Random thought thread!

Sarkus · 2011-11-20T10:40:34.000Z

Cormac:

Had my first Thanksgiving dinner tonight!

An American friend decided to introduce all the expats living in Cologne to this US tradition and I reckon it lived up pretty well to my expectations. I’ve seen a gazillion thanksgiving scenes on TV & the movies and I suspect the only thing really missing from ours to match up to that cliche was the lack of American Football on TV… ;)

Needless to say we all ate WAY too much, it was just too tasty!

Its only an American Thanksgiving if the feast if followed by a long nap and then lining up in a mass crowd to buy crap you will return the next day anyway. ;-)

jason · 2011-11-20T13:08:26.000Z

I actually love going to the mall during the holidays. Not for shopping, I’m not insane. I go for the people watching. There is something oddly soothing about strolling around witnessing other people’s crazy with the satisfaction of knowing all your shopping is done or will be handled online.

Anders_Hallin · 2011-11-20T14:08:54.000Z

Dean:

Doesn’t that traditionally end in a suicide?

Oh no, it used to be that characters in Swedish family movies moved around like automatons who stared bleakly out onto the frozen steppes, not betraying to the world that in the inner-most depths of their hearts, they felt empty. All their dreams of companionship and love, all their hopes, everything they thought they would be, gone with all these years of a slowly crumbling marriage that you could never acknowledge.

Nowadays, we’ve learned to talk about it.

hong · 2011-11-21T05:06:56.000Z

I thought those were Danish movies.

thrasymedes · 2011-11-22T22:10:17.000Z

Sarkus · 2011-11-22T23:13:14.000Z

Anders Hallin:

Oh no, it used to be that characters in Swedish family movies moved around like automatons who stared bleakly out onto the frozen steppes, not betraying to the world that in the inner-most depths of their hearts, they felt empty. All their dreams of companionship and love, all their hopes, everything they thought they would be, gone with all these years of a slowly crumbling marriage that you could never acknowledge.

Nowadays, we’ve learned to talk about it.

That sounds like the plot of every Nordic film/play/TV show I’ve ever seen. Even the plot of that famous A-Ha video is hardly optimistic, really. ;-)

Omniscia · 2011-11-23T05:04:14.000Z

It does sound rather Ibsenesque.

'Course, he was Norsk.

John_Many_Jars · 2011-11-23T12:18:49.000Z

Serpentine boners
Slither through the meadow grass
But don’t coil to strike

kerzain · 2011-11-23T12:28:50.000Z

They have a pill for that.

Zepo1a · 2011-11-23T12:49:20.000Z

John Many Jars:

Serpentine boners
Slither through the meadow grass
But don’t coil to strike

Hey! John Many Jars
Haiku fail on the 3rd line
Messed up on coil

John_Many_Jars · 2011-11-23T13:39:13.000Z

Zepo1a:

Hey! John Many Jars
Haiku fail on the 3rd line
Messed up on coil

Oh, good call! Coi-el. Thanks Zep.

“Don’t coil, yet strike.”

RichVR · 2011-11-23T15:46:21.000Z

I love cooking for Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite holiday meals. So of course the wife and my mom decided we are going to a restaurant this year. I’m going to really go in with a positive attitude, but still. My turkey kicks ass. I think there will be a few pre-dinner Manhattans. Then a couple of bottles of wine with dinner.

Cormac · 2011-11-23T23:03:39.000Z

I thought this was pretty cute:

Dean · 2011-11-24T08:31:55.000Z

I complained about going to Thanksgiving with the people we’re going to because I have nothing in common with them and I end up talking to their kid about games all day.

I have just found out that we’re invited specifically so I can keep their kid occupied all day.

kerzain · 2011-11-24T09:19:52.000Z

You should get amazingly drunk and do something obscene with the turkey.

John_Many_Jars · 2011-11-24T10:43:10.000Z

Dean:

I complained about going to Thanksgiving with the people we’re going to because I have nothing in common with them and I end up talking to their kid about games all day.

I have just found out that we’re invited specifically so I can keep their kid occupied all day.

Fuck it, don’t go. Don’t be someone’s friend of convenience. Get takeout.

RichVR · 2011-11-24T14:52:24.000Z

Just got back from dinner. I take it all back. Great food, great drinks, great wine, brought home dessert. Barely able to move.

Miramon · 2011-11-24T16:31:15.000Z

kerzain:

You should get amazingly drunk and do something obscene with the turkey.

I’m not sure it’s possible to get that drunk.

mdowdle · 2011-11-24T23:56:35.000Z

Turns out that in Canada, threesomes are illegal, according to Section 293 of the Canadian Criminal Code:

(1) Every one who
(a) practises or enters into or in any manner agrees or consents to practise or enter into
. . .
(ii) any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time, whether or not it is by law recognized as a binding
form of marriage . . .
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

Interestingly, no-one in Canada seems particularly concerned. The constitutionality of Section 293 has been challenged, but not because it criminalizes threesomes, but because it prohibits polygamy. What the . . .? I don’t even . . . Why go through all the hassle of having TWO spouses if you can’t enjoy in a little ménage à trois? Only in Canada . . .

You’d think that at the very least, someone would have complained that it hurts tourism.

Omniscia · 2011-11-25T03:52:35.000Z

I don’t see it. Doesn’t the word “conjugal” relate specifically to marital situations?