comment from my one dutch friend.

"You know," he was like, "Everyone says it's true, but my child is really the most perfect and beautiful child since Jesus."

My One British friend on Britain's Ugliest Dog.

My one British friend sent me this email after we had exchanged emails where I set up an evening out at a country-western bar near my apartment, where we gathered people in honor of a German friend of his's being in town -

p.s. my younger bro. sent me this web link. i told him that it is not right to make fun of the disabled. even if they are a dog.

- where this was the linked picture -



When we finally did go out, we ended up talking about the dog, and he said magnanimously that he wished that some woman hadn't adopted the dog, because he would have.

"But maybe I can be his god-owner," he was like, "Though I suppose you have to be in the same country for that."

When I asked him how would he behave with the dog, since most people with small dogs buy cute fluffy ones to cuddle, he was like, "I wouldn't do that, but I would pat him on his head and give him encouragement."

And then, he was like, "And I would beat other dogs off with sticks if they ever attacked him!"

And then, he was like, "And I would buy him corrective lenses."

And then, he added, "Although, since they would fall off, I would buy goggles as well, to tie around his head."

...it's more funny if you think of that exchange in a british accent...

Forgot - Comment of my one Dutch prof.

I forgot -

I had been reading up on the 15th c., and when I was talking with my one Dutch professor, I mentioned that, and that after I read more, I wanted to sit down with her to ask her about historiography etc.

"And I've been reading some Erasmus," I was like. "I really like him! I think if I had to be anyone from the 15th century, I'd be him."

"I wouldn't," she was like, very pleasantly and directly, in a Dutch way. "In fact, I detest him, he was a coward and a hypocrite, and although he was a self-styled intellectual, he wasn't really a part of the original theological ferment and innovation of the Reformation."

Then, she suggested a biography of him that I should read.

Quip of my one British friend.

My one British friend always makes up lame excuses about why he never wants to meet for things downtown, but rather only makes plans for the neighborhood around the university.

Then, one day, I told him that that was lame, and that downtown wasn't the other side of the world, but just a 20-25 bus ride away.

"I know," he was like, "And I would love to, but you see, I haven't gotten the permit yet!"

From that point on, he now always talks like he's waiting to get a permit so he can leave the neighborhood.

Observation by my dissertation advisor.

A while ago there was this lunch discussion about teaching intro religious studies classes where we pre-read some short articles of profs from a range of institutions about the subject, and one student who was there liked how one prof taught an entire course around Augustine's "Confessions", bringing in comparative material with each class, to which my dissertation advisor said that would only work with a deep book that (quoting some other prof) "you can think with, not about".

At that, the student said that she tried to think if there was an American book like that, and the only thing she could think of was "Huckleberry Finn," but it wouldn't quite work, and my dissertation advisor suggested "Moby Dick".

When I brought up if there were any memoirs that were that deep, and mentioned how I had recently read a couple where one was deeper than the other (Theodore Parker vs. Orestes Brownson), my dissertation advisor was like, "And Theodore Parker is a good person and an intellectual, but he's no Augustine," and we all talked for a while about the fact that it was novels that are the deep religious genre from the U.S., not non-fiction.

2nd best part of the election debate...

It was held right near where the sex docs are held, so after it was over I walked over to see if I could catch the end of the film and the discussion moderation by the one male nurse who grew up in an Italian neighborhood and then became a sexologist!

As it turned out, I got there right as the discussion was starting, so I grabbed some (free) pizza and sat down.

At that moment, the one male nurse (who's in his 70s) was explaining his history and orientation and outlook on sex.

"I've been penis-vagina monogamous with my wife for 30 years," he was like, "Though I would say I am more oriented towards group massage and group sex, which she tolerates."

He also said that he started this when he was in his 30s, and since the documentary was about the sexlife of women over 65, he affirmed something that had been said in the group about how he mostly had sex with people around his age because of the connection, though when he first started getting into group sex, he went as young as 19 and as high as a couple in their 60s.

One participant (a [white] woman in her late 20s) said she thinks older couples are lovely, but then she couldn't help her reaction when they interviewed an older lesbian and they panned to her partner, "And there was this woman with a flappy throat and bright, garish lipstick. I mean, I'm happy for them, but on some level, I couldn't help that I was disgusted, and I was angry at myself for thinking that."

Another participant (another [white] woman in her late 20s) was from a local advocacy group from the aging, and was saying that they had only started to consider sex recently. On the one hand, a lot of older folks got VDs really easily, since they grew up in times with less sex ed. On the other hand, sexual intimacy is an important part of people's lives, but the very set up of nursing homes can hinder it.

"First of all it's the shared rooms, and then you have, you know, beds with metal railings, and cords everywhere!", she was like. "It's a liability issue."

At that the male nurse agreed, and said it ruined quality of life for a lot of people, out of a fear of a rare danger.

"It's like how they won't build playgrounds for kids anymore," he was like.

At that point, I hopped in to the discussion and agreed, and said that just like the kids then get fat and get diabetes, the older people might be dying sooner because they can't fuck.

A little after that, the girl from the aging advocacy group said that in their retirement home there's a 70 year old who has a 26 year old boyfriend.

"I mean, I don't get it, but it's nice," she was like. "Though I wonder, what do they talk about?"

The male nurse also talked about how he dropped acid and smoked pot with his nieces and nephews when they were teens, but now whenever people ask him at family gatherings what he's been up to and he tells them what sex panels he's been on, "they scurry away", and at that he made a motion with his knarled hands wriggling outwards like cockroaches running from the light.

"And I don't mind that they're private, but they used to be so open, and they've drawn back from that openness, like clams closing tight shut."

He also mentioned that one time he was on a sex panel about masturbation with a woman with severe cerebral palsy, and a woman with less-severe cerebral palsy.

"The woman with severe cerebral palsy had to have specialized sex toys made so she could control them when she masturbated," he was like. "Fortunately she had a supportive husband."

Somehow, too, during the discussion, someone brought up that online in the (straight) kink community, all the men are dominant and all the women are submissive, but that's because it's a public space. Around the city, though, there is 1 professional male dominatrix for the women, and at least 30 professional female dominatrixes (dominatrices?) for the men.

Anyhow, on the walk to the subway station after the doc discussion I strolled and chatted with a regular attendee, this early 20s scifi/fantasy fangirl who's into BDSM with her sci/fantasy fanboy boyfriend, and I was asking her what's new. She and her boyfriend were recently featured in a short film by an art school attendee where they were engaged in "needle play" (her putting long, sharp needles into his back in artistic arrangements, and then pulling them out to let him bleed) and light bondage. She and her local pagan group also recently rented temple space.

After that, me and her got into a discussion about fundamentalist pagans! I guess there's a portion of them that are very much "my way or the high way" and are trying to return to the original practices of the original founder and are always trying to convert non-pagans or pagans who don't agree with them. But, just when she was saying that, her bus rolled up, and so I walked to the subway stop a half-block away.

Best part of the election debate.

On the bus there I was next to a middle-aged (light-skinned) (black) woman who is active in community organizing on education issues... I had met her a few times before, she's really cool and active in her kid's school, and is going back to school for a teaching degree, but we had never really talked.

Anyhow, she mentioned Tyler Perry on Oprah, and then somehow she said that he had said he wasn't making any more Madea movies.

"Oh no," I was like, "Why?", and she then started explaining about how Madea was based on his mother and the character had gone on long enough.

"And I was like, just his mother?, hell, I know a lot of black women like that, like my mother, and my aunts, and my friends' mothers," she was like. "I know my mother had a gun under her bed. I remember one time my brother was in a fight outside, and she was looking outside to make sure it was a clean fight, and as soon as it started getting dirty, she pulled that rifle out and aimed it at his knees and told him to stop otherwise she'd shoot and she has a good aim. I was like, 'Mama, you can't do that!', and she was like, 'The hell I can't.' A lot of black women are tough like that."