gogo

Wow, and up until now, I thought this was all in good fun. Chill, folks. It's just the internet.

Oh! Yes!

Yay! I'm just now considering going scofflaw, and not returning the book for another couple of days. I think in a lot of cultures it's a black dog. I've heard people in Ireland say that someone died because they met a black dog on a hill on a dark night. Also, the mongoose with the lion's eyes? (Oscar's last name is DeLeon; does that actually mean lion in Spanish?) The argument over whether Beli was cursed or lucky, when she was beaten in the cane field, comes down to the battle between the man with no face, and the mongoose. And then Oscar sees the mongoose just before he jumps

Yeah, that makes me crazy, too. Something like "Ireland are playing Spain this weekend" just doesn't sound right to me.

Me too. I think the Masked Avenger is long gone. The Masked Avenger II, though...

I know! I'm about halfway done on my second time through, but it's due back tomorrow. And I just checked, there are 124 holds on the 70 copies in our library system, so unless I want to be a total scofflaw and just keep it an extra couple of days, I don't know that I'll make it through to the end (again). Yeah, I always feel that I get more out of a book the second time around.

Damn, people. Thank god for Bridget, or I'd be in here talking to myself! OK, the man with no face: what is going on there? He's not a good omen, obviously. But how is he related to the real men in this book, who are faceless and nameless: for one, Oscar and Lola's father, we know almost nothing about him. Or what about the man who molested Lola? Later she says that she doesn't even remember now what he looked like. And when Lola runs away to live with the scuzzy boy and his father at the shore, she sits next to a man on the bus, who says that she's beautiful and reminds him of a gi

If you go down to the bottom of the page, when you're in a thread, there's a box over on the left-hand side for searching within the thread. Also, something along the lines of "there was a link to the whole new album, which won't be released for another six months, somewhere about 20 pages back in this thread, but now I can't find it; could someone please post it again?" usually works. Nobody's saying that it's 100% verboten to post a thread on a topic that's been discussed before. But if you do that, people are going to post links to the previous threads. Either accept those links as he

So helpful!

The "linking is jerky"/"thanks for the links!" argument will never die. People who post links to previous threads are usually doing it for one of two reasons: 1. If a thread is substantially similar to another thread, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have a new one. Sometimes they'll be merged by the moderators, or the new one will be closed, but it can be crazy-making to have multiple threads on one topic. It's just a lot easier to navigate the boards when it's a bit tidier arond here. And if you didn't know about the previous thread, or weren't able to find it using the search featu

Bump. Anybody?

Yeah, were we trying to say nice things about Laura Bush? I was just being catty about that one picture. Also, what was objectionable about Rosalyn Carter?

All I can think when I look at that picture is: poor Laura. She must feel how I feel when I stand next to my gorgeous, leggy friend Becky. Her hips are about even with my shoulders, I always feel like a hobbit when I'm standing next to her.

I like that one from Park West, because I've hugged Tweedy, so that puts me only one degree of hugging-separation from the President-elect. I also like what he says about Obama representing a return to the type of government that we used to aspire to. I think I'm butchering the quote, but I know I liked it when he said it.

I've been reading a lot of David Foster Wallace lately, so the footnotes are no problem for me! I'm re-reading now, and I'm thinking that even the second time around, I have a hard time getting a grip on Oscar as a real person. I feel that the female characters breathe much more deeply than he does. I'm just in the section about Ana, the girl he meets in the SAT prep class, and I can picture her so clearly. But I've never had a clear picture of Oscar in my head. Anyone else feeling that? And back to the breasts... I think maybe Lola's the character who manages to escape the curse more

OK, I really want to dip into this book again before I'm going to be able to discuss properly, but for now, everyone who's ready, go ahead and start talking! Some suggested topics: Language: I did not go on-line and try to find translations of any of the Spanish words and phrases in the book, I just went by context, using my shaky grasp of French and Latin to find cognates, etc. How did the rest of you handle this? Any Spanish-speakers want to fill us in on what we might have missed by not having those translations, or maybe did Diaz expect that we'd just gloss over those? Bodies: wh

The federal government uses an on-line form, not an attached-resume system. I don't think it's uncommon, in any field.

One thing to remember about on-line applications: there's a good possibility that the text portions are just going to be scanned for key words. So don't worry so much about making those parts epic, just be sure to feed back to them what you think they want to hear, while at the same time giving them enough info that they'll be interested in an actual interview. Good luck!

I have no problem with them not having a TV. I have never once been hanging out with them and thought "I wish I was watching TV right now". My issue was with the invite to come over on election night. If there's one night when I want to be camped in front of a full-on cable/satellite/whatever extravaganza, that's the night.

Just two quick things, other than this I'm not going near this conversation: One of my friend's Barb's comments on canvassing in Ohio: And, Lou mentioned Harold Washington above. This American Life did a piece on him just about a year ago. If you haven't heard it already, I highly recommend it. It's amazing how far we've come in 20 years.

Allison, that's amazing. Definitely want to hear your audio when it's ready.

Hee! Nine months to the day after the big earthquake in 1989, my cousin gave birth to a classic "earthquake baby".