a boy minion is wearing something axe-like and a girl minion is wearing coconut-lime-verbena and whenever they both get near me at the same time my brain tries to crawl out my nose.

Why are you reading Elsie Dinsmore? Has she passed out rather than break the Sabbath yet?

Why are you reading Elsie Dinsmore? Has she passed out rather than break the Sabbath yet?

I'm only a few pages in. So far, she's cried at injustice and then cried because she was ashamed of herself for not bearing injustice as well as Jesus did. The injustice was that one of the boys was pulling her hair and annoying her and that jostled her arm and made an ink blot on her paper, and because of the paper not being perfect, she wasn't allowed to go to the fair.

As for why I'm reading it, I'm not quite sure. Morbid curiosity, I guess.

Oh, and my officemate says he doesn't like the way the media is demonizing Chris Brown. And he also said that an offhand comment that I made was in poor taste. Dude, you're defending Chris Brown. You so don't get to decide "poor taste."

(My comment, by the way, was when I was reading my email and got an email from Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington (I ended up on their mailing list after going to a reproductive rights march a few years ago), advertising a fundraiser. The fundraiser was a trivia night for young professionals. I commented that I found that kind of odd, because the places where I'm used to seeing "trivia night for young professionals" is Jewish groups who have an obvious aim of getting young Jewish people to meet other young Jewish people and make lots of Jewish babies. So I added, "So what's this? They want young people who believe in reproductive rights to meet other young people who believe in reproductive rights and make lots of babies who believe in reproductive rights?" And it seems that using "babies" and "reproductive rights" in the same sentence like that is in poor taste.)

(He also objected to the term "reproductive rights," but knows he's not going to get anywhere with me on arguing that one.)

Hil, I swear, I want to fly out there and kick that guy's ass. And I'm not (usually) a violent person.

Dude, I love babies *and* reproductive rights. I suspect the same is true of a lot of people around here!

So far, she's cried at injustice and then cried because she was ashamed of herself for not bearing injustice as well as Jesus did.

I don't think it's a spoiler to say that there will be a lot more crying. I read it because it's an important piece of 19th century popular culture, but I can't say I enjoyed it. I think I sprained my eyes from too much rolling. It's a pretty sharp contrast to Little Women, published at about the same time as the first of the many Elsie books.

Ok, he can asked stupid questions, he can even be stupid, but when you officemate starts being Judgey McJudgerson -- he's way past the line. He's asked for tolerance from you ( by asking personal religious questions) so he has to give it.

I hope it's the hokey pokey.

Anybody else now earwormed with "you put your right boob in, you put your right boob out..."? I may need to throw things at you, billytea.

Hil, in your shoes, I would probably spend the next several months making the most outrageous conversation possible using Victorian euphemisms such as "nether limbs" and "unmentionables" as possible. It would, of course, not help in the least bit, but I could probably obfuscate enough to make the guy's head spin faster than it already is.

I may need to throw things at you, billytea.

Dopn't forget to allow for the Coriolis effect. I'd hate to see you hit New Zealand instead.