I gave up on any pretense of not being 12 a long time ago. Thank doG Kristin puts up with me.
Early: So is it still her room when it's empty? Does the room, the thing, have purpose? Or do we -- what's the word? Simon: I really can't help you. Early: The plan is to take your sister. Get the reward, which is substantial. 'Imbue.' That's the word.
'Objects In Space'
Natter Five-O: Book 'Em, Danno.
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
NoiseDesign - Mar 28, 2007 8:20:16 am PDT #9311 of 10001
Our wings are not tired
Pix - Mar 28, 2007 8:20:57 am PDT #9312 of 10001
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
Sometimes I like to try acting as if I'm not a twelve-year-old boy.
ND has no problem playing this role for you. Or anyone, really.
ETA: Ah, x-posty.
Connie Neil - Mar 28, 2007 8:33:06 am PDT #9313 of 10001
brillig
Disney is thinking about releasing "Song of the South" in the U.S. on video for the first time ever.
When did "tar baby" become something other than an attractive lure that's going to entangle you into something nasty?
shrift - Mar 28, 2007 8:33:42 am PDT #9314 of 10001
"You can't put a price on the joy of not giving a shit." -Zenkitty
Well, I do spend a lot of time acting like a precocious twelve-year-old boy. But I was just working on my taxes earlier, and I didn't want to give myself puerile whiplash.
DavidS - Mar 28, 2007 8:33:59 am PDT #9315 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
When did "tar baby" become something other than an attractive lure that's going to entangle you into something nasty?
It's always been a racially loaded epithet.
Connie Neil - Mar 28, 2007 8:41:16 am PDT #9316 of 10001
brillig
It's always been a racially loaded epithet.
I guess the fact that I grew up in a 98% white environment buffered me from that sort of stuff. The tar baby was only ever that thing that was going to wind you up in the briar patch, B'rer Rabbit.
JZ - Mar 28, 2007 8:41:50 am PDT #9317 of 10001
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
I don't know about always -- according to Wikipedia, the first time it was used in the US was in a Harper's Weekly story (Joel Chandler Harris was actually second with it) loosely derived from a Ghanian Anansi story, with exactly the meaning connie describes. The meaning has morphed since then, but it does seem to have been originally just one plot-central but racially neutral element of a longer trickster tale.
Volans - Mar 28, 2007 8:45:49 am PDT #9318 of 10001
move out and draw fire
Kat and Lori, all the best to you and Noah and Grace.
Pix - Mar 28, 2007 8:46:01 am PDT #9319 of 10001
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
Here's a nice, clear source as well: [link]
(And I just noticed that that entry was the "word of the day" on my birthday. Not sure how I feel about that.)
Pix - Mar 28, 2007 8:48:42 am PDT #9320 of 10001
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
Coffee:
The trickster tale is an ancient African tradition, and similar "tar baby" tales have been told for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. The problem is that certain ignorant racists decided to co-opt it and have used it to refer to anyone with dark skin, so it became another means to objectify and degrade.