Snacks For Thought

.....stated lead author Jennifer Eigenbrode of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory.

...said Darleane Hoffman, a professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley,....

Two women of science. I am sure they are fearless. Have cartoon-guy draw them as Athena-like, or owl-guise.

----
Parker's stance on raunch-rap is another kind of fearlessness. Women, especially Black women, really need to beat back this &^5$#2@.

What is the editorial policy on Snacks for Thought? Do they have the same status as Kits as far as corrections are concerned?

If so, should it be "when organisms *made* the Great Leap Forward" rather than "make"?

[Forgive me if I'm being persnickety or, even worse, just plain wrong.]

[Heading to the kitchen to get my beverage.]

Subject-verb agreement. Is that what that's called? Innately consternating.

Dang it Achenbach, I was going to use "unobtainium" this AM, to try to beat Mudge to the punch.

Oh well, I consider this another life-affirming moment.

Besides, I have another idea.

bc

Oops -- another one:
"In the offseason he important a new offensive coordinator" [imported?]

Wait -- what am I doing reading the sports section?!?!!!!

Okay, so follow me on this. The oxygen that was pumped into the atmosphere as a waste product by single-celled plants eventually led to the evolution of animals, who are, of course, essentially internal combustion engines with attitude. And now, the most intelligent animal (behind, of course, dolphins and white mice) is pumping another waste product, carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, thus goosing the growth of plants. Maybe this is all part of the Grand Scheme.

Perhaps humanity is nothing but a cosmic way to jump-start the evolution of super-plants who will eventually become sentient, test Unobtainian bombs, and simulate pollination to hip-hop music. That is, maybe the logical endpoint of life on earth is intelligent Kudzu who, naturally, believe themselves to be the pinnacle of all creation.

Hmmm. No Name Defense, indeed, but I think that plenty of folks knew who Bob Griese, Paul Warfield, and (my personal favorite) Larry Czonka were. Czonka was like an offensive Dick Butkus.

I love writing sentences like that last.

Also: who did the underdog Dolphins beat in the Super Bowl to cap their perfect 17-0 '72'-'73 season? That's right, our very own Washington NFL Franchise.

Also II: Garo Yepremian (sp) made himself immortal in that game, unforunately in the "All-Time NFL Blooper Reel" sense.

bc

Sorry, but must repost this from earlier Boodle...
________________

I just had the oddest sense of deja-vu...

I needed to spell blancmange correctly, so I Googled "Skyron in the Andromeda Galaxy" to get the Python reference.

I got MYSELF back as a hit from an earlier Boodle. Talk about Ouroborsian...

:-)

How about "DE-DE-Fence"?

Or "DOH!-Fence"?

Dogs gone wild dept.: Two of our three female dogs are currently at the peak of their reperoductive cycle. One of them is nearly three months late, the other a month and 1/2 early. Hypothesis: female dogs that hang out together, like other mammals, cycle together. Affirmation: males gome wild...and it isn't even a full moon...

Padouk wrote: "The oxygen that was pumped into the atmosphere as a waste product by single-celled plants eventually led to ..."

Does that mean we're breathing algae poop? Ewwwwwwwww.

It's too early in the day for a Weingarten moment.

And the thought of all that yeast urine in my beer...

And we will now wait for a REALLY depressed physicist to discover the new element Lugubrium, the saddest of all the elements.

RD, I'm applauding your 9:14 AM.

You forgot to mention that Triffids would have had the Internet 500 years sooner.

bc

Last night on the Boodle, Aloha mentioned the great fear of tsunami after this weekend's Hawaii quake. The 1837 Big Island quake had both.

Family member Rev. Titus Coan began preaching in 1835 on the east coast of the island of Hawaii, at a church in Hilo. (Rev. Elisha Loomis and his pregnant wife were in the first group of missionaries to set foot on Hawaii, arriving on March 30, 1820.) After setting himself the punishing task of talking to every native in the parish, Coan still had only 80 converts by mid-1837.

Coan was hoping for a clear sign from God to increase his church's numbers. It came with devastating force. "On the 7th of November, 1837, at the hour of evening prayers," he wrote, "we were startled by a heavy thud, and a sudden jar of the earth. The sound was like the fall of some vast body on the beach, and in a few seconds, a noise of mingled voices rising for a mile along the shore thrilled us like the wail of doom...The sea, moved by an unseen hand, had all of a sudden risen in a gigantic wave, and this wave, rushing in with the speed of a racehorse, had fallen upon the shore, sweeping everything not more than 15 or 20 feet above high-water mark into indiscriminate ruin. Houses, furniture, calabashes, fuel, timber, canoes, food, clothing, everything floated wild upon the flood...The harbor was full of strugglers calling for help, while frantic parents and children, wives and husbands ran to and fro along the beach, calling for their lost ones. As wave after wave came in and retired, the struglers were brought near the shore, where the more vigorous landed with desperate efforts, and the weaker and exhausted were carried back upon the retreating wave, some to sink and rise no more till the noise of jugment wakes them...Had this catastrophe occurred at midnight when all were asleep, hundreds of lives would undoubtedly have been lost. Through the great mercy of God, only 13 were drowned.

"This event, falling as it did like a bolt of thunder from a clear sky, greatly impressed the people. It was the voice of God speaking to them out of heaven, 'Be ye also ready.'"

The natives were more than ready to believe that God was speaking to them through Coan. ... Between November 1837 and May 1838, Coan and his colleague Lorenzo Lyons of Waimea, admitted more than 3,200 natives to church membership (almost trebling the size of church membership in the islands), another 3,200 in the next 12 months, and more than 7,500 during the following year. At that point, in 1839-1840, Hilo and Waimea together had three out of every four church members in the islands. On a single extraordinary day in 1838, Coan baptized 1,705 converts, and during the early '40s, his church had more than 6,000 members in good standing. The American Board [of Commissioners for Foreign Missions] had never heard of a bigger Protstant congregation anywhere in the world.

"The Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands," Gavan Daws, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1968, pp. 99-102.

Since Joel didn't do a television segment I will fill in. with my 'Studio 60 on Sunset Strip' recap. Episode 5 already. Skip the rest of this comment if you intend to see the show later. Or read it to see if you want to watch it later. Your call.

SPOILERS BELOW

In an inspired bit of nepo-stunt-tastic casting, Christine Lahti continues her recurring role as a nosy reporter getting all the dirt on the S60 cast. This week she channels MASH's Dr. Sidney Freedman trying to psychoanalyze why Chandler and Jesus Girl got together in the first place. The answer: Class clowns act silly to impress chicks. It also turns out that funny bones get born again as well.

Unfunny sketches sampled this week include a running gag involving a Larry The Lobster suit (I was sure Eddie Murphy boiled him long ago) and a too long and waaay past the sell-by date bit about Nancy Grace getting hysterical over lost blondes. Amanda Peet has taken over clipboard holding duties from the AD's until the third trimester when she will have to spend the rest of the season hiding behind large props.

My reading of the unobtainium article left me with the impression they have found three atoms of it in four years for a total life span of less than a hundreth of a second. I want to know what the cost per proton of that is. I'm all for Big Science, but this sort of "mine's bigger" atomic race seems just a little silly.

yellojkt, no mention of Sting playing "Roxanne" (by Chandler's request), or Lauren Graham (who's clearly better when she's working off of a Paladino script than a Sorkin script)?

BTW, I did stay up until the end of MNF, and I'm glad I did. Great defense with can overcome just about anything, even six turnovers.

bc

SCC: The web has offered up that the 1837 Hawaii tsunami was caused by an earthqauke in Chile.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/hawaii/history.php

In 1837 an earthquake in Chile sent waves 20 feet high against Hilo, Hawaii. Initially the sea receded and several were drowned by the returning wave while they were attempting to collect fish stranded on the exposed sea bottom. In all, 62 people were killed and over a hundred homes were destroyed.

Nature mag also has an article that I can't access because I'm not a subscriber:

A tsunami was associated with the event of 1837, reaching Hawaii with an amplitude of 6 m. But Cisternas et al. suggest that it originated outside their ...

www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7057/full/437329a.html

Thanks for the Studio 60 report, yellojkt, but you might have added a brief appearance by Lorelai Gilmore (an appearance that lasted only slightly longer than the amount of time unobtanium has been around, i.e. a hundreth of a second or so), plus a major appearance by Sting, reprising his interview from the CBS Sunday morning show. Plus a cameo by my role model and mentor, Lou Grant.

Loomis: you may be able to acccess articles in Nature through your library's website. see if it has links to databases and you may be able to search JSTOR.

Thanks, penny lane.

I see that Natty G has the 1837 Chile earthquake story in part (on page 2 of the link)...you know, one of Joel's other employers.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0915_050915_earthquake_2.html

Also, mentioned on this USGS site--more than you'll want to know--on how to survice a tsunami (lots and lots of photos and graphs):

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1187/

I wanted to like S60, but each week I care less about it. Last night I saw maybe half of it and just felt sad that it isn't half the show The West Wing was. I can't warm up to the characters and the 'skits' are almost as lame as those on SNL these days. The Lahti character's interview with Harriet was so boring and predictible that I was reciting the dialog in my head before they said it. I'll watch for another week or two, but I'm not hopeful. Maybe I'm just losing interest in TV, except for Lost (which is on my probation list), Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart, there isn't much I look forward to seeing.

Loomis: ask, and ye shall receive. Check your e-mail.

bc, that was Sting singing (the good) "Fields of Gold," not the (awful) "Roxanne" at Chandler's request.

If you or I had predicted on Saturday that Grossman would have four interceptions and two fumbles, and the Bears would be down 20-0 at the half, and that they barely eked out a win, people would have said we were crazy.

Loved you in "Amost Famous," Penny Lane.

Studio 60 Recap Addendum

Sting shows up to pimp an album of lute music, thus fulfilling the mandatory pre-nineteenth centry cultural reference. His presence also ensures good numbers in that all important "Women Of A Certain Age" demo. Gilmore Mom also shows up to keep the estrogen level above frat house level.

'Mudge, bc;

The Onion had a piece about a week ago that said the Bears get the energy for their ferocious defense by eating the fans...

:-)

Miniscule K-guy sighting over on Raw Fisher. I said "hey." Don't know if he'll respond.

SCC: Almost

Mudge, I'm aware of what Sting actually played, I just thought it would have been funnier if Chandler had asked Stink (ha! now THAT'S a typo!), er, Sting, to play "Roxanne" for Harriet.

bc

'Mudge;

k-guy was there two days in a row??? Time to set the trap, methinks...

mudge- i'm afraid i may have unintentionally alluded to something i'm not familiar with. is "Almost Famous" worth seeing?

Given the Vulcanesque acting I've seen from Ms. Paulsen in S60 so far, perhaps "Be My Girl/Sally" would be more (in)appropriate.

bc

Yellojky says « I'm all for Big Science, but this sort of "mine's bigger" atomic race seems just a little silly. " There is a bit of mine is bigger than yours, that's a given. But as one scientist said they are are "nibbling at the shore of the stability island". Once Science will stand safely on the stability island with say the new and improved element quattuoretvingenticentumium (124an) they may discover stuff about the weak and the strong forces. Strings may come into play. Black holes and gravity waves may be involved. Once on Stability Island everything is possible.
I obviously don't know what I'm am talking about but the gummints of Russia and the USA wouldn't spend billions in supercolliders and the like for nuttin', no ? With 400 billions spent on Iraq and counting the cost of SuperCs feels like small potatoes anyway, and nobody gets killed to boot.
They need to find better name for those elements. Are they named in advance or is it the discovering team that got first dig at naming it ?
I am still pi$$ed at the disappearance of planets Xena and Gabrielle, we have to do something about those pre-ordained naming schemes that gave us Eris and Dysnomia. (known as Eris & Dy not unlike the former princely couple Chuck'n Di).

bc - The question about the heavy element research is a good one. I have a former classmate who does this kind of work out in California. In the past he has told me that he justifies his research in the following way. First, Science, like Virtue, is its own reward. Who knows what interesting physics might spring out? Second, there is a theoretical suggestion for an "Island of Stability" at very high masses - which would offer many fascinating possibilities. (Some of which wouldn't even make you glow.) Finally, they do it because there isn't a lot else they can do in the field. All the easy stuff has been done.

penny lane: yes, Almost Famous is worth seeing, but not appropriate for little ones, in case that should be an issue.

//I am not going to slander the anaerobic community, but...//

Yet another splinter-group waiting to be offended. One wonders what THEIR kids weren't allowed to wear to school.

"Almost Famous" is a really great flick, Penny (a character in it, played by Kate Hudson, calls herself Penny Lane, hence the reference). Definitely worth seeing. At the time, there was even buzz it should have been nominated for (if not won) the Best Picture Oscar. Billy Crudup is great, as is the wonderful Frances McDormand, who is very funny. Patrick Fugit (yes, he seems to have chosen that for his stage name; I can't believe it's his real name) almost but not quite steals the movie as the hero, but that goes to Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing rock critic Lester Bangs.

There's a special "director's cut" DVD version that is 20 minutes longer than the original, but I actually prefer the shorter original (they were right to cut that extra 20).

Cameron Crowe wrote and directed it, and it is based (more or less, within the usual Hollywood parameters) of how he broke into becoming a music critic for Rolling Stone magazine at age 15.

Shrieking Denizen asks rhetorically: {{I obviously don't know what I'm am talking about but the gummints of Russia and the USA wouldn't spend billions in supercolliders and the like for nuttin', no ?}}

Sounds a little like the mine shaft gap from 'Dr. Strangelove' to me. They are after some big honkin' nuclei. Where would you keep atoms that big? They'd get in the way of all the furniture.

Yellojkt, that was my thought. Good thing Russia is such a big country. You'd never be able to conduct research like that in a place like, say, Rhode Island. Not that I am casting aspersions on Rhode Island, mind you.

Two years ago on the school band trip we took a boat cruise in Boston Harbor that included a DJ. All the kids started 'freak' dancing which is basically the age old bump and grind. Since the dance floor was pretty small and everyone was fully clothed (as fully as teenagers get) we let the younger staff members just turn the firehoses on them once and a while to keep things from getting out of hand.

No matter what generation you are, if your dancing isn't shocking your parents, you arn't doing it right.

Joel, bc, I still like "Incrediblehulkium" for the heaviest element found so far.

I demand superhero/bulky men names in chemistry from all cultures. We already have Titanium, for one.

What about Herculeum, Thorium, Atlasium, Obelixium, Gonggongium, Kingkongium...

Comic book scholars, help me out!

Freak dancing was done over 15 years ago, exact same thing. You'd think those parents suddenly got complete amnesia about their youth after they graduated HS or something.

Godzillium

Godzillium

*resubmitting after a scary Movable Type error*

:-O

Wilbrod,

It's more likely that parents remember all too well what hormone crazed horn-dogs they were and realize that they are unaware of all the things they thought their parents were unaware of.

There you go, S'nuke. That has to go to whatever element has the most stability along with neon-blue atomic breath.

Dousing the dancing with firehoses once in a while sound good to me, I'm not denying that. ;).

Man, you air breathers are all alike. Always putting down anybody who just happens to prefer to go Oxygen Free. Think you are so great? When was the last time anaerobic Botulism invaded a foreign country? Personally I think a few of you so called "advanced life forms" would do better with a little less breathing. And what comes out of your stinkin' respiratory system anyway? Carbon Dioxide, that's what. HELLO have you ever heard of a little thing called GLOBAL WARMING?!!?? And have you ever bothered to notice that there is an active and vibrant chemosynthesis community? Of course not. Think you're hot stuff with your endothermic metabolisms? Try living by an underwater heat vent. This kind of metabolic bigotry just makes me sick. What if you had replaced the words anaerobic with "African American" or, like "French?" Hmm - not so funny now? So go ahead and enjoy your deep breathing exercises you pathetic Oxygen Junkies.
Just Remember. We were here first.

The Anaerobic Defense Committee

wilbrod, isn't there already a thorium?

The Element Song
By Tom Lehrer
(sung to the tune of Modern Major General, from G&S's Pirates of Penzance)

``It's simply the names of the chemical elements set to a possibly recognizable tune.

``There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium
And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium (inhale)
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

``There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium and barium.

``Isn't that interesting?
I knew you would.
I hope you're all taking notes, because there's gonna be a short quiz next period.

``There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium
And phosphorous and francium and fluorine and terbium
And manganese and mercury, molybdinum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium
And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Paladium, promethium, potassium, polonium, and
Tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium, (inhale)
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.

``There's sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium
And also mendelevium, einsteinium and nobelium
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper,
Tungsten, tin and sodium.

``These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discovered.''

No doubt freak dancing was done in those anerobic communities of yore that Joel was on the verge of dissing. Of course, they wouldn't have had the trouble we would of needing to stop and catch one's breath.

JA...

Freak dancing...

Nope, can't meld those two mental images.

Then again, I can't meld freak dancing with my self-image, so there ya go.

:-)

Hey, personally I'm an Oxygen Free Radical.

Yes, Thorium is number 90. Just seeing if anybody paid attention. It has various industrial uses. It is just a teensy bit radioactive, though, and can be converted into uranium, and it's nearly as common as lead.

S'nuke probably can lecture us on it.

Oh wilbrod - Oxygen Free Radicals. Brilliant. Can't believe I missed that one.

Hmm, can non-freak dancing be melded with Joel's image?

I see JA doing ballroom dancing, for some reason.

Probably because that could encourage flyaway hair.

:-)

i'm only a few years out of high school and from what i remember freak dancing was how we danced simply because it was easy and we hadn't been introduced to other forms of dancing (excluding of course things we learned in PE like square dancing which didn't mesh terribly well with the music)

I've discovered salsa dancing in college and its wonderful! i understand why parents and educators are opposed to freak dancing, even if i don't attach the same level of harsh judgment to it- but the thing to do isn't to kick students out of dances. If kids were exposed to other forms of dancing- salsa for example, that are actually more fun, freak dancing would be less common (though it certainly would not disappear given the teenage mind.)

If kids aren't presented with a better alternative why wouldn't they want to freak dance?

I waited over 1/2 of my life to use that pun, RD.

I love seeing dancing on TV and am glad they are finally showing more styles on TV thanks to "So you think you can dance?" as well as that lame Dancing with the S...

I love the popping and movement isolation of hip-hop, but other genres win my heart more.
I wish they'd diversify though, and bring in some choreographers expert in bhangara dancing, hula dancing, and other genres for a little more international flavor.

I know a lot of men would tune to see belly-dancing/funk fusion dance a la Ruby ;).

http://www.rubymania.com/watch/

Wilbrod, you DO realize you've just given some producer the idea for "Hula Dancing With the Stars," doncha???

Oh, the horror...

:-)

Sky Report - Pat, there's a thick, soupy blanket of clouds lying low today - it cuts off the mountain tops and stretches out across the entire sky; to the south it starts to fray and there is a thin strip of sky that for some reason has a slightly yellow cast to it as if the sun never quite rose.

Did anyone see the articles a while back about a style of dancing that involves painting faces like clowns and dancing like a stripper on speed. Crimping? I can't remember for sure...

At least hula dancing is more flattering to older "stars". I'd love to see Carolyn Manihem do hula dancing, especially with her ASL interpreter background. (I know, everybody else would tune out).

I attended an American Indian service at the National Cathedral the week of the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. I was following some of the songs with my signs. One of my favorite parts was this matronly lady who did a hula dance in a muumuu-- most of the work was with the arms, and it made the song very transparent, I could tell it was about the boat crashing against the waves, the birds against the sky and the clouds rising above, and it was a love song. Very beautiful. Afterwards I chatted with the dancer using gesture mostly, and she complimented ME on my signing, and was pleased I was able to duplicate the gestures she used so well.

Ever since I've always wished I could learn hula dancing. My feet have very little memory for anything, but my upperbody can remember a LOT of moves.

Penny lane raises an issue. Just how long are students going to have to learn square dancing in school? We had to do that too, way back when, and I think the average age of actual square dancers was 134 at that time.

If people don't like freak dancing they should teach it in school. That would put an end to any appeal it might have faster than the life span of a Godzillium atom.

O.K., I have a small confession to make.

I was involved with ballroom dancing for a year in high school. (Mudge knows this since I offered to give him virtual dancing lessons after his Carribbean cruise, when he seemed to delight in warming the bar stool.) My mom paid for my first lessons offered through the Bakersfield Rec. Dept., then on to group lessons at the dance studio itself during my junior year. The studio took trips, so we student dancers performed at Disneyland Anaheim and on Lawrence Welk's stage.

So, there should be no surprise that I am a huge fan (strike: consistent viewer) of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." This is MY show, as much as Studio 60 is turning into yellojkt's show or "Lost" is Mudge's program. I've watched it since its first round of competition. The show is currently in its third round. I have also shared with you that I've been on and at the Disney message boards for the past week because of the "funny" voting results.

This round, in the past two weeks, two strong "star" dancers--Viveca Fox and Willa Ford--have been voted off the show. My first strong rant about the program happened in the second season, as I Boodled once, when Jerry Rice advanced into second place in the finals, placing higher than consistent and strong performer Stacey Keebler and her partner Albanian Tony Dovolani. (Actually, I was all for the rematch in the first season between Kelly Monaco and John O'Hurley, since I thought the voting was skewed then.)

The essential problem with the show is that the public votes count for half of the overall score. Ergo, the show rapidly turned into a popularity show--and the art and beauty of dance is somewhat diluted, as is the notion of honest competition.

This season, Tony Dovolani is paired with Sara Evans, a country-western singer from Tennessee. After three kids, she is not particularly light on her feet. Long-legged, graceful Willa Ford and her Russian partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy were voted off last week. They had form, line and tremendous choreagraphy. Willa was the contestant who most improved her dancing over several weeks' time.

It's been interesting hanging out at the Dinsey message boards, instead of here--full of humorous and sad moments. Many Amuricans can't spell or write coherently, nor do they hae much cultural literacy. Last night, a woman exhorted viewers to read their "Bibbles." Another queried whether Jerry Springer's priest would bless him before this week's show, like Mario Lopez's Los Angeles parish priest did on last Tuesday night's program? Jerry's rabbi, perhaps.

But I was bowled over, to see someone post so quickly Sara Evan's divorce papers, with her name and her GOP husband's name redacted. Did they lift it stratight from the Tennessee newspapers, inquiring minds would like to know? This was a moment where I, used to the Internet for quite some time, was amazed at the speed and turnaraound of information.

Many of those who post at these message boards have alleged technical problems in the last week with the specific phone line they were using to try to cast votes for Willa and Max. I have wondered if perhaps there wasn't some blonde bombshell backlash over the top female dancer, or some resentment over her Russian partner, who has all the animal magnetism of Christopher Lambert in the 1984 "Tarzan" movie. Grrrrrrooowwwwlllllllllllll!

But the voting is rigged in a far more sinister way. Rep. Tom DeLay of Sugarland, Texas, sent out a blast e-mail shortly after this round of competition started, urging his cohorts and cronies and like-minded Christian coalition members to vote for the uninspiring Tennessee hoofer because she embodies the right "values." Lisa de Moraes did the first article about the scandal in thios past Sunday's Washington Post Magazine; NYT follows today with a mention of the show's rating popularity. (The divorce papers are quite sordid.)

I'm afraid to tell you what I would like to do to Tom Delay if I got him into a dark alley, for fear the FBI or RD Padouk would be knocking on my door. Publicly, let's just say that I'd like to do both the rhumba and samba, as well as the Russian Cossack kick dance over Tom Delay's strapped-down, tied-to-the-dance-floor body--in three-inch spike heels. Sadly, for Tom, I don't move as quickly as I used to.

Stephanopoulos's Sunday show had the gall to promo Sarah's taped "good-bye" tonight on "Dancing with the Stars"--which is raher lurid and self-serving for Disney. (It is tempting, for the sake of being a media watcher, to see how sanitized her statement will be this evening.)

Voters who know nothing of dance--other than bump and grind--is a sad state of affairs, but nothing compares to the realization, nauseating as it is, to think that politic's long tentacles and the current culture war can reach onto the dance floor. The word "Disney boycott" is not far from my lips.

Dunno about this, but there's a modern butoh dancer that sounds pretty much rapid-fire like you mention, Megan. He did change costumes twice on stage and moved into hip-hop moves and a rendition of "Heartbreak Hotel" while using the same Butoh moves.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theaterarts/2002046969_kasai27.html

This sounds unforgettable.

Loomis, I prefer "So You Think You Can Dance?"-- much better dancing quality, and some of those kids grow amazingly on the show.
Mind you, the so-called Stars are much better entertainers at times, I'm sure. John Hurley, though, sure did do well and I agree with you regarding the rematch.

Loomis. I never knock on doors. That's what the black helicopters are for.

Dance alights on stage
Loomis threatens the rumba
Boodlers flee in fear

R.I.P. Boodle
Killed by weirdos doing
The Light Fanastic

Wilbrod, that does sound unforgettable.

I finally figured out it was krumping I was thinking of - here's the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krumping

Loomis, I have to confess I did competitive ballroom dance for a year in college. It's an insane culture but I do love to dance.

Bonus sky report. I have told "S" about our daily report and this morning he emailed me this: "As I was going up 495, I could see the sunrise in my rear view mirrors.  The sun looked like a day-glo pumpkin burning high-test gasoline.  Then it rose into the gathering clay colored clouds and the rest of the sunrise was as plain as oatmeal and skim milk." As you can see, he is a far better writer than I am.

Lisa's WaPo article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301803.html

NYT article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/arts/television/17star.html?

Reality Intrudes on ABC's Big Reality Hit
***

Padouk, so that's the noise I hear overhead?

Science Tim, thanks for the help/link!

Oxygen Free Radicals - that's *great*.

bc

Wow, one of my few posts on the Boodle and I get into the kit. I'm honored! In any case, thanks for the 15 seconds of fame Joel. I'm sure we would have been bigger news for longer had there been any fatalities. I understand the disaster fatigue, I think we feel it here too. More of us were most ticked off about the lack of electricity than anything else.

On a completely different note, I've been reading a book called "Secret Daughter" by June Cross. Anybody read that so far? I was facinated by the fact that she (the author) is the step-daughter of Larry Storch from F-Troop. I remember watching it as a kid but apparently, it only ran for two seasons. Like Star Trek, I guess it did better in reruns. Larry Storch has a face no one forgets.

Thongs? Bump & Grind? Freak Dancing?

What am I missing? What is my teenage daughter doing?

To see krumping, don't try the music videos on wiki-- those are awful dances.

The krump kings say that hollywood has distorted krumping in an effort to make it look more "street."

http://www.krumpkings.com/gallery/index.html

I thought krumping was awful until I saw this video from the collection.
http://www.krumpkings.com/trailers/finalbyfround.html

It's something like "soft hip-hop" and much more fluent in arm and feet styling, less hard on the popping and movement isolation.
A more sophisicated form to my eyes.

This blog STINKS of anaerobic decomposition!

Channeling the solitary equine whose father was an a$$.

Today I learned that one of the happiest phrases in the English language is "The meeting has been cancelled."

A few thoughts: In sixth grade we did Square Dancing. I think it was an appropriate introduction to dancing because it had rules you could follow and required a minimum amount of coordination. You couldn't look too stupid because everyone looked stupid. Maybe for the girls these weren't issues, but for us adolescent boys they meant a lot.

I liked the "Wonder Years" episode about square dancing and the girl who was a friend to bats.

"Strictly Ballroom" is a very funny movie.

My junior high yearbook contained a photograph of me doing "The Bump." I have yet to locate and destroy all of them - but I shall.

Oh - and sparks. I am very gratified to see that the youth of America still have respect for the classics.

Wilbrod, thanks for the link, it's a great video. I know next to nothing about hip-hop culture but the one thing that always strikes me about what snippets I do see is the inventiveness and resistance to categorization, unlike so much of the rest of pop culture.

Warning: this is completely out of order.

Lemony Snicket alert: If you buy the 13th and last book of the Series "The End", it should come with quite a bit of booty. I just bought the book and I got 2 pencils, a sheet of LS seal of approval stickers, 8x10" drawings of the kids and count Olaf, a "The End is Here" 4x6" transfer sheet, a fill-in letter to Beatrice and a small poster. Not bad for CDN $15.94.
I looked at O'Brian's £7.99/CDN$19.99 Fortunes of War but didn't buy it. Damn you Curmudgeon!

Okay, visual description time. I am fascinated by the Krump King finals. This is a team dance competition, normally 2 guys are in the clearing at any given time, boxed in by an audience.

They start off side-by-side, then move in some feet shuffle and popping of the head and right shoulder, then the good old wave that anybody who was alive in the 80's may remember-- fingers interlaced, and the arms creating a wave. Very snappy, only in this the hands are down so low in a V that the shoulders do the wave, not the arms.

A lot of the footwork literally is smooth shuffling, which might be memorable from the moonwalk, only forwards and sideways and in spins-- no jerky robot moves here.

A lot of sideway knee motion and shaking happens with the shuffling feet.

One guy turns with back to the side of the other, and the guy grabs the other's shoulder and brings him back in line and there's a flurry and a pause.

Then they start up again, and the guy walks past, slapping the other's hand for a shake, like 'hey dude that was good', but then the other guy holds onto his hand and pulls him back. Now both dancers keep the arms connected and do the hand wave and the guy who held on struts around the other in a circle, then snaps hand back back. The one in the middle does some popping of the shoulders and then stands on one foot with knee bent like a snapshot of somebody running, then goes into a kick, and then they fall back in line and s popping the chest.

This is much more macho looking than it may sound. There is no eye contact, for starters.

Later on, the shuffle ends and there is more highstepping by a third dancer.

There is also a move where a guy holds his feet with his arm as a low hoop for another guy to dive through. And the dancers use the other's knee like a step for various moves.

They tagteam some more dancers in, and one guy in a black shirt is really fast, kind of like a rapid-fire Marlon brando (in the Godfather) on cocaine. Later he does a dance that looks a lot like he's fighting in the dark while really high and fast.

He also holds onto a guy as and then rolls his body over and kicks his legs up, trying to get his body horizontal.

Another guy does a lot of very smooth motion isolation while stepping over another guy ducking under him.

They moves into to a lot more jumping, spinning of the torsos,

Later on they bust out of the box through the audience and do much more heavy rhythmatic moves with jumping and the shoulder/arm/hand drops in time to the beat, boom boom, and then crash back into the clearing for the finale.

It's a lot of fun to watch very upbeat, but there's a lot of varied moves and every dancer has their own style and it all melds in very well. It's definitely in the tradition of breakdance and hip-hop.

I said softer-- a more accurate description is loosey-goosey.

I see a few gymanastic-like/lift-based move with for instance, one guy holding his arms in a hoop for another guy to vault through.

"The meeting has been cancelled."

"We can only stay a week."

"Have you lost weight?"

"All local governments are closed today due to the snow."

"Nationals win!"

"Redskins win!"

"Cavaliers win!"

"I'm going to let you off with a warning this time, ma'am."

"I have an extra ticket to the symphony."

"The flight is oversold, we are going to have to seat you in first class."

Other candidates for happiest phrases in the English language?

I have not read any of the Lemony Snicket books, but I like their vibe. I especially like the phrase "a series of unfortunate events". It seems to describe so many, many situations. The booty you described sounds worth having even if I haven't read them.

Um, about the bump and grind, maybe you should ask your wife to show you, Pat.

rd, how's your new gig at work?
do you get to the cancel meetings now?

annie;

"It's a boy!"

"It's a girl!"

Or, if the doc's too slow...

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"

:-)

Home page alert!!!

*straightening up all the magazines on the coffee table*

:-)

Thanks for asking L.A. lurker. The jury is still out. I spend a lot of time reviewing proposals and listening to pitches. Then I have, like, a day to determine if I want to recommend that the government spend your tax dollars on a particular technical approach to matters of national interest. (Sorry for the vagueness, but I value my job.) The worst part is having to deal with very important people who are fans of a particular approach even though it, like, violates certain laws of physics.

I love the Unfortunate Events series, but was extremely disappointed when he gave an incorrect definition of tributary in one.

Raeding what I just wrote I must stress that I have a day to determine if an approach is flagrantly impossible. If it is plausible, then the process of evaluation kicks into high gear - and that can take months.
I am just a gatekeeper. But there are a lot of nutty ideas out there.

"Other candidates for happiest phrases in the English language?"

How about:

I don't usually do this on the first date.

Oh, Great! I LOVE leftovers! (True story: my wife sometimes says the reason she married me--and very much unlike her first husband--is that I love leftovers.)

This is the last one left in stock.

Go ahead, you take the last [bite, gulp, etc.]

Gee, I can't find the price...how's fifty cents?

The departure is running a little bit late--if you hurry you can just make it.

...and not only that, but they have half-pound cheeseburger platters for only $1.99 until the end of Happy Hour!

It's OK, you can leave the lights on.

It's OK, you can leave the lights off.

What does it mean when the little test patch thing doesn't turn pink?

ooooh, champaigne usually goes to my head and makes me all silly, but all right, I'll have another...

It's benign.

Other candidates for happiest phrases in the English language:

That's covered under the warranty.

Vikings beat the Redskins. :-)

Wilbrod, thanks for the visual. The last style of dancing I saw was called Break Dancing. It looked really cool, very athletic. What amazes me is that dance styles are still progressing just as music. As a teenager, I wundered if all the good songs were already taken and the sound of popular music would either just go downhill or repeat itself. So far, it hasn't. In fact, the new music coming out makes me want to take my clothes off and dance now than ever before. I think that's the point of it. I've also noticed that all my kids when they were still wearing diapers and discovered how to turn the dial on the clock radio, would skip by the classical, rock & roll, country music and land right on the rapp station. Then they would shake their butts.

One of my favorite things to hear, "Pat, you don't have any cavities this time".

Now that will make me want to get up and dance a small jig, but the elevator music just doesn't cut it.

Happiest phrase: Election results are in, Democrats take control of the House and the Senate

I think it is Curmudgeon that likes boats & boat building? Perhaps this will be of interest:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/science/17boat.html

"Other candidates for happiest phrases in the English language?"

Yes.

bc

"Other candidates for happiest phrases in the English language?"

The jury finds the defendant not guilty.

Actually, Bad Sneakers, I've given this matter some thought on whether "Democrats take control of the House and the Senate" is a good phrase. The thing is, I would like to have a Democrat win the Presidency in '08, as a strong rebuke to the Republicans and a message to the rest of the world and to our former-and-could-be-once-again allies that we didn't really mean to become crazy people -- it was our national drinking problem, perhaps, but we're entering rehab. I'm strongly opposed to putting both the legislative and the executive branches into the control of one party. The Republicans have shown what kind of mischief can come from that situation. Even if we believe that Democrats are persons of greater character and finer personal virtue (do we believe that?), it's really tempting fate to grant so much power to one party and one political philosophy. Of course, the Democrats have mastered the art of internal fractiousness and backstabbing and they neglect the elevation of party unity above constituent responsibility, so that certainly helps to keep the Democrats from abusing the reins of power in a really substantial way.

So, I propose the alternative "Democrats take control of the House and narrow the gap in the Senate". Maybe I'm just picky.

Vikings defeat Redskins? Vikings defeat Redskins?! VIKINGS DEFEAT REDSKINS????

Steve-2, you *are* aware it's the *WASHINGTON* Post, right?

That's it. Pack up your pixels and go spread your evil on the Mommy blog. Next thing you know we'll have Loomis or some other Texan rooting on the hated Cowboys against the home team.

Thanks for the link, whyrlegyge. Unfortunately, the guy who wrote that piece is an idiot whose last boat ride was on the Wild Flume at 6 Flags. While the boat in question is a bit unusual or experimental, it's nothing a hundred other people aren't also doing. When the designer started talking about "prismatic coefficient" and (OMG) "deadrise," it seems to have razzle-dazzled the writer. But the prismatic is basic yacht design 001 stuff, and "deadrise" has only been under discussion for about 400 years now, ever since the Mary Rose tipped over. Nonsuch Marine introduced a cat ketch with a wishbone rig to the sailing public, oh, maybe 20, 25 years ago. Diesel-electric tehcnology was first used in 1911 (on the vessel Christine IX of Denmark, and then on the Elco "Hurrion" in 1912); at about the same time, submarines began to switch over to diesel electric, and EVERY submarine built by anybody in WWI or WII had diesel-electric. The brand new Queen Mary II just launched by Cunard Lines to replace the QE2 uses diesel-electric, albeit in the new "pod" design. There was a booth at the Annapolis Powerboat Show two weeks ago (and at the sailboat show last weekend) that featured it. About the only thing new in the article is the notion that these guys have deluded themselves that they can market the boat to commercial fisherman. Among people who use boats, "watermen" (fishermen) are just about THE most stubborn, 19-century "late adopters" one can imagine. (I know; I spent more than my fair share of time trying to educate some.) Their basic attitude is, "If it was good enough for my daddy, it's good enough for me."

In your whole life, did you EVER see a commercial fishing boat that DIDN'T look like it was owned by Forrest Gump? Me neither.

But thanks for helping me get my blood pressure back above 58 over 105.

Superfrenchie, that is one of the nicest comments I've read concerning anything I've ever said on this blog. It was simply beautiful, and I did not mean to say that in a "mean" way, just want the good thing for you, and for all.

Freak dancing, is that what we used to call slow dancing real close? If so, that was my favorite part of going out.

My son loved hip-hop music, but I never got warm to it. I just have this thing wherein I believe one should sing, not talk to the music. Probably feel this way because I am an antique.

Snacks are a lot of mini-kits?

Pat, because of the rain, I did not walk today. Rain makes the hurt worse.

RD, I've never tried square dancing, although in school we did the May pole thing, and I thought that was embarassing enough. I went to a segregated school, so square dancing would not be on the top of the list of things to do. I'm sure you're familiar with the drill on that.

After mudge's synopsis of the NYT boating article I went back and read it using my patented Scientific American reading test. I count how many paragraphs I get into the article before it becomes complete gibberish. My mean count is about 4.

A newpaper article is an unfair victim since it's meant to be comprehensible. Still, by paragraph 9 it got to be tough slogging and the eyes were drooping by paragraph 12. I never made it to the second page.

No, Cassandra, freak dancing is NOT slow dancing real close. In fact, I cannot bring myself to explain its principal difference to you. Just trust me on this: you don't wanna know.

How about all 12 Achenbloggers try a grind-train, instead of a boring happy hour. That should liven things up.

Curmudgeon, sorry about your blood pressure. I know next-to-nothing about boats, but I get your drift.

From Joel's LA Times article/link, Cassandra:

"The 'dancing' of our youngsters today is one step from events that should be occurring on wedding nights," he wrote in an e-mail to parents.

Though forms of freak dancing -- also called "grinding" or "the nasty" -- first appeared years ago, so many students are doing it now that educators nationwide are drawing up rules of behavior, changing music formats away from freak-friendly hip-hop, and banning from dances students whose movements are deemed too sexual.

"Of all the things that happen at a high school, having to spend so much time on dances -- that's out of whack," said Kelly Godfrey, principal of Los Alamitos High School in Orange County.

Some students say a crackdown on freaking would discourage them from attending school dances.

"I wouldn't go," said Chelsea Walsh, 15, a sophomore at Aliso Niguel High. "It would be boring. How else do you dance?"
***

Ummmmmm, ballroom? Or does that, too, have sexual connotations?

Here's more hype on "tonight's "Dancing with the Stars" on my ISP's welcome screen: As Split Gets Uglier, Sara Will Explain Why She Quit Show: Dancing Turned Dirty.

Not quite, it was the voting that turned dirty. The divorce is dirty. Sure, the dancing on the show is suggestive, but isn't that, in part, what dancing is all about? The hint of physical contact? Getting the blood coursing? The endorphins or Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met-Thr-Ser-Glu-Lys-Ser-Gln-Thr-Pro-Leu-Val-Thr-Leu-Phe-Lys-Asn-Ala-Ile-Ile-Lys-Asn-Ala-Tyr-Lys-Lys-Gly-GluOH flowing?

Cassandra, I agree that "snacks for thoughts" would seem to be mini-kits, and they are guaranteed to have no more than 100 calories per kit.

Dancing confession:

Long ago in a Montana parish basement, far, far away, boys and girls

danced "steps"

on Tuesday and Thursday after school

We kept our hands -- fists clenched moderately -- at our sides.

Sometimes we danced in lines of eight, boys, girls by line.

Other times we danced "sets." The music included "Lancers," "The Humors of Brandon," and this gem, "Mrs. Tobin's Laundry."

Later when I moved to rural Central California in the 70s, I realized that "set dancing" was the Celtic precurser to square dancing. Hee Haw. Square dancing is WAY easier. You touch your partner. The caller tells you what do : "Alla man left." "Dough saw dough" and my personal favorite, "Texas Star, left."

In set dancing, you glide past the partner, arms still at the sides, and do not make eye contact.

----
YEARS later, while watching a PBS pledge drive, I saw River Dance. Wow. Now I know what the dancing in lines was. Step dancing.

Although Michael Flatley dancing with a shirt is an abomination, to all things classically-Celtical.

Cassandra -- to say the least, freak dancing is in very poor taste. Arms and hands are NOT at the sides. At one PTA meeting I attended in 2003 before Prom, the principal said, "simulted sex with clothes on."

Correction-- 12 MALE achenbloggers do the grind-train.

Cassandra, if you ever remember Elvis' pelvic thrusts while singing, combine that with dancing close but NOT slow, with various positions, you get the bump n grind more or less.

Ah, breakdance were the days. Hip-hop is still an evolving genre, I personally find the dancing in most music videos to lack style because it's always short clips interpersed with other stuff and often the dancing is in shadow or distorted by lights, graphics, and other imagery.

I'm a purist when it comes to dance. I want to see it, not special effects.

I liked Riverdance a lot but Lord of the Dance sucked because it was all show and flash and strobe lights and lasershow and smoke and you couldn't see the dancing as well. Not to mention that annoying male dancer who acted insufferably smug.

the 80's were a nadir for dance music-- I went over to Polyester which covers various decades--every room is themed and playing videos from that era.
I had never tried dancing in the 80's nor heard 80's music for more than a few seconds before making my siblings switch the music off. SO, now I'm blissfully more deaf now, I went to watch the videos in the 80's room , felt the music and I realized the beat was undanceable. SIMPLY undanceable. You just couldn't get going. Not bad music nor videos, no.

Back to the Future kind of made fun of rock music in the 80's that way, because Michael J. Fox gets up on the stage, starts playing, and then he starts doing a prolonged guitar riff and those 50's/ early 60's teenagers just screech to a halt and watch him perplexedly, waiting for the dance beat.

And here I though dancing was all about the beat.

:-)

And seconded on Michael Flatley (Lord of the Dance male dancer)'s choice of shirts. Whatever possessed him to buy Jerry Seinfield's "puffy pirate shirts" and try and show his nonexistent chest hair while dancing? Talk about GREASY.

"How about all 12 Achenbloggers try a grind-train, instead of a boring happy hour. That should liven things up."

Yeah, that's it! Hey, superfrenchie, I knew you were good for something here at this blog! Imagine the photos? Joel's blog will skyrocket with page views! Next thing you know, they'll make a Broadway musical out of it, then a movie--both called "A Grind Line."

One singular sensation
Every little step they take.
One thrilling combination
Every grind that they make.
Twelve smiles and suddenly no bodies else will do;
You know you'll never be lonely with you know who--the Achenboodle!

Tim, I get your point, I was thinking short-term as in getting some oversight on the war and other atrocities. But that could be accomplished with your scenario as well. We have a Democratic majority in both houses here in MA and it's not that great, so I know it would be only a momentary positive.

SHOULD have posted

Although Michael Flatley dancing WITHOUT a shirt is an abomination, to all things classically-Celtical.

---
Someone gave a video of River Dance II or III to my grandmother -- born on the ol' sod but here by 1919. I think it was called "feet of flame" --

My authentically-green granny WAS NOT amused. "That shameless, overly bold boy should put his shirt on. Lord save us, Dick Davis, don't eat us for a couple of raw potatos."

Dancing is all about the beat, S'Nuke. I'm not sure I want to be experiencing my partner's flowing endomorphic Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met-Thr-Ser-Glu-Lys-Ser-Gln-Thr-Pro-Leu-Val-Thr-Leu-Phe-Lys-Asn-Ala-Ile-Ile-Lys-Asn-Ala-Tyr-Lys-Lys-Gly-GluOH.

It's just a DANCE. Keep the happy to yourself.

Whatever happened to a clean, old-fashioned conga line with a couple of poodles joining in with the fun?

*Shakes head at the decline of terpischoreal taste*

Snoopy kept his happy dance to himself, Wilbrod... *nods*

:-)

A true happy dog dance is intended to reward the owner for the fanastically bright idea of taking the dog on a long-awaited walk. Slobber, intrusive licking, and excess contact are no-nos.

Some dogs suggest that circling the owner and bouncing up and down long defeats the purpose of the happy dance. To that, I say bah, artistic expression is important too.
http://www.nhlcyberfamily.org/special/happydance.htm

I knew Snoopy would get someone's attention... *L*

A Dog doing the hula (hoop).

http://wilbrodog.blogspot.com/

College: //freak dancing is in very poor taste. Arms and hands are NOT at the sides. At one PTA meeting I attended in 2003 before Prom, the principal said, "simulted sex with clothes on."//

That might be in poor taste DURING a PTA meeting...

But in the proper setting, that's just fun, and what dance has always been about anyway. If arms and hands were made to stay at the sides, we'd be penguins.

Or Irish, Superfrenchie. Or Irish.

Hey SuperFrenchie! Dancing should be fun. Maybe you don't have this over-the-line dancing in France?

I love the heat in Tango; most dancing is some restrained meditation or precurser to what is most elemental: sex.

(Anerobes dance, too!)

I do not now, nor at any time advocate penquin-dancing as the only legal form of moving to a beat.

Wilbrodog, not to say that dogs don't have the right to be happy, but when you're grinding, it's the rival furry domestic animal that occupies the male human's mind...

(Just let me know when I'm reaching the limits of what mainstream American media might be able to bear)

mudge, i actually meant to ask you, i'm really interested in boats as living spaces, but i don't know very much about them. could you email me at eonblueepicATstarpowerDOTnet? i have some questions which nobody i know is really capable of answering.

College: //Hey SuperFrenchie! Dancing should be fun. Maybe you don't have this over-the-line dancing in France?//

Of course not. In social settings, we keep it at ballet dancing:

http://chazellefamily.com/images/Freedom_Party/Freedom_Party_Pics/superfrenchie_et_petit_rat.jpg

We had the 'bump' back in the '70s. Freak dancing sounds like the 'bump' bumped up a notch or two.

Making a big deal about it is only going to make the kids, who would never have participated, participate because it's bugging the adults.

//Hey SuperFrenchie! Dancing should be fun. Maybe you don't have this over-the-line dancing in France?//

Posted by: College Parkian | October 17, 2006 04:06 PM

Did you mean "cross-the-line"?

Dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire legalized by music.

I am positive that is not original to me.

Ballet in sneakers? How gauche. Cute tutu on your ami, though.

i agree that making too much of a thing about "freaking" will only make kids want to do it that much more... the less said, the better, me thinks... that being said, i think "freaking" is going WAY over the line (i know, i know... didn't expect me to say that did you?) boys at that stage in their sexual peak do NOT need any thing else arousing them (such as a young girl's derriere rubbing on their mid-section!)

jeez - i'm turning into a PRUDE! i'm too young to turn into a prude! *ACK!*

mo,

That's why the guys wear such baggy pants.

yellojkt, freedom of movement is NOT what you need in those situations.

and from the LA BPH - (sorry it took so long la lurker and tim)

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mortiifera/slideshow2?.dir=/ffe4re2&.beg=0&.src=ph

sparks - you're a young guy - to freak or not to freak? that is the question... whether tis nobler to keep it at a distance or chance to tempt fate, and a possible slap in the face?

I object to mo's 4:29 as an uncalled for reference to stereotypical male behavior that maligns men unfairly. some people like that move, mo

l

superfrenchie... that was a great line about "the rival furry domestic animal."

It's hard to go too far with this group. If I remember correctly, there was a Boodle that spent a lot of time talking about pasties.

Reminds me of a very Seinfeld-esque remark made by a coworker of mine when told a remark *may* have crossed the line: "I didn't know we had a line!!!"

this discussion has gone too far TBG.

the flagging libido of participants leads to dreams of a drive train, particularly for the oversexed women, like me. right?

TBG, that must have been your cat typing that. Personally, I don't see a man would think about changing litter boxes while dancing.

I am now blogging a doggy mainfesto about dance within the next hour. Grr.

i've been a participant in this so-called "freaking". that being said, some of it IS pretty obscene. thinking back, i'm not entirely certain whether i thought that because i was offended or jealous.

freaking = ublic masturbation, does it not? that said, why is the dropsy ferreting up to the snide?

Probably offended, Sparks. Anybody who doesn't invite you to join in in order to avoid jealousy is really rude.

In dark nightclubs, freaking DOES often turn into sex.

Penny lane raises an issue. Just how long are students going to have to learn square dancing in school? We had to do that too, way back when, and I think the average age of actual square dancers was 134 at that time.

Posted by: SonofCarl | October 17, 2006 12:27 PM

=====

Well, I haven't caught up on the blog yet (as you can see, I've just read a 12:27 post), but I wanted to respond to this.

SoC, this is the wrong town to be making that comment. The DC-area has one of the most active square and contra communities around. There are several major dances every week for New England style squares and contras and Western style square dancing (including advanced and plus level dancing). The dance Friday and Sunday nights at the Spanish ballroom in Glen Echo park are huge (probably 400-500 dancers a night). There are also dance camps routinely throughout the warm months, folk dance festivals, etc that run. It's a very active community and excellent exercise.

I learned square dancing in junior high (lo, those many many moons ago) and it's a wonderful pasttime that I just don't get to do nearly often enough. MomWannaBe wants us to go more often, but we don't always find the time with everything else going on around us, but the good thing is that it is always there.

Oops...left out one additional comment. The average age of square dancers seems to be in their late 30's in the Baltimore-Washington area.

ok - my co-worker thinks that freaking is nothing new, it's pretty much the same thing kids have been doing forever... *sigh* am i getting old????

(goth dancing is nothing like freaking btw)

DadWannaBe: "The DC-area has one of the most active square and contra communities around."

I always wondered whatever happened to the contras.

What IS goth dancing, Mo? Most goths I've met don't seem to be huge dancers.

my word, you are a prurient bunch. sex will be the ruination of us, or at least that is what Laura Bushes told me

I know! Any flea-ridden mutt can tell you that dance is NOT sex. But I'm the one blogging here.

http://wilbrodog.blogspot.com/2006/10/dog-of-dance.html

SF: Is that you, Mr. SF, in the pale blue tutu and beret? Somehow you channel Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron PLUS generic elegant Frenchman in the national headgear. Wow.

I should try to find a step dancer willing to dress penguin-style for you. But for now, simply imagine wild Celtic folk dancing for all they are worth, in penguin-pose.

Sparks, can I ask a question? (Others chime in as you like.) Does freak dancing go with a particular musical style or genre? Does freak dancing link up with L.O.Parker's piece on misogynistic rap?

Other note on dancing, circa 1968 in the boondocks of Montana. The older teens that we younger tweens spied on, used to sigh on Saturday mornings about the "hand dancing" done at CYO dances the night before. Hand dancing seemed to fit the nun/sister/parent/priest standards for good conduct. But it was so much cooler than waltz or fox trot. I think it was slowed-down twist to soul or R & B?

Ano: //SF: Is that you, Mr. SF, in the pale blue tutu and beret? //

A beret? So stereotypical!

No. I'm the superhero with my cape on.

Some penguins can dance:

http://chazellefamily.com/Parties/Blues_Brothers_98/Images/2%20penguins.jpg

Do you mean REAL "hand dance" aka Philly Bop, Norfolk Swing? It's the offical dance of the District of Columnia by a resolution in 1999.

http://www.dancespirit.com/backissues/sep01/intheswing.shtml

Wonderful pictures from the Left Coast BPH, particularly StarTrekTim wearing that visor one must wear to avoid being driven insane by the master navigator race too horrible to behold.

I am such a geek.

:-)

Long Tall Glasses
by Leo Sayer

I was travellin' down the road, feelin' hungry and cold
I saw a sign sayin' food and drinks for everyone
So naturally I thought I would take me a look inside
I saw so much food, there was water comin' from my eye

Yeah there was ham and there was turkey, there was caviar
An long tall glasses, with wine up to yar

And then somebody grabbed me, threw me outta my chair
Said before you can eat, you gotta dance like Fred Astaire

You know I can't dance, you know I can't dance!
You know I can't dance, you know I can't dance!
I can't dance!

I am a man of the road -- a hobo by name
I don't seek entertainment, just poultry and game
But if it's all the same to you, then yes I will try my hand
If you were as hungry as me then I'm sure you would understand

Hmmm
Now wait a minute
Let me see now

Of course I can dance of course I can dance!
Im sure I can dance, Im sure I can dance..
I can dance!

I can dance
I really hit the floor
Ah feels good
Look at me dancin'

I did a two-step, quick-step and a Bossa Nova
A little Victor Silvester, and a Rudy Valentino
You should a seen me movin', right across the floor
Hand me down my tuxedo, next week I'm comin' back for more

I can dance -- oh yes! I can dance!
Look at me dancin', the floor movin
I feel good -- I can dance
I can dance, I can dance, I can dance.

Ah scottynuke - but were the too ugly to behold - or too beautiful?

Geeks, like, rule.

SCC: the medusians, of course.

Thank you, RDP, had vapor lock on recalling the species.

:-)

Ah, Medusa, the Gorgon with the snakes instead of hair, whose head Jason cut off with eyes shut, after shielding himself from her basilik gaze.

Medusium-- the element you can't look at without exploding your eyeballs with radiation.

Ka-ching, I think we have a contenda!

Wasn't it Perseus who slew Medusa by using his mirror-like shield to avoid looking at her directly???

I am SUCH a mythology geek...

:-)

Perseus, IIRC. How many hit points does a gorgon have, anyway?

Series and episode for the true trek geeks:

Star Trek, the Original Series, Episode "Is there in Truth No Beauty?"

And if they ever develop an element so heavy that a mere pebble would drill right through the ground, I want that to be called Hortaium.

This reminds me of an bizaare connection between Star Trek and dance that doesn't involve orion slave girls.

I had this teacher assistant for biochemistry once who looked like a short plump Montogomery Scott in the TOS days. Keep this in your head.

One day he was drawing something and apologized for being a lousy artist. I suddenly had this visualization of him saying "But I can do interpretive dance to show you", then bending down in one knee in a pause before he started spreading his arms out slowly, expressing protein folding and unfolding and the longing of the receptor for the ligand and all that biochemistry jazz to slow, sappy music.

I found myself fighting down the giggles throughout class once infected by that dance cootie.

I had to admit, it'd have made the class a lot more interesting and easier to follow. Alas, in reality he apparently also had the dance instinct of a turnip.

Right, Jason and Medea BUT Persus and Medusa..... I got crossed circuits in my brain.

*Must get brain in the shop for a tune-up*

SoC, not near enough hit points to help against a +5 vorpal sword...

:-)

"Other candidates for happiest phrases in the English language?"

--It's no big deal, just a minor adjustment. No charge.
--Our mistake, and we've already applied the refund to your credit card.
--I found the problem and fixed it.
--Your aunt left a much larger estate than any of you expected.
--Tax refund.

So many of these are about money and systems--how about:
--Breaking up with you was the biggest mistake I ever made!
--The boss is working from home today.
--I love you.

It's actually difficult to top "The meeting is cancelled." :-)

Cassandra, could you use some yoga tapes for the days you can't walk?

Speaking of dancing, was watching Loomis' favorite show (see earlier posts) and I found the rumba hard to watch because I was just a bit worried about a wardrobe malfunction for Edyta.

I didn't know you had to perform the rumba half-naked in THAT way. (White robe covering the left side, fastened to a gold lame bikini...I was worried the bikini would malfunction at the hip.)

Since both penguins and France (or superfrenchie, at the least) have appeared in the same boodle I feel compelled to share this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_mlwnAmr0&eurl=

Wilbrodog, love the pictures and your very entertaining blog.

Found this link on dooce. They call it "Posturing," we call it "When Poodles go Bad."

Oops. Continuing on the French theme:

http://flickr.com/photos/thepack/64470562/in/photostream/

Steve-2, that's even funnier than biochemistry through interpretive dance was in my head.

How perfect. I cried from the burst gut. Thank you!

I would NEVER do the French Poodle thing in public. Brats.

Those poodles are not posturing to show off, they're angry and ready to fight. I'm sure the owner thought they were just playing, too. Hmph.

Well, apparently the owner claims they are close and trust each other to really threat display like that, but as one is turning away and the other one has head lifted, it's just fooling.

On the other hand, siblings that are stuck with each other for life could go from grumbling to full-out enmities.

Female dogs that live together have more ambiguous hierarchy and it does happen that female dogs that got along great eventually find their pack order to less clear and one challenges the other, and then it becomes open warfare, and one dog may well have to be adopted out because the two just can't get along.

But Jack would know more about this as he actually keeps 3 females together.

Anyway Wilbrodog really didn't read the fun in the aggressive display in this photo.

Loomis,
I had no idea about the controversy and Tom Delay connection to Dancing with the Stars - too weird. I watched a little of the first season, when John Hurley got robbed, but haven't been back. Not really my style of dance. If you ever get a chance to see the Japanese movie, Shall We Dance, it's wonderful. Do not confuse it with the recent American remake with Richard Gere and JLo - they ruined it somehow despite their gorgeousness. The Japanese version is very sweet and poignant, and has wonderful over-the-top comic characters too.

Speaking of contra dancing - I had a friend who did that. She said her favorite part was the spin, because the man was supposed to lock eyes with the woman. That is so sexy - my favorite part of Riverdance is the flamenco bit, because they lock eyes in a deep gaze. (SonofCarl - that's where the contras went - haha!)

I think the poodles look so angry because they're frozen in time. My labs do the same kind of threat displays, but you see the wagging tails, the sidewise glance to me "Do you see what a DUDE I am, dbG?," the affectionate bumping as they jostle around, the one who runs out of the room then returns immediately to body slam the one who stayed. Hah! Got ya!

I saw what the owner wrote, too, but if I didn't have 2 that play the same way, I'm not sure I would believe it. It was just strange to see it with POODLES!

I always thought the director of Intolerable Cruelty missed a great opportunity. Catherine Zeta-Jones's got the standard Poodle named Howard after her ex. A little later, she's got several Dobies threatening a hit man--Howard the poodle should've been there growling with them.

On Studio 60 -
It kept my attention last night - maybe it was Sting, maybe it was because they explained a few things. Personally, I'd rather watch Medium - which has goofy plots, but I like Patricia Arquette and the husband/wife relationship.

dbG, you are right. That would have been authentic, it's often said that poodles would be great watchdogs if they didn't look so frou-frou.

That could have been so, although normally when my dog play-fights, the other dog doesn't return his gaping mouth display with a snarl. If a dog did that to Wilbrodog, he'd probably back off immediately.

http://datelinehollywood.com/archives/2006/10/16/bush-blasts-sara-evans-for-cutting-and-running/

Hollywood -- President Bush has criticized country singer Sara Evans for her abrupt decision to leave the ABC show "Dancing With the Stars." "I know she was facing a long, tough battle against the enemy, Mario Lopez, but true Americans simply don't pursue a cut-and-run agenda," said President Bush during his Saturday radio address.

Evans was among 11 celebrities who paired with professional dancers to compete on the third season of the popular ABC reality series.

"These are tough times on reality television," said President Bush. "Mario Lopez is doing everything within his power to win the battle for best dancer. Keep in mind that Mario Lopez had dancing lessons when he was younger. He is dangerous. He is an evil-doer. And Sara Evans' decision to leave the show before her mission was complete is unacceptable."

Evans announced that she was filing for divorce from husband Craig Schelske in Williamson County, Tenn., where she lives. Evans decided she needed to leave the TV show to give her family her full attention.

The President's remarks during his radio address were unexpected and seen as insensitive by some. The White House quickly went into damage control mode.

"The President is a big fan of 'Dancing with the Stars' and her decision to abandon the show had quite an impact on the President," said White House spokesperson Tony Snow. "The President is very passionate about finishing the job. Although Ms. Evans is dealing with some tough issues, the President believes that leaving the show prematurely will embolden Mario Lopez. The President has been consistent on these issues."

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=2577619&page=1

Oct. 17, 2006 -- It's been a tough year for Tom DeLay. (Oh, poor, poor, poor Tom DeLay!)

The indicted former U.S. House majority leader quit his bid for re-election in April.

Now, even Sara Evans -- the country star whom he enthusiastically supported to win on "Dancing With the Stars" -- has withdrawn from the show amid controversy.

Evans says her final goodbye on tonight's show in a pretaped interview. ...

"Sara Evans has been a strong supporter of the Republican Party and represents good American values," he [DeLay] wrote. "Let's show Sara that same support."

Schelske and Evans were once conservative darlings.

She performed at one of President Bush's 2004 inaugural balls as well as at the Republican convention. He ran for Congress that year in Oregon as a Republican candidate.

Wilbrod, there's great comfort in knowing exactly who you're playing with! It took Emma almost a month before she trusted Cutter enough to play tae kwan dog. They know their boundaries, a strange dog wouldn't get as far with them.

Just received campaign literature in the mail. "Pennsylvania tax dollars spent in Iraq could have been used to: Provide health insurance to 185,951,309 children. Hire 5,381,674 teachers. Award 15,054,235 four-year college scholarships." (www.costofwar.com) . . . can we have a do over and this time, leave no child behind?

I must say, concerning dancing, that "grinding" or "freaking" or whatever you want to call it, is not actually that great of a time (and yes, I am speaking from experience.) I mean, if you're interested in a Bacchulaen(?), carnally fulfilling experience, go for it. I tend to prefer swing dancing, which requires rythem and a certain amount of grace, neither of which I am blessed with in great abundance. But it is really fun, in a dancing but not-having-sex-w/-your-clothes-on kind of way.

Yes, grinding looks like a very limited dance style.

Myself, I like anything I can remember how to do at that moment, no matter if it's any good or not.

tangent - gaze in the eyes - that's the key, I think!

I'm too shy to dance well in public - and I grew up at the time that "dancing apart" was the rage (and ridiculed and criticized by adults). I love to watch good dancers, though. And I did do the bump during the disco era (not my fault - I had a good friend who loved to disco dance). Never heard of hand dancing before - thanks, Wilbrod, for the link.

I'm not sure I know much of anything these days, Wilbrod. We've been keeping LOOOONG hours of late. School and all of the ancillary activities have consumed the calendar since August. Weekends are for band competitons from which the leigonnaires have earned two superior ratings in a row. The most recent was awarded after competing against six bands, each of which outnumbered ours by a factor of 1.5 or so. Our school has 400 enrolled and 75 members in the band; the competitors had anywhere from 900 to 1700 enrollees and 100-130 marchers. This weekend we are scheduled to get home in the vicinity of 2 a.m..

Our female dogs tend to sort things out among themselves in what appears to be a more genteel manner than males. This is the least of our dog worries. Two of the three are in heat and the dogs are crazy. JA's observation in the camping kit that we occasionally use long forgotten muscles is so true. I have to wrestle our big boy back into his kennel every time it's potty or feeding time. I could earn lots of points for riding time. In any case, I always win...more than I ever could have imagined as a high school wrestler, as I was eliminated regularly in the early stages of each match I participated in.

Steve-2, re your video link, please don't start spreading the rumor that any Frenchie could possibly have a sense of humor. Who knows, Mudge might be reading. The man's certitudes are at stake!

Superfrenchie, don't worry. The man's a couple millenia old, so he'll forget all about it afterwards.

Interesting old quote I came across the other day: "It would have been foolhardy for us to try to occupy that capital city and pile up American casualties from sniper attacks by Iraq's guerillas. That may be hard for you Monday morning quarterbacks to understand but I thoroughly agreed with the president who was convinced that such an action would have sent a bad message to the Arab world and would have splintered the Allied partnership." General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, US Field Commander, on why he had not pursued the enemy all the way to Baghdad in 1991.

On the theme of being footloose and fancyfree, watch out for dancers near metro stops from Thursday to Saturday and make travel plans accordingly.

http://www.improvfestival.com/program.html

For those of you in the 35-50 age range that might be tempted to tut tut the goings-on during freak dancing, three words:

Stairway to Heaven.

We adopted another cat to take our recently deceased animal. She is fond of sleeping in our son's old kiddie potty, so we considered naming her Frass, and other such iterations. The kids didn't think it appropriate so I wielded every ounce of my Spanish skill, culled over the seventeen years of loving companionship with my wife, and suggested Mierta Cabesa. When my daughter, blonde as noted previously, heard the whispered translation she was appalled. My son then suggested the name Beach. When I repeated it, my daughter said that it sounded bad, like someone saying an epithet with a Spanish accident. Hilarity ensued; she was quick to correct herself...

jack...

In Ocean City, Md., there is an small rental building called The Sun 'n Beach Apartments. My grandmother, with her exaggerated Greek accent, called them The Son 'o Beach Apartments.

Good morning, friends. dbg, never tried yoga, it might be interesting. Freak dancing does not sound like what I thought it was. Every generation does something that adults in the older generation don't like, so this does not sound like something new. Hey, folks, you might as well admit it; you're getting old or you're already there.

I'm up so early, every morning waking up at three, I don't know what's up with that. We had rain all day yesterday. I hope I can walk today, need to get out.

Television went out on me last night, and it's not that old. In fact, I'm still paying for the thing.

I have a busy day today, but will try to check in when I get home. I hope everyone here has a good day. I have prayed for my friends here at the "Achenblog" asking for blessings, and that we all come to know that God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Coming from the Seizure d'Epileptic school of dance (anyone remember the "robot"?), I will keep all dance-related comments to myself.

Except this one: When one is drunk, almost ANYthing that involves movement synchronized (or not) to music (real or imagined) qualifies as high art from the perspective of the shaker of the money-maker. Anyone who disagrees will find themselves drenched by said "shaker's" thrown glass of white zinfandel and called a "party pooper" (or worse). Trust me. I tended bar for several years and helped scrape several of these "shakers" off the floor after their attempts to emulate Pee-Wee Herman's bar-top "Tequila" dance didn't work out as planned. This tendency toward stupidity seemed to be especially prevailant among college-educated middle-aged white suburbanites on merlot (note the not-so-veiled reference to "White Punks on Dope" by The Tubes).

Flush.

And to further prove my geeky subversive nature...

Just upgraded my home 'puter to Fedora Core 5 and am very pleased so far with the results (sorry, Redmond, but I ain't "activating" nothing -- don't need to, and you can't make me). The only reason for this upgrade is that my trusty old 21" monitor made a very nasty "POP-fizzle-frzl-pttthht" noise several days ago and then refused to display anything. Ahh.... the sweet smell of ozone. What really triggered the upgrade was when I hooked up a "borrowed" monitor from work, and good ol' X11 didn't like it and refused to acknowledge its existence. (Hmm... I wonder if I need to upgrade Mrs. Martooni's operating system...)

In any case, here's some geek porn for the true pointy heads (would do a powerpointish presentation, but I consider them to be the corporate equivalent of waterboarding):

1. I was able to "cpio" off all my important stuff to an archive and transfer it all to the PC in the kitchen via http (samba just didn't wanna samba and ftp gave me the "you're #1" sign).

2. Checked said cpio archives to make sure no images of Little Bean were lost.

3. Got the installation going and crossed my fingers, did a "Hail Mary" or two, ran two laps around the back yard butt-nekkid while chanting "Oh-ee-oh... Ohhh-oh" (tripped over a sleeping monk, btw, but no Tibetans were harmed during this exercise).

4. Saw some really retro-cool-looking bubbles and things appear on the screen after the install was done.

5. Clicked "reboot".

6. Got a login (wooooohooooo!)

7. Pointed FireFox to Achenblog.

8. Posted this.

Huzzah!

(too bad Little Bean isn't a teenager yet -- I could text this to all of her friends and ensure that her social life would be ruined forever, and therefore never have to deal with the "freaky dance" or whatever the heck it was that Joel wrote about that got me onto this tangent)

regarding my #4 from my 4:58....

I want to make it perfectly clear that I was not "high" when I saw those bubbles. Apparently, though, the designers behind the Fedora project's graphics were. What the heck's up with that? I may drive a Very Old VW Bus and listen to the Grateful Dead (and NRBQ and NIN and .... don't laugh .... "cool" 80's music), but I'll be the first to say "HEY... 1970 called and they want their bubbles and other groovies back".

And now I'm back off to bed (really got to move the 'puters out of the bathroom path).

G'night (or morning).

Peace, love & understanding and all that...

Martooni, I love it when you talk tech!

The sad part is, I totally understood martooni.

*pointing waaaaaaaaaaaaay back to the Boodle where I posted my computer geek score*

:-)

Good morning, all.
Cassandra, regarding your sleep patterns: my mother, who's been retired for several years now, has a sleep pattern that involves staying up until 11:00 pm, then she'll get up again around 2 or 3 am, have a snack, watch some tv, then return to bed, and then get up around 10 am and go about her day. I thought it was odd, and then I came across an article that detailed the sleep habits of people who live in less industrialized societies, and their sleep patterns were very similar to my mother's. What I took from this is that she's reverted to what is actually our natural sleep pattern, now that she doesn't have to live by the clock anymore.

Nothing wrong with being a geek, Scotty.

In fact, you should embrace your inner geek. Make it feel special. Buy it a Guinness.

I've found that it's easy to get along with non-geeks if you just balance it all out with tattoos and body piercings and an unusual mode of transport.

As I said yesterday, "S" is a much better writer than I am and he is now really into the sky report. All I could think of to say is that it is grey and gloomy. So here is his report: "The commute weather was dreary.  Between the mist and lack of sunlight it seemed darker than the bottom of a battleship on a moonless night.  The drops on the windshield diffused the blinking brake lights into a mosaic of huge pixels across the glass.  As the commute continued and some light started to filter into the sea of overcast, the view changed to looking at the side of the battleship - a dull gray.  The forecast instills hope that the day will turn into a brighter gray and then maybe a spear or two of sunlight will pierce through the gloom to bring justice to having endured the human ant farm procession we call early morning rush hour."

The commute here wasn't much better, Sneakers.

I only have a couple of miles to traverse, but while I was waiting at a light this morning, a spider decided it was an opportune time to drop down from the ceiling of the Bus and dangle himself (or herself, I didn't check) about three inches in front of my face.

Good thing I didn't stop for coffee on the way or the dash and windshield would still be dripping with java.

As for the sky here... I would call it "Tim Burtonesque (as in "Nightmare Before Christmas") with a touch of South Park. In other words, it was kinda dark and creepy, but the clouds had a cut-and-paste look to them -- like they were from someone else's sky.

At least it stopped raining. I've got about 8 inches of standing water in the back yard (those poor monks hanging around and chanting back there must be miserable) and the retention pond here at the office complex is about 4 feet above normal.

Loomis (and anyone else in "dry" territory) ... if I could figure out a way to send you all this stupid water, I would.

Sneakers, I got a great visual from that. Thanks.

Hey, I can't take credit for the description, it was "S." But I'll tell him you appreciated it, whyrleygyge (boy that's tough to type!)

martooni,
Will welcome anything you can send our way, but please don't send it to Houston. City honchos there are considering construction of an ark. "Stupid" water or smart water--I'll/we'll take it!

I keep thinking I can put the summer swimsuit away. Today temps here will be hovering near 90. I was at the bookstore late last night, buying Greg Campbell's "Blood Diamonds" and perusing "Hubris." I talked to my favoriate store associate, bemoaning the fact I recently bought a long-sleeved cotton sweater and wondering when it will ever, ever be cold enough to wear it.

Regarding the newer elements discussed yesterday, I posted this regarding the the denser elements:

http://www.10thcircle.com/10/?p=137

Enjoy.

bc

Stop bragging, Loomis... 90 degrees?

My little desktop weather icon thingie is stuck on 52 and cloudy. I keep tapping the monitor, but that's had no effect.

(I actually prefer 52 to 90, but still...)

In the comments section of Libby Copeland's piece on James Webb ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701585.html

... there's a little exchange about Scots-Irish vs. Scotch-Irish. The first is apparently correct. I am pretty sure I got this wrong in my book on GW and the Potomac.

LOL, bc. We continually keep proving chemistry isn't that boring, don't we?

On another pointy-sciency note, some of you may remember a discussion that *Tim and I had regarding the Outer Space Treaty regarding peaceful uses and exploration of space.

I postulated that the Bush Administration's interest in space had a lot to do with national defense and pointed to the non-ratification of Article 11 (aka the Moon Treaty) as a bit of a loophole that the Arbusto Admin could use to take advantage of in the face of a perceived threat from the Chinese space program. Perhaps I was on to something:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701484.html

"President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to U.S. interests.'"

Gosh, they're thinking about capabilites to deny access to space, even to soverign countries? Yow.

Will it ever come to a point where we're engaged in a war over the Moon? After all, we didn't ratify the Moon Treaty, and we're the only country (so far) to have had citizens plant flags on it. 500 years ago, any country in the world would have claimed it as theirs the minute Armstrong and Aldrin hammered the flag in.

Many have pointed out that Fort Luna would be a dandy place from which to drop rocks on people's heads.

bc

I love the fact that the Allen campaign believes that "writer" is a pejorative:

'
Campaign officials for Webb's opponent, Republican Sen. George Allen, have repeatedly referenced Webb's careers in writing and in movies, hoping these labels might imply he is out of touch, untrustworthy or -- perhaps worst of all in Virginia -- liberal. In a debate, Allen said Webb was more aligned with the "values of Hollywood" than the "values of Virginia." "Hollywood," of course, is itself a dirty word in the popular political lexicon, a kind of shorthand for things that are lefty, elitist and vaguely debauched.
'--L.C.

bc, that link doesn't work for me and I can't get your website to come up even if I type the address. I had the same problem last time you posted a link. What gives?

Re: the sky report, and why I love it. I have never been much for "small talk" and to me, talking about the weather is often a sign that people actually have nothing to say and they should just be quiet. (Getting weather reports from all over the country/world, that's more interesting.) The sky report has me believing that even talking to other people about the local weather *could* be enlightening.

I'm still eagerly anticipating the return of Standard Time, and not just because of that extra hour of sleep (or blogging). Today when I left home it was extra-dark because the sky was mostly covered with clouds, not the kind we sometimes have that reflect the earthlight, but dark, absorbant ones that created an eerie, pre-Halloween atmosphere. It felt like it might rain. But it's a function of the perpetually high humidity here that it ALWAYS feels like it might rain. I know from experience that it rarely rains during that morning commute time (afternoons, that's another story...) I didn't get to see much sky at all this morning. I look forward to my lunchtime stroll (only 2 more hours).

in response to whoever's question, just after i left yesterday, oh yeah, hip hop. not really my thing, which is why i don't really know how to dance to it. of course, i don't know how to dance anyways, unless it's swing, but stop blowing my cover. i listen to some underground rap, and intellectual rap. you want some lyrical genius? look up a guy called aesop rock. (i have also been known to listen to rap from what is sometimes referred to as the "old school": NWA, Run-DMC, the ODB. In my opinion, mainstream rap died when suge knight started the east coast-west coast rap war.)

At least, chemistry isn't boring to make fun of. For us.

Wasn't it a space treaty rather than a moon treaty signed in the mid 60's? I just read Lost Moon and IIRC the treaty predates the moon missions but not Apollo.

Does all that heavy element chemistry stuff make anyone else think of post its? Post it glue was around for years before anyone decided there was a use for it. Maybe unobtanium is like that.

Who comes up with names like ununoctium anyway.

Saw this this morning on the selection of the new 7 wonders, an interesting list, some I question being included but as the list was made my votes that may explain it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061017/od_nm/britain_stonehenge_dc

Re dancing - I am as stereotypical of a white person as it gets, no dancing ability at all.

Dear FSM;

Please use Your Noodly Appendage to keep today's "Candorville" far, far, far away from JA. Thank you.

*lighting a piece of vermicelli*

:-)

With the sky report as good as it is, I'm still going to go outside in a little while to get a breath of fresh air and maybe a cup of coffee.

My wife & kids are headed up to PA, around Landcaster today to celebrate a dedication to my wife's deceased father, who was one of the original founders of the Toy Train museum. members of the Toy Collectors Association (TCA) are dedicating a portion of the museum that depicts the caboose and rail where once upon a time it was popular to deliver presidential speeches.

Sky report from wife as she crossed the Potomac River: The clouds have fallen leaving us lost in the fog.

Sparks, I like my lyrical genius to make a little more sense.
I feel like I need to pump Aesop Rock into Babelfish into Russian and then get a back-translation into English. And if that don't work, then right into Greek and back, and so on.

I much preferred Schoolhouse Rock myself, Wilbrod.

:-)

Scottynuke, thank you I now have conjunction junction tune cootie in my head, not only informative but catchy tune as well!

I never seem to get a morning sky report, but I can give a morning light off the back shop yard report. There are shadows, intersperesed with strong bright yellow rays of something that must be sun. The sky behind all this is still looking very grey, but I predict that it will shortly be a brilliant blue. Its no longer the summer blue, or even the fall blue, its moved with great swiftness to winter blue.

Re: Scots vs. Scotch

Joel, don't torture yourself. [Let us do it.] The Grand Idea contains five references to "Scotch-Irish" and two references to "Scots and Irish."

The American Heritage Dictionary usage note is as follows: "Scotsman, Scot, and Scotchman are all employed to designate one of the people of Scotland. Scotsman is the term generaly preferred in Scotland; Scotchman is sometimes considered mildly offensive. Scots and (the) Scotch are the usual collective plural forms. Of the corresponding adjectives, Scottish and Scots are generally preferred to Scotch in Scotland, in general usage. But each has become an established form in certain well-known combinations (Scoth broth, Scotch whisky, Scottish rite, Scots Guards). Scot is not an adjective.

(Think of the way Sean Connery would pronounce "Scots"--"Scotch" is just a phonetic spelling of the way preferred term is pronounced in Scotland)

Let me help you, if possible, Joel, as Science Tim helped me yesterday.

In David Hackett Fischer's 1989 "Albion's Seed; Four British Folkways in America," there are three references to Scots-Irish.

p. 609
On this page there is a population table with date and source. Dunaway in 1944 uses Scotch-Irish. Leyburn in 1962 uses Scotch-Irish.

p. 613
Fischer is again referring to other works when he writes: One writer unkindly described the Scots-Irish emigrants as "the scum of two nations."

p. 618
A long passage...

Some historians describe these immigrants as "Ulster Irish" or "Northern Irish." It is true that many sailed from the province of Ulster in northern Ireland, but these labels are not accurate when applied to the movement as a whole. The emigration from Ulster was part of a much larger flow which drew from the lowlands of Scotland, the north of England, and every side of the Irish Sea.

Many people call these people "Scotch-Irish." That expression is an Americanism, rarely used in Britain and much resented by the people to whom it was attached. "We're no Eerish bot Scoatch," one of them was heard to say in Pennsylvania. Some preferred to be called Anglo-Irish, a label that was more commonly applied to them than Scotch-Irish during the eighteenth century. Others were called "Saxon-Scotch." One scholar writes: "...some Ulster Protestants derived from families that were not Scottish at all, but English or Irish." He adds. "...some immigrant groups that historians have labeled as Scots-Irish never lived in Ireland but came directly from Scotland."

A student of Appalachian culture in the early twentieth century reached the same conclusion:

Inquiries...as to family history and racial stock rarely bring a more definite answer than that grandparents or great-grandparents came from North Carolina or Virginia or occasionally from Pennsylvania, and that they "reckon" their folks were "English," "Scotch," or "Irish," any of which designations may mean Scotch-Irish.

SCC: three references...three index listings

dmd, that's an interesting list. "Register now & get 7 free votes!" sounds suspiciously like "vote early & often". Granted the stakes aren't that high (yikes, I sound like you-know-who, talking about the relative elavation of "the stakes"), but still. Ankor Wat gets my vote.

bc, I was looking at "A Nobel Way to Look at the Universe" on your blog from 10-11-06, and I could not make out the text on the graphic with the large # 42 superimposed on the universe. Other than that, I struggled to supress my laughter as I did not want to draw attention from the rest of the cube farm.

sneakers, yes, it IS hard to type. I have to be careful myself. Otherwise, who knows who I would end up as. Disturbing...

scc: "Scotch broth"

Scotch whiskey, Scotch tape, and Scotch eggs -- but not Scotch people.
(Mmmm . . . Scotch eggs. Now *there's* a snack for thought.)

"hooking up words
and phrases
and clauses..."

Yer welcome, dmd.

*L*

Scotty, would you be offended if we started calling you Scotchynuke?
(Or maybe Scotchy-Irishnuke would be more appropriate?)

The google ads on my screen are:

Surplus Miilitary Tents
Disaster Teams in Action
Building After Disasters

They must have seen my kitchen.

My two cents on Scots-Irish, that is the term I am most familiar with, but a quick google search shows Scotch-Irish is a common Amercian term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots-Irish

So, does Joel get off scot-free now?

sadly wilbrod, i think this is the first time i have ever thought you to be at a disadvantage due to your lack of hearing. i had never actually considered it before, but i don't think i would have an easy time understanding him without the rhythm (which never looks appropriately spelled. one vowel for 5 consonants?) and enunciation. now that i think about it, this is probably true of a lot of underground rap. top 5 aesop rock songs: 9-5ers Anthem, Daylight, the greatest pac-man victory in history, 6b Panorama, No Regrets. these have slightly more accessible lyrics than a lot of his other stuff.

kbertocci, that link I posted works for me, and I gather (at least) Wilbrod.

You can try this link to the main site, hopefully it will work:

http://www.10thcircle.com/10/

dr, to your point, yes, the US was a signatory for the original UN Declarations and the '67 Outer Space Treaty. In fact, I think the US holds one of the original three copies of it here in DC, as the US is one of the Depositary governments. I don't think China signed it or ratified it (though I think they have acknowledged it), and while the Soviet Union signed it, I'm not sure if the current Russian government would feel bound by it.

I'm also not sure how well it holds up under the policy recently signed by el Presidente, where the NSC spokesman described space as a component of homeland security. Is "Homeland Security" French for "all bets are off"?

However, the more specific Moon Treaty of '79 was not ratified by the US or any other space-capable country.

Hmm. Space might make a handy place to send suspected homeland security threats, a REALLY secure prison facility; the Ft. Luna Penal Colony. In space no one can hear you scream, right?

Gadzooks, this really *is* starting to sound like a juvenile paranoid Heinlen novel.

bc

Bc,
re. heavy elements.
Theoritical physics, whether it is of the cosmological or newcular variety, bring the worst in you. Keep on the good work.

Bureaucratium was long thought to be the heaviest element with the longest half-life and the slowest spinning electrons, thanks for having set the record straight.

Tom fan;

Ummmmm... nah, go ahead. Considering my BPH behavior, it's a great inside joke.

:-)

SCC Theoretical, sigh

whyrlegyge, using my Scary Data Analysis Powers, I make it out to be "Good Luck, Little Brains" in Gothic Script.

bc

bc;

Is that Austin's cousin?

:-)

Thanks, SD. Thanks for reminding me of "Bureaucratium", that's a classic.

And "Scotchynuke" did make me snort.
He *is* a WILDMAN.

What about hopScotch?

bc

//Hmm. Space might make a handy place to send suspected homeland security threats, a REALLY secure prison facility; the Ft. Luna Penal Colony. In space no one can hear you scream, right?

Gadzooks, this really *is* starting to sound like a juvenile paranoid Heinlen novel.

bc//

It did remind me of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Tho' I wonder if "juvenile paranoid Heinlein" is overly redundant?

And thanks for putting your Scary Data Analysis Powers to work on my behalf!

Sky/atmosphere report from several hours ago:
6 am: The sky is opaque with charcoal colored clouds. The air is extremely humid and unseasonably warm. A hole in the cloud cover reveals deep blue sky punctuated by what must be a planet, as it is too steady and bright a light to be a mere star. Jupiter? The ground is covered with the leaves and twigs brought down by last night's rainstorm, and the world smells like a can of earthworms harvested for a fishing trip. There is no wind, only the moisture in the air coalescing into fog at random moments. Insects aroused by the warmth pulse in the trees and shrubs. A lone cicada slices the air with his call.

//Hmm. Space might make a handy place to send suspected homeland security threats, a REALLY secure prison facility; the Ft. Luna Penal Colony. In space no one can hear you scream, right?

Gadzooks, this really *is* starting to sound like a juvenile paranoid Heinlen novel.

bc//

It did remind me of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Tho' I wonder if "juvenile paranoid Heinlein" is overly redundant?

And thanks for putting your Scary Data Analysis Powers to work on my behalf!

Sky/atmosphere report from several hours ago:
6 am: The sky is opaque with charcoal colored clouds. The air is extremely humid and unseasonably warm. A hole in the cloud cover reveals deep blue sky punctuated by what must be a planet, as it is too steady and bright a light to be a mere star. Jupiter? The ground is covered with the leaves and twigs brought down by last night's rainstorm, and the world smells like a can of earthworms harvested for a fishing trip. There is no wind, only the moisture in the air coalescing into fog at random moments. Insects aroused by the warmth pulse in the trees and shrubs. A lone cicada slices the air with his call.

Trying it. Actually at first glance "Earthworm" reminded me of Mark Twain criticizing James Fenimore Cooper-- ever read his essay, "The Seven Literary Sins of James Feinmore Cooper?" One critique Twain had was that Cooper should use the right word, not its second cousin.

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Aesop-Rock/Daylight.html

Whatever happened to "Day break come and I want go home?"

I think my issue is more with the disjointed grammar and the misplaced words. It's too hard NOT to read as an ASL speaker forgetting his english grammar while writing.

"I paste the game to zero all completion green"

Still gibberish but I could read this as somebody trying to write "I posted the game, no goals, all finished green." in a perfect order of ASL sign.

So it's an uncomfortable ambiguity for me.

whyrlegyge, I'm guilty of the "Harsh Mistress" references.

And yeah, that phrase may well be redundant.

bc

Scotchynuke, I am just like my Brit cousin Austin, only with better teeth.

Yeah, baby! Fordarific!

bc

Trying the lyrics you suggest.

At first glance, "Earthworm" reminded me of Mark Twain criticizing James Fenimore Cooper. Ever read his essay, "The Seven Literary Sins of James Feinmore Cooper?" One critique Twain had was that Cooper should use the right word, not its second cousin. That's what I felt reading Aesop Rock.

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Aesop-Rock/Daylight.html

I think my issue is more with the disjointed grammar and the misplaced words. I am not unilingual and have tutored students struggling with English.
It's too hard NOT to read this as an ASL speaker forgetting his english grammar while writing.

"I paste the game to zero all completion green"

I could read this as somebody trying to write "I posted the game, no goals, all finished green." in a perfect order of ASL sign (to and goal are very similar in ASL).

So it's an uncomfortable ambiguity for me and it ends up being neither rhythmatic or sensible.

Yo...put one up shackle me, not clean logic procreation

Again, an ASL writer WOULD write "Logic" instead of "logical" if the student hadn't learned the adjective form of "logic."

So... sorry, this comes across as somebody who doesn't know English grammar as well as he knows the vocabulary.

My understanding is that Scotch is a whisky (without the 'e'), suitable for drinking on a porch, for example. A person from Scotland is a Scot or is Scottish. So it should be Scots-Irish. Scotch Irish would be a rather unpleasant drink, I believe.

Whoops, double post! Consider it rap and move on.

"And "Scotchynuke" did make me snort.
He *is* a WILDMAN."

I went to the wrong BPHs, then, or it was simply the wrong time of the month.

bc, nice to know someone else read all those old Heinlein novels back in the day. The boy I dated in high school INSISTED that I read them all. I think he was a little outraged that I liked "Podkayne of Mars", though.

JA quotes ...In a debate, Allen said Webb was more aligned with the "values of Hollywood" than the "values of Virginia."

Excuuuuuse me? Where the he11 did George Allen grow up?

Wilbrod;

You went to plenty of the correct BPHs. I'm one of the odd sods who doesn't drink, that's the joke. :-)

1927 study on monthly rhythm in males. Should provide plenty of fodder for umbrage. "Rudimentary females..."

http://www.psyplexus.com/ellis/5d.htm

And apparently men also bloat.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/rh/rhythm-b.html

Calling the alcoholic drink Scotch is insulting to the Scots. Just call it whisk-e-y. The only real whiskey is Scottish, it's obvious to them. The rest is Corn Whiskey, Canadian whyskey, Irish whiskey, etc.

In the word of Mikes Myers on SNL:
If it's not Scottish it's crap.

New Kit!!!! :-)

dmd, you sound like a really nice white guy, so don't be too hard on yourself. I am as African-American as one can get, and I can't dance a lick. Never could. I could fake the slow dance, but that was about it.

I went to school dances all the time with my friends, and was so happy that no one asked me to dance. I was terribly shy in school, had a real bad case of it. Always been chubby, and a face that still makes babies cry. But life is good because I am God's Beloved. He made this face so I know He loves it.

Ah, because your drink didn't appear to have ice in it, I thought it was a beer, not tea or something. Smooth camoflague.

In the last days of religious/ethnic segreation by neighborhood in Montana -- imagine Chicago, but rural with an overlay of mining -- Scotch-Irish was shorthand for Presbyterian and living north of the Missouri River. Irish was shorthand for RC, natch, and living south of the River.

SuperFrenchie: You may like knowing that huge swaths of Canouks lived in my town. My nuns were Francophone from a French order with the Mothership in Regina, Saskatoon. We called them "soeur" but sounded like "sour" to them.

I adored my nuns. No complaints. But the hover-craft effect of the old school habits was ruined by the new habits. "They have legs" reported one of my four brothers solemnly. I believe he was six or so.

Well, Joel doesn't get off entirely scot-free, but there's a weasel exit, if he wants it--which is to blame it all on his book's copy editor and/or the style book that copy editor was (or wasn't) using.

Adding to Bertooch and Loomis's posts above, it also depends on whose style book you're using. I just checked AP, NYT and Garner (don't have the WaPo manual) and while there are hair-splitting differences, they are in general agreement that "Scotch" is considered derogatory when applied to people (never mind that it may indeed be a common Americanism; there are a lot of common Americanisms that are pretty much indefensible, heaven knows).

Rule of thumb: Scots refers to people, Scottish refers to things, Scotch refers only to whiskey and certain tradenames and things such as Scotch Bonnet (habenero) peppers (according to Garner but NOT AP). And whether Scotch is upper case or lowercase depends also on which item is under discussion. AP says scotch barley, scoth salmon, scotch broth and scotch sour [n.b. one of my favorites],

And it gets weirder: AP says capitalize it and call it Scotch whisky (without the "e") when the two words are used together, but spell it "whiskey" when whiskey is used generaically. But lowercase scotch as a drink when it stands alone, such as "He was drinking scotch and water."

Go figure.

Garner concurs: if it was distilled in Scotland, it is whisky; if anywhere else, it is whiskey--and to write "Scotch whiskey" (with an "e") is "a serious gaffe in the eyes of a Scot."

Garner also notes that Scotch terrier is gradually being replaced with the more politically correct Scottish terrier or Scots terrier.

Jeez, people just have too damn much time on their hands.

In short, pretty much ANY time anybody needs to use any word containing Scot/Scotch/Scottish, you just need to pick which style book you want and look it up. "Cause you'll never get it right trusting from memory.

*bows to applause* OK, now that I've demonstrated (not that it needed it) that we writerly and copy editorly types can be every bit as tedious as you pointy-headed science-nerd types, you may all go back to work.

Next Week on "Mr. Politically Incorrect Word Maven": France, French, french fries (lowercase), French tickler, Frog, frog, Froggie, "plunk your magic twanger," and horse's patoot will all be discussed and quite possibly deconstructed using approved Derridian ephemera.

Linda and Joel, I think the proper term is Scots-Irish but I'll have to check, the book's at home. I am one, but I normally say Scotch-Irish. Both of my maternal grandparents were from families that originally were from lowland Scotland and emigrated to northern Ireland in the first quarter of the 17th century. Many emigrated to America beginning in the middle of the 18th century, coming in at Philadelphia and moving inland and south from there. My grandfather's family came down the Great Wagon Road and settled in what is now Cabarrus County, NC around 1760.

I picked up the book on the Scots-Irish, by a professor at Washington and Lee, IIRC, at the gift shop at Kings Mountain National Park. Love the books at the national park gift shops, they are so cool.

I'll check at home and post the info on that book this afternoon.

Another oddity on whiskey:

Jameson is Catholic drink; while Bushmills is Protestant drink.

This distinction is being lost, but was the crux of a huge family argument for two generations (1882-through prohibition 'till about 1938)in the saloon-owning side of the fam.

Life is so much simpler if you're a bourbon drinker...

"Snack-time"
Sample this morsel.
"....When I thought of the multitudes of Irish that annually land on the shores of the United States and Canada, and, to my surprise, witnessed the additional multitudes embarking from Liverpool to New Holland; and when, added to all this, I daily saw these hordes of laborers,descending, thick as locusts, upon the English corn-fields; I could not help marveling at the fertility of an island, which, though her crop of potatoes may fail, never yet failed in bringing her annual crop of men into the world."
Herman Melville, "Redburn" September 29, 1849.