The gold medal for thoughtless offensive speech has to go to my uncle who cracked some tasteless joke and then apologetically introduced himself to my cousin's new husband as "the black sheep of the family." The new husband being, of course, the first African-American to marry into our family. I felt like crawling under a rock after that one, and I was only a bystander.

See now that doesn't bother me at all.

Don't know how reliable this is:

black sheep: figurative use is supposedly because a real black sheep had wool that could not be dyed and was thus worthless. But one black sheep in a flock was considered good luck by shepherds in Sussex, Somerset, Kent, Derbyshire. Baa Baa Black Sheep nursery rhyme's first known publication is in "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book" (c.1744).

black sheep: figurative use is supposedly because a real black sheep had wool that could not be dyed and was thus

Hey, I LIKE black sweaters - what gives?

Plei, have you tried Clarks? My mom has good things to say and what I have tried on have been comfy.

My poor Clarks are one of the pairs of shoes that almost fit, but anything other than the velcro-strapped are too narrow. Also, for some reason, all my Clarks have managed to get stinkyfoot within about three weeks. My other shoes don't have that problem. Don't know what's up with that.

I'm guessing the Sussex goth scene hadn't really gotten going yet in 1744.

The Atlanta Braves are almost as bad, but at least they manage to avoid the caricature fron and center on their caps.

No, but they do the frelling tomahawk chop, which drives me up a wall. I don't really see a problem with teams calling themselves Seminoles or Illini, or other tribe names, as it seems that it's mostly to honor the group that lived there. I am glad that St. Johns did away with "Redmen." Still waiting for the Washington Redskins to have a clue.

Plei try Keen's. They are a bit on the sporty side, but Lori and I both like them, Lori especially, because they accomodate wide Fred-Flintstone-like feet that both of us have.

I like the style called Saratoga, fwiw. Though I have mary janes from Keen that I bought in children's sizes and they fit great.

Plei, these shoes are 6C and are named Buffy.

Kinda cute.

Vaguely witchy.

Pricey but comfy and mostly fug-free slip-ons.

More slip-ons, these in suede.

It is so much more entertaining to virtually shop for someone else than to do anything actually productive. The Lutherans are looming just around the corner, but I can't really see them through all the shoes.

I have "thick" feet and the Danskos love me. But if Birkenstocks fit you well (I get blisters!!) you might look at the Tatami styles. I like Scarlet: [link]

Florida State, I think, is going to fight to keep the Seminole nickname. They're justification is having the official approval of the Seminole nation for some time. There are some tribe members who don't like it and are vocal about it, but officially FSU has the OK.

There was a big push to make the band uniforms and other things look more like traditional Seminole clothing, etc rather than stereotypical clothing.

I was going to say on the one hand there are aspects that are offensive, but honestly I'd say almost all of it is. So the other hand is just --- approval from the Seminoles.

It is so much more entertaining to virtually shop for someone else than to do anything actually productive.

God, I know, right? The first day I hooked up IM at work (at my boss's request), I spent hours shoe shopping with a friend.

When I was in high school, we were the Warriors, and our colors were brown and gold. Someone complained about the Warrior part, and I think everyone was just relieved to have an excuse to change it all. We became the Eagles (?) and black and silver.

sometimes I hate going to the movies where everyone is talking back.

Well, you didn't kill me at that horrible Pearl Harbor movie. (I just couldn't shut up. It was painful. And it just kept going on and on and on. People probably thought I was being disrespectful. Which I was. Towards Bruckheimer or whoever was responsible for committing that to film.)

Uhg. hate today.