Some quick articles from the Times...

One on Gaza, which hasn't gone away yet.

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One on clocks, Versailles, and history.

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Still more (from previous posts, that is) on 9/11.

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On using *giggles* that penguin movie in conservative stuffs. Apparently, conservatives never heard about the gay penguins in Central Park, or about the fact that penguin couples who fail to have kids split up, or that dead baby penguins have been used by their parents as pillows, or that no loving God would ever condemn an entire species to live in Antarctica *by design*.

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On salvaging items from New Orleans.

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And an article with no subscription on transgenderism.

Random HP thought...

We all know that it's A Big Deal to call Voldie by his name - and that an even bigger deal is to call him by his birthname.

So is it at all significant that many people don't refer to Harry by name? I mean, do they really have to waste ink and paper saying The Boy Who Lived, when everybody in the world knows who he is? And now it's the Chosen One, I know.

It'd be really great if this was just some odd wizarding custom or superstition that people shouldn't be called by name. So we'd have everybody running around saying "Hey! You Git! Give this to the One Who Turned and tell him that Old Lemon Drop has turned him down for the position again, in favor of Mad-Eye (hey, his name already works!) under the Muggle Lover's recommendation!"

It'd be great. Ooooh, or maybe they could talk like this:

"Did you hear what You-Know-Who did with You-Know-Who-Else when Whats-His-Name told him that Lord Thingy was out to get him?"

That would be *so cool*.

But, alas, it seems restricted to Harry and Voldy. And maybe Moody... does he count?

In other news, I have acne. This isn't a recent problem, but whenever it pops up again, certain people (hi Jenn!) do tend to bring it up. Lately, everything everybody says to me gets pushed into a song, so now I'm humming "I'm breaking out! I want the world to know, let the pimples show!" over and over and over again. I'm driving me batty.

"Prince Jazan will make vanish the desert capital"

Well, bully for him.

And the av is kinda ugly, too. Still, I'm glad that's over with. What's next?

Damn.

I just deleted two comments of mine in somebody's journal. I meant to delete one, and apologise for it (it was snappish), but I got the wrong one, so I deleted the second, but now I look spiteful and randomly comment-deleting.

Well, the person I deleted them from knows who they are. I'm sorry.

*stretches*

A few randomly related thoughts about this...

First, I'm thinking of the other day. I was on the crowded bus (the one before that hadn't come, or something), and a guy with a cane (it's at the boat, the bus isn't moving yet) makes his way through to the back. Now, at this point I'm not sure what happened. Either nobody offered him a seat in the "YOU MUST GIVE THIS SEAT...." seats at the front (which is wrong, because there's no reason a guy with a cane should have to walk all the way to the back of the bus, that's why those seats are labeled), or he wanted to sit with his friends/family, who were at the back. I didn't know then, and I don't know now.

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That's just a story. I also have a point about the comments in the link.

A number of people are saying that the pregnant woman didn't deserve the seat because "it's not a disability" and it's not a disability because "that's a choice". (Let's ignore the woman's blatant and uncalled-for rudeness for the purposes of this conversation, okay?)

Disability is defined as not being a choice? Hah. Let's just look it up, shall we? A disability is any physical and/or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities (caring for one’s self, walking, seeing, hearing, and the like)

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So, one of the things Ana's apparently been doing lately (I haven't seen it yet) is telling stories.

She'll pick something that happened that day, or a day or two ago, and re-enact it for somebody, usually Jenn.

So far she's re-enacted:

The Encounter with the Evil Toe-Eating Death-Door of Doom.
Remember when the Bus Drove Past Us and You Cried?
The Little Girl Who Didn't Want to Take a Nap, and Eventually Fell Asleep to the Cheerful Sounds of False Lamkin.

Honestly, I have no idea why False Lamkin put her to sleep. I mean, it's a song about a guy who got stiffed on a bill, so he murders the whole family, starting with the baby. And he's only able to do this because the person watching the baby let him in. "Here's blood in the parlor, here's blood in the hall, here's blood in the kitchen where he killed them all." Ana is apparently completely untroubled by the potential implications of hearing this as a lullaby. (Honestly, I *do* know normal songs, but none of them *worked* on her today! I had to go through my entire repetoire (well, not really, but quite a few) of Repetetive Songs That Aren't "Ten Green Bottles".)

She's really my brilliant, brilliant niece. *huggles*

The next one better be smart too, and Lizziey's. But hopefully, Evie won't look so good. Honestly, it's annoying to have everybody and then some stop to tell me how gorgeous she apparently is.