Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I figured I'd wish one for those who are celebrating this strange American holiday, and express the hope that everyone gets wherever they're going safely. Just remember-- don't drive like Jake Morgendorffer.... ever. ;-) And don't throw food at your weird relatives, no matter how much they piss you off. Remember, it's only for one day a year, and the traumatic memories make for great novels. ;-)

Oh, and BTW, MTV is airing a 5-episode Daria-thon on Thursday Morning from 7:30AM-10AM EST. It's all second-half season 3 eps, shuffled around randomly. #309-#313, but not in order. Details (as usual) on my website. The Daily Dose is still nonexistent for the next 2-3 weeks, and maybe more. No, I don't have a clue why.

And, yes, for the folks who have been here for a while, I chose the title of this thread deliberately. ;-) For those not here last year, we had a "Happy Thanksgiving" thread that went well past Christmas. So, in memory of that bloated thread, I posted this. :-D

Gobble, Gobble, Gob-- ah, the hell with it.

rich.

Mr. O'Neill: Let's pledge to make Daria's dream a reality!

Daria: You mean the one where people walking down the street burst into flames?

Mr. O'Neill: The coffeehouse!

One year on I've forgotten what this whole Thanksgiving holiday thing is about, someone will have to remind me. It's the American equivalent of Christmas or something isn't it?

Speaking of which I've just realised there's a new millennium coming up in just over a month. Weird. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to celebrate it - has anyone else thought about starting to make plans for how they'll spend new year yet?

-Shez.

Shez wrote:

No, we have one of those Christmas thingies too. :)

On Wed, 24 Nov 1999 23:42:07 -0500, Jeg7777 wrote:

Which is a miracle. You Americans are so fond of your polical correctness that I'd expect the introduction of a religion-neutral term for it, any day now. BTW, they had such a term in East Germany (you know, when they were still communists). I don't know what it was, though. MSB

On Fri, 26 Nov 1999 00:24:29 GMT, [email] (MSB) wrote:

Like Xmas?

Course, the X is reminiscent of the cross, so maybe that doesn't count...

X actually stands for Christ in those Roman letters like in those fish things. Of course my fish thing says Darwin, so what do I know? :)

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

MSB wrote:

In Pittsburgh, PA, USA, it's officially "Sparkle Season." No official city display or document will mention "Christmas", "Hanukah" or "Kwaanzaa" by name, though they don't mention Saturnalia, so that one may be OK.

Of course, no one except the city officials actually pays attention to this. And so far, none of the suburban communities (there are 128 municipalities in Allegheny County) has done anything similar.

Peace Kevin

Sparkle Season? Why does this sound too much like a Val Magazine exclusive? I love sparkles- they make everyone feel like a star (blech!)

Of course my cousin knows someone who used to be a star. Not a movie star, a giant, superhot ball of hydrogen and other gases. Maybe we should introduce her to the boy in New Jersey who thinks he's a glass of orange juice.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On 27 Nov 1999 00:18:40 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

How L'engle-ish.

Okay, okay, I admit it. I've only been waiting all my life to use the world "L'engle-ish" in a sentence.

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

Gadzooks! L'engle-ish! What a great vocabulary we have!

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

Sparkle Season?! Oh Gawd! Reminds me of the time when acid was plentiful, powerful, and cheap.

From what I've heard, of course...

Jon The Space Ranger Graveyard gives one a unique outlook on life. A dark one.

On the mountaintop, [email] (Dagny Scott) spake thusly:

Now all you need is someone who thinks he's a lemon and a lake that thinks it's a gin and tonic. ;-)

-Mindy

"Well bust my legs and call me shorty." -Daria Morgendorffer, "Daria"

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

On 26 Nov 1999 23:26:53 GMT, [email] (KTrick45) wrote:

I finally have to ask this. What exactly is Kwaanzaa? Sounds like some weird Zulu ritual. And how come I've never heard of it before this year. MSB

"MSB" wrote in message news:[email]...

city

by name,

If you haven't heard of it before then you must have missed Daria's first-season episode "Pinch Sitter" where at the Gupty's she reviews such "classic" children's books titles as: Mr. Potty goes to Town, The tidy Teddy Bear Family, and Kaneesha's first Kwaanza.

Kwaanza is a made-up African American cultural holiday, started in 1966, that appears intended to serve as a black alternative to Christmas.

You mean Christmas is a white holiday? That's news to me. I always thought the term "White Christmas" referred to snow. Maybe Bing Crosby was giving a coded racist message in his famous song though?

-Shez.

Yeah. That's why Howard Campbell got 20 copies of it when he moved to New York. The plot thickens...

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

MSB said:

It's a black American holiday; the word means "first fruits" in some African tongue. It was started in the 1960's in imitation of the harvest festivals in some African lands.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

KTrick said:

I am forever astounded at the ability of "political correctness" to blunt the senses of humor of its practicioners, to the point where they will propose the most risible nonsense with a straight face, and mean it.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

On Fri, 26 Nov 1999 00:24:29 GMT, [email] (MSB) wrote:

The editorial board of our campus newspaper, by a vote of 3-1 (mine being the dissenting vote) decided that the use of "Christmas" could be offensive, and that we will refer to it as "the holidays". Didn't stop them from doing a feature story of Kwaanzaa.

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

though. MSB

Ahem. You are making a very erroneous statement here, because a lot of people do not support the out of control Frankenstein monster that is Political Correctness. It is one thing to want to stop the hatemongers and rampant racism (on all sides) and to be sensitive to the feelings of others, but when you can't speak the truth because you fear censure, it has gone too far. So don't lump "Us Americans" into one big group on that, please.

DJ

On 26 Nov 1999 18:25:00 GMT, [email] (Wammy2) wrote:

Generalizations deliberately focus on those who are sticking out because those determine the way a country is going. Even if 99% of Americans did not support this PC-trend they would not be included in "You Americans" because they don't change anything since unlike the 1% of PC-fanatics they don't start letter-writing campaigns and boycots. Consequently, if you're worried that I perceive your country as whole as one that's ridden with a disturbing amount of PC-fanatism, I can confirm your worries. But if you worry that "You Americans" was meant to include you, or some other _individual_ person, I can assure you that this is not the case. MSB

Oh, I can guarantee that too many americans are pushing P.C. to unacceptable limits, and if you state in general that this is the case, no problem. However, when you are speaking to the people in this group, the statement "you americans" makes it sound like you are saying all of us are great believers. Not so, and I just wanted to set the record straight.

DJ

On Sat, 27 Nov 1999 02:05:33 GMT, [email] (MSB) wrote:

You make a _very_ good point, MSB. A point I enjoy harping on every chance I get. In theory, this is a democracy. Rule of the people! Proportinate Representation, etc. blah blah blah.

In actuality, the only way in which the _people_ are involved in the political process is at the ballot box, and many don't even do that. The ones that actually _do_ anything (ralleys, letter writing campaigns, etc.) are the ones that are convinced that there's something wrong with the country. Thus, the govnernment is constantly influenced by the agents of change. We are fortunate that the founders had the forsight to ensure that the very mechanisms resist change, otherwise the country would probably be in constant turmoil.

If only _everyone_ would pay attention to the political scene. If only _everyone_ would write a genuine letter to their congressman occasionally (or, _especially_, their state representatives), even if just to say, "You guys are doing a bang up job, don't listen to those idiot ultra-right-left wing types. Things aren't as bad as they believe. Just work on paring down that debt (or whatever)."

Nixon spoke of a silent majority. For the most part, he was right. And why are they silent? Because, so long as things are okay, they would rather ignore matters of state. And it takes quite a bit of chaos to distract them from their daily lives.

On Sat, 27 Nov 1999 19:14:24 GMT, [email] (Daryl Sawyer) wrote:

There needs to be a balance there, though. Too much resistance to change, and solving any *real* problems will be just as impossible as dealing with the loonies. (By the same token, though, the loonies are just as much responsible when their overzealous efforts trivialize the real problems.)

On Sat, 27 Nov 1999 02:05:33 GMT, [email] (MSB) wrote:

Here in Alberta, we're experiencing what I call "PC Backlash." People getting so sick of the "PC" phenomonem, that they act almost intentionally insulting to everything that's not 'them.'

It's just as ugly. A perfectly rational statement about inner city gang problems comes off sounding like a call to ship all the asians back to China. (Nevermind the fact that it's actually a vietnamese gang they're talking about...)

Or as Katie's mother says "Look, it's Dagny and Ha". Except it was me and Stephen. Oh well, people of that nationality all look alike. Except Ha's Vietnamese and Stephen's Chinese. Oh well. I don't think they look alike. All those Dutch people look alike to me...

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

That reminds me of one of my favourite My So-Called Life quotes: Danielle: "Do we have to keep talking about religion? It's Christmas!"

-Shez.

[email] (MSB) wrote:

Saturnalia?

Personally, I prefer the neutral holiday of "11," last officially celebrated in 1976, right before it was cancelled by a large corporation.

rich,

Quinn: People are so weird!

Daria: Some are weird. Some are just astonishingly self-centered and deceitful.

Shez wrote in message news:[email]...

On standby in case of a major incident!

Martin.

Shez wrote:

It's a holiday that celebrates the safe passage of the European pilgrims into the "New World" (or the tip of the coast of what is now the present-day northeastern United States). Or, that's its goal...what it really is is an excuse to cook a turkey dinner and pig out while watching American football or parades on TV or whatever else you elect to watch with family around.

Since my dad's an "essential municipal employee", the city has him called out on New Year's Eve in preparations for anything that might occur once Y2K begins. So what the city's done is invited all the immediate family members of these "essential" employees to the new wing of the Convention Center for a private New Year's Eve celebration and fireworks show. While this may seem nice, it's not really what my dreams of New Year's Eve would entail, i.e. to have Grandma alive again and to be able to celebrate it at home, with Grandma, and then when the clock strikes midnight we could bring a birthday cake out like old times and sing Happy Birthday to Grandma and watch the fireworks on TV. And I could bring out the tape player and play U2's "New Year's Day" like I've done for the past seven years.

Happy about the mini-marathon tomorrow (oh god I would love to see "Daria" again),

LI, the happy coughing girl

On Thu, 25 Nov 1999 00:01:01 -0600, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from Lady Interference , and it said:

To add to this explanation, I think nearly every culture that exists in a temperate region, with four distinct seasons, has an equivalent holiday. Don't you europeans have some sort of harvest festival or something? I know the Celts did, as did the Romans. Just basically saying "yea, the harvest was all good, let's party."

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Yes, but I don't know when it is, it's one of those things they do in churches. There's always Samhain of course, but that's a bit earlier than your Thanksgiving. I thought harvest festivals were around September time though, end of November is getting a bit late to bring the crops in I would have thought. Bonfire Night (Nov 5th) is based on an old pagan thing, the Guy Fawkes stuff was grafted on relatively recently. I don't think it's coincidental that the Hindus are celebrating a festival of light at the same time the rest of us are having Bonfire Night, it seems to me they were both the same festival originally, they seem to be celebrated in the same fashion anyhow.

-Shez.

On Thu, 25 Nov 1999 20:46:35 GMT, [email] (Tarvok) wrote:

We have such a harvest festival here in Germany but it's not really a big event like Thanksgiving or Christmas. Basically just an excuse to have elementary school students make all kinds of stuff in crafts class. MSB

On Fri, 26 Nov 1999 00:24:56 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from [email] (MSB), and it said:

Well, Thanksgiving isn't exactly "big," in the sense that Christmas is big. We have a big dinner which includes turkey, extended family may or may not be included, and then everyone goes home. However, in America, the "excuse to party" is almost unilaterally agreed upon by corporations as an "excuse to market and commercialize the excuse to party."

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I dunno, there isn't much marketing involved in Thanksgiving. The turkey people probably do pretty well, though. But they're not even selling Thanksgiving anymore. After Halloween its immediately the Christmas season.

Or, as Frau says, don't complain about commercialism unless you want to drive a Trabant and view bananas as a luxury or something. I'm generally not sure what Frau is saying.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On 26 Nov 1999 21:25:00 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

The Trabant (usually called the Trabbi) was one of two types of cars available in East Germany. "Available" in this context means that once your doctor told you you'd get a baby you filled out the forms to order a Trabbi before even thinking about the child's name, and with luck the car would be delivered in time for the child's 18th birthday. There are at least as many Trabbi jokes out there as there are jokes about blondes. About the bananas, they were not available in East Germany (not to the common people at least), so once the wall came down, East Germans practically raided stores to get tons of bananas (at least that's the clich�, I'm a wessi, so I don't really know).

Here are some Trabbi jokes that I remember:

One day a Trabbi meets a mule. Mule - Hey, what are you supposed to be? Trabbi - I'm a car. And what are you? Mule - I'm a horse.

Both of them laugh and split up.

There was once a terrible storm in Dresden. When Herr Pankow left his house the next day he discovered that the storm had ripped all the roofing felt off the house. It was so torn that it could not be used for the roof again. Being a loyal citizen of his country he did not just throw it away. He thought: "Well, I can't use that roofing felt anymore but I'll send it to the comrades at the car factory. Maybe they'll find a use for it." So he sends away the torn roofing felt to the car factory. After a few days he receives a letter from the factory: "Dear Mr Pankow, your Trabbi has arrived at our factory. The repairs will be finished in 2 weeks. Drive more carefully next time."

The next one is not a really a joke. It has probably happened several times: After the wall came down, Trabbis became a collector's item. There are still Trabbi shows today. As all collector's items thieves got interested. One day a wessi thief tried to steal a Trabbi but failed because he didn't know that he had to turn on the gas pump (or something like that) by hand before he could drive. And if I remember correctly you sometimes have to manually switch between gas tanks while driving. Trabbis are crazy.

Now a banana joke:

What do you do if you don't have a compass? You put a banana on the wall for a second. The end that's bitten off points east.

MSB

"MSB" wrote in message news:[email]...

But not available in the U.S. I remember soon after the Berlin Wall came down there was some interest by U.S. car collectors in having a Trabant of their very own to add to their collections. According to a car magazine I read, the U.S. Government nixed that plan, not allowing importation in any form. The car is so very polluting that the U.S. EPA wouldn't allow it even if it were going into a museum.

R. K. Henry said:

Talk about over-reacting! It's not as if there was any danger of the Trabant becoming a common sight on American highways <grin> ...

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

You can if it's beefore 1968 or whenever they started those laws. They had an old Trabant when I went to a German student thingy at Calvin College. Wow. Tiny car, nearly nothing under the hood, made from reinforced cotton...

I think you'd be pushing it to get it to go the minimum speed (45 generally) on American highways.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

I stumbled on your conversation via deja.com, so please excuse my interuption... but there are some interesting points raised:

This is correct. In 1990, following the fall of the wall, East German officials were in serious negotiations with the US Government to allow new production Trabies to be sold in the US in limited quantities. They even came up with a couple of draft marketing plans... cost was going to be under $2000... about half the cost of a Yugo. It was (wisely) determined that this was not a good idea, not only the EPA concerns, but the DOT as well (safety). VW ended up buying the factory and produced a short run of VW-engined Trabants in 1991 before production was changed to all-VW.

<<The car is so very polluting that the U.S. EPA

As another poster mentioned, you can bring _anything_ in the country as long as it was manufactured prior to Jan 1, 1968.

As a special interest vehicle, later models could be imported for a museum (or as a race car! ;-) ) but never driven on public roads. With new 1999 laws, there are _some_ exemptions to drive these in a (strictly) limited manner.

Trabant

There are about 80-90 in the US, all privately imported.

generally) on

They cruise easily at 45 mph. 60's top end (on a good day) Acceleration is better than you'd expect because it only weighs 1200lbs.

Bill Elliott Lake Mills, WI '63 Trabant P600 (1 of 2 in the US) '60 Berkeley T-60 (1 of 6 in the US and even smaller and slower!)

we used to, like, bring in food to be sent off to pensioners etc, when i was in primary school, but it doesn't appear to be a very popular festival. probably because there's not very many farmers and stuff.

On Thu, 25 Nov 1999 00:01:01 -0600, Lady Interference wrote:

Are you sure Turkey Day doesn't celebrate the successful introduction of a new product to the American market (AFAIK the turkey is not native to America).This sounds like a more American (read "capitalist") reason. . MSB

[email] (MSB) wrote:

Actually, the original thanksgiving meat was, among other things, lobster. (Now *that*'s a tradition!)

Turkey became popular because it was traditionally served at the US Military Academy at West Point, and the practice became popular during WW2. (See also Rockwell, Norman, "Freedom From Want.")

HTH rich.

Jane: Usually when I have this dream I'm wearing pink taffeta.

"MSB" wrote in message news:[email]...

Actually the turkey IS native to North America (Meleagris gallopavo). Benjamin Franklin proposed making it the national bird of the United States. However the frozen turkey you buy at the store is a lot different from the wild birds that you hunt. The frozen birds have been developed through the magic of modern ag science to be bigger, dumber, and unlike their wild cousins, they don't fly. And they're good eating any time of year, high in protein and low in fat.

Shez wrote:

Same way I have for the last 11 years (and 18 out of the last 22). I'll be at work. This year, though, I'll have help. All of the administrative and managerial staff from the municipalities are ordered to work from 19:00 on 12/31 (which is 24:00 UTC) until at least 07:00 1/1/00. Usually, I'm the only EMS supervisor on duty during this stretch. This year, there'll be six of us. So, I'll be watching the computers not crashing, the radio system not failing, and the cardiac monitors continuing to function. And, I hope, not managing any horrible, bloody incidents of death, mutilation or mayhem. But that's the joy of this job: you never know...

Peace Kevin

we're supposed to be planning the whole damn year already? I'll spend it finishing up stupid classes at high school while dual enrolling in Philosophy and Psychology at GVSU where I'll be going in the fall. Over the summer I guess I'll work.

My Aunt Ginny is firmly prepared for Y2K and the Rapture and Armageddon and the end days and stuff. They have a basement full of food and a generator.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On 25 Nov 1999 23:54:25 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

I'll spend it cursing the blasted Cobol programmers who got it right the first time, then had to go and save the world by removing their wonderful feature... er, I mean fixing their stupid bug.

Dagny said:

Heh ... I'm sure that Satan's minions won't bother her then ...

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

On 26 Nov 1999 11:27:15 GMT, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:

Umm. The whole point of the Rapture is that you WON'T have to prepare for armageddon and the end of days and stuff.

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

Gee, just confuse her with one of those opressive FACTS. How are you supposed to have faith then?

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On 26 Nov 1999 18:57:47 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

Maybe she's a new breed of fanatic. One who believes, but believes she will be left behind. A sort of "less holy than thou" syndrome?

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

Don't you at least have to get some new Nike trainers to wear for your ascension? The Heaven's Gate folk did.

-Shez.

On 26 Nov 1999 17:36:05 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from herecomethehawks@hockeymail.....com (Kyle), and it said:

Ah, but you see, perhaps Aunt Ginny isn't so confident, hmm? >;p

Seriously, anyone _expecting_ not to get box seats at the end of the world dinner party and wedding would naturally prepare to survive what comes after, and, indeed, prepare for war... the frogs are coming... the frogs are here...

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By "new year" I just meant the evening of Dec 31st through into Jan 1st.

Psychology seems very popular these days. Mind you I used to find on the Psychology newsgroups that a lot of Americans considered it a synonym for psychotherapy, which always puzzled me, as personally I think Psychology hasn't advanced far enough yet to be of very much clinical use, what's needed is a lot more basic research still.

The market for second-hand generators and canned food is going to hit a terrible slump come Jan 2nd. If you own stocks in a generator manufacturer or canning factory I'd sell up before the end of December.

-Shez.

But the good bit is, my dad gets them to run the fans for moonwalks at parks and stuff, so he's looking for a good price come January :)

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

[email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

Hey, now we know where to go, just in case the excrement hits the oscillating appliance! ;-) Party at Aunt Ginny's!

Personally, I plan on going dancing with my ladyfriend... waltzing, no less. :P The way I see it, if the world is going to end, then fine. I'll go out in a tux in style, not cowering in some damn bunker like a savage. I want to live, not merely to exist. And I refuse to let some fear-mongering whackos dictate how much fun *I'm* gonna have at the odometer party. (It *still* ain't the millenium, folks, nor is it even the end of the 20th century. You've been sold a bill of goods-- it all happens NEXT year.)

Besides, I don't want to live in a world without running water. Blecch. Definitely icky. In preparation, I have only begun hoarding 2 things-- extra soft toilet paper, and hershey's chocolate syrup. I figure I can barter the TP for fresh ice cream. %-)

rich.

Mr. O'Neill: Let's pledge to make Daria's dream a reality!

Daria: You mean the one where people walking down the street burst into flames?

Mr. O'Neill: The coffeehouse!

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

Awesome way to deal, Rich - I'm gonna spend it in my friend's mansion, dancing the Time Warp with the people who've taught me what it is to have True Friends. Loving and being loved from afar. Dropping subtle hints and having them dropped at me. It's gonna rock. If I go out, I'm gonna go out in style, dammit! ;-)

Hehe... two days after apocalypse, you _know_ the ruler of the world is going to be the guy who stocked up on TP and old Sears magazines. ;-)

-Mindy

"You will never find true happiness. Whatcha gonna do, cry about it?" -Weird Al Yankovic

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

Brilliant idea! I must go out and get the soundtrack album. Or maybe rent a cinema for a Rocky Horror evening...

-Shez.

On the mountaintop, Shez spake thusly:

YEAH! And rent us up a plane so we can come! MUAHAHA!

-Mindy

"It's just a jump to the left..."

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

what's the difference? jesus probably wasn't born in the year 0 or 1 or whatever anyhow.

He was born in the year 5 BC, which means 2000 has come and gone. The end days began with the O.J. Simpson trial (horror of horrors!)

she who steals ideas from Kurt Vonnegut,

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

KTrick45 wrote:

Wow, I feel a little sad for you. Especially since there are quite a bit of people that believe that this is gonna be the end of the world and all. Holiday season especially. I'm figuring on a high suicide rate compared to previous years. Hope that I'm wrong though.

Lesley

"Every turkey dies, not every turkey truly lives." - Chef

Lesley wrote:

So do I. I don't know if it's a good sign or a bad one, but we usually see a "suicide spike" in late October. It didn't happen this year. Around here, we don't usually see too many holiday season suicides. Late April and late October are the worst. Why? I have no clue. I'd say it's because of a "Daria" drought, but it's been that way as long as I've been working here, going on 22 years.

Peace Kevin

KTrick45 wrote in message news:[email]...

at

The current issue of _Civil Protection_ has a brief article for parents who'll be working in essential services over the millenium period, and who'll have to cope with explaining to small children "why you won't be around at one of the most exciting (and potentially scary) moments of their lives." It might be of some interest, Kevin, to those of your colleagues who aren't normally on duty at holiday time?

The web edition of CivProt is at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/epd/cp9903.pdf

Martin.

Martin wrote:

Thanks. Actually, Upper St. Clair Township is inviting families of the people ordered to work to come to a party, or shelter, if things do go horribly wrong, at the municipal building. Among my fellow EMS supervisors, only one has young children. The rest of us are parents of teens or adults. My kids are junior members of the fire department, so they'll be at the fire station's party. They're glad I'm working.

Peace Kevin

On the mountaintop, Shez spake thusly:

One of my friends from smart camp is having a party. *sighs in bliss* Current plans for this party include singing songs from RHPS and TMBG, as well as Linuxizing a computer and watching anime... the perfect way to usher in a new millenium, no?

-Mindy

"You will never find true happiness. Whatcha gonna do, cry about it?" -Weird Al Yankovic

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

my plans are: go to scott's party, drink lots, do something ridiculously stupid like i did at the last one he had, and then wake up the next morning with an awful hangover.

You know what I think about Thanksgiving? All the time from like Elementary school you learn that the first settlement in America was the Pilgrims, so we celebrate Thanksgiving. Well, they're full of crap. The first settlement was at Jamestown. We just don't want to think the beginning of the country was a bunch of rich younger brothers who sat around in the swamp and refused to do actual work. We'd rather think it was the hard-working, serious, ultranonpermissive of anything, quick to hang people for "witchcraft" types of New England who set America up to think there is an achievable American Dream with a city on a hill and picket fences and all that crap and you can get a perfect life- without telling them that when you try that you end up building up so much anger inside you you have to take it all out when you have to wait at all at Burger King, not that the pilgrims had Burger King, but the "city on the hill" we want is our inheritance from them.

Given all that, though, I had a nice Thanksgiving. I'm thankful I went to my Aunt June's, where the TV never went on, rather than Jim or Larry's where you have to eat during halftime.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On 26 Nov 1999 00:00:19 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

First (european!) settlement on North America was actually a bunch of vikings over in Newfoundland (I think? That general area.)

Embarrasingly, they got their collective butts kicked by the natives.

[email] wrote:

Ah, now, but the big question is... did they have any Turkey?

Yeah, but that's, y'know, Canada. Hardly something to say as the beginning of the good ol' USA.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On 26 Nov 1999 13:11:38 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

Well, we do thanksgiving too.

We just do it in october.

[email] wrote:

Yes, but do you have the goofy mythology about "The First Thanksgiving" like we do in the States? It was hammered down your throat in elementary school, and I never bought it for a second.

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez

N.P.:"Cuando La M�sica Era Espiritual Y No F�sica, O El Adivino Del Ultimo Peri�do De Paz"- I c o n o c l a s t a / S o l i l o q u i o

What about the Vikings? They were there even earlier. (Not forgetting several thousand years worth of migrations from Asia of course.) Of course the Vikings eventually left again for reasons that aren't clear, maybe they said "let's come back when someone's built a McDonalds".

And don't get me started on Christopher Columbus....

-Shez.

I think I mentioned they were in Canada. The first settlement here was Roanoke or something, that dissapeared. The first permanent settlement was Jamestown. The first group of annoyingly superior-acting close minded Puritans who thought America could become a Utopia if we all became conformists and didn't dance or enjoy ourselves or talk about religion.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On Fri, 26 Nov 1999 01:58:17 +0000, Shez wrote:

Actually, that's not far from what the generally accepted theory (in a figurative way). There are tales of them having to fight the natives. They had no gunpowder weapons, and not a lot of steel, weren't exactly encased in steel breastplates (I'm thinking conquistador style); essentially, they were on almost equal par, technologically speaking, with the natives. Combine that with the fact that the European economy of the time just didn't encourage the type of activity that is necessary to get a profit from that area (overpopulation not a problem yet, not much obvious gold in the north, no lack of raw resources in Europe, etc.), and there really wasn't much reason for them to stick around.

[email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

Well, the Pilgrims had better PR and spin control. Besides, before Jamestown was the Lost Colony at Ocracoke (in the 1580s, IIRC), where the settlers all mysteriously disappeared... Talk about your bad publicity! Lost AND forgotten. ;-)

Hey, I'm just thankful I'm still an efficient exchanger of oxygen and carbon dioxide. It's the little things... ;-)

tired but happy he didn't ruin dinner, rich.

Jane: You know, I don't know why people say we have a bad attitude.

Daria: Screw 'em.

Whoh Man! Like the first robin of spring, looks like we've got our first case of holiday angst.

Don't worry, Dagny, the more you learn, the more you'll come to know that *all* history is crap.

I'm just glad you didn't have to wait 'til halftime. ;)

Take care.

Jon The Space Ranger Graveyard gives one a unique outlook on life. A dark one.

mostly because its taught by coaches, I thought...

Jamestown is ignored in favor of Plymouth in the same way we sort of skip over World War One in History. Why? We don't want to remember it. We want to remember heroism, so we have what we think is heroic: Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War Two. We had good enemies: colonial opressors, slaveholders (as a Northern type here), Nazis. But World War One there is neither right nor wrong and no one knows why it started and there aren't heroic efforts, just people getting stuck in mud and stuff. Mud is the biggest force in World War One. And rats. And America wasn't heroic, for one thing, we had a tremendous amount of action on "the home front" of banning the teaching of German, burning the works of Goethe and others, and in some places lynching German immigrants.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On 26 Nov 1999 15:43:24 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from [email] (Dagny Scott), and it said:

All history is tainted by the dark moments in all nations. I think there is a saying, "In such ways are nations made."

As to WW1, why did it happen? For the same reason most European wars happend, up to WW1; because wars are good and righteous things, and we have to kill those who oppose our allies! A Serb kills an Austrian prince, a bunch of Austrians reltaliate, the Serbs call their traditional ally, the Russians, the Russians attack the Austrians, the Austrians call on _their_ ally, the Germans, the Germans fight the Russians (who quickly end up in their own revolution anyway) and pre-empt an attack on the Russians' ally, the French, the French call upon the British, fighting in Europe, the Colonies (africa and Indochina), the whole thing ends up in a stalemate with the Germans seeming to wear down less slowly.

Then the Americans join up in favor of the British. The Germans get scared when their u-boats fail to blow up the American transports, and, seeing the writing on the wall, decide to negotiate now, rather than later, when they've been stripped of all their territory. The French are belligerant about stopping before they've had their revenge, the US threatenes to sign a separate peace, and everyone goes to the peace talks grumbling, except Woodrow Wilson. But then he grumbles at the Senate, and his big deal idea (League of Nations) is shot down there, and _nobody_ is satisfied by the end of the war.

Enter WWII.

• Tarvok (UIN 37083068) http://members.xoom.com/Tarvok remove NOSPAM to reply via E-mail Ap D+ T3 Wn Q++ FN^FR O Os m c- MV- C5X F102,209,308 BB+ FCJ +DT++ q FS:p

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On Fri, 26 Nov 1999 20:01:45 GMT, [email] (Tarvok) wrote:

And Hitler was from Austria, too. Remember that when Arnold Schwarzenegger runs for governorship somewhere in your country <evil grin> MSB

On 26 Nov 1999 00:00:19 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from [email] (Dagny Scott), and it said:

Hmm... I don't remember if they said they were the _first_ or not, though that's definately what my childlike mind percieved. They weren't even the first to settle the Massechussets Bay area either, IIRC, though they went off corse and ended up at what they called Plymoth Rock.

Yeah, but you do have to admit, as much as the so-called "American Dream" is a cultural myth, social mobility is greater here than in any other part of the world.

Happy thanksgiving everyone! Or rather, I hope it _was_ happy. I spent much of mine wading through a thousand messages in comp.os.linux.setup trying to find something relevant to my situation.

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Due to his present occupation, the author doesn't often read messages. If you want him to actually see the reply, please e-mail it to him.

I'm not really attacking America. It's a pretty good country in terms of government, economy, blah blah blah compared to other countries. Stable. Prosperous. But its the ideal that IS a problem, because people are always thinking theres something wrong if they're not always happy, they must need to buy something or join something or read something or whatever. When really all this striving for perfection produces is stress at the unattainable (and pretty damn pointless) goal. We need to be happy with what we have and accept the fact that the people at Burger King are idiots with really shitty management and getting mad at the unfortunate teenager at the drivethru does nothing. Be more Zen-like or Scott-like (I come from a family of underachievers. Yes, I'm very proud.)

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

Given that you could probably fit a complete Linux installation inside yer typical bloated MS Word document, I think we should set to work on a Millennium Word macro virus which, when you open the infected Word document, proceeds to convert your machine from Windows to Linux.

-Shez.

On the mountaintop, Shez spake thusly:

I'll bet I could get Joe to write one of those... thanks for the idea, Shez. It'll be Tuxissa all over again! ;-P

-Mindy All in fun, all in fun...

"You will never find true happiness. Whatcha gonna do, cry about it?" -Weird Al Yankovic

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

Come to think of it, this probably really is possible, as you could get it to download the bulk of the distro over the net: since Linux is freeware some variants are available for online installation over the Net.

-Shez.

On the mountaintop, Shez spake thusly:

But if _I_ can't manage to make use of them, how could a macro? ;-P

-Mindy

"Daria, you're giving me a headache!!" -Quinn Morgendorffer, "Daria"

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

Shez asks:

It's the time of year when us yanks torture a genetically altered avian.

Have a Happy TurkeyDay folks, and remember, in some states drumsticks are considered deadly weapons.

Jon The Space Ranger Graveyard gives one a unique outlook on life. A dark one.

no, it's the day we all visit our relatives, eat tons of food, and watch American football. Well, my family (at least the my dad/Barber part) doesn't watch football, generally we argue about politics.

And there's a great big parade in New York everyone watches on TV and the day after, everyone goes Christmas shopping.

It's supposed to celebrate the Pilgrims or something.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

This afternoon i'm going out to buy a top-hat, cane and pipe, to compliment my ridiculous facial hair and late-19th centuary crank-start motor vehicle, so when that millenium bug thing strikes and we go back to the year 1900, i'm gonna own this town baby.

Will.

paperpusher wrote:

Hey, thanks for the words. Practically 1/2 the drivers in San Antonio drive like Jake Morgendorffer on a regular old Friday anyway so I'll "pull my shirt off and pray" (no, did I just quote Arcadia?) that my parents and I make it to my Aunt Elvia's house safely. Not that I actually want to go...Aunt Elvia's part of the family is full of nothing but loudmouths who compete for your attention...and the only quiet people are my male cousins, who usually go outside to play basketball or something else (they're also the reason why I don't see anything in Ricky Martin or Enrique Iglesias because they look like them and I'm used to that, but that's another topic altogether).

 YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :)

I've missed "Daria" sosososososososososo much. Fanfics are starting to bore me out, especially since there's increasingly less and less time for me to read them. And I'm dying to get some of them onto video too. All I'll need to do is set my alarm clock for me to wake up REALLY early in the am to catch them all. :)

LOL. I remember reading most of that thread. Finally gave up after reading 2,000 posts (overall, not meaning that thread alone). Um...wait...did I actually finish it...I'm trying to remember.

*guffaw*

Older atd'ers, remember to take your Gas-X before chowing down on turkey (Mom told me how when you get older turkey leaves you feeling not-so-special). :)

LI, still happy, still coughing

Lady Interference wrote:

Yeah, but Thanksgiving's all about one thing, really-- doing things we hate to do, and would never do unless someone else forced us to. :)

What? Fanfics are boring you out?? I have *failed*! Failed, I tell you!!! (Runs away sobbing.) ;-)

You probably didn't-- I don't think anyone managed to make it through that thread.

Thanks, young lady, but it's already too late. But I did discover a way to make turkey-flavored leather! ;-)

STILL coughing??? See a doc, Di!!! It could be walking pneumonia, and you don't mess with that stuff! Y'hear?

rich, who finally managed to shake his cough a few days ago. :P

Daria: "I always knew that I would die in Nowheresville"

Jane: "But I didn't think I'd die there quite so soon."

I'm still coughing, but only when I laugh, which means that I have developed a Trent-laugh-cough! Yes! Whenever I stop cough/laughing I can say "good one Daria", and it sounds soooooo right :) It totally makes up for the fact that laughing is now physically painful :)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone else that celebrates this holiday!

*~*~*~*~* Liz *~*~*~*~*~*~* Auctions for books, music, videos, comics and more - http://auctions.yahoo.com/user/Napua_Poire

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

And ranting at future Thanksgivings. (If we _ever_ have Thanksgiving at my house when I'm old... *cackles evilly and adjusts the Crown of Evil*)

Damn MTV!

I miss that thread... *sniffle*

(Oh, and happy deer-huntin' season to you people who're into that kind of thing.)

-Mindy

"You will never find true happiness. Whatcha gonna do, cry about it?" -Weird Al Yankovic

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/