Path: mit-eddie!mit-amt!snorkelwacker!think!bbn!granite!mandel From: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: Love, and Lifelong Soulmates Summary: Soul != Sole Message-ID: <1990Feb20.190825.14309@granite.cr.bull.com> Date: 20 Feb 90 19:08:25 GMT References: <9060024@hpfcso.HP.COM> <|-!#5^|@rpi.edu> <15980@haddock.ima.isc.com> Reply-To: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel) Organization: Bull HN Information Systems Inc. Lines: 34 (For those who don't read C, "!=" in the summary line means "is not equal to".) I've been listening to the discussion of soulmates for a while now without saying anything, but now I think I have something worth adding. Mary-Anne, up near the ceiling, just added part of it, but there's a matter of emphasis, or attitude, to deal with as well. When you (anyone) talk about "your soulmate out there" or "looking for your soulmate", you imply that there is only one. Mary-Anne answered that, I believe: why should there be just one? But more than that, the idea of "soulmate" seems to me to presuppose that your soul has... I don't know, think of it as one edge of a jigsaw-puzzle piece, and that somebody/ies out there has/have the matching edge on their soul. As though there's a specific pattern match that has to be made before you find the right life partner. But that's not so. Matches aren't exact, and they don't have to be. Looking for "the/a RIGHT one" can lead you to the blindered perfectionist quest, never finding quite the right one because there's always some bit that doesn't mesh perfectly, always going on to search further. Ask yourself whether you and this one (here, now, across the table/room/bed/hall from you) are pretty-damn-good-together-after-all, and whether YOU can do a little adjusting and fitting (not just now, but as a way of relating, as part of your life) to MAKE the edges match. (Silverblack makes no toast this time; just looks down into his Poland Spring Water, drinks off the last of it, and goes off to the dentist.) -- -- Mark Mandel (InterNet: Mandel@granite.cr.bull.com) /* My employer is not responsible for anything I say, do, think, or eat. */ Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!usc!ucsd!sdcc6!sdbio2!secbh1 From: secbh1@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Lori Stahlman) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Soul food for some, bitter crumbs for others Summary: Lunch Message-ID: <7615@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> Date: 20 Feb 90 20:02:25 GMT Sender: news@sdcc6.ucsd.edu Reply-To: secbh1@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Lori Stahlman) Organization: University of California, San Diego Lines: 93 The door was closed, but those who were sitting near it heard a truck pull up outside. The brakes squealed suddenly, and there was a sharp, metallic crash. Silence. Betsy Bo looked up from a battered library copy of _Wuthering Heights_. An uncomfortable feeling shuddered through her. She studiously ignored it and went back to her book. The door flew open and struck the wall with some violence. Heads turned as a very large stack of pizza boxes bumped over the threshold and rolled into the room. As the dolly on which they were balanced was set upright, they wobbled a bit but didn't fall. Warm, cheesy smells made saliva glands contract throughout the bar. "I have a delivery here for a bunch of musicians?" questioned a voice Betsy Bo was all too familiar with. She hunched lower in her seat and held the book in front of her face. A tall, thin young man stepped from behind the stack of pizzas. He wore a quasi-sporty red-and-white striped pizza parlor uniform. A cheap red polyester baseball cap with the legend "Beezie Bob's Pizzarama" on the front sat jauntily on his red curls. He looked a lot like Betsy Bo. "Let's see here," he said, addressing thr room at large, "We have five pepperoni, four sausage combos, four plain cheese, three vegetarian and three veggies with extra cheese, two Hawaiian style, two olive-mushroom-bell-pepper-mostaccioli delights, two combos with anchovies and three of my special everything-but-the- kitchen-sink super-mega-combos. Where d'ya want these?" The musicians left their corners and came forward timidly, as though none of them wanted to be first to dive on the box-clad treasures. Patrons with twitching noses peeked from dim corners like so many mice. Betsy Bo scowled behind the pages. "This is fine," said Oktave nonchalantly. "Thanks." "No problemo." He tipped his cap and winked at her. "Yo, Bets!" He strode over to her table and draped himself over a chair. The book did not drop from her face. "So...You going to pay for these pizzas or what?" The book slammed down on the table. She reached over and knocked the cap off his head. He squeaked and dove after it as she began pelting him with pens, books, newspapers, demitasses, whatever she could lay her hands on. "How the hell did you find me here, Beezlebub Bob?" she hissed. "Why can't you get your thrills doing anything but harrassing me with your stupid costumes and stupid schemes and stupid, stupid jokes?!" "Glad to see you too, sister dear. It's nice to be appreciated, especially after it took me so long to find you this time. Oh, sorry about your bike." "What?" "Your bike. But it makes a great hood ornament." Her chair hit the floor with a crash as she flew to the door and tore it open. She found her great old rusted Schwinn mangled and squished to the grille of Beezie's ancient red GMC truck. She stood in silence, her jaw slack. Why me? she thought. Meanwhile, Beezlebub Bob had grabbed a piece of Hawaiian style and had sauntered over to the group of musicians. Between bites of his all-time favorite pizza, Betsy Bo heard him telling the group about all the camp songs he knew. "Okay, let's try an old favorite. Come on, everbody sing along! One hundred bottles of beer on the wall, one hundred bottles of beer, (bite, chomp, smack) you take one down and pass it around, ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall..." She shut the door and shuffled over to the bar. "I'm sorry, Mike," she said brokenly. "I should have known this would happen, that sooner or later my life's affliction would find me again. I apologize to you, and I apologize to Callahans for leading him to this place." "Don't worry about it," said Mike soothingly. "Have a Shirley Temple on the house." Too disheartened to propose a toast, Betsy Bo gratefully took the drink and went back to her table to cry for awhile. Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ap1i+ From: ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew C. Plotkin) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: A Song: The Mary Ellen Carter Message-ID: Date: 20 Feb 90 20:18:37 GMT References: <1990Feb18.230800.10244@granite.cr.bull.com> Distribution: alt Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 15 In-Reply-To: <1990Feb18.230800.10244@granite.cr.bull.com> > Excerpts from netnews.alt.callahans: 18-Feb-90 A Song: The Mary Ellen > Carter Mark Mandel@granite.cr.b (4125) > To the memory and living spirit of Stan Rogers!" *Gulp* whiz >krash< Does anyone have the story of what happened to him? I heard a reference on a radio program once, saying that he died in an airplane crash -- and that he wasn't killed in the crash itself, but died going back in to help other people out. I wasn't surprised, either. But can anyone supply more details? --Z Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!elroy!cosc5sh From: cosc5sh@elroy.uh.edu (Unbeliever) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: A Toast To Stereotypes Message-ID: <5604.25e13c84@elroy.uh.edu> Date: 20 Feb 90 18:48:04 GMT Organization: The Land Lines: 41 The Unbeliever materializes in a flash of over-done special effects, and begins to speak: "Greetings, one and all! Newcomers & regulars alike. It's good to be back. Now, to business:" (the people at a table in the back raise their glasses and cry "To business!", but the Unbeliever studiously ignores them). "First off, I'd like a large Root Beer. Mike?" Mike dutifully replaces the silver dollar in the Unbeliever's hand with a tall, frothy Roor Beer, in a chilled mug. "I'd like to make a toast to stereotypes. You see, yesterday, I received in the mail a card that I will treasure forever. This card boldly proclaims me to be an official member of the BEER DRINKERS OF AMERICA. Now some of you are already giggling; for those of you who don't know me, I >>ABHOR<< alcohol in any form. I don't object to it intellectually, mind you (but for drunk drivers and alcoholics, I would actually find it amusing). I just don't like the stuff. The final irony (as if this weren't enough), is the fact that the card expires on April Fool's Day, 1991." "So, why do you think I was mailed this card? I have never made a purchase that would put my name on a 'Beer Drinkers' mailing list. I haven't ordered beer mugs through any mail-order services. The closest I've ever been to beer was my freshman year (I'm now a senior), when my NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR was a heavy beer drinker. No, I'm convinced: The reason I was sent this card is simple -- I'm a 22-year-old college male. Therefore, I'm a beer-guzzling, loudmouthed fraternity troublemaker. QED." *SIGH* "To stereotypes! You may laugh, you may cry, but they're still the #1 way that people (of all nations) judge one another. Think on that and be dismayed!" Be True... -=*> Unbeliever <*=- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |InterNet: cosc5sh@elroy.uh.edu UUCP:...texbell!uhnix1!elroy.uh.edu!cosc5sh | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!apple!usc!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!CCB.UCSF.EDU!robin From: robin@CCB.UCSF.EDU (Robin Colgrove) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Warning: more stupid lyrics (and BayArea Meeting news) Message-ID: <9002210830.AA22849@ccb.ucsf.EDU> Date: 21 Feb 90 08:30:39 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 59 Robin rises from beneath the back table under which he's been doing a quick change, now clad in lederhosen over his scrubs... "Spending a lot of time scrubbing my hands for the OR these days and in mindless times like these my thoughts turn -as they so often do- to the creation of Stupid Song Parodies (tm). In particular, there should be some musical memorial to that giant of medical science, Semmelweiss, who first championed the cause of hand washing by surgeons as a means of decreasing surgical infections. Of course he was laughed out of the medical profession and subsequently went crazy but what do you expect for trying to make people realize the obvious ;) ?" He reaches into his enormous satchel of gargage sale musical instruments and produces a battered concertina. After a few tentative pulls, we recognize the sickly sweet strains of "Edelweiss" as popularized in that paragon of musical elegance, "The Sound of Music"... [oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah] Semmelweiss, Semmelweiss You first taught us we oughtta scrub our hands. You made us fans of alcohol, soap an' wattuh... Drowning dose germs is my fav'rite part wit all my heart an' soul I thank Semmelweiss, Semmelweiss he's no friend of E.Coli! [Everybody!] Drowning dose germs is my fav'rite part wit all my heart an' soul I thank Semmelweiss, Semmelweiss he's no friend of E.Coli! Semmelweiss, Semmelweiss Your colleagues all thought you was crazy But all of youse - got no such excuse Not washing your hands is just lazy! [Everybody!] Drowning dose germs is my fav'rite part wit all my heart an' soul I thank Semmelweiss, Semmelweiss he's no friend of E.Coli! [Repeat until forcibly restrained...;)] ******************* And so he was, as angry patrons wrestle the hapless troubador to the floor and threaten immediate laryngectomy until a promise is extracted never EVER to assault the empathic ears of the callahnians with drivel of such surpassing silliness again. "But seriously folks, a progress note on Bay Area Callahans Get Together. Best convergence of the responses I've got so far seems to favor Saturday, March 17, noon-to midnite, crashing Savitskis shindig in the South Bay. Open the floor to discussion..." Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!apple!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!bigbang.Berkeley.EDU!gwh From: gwh@bigbang.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: BayArea Meeting news Message-ID: <1990Feb21.091951.1420@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 21 Feb 90 09:19:51 GMT Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44) Reply-To: gwh@OCF.berkeley.EDU (George William "maniac" Herbert) Organization: Campus Crusade for Cthulhu Lines: 32 Summary:Yay! The maniac jumps up with a start at the commotion following that...song?, in the process scattering a pile of texts on subjects as varied and fascinating as fluid dynamics, mechanical vibrations, spacecraft aerobraking, and an old diffy q book [gawd, they're actually _useful, i ought have stayed awake last year in class :-) ] "That sounds like a great plan for the get-together. Assuming that some of us retain sanity long enough to get there..." It appears that a engineering notepad covered with arcane formulae and aforementioned Diff.Eq. is moving on maniac's table. Maniac notes this, draws a katana, and dices the offending sheet with a sharp "KI!". As startled patrons begin to retreat, he resheathes the sword, grinning. "I already proved it's the wrong equation...it just won't die!" "Anyway, Let's do it. I for one could use a good sanity break." -maniac [btw: anyone else here at UCB reading this: i'm considering setting up a Callahan's Club on campus. email me for info, i need at least four students.] {Why? Because, that way i can hold a meeting in a _classroom_ on campus with some space and such, instead of crowded appartments and houses :-) } Sancho, my Sword! What ssword, mathter? Hey, you aint Sancho! Yeth. Heth on sthrike. Imm hith replathment. Let me guess- you normally do Gollum. Good gueth. Jeez, what next! Ten thousand Indiana Jones surplus Indians for the crowd? Ath a mather of phactt... Newsgroups: alt.callahans Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!adam From: adam@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (David C. Kaplowitz) Subject: Re: A Toast To Stereotypes In-Reply-To: cosc5sh@elroy.uh.edu's message of 20 Feb 90 18:48:04 GMT Message-ID: <1990Feb21.173027.9537@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu> Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept References: <5604.25e13c84@elroy.uh.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Feb 90 17:30:27 GMT Lines: 17 Don't be too sure, that there is a steriotype involved, I have (as a practical joke) signed my ardent (he works for the Kennedy Machine) democratic roomate and gave a donation in his name to the campus Rebublican party/newspaper. It was histerical to see him be commended in their paper as such a staunch supporter ... there is a photograph of him being laughed at by Rob K. about it currently in my scrapbook. Something similar might have happened to you, ESPECIALLY because of it's expiration date ... Cheer up, it can go along with all of those other free usless things sent to us in the mail (to line the root cellar, insulate the attic, backfill the gullies, feed the furnace, etc ... ) Always giving things TBOTD Traveler in Elephants Dave -- Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!microsoft!peterdur From: peterdur@microsoft.UUCP (Janelle Durham c/o Peter Durham) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: boskone (a rather odd story...) Keywords: boskone, spam Message-ID: <51021@microsoft.UUCP> Date: 20 Feb 90 07:35:56 GMT References: <882@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> Reply-To: peterdur@microsoft.UUCP (Janelle Durham c/o Peter Durham) Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA Lines: 137 I wander in out of the snow with a happy smile on my face (yes, snow! We got a respectable amount of snow this weekend (not as impressive as lots of snow in Wyoming or Boston... but enough that it gave us an excuse to just stay home and relax on Saturday morning... and then sunshine for two days to bring out the sparkle of the snowflakes. My favorite kind of weather; even if we didn't get the chance to go skiing!) On the way up to the bar I say hi to a couple of folks: Arthur, you didn't disturb the harmony of the Place with your music. Play on. David, (Elephants??) hi! It's always nice to "see" old friends. Welcome to Callahans! (But shouldn't you be studying?) After I get my cherry 7-up, I go join the discussion on Boskone and cons in general with a few reminiscences: In article <882@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> fasteddy@dftnic.gsfc.nasa.gov writes: >Fandom is a friendly second home to me. >"I took off from work, piled into Glenn's car and blasted up North. Is this Glenn Arthur? The wonderful man from your part of the country who looks much better in high-heeled black pumps than I do? If so, say hi to him for me! >[about Boskone] >"The Hotel decided not to honor our guaranteed reservation, so a group of >people destined for a Quad ended up in a Single up on the 26th Floor. I walked >up a few times, I'm convinced I shortened my life span by some, but I beat the >people waiting for the Elevators." Sporatic snicker erupts from various spots >in the room. "User hostile was the law of the hotel staff that weekend." > >"Well, I decided on the way home that Boskone was just a bad outing. You have >bad outings in sports, in love, and you can have them at Cons. Ahhh, I remember that Boskone well. The annoyance at the fire alarms and the staff, and later, the anger at the decision to change the con. I agree whole-heartedly with those who have said screwing up a con (i.e. what happened to the old Boskone) because of elitism, etc. is a travesty... I'm not saying that the new Boskone-in-Springfield is a horrible thing (i couldn't say, I've never been to it), nor that the last of the original Boskones was perfect (it _was_ a little too large to handle), but the whole thing was handled badly and offended a lot of people... To those who went: HOW WAS ARISIA? Memories of Boskone and others: First, a story of my first Boskone, Boskone '86. It was a slightly bad, but overall great experience for me. It was my first con, and contained the break-up of my first "serious" relationship. Peter,( hereafter to be referred to as ex-Peter, not because he's "ex" as in ceased to ex-ist, but "ex" as in _not_ the Peter to whom I am currently married.) decided on Friday night that he disapproved of the behavior of my best friend, who I was spending most of my time with at the con because he was avoiding me (note: he's really a wonderful person, just not good at break-ups). Anyway, on Saturday night, someone told me that he was off sleeping with someone else (later proved to be mis-information, but despite that, we were both ready to move on, and this was the catalyst to admitting that). So, I went outside and had a good cry (note: this was Boston in February, but I was dressed for a heated hotel, so I ended up standing barefoot and bare-armed in the snow, and below freezing temps plus wind-chill. After a couple minutes of this, I decided it was stupid, and went inside). I then proceeded to have an incredibly fun weekend, flirting madly, watching _all_ of Mike Jittlov's movies in the film room at three a.m. (some were illegal copies, and weren't supposed to be shown... but I'd met the people who were then running the films, and we talked them into it), meeting wonderful people, and discovering a "second home". Two ironies: It was at the next Boskone that I _began_ my second major relationship (which ended at an SCA event, before the SCA event when my relationship with my current Peter began... why are my relationships defined by events and cons?! :) ) Second irony: new gossip indicates that my ex-Peter is now going out with my current Peter's ex-girlfriend/his first serious relationship! To the person who asked about filking: Filking is sf oriented "folk" songs, which, IMHO, varies greatly in quality, most of it unfortunately on the low end. I've heard a few too many Star Trek,etc." parodies that went on entirely too long, and were so off-key as to be painful to listen to... But I do have a few good memories of music at cons: Clam Chowder performance; the person at Phil-con 88 who started playing the grand piano that had been left out in the hallway, and the combination of his tux and his piano skills convinced a lot of mundanes that he was a real-world piano bar (as we were singing along for a few hours, a couple people tried to tip him!, and were impressed when he played requests for free!). And, by chance, at Phil-con the year before, I was part of a "celidh" in which maybe 10 or 20 wonderful people got together in a room and played and sang for hours (I had a sore throat, and only joined in on the loud, rollicking ones, croaking joyfully. But the quieter ballads were too beautiful to disrupt...some of the most incredible harmonies...wow!) And, listening to Gypsy whenever she plays, like outside at Dis-clave 87 where she played the first "happy" (well, ok, maybe "not unhappy") song she had written. And the music around the pool at Darkover... Several memories of cons involve sleep (or more often lack thereof): the time I crashed in a double room with _eighteen_ other people! The time Ric and I helped Jailbait "guard" the I-con art show, and slept on the floor in front of the broken door... hey, it was free! Hanging out on the roof of a hotel, then coming down at 4:30 a.m. to find to our shock and dismay that nobody else seemed to still be awake (imagine that actually sleeping at a con!) The con where I didn't sleep all weekend, so I specifically told people (a big group had gone, five cars worth) that I needed passengers on the way home, but they all went home without me, and I drove home alone... but, that was the weekend my car window got smashed out, and I drove four hours from Long Island to Boston wide awake, because I was so damn cold (it only snowed for a little while, but the rest of the time was cold enough...ever drive with a heater full blast, two winter coats on, and a sleeping bag wrapped around your lower body???) And, of course, the all-nighters pulled before the con so I could finish all my homework, and go have fun pulling all-nighters at the con! And loving every minute of the con! Obviously, I have lots of fond memories of cons... I won't go on much more... you get the idea. What more need be said than that they're wonderful places filled with wonderful folks (like Callahans!) Peter and I (not my ex-Peter, my current-and-future Peter) and I are going to be going to our first con out here on the west coast next month. It will be so strange to go to a con and not see all the familiar faces, that almost define cons for me. A con without Spam, without Louise, without Rathmir, and Ed, and Adric, and Gub, and all the other wonderful people I know (including some whose names I've never learned :-~ <--embarrassed look)???!!! But it'll be nifty never- the less to get back to such a bizarre and comfy environment! To anyone who will be at Norwescon in March, if you see twenty or so people running around in Dendarii Mercenary uniforms, Peter and I will be among them (hint: I'm the one with one leg...) Oh, I'm being told it's time to go home, so I hop up to the line with my long-since-empty glass (all this talking makes me thirsty). ** TO CONS ** crash Janelle ... hopefully we'll manage to post this one... my last posting "Sigh of Relief hasn't made it out for a week or so now... Path: mit-eddie!mit-amt!snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!microsoft!peterdur From: peterdur@microsoft.UUCP (Janelle Durham c/o Peter Durham) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Sigh of Relief Message-ID: <51022@microsoft.UUCP> Date: 20 Feb 90 07:37:04 GMT Reply-To: peterdur@microsoft.UUCP (Janelle Durham c/o Peter Durham) Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA Lines: 61 Janelle has been sitting quietly by the fire for a few hours, catching up on all the old postings, and listening to the various musical contributions from the n-tet. It's been a month or so since she last dropped in on Callahan's, she's been too busy to come by. Finally, she grabs her crutches, walks to the bar to get a seltzer, and steps up to the line. "After some time of great emotional stress, I can now breathe a heavy sigh of relief. And it feels so nice to get something I'd feared facing for a while over with... First, some background: a couple years ago, I went through a time of being very sexually active, happily enjoying making love to some very wonderful men (most of whom I was "just friends" with :-) ). Coming from a family with pretty severe hangups about touching in general, and about any mention of sexuality, it was very nice to be held and touched and to be comfortably open about being a sensual, sexual human being. It was all open, honest, and comfortable, and no one was emotionally hurt at all, it was just another part of my friendships/relationships. It was really nice... The only problem with it was something I didn't think about at the time. One result of growing up in an incredibly conservative community is that our schools don't do sex ed, and such things just aren't talked about much (course, this meant that about 10% of the girls in each class in my high school were pregnant...), and this meant that I didn't think at all about AIDS or other STD's being a problem, so I didn't do anything to prevent them... then I did training to be a peer counselor for Brandeis U's Student Sexuality Information Service, and in the process, realized just how stupid I'd been, and that I'd put myself, and consequently, all my lovers, into a high risk group for contracting AIDS. So now that I'm happily married and have been totally monogamous for a couple of years, I had this fear hanging over my head... what if I have AIDS? But I didn't want to deal with getting the test, because I was afraid that it would come back positive, and I would have to tell several of the people I love most in this world that I might have given them a terminal illness... but, being the responsible counselor, I felt compelled to have myself tested, so if this was the case, I could tell them before it was spread any further. So, a few weeks ago, I had myself tested, and then spent the next couple weeks on an emotional roller coaster, waiting for the results. I got the results yesterday... they're negative! So, either some benevolent deity has smiled upon me, or I'm just real lucky." I finally break off, look around the room at everyone there... "ya'll are good people. Please don't trust luck to protect you like it has me. Don't take the chance of killing yourself and the people you love by being stupid about practicing safer sex..." I start to walk back to my table. "Oh, my toast? What else, but "TO CONDOMS!!" -crash- - Janelle ... hey, it worked! ... Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!ucsdhub!celit!kathy From: kathy@fps.com (the Rev. Mom) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: A Toast To Stereotypes Message-ID: <7000@celit.fps.com> Date: 21 Feb 90 22:27:17 GMT References: <5604.25e13c84@elroy.uh.edu> Sender: daemon@fps.com Reply-To: kathy@fps.com (the Rev. Mom) Organization: FPS Computing Inc., San Diego CA Lines: 36 cosc5sh@elroy.uh.edu (Unbeliever) writes: > >"I'd like to make a toast to stereotypes. ... ... >The reason I was sent this card is simple -- I'm a >22-year-old college male. Therefore, I'm a beer-guzzling, loudmouthed >fraternity troublemaker. QED." > >*SIGH* "To stereotypes! You may laugh, you may cry, but they're >still the #1 way that people (of all nations) judge one another. >Think on that and be dismayed!" A glass goes flying into the fireplace to join the Unbeliever's. I'll drink to stereotypes, but I refuse to be dismayed. You call *that* a stereotype? I've been called 'a member of the Viet-Cong' when I cut off someone in a parking lot, and a 'fucking Nip' when my brakelights went out. I've been asked "Are you Chinese or Japanese?" a zillion times (to which I usually answer "my *parents* are Chinese." or "I'm American.") I've had to explain, that, well, yeah, they give you strange un-"Oriental" names like Kathy when you're born in Poughkeepsie, about as many times as I've had to explain I have as much right as the next person to *not* be interested in martial arts. But there is a bright side. Most of the time such stereotyping is unintentional, and once I explain the offense, the recipient of my lecture works a little harder at making it go away. --Kathy Li aka the Rev. Mom -- kathy@fps.com | Yes! There *is* a musicals mailing list! ucsd!celerity!kathy | Join us! Send mail to: musicals-request@world.std.com ---------------------'