"We're British, we deny ourselves for fun!"

Dude, what? What? I mean, we probably wouldn't get the whole experience of years of enforced not-having-nice-things, but self-denial?

ION, came home sick. I can blame either husband's fighting-off-a-cold ick, or the ick that has slain half the department this week. Either way, BORED and too fuzzy to be coherent but too awake to sleep through the afternoon.

Well, there is the eternal pastime of waiting in the Tube while something or other is broken.

Yeah, but don't New Yorkers have that too? famous for self-denial, those Manhattanites...

British rationing was some kind of "We're British, we deny ourselves for fun!" type of thing

Oh, dear lord. You don't have to get-get it. Just having a clue should be enough.

Female 'Ninjas' Rob Richland Gas Station With Sword, Dagger

RICHLAND TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Police said two women dressed as ninjas were responsible for the hold-up of a Richland Township gas station Saturday morning using a samurai sword.

Police said the two women -- one with a dagger, and the other carrying the sword -- entered a Sunoco station in the 5600 block of Route 8 at about 3 a.m.

According to police, the women tied up the clerk and robbed the store of cash, cigarettes and lottery tickets.

"They were all covered in black and carrying swords, so it did appear that they were dressed like ninjas," said Chief Robert Amman of the Northern Regional Police Department. "Swords, daggers could be used to seriously harm victims, so this is a very serious crime."

Article at the link has a video of the robbery.

I'm having trouble with the genealogy thing, but I found my aunt's obit and unless Fay/Faye is a nick for Vivian, I think they are actually half sisters, which I've never heard. My family is so Tennessee Williams, it isn't even funny.

Bad Vegan! No... job.

District fires vegan art teacher

Dave Warwak said he wouldn't return to the classroom unless Fox River Grove Middle School served only lunches free of animal products, but with meat still on the menu, school officials on Monday fired the art teacher.

"We are not going to go vegan at this time," said Pat Hughes, president of the Fox River Grove School District 3 School Board.

The board, which voted 7-0 to fire Warwak, said in a prepared statement that he told pupils not to tell their parents, teachers or the school's principal what he was teaching and that he repeatedly refused to answer questions from school officials on that subject.

The statement also said Warwak converted his art classes into classes on veganism and animal rights.

Warwak, who spoke on his own behalf, chastised administrators for hiding from pupils what he called the truth about healthy eating habits.

"You are ruining my world and eating my friends," he said.Steve Beyer, whose 13-year-old son was one of Warwak's pupils, told the board that the teacher was supposed to "teach art, not use his classroom as a platform for his vegan ideas."

Warwak, 44, of Williams Bay, Wis., was asked to leave school grounds on Sept. 4 because he refused to stop talking about the benefits of a meatless diet and the humane treatment of animals, he said.

Warwak said posters in the school cafeteria that promoted milk were of particular concern to him. He called pupils' meal choices in school "poison," and said that he would not return as long as the school menu remained the same.

Warwak taught at the school for eight years and said his annual salary was $55,000. The district, he said, should be training teachers about "humane education."

Warwak, a former fishing guide, said he became a vegan in January. Earlier this year, he gave his 8th-grade pupils a book, "The Food Revolution," by John Robbins, subtitled, "How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World."

Ninjas don't use samurai swords. Well, okay, ninjas use everything. But typically they use ninja-to, which lack the curve of the samurai sword, but are otherwise pretty similar.

I need to go watch the video, because I'm curious about this dagger too.

Warwak, a former fishing guide, said he became a vegan in January.

Oh, so it's like that guy who just quit smoking and is high on the whole thing.

Dude! That's not even a Japanese dagger!

I'm crushed.

Half an hour to lunch.

Dave Warwak said he wouldn't return to the classroom unless Fox River Grove Middle School served only lunches free of animal products

Uh, yeah. I mean, I could see his point if he were demanding that vegan options always be available...

Ninjas don't use samurai swords.

Dude! That's not even a Japanese dagger!

Now I wanna know what would have happened if the clerk had been pedantic and pointed this out to the 'Ninjas.'