Here's My Sense of Humor

Yesterday the Spouse told Wolf Wolf Wolfie (4 1/2 years old) that he was planning to loose some weight.

"You do have a big belly," she agreed. He told her he planned to watch what he ate and to get more exercise.

"You're going to have to pee and poop a lot" she said.

* * *

Earlier I had given the Offspring a hard time about not getting ready in the morning.

Wolf Wolf Wolfie, oddly channeling James Dean, said "You're ripping my world apart."

* * *

In the car, apropos of nothing as far as I could tell, the Possum (7 years old) said, "Clover fell into the Realm of Death because she was wearing her pink suit."

Yeah, happens to me whenever I put on a pink suit.

Wolf Wolf Wolfie disagreed. "It was red."

The Possum decided to compromise: "Let's just say it was violet."

I say "pink", you say "red", so we compromise on "violet" which does not appear between pink and red on any spectrum in my universe? I don't think so.

Where's My Sense of Humor?

From the Raleigh News and Observer today: Player who sent message is reinstated at Duke:

"Since then, administrators have said that while the message was in poor taste, it was sent in jest* as a take-off of 'American Psycho,' a Bret Easton Ellis novel about a serial killer that was made into a movie and was a team favorite."

Here's a copy of the email message, saved at The Smoking Gun:

To whom it may concern

tomorrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex.. all in besides arch and tack please respond

41**

I read American Psycho as soon as it was released, because I really liked Less Than Zero. I would simply like to point out the following points that the administrators seem to have overlooked:

There are no email messages in American Psycho
There are no strippers in American Psycho
The only shows are television shows (almost always the fictional The Patty Winters Show)
There is no Spandex(TM) nor any sports uniforms
There is nudity
There isn't any skinning, which is about the only thing he missed since:
Bateman, the title psycho, prefers to torture his victims alive
Bateman did not attend Duke, but rather, Phillips Exeter and Harvard
While Bateman tells people after the fact that he's a psychotic serial killer, he never invites others to join in

So, there isn't anything in the admittedly brief email that refers to American Psycho, neither directly, nor indirectly. The details of the email have no relationship with American Psycho, the story of a Wall Street yuppie. There is, however, a direct reference to the party, to the team, to the strippers who were insulted, threatened, and assaulted. I agree with the administrators that it was in poor taste. But if they think this has anything to do with Ellis' novel, we'll have to concede they didn't even bother to read a movie review.



* When was the last time anyone used the word "jest?"
** $43K a year for tuition, I'd expect better writing than this. At least Ellis can write.

Scientists playing God? We should rejoice - Sunday Times - Times Online

"But what on earth is wrong with humans playing God? I am all for it, especially as God doesn’t seem to be doing it. "

You got to love that.

Julia: Redirect

In the comments of a Hirshman-spawned discussion I saw this

"Which leads me to my point...women of the last generation have helped to create the inflation which has disallowed women, for the most part, to have the choice
to stay home. The majority need to have two incomes to stay above water. I find
child rearing and creating a positive home atmosphere extremely important. I
also believe women are far more superior to men, I am a feminist in that way,
but the last generation has done us a disservice because now we have to do
EVERYTHING!!!"

Next things you know, feminism is going to be blamed for global warming. Women created inflation? That's some staggering economic ignorance. As for the historical ignorance, do people not realize that most of humanity has worked? That child-rearing had to take place around all the other tasks that survival demands? That the novelty of a mother staying home with nothing to do but rear children only ever applied to a handful of people of a certain economic class, for a certain brief time? Of course, feminism has never been about women's "superiority" either. Oh, that worthless feminism, all I wanted was full legal equality under the law, and somehow I got stuck with all the dirty laundry. Back in the golden age of yore I'm sure women didn't have to do laundry.

How can one individual be so wrong about so much?