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#123581 02/28/04 04:43 PM
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"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."


That was the days before spouses could argue online, wwh.

Nowadays, they just end up with Carpal Tunnel syndrome.




#123582 02/28/04 05:02 PM
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Dear grapho: Many spouses develop "ratchet jaw" instead.
Only on-line usage I could find for that was:
"Ratchet jaw...CB'er who talks too much "


#123583 02/28/04 05:17 PM
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"ratchet jaw"

Rachet Jaw commonly induces a condition known as Hatchet Jaw in those who are exposed to it.

Hatchet Jaw can spread from the jaw to the fist very rapidly.

Speaking of "Ratchet Jaws", the other nite I stopped at a bar for a beer.

The guy sitting next to be at the bar started talking to me. I wasn't really into talking with a stranger but he wouldn't let up.

After a while, I simply ignored him. He still wouldn't let up.

Finally, I got up and took a seat far away, too far away to watch the sporting event I was trying to watch on the TV over the bar, but, at least, far away from Ratchet Jaw.

After awhile, I looked up and saw that Ratchet Jaw was still talking and joking with me ... at my empty seat at the bar.

Later, a regular of the bar told me that nobody feels sorry for Ratchet Jaw. He is a hail-fellow-well-met and never gets tired of his own company.

True story.


#123584 02/28/04 09:05 PM
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a word that means making the easy look difficult This could be one def. of finesse.


#123585 02/28/04 09:26 PM
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Another name for "tour-de-force" could be "over-kill". I remember reading stories about King Arthur's knights, when
one of them would hit adversary on the helmet with his sword,, and cleave him right down to his crotch.
The opposite of that was the Saracen who had a sword so
sharp that if you dropped a gossamer veil on it, it would
be cut into two pieces just by its weight.
I also remember reading almost two years ago, Osama bin Laden feeling our use of 2,000 lb. bombs on Taliban was
reprehensible. (Actually I suspect those words were put
in his mouth by some journalist.)


#123586 02/28/04 09:27 PM
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making the easy look difficult

An "easy look" at a scantily clad beauty can get a man into a lot of difficulties ... if he happens to be with his lady.

It's easier to get away with a furtive look than an easy look, but it isn't quite as rewarding.

In short, you don't have to make "the easy look difficult". It already is.

Ask any man who is not "your" man. He will tell you. There is nothing "easy" about an "easy look" in the right direction at the wrong time. In fact, there are few things more difficult.

Hmm. Gives me an idea for an invention. It is certain to be a big seller.

A tiny, clip-on, fold-out, rear vision mirror for men's eyeglasses.

It will be marketed for personal security, of course.

I wonder if it will be popular with women as well. You never know.


#123587 02/29/04 02:23 PM
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Another name for "tour-de-force" could be "over-kill". I remember reading stories about King Arthur's knights, when one of them would hit his adversary on the helmet with his sword, and cleave him right down to his crotch.

To which wwh added in a PM, posted now with his permission:

"Cleave to the crotch" is "Like the Irish one about the hero saying he would lie down and bleed a while, and then get up and fight some more. That had to be written by some poet who never saw any combat at all. A man that has shed any appreciable amount of blood, particularly after heavy exertion, goesinto shock, and in the days when transfusion was impossible,was not likely to survive."

This Irish hero is a dainty and a malingerer next to Mel Gibson's "Christ" in "The Passion of the Christ", wwh.

I am not a student of the healing arts, but it was obvious, even to me, that no human being could have survived the scourging which Gibson's character received the day before he dragged a 200 pound cross halfway across the city en route to Calvary Hill.

Regarding the scourging: After 2 men nearly exhausted themselves flagellating the Christ character until he couldn't rise up to take more after heroic previous efforts, the two men began to work him over, first back and then front, with whips equipped with metal claws which tore flesh from his body and splattered blood in their faces.

Finally, they dragged him away leaving the public square looking like the floor of an abattoir, propped him up against a wall, and ministered to him with taunts and insults and phlegm pitched at high velocity.

While the sun was still high in the sky on the same day of the scourging, the Christ character was escorted, walking under his own power, for his final appearance before Pontius Pilate and the rabid crowd which was baying for his crucifixion.

The next day his ordeal began in earnest.

That any man could have survived a scourging of the type depicted, forget the stroll down the Via Dolorosa the next day, is more miraculous than anything else recorded in the bible, at least it makes the Resurrection look like a cakewalk.

Curious no movie reviewer I have seen or read has commented on this aspect of "shock".

Note: Previewed in advance with wwh who has assured me it would not offend because it is a movie review, not religious commentary.



#123588 02/29/04 02:39 PM
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Dear grapho: I hope noboby thinks I regard myself arbiter
elegantiarum . That was what started our flame war. Let's not have another.

http://www.sacklunch.net/Latin/A/arbiterelegantiarum.html


#123589 02/29/04 02:54 PM
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I hope noboby thinks I regard myself arbiter
elegantiarum.


If there is any offence taken by anyone (other than Mel Gibson), and certainly none was intended, it is entirely my cross to bear, not yours, wwh.

It's only a movie.

I am not the first reviewer to have abhorred the unremitting violence and the absence of spirituality.

One reviewer said "This is the most violent movie I have ever seen".

I can't agree with him only because I didn't see it to the end.

I walked out halfway up the Via Dolorosa, my sensibilities soaked in blood.

BTW there was one other detail which seems to have been lost by reviewers amidst the unpitying orgy of brutality and blood.

The devil character glides through the crowd at intervals viewing the Christ figure's torment on the Via Dolorosa with a hint of unmistakable pleasure.

Does that seem likely?

The Christ figure was proceeding to his death on the cross to save humanity from the clutches of the devil himself.

This was surely the moment of the devil's greatest agony, not a moment for sadistic glee.

Mel Gibson's devil blew it in more ways than one. He lost the whole ball game with a twisted smirk on his face.

That twisted smirk might well have been intended for Mel himself, the devil getting the last laugh in this movie.

In my humble opinion, "The Passion of the Christ" has set Christianity back at least 500 years.

This movie speaks to a Christianity which cannot speak to us in our times.

#123590 02/29/04 08:54 PM
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There was an interesting article on the medical aspects of the death of Jesus of Nazareth published in the 1986 Journal of the American Medical Association.

http://www.cfpeople.org/Apologetics/page51a024.html



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