Re: Labs Beat Me To The Juno Post

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Pregnant women actually can get more pregnant. It's called "double pregancy" and it's how twins where one is a boy and the other is a girl are possible. You see, in such cases, the older one is always a boy, and when the mother gives birth to him, there's no way to avoid the other child being born as well—who, being unfinished, comes out a girl. This is only possible in the first few months of pregnancy so the disparity isn't too great, but it is a possibility.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:15 PM
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Ben I've never more deeply felt the sheer abstractness of your knowledge.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:19 PM
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You can check with Aristotle on this.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:21 PM
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Honest to God, I was wondering if a kid like Yglesias will never see L'Eclisse or Dodsworth but instead see many Junos and CWW's because the primary function of movie-watching is the socialization. I have long wondered if the choice of movies (and to an extent, what kinds of movies are made & get distributed), since there are art-houses, is based on what is safe or mutually pleasing for a given group or on a date.

I think in the cases of a CWW or Juno producers and studios will strive for the provocative but generally inoffensive or unembarrassing for the largest politically-mixed audience possible.

I vaguely remember instances of expectant couples having sex in something(s) I have watched recently. I didn't consider it noteworthy. Could have been the Showtime series with Jane Alexander as therapist.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:24 PM
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Munich, Bob.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:27 PM
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On the topic of philosophers' views of reproduction, Zizek confesses that when he was a child, he thought that babies were made out of semen and, accordingly, couples had to have sex every night for nine months to built up enough raw materials.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:35 PM
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Zizek confesses that when he was a child, he thought that babies were made out of semen and, accordingly, couples had to have sex every night for nine months to built up enough raw materials.

I find it implausible that he believed this.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:39 PM
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I don't know -- he's a weird guy.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:41 PM
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A sort of reverse Aristotle, in which the man provides the matter?


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:41 PM
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When I was little, I labored under the misapprehension that puberty occurred in one's forties.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:44 PM
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I don't know -- he's a weird guy.

Yeah but this has the odor of someone thinking (or polishing) a childhood belief to burnish your reputation as a weird guy.

Obviously I have no basis for saying this beyond my own ideas about the sort of weird beliefs that kids tend to have.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:52 PM
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It sounds like the sort of misapprehension that comes from a nervous and faulty parental explanation. My mother failed to explain erections to me during the sex talk, and I was put to all sorts of imaginative trials trying to imagine how the damn thing all fit together.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:56 PM
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I think I horrified Eekbeat and Jammies by explaining how I parent my children.

They both stammered and rushed away quickly.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:57 PM
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What's Aristotle's excuse?


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 4:57 PM
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On the evidence of the tented swim trunks I'd seen at the public pool, I believed for some time that the erect state of the penis was at a rigid right angle to the torso. As a result, Barbie and Ken always opted for a cowgirl position.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:05 PM
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...or, actually, more often a sort of sideways cowgirl, lying on their sides but at right angles to one another -- a rather remote and impersonal position. You can kind of wave to one another. Hello over there! Thrusting seems like it would be challenging, but I wasn't quite precocious enough to realize that it was part of the process.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:07 PM
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I vaguely remember instances of expectant couples having sex in something(s) I have watched recently.

Knocked Up?

I liked Juno a lot, but that's given the generally low expectations I have for mainstream movies. I mean: The best friend was supportive, the parents genuinely loved her, the friend/boyfriend was clueless but not actively malicious....it could have been a lot worse.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:08 PM
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16: This was sort of how I imagined it was done, except more parallel, feet at one's face, etc., lamely squirming.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:09 PM
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16 describes something more than workable, of course.

It's certainly more precocious than I ever was to play such games with your Barbie & Ken.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:12 PM
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Lamely squirming, exactly!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:18 PM
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Perhaps the thrusting is the hardest part to explain to a child, because it's usually all in the language of a single insertion. Beyond that, it's all pretty confusing.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:20 PM
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Explain thrusting to a child, and he thrusts for a day. Teach a child to thrust, and he thrusts for a lifetime.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:26 PM
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Zizek confesses that when he was a child, he thought that babies were made out of semen and, accordingly, couples had to have sex every night for nine months to built up enough raw materials

There is a tribe in South America (the Guarani? maybe?) that believed something similar, except in their version the whole village of men would contribute, each taking multiple turns to contribute their lot, as it were.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:39 PM
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Like if we all agree to deposit our chewing gum on the same bedpost over many months.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 5:48 PM
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My wonderful 3-y-o grandnephew is now asking what his erections are all about.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 6:00 PM
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25: You shouldn't have let him read the thread.


Posted by: Rah | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 6:10 PM
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Just wanted to mention that my shipment of squishy pigs just came in from Hong Kong. They're pretty entertaining, but they're also very soft and almost liquidy - I suspect they have a short lifespan.

They don't always splat as satisfyingly as in the video, but there's a trick to it I'm working on.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 6:56 PM
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Ours came too -- I find the best strategy is to raise my hand over my head and fling the pig at the ground quite hard.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 6:58 PM
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I don't know the context of how Zizek exposits his misapprehension but it sounds so temptingly like the sort of thing that can be built into some larger rumination on reality, perception, subjectivity, assemblage thereof, etc, that I too am inclined to believe he made it up.


Posted by: Sybil Vane | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 7:02 PM
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With once-daily intercourse an 8 lb. baby would require almost half an ounce of spooge per day. I don't even want to think about it.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 7:30 PM
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28: An angle seems to help over shorter distances with less throwing power: I'm doing it from about 2.5 feet up, at an angle of about 60 degrees from the desk surface.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 7:55 PM
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I've posted on this before, so I'm doing some unseemly lobbying, but have any of the main page posters noticed that this week we finally saw a Modern Love that could actually be described as modest, charming, sweet, funny, and interesting?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/fashion/30love.html?em&ex=1199336400&en=50fdfd83ac417b6d&ei=5087%0A


Posted by: PerfectlyGoddamnDelightful | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 7:59 PM
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I had a very clear mental picture when I was a kid of some kind of grape-sized seed passing up the male's abdomen, out his mouth, into the female while they kissed, and down into her stomach, where it grew into a baby. I envisioned this schematically, like the animations in a cold-medicine commercial.


Posted by: Bave Dee | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:05 PM
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29: He just uses it as an example of a weird belief, and to me it doesn't make sense in context. It's in Plague of Fantasies, but I'm not going to look up a page number.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:06 PM
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The first page was sweet, but why was 2/3 of it about driving?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:07 PM
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Apropos of nothing, I note that an effort to recreate DC's Temperance Hall's garlic fries is not going well at all.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:19 PM
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35: Indeed. It was like "man, Asian food is weird, sorta, but also kinda good. But! Asian people can't drive! Except then later they can. I love."


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:24 PM
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Modern Love: I brought me home some oriental goodness, complete with Serenity and Bad Driving.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:25 PM
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PGD, I love you, but yikes that was weird.

"I had been burned to ash by divorce and had crawled back toward life, sometimes on hands and knees." "Her metaphors, like his driving, exceeded proper boundaries."


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:38 PM
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Bad Asian Driver is probably a stereotype I will take to the grave. This dude isn't helping either. Ramming the car through the wall of the garage multiple times? Heh.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:38 PM
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She's just applying the adopt an Asian baby principle to finding a husband.

But the reason the column excites me so much is that it's a test of my hypothesis that pretty much any two people on earth can have a fine relationship, if they are of good will and determined to find each other cute. Most of the shopping around is self indulgence (actually, it's fun in itself, but we need to excuse it by pretending there's something called "compatibility" that can be determined in advance and is extremely hard to find).


Posted by: PerfectlyGoddamnDelightful | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:41 PM
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Most of the shopping around is self indulgence

No I am searching for TEH ONES!1!ELEVENTY


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:45 PM
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39: come on now, you know the Modern Love editors require several horrible metaphors per column. You can tell the author doesn't really give a shit about metaphors, she just wants to watch her man drive.


Posted by: PerfectlyGoddamnDelightful | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:45 PM
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Then he went out on the snowy porch in his black business shoes and long underwear, looked up at the starry sky and had a smoke.

Is it possible for anyone who's seen Chinatown not to recall Jake Gittes' joke at this point? Maybe the Times should have entitled this ML "Hey, whats the matter with you? You're drivin' just like a Chinaman!"


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:46 PM
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P.S. I do want to make it clear that I am all in favor of self indulgence.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:46 PM
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pretty much any two people on earth can have a fine relationship, if they are of good will and determined to find each other cute.

It apparently helps to have bad relationships and decades of poverty and hardship to lower expectations. Bonus, less arguments when you don't speak each other's language.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:50 PM
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Bad Asian Driver is probably a stereotype I will take to the grave

I've mentioned this before, but when China Airlines started flying into SF, the joke was that their slogan should be "You've seen us drive, now watch us fly."


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 8:52 PM
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44: I just love the moment when he turns around and sees Faye Dunaway. All that was missing was "Regnad Kcin" on the glass of the door.

It apparently helps to have bad relationships and decades of poverty and hardship to lower expectations.

Or just a sense of realism which our aspirational society discourages. An average guy/lady looking for an average wife/husband usually does OK. But the dating scene is made up mostly of 6s and 7s looking for 9s, 10s, and 11s.

And it also helps that both parties actually really truly want the coupled state. If you have strong doubts about relationships per se, you probably will reveal them during early dating, and certainly during the relationship itself. Some people are happier in a couple and know it. Life is better for them, in a sense. A bad relationship troubles them less, an average relationship makes them happy, and they aren't as picky as doubtful people.

I'm not really trying to help, just developing some Truths.



Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 9:03 PM
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Not that any of this has anything to do with PGD.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 9:04 PM
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48: I remember reading about a professional matchmaker who described her clientele as "a bunch of fours who think they are sixes who deserve eights."


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 9:23 PM
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I remember reading about a professional matchmaker who described her clientele as "a bunch of fours who think they are sixes who deserve eights."

To which you replied, "And you are their pimp."


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 9:26 PM
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pretty much any two people on earth can have a fine relationship, if they are of good will and determined to find each other cute.

The key here is shared personal experience. Your "people of good will" learn that history matters as much as chemistry.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 9:31 PM
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Sad, since one of the best drivers I know is my Chinese-American ex. He's exquisitely calm even when people are being crazy in the city, and drives very fast and very smooth.

I guess what's really interesting is that there's a gender reversal of the usual impoverished country gradient.

Becks, I haven't seen Juno, but I am assuming we know that neither partner has anything? (Besides a fetus, that is.)

I learned all about sex from the Readers Digest Family medicine guide. It was exceedingly informative, very clear, and not remotely awkward. I plan on leaving a copy around for my kids to read.


Posted by: Ile | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 9:38 PM
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Or just a sense of realism which our aspirational society discourages.

Aspiration is what makes America great. Breast implants ahoy!

In related news, supposedly Salt Lake leads the nation in plastic surgeons, with more per capita than Miami, New York, and L.A.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,695237037,00.html


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 9:40 PM
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Are unrealistic desires among mates really unique to more asipirational cultures? I could see it being related to individual autonomy, but even in cultures where your parents pick your spouse, don't the unrealistic expectations just come from them instead?


Posted by: water moccasin | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 10:07 PM
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The parents hope for the best they can get, but they don't hold their product forever waiting for a better price than is reasonable.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 10:13 PM
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we know that neither partner has anything?

More or less. It was the boy's first time and it seemed like it had been the girl's but I wasn't totally clear on that.

More germanely, she goes back to thinking of him as a friend immediately after the sex act and rejects his hesitant entreaties to continue in a relationship.

There are some truly wonderful Michael Cera moments in that movie.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 01- 1-08 10:43 PM
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with all my good will i can't probably marry chinese
and that is i suppose mutual feeling


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 01- 2-08 8:51 AM
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