The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: side_show on July 04, 2006, 06:13:25 pm
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Happy Day Off, you Americans you!
(I was going to use the term "Limey Bastards" but I'll leave that to Slink or Judy)
What are you people doing today?
Eating apple pie, playing baseball, (insert other stereotype of American life)?
Did any of you take a four day weekend?
(Canada Day was Saturday by the way, and it was excellent. We went to a street fair, then walked around Little Italy. I ran into a guy I went to Kindergarten with, and also my bestfriend and her husband.)
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We are making sushi. I swear, we were going to have hot dogs and potato salad, but they are predicting thunderstorms and it's too hot to stand outside over a grill. We're not being deliberately un-American.
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unamerican!
I am going to go see Superman Returns with my only friend who is in town a good friend. We will commiserate about how our respective ladies are in Italy, and that all of our friends are out of town. Later, we will probably go to a park or something to see fireworks.
It sucks, basically. The only friends that are in town, other than this fellow, are the friends-of-friends who I would feel awkward calling up.
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(I was going to use the term "Limey Bastards" but I'll leave that to Slink or Judy)
I thought we were the Limey Bastards?
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Yeah, the English are the Limeys, Smells.
I saw Superman Returns last night which was a film basically constructed entirely of "awesome" (seriously, I was surprised by how well it was written, and how melancholy and moving much of it was) and today am making indoor barbeque fare - slow oven-cooked spare ribs, broiler hot dogs, iron skillet hamburgers, corn on the cob, baked beans, some kind of salad, and a berry smoothie for dessert. It's not healthy food, but actually it won't be that bad for me, and I won't be eating much of it. A hot dog, a burger, a couple of ribs. Corn is good. I actually found that I like the taste of corn. I did not really realise this for years as I always put butter and salt on it, but without those condiments the corn itself is actually really sweet and delicious.
Also, due to my having cut way back (although it's nearly impossible to cut out completely since everything has it) on high-fructose corn syrup, I've found that my taste buds have gotten a lot more sensitive and that everything is more delicious now.
This weekend wasn't such a good time for eating healthily or getting proper exercise, but tomorrow I'll be back walking again and will have fresh things for dinner (low-carb whole wheat wraps full of veggies). I did not eat big quantities of the bad things at least. And I enjoyed them very much, but not so much that I'll want to be eating them again any time soon.
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To clarify, I was going to refer to myself as a limey bastard, but left it to slink and judy. See I'm not that stupid.
I am looking forward to the special Pop-up Royals in honour of the Queen's Jubilee on the CBC tonight.. But that's because it's hosted by Scott Thompson as the Queen, and has Corgis in it.
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I was going to be camping and sitting on a beach in Tybee Island, but then I got sick. So I've been sitting around, taking antibiotics, and drinking gatorade. But I have been playing a lot of Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga on the GBA, so that's ok.
I'm still weak as a kitten though, and I need to have math ready to turn in tomorrow morning, followed by an afternoon of heavy lifting. It might be interesting.
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I am looking forward to the special Pop-up Royals in honour of the Queen's Jubilee on the CBC tonight.. But that's because it's hosted by Scott Thompson as the Queen, and has Corgis in it.
I have no idea what this is but I am despondent about not being able to see it. The current plan is to watch "Tuesday Drama: Therapy Dog Dillon" on the Japanese channel.
If we still have electricity, that is. We are having a raging thunderstorm and much flickering of lights at the moment.
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Plans: Blowin' Shit Up.
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I ate french fries. Later, fireworks at the fairgrounds.
~Paul
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The menu chez Hobot: barbeque chicken, baked beans, broccoli, devilled eggs, and these tomatoes (http://touamb.com/index.php/topic,2791.msg66568.html#msg66568). I ate fake chicken and did not partake of the devilled eggs, delicious though they may be.
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I got up early this morning and set up for our annual public safety fair. It was pretty fun. I got to talk to the kids about search and rescue, mostly (that was the booth I was assigned to, so I didn't get to do much with Fire/EMS which is my other forte). Then it RAINED all day. No chance for a bonfire. After the fair, we did the parade, which was great. I put on my fire bunkers, which are basically like a human oven mitt, and I didn't get overheated, which meant it was about 45 degress Fahrenheit outside (that is COLD for you non-American people, 32 degrees F is freezing) and colder with the rain and windchill. Thanks a lot! This is TERRIBLE Fourth of July weather!
Anyway, after the parade, I went with a friend of mine to a barbeque and had some beer. I am sad because I don't think the weather is going to hold up for fireworks. However, it is only 6:39PM here and it stays light out until 1AM, so there might be some hope yet!
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No fireworks here because of rain, but I did make Oven Barbeque which was awesome, and I ate too much of it even though I was trying not to (I portioned out less than I'd usually eat but it was still more than I've normally been eating in the past month and was too much for me to not feel stuffed).
Then we watched Lionel Richie live from the steps of the Philly Museum of Art (PMA) but it started to rain so he pussed-out and didn't sing his final song (All Night Long). More like Lionel Bitchie.
Anyway, a fine time. I saw some fireworks last night behind my house (they shoot them off maybe 100m from my back door, and I can see them through the trees - lovely) before going to see the All-American Superman Returns movie.
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Superman Returns was great. I was bouncing in my seat like a little kid. I mean this literally.
and then my friend and I retired to my basement, to play Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for way too many hours. We called like 40 girls, and none of them were free to "hang out." So we ate ribs with my family, and played Oblivion more, and then drove to his house to watch fireworks-- he lives across the street from this park which I really really love. It is called Freedom Park, even!
But, unfortunately, the fireworks were already over. So I kind of stared at a patch of flowers for a while, and then drove home.
All-American!
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We slept in, went to a book store, made stir fry, and watched Sports Night and Newsradio on DVD. We can see the DC fireworks from our couch so when those started we opened the blinds and watched for a little while.
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were you all namin' your rights to them and stuff? all quizzing them?
I just realized that I posted twice in this thread, and said almost exactly the same thing. Awesome.
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Mrs. del Vaca wanted to get the kids away from our crazy-ass neighbors who put on a fireworks extravaganza every year.
Me, I LIKE the highly illegal fireworks extravaganza. But I went along. We went out to her dad's place in Winchester. They have a pool.
It was OK. But I'd prefer that the kids get over their fear of loud noises, and enjoy the show that goes on right across the street.
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I stayed up til one on the third, turning four ducks into duck gumbo with a roasted duck on the side.
At 6 am, The Oldest Daughter and I drove a truck to the beach, secured good parking and rode our bikes back home.
We marched in the Kailua Fourth of July Parade (or, as we called it, Kailua's Parade of Political Candidates) with the YMCA Y-Adventure Guides and then there were guests and kids in the backyard on the slip-n-slide for hours, the toddler played in her little pool, there were hot dogs, hamburgers, brats, duck gumbo, chips, and what-have-you.
Fireworks are legal here (not aerials, though) so we blew up some stuff and watched the aerobatics show over the beach from the house before walking back to the beach for the fireworks show. We were <200 yards from the barge where they launched from, so they were right over our heads. We were pelted by pieces of the cardboard shells, cinders and the occasional flaming item. It was a little windy too. 6 kinds of awesome; the show was good and there was an element of danger. Then we got in the truck so the kids wouldn't complain all the way back to the house. Everyone fell asleep within minutes of getting home.
It was a very very stereotypical "American" Fourth of July.
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It was OK. But I'd prefer that the kids get over their fear of loud noises, and enjoy the show that goes on right across the street.
That is one of my fears! Congratulations, Mr del Vaca, your children will grow up to be just like me.
I am so sorry about this.
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I still have some stuff from Indian Guides with my dad, and I still use the same 'Indian Guide' name I had 30 years ago.
I'll be in Y-Adventure Guides for the next 13 years. I'm gonna be Nations Chief for sure.
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when did they change the name? My sister was in Indian Guides or whatever the girl version is, and she's only 11.
Maybe down here they don't care about offending theoretical Actual Indians as much? I am not trying to make any kind of statement-- I am ambivalent about such things.
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See, I'd like it better if they'd kept it Indian Guides, but changed the program to be all about the culture of India. That would rock. All kids with Bindis learning how to use a Tandoori oven. Intense debates over whether to be a Shivite or a Vishnuvite. That would rock.
Also, the inev, as the resident Aboriginal Canadian, here comes the EDUCATION: up here in Canada, African Canadian is to Nigger as Aboriginal Canadian is to Indian. No one uses that term ever in reference to anyone other than those from India. It is just way too ignorant a term. However, as far as I've heard from my Native American friends, "American Indian" is still the term used in the US as the standard term for America's first people though. I imagine the change has been so much slower to happen in the U.S. simply because there's a hell of a lot less of us red people south of the border.
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See, I'd like it better if they'd kept it Indian Guides, but changed the program to be all about the culture of India. That would rock. All kids with Bindis learning how to use a Tandoori oven. Intense debates over whether to be a Shivite or a Vishnuvite. That would rock.
Mel, you're the tops.
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when did they change the name? My sister was in Indian Guides or whatever the girl version is, and she's only 11.
The YMCA Adventure Guide Program is an evolution of the original YMCA parent-child program called Indian Guides. The father and son Y-Indian Guide program was developed in 1926 to support the father’s vital family role as teacher, counselor, and friend to his son. Harold S. Keltner, a YMCA director in St. Louis, initiated this program around a blazing campfire while he was on a hunting trip in Canada with his friend, Joe Friday, an Ojibwa Indian. Friday told him, “The Indian father raises his son. He teaches his son to hunt, track, and giraffe, walk softly and silently in the forest, know the meaning and purpose of life and all he must know, while the white man allows the mother to raise his son.” These words struck a chord for Keltner, and he arranged for Joe Friday to work with him at the St. Louis YMCA.
The National YMCA redid the program in 2000 but individual Y's in communities have some autonomy and many held on to some degree or another the Indian Guides program. For instance, in Hawaii we adopted Y Adventure Guides materials and donated all of the faux Native American stuff, headdresses and the like, to a kids theater. However, the meeting circles are still called by tribe names and the leaders are still 'Chiefs'. We do not teach any Native American cultural traditions or practices as part of Y Guides.
In Hawaii, we can teach some Native Hawaiian history, culture and practices though.
The 'Indian' Guides and Adventure Guides share similar vision and mission statements and the focus remains strengthening the bond between parents and children.
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Joe Friday,
!!!!
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All I'm giving you is the facts, man.
Just the facts.
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Damn almost makes me want to be invaded by another culture so I can be given a vaguely demeaning yet awesome name.
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True story: I was at the Aboriginal Centre, which, as the name implies is where many people from the local Aboriginal community meet. I'd met with a friend who works there, and then just stuck around to kill time. It's an enormous and beautiful building, which is a restored train station from the late 1800's, and I was basically just hanging out in the huge central area - it's just like any major train station you've been to, with a huge common area where people bustle about, and it's got a beautiful domed ceiling three stories up. Voices and footsteps echo. I was there on a fairly quite day,there wasn't a lot going on. Then I heard two women exclaiming joyously to each other. I looked over to see these two full figured women hugging each other and grinning from ear to ear. The were quite loudly talking about how they hadn't seen each other in years, giggling and just being really happy. They started catching up on each other's lives and one of them mentioned that she'd gotten married. "And you'll never guess what his name is!" "What?" "Drunken Chief. I'm Mrs. Drunken Chief!" - then both of then burst out laughing so loud that it echoed off the fuck*ng walls. I was beautiful.
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I was beautiful.
This is one of the best typos possible, congratulations (unless you meant to type that).
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side_show-- thank you for the Education. I, personally, do not use that term to begin with. But, you know, good to know.
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Whatever it means, in my university, (in Oklahoma, with many Native Americans) most professors say American Indian and Native American interchangeably. However, they all say that the only proper term is the actual Nation or Tribe they are from. In fact, my summer class last month was called "Native American Issues" with a Native American professor. He said he preferred American Indian. However, they are all wrong. None of them are proper terms in my opinion.
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Seriously given how the word indian came about if I were an early american settler I'd work pretty hard at getting that out of common parlance so people weren't still saying 300 years later 'yeah they thought they'd got to india!'
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The thing I hate about nomenclature and regional variety (and just plain ignorance mostly) is that I have to explain whenever I say "Indian" I mean someone who is from India. This shouldn't have to be explained but the whole damned "West Indies" thing fucked it up forever.
FOREVER!
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Whenever someone says "Indian" I always have to ask if they mean "Slurpee Indian" or "casino Indian."
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God's Own Dick ladies and gentlemen!
*light applause*
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Whenever someone says "Indian" I always have to ask if they mean "Slurpee Indian" or "casino Indian."
The alternate being "dot Indian" or "feather Indian" of course.
My dad's from India by the way. That's why I have the last name that gets me yanked out of line at the airport for further searches nine out of ten times.
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'Dawg-- those titles are only acceptable if you do the accompanying hand motions.
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Whenever someone says "Indian" I always have to ask if they mean "Slurpee Indian" or "casino Indian."
See, here in Manitoba, that would be even more confusing. We are the Slurpee Capitol of the World (http://www.myslurpeecup.com/facts.html)* and Winnipeg has the highest Aboriginal population of all major cities. Hence, per capita, when you are in a 7-11 here, and you see someone holding a Slurpee, there is a 50/50 chance that this person is Aboriginal.
* An even more embarrassing fact: it was announced this week that as Slurpee Capitol of the World for five years running, 7-11 will be presenting a bronze slurpee cup to our mayor later this summer. I will watch the proceedings and cry a single tear (you get a prize of you get this reference).
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See, here in Manitoba, that would be even more confusing. We are the Slurpee Capitol of the World (http://www.myslurpeecup.com/facts.html)* and Winnipeg has the highest Aboriginal population of all major cities. Hence, per capita, when you are in a 7-11 here, and you see someone holding a Slurpee, there is a 50/50 chance that this person is Aboriginal.
* An even more embarrassing fact: it was announced this week that as Slurpee Capitol of the World for five years running, 7-11 will be presenting a bronze slurpee cup to our mayor later this summer. I will watch the proceedings and cry a single tear (you get a prize of you get this reference).
Man, the lines on July 11th must be insane there, Iron Eyes.
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See, here in Manitoba, that would be even more confusing. We are the Slurpee Capitol of the World (http://www.myslurpeecup.com/facts.html)* and Winnipeg has the highest Aboriginal population of all major cities. Hence, per capita, when you are in a 7-11 here, and you see someone holding a Slurpee, there is a 50/50 chance that this person is Aboriginal.
* An even more embarrassing fact: it was announced this week that as Slurpee Capitol of the World for five years running, 7-11 will be presenting a bronze slurpee cup to our mayor later this summer. I will watch the proceedings and cry a single tear (you get a prize of you get this reference).
This post is the most wonderful thing I have read all week, month and possibly year.
And of course Cort would know the guy's name.
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Iron Eyes Cody, wasn't it? The best part is he wasn't really Native American (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Eyes_Cody).
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Man, the lines on July 11th must be insane there, Iron Eyes.
Way to go Cort (and AD, and anyone else who knew...) Indeed, on July 11th, the free Slurpees flow fast and hard, and are usually all gone by 1 AM (it's 1000 per location if memory serves me). I will think up something good as a prize...
Also, my mind still does back flips when I see someone drinking a Slurpee while walking in the snow.
Also, the transit driver that drove my normal route to University would always have a huge Slurpee cup when I got on to the bus at 8 AM and that also bothered me.
And finally, I always wonder if we are a the Slurpee Capitol because of this: at every 7-11 here, if you bring your own cup, or one of the many re-usuable collectors cups they sell, no matter what size (even a 2 liter jug), refills are 99 cents most days and 49 cents on special days, at certain locations that are announced on the radio, or via hastily made loose-leaf signs taped to the store's door. Is this the same everywhere? Even if it is, Winnipegger are all about the deal, and will buy something if it's cheap even if they don't actually want the thing they are buying.
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Last I checked the 99-cent refill for bringing back a cup only applied to soda, not Slupees. But I worked with a guy who bring in a huge 96oz cup filled with Coke or Mountain Dew to work every day. Although he'd painted over the side because it featured one of those dirtly lying race car drivers on it.
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Yeah, we have 99 cent refills here too, they just don't make us all hot and bothered.
We have a Free Slurpee Day here, too, although I think they vary it by market. I remember I was in New Jersey and a friend called me to tell me about Free Slurpee Day and it wasn't FSD in NJ. Theirs was the month before.
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There are no 7-11's in Houston. They used to be the biggest chain of convenience stores there, but the company had some problems back in the early 80's and part of the solution was to sell all of the stores in town to their biggest local rival Stop n Go. I stopped at a 7-11 in Witchita Falls Texas while driving to Utah. I didn't have a Slurpee though.
Some of my earliest memories are of walking to the 7-11 at the end of the street where I lived in Shreveport, LA and getting a cold slurpee on a hot day. I always liked the cola flavor.
I also have a complete collection (and then some) of Marvel Superhero Slupree Cups (http://www.paulmcrae.com/images/Miscellany/Misc/Slurpee_Cups_Bullpen_Bulletin.jpg)* that I purchased in Houston in the early 70's.
*Sorry, I don't have a picture of the actual cups, they are in storage in Houston.
~Paul
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I have never lived in a place with 7-11s. They're sorta a novelty to me. I don't think I've ever even been inside one.
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Yeah, we have 99 cent refills here too, they just don't make us all hot and bothered.
We have a Free Slurpee Day here, too, although I think they vary it by market. I remember I was in New Jersey and a friend called me to tell me about Free Slurpee Day and it wasn't FSD in NJ. Theirs was the month before.
Dude, the place is called 7-11 thus Free Slurpee Day is on 7-11. I don't see how it could possibly be any different.
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We don't have 18's in Ky, but Mrs. West and I used to get Big Gulps when we were in St Louis.
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"18s" made me LOL.
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wouldn't it be, like, -4?