As a side note, when I was 7 or 8 and visiting Iran, I got to go to the Mosque of Imam Reza. It is supposed to be good luck for a boy to touch the shrine but sacrilege for a girl. My family had dressed me as a boy, so I wouldn't have to worry about a chador . Other worshipers saw me and body surfed me to the front so I could have the honor of touching the shrine.

Dude. That is the best story ever. I love this story and want to have its babies.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

pantheism (worship of the environment)

ahem

When did this definition take hold? I am irritated. I do not worship the environment. I strongly advocate taking good care of the environment of humankind, being as I'd like to continue living in it, but I don't worship it. When did "pantheist" come to mean "New-Age tree-hugging Earth-is-our-Mother hippie"? Not that I've never hugged a tree, but that's beside the point. Hippie is a fine thing to be, if it's your thing, but it isn't my thing, and it isn't pantheist. Universe is not Earth. Nature is not the environment. When I say "everything is God" I damn well mean "Everything".

I could go on, but I'll spare you.

When I was three years old, my Dad took me and my two sisters on the teacups at Disneyland. Dad, for some reason, thought it was fun to spin the teacups as fast as he possibly could. Me, being three, was not hip to the concept of centrifugal force, and I didn't understand why I kept getting pushed back against the teacup. I would lean forward, and my head would bounce against the teacup, hard. I started crying, and screaming, but my dad didn't stop spinning the teacup. He just kept spinning the teacup, as hard as he could, with a big grin on his face, laughing. He didn't seem to care how disturbed I was, and how much it hurt, having my head getting hit against the teacup, over and over again. I wanted him to stop, but he wouldn't; not until the end of the ride.

At the time, I didn't realize that day would be a portent for how the rest of my childhood would turn out.

Yeah, that's a fantastic story! I want to see the movie that gets made of the book that you're going to write about this story.

eta Suzi's story, that is.

I did Space Mountain when I was around 20 and confirmed that I don't like coasters. It didn't make me sick, it was just the opposite of fun. I think I'm allergic to adrenaline.

I am absolutely like Strega in this. I don't even like movies that make me feel adrenaline-y. It makes me want to get up and leave the theater. Suffice it to say I am not a fan of roller coasters.

The laptop I was about to send an APB at school on was found in the wrong slot. WOOT WOOT! One of my students didn't steal it after all. I should do a better job in signing them out. But they are also crappy 4-year-old HP laptops often with missing keys. Who would want them?

OH! Noah is 9 and Grace is in top 20. That makes me smile. I don't know many other baby Noahs or Graces. I'm sure school will change that.

Grrr.. Tom, I'm sorry. No one should be subjected to tea cup tragedy.

When did this definition take hold?

I think it's how-we-can-frame-polluting-as-a-religious-virtue.

At the time, I didn't realize that day would be a portent for how the rest of my childhood would turn out.

I would like to go back in time and beat the snot out of your father, Tom.

Yeah, it's not so much "definition has taken hold" as "the liberals like it, so how can we make it sound satanic?"