Belated happy birthday wishes, Chris!

Thanks for creating this forum. 

Glad to hear it's been a good one! 

how's it danglin

For some reason now I need to track down my Nina Simone CD with "Strange Fruit" on it.

But nevermind that, welcome to you!

Greetings, earth person!

That guy's blog made my head hurt. That's what happens when you give someone with untreated obsessive-compulsive disorder access to the internet.

As for cons, I got press credentials to attend the Star Trek 40th anniversary con/ven/ference in Seattle a couple of weeks ago, which was the most horribly organized event of any kind I've ever been to. And people spent upwards of $1000 for "platinum" admission packages? What a terrific scam. I wish I would have thought of it first. $20 for Walter Koenig's autograph?

...OK, I did pay $20 for Nichelle Nichols to sign my vintage Uhura poster. And meeting George Takei was pretty cool. Marina Sirtis is probably hotter now than she was on TNG.

Overall though, it didn't inspire any desire to make a habit of attending cons.

From what I've seen of cat in 2-D, she is indeed muy caliente. What she must be like in 3-D, however... *rowr*

If I had to pick a celebrity, it would be Scarlett Johansson.

I love The Diary of Anne Frank. It's still an essential document of the time. But for me Night is powerful because Wiesel is writing from his experience as a young man who lived through internment at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

In some ways I think Anne Frank's book is used as a way to soften the story of the Holocaust for children who are being introduced to it for the first time. Her optimism and hopefulness are so affecting throughout the book that it's convenient to have it end before they are discovered -- it's comforting to think that she retained that innocence until her death. Part of me would like to think that, too, but I probably identify more with Wiesel's loss of faith in god -- and mankind. 

"Night" was originally published in 1958; I'd forgotten that Oprah selected "Night" for her book club (was it really as recent as Jan. 2006?) -- I just read it was an intentional choice after the debacle of "A Million Little Pieces."

I think it's all too true that the memory of the Holocaust is dying with those who lived through it. I have to give Oprah credit for introducing new generations to the book.

The only book I can add to all the great selections offered up here is "Night" by Elie Wiesel. It is beautiful and devastating and should be a required read for high school students.

Hey, hey...I'm not involved in this one.

That makes two of us.

Though with two cats here, it may be inevitable. 

Hey, dude, glad to hear you're getting plenty these days... that's pretty impressive for a 13 year old.

Nothing like a good insult to peak a woman's interest...meanwhile taking over the superior role as they try to defend themselves. You have to understand the nature of women though...and your insults have to be specific, witty and crafty. Women are smarter when it comes to "selecting" a mate...they are master manipulators, they know how to work their "assets", etc. However, they normally don't have to try too hard to get laid, so that's where we men have to step into play.

I'm glad you have this all figured out. Good luck with that when you actually grow up and begin to start thinking about marriage and children. Or maybe you'll realize that your deep seated fear/hatred of women is because you won't come to terms with the fact that you are actually a woman trapped in a man's body.

I had this long explanatory post on this topic, and then my computer crashed. D'oh! 

So I'll make this one brief(er). The first thing I thought of when I saw the topic head wasn't any of the music my parents listened to. It was Free To Be You and Me, the idealistic, egalitarian music project Marlo Thomas put together in the early 1970's. My Ms. magazine reading mother bought it for me when it came out (I know that dates me).

What an awesome record. Rosie Grier singing "It's All Right To Cry?" Tom Smothers singing "Helping," written by Shel Silverstein?:

And some kind of help
is the kind of help
we all can do without.


It seems terribly dated now, but I still have tremendous affection for it.