Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 143
MeFi post:
Spoiler Alert.
Oh man, I KNEW trees were scary! Things that are scary about them: hundreds of hard brown arms; knotholes; sometimes they are mossy; leaves in the summer and none in the winter; some of them are hollow and some of them are not; is that a nest or is it a human head; photosynthesis demons inside them; squirrel pantries inside them; horrible hidden chairs inside them. Plus the wind is fucking them regular right before our eyes. I'm going to run to my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 8:59 PM on June 17, 2008
MeFi post:
Raaaatt Swaaarrmm
You know, I was browsing the sci-fi section of a bookstore recently, and I made the mistake of wondering aloud whether D&D might be a fun game to play. A dude appeared out of thin air, tapped me solemnly on the shoulder, and proceeded to talk to me about D&D for nearly an hour. Will this be similar? Also, do you think that guy was maybe a ghost?
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 5:03 PM on May 30, 2008
You ran away from yours? Coward! I followed mine out to his car and got to look at all the sweet rulebooks that he kept in his trunk.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:11 PM on May 30, 2008
MeFi post:
Robert Bruce: American Poet
jack_mo's post reminds me that no one's ever done an FPP on Bill Knott, a poet who has posted his entire body of work to his blog. He writes, "ALL MY POETRY, EVERY POEM I'VE WRITTEN SINCE 1960, IS POSTED HERE FOR OPEN ACCESS, PERUSAL AND PROPAGATION: YOU HAVE MY THANKS TO PLEASE COPY/DISTRIBUTE WHATEVER YOU LIKE." I would particularly recommend his Collected Short Poems, Volumes One and Two, and Readers' Favorites: The Best Poems of Bill Knott. He's an interesting person--almost a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 5:33 PM on May 24, 2008
MeFi post:
Books: increasing authorship and decreasing readership
The few poets who are interesting you never hear about: Edward Dorn's Gunslinger should be considered a modern classic, but I learned about it only by chance.
Doesn't this imply that interesting poets may not be so few, but that you as a reader just aren't aware of them? Try some Jennifer Knox, some Sabrina Orah Mark, some Lucia Perillo, some Matthea Harvey, some Mary Jo Bang, some Katie Degentesh, some Zachary Schomburg, some Christian Bök, some... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 5:36 PM on April 26, 2008
Long-established poetry journals serve a purpose, but they're no longer the place to look for truly new language, in my opinion. Happily, online magazines like Jacket, Octopus, Fascicle, Diagram, Blackbird, No Tell Motel, Exquisite Corpse, and Coconut are rising up to supplement if not supplant them. And they're free!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 8:32 PM on April 26, 2008
MeFi post:
I, for one, welcome our female driver overlords.
Brockles, your comments seem a little misplaced, perhaps even pointlessly mean-spirited, in a thread that aims to discuss a race that Danica actually won.
You write: Based on the results, there are possibly 10-20 better drivers that deserve Danica's seat more than she does. So you would prefer her not to race, in favor of any of a number of male drivers. You also suggest, however dubiously, that you would be happy to support a female driver who ranks... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:29 PM on April 21, 2008
My comments are meant to cast an element of realism on some of the reaction, both here and in the press, that has been around this driver and this event.
I do object to so much lauding and fuss over a driver without perspective - she has done very well for herself, but is no superstar (as a driver) and I object to some of the extraneous noise around that fact - that she is the new breed of female super-driver. She isn't.
The... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 8:19 PM on April 21, 2008
P.S. I think you misread my "dubiously" comment--I wasn't casting aspersions on your own honesty, I was saying that you yourself seemed to be dubious about the eventual possibility of female racers who rank with men.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 8:26 PM on April 21, 2008
I'm employing the second meaning in your linked definition. Try substituting the word "doubtful" in my sentence; it might parse better for you. "Doubtfully" modifies "suggest."
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 8:59 PM on April 21, 2008
MeFi post:
The Christian with Four Aces
Hey, waldo is here! I had no idea. I got a heads-up about this article in my email, but I wanted to wait until the issue came out to read it, so I could play a game called TRUE READER: Nearsighted Paper-Sniffing Person from the Past.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 10:24 AM on April 2, 2008
MeFi post:
The Wakefield twins are back... and thinner?
I never read these books either, and I'm really regretting it now. My parents didn't want me reading "trash"--stuff yourselves, turkeys!--which meant that I got to read a lot of sweet award-winners about the Holocaust, sexual abuse, poverty, homelessness, foster parents, sexual Holocaust abuse, sexual homelessness, and sexual foster parent poverty. Thanks to a pious godfather, however, I did end up reading the Christian equivalents of these books--a series called Cedar River... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 1:02 PM on March 28, 2008
MeFi post:
Prolonging the Battle
Well, add this piece of anecdote to the pile: my brother planned to do this, in Ohio. I'm not sure if he followed through or not. However, as Dave Faris said a while back, he was under the impression that McCain would have a harder time beating Hillary, so he was going to cast his vote for Barack. Last I heard, he had been disabused of this notion and was contemplating a vote for Hillary instead.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 12:04 PM on March 17, 2008
MeFi post:
"Chicks with Shticks?" Really?*
I tend to avoid all threads that focus on particular female comedians, because they all follow a similarly insane trajectory: "That female comedian isn't funny, and she's not as cute as she thinks she is." Then things turn philosophical: "Female comedians make too many jokes about their vaginas. HOWEVER, I once saw a female comedian make a bunch of dick jokes, and it seemed really aggressive and like she was trying too hard to be like a man, so I didn't like that either."... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 11:13 AM on March 7, 2008
hellslinger, I understand that you feel backed up against a wall right now by people who you think are willfully misreading your post, but leaving aside the question of whether it's ever okay for a man to call a woman a cunt, your original comment didn't even mention any of your deeper objections to Wanda Sykes' material and persona. It sounded like you were calling her a cunt for telling jokes you didn't like, which is pretty startling by anyone's standards.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 1:12 PM on March 7, 2008
*frantically scrolls back to the last joke anybody told*
Well, it did study at Second City...
Ha ha! Ahem! As if! My vagina performs alone, and carries its own curtains wherever it goes.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 1:22 PM on March 7, 2008
That would have been a much, much better idea on my part.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 1:26 PM on March 7, 2008
Don't forget uproarious cartoons, onlyconnect. "Station Master say, Mum, as Cats is 'Dogs', and rabbits is 'Dogs', and so's Parrots; but this ere 'Tortis' is a insect, so there aint no charge for it." Ah, History! What a pantswetter.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 1:52 PM on March 7, 2008
No doubt his beard helped as well. No doubt it tickled the joke as it flew by, and delivered it already giggling into the minds of his listeners.
nathan v, I'm racking my brains over here, and I just can't think of many things I find funny that men don't as well. Then again, I don't enjoy much stand-up in general. I've always preferred sketch comedy to stand-up; I prefer to watch people interacting in funny ways as opposed to one single lunatic shouting in my face while... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 2:28 PM on March 7, 2008
MeFi post:
the gray train
From the first link: There was the famous case of the language poet from Red Hook who grew despondent when the Shift key on her MacBook broke. She couldn’t write for weeks. Overcome by melancholy humors, she jumped into the enchanted, glowing waters of the Gowanus Canal, her pockets full of stones. And ... she was cured!
From the last link: A New York City College of Technology biologist released a report Thursday finding the Gowanus Canal... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 12:16 PM on March 1, 2008
MeFi post:
Poem as Comic Strip
The points raised by pokermonk and kingfisher are valid, but at the same time, it's refreshing to see a project like this come from the Poetry Foundation, which is a fairly conservative institution. I'm holding out hope that they'll select a few funny or experimental poems for the series, ones that might offer wider possibilities for out-of-the-box interpretations.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 9:57 PM on February 18, 2008
I'll second roll truck roll's Harriet recommendation, as well. It has a diverse stable of writers--Christian Bök on one side of the spectrum, A.E. Stallings on the other--and posts are frequent and stimulating. Discussion has been particularly spirited in the past few weeks. And I think Harriet does have an RSS feed now.
On preview: thanks, Iridic! Somebody's got to bring the lewd.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 10:12 PM on February 18, 2008
I really don't understand the vehemence with which some people need to claim their place as being in opposition to the poetry world at large, when the poetry world at large is so small, even compared to other arts.
Maybe because the poetry world is so small, people feel they have to fight harder for a livably large piece of turf. It may also have something to do with the fact that poets as a people seem to be afflicted equally... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 3:57 PM on February 19, 2008
MeFi post:
Semi-newsworthy
crapmatic, the sign refers specifically to newspapers. The explicit version would be, "Please put your newspaper in a trash can; your newspaper in a trash can is good news for everyone."
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 6:40 PM on February 18, 2008
MeFi post:
Say it with small cheeseburgers.
Huh. Where I come from, White Castles are located in nice and nasty neighborhoods alike--then again, I come from a town where it is considered a magnificent tradition to eat dog food on noodles topped with a whole wig's worth of cheese, so White Castle is kind of an improvement, considering.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:40 PM on February 14, 2008
MeFi post:
Mr. Good Enough
I just don't understand this magazine or its aims. A year ago, I bought myself subscriptions to The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, believing I would enjoy their offerings about equally. The New Yorker has exceeded my expectations in nearly all aspects--BERET ADVERTISEMENTS ON EVERY PAGE--and I consistently want to set The Atlantic Monthly on fire. Everything about it bothers me: the thick shiny porny pages,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 1:05 PM on February 10, 2008
MeFi post:
Fear(less)
I like to think of myself as a person who doesn't cry that often, but that is a total self-mythologizing untruth, because the last time I watched Fiddler on the Roof I counted twenty-four separate uncontrollable crying instances. When Tevye sings to the cows! When the Christian stomps his boot and makes Tevye dance with him! When the rabbi is overcome with emotion and his old mouth yawns opens like a cartoon cave with a dreaming bear inside! When the soldiers smash the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:06 PM on February 9, 2008
MeFi post:
Homeopathy
Jeanette Winterson loves the nano. From her preface to Nightwood:
Certain texts work in homeopathic dilutions; that is, nano amounts effect significant change over long periods of time.
Nightwood is a nano-text.
Nightwood is itself. It is its own created world, exotic and strange, and reading it is like drinking wine with a pearl dissolving in the glass. You have taken in more than you know,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 5:38 PM on November 19, 2007
MeFi post:
Startling Facts About Limbless Beauties
misha, there seem to be dozens of versions, many of them recounted in that ten-year-long thread. Googling waved+her+wooden+leg also brings up a number of variations, as well as a few discussions about the phrase's much-disputed origins.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 9:49 AM on November 3, 2007
MeFi post:
Selling (out) our Women
Yeah, my husband and I like to play a game called What Do They Want You to Buy?, which consists of us flipping through the pages of our respective magazines and shouting out whatever the ads ostensibly want us to buy. It usually goes something like this:
Him: Car! Car! Truck! Watch! Car! Gadget! Sexy Tit-Flavored Alcohol! Futuristic Razor!
Me: Shoes! Jewels! Birth Control! A Tampon...Made out of Diamonds! Lipstick that Will... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 3:29 PM on October 20, 2007
MeFi post:
Death! / Plop. / The barges down in the river flop.
Oh, please allow me to advocate for James Whitcomb Riley and "The Happy Little Cripple."
I'm thist a little crippled boy, an' never goin' to grow
An' git a great big man at all!--'cause Aunty told me so.
When I was this a baby onc't I falled out of the bed
An' got "The Curv'ture of the Spine"--'at's what the Doctor said.
I never had no Mother nen--fer my Pa runned away
An' dassn't come back... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:55 PM on October 8, 2007
MeFi post:
Catholic Church goes green
Thanks, howfar. yerfatma, this is hardly a hobbyhorse for me--I grew up Catholic, and my entire family practices the faith. My father happens to be one of these guys; in fact, he's currently studying the Latin Mass so that he can start rocking our worlds pre-Vatican II style again. My "Catholic insider credentials" are not in question here.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 12:52 PM on September 22, 2007
Did you read my link, yerfatma? My father is not just a Catholic, my father is a Catholic priest. I grew up in regular contact with the parishioners of dozens of parishes throughout the Midwest. I attended five different Catholic schools and several Catholic youth groups. I was a cantor and a lector--never a server, however, because my father didn't approve of female servers. The movements of the Vatican were real news in my house; the publication of encyclicals and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:00 PM on September 22, 2007
Wrong. My father is a Roman Catholic priest. Read the link; it gives a good explanation of the loophole. There are about seventy or eighty of these guys currently working in the United States--with the full blessing and dispensation of the Vatican. They are not ex-priests, they are an exception. I've often thought of doing a post about it here, because the phenomenon is so little-known, but I've never gotten around to actually doing it.
On preview: yeah, it is pretty... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:30 PM on September 22, 2007
My apologies for hijacking this thread, you guys. yerfatma, it's strange--I've met a small number of people whose mothers were ex-nuns, and a smaller number whose fathers were ex-priests, and most of these people growing up had a far, far more liberal experience of Catholicism than I did, just by virtue of the fact that their parents were ex-. So it's inevitable that we would approach these issues from different angles, according to our own experiences.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby
at 7:42 PM on September 22, 2007
