green

Yep, I definitely prefer working with men. The first half of my working life was spent doing administrative and counselling work in a university setting. Most of the folks with whom I worked were women. The second half of my work life was spent building aircraft. Men are much easier to deal with, I think. And the women's bathrooms were never crowded, an added bonus.

Thanks, Irish. I appreciate the kind thoughts.

Thanks, loriely. I have an appointment with a surgeon for next Monday at 9 AM for the biopsy. And my nice doc has given me a prescription of Ativan in order to calm me down.

I finally found out what is wrong with my voice. I don't have asthma. I have a tumor on my right vocal cord. This has not only ruined my voice but is impeding my breathing. Now I am waiting - with great anxiety!!! - for an appointment with a surgeon at Mt. Sinaii for a biopsy to be done. And for the removal of the horrid thing of course. Yipes! How is your band doing, Peaches? Is is still losing fill? How are you doing, Donna D?

Bwahahaha! *filthy laugh*

My ex used to fart in unused dryers in public laundromats, and then slam the doors shut. He also liked farting in people's closets.

When I was living in France I knew a guy who was straight and who made a point of buying himself cut flowers every Saturday. He would do this while he was shopping at the open air produce market. I thought this was an excellent thing to do and I have carried on the tradition until fairly recently. It is surprising what a difference a few fresh flowers make to the ambiance of your home, especially during the winter months! The only reason that I have let this practice slide recently is that there is no longer anyone who sells flowers in my neighbourhood. *sigh*

Haha. I've got to say that while I am not allergic to bananas I do hate eating them. In fact I hate most fruits except for those in the berry class. Too sweet for me. I much prefer vegies. Hang in there, Sunwyse. You will be banded and you will lose weight. And maybe the SAD light will help. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you. And, remember, it could be worse. Much worse. You could be living in Canada. This winter has been cold, snowy, and sunless!

Although I generally prefer longer hair hair does look wonderful in the second and third picture. I prefer it short.

I take vita Bs everyday, and I take vita D. D is very important for those of us who live in SAD climates. I gained a big bunch of weight when I was put on Risperidone and Effexor. Now I am off those drugs which is fine by me. The side effects were awful: high blood pressure and horrible, major league constipation for the first time in my life! Ugh! At one point they tried me out on Remeron. Another disaster! I became a raving bitch and felt like Ms Pacman. I was eating everything in the house. These days I take Wellbutrin, Selexa, and Topomax for depression and this combo seems to be as good as it is gonna get for Green.

I hate cell phones, too, and refuse to have one even though my husband would like me to have one.

Yep, I can see it now. Fat folk sending skinny minnies into MacDonalds with cash in order to buy 'em their fix of Big Macs. Parents sending in their little kids.... "Please, honey, do it for daddy.... Get daddy his burger and fries. I'll buy you a new toy...."

Maybe Obama will pick Biden as his running mate.

The banana theory makes sense to me. Afterall, we do call most carb rich foods comfort foods and Canadians do like to eat comfort foods during the long, dark, cold winter months.

Thanks for posting back, luluc. Oddly enough one of the things which I found the most heartening in your post was that this cat, Obama, did not choose to engage himself in a major trash fest with his competition, Hillary Clinton. I remember when I was a single goose on the loose; I always fled from any man who spent his time with me trying to curry my favour by trashing his former romantic associates. I figured that the odds were generous that we, too, would split up and that then I would also be talked about in these mean, thin, and certainly ungenerous terms. What goes fer dates also goes for political candidates, I figure. I am always repelled by a campaign which is built up upon the politics of the negative. I always feel that it is easy to trash others and that these criticisms are little more than cheap shots. I don't want to hear why your opponent cannot cut it. I want to hear nothing but optimism city from the candidates. I wanna hear why you can cut it. I wanna hear why you are the most valuable option out there. A campaign which is run on negativity is saying this: vote for me. I am the least offensive option available. This doesn't sound all that attractive, does it? It is, nevertheless, a suitable option if you happen to live in Mali, a third world, land-locked African nation. This option to disengage from your electoral machine is one which is open to you but it is a stunningly foolish option. Electoral choices do not matter to Kenyans, Malis, and whole great big clutch of republics who are still anxious to display themselves as belonging among the lovely clutch of democratic nations.

Welcome to my world. I have been wearing this t-shirt for a long, long time now. You see, not only is clinical depression part of the Green family inheritance - both myself, both my sibs, and two out of my parents' 3 grandchildren report suffering from problems with depression - but I have noticed that along with my usual array of creepy depressive issues I will get much more messed up during the winter months. It is for this reason that I have been using a SAD lamp for the past 4 years. People ask me whether this works and to tell you the truth I don't know. Winter will mess me up and this particular winter has been an ugly one. We have seen more cold, more snow, and much less sun than usual. I drape myself in the rays of the SAD light for hours every day and still feel fairly lousy. It is always possible that I might be left feeling much, much worse without SAD light. Certainly it is true that winter is a difficult time of year for those of us who are miserable. But then for a true depressive all four seasons are sh!t, doncha know.... Argh!

Luluc, your report is really interesting. Please continue.

Funny post, Gadget, because it is so, so true! Ya find the same kind of dichotomy in the animal rights movement. You find folks who are strictly vegan and yet who are wearing leather shoes, belt, and jacket. I was, by the way, a major contributor to an animal rights website even though I secretly eat meat. But not on a regular basis, eh. To tell you the truth, this is the problem which I always have whenever I am faced with those folks who are wholly committed to a dogma, any dogma. While it is true that I have my own standards and this means that I am inclined to view some beliefs as being much more right than others, it also means that I view my experience of this world as one continuous learning curve. A too close adherence to any one belief system, whatever this may be, will inevitably block the adherent from receiving and processing information from other quarters. Not only does this handicap the receiver from learning new stuff, it also blocks the recipient from engaging in the on-going fun of learning. Perhaps it is a pretty cool thing that your bro has been opting to use the throw-away diapers. This un-green activity of his may permit you to engage in an open discussion about the real day to day complexities of maintaining environmentally correct practices.

I remember reading somewhere years ago that a baby will go through roughly 15,000 diapers before it is house trained. That is a lot of diapers whether you toss 'em or buy, wash, disinfect, dry, and reuse 'em. Either choice will involve energy and if you opt for the second choice this will involve a time commitment as well. You also run the risk of having a home which smells like a latrine. When I was a child I used to detest being dragged to the homes of those families who were recently blessed. Those houses stank! (Perhaps this is yet another reason why I was so vividly against having a baby of my own, eh.) Anyhow, my city has done something about this. All used diapers, sanitary products, used Kleenex, used kitty litter will be recycled along with the usual kitchen waste. The point which I was seeking to make in my above posts is that none of can, no matter how committed we are to our environment, solve certain problems for these are larger and will require the engagement of business and corporations. The recycling of used diapers which takes place in my city is an example which illustrates my point. And, yep, you cannot ask folks to give up their tools without offering them alternatives. The simple truth is that most of the folks in Canada and the United States are car dependent. Most folks do not live in the cores of large transit friendly cities and thus they will need their cars. The trick is to find ways of producing cleaner, more fuel efficient vehicles. The other trick is to find ways to cut down on car use. The most obvious one is the work commute; and many office folks could e-commute.

Um, Green is a major freak about perfume, eh. And she likes klassy stuff. Chanel, Boucheron, Ricci, Armani are but 4 of her personal faves when it comes to perfumes. She finds Hermes to be dire, however. I was simply remarking that I remember when Canada imposed big sumptuary taxes on perfumes. This was when I was a tiny child by the way.

In my own country there is a very big difference - in fact a gulf - between those who are strictly economic conservatives and those who are social conservatives. It strikes me that in the past conservatism was primarily linked to economics and to social issues only in so far as these are linked to the economy. In other words, that is to say that economic conservatives had no official comment at all on one's chosen life style provided that this did not include a reliance on welfare, public health resources, or include a vigorous adherence to pro-union practices. Old style conservatives were comfortable with us choosing our own lifestyles provided that our choices did not cost the taxpayer any money nor infringe upon the money making machines of commerce. The new style of conservatism is quite different. These are the folks who are anxious to foist their own moral and aesthetic judgements upon all others. These are the folk who are concerned with what we read, what we watch, and how we think. These are people who do seek to control lifestyle. This desire is almost inevitably tethered to religious belief. In Canada social conservatism is not popular. South of the border it is obviously very persuasive.

I will also admit that while I do care about the environment and do attempt to do my bit whenever possible, I live in Canada and this will mean heat in the winter and A/C in the summer. It also means imported fresh vegies throughout much of the year, and these sure do leave a hefty carbon footprint. I am a fresh produce freak. These are my personal sins against the environment. In the plus side of the ledger, because I live in a large city with great public transit I do not drive (in fact I do not know how to drive!): I either walk or take the subway. I never bothered having kids and so no diapers, etc. Even though I live in chilly Canada I live in the core of a large city and the city produces a warmer micro-climate which means that I use less fuel to heat my house. (On the other hand I am forced to go nuts with A/C usuage throughout our appallingly hot, humid and polluted summers.) I also live in a city which is very serious about recycling and which has in place an extremely elaborate garbage collection system as a result. But long before that I was saving my kitchen waste in order to plow this into my backyard. For years now whenever the mate and I have done our grocery shopping we've been bringing with us our own "luggage:" that is to say that we don't like to use the store bags. So that is the story of my crappy little boring carbon profile and my attempts to take care of business. We all have our own personal carbon profiles but there will be areas which lie outside our own best abilities to control our own carbon footprints should we wish to do so. It strikes me that one of the major issues is our need of energy. When I was young electricity in my home was cheap. This was because we were getting all our hydro-electric energy needs from Niagara Falls. Now, sadly, there is no longer enough to go around and my province is facing an on-going energy crisis. It is thus still reliant on a few of its coal burning generators. These are very, very dirty and the province had hoped to be able to retire these monsters. One of the major pigs when it comes to consuming fossil fuels and polluting the environment is personal transportation. A major downside to owning a vehicle is that they are expensive to buy and to maintain and to run. Yet people need to get to work, shop, and visit friends and family. It seems to me that two iniatives are needed here: 1) the development of vehicles which are more fuel efficient and more environmentally friendly and 2) when it comes to white collar work the practice of working from home, e-commuting in other words, should become much more in the way of the norm. Perhaps the government could provide tax incentives to those businesses which encourage e-commuting and to those individuals who buy the greener vehicles. And there are sumptuary taxes, too. You may know these as sin taxes, and, yes, these are most likely to appear on booze and smokes. But the notion of sumptuary is a little more complicated. For a long time perfume was heavily taxed in some countries for it was regarded as being a frivolous pleasure. Think of sumptuary as equating with luxury. I have gone into this tedious explanation in order to prepare you for the approach which my provincial government had chosen to take with respect to the purchase of muscle/high performance sports cars. We can buy 'em but we will be hit with an extra tithe.

By the way, I oh so totally get the hypocrisy lodged in that appalling disparity displayed between talk and walk to which we are treated by the Rich&Famous. Cranky Green is often left thinking oh gimme a forkin break and shaddup, eh! I can understand your irritation. In fact on my personal blog I have a thread which is titled Green hates Bono and many other celebrities.

The United States is a mighty large country and yet you folks have a choice of only two parties. This means that there will be a wide variance in the personal ideologies, intellects, ambitions and desires between Republicans. Republicans should not, indeed must not be tarred with the same brush. Of course the same logic applies to Democrats, Christians, Muslims, Catholics, atheists, feminists, whatever.... In fact I suspect that when it comes to voting time it is likely that many of you hold your nose and reluctantly vote for the party of your choice believing only that it may be the lesser of two evils. This being said, it is my opinion that the reign of mini-Bush was pretty much a disaster. He put a corrupt man into the office of the Attorney-General. Under his rule your constitutional rights to privacy, etc have been eroded. He pushed a man of dubious ethics into heading up the IMF. He led your country into a costly no-win war with Iraq when it was already known that no WMDs were found in that country and that, moreover, Saddam was hostile to Islamic fundamentalists. The results of this last stunt have been disasterous: he has all but destroyed the only country capable of keeping fundamentalist Iran occupied in local wars; he has engaged in a fruitless war which is causing your country to hemmorhage money to the tune of trillions; he made this decision unilaterally and in doing so alienated America from many of her traditional allies. This man has often displayed himself as being stupid, woefully ill-informed, and arrogant. You must understand that much of what political figures say is written for them by professional speech writers. What we hear is a combination of the marriage of spin doctors and those writers. Talk is always merely talk. But even when George II talks he does appear to be a little on the dim side though definitely a fun cat to hang with. (I know that I would much prefer hanging with the Dubya than with Hillary or Obama. Representing my country is an entirely different matter.) Now, I am not dissing the man nor his regime simply because he is Republican. I am dissing him because he was and is unprofessional and unfit for the job. A cat like Mitt Romney would do a splendid job. It is likely that McCain will do a fine job. It is for this reason that I find it impossible to take seriously any commentaries made or inniatives taken by the Bushites concerning the greening of America, conservation of fossil fuels, etc. You will note, by the way, that Bush started talking green only after his popularity plummeted in the polls and Nancy Pelosi and her gang of Demos won in the half-term elections.

Hey, that is cool. Congratulations to Mr. Jackie. (I gave him the masculinised version of your name.)