I linked to a letter by Corporal Ippoliti some time ago.
THE WAR: Ridgefield welcomes home four Marine veterans of Iraq
After seven months in Iraq, four young Marines from Ridgefield arrived back in the U.S.A. last week.
Corporal Anthony Ippoliti, Lance Corporal Frederick ‘Erick’ Lohse, Lance Corporal Juan Ocampos and Lance Corporal Jon Olbrych
I wouldn’t ordinarily send the chaste among us to The Village Voice for moral support. But here, virginity is treated with moderate respect even if it is only the respect due to a thing for the sake of it’s diversity and not the respect of a thing with merit.
Seeing an article on virginity in the gauntlet of personal ads of every stripe is worth a chuckle too.
village voice > people > Lusty Lady by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Virginity has been a hot topic in the news lately: In England, 18-year-old Joe Burns hanged himself because he was still a virgin, while Lori Rose Cannizzaro, from Buffalo, dedicated her virginity to Jesus in a rare Catholic ceremony.
More news coverage of Miss Cannizzaro’s consecration is here. A description of the consecration of virgins is here on EWTN’s website.
From the National Geographic Daily News page:
Stingray Leaps Into Boat, Stings Florida Man in Heart
As for the likeness that yesterday’s event bears to the encounter that felled Irwin, there’s nothing to it beyond mere, if somewhat uncanny, happenstance, Cowen says.
“We’re not going to see eagle rays jumping out of the water attacking boaters,” he said.
“If it happens a third time then we have to start worrying about it,” he added with a laugh.
“But I really think it’s a fluke.”
OK, you Stingrays, back off. This guy in Florida had nothing against you and no relation to Steve Irwin, whatever grudge you had against him. The good people of Australia seem to have stopped cutting the tails off of your barrier reef brethren, for now. So, just cut it out. This is no time for an interspecies gang rumble. We know the Sharks are your first cousins and everything, but don’t make us scramble our Jets.
A quick visit to Global Rich List tells me that I am the camel described below. Chances are pretty good that you are too.
But then, it’s not up to the camel, is it?
If I were to write a surrealist blog post, I might begin like this:
In the dining room of a stone castle unlit torches and framed artwork hung from the walls. One india ink sketch of a gaunt horseback knight caught my eye. In this room full of original artwork and relics, this torn sketchbook page appeared out of place and outclassed. I was just concluding that it was indeed Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and it was indeed signed by Salvador Dali when our host joined us.
He was eager to tell me that it was given to him as a gift of the artist on the occasion of Salvador’s finishing the theatrical set design for a play in New York, a task for which he was paid a princely sum.
That princely sum could’ve bought some drawing lessons, observed my grandfather. Somewhere, an art critic nodded.
The sketch on the wall was looser and inkier than the one pictured here.
Surreal as it might sound, this really happened back when both Dali and Grandpa were alive. It really was Dali’s sketch, and my grandfather really did suggest art lessons. I can’t prove that any art critic nodded at that exact moment, but lots of art critics would have agreed.
Add this the the list of things I’ve dreamt up and gone so far as to draw, and now someone else is actually doing.
From Popular Science Magazine:
Grow Your Second Home - Popular Science
…why not construct a living, breathing house? “Something that’s alive and thriving,†Joachim says. They hope to plant the first house within five years, but for now, they’re working with Israeli arboriculture firm Plantware, testing techniques for growing the lattice-like weave of vines and roots that will form the walls.
No kidding, I have sketchbook pages filled with houses built of living latticework. I didn’t put the toilet in the middle of the living-room, though, so you could say that mine was way better.
I wrote a number of “Are you done?” posts. They’re responses to the reaction I get when folks learn that we have 4 kids, “Are you done yet?”. I could have more to say on the subject, but this dead horse seems well-flogged as things stand, so I stopped.
Are you done? Answer #1
Are you done? answer two
Are you done? answer “Câ€
Are you done? coming clean
Are you done? answer six
Answer four was not posted.
If you happen to be missing that series of posts, I’ve found people having still larger families, and defending it more graciously than I ever did over at Largerfamilies blogspot.
Last night in the Grocery store:
…Cool. because I try not to judge people by their lifestyle, y’know, I mean, a guy might look like a Christian Republican family man, but that doesn’t mean he’s not cool, right? I used to judge people by their outward appearances and their lifestyles but now I know that if somebody treats people well, then I need to accept them for who they are and get over my own prejudices, because they’re a friend.Goodnight, Friend.Â
