Count me among those boggling at anyone dumping Kate. If my Kinsey tilted that way, I'd totally consider her a prize and a catch that, once caught, ought to be treasured and delighted in.

P-C, happy Buffistaversary!

I am hee-heeing madly over your knowledge of The Bird, The Mouse and the Sausage. The story element that really pushed it into craxyland for me was not just that the sausage was swallowed by a dog, but that the dog, when called on it, had a whole elaborate justification for having done so. "It was a meatwad and I'm a dog" was not enough; "it was a talking meatwad and thus an affront to rational storytelling, and I'm a dog" was not enough. No, in the craxyland of this story, "It was a talking meatwad carrying forged letters, and I'm a dog." That's the kind of unexpected narrative brilliance that just leaves me breathless.

Also, the moral of the story is clearly something like If you ever dare to change anything about the way you carry out any duty whatsoever, you and everyone you love will die horribly, which is a marvelous insight into the Dark Ages Middle-to-Northern-Eastern-European worldview. I want to marry this fucked-up folk tale and have its deeply wrong babies.

If only we Buffistas had a cabinet position dedicated to removing the clearly stupid from the gene pool.

Yes, this! We definitely need some kind of Minister of Kill the....

.... waaaaiitaminit.....

If you start killing people who break up with Buffistas, it's possible that the currently NGA will never GA ever again.

Now that's a lot of killing people, and I don't think even I advocate that much killing.

Who said anything about killing? A couple of kicks to the crotch with a steel-toed boot would do just fine.

Still would cut down on the prospects for the already unlucky.

Home from school. Skipping the class showing Deliverance. I feel like I should do something schoolish, but I think I'm going to nap instead.

Wait, someone thinks it's a good idea to have students watch Deliverance in a classroom?

Yup. My Mountain Tales class is watching it today and Wednesday. I'm doing an "alternate assignment."

I don't think we need to kill them. Just thwack them and prevent them from procreating (at least temporarily).

t sniff I'm just so touched that you guys want to go around killing people for my sake. I feel truly blessed.

JZ, where might one go about finding this folktale?? I've never heard of it before, but clearly I must read it.

Kate, I found it in a copy of Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm illustrated by Mervyn Peake, a totally random assortment of Grimm tales selected by Peake purely on the basis of which stories made him want to draw something.

Speaking of which, that reminds me to go change my tagline.