h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

lentilla's suggestion made me cackle out loud. My voice would have intoned, "Cat's Cradle! Thou Shalt read Cat's Cradle!"

Post office in Tinnie tomorrow, followed immediately by watering duties -- and then I am the host for book group tomorrow night, so it will be a busy day. I may have mentioned, my book selection is _Fire on the Mountain_ by Edward Abbey.

Morning All

What everyone else is saying, Kelli. *I* happen to have a problem with people who think breastfeeding in public is wrong...what nutters!

Well, I’m back from my hols… a full report will be put in my journal later. I did manage to catch a haggis, but I’m still working on the taming… it’ll be a few days before he’s ready to come indoors.

*Skims last few pages of backlog.*

I like a well-formed feminine chest area as much as the next man (probably more, if you ask Mrs. D), but also recognise the usefulness side of things… If I see naked bosoms presented in a specifically sexual fashion I go ‘phwoar!’, if I see a baby breast feeding I think nothing of it and carry on with what I was doing. I really don’t understand why people have such trouble separating the two… it re-enforces my belief that despite our modern society’s claims of being all liberal and freethinking we still largely operate on Victorian Values.

I cant see why anybody would have problems with breast feeding in public . Its something I come across now and again and I have to say it barely registers .
Books for religious nutters , why it has to be 'The god delusion' by Richard Dawkins .

best fishes.......tod

Welcome back Mr D, trust you return to us refreshed, a skirl in your pipe and sporran a'swinging. Make sure that haggis is well chained down. They go beserk when exposed to the civilised South

r. D said, "...it re-enforces my belief that despite our modern society’s claims of being all liberal and freethinking we still largely operate on Victorian Values."

I would go further and say that at least much of the USA is still operating on medieval values.

Except, in medieval times, breast-feeding in public was the norm. Hence all those lovely pictures of Baby Jesus having his lunch, as Teuchter so nicely phrased it.

Hi, Mr D!

*Makes a 'dammit, I'm hugely busy' face and rushes off to answer the phone*

*pause*

Note that I took time to type I was going to answer the phone before I answered it. Wrong number.

Ag, you're right. I was thinking of the anti-science, feudal mindset.

Oh, and Freddie went direct yesterday, but there will be a few more days of fallout...

I can't bring myself to read the Left Behind series. I am all for Christian literature, film, music etc., but with a rather large condition that seems to be ignored by most Christians - it has to be good. I will read your books, watch your films and listen to your music, but only if it's good. I'm not going to lower my standards just because you worship the same God that I do. I remember friends encouraging me to buy a particular single by a Christian group to 'help it get near the top of the charts and get more air play'. Only it was rubbish, so I wanted to buy anti-copies of it to make it disappear.

I do like some of the books by Stephen Lawhead and Frank Peretti, though, so I will read some Christian literature!

[ ]

With you there, David. Mind you, I kind of like the sound of a western novel with a preacher as the lead character.

Hypatia, you should have recommended the graphic novel "Preacher" by Garth Ennis to her. It's something of a western. And it's got a preacher as the main character. It meets her criteria.

Lil, you knew I was going to bite at that "medieval values" that are "anti-science" and "feudal", right?

Not to bore you all with a *very* long lecture on such things, but the values that you are claiming are medieval are, in fact, constructs of the early modern period (right around the time Cromwell and his humorless ilk came to power).

Oh, all right, I'll give you that the 15th century (late medieval) was a bit on the anti-science side, but really, the morality of the US today is much more founded on a Calvinist/Congregationalist construct -- with a little Anabaptist thrown in, but don't tell the Calvinists! -- than a medieval mindset.

And 'feudal'. Ach, oy, don't get me started. Feudal was a handy catch-all phrase that historians and other uses to describe a variety of non-capitalist, non-mercantilist relationships, and unless you're talking specifically about Charlemagne's personal reign, or the Shogunates in late medieval Japan, really, feudalism isn't applicable.

Okay, end of lecture. Sorry, just...my nature.

Marv, she wouldn't have gotten it. Sarcasm is a terrible thing to waste.

I had her take him some old Zane Greys. They're clean.

I genuinely feel sorry for the women and children trapped in such repressive religions. They suffer a lot of psychological and physical abuse. Just my opinion. It's possible that she had reason to worry about what kind of books she took him. Some of the men are pretty domineering, women being the root of all evil and needing a lot of supervision.

[GDZ]

That was a nice lecture, MR, but you have to admit, "You Calvinist/Congregationalist with a little Anabaptist thrown in screwball" is rather a wordy insult.

I cant see why anybody would have problems with breast feeding in public either. Its something I seemed the norm to me growing up late fifties, think its still a cultural thingy more europeans do than british,

find it strange that "some" go to topless climes on holiday yet frown upon breast feeding..think a lot of todays babies are weaned far to early causing allegies and who knows what else down the line.. but thats anothjer subject..

"You Calvinist/Congregationalist with a little Anabaptist thrown in screwball"

We'd need to shorten that. You've heard of colcannon. They would be calconans.

>>>>> calconans <<<<<

Oh dear Defifinitely gasping for air between guffaws here, Hyp. How d'you get there from colcannon??! *collapses in fresh peals of laughter*

Oh stop it. I am working and you lot are being entirely too entertaining. Three sets of quarterly accounts must be ready by Monday. Papers are missing and staples have a natural affinity for the soft flesh in the tips of my fingers

As for breastfeeding in public, oh puh-leeez! Even the 'backward' nations have that down pat. Tits out, lunch down, tits in. Poifick.

The best b/feeding trick I saw was in Ghana. Baby riding bareback (mama knows when baby needs to wee or poo... is that amazing or what ) lets out a 'Oy, mama, where's ma dinna!'... Mama whips out the titty and flings it over her shoulder, never missing a step </>

Me, I never managed to get the hang of it despite the dairy milking machine we hired...