Pathetic plea for interaction

[beetiger]

Tell me something I don't already know.

Comments

[aynjel.livejournal.com]

Late-seaon (dryer) potatoes make for "powdery" french fries.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Now you've got me imagining converting my washer/dryer into some sort of food dehyration setup. This is more amusing to think about than what was in my head before. ;)

[lapis-lazuli.livejournal.com]

Did you know that "has eighteen letters" ...does!

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I guess I knew that implicitly, but never thought about it!

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

An ampallang piercing is just about the most painful thing you can imagine. A Prince Albert piercing is just like being pinched.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I will pass this information on to any friends with that sort of inclination and equipment, as I have neither. I did indded have to look up the former to find out what it was.

Unfortunately the number of people who can compare that pain with the pain of going through labor is very small, if not zero.

[secanth.livejournal.com]

One sometimes develops callouses from cross stitching when one can't use a thimble.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It's time for us to get a new dryer. The barrel of our current one has slipped somewhat, so that small things can fall behind it while it's drying. I pulled a dozen of your old socks and underwear from it. That new trick about socks getting caught on something in the back is related, too.

Sorry if this is not a delightful new thing to hear.

[aynjel.livejournal.com]

and then you can use the old one for drying potaoes and making powdery french fries!

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I am trying to think of good baby stuff -- hhhm.

Nope. Nothing there. How about. . .

Coney Island has the last permanent 'freak show' in the USA.

http://www.coneyisland.com

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Y'know, those freaks seem a lot less, well, freaky, than the ones in the old comic books. No three-headed children and stuff. Though I have to admit that going to the sword-swallowing class they are offering over there could be interesting, indeed...

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

If you go to the Boston Public Gardens in the wintertime when the squirrels are hungry and put seeds in the palm of your hand, they'll come and eat right out of it. And then while they're eating, you can curl your fingers and tickle their bellies.

Squirrel belly fur is VERY soft.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

My mother crochets afghans of many different kinds and of all sorts of skill levels (depending on her mood and how hard she wants to work). She's made afghans with mooses on them for my sister, afghans that look like quilts, afghans that have soft crocheted flowers on them.

When I was little, I used to help her with the modular afghans (those made from granny squares or octagons) by stacking them by color. The colors and the weight of the yarn entranced me. I spent many happy hours while my mother crocheted, playing with yarn.

When I moved out of the house, my mother had six afghans. She asked me which one I wanted to take with me to my new, married life. I said "All of them."

And she gave them to me: the afghan with the crayon design, the gray and rose quilt, the psychedelically colored 'leftover yarn' octagon, the two long-line runner afghans, and the venerable granny square which is the first afghan I remember in my life. Since I've moved she's made me two more, one to match my sofa set, and a big heavy fuzzy one made when I admired one she'd made for her house.

She complains loudly to everyone that I 'stole' her afghans, but she always smiles when she says it. Once, she told me quietly that it made her very happy that I loved them all so much.


Did your parents ever do or give you anything like that?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Not yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if some of my baby stuff has been hiding at my mom's house and appears when she comes to see Mothra.

[queenofstripes.livejournal.com]

The secret Masonic password is "JUBALCAIN."

There is a record shop in Columbus, OH named "Magnolia Thunderpussy."

George Pal, director of "Destination Moon," "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao," and the 1953 version of "War of the Worlds" was good friends with animator Walter Lantz, and hid Woody Woodpecker somewhere in every one of his films as a private joke.

[ahiruko.livejournal.com]

I thought it was "DUBALCAIN."

I'm not 100% sure.

You probably new this, but I couldn't think of anything better

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

Santa Claus is Canadian. The north pole is technically in Canadian territory.

Re: You probably KNEW this, but I couldn't think of anything better

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

And I'm an ass for making one of the assinine typos I hate the most.

[redbird]

There were two kings of Sicily called "Frederick III" (okay, it's not all that exciting, but I'm fairly sure you didn't already know it).

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Misguided cat breeders almost extinguished the polydactyl strain of Maine Coon cat in the course of the 20th century, but a few hardy souls kept the gene alive and are now gradually restoring to the world a population of cats who can turn doorknobs and say "murp".

The inverse-square law of gravity is not a mystery of nature, but rather a necessary property of the symmetry of space. (The symmetry of space, of course, remains a mystery of nature.)

The girlfriend of the brother of the girlfriend of the son of the math professor who regularly eats lunch at the club of which I was once vice-president has been known to wear a T-shirt featuring a couch named pants.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

The inverse-square law of gravity is not a mystery of nature, but rather a necessary property of the symmetry of space. (The symmetry of space, of course, remains a mystery of nature.)

In terms that this scientist-not-physicist/astronomer can understand, tell me why the inverse-square law is a property of the symmetry of space, rather than the other way around? This doesn't make sense to me.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

How about a cheerful little short-short story?

It was the dawn of the age of reason in Italy when Lombard DiMedici, most hated man in all Florence, declared that he would hold a series of banquets over twelve days, at which a different quarter of that storied city would be feted and given small trinkets, so that all might speak well of him. The poor, he said, would be given wooden florins printed with his face upon one side and the first words of the Lord's Prayer upon the other, so they might give thanks to God who gave of his bounty to Lombard, so that he could dispense this to others. The small merchants would be given copper coins on the next day, the richer ones silver, then the minor nobles would receive gold, and so forth...

Alas for dear Lombard, on the very first feast-day, it was the sixth course between two heavy meat dishes heaped high with greased slivers of almonds, a clear soup filled with pearl-like kernels of rice in which he toppled over face-first into his turreen, much to everyone's shock. "Poison!" his sister shouted as the other feasters gave their own plates worried looks. "Summon the cooks! We will know which of them has put the poison into what dish." And so the chefs were brought in shackles and threatened with dire torment if they did not reveal their machinations.

"I cannot tell a lie," Pias said. "I sprinkled a small bit of death's head into the pate. But it was not enough to kill, I swear on the Virgin Mary! It was only enough so that it would build up over the course of twelve feast days, and so he would die before everyone's eyes on the last day..." The next chef however, turned white. "But I too had put a small amount of arsenic into the drumsticks coated with honey and rolled in sesame seeds..." And each chef revealed his own machinations in turn, until the sister had had enough of the veritable banquet of poisons that everyone had eaten -- by this point, several patrons turned green had stumbled to the door. "You shall all be executed," she declared. "And your heads placed upon pikes as examples to all that in Florence, we hold good cooking to be a sacred art, against which you have blasphemed!"

As the feast dissipated, she smiled to herself and used a napkin to wipe off the poisoned lipstick that she had donned before kissing her brother.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Your definition of "cheerful" is very interesting, Lynx.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'm trying to think of something that would be of some vague interest to you (ergo, nothing about the failed Soviet manned-moon-landing program) and that I haven't already told you (I can't remember if I told you that Bryan Adams went to my high school, and was informed [correctly, in artistic terms] by the guidance counselors that he'd never amount to anything).
How's this: we're holding a party/gathering on Puzzlebox this Friday night, starting at 1930 EST, and another one on Saturday, same time. If you're not busy, we'd love to see you there. :)

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

*smile* We've got houseguests Friday night, but I'll see what I can do about making Saturday's.

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Annie Oakley lived long enough to teach soldiers marksmanship during World War I.

A flush toilet exists that dates back to 2000 BC.

No only child has ever been elected President of the United States.

Sythyry has a strange attraction to Floooosh. Oh, wait. You knew that one, already.

[hakeber.livejournal.com]

A surprising number of delinquent taxpayers keep such poor records that they end up paying the same bill either three or four times over...resulting in several refunds. I sometimes wonder how these folk manage to even start up a business, much less stay in business. Or even dress themselves in the morning...

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

... records? You're supposed to keep records?

Short essay on Airedales

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Airedale Terriers were originally bred to pursue larger prey than the smaller terriers, but once they reached America, enterprising breeders bred them larger and larger to enable them to stand up against very large prey like bears and cougars. The so-called Oorang strain can reach sizes up to 32" at the shoulder and more, which makes them around the same height as Great Danes. The American Kennel Club breed standard for Airedales is, however, 23" at the shoulder (22" for females).

The reasoning behind docking the Airedale tail is to provide a sturdy "handle" for the hunter to grab when the rest of the dog is down a hole or in a crevice, fighting some animal. Undocked, the Airedale tail curls over the back most attractively. This "look" can be seen on many European dogs, as docking has been outlawed in many European countries.

As puppies, Airedales look very much like Rottweilers, with the black mask and a good amount of black running down the legs. As they get older the black fades back off the head, shoulders, and thighs, and the beard grows in.

Airedales are family dogs, but they're also extremely intelligent, very energetic, and easily bored, which can make them hard to handle for someone who's expecting a placid Golden Retriever mentality.

Re: Short essay on Airedales

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

You are indeed right. This is a topic I knew nothing about. Now I know this.

[neillparatzo.livejournal.com]

I used to play golf.

So did my dad. He even spent hundreds of dollars on professional lessons. But he doesn't play anymore. I suspect he only decided to try it in the first place because he loves being outdoors so much. Nowadays he fishes, instead.

As for me, well, it was kind of a passing fad for me, too.

[gen.livejournal.com]

The alter rail in churches originally existed to keep livestock out, as people attending church often had to bring their animals with them.

The cut of the clothing that people wear in church is ranked by the ability to keep you warm. As old churches often got cold in the winter, the higher ranked you were the warmer your clothing was.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

And here I am, practicing in a tradition that keeps the High Priestess skyclad. :P

Useless, but tasty

[bookwurm.livejournal.com]

One of the restaurants in the food court of the Emeryville Public Market (I think it's Pamir Afghan Cuisine) serves fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice. It tastes a bit like cranberry juice, but not as bitter/tart.

Re: Useless, but tasty

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I love pomegranates. They make you take time with them and stain your fingers. I like putting the seeds in rice pudding. Pomegranate juice is also very good, but not nearly as sensual.

[tygermoonfoxx.livejournal.com]

Um....I have two foxes living on my property who are merrily digging up all the cable they can find and then eating my strawberries as compensation for their work.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

You're not talking about Simtra, right? :)

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

One of my secret family recipes: You can substitute ketchup for spaghetti sauce, and hotdogs for ground beef, when making spaghetti.

But it tastes AWFUL.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

There's a special family recipe for spaghetti that's made with tomato sauce, and ketchup, and way too much butter, and garlic salt, and powdered American cheese (which is really hard to get these days except by starting with packaged low end mac-and-cheese). It makes you sick if you eat too much of it, which I usually do. My father used to make it for me when I was young. It's awful, by any objective culinary terms but sometimes, I still want it. You've reminded me.

[atroposnomore.livejournal.com]

Many of the stories in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales also appear in Boccaccio's The Decameron.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

This was before the days of copyright law.

[read-alicia.livejournal.com]

Benjamin Franklin was macking on so many women in France that the King had Franklin's image placed on the bottom of his chamberpot.

I'm the Terrible Trivium!

[krdbuni.livejournal.com]

• The Australian seal features the ostrich and kangaroo because they are the two animals native to Australia which cannot move backwards.


• SPIRO AGNEW is an anagram of GROW A PENIS, which makes for a great anti-Republican slogan, if a bit obscure.


• In Qaballah (or however you wish to spell that word), the Jewish words for SERPENT and MESSIAH have the same values. Most Jewish Qaballists conveniently overlook this fact when discussing the power of the Tetragrammaton.


• Waffle House makes its menu available online as a PDF download, which makes the late-night hashbrown craving that much worse.


• DOS uses backslashes for directories as opposed to forward slashes like UNIX because one of the core DOS developers used forward slashes to denote command-line options for his programs, and his code was made standard before it was peer reviewed.


• Cats with multiple paws per leg or multiple toes per paw were once considered a good omen aboard sailing vessels, as they were regarded as more efficient predators against rats.


• The removal of a woman's uterus and ovaries is called a hysterectomy because because the surgery was first trialed as a means of correcting "female hysteria". Those body parts thought to be responsible for causing irrationality in women (the ones men didn't have, obviously) were removed as a means of fixing what were considered personality disorders.


• A doctor in Philadelphia invented the outpatient lobotomy, involving an icepick driven quickly in through the corner of the eye into the brain. Four quick flicks of the handle while the pick was embedded in the grey matter destroyed a sufficient percentage of frontal lobe connectivity as to have the same effect as removing the lobe entirely. One patient is reported as having asked if the treatment would interfere with her hairstyle.


• There is no governor anywhere. You are all absolutely free.

Kristy

Re: I'm the Terrible Trivium!

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

In Qaballah (or however you wish to spell that word), the Jewish words for SERPENT and MESSIAH have the same values. Most Jewish Qaballists conveniently overlook this fact when discussing the power of the Tetragrammaton.

But the hippie reconstructionist neo-Pagan Kabbalists don't! Go Kundalini!