Roast Beef

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• Commented on Stormtrooper ballerina
  At the risk of being pedantic: Since stormtroopers are a massive organized force, I presume a stormtrooper ballerina is in the corps de ballet. The sugar plum fairy is a soloist (and also benevolent); the swans are sad but not...
• Commented on Affectionate kitteh distracts cop
  Surprised nobody has mentioned the well-known fact that all cats are anarchists*. This kitteh climbed that cop in order to de-arrest that car. She is truly a hero of the revolution... *or possibly libertarians, but bear with me here....
• Commented on Americans watch about 5 hours of TV every day.
  My initial response, like many in this thread, was along the lines of "OMG I am so not like that." Three adults live in my house and not a one of us watches TV on the TV. Ever. We don't...
• Commented on The Matrix as a Charlie Chaplin short
  Not trying to stir the crud, especially since the thread seems over. But I had a "blackface wtf?" response as well. Even if we accept the idea that there are no black actors in Russia, was there no other way...
• Commented on Teen sex belongs in teen lit
  What puzzles me most is the fact that this (Cory's column) is even controversial. Seems pretty straightforward to me....
• Commented on Bicycle defense kit fits in Altoids tin
  TheChemist, I agree that anti-bike sentiment =/= outright bigotry. But I believe it's a useful parallel for explaining the discourse I see here (and other places in my life). Some bikers are antisocial, ergo all bikers are demonized. When bikers...
• Commented on Bicycle defense kit fits in Altoids tin
  A personal anecdote; one time I accidentally scratched a car while riding my bike. (For context: I was pressed into a tight pass, my handlebar slammed into a parked car's rearview, and I bounced off that into this guy's passenger...
• Commented on Crucixion and beheading for child rapist in Saudi Arabia
  Ah. Was still typing when IronEdithKidd's post appeared....
• Commented on Crucixion and beheading for child rapist in Saudi Arabia
  Also of note is that TFA mentions that at least one of the children is male. And we know how tolerant the Saudi government is of same-sex expression between consenting adults. Even if this is not the typical punishment for...
• Commented on The Hazards of Lab Work
  Example; I once found a girl (about halfway through her postgrad degree) crying next to a fumehood in the lab. What was wrong? She'd tried sonicating her favourite necklace to clean it; when that hadn't worked, she'd tried the aqua...
• Commented on LED Chaser
  Don't get me wrong, I love me some diodes. But I'm not crazy about the idea of wearing a light source right next to my eye....
• Commented on Hit-and-run driver who hit cyclist
  That solution or something like it has been proposed in my city, but its opponents managed to spin it (bizarrely) as anti-poor. Because obviously poor folks are the ones who can afford to drive cars in the city, while bikes...
• Commented on Hit-and-run driver who hit cyclist
  Logging in after about a billion years to discuss a subject that is near to my heart (and other parts of my body, 7 days a week). I was hit this past July and have huge empathy for netnik--may you...
• Commented on MASS MoCa harmonic bridge plays traffic in the key of C
  Anon#6, this is in North Adams, about as far (in all senses) from Boston as you can get and still be in Massachusetts....
• Commented on The Top 10 most absurd Time covers of the past 40 years
  FNORD!...
• Commented on Mr. Rogers visits Koko
  Koko + Mr. Rogers = the best thing that's happened to me today. Thank you. Once we were all preverbal primates who initially learned to use language through rote imitation....
• Commented on Online Personal Narratives from Patients of Murdered Late-Term Abortion Provider
  (Disclaimer: IANAD.) BenEnglish, your scenario is basically GWB's "Provider Refusal Rule", rammed through during his last days in office. This rule was rescinded by Pres. Obama; however, older conscience clauses still protect some health care providers from discipline for refusing...
• Commented on Young Conservative rappers explain Jesus, Ayn Rand, and ANWR drilling
  JToddLeffar: The adoptive parents who have been desperately yearning to love a child have the option of adopting one of the many kids who have already been born who desperately need parents to love them. I don't know about you,...
• Commented on Nose balloons for snot-headed kids
  Mister Eppy: "..and we called it The Aristocrats!" Valsalva maneuver, in addition to damaging your hearing and your retinas and pushing your sinus infection into your ears, is not recommended for pregnant women due to the stress it puts on...
• Commented on Zombie haiku contest -- best entry wins the game of Plants vs. Zombies
  moonrise... a gray face on my horizon. horrors! if only i could---....
• Commented on Zombie haiku contest -- best entry wins the game of Plants vs. Zombies
  Fallen leaves on pond Falling flesh shambles toward me *crunch*--hello, unlife....
• Commented on Arm sconce
  Fantastique! I wonder if the other one is the left arm?...
• Commented on Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in <s>his</s> her locker
  @me above--*disclaimer that not ALL schools, religious or secular, are pestilent pits of anti-intellectualism. For counterexample, my religious school assigned plenty of these books--we read not just Dante but The Decameron (lots of sex in there!) and we *talked* about...
• Commented on Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in <s>his</s> her locker
  TOM HALE wrote, "How could 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' and 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' be banned? Those books are harmless." Actually, I think Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is MOSTLY harmless." Thank you, DMichaelDillon, for...
• Commented on Fight terrorism by arresting terrorists, not by looking at our genitals at airports
  13Tales, good for you for being so confident in your body. (Not being sarcastic. Anybody who has managed to grow to adulthood and still feel normal about their body has accomplished something in my book.) But I can think of...
• Commented on Super Sonic Nausea device
  Spider Jerusalem, where are you?...
• Commented on Moist, and other words people dislike
  Re. jejune vs. jejeune: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jejune http://wordie.org/words/jejeune And now that I've officially used that word more times on this thread than I have in my life to date, it's going back in the SAT-vocab memory banks, never to be used again....
• Commented on Moist, and other words people dislike
  me@92 committed! Clearly off my word-nerd game. Probably best to bow out for now....
• Commented on Moist, and other words people dislike
  Phikus@88: That would be me. I also commited first use of jejune upthread@59 so I seem to be winning hearts all over today....
• Commented on Moist, and other words people dislike
  Phikus: Could it be that you find jejune to be uninteresting, insubstantial, insipid... in a word, um, jejune? ::retreats beneath desk::...