brainylady

Artificial Lifeform Intended for Sabotage and Online Nullification

(It's my cyborg name. Thanks to Bagatell for the link.)

No knitting (or '80s heartthrob movies) last night. A quick beer with Danny after work turned into three beers and dinner and a couple other friends. I managed to extract myself at about 10:30, when I went home, played with Bea for a while, knit (purled, actually) one measly row on my sweater yoke, and fell asleep. Bill and I have dinner-and-drinks plans tonight, too. I hope to get some good solid knitting time in over the weekend. Especially if it continues to be miserably cold and rainy. (As you [may] know, we live in a rooftop apartment. Our roof is made of tin or some such material, so heavy rain is very noisy. It's a terrible sound on a weekday morning when one has to haul one's butt out the door to go out to work, but it's a beautiful sound on a weekend when one can stay inside and be cozy.)

There's a good piece in yesterday's Guardian about language: "Has swearing lost its power to shock?" (Warning: If you really don't want to read the f-word, the c-word, or any blasphemy, don't click.) It's especially interesting in light of the "Nipplegate" scandal involving Miss Jackson. How does "appropriate" change over time? How important is context? (I just read that, because of the response to the Superbowl flash, an upcoming episode of ER has been cut so as not to show an elderly patient's breast. I guess a breast is a breast is a breast on mainstream U.S. television: bad, in other words. Shame on them.) The author of the Guardian piece says that the c-word has become so common in Britain as to be nearly inoffensive. I've been away from North America for two years, but I'd be very surprised if Canadians are desensitized to the c-word. Most Canadian newspapers won't even print the f-word. Anyway, it's hard for this feminist to accept that the use of the c-word as a "casual expletive" is "almost meaningless," and the author's connection of the word's use by (male) football fans to its use by (female) spectators of "The Vagina Monologues" is just plain weak. Still, an article worth reading.

And speaking of language, this is the message displayed on the screen of the ATM next to my office when you withdraw money: "Please take cash and slip." Danny and I were laughing at this yesterday and miming "Oh, there's my cash! I'll just put it in my wallet and -- WOOAAH!"

Ah, that still makes me laugh! Have a great Friday, everyone.