BS: The Mother of all BS threads

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Acme
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 11:36 AM

Well, okay, good for you. . .but that's not what I asked. ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 11:08 AM

Pat has been checking her male.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Acme
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 10:45 AM

Mom wants to know if you've been checking your mail, Rapaire. She's pretty strict about sending "thank you" cards.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 09:23 AM

Oh, Rapaire, you are such a suck-up!!

I have never had a coolie, although I have had smoothies.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 09:19 AM

Hi, Mom. I haven't left yet. Did you know that Amos is playing some sort of nasty game wherein he says you say that I was always your favorite? I don't think that very nice or very equitable, do you? Could he be punished?

No, wait. He's from Southern California and he'd probably really like it. Maybe if we treated him nice and backed him cookies and things. I'll betcha that'd do it. (I first typed "coolies and things." I dunno, since he's from SoCa he might be into stuff like that.)

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 12:36 AM

In case Moonglow needs one when she's a little older, the scientists are working on a real invisibility cloak for her.

Soon!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Acme
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 11:59 PM

I had to go to photograph a lecture at the library this evening, and I haven't called Moonglow at school or her dad at his house because it is late. I left her a message earlier that she is to check in at least a couple of times a day. I'll call her in the morning.

It's a good time of year for camping here in Texas--it's finally cool enough out to enjoy it and the school kids are back in school so the campgrounds aren't overrun (especially during the week). Too bad my kid's in school or I could take him camping. . .

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 10:53 PM

BTW, Mom didn't write that, I did.

Just a leedle joke.

Stilly, how's the girl look now?

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 07:01 PM

Blessings follow you everywhere, my son. You always were my favorite, I just couldn't say so in front of the others.

Mom

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 06:55 PM

Heeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyy Moooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm -- I'm going camping tomorrow! Yup. Pat and I will be leaving for Massacre Rocks State Park
(MRSP). In a cabin, but there are no cooking facilities and this is a good way to get us back, slowly, into camping.

I'll spend Saturday hiking and birding and will be back home on Sunday.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Acme
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 05:33 PM

There are a couple who always push my buttons also, MMario. Seems to be that way for most of us.

Moonglow is bustin' out this afternoon, and then her dad is taking her out for a nice steak dinner. They have a theory, and we will learn more next week when the crucial test comes back. If she feels bad she is to report back to the emergency room. Meanwhile we'll find a doctor down here in Fort Worth to do the second opinion and follow-up. The one in Denton is quite loutish, according to my ex, who is the one who has spoken to him. Apparently the nurses don't like him very well either--I learned that myself this morning when making inquiries and finally insisting that someone call his office and find out why he was still keeping her there when they weren't doing any more treatment. We'll get her someone who communicates better what is going on. These days of no information have been pretty tough.

Mom, I am so looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, having my son here this evening and fixing him a nice dinner, and giving the cats and dogs the attention they crave. When I got home this afternoon I took the dogs for a long walk on what is a clear, bright, cool fall afternoon. We had a great time. Their ears were back in their "travel" mode (versus the wanting to sniff all along the way in their "tracking" mode) and we did a nice tour of one side of the village.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 04:58 PM

I deeply sympathize and honor that in you, MM. DO choose your battle wisely, though!!! :D


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 02:18 PM

Too many lies causes an implosion. Vide Nixon, Bush, Hitler, Stalin....

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 01:09 PM

I know why - I have a compulsive desire to see what new warped fantesies are being propounded. Just occasional my filters get overwhelmed and I respond as if it actually mattered what he-who-shouldn't-be-named says. Except I also dislike seeing falshoods proposed as truth and left without rebuttal.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 01:02 PM

MMario:

Perhpas you should investigate why you go to places where your buttons are going to get pushed and carefully read those threads just in case something of a button-pushing nature might be found within. Or perhaps we should celebrate having such a fine button-pusher in our midst to show us all our flaws, in order that we might outgrow them. What a gift!

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 12:29 PM

Note the time stamps, Amos. Note the time stamps. And I can't fool with those, 'cause I've tr...I can't fool with those.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 12:27 PM

Where have all his buttons gone?
Long time pushing,
Where have all his buttons gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all his buttons gone?
They lie in shambles every one,
When will he ever learn,
Oh when will he
Ever learn?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 12:26 PM

Funny you should say so, Raspaire, when it was Bunnhabain who lifted Mom in the post just before yours. How did you miss that? I do appreciate your helping Mom out, though. For those of us living far from home, busy with real jobs, it makes a huge difference to know she has you nearby, able to assist. Just don't try any funny business with the will. We will know.




A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 12:24 PM

well Rapaire - Boy scouts don't get credit for helping little old ladies across the street when they don't need to cross the street. it takes 24 hours for mom to drop off the board - so you can't get credit for raising her up more then once a day.

meanwhile - I let a certain un-named fellow poster push my buttons again./ Damn - will I ever learn?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 12:19 PM

Well, Mom, it looks like once again I've had to be the one to raise you up, like on eagle's wings, to carry you on the breath of dawn. That's twice so far today.

I guess nobody else hears your cries for help. Maybe I'll get you one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 08:59 AM

Up you come, Mom!

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 08:50 AM

I've been known to be a source citer.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 12:51 AM

Thanks, Mike; one of my all-time favorites.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 10:04 PM

...Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
                  -- Heinlein

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 08:22 PM

Prayers go with thee, Stilly Sage,
My own child is near her age.


In other news:

More than a decade after the first planets beyond our solar system were found, astronomers have discovered about 200 of these "extrasolar planets," as they're called. Using a common-sense definition of potentially habitable planets, coupled with extensive computer simulations, scientists have calculated how many potentially habitable planets might be detected around other stars by the SIM PlanetQuest mission. ("SIM" stands for Space Interferometry Mission.)

The mission, scheduled for a launch in the next decade, will target planets with specific traits in common with Earth: a similar mass and an orbit in the "habitable zone," not too close and not too far from its parent star. With this mass and location, it's believed a planet could have liquid water on its surface and an atmosphere -- conditions considered necessary for life to gain a foothold.

The science team has shown that, in a survey of the best 120 candidate stars for hosting such planets, SIM PlanetQuest would have the sensitivity to find:

-- Planets smaller than Earth around six stars
-- Planets smaller than twice Earth's mass around 24 stars
-- Planets smaller than about triple Earth's mass around every star in the survey group

All planets discovered by the mission would be on a short list of targets for the future Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, which would look for direct signatures of habitable environments and even of life itself.

The roster of six stars where SIM PlanetQuest could find Earth-like planets, if they exist, includes some familiar names, visible in the nighttime sky:

-- Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, the closest star visible with the naked eye from the northern hemisphere's mid-latitudes, seen in winter along a line extending from Orion's belt
-- Altair, forming one corner of the "Summer Triangle"
-- Alpha Centauri, the star immortalized in the movie "Contact" and the closest bright star to Earth, visible from southernmost Texas, Florida, Hawaii and the southern hemisphere

The research is contained in a paper published September 2006 in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Its authors are Joseph Catanzarite and Drs. Michael Shao, Stephen Unwin, Angelle Tanner, and Jeffrey Yu, all from JPL.

More information on SIM PlanetQuest is available at: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/SIM/sim_index.cfm .

---

I am deeply moved by this story as it is the first I recall which seriously and practically talks about Terrans planning to find Terran places beyond the System. This is stirring.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Acme
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 08:14 PM

I don't have time, I'm chasing down the highway for at least one more night. They've apparently decided to park Moonglow there at the hospital until her results come back. She's getting a tad cranky about it now, because she feels okay and is tired (and running out of spots) of being poked for blood samples.

Great web sites, Amos.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 01:25 PM

Well it's either got to be Queen Anne, or Queen Elizibeth, or maybe Mary Frog was well established by the Napoleonic era, so Victora is out. I didn't know that was the origin of the phrase.

My dictionary lists it as 19 century, from the eating of frogs.

Anybody feel like chasing down obscure words?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 01:20 PM

I suspect the froglegs connection would have been what made the term stick. It might even have been what Elizabeth had in mind back then. People seem to like to use dietary peculiarities when picking on terms for foreigners - Kraut, Limey, Rosbif...

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:51 PM

well - I don't know how kinky Her Majesty and her little frog ever got. Some historians feel he was actually the closest thing she got to an actual (political) marriage - possibly because his appetites ran similar to hers

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:46 PM

WHAT? It has nothing to do with eating legs? DAMN!! There goes a perfectly good ribald pick-up line.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:37 PM

Amos - the origin of "frog" for "french" is well known and documented. Good Queen Bess (God Save Her Majesty!) was at one time flirting with the idea of marrying some french noble whose name I don't recall at the moment.

anyway - he was bug-eyed and reminded her of a frog - and she referred to him as "my little frog"; the term stuck as meaning "french".

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:31 PM

Just wondering. A few centuries of on and off war with the French tend to give you a certain view of them. Frog is not polite, but almost affectionate.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:27 PM

Man, oh, man, oh man alive!
That was 14-5-5-5!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:12 PM

It is a known, but derogatory term. It is an interesting question where it evolved from. I think it must date to WW II and I suppose it comes from the naive American reaction to discovering that the French are fond of eating the well-prepared legs of certain frogs.

I, on the other hand, am fond of nibbling on the well-prepared legs of certain French...

Further, deponent sayeth not.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:05 PM

Accepted? or known? or derogatory? or????

french=frog is probably about as acceptable as WOG or WOP or SPICK or CHINK or SLANT

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:02 PM

One quick question for the Americans. Is 'frog' an accepted term for the French on the other side of the pond? It just came up, and Mudcat is the best and quickest way to get an useful answer....

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 11:31 AM

Dibs on 3456789012!!

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 11:07 AM

Numerologaster- So at last we have a word for Flamenco Ted!

14567 is coming up soon...

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 10:27 AM

How is this wee filiaster now?

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 10:21 AM

No, no, sir.....bad pedant!! Th' art a grammaticaster, a philologaster!   The suffix of ineptitude is clearly -aster, not -master. That one letter should have so much power!! We can be grateful the Universe has ordained that it be the letter M.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 09:15 AM

...and don't forget to see the whipmaster for an incompetent flogging, the ticketmaster for the wrong ticket, and the shipmaster so you can use that ticket to enter exile via a leaky boat.

This piece of continuation of your penance has been brought to you by the letter "M," one of the twenty-six or so letters in the English alphabet. Can you say "masochist?" Can you say "manacles?" Can you say, "MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm....?"

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:21 AM

I confess, Father, I am a heretic -- but less a heretic, in my shame, than a hereticaster, a wanna-be iconoclast, an aspirant to heresy who has not yet found a way to truly blaspheme the Divine. No matter what I say or do, Father, the Divine moves on, unphased, untroubled, whole and ineluctable. I am a failure!! What am I to do??   It has been thirty seven lifetimes since my last confession.

Te absoluo in nomine Patriaster, Filiaster, et Spiritumaster Sanctium.... Go, and say three Ave Mariasters and fifteen Pateraster Nosters and be absolved.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: JennyO
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:03 AM

numerologaster - a petty collector of interesting-sounding numbers (such as 14545)

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 06 - 12:03 AM

piastre, n., Italian A number roughly estimated as 3.2

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 10:39 PM

Plaster            An incompetent pl

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 10:31 PM

Moonglow has got to stop busting up her red cells. See? It's simple. And since it's simple I'm sending telephathic messages to her bod to stop busting up red blood cells. This should work, because everyone tells me I'm simple.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 08:49 PM

Parasitaster!        Philologaste! Nay, dare I say it, philosophaster!!!

Present company (absent the fitting of shoes) excepted, of course.

You're not their sort. I can see that.

I am beaming kind thoughts out to Moonglow's bloodstream, for the sheer beauty of it.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 08:17 PM

Well, being an obedible, indeed an obedientiary, I shall forsake my current locus and the scazon of Amos for my own abode, and there I shall maffick the end of another day and another meeting of the Board of Trustees in the company of my gudwyfe.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 07:59 PM

So....

Broadcaster                A petty or incompetent broad
Baitcaster                An incompetent fishing person
Aster                      An incompetent flower
Podcaster                  A petty or incompetent pod
Stratocaster               A petty electric guitar

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 07:51 PM

Oh, soft!! Oh, joy!! LO!!! A wonder, as though to discover Never-Land. Here, dear friends, for all of you to enjoy, is the Home of Lost Words. Such a thrill!!!


A