Graduation Day

Now for a moment of Millennial sappiness..  Cheer up, this gets resurrected by Twenties only once a year, at this time.


I think that Vitamin C's "Graduation Day (Friends Forever)" summarize that rite of passage.

Keep Knoxville Scruffy

Knoxville, Tennessee currently has a campaign with the odd slogan, "Keep Knoxville Scruffy.

Some other cities have followed atypical and strange claims to civic pride: "Keep Austin Weird," "Keep Portland Weird" are two that come to mind.

So how did this slogan originate? 

It seems that Wall Street Journal reporter Susan Harrigan, wrote back in 1980 a scornful piece entitled "What if you gave a World's Fair and nobody came?"  She dismissed Knoxville as "a scruffy little city on the Tennessee River."

But the World's Fair worked, and the put-down was turned into a boast of civic pride.  Knoxville boasted "The Scruffy Little City Did It" on t-shirts and pins after the 1982 World's Fair.

http://utdailybeacon.com/news/2013/nov/5/knoxvillians-capitalize-citys-scruffy-reputation/

A Mormon Sausagefest

Across Arkansas in Our Bras

Well, my friend Jessica and I were driving from Oklahoma City to Franklin as the last leg of a longish trip, and we were getting a bit restive (and peevish, if you must know).   Anyway, we were approaching Arkansas, easily the most boring state of the fifty!  I mean like turbo-boringgggg!

We talked about dares.  Jessica dared me to drive across Arkansas t-shirtless, just in my bra.  To egg me on, she took off her t-shirt.  Now I wasn't going to chicken out, so I peeled mine off too.  We flung them in the back seat, vowing not to put them back on until we had reached Memphis.  We figured we could do it, if we didn't require pee stops, so the dare was on!

We were making good time, past Russellville, Conway, and places never to be seen unless magnetic forces draw us off the interstate.  However, bad news!  An Arkansas State Trooper started to follow us, and OH SHIT!  He had is light on!

No way of shaking him, so I pulled over.

Here this state trooper sauntered over to the car, determined to enforce the laws of Arkansas as he was sworn to do and issue a citation.  Only to find two women in dressed in shorts and only their bras.

He asked, "What's going on?"

I explained that we had a dare going on, they we were planning to drive across Arkansas without our t-shirts.  For some reason or other, it made cosmic sense to him.

"You're bored, aren't you""

I had to agree that I was.

"Well, I won't write you up for speeding; but keep under the speed limit until you're Tennessee's problem."  His facial expression might be described as a s**t-eating grin.

He was as good as his word.  He let us go with a warning, and a comment.

"That's a nice shade of pink bra you're wearing!"

Getting Expelled from Vacation Bible School

The usual drill each summer is for churches to sponsor Vacation Bible Schools.  Sometimes, the churches run these programs in different weeks; and enterprising parents enroll their sons and daughters in more than one, hoping to get some childless moments.

Mom signed me up in a V.B.S, run by a Baptist Church.  It met for a week between nine and three o'clock and served cafeteria-style lunches.  It was okay, I guess; but a little heavy on the hymns and Bible stories.  Well, we did get to act a few scenes out.  They vetoed a boy and I playing David and Bathsheba, but I was probably not destined for an acting career.

V.B.S. was cool because it put you with other kids.  Most were so-so about religion, despite being Baptists.  I suspect that Baptist mothers needed time away from their whelps, too.

Anyway, there was a boy that I hit it off with.  By Tuesday, we were sneaking kisses on the sly.  Several times, as a matter of fact.

However, during recess one of the old witches that coordinated the program caught us red-handed.  She sent both of us home for the remainder of the session.

Mom was not especially mad that I kissed a boy; but she was counting on those two remaining days!

When another church did a Vacation Bible School, I figuratively had a scarlet letter.  Getting red A's is easy when you're 12 and going to a Baptist Vacation Bible School.

Changes in Sexual Motivation with Commitment

There's a joke that the most significant substance reducing libido or sex drive in women is wedding cake.

A German researcher, Dr. Dietrich Klusmann from Hamburg-Eppendorf University Hospital, interviewed 530 men and women about their sex lives. 

He found that 60% of 30-year-old women wanted sex "often" at the beginning of a relationship; but within four years of the relationship this figure fell to under 50%, and after 20 years it dropped to about 20%.  In general, the longer a woman was in a committed relationship, the less she desired sex.

However, the proportion of men wanting sex "often" remained at between 60-80%, regardless of how long they had been in a relationship.  

Dr. Klusmann attributed these changes in frequency of desire in men and women as due to evolution.  There may be other factors, though.  Is this a culture thing, or an age thing?

I will admit that I find this a little unsettling.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4790313.stm

Do It for Denmark

Denmark has experienced an alarming decline in its birth rate.

However, more Danes are conceived due to their parents getting frisky while on holiday.  This little ad (with helpful translations) drives home the point.

So, spend some time in Paris!  Copulate a little!  Have a little Danish in your future.

Plus the breakfasts in Parisian hotels are first class!