I just went back and tried to catch up with the last 500 or so posts since I am now officially on vacation and have time to do things like that.

Reading about ita's searing pain and tommyrot's diagnosis makes me not sad, but angry. Yes I know that is irrational to get angry about good people being in pain. I just hate that you're having to deal with this.

ita, please forgive me if this suggestion has been made or if it isn't your thing, but have you considered acupuncture to help with the pain management? I only ask because it helped me to manage some intense pain a couple of years ago.

Also, you all probably already saw it, but I smiled when I realized that krav was a central plot point in How I Met Your Mother this week.

Tom Scola is indeed a fun and wonderful uncle.

Allyson, I'm sorry about the 3000 miles and the Old Flame's girlfriend. I wish...oh who am I kidding, I wish he'd ditch his girlfriend and move to LA and swear his undying love to you. Failing that, I wish you happy crushitude without pain.

I got her an inflatable horsie she can bounce on. Fun!

You're trying to turn her into a cowgirl, aren't you? Admit it!!

As an uncle, it's my *job* to corrupt them!

Now I want a t-shirt with the two cowboys from Broken Back Mountain, with a caption that says, "I caught the gay from the Hollywood Liberal Elite!"

Now I want a t-shirt with the two cowboys from Broken Back Mountain, with a caption that says, "I caught the gay from the Hollywood Liberal Elite!"

"I went to Brokeback Mountain, and all I got was this stupid t-shirt and Teh Gay."

If only this movie were capable of turning people gay—there are a couple of guys who would be on my list to drag to it at earliest opportunity.

I'm saying that's either parody or a fictional entry created to stir shit.

Here's a cheery bit of statistical trivia:

Calculations based on the amount of barley used for brewing in Conventry during the 1520s indicate that the average consumption of ale was 17 pints of strong ale a week for every man, woman, and child in the town. Statistics for English consumption of beer late in the seventeenth century indicate an annual consumption per person of 832 pints. To put this figure in context, in 1976 the amount was only 209 pints, one fourth the earlier figure.

Here's the original (as far as I can tell) Brokeback post: [link]

It's not even posted by a Meghan Thompson. It's posted by a guy from West Hollywood, named JonMark (profile): [link] .

I'm much more firmly in the parody corner, now.

This one predates that, Cindy. If it's a hoax, it's an awfully elaborate one.

[eta: On closer read, my link isn't exactly the same story as the other one. My guess is that the latter one is an exaggerated parody of the original.]