Hope you can find a workable dress solution, sj. Where are you making a wedding announcement?

Nora, I hope the dinner goes well. (And that you get rest at some point!)

vw, could you write her something to display on her computer, or is that not going to work because it's a concept problem? Or would it be seen as patronising?

Congrats on the house, Seska! It has a Buffista guest room, right? ;)

Of course. I'll just chuck The Girl out of her study.

Thanks for all the congrats and support, Bitches!

sj, ask the seamstress about making it a corset back. Then you can add all the additional fabric you need, plus I think it would work well with the style of the dress.

Congratulations, Seska!

Shir, I don't think I've ever actually said this, but I do really enjoy reading your perspective on things, especially world events. It's a nice reminder that there's more than one worldview.

Can she change her settings so that the emails aren't displayed as conversations

She can't, at least not in Gmail proper. Google refuses to do this. Gmail can be accessed with a client like Outlook or Thunderbird, and then conversations can be turned off inside the client.

She can't, at least not in Gmail proper.

Good to know. She'll get used to it...I know she will. But, I guess it's going to take more than one explanation.

This makes me nervous about looking at music software with her, though. I'm not interested in increasing my job description to include running the music lab.

It still didn't make the holocaust easier to digestion.

What could, really?

I am disappointed to discover that the inflatable sumo suits you can get for $35 are not the kind you can actually fight (or float down the river) in. Those are $375.

What could, really?

Great question. I'd settle for "more compassionate world" as a beginning of an answer that implies we've learned a lesson which isn't "let's create another country, never mind if it's settled or not! Countries for everyone!". Because yeah, nationalism worked really great. Sigh.

This conversation started a bunch of very disturbing memories of stories of survivors who physically hurt themselves in order to remove the tattoo from their arms. The fifties in Israel were a very emotional time. It's a wonder they managed to use so much of this emotion to built the country from almost nothing, but a lot of people paid a heavy price on that specific direction of emotion.

It's a nice reminder that there's more than one worldview.

I thought that's b.org in a nutshell; but thanks!

I'd settle for "more compassionate world" as a beginning of an answer that implies we've learned a lesson which isn't "let's create another country, never mind if it's settled or not! Countries for everyone!". Because yeah, nationalism worked really great.

Yeah, that was my problem answering that question. How insufferably smug it would be to say (for others) "Oh, out of great evil comes good, so that totally is the justification."

I mean, isn't it better to strive for "Out of great good comes greater good?"

I mean, isn't it better to strive for "Out of great good comes greater good?"

I totally ::heart:: Erin for that comment.

Also, a real question as to whether Israel coming into existence was a good at all. It has the right to exist now, but whether it had the right to come into existence at the time is another question. And Shir and I have pursued this is the past, I won't make an extended argument. But it needs to be understood that there are real non-trivial arguments to be made the world is a worse rather than better place because Israel came into existence. Again that is not the same as questioning its current right to exist. A child may be conceived as the result of an atrocity, but once it is born that does not bring into question its right to exist.