|
|
| |
Greetings
Quotaholics!
The headline to the article that inspired me to write my essay this
week definitely grabbed my attention…”Lesbian
Wall Street protester who was pepper-sprayed starts romance with the
male medic who treated her.”
That could sound a bit lurid to some I suppose, but it got me to thinking
a lot about sexuality and human nature and reminded me of an oft discussed
subject when I was in college.
Is there such a thing as bisexuality, or are people who claim to be
bisexual just people who haven’t figured out if they’re gay or straight
yet? That is a subject that is somewhat controversial even today in
the gay community.
Apparently a young woman who had very openly identified herself as a
lesbian, was pepper-sprayed during a particularly vocal incident during
the Occupy Wall Street protest and required treatment by a paramedic.
The pepper spray went directly into her mouth as she was presumably
chanting a protest slogan or the like. During treatment and directly
afterward, both the young woman and the paramedic who treated her realized
they were attracted to each other and began a relationship. When the
relationship was discovered by the N.Y.P.D. (or would that be N.Y.F.D.?)
an investigation was opened and the paramedic was stripped of 10 days
of vacation as punishment. Why that was done I don’t know.
I must admit my first reaction after first reading the headline and
then the article was that she couldn’t have been much of a lesbian in
the first place, but then I had to give myself a mental 2×4 upside the
old grey matter and realize that is not at all fair.
By the time we reach adulthood most of us pretty much have it figured
out who we are attracted to sexually, men or women. Depending upon our
own gender, that would make us either gay or straight. (I’m using gay
to stand for both males and females who are attracted to their own gender.)
While I am uncomfortable about the compulsion to classify and categorize
everyone into neat little boxes, it’s something that we all do. I am
uncomfortable with it because not everyone fits neatly into whatever
particular box we may decide that they belong in. I realize that there
are those who struggle with their sexual orientation and there are those
for whom gender is not so clear cut, such as those who are intersexed.
But that is not part of this particular essay.
To illustrate my point, we can look at someone attending a particular
church, lets say Mormon, and think…aha! Mormon equals straight, Republican,
conservative, a mindless follower and without further light and knowlege
we would go on our merry little way without realizing how wrong and
unfair we are. Not all Mormons are Republican, conservative and most
certainly not mindless followers. Many are Democrats, liberals and are
possessed of a rebellious soul and a fine independent intellect. I know
a Mormon who classifies himself as a Socialist. I even read an article,
can’t remember for the life of me where, about a gay man in a Mormon
church somewhere in the U.S.A. who was recently appointed to a leadership
position in his ward by his Bishop, despite the Bishop knowing he was
gay, though celibate at the time. All of that is fodder for another
article however, the point here being that people are complex entities
that don’t always fit into aforementioned neat little boxes.
Just because we can look at a person we think is obviously gay doesn’t
mean we know the whole story. How many times have you looked at a person
you thought was obviously gay, only to find out later how wrong you
were. Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe you knew someone you
thought was obviously straight, only to find out later they were gay
and you were wrong. Wrong, just like I am probably wrong about the woman
in the article.
What about you, dear readers. Is bisexuality a valid sexual orientation,
or just a pit stop on the road to coming out as a gay person? Do you
classify yourself as gay, straight or bisexual? If you have always thought
of yourself as straight, have you ever experimented with someone of
the opposite sex? How about the reverse, if gay, have you ever experimented
with someone outside your normal sexual orientation? Did it change your
perception of your own sexuality? Do you think the woman in question
was truly bisexual all along and didn’t discover the truth about herself
until this incident? Or was this just a harmless little “experiment?”
Was the NYPD correct in penalizing the paramedic and what could possibly
be their reason for doing so?
GrammieSammie
Get it while you can, don’t turn your back on love.
~Janis Joplin~
Comment
On This Article |
| |
|
| Isn’t
it worth $1 a month to you to keep RGQ going? Please click the
link and direct your contribution to keep RGQ going.
|
| Today’s
Quotes |
Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. - Cheris Kramarae
and Paula Treichler
Weekends don’t pay as well as weekdays but at least there’s football.
- S.A. Sachs
|
| Today’s
Chuckle |
Mystery
Woman
[Thanks Bonnie]
The
trendy dresser fancied himself quite a romeo, and was delighted to find
a note pinned inside a new shirt. It contained a girl’s name and address,
and asked the recipient to send a photograph. How romantic, he thought
to himself, very taken with the idea of this mystery woman so eager
to meet him, and promptly mailed off a note and a photo.
Heart aflutter, he opened her response. It read,
“Thanks for writing. I was just curious to see what kind of guy would
buy such a goofy shirt.”
|
|
| Life
Sentences |
All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I’d sooner
go to my dentist any day.
Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and
to refrain from destruction.
Instead of this absurd division into sexes they ought to class people
as static and dynamic. – all from Evelyn Waugh, English writer, born
on this day in 1903
|
|
|
|
|
| Image’n
That! |
|
Motorcycles.
Fun For The Whole Family!
[Thanks Tesser]
|
| |
| My
Most Embarrassing Moment
My Scariest Moment |
|
| |
|
Speak right up!
|
| Cliff’s
Notes
|
Tails
Geocaching is a fun game/sport. Some call it a game of "hide
‘n’ seek". Some call it a sport of using one’s talents to
find things well hidden. I don’t know if it is a Spame or a Gort.
It doesn’t matter to me which it is called. For me, it’s is simply fun
exercise with friends.
At the event where I actually got my 10,000th cache, about 40 others
came along to share in the experience and get some more finds for themselves.
I was flattered that so many showed up. Some simply came to wish
me well. Others wanted to do as I wanted to do, and clear the
area of caches. Later, a congratulatory party was planned and
the caching community was again invited to attend. Although there
were a few that had attended the first event, there were almost as many
that were at the 2nd event that did not attend the 1st one. All
total, there were close to 100 people who attended the events combined.
I was amazed and simply astounded that many people would show up.
I got to thank each and every one for supporting me the past 2 and a
half years.
Many of the attendees of the event had been out caching with me.
Of course, when we are out caching, someone has to be the one to actually
find the cache. I would say, most of the time, the one finding
the cache wasn’t me, so I owed those people a big thank you for taking
me along and helping me get to this milestone. Because this aspect
of the game requires one to keep their heads up, sometimes literally,
I’ll call this Heads.
The Tails of this coin is the people who have taken the time and made
the effort to hide the caches. Many are "P&G’s",
given this moniker simply because they are so easy, one can park their
vehicle, get out and quickly grab the cache. For example, out
of the 10,000 caches I have found, those that were of the lowest levels
for terrain and difficulty ( 2 or below ), 7,657 of those caches were
"easy".
The remaining 2,343 caches were significantly more difficult.
Let’s face it, it isn’t a challenging task to find a light pole in a
parking lot, or a guard rail along a road. The hard part is making
sure it is 528 feet or more from the nearest active cache. To
come up with an interesting container, or to devise a method to hide
something fairly obvious takes some forethought and a fairly good imagination.
Only the cumulative imagination of the geocaching community limits the
wide array of potential cache types.
The other challenging factor is where and how to hide it. The
design of the cache sometimes determines the where & how.
A fake birdhouse has to be set out like a real one. It would be
obvious that a fake birdhouse was the cache if it were the only thing
within 50 feet of the given coordinates. It has to "fit in"
and look like it it is supposed to be there. Plus, it has to be
so inconspicuous as to not be noticed. A birdhouse may not be
the method of choice for the more challenging hides, unless, of course,
there is some trick to getting it open to retrieve the log.
So, you see, those 2,000+ caches of higher difficulty have to be respected
for the effort that was put into creating them. No, they don’t
have to be some elaborate puzzle or contraption. A simple piece
of scrap wood from one’s workshop can be quite effective in the right
setting. It is how the scrap piece of wood is employed that makes
all the difference. If sawed in twain and a hollowed out center
is created to house the log, the piece of scrap can look simply like,
well, a piece of scrap lumber.
It was more the 2,300 caches of higher difficulty that kept my interest
rather than the sheer number of finds. I could have made it 10,000
easy ones only, but I would have been bored out of my mind the first
6 months. The effort that these imaginative people gave to challenge
even the best has made this an enjoyable and entertaining hobby.
Here’s your quiz:
Would you enjoy the accomplishment of something if it was easily attained?
Do you become frustrated and disavow situations that are hard to master?
Would you enjoy something that was difficult, yet you accomplished it?
Tails - Not Only Animals That Have Them
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)
Comment
on this article |
| BJ’s
Ponderings |
Equality
I finally feel up to writing something that has been on my mind. When
Diana and I laid the flowers on the grave in the cemetery in Craig,
Colorado it was in the veterans part of the cemetery. I thought as
I walked "I can not tell by the markers if they are Democrat
or Republican, if they supported what they were doing or were against
it. Yet here they are equal in death."
As Americans, on top of the soil can we be so different? I think whether
you are a right-winger or a left-winger or a middle of the roader,
you want our country safe, you want your neighbor to get a fair shake.
We just disagree on how it is to be done. So we agree on the principle,
just disagree on the method. That is not too bad. We all agree that
9-11 was horrible. We agree that radicals are evil and need to be
stopped. We disagree whether it should be by military or criminal
but we agree they should be stopped, not too bad.
We agree the laws should be enforced. We disagree on immigration.
So enforce the laws we have and go from there. Maybe we need to look
at what we have in common more than what our differences are. Most
of us believe in God, country and a fair shake.
BJ in Guthrie/Caldwell
Comment
On This Article
|
Kirsten’s
Krazy Kaleidoscope |
Kirsten wasn’t feeling good today. Hurry back Kirsten!
Comment
On This Article |
| Lucille’s
Lunacy |
Acer C. Notebook Dead At 18 Months
We are sad to announce the passing of Acer C. Notebook at it’s home
this past night. Acer died of complications sustained from G-d knows
what. Lucille Uttermohlen, the woman with whom Acer shared a plush recliner
located in her Indiana living room was not responsible for its passing,
even if the neighbors a block away could hear the fit she threw, and
her dogs ran for cover.
Acer was instrumental in helping Uttermohlen draft her web site, http://www.couple-or-not.com
in which she waxes brilliant about such subjects as dating, unmarried
partnerships, marriage and divorce. In addition, it was present for
the writing of Uttermohlen’s many blog entries, article submissions
and her thrice weekly column for Really Good Quotes. The couple were
working on Twitter right before Acer’s passing, and sadly enough, it
only witnessed a handful of Uttermohlen’s insightful tweets before its
untimely death.
Acer is survived by two Hewlitt Packard desk top computers, and several
dilapidated, but well loved pieces of adaptive equipment. Uttermohlen’s
eulogy will probably be repeated by Radar’s 6 year old son at the United
Lutheran Church this Sunday. A bar of soap will be served after the
service.
Those wishing to express their condolences at this tragic interlude
may do so by thinking of Acer the next time they swear at their own
@ * ! computers.
Comment
On This Article |
| Poet-Tree |
A mouse got me in trouble one time back in the 50’s. I threw it into
the toilet
as I saw my mom do after catching it in the trap. Only I didn’t take
it out of
the trap! The toilet kept running, water overflowing onto the floor,
and I
knew nothing about toilets. My mom was visiting friends at the
end of the
block. I didn’t know my mom could run so fast!
So… let’s let the snake deal with the mouse -
The snake slithered over my foot…
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
The
mouse ran into his hole…..
To keep together body and soul…..
For the cat he did see…..
Trying to trap he…..
The cat wanted to swallow him whole.
- Skeeter |
The
mouse ran into his hole…..
In life that was his role…..
To steer clear of the cat…..
Even if that
Meant climbing a telephone pole.
- Skeeter |
The
mouse ran into his hole
Much bigger than his cousin, the vole
My cats gave chase
But he spit in their face
And ate on the cheese that he stole.
- Bonnie >^..^< |
The mouse
ran into his hole—
to hopefully find a brown mole—
but instead was dumped
on its ugly gray rump
as if it were just a lump of coal.
- Cassandra in New York |
|
|
Reader Comments |
| |
Re: Hearing
Lucille’s
applesauce cake sounds so good. Please include it in the newsletter.
Thanks - Karen
Re:
Disinfection
I
have a private well. So, yes, I drink unfiltered tap water. I know
it’s "hard" with a high mineral content. However, I don’t
put much thought into the other stuff. I’ve had it tested in the past,
and it’s good with the exception of the "hardness", which
doesn’t bother me, it’s good water. I have heard of the rest of the
stuff. - L&K, herm
Re:
Dreams
I
have never dreamed about my teeth falling out. Never. But thank you!
Now that I’ve read the article, I’m sure I will. OK, maybe not…
But let me relate a dream I have. Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin
we once had a rat infestation problem. They lived in the basement
and walls, and even played in my sandbox… which I thought was a
kitty one time, until my mother runs screaming from the house with
a broom in her hand, ready to do battle with the rat. So, for many
years of my adult life I would dream about rats chasing me through
the house. I would run from room to room closing the doors behind
me until I was in the last room. The rats would chew through the doors
chasing me. In the last room they would slowly walk up to me and start
chewing on my leg. I could feel them doing this. All of a sudden I
would wake up and my chewed upon leg would be asleep with pins and
needles. I’ve never done any research on this, but wonder if I dream
so fast that the second I feel the "pins and needles" start,
my mind races through the dream in a split second making the timing
just perfect. I think I would rather dream of teeth! – ldo
IT
always means death to me and usually someone close dies too - dEE
Re:
Pet Plants
Our
neighbor has the most perfect - and gorgeous Male tree I’ve ever seen.
Each fall it turns a magnificent band brilliant RED. All the other
Maples in the area turn orange. Since big Guy stands pretty close
to our property fence, many of Big Guy’s winged seedlings fly over
into our yard and sprout. Each year I let one grow where it isn’t
in the way just to see what color its leaves’ color becomes in the
fall. If it’s orange, I pull it out, red is a keeper for another season.
By this method I finally found one that replicates its parent. I let
it continue to grow in a flower bed for three full years, and transferred
it to a spot in the front yard where it will eventually shade the
driveway. It is now a five year old, developing nicely, but not quite
as perfectly shaped as Big Guy. I call it Little Guy.
Then, just a few days ago, I was inspecting some currant bushes that
had just dropped all their leaves and found another red leafed tree
that has been sneakily growing right inside the branching of a bush.
It is arrow straight, about three feet tall, and looks exactly like
Big Guy. Ouch! I need to move a couple currant bushes, and can easily
dig out that newly found tree along with the shrub and separate it
so it can continue to grow on its own. But where to PUT it ! I’m thinking
across the yard near the fence between us and our other neighbor.
But that would turn a sunny flower bed into a shady one in a few years.
I could move the first tree somewhere else and plant this perfectly
shaped one in the front yard and put Little Guy someplace else. The
new "kid" has no name yet. It’s way too beautiful not to
keep. It would mean another obstacle to mow around. The yard is too
small to maintain another tree, I think. But an old tree in the yard
might die and if the new kid grows well, it could replace the shade
of that one. What to do! I could use some advice. Any suggestions
for a name for the new kid would also be nice. - Nancy L in Ohio
Hi,
I sure do name my plants, and I love them too. I only have one house
plant left though, sense Fred died, I only have Charlie, and he is
a big lily type plant that I have had sense 2001 when my mother died.
I have taken the best of care of him. He is very special to me, and
as I am typing this it is a very warm day out with lots of sun, and
Charlie Plant can be found sitting on my deck soaking it all up. He
does love the sun. - Tazz
I’ve
named trees before, but it wasn’t anything you’d want me to repeat,
and it was after meeting one head on. - Lucille
Re:
The Queen
What a great
story! I can certainly understand how you won an award for it.
Cheers,
- Dan
|
| |
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.
|
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! 
If
you’d like to receive RGQ by email, please send a blank e-mail
to reallygoodquotes-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
We
can’t imagine why you’d want to, but if you choose to unsubscribe, please
send a blank e-mail to reallygoodquotes-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Should you choose to unsubscribe, please e-mail
us and tell us why. We listen to what people say, even if they’re
leaving us.
|
