...in seventy-eight, seventy eight

[Just Some Girl]

Got wood?

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[Just Some Girl]

Out in nature (with beer).

(Left to right, it's Char from Winnipeg (!), Sarah, Isabel and yours truly.)

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[Just Some Girl]

Isabel's self portrait (avec Some Girl)

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[Just Some Girl]

Sarah, Josey, me and Char hangin' at the dump. (Sorry, no outhouse shots. We're a class act all the way. Except for the injury shots, which I hope we get soon. Pwetty.)

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[Just Some Girl]

I can't believe I couldn't think of a "dump" joke.

[Doctor Rock]

So, in class today my prof was talking about the myth of Columbus...specifically aspects like his imagined battle with ignorant old world Catholics who inisisted the world was flat and that he would sail off the edge of the planet. No one believed this. I already knew this from Terry Jones (of all people), but when some other students asked why they all knew this lie as truth, my prof responded saying that it was like anything that takes on a life of its own, that it was like what "Stephen Colbert refers to as 'truthiness'"

She actually seemed unsure whether the reference would resonate with the class...and I am not sure it did beyond a handful of us.

And that stupid story keeps perpetuating itself: my step-daughter's teacher told it to the class...

And then I had the enviable job of telling my step-daughter that her teach didn't know what she was talking about...

There's this pretty cool book I've been reading called "The European Discovery of America", by Samuel Morison.  It's a fascinating read, highly recommended.  

[Doctor Rock]

European's know that the Earth is round since the days of Pythagoras, at least.  Heck, Erasthothenes, a greek mathematician, was able to estimate the Earth's circumference (he got it nearly right, only a couple of thousand km off, apparently) 200 years before the birth of Jeebus...

During the days of Columbus, catholic church officials were amongst the best educated Europeans, and many were pretty familiar with Greek philosophy.

They were still a bunch of fanatics, but they were educated fanatics.  

[Doctor Rock]

Sorry to hear about your Grannie, Pat...

[matthew]

Crap, sorry to hear about your grandma, Pat...I wasn't being insensitive before, I simply had not read the entire thread until now.

[matthew]

I have no memories of my grandparents. My grandfathers kicked off five and seven years off before I was born. My mother's mother was only around for about ten months after I was born. My father's mother is claimed to have been around until 1985, but I still have no memories of her. That I cannot explain at all.

I never had any uncle figures either...the husbands of my aunts all died before I was born except one who divorced out of the family...I can barely picture him.

My cousins are all either a decade older or a decade younger than my sister and I.

We are both really out of place in our family.  

[matthew]

Basically I am saying I cannot relate on this one.  

[matthew]

I am not sure that is the right smiley.

[matthew]

My Really Positive Matthew bit really flopped, eh?

I could not think of anything else that fit the acronym. I did not try all that hard.