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pure fucking evil.

 i need more kleenex.

for insanity.  apparently, the firm that recruits australian santa clauses has recommened their santas to say “ha, ha, ha”, instead of “ho, ho, ho”.  why, you may ask?  because, it seems “ho, ho, ho” may be offensive to women.  i’ll give you a moment to compose yourself after the fit of laughter that’s just wracked you.

the reasoning is fairly typical of these sorts of things:  “ho” is an american (though not australian, and remember, we are talking about events in sydney) slang term for whore.  since we all know that context has absolutely no bearing, whatsoever, upon the meaning of a word.  particularly homonyms.  for instance, if one walks into a hardware store and asks to buy a hoe, it is absurdly obvious they are looking for a prostitute.  it is obvious, then, that allowing santas to loudly proclaim that all women walking past are whores is unexceptable.

or it could just, maybe, possibly, be yet another example of ridculously sensitive overreaction.  what worries me though, is all too often crap like this occurs because someone made a complaint.  i can only imagine so woman tracking down the mall santa’s boss:

woman: “sir, i’d like to make a complaint about santa.”
boss santa: “yes, what happened?”
woman: “well, i was walking through the mall, minding my own business, when i heard someone call me a ho! i looked, and it was santa! i was going to ignore it, but then he called me a ho again! and then, wouldn’t you know, the fat bastard called me a ho a third time! i want him fired.”
boss santa: [blinks, incredulously]
woman: “or i’ll sue.”
boss santa: “er, yes, we’ll take care of that. have a merry christmas…ho, ho, ho!”
woman: “you fucking bastard, i’m not a ho!”

yes, it’s a scary world we live in folks. just remember, when you gather round the tofurkey next thursday, that the pilgrims were genocidal cultists! in fact, remind your family of that just before tucking into eat. it’ll put everyone in the true holiday spirit.

with the advent of the LCS, we’ve morphed into a round-table discussion over at quiblit magazine. follow the discussion there (no baby pics though, alas) and bitch about it in the forums.

we’re a work in progress here, so bear with me.  changes will be coming to layout, design, etc..  well, once schad gives me ftp access and i can upload new themes.  [grin]

 till then, poke around and visit the forum (yes, that’s back, but a different one!).

i’m temporarily removing forum comments. not that many of you used the feature anyway. but, it seems there has been a spat (the origins of which ellude me and are likely remarkably stupid anyway) between some users and he-who-hosted-the-forum (aka schad). so, until schad sets up shop somewhere else, you’ll have only blogger comments as an option. which is what most of you were doing anyway.

so, carry on.

and, cause i can’t help myself…

EDIT (19 aug 2007 @ 4:17pm): for bacon. see? nothing to hide. [grin]

this is for those of you who’ve wandered over here from somewhere other than WikiFray (ie: people who didn’t know me before i started this page). first, if i’ve not personally welcomed you, i do so now. second, you may have noticed the option to comment in a forum, instead of traditional blogger-style comments. if you haven’t read any comments in the forum, i invite you to do so. not only do you get threaded comments (far easier to navigate), but there are some interesting people to talk to. some assholes and lunatics too, but that’s normal as well.

anyway, you have the option, should you choose it. if you like it, you can add the same capability to your page. if you don’t, well, then you don’t.

please be advised that, with the advent of spring and the fact that the sox open the season vs. royals tonight, the subject of posts on this blog will increasingly be related to baseball.

for turning on word verification. i hate it (mostly because it’s a bit buggy), but the spam bots have found me. so there it is.