gdp's Comments

Crasstalk : A Gamer's Guide: A Field Identification Guide to Roleplayers

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:09:24 +0000

Well, so am I, I suppose, but that's not saying much. Five years ago, I smoked, drank a fair amount, drank coffee from morning until night, and hauled around a lard-assed 200+ pounds. Then I got really sick. Now I've quit smoking (except, well .... you know); almost never drink either alcohol or coffee, and weigh in at a bantamweight 145. Being sick was a major drag, but in the end I wound up much the better for it -- except, as I say, for a few vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Optimistic?? Sure am -- as of just about exactly now, I am officially five years past my sell-by date. Works for me.

Crasstalk : Monday Evening Open Thread

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:56:04 +0000

i saw Pacino in Richard III with his company. My dad had gotten third- or fourth-row center seat, and ol' Al, boy, he was even worse than hammy. It was like he played Ratso Rizzo, only speaking Shakespeare's lines. And this young kid played Hotspur, at the end -- and he was rockin' a MAJOR Jewish 'fro, so the crown on his head made everything from his ears upward look like a crazed hourglass. Not to mention his pronounced Lawn Guyland accent. The worst, though, was Al's enunciation, which was be-saliva'ed to the max; you could see the spit in the footlights; in particularly horrid moments you could feel it like a gentle rain. I've never had much use for Pacino, but that experience really was the bitter end.

Crasstalk : A Gamer's Guide: A Field Identification Guide to Roleplayers

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:34:01 +0000

Anemia is awful ... at least for me, some days I can cover a lot of ground, and others I can go a few blocks at most before I feel utterly wiped out. I take a bunch of iron supplements, and eat plenty of red meat and spinach and such. Way low on vitamin D, too. The fatigue gives me chilling premonitions of old age.

Crasstalk : A Gamer's Guide: A Field Identification Guide to Roleplayers

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:28:22 +0000

When I was first recovering from a really bigtime abdominal operation, they wanted to get me on my feet as soon as reasonably possible given all the tubes sticking out of and into me. But during the day, they'd send a "moving" party to set me up in a chair right next to my bed, and eventually moved me to a walker, at which point my main doctor, the chief surgical resident (who was a Rrrussian to the core and very brusque) would say: Mistairrrr Mouwsse, bed is not your frrrriend!! Chairrr not frrriend!! Wal-ker! Now wal-ker is best frrriend for you." By the end of my time there we got to be pals, but she terrorized the kids she supervised. Good doctors, though -- all of them.

Crasstalk : Saturday Open Thread

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:22:03 +0000

Ethiopian is good. With the neoprene-like bread that doubles as table and utensils. I like the Eth. version of steak tartare. But their national drink -- honey mead -- is just horrid-sweet, thick, and yucky.

Crasstalk : QOTD: School Is Out!

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 22:58:48 +0000

We mostly just hacked around, but what that meant changed from year to year. We lived in a very hilly, wooded area with a lake, all surrounded by a wall. So nobody worried much about our getting stolen away by skeevy strangers. And although the roads were windy-aroundy, everyone knew there might be kids -- or a six-point buck -- just around the next corner. We had tennis lessons and swimming lessons. We rode bikes. We built forts in the woods. Later, when we were allowed, we sailed sailboats on the lake. Now and then we had rockfights, but not that much.

Crasstalk : Inventing a New Game While Locked inside a Big Box Store

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 22:15:56 +0000

We have board members of our building who do that to spot dogs being illicitly taken on the front elevator or little kids who misbehave -- press all the elevator buttons, etc. Then they send mean letters.

Crasstalk : Inventing a New Game While Locked inside a Big Box Store

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 22:10:15 +0000

I've worked in several bookstores, especially one up near Columbia in NYC (but NOT the University bookstore); that was interesting because as a college bookstore it had all sorts of unusual titles along with the commercial stuff. But the inmates (of whom I was one) were definitely in charge of that asylum. We had great fun. I just LOOOOVE a good bookstore, but they are ever-fewer and farther between.

Crasstalk : Saturday Open Thread

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:46:12 +0000

His poor wife! I mean, who knows what went into her decision the marry him, but I totally doubt she expected the wheels to come off in quite so sleazetacular a fashion. It least she's a whiz-kid on her own.

Crasstalk : Anti-Nuclear Protests in Japan; Quakebook Paperback Edition On Sale

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:31:32 +0000

Interesting link!

Crasstalk : The Fermi Paradox and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:47:08 +0000

I specialize in dreaming up weird science brain-collisions, but you, sir, take the cake: MiND=BLOWN I will be worrying about this for a while.

Crasstalk : Detroit Still Black, City Expects Power Later Today

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 01:11:09 +0000

[youtube Dy6uLfermPU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU youtube] XoX mousie

Crasstalk : Detroit Still Black, City Expects Power Later Today

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:43:48 +0000

@AssembledWrong: Not about Detroit, but knowinlg your retro sensibility you'll probably enjoy this site/ done by my former frat brother turned distinguished architectural preservationist, CHRIS GRAY

Crasstalk : QOTD: The Fridge Is Empty

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:30:52 +0000

We hardly ever get to that state, cuz we have a weeks' worth of canned stuff and pasta and staples. But if there's no REAL food we usually order in: 1. CHINESE ... usually all appetizers and sides. (Spring roll, fried dumplings, crispy spicy beef, cold sesame noodles, hot'n'sour soup etc, ) 2. HAMBURGERS ... from Jackson Hole (with fries and fried onion rings) HUGE burgers. Sometimes we splurge and get thick milkshake too 3. MEXICAN -- Burritos, cheesy beef nachos and chorizo, steak fajitas. . . Fridays are Pizza Night so we don't usually order them other times, but we go pick those up. My brother and I have been going to this pizzeria for more than forty years -- for us, all other pizzas suck!

Crasstalk : Friday Morning Open Thread

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:19:02 +0000

I wasn't expecting anything quite as unusual as that, I must say.

Crasstalk : Friday Morning Open Thread

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:05:37 +0000

I see your Loverboy and raise you a Poison [youtube AelpbAegA-4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AelpbAegA-4 youtube]

Crasstalk : Friday Morning Open Thread

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:34:51 +0000

Today's CT OffiCial Magic Words are:SHEEP TRIAL

Crasstalk : Thursday Evening Open Thread

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:51:52 +0000

My sister is a minister too. I'm supposed to go to a service at her church today.

Crasstalk : Thursday Evening Open Thread

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:28:55 +0000

Very meta- Sorta neat, though.

Crasstalk : Thursday Evening Open Thread

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:22:11 +0000

This whole 64-entry thread should either be a Supercomment of the Week or should go directly to CT Classics