Jeremy, Please Stop Emailing Me.
by topazz
04/03/2010, 10:41 PM #
You don't need to keep asking my opinion on everything, if you won't take it on the most important thing. You know what I'm talking about. And to answer your question, 4times a week is normal, I guess. Slightly leaning towards overdoing it though.
Don't listen to her, Jer.
by Archaeopteryx
04/04/2010, 6:55 AM
When I was your age, it was easily four times a day. I slowed down when I needed glasses.
Showing posts with label topazz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label topazz. Show all posts
03 April 2010
25 May 2009
Test: Fray Histories (and Mysteries)
Test: Fray Histories (and Mysteries)
by topazz_
05/25/2009, 4:15 PM #
Answer as many or as few as you wish - or answer none at all.
by topazz_
05/25/2009, 4:15 PM #
Answer as many or as few as you wish - or answer none at all.
- Is the poster known as the Ghost-of-A-Z a man or a woman? How do you know?
- What was Adam Morgan's claim to fray fame?
- On the morning of September 11, 2001, which NYC based fray posters wrote first person accounts of what was happening?
- Which fray poster is also an official White House Correspondent?
- Why did a post entitled “Jesus Had It Coming” cause such a furor?
- What were the original fray nics of these posters: tempo, seasquirt, Gregor Samsa, Fritz Gerlich, and Schadenfreude?
- Why is Ender notorious?
- Why was topazz awarded her star? Why was she stripped of it?
- How many posters have married someone they met on the fray?
- What reason did alexa-blue once give for using a feminine fray nic?
- Which fray poster was once a featured player in the Jeopardy International Tournament of Champions, and won?
- How exactly would you define a fray “meltdown”??
- What female poster did switters continually ask out, on the fray?
- What is the predominant race of Best of the Fray posters?
- What female poster convincingly faked her own death?
- Who is the fray's resident expatriate?
- Why did locdog leave the fray?
- Naming only one poster, who in your opinion, is the fray's best writer?
- If the fray is high school, who is Homecoming Queen?
- What episode would you consider as being the biggest “feud” or "brouhaha" ever to happen on the fray?
24 July 2008
Mother's Day, Revisited.
Mother's Day, Revisited.
by topazz
07/24/2008, 9:36 PM #
(I've been on sabbatical from here lately for lots of reasons, mostly things going on in my house these past few months. This is something I wrote for Quiblit a while back, and having just spent most of today with my mother, I felt like reposting it here tonight.)
------------------
Things seemed to take a sharp turn for the worse, after many months of steady deterioration. Her shallow breathing made us suspect pneumonia or pulmonary edema, or both. She knew it was serious enough to see the doctor again, but was stubbornly resisting our plan of going straight to the hospital.
My mother is dying. It is the reason she doesn’t want to go to the hospital, and why she doesn’t want to leave her house.
My sisters and I gently persuade her that it is the only recourse, and we begin helping her get a few things together to bring to the hospital. An ambulance had been called but hadn’t arrived yet. She sat on the side of her bed with an overnight bag open beside her, reluctantly directing us where to find this or that; "my blue nightgown in the middle drawer, the silk throw on the couch."
She gradually seemed calmer, sitting there on her bed, watching her four daughters attend to her. I could feel her gaze fall on me – maybe because of how I kept moving, forever swiftly moving; trying to escape what was hovering just below the surface. I kept focused on the immediate; Here, let me tie your shoes for you. But her feet were too swollen to fit into her shoes. I wanted to tell her how scared I was at the thought of her dying. How can this be happening? I’m not ready for this yet, I’ll never be. I love you! I wanted her comfort; I wanted to be the child again.
But instead of saying anything, I just kept moving. The lump in my throat was getting larger, more constricting. I couldn’t have spoken even if I knew what to say.
At my mother’s direction I went into her walk-in closet for the terrycloth slippers that would slide over her poor swollen feet. Once inside it felt like a sanctuary, quiet and safe. I began looking at all of her clothes. There were so many memories of her here, I couldn’t believe how seeing her familiar clothing brought them back so clearly. Pushing aside hangers of everyday attire, I reached for the lovely mauve evening dress she’d worn to my wedding, and to all of my brother’s and sister’s weddings. I should've known she would never throw it away. My mother loved this dress so much so that she wore it to seven of our weddings. Granted, we had all gotten married within a span of a few years of each other, but still - the same dress to seven weddings!
Up on a shelf was a very distinct John Wanamaker’s hatbox that I instantly recognized. I reached for it and it tumbled down onto me, spilling out a mink pillbox hat, one I hadn’t seen or thought of since grade school. Seeing it brought back such a rush of feelings - mixed with an utter stab of grief. I held the hat close to my face, feeling its luxurious softness, and I just remembered.
I began pulling back hanger after hanger of her clothing to get to the coat with the matching fur trim. I knew it had to be in here too. It was far in the back encased in a heavy garment bag, but I managed to drag it to the front where I was standing.
I have pictures of my mother wearing this hat and coat, from a time of my childhood when she seemed so glamorous to me. I unzipped the long tailored coat bag and pulled out the coat – and without hesitating I slipped into it myself. I wanted to feel my mother’s arms all around me and by wearing her beautiful coat, I did.
From outside the closet I could hear muffled voices calling for me, the ambulance was here and my mother needed her slippers. I began sliding off her coat, but then I changed my mind. Rummaging around on the floor I quickly grabbed the terrycloth slippers she wanted. Walking back out into the bedroom still wearing the coat, I popped on the pillbox hat.
Something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life: my mother looking up as I came towards her, catching her breath at the sight of me standing in front of her wearing her beautiful old coat and hat. My mother laughing, taking complete delight in the incongruity of it all, stretching out her arms to hug me, to embrace me.
…and how it felt at that moment, when she did.
by topazz
07/24/2008, 9:36 PM #
(I've been on sabbatical from here lately for lots of reasons, mostly things going on in my house these past few months. This is something I wrote for Quiblit a while back, and having just spent most of today with my mother, I felt like reposting it here tonight.)
------------------
Things seemed to take a sharp turn for the worse, after many months of steady deterioration. Her shallow breathing made us suspect pneumonia or pulmonary edema, or both. She knew it was serious enough to see the doctor again, but was stubbornly resisting our plan of going straight to the hospital.
My mother is dying. It is the reason she doesn’t want to go to the hospital, and why she doesn’t want to leave her house.
My sisters and I gently persuade her that it is the only recourse, and we begin helping her get a few things together to bring to the hospital. An ambulance had been called but hadn’t arrived yet. She sat on the side of her bed with an overnight bag open beside her, reluctantly directing us where to find this or that; "my blue nightgown in the middle drawer, the silk throw on the couch."
She gradually seemed calmer, sitting there on her bed, watching her four daughters attend to her. I could feel her gaze fall on me – maybe because of how I kept moving, forever swiftly moving; trying to escape what was hovering just below the surface. I kept focused on the immediate; Here, let me tie your shoes for you. But her feet were too swollen to fit into her shoes. I wanted to tell her how scared I was at the thought of her dying. How can this be happening? I’m not ready for this yet, I’ll never be. I love you! I wanted her comfort; I wanted to be the child again.
But instead of saying anything, I just kept moving. The lump in my throat was getting larger, more constricting. I couldn’t have spoken even if I knew what to say.
At my mother’s direction I went into her walk-in closet for the terrycloth slippers that would slide over her poor swollen feet. Once inside it felt like a sanctuary, quiet and safe. I began looking at all of her clothes. There were so many memories of her here, I couldn’t believe how seeing her familiar clothing brought them back so clearly. Pushing aside hangers of everyday attire, I reached for the lovely mauve evening dress she’d worn to my wedding, and to all of my brother’s and sister’s weddings. I should've known she would never throw it away. My mother loved this dress so much so that she wore it to seven of our weddings. Granted, we had all gotten married within a span of a few years of each other, but still - the same dress to seven weddings!
Up on a shelf was a very distinct John Wanamaker’s hatbox that I instantly recognized. I reached for it and it tumbled down onto me, spilling out a mink pillbox hat, one I hadn’t seen or thought of since grade school. Seeing it brought back such a rush of feelings - mixed with an utter stab of grief. I held the hat close to my face, feeling its luxurious softness, and I just remembered.
I began pulling back hanger after hanger of her clothing to get to the coat with the matching fur trim. I knew it had to be in here too. It was far in the back encased in a heavy garment bag, but I managed to drag it to the front where I was standing.
I have pictures of my mother wearing this hat and coat, from a time of my childhood when she seemed so glamorous to me. I unzipped the long tailored coat bag and pulled out the coat – and without hesitating I slipped into it myself. I wanted to feel my mother’s arms all around me and by wearing her beautiful coat, I did.
From outside the closet I could hear muffled voices calling for me, the ambulance was here and my mother needed her slippers. I began sliding off her coat, but then I changed my mind. Rummaging around on the floor I quickly grabbed the terrycloth slippers she wanted. Walking back out into the bedroom still wearing the coat, I popped on the pillbox hat.
Something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life: my mother looking up as I came towards her, catching her breath at the sight of me standing in front of her wearing her beautiful old coat and hat. My mother laughing, taking complete delight in the incongruity of it all, stretching out her arms to hug me, to embrace me.
…and how it felt at that moment, when she did.
22 April 2008
31 March 2008
If the accusation fits
If the accusation fits, Jack must admit
by topazz
03/31/2008, 2:55 PM #
did he or did he not have fray-sex with that woman?
by topazz
03/31/2008, 2:55 PM #
did he or did he not have fray-sex with that woman?
18 March 2008
Hot Slutty Governor Action
Hot Slutty Governor Action
by topazz
03/18/2008, 9:17 PM #
I don't know. I'm thinking that if there was a tawdriness scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest), Eliot Spitzer would definitely fall below the new Governor Paterson now - judging them solely by the hotels they frequented. There's quite a difference between the Mayflower Renaissance in DC as opposed to rekindling sloppy seconds at the Days Inn up the road from the Albany branch office. Kind of makes one wonder how that kind of disparity will play out in other areas.
But I digress. Yes indeed, there's nothing that amps up the action more than staying in a really great hotel. Wealth begets wealth, as they say.
I've stayed in a few grand hotels in my own seamy, tawdry past, and looking around here at the plethora of (ahem) seasoned posters, surely some of you must have your own luxury accommodations of preference? By far my absolute favorite hotel for a rendezvous of this nature would have to be The Pierre, in NYC
This hotel is just over the top superb. Enormous rooms with 20 foot ceilings. (Hmmm. Curious, how everything seems so much bigger in a great hotel) Spectacular beds with those huge pillowtop down mattresses and comforters, Central Park in all its splendor from every window (telescopes available from the Front Desk upon request). And of course, five star Room Service.
How about you?
by topazz
03/18/2008, 9:17 PM #
I don't know. I'm thinking that if there was a tawdriness scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest), Eliot Spitzer would definitely fall below the new Governor Paterson now - judging them solely by the hotels they frequented. There's quite a difference between the Mayflower Renaissance in DC as opposed to rekindling sloppy seconds at the Days Inn up the road from the Albany branch office. Kind of makes one wonder how that kind of disparity will play out in other areas.
But I digress. Yes indeed, there's nothing that amps up the action more than staying in a really great hotel. Wealth begets wealth, as they say.
I've stayed in a few grand hotels in my own seamy, tawdry past, and looking around here at the plethora of (ahem) seasoned posters, surely some of you must have your own luxury accommodations of preference? By far my absolute favorite hotel for a rendezvous of this nature would have to be The Pierre, in NYC
This hotel is just over the top superb. Enormous rooms with 20 foot ceilings. (Hmmm. Curious, how everything seems so much bigger in a great hotel) Spectacular beds with those huge pillowtop down mattresses and comforters, Central Park in all its splendor from every window (telescopes available from the Front Desk upon request). And of course, five star Room Service.
How about you?
12 February 2008
"No Way am I Voting for a Woman!"
"No Way am I Voting for a Woman!"
by topazz
02/12/2008, 7:24 PM #
Recently, high school juniors in a US History class were asked: "Of those here who will be eligible to vote in the upcoming November Presidential election, which candidate are you considering; Clinton, Obama, or McCain? I’m embarrassed to say it was my son who yelled out what I have up there as the subject header. His sister is in the same class, otherwise I'd probably never have known about it. According to my daughter he got a big laugh and spitballs volleyed at his head, but their teacher (a woman in her 30's) just shook her head and sat down. She was quiet for several minutes before the class finally noticed that she wasn't laughing with them.
Disclosing this is bound to get me dodging a few fray spitballs here myself, so to those who profess to raising perfect and politically correct children, congratulations and more power to you. As for me, I've never subscribed to that old "boys will be boys" way of thinking when it comes to disrupting a class, but even more so on issues like teenage drinking, sex, drugs - and now, misogyny. But while seventeen year-old boys can be many things, mature doesn’t always come in first on the list. Still, this was what we parents call a “teachable” moment, and I sat down with both of my sons as well as my daughter that night after hearing what happened in history class. We talked - or rather, I talked, about women and power, sexism, discrimination and misogyny, and I explained in simple terms exactly what these things meant. About how it didn't matter that all the girls in that class may have been laughing at his remark; what it implied was dead wrong. Women are fully capable of being President of the United States and they will be, and women are not inferior to men.
Yeah, yeah, we hear you Mom, and we know you're right. But Obama is the man. Obama is cool. Even girls think he is, most of them don't want to vote for Hillary. I looked at my daughter; she was nodding her head and agreeing, she usually never agrees with her brothers. Obama over Hillary. Why, I asked. Why do you think Obama would make a better president than Hillary Clinton, or John McCain? What does he stand for, do any of you even know? What has he said or done, what has he promised, that makes you feel this way?
"He's just cool."
To a teenager, the MySpace generation, the presidential race is visual, mostly all surface, very llittle to do with anything in their day-to-day lives. A couple of years away at college and they'll be completely different people of course, but this is the here and now. Is the presidential race much different for them than watching the Grammys this week? I get the feeling it isn't. Put Obama and Hillary next to each other and what do they see? "He's cool."
Truth is, Obama is cool. But looking at it through their eyes, more and more I'm troubled by perception, about how no matter which candidate - its all about getting that package of perception across. It takes planning, and managers, handlers, stylists, dressers, speechwriters, advance people, spokespeople, audience plants, unbelievable amounts of money. So much money, that only millionaires can become President of the United States.
If my kids don't start reading up and getting themselves familiar with a little more beyond "he's cool", if they don't get serious about this privilege they have of voting, I don't think they deserve to vote at all. They'll be 18 by November, but they'll still be living under my roof.
If they don't get with the program, I may just end up grounding them on election day.
by topazz
02/12/2008, 7:24 PM #
Recently, high school juniors in a US History class were asked: "Of those here who will be eligible to vote in the upcoming November Presidential election, which candidate are you considering; Clinton, Obama, or McCain? I’m embarrassed to say it was my son who yelled out what I have up there as the subject header. His sister is in the same class, otherwise I'd probably never have known about it. According to my daughter he got a big laugh and spitballs volleyed at his head, but their teacher (a woman in her 30's) just shook her head and sat down. She was quiet for several minutes before the class finally noticed that she wasn't laughing with them.
Disclosing this is bound to get me dodging a few fray spitballs here myself, so to those who profess to raising perfect and politically correct children, congratulations and more power to you. As for me, I've never subscribed to that old "boys will be boys" way of thinking when it comes to disrupting a class, but even more so on issues like teenage drinking, sex, drugs - and now, misogyny. But while seventeen year-old boys can be many things, mature doesn’t always come in first on the list. Still, this was what we parents call a “teachable” moment, and I sat down with both of my sons as well as my daughter that night after hearing what happened in history class. We talked - or rather, I talked, about women and power, sexism, discrimination and misogyny, and I explained in simple terms exactly what these things meant. About how it didn't matter that all the girls in that class may have been laughing at his remark; what it implied was dead wrong. Women are fully capable of being President of the United States and they will be, and women are not inferior to men.
Yeah, yeah, we hear you Mom, and we know you're right. But Obama is the man. Obama is cool. Even girls think he is, most of them don't want to vote for Hillary. I looked at my daughter; she was nodding her head and agreeing, she usually never agrees with her brothers. Obama over Hillary. Why, I asked. Why do you think Obama would make a better president than Hillary Clinton, or John McCain? What does he stand for, do any of you even know? What has he said or done, what has he promised, that makes you feel this way?
"He's just cool."
To a teenager, the MySpace generation, the presidential race is visual, mostly all surface, very llittle to do with anything in their day-to-day lives. A couple of years away at college and they'll be completely different people of course, but this is the here and now. Is the presidential race much different for them than watching the Grammys this week? I get the feeling it isn't. Put Obama and Hillary next to each other and what do they see? "He's cool."
Truth is, Obama is cool. But looking at it through their eyes, more and more I'm troubled by perception, about how no matter which candidate - its all about getting that package of perception across. It takes planning, and managers, handlers, stylists, dressers, speechwriters, advance people, spokespeople, audience plants, unbelievable amounts of money. So much money, that only millionaires can become President of the United States.
If my kids don't start reading up and getting themselves familiar with a little more beyond "he's cool", if they don't get serious about this privilege they have of voting, I don't think they deserve to vote at all. They'll be 18 by November, but they'll still be living under my roof.
If they don't get with the program, I may just end up grounding them on election day.
21 August 2007
Bad Poetry Contest 2007
On the Renovation of Point State Park
by RonB52
08/14/2007, 9:35 PM #
-Pittsburgh, PA
O plump peak'ed Bridges, twins nearly
But that one lies a bit lower,
How supple and splendid you look, uplifted by your new paint job.
Uplifted by your fancy new paint job.
Paint job.
O fair triangular park, whose infield grass
Once grew free, to signal the passing of Spring's innocence,
And Summer's time to play
Denuded now, bare mound,
Scraped clean for your remodeling.
Scraped smooth and clean for your remodeling.
Modeling
O twin tunnels, ever clotted with traffic
In and out, in and out, all day long.
How constantly you spew us out and sometimes
We trail behind us, down your long lanes that spread beneath you this way, and that,
Traces of that moist deliquescence that ever seeps down your slimy walls.
May those lanes ever straddle this majestic Point
Whose fountain even now e'er spews.
Whose fountain even during the renovation e'er spews.
E'er spews.
07 June 2007
Overheard on the NEW Fray...
Overheard on the NEW Fray...
by topazz
06/07/2007, 2:21 PM #
by topazz
06/07/2007, 2:21 PM #
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Old nics were dusted off and back in the fray arena Monday morning, in fighting form. Special mention goes to the Ballot Box fray not only for surviving execution but because it now stands to reach 1 million posts by week's end (does anyone just lurk over there?) Anti-semitism accusations resumed on all frays within 20 minutes of the New Fray's unveiling, the Sopranos (and the tv club fray) geared up for its grand finale, and of course all the new bells and whistles - these were chief among discussion topics.
See if you can guess who said the following on the fray this week:
1. "I think "suck-up" was an entirely appropriate tag. It's not obscene, and it accurately describes the content of the comment."
2. "There has been some very serious abusing of the sonnet form going on over in PoetryFray, and the culprit is none other that your own 'I-was-mentioned-in-a-Simpsons-episode', Mr Ode charmer hisself, Robert (PL: Poet Laureat, or Poet Ludicrous) Pinsky. See to that. "
3. "One of my posts has gone from 19 down to 7???"
4. "Tony was sounding very Archie Bunker in that scene. I'm suprised he didn't pronounce it "groinocologist."
5. "Get exposed to poison ivy. I've had several unintended experiences. But let me tell you, having your penis grow to the size of your wrist is not as great as you may think. It's heavy and slaps your legs. I wouldn't go so far as to say, "less is more," but medium is not bad. Sort of like Goldilocks."
6. Hey! Quit trying to raise the level of dialogue!"
7. "Mary, you can fork of you friggin frigger! I can't stand anus's like you - never could abide by your arseinine flee fligging discourse! You can take a flying fark at a rolling donut!! *** Chjeney? Do we have to say Richard now?"
8. "I know we can't say ***, ****, ************, or ****. but could we have a list of any other things we should not "say"?
9. "Four posts deleted, no checkmarks, but on the front page as one of the most-read, plus a roughly neutral rating (+3/-2 last I looked)."
10. "Hey guys. Congrats on being the most inappropriate forum wrt obscenity in your tags."
13 May 2005
Good Question
Topazz was "wondering about those of you who ARE happily married or in a good and loving personal relationship, yet post here on a very regular and daily basis. Does it take away from time you could be spending with your spouse or significant other? Or do you look at it as you do any of your other interests or hobbies, as a place that enhances your life and makes you a more interesting person?"
Subject: Good question.
From: Ozymandias1
Date: May 13 2005 7:39PM
Mrs. Ozy goes to bed earlier than I do, and I usually check in here after she hits the sack. She reads my posts infrequently but always wants to know what's going on. She is usually disappointed that I no longer spend as much time in the political chat rooms because that is where her interests lie and she's curious as to whether she's the only one who watches the news in complete befuddlement.
We spend all of our joint waking hours together when neither is working. This may sound pathetic, but other than her, I have no friends, only acquaintances. Many of the posters here have the potential to become friends if I were willing to give up any time with my wife (I'm not). She knows that I spend some time here nearly every day before I go to bed and she knows that I really like it here. If the opportunity presented itself I don't believe she would object to a Fray get-together.
I'm not sure I would want to. This is truly a "meeting of the minds" and no matter how much I would fight it, I know that my opinion of a poster would be affected by the knowledge of what they look like, their mannerisms, speech pattern, tone of voice, and so on. I assume I would suffer the same. It doesn't mean all would be less in my eyes from having met me, just that all would be different and I'm happy with the relationship we all have. I have given this a lot of thought and have yet to arrive at a true decision, but that's the way I'm leaning right now.
I think we all might have better relationships if we could meet in the virtual world and get to know each other's minds first. This would certainly be a boon for fat chicks and ugly men. It wouldn't make a dramatic difference in frequency of getting laid, but could help and definitely would create some relationships that would not occur otherwise. And yes, that is shallow. It is also honest and realistic.
Ozy
Subject: Good question.
From: Ozymandias1
Date: May 13 2005 7:39PM
Mrs. Ozy goes to bed earlier than I do, and I usually check in here after she hits the sack. She reads my posts infrequently but always wants to know what's going on. She is usually disappointed that I no longer spend as much time in the political chat rooms because that is where her interests lie and she's curious as to whether she's the only one who watches the news in complete befuddlement.
We spend all of our joint waking hours together when neither is working. This may sound pathetic, but other than her, I have no friends, only acquaintances. Many of the posters here have the potential to become friends if I were willing to give up any time with my wife (I'm not). She knows that I spend some time here nearly every day before I go to bed and she knows that I really like it here. If the opportunity presented itself I don't believe she would object to a Fray get-together.
I'm not sure I would want to. This is truly a "meeting of the minds" and no matter how much I would fight it, I know that my opinion of a poster would be affected by the knowledge of what they look like, their mannerisms, speech pattern, tone of voice, and so on. I assume I would suffer the same. It doesn't mean all would be less in my eyes from having met me, just that all would be different and I'm happy with the relationship we all have. I have given this a lot of thought and have yet to arrive at a true decision, but that's the way I'm leaning right now.
I think we all might have better relationships if we could meet in the virtual world and get to know each other's minds first. This would certainly be a boon for fat chicks and ugly men. It wouldn't make a dramatic difference in frequency of getting laid, but could help and definitely would create some relationships that would not occur otherwise. And yes, that is shallow. It is also honest and realistic.
Ozy
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