BS: The Mother of all BS threads

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:35 AM

This was not "pain", thou jade, unless it be the beautiful sadness of sheer beauty made visible but never attainable. Ay, heart, there's pain will still thy mortal complaint!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 07:55 PM

Pain will do that to an audience. . .

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 06:14 PM

I'm ashamed to say that I'm known cornetists and trumpeters like that. I knew one guy who could make entire concert hall audiences weep with his playing.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 04:46 PM

There is no doubt. Last night, on her lovely cornet, Barky played so sweetly she had three grown men in tears, two of whom were not even related to her!


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 04:00 PM

Amos, anytime one has a cornetist or trumpeter in one's home one is seven times seven blessed above all others and joy is unconfined.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 03:58 PM

But I've got the palindrome.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 03:58 PM

Amos stole it from Jeri.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 03:57 PM

Mom promised 25,000 to me.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 03:54 PM

We'll send the cops around too. Depends upon how much money or what is involved. The last go-round was a woman who had us borrow a videotape (hard enough!) of Indian dancing on Interlibrary Loan. She gave the usual excuses ("A friend borrowed them" "My pet dragon has been ill" and so on) but had no follow-through on her promises. Now, our reputation in ILL is on the line here, so we finally sent the "Bring 'em back or else we'll see you in court" letter and the item was returned immediately.

One woman who got The Letter also got a cop coming up her walk after she ignored The Letter. She ended up spending the night in jail because she also had not reported to her probation officer.

If anyone thinks libraries likes to do these things they're very much mistaken. However, we hold these items in trust for the community we serve and as such we have obligations to the community and state law gives us the tools to enforce those obligations.

We will no longer allow you to borrow CDs and DVDs or more than 3 books the first time you check out materials. This is because so many people would get a card, check out CDs and/or DVDs, and never return. The "borrowed" materials end up in some pawnshop or flea market and the proceeds are then snorts, smoked, or injected.

Yes, it's a very small minority who do these things. But I'm always surprised when the media is surprised that a library anywhere decides to enforce the law and the public trust.

Another aspect is the cost. My materials budget for next fiscal year will be less in actual purchasing power than this year and it has been dropping in actual purchasing power since 2004. I can no longer afford to ignore thieves.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 01:37 PM

Goodness, the Bush administration has changed the landscap[e in far-reaching ways, hasn't it??


IT has been a wild couple of days here at San Woebegin, my home town in the sunny Southwest.   For the first time in some weeks I did go out kayaking. On Friday, my best-beloved wife's sister (BBWS) and their mom (my MIL) arrived and filled the house with gay chitchat. They went to the airport for us to meet a woman we had never met but who was a close friend at work of BBWS, in the NPS offices in Denver, and BBWS had no idea this lady named Nancy was going to come to an Diego for the special occasion--that was drawing people together from all over the country--of BBWS' birthday, the celebration of her big six-oh. When BBWS saw Nancy at the airport she went into a faint of amazement, which was most gratifying to those who had plotted the surprise. Mid-afternoon the Young Renter who is living in our spare bedroom until her house purchase goes through showed up with her husband who is here for a brief visit from his duties at Fort Bragg. They began with a couple of friends to set up a large spread for a thank you party she was throwing for those who helped her move. Then MIL got busy in the sam ekitchen readying up a nice bunch of platters for a a handful of guests we were having over at the same time. Worlds in collision!! I don't mind saying it was somewhat chatic in that kitchen for several hours. I escaped myself to drive to the airport to meet my best-beloved daughter, BBD, who arrived with her cornet and suitcase. Sheer joy personified, to an aging Paw.

Oh, and the Concert Pianist arrived from Ohio Thursday evening and spent the night. He is an old friend of BBWS from childhood and agreed to come help celebrate the Day.

So Friday evening we have a huge crowd. One half the house is occupied by the Young Engineering crowd chowing down on babyback ribs and the patio is covered with a slightly older set, including the Oceanographer, the Retired Physicist, the COncert Pianist, The Choreoggrapher, spouses and friends and wine and plates of food. The electricity in the house was palpable, buzzing conversations, some jazz playing, There was some cross over betweent he sets, as I knew many of the Young Engineering crowd from work, and a couple of the engineers got to talking with The Physicist. The COncert Pianist graced the evening with a couple of fine pieces, which the older crowd loved and the younger crowd listened to with respect and admiration.

By 9:00 pm the crowd had thinned and we took to scrubbing and washing and drying and figuring out what to do with the left overs. The fridge is groaning with leftovers. Three trashbags full of stuff in the trash. One drain backed up with (probably) fruit rinds and vegetable cuttings carelessly dispatched by the inexperienced into an aged drain system. When the last dish was washed and the last guest sent off with cheery farewells, we all crashed. MIL and BBWS to a hotel, the Concert Pianist from Ohio to a friend's house, Nancy to our spare bed in the printer room, all slipped intot he arms of Morpheus.

Saturday, after a lazy breakfast, we loaded up the car with twenty cases of wine and water and fruity drink and such and John from Northern California arrived A motorcade of three cars all made their way about fifty miles North and East to a beautiful ranchhouse among avocado groves with a huge patio and lovely pool and jacuzzi, in the shadow of Mount Palomar, where we deployed. Guests from all over the county arrived in this far off hard to find enclave, around 4, and soon a party celebrating BBWS' 60th was in full swing. There was a lovely 40' concert of short selections in the finest classical tradition by the Concert Pianist. There was a heart-melting duet with Barky on cornet, and the Concert Pianist playing piano, rendering "Believe me if all Those Endearing Young Charms", a real tear-jerker of a melody. There were dogs chasing tennis balls and there were small boys splashing in the pool, there was flowong wines and tequila and beer, and spare ribs and catered steamtables full of delicacies, and a CD of yours truly playing a song for BBWS especially written for her, and a slideshow of photos from he rlife playing on the wide screen tv, and all sorts of terrific gifts. It finally wound down about 6 hors later.

When it was all over, I carried five cases of unused wine back to the car and drove MIL and Barky back down the hill.   BBW and Nancy and BBWS are out trailriding in the back hills this morning, so things have quieted down.

But that's why I haven't been posting much this weekend.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 12:40 PM

You have to wonder about this woman--the books can't have cost a fraction of the fine she paid. They don't say where they're from, but I imagine she wasn't allowed to check out books from Special Collections or someplace really pricey. link

Wisconsin woman jailed for overdue library books

This story out of Wisconsin sort of resembles "The Library" episode from Seinfeld, specifically the part about the "library cop."

A Wisconsin woman was cuffed, fingerprinted and booked into jail in connection with her overdue library books.

The woman, 22-year-old Heidi Dalibor, told WISN-TV that she repeatedly ignored overdue notices from the library for two books she checked out last year.

She also ignored a police citation and a notice to appear in municipal court for her overdue books.

"I said, what could they possibly do? They can't arrest me for this ... I was wrong," she told WISN.

That's what led the Grafton (Wis.) Police Department to knock on her door, arrest warrant in hand, according to the report.

She was booked into the city jail and released after paying a $170 fine.

As for the books, Dalibor told the station she's still not giving them back.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 12:30 PM

One of the reason Juan was always getting into straits was because her always wore jackets borrowed from leading Idahoan librarians.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 10:36 PM

I've always wondered what sort of straits Juan de Fuqa got himself into. An irate father with a shotgun? An irate wife with meat cleaver? An irate husband with a suit for alienation of affection? An irate girlfriend with....

My enquiring mind has long wondered about this at various times.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 03:20 PM

Salish, maybe Lushootseed. From the Puget Sound area of Washington State, where I'm actually from. I just live in Texas.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 01:26 PM

The Stillaguamish River? Hmm. Sounds like an Ojibway word, but I doubt that it is. They were not down in Texas as far as I know.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 01:12 PM

Stillaguamish sounds weirder than Stilly, hence my abbreviation.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 01:11 PM

And what would be the reward for such a dubious project?

Extreme wisdom and insight into Life, The Universe, And Everything.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 12:57 PM

Oh, so? I'll have you know I read all the time. Every day. I'm a voracious reader. I'd rather read than drink! Can I help it if I don't happen to be reading the specific books you want me to read? Can I help it if my reading has not been much about Ireland of late? As for your explanations...well, evidently I didn't happen to read those specific posts either (or perhaps I did and forgot about it). Anyway, if I were so inclined as to read every single post you have ever posted then I would have read them...but who has the time for that? And what would be the reward for such a dubious project? ;-)

You do not appear to grasp that I have never had any particular curiosity or concern about whether your membername had a specific meaning or was simply an arbitrary construction, and that my recent discovery of what it does mean was entirely coincidental.

Hell, there must be a couple hundred people here with weird membernames...and they may or may not mean something...but do I care? Not particularly. I have other hobbies.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 12:18 PM

Hell, I've explained it several times. You can also check your copy of any good Irish-English dictionary.

Boy, people sure done READ anymore, do they??

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 05:33 PM

So? Big deal. I wasn't worried about it, I just happened to be leafing through a book idly today in the used bookstore, a book about Irish history, and there was an explanation of the word "rapaire". That was the first point at which I ever HAD any concern about there being a possible meaning behind Rapaire's membername.

And if that ain't good enough for ya, Stilly, too flippin' bad, eh? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 05:11 PM

It took 25,000 posts for LH to finally get that? I must have gotten it 22,000 posts back.

Sheesh!

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 05:03 PM

Better look further, for it means more than that. WITHOUT the accent acutes it mean "rapier" (like the sword). WITH accent acutes is means "raparree" or "highwayman".

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 02:07 PM

Hey, man, I just found out what that crazy name of yours means. I was looking through a book about the history of Ulster. Apparently a rapaire was a half-pike, a weapon meant for impaling one's adversary on the the battlefield. This would have been back in the 1500s, I think. Maybe the 1600s.

The Irish pronounced it "raparee".

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 01:52 PM

I can only say to LH, who suggested such a contest, "Urine trouble now!"

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 01:49 PM

My pissing vs. Chongo's dribbling? This would be a contest?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 12:31 PM

Well, Rapaire is a special case, I grant you that. ;-) It would be interesting to get him and Chongo together for a "pissing" contest. I think that the results would probably draw grudging respect from even Chuck Norris.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 12:26 PM

Actually I was referring to Rapaire's recent posts,LH!! :DF



A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 12:16 PM

"SOmetimes, it seems, life is just an unending struggle between testosterone and delusion."

Interesting viewpoint, Amos. ;-) Yeah, it does seem like that sometimes, if you're male at any rate.

I think life is an unending struggle between love and fear. Testosterone merely adds quite a bit to the confusion, that's all.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 11:20 AM

I know where San Diego is as well as where Arimo and McAmmon are. Obviously I know more than you do.

Knowing a couple of two-bit suburbs n Bannock County doesn't not add up to knowing a lot, you know. Besides, THERE's NO SUCH PLACE as McAmmon.

It's spelled McCammon.

Unless you are exploring a different map altogether...

Anything is possible.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 10:44 AM

SOmetimes, it seems, life is just an unending struggle between testosterone and delusion.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 09:15 AM

Moreover, I find it difficult to sleep during my meetings with the Mayor. He's always saying things and stuff. And he really should get a couch in his office because it's difficult sleeping in those chairs he has. Not a lounger in the bunch. I nearly typed "Not a lunger in the bunch" but we don't have a lot of TB around here anymore. Just another Old West custom destroyed by the March Of Progress -- Doc Holliday would be disappointed. Of course, there's no record he ever was up this way, but the principle is the same. But I put the decline in consumptives to the decline in spittoons. You never see a spittoon in a bar anymore, especially in those bars that serve drinks with little umbrellas or impaled fruit in them. My guess is that if a REAL drinker came in, ordered some Red-eye, spit his cud out onto the floor, and cussed the barkeep when he didn't leave the bottle the REAL drinker would probably be asked, oh so politely, to leave. That of course would end when the bar was wrecked and the lights shot out, but none of that would have happened if the mayor would keep his mouth shut when I'm trying to grab some ZZZs in his office.

Just goes to show you how politicians keep small businesses down.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 03:44 PM

I personally find famine, death, pestilence, war, and embarassing itch to be offensive.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 01:56 PM

Maybe Lou Dobbs might show up.

We could explain to him that getting the most bang for our illegal immigrant buck is not in a 5billion dollar ICE police but rather have aliens on site for nothern style slavery so we can get our yards turned into to victory gardens and grow food. Others could simply get the grass cut or an addition built with super insulation and solar cell installation.

Some people would not object to the virtuall slavery but only the cultural intrusion while most people who already have Latino housekeepers would expand on their use of this labor base.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 01:21 PM

You'd certainly attract some attention!

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 01:06 PM

(its a short story I did in the style of Jean Shepard with the social spices of Rod Serling.)

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 01:03 PM

Kudos Amos

I thought you plugged in big Mom for the truly famous horse of the 1930's that had many poems, movies and books dedicated to him.
It is written with the tone and timbre of the 1930 American language.


BUSY BUSY DAY Its seasonal garbage day.

If I have time I'll dig a split trench latrine in the front yard and invite all the Mexicans down by 7-11 and Home Depot to build a tent city on our huge front yard.

That should give the neighbors something to think about at Church.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 09:53 AM

Well, I guess some of us are just a little too old to wave the magic wand, is all. I declare your remarks inconsequential, poof.

Whassamaddayou? You can dish out solipsism, but you can't take it?


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 09:09 AM

And that's why Americans do so poorly in mathematics....

"Houston, we've only go a tenth of the fuel needed to return to Earth!"
"Yeah, well, we declare the problem fixed, POOF!!"
"Houston, who you callin' a poof?"

"Well, Karl, we only have 10% of the votes we need."
"No problem. I declare the problem solved. POOF! Oh, and call the Supreme Court for me willya?"

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 12:55 AM

I said 2500th a couple of times when I meant 25,000 th.

I hereby decee those errors corrected, poof.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 12:45 AM

Now, Still. Jeri fixed things right up when asked, and she was very gracious about it. No harm, no foul.

Don't wear yerself out--it's a bear reading up a long string of posts.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 11:03 PM

I raced to the end, after an absence all day, to see who got the number. I counted back and saw jeri's name, and the note that "empty posts are deleted." The original 25,000th post had been cut.

Actually, I'm quite disappointed. jeri should know better than to intrude on a long-running idiosyncratic thread, to pull rank arbitrarily, to usurp the flow of the MOAB.

It's cheating.

I expect an apology.

Seriously. And take the "this space for rent" line out.

SRS

(I'll go back and read your magnum opus, Amos.)

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 10:54 PM

You ever set tombstones in July? In a cemetery where the water was from a well downhill from the graves?

Now you have a general idea why I became a librarian.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 10:46 PM

I think I now know why you became a Librarian.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 09:53 PM

Unlike Amos (obviously a greedhead neocon Republican who will undoubtedly vote for McCain at least five or six times) Jeri does catch-and-release.

Not a bad epic poem. The scansion limps here and there, the meter's a bit rough, the imagery leaves something to be desired, there are several "iffy" rhymes, and the whole thing would probably have been better as an Alexandrine. But a good try nonetheless.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 09:04 PM

I am disappointed in the responses. This heart-stopping mellerdrammer, this original creative work, this paean to the tensions and mysteries of the MOAB, and all I get is a buncha yeah, right, man, I had one of those but the wheels fell off kind of remarks. Sigh.
I say, "sigh"! SIGH!




A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 08:29 PM

I've been hit by lighting that way
without an iron bit & shoes
it blasted me with a burning blaze
and screamed 'time's up you lose'

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 07:31 PM

If you think I'm going to look back through all those thousands of posts to find the 2500th one, think again.

Anyway that is soooo "last week"...as Paris Hilton would say.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 07:21 PM

There was an invisible core of transcendant tranquility in the 2500th thread, such that it was not empty, merely invisible. There was no way for Jeri to know that as she is so quick on the response that she was posting before the explanation was proffered. She has now, justly, put things to rights.

It is also the case that this Star Number was hardest earned by the author of this scintillating, blood-curdling tale of heroic strife and god-like intervention in the affairs of Men and BS.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 06:55 PM

I yewshally bag it too if I am on the street. Or at the movies.

- Shane

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Jeri
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 06:46 PM

Jeri bagged it and Jeri let it go.