As I turn 42 in less than a week, half my life ago I reached legal drinking age and learned that I probably wasn't ever going to drink another Hurricane (or any other drink containing grenadine) for the rest of my life.
I've been using the Internet for most of my life. I don't feel the need to exclaim it, though.
I've been doing a married woman for most of my life!
I recently celebrated my 20th anniversary at my part-time job. Unfortunately I don't get a pension. I just like saying "Well, I've been here 20 years," to patrons and watching their jaws drop.
1: Let me be the first to wish you a happy 42nd birthday, apo!
The math is too complicated for me to figure out when it was half of my life ago. I suppose I must have been younger then. I probably knew more back then, except about the internet. I guess it already existed, but I didn't know it.
Thanks, peep! I've known life ain't nothin' but bitches and money for most of my life!
I was finishing junior year of college. I suppose I'll soon have known my senior-year roommate half my life, and we're still in touch (she's commented here as Dr. Germ). If I've done the math right, Buck had right around half my life ago rented a room from my sister's best friend's mother, leading to our eventual arranged marriage.
I joined my first band at age 14, so I've been playing in unsuccessful rock bands for most of my life!
The odd part of the game, for me, is that I don't think I learned a single thing that I've retained from my freshman year in college, which was 1/2 my life ago. Maybe that Heart of Darkness is an allegory for anal rape (n.b. -- I do not actually believe this is true).
I guess I started drinking Manhattans that year, and that's stuck until the present. Which might also explain the lack of retention.
I've been bar mitzvah for most of my life!
Half my life ago I was fucking the future mrs y like gangbusters, since we'd only been together for a year and it still seemed like the most important thing to do.
Half my life ago I was getting rejected from college for the first time. I've spent more than half my life applying to college!
Dang, I can't think of anything that is a half my life thing. But, along similar lines, I said to my godmother the other day (on her 75th birthday) that I have memories of her going back to when she was a young woman in her twenties. It feels like just yesterday for both of us.
"What was I doing half my life ago?"
Weak acid, sense, theophylline + phenobarbital, sweet Manhattans, Lapsang Ouchong, Schoenberg & Hindemith, Proust. Listened to baseball. Walked everywhere. Had a cat.
"try to remember what you'd just learned at that age, and then to exclaim "I've been doing X for most of my life!"
I am not doing anything in those categories (no drugs, no classical, no literature) with the exception of dextromethorphan. Always was a big cougher.
I guess I've learned that those things in paragraph one aren't worth squat.
During the 90s I rode a bicycle, drank fresh ground French Roast, read mysteries, watched football and basketball, gardening. Don't do those things anymore.
Aughts was blogs and politics.
Hah, you know what I did just about exactly half my life ago? I was finishing the first sweater I'd ever knitted, and I mislaid the book with the pattern in it -- all I needed was the last three lines of the pattern describing how to finish the neck. And it occurred to me that there was probably a knitting newsgroup on Usenet, and someone would have the same book.
So I found rec.arts.knitting, and asked if anyone had More Knitting in Vogue, and could email me the last three lines of the sweater with the popcorn stitch pattern pictured in pink (I made it in a nice sage green), about two thirds of the way through the book. And an hour or so later, someone emailed me the pattern for the neck.
And I thought, "This internet thing is really going to be useful one of these days."
I got the size wrong, so Dr. Oops got the sweater. I wonder if she still has it.
During the 90s I rode a bicycle, drank fresh ground French Roast, read mysteries, watched football and basketball, gardening. Don't do those things anymore.
Bob's 1990s activities sound pretty good. Blogs and politics suck (can it be true that I've been reading blogs fro most of the past decade? Good God.)
Half my life ago I'd just graduated from college and was for the first time 1) living in a city, 2) supporting myself, and 3) cite-checking briefs. I've known how to bluebook for most of my life!
I've had a seldom-updated website for just about half my life.
Halford and I are apparently the same age, both like Manhattans and both have publicly professed an appreciation for The Rockford Files as an apex of television. I have a comment-crush now.
And oh heavens, I've lived in this town (sort of) for most of my life.
16. Schoenberg, Hindemith and cats are worth more than squat.
I've been listening to Guided By Voices' Plantations of Pale Pink EP for half my life!
I've been doing CA for just about half my life.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" came out almost exactly half my lifetime ago.
25: Half my life ago, Milli Vanilli had the #1 song in America.
27: Maybe it's time to try a new position.
Half my life ago, Blackstreet had the #1 song in America.
Half my life ago, Sinead O'Connor had the #1 song with Nothing Compares 2 U.
That means half my life ago I was about to watch SNL with my dad when she tore up the picture of the pope! We were both pretty delighted when that happened.
Half my life ago I came up with the handle the I used on a friend's BBS, and which is now my gmail username (and is the reason why I have strong opinions about the misuse of "femto").
Thanks Robust! If you ever want to come over to my house for a Manhattan and Rockford Files viewing session, you are welcome anytime.
Half my life ago was 27.5 years ago. I was a newly promoted Captain just finishing the Field Artillery Officers Advance Course at beautiful Ft. Sill, OK. So I was learning more advanced ways to kill Russians if they attached us.
I've lived in places other than Albuquerque for half my life, but not continuously.
Which means, of course, that I've lived the other half of my life in Albuquerque, but again not continuously.
Half my life ago I was learning to play the oboe, and practicing for the oboe solo in the Arabian Dance of The Nutcracker for my high school Christmas concert.
And that is why Tweety is the luckiest man alive.
Oh no, wait, half my life ago would have been March of that school year. By March I had decided that the oboe sucked, and was back to piccolo.
Half my life ago? Let's see... Still playing Magic: The Gathering and various computer games. Some of those games are even in the same franchises as current games. One friend in common. I probably have better and slightly more friends today than I did then, but it's not a huge difference except that today I'm less angsty about it. Exactly half my life ago, nothing in particular stands out, except for an English class I hated. CTY would be half my life plus three months ago, I guess. The second and inferior of the two years I attended, but it was still fun.
14: This means either that Sifu is older than I thought, or was applying to college younger than usual.
Half a lifetime ago, it was clear that Reagan was going to beat Mondale. Like last polls before election day clear. What wasn't clear is that I Just Called to Say I Love You would be replaced as number one song in a couple of days by Caribbean Queen.
Mostly downhill since.
Get off my lawn!
I started going deaf half my life ago. Huh. I hadn't really thought about it in those specific terms before.
Half my life ago I was just discovering that grad school is a pain. Apparently I forgot.
I was about to finish college half my life ago. I had also just met my now ex-wife.
Also: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
I have not run marathons for half my life ("retired" after running four of them half a lifetime ago). A classic "glad to have done it" activity.
Doing the math, I think half my life ago I had just been dumped by my first girlfriend. I think I'd better not dwell on that. I had also just been introduced to XMosaic at that time, so I've been using the web for half my life.
Half my life ago, I got detention for cutting class to play bridge.
Half my life ago I was about a week from my 20th birthday. My second year at College - I don't really remember much of that year (probably due to #5). I doubt I'd learnt much that term.
Blume prefers the piccolo to the oboe?!
cutting class to play bridge.
Wow.
I've been a little bitch for half my life. (Well, maybe a little under half my life, since it wouldn't have been until the second year that we learned about the subjunctive.)
I'd much rather listen to the oboe. But I am a much better piccolo player.
I'm closing in on having had a tattoo of the Lorax on my right arm for half my life. I've had an anarachist black flag tattooed on my left arm for more than half my life, but I have more mixed feelings about that.
Half my life ago, I got detention for cutting class to play bridge.
Oh, hey, half my life ago was during the short period when I was playing duplicate bridge semi-regularly (there were weekly games at a retirement center and a masonic temple, I played with a friend from HS and I'm not sure if there was anybody else in the room younger than twice our age).
I didn't keep it up, but I learned some skills that have stuck with me.
For more than half my life I have been voting for candidates that either lose or turn out to be schmucks.
Half my life ago, I would have understood the math threads. I suppose I could also safely say I've been a recovering fundamentalist Christian extremist for half my life now. ("Hi, my name is Di. It's been 19 years since I believed I knew who is going to hell.") I've also been speaking (weak) German for half my life.
Well-timed post. Almost precisely half my life ago I began living with my wife.
Re-reading the post.
I've been toilet trained for most of my life!
I'm pretty sure I've been commenting here for most of Rory's life.
Half my life ago I was perfecting the study habits that would, when I was twice the age I was then, have me commenting on a blog when I have an assignment due tomorrow that I haven't really started and a one hour presentation to give Wednesday for which I currently have no notes or slides, but at least a general outline of what I"m going to say in my mind. Also, I never expected I'd put my self through so much school after college, partly because I was just taking my first college class at the time and I already had concluded that I hate taking classes.
Half my life ago I was a second year in college. It was around then that I came about as close to getting killed in a car accident as I ever had, or would ever want to.
Wow, "This is how we do it" was #1. I was just finishing my freshman year of hs.
Somewhat like Teo but in a less complicated way, it seems, I have been living away from Albuquerque for half my life. Also, I've been a leftist of some sort or other for half my life rather than the Young Republican I was when I shipped off to college.
I've never been to Albuquerque at all.
Half my life ago, I was traveling in Pakistan, having left the country without telling my parents because they were pissed at me for dropping out of school—which I did for reasons related to the sort of study habits alluded to in 63, habits which I'd begun to develop half my life before that. In fact, it is almost precisely half my life ago that I called my mother for the first time in over six months. Not long thereafter, I returned to the place where I've now spent more than half my life, and I spend most of my time writing on (and generally missing) deadlines, just as I was doing before making what seemed a decisive break half my life ago. Spelling it out that way, I see that I haven't made much progress.
I'm glad the suicide bombing didn't work out, Jesus.
62: I started commenting here about half of Keegan's life ago.
69: Who knew they'd be so fucking uptight about schedules?
If I've done the math correctly, the number one song was "Always Be My Baby" by Mariah Carey. (A-shooby-doop, do.)
I am way older than Stanley, and I get a Mariah song, too: "Love Takes Time."
I think I was being assessed, accurately, by a couple of my college professors as "bright but self-indulgent," but I'm sure I've been both for longer than half my life.
"I'll Be Loving You (Forever)", New Kids on the Block. Two weeks ago, it was "Wind Beneath My Wings". Man, the whole list for that year is appalling.
Half my life ago, I was finishing up my first semester of college, madly writing three papers over the course of a weekend, while suffering from a pretty severe cold. I had also just started corresponding with what would become my first love.
I can't come up with a damn thing I learned half my life ago about which I'd exclaim, "I've been doing X for most of my life!"
Okay, wait: I learned that I like what's sometimes called folk -- or singer-songwriter -- music. Yet I know perfectly well that I haven't been listening to it for most of my life.
Ah, here's something: I learned that I really am jazzed by intellectual endeavors, and sure, that's been true for most of my life.
I think this game works less and less well the older you get. For one thing, I can't remember many really specific things (like conic sections) that I learned half my life ago. I'd just decided I should probably go to grad school after all, that I wasn't ready to marry my 7-years-long boyfriend ... I was in a pretty weird headspace.
My half-life #1 was "Black or White" by Michael Jackson, which is a bit sad. Just a month earlier it could have been this.
I'm not saying I ever actually got good at bridge.
Snow's "Informer" I'm basically okay with.
Almost half my life ago I left my home-town [it's about 6 months out]. I'd just applied to university for the 2nd time, and it was the last year I was single for a whole year. Most of the really interesting stuff happened before or later, though.
And yeah, to 77. I can't really pin down much that I 'learned' [in the Seinfield sense].
75: Good golly. Fine Young Cannibals are clearly the winners of the list. Which, I mean, really.
82: Whatever happened to those guys? Did they go live on a farm in the country with Jesus Jones and Ned's Atomic Dustbin?
And on the exact half-age-date, the US no. 1 was Paula Abdul, "Rush Rush" and in the UK, Jason fucking Donovan, with "Any Dream Will Do".
My birth date no. 1s were fucking great, though. T-Rex and Al Green.
Wow, those Hot 100 lists are, um, something. Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" was the no. 1 hit for two and a half months straight when I was in high school? Sweet Christ in Heaven, no wonder I thought life sucked.
75, 82:
I'm tepted to generalize from "The Living Years" and "Toy Soldiers" to a 1989 mini-trend of child choirs, but that's probably just because I'm always looking for child choirs.
83: The handsome singer man played a love interest of Helen Mirren on Prime Suspect. That's something!
My birthdate #1 is "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head."
The Supremes, "Come See About Me." Yeah, baby.
The Al Green was "Let's Stay Together", btw.
I been making mad scratch dealing pure MDMA for most of my life.
Birthdate #1 is The J. Geils Band's "Centerfold" which totally explains my successful modeling career.
Are you crazy?
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" Poison
"The Living Years" Mike + The Mechanics
"She Drives Me Crazy" Fine Young Cannibals
"Like a Prayer" Madonna
"I'll Be There For You" Bon Jovi
"Batdance" Prince
"Blame It on the Rain" Milli Vanilli
"We Didn't Start the Fire" Billy Joel
Those are all quality songs, at least by the standards of mainstream #1 radio hits.
Half a life time ago top hits, hmmh. I'll skip the American ones since we've got other commenters of the same year. I spent a very pleasant summer in Poland filled with cheap booze, bad music, and good sex. I can't find a full year list for Poland, but skimming through the weeklies and skipping the foreign ones:
T-Love: Warszawa (I remember liking it)
Kobranocka: Kocham cie jak Irlandie Fuck that sucks, though "I love you like Ireland" is sort of funny right now. Big Cyc: Piosenka Góralska (Polish punk folk) and De Mono: Kochać inaczej (standard rock ballad)
French ones, oh fuck. I'd managed to shut these out of my memory somehow. A selection of the top hits. Francois Feldman: Les Valses de Vienne, Patrick Bruel: Casser la voix, Zouk Machine: Maldon (least bad of the lot) and number one of the number ones Didier Barbelivien: A toutes les filles really awful.
My grandfather died in 1989, and one of my most vivid memories from that year is of my father sitting outside on his back porch every night, mostly-drunk, with red, teary eyes and "In the Living Years" playing on repeat* on his little portable stereo.
* By which I mean, he had a cassette "single", which he rewound after the song played, over and over again.
I been making mad scratch dealing pure MDMA for most of my life.
Ogged is back!
And IIIIIIIIIIIII will always love you + Color Me Badd = a really bad year for number 1 hits.
Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Wham! err, W.A.M.
85: Huh. Me too -- I thought you were a bit younger than me. Also big, at least as registered by me, REO Speedwagon, Rick Springfield, Christopher Cross.
A person really had no choice but to branch out.
88: I don't know why the New Yorker finds it worth highlighting, but in a nice bit of serendipity it turns out you can see B.J. Thomas on Friday if you're in town.
1997 had only ten number-one singles? Jesus. How repetitive can the radio possibly be?
Have you ever listened to the radio?
Looking at those lists, I'm not even sure I've heard even half the #1 songs from any year since 1999, and since 2006 I honestly would bet I've never heard a quarter of them.
I would challenge anyone who thinks 1989 was a bad year in #1 hit music to review the truly horrible selections on offer from 1994.
101.1: By a matter of months. I don't know how I know this, probably from some similar thread.
Or 1995 for that matter. Or, if it weren't for Meatloaf, 1993.
108: Yeah; I just keep being slightly surprised for some reason. So, Pakistan, huh? (per 68).
I kept trying to tell my parents that maybe I kinda sorta wanted to take a year off -- around junior year of college -- and they would have nothing of it. No way, no how. Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen. Honestly, my mom just said, Look, you might probably not go back and finish if you do that, right? Seriously, right? I had to admit she was right. Thus I missed running off to Pakistan.
Halfway I get "Don't You Want Me Baby" (about to be supplanted by 'Eye of the Tiger") by The Human League which I'll take given some of the alternatives. And at my birth it was Doris Day kickin' out the jams on this.
Thus I missed going back and finishing. Anyway, it wasn't the most fun place I've ever traveled, unless you count the day I fired an AK-47 and got more stoned than ever before or since. I'd say more, but I'm off to a parent-teacher conference. Life!
Oh hey, Blandings -- check it out.
(This fellow taught at St. John's for a number of years. Which I've certainly said here.)
Half a lifetime ago I was wasting time on the internet; these days, I build time machines and use them to waste time on the internet.
I've known the difference between semantic and episodic memory for half my life.
From the photos I've seen, Pakistan might well have the most gorgeous mountains on the planet. Check out the photos here
115: You have a specific memory of learning that?
God, almost every year is a mountain of suck. I note that last year, the Black Eyed Peas had the number one song for six uninterrupted months.
On my initial birthday, "Hey Jude" was giving way to "Love Child".
It just occurred to me. It's been half my life since I crashed a car bad enough to require a tow. State Farm should send me a cake or some thing.
Half my life ago, it was the summer between middle school and high school. I think that was year we had a family vacation to Glacier, among other places. But I might be mixing up years. I cared way too much about learning lots of math as quickly as possible. Also, my voice abruptly got really deep and no one recognized me on the phone anymore.
118: wow. And I don't think I've heard either of those. Now I feel like I'm missing out. The only songs that I think I've heard from last year's list are all thanks to discussions on this blog (Single Laydees, Poker Face, and Empire State of Mind).
82: Don't talk smack about FYC! I really like their version of "Suspicious Minds".
essear, I don't know why, but I thought you were at least ten years older than 120 would suggest. Unless you were unusually old when you transitioned from middle school to high school (and had your voice deepen).
And I don't think I've heard either of those.
For one frightening moment, I thought you were saying you'd never heard "Hey Jude."
I was just starting to listen to music on the radio in about 1992-4, after being pretty much a non-music listener for most of life to then. Looking back, it's surprising that it took me about 5-7 years to stop listening to the radio entirely.
123: I'm about the same age as Stanley, nosflow, and Paren.
It seems that the #1 song when I was probably conceived would have been one of the following three: "Kiss on My Lips" by Hall and Oates, "Morning Train (Nine to Five" by Sheena Easton, or "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes.
127: I remember when those songs came out.
I've been commenting here for like three of Hawaiian Punch's lives.
129: same here. Stanley is as young as the morning dew.
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NMM to Chalmers Johnson
Unless I'm pwnd.
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I remember when I turned 30. Had a big pot-luck party at the sort of basement grotto apartment with outdoor patio of a friend I was house-sitting for, and people brought awesome hot food. A fellow grad student who was a year older told me that for her 30th the previous year she'd decided to start shaving her legs, experimentally. For some reason I remember this conversation very clearly, probably because she'd just started dating someone I'd had a near miss with, so it was like she was from another planet. Completely surreal.
This kind of remembering probably means it's time for bed.
Huh, I guess I'm older than essear, too. I'd have placed us as a year or two of difference in the other direction.
Half my life ago, summer of being 15, the chart-topping single was apparently TLC's Waterfalls. I had a notebook for my daily OCD/rule-driven writing exercises and an untitled but chronological on the back page of the people I'd told I was a lesbian. I wish I'd kept to that path more steadily, despite also being someone who's not big on regrets (and working, always, not to be so big in guilt) and who's happy with where I am now.
For some reason this game makes me a bit melancholic. I guess I was finishing my freshman year, and I didn't know, but truly, anything about anything. If I'm fishing for something, I had learned what it was like to fall in love with a town (Austin) and feel like you belong where you live. I had just gone vegetarian and maybe had started growing out a hideous jewfro, and so was about to learn that no matter how many trappings of cooler kids you pile on, a square is always a square. Oh here's something somewhat important I learned around then: the funny, devastating people who always have something rotten to say aren't necessarily terrific friends.
Also the internet thing that some people have already mentioned. Let's say I unlearned what it was like not to be in touch with everyone all the time, and I have deeply mixed feelings about it.
untitled but chronological on the back page of the people I'd told I was a lesbian.
O, M, G. I didn't remember until you wrote this, but I had this list, too. Well, I mean, mutatis mutandis and all, but. I'm pretty sure mine was untitled as well.
Smearcase is a lesbian?!?
I feel so lied to.
the funny, devastating people who always have something rotten to say aren't necessarily terrific friends
Sometimes they are, though!
Actually it was quite a revelation when I found a new group of friends (less than half my life ago) where I was comfortable being unironically fond of things. Then the drugs kinda stopped working as well, and it turned out I was a little bit to sharp for them. Then I became great friends with five dollars.
Then the drugs kinda stopped working as well...
Science should really look into that problem.
One of my friends had a big plan for a while to set up a booth at raves where, for a modest fee, kids could get hypnotized to believe that they'd never taken ecstasy before, so that when they took it later that night it would be just like the first time. Still seems kinda promising.
You'd have to be really drunk for that to work.
I don't think "drunk" really gets at it.
You have your hobbies, I have mine.
Sometimes they are, though!
Well, yes. It's just a few years earlier I had learned such people existed and was a little in their thrall and it was a worthwhile check to realize that basic decency was still also a good thing to keep on the list of desired friend characteristics.
The Sharon Stone leg-crossing scene in Basic Decency is underrated.
147: heh! See, I was sort of the opposite. It took me decades to realize that I could have friends who would be loyal and forthright and not fuck me over through sheer poor socialization.
Half my life ago I was still getting over the sudden death of my father. In an attempt to both make sense out of chaos and avoid suicide, I spent most of my time at the local bar with my adorable (but sadly as time would reveal, womanizing) European boyfriend singing and dancing to "Don't Worry Be Happy!" When I wasn't drinking, I was going to classes at my small Cali college.
Should I remember what "Tha Crossroads" by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was? I'm not sure I've ever heard of them. Probably I wasn't listening to the radio that year anyway.
Googling around thanks to this thead, I must admit I'd never noticed the impressive similarities between this and this.
Bone Thugs was my LEAST favorite band of all time at the time. There are probably things I hate more now. But I wish we could go back in time and autotune those guys. Jeesh.
The #1 from half my life ago was apparently Elton John's update of "Candle in the Wind" for Princess Diana, which held that position for several weeks. For my birth, it was "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince and the Revolution, which I've never heard.
Montell Jordan, "This Is How We Do It."
I really, really unironically love that song. Since I arguably live in South Central, I've always wanted to greet my neighbors by saying "To all my neighbors, you've got much flava." Never actually tried it, though someday I will work up the courage.
I would challenge anyone who thinks 1989 was a bad year in #1 hit music to review the truly horrible selections on offer from 1994.
That's my half-life year. In another two weeks, R. Kelly's "Bump n' Grind" will be a half life ago for me.
For my birth, it was "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince and the Revolution, which I've never heard.
It's not too late, teo.
I really, really unironically love that song.
Me too. I want to unironically put it on during Thanksgiving now.
Prompted by 135 & 137, I just realized that half my life ago was the first time I met someone who assumed that I was gay. Huh. It was also the first time I had experienced coming out of the closet only to go inadvertently back in when I moved to a different place and had to form a different set of friendships.
"End of the Road" by Boyz II Men was the #1 song in the US. Ugh.
There's no chance my parents listened to music at all like this, but I'm going to go ahead and pretend I was conceived with "Kung Fu Fighting" as a soundtrack.
And "Let's Go Crazy" is a fantastic song.
I just realized that half my life ago was the first time I met someone who assumed that I was gay
I think I was like eight. Does that count? Like, oh, new girl is a lesbian.
So today I talked to someone who was on a flight a couple of days ago. The TSA patted him down. Me: "Wait, does that mean you refused to go through the naked-picture-taking machine?" Him: "No, I went through that first, then they patted me down." Me: "Wait. You're saying the TSA is first looking at people naked, then deciding if they want to feel them up?" Him: "Huh. When put it like that..."
Oh here's something somewhat important I learned around then: the funny, devastating people who always have something rotten to say aren't necessarily terrific friends.
Geez, you didn't read any F. Scott Fitzgerald at your high school?
Looking back on the Billboard charts from my formative years, it's odd which songs were omnipresent for a month or less, which ones were omnipresent for a couple years, and which ones became canonical. What happened to TLC's "Diggin' on You"? That was a much better song than "No Scrubs".
Let's Go Crazy" by Prince and the Revolution, which I've never heard.
This is just bizarre to me. And it's way above the average for #1 songs judging from this thread.
It's possible I've heard "Let's Go Crazy", maybe in the background in a movie or something like that. I hadn't heard of it until this thread. And who's this Prince person, anyway?
I just listened to it, and yeah, had definitely never heard it before. It's pretty good, but there's a definite eighties sound to it that unfortunately leads me to associate it with a lot of much worse songs.
the funny, devastating people who always have something rotten to say aren't necessarily terrific friends
This is basically how a lot of my older friends think of me. I'm a pretty great friend, I think, but I have dialed my nasty sense of humor way back since moving to New York. Only people who know me for a very long time tend to hear any of it. My girlfriend used to ask me to deploy it whenever she found herself caring too much about someone's opinion of her.
OK, I'm not that great of a friend. I'm an OK friend to some people!
"Visions of Johanna" is pretty good, but there's a definite sixties sound to it that unfortunately leads me to associate it with a lot of much worse songs.
170: That's probably true for a lot of people. Not me, though; I love sixties music. Eighties, not so much.
And, of course, nobody should be listening to anything I say about music.
Like 77.1, I'm really am not sure what I've been doing for most of my life. But, oh my, is looking at the top songs of '93 ever amusing. It's possible that I could have been watching Green Jelly's "Three Little Pigs" on MTV right at this moment half my life ago.
161 is exactly right. And I hope 167 will pass.
I have been a cowboy for half my life (through really just for a short period half my life ago that I want to persist).
I have wanted to read closely for half my life.
This isn't a light comment, but: A few of you may have known the blog commenter who commented on blogs under the name "DominEditix."
It was a copyeditor's joke. I've known her since 1973, though only on and off.
Asenath Katrina Hammond 7/21/1950 -- 11/22/2010
I ran into DominEditrix some five or so years ago on _Unfogged_, a blog I literally was the very first commenter on, years before that, for reasons not worth going into. I figured out who she was before a handful of comments, and before I posted, and she did a wtf at running into me in blogdom. Thereafter we sporadically exchanged some emails, various blog comments, etc.
Originally I knew her when she was married to Rick St****ach and her name was Asenath Hammond-St****ach, and I knew of her when she lived at the Avocado Pit, with Jerry, Suzle (both of whom I just emailed), David, and Eli, though I don't think we met until 1974.
And so on. David knows from Facebook already; other mutual friends will reach Eli.
I don't know how many people knew her both from sf fandom, and blogdom, but of course she had many friends from all her walks of life, who will now find out more about the different ways people might know Neith.
I've emailed our 37 mutual FB Friends out of her 155. Mentioned how to Memorialize the account.
Posted this as an ObWi comment. I'm not up to writing anything more tonight, and wasn't in the first place, but it had to be done.
I didn't know she was ill; she was posting away until October 27th, and I've been caught up in my own business.
"@5:16pm at Cedars-Sinai. She fought well but the odds were far too great. RIP. (I'll leave this up for a week or so and then shut the account down. --Will)"
Now reposted as an Unfogged comment.
Okay, now I can go cry.
Sorry for the intrusion, but I don't know how anything works around here, and haven't much since FL left, or probably since Unf.
Thanks, Gary. We were told yesterday it was coming, but it's kind of you to update, and appreciated. Take it easy.
"We were told yesterday it was coming,"
Not her friends on Facebook, or, well, good to know you guys knew.
I'd be appreciative if someone could link to the previous mention here, and save me hunting for it, which normally would be nothing, but I've had a few things of my own going on. Thanks, if so.
I gather Biohazard is HWP.
I'm so sorry.
Was there anyone besides me who know her both from her sf fan days, and as a blog commenter?
I'm trying to think of someone, but failing, other than Avedon. I'm probably forgetting someone obvious, in which case y'all or someone can and will remind me.
I'd ask why the book group thread jumps from 2005 to two comments about bike-riding in 2010, but these sort of mysteries were why I wandered away, I guess. Never could figure out all the New Ways, or eventually endless mysterious new people were. Whatever happened to Ogged, Unf, Bob, and FL, anyway? And where are the bodies?
Probably a technical accident. Possibly a bizarre coded message to the great old ones, though if that's the case LB's on-line disguise is pretty good.
Whatever happened to Ogged, Unf, Bob, and FL, anyway?
They had other things to do. Unf and FL drop by every six months or so - FL left a message on the other thread. Some people are still in touch with Ogged, but he's no longer able to journey to the enchanted kingdom. The fate of Bob is discussed from time to time - some believe that Ogged hid the body.
Hey, uh, there are an awful lot of identifying details above. Are we sure this is kosher?
Under the circumstances, I'm pretty sure it's okay.
Fair enough. I just figured (particularly under the circumstances) that it was worth pausing to be sure.
So, uh, it seems a bit trivial now, but my half-life-song just missed being "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio. Mariah's "Fantasy" ... blah.
That would have put me back in high school, fall of sophomore year, so I suppose I was just learning the paralyzing perfectionism and fear of failure that would come to define my next decade and a half. Woot!
136: Oh here's something somewhat important I learned around then: the funny, devastating people who always have something rotten to say aren't necessarily terrific friends.
and yet you comment here!
154: shut up, "first of tha month" is a great song.
half my life ago...I started using heroin which, in retrospect, wasn't the greatest idea. but it takes ages to get hooked and of course it's incredibly fun. now I've been not using for longer than I did, which is good. the library at columbia had both computer search and card catalog. I had a new boyfriend who was very hot and hung like a motherfucking horse, but he was also emotionally distant and unattainable. I started to be able to actually read latin quickly. when I think about the past generally I feel kind of miserable. this is the happiest time of my life now, in most ways, but I don't have enough really close friends.
heebie: you should make sure to listen to the live ween bluegrass cover of gin and juice, it's the greatest thing ever.
July, 1995: trying to forget everything I knew about Amstrad PCWs, learning to care obsessively about music, being disappointed by "Roll With It" and desperately bitter about what the Rugby League were about to do to my club.
Number 1 single: the Outhere Brothers. Boom Boom Boom.
Ugh. I'd managed to forget that. Well, I guess it taught me to despise the general public.
Number 1 album: Supergrass, I Should Coco...
Now that's more like it. (Coming next, Black Grape, It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah. Now that's even more like it.)
Whitney Houston - Didn't We Almost Have It All
Micheal Jackson- bad
the "gin and juice" bluegrass cover was heavily mislabeled on the napster.
This is mildly weirding me out: it's seeming as if I may be the only person who knew both Asenath Hammond-Sternbach and DominEditrix.
Biohazard, of course, knew Asenath Hammond, as did everyone who knew her before and after Rick, but I have no idea when HWP and Asenath got together, other than that they've been partners for fifteen years.
If he was around New York Fandom, Fanoclasts, etc., in the early Seventies, or sf fandom in the Eighties, well, if it's meant for me to find out, I will, sooner or later. Most of us who knew her in the Seventies are exchanging messages and threads via email and FB public and private.
Avedon Carol may have known DominEdititrx, but now that I've thought more, I'm not remotely sure of that, and won't know until she gets back to my email.
A purely selfish reaction, but if there's anywhere out there who knew Asenath from the Seventies, and knew DominEditrix, rather than just one or the other, I'd ask you to email me or let me know, please.
I've asked from the other end, too, but: surprise me, someone, please.
And thanks for the private email from the friend who sent it in response to my comment here.
My condolences to all of you who knew DominEditrix. She was a great Asenath, too.
"Hey, uh, there are an awful lot of identifying details above"
And in hundreds of the other discussions taking place around the internet, rather than a single blog. Asenath had a life.
"...this is the happiest time of my life now, in most ways, but I don't have enough really close friends."
You know my email address, to use whenever you'd like, as you like, the rest of your life (until I get a new email address, at which time, still be in touch, damn it).
And in hundreds of the other discussions taking place around the internet, rather than a single blog. Asenath had a life
I meant no offense, Gary. Of course she had a life. I did not know her identity was widely known. I just wanted to confirm that, in the grief her passing, any desire that she or her loved ones may have had in continued pseudonymity were respected. Not my place. I understand. But please trust that my intentions were well-meaning.
di kotimy, please accept my apologies for my leaking a bit of displaced anger at the world at you. You asked a perfectly legitimate and thoughtful question, and my phrasing in return was ill-considered and I regret it.
Of course you were right, and I'm sorry I put you to the trouble of having to write all that, and put you through the time necessary to react.
I'll be coming back to Unfogged within a few days, because I'm writing a tiny, completely inadequate, obit post on Asenath/Neith/DominEditrix, and I'll post here, or ask one of the front-pagers I'm still friendly with what's the most appropriate approach, when I have ready what I want to ask people, which won't be until tomorrow evening at the earliest, and possibly not until the weekend.
Again, my apologies for my inappropriately snappish response.
To be clear, I'm working with Asenath's sister, her ex-husband whom I've known since they were still a couple, since 1973, and numerous other mutual friends of 37 years I've known Asenath in my 52, including various authors whose names anyone remotely familiar with science fiction, at least, will recognize, and will be posting nothing by anyone without completely clear permission.
But I'll explain more later.
Meanwhile, my most recent Facebook status update:
Past 5 days, in succession:
1 friend no longer with 90% probable malignancy -- removed: prognosis now good.
1 friend dead: prognosis bad.
1 friend liver biopsy: next week. Prognosis: unknown
The last two in under the past 24 hours, the last news ~10 minutes ago.
I'm coping fine, but a tad busy.This in context of having on November 11th moved to a new state, a new city, gotten out of what was effectively the equivalent of either a 2 and a half years in a mental ward, or a minimum security prison cell, and a few other things that have changed almost every aspect of my life, other than getting a new body, and still retaining ~60% of what I hope is largely the better half of my personality, so I'm actually doing wonderfully well, in context.
Would anyone like some metric tons of packing peanuts?
I exaggerate slightly. But in this comment, only in the antepenultimate sentence.
I'll be coming back to Unfogged within a few days, because I'm writing a tiny, completely inadequate, obit post on Asenath/Neith/DominEditrix, and I'll post here, or ask one of the front-pagers I'm still friendly with what's the most appropriate approach, when I have ready what I want to ask people, which won't be until tomorrow evening at the earliest, and possibly not until the weekend.
I look forward to reading it. It is sad to have opportunities to discover the way that death brings people back in touch, but it is good to see you here. I hope your move(s) agree(s) with you--it sounds like a promising turn of events.
"I look forward to reading it."
Don't expect anything beyond what bare facts I can put together, my doing my best to confirm from multiple sources that what information I have is as accurate as I can obtain within the time allowed, and that I'll do my best to try to make sure I have every relevant permission to post any everything I post
Expect no more than that. Please. Really.
If anything more is included, that would be good, but the above is all I'm committing to, and I can't promise to do better than a completely crap, totally inadequate job of even that little, either, so please don't expect more. I will doubtless end up making errors of fact that have to be corrected, because my experience is that this is almost inevitable. What I'll do is make corrections as fast as people get them to me, and I can make them.
You're now warned. I'm not writing some beautiful essay that will make anyone cry, and am most likely going to have only a bare minimum of my own words, period.
What I *will* do is carefully consider inclusion of any comments sent to me, and, of course, everyone will be free to comment as they wish wherever they wish, as if I could stop anyone, and goodness knows I encourage everyone and anyone else to write up their own posts. What I would ask is that anyone who does so is very much invited, but hardly required, to send me the link, letting me know if they'd like it included in what I post, or merely to be aware of, or whatever permissions or conditions they set.
Then I'll try my damnest not to fuck up anything important. But probably will. It's immensely likely.
I'll include these points when I try writing all this up in one coherent letter, which I hope to do by either tomorrow evening, or by the end of the holiday weekend.
Thanks.
I've known how to take derivatives for half my life. Cool beans.