happy birthday Kat!

Yeah...I read that in "Confederacy of Dunces" too, Hec. White-people Balmer accent sounds a bit like that, to me too but around here, we're more used to Midwest ones so it might be my ear.

The classic New Orleans accent is said to sound a bit New Jerseyish.

I've heard Brooklyn, about some accent down there. It's the Irish thing, I think? But really I have no idea what I'm talking about. I can barely identify New England accents with any precision anymore.

The classic New Orleans accent is said to sound a bit New Jerseyish.

Which was what her sister sounded like to me. It's always possible that the sister had moved to New Jersey or the Bronx.

My guess, however, is that the family is not originally from New Orleans. The woman's name was Anna, with an Ah.

I thought it was Tanya?

Anyway. I just made a few bucks of freelance money, which is good. Now to bed.

ok so I'm bopping thru a number of TIVO suggestions and guides. there is a 2 hour special on A & E called 'Cleavage'.

Barbarism begins with Barbie, the doll children love to hate

BARBIE, that plastic icon of girlhood fantasy play, is routinely tortured by children, research has found.

The methods of mutilation are varied and creative, ranging from scalping to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving, according to academics from the University of Bath.

The findings were revealed as part of an in-depth look by psychologists and management academics into the role of brands among 7 to 11-year-old schoolchildren.

The researchers had not intended to focus on Barbie, but they were taken aback by the rejection, hatred and violence she provoked when they asked the children about their feelings for the doll.

Violence and torture against Barbie were repeatedly reported across age, school and gender. No other toy or brand name provoked such a negative response.

...

The children never talked of one single, special Barbie. The girls almost always talked about having a box full of Barbies. So to them Barbie has come to symbolise excess. Barbies are not special; they are disposable, and are thrown away and rejected,” Dr Nairn said.

Huh.

I once helped a friend set fire to his plastic army men, but that's the extent of my childhood destruction of inanimate representations of human beings.

All my Stretch Armstrong toys were casualties toward the end of releasing the goop inside them.

I never mutilated Barbies when I was a kid, but it's a helluva lot of fun as an adult. Stretch Armstrong was definitely an irrestible toy to break. You HAD to find out what was inside.

Gah. I want to go to bed, but I started making this bread too late. And baking this makes a huge mess under normal circumstances, much less a kitchen full of boxes of all sorts due to construction mess. While I can probably get away with letting the dough hang around unbaked for a while, I can't leave this mess around. Construction guys will be here tomorrow plus I really don't want the ants to start hanging out here. Those little fuckers are damned near impossible to get rid of.

On the plus side, I'm getting a nice high off of what's leftover of the dried cherries I macerated in rum. My friend's family's recipe doesn't use those, but that Radio Prague article gave me the idea.

Ah, Stretch Armstrong... If ever there was a doll that screamed, "Please, torture me...."