said, "Hey, big boy, you're really a game
    fish.  What's your name?"  I said, "Marlin."
    
    Well, from then on we had a whale of a time.  I took her to dinner; I
    took her to dance; I bought her a bouquet of flounders.  And then I
    went home with her. And what did I get for my troubles?  A case of the
    clams.

    I think I'll go to the cafateria now for some french fries and
    hAMBERGRIS!
    
    \D/

    
    that was by Skip Odatta, I think
    he also did one on computers, intimating a sexual encounter
    and one on vegetables.
    
    a very punny man!
    
    -Jody
    

    .541
    
    Ohhh!  You're *krilling* me!
    
    Daniel
    
    p.s.  have we had enough pun-ishment yet?

    best story this side o' the pike.

    I don't think I can stand all this PUNishment.  We're all diving down a
    rathole.
    
    -Pete

    
    	Lobstah???  Yum!!!!!!  The story I read in National Geographic
    was that the puritan settlers in the 1600's found these strange 
    looking creatures walking upon the beach.  They weighed around *60-
    70 pounds* and were not considered for human consumption--they fed
    these "things" to their *pigs*!!!  (Best fed pigs ever!)
    	I can imagine these people being intimidated by lobsters that 
    large!!!  What would you cook them in????!!!
    
    As for clam fritters, yea!  Which reminds me, in less than a month
    I get to eat my way through the New England states.  How you say??
    Why, at the Big E of course ! (No, not E Grace!), otherwise known 
    as the Eastern States Exposition, just over the river from me in
    West Springfield.  Can't wait!!
    
    
    Debbi
    

    re.547 the fritters they serve at the Big E are atrocious - balls
    of dough with a mere taste of clam. fooey.

    re: Wet Dreams  hahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha
    
    I laughed so hard I cried.  That was a whale of a story.  I gonna print
    it out and show it to my teenage squids.  I say the pun IS the porpoise
    in life.  life is a beach, then you dive.
    
    8-))
    jimc
    

    
    Nick (Bartoo),
    
    DougO's reminder about your entering active military duty soon made me
    think of the movie HAIR (I believe it's different from the play - same
    music, different story line).  Anyway, I just watched it (again) a few
    weeks ago - this young man is drafted into the army and has to report 
    to the induction center in NYC.  There he meets up with some hippies (it 
    *was* the 60s), and he has some adventures with them that (I think) change 
    his outlook on life.  Maybe you'll find a copy of it in your local library 
    (that's where I found it) or video store and check it out -- if you can 
    stand the music.  I think my sweetie only sat through it as a great act of 
    kindness to me.  Not sure why thinking about you going into active duty
    made me think of that movie -- maybe you'll tell me?
    
    Justine

    Justine-
    
    You didn't like the music?
    
    Hair, long beautiful hair.......
    
    HRH

    
>    Nick (Bartoo),
    
>    Not sure why thinking about you going into active duty
>    made me think of that movie -- maybe you'll tell me?
    
>    Justine
    
    
    Justine,
                Huh?
    
    
    

 re: Lynne

 I thought the original soundtrack was the tubes when I was a mere lad.
Listening to it again as an adult brought back alot of memories, plus
I finally understood alot of the lyrics (now wonder my dad feigned ignorance
when I asked him "What is fellatio?" "What is sodomy?" "What is cunnilingus?"
"Just latin words, son." :-)

 The Doctah

    Re: Doctah
    
    I like musicals very much, and that one is one of my favs.....
    Luckily, when I asked those questions, mom always told the
    truth....;-)
    
    HRH

 I was only 8 years old. ;^)

               
    I love the music!  I just didn't think a 21 year old would think it was
    so cool.  In fact, you can tell this movie was made in the 70s (late)
    even though it's about the 60s.  One of the songs has a decidedly disco
    beat -- doesn't this really make you want to see it, Nick?
    
    What can I say this clean-cut kid from the country gets drafted, meets
    up with some hippies, and becomes, well, let's just say I doubt he
    voted for Nixon in '68 (though he might have voted for him in '60).
    
    I can't help it, I'm sitting here, I read a note of DougO's, and
    suddenly I fantasize that I'm seeing you in this 90's remake of HAIR 
    -- I've never even met you.  This is True Confessions, though, so I
    thought I'd confess.
               
    
    Justine

    	"LBJ
    	 took the IRC
    	 down to 4th street
    	 USA-a.
    
    	 When he got there
    	 What did he see?
    	 The youth of America on
    	 LSD...."
    
    Black Boys/White Boys
    
    Bless The Sunshine/Let The Sunshine In
    
    "Oh say, can you see
     My eyes, if you can then my hair's too short!"
    
    Nick, you'll never know.  'course it's not one of life's more serious
    issues!  Pretty silly show, a light-hearted look at what was otherwise
    a serious, life/death issue for lots of men (getting drafted for 'Nam)
                                                                          

Sara,  I can tell *you* never lived in New York :-):

>	"LBJ
>    	 took the IRC
>    	 down to 4th street
>    	 USA-a.

That's either IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit)  or
IND (INDependent Transit Co); I believe they both stop at 4th St. (I'm
sure some *real* Noo Yawkahs will come screaming in if I'm wrong :-)

Bobbi "Wheeeee! My group met its deadline today!!!!" Fox

        The mention  of  'Hair' brought back a memory I had forgotten -
        back in the  early  '60s,  I  flew  the nest and left home.  My
        parents decided to 'get  with  it'  :^)  and bought me the Hair
        album when I returned for  the first time - birthday present or
        something.
        
        Anyway, I unwrapped it, and none of us ever having heard it, my
        mother put it on the record player  and  away we went.  Now, my
        mother is this arch-conservative Scottish woman - I  can  still
        remember the look on her face on hearing;
        
                       "Masturbation can be fuuuuunnn..."
        
        I  was  surprised  she  knew what masturbation was -  ahh,  the
        inncocence of youth!
        

    
    
    That all sounds very interesting, though not as good as Top Gun or Iron
    Eagle.
    
    
    I see my barber 10 times for every once I see my dentist.
    
    N
    

    Yeah, kids have trouble realizing that their parents ever new anything
    about sex.  In fact, many of them think they have discovered something
    entirely new and worthy of a Nobel prize in research 8-).
    
    And yes, the song says IRT.  And I saw the play at Salem State College
    a couple of years back.  It was great and they did the nude scene
    really well as well as the rest of the play.
    
    8-0   arrest them young perverts?
    jimc

    I enjoy the horse back riding scene, naturally! ;-)
    
    
    HRH

    Justine!  I'm only 23 and I *love* HAIR!  I much prefer the Broadway
    soundtrack to the movie version, though!
    
    My favorite song is "Frank Mills"...
    
    "...he's got golden chains on his leather jacket,
    and on the back are written the names
    Mary
    and Mom
    and Hell's Angels..."
    
    D!

Re: .560

> I see my barber 10 times for every once I see my dentist.

Gettin' a little long in the tooth there, ole Nick?

	:-)
	-- Charles

P.S. I see my hairstylist over 20 times for every once I see my dentist. So?

    
    
    You really should take better care of your teeth.

> You really should take better care of your teeth.

Sez you. That's not what my dentist says. You would have been closer to the
mark if you'd said:

	"You shouldn't play with your hair so much."

I see my hairstylist once a week. Tuesday, 4:30pm.

	-- Charles

>    Yeah, kids have trouble realizing that their parents ever new anything
>    about sex.  In fact, many of them think they have discovered something
>    entirely new and worthy of a Nobel prize in research 8-).

Well hey... if your parents told you stork stories and never let ON
that they knew anything about sex, what the h*ll would YOU think? 8-)
Most kids end up doing a Nobel prize's worth of research trying to
piece the facts of life together 8-)

Since this is "true confessions", I guess I've gotta 'fess up something,
so here goes:  I got about half of my sex education by breaking into my
parents' bedroom when they were out of the house and rifling through
their (mostly dad's) books and magazines.

Funny thing is, despite my viewing hard evidence that they KNEW exactly
what sex was, I still for the life of me couldn't picture them DOING
it.................

[oh yeah:  I got the OTHER half of my sex education by filching my big
sister's copy of "Our Bodies, Ourselves".  Originally I picked it up
'cause it had pictures of nekkid wimmin in it, but I stuck around long
enough to read the words as well 8-) ]

--jim

    re.566 that 'natural' look is hard to maintain, huh?

> re.566 that 'natural' look is hard to maintain, huh?

No no, Dana, you misunderstand. I go once a week to get it washed and
conditioned, and that's it. You see I'm very lazy, very decadent, and well off
enough to spend $20 a week lying back and letting someone play with my hair.

It's better than a three martini lunch, and cheaper than a therapist.

The "natural" look comes from not doing anything with it the other 6 days. :-)

	-- Charles

 Oh, Donna, Oh-Oh Donna, Oh-Oh-Oh Lookin' for my Donna...

 Manchester England, England, across the atlantic sea...

 Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare...

 I think I'll be borrowing the disk from my neighbor again soon. :-)

	I knew who CTAN was.

				--D

                           -< she was a psychadelic virgin >-
    
    I thought it was "psychedelic urchin" and "16 year old virgin".
    
    (My Donna, of course, -> madonna, which takes on a whole new meaning in
    light of the current pop scene.  :-)
    
    D!

 Yer probably right. 

Re: .570 (Hair)

Yes! That's the one scene I clerly remember from the stage show too!  You'd
think I would remember the nude scene, seeing as I was a hormone-crazed
eighteen-year-old, but that's not the case.

We listened to the CD over the weekend - I'd forgotten how much good music
was there, mixed in with the "in your face" lyrics.

Ben

>>We listened to the CD over the weekend - I'd forgotten how much good music
>>was there, mixed in with the "in your face" lyrics.

I thought the "in your face" lyrics were pretty good, myself...guess I just
have an attitude.  8^}

    I cried myself to sleep the night I heard Nikita Khruschev was barred
    from visiting Disneyland.
    
    Child of the Cold War that I was, it still broke my heart to think of
    him looking in at the gate and not being able to touch the magic. 
    Maybe I thought he'd be a lot friendlier and nice if he was allowed to
    have some sunshine in his life -- no wonder he was always grumpy and
    shouting, he lived in a cold and frightening version of hell.
    
      Annie

    re: .577 (Annie)
    
         Perhaps this isn't the place for this, but I salute the 
    courage of the Russian people who are literally putting their
    lives on the line to prevent the reoccurrence of the dark,
    recent past.  Maybe Nikita's life has served as an example for
    some of what needs to be avoided.  
         Lots of those personages from our past, who were brilliant
    or strong or otherwise creative or noteworthy, failed to inspire
    or impress due to what might have been the chink in their armour.
    Too bad so many otherwise potentially beneficial people go on to
    cause more damage than they could even guess at, simply as a 
    consequence of a failure to understand their pain and as a failure
    in learning how to love.  
         I am grateful for those on the planet now who are committed to
    their rights to self-determination, who are willing to provide their
    ultimate sacrifice for the conviction of their principles.
    
    Frederick
    

    re.578
    
    What are you trying to tell me?
    
    FWIW, I don't believe anything was served by denying this man a chance
    at pleasure. When I was a child, it caused me grief. Now remembering
    it causes me residual anger at a mean-spiritedness I was taught had no
    place in the US/American Way of Life.  It was a mini-death of faith and
    idealism -- some of which was reborn, but without the new-washed golden
    promise that it had formerly owned.
    
    While a review of Khruschev's policies and practices don't leave me
    feeling warm and fuzzy in the least, I must hasten to add that he made
    quite the giant stride away from Stalinism.  In retrospect, he may have
    set in motion a force of change that made recent events inevitable.
    
      Annie
    
    

    Annie,
    
    If it's any comfort to you, he was denied entry to Disneyland
    because every Soviet and American security person went pale at
    the idea of protecting him there.  There was no way that he
    could be guaranteed a pleasant (meaning non-fatal) visit.
    
    						Ann B.

    oh,
    
    my mother told me it was because Walt Disney didn't feel he was fit to
    lick the pavement ...

    They shut down or opened late at night, DL (or was it DW) for 
    Michael Jackson to have a private visit....I believe he paid
    for the priviledge, tho'.....
    
    HRH
	

    re: Annie
    
         I'm sorry, as too often is the case, I didn't express my full
     sentiments very well.  I agree that it was sad that Kruschev couldn't
    have a bit of fun.  And I agree with you in that he helped loosen
    some old ties just a little bit (although they were rebonded by
    Brezhnev and a couple of others.)  In fact, in not for Kruschev,
    the Cuban Missle Crisis could easily have gone the way of a major
    war (recently Fidel Castro allowed some personal correspondence between
    himself and Kruschev to be published...it shows very clearly that
    Castro was hot-headed and wanted to attack the U.S., while Kruschev
    remained calm and diplomatic in dealing with him.)  
        What I meant was that too bad that there was so much "bad blood"
    and lack of trust, etc. going on...and that people today, not unlike
    you, remember what these misgivings have brought...and how little
    fun has been the result.  And how rightfully, I think, they do not
    wish to return to an impotent past.
    
    Frederick
    

	Of course, Kruschev precipitated the crisis by shipping the 
	atomic weapons to Cuba in the first place....

	I always thought the reason he was not allowed to visit Disneyland 
	was that there were areas of the USSR that US citizens could
	not visit, and in retaliation, the US established areas
	where USSR citizens could not visit, and Disneyland happened to be in 
	the middle of one of them...

					Tom_K

    I think The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a boring movie.
    
    I've never had any interest in going to either Disney Land or Disney
    World.  
    
    Frozen yogurt makes me gag.  There's nothing like real soft serve *ice*
    *cream* (especially chocolate & vanilla twist) and I hate to see the
    growing trend towards frozen yogurt, with that nasty after taste which
    makes me know I didn't have ice cream!
    
    Lorna
    

    WHAAAAATTT!!!???
    
    Rocky Horror Picture Show is not, I repeat _not_, I repeat NOT boring.
    
    I'm a big fan.
    
    Alice T.
    
    Don't dream it.

    Alice, be fair...
    
    Noboby goes to Rocky Horror for the screen happenings...you go for the
    floor show and to throw things around inside a movie theatre...
    
    Except for the music...the movie itself is fun the same way "Killer
    Tomatoes" was fun
    
    Daniel

    Well, it bores *me*, although I admit I do like the part where Meatloaf
    sings.  But, most of it just drags.
    
    Also, I've never seen it in a theater where people were dressed up,
    etc.  I saw it at somebody's house and I thought, "I can't believe this
    boring thing is what all the fuss is about."
    
    Lorna
    

>real soft serve *ice* *cream* 

 Seems oxymoronic when you put it that way. Real ice cream is not "soft serve,"
except by gummint stds....

    I thought Kruschev was allowed to go to Freedom Land instead...
    
    Maybe I misremember?
    
      Margaret

    What's Freedom Land?  !!!!
    
    

    It's now closed.  It was an amusement park.
    
    Heck, you think something like that could be real?  :^}
    
       Margaret

    
    I'd been raving (good choice of word, I think) about Rocky Horror
    Picture Show for years, and I finally found a tape of it to show my
    sweetie.  I think she liked it ok, but even as I (an ardent fan) sat
    there watching it out of context, without the live floor show, found it
    a little boring.  Lorna, if you get the chance, see if live some Friday
    or Saturday night in Harvard Square (only shows at midnight) -- hmmm...
    sounds like a possible Womannotes outing to me...
    
    Justine

    Justine, want to make this a -wn- outing? I've wanted to see it for a
    couple of years now. My friends saw it in school and talked about it
    for hours. They didn't say a word about the movie, only about what was
    going on in the theatre.
    
    manisha

    Harvard Square, Loews Theatre production is amazing!! I saw it 5 times
    last summer. I recommend waiting until the students get back in
    September, as no-one makes any effort with costume until then. However,
    at Harvard, they frisk you at the door for props, etc.
    
    Alice T.

Re: .589

> Real ice cream is not "soft serve,"
> except by gummint stds....

I beg to differ.  I used to work as a mechanical designer for a company
that manufactured soft-serve machines.  The primary difference is in the
temperature - you can make either soft-serve or hard ice cream using the
same mix.  Soft-serve is ideally held and served at 26 degrees F (-4 C),
while hard ice cream is ideally held and served at about 0 F (-18 C).

You can alter the quality of either soft-serve or hard ice cream by
controlling the amount of air that is whipped into the mix during the
freezing process (called overrun).  Cheap store-brand hard ice cream
can have as much as 60% overrun; good ice cream, either soft-serve or
hard, has more like 15% overrun.  Soft-serve "frozen custard" has about
8% overrun and is so bloody rich you gain weight just by being in the
same room with it.

-d

 The primary difference... is in the taste! :-)

    Oh, frozen custard, be still my beating heart.
    
    It's the flavor of hot summer nights on the New Jersey shore boardwalk.
    There, to the left, the ocean sesurrates on the sand; ahead, the lights
    and honkey tonk of the rides; behind, the waltzes of the merry go round
    horses in circular gallop. All around the pungent scents of creosote,
    salt, suntan oil.
    
    And above all, the sweet sweet milky eggy scent of frozen custard,
    whipped frothy and scooped into a hard sugar cone. It melts in seconds
    and slides down your hand.  As a child you lick it, as an adult your
    lover licks it, with other adults decorously use a napkin.      
    
    It is August 1960, 1972, 1991 in Seaside Park, New Jersey.

    re Justine, Manisha, I'd like to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show in
    Harvard Sq.  I'm openminded enough to give it a second chance in a more
    conducive environment.  Maybe we can arrange something for late Sept or
    Oct....
    
    Lorna
    

    
    I confess that I don't have anything to confess as I steal this .x00
    from Dan.
    

    re. gaining weight from being in the same room with (frozen custard)
    
    stop!! stop!! I'm gaining weight just reading this string!!
    
    TC- I have the metabolism of a speed bump.

When I was 19 years old, and 130 pounds, I would go to Rocky Horror wearing
a *very* short, black skirt, black leotard top, fishnet stockings, and high
heels.  My hair and makeup would be done to resemble Magenta.  :-)

    Carol

        
    I confess that I wish Carol duBois would come with us to see Rocky
    Horror picture show dressed as Magenta.
    
    :-)
    
    Justine