I think that's for if you're getting chased by Rain Man.
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Yeah, for some reason I have this impression, too.
Wikipedia tells me it originated with early Christians, the "peace" being the peace of the Church and Christ.
It sounds really cold and impersonal to me, especially as an acronym. #RIP #YOLO #FML
What's doubly sad is I don't think we have a decent alternative in our language. "I'm sorry for your loss" is directed at the survivors, and may carry some problems of its own. We suck at grief and mortality so much, we didn't even develop a mature vocabulary for it.
Me, i much prefer "His watch has ended."
HEY FOLKS remember when we were talking about seeing Hamilton back in December?
Now that Lin-Manuel is leaving the show tickets are going for between $1,592-$9,975 EACH.
I expected this. I'm sure the lottery entries are spiking up like crazy too.
Those are all third party sales though right>?
Brilliant marketing. I wonder how long his non-compete clause was when Verizon dropped that campaign?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlOZYJ3l9SA
Ummmmmm so a dear friend who passed away several years ago had cut off most of his family completely because of severe childhood abuse, as well as the family choosing to completely deny that any of it ever occurred. At the time of his death, he hadn't spoken to most of the family (most especially his father, who was the ringleader of the abuse) for about fifteen years. They had never met his children, been to his home, or anything. My friend had kept in contact with the only other two members of the family who had fled the situation, and they have zero relationship with the rest of the family as well. Both those women, his sisters, suffer from severe mental illness because of the trauma of their childhoods. I know them well and they are both kind, gentle people who have spent their whole lives trying to work through everything that has happened.
I never knew my friend's birth family as the estrangement proceeded our relationship, but I have never had any cause to doubt the severity of the abuse. My friend was a kind, honest, forthright person and I trust him absolutely.
I know the name of my friend's father because when one of his friends was pregnant and considering baby names, they unknowingly had his father's name as an option and my friend's reaction was so visceral and distressed that they immediately took it off the list.
When my friend died his birth family got weird about it. (Weirder?) Some members wanted to attend the funeral and my friend's widow briefly considered it with certain caveats (for instance, they could not be alone with her children) and when they got huffy about the boundaries she uninvited them and warned them away from the family and services. In retaliation his birth family threw their own memorial service in a different part of the country. Long story, but my uncle ended up attending those services without knowing the background and called my dad confused and alarmed afterwards at how pants-crappingly insane it was. Apparently everyone kept pretending that there hadn't been a fifteen year gap in the relationship and acted like they'd all been on perfect terms with one another. One brother got up during the service and straight-up yelled that his parents were "clean, every whit" i.e., without sin. It was a mess.
They also published an obituary in a local paper that named every one of his brothers (not the sisters) and their wives and children (most of whom had never met him).
Well, apparently my friend's father just died. And now this asshole's name is showing up on my Facebook feed because people are tagging my deceased friend in it. And I can't tell if the posts are willfully ignorant (i.e., if they don't know about the estrangement) or defensive (i.e., denying the abuse.)
Here's an example: (names edited out, obviously)
I was saddened to hear of the passing of [Religious Title - Yes, really] [Asshole] yesterday. [Religious Title] [Asshole] played an integral role in my young life. He was a kind, thoughtful and an inspired leader. His son, [Friend] was one of the greatest friends. God speed [Religious Title]!
Another example:
So sad for the family! Now [Friend] and his dad are together! What a reunion!
^This post has two "likes" so far.
I am so pissed off about this that I kind of want to go nuclear on everyone. I know it's not my place. I don't know if the widow has seen it. Should I say something? She has access to his FB page and could untag him. I'm trying to convince myself it's none of my business but this really has my blood up.
Are you good friends with the widow? Regardless, I'd say talk to her just to vent about your feelings about it and leave it up to her if she wants to untag or post a quick comment along the lines of "The reunion will be through Afterlife Skype since Daddy Asshole is probably in the other place."
I split the difference and called a really close friend who is the widow's relative to gauge her reaction. My friend said that it could be innocent misunderstandings of the situation but she is going to reach out to the widow to chat through it.
My friend pointed out what I didn't think of immediately: the traumatized sisters would be able to see those comments as well and they could be pretty hurt by it. The widow might want to untag her husband for that reason alone.
(I feel weird calling this wonderful woman "the widow" like that's her only function but it's tricky to talk about everyone without names.)
Facebook should be shut down.
Move from Oklahoma to Georgia is complete. Sadly, we'll be without reliable internet (minus short bursts of phone-to-hotspot silliness) for another few days.
Importantly when we're two days into living in Northeast Georgia, their library system is fetch. After Oklahoma--where no one can interlibrary loan dvds or books for free between libraries--we're back in normalcy, able to request Hannibal season 3 and the Knick's first season so that we can have something to view until we get reliable internet.
What the hell, Oklahoma. Why do you hate America?
Speaking of libraries a few months ago I figured out how to work the Maryland e-Library Consortium so I can borrow e-books and e-audiobooks on my Kindle & phone without having to actually go to the library in person and it's pretty much the best. The selection is pretty great, although there are sometimes long waits for books I want.
That's okay; in the meantime I've listened to, like, twelve P. G. Wodehouse novels (which are always in and always delightful.)
I feel awkward in now defending Oklahoma, which would interlibrary loan items for a dollar or two fee. That seemed egregious to me, though, so we got away from ever requesting anything into Bartlesville.
Their librarians were always good about trying to order in books; they just couldn't do anything with CDs or DVDs.
We are gonna go mad on the whole interlibrary loan thingy here, that's for sure.
Sure, but I'd rather them do some form of cash recovery than have to reduce the number of books they're buying.
Though I don't like how my library has now moved to exclusively self checkout machines, even though I'm sure it saves money in the long run. Feels like the end of something.
Good point. I'd rather pay a bit than have no library. That being said, I was shocked when I received the tab for a pile of overdue books (my daughters)...20 cents. For pitys sake, its not 1950! I expected it to at least be a buck or two.
Cool piece on the economics of Hamilton: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/th...llar-show.html
Looks like tickets on the secondary market are making around $60 million extra. Craziness.
I happen to be in NYC at the same time as a friend who is here visiting some of her college roommates, with whom she bought Hamilton tickets months ago for today's matinee. Over breakfast Tuesday she told me that two of her friends had actually won the lottery and already seen the show but were going to go for the second time today. I asked if I could meet these people so that I could try and bribe one of them (I'd pop a good $400 even for their $150 rear mezz seats). She said it wouldn't work. What I really wanted was to shiv one of them for being so damn greedy. TWO viewings of Hamilton while the rest of us go without? :mad: