Apropos of the debt conversation
 

Anyone who consolidated at a ridiculously low rate and then paid their student loans off right away lost a lot of money. At 3.5%, I'm paying this shite off slowly and throwing the excess into equity. And the "peace of mind" argument is just plain stupid. Be rational.

A Tip for Thurgreed
 

Ooooh. Good one. But with tivo, I watch my shows when I want.

But, I missed NYPD Blue and CSI this week. I'm sure you caught it on your outdoor, plastic-protected television while sitting in your kayak in your pool surrounded by your wonderful kids and oh-so-beautiful wife. Can you give me a summary? Or are you in one of those, "I've never watched tv in my life" moods again?

TM

A Tip for Thurgreed
 

Don't worry, I won't tell her.

Is there anything better than...
 

...getting into your building's elevator and noticing that all of the buttons already pressed are for floors above your floor?

So, how about those Mets?
 

I said "very" picky eater, by which I mean, someone who won't try new foods and who is an impossible pain in the ass to dine with. Shut up, you bitch. And I like you.

ncs or nfh? a crib sheet
 

ncs: watches reality tv
nfh: watches bennifer

ncs: flirts with fringy
nfh: hates it when ltl insults her grandparents

ncs: dates a stereo geek
nfh: is a stereo geek

ncs: located in the country of Texas
nfh: located (I believe) in the country of California

ncs: digs heat miser
nfh: digs some guy with angel wings

ncs: nfl
nfh: mlb

Any questions?

Paging RP
 

We each have our own cross to bear. I, thankfully, can bear mine without being too PLiFfy.

Reality TV
 

DOes this mean someone was elimiated yet? I didnt really llisten to how this works. Is that freshman fifteen fat fuck gonna be in the final two? She can buy a lot of bry cheese with fifty large. she cant beat the other two can she?

Is there anything better than...
 

Getting into said elevator, and noticing the same thing, but that the two other passengers are a couple of hot, naked women, incredibly eager to do you?







Okay. Enough with the beer ads.

Is there anything better than...
 

Beer ad? Are you joking? That happens to me every time I go to Philly.

The only problem is, that in the really tall buildings on Chestnut street, the elevators are much too fast. I prefer the older buildings with the slow elevators that give me time to enjoy the experience.

ncs or nfh? a crib sheet
 

yeah. who the hell is Not Bob?

You I have a feel for. Dallas chick with a wry sense of humor, single, likes Neiman Marcus and doesnt like Andra, except for enteratinment value. I am now wondering if you are a gay though.

NFH- I have no clue about this person's gender or persona. I do sense that em is from the Bay Area, but not originally.

Reality TV
 

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my understanding is that Allison now is automatically moved to one of the two slots for the third round of the HOH competition. Ratbert and JunBalloon will compete in the second round HOH competition for the other third round spot. The two third round people then compete for the HOH.

aV

9/11
 

So, this morning when I was getting ready, I put on HOT 97 right in time for them to acknowledge the very moment the first plane hit with a moment of silence. Aftwards, they played Whitney Houston's version of the Star Spangled Banner (you can hear it here: http://www.brownielocks.com/starspangledbannerWAVE.html). After the second moment of silence, they played Ray Charles' America the Beautiful (you can hear that here: http://www.brownielocks.com/americat...tifulWAVE.html).

Now, I'm the first to admit that I am not the most outwardly patriotic person in the world, but they did such a great job helping me remember 9/11 and honoring this country, city and the many people we lost. It was simple. Beautiful. Perfect. I felt better about our country than I have in a long time (and don't get me wrong, I'm fiercely patriotic -- I just don't feel the need to bang other people over the head with my patriotism every chance I get). I liked their approach because it allowed me to have my own memories and thoughts (and I guess that's partly because it was on the radio).

And as for those two songs, I think when sung well, they are two of the most beautiful songs ever composed. I would give anything to have been able to hear Whitney sing that live.

TM

ncs or nfh? a crib sheet
 

Alas, I can't really get behind Neiman Marcus. I do buy my Kiehls there, but the vibe in the store totally wigs out my east coast sensibilities.

Not gay. NTTAWWT. I guess I'm a pussy tease.

9/11
 

Sorry to ruin the moment for you, but not even the super bowl audience got it live.

but maybe what you wanted was to be the mixing guy in the sound room she pre-recorded it in.

Food and allergies
 

I praise your immense good sense in just being sure you have fed yourself before hand. Dinner with friends is supposed to be about conversation, not food, but it is hard to fend off people who are asking you to risk horrible unnecessary death with friendly intentions.

I have an allergy like that, but I'm lucky in that it is just one thing and pretty easy to avoid. It's also something that enough people seem to be allergic to that it is usually listed pretty clearly on menus even as a "hidden" ingredient. It's only really a problem when I'm at people's houses (particularly because I have to avoid a good bunch of the other food too, because it's one of those "anything that touched it or touched a surface or utensil that was used to prepare the allergy-inducing food may trigger the allergy if it wasn't super-scoured" allergies). If I find it in front of me I've tried rearranging it a bit, hiding it under a lettuce leaf and the other traditional avoidance techniques one learns when visiting a grandmother who insists that small children need to eat liver; but when your host cooked they tend to notice and always insist on asking and then being hurt that you didn't proffer a list of your culinary demands before arriving.

I recall being at a restaurant once where some innocuous pasta dish was garnished with the forbidden substance (not listed on the menu). So I sent it back saying "this wasn't on the menu and I'm quite allergic, so I need a new plate, and I mean an entirely fresh plate." Damn thing came back with the stuff scraped off - and not thoroughly at that. The Mr. was actually about to stand up and throttle the waitress (if any of you have met the Mr. you know that is not good), but instead I explained to her that when I said allergic I meant allergic, and sort of jocularly said that having their other patrons watch me swell up, suffocate and die from eating their food would probably not be good for business. I sort of regretted the humorous tone, because she didn't seem adequately abashed that she nearly killed me.

I pity the people who are allergic to something harder to track. One person I knew who was violently allergic to something weird (it was something that was very common in certain kinds of cooking oils but never thought of as an ingredient, so the chef himself wouldn't really know without research if the food contained it). She got into the habit, if she was going out, of calling the restaurant in advance, talking to the chef and explaining the whole thing and just saying "I'll be there on Thursday at 8, would you identify or adjust or come up with something and have the waiter let me know what it is when we get there?" That seemed to work wonderfully, the chefs were very accomodating. But you just can't do that with private hosts, who either know you well enough to know your allergies anyway, or don't know you well enough for you to be issuing dietary demands.

9/11
 

Really? I didn't know that. It sure looked like she was belting it out. Maybe they just turned her mike off and then flipped it back on when she said thank you.

http://www.whitney-fan.com/images/ca...erbowl/031.jpg http://www.whitney-fan.com/images/ca...erbowl/036.jpg

Whatever. It doesn't matter, because the draw for me has to do with being there with all the other people, hearing it together. I'm sure it would have sent goosebumps up and down my spine and the collective feeling of pride in the crowd would have been nice to experience.

Thurgreed(but thanks for trying to rain on my parade)Marshall

And on another note...
 

9/11
 

I was listening to CNN on my XM Radio this morning (Has there been a discussion of XM Radio here yet? If so, there must be. Like TiVo, it has changed my life.) and heard the children of the WTC victims reading the names of the victims. Two little girls were going back and forth reading off names, and then one of them said, "My father, [insert name here]. I love you Dad" and the next girl said "My father, [insert name here]. I miss you Dad".


I about had to pull over...my eyes filled with tears, I had a lump in my throat. Here I was thinking I was fine, and then BAM! It was raw again.

Bn'(My friend, Jeff. I miss you, pal.)B

Happiness and Bankruptcy
 

That's because you are realistic, and understand the venalities of campaign finance.

And on another note...
 

They're deliberately sexing up the show this season, including hot intracrew romances. So in addition to the regulation Barbie corset the never-had-a-date Star Trek writers' spinoffs always put the chicks in, they're going for sexier fabrics/more alien cleavage/as close to porn-star-tousled hairdos as they think the Trek purists will accept.

And on another note...
 

Uh, seven? It's Jolene Blalock. Getting nekkid. Of course that is fucking awesome. Well, unless you're really a ThrasherFan sock. Then its icky.

aV

Food and allergies
 

This raises a pet peeve of mine and gives me an opportunity to take the League of Fabulous Gentlemen to task. I ALWAYS provide guests options when having them over, rather than assuming that one size fits all in food. A good dinner party should not involve force feeding your guests a limited range of food, and it is really not that difficult to provide a few options. That time the Fabulous ones insisted on having their single guy (Adam I believe) serve a single hors d'oeuvre of fois gras struck me as the height of incivility and arrogance. Indeed, a particular sin where fois gras is involved, since that is a food many, many people have no interest in even if many others love it. Fine to serve it as one of four little dishes, but these guys turned the food into a status symbol rather than a small accoutrement to a social event. Shame on them.

If you have more than two or four people over, assume some are vegatarians or keep Kosher and that some may have the most common allergies. And guests, you should never be shy about letting your hosts know of any special dietary needs or restrictions in advance -- any good host should want to serve something their guests will appreciate.

OK, that's my own little rewrite of Ms. Manners. Rant over.

9/11
 

That does sound well done. I may disagree with you on the SSB (freakin' lousy choice for a national anthem if you ask me), but it sounds far more moving and appropriate than what they are doing at the WTC site. I may be a callous beast, but when listening to children read bad poetry I just can't get past the awfulness of the poetry to be moved. And listening to them fuck up the name of a friend wasn't very moving, either.

BR(I've actually been wondering if they've been pulling out the other verses of the SSB recently)C

And on another note...
 

A Tip for Thurgreed
 

When wouldn't that be?


Really, I think that if you can just weather through these rough spots, your life will come together, too. It just takes time.

And maybe a little anger management counseling . . .

Food and allergies
 

I'm not a restaurant. While I can be accomodating to guests (e.g., leave out the cheese), I can't provide a meelyun alternatives. I'd expect someone to call an allergy to my attention.

And I'm happy to comply with at least general kosher rules (I don't have separate pans, though). But since most of my jewish friends ask for bacon on their cheesburgers, I've given up on making too much effort in that regard.

And on another note...
 

Jeri Ryan. But mainly because I never have gotten into Enterprise so have never really appreciated the hotness that is Jolene Blalock.

And no one could overact like Kirk, so Kirk it has to be.

And on another note...
 

Not icky if done artisitcally and not in a manner merely to show T&A. I just don't like it when it is done only for the sake of having nudity or done in a cheesy manner. What bothers me most about nekkidness in film (non-porn) is that there is rarely ever any give and take -- you see tits and possibly some coochie (which appeared in a movie I watched the other day and shocked me because I didn't think they could show that so blatantly in films not rated X) but the only thing we gals get is Will Farrell's ass and the rare (very rare) "so quick you gotta pause it and watch in slo-mo" glimpse of penis. My father, ever the comedien, tells me that it is only fair that if the actor takes off his shirt the actress should too -- oh ha ha.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico
 

Glad to hear it. That is the first movie in a long time that I am really looking forward to.

Food and allergies
 

Depending on the number of guests/style of the party, I often just say, "Do you like [menu item] okay?" when I'm confirming the final party arrangements. I have one good friend who doesn't eat meat, so if she's coming I'll often serve fish or at least have fish as an option.

Other than meat issues, I very rarely have problems with people not liking what I serve, because I'm a closet picky eater (2 and 3). People who eat only at my house would never know because what I serve, while delicious and varied, never includes anything I don't like. They're always shocked, when eating elsewhere, when I pick off /out the olives, mushrooms, or radishes, and avoid altogether the shellfish, cantaloupe, cherries, blueberries, coconut and carrot sticks.

tm

Food and allergies
 

Yes, the Jewish people do love their bacon, don't they?

Now here is a situation I was in during law school. Married couple friends, gourmet cooks, invited my bf and I over for a little dinner. they made some kind of cajun soup thing (gumbo?) that was pork based with hunks of pork in it. The guy who made it said to me "I know you are a vegetarian so I picked out the pork". This was really bad bc since it was a pig based food, it still was something I could not touch. He made it, and then he went to the effort to try and help me- not aware of his ignoreance to the vegetarian way o' life. I did not eat the soup but thanked him. While my bf didnt say anything, I think he thinks I should have eaten it. And our friendship was never quite the same.

But hell if I am gonna eat pork base when I havent touched pigs in upwards of twenty years.

Having exhausted fat chix and kids/no kids . .
 

Are colleges teaching fundamental principles any more?

One student, on the RIAA lawsuits:

"This is insane, they can't just hack into our systems and track our activities. It's our property," said Lucy Chen, a sociology student who thinks downloading free music is fair because compact discs are overpriced.


CNN Article on downloading

9/11
 

My local public radio station switches from NPR to classical music at around the time I'm pulling into work. Every morning they do an arts and performance calendar and have a piece of classical music in the background while the DJ tells us about the various performances around town this week. Today's background music was America the Beautiful by the Boston Pops. When the DJ finished his thing, he just let the music play through three verses and when it was done, he went on with the rest of the day's program. I thought it was very well done, and the music said more than anyone's talking could possibly have. America the Beautiful is probably my favorite patriotic song (especially when sung by Fozzie Bear) because it's such a statement of awe about the country without being devisive or combative.

Food and allergies
 

Absolutely. If you're even dropping by casually as a 'friend of a friend,' you or the pal closer to the host should give a call ahead or take the host aside to say what they can't/won't eat. Any half-assed host would be happy to find something else in the fridge.

I always do provide something vegetarian (though tomates/basil/fresh mozzarella is the only thing I can usually think of being appealing without meat). I suppose I could do nuts or something for the non-lacto types if they're not allergic to that...

Entertaining was much simpler when everyone liked steak au poivre and scalloped potatoes or at least just shut up and ate it.

A Tip for Thurgreed
 

Let's see. Well, yesterday I was out right around the time you were posting on this board, so not then. Usually I watch during my daughter's nap on the weekends. But aren't you getting a little personal?

Why would that be necessary? My anger does exactly what I want it to do.

TM

Food and allergies
 

It remains that simple if you invite only your friends who like such stuff. The finicky eaters get invites only to the cookouts, where I can slap a chicken breats or tempeh puck on the grill for 'em.

What's the fun in cooking elaborately for people who don't really enjoy food because they're concerned as to whether it fits into their dietetic regimen?

So, no, Lance Armstrong won't be invited to dinner.

Food and allergies
 

paigow, circa 1983 (right before that last extra large pork burrito):

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/gallery/woman-pig1.jpg

TM

Food and allergies
 

I must (i) laugh and (ii) object on a number of points.

(i) This is amusing because it is what often happens when people abandon traditional forms of social interaction as being "outdated" - they then try to invent things that are 3 times as much trouble to replace them. "Variety" in food served at traditional formal dinners is automatic. One of the great benefits is separate courses, ideally many of them.

(ii) The purpose of a dinner party is not to eat. The purpose of a dinner party is to have conversation and socialize with the other guests. No one is even supposed to notice the food. Including the host, who should never notice whether or not or what the guest eat. The idea that they are coming there to eat your food rather than enjoy your company is inherently insulting.

Anyone who knows me well enough to discuss their health with me in detail is surely welcome to include allergy information; or religious preferences or whatever super nifty wacko diet they are on now. I may try to take this into account in organizing future dinners and parties (or picking restaurants, more usually in this city); sometimes I can't, or don't feel I should subject the rest of my guests to the limitations of a few (or the limitations I myself suffer, for that matter). But if I offer my hospitality to someone, I am justifiably insulted if the hospitality I do (or can) offer is deemed to be inadequate and my guests feel they need to inform me what I must do to please them. To denigrate or abuse another's hospitality is close to a capital crime among manners violations.

satellite radio and 9/11
 

I was out of town for a deposition (again, not to be confused with a "deposition, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more") recently, and the Mercury Grand Marquis that Hertz gave me had Sirrius satellite radio. After driving around in that fiiiiiiiiiiiiine American sedan listening to the commercial free crunchy granola lesbian folk station (when it got too twangy, I switched to the hipper than PLF pure jazz station) I am so going to look in to signing up for satellite radio. How much is it?

I am sorry for your loss.