JazzO ... Yes, that's the idea. The date in header and a location and a dash before the message allowing The Great Anu to cut and paste as he wishes without loosing track of the year and place. That is : Happy Birthday AWAD 15 March 2001 New Zealand- This Kiwi etc. etc. etc. or Israel - From this ancient land etc. etc. etc.
Each persons post should exemplify their personality over the past year. People have been misrepresenting themselves?
Wouldn't everyone's posting at same time give the Machine a migraine? Especially if people who never or rarely post take the opportunity to express congratulations? wow
Wouldn't everyone's posting at same time give the Machine a migraine?
I mean 9:00 (or whatever time) for each time zone. That would mean that every time zone posts about an hour appart.
And by explifying one's personality I mean don't use some run-of-the-mill "Happy Birthday". Customize it to you personality in your other posts. (But I guess everyone would do that anyway.)
I agree with Faldage. We can't impose too much structure here. We catch as catch can, and - perish the thought - there might be a contributor or two who will be unable to post at all on the Ides. I will probably be at work at 9 am in my particular time zone on the momentous day. And the time stamps are already on the posts, anyway (albeit in U.S. Central Time). So yeah, dateline (city) is cool, but our board names will also come up automatically, as the time stamps do, and those of us who wish to have our real names known show them in our profiles.
And the time stamps are already on the posts, anyway (albeit in U.S. Central Time). Oh, AnnaS, all the times show up as Eastern Standard on my computer! I think the Machine compensates for times. ???? --------------------------------------------------- dateline (city) is cool, but our board names will also come up automatically, as the time stamps do, and those of us who wish to have our real names known show them in our profiles. Absolutely! And The Great Anu knows all our real identities anyway. wow
Yep- I agree with Jazz's plan as modified by AnnaS - It is a good idea to have a plan - else how can you change your plan? But it is also good to have it really simple so that anyone who doesn't or cannot follow it to the letter won't feel bad about being different.
So - 9 am in your own time if possible, (but later is much better than never) - write as you would in any other post (as we assuredly would anyway!) - add your real name if you feel like it, but this ain't mandatory.
Every year at this time I stop and remember my father, one of the great racounteurs (and wits) of all time, at least so far as I am concerned. He was the one who named me Theophilus because I was the awfulest looking baby he ever saw.
Every year on the ides of March he would call me up and say, "eschew Communism." To which I would reply, "gesundheit."
Now, pray tell, why would the old feller say this to me?
Every year on the ides of March he would call me up and say, "eschew Communism." To which I would reply, "gesundheit." Now, pray tell, why would the old feller say this to me?
You just didn't catch the whole question : "Have you been or es chew a Communist?" (*running* for cover) wow
Every year on the ides of March he would call me up and say, "eschew Communism." To which I would reply, "gesundheit."
Why your pater should have chosen the ides of March for his annual warning (if warning it were, indeed!) is not immediatewly apparent. But, given his age, he would have remebered that the Russian Revolution took place in March 1917. The first session of the Moscow soldiers Soviet (the word is Russian for "committee") took place on March 1st and the Czar abdicated in favour of Grand Duke Mikhail on March 2nd. (Grand Duke Mikhail adbicated on March 3rd. Wise man!) So far as I know, nothing of great importance happened on 13th March, although the 14th was the Address of the Soviet "to the people of the whole world" declaring for peace. Vladimir Illyich Ulanov (Lenin) didn't arrive until April 3rd, and the Bolshevik Revolution didn't happen until October (or November - depends which calendar you're using!)
Incidently, I once saw a hilarious cartoon of a member of the German High Command bringing Lenin a trained seal.
>Why your pater should have chosen the ides of March for his annual warning (if warning it were, indeed!) is not immediatewly apparent.
I wondered if anyone would get it. His entire warning was: "Eschew Communism. Beware the ideas of Marx."
He was known as one who would grasp any opportunity to make a pun. What follows is one of which he was quite proud:
My friend Sam has lived in many places, at many times. Once he lived in classical Rome, where he kept a journal that proved just how odd the Romans were. According to this journal, all things reproductive were cherished, but most especially a certain elderberry, which was reputed to be the dwelling place of the gods. It was illegal, on pain of death, to pick or eat an elderberry, and all of the plants were the property of the republic.
Sam was on one of his jaunts when he saw a really pretty elderberry bush, and it suddenly dawned on him he could make a great deal of money if he transplanted the bush to a place where it could serve as a focal point of a religion. Within a year or so he was fabulously wealthy. But he feared the religious police so he retired from the priesthood, married, and gave the plant to his wife as a wedding present.
Weeks later there came a knock at the door, where Sam was soon held at spearpoint by the phalanx of Roman soldiers who waited without. Blustering, Sam said, "Have you come to worship my wife's elderberry plant?"
"No," replied the centurion, "we are here to seize her berry, not to praise it."
"Beware the ideas of Marx.", says TEd. And he is quite right, of course (well - certainly to the right of Marx) as the following anecdote will demonstrate.
Marx's friend, Freidrich Engels, was left a house in his uncle's will. He and Marx went to inspect and explore his new property. On reaching the attics, Engels peered into the water tanks, gave a startled exclamation, put his arm into the water and withdrew two ancient fiddles. "Great Scott, Marx," he exclaimed, "Do you think they might be valuable?" "No," replied his friend, "They are merely the violins inherited in the cistern."
I would never dream of saying anything like this about any other thread, but would it be perhaps advisable for all of us to try and only post once on the birthday thread? I get the feeling that there might be numerous members posting to celebrate, and if many of these comments are met with the usual clever back-and-forth accompaniment, we might easily find ourselves with an unwieldy thread in our hands. My computer, for one, absolutely dislikes long threads, and lets me know every time .
Any thoughts on this? [lemme-know-if-I'm-overstepping-the-mark emoticon]
I think it's possible; you'll note Jo (jmh) has managed to keep her Helpful Hints uncluttered by the back-and-forth to which you refer. Maybe we need a "Happy Birthday" thread and, alongside it, a "Post Your Witty Rejoinders Here" thread. Anyone disagree?
Maybe we need a "Happy Birthday" thread and, alongside it, a "Post Your Witty Rejoinders Here" thread.
But aren't parties supposed to be about conversation?
Perhaps, if you are thinking of some kind of tribute to AWAD, with sententious port-soaked, gout-ridden blokes rising up and asking others to be 'upstanding' (a word I loath, abhor, disdain, hate etc in this use) whilst they pour forth orotund, rodomontade oratory, then certainly a "Tribute to AWAD on its Anniversary" thread with single postings per person would be wonderful (else imagine the horror of a succession of after-dinner speakers with the added 'thrill' of heckling!), but I'd suggest a 'Birthday party' thread as well so that we can indulge in our well-worn drunken chat-up lines, criticise the canapes (and our host's taste in curtains and carpets), and look around for unoccupied bedrooms or jacuzzis...
cheer
the sunshine ("Alas, my wife does understand me") warrior
I like your further refinement of our ideas. I vote for a gout-ridden blokes thread (which we've pretty much agreed on in your absence) and a second one for booze-bloated celebrants.
shanks!! by all that's wonderful!! Welcome back, dear soul - you have been greatly missed.
Yes, a concurrent birthday party is a great idea - I never refuse an invitation (even if I slightly prefer Birnmigham to Southall!) We can all slip out, one by one, to the broadcasting room, where we can make our formal speeches, then use the opportunity to find out where the empty rooms and the jacuzzi are to be found. Just make sure there is a stool in the broadcast room for my gouty leg!
This booze-bloated celebrant is prepared to stand up (or slump limply, rather) and be counted. Maybe I can beat Jo to being the first GMT-er to publish on the gout-ridden wonderthread.
As for the waterbed - you can keep it, my friend - I have my eye on that little heated pool by the garden...
Happy to be the Designated Driver except for one glass of celebratory champagne. Will bring some canapes. Will others? Would be great to taste the contributions from our Board members around the world. NOT starting a food chain, please, please, Please put those in Off Word Topics in Miscellany thread. Oh, save me a place in the heated pool. {off to find the bathing suit while blizzard rages outside!} wow
P.S. I've got dibs on the room with the waterbed Dear AnnaStrophic: Since dibs means share, who is the lucky other shareholder? (Mischievously intended to suggest a romance.) And remember to take you motion sickness preventive with you.
Oh! Bill, how could you do this to me?? I thought we were engaged! [sobbing my eyes out emoticon]
Shove over, shanks and wow. Looks like I'll be bringing a huge bottle of Kentucky's finest, since I'll be needin' to drown my sorrows...could probably rustle up some sweet treats, too.
Don't you worry Jackie, I'll bring along the Belgian chocolate. A nice chocolate fondue with fresh fruit while sipping a margarita. Mmmmmm. They say eating chocolate stimulates the same area of the brain as having an O . So you won't miss Bill too much
Thanks, but no thanks, AnnaS! That would be too much! After suffering spasmodically for some 20 years, I seem now to be relatively free of the "tendency to gout", as it is wittily called. Are you one of the brotherhood too, Rhu?
But I can recommend waterbeds -- had one for many years -- great in the Tasmanian winters.
No, I've managed to steer clear of gout, I'm happy to say. I heard, when I was young, that it was caused by drinking too much port, so I only drink the finest port available, and therefore can't afford to drink enough to get gout.
However, I encourage my female companions to imbibe the drink, on the old sailor's principle of "a port in every girl."
>And Jo, get yo' good se'f in here and straighten all this out, please ...
I think it is OK, AnnaS. I'd never make it into the police. I get the impression that this is all going a bit wonky so people can use up all their dissident tendancies and save all their good behaviour for THE BIG DAY.
By the way, is everyone quite convinced that Anu never reads any of this stuff? It's a bit like planning a surprise party. I think we need a code-name, so he won't be able to find us by searching on "Anu" or "party". How about "water bed" as the code word, he'll never work that one out ... unless he reads this post ... mutter, mutter
There is a substance called purine, which we get in our bloodstreams from foodstuffs such as red wine, pork, offal, and shellfish. Most people excrete it reasonably effectively in their urine. Unfortunately some of us don't do this so well for genetic reasons and the purine forms crystals which lodge around joints, most commonly those in the big toe but the ankles are another trouble spot. This is gout. The best preventives are to avoid purine rich foods and to drink lots of water. There is also medicine you can take to increase purine excretion during an attack. A bad toothache, I assure you, is absolutely nothing in comparison.
The dictionary mentions intestines, and scraps.They used to use intestines to make sausages, and that was a dandy way of getting botulism.(look that one up.) Much of the rest used to go into hotdogs. No thanks. So offal to me is hardly more appetizing than the "off-fall" so often washed away by the retromingent bovines.
A nicer word for gravy makings is giblets: heart, gizzard, and neck.
Dear Shoshannah: I used to go to take violin lessons with a couple very nice Jewish boys. I wish I had been able to match the talent of the younger one, who became a member of a major symphony orchestra. One day on the way home, they stopped at a delicatessen, and came out with a package with some large black characters on it that I had never seen before. I asked what that meant. The older boy answered that it meant the meat was kosher. I asked what Kosher meant, and the older boy replied that it meant it was meat the rabbi had pissed on. I understood that he was joking, but have never repeated it until now. I didn't want to get a ruptured eardrum.(private portion to Shoshannah.)
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. So you won't miss Bill too much
If I live that long.
