All alone in a crowd, it's...
T H E J U I C E A N D G I N
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Term XXXVII, Issue 14 (#143)
Weather outlook:
Springtacular.
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* Contents *
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- Editor's Blurb
- Ongoing Events
- Photographia
- Greg's DTK
- Humour
- General Info
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* Editor's Blurb *
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Hey all
Since I don't have anything important to talk about this week, I thought
I might take a little stroll down memory lane. This may not apply to a
large portion of my readership, but this has always been a newsletter
that panders to the highest uncommon numerator.
It's the TVOntario Children's Shows of the 1970s Tribute Page!
http://www.berkana.net/rick/html/tvohome/tvohome.html
Seriously, when's the last time someone mentioned Granny, Boot and
Pretty from Readalong in polite conversation? How about Moose and
Beaver from CUCUMBER (that's the Children's Underground Club of United
Moose and Beaver for Enthusiastic Reporters)? Otto, Theta and the
Transporter to Trialviron from Read All About It?
Ah, memories.
Until next time,
Wally, I'll be in my trailer!
Michael (mailto:nutsinfo$yahoo.ca)
And now, the rest of the story...
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* Ongoing Events *
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[See the Event Calendar on the web site for full descriptions.
--Ed.]
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Pool League
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Mondays
http://www.solutionsatsource.com/pool
http://nutsevents.topcities.com/events/pool/index.html
Contact: Jason and Michael (mailto:pool$solutionsatsource.com)
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Indoor Rock Climbing
====================
Thursday evenings some weekends
Contact: Claire (mailto:Claire.Mettier$alcatel.com)
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* Photographia *
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More punch fun from Europe. I almost forgot that there were promises of
additional pictures for this week. So here's a special picture that I
took at the Antwerp Zoo. It's the name sign for a species of fish. The
picture was taken for the English name, but perhaps they should have had
someone check the Flemish version. I'm not entirely sure this is
appropriate material for a museum. Won't someone think of the
children?!?!
http://nutsevents.topcities.com/pictures/2005/FishSign.jpg
http://torpedo.ca.newbridge.com/mirror/pictures/2005/FishSign.jpg
And the punch picture, in case you forgot:
http://nutsevents.topcities.com/pictures/Punch/index.html
http://torpedo.ca.newbridge.com/mirror/pictures/Punch/index.html
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* Greg's Deep Thought Korner *
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I took a perusal through that famous book "Men are from Mars, Women are
from Venus" written by John Gray.
On the face of it I feel vaguely uncomfortable about sweeping
generalizations. This book has a lot of sweeping generalizations. On
the other hand, I don't like to pretend that men and women are identical
and only vary in personality because of social programming. It doesn't
seem reasonable that two human beings can have such different hormones
pumping through their brains and come out with the same behaviours.
What the book says, as succinctly as I can put it, is that men
(generally) suck at listening. When a woman talks to a man about her
day, she expects to be listened to. Instead, having presented a
situation that looks like a problem, she will often get a solution she
hasn't actually asked for and an utter lack of the empathy she wanted.
So men should learn how to listen. Women, on the other hand, tend to
offer unsolicited advice in an attempt to improve the men they are
hooked up with. The women consider this to be helpful, but the men
consider it insulting and invasive. So women have to learn how to
appreciate men without trying to improve them. If men will listen
patiently to women, and women will stop trying to improve men, perhaps
life will be better for everyone.
Amusing, straightforward, and way, way over-generalized, but I think you
get the point. All the better if it actually applies to your situation
in any way.
Continuing to peruse the internet, I discovered that there's quite a bit
of opposition to the book, most venomously a "Rebuttal from Uranus" by
Susan Hamson. The rebuttal is written by a woman who is deeply offended
by John Gray's excessive stereotyping and generalizing - a fair enough
criticism which I will not dispute. Her problem, however, is that every
counter example she gives involves a trailer trash male named "Billy Joe
Jim Bob" who does nothing but fart and abuse his wife. I can't help but
wonder what sort of relationships she's been in.
I believe her worst moment is when she quotes John Gray as saying that a
man whose female counterpart is not attempting to improve him, but is
accepted, will naturally improve his behaviour towards her out of love.
Susan Hamson's reply is: 'Why should he? He's being accepted "just the
way he is." If he's being accepted, there will be no logic in improving,
will there?'
I see. Men are incapable of improving without women actively
instructing them and would never do so out of personal desire to make
women happy. Great. So now we have two people with unendurable
sweeping generalizations.
The problem, I think, is that any woman reading the book is going to
find the requirements placed on the man fairly easy. How hard is it for
an average woman to listen, after all? Any man reading the book is
likely to find the women's requirements fairly simple. How hard is it
for an average man to *not* offer advice, after all? The realization
that, in fact, men and women are different (for social or genetic
reasons, as you please) leads to the idea that each will find ease in
different areas of communication. To pretend otherwise is futile.
Greg.
[Send responses to DTKs or new Editorials to mailto:nutsinfo$yahoo.ca]
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* Humour *
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[Forward any good jokes or interesting web sites you see to
mailto:nutsinfo$yahoo.ca]
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Pectorals of the Caveman
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Thanks to Greg G. @ Alcatel
Re-interpreted romance novel covers.
http://www.worldoflongmire.com/features/romance_novels/
Be sure to follow the link to the page of reader submissions.
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The Double-Decker Bus
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Thanks to Linda G.'s East Coast Comedy Grab-Bag
Two bowling teams, one of Newfies and one of Nova Scotians chartered a
double-decker bus for a weekend bowling tournament in Moncton. The NS
team rode on the bottom of the bus, and the Newfie team rode on the top
level.
The NS team down below really whooped it up, having a great time, when
one of them realized she hadn't heard anything from the Newfies
upstairs. She decided to go up and investigate. When she reached the
top, she found all the Newfies frozen in fear, staring straight ahead at
the road, clutching the seats in front of them with white knuckles.
The Nova Scotian asked, "What the heck's going on up here? We're having
a great time downstairs!"
One of the Newfies looked up at her and said "YEAH, BUT YOU'VE GOT A
DRIVER!"
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Shortest Fairy Tale
===================
Thanks to Linda G.'s Golden Comedy Machine
Once upon a time a guy asked a girl, "Will you marry me?"
She said "No."
And the guy lived happily ever after.
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* General Info *
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Contact the NUTS Committee:
mailto:nutsinfo$yahoo.ca
The NUTS Website is:
http://nutsevents.topcities.com
http://torpedo.ca.newbridge.com/mirror (for people within Alcatel)
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