I'm just glad somebody was thoughtful enough to write a song about a fish we usually think of simply as a food animal. <@((((>

sarah: Is there another sarah in the mix now? If both survive the lirpa, combat will continue with the ahn-woon!

Karen: "honey it's not what it looks like" depends on the lower status character being an idiot It does indeed. In the footnote of my previous post, I meant to add, "Teh misoginee we haz it." In the M/F couple situations in which this trope is usually used in the modern world, the woman often suddenly turns into a scatterbrained harpy even if it has already been established that she is very intelligent, rational, and strong. An example in a certain series of very bad books comes to mind.

I hate, hate, hate, absolutely hate that "Honey, it's not what it looks like" trope (or as we so fondly call it, "The flowers are in the trash"). I especially hate the fact that it almost always plays out so that the girl* adamantly refuses to listen to one word of (the usually very simple) explanation as to what's really going on. The only time I ever enjoyed this trope was when "Fawlty Towers" did it (in that episode with the pretty Australian tourist). *It's almost always the girl who is the one who misunderstands the situation.

anamardoll: We have a recipe around here that is called Cheeseburger Stew. Weer in yur neyburrhood, invytin owrselfsez ovah 4 ur Cheezburgurr Stoo. - Yur Frendlee Naybahood Lolcat Committeh

*waves to Kit & Nick* Another Toad in the Hole fan here!

@Izzy: I remember "Heavenly Goo" back when they were "Satan's Snot". I've listened to their latest CD and...well...this whole Christian-Rock-while-still-trying-to-look-like-bad-boys thing just doesn't seem to be working for them.

A very happy birthday to my dear friend Scylla (a.k.a. Thalia)! *HUGS*

Happy birthday, Chris!

@Slacktivite: Sending good wishes and sympathy.

Izzy: Don't have cable myself Sorry, what? Don't...have...cable? You speak strangely, o woman of Starship Enterprise from one of the lights in the sky!

British icon meets American icon. Enjoy! *salutes*

Cat. I am, in fact, an anthropomorphic but psychologically feline cyborg who has been advancing Teh Kitteh Agenda for centuries. What's that? I've just revealed my secret? Indeed I have, but by the time you react to it, it will be TOO LATE, PUNY HUMANS! MwahaHAHAHAHA! Ceiling Cat bless the glorious Feline Empire*! *Also nown as Teh Glorrius Kitteh Empyurr and All Yur Cheezburgerz and Catnipsez and Uther Noms Iz Bilongz To Us, k? kthxbai

Kit, Aww, hope you get well soon.

Kit: I am knitting a hat. It has a bark pattern and will be decorated with ivy leaves. For some reason, this sounds like coded spyspeak to me. Spy #1: I am knitting a hat. It has a bark pattern and will be decorated with ivy leaves. Spy #2: Will you be wearing it on a fully-loaded jumbo jet? Spy #1: Yes, but the flowers are in the trash.

@Froborr: My sympathies and good thoughts to your fiancee. I'm glad she's not in danger.

Kit: So are these words basically equivalent to 'hello', or is there more to it than that? Well, on the one hand, they are commonly used the way "hello" is used. On the other hand, they can be used to indicate deferential respect for one's superiors, which was the way I meant the "namaskar" greeting I addressed to you and to Lit :-) As to meaning, I should say, based on the way Mom and Aji (Grandma) once explained it to me, that the explanation Lit heard - "the divine in me salutes the divine in you" - is quite succinct. I have always had the impression, though, that people are often not really conscious of the religious connotations of these words except when using them in a religious setting. @Izzy: Close enough :) I could probably hie my lazy backside to Ecosia and look it up, but maybe a little multi-cultural education and celebration of international understanding might leaven the lumps a bit... Kit, I am honored that you asked me about it before looking it up. I agree with you that such dialog fosters "multi-cultural education and celebration of international understanding". This is also my preferred approach (whenever possible) to learning about other cultures. storiteller: Also, Raj, do you think it's appropriating in a bad way for Westerners to use that phrase? Actually, I see it as a positive influence of my ancestral culture on other cultures, like the common Western use of "karma". TRiG: As for *the divine in me salutes the divine in you*. Well, the (extremely) amateur linguist in me doubts it, to be honest. Seems a lot of meaning to pack into a small word "May you be benignly accompanied by the Creator of The Cosmos" might seem rather a lot to pack into "goodbye", but there we are. The potential for "namaskar"/"namasté" to have an othering effect on atheists is an issue about which I, being a believer in divinity, am not really qualified to speak. I will point out FWIW that according to my cultural experience, this expression, like "OMG", is often used with little awareness of religious connotations. Beyond that, I don't want to say much more because I don't want to come across as telling atheists what they should and shouldn't be comfortable with. Hope this helps.

Come to think of it: *places hands together and bows in the general direction of the British Isles* Namaskar, Kitacharya! You, too, have been a teacher of mine for a few years, whether you've realised it or not. :)

@Kit: Yes. ... ... ... Okay, just being bad for a minute - sorry, Kit (and Lit). Yes, you're right; "namaskar" does indeed mean the same thing as "namasté". "Namasté", the Sanskritic salutation best known in the West, is the Hindi form of that salutation, whereas "namaskar" is that same salutation in my mother tongue, Marathi, which is very similar to Hindi.

Thank you, TBAT (for the rescue and many other things). :)

TBAT, I've just made two attempts to post a comment. Did I get spam-trapped?

hapax: there is a real danger of letting the camel's nose slide down the slippery slope off the thin edge of the wedge which excludes the middle And then the terrorists will have won. Or something. *presents hapax with bill for one (1) keyboard and one (1) monitor*

@MercuryBlue: Actually, what I had in mind when referring to "X" in my 11:21PM comment was not religion in general, but any practice, religious or otherwise, that enhances the lives of its practitioners and is practiced in a nonbelligerent way. In terms of religion, Christianity as practiced by Fred Clark or hapax would be included in my "X", but Christianity as practiced by Mitt Romney or Tim LaHaye would not. Sorry about not being clear about that; I did not mean to imply that religious activity is always benign.

Froborr: I was just saying that Times It's Not Okay to Call Something Silly has nothing to do with what the thing in question is, and everything to do with how the people present feel about that thing l.the.drifter: If you give a group of people the right or the power to place their beliefs beyond criticism or even ridicule, you are treading down a very dangerous path. ONOEZ, Teh Dark Ayjuz we haz them!!!!1111eleventy-eleven onety-one111!!! Okay, look: Saying that there are situations in which it is not appropriate to ridicule X (where X = Thing That is of Value to Some People and Doesn't Hurt Those Who Don't Want It) is not the same as saying that X is beyond question or criticism. Now that is - as somebody said earlier - "a point so obvious that I can't believe it is necessary to make it."

(Raj, do you keep a list somewhere of Slacktivites' birthdays? I'm starting to wonder if I'll wake up one November morning to find my birthday party has started without me. Well, Brin, so much for that surprise party I was planning to throw for you! Actually, to answer your question, I do keep a list of friends' birthdays, and yes, Kit and many other Slacktibuddies are on it :) (If anyone reading this would like to be included in my B-day list, feel free to drop me a line at rajtrekker AT gmail DOT com, or Facebook me or whatever. Oh, and mine is November 3 - shameless plug I haz it.)