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Greetings, Quotaholics,
When I was young we looked forward to the Miss America Pageant. It was
advertised on TV for weeks in advance. On the big night, the whole family
gathered to cheer for Miss Arkansas. Our patience was finally rewarded
in 1964 when Donna Axum won the pageant.
According to Wikipedia,
“The pageant has been nationally televised since 1954. It peaked
in the early 1960s, when it was repeatedly the highest-rated program on
American television. With the rise of feminism and the civil rights movement
the pageant became a target of protests, and its audience began to fade.”
After the feminist movement changed the public’s attitude about
pageants, the emphasis was on other aspects than beauty. But in the beginning
it was a “beauty pageant”. Looks counted for most of the score.
Nowadays pageants extol other virtues in women. The Miss America pageant
is not called a beauty pageant anymore, instead it’s called a scholarship
pageant. Still, I don’t think a fat, ugly woman would have much
of a chance.
So let’s be realistic. They’re beauty pageants. The contestants
represent the current standard of beauty. The winner is, in the eyes of
the judges, the most beautiful. So it surprised me to read that Austrailia’s
Miss Universe pageant was coming under fire for having a very skinny finalist.
An article at the Telegraph.co.uk
website said, “Dietitians, shocked by her skinny frame, warned Miss
Naumoska, who is 5 ft 11in tall, weighs just 108lbs and has a body mass
index of just 15.1, was too thin to be held up as an example of a healthy
body type and may need medical attention.”
“Australian politicians have even been drawn into the issue. Carmel
Tebbutt, the New South Wales acting premier said celebrating Miss Naumoska’s
body type in a glamorous competition sent the wrong message to young women.”
“‘What we just need to work on is making sure that in the
media we have a broad representation of women of different ages, different
body types,’ she said. ‘And we encourage girls – and
young women – to aspire to be healthy, rather than look toward fitting
one particular body image.’”
Ladies, can we talk? All the guys are looking at the picture of Miss Naumoska
in her bikini so it’s just us now. Do you think that women are unduly
influenced by seeing skinny women in pageants, on TV, and in magazines?
I mean if our self-esteem is so fragile, I should have committed suicide
after seeing the men in porn films.
Don’t women look at these models the same as men look at male porn
stars as some sort of freaks of nature? Of course I suppose a woman could
starve herself in hopes of being as thin as a model, an option not available
to men. From watching TV it would appear that the only option guys have
is to run around with a stupid
grin on our faces. *If you don’t understand that you must not
have seen the commercials!
Seriously, do you think that a super skinny woman should be allowed to
compete? Would it be a danger to young women? Do you think that showing
skinny women as models contributes to eating disorders in young women?
If being super skinny is not considered beautiful by the majority, then
she would have very little chance of winning wouldn’t she?
Do these beauty pageants have a responsibility to present women that any
young girl could aspire to be? Doesn’t competition, whether it be
beauty or anything else, single out the exceptional few meaning most of
us will never measure up anyway?
Anorexic-ly,
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it worth $1 a month to you to keep RGQ going? Please click the
link and direct your contribution to reallygoodquotes@gmail.com.
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“Only fools are positive.” - Moe Howard
“Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.”
- John Lehman
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Nursemaid
[Thanks Bonnie]
A friend was laid
up at home with the flu. His fiancee called and volunteered to come
over and fix dinner and play nursemaid to him. He declined, not wanting
to pass on the flu to her.
“Okay honey”, she told him, “I’ll wait till after we get married.
Then we can spend the rest of our lives making each other sick!”
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“I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings,
fantastic foxes, and other sensual goodies. I partied in every capital
in Europe and basked on all the world’s most famous beaches.” – from Catch
Me if You Can
“If my forgeries looked as bad as the CBS documents, it would have been
Catch Me In Two Days.”
“What I did in my youth is hundreds of times easier today. Technology
breeds crime.” – all from Frank William Abagnale, Jr., con artist turned
security consultant, born April 27, 1948
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Why
Boys Need Parents
[Thanks Momma DeWolf]
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E-Mail
the Imp
I like food with a bit of a bite. I often use mild salsa mixed with
pan drippings to make gravy, add a few hot pepper flakes to my soba
noodles, and add a few drops of vinegar used to marinate jalapeño
peppers on my collard or turnip greens. Then there’s the two or three
drops of Tabasco on my raw oysters, wasabi for my sushi, curry for stew,
and cayenne in my BBQ dry rub.
For me, a bit of a bite is fine, but a single bite shouldn’t cause me
to break out in sweat. That’s my rule. In the Marine Corps we used to
find a bottle of Tabasco Sauce on every table in the mess hall and troops
would sprinkle it on almost everything. The joke being it would hide
the taste of the food. With field rations, it was almost a military
requirement to use hot sauce. At one time, bottles of Tabasco Sauce
were included in boxes of “C” Rations.
My next door neighbor is a retired USMC SgtMajor who has a backyard
garden. Every year he grows hot peppers and tries to grow hotter varieties
every year. A few years ago he thinks he hit the hottest he ever had.
They were orange and fairly long, looking like a stretched out Scotch
Bonnet. He offered me a bite of one and I tentatively took a little
nip, and spit it out fast. It was hot. I immediately started sucking
water out of my garden hose while he explained what he did with them.
He split them, scrapped out the seeds, roasted them, peeled them, and
made what he called a mild paste with salt and vinegar. I thought my
lips were blistered!
When I make salsa from scratch, I use 2 or three Jalapeños for
5 – 6 quarts of Salsa, and Jalapeños are low on the Scoville
Scale. The Scoville Scale measures the amount of heat in a pepper. Now
comes a report from Australia that two jokers have eaten the hottest
pepper known to man, the naga jolokia. These peppers measure over a
million on the Scoville Scale and they can cause death!
The only thing that is stronger is military issue pepper spray. Those
guys are playing with liquid fire!
The Bad Sied 
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Speak
right up!
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For
The Birds
My
wife & I frequent our back deck & sunroom. We find it relaxing
and entertaining to spend time there.
When
we purchased our current home, out back yard was a tangle of honeysuckle,
poison ivy, wild grapevine, and other underbrush so thick only small
animals could traverse it. It became a goal to clear it out and create
a yard and garden.
We
created a garden worthy of any magazine’s highlight article, if I do
say so myself. One of the goals was to make it wildlife friendly and
supply the critters to free snacks. As such, we included a squirrel
feeder I built from scratch, and a couple bird feeders.
It
is fun to watch mini-flocks of various birds come to the feeders and
partake thereof. finches and other small birds like the "squirrel-proof"
thistle seed feeder. The same birds and the larger birds like the the
"squirrel-proof" feeder that contains corn, sunflower
and a "wild bird mix" of seeds. Of course, no bird feeder
is completely "squirrel proof" except one that I
devised, but that is a topic for another day.
I
find it amazing how cooperative the birds can be at times, and how competitive
they are at other times. When we first go outside, there are an array
of birds at both feeders. But, when they see us, there is an audible
flurry of wings as they take off for the protective forest beyond. It
isn’t long and they begin to return. Amassed in bushes and underbrush,
they look like Christmas ornaments on there. Several different species
all sit together patiently waiting for the intruding humans to retreat.
We
see Blue Jays, Cardinals, finches of various types, sparrows, as well
as a plethora of other species. Robins abound and stick to foraging
for bugs and worms, although at least one species of woodpecker will
partake of seeds from the bird feeder. Mourning Doves will fill the
basin part of the larger bird feeder as they feed. Some we even feed
by hand, so to speak. We toss peanuts to the Blue Jays when they arrive
and call out "HEY! HEY!" trying to gain our attention.
Later
in the season, hummingbirds will return to the nectar feeder in the
opposite corner of the garden.
Here’s
your quiz:
Do you feed birds & squirrels?
What do you provide for the birds to eat?
Do you also provide housing (birdhouses)?
What have you found that attracts specific species?
For
The Birds - And the squirrels, and the raccoons, and anything else that
feels the food is for them, too.
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)
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Email
Kirsten
“All
animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
~ George Orwell ~
I have discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that I am capable of hatred.
I always thought of myself as a forgiving kind of soul. Sure, I’m
capable of anger and I’m not above having the odd meltdown. But once
my anger has finished angering, I can get on with my life and not
think about the incident again. And just because I didn’t think myself
capable of hatred, that doesn’t mean I automatically love everything
and everybody. Take spiders, for instance. I dislike them intensely,
and I am horribly afraid of them, but hate? That’s a bit harsh. Spiders
did not actually ever do anything to me. I am the first to admit that
my spider-phobia is completely irrational.
But as it turns out, I hate raccoons. What I feel goes way beyond
mere dislike. I actually hate them. If someone were to tell me tomorrow
that raccoons had become extinct, I would not be sorry. I would not
say to myself, “Too bad”. I would not worry about the ramifications
to the food chain or the environment or anything else. I would simply
shout out, “Hooray! No more raccoons!”
We have been plagued by raccoon-related problems for a couple of years
now. It’s not just that they got into our garbage. That in itself
wouldn’t bother me. It happens to everyone. It just goes with the
territory of coexisting with these creatures (although I do wonder
why they don’t ever choke on the plastic garbage bags). Our problem
went beyond the bounds of “happens to everyone” when the raccoons
got into our ceiling last winter. They found a tiny hole in the garage
and got into the ceiling, right where all the insulation goes. The
insulation got chewed to Kingdom Come and there was a very strange
smell emanating from the house.
Our attempts to catch these things were, while not exactly futile,
extremely frustrating. Operating under the assumption that the raccoons
would have to go out and hunt for food from time to time, we set a
live trap in the garage. On the first day, we didn’t catch anything.
On the second day, I could tell as soon as I walked into the garage
that there was something in the trap. I was ecstatic, until I saw
that the neighbour’s cat had wandered into our garage and got caught
in the trap. (Quick side note: if you want to see a cat break the
land speed record, trap it in a raccoon trap, keep it there for a
day, and then release it. You’ll see the cat fly down the road faster
than a speeding bullet). On the third day, the bait was taken but
nothing was caught. We replaced the bait and tried again. Finally,
after about two weeks of trying, we caught a raccoon, and being dutiful
citizens, we released it unharmed in a park. Its partner in crime
got away when it got too fat and heavy for the ceiling to support
and fell right through. The only saving grace was that it fell into
the space between the two front doors, so we were able to trap it
and cart it off.
We cleaned out our ceiling. We reinforced it and replaced the insulation,
and went on with our lives.
A couple of weeks ago the raccoons reared their ugly heads again (not
actually ugly, I know, but ugly in connotation). They ripped open
the hole that we had covered up after last winter’s episode and got
into the ceiling again. We were able to lure them out and seal up
the hole, and we thought that was it. But no, they had other ideas.
A few days ago, my mother-in-law remarked that she had seen a giant
raccoon poking around in the garage. We double-checked that the hole
was sealed up, and we set our trap again. The next day, after the
trap had produced no results, a noise up in the rafters of the garage
attracted our attention. My husband set up the ladder, and climbed
up to the rafters, where, incidentally, we store the big box containing
the artificial Christmas tree. My husband looked in said box, and
there, nestled in the Christmas tree was the raccoon and three very
newborn baby raccoons.
My husband lugged the trap up to the rafters and balanced it securely
on a sheet of plywood right beside the now-defunct Christmas tree.
Sure enough, the mother raccoon got trapped the very next day, My
husband took the trapped raccoon to a park several miles away and
released her. He also took the box containing the Christmas tree and
the babies, and left it in the same spot for the mother to find.
Hey, we have hearts. We may hate raccoons, but we’re not going to
break up a family. We would have taken Dad too, but we couldn’t locate
him. We suspect that he got Mommy Raccoon knocked up, then ran off
with a younger, prettier raccoon.
So now we are without raccoons - at least for the time being. If they
come back I may just go mad, wrap my head in bubble-wrap, and bang
it against a brick wall.
Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten
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Write
to Faithy
Faithy’s Freaky Sites (and free downloads)
Happy
Monday RGQ !!! Next saturday we have a little local tradition called
the Kinetic Race. It is a little off the wall, but worth a good look-see.
Art for Arts Sake.
Baltimore
Kinetic Sculpture Race I know it is a local
phenomenom, but I bet if you looked you would have an equally unusual
event locally. Let me know and I’ll highlight it for you, as long
as it has a website.
Art
Show for Kids Now that I have so many grandsons
(4 of them now, we are truly outnumbered) I also appreciate the special
sites I have found for children to express themselves through. Especially
important as the Arts disappear from our Public Schools.
And
here is one for those science kids, who don’t see Art as important.
Nature is full of art and it is Right
at Your Fingertips.
Artfully
Sharing,
 the
Freeloader
With another load of _ _ _ _
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I got a ticket today. Now, I’m not a real criminal. I have just neglected
to get my car’s safety inspection. For seven months. I just haven’t
gotten around to it. And the more I didn’t get caught, the more I thought
I could get away with it. But this time I knew I was caught. The cop
was just pulling up to the stop sign on a street I was passing. I only
glanced his way once, but I knew I was going down. The inspection sticker
is on the driver’s side, and that’s the side he was looking at.
I was thinking of making a run for it. I was only a couple of miles
from an Indian reservation, the roads are fairly straight, and my
car is pretty fast. Chances are he wouldn’t have even chased me, as
the only thing wrong was my inspection had lapsed. I wasn’t wanted
for murder or anything, so the police wouldn’t risk civilian casualties.
But I figured I’d just get it over with, so I pulled into the parking
lot of a day care center. I wanted people around in case this got
ugly.
I watched as he pulled up behind me, blocking me in. He got out of
his cruiser, and his gun glistened in the morning sun. It was too
late to run, so I wound down my window (well, they are electric, and
automatic, so all I do is push a button, but I’m trying to make this
sound dramatic) and turned off the car. He approached, walking in
a way only cops can, probably because those uniforms chafe. I prepared
myself to deal with a pissed off country boy on a power trip.
But he was he nice. He asked how my day was going, and I told him
it was going well *so far*. He explained that he pulled me over because
my inspection had lapsed, and I gave him this “OH, really?” look.
“I didn’t think I had to do that until I renewed my registration.”
Inspections are yearly, registration is every two years. I didn’t
think it would work, and I don’t think it really did, because he gave
me a ticket anyway.
But he was so nice. He asked if I had a shop that I took it to. He
gave me directions to the court house, and told me if I got my car
inspected quickly, I may not have to pay a fine, since this was clearly
a simple “oversight”. I almost expected him to pull out his wallet
and offer me the money to pay the fine, if there is one.
It was a good day, because I got a ticket in the morning. How many
of you can say that?
Tim a’Musing Having a Ball with Yarns
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Herbs
and Spices
Store
spices in a cool, dark place. Humidity, light and heat will cause
herbs and spices to lose their flavor more quickly. Although the most
convenient place for your spice rack may be above your stove, moving
your spices to a different location may keep them fresh longer.
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You guys are letting Julian, Cassandra, and Bonnie do all the work!
Come on. We need some more writers.
Next opening line…
A man with a very large nose…
Hints:
Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm
Submit
Opening Line
Submit
Limerick
There
was a large lady from Perth
Unusually large from her birth
Who was now such a size
It would be no surprise
If her girth were the largest on Earth - Julian, England |
There
was a large lady from Perth—
who looked as if she’d given birth—
’cause she was so big
and couldn’t dance a jig
asking the lady just had no worth. - Cassandra in New York |
There was
a large lady from Perth
Whose life was Hell on Earth
She had always been large
Had to ride on a barge
Hell, she weighed 40 pounds at birth!! - Bonnie |
There was
a large lady from Perth
Who wanted to travel the earth
But her wish was in vain
For the door of the plane
Was not wide enough for her girth. - Author Unknown |
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Re: Private Pages
I led RGQ for over five years, and in that time we discussed just about
everything…except one topic that I scrupulously avoided. Abortion.
I kept it off the table because I always considered it a no-win situation,
and I advised Mike to do the same when he took over. In my opinion he
has quite wisely continued that policy.
It’s no-win in my view because those who oppose abortion do so on emotional
or moral grounds, while those who support a woman’s right to choose
do so on the grounds of privacy and their belief that only women should
control their own bodies and destinies.
I bring it up now not as a topic of discussion, but to make a point
to people on both sides of the issue.
Mike’s piece in today’s RGQ about employee privacy rights is directly
derived from that either much-praised or much-maligned Supreme Court
decision (depending primarily on your position on abortion), Roe v.
Wade.
You will find the word "privacy" nowhere specifically in the
Constitution. It is an inferred right which stems from that ruling,
and privacy is, in fact, what it authorized. Abortion, no matter how
you see the subject, was only one of the things that Roe allowed, but
most of us have lost sight of the fact that its impact is far broader
than just the one subject of primary controversy.
I felt it was important to bring that to the attention of readers because
it doesn’t seem to be generally recognized. RGQ has always been about
food for thought, and this is something to think about. - Bruce
[I
think you just brought it up and I’m sure we’ll get a lot of feedback.
But if Roe v. Wade was about privacy, then how do you explain our loss
of privacy on every other front? We have mandatory drug testing for
most jobs, random drug testing of students, government wire tapping,
surveillance cameras everywhere, and now employers snooping around the
internet in order to punish employees for what they do on their private
time. Was Roe v. Wade a smoke screen to keep us busy bickering while
our privacy was stolen?]
Re: Fat Fliers
I agree with United Airlines
and think people who can’t fit in their own seat need to have more room,
and not from MY seat. When I purchase a ticket for my teeny tiny space
aboard the plane, I expect to "enjoy" full use of the space
I’ve rented. It your butt needs some of my space, get a vice and squeeze
yourself, or buy more real estate.
Some of the people
in the video said it was discriminatory. And one man said we need to
think of other people. One woman went so far as to say it wasn’t the
person’s own fault they were fat. All I can say to THAT idiocy, is well,
it sure isn’t MY fault they are fat, either.
Why someone thinks
it is not only permissible, but a "right" for someone to encroach
on the space I’ve rented is beyond me. I’m sorry so many people throughout
the world have eaten themselves into a state of ill health. I’m sorry
they are uncomfortable in a world designed for healthy weight folks.
But really, why don’t they think of ME and not want to impose their
health issues on ME? Isn’t that the whole thing with second hand smoke?
It’s "unhealthy" for those others and so smoking must be banned
in public.
Yet it is perfectly
okay for someone else to invade my space, limit my movements, and increase
my likelihood of developing a blood clot (and yes, this is a real issue
with longer flights) and I’m supposed to be willing to "share"
my good fortune.
I could be fat if
I wanted to. I deny myself many of the foods or quantities I would like.
I force myself to exercise. I don’t like these things, but they are
what I need to do to remain at a healthy BMI. So, if you want to have
enough room I would suggest you get your seat to match the chair. Or
buy a second seat or fly first class. – Patti, who knows this isn’t
a popular position but really doesn’t care
Re: Solitary Confinement
In reference to Patties 15 minutes of fame…. Since you don’t mention
the reason your family member is in prison I cannot speak about his/her
situation in particular but here are my thoughts in general…
The reason
there is solitary confinement in prisons is to accomplish one of two
things. (A) the person in confinement is a threat to other inmates at
the facility or (B) that person is being threatened by other inmates.
Situation B is very rarley used so I assume situation A must apply in
your family memebers case. Solitary confinement is not just given to
individuals who commit minor offenses in prison but is reserved for
those who are unable or unwilling to abide by the rules of the institution
in which they are incarcerated.
People are sent to prison as punishment for crimes they commit while
residing in a free society. If they are unable to refrain from committing
more crimes while they are in prison then they are subjectd to a "higher
degree" of punishment. This can range from a restriction of priveledges
to solitary confinement. A person who becomes a threat to other inmates
needs to be seperated from those he/she threatens.
How would you feel if a family memeber who is in prison was killed by
another inmate that was known to be a threat? Would you still feel the
same way? Or would you take the stance that the person should have been
seperated from the general population? Personally I would wish that
the person be seperated from the general population so as to not cause
problems. With the overcrowding that our prisons face today there are
not enough hours in the day for everybody to enjoy a few hours of "free
time". Some people just cannot be trusted to be around other people,
and until a way is found to control this kind of person there is little
choice as to what to do. Maybe we should build enough prisons that we
can seperate all prisoneres according to the level of crime that put
them there in the first place. - Bob in Idaho
Re: Traffic
I let people into traffic
only if they have been waiting longer than I have been. If I see someone
trying to pull out of a gas station, I will let them pull out onto the
road. If someone comes flying up the shoulder of the road to cut into
traffic because we are all backed up due to construction, I never, ever
let them in. And I get irritated when someone else does. I want police
there handing out tickets to people using the shoulder/berm as a lane.
As we merge together before we get to the barrels, I let one car into
my lane as we approach the stopping point/bottleneck. - Patti, who also
has somewhere to go
Reader Submission
This quote was sent in by Bonnie:
"[T]he
use of physical pressures brings with it a large number of potential
negative side effects … When individuals are gradually exposed to increasing
levels of discomfort, it is more common for them to resist harder …
If individuals are put under enough discomfort, i.e. pain, they will
eventually do whatever it takes to stop the pain. This will increase
the amount of information they tell the interrogator, but it does not
mean the information is accurate. In fact, it usually decreases the
reliability of the information because the person will say whatever
he believes will stop the pain … Bottom line: the likelihood that the
use of physical pressures will increase the delivery of accurate information
from a detainee is very low. The likelihood that the use of physical
pressures will increase the level of resistance in a detainee is very
high …" - Lt. Col Morgan Banks, the senior Army SERE (Survival
Evasion Resistance and Escape) psychologist in an October 2, 2002 email
to personnel at Guantánamo warning that brutal interrogation
techniques are counterproductive
[The
way I like to think about it is that during the Spanish Inquisition
not a single innocent person was put to death. They all confessed before
they were executed. Well except for those who died from the torture
before they could confess. When enough pain is inflicted anyone will
admit to anything to make it stop. Even execution is better than repeated
and prolonged pain.]
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Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be
accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly
attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time
to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect
quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.
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Click here to see the archives of past issues, or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reallygoodquotes/messages.
If you run across something really outstanding when perusing the archives,
I’d appreciate it if you’d mail me at TheBestOfRGQ@yahoo.com
and point it out to me. I’m in the process of compiling an e-book
called, not surprisingly, The Best of RGQ, and I’d like to hear from you
which pieces impacted you the most. |
| Questions?
Comments? Want to contribute a joke or a quote or an image? Feel free
to e-mail
at reallygoodquotes@gmail.com.
We’d love to hear from you! We’ll even publish your comments, if they
make any sense! 
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