caroljane

Why is she singing O canada for a game in Philly between two US teams? Not that I mind but it seems strange.

And the skateguard waddle starts .. your guys looking dapper in winter white!

No, but this raises a question, why do you not get a Roku box? It is a complete solution to the cable/satellite dish over priced delivery systems. Additionally, APPLE TV is going to transform the medium and fundamentally eliminate television as you know it. http://www.apple.com/appletv/ Ouch Adam, you know I can't handle the truth of technology Carol Reality evader

Or in JJ plaintiff speak, I had saw 24/7, then I seen it wasn't on no more.

That's why JJ makes for great TV. I especially like when she corrects grammar (when did Americans forget the simple past tense?) and tells them not to have any more children that she will have to support through her taxes. Or to get a job in an area with 20% unemployment, when they are obviously too dumb to tie their own shoes, so dumb that they want to go on her show. Did you watch the 24/7 docu series leading up to the Classic? I don't get HBO this year (no Game of Thrones either, waaaH!) but last year's was terrific.

They have delayed the start of this outdoor delight to 3:00, I guess it is sunny in Philadelphia. This means I will miss Judge Judy today but it will be worth it. Rangers are looking great - and the word is, Avery might be going to Russia! Maybe there is a God.

Imagine the blessed wedding day of Tebow's parents. The ceremony, the speech by the Angel Gabriel, then the First Dance. It can only have been the country classic, "Drop kick me Jesus, through the goal post of Life."

Yep,It's these newfangled interjets, sonny. Time travel all over the place.

Carol. The three below are my best from before. I must say I'm a little embarrassed about the first, though ("Like a Lamb to the Slaughter"). While it is true and it happened as I said, I ended up framing it with way too much good and evil sauce. This was my first real work of substance and how it happened was as follows. I used to have a very (and put very very very on top of that) active email correspondence with Objectivist Liar and Hater, Lindsay Perigo. (I didn't call him that back then, of course.) I told him of something that happened to me and he pushed me to write it up to protest against "those evil people." When he said that, I chuckled. I had never thought of those people in that manner before. Also, I never wrote anything like that before and I'm a primate. I learn by imitation like all primates do. What can I say? I allowed the "evil" frame from dunderhead's prodding to creep in against my better judgment. Still, it's a good work. I'm going to redo it later to reflect my more nuanced feelings more accurately. The other two works speak for themselves. While there is some minor editing that needs to be done, I'm quite proud of them. Like a Lamb to the Slaughter (Originally published here.) Letter to Madalena ... An Homage to the Value of Valuing (Originally published here.) A Hunting Story (Published directly on OL.) Enjoy. (btw - I fully agree with William that Phil's best stuff has come in the form of memoirs. It is quite good and well worth reading.) Michael Michael, I think your own judgment is right about #1, the Lamb. The title is wrong unless you did simply want to write it as a tale of deception, and to do that you would have to rework somewhat. But it is more than that, and as you have learned, marriage customs and human motives are about more than good and evil as Rand (or Perigo) defined. It is a strong and true story.I have not read the others yet, but I look forward to the reading. Carol already breaking my NY resolution to stop spending waaay too much time on OL

I normally wouldn’t bother someone about it either, but this is Phil we’re talking about. Sometimes, to teach the moronic among us the Golden Rule, one must do unto them as they’ve done unto others. Though, to get it right, I’d need to be hectoring him while being wrong about whatever it is I’m talking about. Maybe I'll come up with something along those lines next, but I wouldn't count on Phil to know the difference. And look what he's driven you to already. Succinct and witty summing up of things you have had to say many times before, but seldom so well.

That is interesting to hear, "Identify, then judge." I am trying to think through what I do when I read, but I really can't. As far as I can tell, I just react.

I am so, sooooo sorry Phil. I curtsy, I bow, I watch you slog back your drink and smack your lips and then watch you go down to the pit below the bar, again. Ugh, this is un-freaking bearable. First of all, dumbass, you need an accent grave on the first e, and an accent aigu on the last. As in, lèse majesté. Don't lecture anyone about French if you don't know that, if you don't just hear it in your head that way, instantly know that that's how it is, and see it as a mistake without the accents in place. There's no fucking way you passed a college level French class, you poseur. Second, WSS didn't bother to give a link, here it is. http://en.wikipedia....ki/Lese-majesty Weren't you just on another thread trying to convince GHS that you're an expert on Common Law? Don't start yelling at me but I think it's possible, just possible, that Phil might conceivably have been just making a joke here, he frequently tweaks the tail of the hybrid that is joual. I never use the French accents because they are not on my keyboard and would be inconvenient to access, it is not worth the hassle to me. And nobody has hassled me about it, so I will spread the cut slack along.

I am so, sooooo sorry Phil. I curtsy, I bow, I watch you slog back your drink and smack your lips and then watch you go down to the pit below the bar, again. I shall scurry over to Wikipedia, and in sombre tones let them them know that upon investigation, we have discovered, you and I, all breathless and a-flutter with our thrilling turn-up, that when you put a Google hound on the phrase 'lese majeste,' well, that hound comes back with a Wikipedia entry for some gawdawful stupid trash about a concept in law (mostly suffixes of Norman onto common-law procedures) called Lese-Majesty! As soon as I calm down and adjust my skirts, this is what I am going to sent off: I tell, you, Mr Smartypants Wikipedia, that we the hill people have turned up your fraud. Lese-Majesty is not a word. No one on earth spells it like that without being Degenerate. My gawd, Wikipedia, it is Wrong. Can you simply correct this quietly, sir, and Mr Coates and I can get back to his dinner? Oh, and before we go, I should let you know that I will be contacting Mr Dictionary and other important people who have been stunned and gutted by your fraud. It is not over, sir. I may speak softly, but even across this marble hall, across this symbol of power, across this mahogany rink of a desk, across the interstellar vacancies of the universe, from yon distant tower which is my prison home, you will forever hear me whisper, hoarsely, YOU are wrong, sir. Sir, you are wrong. I come but once a year, sir, from the pit in which I have been imprisoned on remand for seven hundred years, to correct your spelling of foreign-derived terms. And you stumble, sir, you stumble. The world and its precious words darkens back into medieval nightmare, I to the pit and then the tower and my tortures, you to your beer parlours and hockey rinks and Dictionaries lisping your garbled French through the stumps. . Hearken! Toodeloo! Bonnehomme Sept-heure! Boogeyman! Hamburger! Gros-porteur and courriel to you for your rendez-vous with justice, Mr Dictionary! Don't mind him, Mister Coates. He never got over the time the Metis Credit Union repossessed the rabbit farm. Rosasharn Joad Scherk, bitter ex Alt-U 1931XXOY

Such is your global reach, Phil, that shortly after you posted here about the irrationality of joined subway cars, the Toronto Transit Commission started running the first seamless ones, affectionately called the Coates Coaches. I unveiled your full-length statue on the historic first run, and gave the speech I know you would have given. I would have mentioned this to you, but I knew you would be too busy with more important things.

Here you go then. Recently I reread "The Last of the Wine" by Mary Renault, which I believe I have recommended to you before Phil. It is set in classical Athens, Socrates is a main character, the writing is extremely good and it is much more entertaining than the Great Gatsby. I have read and reread her other historical novels which altogether, cover the period from the birth of philosophy to the death of Alexand.er the Great, so Aristotle has a walk-on part

William, I refer you to my memoirs that I wrote on the old SoloHQ and the earliest works I wrote here on OL. You'll find plenty of me there from that angle is that is your interest. I will be retaking this path in life, so you hold onto your pants... Frankly (and if I hadn't already noted my opinion) those are you at your best, telling the stories of your life and perceptions, explaining how things fit together Then and how they fit together Now. And using self-examination not to preen (too much, at least not as much as me!) at the results, but to offer to Yourself (first!) and others a first-polish. That shit is Brave, Michael. I can't do it and you can. So bless me and forgive me if I have not given you your due. For any faults (and I mean those you see) they have the power of truthful telling and an urge to parable. I fucking love parable. So stern by intent (the Lesson) but so gentle in delivery, so healing, so anciently helpful. Yes, your memoirs are good. So are Phil's. Here on OL, his own memoirish posts are the strongest and most valuable (in my scheme). I think there are only three or so, but in parts ... but they are great reports, revealing, pregnant ... just some good and valuable shit. I wish he could see the good path that personal puzzling and truth-telling can lead to, as have you to your great and enduring benefit, and to those whom you are united by love. It is a good thing to remind us, that if we want people to know us, we must tell them. They cannot, ultimately, guess. Thanks again for opening the rink, coach, and for the whistle. We still like to watch you skate, too. As with Carol, if you are not kin, you must be kith. Otherwise why would I choose this rink of all others in the league (maybe Carol can help me articulate my garbled hockey references)? Kith? It must be. Why else would we circling on the ice here under your lights, boss? I'll second this. Michael, I haven't read anything memoirish of yours past this last year, and if you feel like reproducing the older ones I know I would like to read them. Of course I will hold onto my pants, what do you take me for. Bill, your hockey analogy skills are fine. I know you're not a fan but you're a Canadian, that is generally enough. Just a tip though, as you are from Vancouver. the correct response when your goalie fails to stop a puck is to groan and scream and throw your beer cup and weep, then go home. It is not to go out and vandalize your neighbours. If we did that here, I would be writing in permanent rubble.

Not many people know that Munch actually studied trans-dimensional engineering. So did Brunelleschi, btw, which explains the mystery of how the Duomo was built. That egg shell business is a myth. It was Time Lord technology, take it from me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWz6G-9NMTw Oops, the pedantic proofreader misspelled Munch. Maybe I was also thinking of Robert Munsch who was another big influence on my progeny. I especially liked David's father the giant.

Not many people know that Munch actually studied trans-dimensional engineering. So did Brunelleschi, btw, which explains the mystery of how the Duomo was built. That egg shell business is a myth. It was Time Lord technology, take it from me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWz6G-9NMTw

How uninformed! The Master is a Time Lord. Uh-oh, to demonstrate this I'm going to have to link to Wikipedia. Phil may object! He may even call me a hypocrite!! http://en.wikipedia....ter_(Doctor_Who) Btw to go offtopic a mo, did I tell you what my son got for Xmas? A van Gogh style painting (I thought it looked a bit Munschy too) with a Tardis whirling away into the sky in a storm, I don't think Jonathan would rate it much but it's wonderful.

I think you ought to lay off the autistic. They have it hard enough without being compared to Phil. I recognize a Master. Don't be too hasty. TimeLords are a separate category, not covered in the Lexicon, and they can do things in distant galaxies and alternate universes that we can't, try as we might. (And 9th has done things on certain planets that he should be ashamed of though that is no reflection on his professional accomplishments. The cad). Also if you recognize him as a Master he will own your soul forever and make you feed the pigs. A word to the wise. Hugth and kithes, Carol

Yes, you can. You have done it before and you can do it again.

Sigh. I was going to suggest this thread had redeemed itself from the GP with the diversion into literature, but now it looks like we're going to be down here for a while.

Mutual, Angela. It was nice for me yesterday thinking of you in Germany raising a stein, Tony in SA with champagne flute, and our American friends hoisting their Buds and cocoa, ready for 2012. My mother's birthday was Dec 25 so of course she never got a real one. After my dad died and she started visiting me here for the holidays, she always came to my class term-end party.The students adored her. One year (I think she was 78, but she never would tell me and I never knew her real age till after she died), we made it a surprise birthday party for her. She said, "I never had a birthday party before, and now I'm having one with people from all over the world." She always gave me wonderful parties, so I don't need extra ones. But this year I sort of know how she felt.

I agree on these points, up to a point. The hard slog and effort of getting published should be acknowledged, and a body of work admired for the accomplishment it is. But in the single aspect of writing skills, I think everyone can be a critic nowadays. Phil's analysis of Bill's piece shows he is a good critic of structural elements. Also, being published nowadays (I'm not referring to NB of course), is not necessarily an accomplishment when so many authors self-publish. Some of these works are brilliant but more are not. Some are not even edited and are virtually unreadable. Such credentials don't qualify for automatic admiration of the author. I am not aware that WSS has ever published anything either (I could be wrong) but it is obvious to me that his writing is superior to much of what I read from published sources. I haven't published either, but I feel qualified to say this because I have spent the majority of my life reading, and that's not an exaggeration - but I don't think I have to flash my reading certificates either. Also, skill may require practice but I don't think it requires much study. In the area of writing, hard work does not necessarily equal good work.

Why would I divide by two? I have said before on here that I am 106, having chosen 1905 for birth year. This is a gesture of respect for Mother Foundress up there--St Petersburg anyone? Though I don't suppose she would take it as such and the Estate will threaten to sue me. I will never tell my real age, a lady doesn't and I prefer to be perceived simply as an ageless Mind.