Why not? They seemed so occult and fascinating to me when I was in high school. I can't imagine not needing a place to escape from students.

Well, we don't have a lot of free time, honestly. When I'm not teaching, I'm generally working in my classroom either planning or grading. We tend to visit each other in our classrooms when we need to vent, but I've never worked somewhere where the faculty room was located conveniently enough to be a practical place to spend much down time. Plus, if lots of teachers are hanging out in the faculty room at any given time, most administrators I've had assume we don't have enough work or don't have a very good work ethic. t shrug

For the record, though the nicotine odor may be gone, the only way we actually use the faculty room regularly is to achieve coffee. Teachers: fueled on caffeine and dry erase fumes.

Jilli gave me a great tip about where to order absinthe a while back. The top-of-the-line Jade absinthes run about $110, but there are more economical options.

I hope they also screen for, e.g., genetic diseases? And ruthlessly interrogate participants over whether they have had braces. In the modern era, beauty has a limited relationship with genes.

They should have to show pictures of their parents to prove they came by their looks naturally--or have a section for "I owe my looks to Dr. Cutsalotta, on Sunset Blvd.!"

It looks like half of the cost is shipping, which vexes, but I don't see any way around that part.

We had a little at Kelly's birthday party last weekend, but 1) I suspect it wasn't very good stuff, and 2) I trusted Kelly to know what she was doing, and it turns out she didn't, so it was all a bit of a muddle. She lacks mad research skillz. So now I'm just feeling like we need to do this right.

Oo, thanks for the link, Matt!

I'm generally working in my classroom either planning or grading

Aha. Teachers didn't have classrooms in the schools I went to. Students had classrooms (not that we were allowed to hang out in them all the time). But, aside from the science labs, there was one classroom to a class, so you'd only 'have' a classroom if you were a form mistress. And then you'd not have it to yourself that often, since other teachers would be leading classes in it, and your kids coming in and out to get their stuff.

That makes a lot more sense, then. (Says the teacher currently hiding in her classroom with all of her lights off and her doors locked. I'm kinda pretending not to be here right now.)

Teachers didn't have their own classrooms where I went to high school. There weren't enough to go around, so they would move around from room to room for the different periods of the day.

It looks like half of the cost is shipping, which vexes, but I don't see any way around that part.

Yeah, that's the cranky-making part.

I quite enjoy the Verte de Fugerolles (from the absinthe link), but it's a little harsh.

Serbian vampire hunters prevent Milosevic come-back

Drive 3ft stake through dictator's black heart

Serbian vampire hunters have acted to prevent the very remote possibility that former dictator Slobodan Milosevic might stage a come-back - by driving a three-foot stake through his heart.

According to Ananova, the politically-motivated Van Helsings, led by Miroslav Milosevic (no relation), gave themselves up to cops after attacking the deceased despot in his grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac. Milosevic popped his clogs back in 2006, while on trial in a UN war crimes tribunal for various unsavoury activities connected with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

Miroslav Milosevic said "he and his fellow vampire hunters acted to stop the former dictator returning from the dead to haunt the country". His team explained that the wooden stake had been "driven into the ground and through the late president's heart".

My brother is torturing me. He keeps sending me negative reviews of 300.

Now, I'm predisposed to roll my eyes so far they fall out of my head that anyone tried to make a whole movie around Thermopylae. It's ridic. But what's killing me is most of the reviews he's sending me miss the point in their hate. And often very confused about historical facts. So I hate everyone. It's great.