Admin Mod to Trolls: “Drop Dead”

New York Times ^

[Buck Ninety-Nine]

WASHINGTON, May 31 — After vowing to steer a greater share of antiterrorism money to the highest-risk communities, Department of Homeland Security officials on Wednesday announced 2006 grants that slashed money for New York and Washington 40 percent, while other cities including Omaha and Louisville, Ky., got a surge of new dollars.

Homeland security officials said the grants were a result of a more sophisticated evaluation process

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yeah, I should have left fortuity out of it..................fortuity??

Ah, the heck with it, man!

[Dead Corpse]

Fruitituiti...

[stephenjohnbanker]

I wasn't too far off. 66.

[sionnsar]

Hi, all. Back from our day at the big PNW Highland Games (still put on, 61 years now, by the Seattle Highland Games Assoc.)

For once it was not blistering hot -- and for all I love cool weather, in shorts I was at times almost chilly today. (I really wish the weather for these Games would be always like this; hot weather is death on bagpipes that haven't been conditioned to it.)

My "got haggis?" T-shirt got a lot of laughs (and a few questions: "Where can I get one?" -- sorry, it was a gift).

It's actually been years since I've been to the Games, and I learned I miss them -- albeit my main experience for years has been way too much heat and way too many people.

A little concern over the sudden availability of cheap cutlery: swords of all kinds under $50 --yes, from China-- and I could have had a pretty nice-looking dress dirk, complete with "frog," for under $50, something I'd usually expect to pay several hundred dollars for. ("Frog" refers to the knife and fork mounted on the exterior of the dirk's scabbard: "For eating Englishmen" is the comment I've always heard, but I don't really know the origin of this accessory.)

I saw a LOT of people toting newly-purchased swords and a few handling them in dangerous ways. I've been to a few Society for Creative Anachronism events, as a guest of member friends, and have learned from them respect for "live steel": you DO NOT pull a steel blade from its scabbard at an event, for example, except in certain situations, and "live steel" is NEVER allowed into the fighting/battle arenas.

And though the cheap swords I saw today were not razor sharp, they were sharp enough to cause injury and I saw a few instances of careless handling, as if these were mere toys. Somebody is going to get hurt.

But on a brighter note, in the Gaelic song sessions LibreOuMort (drafted at the last moment to replace a friend who was ill) did really well singing the lively waulking song "An Toll Dubh" (lit. "The Black Hole", or "The Dungeon"), as well as supporting the group in "Chi Mi Na Morbheanna," the ex-pat Highlander song "I Will See The Great Mountains" -- of home, before I die.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yeah, why not : )

[stephenjohnbanker]

" The haggis is really in the fire this time, captain"

Scotty to Captain Kirk " The Trouble with Tribbles"

[Lady Jag]

It's too late to worry about spelling or grammar. If we were awake, we could come up with a string of agitating adjectives for those Demodolts.

[stephenjohnbanker]

"Society for Creative Anachronism "

ROTFLMBO!

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yeah, and you are in Taxachusetts to boot!

[Liberty Valance]

Yep.

[Dead Corpse]

SfCA. Been there. Done that.

Haven't been to a Highland Games though.

[NicknamedBob]

Dear Mister Valance,

Unfortunately, due to your delayed response, the Freeper formerly known as Buck Ninety-Nine is no longer available at the previously listed price moniker.

Please address your current remarks to Freeper Sawbuck Plus Postage.

[stephenjohnbanker]

I like this poem:

'To A Mouse (On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough, November 1785)'
by Robert Burns

---

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion,
Has broken nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessing with the lave,
An' never miss't!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell--
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me;
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

[Liberty Valance]

Why, thank you Bob ;o)

[stephenjohnbanker]

ROTFLMAO!!

[stephenjohnbanker]

I give up

[Dead Corpse]

Er...

On what?

[sionnsar]

" he haggis is really in the fire this time, captain"

Out of the pot, into the fire.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Gettin might sleepy.

[stephenjohnbanker]

I don't even know what haggis IS? Please advise.