well, i dont know for sure, but it wouldnt' surprise me if there was more to the story. It's like how there were several interracial couples in Virginia, but the Lovings were chosen as the named plaintiffs because it sounded so good -- Loving v. Virginia.

A timely one from the BRQG:

Rick V.: One year in graduate school I bought balloons in the standard colors used to illustrate carbon, hydrogen, etc. and attached them to my body in a particular pattern, going to the party as a serotonin molecule. At one point a group of neuroscientists posing as enzymes came over and popped particular balloons with pins, metabolizing me into 5-hydroxy-indoleacetic acid. For the rest of the night when people asked what I was supposed to be, I had to say "Uh, I came as an obscure metabolite of serotonin."

The next year I got an empty bicycle box, painted it, cut a hole at one end for my head, and went as Rorschach Card # III. I got less trouble from the neuroscientists that year, but I had to put up with behaviorists ridiculing my validity all night.

Polter-Cow: Oh my God. That is the best story ever.

Tom Scola: Thankfully, they didn't tape a Prozac molecule to the door, or you would never have been able to leave!

Does this sound overly insane and presumptuous? My agent says to of course go for it, but I'm not sure if I'm being crazy. Is this crazy?

No and no. I say go for it!

but the Lovings were chosen as the named plaintiffs because it sounded so good -- Loving v. Virginia.

Ha! I totally did not know that.

Happy Birthday, brenda!

Ha! I totally did not know that.

yep, there were several other couples involved. I seem to recall that there was a movie with Timothy Hutton and Lela Rouchon. Maybe Lifetime?

ION, still freezing in my office. I am starting to look towards the filing cabinet for things to set on fire for warmth. unfortunately, my trash can is plastic, but I can improvise.

unfortunately, my trash can is plastic, but I can improvise.

You can burn the trash can as long as you have some system of getting the toxic fumes away from you. Perhaps a fan to blow the fumes out into the hall?

Come start your fire over here, Vortex.

You know what would rock? A heated footrest.

Even more, a heated footrest being approved equipment.

I need to remember to stick to wearing tops my sweater fits over, or to get a larger cardie.

You can burn the trash can as long as you have some system of getting the toxic fumes away from you. Perhaps a fan to blow the fumes out into the hall?

I was thinking of using the filing cabinet drawers. they were never cleaned out after the guy who had the office before me died, so I could care less about the contents.

But for *some reason* the idea of Rosa Parks as activist rather than unwitting catalyst seems to unnerve some people.

I think its part of the fable of the simpler time. The "back then" when "everybody" did _____ and nobody ever thought about it.

Then one day a woman refused to stand up on a bus because her feet were tired and the whole world thought, "Hey, this is unfair!".

I think its an attempt to let our ancestors off the hook for doing shitty things. If we pretend that slavery or segregation or the more odious forms of sexism were just accepted practice and nobody every had a problem with them then its nobody's fault that so many suffered -- it was just an accident of history.

There were abolitionists at the founding of the nation. There were swingers before 1962. There have been abortions since there have been pregnancies, it isn't a spiral of moral decay that started with Roe v. Wade.