sundries

[rm]

It has rained for the last three days. It's going to rain for the next five. The current evolution of my cold/flu is alarming sinus activity. That started Monday, was frightening me by Tuesday night (I'm a hypochondriac, that fact that I was afraid means nothing), seems somewhat better today, and, I suspect, will ebb and flow until the rain finally stops next week. This is miserable.

I need a witty Jack Harkness-esque comeback (that is NOT an invitation) for the messengers in my office building that greet me with "hello, baby girl!" because you've got to be joking. For one thing, I am old enough to be that guy's mother. For another, conversations that start "hello, baby girl!" shouldn't really end with "god bless you!" either.

Starbucks. I spend money at you now in deference to your gluten-freeness.

I am thinking I will finally be able to think enough to write the railroad story tonight.

Need to call Duchess Clothiers today. And order new checks. And put money in the cruise fund. Not related, but transactional stuff all goes in the same category.

Also need to catch up on email. I will note that my gay fandom boyfriend apologizes when it takes him two days to email me, whereas I'm lucky if I reply to him within a week.

Keith Olbermann is annoying me more and more lately, but I still have to flip the show on every night to see his fabulous wardrobe.

Rachel Maddow. Interviewing Ron Paul. Wow, was she holding herself back or what? Also, she seemed sort of bored as he droned on and on. Ron Paul really works my last nerve sometimes, because he's so deeply rational on some things, and a complete loon (and/or bigot) on others.

Those of us who lived through the 80s tend to have a certain allergy to second-person prose. There was a lot of it in the cocaine-obsessed Wall Street fantasy fiction of the era and it can be a trick both trite and aggressive. However, neifile7, uses it to great effect in a Torchwood fic that takes the times to actually figure out what the hell Jack's 51st century mores are, quite apart from anything goes. It's different than the sense of that I've constructed in the past, but I think it's totally right on, and she hits it out of the park: http://neifile7.livejournal.com/4773.html

My uncle, whose wife died last summer, is dating someone new and wants my parents to meet her. My mother doesn't want to go because of her loyalty to the dead aunt (they're not related, they both married into my father's family) and also doesn't want to go because the woman is a two-time cancer survivor and likes to talk about her treatments. My mother finds this objectionable, because in the face of her cancer she "tried to just keep living a normal life" -- well through a fluke my mother didn't even need chemo, so she had an option for normal I don't think she understands. There's also probably a lot of money subtext involved in all this. The whole conversation sort of irritated me though.

Miss California is about to lose her crown for the same reason as so many pageant contestants before her -- nude photos. Eventhough the pics we've seen don't actually show any pink (other than the ugly panties), it's still a violation of her contract and there's ample evidence to suggest she's trying to lie about when the photos were taken to try to wriggle out of the problem. Regardless, it's standard pageant dramarama, and the second she blames the release of the photos on those evil gays, well, I might start ranting, but I'm not going to be surprised.

Meanwhile, Joe the Plumber, rants about keeping his children away from queers in the new issue of Christianity Today. I say, shame on Christianity Today, which was often in my house growing up (remember: Dad wrote his own version of the Bible and self-published) and seemed mainstream and not crazy. I may identify as queer, but it's still a slur coming from people like Joe the Plumber, and I'm more than a little disturbed that Christianity Today let such tonal quality grace its pages.

Comments

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't a baby girl when I gave you up for adoption, Sonny."
Not my best, will think.
Better weather and good health!

Starbucks. I spend money at you now in deference of your gluten-freeness.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Also, not being hissy about same-sex kissy.
Soulless corporation I've never patronised now more or less redeemed in my jaded eyes.
Also, Egyptian TV thinks they're Zionist.

Re: Starbucks. I spend money at you now in deference of your gluten-freeness.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I also notice that they're making more of the fact that they're apparently being greener and more ethical in their practices. That was something we had to write Starbucks about (one of their feedback-form exercises) when they first opened in my old UK hometown; they were beaten to that particular branding by a number of other rival UK-based chains.

And yeah, *sigh* to Christianity Today. Broadening the basis of your debate is one thing. Joe the self-publicist isn't it.

Second-person does take a delicate touch: quigonejinn has used it to good effect in the Hornblower and Iron Man fanfic zie writes.

[kshandra]

There are two people on this planet allowed to call me "baby girl."

1. My mother.
   
2. The 1995 Ms. San Francisco Leather, who in turn did me the supreme honor of letting me address her as "Daddy" when we'd never been involved. (She was actually a coworker of mine...and damn, but I'd give just about anything to see her again.)

I don't think I'd be calm enough to come up with a witty retort for that.

[sethg]

"Nobody asked you to wipe poop off my rear end" doesn't seem quite Jack Harkness-esque enough.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Has Jack Harkness ever said *anything* that is not an invitation?
I am asking you in perfect earnestness, here.

And Miss CA is already blaming the evil, evil gays for making her pose naked, or photoshopping her head onto a naked person, or whatever. Also: what a very OMP picture it is.

[dskasak.livejournal.com]

One of her first attempts at explaining the pictures saw her state that she posed for the pictures when she was 17. Oops.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Someone with way too much time on their hands determined that the underwear she's wearing was not sold by Victoria's Secret when she was 17. It's a ploy to intimidate the media into not publicising the photos because OMG underage noodes!

[genders.livejournal.com]

Actually, as soon as rm mentioned them I realized they were "boy shorts", which have indeed only been around for a few years.

All I can say is, she's getting a damn sight more publicity now than she would have for winning the pageant. In fact, I have no idea who won, but I don't go for that sort of thing to begin with.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

I never know who wins. They stopped doing one of the big pageants in Canada(I forget which,) and I didn't know for years.
I kinda like not knowing, and hope to return to that pleasant estate soon.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Pardon my provincial ignorance: OMP?

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Code for deeply tacky modeling pictures. Origins irrelevant.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

"...you’d rather not remember just how much novelty you may have to look forward to."
Oh. My. Gosh. Spot fucking on.

[neifile7.livejournal.com]

(sneaks into Rach's thread) Hee! Thanks.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

You are quite welcome. It totally was.
Kudos!

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

My father referred to me as "Baby" last night, I forget the context other than it was was a reference to me being the baby of the family.

I chalked it up to the shit he's going through. It still made me o.O though.

[coco-beans.livejournal.com]

My boyfirend called my "doll" in front of my mom once, and my mom FLIPPED OUT. "HE SEES YOU AS A INSIGNIFICANT, PRETTY THING TO COLLECT."

I told her, "but he loves his dolls!"

It's still a slur

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure 'Canadian' would be a intended as a slur, coming from people like Joe the Plumber.
I too am disappointed in them.

Re: It's still a slur

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Them being Christianity Today, not people like Joe the Plumber.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

Okay - the whole pagent thing bugs me but ... this young woman just sounds uh, stupid.

Prejean announced last week that she would star in a new $1.5 million ad campaign supporting what she called "opposite marriage" (marriage between a man and a woman) funded by the National Organization for Marriage.

"Marriage is good," Prejean said at a news conference announcing the ad campaign. "There is something special about unions of husband and wife. Unless we bring men and women together, children will not have mothers and fathers."

[coco-beans.livejournal.com]

I can't even begin on your mother. It maddens me and saddens me.
My friend-ish (went to boarding high school together) is going through chemo. It's horrifying, traumatic. I think the woman should probably not talk about it all the time, but come on! Anyone would want to digest/process/discuss traumatic events in some manner (or completely ignore the matter) Your mother or anyone could politely acknowledge the situation/feeling and then ask to change the subject in some manner.
And, hello..... the first wife is DEAD and probably damn happy her husband is still finding joy in life. It does not sully the dead woman's memory or life at all in my opinion.
But.... I kinda get the feeling that you know that already.

Different generation, maybe?

[rm.livejournal.com]

The generational thing is odd here. My mother is 64. The uncle is a WWII vet. No idea how old the new gf is. Everything you say, is pretty much what I tried to tell my mother.

[these-3-remain.livejournal.com]

Why did I google "Joe the Plumber Christianity Today"? WHY? He is so dumb, and now I will never be able to get back the moments I wasted on that dumb.

[neifile7.livejournal.com]

First -- thanks for the pimpage! I'm another who got really turned off second-person POV by bad Bright Lights, Big City clones through the whole '80s. So I haven't tried to use it until now, when it just suddenly gave me what I needed, and good to know it worked.

The only comeback is can think of for "baby girl" is "little boy" -- not very Jack, perhaps, but it usually gets the job done for me.

Ouch ouch about the cancer-disclosure drama. I'm a survivor, and don't talk about treatment often unless someone asks, but then I have a lot of other ways to deal with the whole experience (and it's not the only drama I've been through that made me confront mortality, agency and the body). "Carrying on with normal life" and STFU works for some people; others need to process aloud; not much point in getting too judgmental one way or the other. But you're right about it bringing a lot of buried stuff to the surface about life and where we do/don't think we've got "control."

ETA: did you see Musto's riff on Prejean being a homophobic man who's had gender reassignment? I sporfled.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

And....

Prejean said the photos -- taken when she was 17 and aspiring to be a Victoria's Secret model -- were being used in a "vicious and mean-spirited" effort to silence her for "defending traditional marriage."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/05/05/california.miss.california/index.html


That didn't take long.

[sageautumn.livejournal.com]

I'd say my comeback as such isn't Jack either... ...I'd have to go with, "Well hello, child."

[heron61.livejournal.com]

"hello, baby girl!"

Wow, I'm not certain if this is due to the significantly cultural differences (especially wrt gender roles) between the east and west coasts, or simply that you are dealing with someone impressively clueless, but I cannot imagine anyone saying this in a work context in Portland who wasn't both over 60 and an idiot.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest, as a comeback, "So you like kids?" but 1. I'm not sure they'd get it and 2. kinda hostile. There's also "hello, chauvinist", I suppose...

[onemildrat.livejournal.com]

The cherry on Da Plumber's shit sundae was that he was supposedly talking about his gay friends. I've noticed this weird little shimmy dance in so many right-wingers of late. "Some of the best friends are..."

As Jon Stewart said, "I don't know you that well, but I think your gay friends probably hate you."

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Something along the lines of "Awww, wookit the widdle baby!" might be appropriate, if you can stomach it.