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ChrisR

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Posts posted by ChrisR

  1. Wow, G.W. - the Australians are right on top of your announcement! In today's online news (http://www.news.com.au/) they have a story on their homepage entitled:

    THIS Broadway theatregoer became a part of the show following their dramatic reaction to hunky actor Russell Tovey disrobing.

    Sure enough, open the story and it goes on to say:

    BROADWAY show A View From the Bridge was briefly halted Saturday night when a male audience member, in the onstage seating section at New York’s Lyceum Theatre, fainted at the sight of actor Russell Tovey as he took off his shirt.

    Evidently the view from the audience was pretty good too! (emphases added)

  2. Did a bit of research on your names. As several folks have mentioned, there is a cultural phenomenon among some communities to come up with unique name spellings, so some of your names may be in that category. Or just plain nicknames or, as suggested, short for a family name. But as far as the >2000 male given names in the 1990 US Census, here's what I can find:

    Kedon - no match. Could be variation on Kendall?

    Tarell - no match. Could be variation on Tyrell (1,019th most common US given name)

    Rock - no match. Could be variation on Rocky (530), Brock (701)

    Mason - A MATCH! 632nd most common US given name

    Rand - no match. Could be variation on Brandon (68), Randy (78), Randall (139), Randolph (366), Randal (577), Branden (751), Randell (825)

    Eriko - no match. Could be variation on Erik (231), Erick (443), Federico (731), Erich (808)

  3. Let us all rip, rip, rip out the offending chapters from our schools' linguistic references and be joyful. That such an august body has ruled on this critical matter should make one and all thankful. After all, their membership requirement states quite clearly that:

    Anyone can join the society!

    Now if they could but standardize the pronunciation of "ough" and repeal the verdammt "i before e" rule I would be ever grateful. Or is it greatful?

  4. Geesh - most of you guys are still kids! (Well, except for the rep from down under.)

    We had music from the greats before they were great. Tower of Power and Carlos Santana both played for our dances when I was in high school. And oddly enough, Tower of Power recently announced they're losing their lead singer to Santana.

    And Woodstock looked like a good time, but Woodstock West (at Altamont) defintely was.

  5. Thanks Chris. I'll have to check on a couple of your book suggestions.

    Your points are all valid. I agree the western allies didn't want to behave like the SS, not to mention there was still a war going on on the other side of the globe. The Russians were far more thorough, however. They thought nothing of machine gunning German captives or letting them die in the snow. Just check the numbers from the 6th Army. About 108,000 were captured in Stalingrad of which some 6,000 came home after the war.

  6. This is indeed good news. Now comes the challenge of how different states will follow through with it, either stacking parole boards or coming up with new charges later on.

    A young acquaintance of mine had what I found to be a good compromise. A life sentence is limited to the number of years old the person was at the time of commission. Twelve years old? No more than 12 years. Give a person a chance.

  7. Shkreli, now criminally indicted for fraud (unrelated to the whole pharma scandal) was scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday of this week, but I suspect DC won't quite be back to normal so it likely won't happen. Oddly enough, since the testimony is about drug company prices and NOT the fraud indictment, he might be restricted from using the self-incrimination excuse to refuse. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say, whenever he gets around to saying it.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/business/dealbook/congress-subpoenas-martin-shkreli-over-drug-prices.html?_r=0

  8. *** SPOILER ALERT ***

    Rutabaga -

    Here's my interpretation of things. Might be right or wrong!

    The window was broken from the inside - it wasn't anybody or anything trying to get in - so the broken glass was mostly on the ground outside.
    Nothing went through the window, like a football or rock, which would have left big chunks of glass. This was more of a "force field" explosive sort of shock to the glass. Perhaps a psychic shockwave.
    As for his hands, a choking individual will often have his hands around his throat, trying to breathe. A boy who'd been hanged would be just like that.

  9. (Australia Day is the official National Day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ...)

    Question on this. Columbus Day is the anniversary of Christopher Columbus "discovering" the new world. Over the past 20 years or so it has diminished significantly in the US in popularity as native Americans have struggled to get a fair say. Does a similar situation exist in Australia and/or New Zealand?

  10. If history books in school were written more like this, I suspect that there would be much less ignorance of history in our world. This is truly masterful telling of an incredible story reduced to a level of intimacy that people can understand and feel a part of. Thank you, Mihangel, for your beautiful craft.

  11. I just stumbled onto this thread and did a search for "Four boys charged in the rape of an 8-year-old girl".

    It brought up more than 10 pages of hits with this and similar crimes all across the nation and around the world. I gave up after 3 pages, but for the record the oldest boy in this case received probation, the others were charged as juveniles. One of the 9-year-olds was being 'educated' on American justice so he would be competent for trial.

    What's shocking is not just this case but how many similar cases are out there. And not limited to the US. I frankly don't see a solution beyond the blah blah of "teach them respect" stuff. Tell me all about how well that's working so far.

  12. Just what the heck is a waddock anyway? The Urban Slang dictionary says that when plural it mean a pair of tits. So he's a single tit? The Newfoundland dictionary says it's a football. Not sure which type.

    And in Donny's <shudder> defense, I'd suggest getting the Parliamentarians' quotes concerning his stance on immigrants and superimposing them on refugee encampment footage from Calais.

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