I guess you can blame Captain Underpants for getting me so worked up but the truth of the matter is it’s been coming down the pipe for a long time. See, last year a bunch of kids in some high school somewhere decided to all dress up as the hero from the epic children’s story called Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants for Halloween. When word got out to the school officials about their plans, the costumes were banned in the name of decency.
This year, in many schools across the country kids who intended to dress up as witches, devils, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, ogres and other assorted nightmarish creatures have also met a similar fate. Meanwhile, teenage boys can walk around with their pants dangling well below their ass and girls the same age can dress up like working girls standing on a corner hustling tricks. Nowadays, Halloween seems destined to be ruled by the likes of puppy dogs, kittens, butterflies and sunflowers.
I’m reminded of the movie called Jersey Girl which starred Ben Affleck. (okay, stop your giggling) In it, the kids of a school are called upon to put on a talent show with their parents. These are mostly second graders and I think the first three acts all do the song “Memory” from the Broadway musical “Cats”. All the kids and moms look like such little darlings that nobody can tell them apart. Affleck’s kid in the movie had decided to do a scene from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and the song called “God That’s Good”. The teacher, unaware of the content, first mutters a sigh of relief that they won’t be doing something from “Cats” and thinks the song is some type of hymn. Once the true meaning of what’s inside the meat pies is revealed in the song, she faints.
The audience, slow to respond at first, gives them a standing ovation.
Paradise, lost and found
Paradise, take a look around
I was out in California where I hear they have it all
They got riots, fires, mud slides
They’ve got sushi in the mall
Water bars, brontosaurs, Chinese modern lust
Shake and bake life with the quake
The secrets in the crust
In a recent node I was taken to task by a fellow noder whom I consider a friend about my glib comments about the Chinese and the recent spate of crap they’ve been exporting here to the States and probably elsewhere around the world. In it, I’m called on the carpet for noding about current events in conjunction with a very serious subject. I guess he took it personally since he deals with a bunch of Chinese- Americans. I meant no offense by my comments; it was more like an observation. I responded as such
by saying I meant it in a “What’s up with California?” kinda way.
But since we now live in such a kinder gentler society where the simplest turn of the phrase can raise the hackles of so many people, where kids costumes are banned in the name of decency yet a slaughter of sorts is allowed to go in so many places around the world I see the error of my ways.
So, for any of you noders who are from California, know somebody who lives in or once lived in California, have visited California, can spell California or can find California on a map, my most humble apologies
.
Religion! Religion!
Oh, there’s a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Here we go now.
Alright, alter boys.
But first…
Mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa
Mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa
I should know better by now but sometimes my instincts just take over.
Where’s the church, who took the steeple?
Religion is in the hands of some crazy-ass people
Television preachers with bad hair and dimples
The gods honest truth is its not that simple
Its the Buddhist in you, its the pagan in me
Its the Muslim in him, she’s Catholic ain’t she?
Its the born again look its the wasp and the Jew
Tell me what’s goin’ on, cuz I aint gotta clue!
Everybody and their mother seems to have some kind of opinion on the direction of where E2 is headed. As one of the Admins here who couldn’t write a line of code if his life depended on it, I’m certainly not qualified to comment on all the technical aspects and what is entailed in getting them implemented. I tip my cap to the geeks who live for this stuff and discounting the few bumps in the road over the years, my experience here has been quite enjoyable. I’ve seen noders come and go for a variety of reasons. At times, I’ve even felt like pulling the plug on the place myself but something, I don’t know what it is but I might have an idea, keeps pulling me back.
For all the code that’s written, for all enhancements that are slated to come, for all the debate and finger pointing about what direction the site might be taking, should the lights ever go out on this place, it’s the people that I’ll miss most.
On that, I’m certain.