Dirty books.

You guys were talking in comments yesterday about finding caches of old porn under the rafters of one another’s houses, which is the standard hiding place, or was. (As my old neighbor the cleaning lady could tell you some folks just leave it lying around and expect the help to put it away.) It reminded me of a story I’m sure I’ve told before, but these things will happen as we all get old, right? Anyway: Some friends of mine rehabbed an old farmhouse west of Columbus, probably dating from the mid’19th century. As part of the kitchen restoration, they pulled off the mantelpiece for the fireplace. And found two items:

1) An addressed, stamped, but apparently never delivered invitation to a high-school graduation. You could almost see that it must have been part of a stack of them, and slipped off the top and down between the mantelpiece and the wall. How many hurt feelings did that lead to, you wonder?

2) A pamphlet, absolutely authentic and almost perfectly preserved, for a patent medicine that pledged to cure young men of the urge toward self-abuse. It went on for several pages about the dangers of this practice, how it could lead to a loss of vigor and general malaise, irritability, etc. I wondered how the homeowners came to pick it up at their local pharmacy — a bad-tempered teenage son, perhaps, paired with some spotted sheets? An embarrassing moment walking in on the boy at work in the bathroom? Who can say. The despairing mother confides in a druggist; he proffers some literature. I wonder if she ever bought any of the stuff. I wonder what it might have contained.

History tells us most likely it was alcohol. Which, when you think about alcohol’s relationship with human sexuality, is sort of funny. He probably switched to the livestock.

I started to write yesterday about the news that broke Friday, that the city-owned collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts could be at risk of liquidation should the city declare municipal bankruptcy (which most believe is a foregone conclusion). Opinion about the emergency manager’s statement on this is all over the map — it’s a trial balloon, it’s a negotiating technique, it’s a bargaining chip, it’s madness, it’s about time. At this point it’s safe to say that if you’re planning a trip to visit the Rivera murals, you don’t need to rush, but you never know. This will be in court for eleventy jillion years if it gets that far, but at this point, all I know to do is sigh heavily.

As you can imagine, the usual racists have stood up and thundered that those ghetto hood rats don’t deserve a great art museum, so why not sell every last watercolor. Some have said, “Oh, cheer up — it’ll just go to another bunch of museums,” which strikes me as one of the dumber things said in the last 72 hours, and that’s saying something. If the unthinkable happens, and some or all of it is sold to satisfy pensioners and bondholders, it’s pretty obvious it would go into the drawing rooms of Ron Lauder and Barry Diller, et al. I think about “Detroit Industry,” the Rivera murals, painted by a Trotskyite, commissioned by an aristocrat, celebrating the working class. It’s about the most recognizable single piece in the building, and the single best artistic distillation of what Detroit is, what it was, that probably exists today. (OK, a ridiculous statement, but I’m no critic.) I wonder what would happen to that.

Elsewhere here in the land where anything can happen, a disgraced former Supreme Court justice, a Democrat, was sentenced to 366 days in prison for bank fraud, i.e., shenanigans on a short sale. I have zero sympathy, but I don’t wish her ill. She’ll spend her year in a Martha Stewart federal prison for well-behaved lady criminals and be home in time for next year’s Memorial Day barbecue, and maybe even Christmas, with good behavior. She retains a generous state pension and the luxurious Florida home that led to all this crap.

I’ll tell ya — real estate never leads people down the paths of righteousness, does it?

I am on a dedicated campaign to get out from under my mortgage sooner rather than later — we went to a 15-year note two years ago, and I make extra principal payments — so I guess the fact the market is recovering should be good news for us, but somehow I don’t think so. Basically, real estate is the devil. I look forward to the communal apartments my old age surely has in store.

A short work week, and already we’re at Wednesday? How’d that happen? Happy Hump Day to you, too.

Posted at 12:30 am in Current events, Detroit life, Same ol' same ol' |
 

54 responses to “Dirty books.”

  1. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 1:24 am

    On the subject of communal apartments, I’d direct you gingerly to the works of the brilliant Russian Mikhail Bulgakov. What can go wrong can go brilliantly wrong.

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  2. ROGirl said on May 29, 2013 at 6:35 am

    The idea of selling off the art from the DIA to raise money to run Detroit is a bit like selling a kidney for money. You can live with one kidney, but you have commodified a body part for cash. Whether it’s a trial balloon, bargaining chip, or whatever, I don’t believe it will even come close to happening.

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  3. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 29, 2013 at 6:55 am

    American Indians would certainly agree with you about the whole real estate thing.

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  4. David C. said on May 29, 2013 at 7:05 am

    I see a lot of signs that things are getting better. It wasn’t long ago that we had four or five houses for sale on every block. Now, we have a house for sale every two or three blocks. That’s a pretty normal pace. I have no idea what prices are doing though.

    In the engineering department where I work, we’ve had 34 resignations in the past four months. Upper management has put together a happiness committee to try to figure out why. I took their survey last week and in the comments I suggested they go to the library and get a book on economics and look up supply and demand. I expect the happiness committee to find that what we really want, because of course they tell you in management school that money doesn’t motivate people, is more “celebrations”, polo shirts, and logo merch.

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  5. basset said on May 29, 2013 at 8:01 am

    Nance, those extra principal payments sure worked for us… here’s an example from a random real estate site I just looked up:

    Imagine that you have a $150,000 mortgage at 6 percent fixed. The loan has a 30-year term and the monthly cost for principal and interest is $899.32. Add in an extra $100 a month and the loan will be paid off in 23.17 years. The loan term will be reduced by 21.83 months. At $899.32 per month you’ll save $19,632.16.

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  6. alex said on May 29, 2013 at 8:21 am

    In other news, we can only hope that this isn’t just another one of La Bachmann’s lies.

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  7. Julie Robinson said on May 29, 2013 at 8:36 am

    Our last refi was for 10 years and next February we’ll be debt free. Of course now we’re thinking about moving and the cars are getting old, but it’ll be wonderful even if it only lasts a month or two.

    Michelle Bachmann will be taking her crazy to Fox and the radio, no doubt. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Michelle.

    A small town in the area is having a festival, sponsored by its parks and rec department. Theme for this year: Faith and Family. Um, even this churchgoer wonders how that doesn’t violate the separation of church and state.

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  8. alex said on May 29, 2013 at 9:21 am

    Speaking of nineteenth-century self-abuse prevention efforts, my work on this very subject is cited in a bibliography. The article was titled “Burning Desires: Curing Sexual Maladies the American Way, Circa 1900.”

    In the Victorian era, there was a huge proliferation of quack medicine meant to quell sexual desire. It was widely believed at the time that masturbation was not only sinful but extremely bad for one’s health. A lot of these cures involved shoving radium into the urethra of the penis. To prevent your son’s nocturnal erections, there were chastity belts of sorts that had sharp metal spikes that would clamp down on the offending member if it dared to swell up. There were also devices to stick your dick in, usually for the purpose of exposing it to radiation, to keep it in line. I suppose these draconian measures were intended for those who failed therapy with the myriad potions that were being marketed for the same purpose.

    Hmmm. With the FDA defanged, perhaps Michele Bachmann and her husband are planning to resurrect some of this technology and that’s why she’s stepping down. Ya think?

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  9. coozledad said on May 29, 2013 at 10:00 am

    Marcus gets to do the sutures:
    Kellogg worked on the rehabilitation of masturbators, often employing extreme measures, even mutilation, on both sexes. He was an advocate of circumcising young boys to curb masturbation and applying phenol (carbolic acid) to a young woman’s clitoris. In his Plain Facts for Old and Young,[7] he wrote:
    “ A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision, especially when there is any degree of phimosis. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment, as it may well be in some cases. The soreness which continues for several weeks interrupts the practice, and if it had not previously become too firmly fixed, it may be forgotten and not resumed. ”
    further
    “ a method of treatment [to prevent masturbation] … and we have employed it with entire satisfaction. It consists in the application of one or more silver sutures in such a way as to prevent erection. The prepuce, or foreskin, is drawn forward over the glans, and the needle to which the wire is attached is passed through from one side to the other. After drawing the wire through, the ends are twisted together, and cut off close. It is now impossible for an erection to occur, and the slight irritation thus produced acts as a most powerful means of overcoming the disposition to resort to the practice ”
    and
    “ In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid (phenol) to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement.

    Bastard. If there’s one thing that’s in short supply, it’s abnormal excitement.

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  10. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 10:13 am

    Alex, that’s pretty wild. It would be interesting to know what percent of people actually bought into that stuff. I’m guessing these sorts of folks were always out-liers (so to speak)

    And let me just say, back in the 70’s, when that big-hair* color porno cache in the garage was current, I slept in the bottom bunk of a bunk-bed with my older brother; and THAT was a (pretty good) disincentive to self-abuse

    *from here in 2013, the hair styles (drapes and carpets) in that 40-odd year old porno is well more than half the show!

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  11. coozledad said on May 29, 2013 at 10:24 am

    Brian Stouder: It was surprisingly mainstream, furthered by the general Calvinist predilection among allopaths. A lot of death certificates from the mid to late nineteenth century list the cause as masturbation, when the more likely cause was the medically sanctioned administration of mercuryl chloride, or side effects of bloodletting.

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  12. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 10:38 am

    I mean, I’ve heard of ‘rugged individualism’ – but that’s ridiculous!

    Still – I can’t help but suppose that actually being willing to spend money on this (for the potions and/or procedures) had to be rare; although the threat might have been widely employed.

    Although I claim no special parental enlightenment, I do believe in the judicious use of “turning a blind eye” (if you don’t stop doing it, I’ll go blind!)

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  13. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 10:47 am

    For dirty books, there is Candy, by Terry Southren, and that is it.

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  14. Judybusy said on May 29, 2013 at 11:14 am

    I could not believe my ears when public radio announced Bachmann wasn’t running again. Amazingly, the sun came out after a miserable five-day run of rain and mid-50s temps. I wonder if the alleged ethics violations have any teeth, and if she saw some writing on the wall.

    Just before the marriage equality vote took place, there was a great satire piece stating Bachmann would leave the state if it passed. Many fell for it, including me! But, not running again is the next best thing.

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  15. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 11:18 am

    Many fell for it, including me!

    Judybusy – it looks like you were literally correct!

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  16. Deborah said on May 29, 2013 at 11:25 am

    Whenever staying at a favorite Aunt’s place where there were two big houses on the property, my sister and I stayed usually in the older one. My uncle had a large stash of Playboy magazines in the closet of our room, he was a keyed member of the club, whatever that means. The magazines were from the beginning and we loved to look at the earliest ones getting a kick out of the fashion and decor. They were so innocent compared to what they are like now.

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  17. Bitter Scribe said on May 29, 2013 at 11:37 am

    Bachmann will slide into the Sarah Palin chair at Fox News, at least until Roger Ailes gets tired of her batshittery.

    (Salon has a good piece this morning about Fox, its decentralized structure–no, there aren’t really top-down diktats, but yes, everyone falls into line anyway–and especially, what it’s like to work with/for Bill O’Reilly. Spoiler: Mostly unpleasant.)

    This anti-masturbation stuff is unpleasantly reminiscent of the pray-away-the-gay “cures” that prevail to this day.

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  18. Charlotte said on May 29, 2013 at 11:37 am

    We’re not seeing the real estate bounce out here yet (anyone want to buy a lovely, 3-bedroom house in the Paradise Valley with an established vacation rental business?). The big ranches, yes, and the foreclosed fixer-uppers, but the middle of the market is still dead dead dead.
    And Nancy, I’m with you — paying down my mortgage ASAP. I think I’ve got about 2 years left — now that I’m out from under the student loan (and supporting my mother), I’m paying down paying down paying down. Out of debt means the work situation is so much less terrifying.
    Speaking of which — David @4 — Cisco did a lot of the same bullshit “happiness studies” a couple of years ago. They didn’t really like hearing that the major pain points were stack ranking, salary freezes and “converting” real employees to contractors. It was one of the things I hated about being on campus — all the stupid “celebrations.” Save the forced hilarity of bocce ball and let me have an extra day off already …

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  19. Jolene said on May 29, 2013 at 11:54 am

    Cooz, those anti-masturbation “treatments” sound just awful. Was this American Puritanism, or were there similar movements in other countries?

    Another TV recommendation: Tomorrow, the Scripps spelling bee is on. Semi-finals on ESPN 2 in the afternoon, finals on ESPN in the evening. Apparently, ESPN has an app that let’s you play along. I may give it a try, spelling being one of my few natural talents.

    http://www.spellingbee.com/

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  20. Scout said on May 29, 2013 at 12:22 pm

    Because she is smart, funny, well adjusted and a pretty good writer, and because she is a welcome contrast to the Lindsays/Mylies/Amandas/Brittanys who all too often make the news, and not in a good way, I’m sharing this: http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-child-stars-go-crazy-an-insiders-perspective/

    Her own blog is fun too: http://marawilsonwritesstuff.com/

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  21. coozledad said on May 29, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    Calvinism and race science were behind a lot of medical practice and research both here and abroad. The Tuskegee Syphilis experiments, for example, were based on the premise that blacks, as “somatic creatures”, were more likely to develop the disease.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment

    This atrocity is unique in that it played to the inherently racist assumptions of the white Mississippi medical establishment, as well as to their Victorian attitudes about sexual behavior. The moral theory of illness continues to exercise influence among a few mediocrities in the sciences and medicine, as well as among most Republicans.

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  22. coozledad said on May 29, 2013 at 12:39 pm

    Sorry, Jolene: I can’t separate Mississippi and Alabama in my mind. They’re one big hot mess. The subjects were from Macon County Alabama.

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  23. Connie said on May 29, 2013 at 12:42 pm

    Nancy, are you at Mackinac for the Policy Conference this year?

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    • nancy said on May 29, 2013 at 12:58 pm

      Not this year, no. It’s Ron’s turn, and he should be there even if it weren’t. The Center is touting its early-childhood education victory, and Ron did all the reporting on that one. So he gets to OD on shrimp and vodka for three days.

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  24. Dorothy said on May 29, 2013 at 12:50 pm

    Thanks for those links, Scout. I never really thought about what “happened” to Mara, but it’s nice to know she’s intelligent and happy with her life and didn’t need to continue to be an actress if she didn’t want to be one. She was absolutely magical in “Matilda”. The woman who played Miss Trunchbull is now a nun in “Call the Midwife.” I’d have known her anywhere.

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  25. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 12:54 pm

    Brian@10: Oscar Wilde is said to have said: Either that wallpaper goes or I do.

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  26. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 29, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    Speaking of porn, Dan Brown has a new book out; if anyone’s read it, they can tell me if I’m close enough to be able to skip reading it —

    Professorially, in his tweed jacket with the elbow patches, the handsome symbologist turned to the attractive young student with the flowing brown hair filled with honeyed accents. “You see, what’s always been assumed about Dante’s work is that he was talking about a spiritual insight gained during his days of exile.” “I see,” said the youthful but plucky young woman. “So, there’s more to ‘The Inferno’ than that?” “Much, much more” said Langdon. “In fact, the clues hidden in his *terza rima* may hold the answers to the mystery of . . . life itself.”

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  27. Mark P said on May 29, 2013 at 1:49 pm

    David C, there is apparently a great deal of self-serving business practice believed by upper management. I work on a contract in which the prime required that all its subs reduce their hourly rates by 20 percent. What a great incentive! I previously worked for a company which bid 10 percent mandatory, uncompensated overtime on a major government contract. What a great incentive! Management couldn’t understand why so many people left over the next year, or why so many who stayed were so unhappy. The company president’s response to complaints was that they were lucky to have a job.

    Don’t you just love capitalism as practiced in the US? Me neither!

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  28. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 1:59 pm

    Pros – well played!

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  29. Bob (not Greene) said on May 29, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    Prospero, you may be interested to know that at the Rolling Stones concert last night in Chicago, Mick Taylor played two songs with the band. Anybody know if he’s made cameos like that before since he left the band in the ’70s? Mick played on the Stones’ best records.

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  30. paddyo' said on May 29, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    Speaking of art: When you mention “DIA” here, everybody assumes you mean the airport . . . Denver International Airport. And it’s a pretty fair gallery of sorts on its own, thanks to a law that required setting aside a percentage of spending on public buildings for artworks to decorate them. Million$ went into the DIA collection. Its eclectic collection of recent/modern stuff can’t hold a match, let alone a candle, to the Detroit DIA, there are interesting items nonetheless. My favorite is Notre Denver, bronze gargoyles crouched in Samsonite-style hardcases, guarding the baggage carousels against the lost-luggage gods.

    And then there’s Mustang, or as everybody calls it, “the big blue horse,” out along the entrance road to the terminal. People assume the 32-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture is supposed to be the Denver “Bronco,” but there’s no official connection. It does have creepy light-up eyes that glow Broncos Orange in the night. Creepier, though, is what preceded its arrival and installation. It was delayed for years by troubles at the New Mexico sculptor’s studio and then the final straw: Within months of expected delivery in 2006, it tipped over while being moved and fell on the artist, Luis Jimenez, killing him.

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  31. coozledad said on May 29, 2013 at 3:14 pm

    Not the first artist to die from blue balls.

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  32. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    Bitter Scribe – that was an excellent Fox News link. I printed it and read it at lunch. And Nancy – I think anything that Bridge or anyone else does that fosters/supports/encourages/advances the cause of early childhood education is, indeed, righteous altogether! It just makes sense. (and as a counter-example, I just read in Ms Ravitch’s education blog about a charter/voucher school that – I shit you not – culls out kindergarteners that they think will be too much work to educate. Call it ‘Early Childhood Capitulation’….and (while we’re at it) mark me down as ‘mad as hell, and not gonna take it anymore’ whenever the question is: should public money flow into for-profit faux-schools. Public Education – if it means anything at all, must mean: accessible to the entire public! These for-profit, pigs-at-the-public trough flim-flam schools are being allowed to practice social Darwinism, even as their students may never learn anything about Darwin

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  33. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    Bob (Not Greene): Mick Taylor is clearly the best guit player ever in the Rolling Stones. And Woody is second best. Keef is just not that good, but he keeps on chooglin’ along. And it is a better world for knowing Mick TAylor is alive and well enough to play. Saw them at the Joe on this tour:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB5ez6_MjVI

    Mick played on the Stones’ best records. That’s astute. But I’ll always think Some Girls is mighty good.

    And Jeff@26: You left out bursting bosom buttons.

    Can’t You Hear Me Knockin?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kvl-l5UGqk

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  34. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    cooze@22: Used to be able to separate them by cash spent on football recruits, but MS has overtaken in that race.

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  35. Bob (not Greene) said on May 29, 2013 at 4:11 pm

    Yes, “Some Girls” is an often overlooked record and a very good one. The best post-Mick Taylor record for sure. I saw the harmonica player, Sugar Blue, several times on his own at bars in both Chicago and at the Stabilizer in West Lafayette (a moment of silence, please, for the best music place ever in that god-forsaken town). He was (maybe still is, haven’t seen him or years) a very solid harp player with a very personal style.

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  36. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    The world is a better place as long as Charley Watts keeps baangin’. That is something I know for sure.

    Thinking about the Stones led me to this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB8CMN-jX_g

    Which led naturally to

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpAop7gp0w

    And don’t miss that last one if you like rock ‘n’ roll music.

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  37. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 4:19 pm

    Bob@35: I seem to recall Time holding up the lyrics of Some Girls as evidence of the Stones’ immersion in the ultimate pit of depravity. I still love the Stones and keep their albums in constant play. But you are correct. from Beggar’s Banquet through Exiles, nobody ever sustained that sort of brilliance, unless it was Procul on Shine on Brightly and Salty Dog.

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  38. MichaelG said on May 29, 2013 at 4:27 pm

    There are a lot of sculptures at the Sacramento airport (SMF) as well. This link has a couple of them. Scroll down for the baggage ones. You may have seen them before as they seem to make the rounds in email photo collections.

    http://stuckattheairport.com/2011/09/20/giant-rabbit-joins-baggage-towers-at-sacramento-airport/

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  39. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    Well, for me – sustained excellence on a single album brings to mind four albums (in no particular order):

    Michael Jackson’s Thriller (just good stuff)

    Pearl Jam’s Ten (like a fireworks grand finale from front to back)

    The Police – Ghost in the Machine

    Florence and the Machine – Lungs (superb, front to back)

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  40. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 4:43 pm

    Signs of encroaching Communism. Perfect story to kick off summer. And whoever picked that blue for the bikes picked a winner.

    This moo got all the way through college on his daddy’s social security. Now he wants to prevent me from getting my own SSI investment back. How the hell is that “conservative”? And while you’re at it, how is dooming people to lingering deaths by cutting off Medicaid to spite Obama’s nose “conservative”? Is it stupid or is it evil?

    brian, I’d say Shine on Brightly by Procul Harum and, unquestionably, Astral Weeks. New York, by Lou Reed. Oh, and Edgar Winter’s Entrance.

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  41. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 29, 2013 at 4:57 pm

    Veedon Fleece (by Van Morrison).

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  42. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 5:07 pm

    Oh, and brian, any Kinks album, particularly Muswell Hillbillies and Arthur.

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  43. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 5:09 pm

    Most perfect album ever made:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2qr5EP74zk

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  44. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 5:09 pm

    And, in all honesty – we have a very old album of the original James Bond music – which is surprisingly good stuff

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  45. Prospero said on May 29, 2013 at 5:19 pm

    Sex rducation, down south where babies are popping out babies:

    http://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/kids-today-sex-ed-edition/

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  46. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 8:16 pm

    In the truest sense, and not in vain – this story made me exclaim the name Jesus Christ:

    http://www.theage.com.au/world/mother-of-chinas-sewer-pipe-baby-found-20130529-2nbps.html

    A 22-year-old Chinese woman who raised the alarm about a newborn trapped in a sewerage pipe kept quiet about being his mother, even as she watched the sensational two-hour rescue unfold. The woman confessed to police a couple of days later when they asked her to undergo a medical check after searching her rented room, the state-run Zhejiang News website reported on Wednesday. Firefighters were called on Saturday to the residential building in the Pujiang area of the eastern Zhejiang province city of Jinhua to rescue a baby trapped in the L-joint of a sewerage pipe just below a squat toilet in one of the building’s public restrooms.

    This baby’s entrance is surely even more humble than His was (even as the poor mother isn’t quite a Mary)

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  47. Deborah said on May 29, 2013 at 8:25 pm

    Wow our neighbors here in Santa Fe just had a rip-roaring domestic dispute, really creepy, the yelling and the screaming. We were about an inch away from calling the authorities but then the guy left in a huff. He threatened to move out tomorrow which we are certainly hoping he follows through on. We are so involved in making this a better place in which to spend time outside I was discouraged to realize it would mean we would be privy to thos kind of crap. I remember reading about the suburban development Celebration City in Florida where the proximity of the gigantic houses allowed the neighbors to overhear horrible domestic disputes. Sad.

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  48. Deborah said on May 29, 2013 at 8:33 pm

    Those

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  49. Deborah said on May 29, 2013 at 8:33 pm

    No make that “this”

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  50. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 8:56 pm

    No fun.

    Way back in the day, when Pam and I lived in an apartment, every Friday night our next door neighbor (through the wall) would have fairly loud romantic bliss, again and again, through the course of the night.

    We called her “the giggler”

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  51. brian stouder said on May 29, 2013 at 10:21 pm

    Say, here’s a non-sequitur for y’all. Pam tripped across this and was ALMOST* completely turned off; eco-friendly washable reusable feminine hygiene products:

    http://www.greenbabygoods.net/Lunapads-Pads-Pantyliners-Intro-Kit_p_308.html

    Liners will last approximately as long (per use) as a comparably-sized disposable pad or tampon. Unlike most disposable pads, Lunapads do not contain any added chemicals, gels, or super absorbent polymers. Given this, Lunapads users need to be mindful of changing the Liner insert as frequently as their flow dictates in order to prevent soaking through the Pad. Frequent changing of the Liners significantly enhances the comfort and performance of the Pad.

    Lunapads will last upwards of 5 years with recommended usage and care

    *I say “almost” because she said they’re pretty….just not THAT pretty!

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  52. Deborah said on May 29, 2013 at 11:12 pm

    So the latest in the domestic dispute incident: the guy came back again, we turned out all our lights in our place because we didn’t want to be visible in case of gun fire or what have you. As I was moving through the apartment in the dark I tripped over a piece of furniture and cracked my head on the tile floor. I think I’m OK but I’ve never hit my head like that before, that I can remember. Littlebird is ready to call an ambulance and all I can think about is Hilary Clinton hitting her head when she fainted. Waiting to see how things will progress. Everything is probably fine, but it pisses me off that the creep next door made this happen.

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  53. Little Bird said on May 30, 2013 at 12:56 am

    Deborah seems to be fine, but will be waking her up every few hours to be sure. So it really won’t be changing her sleep habits at all.
    Like me she wakes up fairly often in the night.
    It’s just this time it will involve questions and a light to check her pupils.

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