by Tiger Lilly
*Ahem*
NANOWRIMO WEBSITE HAS REOPENED! I’m so happy. One month until Nanowrimo: 30 days, 50,000 words. Celebrating 11 years of literary abandon.
My characters aren’t nearly as happy about Nanowrimo as I am. They’ll get over it.
Ciao for now!
It’s the Reverend Mother’s birthday today! Like a premium vintage, she just gets more valuable every year.
Born at the instant
The church bells chime
And the whole world whispering
Born at the right time
-NW
by the Night Writer
1 Corinthians 13: 4 – 7, in reverse
Hate is impatient and unkind; hate envies and boasts; it is arrogant and rude. It insists on its own way; it is irritable and resentful; it rejoices at wrongdoing, and does not rejoice with the truth. Hate bears nothing, believes nothing, hopes for nothing, endures nothing.
by Tiger Lilly
This probably won’t go into the Anorex[st]ics book, but since I drew it in stick figures, it still counts online. Exclusivity! Heck yes!
Woohoo! For once, it didn’t over-expand the borders of the blog.
Anyhoo, I said last week that I would try to get both of my characters into stick figure form, so here we go. Grace finally decided to cooperate, but she doesn’t look too happy about it.
Ciao for now. Hope that these two don’t show up in your dreams/house/whatevs, because that would just be scary. If they do, however, contact me! Muahaha.
by Night Writer
Picked this up from Mitch at Shot in the Dark.
1. The phone rings. Who will it be? Nine times out of ten, someone wanting to talk to Tiger Lilly.
2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart? Well, I used to put the cart in one of the parking lot corrals. Now I’ve got “people” who get the groceries.
3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener? I used to be all talker, now I find myself listening more and picking my spots. For some reason, people seem happier to see me coming now.
4. Do you take compliments well? I take them well, medium and rare.
5. Do you play Sudoku? I’m a binge Sudoku player. I’ll go a long time not playing and then play madly for a time, then another long lay-off.
6. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive? As soon as I got that “hibernate” thing figured out I’d be cool.
7. Did you ever go to camp as a kid? One time, at band camp….no, never.
8. What was your favorite game as a kid? Depended on the season: in our neighborhood we played football in the fall, basketball through the winter and spring (shoveling snow off the asphalt driveways and getting our hands blackened from dribbling the ball on the wet tar). I was also addicted to the Sports Illustrated Football table game.
9. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew she was married, would you? Absolutely…if it was my wife.
10. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you? How do you think I got where I am today?
11. Do you like to pursue or be pursued? Being pursued, I guess, but you might want to check out #15 first.
12. Use three words to describe yourself? I was wrong.
13. Do any songs make you cry? “I Wish You Where Here” by Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers.
14. Are you continuing your education? Who isn’t? Only the grades we get are different now.
15. Do you know how to shoot a gun? Revolver, semi-auto, shotgun and rifle. I would love to try a muzzle-loader and a fully-automatic some time.
16. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth? No, but I carry one of my wife and daughters acting silly.
17. How often do you read books? Every day.
18. Do you think more about the past, present or future? Yesterday I thought about the future. Today I think about the past. Tomorrow I’ll think about today.
19. What is your favorite children’s book? “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak.
20.What color are your eyes? Bluer than robin’s eggs, someone once said.
21. How tall are you? Not tall enough, according to my BMI.
22. Where is your dream house located? In the heather, in sight of the ocean.
23. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you grabbed? Either the kid holding the matches or my cell phone to call 911.
24. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden? Can’t remember. I like the place, but there are so many other options.
25. Where was the furthest place you traveled today? The day’s still young; we’ll see.
26. Do you like mustard? Absolutely, and I always like to try something new. Watch out for the bright yellow stuff in England, though. It looks just like French’s, but it’s not!
by the Reverend Mother
The following is an actual conversation. It was not changed to protect anyone.
RM: Some of the young mothers from church want to know if you’d like to earn some money babysitting. They’re going to start getting together to educate their older kids and need someone to watch the tiny ones a couple of hours  a week. Are you interested?
TL: Would I have to change Cyrus’ diapers?
RM: Yes, you would.
TL: Ewwwwwe.
RM: Well, you know, . . . shit happens.
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I’m sorry, I know I’m a minister and everything but how could I resist? It was just too easy.
by the Night Writer
Gerald Prante writing at the Tax Policy Blog examines a recent report published in the New England Journal of Medicine calling for a penny-per-ounce soft-drink tax to pay for the long-term health costs of obesity. According to the report’s authors, the soft-drink industry represents “market failures” — in the form of less-than-optimal production and consumption — that justify government intervention.
These failures have to do consumers not appreciating the connection between consuming sugar-sweetened drinks and their long-term health because they have a) imperfect information which leads to poor consumption decisions; b) their decisions are further distorted by advertising; c) consumers, especially children and adolescents, tend to make decisions based on immediate gratification and not on long-term consequences, and d) these consumers don’t pay the full cost of their decisions because it is passed on to the healthcare system, of which half the costs are paid by the public via Medicare and Medicaid.
Prante wonders, if those are compelling reasons to institute a soft-drink tax, why not apply the same logic to out-of-wedlock sex and tax that as well:
Based on these supposed market failures, I’d like to pose this question to the authors: If government had perfect information, would you support a tax on out-of-wedlock sexual behavior? And if we can’t do that for administrative purposes, couldn’t we impose a significant tax on nightclubs and bars as a second best scenario (kind of like how the authors of this report suggest an imperfect soda tax to fight obesity-related market failures)?
…
First, I can think of no other “market” in which imperfect information exists at such a prevalent level than that of sexual interactions. How many men and women have perfect information about their sexual partners, especially those on a random night that they meet at a nightclub or bar?
Second, I can think of no other “market” in which the problem of a person pursuing short-term gratification at the expense of possible long-term harm would exists to such a large degree as that in the area of sexual activity.
Finally, there are substantial medical costs from sexually transmitted diseases, the bulk of which persists in out-of-wedlock/multiple partner/sexually active persons. And many of these are borne by taxpayers via government health care expenditures.
And that doesn’t even take into account the costs to the public in terms of increased poverty and welfare which have been directly linked to out-of-wedlock births.
Of course, few would sit still for such a tax on one’s lifestyle, would they?
You know, we used to talk about the cost of our liberty being paid in the blood of our soldiers and citizens (and especially our citizen-soldiers); we appear to be heading into an era where our liberty will be determined by how much we cost the state.
by Tiger Lilly
![Anorex[st]ics Inaneymous 050](http://thenightwriterblog.com/files/2009/09/Anorexstics-Inaneymous-050.bmp)
![Anorex[st]ics Inaneymous 050B](http://thenightwriterblog.com/files/2009/09/Anorexstics-Inaneymous-050B.bmp)
WOOHOO!!! I made it to 50!!!
Ciao for now!
AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
![Anorex[st]ics Inaneymous 049](http://thenightwriterblog.com/files/2009/09/Anorexstics-Inaneymous-049.bmp)
Indeed.
Ciao for now!
by the Night Writer
This Saturday, September 19 is the annual “Talk Like a Pirate Day” celebration, so get your “Arrrs,” “Aye-ayes”, “Avasts” and “Ahoys” ready to come across the bows of everyone you meet, and be sure to throw in some “Lubbers”, “Mateys” and “Bilge Rats” into your conversation (or blog) as well.
Too bad this day wasn’t scheduled earlier in the month. Then, instead of the things that have been reported in the news we could have heard the following:
From Serena Williams: “I’ll be firing this cannonball right into your bung-hole!”
From Kanye West: “I’ll be lettin’ you finish, but Beyonce’s got the best booty accordin’ to this sea dog.”
From Joe Wilson: “You ARRRRR a liar!”