My Personal Hell

The New York Yankees, Scientologists
Circle I Limbo

General asshats, Creationists
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

Militant Vegans
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

Parents who bring squalling brats to R-rated movies
Circle IV Rolling Weights

PETA Members, Uday Hussein
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

Osama bin Laden
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

NAMBLA Members
Circle VII Burning Sands

Saddam Hussein
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

Qusay Hussein
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

Tuesday Night Trivia

What? You can't believe I'm co-hosting trivia two weeks in a row? Well, believe it. Because I am. Tonight, I will be assisting the ready and ador"able" Eric Kabakoff.

We're changing things up a bit and it should be an exciting night.

Meet us at the Baggot Inn, tonight at 7:30pm.

There will be prizes and drinking and fun and thinking.

If you don't already know, the Baggot Inn is located at 82 W. 3rd St. between Thompson and Sullivan, in New York City.

Hope to see you there.

Something else
Perhaps, this guy shouldn't be broadcasting his alibi so far in advance:

Down the road in the park sat Vietnam veteran Gary Snyder, drinking Miller High life. Snyder, who was among only a handful in Harborview who rode out the storm, said residents were anxious about looters, but he was prepared. "If I see 'em, I'll shoot 'em," he said. "They're gone. I'll tell 'em I had a flashback."

Saturday the 14th to Lucky in Love

(this originally ran on August 14th, 2004 but I was unhappy with the original post so I changed a few things and now it's back)

I looked but there aren't any legends about Saturday the 14th being unlucky. Too bad because traditionally that has been my unlucky day. Perhaps I was spared from bad luck on the 13th because I was born on the 13th of September so many years ago. (many, many) Yes, that does mean I have a birthday coming up.

Actually, I don' t much believe in luck anymore anyway. I believe more in the power of doing things, positive things to improve your life. It is a little more work than just waiting around for my bad luck to change to good but it's true what my mom says which is "The more you work, the luckier you get." Sometimes, she says that a little bit too much but it's true.

For example...I took a chance on someone I liked and now I am living with him. Is that lucky? Perhaps, but it's more likely a result of paying attention to my life and what is going on around it. Last year, I started attending trivia games. That led to meeting more people which led to meeting Jon. I watched Jon at trivia for several weeks. Then one day I said to my friend, "What about him?" and she replied, he's a nice jewish guy and I think he's available. That led to paying more attention to him and attending a trivia event hosted by him, etcetera...

Thank you to that friend because she obviously believes in your philosophy of friends matching up friends. I paid attention to her suggestion and now I'm happy.

I had another friend who said that MR RIGHT isn't going to come knocking on my door. She was right. I had to look for him. It took a while but I think I found him.

I agree with the Bloggette's point of view and will pay closer attention to my friends that I already was in the past.

Met the Parents

This weekend, Jon and I went up to his hometown to visit with his parents.

We had a nice time.

We visited with a 99 year old woman who didn't look or act a day over 75.

We went to a couple of garage sales.

We went shopping at this great place called Wal-Mart. I can't believe how cheap this place was.

We went to a town called Skaneatlas (pronounced skinny atlas) and watched the sun set from a long pier where we taken out to a fabulous, wonderful dinner.

We had a nice time.

Check Out This Web Site

The administrator of this web site asked me to give a mention to Recipes and Relations, a new advice blog that combines the wisdom of Ann Landers with the practicality of Food TV.

Please take a look and see if it is something that interests you. If you have any questions that you would like answered, you can write to the adminstrator at Recipe_Relations@aol.com. (Delete the underscore between the words but leave the space),

Also, the administrator asks that other people start publicizing Recipes and Relations on their own website. She is trying to generate some buzz.

Julia Child is Whisked Away

Julia Child passed away. She was 91 years of age. I used to love watching Julia Child as a kid on PBS and then later as an adult on the Food Network which reran her shows as well as PBS again.

She is basically responsible for introducing French food to the American public. Before that, our food was pretty Ameri-centric centering around hot dogs, hamburgers, meat loaf and steak. She also sneered at the health food movement because she believed that people shouldn't eat fake food (referring to low-fat or engineered food). The Yahoo obit quotes her as saying that red meat and gin would be her ultimate meal.

She was enjoyable to watch. She loved what she did and took great pride in sharing it with others.

She will be missed.

More on Friday the 13th

taken from the website Urban Legends and Folklore

The Devil's Dozen
It is said: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven. (Click here for more)

Friday the 13th

Abstract from the British Medical Journal

Is Friday the 13th bad for your health?
Scanlon TJ, Luben RN, Scanlon FL, Singleton N.Department of Public Health, Mid Downs Health Authority, Haywards Health, West Sussex.

OBJECTIVE--To examine the relation between health, behaviour, and superstition surrounding Friday 13th in the United Kingdom.
DESIGN--Retrospective study of paired data comparing driving and shopping patterns and accidents.
SUBJECTS--Drivers, shoppers, and residents.
SETTING--South West Thames region.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Numbers of vehicles on motorways; numbers of shoppers in supermarkets; and hospital admissions due to accidents. RESULTS--There were consistently and significantly fewer vehicles on the southern section of the M25 on Friday the 13th compared with Friday the 6th. The numbers of shoppers were not significantly different on the two days. Admissions due to transport accidents were significantly increased on Friday 13th (total 65 v 45; p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS--Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52%. Staying at home is recommended.
PMID: 8292946
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Governor McGreevey Resigned Today

The Governor of New Jersey announced today that he is gay, acknowledging an affair he had with a man and simultaneously resigned effective November 15th.

I think it's a great that he came out, but find it odd that he resigned. Clinton admitted to having an affair and they couldn't peel him out of office.

I wonder what else is going on.

Perhaps it's nothing more than him feeling guilty about the dishonesty of having an affair.

Blog Round Up

The Anonymous Blogger is pandering for comments. That's sad.

The Anonymous Blogette pleads with her coupled up friends to be on the lookout for single friends that would be good romantic matchups.

Wes has been watching the New Cutey Honey which I'm guessing is Japanimation.

Candy Blue Kite expresses herself and well.

Caren woke up, got dressed and linked to some information about a hurricane/tropical storm.

Dawn is back from her vacation.

Evil Twin Theory is teasing us with his first few short entries in over a month.

George Takei presents his essay "Seattle: The Crucible of Imagination".

Human Oddities' Amanda has been on a roll. She's been writing a lot. Her observations continue to entertain us.

Phil sums up last evening's activities and gets a little political.

Sarah continues to be cute.

Vidiot continues to post good links.

Violently Executed Blog's Adam and his wife celebrate the one year birthday of their son and are paying attention to the terror alerts.

Wendy is coming to New York City over Labor Day Weekend!!! Hoorah!!!

The Fun Continues

It is Wednesday and the work week trudges on. I have been assigned a mailing of 100 pieces. It is the oven mitt mailing. Don't ask. I already put together 100 boxes last week. Today, I was told to affix the specially designed lables, get this . . . are you ready? . . . nice and straight. That was literally part of the directions for getting this mailing done. I received these instructions by email where someone else was copied. It's a little humiliating. I'm looking forward to the job where I don't have to label or stuff anything.

On the fun side of life, last night I co-hosted trivia with the seasoned veteran Jonathan Bloomfield. There was a good turnout by the way of 10 teams, I'd say at least 70 people showed up. Granted the turnout wasn't as good as when Sarah and Caren hosted together but it was good none the less. Funniest team name. . . can't remember. Winning team . . .can't remember. I'm bad that way. But again, it was fun and I had a great time doing it. I'll be co-hosting again next week with Eric Kabakoff.

Tonight I'm treating myself by going to a turkish bath. I won't say where to protect my privacy but I'm going with a girlfriend and I imagine we are going to have a great time.

Well, back to the salt mines. I've got to go label 100 boxes, nice and straight.

Tuesday

Today is Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday
It will be fun day, fun day
All day long . . .

. . .and all night long too at the Baggot Inn when you come down to Tuesday Night Trivia.

Tonight I am co hosting with Jonathan B. not my Jon B., but an other.

It will be nice to see you there.

In a surprise move today, Laura Bush came out in support of her husband's policy on embryonic stem cell research.

Honk twice if this is news to you.

Happy Birthday Gen X Misanthrope!!!!

As of August 6, Rantings of a Gen X Misanthrope is officially one year old.

Here is my first post.

Bad vs. B*A*D

I am reading a book by Paul Fussell called Bad or, the Dumbing of America. I am enjoying this book because he eloquently put into words why so many things in America are stupid for not so obvious reasons. His book gives credence to my cynical attitude about various institutions and the people and crap they turn out.

If Mr. Fussell googles himself, I hope he finds this post.

Thank you for writing your book. It's a relief to learn that I am not some weird, societal black sheep with an arrogant attitude looking down on the dopes around me.

Thursday

If I click my heels three times and repeatedly chant, there's no day like Friday, there's no day like Friday, do you think I will move forward in time to 5:15 Friday afternoon?

Yeah. I didn't think so.

Channukah Came a Little Early This Year

Hey Ladies!!

Check out who is "cruising" for a new wife.

Tuesday Night Trivia

Trivia was packed last night. Hats off to young Ms. Ackerman for doing a great job co-hosting for the first time. Her questions really excited the crowd and got people talking. Perhaps it's Ms. Ackerman's teaching background or perhaps she is just a skilled speaker . . .she provided solid back up to the main host Caren Lissner, who is back on stage after a few weeks away from hosting.

We were on the winning team , which I named "Paris is Bruising" per a recommendation by Phil that we make fun of Ms. Hilton somehow. Playing with me were Barry, Bob, Claire, Eric, Phil, and Robert the Republican. Claire and Phil were first time trivia players and I was very happy to have them with us on the team. They contributed throughout the game but ran the Top Ten list which helped put us over the top at the end.

In a personal best, this was the first team I've gathered that scored so unbelievably high. In the second round out of a possible 20 points we scored 19. I won't say why we missed the 20th question, but you can read about it here.

I also played against two other great bloggers, Candy Blue Kite and akachris both of whom I link to and both whom were worthy opponents.

I particularly enjoyed the audio round last night. Ms. Lissner provided 10 snippets from famous songs from American musicals and when answering we saw that she arranged them alphabetically. Definitely fun and my favorite audio round yet from the year or so I've been playing trivia.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch . . .

Today is Tuesday and it's back to work time at the salt mines. Having the day off was priceless. Jon and I got a lot done and had a lot of fun doing it. Because of our work schedules the only full day off we have together is Sunday. Monday was a bonus, an extra, a treat and romantic.

I won't bore you with the seemingly mundane and together activities that occupied most of our time but I will tell you about two fun things we did.

We set up the home entertainment center and watched an episode of the Simpsons from the 4th season DVD. It was lady's choice and I chose the episode called "I Love Lisa" where Ralph Wiggums develops a crush on Lisa because she gives him a pity valentine with a picture of a train and the words "I Choo Choo Choose You". Aside from being a tremendously sweet episode, it introduces Ralph as Chief Wiggums son, gives us a President's Day pageant with the children of Springfield paying homage to our nation's mediocre Presidents in a song and dance number which is funny on "so many levels", it features some great details regarding Krusty and his show giving the writers an opportunity to satirzie Carson and the talk show format. . . .of course I can go on but then I'd be telling you how to enjoy the Simpsons instead of letting you enjoy it on your own.

We also saw Thunderbirds, the live action version directed by Jonathan Frakes. Too much cheese to write about in this post. I'll give you more later.

Monday

Today is Monday, Monday . . . .

Hey, wait a second. . . .Today is Monday and I have Monday off!!!!

Yay!!!! Wahoo!!! Yippeeee!!!!!

The move went well. All of Jon's stuff is in. It's officially official. We picked up a couple of great pieces from my parents on the Island and they followed us back to the city to help us unload. My friend and neighbor helped with a particularly large piece of furniture, "in the speed of light, he arrives just in time."

We were pretty wiped out last night. We were also pretty out of touch. We didn't find out until dinner time that the terror alert was not only on orange but underlined as well. I guess that really does justify the defense budget afterall. Sometimes I think the terror alerts were designed to convince people why we need to spend money on the military. I also thing the timing of the underlined orange alert is conveniently juxtaposed agaisnt the backdrop of the Republican Convention, but that's just me. I could be over thinking things.

I'm going to go to the post office now and pick up the baby mug mugs.