Oh, and much no-pain~ma for msbelle's dad.

The thing is I am also sensitive to smells. I can't deal with "scented" products, but things like Gold Bond I can do because it isn't an artificial smell, it is just what the thing smells like. But I also like the smell of Ben-Gay (in fact putting Ben-gay on my face gets rid of headsches for me)

Yeah, her self-regard and tastlessness are pretty extraordinary.

I had a student tutor one who I had to talk with about his actual hygiene issues: not only did my office have a lingering fug whenever he was in it, the front office staff complained about it, and his tutees complained discreetly about it.

I struggled with a while on how to put it. But it was am impressively strong fug of BO stank; I had to do it.

It's grey here today -- we're supposed to have thunderstorms most the day. Fine by me; my day looks like edits, writing, more writing.

I think that in the first half of the 20th century and earlier - Iranians and Iraqis would have been considered Asian and I'm not sure that Arabians wouldn't also have been considered Asian -- and by "Asian" I mean "Oriental" - which, I suppose is a more generic term than "Asian".

My Friend's Sicilian grandparents referred to me and an Irish friend as the white friends, but then, they were also convinced for a while that I was Jewish and therefore possibly not white. Being white to them had much more to do with where people could buy housing in NYC in the 40s and 50s.

but there's a clear distinction between saying someone smells bad and someone's wearing a smell you don't like.

THIS, a thousand times.

Iranians and Iraqis would have been considered Asian and I'm not sure that Arabians wouldn't also have been considered Asian

Persians (Iranians) are Caucasian, Iraqis are Arab, so probably "Oriental," I guess.

Heh. My friend teaches - god, for 12 years now -- at a alternative school in KC. It's a last chance school. There's mostly black and Hispanic students.

Fran has a fun personality; she dances and sings, she's an art teacher. I know what she's like with the kids.

She told me this anecdote:

Kid 1: Miss Francie, you crazy! You don't act white!

Kid 2 (witheringly): That's cause she ain't white; she's Italian!

My boss, who is Italian American of Sicilian ancestry got married in the early 80's and her husbands family was upset that their son was marrying someone not white. I think they have since gotten over it.

The grad school admissions office I temped at had a whole Underrepresented Minorities program which targeted a weird variety of groups like Polynesian and excluded others like Cuban and Chinese. (mind you, the excludeds got regular chances)

I think that in the first half of the 20th century and earlier - Iranians and Iraqis would have been considered Asian and I'm not sure that Arabians wouldn't also have been considered Asian -- and by "Asian" I mean "Oriental" - which, I suppose is a more generic term than "Asian".

Right, the Middle East was considered part of the "The Exotic Orient." The Arabian Nights are tales of the Orient.

(And, of course, etymologically the word "orient" refers to turning your map to the Holy Land where Jesus was born. Which is how maps were turned until they sorted out the North Pole.)