I like how the narrator pauses afterwards every time she says "vagina", like she can't believe she has to say that word. Which, in that era, she probably can't.
Ditto to 1. The video is muy slow loading, so I got three minutes in, clicked the link, and oof.
My cultural studies notes: along with 2, did you notice how the music cuts out about when the ovaries are mentioned? Isn't that the universal movie cue for "something bad is about to happen"?
I appreciated that they said the eggs had the potential to become human beings. Some folks have observed that there is a tendency to speak as though the sperm is what becomes the human being, and the eggs are just helping. (I forget where I saw this argument made, but in at least one place Look Who's Talking was invoked.)
Oh, B! You'd surely approve of it's message, which is that having your period is no excuse for being cranky and you should go the extra mile to make yourself attractive and be all cheerful and smiley that time of the month.
Yes, eggs have the potential to become human beings. How they have that potential, considering that the words "sex", "sperm", "baby", and "pregnant" are never mentioned, I'm not sure. They just magically become human beings, I suppose. Or perhaps that's the subject for another filmstrip.
I would love to see the type of filmstrip someone would put together from the wisdom in the Shortcuts thread.
You'd surely approve of it's message, which is that having your period is no excuse for being cranky and you should go the extra mile to make yourself attractive and be all cheerful and smiley that time of the month.
About halfway through, after the cross-section of the woman's body, there are four differently shaped girls watching a little doggie. (And, but of course.)
Completely unrelated -- I'm going to bed soon to hopefully knock back my cold so I'll be healthy for the meetup but, for those of you who are in good health, I think they're going to Taormina, Sicily on tonight's episode of The Amazing Race, which is the most beautiful place on Earth.
Ok, now I have to watch this thing, but before I do:
Oh, B! You'd surely approve of it's message, which is that having your period is no excuse for being cranky and you should go the extra mile to make yourself attractive and be all cheerful and smiley that time of the month.
I say, cut out the middleman and just be cranky all the time. Problem solved.
I was kinda impressed by the random part about constipation, actually. Okay, the cross-section visualization of poo pressing on the uterus I could have done without, but the advice to drink more fluids before and during is pretty sound, isn't it?
The Old Norse instructor I had as an undergrad -- she taught Old Norse, she wasn't actually Old Norse, herself -- brought in a load of mead one day to celebrate the end of our intensive 'grammar and vocab of Old Icelandic' course.
It, mead, is really not nice unless you like your alcohol sickly sweet. It tastes like the sort of thing winos would drink out of a paper bag.
I went to a mead tasting with my beer snob friends a couple of years ago. Yeah: mostly not nice at all, though there was one brand (made by an Ethiopian brewery!) that I quite liked -- did not have as strong of a honey flavor, more flowery and alcoholic.
Nope -- damn, got mixed up. The Ethiopian mead (tej) was one of the bad ones -- there was a good mead, it was American, I cannot at all remember the name of the brewery.
she taught Old Norse, she wasn't actually Old Norse, herself
Alice Munro's story "White Dump" has a teacher of Old Norse whose son thinks she is sort of an Old Norse. His family plays a game about this–"Is an Old Norse's car window ever mended with black tape?" "No, if an Old Norse window is broken, it stays broken.... Never tell Grandma about this game, Denise."
I've made mead -- served it at my wedding, in fact -- and it was dry and tasty. Weird -- as much like wine and beer as they're like each other, but not more so, if you see what I mean -- but not sickly sweet.
Well the event was described on flyers as a "mead tasting". Perhaps it would have been more accurate if they called it a "mead and tej tasting" though there was only one instance of tej there. BTW with regards to LB's 33, my statement that only one of the meads/tejjes was any good applies only to the commercial ones. A couple of people brought along samples of their homemade and they were mostly very good, like about 3/4 of them were tasty. Here is a page with links to recipes. (Scroll down.)
I think that ideally mead should be dry or relatively so -- the honey is fermented into alcohol.
I have a recipe for kumiss, an alcoholic beverage made from milk. It's pretty simple:
1. Enrich cow milk with lactose, unless you can get mare's milk.
2. Allow to sour.
3. Add yeast and shake constantly until fermentation is complete.
4. Pour off liquid and drink.
It's supposed to have an almondy or fruity flavor, and a strong aftertaste.
People laugh, but in the thirteenth century kumiss fuelled world conquest. Thanks to kumiss, Genghis Khan became history's #1 alpha male, and there's reason to believe that he will always remain such.
That's not actually den Beste; I think it's the poster formerly known as Pretty_Generic. His (dB's) password fell prey to a dictionary attack; he hasn't actually opsted on mefi for some time.
2. "If the egg is impregnated, which happens if the woman is going to have a child." But . . . but . . . how? Nice use of passive voice, there.
3. "Of course you'll want to keep a personal calendar." Yeah, right.
4. Oh right! I'd forgotten how the animation of the shedding of uterine lining always makes it seem like it just pours out. No muscle contractions there, no siree bob.
5. Yep. "Perhaps an occasional twinge or touch of nerves." Mmm-hm.
6. "Come now. We said practically everything." No jitterbugging while on the rag, ladies.
7. "It's smart to keep looking smart! That well-groomed feeling will give you new poise, and lift your morale." Finally! See? I've been saying this all along. She writes, wearing longjohns and a sweatshirt while slouching on the couch.
I'm glad LB has had good mead reasonably close to what might be daily drinkable. I'm always suspicious when something supposedly out of the past is presented as awful. Smacks of "everything is better today," which is no more true than the converse is.
Sadly, they did not go to Taormina last night, but Segesta. I was very disappointed.
I actually did start keeping track on the calendar about a year ago, which I had never done before. It has come in very handy for planning vacations and such.
Oh, I'd guessed Wolfson.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 5:55 PM
I like how the narrator pauses afterwards every time she says "vagina", like she can't believe she has to say that word. Which, in that era, she probably can't.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:10 PM
Once I saw who'd posted it, I just couldn't watch the thing at all. It had been tainted, and not in a good way.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:32 PM
I've never heard of anything being "tainted" in a "good way." What would that mean?
Posted by Urple | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:35 PM
At least it's not menstruation hentai. With tentacles.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:39 PM
You know, like if one wanted to make some kind of weird double entendre. Or if, like Kotsko, one had a menstruation fetish.
I don't know! Don't ask me! I have a headache!
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:39 PM
Ditto to 1. The video is muy slow loading, so I got three minutes in, clicked the link, and oof.
My cultural studies notes: along with 2, did you notice how the music cuts out about when the ovaries are mentioned? Isn't that the universal movie cue for "something bad is about to happen"?
I appreciated that they said the eggs had the potential to become human beings. Some folks have observed that there is a tendency to speak as though the sperm is what becomes the human being, and the eggs are just helping. (I forget where I saw this argument made, but in at least one place Look Who's Talking was invoked.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:43 PM
And they never explained how the sperm talked in that movie, either. I imagine little mouths.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:47 PM
Oh, B! You'd surely approve of it's message, which is that having your period is no excuse for being cranky and you should go the extra mile to make yourself attractive and be all cheerful and smiley that time of the month.
Yes, eggs have the potential to become human beings. How they have that potential, considering that the words "sex", "sperm", "baby", and "pregnant" are never mentioned, I'm not sure. They just magically become human beings, I suppose. Or perhaps that's the subject for another filmstrip.
I would love to see the type of filmstrip someone would put together from the wisdom in the Shortcuts thread.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:49 PM
You'd surely approve of it's message, which is that having your period is no excuse for being cranky and you should go the extra mile to make yourself attractive and be all cheerful and smiley that time of the month.
Haven't watched that part yet....
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:51 PM
It's towards the end.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:53 PM
OK, what's up with the dog?
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:54 PM
I see which scene appealed to SdB.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:56 PM
I don't remember the dog.
Are you referring to the oddly-cheesecaky nippleless shower scene?
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 6:57 PM
About halfway through, after the cross-section of the woman's body, there are four differently shaped girls watching a little doggie. (And, but of course.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:02 PM
Ah, now I remember.
Completely unrelated -- I'm going to bed soon to hopefully knock back my cold so I'll be healthy for the meetup but, for those of you who are in good health, I think they're going to Taormina, Sicily on tonight's episode of The Amazing Race, which is the most beautiful place on Earth.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:08 PM
Ok, now I have to watch this thing, but before I do:
Oh, B! You'd surely approve of it's message, which is that having your period is no excuse for being cranky and you should go the extra mile to make yourself attractive and be all cheerful and smiley that time of the month.
I say, cut out the middleman and just be cranky all the time. Problem solved.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:19 PM
B, you'll also love the random part about constipation.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:20 PM
I was kinda impressed by the random part about constipation, actually. Okay, the cross-section visualization of poo pressing on the uterus I could have done without, but the advice to drink more fluids before and during is pretty sound, isn't it?
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:25 PM
"....[T]here is a tendency to speak as though the sperm is what becomes the human being, and the eggs are just helping...."
Aristotle.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:29 PM
Just how much fiber is in eggs?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:35 PM
Well of course the stupid link isn't working now.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 7:47 PM
I got sidetracked by another link, and ended up playing online hnefatafl for hours. Hnefatafl is great.
Posted by David Weman | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 10:09 PM
And it's really cool to discover a part of your cultural heritage like that. I just decided I need to try mead someday. Maybe sacrifice a few thralls.
Posted by David Weman | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 10:24 PM
And with this, the new unfogged has achieved its purest form.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 10:34 PM
(Permalink to the MeFi post.)
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 10:54 PM
re: 24
The Old Norse instructor I had as an undergrad -- she taught Old Norse, she wasn't actually Old Norse, herself -- brought in a load of mead one day to celebrate the end of our intensive 'grammar and vocab of Old Icelandic' course.
It, mead, is really not nice unless you like your alcohol sickly sweet. It tastes like the sort of thing winos would drink out of a paper bag.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 03-28-06 11:27 PM
I went to a mead tasting with my beer snob friends a couple of years ago. Yeah: mostly not nice at all, though there was one brand (made by an Ethiopian brewery!) that I quite liked -- did not have as strong of a honey flavor, more flowery and alcoholic.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 5:47 AM
Nope -- damn, got mixed up. The Ethiopian mead (tej) was one of the bad ones -- there was a good mead, it was American, I cannot at all remember the name of the brewery.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 5:50 AM
The Ethiopian version is pretty good.
Posted by mealworm | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 5:57 AM
That's as may be; but this particular Ethiopian version was blah.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 5:59 AM
she taught Old Norse, she wasn't actually Old Norse, herself
Alice Munro's story "White Dump" has a teacher of Old Norse whose son thinks she is sort of an Old Norse. His family plays a game about this–"Is an Old Norse's car window ever mended with black tape?" "No, if an Old Norse window is broken, it stays broken.... Never tell Grandma about this game, Denise."
Suck it haterzzzz1!1!!!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 6:56 AM
I've made mead -- served it at my wedding, in fact -- and it was dry and tasty. Weird -- as much like wine and beer as they're like each other, but not more so, if you see what I mean -- but not sickly sweet.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 7:33 AM
That's what the good mead was like. All the others tasted strongly of honey.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 7:37 AM
Tej isn't really mead, is it? It's often described as a honey beer.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 8:06 AM
Well the event was described on flyers as a "mead tasting". Perhaps it would have been more accurate if they called it a "mead and tej tasting" though there was only one instance of tej there. BTW with regards to LB's 33, my statement that only one of the meads/tejjes was any good applies only to the commercial ones. A couple of people brought along samples of their homemade and they were mostly very good, like about 3/4 of them were tasty. Here is a page with links to recipes. (Scroll down.)
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 8:11 AM
I think that ideally mead should be dry or relatively so -- the honey is fermented into alcohol.
I have a recipe for kumiss, an alcoholic beverage made from milk. It's pretty simple:
1. Enrich cow milk with lactose, unless you can get mare's milk.
2. Allow to sour.
3. Add yeast and shake constantly until fermentation is complete.
4. Pour off liquid and drink.
It's supposed to have an almondy or fruity flavor, and a strong aftertaste.
People laugh, but in the thirteenth century kumiss fuelled world conquest. Thanks to kumiss, Genghis Khan became history's #1 alpha male, and there's reason to believe that he will always remain such.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 8:15 AM
shake constantly until fermentation is complete
Should this be "shake periodically"? Because otherwise I think this beverage is going to be extremely labor-intensive, and boring.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 8:20 AM
38: The constant shaking thing works out great if you're a pony-riding, world conquering nomad.
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 8:53 AM
No, constantly. It's labor-intensive. That's why my attempt failed.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 8:55 AM
Got it. Hey John, Have you seen Harvey Pekar's "Quitter" yet? I think you'd really enjoy it.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 8:58 AM
That's not actually den Beste; I think it's the poster formerly known as Pretty_Generic. His (dB's) password fell prey to a dictionary attack; he hasn't actually opsted on mefi for some time.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 9:11 AM
Taormina
This reminds me of my upcoming book, to be published under the name Tristan Tzaramino: The Ultimate Guide to Dada for Intelligent Women.
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 9:15 AM
Come to think of it I reckon a plurality of commenters at Unfogged would really enjoy "Quitter".
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 9:20 AM
1. That is one ugly baby.
2. "If the egg is impregnated, which happens if the woman is going to have a child." But . . . but . . . how? Nice use of passive voice, there.
3. "Of course you'll want to keep a personal calendar." Yeah, right.
4. Oh right! I'd forgotten how the animation of the shedding of uterine lining always makes it seem like it just pours out. No muscle contractions there, no siree bob.
5. Yep. "Perhaps an occasional twinge or touch of nerves." Mmm-hm.
6. "Come now. We said practically everything." No jitterbugging while on the rag, ladies.
7. "It's smart to keep looking smart! That well-groomed feeling will give you new poise, and lift your morale." Finally! See? I've been saying this all along. She writes, wearing longjohns and a sweatshirt while slouching on the couch.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 10:25 AM
I'm glad LB has had good mead reasonably close to what might be daily drinkable. I'm always suspicious when something supposedly out of the past is presented as awful. Smacks of "everything is better today," which is no more true than the converse is.
Posted by I don't pay | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 10:43 AM
Sadly, they did not go to Taormina last night, but Segesta. I was very disappointed.
I actually did start keeping track on the calendar about a year ago, which I had never done before. It has come in very handy for planning vacations and such.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-29-06 10:46 AM