just because this particular baby is yours
Good thing we work that way. Otherwise they're just loud, exhausting disease vectors that you'd drown in a bag.
I dunno, I find all babies enchanting and fascinating and adorable.
What's amazing is how enchanted and fascinated and adoring you can be, just because this particular baby is yours.
Yep! Welcome to biochemistry, Mama!
Objectively, there is nothing special about Hawaiian Punch, if that doesn't sound too cruel.
Well, ya know, really young babies aren't interesting. This movie has a slow start.
max
['But it's EPIC!']
to put herself to sleep when you lay her down in her crib that started instantly the first time we ever tried to put her down, awake, thanks yes, we think this makes us great parents.
Our pediatrician claimed we were lucky because our first was a "self-quieting baby" based on some observation of the kid doing a thumb suck early on. This soon proved manifestly not to be the case. However, then our daughter came along and behaved just as you describe (and it lasted!), and we attributed that to our having improved as parents. Then the third (affectionately known as the "baby from hell"), came and permanently disabused us of having any opinions about our competencies in any area whatsoever.
really young babies aren't interesting. This movie has a slow start.
It because all the action is going on off screen. There are some preternatural cognitive leaps going on in that tiny brain, but you can't see 'em.
Even the really interesting cognitive stuff doesn't really get going until they're several months old, I have to say.
My adorable little disease vector managed to spike a fever and devlop that lovely phlegmy cough around midnight last night. Not many people could drag my ass out of bed to go get them water at that hour.
I love all babies, especially the ones I get to give back without changing a diaper or giving comfort at 4 a.m.
(Actually, ours were pretty damn perfect.)
I love Hawaiian Punch! And I think your attitudes towards her are not merely maternal-sweet and understandable, but correct. Like when people say "grass is green" -- correct.
but really that may just be biochemistry too because right now I'm post Halloween Party drunk and love unusually many people. (I'm in Singapore, for people who gettier that I live an immoral life, from time of post.)
Michigan winter is sad and grey and lonely. Especially when there are no ladies in your life. Even for same lady-conditions, Singapore humidity and heat is way better.
or people who gettier that I live an immoral life
Gettier? I don't think I have any justified true belief about your immorality.
I think he means that he does live an immoral life, but the fact that he's apparently partying in the middle of the afternoon isn't actually evidence for that because he isn't actually partying in the middle of the afternoon. So if you conclude from time of post that he lives an immoral life, you would be correct but for the wrong reasons.
Aside from her amazing ability to put herself to sleep when you lay her down in her crib that started instantly the first time we ever tried to put her down, awake, thanks yes, we think this makes us great parents.
I think we screwed-up early on because we never had the nerve to let our son cry himself to sleep when he was six months old. Anyway, when we did try to put him down awake, it did not go well and got progressively worse the more mobile he got. He is still (at three) a huge pain to put to sleep because now he can argue, make excuses, bitch, moan, and let me know that mommy is his favorite.
Astronomer Discovers Center Of Universe
'It is my beautiful 9-year-old son,' he says
Aside from her amazing ability to put herself to sleep when you lay her down in her crib that started instantly the first time we ever tried to put her down
Fucking Christ, why do all these other parents have all the luck? Wow, H-G, I'm happy for you.
Helpy-C is right, there's some amazing stuff going on in the background, which will gradually be revealed, especially when she becomes verbal. And then you'll have great conversations like this, from two days ago:
M: Who made me? Did you?
Me: Well, yeah, me and mama.
M: But who made you?
Me: My mama and daddy.
M: But who made them?
Me: Their mamas and daddies. It's mamas and daddies all the way down.
M: Who made them? Was it someone whose name starts with G?
Me: Um, well, some people think that God made everybody.
S: No, it was the ocean.
This subject of course is very very far from being "boring and sappy" but it would likely take a Nietzsche to amusingly explore the ways that biologically and culturally determined reactions are converted by individual and group egoisms into moral achievements or artistic productions. That which gives us pleasure must be good, mustn't it?. Oh, and lest we forget, three cheers for the Patriarchy.
But such an analyst would be greatly disliked.
What was utterly surprising to me is that I experienced a version of this when I became an aunt. I'm just endlessly intrigued with my nieces and nephew in a way that I completely did not anticipate.
I was never generically interested in small children the way so many of my peers were, although specific young people that I connected with were fun to be around. So it kind of smacked me unawares when it turned out that I'm actually fine with keenly interested in watching an eight-month-old figure out the world.
It is most of the bonuses of being a parent and few of the drawbacks, though. My sleep hasn't suffered.
17 to 15 of course. I'm still processing 16.
We laugh at ours quite a bit. He is cute though.
But such an analyst would be greatly disliked.
The greatest trick McManus ever pulled was convincing himself that he was disliked.
For the record, I do very much like children, and have a public record as a radical kidlibber. And believe a change in the social/legal status of children would be as liberating for humankind as the change in the legal/social status of women. It is that attachment to particular individual children that is the social institution called "parenting" that I have a problem with.
||
Got a recovering dog that should not become excited or rise quickly on Halloween in a neighborhood with wall-to-wall small goblins and ghoulies. It is a bummer.
Leaving porchlight off, duct taping the doorbell, putting out a bowl.
|>
Good grief, text, must you blab all the secrets all the time?
putting out a bowl
Of candy, right...?
24:right, except for the Reese's Butter Cups, which must have been eaten by the dogs.
I don't want to troll this subject, or troll heebie.I like heebie. And of course most people don't want to view the Patriarchy and the Parentarchy as in any way comparable.
But why are there hungry children? Because they are "not my kid."
When will the hungry children be fed? When "not my kid" becomes the law.
Kann Nicht troll! MUSS troll! Kann Nicht! Muss! KANN NICHT! MUSS!
Speaking of hungry kids, the trick-or-treaters have begun to arrive. And so begins the annual dilemma of how to pace the candy distribution so that I'm beloved amongst the young people but don't run out before the older meaner kids show up.
(And Bob, I don't think my kid will be out trick-or-treating tonight, so consider my socialist redistribution of sugar my small blow to the parentarchy. Also, though, I can't be blamed for the fact that my biological offspring is, objectively speaking, the most awesome kid ever.)
27:Enjoy
27.2:I blame the Parentarchy.
Good night.
Liveblogging the trick-or-treaters:
Witt: Happy Halloween! Oh wow, a scary guy, an Eagles player, a Power Ranger, and a Phillies player. With an HK patch.
::crouches down to hand around basket of M&Ms and other chocolate candy::
Gaggle of 5- and 6-year-olds: Hi!!!
Witt: I have a second bin [reaches back to get basket of Dots and other fruity candy]
Gaggle member 1 (excitedly): A second bin!
Gaggle member 2 (hungrily): A second bin.
Gaggle member 3 (awestruck): A second bin.
Similar to 29:
"Happy Halloween! Grab a handful." [holding out bowls of candy]
"A handful?"
"A handful!"
"You're too nice!"
(In retrospect, this exchange was much cuter and less dirty when it wasn't a comment on Unfogged.)
No candy without saying the obligatory phrase. I'm a purist.
Also, extra candy for slut-o-ween nubiles. Because I'm a lecher.
Dammit. Our neighbors have sign on the door saying "trick or treat!" with a drawing of a bat. And we don't even have a porch light.
We're eating all this candy, no question.
31.2: Hah. They got the basket of crap candy. Y'all are too young to be dressing so trampy!
Trick or treaters just came by, but went to the back door, which doesn't lead to our apartment. Stupid, kids. Stupid.
0 trick-or-treaters this year so far. And it's already 7 here. To be fair, if I lived in this neighborhood, I would start out several blocks south in the richer, WASPier areas where the treats are likely to be better. Oh well.
I was thinking that with the dearth of trick-or-treaters, we could probably buy a couple of twelve packs and give each kid a can of pop, and still have some left over. A rich household a mile or so from where I grew up gave out cans of pop. They had their maid answer the door. You can be sure we always hit that house, no matter the weather or level of fatigue. This was when I was in the 7-10 y.o. range, and we'd go 3 miles or so round trip with no parents. My friend, parent of a 6 y.o., tells me that you can't legally let under-12s out now by themselves or you're guilty of child endangerment. This country is so fucked up.
you can't legally let under-12s out now by themselves or you're guilty of child endangerment
Seriously?
Well, let me tell you! When I was a kid, on the air force base, we had a fucking blast on halloween. Everybody was out, all the neighbors were open for business, some guy up the street staged a creepy walk-through deal in his garage every year, with windy passages and stick-your-hand-in-this-bowl-of-eyeballs kinds of things, and spooky sounds emanating from speakers across the neighborhood.
Amazing. Incredible. I'd have to swing by home to empty out my plastic jack-o-lantern container full of candy, and drop off my stupid little brother, to head out for a second pass and investigations further afield.
Of course I walked across hot coals and beds of nails, barefoot, uphill both ways, during all this. I suppose they make people wear shoes now.
Feh. I must love them unconditionally or I wouldn't have spent the day the way I did. Halloween party, with a dozen kids painting pumpkins and snacks that I spent all morning making, in the afternoon, and then trick-or-treating. I'm beat.
Immediately after posting 35, I went to FB, where one of my HS friends (who grew up a block away from where I live now) was reminscing about exactly the same story, except set a few miles towards the river, where the fabled cans of pop and full-sized candy bars were said to reside.
36: That's what she said, and she's been dealing with the social workers a lot recently due to her son's behavior problems at school.
Our chaperone for trick-or-treating when I was a kid was the neighbor (and Sunday School chum) boy, 2 years older than me, who was far more of a hellraiser than I ever was as a kid. We didn't mess around with plastic pumpkins. When you're doing 150 houses over 3-4 miles, you bring a pillowcase and hope it doesn't tear from the weight.
you can't legally let under-12s out now by themselves or you're guilty of child endangerment
In Illinois, the law reads thus
Illinois law defines a neglected minor, in part, as "any minor under the age of 14 years whose parent or other person responsible for the minor's welfare leaves the minor without supervision for an unreasonable period of time without regard for the mental or physical health, safety or welfare of that minor."
Juvenile Court Act, 705 ILCS 405/2-3(1)(d)
Now that you mention it, I may have had a pillowcase, as I seem to recall some lugging and slinging going on; somebody had a plastic pumpkin at some point, though. It was too small, boo.
I can't quite make out 39.1: your friend's social workers are implying that she's too permissive, I take it, but I'm not sure whether there's a further suggestion that what they consider the son's behavior problems aren't really behavior problems, but are judged so given a nannying stance on society's part in the first place.
Pretend that second sentence there was clearly written.
My son took me on a 2.5 hour drive today -- he has to get 50 hours in on his permit to get a license. And now we're in the ER waiting for them to sew up a pumpkin carving injury. 14 presents a funny mix.
When you meet a 12 year old this time of year, you ask if they got their elk yet. And they trick or treat.
I think she's just been reading up a lot on the law, not that she's sending her 6 year old out into the snow to beg or something. The social worker is a jackass though. Very upper-middle and snooty to us poor righteous radicals. (I met her picking up the kid in question from his school the other day.)
The social worker is of the opinion that my friend is too permissive, despite the evidence that what's at play has a lot more to do with class background and a deadbeat father who can't be bothered to show up on time for picking up his son, or keep appointments, or make child support payments, or do much with his son besides watch TV and play video games. It's a long story, with which I will not bore you now, but my friend's been having a rough time, and I've been trying to help out as best I can, so it's been on my mind a lot.
42.1 -- Even people in their mid-30s sometimes wind up in the ER as a result of using sharp knives too close to their fingers. So I hear.
43: Yeah, help out as best you can.
On the way home from work today I had a radio choice between Prairie Home Companion (not my mood, thanks), the local college radio station playing whatever's popular in that demographic, CSPAN radio (playing an archived 1984 Supreme Court hearing on Grove City v. Dept. of Education regarding Title IX -- that did get a lengthy pause as I attempted to figure out what the issue was, and I once lived in Grove City and my dad worked at that college), and the DC local progressive station, which was playing at the moment, "Lean On Me."
Lean on me, when you're not strong, I'll be your friend ....
Yeah.
Yep. The only terrestrial broadcasts are in the DC area, but it's also of course internet-streamable. I listen to it sometimes when engaged in the mindless part of setting up my experiments, particularly if there's a floor debate or committee hearing about a big issue going on. For me there's something satisfying about listening to the unadulterated workings of our government—it feels like I'm finally being given the space to make up my own mind about what's going on. A little bit of C-SPAN every now and then helps clear the mind; the filters of pundits and reporters and editors start to feel all the more oppressive and manipulative in comparison.
Of course, we need those reporters because even people like me can only stand to listen to 30 min at a time or so.
I kinda like hearing the olden sc arguments on cspan radio.
Cool, I didn't know about CSPAN radio.
TJ, your source for SC arguments on demand. Transcripts and audio, both.
In other news, I was disappointed last night not to be able to find full video footage of Barbara Jordan's speech during the Watergate hearings. Audio, yes. Transcript, yes. Partial video, yes. But actual video of the most crucial part? Frustratingly elusive.
There's a CSPAN radio?
Oh. Yes. It's totally cool, if you're a complete political junkie dork, perhaps.
But really, it's quite cool.
I was impressed by my neighbors who could put up $40 worth of decorative Halloween crap from Wal-Mart, but apparently didn't have it in them to carve a pumpkin.
And of course what 47 and 48 said. The unadulterated workings of our governmental process.
I listened to a portion of a Congressional (Senatorial? not sure) Republican caucus hearing on health care reform the other morning, featuring testimony/commentary/pitches from various parties. Quite interesting. It's not entirely blowhardism.
51: It wasn't from Wal-Mart, and it was only $20 when we bought it last November. Oh, and bite me.
Our street is pretty good for trick or treating. We went two blocks out and then back. Got a full bag of treat and I got to meet a couple of neighbors I'd never spoken to before. But, before I could stop myself, I said "Your poor little feet must be cold" to a six-month old baby in a pumpkin suit and bare feet.
CSPAN works so much better as radio than as television. It's especially good when there's a big debate: I had to go out to Dulles to pick someone up during the Gulf War authorization debate in 1991. My son and I listened to the Detainee Treatment Act debate in 2005 -- he kept asking me why none of the proponents seem to have known about the Suspension Clause. Ten year old constitutional scholar v. Lindsey Fucking Graham.
So wait, Di has a 5-foot-wide blow-up pumpkin on her lawn? If you want to do that right, it has to be lit from within, you know.
Two of my neighbors had fog generators. I was impressed.
We carved the shit out of a pumpkin, boy howdy.
I also downloaded a german expressionist horror movie and we were going to project it on a sheet in the window but eh, whatever.
I ended up hiking through Park Slope's Halloween parade (all of the businesses give out candy, so the streets are packed) with at least twenty pounds of crap (laptop and library books) slung over my shoulders. I got home by 7, with candy to give out, put on a costume, and waited for trick-or-treaters. Not a soul.
Wait, 59 makes me sound pathetic---
57: I hope to hell they had something of substance to back it up with. If not, please. I too can project creepiness from my house, and nobody seems very impressed.
You have to have a backup plan, JM. Otherwise it sounds fine.
60: And 60 makes you read like Emily Dickinson.
61: Oh, did they ever. The one I recall best had a masked, knife-wielding killer (who my 'knight' tried to fence with) in a grave yard. It would have been a bit too scary if the dad wasn't standing on the front porch wearing a costume that made him look like a cowboy riding an ostrich.
Walked into the punk/hipster bar down the street and there was a fellow dressed in full Nazi regalia. His facepaint suggested that he was supposed to be the Red Skull. Still.
Apparently the backup plan was to watch a bunch of old Primus videos on YouTube and then chat with my imaginary friends.
I am now debating whether to rewatch Buffy episodes, browse through the Batman Encyclopedia, or go to sleep. Jesus Christ.
Glance regularly at baseball score, drink hard cider, lazy out of cooking a planned nice dinner, check unfogged, read a bit of a literary/sf Polish novel, eat yummy banana bread.
I am now debating whether to rewatch Buffy episodes
All the old TV seasons on Hulu are threatening to suck up all of my time. (Although the pilot of My So-Called Life was too boring to finish. Or maybe it was just my mood....)
A friend loaned me the first two seasons of Buffy on dvd. I lost a week of my life.
My mood was considerably improved when I read that the PA Turnpike Commission has a man with the last name "Capone" as communication director. Especially since the topic of the article was an FBI investigation of said commission's activities.
67, 68: No worries. Halloween is overrated. Samhain, on the other hand.
67, 68: My afternoon/evening was/is also quite pathetic if it is any solace. It included zero trick and treaters (and yet many candy bars disappeared from the bowl), consumption of deprecated "Mexican" fast food and attendance at a high school sporting event in which none of my kids participated. Picking up bird seed at the Audubon place was the high point. Now watching the World Series although I have little interest it other than mild Yankee annoyance and I hate every book in the house.
You would think that with George W. Bush out of office, maybe we wouldn't have to hear God Bless America at every friggen' baseball game anymore, but no....
teraz seems to speak my language, not counting the checking baseball scores. Still, the "not now, not now, I don't really want to now" sentiment is a valid one, isn't it?
Very few Twix bars out there tonight, but lots of sour gummy crap. This really is an empire in decline, isn't it?
And here we are with all these Twix bars and no trick-or-treaters.
Also, if it's not a verboten subject, will someone tell me who Moby Hick used to be? I like Moby Hick very much, feel as though I can place the commenting style, but then, in the end, can't. I find this annoying. Plus, I'd like a Twix bar, so there's that.
75: My thought exactly, can't we bow towards Mecca or something. At least the fucking clocks fall back tonight. New high point.
Yeah, I'm also in the "very few trick-or-treaters, now I have to eat all this damned candy myself" camp.
78: Wait, you've got Twix bars and a German horror films? I'm hopping a red-eye; I should be there by 8 or so (the new time -- fuck you, fall back).
Witt, thanks for that link. Very interesting.
I may have to google the Twix bar references.
"very few trick-or-treaters, now I have to eat all this damned candy myself"
Maybe trick-or-treating is going to have to go the way of the yard sale. Advertise in advance, or else.
79: Thanks. I didn't used to be anybody (except that I briefly used 'MH'). Having been here long either.
And I hate every book in the house.
Oooh, I just picked up Deer Hunting with Jesus. This Joe Bageant guy seems pretty interesting, if occasionally bombastic. I'm always a sucker for people who've lived in two classes.
And I'm jazzed to see that Eszter at Crooked Timber has published her book Research Confidential. If it's any good at all I can recommend it to my collection development book-ordering friends.
Also, chocolate chocolate-chip cake and orange sherbert: oh my word delicious. Trick-or-treaters not allowed to eat homemade food: Your loss.
teraz seems to speak my language
Polish?
I considered getting some candy for trick-or-treaters, but the only ones we got showed up at 4:00 and I didn't have anything for them.
And now I can't spell. I'm going to get my extra sleep.
No trick or treaters this year. There's been a clear decline over the years as the small child population has shifted towards the SWPL demographic.
76 The problem is that since I've already bought the ingredients I'll need to make it tomorrow. I was planning on replenishing my stock of broth and cleaning (yeah right), maybe I'll do both.
And I hate every book in the house.
First this was shocking.
Then I came to my senses and remembered that, yeah, being badly grumpy can do that. I hope it's temporary. When I'm ungrounded I actually look to the books. Depends on your collection.
86, 91: I tried to read a bit of Frank's The Wrecking Crew and it just pissed me off. Nixonland is partially read and around here somewhere but will undoubtedly only do the same. But writing this reminded me that someone lent me The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao a while back and the first few pages seemed promising.
someone lent me The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao a while back and the first few pages seemed promising.
I devoured that book on a plane flight. Really good stuff. Funny and poignant and gripping and generally awesome.
Why did this game have to start late? I'm totally missing on my extra sleep (which won't actually happen, as my unconditionally-beloved son will be awaking at his natural time, regardless of what the clock says), even tho I don't have any faith in the Phils (no offense, Witt).
Nuts.
Actually, Rivera is the one person who keeps me from hating the Yankees - I can't root against such an awe-inspiring player.
And now to bed.
Oh, one side comment. as late baseball has now led me to seeing (some of) a couple episodes: I cannot fucking believe how vile CSI is. I'd seen bits before, but hadn't appreciated just how disgusting it is - the misogyny, the torture porn, the completely unrealistic portrayal of police procedure.... In all seriousness, the popularity of the CSIs makes me despair more than all of the reality crap - at least that's just amplification of normal human flaws and pettiness, with a polish of curdled self-awareness. But the CGI-slo mo of the bullet killing the rapist as he prepares to shoot his hott captive? Despicable.
92: You should come to my house and look at my books. I think you would find something. How about this random stuff, "Hippies, Drugs, and Promiscuity", or "The Collected Drawings of Aubrey Beardsley", or "Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres" or "The Education of Henry Adams" or "The Journals of Andre Gide".
Or, you know, you could read Edward Abbey, or Annie Dillard. Or Paulo Freire. Or A Sand County Almanac. You should read that. Maybe you have. How about Loren Eiseley? Or Lewis Mumford. Dear man, there's lots of stuff that opens a clear channel. I'm guessing you don't really feel like reading Walter Benjamin or anything like that.
I hereby love my bookshelves again. Thanks, Stormcrow.
92: Ah, thanks, I'm fine; I was just being hateful in general. I like the ecological theme in the 2nd group. In particular have been thinking about and re-reading portions of Sand County Almanac recently. Leopold's farm was in an area very close to where my father grew up, and which we visited on vacation last month. First time I'd been there in 20 years and we met up with my father's identical twin for a tour. A rather emotionally involved visit. Despite a plethora of interesting landscapes and natural areas, modern America has not laid a light hand on the area (and I think the Deer Hunting with Jesus guy would feel right at home). Seeing it with your father's aged clone adds its own little twist.
And now I am watching a re-mastered version of Night of the Living Dead on AMC. I first saw it at a drive-in just outside of Latrobe, PA. It's freaking nostalgia all the way down tonight.
98: Good. I like the second group as well. Night, then, and sleep well.
On the train headed back home. I'm not much fun; Halloween is mostly irritating me this year. But I've been in a bit of a mood today. Teenager next to me is dressed as Carl Sagan, and that's about the best thing going. His girlfriend is dressed as Daisy Duke.
I haven't particularly cared about Halloween for years. However, I see that TCM is showing the 1932 Jekyll & Hyde. I'll probably watch some or all of it, though I've seen it before. I was watching some of Horror Express earlier, which is about as cheesy as it sounds.
I worked today and then played a Halloween gig at a rather buttoned-up private school an hour away. It rained like the dickens during load-out time. Yay, Halloween. Bonus on gaining an hour upon arriving home. "It's only 2am? Woo!"
Our one trick-or-treater came by early. Her first question: 'Where is [the Offspring]?' She's ten, autistic and was dressed as Cleopatra. Isadora, the cat, showed off shamelessly for her. ['Look at me! I'm adorable! I'm furry! I can be petted!']
Now there are about a quarter million people in my back yard, having a [mostly gay] Hallowe'en party. They are quite loud, and the sirens have been going all night. The Offspring is working tonight, much to his chagrin, and missing the festivities. Three cars fought over the parking space that Biohazard vacated, it being the better part of valour to park downstairs in the garage on nights like this.
On babies - for the most part, they are teh cute. I much enjoyed mine, especially the seeing-things-anew-through-his-eyes thing. Heebie, "objectively" has nothing to do with it; if it did, we'd never get through their teen years.
Late night random art thoughts:I don't hate books but I can't seem to read fiction anymore. The An Fur in Sich crowd is doing The Recognitions and I just think I am too old and tired. Current reading is Roncaglia on the History of Economic Thought, and I am enjoying that a lot. Proto-political economists of the 15th and 16th concerned with exchange values and trade balances. So little has changed.
Music this morning, serendipitously (not really), was Marti Brom and Peggy Lee. This made the whole house smile and swing.
I just seem to be comfortable with the ancient performing arts:music, theatre, poetry, and movies. Something solipsistic and anti-social about novels. I like watching real people(actors) doing something they love in time (narrative).
Kristen Stewart is a genius, wasted in Twilights and maybe destroyed by celebrity, and talks about acting as a job and a life-changing personal/social experience. The friendships on an indie and the responsibilities of a mainstream.
Watched Thursday The Cake Eaters with Stewart, Bruce Dern, Elizabeth Ashley, directed by Mary Stuart Masterson, and just tonight Hounddog, directed by Deborah Kampmeier with Dakota Fanning, David Morse, Piper Laurie, Robin Wright Penn. Completely different indies, flawed, but both pretty good. I loved the way both directors surrounded their young talent with seasoned, assured veterans, skipping a generation.
Fanning is going to play Cherie Currie to Stewart's Joan Jett. Lita Ford? The documentary was just superb, but Currie seemed pathetic, manipulative and delusional. Victim of Fowley? Probably, partly. Joan Jett was not involved in the doc, and wouldn't release the music, but appears to be in control of the new movie. I think Jett despised Currie, unfairly. I could be full of shit about this. What was great about the documentary was the way it restored some agency to those young women.
Fanning and Stewart seem very well suited for their roles, but it will still be a stretch for both. Fanning seems a little quiet, and Stewart a little fragile.
Teenager next to me is dressed as Carl Sagan
It's possible to have a recognizable Carl Sagan costume?
104: I assume "billion and billions" was somehow displayed.
104: A costume? There are billions and billions of them.
That's what I get for writing more words.
I beat you by leaving off the first "s".
I really liked Stewart in Into the Wild and liked her even more in Adventureland (which totally kicked my ass). I'm not sure I can bring myself to watch Twilight. I'm not sure why I would.
Best thing about Halloween at my job: less than 1% of the attendees were wearing "Sexy [insert occupation]" costumes.
Second best thing: New band that I've never heard that is virtually perfect.
Most popular costume: Max, from "Where The Wild Things Are" (Come on people, you seriously didn't realize that would be big this year?)
Best costume: A bunch of anarchists dressed as the local peace police contingent, who beat up people dressed as anarchists.
"Adventureland" was fucking brilliant.
Thank you teofilo at 12. It was an exciting Halloween party.
I met AWB at a Mexican restaurant in Park Slope for dinner, so I got to see all the kids out trick-or-treating at local businesses. We got a kick out of an interracial couple dressed as Leia and Lando Calrissian. We were planning on going to the big Village parade but ended up wandering into the Park Slope parade, which was really fun -- loads of parents and kids, but also lots of drag queens, amazing WTO-style puppets, hipster and non-hipster bands. We then headed to a lesbian bar where there were some pretty spectacular costumes, including a six-three trans woman dressed as Laura Croft. I thought her boobs were "real" (as in implants); AWB said they were stuffed.
The Park Slope parade was surprisingly fun; usually I find it too hectic and loud to be pleasant. But the family costumes were really fun (lots of Star Wars, one family full of law enforcement officers and criminals, an entire family of Tron), and the kids were adorable. One kid's mom was trying to pull him out of the parade to do more trick-or-treating, and he responded, "But Mom, I like being pointed at!" One float had a drag princess and a ton of little kids, with the princess on a mic telling the crowd, "Kids love a man in a dress."
115: I'm sure the cognoscenti are already soooo over them, but they're a local quintet called "Dance Band". They put on a hell of a show. I dunno how to describe it exactly -- sort of nerdcore meets power chords post-punk with some hip-hop elements. Synth-heavy, but they play their own instruments too. The lead singer is amazing. Like Mae West meets Donita Sparks. They're on myspace of course. I dunno what their recorded music is like, but live they are incredible. (Also, their FB page categorizes them as "geekfunk")
I first saw it at a drive-in just outside of Latrobe, PA
Which is still there, I might add. Coming home from Idlewild this summer, we caught about a minute's worth of... some movie (I identified it at the time) as we drove past.
My niece is a very small East London witch
I went as Carl Sagan one year in college. Just grey slacks and a black turtleneck and saying "billions" a lot. I think that the appearance was more familiar ~18 years ago (I actually was just wearing the outfit a week or two earlier when someone said, "You look like Carl Sagan." Voila.). I believe I also went once as Mr. Rogers (not quite getting his local significance yet), which was pretty much the same outfit with a cardigan. Cardigans on college students were rare enough at the time that someone would always comments, and about half the time Mr. Rogers was referenced.
120: I'm feeling enchanted and fascinated and adoring towards that witch. Cute!
I think that the appearance was more familiar ~18 years ago
Given the new video? I dunno.
There's a new Carl Sagan video?
And now I am watching a re-mastered version of Night of the Living Dead on AMC. I first saw it at a drive-in just outside of Latrobe, PA. It's freaking nostalgia all the way down tonight.
You weren't at the Dormont showing of Dawn of the Dead last night, were you?
119: We hit Idlewild at least a half-dozen times this summer. The grandparents are nearby. If they sold beer, it would be much better.
I hate standard time. I'm glad it doesn't last as long as it used to.
I hate the switch to and from standard time. As noted above by JRoth, small children don't give a shit about clocks. Our house was rudely roused at 6:30.
I'm assuming that "standard time" is a technical term. Otherwise 127 is hilarious and charming.
For reasons unknown to me, unfogged's clock runs on a very non-standard time.
I guess "standard time" is a technical term in some sense, but it just means non-daylight-savings-time.
125: You weren't at the Dormont showing of Dawn of the Dead last night, were you?
Per the rest of my comment, no. I was very near there earlier in the evening, however.
I don't see why one would hate the saving of daylight.
Daylight can't actually be "saved," of course; it can only be shifted around relative to the clock. (Actually the clock is shifted around relative to the daylight, but the effect is the same.) Some people prefer more daylight in the morning, others prefer more daylight in the evening. In recent years the latter camp seems to have had more influence on time policy.
Much like the "-" and "O" that indicate on and off, I am completely unable to remember which time is daylight savings time and which time is "standard" time. It is 100% completely arbitrary, in that every plausible explanation for one scenario can be countered with an equally plausible explanation for the other scenario.
Actually the clock is shifted around relative to the daylight
Indeed.
I admit that I would prefer to have more daylight in the evening. And yet waking up in the dark is horrid. I blame the Earth.
Standard time is the time under which at noon the sun is at zenith.
138: At which spot on the earth's surface?
135: Easy peasy. First off, it's "I" and "O" for "Initialize" and "Off". Or think of it like 1s and 0s, with 0s being less, hence "off".
For remembering which is "standard", I always think of the abbreviations EDT vs. EST.
For remembering which is "standard", I always think of the abbreviations EDT vs. EST.
Oh wait, I think I know this one. "EST" is "standard", right?
(Seriously, how does this help?)
(Seriously, how does this help?)
Oh, duh. I misunderstood what the confusion was. Yeah, I can't help. It's helpfully stuck in my head as "daylight savings=summer".
The idea behind daylight savings time was to shift the sunlight around so that it corresponded to when people were awake so there'd be less energy use for lighting and stuff. So you jump forward and "keep" the 5 AM sunlight in the form of 8 PM sunlight (or substitute appropriate times for your coordinates) because more people are awake and doing things at 8 PM than at 5 AM. In theory it's a scientific-technocratic change that has no relation to preferences. In theory. The recent extension of daylight time was justified as saving costs back when gas prices were really high a few years ago.
138 is admittedly not a very useful mnemonic.
139: Any.
That can't be right, can it? There should be east-west variation across a timezone.
to shift the sunlight around so that it corresponded to when people were awake
You cannot shift the sunlight around! Some things are beyond our control! Gah! You can shift the clock around!
Okay. I feel better now. Sorry about that. Carry on. Passing 3-year-old moment there.
So to expand upon 147, I think the answer is to 139 is "on meridians that are multiples of 15 degrees away from the Greenwich meridian".
There should be east-west variation across a timezone.
Yeah, it's only approximately true within a timezone, and since timezones aren't actually perfectly regular there's even more variation than that.
Up to some sort of seasonal variation from the tilt of the Earth's axis, which I don't feel like thinking through at the moment. I guess this means that 150 is true at the equator on an Equinox, and hence by continuity at places off the equator that are also displaced from the 15-degree meridians by some appropriate amount, and the curves of places where this is true wobble around throughout the year.
147: Yeah, the whole point of standard time was to choose one time for a time zone so that there was no longer a different time used in every town. Train schedules, and all that. Apparent solar time, adjusted by 12 hours, would be the sun at its zenith at noon.
Are the Obamaism folks riled up about this socialized time-management system? Because they should be.
Time zones aren't necessarily the same width, though. They tend to correspond to political boundaries and political considerations. Spain is on central European time and the UK isn't, for example.
149: It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round.
151: I guess this means that 150 is true at the equator on an Equinox [...]and the curves of places where this is true wobble around throughout the year.
Ja. That's why the draw the equinoctal path of the sun on globes. In any given year, there's a path around the earth that crossing each place where, for one day, the sun is both on the prime meridian (solar noon) and exactly at zenith.
Anyways, it's EST = UTC -0500, EDT = UTC -0400. It's 8:44:34 PM in London right as I type this! (+/- about six seconds.)
Oh, and fucking up everyone's previously computed yearly timeshifts was a parting 'fuck you' gift from the Republican Congress that went down in 2006.
max
['I actually left my clocks on standard time one year, just for the hell of it.']
Yes, yes, solar time is complicated. But my point is that between standard time and daylight savings time, it's standard time that is closer to solar time.
If you know the hours of daylight and sunrise of your town, you can figure out where you're at.
Or, if you know the time where you are and the time in Greenwich and your latitude, you can figure out where you're at.
155 - yeah, being in Portugal (Lisbon is further west than all of the UK I think) for December was odd - it didn't get light until about 9am.
But my point is that between standard time and daylight savings time, it's standard time that is closer to solar time.
My point is that we must be exact in our use of terminology AT ALL TIMES! What if space aliens read the archives and become confused about the meaning of "standard time"? What then, huh?
164: Then we take advantage of their confusion and ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
(Note to space aliens: If you win the war, I was joking. Otherwise, please disregard this message.)
If you leave your watch in Greenwich and go back home and ask the Greenwiches what the difference in the hours between your watch and their watches and then use your travel time as a measure of the hypotenuse formed by your home, Greenwich, and the spot with the same latitude as Greenwich and same longitude as your home, you could figure out where you live.
If you use a GPS device that's working properly, you can figure out where you are.
My giant goes with me wherever I go, so I just ask him where I am.
167: But what if you travel at .999% of the speed of light? What about that smartypants?
171: Then you have to sit tight while the airplane catches up with you and retrieve your watch which you put on the airplane to measure the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by your home, Greenwich, and the spot with the same latitude as Greenwich and same longitude as your home.
172: 171: Then you have to sit tight while the airplane catches up with you and retrieve your watch which you put on the airplane to measure the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by your home, Greenwich, and the spot with the same latitude as Greenwich and same longitude as your home.
What if I'm the moon? Can I drink some Tang?
max
['Low-gravity... um.']
174: What if I'm Eddie Vetter?
What if you're Michael Jackson?
max
['Moon...booootttss.....buttsex!']
.999% of the speed of light
That's not very close to the speed of light.
There are 24 hours in the day, so why are there 25 time zones?
I had forgotten about the oddballs, like Newfoundland. HMNAO tags Newfoundland as in zone P with an *. But there are 25 standard zones, A-Z (there is no zone J).
Tha map does show that there a few places that have not succumbed to this standardizing fad.
Wow, Iceland is in zone Zulu, even though it is on the edge of Oscar and November.
182 is right. This drove me up the wall when my dad quizzed me about it when I was 10 or so.
And I think by that logic there should technically be two more zones (dodged as M* and M† on that map) as they are whole hours further east, but use the "previous" day so they are only 1 & 2 hours off from NZ during standard time rather than 23 & 22.
I think there should be a 'snooze' time zone. Every morning, you would repeat the hour from 6am to 7am. To keep things consistent, every hour from 9am to 3pm would be 50 minutes.
Because +12 and -12 are not the same.
Huh. So there are two time slots, on either side of the International Date Line, which are both the same time, just a day apart? Are the widths of those two time zones narrower than the rest? Otherwise you'd think it'd throw off the Sun Overhead At High Noon thing.
I think we shouldn't be so beholden to conventional wisdom as to require that our day sync up with the sun. A twenty hour day would rotate entertainingly.
Actually, a 27 hour day would be even better, the way travelling west is great. The 20 hour day would suck, like travelling east.
Yup, M and Y are half-sized. But in a crazy, mixed-up world where there are places like M* and M† (to say nothing of China), I don't think our desire for the sun being overhead at noon amounts to a hill of beans.
[crash!]
The date line runs down the middle of the 15-degree zone. The sun is still overhead at noon, but it might be noon on a different day if you went a little east or west.
Oh, these isochrone maps are cool. November in the UK.
I think there should be a 'snooze' time zone. Every morning, you would repeat the hour from 6am to 7am.
You mean 9am to 10am, right?
where there are places like M* and M†
But what about Mtr?
That was really dorky of me. I don't make math jokes very often.
The sun is still overhead at noon in Kiribati, though. It's just the wrong day's sun. I still don't understand how or why they ended up in +14 though. Tonga in +13 is more understandable.
There's also a +12:45 zone that isn't on that map, for the Chatham Islands. Perhaps they ran out of symbols.
The sun is still overhead at noon in Kiribati, though. It's just the wrong day's sun.
Some of the folks up-thread are boggling at this.
The sun may be overhead at noon (give or take) where ever you are, but I've noticed that beer-thirty is highly non-standard.
A spherical living question.
Arrange these cities in order of closest to furthest from Beijing:
Sydney
Vancouver
London
San Francisco
(The distances differ by at least a couple of hundred miles in each instance.)
199: The "spherical" is throwing me off. Do you mean over the surface of the sphere? If so I'd guess:
1. Sydney
2. San Francisco
3. Vancouver
4. London
And I'd guess that I'm wrong, based on the question's phrasing.
But if you mean through the body of the sphere? I have no idea.
200: I meant on the surface, Kobe, my lad (although I the answer would be the same if not confined to the surface). And yes, you have 0 cities in the right place.
199: Huh. My guesses were very wrong.
Vancouver, Sydney, London, San Francisco?
Hints/principles
1) Asia is big; the Pacific Ocean is bigger.
2) In my experience Northern Hemisphere people tend to significantly overestimate east-west distance versus north-south on a global scale.
3) It is a lot shorter "around" the world the closer to the poles you get.
205: See link at 201.
Or possibly flip London and Sydney.
208 is closer than 207, but not quite there.
Okay uh Vancouver, SF, London, Sydney.
Heh had I seen 209? Mmmmaybe not.
although I the answer would be the same if not confined to the surface
This is probably the result of some rule I ought to know.
I'm terrible at Geometry. One of two Cs I ever got in school (other one: handwriting, 1st grade). I comfort my pride with the knowledge that I got a 790 on the math portion of the SAT, which score was almost certainly the errant result of computer failure.
201 has the answer BTW in case I did not make that clear.
213: the rule of Stormcrow eyeballing things.
St. Petersburg (not Florida) is closer to Montreal than to Vladivostok.
I must note that the "at least a couple of hundred miles" delta does not hold.
In my experience Northern Hemisphere people tend to significantly overestimate east-west distance versus north-south on a global scale.
I blame Mercator.
St. Petersburg, Florida is also closer to Montreal than to Vladivostok.
I blame Mercator.
Oh, come now. You're just projecting.
215: The length of chords on a circle, like arcs, is proportional to the angle subtended. QED. There may be a name for the result; if there is I don't know it.
217: The closest two are ~200 miles.
216: 1a) Asia is big; the Pacific Ocean is bigger; the Atlantic Ocean is not so big (across).
Asia's crowded. Europe's too old. Africa is far too hot, and Canada's too cold. South America stole our name.
Australia's OK. They've got kangaroos. Surfing too.
South America stole our name.
I blame Vespucci.
221.2: slightly less per the link.
225: Not a Randy Newman fan, I take it?
226: The link at 201? I get 211, 261 & 361 miles. But that's just me eyeballing the numbers.
231: I give, I give!
You can leave your hat on.
223 is funny. But lo! It's from a song? Huh, well, still funny.
215: The length of chords on a circle, like arcs, is proportional to the angle subtended.
It's a monotonic relationship, but not strictly proportional. But, you know, no big deal.
234: ah I thought that. O well! Already gived.
Ah right, proportional to the sin (angle/2), I think.
Even if the relative distances remain the same, the absolute distances will be shorter. So no need to give up on the dream of high speed underground cross-earth rail.
236: Right. Close enough to proportional for distances small compared to the Earth's radius. For Beijing-London, that formula gives the underground distance as ~4740 miles. The Earth isn't too oblate, so that's probably pretty close.
238: Does not really save you many miles for those distances. Would hardly offset the cost of building the tunnels.
New York to Beijing shaves off 800 miles of so, though. That's quite a payoff. Where do we get the start-up capital?
Stimulus bill--a "shovel-ready" project.
No, no, no. You build perfectly formed tunnels only a little bit below the surface, evacuate the air to form a vacuum, then fire your terrains on ballistic arcs under the surface. No air = no friction. Following the correct arc in tunnel building means no energy costs except getting up to speed.
At least that's how Heinlein did it in Friday.
244: and you can recover the energy by using regenerative braking at the other end.
But I think you're confused. If the tunnels are on ballistic arcs, they won't be "a little below the surface" - they'll be really, really deep. Like, mantle deep.
Given the new video? I dunno.
Cosmos came out like 10* years before I was in college, and Sagan remained a cultural figure for many of those years. That was all 18 years ago, during which time he has ceased to have any cultural impact except among geeks of a certain age.
That's all.
* Probably a bit more, but there were reruns and, I think, a followup of some sort
1980, apparently. I have vague memories of the original series being broadcast, I may even have watched a couple, and my parents had the book. But yeah, I'd bet his cultural impact these days is low.
And back to the original post, Sally is showing signs of teenagedom at ten -- she just announced that she wants to be a vegetarian.
We've convinced her to ease into it while we figure out what there is other than meat that she'll actually eat. This will actually be pleasant if she commits to it -- there's a lot of stuff I like that we haven't been eating much because the kids both turned up their noses at anything but meat and bread. With three out of the four of us willingly eating, e.g., bean soup, dinner should get less annoying.
Will she eat fish? I've got one vegetarian child, but she eats fish. 2 of the other 3 kids like fish, which is good, but C and the 4th child don't, which is bad. Said 4th child also gags on pulses, which is doubly bad. There aren't an awful lot of meals that all 6 of us will eat together - e.g. macaroni cheese, other pasta stuff, toad in the hole with veggie sausages - so I'm cooking at least 2 alternatives at least half of the time. I don't mind the cooking, but the planning is annoying sometimes (though it was annoying before Gwenny went veggie, so that's not her fault). I really enjoyed it last week when it was just C, the vegetarian and I for 3 nights, and we ate solely vegetarian. C was yearning for meat after 3 days though. The 3 fish-eaters and I could easily be vege/pescatarians, but C and Viola keep us carnivorous.
249:
Uh oh. She might end up like some of the crazy veggie people here.
How long before she starts sharpening knives and seasoning cast-iron pans?
I'm really enjoying having a child who is a voracious and open-minded eater. Iris wasn't too picky before she reached the Age of Pickiness (18 mos.? Can't recall), but she's always been a nibbler. She's regained some ground lately, and we're forcing the issue more - made her eat one whole green bean the other night (not just a "polite bite"). I can't imagine trying to manage 6 palates without either enforcing uniformity or bailing out on proper meals.
I've been making a point of cooking veg (or near-veg; it's an environmental, not moral, concern, so I don't care about e.g. 2 oz. of prosciutto in a 6-serving pasta dish) a few meals a week lately, and I definitely notice meat cravings more often (AB too, even tho she was a near-vegetarian when we met). There've always been veg dishes in my repertoire, obvs., but now it's a conscious effort in menu planning. The biggest downside is that it spaces out certain dishes that I want to make - I'm only doing 2 or 3 meat dishes/week, so it's hard top fit them all in (off the top of my head, I've got a backlog of a half dozen dishes I've been thinking about since the weather turned).
We've kind of bailed on proper meals. Both Sally and Newt eat a fair amount, but they both have appetites way skewed to early in the day -- they're starving at breakfast and lunch, and sniff and nibble at dinner. And even with my shorter hours, I don't leave work until nearly seven, so I don't get home until nearly eight.
Buck cooks a proper meal where we all sit down and eat a couple nights a week, but probably the most common dinner is Buck feeding the kids bits and scraps of leftovers or sandwiches or something before I get home, and then he and I have a civilized dinner of something the kids wouldn't eat after the kids are in bed, between nine and ten.
I should say that I completely disapprove of us on this front, I just can't seem to get out of the office early enough to make a family dinner easily workable.
Rah and I raided the grocery store's picked over aisle of random Halloween stuff on Saturday afternoon so we got oodles of fun toys for half price. I am now the proud owner of an illuminated, telescoping light saber that bends slightly to the right.
However, our front yard is kind of hard to navigate in the dark so we got skipped by some people who stood at the top of the drive and decided they just couldn't hack it even though we had some lights up. Still, we had a fair number of trick or treaters and they were all adorable. We packed it in when the friends with whom we were going to dinner showed up which was, conveniently, right around the same time the older, uncostumed kids started showing up with grocery bags and expectant tones.
Best costume witnessed by Rah was a kid so small he could barely talk dressed in flawless Chris Lee Dracula garb. Mine was the boy of four or five dressed as some sort of lizard who was so shy about taking candy that after he said his line and I held out the bowl of candy he kept pausing with his hand halfway into it and asking if it was OK to take a Reece's cup. My heart about melted clean away. My policy is always to let them get the candy for themselves but if they go back for a third handful I tell them it's someone else's turn. I always woefully over-buy candy, so running out really is not a concern. I am what's wrong with America and I love it.
Our waiter at the sushi place down the street is an unbelievably hotttttt god of flesh who was dressed as Wolverine and more than happy to flex on demand. I was so flustered I could barely read the menu.
My plan is to go buy many more of the rope lights I wrap around the hand rail on the front porch so that I can provide some definition to the borders of the driveway next year. I would hope it resulted in more people giving our house a chance.
I am now the proud owner of an illuminated, telescoping light saber that bends slightly to the right
...laydeez fellaz.
fellaz
Two of our brethren did start giggling when I pointed it out, to which I replied, "Oh, please, if I wanted to talk about my dick I'd just talk about my dick."
Buck feeding the kids bits and scraps of leftovers or sandwiches or something before I get home, and then he and I have a civilized dinner of something the kids wouldn't eat after the kids are in bed, between nine and ten.
We don't have the scheduling issues (sure, sometimes it takes me awhile to get downstairs...), but we do this once a week or so - it's nice to have couple time, and it's nice to have grownup food without negotiation. But our kids stay up til ~9, so default is eating with them.
The first few years we were together, our standard mealtime was after 10, and often after 11. A combination of cocktail hour and me being overly ambitious (plus still learning, a bit). I've made a concerted effort on that front.