This will be the third time this week that I've linked to Avery Tooley. What can I say? The guy writes an interesting blog. There are so many reasons to link to this post I hardly know where to start.
Avery links to an essay about white women with big butts and then talks about his own rating system for female tushes. It's hilarious, unless you happen to be a serious feminist, a White Southern Baptist or otherwise humor challenged. But then, in the next to last paragraph Avery gets philosophical and has some excellent thoughts about self-confidence and dressing appropriately. Finally - an exciting bonus - he gives the definition of a big, obscure word that I hadn't seen before. I love words, especially big, obscure words.
And now a story - My enlightened libertarian half is often in conflict with my old-fashioned morally conservative half. Last Friday I experienced a major flare-up of this confict. At the video rental store I ended up in line behind a thin, young blonde woman. She was signing up for the first time and you know how video stores are. You have to fill out forms, show them your driver's license and a major credit card and provide a notarized affadavit signed by a minimum of three reliable witnesses who are willing to swear on the Bible, the Koran and the Wiccan Book of Spells that you have never eaten your children. Therefore, I was standing behind this woman for a long long time so I had more than enough opportunity to get a good look at her attire.
The first thing I noticed - the thing I would have very much preferred not to have noticed - was her sky blue, meant-to-be-seen underpants with hearts and the word "cutie" repeated around the waistband. Waistband isn't really an accurate term in this case because the top edge of the underwear was nowhere near the girl's waist. Over that garment - or perhaps I should say "below," as it was mostly below - she was wearing baggy, plaid pants that looked like men's pajama bottoms. These pajamas exposed the top two or three inches of the underwear, hanging precariously on her thin, straight hips as if by magic or perhaps they were sewn to the underwear. I don't know how else they could possibly have stayed up. To top it all off she had a thin white knit camisole and I thanked my lucky stars that I was behind her the whole time because I did not detect anything underneath, although, to judge by the rest of her, she probably didn't have anything to put in the appropriate topside undergarment if she had had one.
After the first long gape I stood there in line, watching the movie previews on the store monitor and still seeing the slut girl in my peripheral vision telling myself, 'it's none of your business... it's none of your business...' but at the same time wishing that an older woman or a flaming Bible thumper would get in line behind me so we could talk bad about her in meant-to-be-overheard whispers. Maybe I'm just turning into an old prude, something I always said would never happen to me, but the thing is, it's not just about exposed skin, the outfit wasn't even attractive. It looked like something she stole from the Good Will donation bin. She was a very pretty young woman (I did get a look at her profile) but she spoiled it.
I don't think the way women dress is all about attracting men, at least not conciously. On the concious level it's more about being fashionable and measuring up to other women. What is "attractive" is defined by one's peer group. It's kind of hard to tell girls that what they're wearing is "not appropriate" when they define "appropriate" according to what everyone else is wearing.
Anyway, I think I was going somewhere with this but I got lost on the way and now I'm almost out of time. I never got around to the different ways beauty is defined in different cultures, even the subcultures within the larger American culture. Maybe there will be a part two.
Have you heard about the huge landslide in Japan. I saw the video of it on ABC News last night. (They have nothing about it on their website.) It was an amazing thing to watch - an entire forest, trees and all, sliding down the mountainside. Fortunately, nobody was injured.
posted by Lynn S @ 08:29
(category: News/Politics) 1 comment
Yeah... I do want my crayons back!
On creativity:
Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, "I’d like my crayons back, please."
If all goes according to plan, migraine victims will one day be able to put a gun-like device to their heads and fire magnetic pulses into their skulls, stopping the migraines before they develop. Right now, that plan is in the early stages of clinical testing.
Jason has a couple of great quotes on getting up early.
Most of the time I naturally wake up between 6:00 and 6:30. I guess most people consider that early but I really hate it when I sleep as late as 7:00. As far as I'm concerned, if it weren't for dreams, sleep would be a total waste of time.
Oh, what the heck... let's make it the Quote of the Week. This is good.
I've never been able to work up any interest in Esperanto and the other simplified languages, despite their theoretical value for easy communication, because they're too damn boring. If I can't have irregular verbs, I'd rather grunt and point.
posted by Lynn S @ 21:10
(category: Wordy & Bookish) no comments
#&%*$!!!
I hate it when I read a book review that makes me think, "I've got to get that!" and then I click on the Amazon link and find out that the book costs $62.95 used!
Maybe I'll go to the local small town library and ask for it. They won't have it but it will be fun to watch them trying to pretend that they know who Otto Klemperer was.
What are the most untranslatable words? According to a worldwide poll of professional translators, in English "spam," "gobbledegook" and "serendipity" were amoung the top ten most untranslatable words. The most untranslatable words in any language: ilunga (Bantu) and shlimazl (Yiddish).
posted by Lynn S @ 18:34
(category: Wordy & Bookish) no comments
Random Music Related Thought
I really should get to know more about the music of Shostakovich. I'm especially intersted in the string quartets. There's one - No. 15, I think - that someone reviewed on a message board a long time ago and it made me really interested in that one but I never got around to getting it.
Anyway, I just had to say that before I say this, which is really what I started out to say: I am getting extremely bored with the whole Shostakovich and the Soviets debate which some people apparently find endlessly fascinating even though nothing new has come up in the few years that I've been paying attention to such things.
I had a few of these books! I had forgotten all about them until I saw the covers. Scroll down to where it says "Classic US Editions." I definitely remember Dinosaurs (5001) and Reptiles (5008), and Rocks and Minerals (5004), Birds (5009), Wild Animals (5027) and Mammals (5033) all look familiar. A few others look vaguely familiar. Gosh... I wonder what ever happened to those old books. I want them back and I want all the others that I never got when I was a kid. Add this to my long, long list of reasons why I'm a packrat.
posted by Lynn S @ 12:19
(category: Wordy & Bookish) 2 comments
Religious Discrimination at Work
Here's an interesting post and possibly the beginning of a good discussion about employees being fired for religious reasons or, as in the case cited, being fired for failing to adhere to one's employer's religious requirements while at work. You can read my thoughts on the matter in the comments there.
posted by Lynn S @ 11:01
(category: News/Politics) 2 comments
A Few More Blogs
Some of these have been in my bookmarks for a while and I might have linked to them before. If so, here they are again. A few of them I have found in just the last day or two.
Iraq Kids - News related to the needs and problems of Iraqi children, including articles on the Oil for Food program, education and UNICEF. Last update, July 31st.
Bloodletting - "A marine grunt goes to med school." A good mix of current events and personal observations.
Stereo Describes My Scenario - Politics, race issues, music. Not exactly my kind of music but I did enjoy this post. Very intersting; thanks, Avery.
Just a Reader - Just quotes from books. Recent posts include quotes from The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, My Father and Myself by J. R. Ackerley and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Asian Canadian - Culture. Mostly a listing of local events in several Canadian cities.
Robert's Journal - A LiveJournal. Quotes, personal observations. He recently bought a Smetana CD for only one dollar at a Dollar Tree store, of all places.
The Organ of Corti - A nice culture blog. Sort of casual. (I mean that in a good way.)
The Cup Joke - hmmmmm.... That's an interesting title. The most recent post is about a bluegrass festival, classical is mentioned in one post and there's a cat picture.
I haven't done one of these silly things in a long time but this one, found at Reflections in the Pond, was just too tempting.
I'm a Daffodil. I'm respectable, upstanding and proper. I do everything with class, even when no one is looking. Respect is important to me, and I deserve it because I have never farted in my life. Nor do I masturbate. Also my pinky sticks out when I drink from a glass. What bloom are you? by Polly_Snodgrass
I'm not sure about that. It makes me sound boring but it's not entirely wrong. I looked at all the other possible results. Pansy is the only other one that might fit me. Not the usual meaning of "pansy" though. Most of the others are pretty negative. Like most quizzes it was geared more toward teenagers but as these things go it was a pretty good quiz. There were lots of choices.
You won't believe what I did Saturday night. Late Saturday afternoon the husband and number two son informed me for the first time that they had been planning for weeks to go to an antique tractor pull that evening and asked me if I wanted to go.
Well... what a choice! I could stay home and have the house all to myself, something I do every weekday but rarely in the evening. Evening is the best time for listening to music. I don't quite know how one time of day could be better than any other but it is. So, I could have the house all to myself during prime listening time or I could go watch a bunch of farmers competing to see whose tractor could pull a weighted sled the farthest.
So how did I end up at the tractor pull? Good question. I just thought it might be healthy to get out and partake of the local culture once in a while. Or something like that. Hell I don't know. I just felt like it for some reason. It actually wasn't my first. I went to one once before - a few years ago.
Believe it or not tractor pulling is surprisingly entertaining. Of course it's not up there with opera or football but it's at least as interesting as golf and probably more fun than about 90 percent of the movies made in the last five years, although, admittedly, that's not saying much. So that I won't have to try to explain tractor pulling go read this.
The pull we went to was just a little small town event. There might have been as many as a hundred spectators sitting on wooden bleachers and a few in lawn chairs. First, starting at 7:00pm there was a pedal tractor pull for kids ages 4 through 12. Then they had, both at the same time, side by side on two tracks, a lawnmower pull and the antique tractor pull. Many of the lawnmowers were "souped up" especially for pulling. Some of the same kids who were in the pedal tractor pull were driving the lawnmowers.
We stayed for two hours and it was still going on when we left. I didn't take my camera with me. I sort of wish now that I had but not for the tractors. The sky was beautiful yesterday afternoon and evening - lots of clouds with just enough clear sky to let the sun through to create a lovely, long sunset. It was nice just being outdoors in such perfect weather.
One more thing about tractor pulling: I discovered while googling for the above link that it's not just one of those crazy American redneck things. Tractor pulling is big! Even the British do it so it must be respectable, maybe even a little bit sophisticated.
"I think the most beautiful thing about composing now, as opposed to then, is that there is the option to ‘hang out’ in the crazy network of music that is available. Writing music feels like I'm having a conversation or writing an e-mail or making a phone call rather than writing an essay. It has to do with the way people talk with their friends – a little language begins to develop, little nuances and half-truths and leitmotifs. … Wise young composers are eating everything up in their path, devouring all the available musics and building a family made up of Conversants, rather than Inductees..."
Isn't that the way good music has always been? Composers borrowing from each other... allowing themselves to be inspired by folk music and the world around them. It's only in the 20th century that composers have barricaded themselves in ivory towers, affecting to be too good to touch or be touched by anything of the real world. If the above quote is true, it's good news.
ADDENDUM: Don't misunderstand this. I'm still an elitist. Touch the real world but don't wallow in the muck. Classical music should always be on a pedastal, just not too high a pedastal.
1. I have never voted for a Democrat in my life. - False. I voted for my congressman Brad Carson.
2. I think my taxes are too high. - I sort of think so but I'm not really sure. I just wish the government would make better use of them. No more $200 screwdrivers and that sort of thing.
3. I supported Bill Clinton's impeachment. No. But to tell you the truth I wasn't really paying much attention to that sort of thing back then.
4. I voted for President Bush in 2000. No.
5. I am a gun owner. Not me personally but other family members are.
6. I support school voucher programs. I can see good and bad things about them but mostly no I guess.
7. I oppose condom distribution in public schools. Not sure. I don't want to be in favor of it but I can see how it might be a good thing.
8. I oppose bilingual education. - I don't understand the question. Why would anyone be against bilingual education?
9. I oppose gay marriage. - Undecided but I definitely oppose a constitutional amendment banning it. It probably should be left up to the states.
10. I want Social Security privatized. - Depends on how it's handled. Private companies can usually do things more effiently than the government but I would worry about some people being left out like the situation we have with health insurance.
11. I believe racial profiling at airports is common sense. - Maybe. Again it depends on how it's handled. Obviously it would be more effient to search people who look like they might be terrorists rather than 80 year old grandmothers who just happened to be in the right (or wrong) position in line.
12. I shop at Wal-Mart. Several times a week.
13. I enjoy talk radio. - Rarely.
14. I am annoyed when news editors substitute the phrase "undocumented person" for "illegal alien." - Yes! I am always annoyed when news people (or anyone else) invent new "politically correct" phrases and weasel words instead of just saying what they mean.
15. I do not believe the phrase "a chink in the armor" is offensive. - uh... No, why would it be. Another question that I don't understand.
16. I eat meat. Yes.
17. I believe O.J. Simpson was guilty. - I don't believe it's possible to judge whether or not he was guilty based only on what the talking heads on TV say.
18. I cheered when I learned that Saddam Hussein had been captured. - I didn't literally cheer but I was very glad.
19. I cry when I hear "Proud to be an American" (God Bless the USA) by Lee Greenwood. - Almost.
20. I don't believe the New York Times. - About what? I can't say that I don't believe anything they say but I certainly don't believe everything they say.
posted by Lynn S @ 07:49
(category: News/Politics) 2 comments
Here's a site devoted to Spicy Cooking around the world. There are recipes from several different countries, a few links to other hot food sites and a section on the health benefits of spicy food. I'm a little skeptical of some of those claims. If spicy food really could help you loose weight I know I'd be a lot thinner.
Thanks to Jaquandor and Jayme Lynn Blaschke for linking to the Winston Science Fiction Cover Art site. I haven't seen any dates but they're old and very cool. They make me want to read some of the books, which, of course, is exactly the idea. I have read Vault of the Ages by Poul Anderson but my copy has a later cover. I like the old illustration much better.
By the way, Jayme's blog, Gibberish is new to me. I plan to read more later but right now I just have to say that it is one of the most attractive blog pages I've ever seen. I love the background!
The Tulsa SPCA has a unique new cat colony. Instead of being confined to cages, cats waiting for homes have the freedom of an entire room filled with toys and furnished with kitty perches placed at various heights. About 2 dozen cats inhabit the room. You can see some of them on the Tulsa SPCA cat cam. (requires plug-in)
Say hello and happy birthday to Jennifer. She found me via The Broadroom's women bloggers list, a list I started a long time ago on a whim but which I was more than happy to give away the second someone else expressed an interest in it.
Jennifer is turning 40. I am six years and 3 months past that age. "The Big Four-O was not a terribly big deal for me. From about 33 to 38 or 39 I felt sorry for myself because I felt that my life was half over and all my opportunities to be what I wanted to be and have the things I wanted to have were behind me. But by the time I reached 40 we had moved to this lovely little place in the woods - one of my dreams was to actually have trees in my yard - we had gotten connected to the Internet and I was learning more about the music I had always been interested in and I was discovering that there are a lot more things left to discover so I barely noticed 40.
Birthdays in general haven't been a big deal for a long time. We usually go out to eat but we do that about once every month or two anyway. At the place I worked for several years when I was in my early to mid 30s they made a big deal of everyone's birthdays. Except mine. Oh, they remembered but it was more like, "well, we have to do something." In other words it was just a token effort and that sort of hurt. So, partly because of working there I expected birthdays to be a big deal long after the age most people would just as soon forget. For several years I kept thinking, 'maybe next year.'
I've gotten over that but I dread 50. I sort of want it to be a big deal because everybody else's 50th is a big deal and I want to feel like someone thinks I'm worth it but I don't want all the age jokes - the black cake, black balloons, gag gifts like a cane and a box of Depends.... That sort of thing is not funny but I will be expected to act like I think it is.
Oh well... I actually hadn't planned to ramble on like that but it just came out. Happy birthday Jennifer. Remember that saying about life beginning at 40? Make it so.
I hate that word, "pretentious." All it usually means is, "I don't like people who take music and art seriously." But when I read the following lines about Paul Griffiths, quoted by Aworks, the first words that came to mind were "pretentious nonsense."
...sought to discredit a new work (Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Second Symphony) that had enjoyed audience acclaim by declaring that it did not 'add anything to the universe of musical possibility'.
I regret that I have never heard of Ellen Taaffe Zwillich so I can't offer an opinion of her work but what the hell does "not add anything to the universe of musical possibility," mean? Well, I suppose it's at least more original than just saying that it's derivative, a favorite word of those who look down on anything composed after 1930 or so that has an actual melody, but why can't critics just say what they mean? Well, I'll tell you why: Because what they actually mean in most cases is simply, "I don't like it," but they can't come right out and say that because that would make it too obvious that their opinion is roughly equal to the opinion of any reasonably well-informed listener.
There is good and bad contemporary music and audience acclaim is not always a reliable indicator of which is which but neither are the opinions of critics or academics. Some works are derivative. Some are banal and unoriginal. But "[doesn't] add anything to the universe of musical possiblity"? Please! That just sounds ignorant and... I hate this word but here it is... pretentious!
This probably isn't news to most people but I see that Microsoft is getting into blogging. Maybe I'm being too negative but I'm skeptical of Microsoft's (or any large corporate entity's) ability to fully comprehend blogging. Will these new MS "blogs" have Microsoft's logo emblazoned all over them and will they have Microsoft's look overall?
That brings up the question: What is it that makes a blog a blog? It's more than a look but when I see a blog that has a layout dictated by a corporate sponsor or host, like the Art's Journal blogs, for example, I can't help thinking of it as something less than a "real" blog. On the other hand, Terry Teachout undoubtedly gets this whole blogging thing. Content and the blogger's style are more important than the look of the page, however, the look of the page does mean something. It's like the clothes you wear. It's part of the first impression and may have a lot to do with whether or not people hang around long enough to get to know you.
While we're on the subject there is another category of "blogs" that are not really blogs: celebrity and politicians' blogs. These blogs are very closed and uncommunicative. The audience is kept at a distance and they show no evidence of awareness of the rest of the blog community. While I can understand the reluctance of a celebrity to open themselves up to the public in the same way bloggers do, posting the equivalent of press releases on a semi-regular basis does not make one a real blogger. There are some real bloggers who do not provide any means of feedback (and this does annoy me) but they have blogrolls and communicate, through their blogs, with other bloggers.
But who am I to dictate the definition of "blog"? I suppose a blog can be anything you want it to be. I just hope that The Powers That Be don't turn them into something else before most people even know what they are.
There are a number of weblogs on my long list that I rarely link to on this page even though they are very much worth reading. Some blogs just don't seem very linkable because there is usually nothing to say other than "go there and read." Synergy is one of those blogs. The tag line, "Something beautiful (almost) every day," fits it very well. There are many links to art and cultural sites and, often, inspiring quotes. Today I especially liked the following.
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." -- Winston Churchill
Of course, there is much more - almost every day. Go there and read.
After several days of almost normal summer weather, it's raining this morning. I had big plans to go out and trim tree limbs this morning. I like low hanging tree limbs myself but I suppose ease of mowing must take precedence over the beauty of nature. I must take a picture of that lovely hackberry before I butcher it though. Anyway, it looks like it might be a while before I can do any tree trimming or outdoor photography. And I think I heard thunder again so I might have to turn off the computer soon too. Looks like I might be doing a lot of reading and sewing today.
Oh... and would you believe I'm listening to Palestrina again this morning? I must get some more early choral music!
"Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, ‘Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,’ or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second, then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything—God and our friends and ourselves included—as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred."
C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, quoted by Terry Teachout.
The Hatemonger's Quarterly has a highly entertaining post on being literate in an aliterate society. I would say I feel his pain but whenever I go to B&N I normally head directly to the sci-fi section, occasionally making a side trip through the coffee table books. He asks, (they ask?) "Are we, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” the only people in the United States who don’t own copies of The Da Vinci Code?" Well, uh... I don't own a copy yet but... well... uh... it's sort of... hehe... on my list. I do read books that "The Crack Young Staff of The Hatemonger's Quarterly" might approve of but, sadly, I do not own a large, beautiful library filled from floor to twelve-foot ceiling with precious leather-bound volumes. I have to be satisfied with a virtual library. (Pardon the mess. It needs work.)
posted by Lynn S @ 21:22
(category: Wordy & Bookish) 2 comments
Pardon me, your spell checker is showing.
There's no substitute for old-fashioned proofreading, however, spell checkers are still useful. They provide endless amusement for those of us who don't use them. This essay on Baroque music refers to "homophobic musical style." (4th paragraph) But wait! That's not quite what the author meant to say. What a difference one little letter can make!
posted by Lynn S @ 20:07
(category: Wordy & Bookish) no comments
Bugs With Live Music
The Cleveland Orchestra will play in sync with several Warner Brothers cartoons this week.
[George] Daugherty is the maestro who keeps the classical music in the groove for Bugs, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and friends. In July 1991, they brought "Bugs Bunny on Broadway," their concert of Warner Bros. cartoons and live music, to Blossom Music Center with a touring orchestra.
That ensemble, of course, couldn't hold a carrot to the Cleveland Orchestra, which will team with Daugherty, Bugs and company for the first time Sunday in a panoply of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons set to classical favorites. The program includes "What's Opera, Doc?" "The Rabbit of Seville," "Corny Concerto" and other beloved animated tales.
[...]
Happily, orchestra musicians around the world have reacted well, said Daugherty, to the experience of synchronizing classical pieces with cartoons projected on a screen above them.
"They love it. They respect it," he said. "But orchestras find it exciting and challenging and difficult.
The music itself is hard. And you're trying to keep it within a 30th of a second to the picture."
Yesterday we were in a pet supply store to buy a couple of items. When we got in line to check out there was another couple ahead of us. They were apparently trying to remember how long it had been since their dog's last flea treatment and both of the store's two employees were standing there talking with them. The store's computer showed the date that the couple last purchased the flea control product, which was about six months ago, but the couple seemed to think it had been more recently.
We had to wait for about ten minutes while they went back and forth, store clerk and customer each repeating the same thing they had already said several times before. Everyone involved was very calm and friendly but nothing was being accomplished. Eventually, one of the two employees moved over to the other register to check out the other customers. (One person had gotten in line behind us by then.)
Normally I'm very patient about waiting in line. In fact, heaven help the nitwit who tries to strike up a conversation with me by complaining about how long we're having to wait. Such a person is likely to get an earful from me about the diffuculties and frustrations of working in retail, number one amoung those being pushy, impatient and arrogant customers who expect to be treated like they are the only person in the store. However, what aggravated me about this particular experience is that in ten minutes or more no new information was exchanged. Both parties just kept repeating the same things they had already said.
Unfortunately, this is not an unsual situation. It happens all the time. Therefore, I have a message for... well... everyone. If you find yourself in a store asking a salesperson for information and they have given you the same answer two or three times that probably means that really is the answer and it's not going to change no matter how many times you ask, no matter how many times you rephrase the same question and no matter how worried you are about doing the right thing for you dog, cat, child, husband, grandmother or whoever. Either make a decision quickly or get out of line!
And here's one for store employees. I know how rough it is working in retail so I can understand that in certain situations you might want to give your co-workers a little moral support and help confirm, every fifteen seconds or so, that the information in the computer has not changed while the customer has been standing there, but if you don't quit wasting time and pay attention to the other customers you might soon be the one requiring moral support, not to mention, possibly, a job.
One Free Korea - A very good blog about Korea. Lots of news links.
¡No Pasarán! - From France, I presume. Some posts in both French and English, but mostly English. Current events, anti-Americanism in Europe, occasional bits of pop culture. This is interesting.
The Big Picture - Politics and current events. Conservative.
Zongoo Daily News - Not a weblog. Find the latest news articles by topic: arts, business, science, many more.
