FlaSoxxJim

First, I too support prayer in school. Just not public school. Problem for me is the public schools suck so bad here I have my kids in an Episcopal school. Resident atheist I am and my kids go to chapel five days a week and are becomeing the theologians of the household. It's all good though - it's a great school and there will be time enough for their deprogramming. As for the rest of your post, it got me thinking about something I had thought of earlier when the use of derogatory slurs was chalked up as good clean 'old school' fun (lynching was good old school fun too, but I digress). I actually got to thinking that Juggs' comments were not that far off the mark and that is really very damning evidence of how s***ty we humans all can be to each other. Recall that was one of the many profound insights Heinlein put into Stranger in a Strange Land - the notion that jokes are only funny because someone gets hurt somehow, physically, emotionally, or whatever. The whole of human humor is based on the pain and suffering of other entities, be they individuals, races, creeds, religions... When you take the time to ponder that, it is very hard to find exceptions to that rule. Not only are we dumb f***ing monkeys, we're also mean sons of b****es as well.

And hopefully they never rent Superman The Movie OTISBURGGGG?!?

Stop printing out all of Southsider's posts??

I think you're all very well operantly conditioned and aren't doing so good now that the maze has been reconfigured.... Maybe if Kap can rig up a little electrical shock each time you press the wrong button...

I've talked to absolutely nobody and I agree.

And it's a hell of a lot better than being a %$#$%!! Prod! So in summary, I say no racial or ethnic slurs ... unless it's the %$#$%!! English! And as for the rest... what if we all agreed to go phonetic and use 'ghey' instead.. but only if something is really, really ghey?

A guy who works here is one of the higher ups in putting together the IOOS (International Ocean Observing System), and he showed me this. It is pretty mindboggling.

That he is.

Ouch! Raff, if I've followed along correctly, you are fellow South Side Irish (though I've been relocated by circumstance). So a simultaneous and a Of 'of our granfathers disapproving...' My grandfather was a great guy, but racial- and religous- and every other kind of xenophobe prejudice was ingrained into him and in the end he was an ass for not being bigger or better than that. I can say the same thing about 75% of my extended family. I love every last one of them, but we invariably come to blows over these things after a few pints at family gatherings. It's all the worse now that we have one of them there gays that has come out of the closet (and also one or two that never have, as you just didn't back in the 40s and 50s). So now we have a father who once traded f***** jokes right there with the best of them now anguishing over what he could have done to 'make his son gay,' and a family that acts one way when Cousin Johnny is around and another when he's not. There is so much of my working class southside heritage I'm fiercly proud of, but the narrow-minded biggotry is not one of those things. As for you list, I'll only commment on: What does it say about you and your ability to exist in a modern world when you wear a Flat Earther attitude like a badge of honor? You don't care what anyone says? There is a growing body of evidence coming out of academic institutions where these things are studied (not out of guy talk at the corner bar) in support of the contention that people are born with predispositions toward a particular sexual orientation. When the 'gay gene' or genes are found and described, will you still not care what anyone says? As for gayness being against Christianity - well at least the RC Church should have been a little more against it and they could have saved themselves a few hundred million $$ in lawsuits and more than a little bad publicity. As far as it being against 'normal values' - one person by definition cannot define normal. A wise one-time SoxTalker liked to say homosexuality is normal, albeit not normative.

Apostrophe is excellent - it was the album that started me down the path of no return into Zappa fandom. My favorite cut on the album - actually one of my favorite songs period - is called 'Uncle Remus.' It's simultaneousely a scathing commentary on social complacency in black society, an awesome blues-rag with George Duke on piano and Chester Thompson on drums, and possible the watershed signature FZ solo during a period when his chops were right up there. If you like that stuff, the albums that flanked Apostrophe - Overnite Sensation and One Size Fits All - are worth checking out. As expansive as his career was and as prolific as his output was, it's hard to point out anything and say it represents his music. But for classic anti-establishment Mothers of Invention, We're Only In It For the Money is my pick. For a glimpse of his early instrumental leanings, try Lumpy Gravy or the more jazzy Grand Wazoo. Cruizing With Reuben and the Jets is a very loving send-up of Franks first musical loves, R&B and Doo-wop. Hot Rats has some good stuff with Captain Beefheart on it and also a great jazz-blues violinist by the name of Sugarcane Harris that never became quite as successful as John-Luc Ponty but should have. Later albums were less socially biting in a lot of ways but always musically very progressive and very demanding of the listener. I particularly like Zoot Alures (including the song 'Wonderful Wino' that always makes me think of a certain SoxTalk poster), Sheik Yerbuti, and You Are What You Is. Great later live stuff abounds on Does Humor Belong in Music?, Broadway the Hard Way (including stuff from two Chicago shows I was at), Make a jazz Noise Here, and the Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life. The two London Symphony Orchestral albums are good to hear the 'serious' side of his music (especially Vol. 2, conducted by Kent Nagano), as is The Perfect Stranger (conducted by Pierre Boulez) and The Yellow Shark, released right before he died. Jazz From Hell is the album that got him his only Grammy (because it was an instrumental and he didn't swear all over it no doubt). But for one song, it is completely programmed and played on the Synclavier - a high end digital music synthesizer that Frank grew very fod of late in life. Since that is such a massive list, Rykodisk made jumping in a little easier with the release of two pretty good samplers, "Cheap Thrills" and "Son of Cheap Thrills". Neither of these discs gives you a feel for the 'conceptual continuity' that was at the heat of everything he put out, but they'' give you an idea of whether his catalog is worth digging into from your perspective.

Ach!!! Frank was a sharp wit and an iconoclast to be sure, but was also a brilliant composer. He'll be remembered in music history textbooks as one of the more innovative 20th century American composers. Yes, he also wrote music about the do's and don't of eating yellow snow, but that's Zappa for you.

I see the Funny Poster thread is mysteriously locked, so I can't even stuff the ballot box with my one vote!

I agree you should look into the PMRC hearings for more history. Zappa's "treating dandruff by decapitation" quip was priceless, and it's one I've used here on some occassions to describe some of the more draconian solutions our legislators have arrived at for certain societal ills. Zappa (a lifelong personal favforite of mine) was very eloquent during the PMRC hearings, despite the attempts by a lot of people to make him look silly. Interestingly, he actually developed somewhat of a friendship with the Gores through this, and I know he was touched when they sent him their well wishes when he was in the advanced stages of his prostate cancer. His participation in the hearings was all the more meaningful because he asked to be included and his music was never itself very much 'on trial.' FCC regulations already pretty much had his airplay at effectively zero, and his target demographic was considerably older than the pre-teen and teenage audience whose very souls were placed in jeopardy with each repeated listening of Prince's "Darling Nikki". The 'blank tape tax' conspiracy alluded to was actually dead-on, but it has little bearing on the issue today other than helping to paint a picture of the RIAA being a strictly profit-motivated entity. Zappa's thoughts on the stigmatizing nature of rock music sensorship were cogent, and he noted that unlike actors that may play roles in R-rated films, the musicians pretty much ARE their own product and so the threat of being branded may be more real. It also came out in the hearings and often alsewhere that the FCC already is in place to make sure objectionable material is not broadcast over the airwaves. That is as close a parallel to the MPAA ratings system as we have. I have the 'luxury' of hindsight in all of this and have to admit that age has made me moderate my views a little. I think that sales outlets have the right to not sell music they deem objectionable, and I won't go so far as to say barring sales of objectionable music to minore is unconstitutional because minore are sadly still a gray area where constitutional protections are concerned. 20 years ago I would have been up in arms over the potrntial for a trickle-down here in which the sellers force the labels to produce a certain product, and the labels turn around and impinge on the artistic integrity of its stable of musicians so that squeaky clean products are produced. Now, I still wince at the thought of artistic compromise (and I truly do believe it is for the artist to decide what is art - even if others wish to regulate it and call it audio pornography). But today the internet and self-produced small label music are the great equalizers. Musicians can get their unadaulterated versions of their music out more easily now than 20 years ago. I'll finish with another FZ quip that came out during all of this - one that relates to the historic Judas Priest teen suicide cases etc. In reference to all the 'power' the PMRC was suggesting "bad" music had to persuade impressionable young minds, Zappa opined that, seeing as 90% of the songs on the radio at the time were love songs, based on all the influence music was supposed to have America should have been a big happy love fest. Which, obviously it wasn't. I'll end with Frank's warning label that he put on the "Them or Us" and "Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention" albums. It still gives me a chuckle.

But that's just a statistical numbers game. With 25 small- to middle-market teams, there's bound to be one or two teams every year that catch lightning in a bottle. Picking WHICH team it's going to be is another matter. 9 times out of 10 you know the moneyed teams are going to be at or near the top of their divisions. And 9 times out of 10, the majority of the small-market teams are not.

These guys are pretty good. There's some Dave Grohl-caliber power pop sensibility there. Thanks for the pointer.

Many happy returns of the day to the birthday bunch.

Happy Happy!

The scale of this is just about beyond the scope of human comprehension. That so seemingly distant cornert of the world, and the families of all those lost remain in my thoughts and in my heart.

No snow here. I did have to change out of shorts and into long pants this evening when it got a little cold.

I've never seen it. It's been on my To See list for about 10 years. If only they would stop making Buttman movies, then I could get on to something more substantive.

They did the same thing down here in Orlando, using the Staples Center where the Magic play to hold mass for 16K+ tonight. It's a necessity I guess. Lots of lapsed or lax churchgoers still turn out for Christmas Eve services - if they had local parish services every 2 hours all day, they probably still would not meet demand. This lapsed churchgoer is currently tuned into the rebroadcast of JPII at St. Peters while I wrap kid presents at a fevered pace. That way, instead of wine I can drink beer. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Yes, and this is pretty much what the thinking half of the world and America new to be the case. All of the '10 out of 10 terrorists prefer Kerry' drivel was so insipid and illogical. And people still bought it. :puke

Dr. Strangelove: The whole point of the doomsday machine is lost - if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?!?! General Buck: Try one of these Jamaican cigars, ambassador, they're pretty good. Ambassador de Sadesky: Thank you, no. I do not support the work of imperialist stooges. General Buck: Oh, only Commie stooges, eh? Great film

Those are funny.