Re: Re: Intro

[Guest guest]

Tom,

That all sounds very familiar. We used to spend Christmas up at my maternal grandmother's place in the country. Once I was old enough that they would let me out of their sight, I would spend most of my time outside, especially down by the river. Some of the last such holidays spent up there I would take boosk with me and would go sit on the riverbank and read. It was allo too loud inside and full of people and their phony niceness.

What always amazed me was that it was supposed to be a happy time, but all I saw was the amount on conflict go way up. This was especially true amongst the women. All the men would stay out of the kitchen and the women would all be trying to cook and get things set up. All we could hear was the constant sqawking, arguing and occaisional outburst that would have someone coming out into the hall in tears. The fellows stayed out of that for our own safety.

Meals weren't much better since the festering mood from the preparation tended to carry over. Still, there were two sets of tables: one in the dining room and one in the TV room. I chose the latter since it was mostly where the men sat and it was quiet compared to the other table. The men also tended to be less critical of my small appetite and limited food selections. The women would always fuss about my not eating enough, and that I had to try this that or the other. Of course all of that only made me want to eat less and turned me against whatever they were trying to force me to eat.

I also agree with the over commercialiaztion of all the formerly Christian Holidays. I would say more but not at this time.

The people in the lines and such you are talking about are called Oblivions. Mike Straka has a column on Foxnews.com where he talks about them in great detail. Somewhere he has a Bestiary of the different kinds of Oblivion. Its all very funny and very true.

[Guest guest]

There has been an interesting studyon canine intelligence. This one dog they have been using has learned the names of several items and can be sent to another room to fetch them. It can also pick the right item from amongst a group of other items. In addition, the dog has shown it can use exclusive learning. That is, if it is told to fetch an item it has never seen, it can go to the group and 7 of 10 times, it can pick the new item from all the ones it already knows. After doing this a few times it learns the name of the new item. After a few days it can still do this about 50% of the time and it relearns very quickly. Chimps and other animals can't do this that well. Indeed this level of functioning is about equal to a three year old human.

If this carries over to other dogs is not yet known, but it does raise some interesting questions about dogs.

[Guest guest]

The only decorating I do it lights in the windows. My mother likes one in each of the front windows, but I like the old tradition of a single light over the front door. That room happens to be the upstairs bathroom, and I think just the one light in the window looked nice. Last year we had three: one in that window and one in each of the downstairs windows on either side of the front door. That made a really attractive Isosceles triangle and represented the Trinity. Still, I think my mother likes to compete, to a limited extent, with the neighbors and the lights they have.

[Guest guest]

Deb, I truly believe that the creature closest to perfection on this earth must be the canine. I have not found undying loyalty, unwavering honesty, and unconditional love from ANY other species, certainly not from humans. I have a bit of Native American blood (from my mother's side) and there is an old legend that tells of a great chasm caused by the Great Spirit which split the surface of the planet to divide the men from the animals. At the last possible moment, the dog leapt back over to the human's side of the fissure, and there has been a special bond between them ever since. I currently have two female Dalmatians and they are the sum and total of my family on this earth. One advantage to that situation is a lot less Christmas shopping, and I never have to worry about them returning their gifts.

In answer to your question about "show biz"; during most of my mis-spent youth (right out of high-school), I was on tour with rock & roll bands. I started out as a humble "stage technician" (aka "roadie" ) and gradually worked my way up to "L.D." (lighting director) and road manager for several different bands from the mid-seventies to the late eighties. Just to give you a point of reference, if you ever saw the Rob Reiner movie "Spinal Tap"... I LIVED IT! Debbie wrote:

Hi RicA big warm welcome to the group; you most certainly will find answers to any questions you need to ask here. You've won me over already when you said that you prefer animals to humans especially dogs!Many Blessings DebsPS when you say show biz what do you do?> > As a new member of this group, I figure the polite thing to do is > introduce myself. My name is , (Ric for short) and I only > recently became aware of the existence of A.S. through a radio > interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" program with Terry Gross. The person > being interviewed (I forgot his name) really provided me with > an "AHA" moment. I listened with great interest as the gentleman

> spoke of a lot of familiar situations and scenarios that he was > dealing with. Although I have not sought out a "professional" opinion > as of yet, I'm pretty sure there is probably much to be learned here > in this group. Two things about me that may (or may not) be > indicative of A.S. are my chosen career in "Show Biz" and my > preference of animals (particularly dogs) over people. In a big city > like Chicago, I imagine there are a lot of learning resources, but I > think a group like this should prove beneficial in a nice, safe, > anonymous kind of way. Thanks for being here. ~ R.C.FAM Secret Society is a community based on respect, friendship, support and acceptance. Everyone is valued. __________________________________________________