At the Omorika Café...

... you can talk all night.

"The moment he realized he was now the middle child."

Ah!

Via Reddit.

Are you a middle child? I am. My husband is. I don't remember anything like this. But it must have happened.

"There are infinite number of ways to live richly and well, but it's about applying a lot of creativity to this whole process."

I was motivated to look up Amy Dacyczyn by the discussion we're having in the comments at the post titled "How not to show respect for the stay-at-home spouse."

I was a big fan of "The Tightwad Gazette" back in the 1990s. Here's "The Complete Tightwad Gazette."

Why do you give your life to an employer and to the taxman? Use your brains and your creativity to give what you can to the people you love.

"Study finds Facebook helps users 'Like' themselves better.... but reduces their ambition to excel."

"The University of Wisconsin-Madison study that unearthed these social-media phenomena seemingly employed a controversial cognitive test to arrive at its findings, and also discovered the Facebook-borne ego boost lead to diminished ambition, or the desire to excel on subsequent cognitive evaluations."

Is the correlation between self-esteem and lack of ambition special to Facebook? Is there a Facebook-induced type of self-esteem or is reduced ambition the general consequence of self-esteem boosted by things other than actual achievement?

"Michael Douglas... has revealed that his throat cancer was apparently caused by performing oral sex."

"HPV, the sexually transmitted virus best known as a cause of cervical and anal cancer and genital warts, is thought to be responsible for an increasing proportion of oral cancers...."

Mahesh Kumar, a consultant head and neck surgeon in London, confirmed that the last decade has seen a dramatic rise in this form of cancer, particularly among younger sufferers. Recent studies of 1,316 patients with oral cancer found that 57% of them were HPV-16 positive.

"It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that the HPV type 16 is the causative agent in oropharyngeal cancer," said Kumar...

But Kumar expressed scepticism that Douglas's cancer was caused solely by HPV, and surprise at Douglas's assertion that cunnilingus could also help cure the condition. "Maybe he thinks that more exposure to the virus will boost his immune system. But medically, that just doesn't make sense."

Bill Clinton acknowledges double entendre about Hillary having sex with Barack Obama.

From a montage of clips from recent graduation addresses, shown on today's "Fox News Sunday":

"One of the things that heartened me when President Obama asked Hillary to be secretary of state and she said yes, and they developed this -- not just working relationship -- this amazing friendship, which I just watched with great interest, is that they -- they had -- oh, come on, guys. Get a life here."

The "oh, come on, guys" reacted to the audience's reaction to "I just watched with great interest." I wish I had the video clip, because it was very clear from the manner of his laughter that he was acknowledging the double entendre and — I think — the idea that people associate him with sexuality.

ADDED: Here's the video:

How not to show respect for the stay-at-home spouse.

On "Meet the Press" today, David Gregory questioned various commentators about a report from the Pew Research Center that said that in 2011 women were the sole or primary breadwinners in 40.4% of American families. (It was 10.8% in 1960.) There were some strange statements from "Republican strategist" Ana Navarro:

There has been an evolution in the American family.  You know-- and I think what we have to be as a society is accepting of what couples decide to do for themselves.  There are some people who want to lean in, there are some people who want to lean back and be on a rocking chair drinking a mint julep.  Whatever works for every couple is what we should respect…

So right off, Navarro is portraying the home-based partner as lazy! The old image was lying on the sofa eating bonbons. She's got the sofa replaced by a rocking chair and an alcoholic beverage in place of the box of chocolates. Gregory breaks in with a wisecrack — "Enough about your Sunday afternoon" — and this prompts Navarro — the Republican — to double down on her idea that the stay-at-home spouse is a sponge:

When I say in my house that I want to be a kept woman, the answer I get back is well, I want to be a kept man.  So, you know, that’s not working-- it’s not working in my house.  

Kept woman! This isn't as bad as Rush Limbaugh's notorious equation of free birth control and prostitution. It's actually kind of worse. Limbaugh intended to malign the demand for free birth control. He meant to say that the general public shouldn't have to pay for a particular person's sexual activities. He found a notoriously crude way to say I don't want to pay for you to have sex (i.e., if someone pays you to have sex, you're a prostitute). But aside from the crudeness, the opinion that the group shouldn't pay for the individual to have sex isn't offensive. It's just economics and ideology.

Navarro claimed "Whatever works for every couple is what we should respect," but she said — twice, quite clearly — that the stay-at-home partner isn't contributing. The first image was of someone loafing and drinking alcohol during the day. The second image was of a "kept woman" — that is, a woman who doesn't take care of the house and the children or do anything helpful other than to provide sex! If that "works for" you, that that's something that deserves respect — she asserts — but it wouldn't work at her house, and if she were to suggest that for herself, her husband would say that's what he wants. Obviously, the idea is that the nonbreadwinner spouse is goofing off. So where's the respect? At most, she says, if some other couple finds that this "works," then we should accept that they make their own decisions. Navarro goes on to say:

But I think, you know-- I think, we-- women that work need to be not judgmental of women who don’t.  

But your judgment leaked out all over the place!

I think men who are mister moms need to be accepted by those who are the alpha male breadwinners.  So, I think it’s got to be whatever works-- different folks…

Mr. Mom... alpha male... the disrespect is plain, even as you keep insisting you are tolerant.

George Bush "demanded a level of accountability and candor that this president has not."

Jennifer Rubin, on today's "Fox News Sunday":

I think the question is whether the president is ever going to order his people to cooperate. Lois Lerner took the Fifth and was then put on [administrative leave].... But [Obama] has not sent out an order as George Bush did, in the Valerie Plame decision, I do not want anyone in this administration to refuse to cooperate. That cost some people in his administration dearly. But no one took the Fifth in that case. Karl Rove testified, Scooter Libby testified. He demanded a level of accountability and candor that this president has not. And I think that whole hide the ball mentality, and the president's unwillingness to push his people forward to give a complete story is going to hurt him as well.

"Bronx deejay Francisco Diego Jr., otherwise known as Tech Trackz, dropped his iPhone on the subway tracks early Saturday..."

"... and leaped down to grab it, but was shocked by the third rail and then struck by the No. 2 train at Wakefield-241st St. station."

“He’s not the type to jump into the subway to get it,” said friend Kevin Atterbury, 16. “He would just go get a new one. That’s why this is so shocking.”

But family members said Diego had ventured onto the tracks in the past.

“He’s done it before, which is why he tried to do it again,” said Diego’s sister Nandy, 19. “But this time it wasn’t successful. I feel like my heart has been ripped out.”

"Tiny mites crawling unnoticed over Our Skin. Small nibbles, less then the slightest pinprick..."

"... Baby Spiders while you Sleep. Bowels full of half-digested Cheerios. Microscopic Creatures swarming In the Bathroom, Always, and You With your Pants Down. Sweat pressed into the Bed Sheets in which you will Cover Yourself Again. Drool on the Pillow. Cat Drool on the Pillow. Wash your Hands with the Same Bar of Soap That Someone has Used to Clean Horrible Things from Their Hands. Toothbrush unprotected in the same Room with the Toilet. The Plunger in the Corner, with Memories of What Has Been Plunged. Dry off from the Shower with the Towel from the Day Before, tiny flakes of Skin now Damp and Reapplied. Washcloth. Public restaurant with Sneezed Microbes Hanging in the Air, Settling on your Dinner Plate. Don't Even Think about the Horrors hiding in the Food on That Plate. A Solitary Hair from the Cook's Beard, the Second-Hand Steroids in the Beef. Not Every Employee Washes their Hands. The Guy in the Kitchen washing the Silverware in a Sink of oily brackish water, perhaps with the Faint Residue of the Drain Cleaner used to clear the Reoccurring Clogs. Band-Aid on the Finger loosening in Same Water. Table considered clean by a Quick Wipe with a Dish-Towel Wet From the Tables Wiped Before. Air Ducts lined with Dust and Daddy-Long Legs. More baby Spiders."

A comments contribution — from betamax3000 — in yesterday's "Healthing" post (which was about the delusional spraying of disinfectant all over the house).

El Pollo Raylan offers the Rod Serling reading here.

"My boyfriend talks too much during sex."

"We've been together for a year and recently he's started talking to me while we're intimate. At first it was everyday stuff like what he wants for dinner but then essentially he began ranting. Do you know how hard it is to climax while listening to someone talk about how many bands have produced 'disappointing second albums'? I don't know if I can go on like this."

This woman is so against talking that she can't talk.

If you give the other person the impression that you like something that person is doing during sex, they'll probably do more of it. At this point, she's been so withholding of communication that he should find her quite unappealing if she finally does speak up. Writing a letter to an advice columnist instead of talking to him? She thinks he's being unsexy, but she's unsexier. And the 2 of them are unsexy in completely opposite ways. But she's being unfair to him, while he is trying to please her, continuing with the thing that she's pretending to like. Plus, you've got to read between the lines and see that this man has great sexual endurance. He's talking about all manner of things because he's going on for — what? — hours. And all she's really thinking is: When will this be over? And by "over" all she even means is: When will my body do that orgasm thing in spite of this guy?

Back off, lady, and let somebody who appreciates fuck talking have him.

Humanizing the IRS.

This latest effort at extending the outrage at the IRS scandal is — in my opinion — backfiring.

These nameless, faceless bureaucrats are subjected to inane activities that look like something from "The Office." It doesn't look like profligate spending. It looks like sad and misguided morale-boosting.

Don't make me empathize with the taxman, you hapless scandalmongers!

What am I doing?! Simultaneously empathizing with the taxman and the scandalmongers?

Finding everyone here far too human, I will return to the mountaintop retreat I call Cruel Neutrality.

When a woman does something like this, it's supposed to be hilarious.

Like: good for her. But this is flagrant destruction of property and — as we say in tort law   the intentional infliction of emotional distress. It's not funny at all. It should not be encouraged, and it's not even pro-woman to celebrate it, because what is required to find this funny is a foundational belief that women are really too weak to actually hurt anyone seriously. Only men are dangerous. This insults men and women.

And I realize that I'm encouraging the encouragement by linking to that article. Sorry.

By the way, the other woman in this story could have been maliciously screwing up the relationship and deliberately provoking the tortfeasing woman's rage. The man, whom we're expected to believe the enraged woman had loved, was never given a chance to defend himself. His guilt is presumed. Depriving the male of self-defense is an element in classic female revenge scenarios where a man is attacked as he sleeps.

In this current story, the man's body isn't attacked at all, as the pusillanimous woman takes aim at his property. We're expected to laugh as we imagine him frantically searching for his valuable personal items — including his laptop — before somebody else takes them.

"In truth, we have had a difficult time accepting the idea that this race might get close."

"At the same time, Democrats nominated a long-serving member of Congress at a time when Congress is an almost universally unpopular institution. It doesn’t help that [Ed] Markey has not had a competitive race in decades."

Here, pick one:



Ed Markey or Gabriel Gomez?

See how that works?

Politics is so easy!

"Nodding Syndrome: A Devastating Medical Mystery In Uganda."

"Santiana says that for Denis, as with most children affected, it began with the pathological nodding of the head nearly a decade ago."

He's 16 now, she says, but you can only get a glimpse of his age in his face – he looks half the size you'd expect him to be. He rarely moves. He hardly speaks. If he wants water, she says, he'll take a cup nearby and tap the cement floor with it. Most everything else is nonsense, hallucinations.

"He's just in his own world," Nyeko says.

"I love when you talk dirty!"

A dialogue between 2 men in last night's open thread "At the Saturday Peony Café":

Palladian: A few years ago, "peony" was a very popular note in perfumery. Many perfumes used this note, which was generally done as a big, fluorescent, loud, fruity-flower odor of no particular interest. Givaudan makes 2-cyclohexylidene-2-phenylacetonitrile, an aroma chemical they call Peonile, which I always find hilarious. Say it: Peonile.

El Pollo Raylan: The name is apt. I see lots of structural rigidity in the linear nitrile portion which has a nitrogenous lone pair at one end. Then there's the cyclohexylidene portion which is quasi-floppy, but made stiffer by attachment to the olefinic core. The phenyl is of course rigid except for its rotational degree of freedom.

Palladian: I love when you talk dirty!

Also in the comments, a dialogue between 2 women:

Freeman Hunt: We had some new tile installed in our kitchen this week. One afternoon the installers washed their tools outside and left without coming back in. Because they did not come back in, they forgot to turn off their radio. The radio was across the newly laid tile that we were forbidden to walk upon. So we listened to popular, contemporary country music all that evening and for three hours the next morning. Heh. (That story is much funnier to people who know me in real life. I don't listen to anything in the background. Ever. No television. No music. Nothing. I only turn something on if I want to listen to it actively.)

Synova: I don't listen to "background" anything either. I can see you standing at the edge of the tile... yearning.

Freeman Hunt: "yearning"... Perfect word.

Intruding on this perfectly female dialogue was the aforequoted Palladian: "That's what a handgun and good aim are for."

Also in the vicinity was another man, Lem. Unlike Palladian, he wasn't commenting on the music and yearning, at least not directly. He just told his own story — "We went to see a new friend perform at a local establishment and I took a picture of a sign near the entrance" — and showed us this: