|
8048. Ms. No - 2/4/2006 2:06:51 AM If the parents had any culture they'd realize that it's a morality tale they could get on board with since Faust is clearly not to be emulated and all deals with devil are bad ones.
Sheesh. Bunch of loons. 8049. Macnas - 2/6/2006 11:44:08 AM Oh for fucks sake. 8050. Macnas - 2/6/2006 11:46:41 AM "Go'in down to Southpark, gonna have myself a time" 8051. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 2/11/2006 12:08:11 AM I thought this guy's haircut belonged in this thread because of its title.
 8052. alistairConnor - 2/11/2006 1:19:15 PM Way cool! He's got to be French!
though he would probably get a hard time from the cops...
(hair would seem to be modelled on the képi worn by French gendarmes)
 8053. wonkers2 - 2/12/2006 8:50:31 PM The Bare Essentials of Dance 8054. wonkers2 - 2/12/2006 9:07:51 PM Sample quote: "'...unrestrained anatomy makes some of the more vigorous movements,' as he put it, 'a little bit comedic.'....'Americans are so licentous and so puritanical simultaneously.....Nudity is like calling something 'Free Beer.' I always threaten to make people do stuff naked, and I'm all for it, but to me, it's usually more trouble than it's worth. If something is swinging around, that's all anybody looks at.'" 8055. jexster - 2/14/2006 6:14:50 PM From the Been There, Done That Dept
Damn I shoulda written a book!
YES, MARRIAGE MATTERS
BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED, CANDID...A tremendous comfort to those who mourn." Flora Biddle, Chairman Emerita, Whitney Museum of American Art
INSPIRING READING...Tells the story of grief as a way of showing how deeply satisfying the bond between two gay men can be." George Haggerty
8056. Ulgine Barrows - 3/3/2006 1:27:06 PM What book club is THAT from? 8057. PelleNilsson - 3/9/2006 5:51:39 PM Each year IHT faithfully reprints his wonderful account of Thanksgiving in mangled French-English, but otherwise Art Buchwald has slipped from view. Here he is again, probably for the last time.
Dear Reader,
I am writing this article from a hospice. But being in a hospice didn't work out exactly the way I wanted it to. By all rights I should have finished my time here five or six weeks ago.
This is what happened: I was riding the elevator at the acute care facility next door when I saw a sign that said there was also a hospice in the building. I arranged a tour and everything looked very good to me.
I talked to my doctor, Mike Newman, and he said, "It's your choice. You're the only one who can decide what you want to do." Which was, I thought, a good answer. That's when I decided to discontinue dialysis.
One of the reasons for the decision was that I lost a leg at Georgetown Hospital. I miss my leg, but when they told me I would also have to take dialysis for the rest of my life, I decided - too much.
Several things happened. My decision coincided with an appearance on Diane Rehm's radio talk show. She has over a million listeners. I talked with her about my decision not to take dialysis.
The response was very much in my favor. I had more than 150 letters, and most of them said I did the right thing. This, of course, made me feel good.
It is one thing to be in a hospice; it's another to get on the air and tell everybody about it.
When I got to the hospice, I was under the impression it would be a two- or three-week stay. But here I still am, six weeks later, and I've gotten so well Medicare won't pay for me anymore.
Now this is what it's like for someone who is in the hospice: I sit in a beautiful living room where I can have anything I want and I can even send out to McDonald's for milkshakes and hamburgers. Most people who are not in hospice have to watch their diets. They can't believe I can eat anything I want.
I have a constant flow of visitors. Many of them have famous names, so much so that my family is impressed with who shows up. (I would not be getting the same attention if I were on dialysis.)
I hold court in the big living room. We sit here for hours talking about the past, and since it's my show, we talk about anything I want. It's a wonderful place to be, and if for some reason somebody forgets to come see me, there's always television and movies on DVD.
I keep checking with the nurses and doctors about when I'm supposed to pull out. No one has an answer. One doctor says, "It's up to you." And I say, "That's a typical doctor's answer."
I receive plates and baskets of delicious food - home-cooked meals from my son and daughter-in-law, treats from the delicatessen and frozen yogurt from Häagen-Dazs.
Everybody wants to please me. Food seems to be very important, not only to my guests, but also to me. If they bring food, they get even better treatment from me. One day I told a friend I wanted a corned beef sandwich. The next day I got 10 corned beef sandwiches.
Also, I have received dozens of flower arrangements, something I would never get if I were on dialysis.
I don't know if this is true or not, but I think some people - not many - are starting to wonder why I'm still around. In fact, a few are sending me get-well cards. These are the hard ones to answer.
So far things are going my way. I am known in the hospice as The Man Who Wouldn't Die. How long they allow me to stay here is another problem. I don't know where I'd go now, or if people would still want to see me if I wasn't in a hospice.
But in case you're wondering, I'm having a swell time - the best time of my life 8058. Macnas - 3/9/2006 5:59:25 PM Sounds a whole lot better than the hospices here.
The only thing different from an ordinary hospital I noticed in a hospice, was that the patients were allowed to smoke in a small room just off the ward.
As it was a cancer ward, where people came to die, it didn't make any difference whether they wanted to smoke or not I guess. 8059. alistairconnor - 3/9/2006 6:00:21 PM It's unusual for someone with kidney failure to be having a good time. Probably misdiagnosed.
Nice story. 8060. uzmakk - 3/10/2006 6:52:15 PM ...now, the Haysweep comes in because the point of it all, or is it the means, is a book of Haysweep quality and mystique. 8061. uzmakk - 3/11/2006 2:08:56 PM ...so the day starts at 6, no more 3 hour wake up time. I run the cafe from 11- 2. Three more hours in the shop in the afternoon gives me an eight hour day. The cafe gives me inspiration, keeps me in touch with the peasants, provides a nexus for subversive activity, and keeps the pressure on me for the Haysweep project. Everybody's got to know about the Haysweep. Gosh, I hope my Mote password relating to a central asian tribe doesn't get me in trouble.
Arts, Crafts and Culture. 8062. uzmakk - 3/11/2006 2:17:41 PM Btw, the Mote Boat, though not finished, is on the fireplace mantel. The fireplace mantel itself is not yet finished.
A wingnut who posted on a local forum is being held in Federal Prison. 8063. uzmakk - 3/11/2006 3:24:00 PM I expressed my dismay when an oscar was awarded for some aspect of the movie, Monster. (Theron, best actress?)
I recall having a discussion with Connor at the time in which I referenced the proverb "To understand is to forgive" and G.K. Chesterton's characterization of this type of thinking as "the devil's sentimentality". A recent argument brought this quote and characterization to mind again and I post an excerpt from Forbidden Knowledge, Shattuck, simply as a point of possible interest --
More Kevism Debunked, or At Least Questioned
Over $100,000 worth of damage is done to a local athletic field. What should the punishment be? Kev doesn't know, but it should be mild because the vandals' brains were not completely developed. There is scientific evidence.
College students burn several churches down south as a joke. They then burn other churches to throw the police off the track. Should the punishment be harsh? Not too harsh; the psychology of youthful group behavior necessarily mitigates the severity of the punishment.
There is a proverb "To understand is to forgive." G.K. Chesterton called this attitude 'the devil's sentimentality.' Under carefully controlled conditions, as in listening to the 'sincere' and seductive narrative voice of The Stranger, our empathy for another person can be stretched very far. We can venture too close and lose our perspective on humanity. Once we understand another life by entering it, by seeing it from inside, we may both pardon and forgive a criminal action. We may not even recognize it as criminal. We are all guilty in some way. How can we ever judge anyone else, punish anyone else?
That line of thinking leads to an unacceptable dilemma. Either justice is impossible and escapes us, or justice, if we do attempt to establish it, is inhuman. The action of Billy Budd confronts and blocks such slack thinking. Captain Vere in his fanatic resolve to maintain strict discipline aboard ship remains fully human, and tragic.* Etc., etc.
_______________
*During the past twenty years, the most probing commentaries on Billy Budd have been written by legal scholars.....
--Forbidden Knowledge
Roger Shattuck
"We are all guilty in some way. " This is what allows Kevin to assign ultimate blame to the citizens when people in government commit crimes. Kev has great faith that his conception of a bureaucracy is the reality, that the little flow lines on his mental chart exist in reality. The ultimate blame is weak and watery when Cheney assigns it to himself or when Kev assigns it to "the people".
What came to my mind upon hearing the church burners' characterization of their actions as a joke was M+M's characterization of some of his lyrics as a joke. In both cases I think we can say we can say we are dealing with a perverse sense of humor, a pathetic rationalization or a lie. But perhaps I'm just not hip.
8064. arkymalarky - 3/11/2006 6:34:55 PM So you're running a cafe. What's on the menu?
And Eminem's lyrics are no joke, even to him, but they're relevant and even if they aren't, supporters of First Amendment principles can't be relativists and be depended on to defend those principles very well. It's not very productive to be an all-or-nothingist, either: either everyone is responsible or no one is--either actions and speech are evil or neither is. Destruction of people or property isn't comparable to spoken perversity in any sense, humorous or not, whether it's Eminem vs college students or a Danish cartoonist vs Islamic fundamentalists.
Would that it were all so simple. Then, of course, there would be nothing to discuss. And we'd all be dead or in prison--those of us who weren't murderers or wardens. 8065. uzmakk - 3/12/2006 2:36:03 PM Hearty soups in the winter. Salads, both green and grain, in the summer.
And Eminem's lyrics are no joke, even to him,...
Quite so. I believe he was being interviewed, his argument was falling apart, so his lyrics or a specific lyric, became a joke. He lied, and it was a big lie, because it had to do with the validity of his "philosophy". It should be no surprize that MnM doesn't think very well. Nor, did the students who burnt the churches. No doubt talk and the commission of a crime are two very different things. But the thinking, the sensibilites, that led to the crime are interesting. A joke.(?) A good sense of humor may be more important than we think.
8066. arkymalarky - 3/12/2006 5:39:36 PM I'm a fan of Eminem. Or was, until he got it out of his system. At least part of his philosophy is/was that society creates its own monsters then hypocritically acts shocked when they make the news. 8067. arkymalarky - 3/12/2006 5:43:27 PM Sounds like a great menu. Wish we had something like that here. It's been tried, but not well. People would serve great food, but didn't run the business end well--or they'd have a great idea and awful food.
|
