There’s been a lot in the news about the new body scanners the TSA has brought in over here. Strangely enough, for Americans who value their freedom but value their lives even more, there have been an awful lot of complaints about these things…mostly from men. The pilots are calling the scanners “dick sticks” or “dick measuring devices” because of the clear view the personnel get of your body outline. Now, I have to say I’ve looked online at some of the photos generated and I actually mistook a female for a man. That surely must make the men look pretty good? But no, on the men’s photos you couldn’t tell what the hell was between their legs unless it was a gun stuck up there. Personally, I don’t like the fact that the rolls of fat are clearly outlined which will no doubt show my saggy tush. But if the damn things are going to turn up bombs wired to men’s packets, I guess I’ll just be a little less vain.
ON the homefront, there was a two-day training program recently in Baltimore for exorcists in the Catholic Church. More than 50 Bishops and 60 priests attended as there is apparently a great shortage of exorcists over here!! On the news, they seemed to treat this increase in the need for exorcists with some astonishment. Are they kidding? Has anyone counted up the number of progammes currently on telly over here that deal with the paranormal/superhuman/extraterrestrial? You put some nut in front of one these programmes and of course they are eventually going to think they are possessed. My daughter told me the vampire Twilight books were originally created for teens to have love stories without sex in them. Once again I ask, what happened to Westerns? Maybe the problem actually is that Americans can’t deal with life as we know it anymore; they have to day- dream of something that empowers them. No longer the World’s foremost Super Power, people are taking refuge in vampires, witches and aliens…in fact, anything except the daily grind.
FINALLY, my daughter is currently studying for her M.A. at NYU. One of the articles she was recently given to read was so appallingly written, it needed line by line translation. We discovered that the professor is a German currently employed at prestigious Chicago University. It would appear that he is using an 18th Century dictionary (no not 19th Century, I did mean 18th!) for looking up words he cannot translate from his native tongue. Here is a quote Kit sent me: “"Rather, from its very origin athwart the African riverine highways along which knowledge about the law-giving voice of the leopard was sold from one slave-trading local unit to the other, ekpe’s success had been pegged to its nature as a sacred commodity circulating against other carriers of values. "
The question is, what American editor sat there, read the paper (presumably) and decided to publish it? If anyone can translate, please put it in the comment box. I’m going athwart the riverine highway of Columbus Avenue to get some aspirin after that.
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