Blast (flush?) from the past

When I was in Boston, I was a little bit active in neighborhood politics in that I wrote for the community newspaper and thus went to all the (boring) meetings on things like whether to tear down Fenway Park. The most colorful one was the meeting on a recent flood of gay-bashing in the area, as that meeting occurred at a local gay leather bar called, no lie, Ramrod.

One of the elderly ladies I knew from that scene (neighborhood politics, not gay bars) from whom I have not heard in about 6 years copied me on the following email this week:

dear sam: I just heard from your aunt Mary, she does have
the comode & a tub seat which I loaned her last year......she is leaving her home at 7am Thurs & returning later that night......if you give her a call, [number omitted] tonight, she will put the items on her back deck so that you can pick them up for your father anytime tomorrow......

Thanks for writing!

Chuck Palahniuk, in "Stranger Than Fiction:"

In college, we had to read about people shown pictures of gum disease. These were photographs of rotten gums and crooked, stained teeth, and the idea was to see how these images would affect the way people cared for their own teeth.

One group was shown mouths only a little rotten. The second group was shown moderately rotten gums. The third group was shown horrible blackened mouths, the gums peeled down, soft and bleeding, the teeth turned brown or missing.

The first study group, they took care of their teeth the same as they always had. The second group, they brushed and flossed a little more. The third group, they just gave up. They stopped brushing and flossing and just waited for their teeth to turn black.

This effect the study called "narcotization."

When the problem looks too big, when we're shown too much reality, we tend to shut down. We become resigned. We fail to take any action because disaster seems so inevitable. We're trapped. This is narcotization.

In a culture where people get too scared to face gum disease, how do you get them to face anything? Pollution? Equal rights? And how do you prompt them to fight?"

I both love it and hate it when I'm right about these things: College is the new high school.

At Cal State Butthead, the fine institution charged with preparing me to educate the youth (ha ha), 86% of incoming freshmen are classified as remedial.

"This is some fucked up, repugnant shit"

Friday levity:
The Samuel L. Jackson Soundboard
(Not safe for work without headphones, or a workplace very accepting of cusswords)

It will make you want to re-rent Pulp Fiction.

The rest of the site has other soundboards, but they aren't as good. Plus they're supposed to be for crank calls, which I can't get behind. But having Samuel L. Jackson yell "ENGLISH, MOTHAFUCKA, DO YOU SPEAK IT?" on command? Priceless.