Posts by Danielle

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  • Hard News: Meanwhile in Iraq ...,

    Probably with the same general deafening silence that is shown by most US publications in letting Americans know about their invasion and genocidal subjugation of the Phillipines between 1899-1902.

    I would like to note that American historians are, in general, rather a well-informed bunch, and spend quite a lot of time analysing precisely these sorts of vexed questions. When I was in a history PhD programme (in Texas, no less!), there was no pulling of punches when it came to noting US genocidal subjugations of all stripes.

    The real problem, of course, is that no one in the USA takes a blind bit of notice of professional historians. :)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Meanwhile in Iraq ...,

    you get 'squirrel's watersking' type lame jokes

    Look, if you seriously think the jury is still out on the disastrous nature of this conflict, I'm hardly going to bother with anything *other* than a lame joke at the expense of Pollyanna newsmakers, am I?

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Meanwhile in Iraq ...,

    If you are looking for positive news, it's also there.

    Has an Iraqi squirrel learned to waterski?

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: High Times,

    Ha! Once, a friend of mine took some coke and finally had the motivation/energy to erect some flatpack shelves that had been sitting around for months.

    I am willing to bet that approximately half of the IKEA furniture bought at the Houston superstore in any one year is assembled under precisely those conditions, Robyn!

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: High Times,

    A Tootsie Roll is this sort of chocolate chew candy thing. Unreasonably popular in the USA (like cinnamon-flavoured lollies, which are so incredibly foul. What kind of civilisation invents 'red hots' and then rejects liquorice, for crying out loud?)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: High Times,

    Shelving. Its a common practise amongst some people I know.

    Heh. I love people and their wackiness. It doesn't matter how decadent you think you are for experimenting with something once - there's bound to be someone for whom that experience is totally normal! 'Of course I've had it in the ear before...'

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: High Times,

    Did they come up faster?

    They did. But not significantly so.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: High Times,

    That part's hilarious. As I understand it, "rolling" is American rave kid slang for the the squidgy, rushy, nice parts of an E experience.

    Not just rave kids, either. 'X-ing' is so common by now that staid southerners in their 40s with pickup trucks and regular jobs also refer to 'rolling'. And 'wigging', too.

    (Although the tampon thing is terribly bogus, I do know someone who inserted an E anally just to see if you came up faster.)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Stories: Memorable Meals,

    I was going to talk about my extreme cuisine-related luck in being born half-Cajun, but since the conversation has taken a health-related turn, and since Cajun food is basically Obesity on a Stick, perhaps I won't go into it in such detail...

    I would like to note a few memorable things, though. My Aunt Wanda in Simmesport, La., makes a chicken and andouille sausage gumbo (with whole boiled eggs in it!) that is of such profound joy that we speak of it in reverent tones. I can make a decent gumbo myself, but there's something about hers... I can't explain it. My grandmother Ruby, who died in the late 80s, made dirty rice (rice with chicken livers) and grillades (intestines in gravy - trust me, it's awesome) that I can still remember from twenty years ago. In the middle of nowhere in Louisiana, at a gas station in Cajun country, you can get boudin (blood sausage) at the front counter out of a crock pot when you pay for your gas and buy your Diet Coke. And it's usually fantastic. And the pounds and pounds and pounds of boiled shrimp and crawfish I've eaten in my life... or the Christmas shrimp and oyster stuffing made by my other aunt in New Iberia... it's nuts. Food-related joy in Louisiana is practically endless. Sigh.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Real Media,

    More likely they would just embarrass themselves with how uncool and backward they are

    Some of them probably have other priorities. My husband, for example, teaches media studies at a decile one school with hardly any computers, about four video cameras (one of which was stolen and had to be recovered from the sanitary pad bins in the girls' toilets last week!), and data projectors which are nearly constantly being stolen off the ceilings of the classrooms. When it's a question of starting an entire programme from scratch with minimal resources and constant fear of theft, your 'backwardness' and 'uncoolness' as a teacher are the least of your worries. Some of these kids don't even have home phones and barely any of them have the internet at home - why would they be scornful of a teacher who isn't on technology's cutting edge? That's a middle-class worry, isn't it? I think in those situations you just have to start somewhere and work at the idea of media analysis, not panic unduly about your lack of expertise. It's hard enough to teach in low-decile schools as it is without getting freaked out about technological backwardness.

    (The question about the chronic lack of resources for low decile schools is a whole other can of worms, of course.)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

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