Conference back40::soapbox

    bell bottoms
    sting ray bike
    moon boots
    

    I think fads are nice people, and they make wonderful decorators...
    
    oh... faDs... nevermind. :-)
    
    -b

    I'm glad the "overalls with the dangling strap" fad is over. That one
    drove me crazy!

    ...A Beta Video Recorder

    Beta was not a fad... VHS is a fad. The professional version of Beta
    (Beta SP) is still the most ubiquitous newsroom format...
    
    -b

    Not only that, it's in every newsroom you go.

    
    pet rock
    mood ring
    platform shoes
    excessively lowcut elephant leg pants
    scratch & sniff t-shirts

    
    had:
    
    mood rings
    pet rock
    bermuda bag
    those really thin and decorative headbands that you wore across the 
      top of your forehead
    barracuda jackets
    rollerdisco (where it was especially COOL to wear one of those headband
      thingies...)
    
    
    

    tacky wide lapels.

    Bermuda Bag?
    
    

    It's got a tan.

    
    
    yeah....
    
    
    it was a pocketbook (or purse, if you are deb) that had a wooden
    handle and a cloth "body" that was reversible and buttoned on...you
    could change your bag to match your outfit...
    
    
    

    Phew! Now my imagination can take a rest :-)

    It would seem that mine can't.

    >Bermuda Bag?
    
    To carry your Bermuda Shorts in... what else?
    
    -b

    	Are snarfs fads?

    > I'm glad the "overalls with the dangling strap" fad is over.
    
    Not around here it ain't.

    
    Downsizing.
    
      bb

    You're in Georgia right?
    
    Well, that explains it.

    
    Ohyeah, I had a bermuda bag too.
    
    And a fringed suede jacket.

    .1 heh heh

>>    And a fringed suede jacket.

	 I think those are back.  OK, I hope their back - I saw a 
	*beautiful* one the other day.

Mousetrap shoes

Jeans, d.a., red rayon windbreaker with the collar turned up, worn over a
white tee shirt.

I wore bell bottoms during two phases of my life... the first time they
were either white or navy blue; then again when the fad hit in the '60's.

Also polyesther wide lapel suits,
leisure suit (only owned one),
drinking sangria,
knowing about stuff sold in plastic baggies that smelled like oregano, 
playing surfing music on my Stratocaster...

Never did wear cranberry pants, white belt and white shoes.

Never owned a Volkswagen bug or Saab or Volvo; no minivan or bottle-green
Ford Explorer; no cellular antenna on the car window...

    Streaking... sure wish it would make a comeback... :-)
    
    -b

    
    ...oh dear!

    Fab? Someone say the Fab-4? How about having same Beatle style? High
    water pants, with socks, and penny loafers.... Polyester Near-rooo
    jackets....bright yellow ones.... Hey not only the winged wounder of
    wide shirts and poly leasure suits... white belts and matching shoes!
    YeeoooW! 
    
    Platform shoes, tight ass jeans, and wide lapelled shirts.... I miss
    those terry-cloth, tight fitting, hot pants!! on the women of course!!
     And hot pants! And military issued olive drab jackets.....
    
    Then of course, cars with fins, chrome, and sucking gas!! Big heavy
    mosters of the road.... lead-sleds!:) 
    
    The guy with baseball hat, baggy pants, short to the knees, and his
    Raiders jacket.... Gonna get arthritus in the knee caps. Or the sucker
    looks like he has a load in the shorts!:) 

    I knew this local dude, who decided to streak the University of New
    Hampshire. From the hockey rink on one side of town. To a gas station
    just across the street from the police station, on the other side of
    town. And the guy looked like Lurch from the 'Adams Family'!!
    
    Welp..... The guy who was to carry Lurchs cloths to the gas station.
    Stopped in for a brew and a few moments with his favorite college woman
    at the WildCat Pub on the main street. With cloths folded on the table.
    And watch Lurch run, in his birthday suit up the main drag... Lurch was
    to hop into the mens room at the gas station and found it locked... And
    hid under a parked car. Lurch was arrested when the owner of the car
    backed up, spotted a naked body laying face down on the asphalt and
    screamed cause she thought she killed the lad..... 
    
    Needless to say....:) I am certain, he wished he was dead at the
    time!:)

    
    Oogh...I had bright orange stretch terrycloth hot pants.
    
    

    
    hey...if george can say welp, i can say oogh.
     

    I had a pet rock once.  Rescued it as a stray.

    
    can't remember my teen years at all.
    
    jeff

    re .24
    
    Owned a bug bus...lotsa work
    
    If you want to enjoy the SAAB experience. climb into a 45 gallon drum
    half filled with gasoline and strike a match!...Mine bought new in 87
    torched itself with only 12,000 miles on it...they tried to blame it on 
    the car wash I had just received...something about exposing the car to 
    moisture..
    
    I'm claiming the SAAB as a FAD
    
    Rod (SAAB free!)
    

>    (Beta SP) is still the most ubiquitous newsroom format...
    
    More proof of the idiocy of liberalism.

    Lessee, not only bell bottoms, but leather ones at that.
    
    And, truly, I was a vegetarian at the time.
    
    I was once a flaming liberal, sure am glad that went out of style.
    
    OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM...did that one, too.
    
    Friends of Earth, once upon a time.  That's where I discovered some of
    the enviroscams.

    Leisure suits, yeehaw!  My husband is forever immortalized in a powder
    blue leisure suit, with a smart-looking, wide-collared, floral shirt
    and neck chain in his high school picture.  My m-i-l stills keeps
    the photo proudly displayed in her family room.  The grandkids get a
    hoot out of it nowadays.
    
    My fad?  Platform shooz.  They're quite appealing when a person is
    5'3".
    

    I don't understand why everybody poopoos BETA. It was a superior format
    to VHS, but, Sony was greedy so BETA lost out. Too bad. Why do you
    think they use it in news rooms? Because it's better than VHS.

    Glenn

    
    
    Beta?..Vhs?..you sad people,dont you remember Philips V2000?
    
    Now there was a Format!
    
    I had one.It was excellent.It was very very clever.It was redundant
    
    half an hour after it was released onto the market!
    
    Never..ever..believe a salesman!

Philips V2000 was a PAL-only format, and was never even seen in the U.S.

/john

    Yup, beta is a superior format.  Sony goofed this one.

    
    If BETA was a fad, how about 8-track?
    

    8-tracks were heaven.  Speaking of bell-bottoms, how about Elephant
    bell-bottoms. The bells on those were so B-I-G!!
    

    I had pleated bell bottoms and each pleat was a different color! :-)
    
    Not to mention adorning roach clip, leather/beaded bracelete and mood
    ring!

    
    Wow, Nancy, those trou put ANY of mine to shame.
          

    
    I had white leather pants, and jeans so tight I couldn't sit down,
    of course worn with the colar turned up and the little gators on the
    shirt.
    
    Black pants with silk shirts.. the 70's live.  
    
    Painters pants bleached so white they hurt my eyes.
    
    MEM 
    
    

    
    my older sister had those gumwrapper chains hanging on her wall.  what
    were they supposed to represent?
    
    jeff

    back in the mid-60's out in extreme NE wyoming they had the annual
    county fare nose picking contest. ed whitty won it 4 years running. no
    one could come close. then 'ol ed got lost roundin up his sheep in the
    great may day blizzard of '68. he was found a week later as the snow
    melted froze stiff behind a cottonwood tree on crooked dog leg crik.
    the '68 contest ended in a 4 way tie as it was difficult, with ed gone,
    to determine a clear winner. there ain't been such a contest since
    then.

    was that his secret? picking a running nose?

    Did I forget to mention the hip hugger hot pants and blouse tied up
    above the waist or the string bikini?
    
    Oh yeah did I tell you my foster parents burned my clothes... :-)

    Buying an REM tape. Brrrrr.
    
    At least it only cost me about 50p from Yugoslavia.
    

    
    .48
    
    I had one of those too.  I think it signified that you chewed too much
    gum 8^).

    
    or what about those chains you could make from the pull-tops of beer
    and soda cans...
    
    

CP/M, C, C++, Pascal, Unix

    >C, C++,... Unix
    
    you wish!  those are all here to stay...
    
    DougO

    Macintosh computers... :-)
    
    By the way, did you know Macintosh was an acronym for:
    
    "Machine Always Crashes, If Not the Operating System Hangs"
    
    (Stolen from the p-name of Digit Frank Ries Jr.)
    
    -b

    SNARF !!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    
    
    atari
    
    intellivision
    
    
    

    Somebody please tell me that string bikinis are NOT a fad...   :-(

    Well, if the next fad is even smaller bikinis, then I guess it's OK...
    :-)
    
    -b

Note 129.57 by MPGS::MARKEY
    
    >>Macintosh computers... :-)
   
    blinder! oh blindus!!! this here pilgrim just committed heresy in the
    world according to blinder.

    re: -1
    
    troublemaker! :-)
    
    -b

    
    
    
    I was thinkin the same thing, Gene.  Blinders gonna be all over this
    person like stink on you know what.

    
    
    what???
    
    

    	Carpooling.

    
    pogosticks
    hulahoops
    slam dancing
    

re: .48, Jeff
    
>    my older sister had those gumwrapper chains hanging on her wall.  what
>    were they supposed to represent?
    
A fortune in dental bills by your parental units.

    Snarfing

    	re .-1
    
    	Finally an answer to my question!  
    
    	(So when will this particular fad end...)

    Hey! How do you make those gum wrapper chains anyway??
    				Gary

    Sitting there in a darkened room...Strobe lite on, with a black
    lite bulb in it...Listening to Tommy Bolan & tripping on 4 way window
    pane...
    
    Or dancing through the pastures early in the am when the ground is
    still damp and eating white mushrooms... growing out of cow dung...
    
    Then there was the "thing" on the reservations, where we used
    to sit up and watch the sunrise just as the Peyote' was kick'n
    in.
    
    
    Sin-te-da

    Oh, yeah...
    	... riding a bicycle to work!

    	Using VAXnotes.
    
    		Using Lotus Notes.
    
    
    			As fer me, I can't WAIT to graduate to Web Notes!
    
    |-{:-)
    

How about "Kabonkers".  These were the two solid spheres (can't say balls) that
were connected by a string.  You used to hit them together and they would make
an annoying sound but it looked cool if you could do it for a long period of
time.  These were all over my school until one launched and hit someone.


Re: 129.17 by Mad Mike

  > I'm glad the "overalls with the dangling strap" fad is over.

    Not around here it ain't.

Mike, I got a good Dawsonville story for you.  A friend of mine recently moved
up there (other side of 400 from you).  We are both avid pool players.  He
showed me a flyer from a pool hall up in Dawsonville.  Not sure if it is new
or not.  Now those who don't know, Dawsonville, GA is the home of Winston
Cup driver Bill Elliott.  Elliott is obviously a local hero.  Anyway, the 
flyer went on to explain about the food, pool tables, etc.   Then there was a 
line that read:

	"We also carry Bill Elliot Tee Shirts and Caps"

What made this funnier was it was on the eve of the Hooter's 500 at Atlanta 
Motor Speedway.  I wasn't sure about the spelling, but the next day I confirmed
what I knew when "Elliott's" name flashed on the screen.

Paul

> the "overalls with the dangling strap" fad

I'm apparently unfamiliar with this particular fad. Which gender wears these?

    
    .71, gum wrapper chains
    
    Drive down to the next boxbash and I'll show you.  It's a hands-on
    kinda thing, I don't think I could tell you over the phone.
    
    

    	re .75
    
    	"Klickety-klacks"?

    Whitney Houston singing aids?

|         <<< Note 129.76 by MOLAR::DELBALSO "I (spade) my (dogface)" >>>
|
|> the "overalls with the dangling strap" fad
|
|I'm apparently unfamiliar with this particular fad. Which gender wears these?

    	Guys wear these. I even remember seeing some kid with overalls on
    with both straps dangling and a belt to keep them on. Sloppy is in. The
    new fad is oversized pants half falling down revealing silly looking
    boxer shorts. I'm serious.

    Glenn

    
    .75, .78
    
    I had those too!  Mine were transparent red extremely hard plastic 
    connected by a string.
    
    
    My nieces have them now - they're a softer plastic and they're
    connected by plastic sticks (?) rather than strings.  Not as much fun,
    if you ask me.
    
    I also had one of those things, what were they called, it clips around
    your ankle and has a string with a ball at the end of it and you got it
    swinging around your ankle and jumped over it every time it came by...
    

    .80
    
    > new fad is oversized pants half falling down revealing silly looking
    > boxer shorts. I'm serious.
    
    this ain't new, it was very common among the black youth of almost
    every town in the country roughly 80 years ago.  could it have had
    something to do with their not being able to afford better?  nah.

    .57
    
    > Macintosh computers... :-)
    
    at least you demonstrate the brains to smile when you say it.
    
    whyizzit that most of the snazzy new features to be granted by the
    microsquash godlets on high, when they get around to releasing chicago,
    were in the mac os two years ago?
    
    but actually, you're right, the macintosh computer will soon be a thing
    of the past.  instead you will see generic computers that run the mac
    os or os/2, as the user prefers.  which will leave microsquash and
    intel scratching their grunnies and wondering where the money went.

|   but actually, you're right, the macintosh computer will soon be a thing
|   of the past.  instead you will see generic computers that run the mac
|   os or os/2, as the user prefers.  which will leave microsquash and
|   intel scratching their grunnies and wondering where the money went.
    
    Bahahahaha.  BTW, when's Apple going to have a 3D API?
    
    								-mr. bill

    > 3D API
    
    difficult, dumb, and doomed?  dunno.

    No, that API is known as the Macintosh Programmer's Toolkit.
    
    -b

    .86
    
    which is why savvy mac programmers use metrowerks codewarrior.

    I see mr bill has found the bill gates playboy interview online...
    
    DougO

    Yep. Thx for the ptr, Bill.

 Who started the "fad" of wearing baseball caps backwards?


 

 Jim

> Who started the "fad" of wearing baseball caps backwards?

  Catchers.

    Why have French people suddenly started saying "Why not?" instead of
    "Pourquoi pas?"
    
    Drives me mad

>>    Why have French people suddenly started saying "Why not?" instead of
>>    "Pourquoi pas?"
>>    
>>    Drives me mad
>>


	For the same reason they started saying "week end", "leader", "job",
	"meeting", "cool", "T shirt",...

		( In my opinion because they are solid idiots that don't
		  speak -or simply understand !- english and don't bother
		  finding the appropriate translation )

	.93

	idjit

>>	    How do you say "railroad tie" in French?


	There must be some precise technical word for it, but I've
	never worked for a Railroad company...

	I would call that "une plaque de fixation"...

>>	    How do you say "railroad tie" in French?

	La traverse.

/john

    .94
    
    > How do you say "railroad tie" in French?
    
    traverse.

    well, that saves me a struggle! 
    
    You call it a railroad tie so I'm looking for a word for a little plate
    that binds 2 rails together!
    
    And all along you meant a "sleeper" (the English word)
    
    martin in France

	.94
>>
>>    How do you say "railroad tie" in French?
>>

	I realize I just answered your question yesterday as if you were
	british. What you american call a railroad tie, and the british
	call a sleeper, is called in french "une traverse". I just hope
	our friends in Quebec don't have another word...


	And for Martin I will add that the binding plate he's thinking
	of is "une �clisse".

	Jean-Pierre

    .94:
    
    Trust me, my grandfather (maternal) was a Francophone immigrant from
    Qu�bec.
    
    The proper translation is "cravate du chemin de fer".
    
    Dick

And of course, we call a wagon-lit a sleeper.

/john

    good, well now we can all go out and build a truly international
    railroad. wonder what it would look like?

    we who are old enough to remember when passenger trains were synonymous
    with good service in the usa usually call a wagon-lit a pullman.

    POGS

     So they've reached the west coast from Hawaii have they then Nance?
    

    re: .81
    
    Footsies!  I had one too!
    
    My mother wouldn't let me get the kabonkers......
    
    Other fads:
    
    Hip huggers
    Granny gowns
    Quiana (sp?)
    platform shoes
    Gunne Sax dresses (you know, the ones that made everyone look
           like Laura Ingalls from "Little House on the Prairie")
    
    Mary-Michael
    

    .106
    
    Oh yes... cracked eightballs slammers and poison pogs are alive and
    well in the mainland!

I don't understand these pog things - I've read the manual, but I _still_ 
don't understand. Does the slammer get thumped on the top of the pile, or 
where????


Chele

    
    I'm turning into my mother.
    
    There's a girl (high school?) in the chorus of _Ida_, and every time I
    look at her I think "She'd be so pretty if she'd just pull her hair out
    of her face and stop wearing that dreadful black eyeliner".
    
    And her clothes!  They're at least 3 sizes too big, both width and
    length wise.  She never ties her shoes.  And she wears a wooly stocking
    cap indoors.
    
    How can her mother let her leave the house that way?  
    

    > "She'd be so pretty if she'd just pull her hair out
        of her face and stop wearing that dreadful black eyeliner".
    
    I take it she has a lot of facial hair? :-) :-) :-)
    

	yikes, sounds just like my daughter. 'cept for the eyeliner.
	she didn't have red or purple hair, did she?  ;-)
	

    
    Oh, I'd have mentioned that little tidbit, jols 8^).
         
    

    
    	I think that's the "grunge look", Deb.
    
    	Oversized clothes, untied shoes.
    
    	Girls adore Pearl Jam and wanna be Alannis Morrissette when they
    	grow up.
    

    
    ...who?
    

    Alannis Morrissette
    
    She's a very pretty girl but she's trying to look as raunchy as
    possible.

Sounds like the girl in "The Breakfast Club".

    Molly Ringworm?

    
    	I think that was Ally Sheedy.
    
    	Molly was the little rich girl.
    

Yes - the !Molly girl, whoever she was.

    >She's a very pretty girl 
    
     By whose standards? She is not a good looking girl. Sorry to disabuse
    of this notion. Yes, she's the hottest female singer out of AuCanader
    since Celine Dion, but she's simply not much of a looker. At all.

    You should have seen her when she was doing soft pop. She looked great.
    If she did the same hair style and make up again, you wouldn't believe
    the difference.

  i think she's attractive.  especially since she's not
  all big hair and fingernails and she manages to be
  beautiful anyways.

    
    	I guess you've got something against big hair and fingernails?
    
    	And 34DD's and 5" stiletto heels and crotch-length miniskirts?
    

    She used to be all big hair and fingernails, but I agree, even in her
    recent videos, she looks attractive to me.

>   <<< Note 129.124 by BUSY::SLABOUNTY "Don't like my p_n? 1-800-328-7448" >>>
>    	I guess you've got something against big hair and fingernails?
>    	And 34DD's and 5" stiletto heels and crotch-length miniskirts?

	er, have a blast, guess whatever you like - all i'm saying is that
	i think there's more to her than that, looks-wise.  something of a
	natural beauty.  she doesn't need to be all dolly-do'd up.

    Well, she could go up a few notches in my book (lookswise) by washing
    her hair and getting it out of her face. But still, I've seen a number
    of pictures of her, and her face just isn't too terribly attractive,
    even when she's not trying to look grungy.

 I don't like her voice (or her songs).




 Jim

    i hate to say this after our falling out, but i side with the doctah on
    her looks. she did look much better in her past life. i think she was
    some kid's show as well.
    
    her music might be worse than her looks (IMHO).

    Re:Alanis Morisette
    
    I think i`d stick the ball into the back of her net. 
    
    Her music ain`t much cop,mind.
    

>    I think i`d stick the ball into the back of her net. 

Our colourful British colleagues.

    
    	Stu, that is a very user-unfriendly reply.
    
    	Care to repeat that in English that MM can understand?  Thanks.
    

    |I think i`d stick the ball into the back of her net.
    
    you'd probably never make it onto the court. /hth

    Hmmmmm, there is something that I find attractive about her even though
    in the world of glam rock she is definitely on the plain side.  I like
    plain so, there you go.  I also have adjusted to her music.  

    
    
    	re: .129
    
    	She was on Nickolodeon's "You Can't Do That on Television"
    

    If I may add some fuel to the fire.....
    
    One of my hot buttons is "She'd look so pretty if only she'd get rid of
    the weird hair and make-up and clothes and adopt a look that's more
    mainstream".  During one of my recent snow vacation days, I caught a
    bit of one of those hideous talk shows where they were taking
    interesting looking punk girls and "making them over" into tacky wallpaper. 
    They'd come out with this dopey outfit and a hairdo that took about
    three hours and a whole bottle of hairspray to complete, the audience
    would ooh and ahh and the poor girls woulds would say how "Yeah I guess
    my hair looks nice can I have my clothes back now."
    
    I personally think that this world would be a lot more interesting if
    more people were weird in their looks and clothing.  I've seen lots of
    women, myself included, wear clothes that are too big for them.  If
    it's assembled right, it looks great.  Not to mention that it's far
    more comfortable, you don't have to worry about weight fluctuations,
    and you don't get leered at as much  by idiot guys.  The grunge look
    arose out of dirt poor musicians going to dollar-a-pound to get clothes
    that they could sleep in for a year.  I've also practiced this "look",
    it's great for clubs where there's lots of smoke and you get beer
    spilled on you, or for when you're not doing something that requires
    dress-up and you want something quick and comfortable.
    
    If I really want to dress up, I'll grab one of my vintage dresses and
    some gnarly earrings and slick shoes.  Maybe a bit of natural looking
    make-up if I feel like it.  My Mom couldn't believe that I didn't wear
    make-up to work.
    
    As for the "musicians" on MTV, they're poseurs, the whole lot of them.
    
    Lisa
    Eyeliner is no big deal, it's been a staple of punk rock for years.  In
    fact, I think that there are many faces that looks

    |She was on Nickolodeon's "You Can't Do That on Television"
    
    Actually, that was a CTV production, picked up by Nick. she was only 11
    when she was on that show.

    
    
    	re: Lisa
    
    	Amen Sister! :)
    
    

    re: Morisette
    
    She looked okay in one of her videos, but nothing grand.  Lately she
    looks rather horrid, actually.
    
    I must agree with the Doctah on this one.
    
    
    -steve

    
    	RE: Lisa
    
    	I think that was the Rikki Lake show ... it's on after "Cops",
    	which is on after "The X-Files" on Fridays and I happened to
    	catch an episode or 2 when I didn't feel like changing the
    	channel.
    
    	But I did get lucky and see The Village People on 1 of those 2
    	episodes.
    

    
    re: 136
    
    I'm from the "Will Rogers School of Women Watching"...
    

    It's been on Rikki Lake, Yolanda, Geraldo, SJR, Gordo Elliot, Maury
    Povich, Phil Donahue, Oprah, etc. et al, ad nauseum, blah, blah, blah.

<---    I remember I got trounced for spelling ad nauseam like that.

Misspellings of "ad nauseam" make me puke.

    >> especially since she's not all big hair
    
    what's wrong with big hair?? %^>
    
    and i have only seen a few piccies of alanis, and i wouldn't consider
    what i have seen as attractive.  even in her ycdtot days, she wasn't
    much more than 'plain'.  and as far as her voice goes, the only thing i
    like about it is that it reminds me that one day, *i* might be able to
    have a number one song...
    
    i believe they used to refer to her as the 'canadian debbie gibson'...
    
    -raq

    			Allanis has a very good voice. IMO
        		    .	
                           .
    			(=)
        		 |
        		 |
        		 |
        		 |

    
>    what's wrong with big hair?? %^>

    i didn't say anything was wrong with big hair.  i said that's
    not all she is - big hair and fingernails.  i think she has looks.
    some women just have big hair and fingernails.

    i really hope this helps, once and for all.

    i feel so out of touch.  i don't know who this alanis
    chick is.

  she has one hand in her pocket, and the other one's really busy.

    
    RE: .149
    
    No, that's Pee Wee Herman... :-)
    
    -b

    She screeches, er sings Thought You Should Know, aka the But I'm Not
    Bitter song.  
    
    Brian

    ooh er.  oh, she's a screamer, right?

    Her song "Like Rain" I think it's called, keeps playing in my head. No,
    not my feet, in my brain, in my head.

    does she sing "if god was jack martin"?

    No, that's some other person with a stick through her nose.

    Alanis does You Oughtta Know (a pissa tune, if you axe me) and a few
    others. I think she's reasonably talented, though a somewhat acquired
    taste.

    
    
    	One of my favorite songs on the CD hasn't been released as a single.
    	"MaryJane".  She doesn't do her 'purposeful voice cracking' much
    	in this song.  She actually can have a very 'smooth' tone........
    

    >(a pissa tune, if you axe me) 

	yar.

    >One of my hot buttons is "She'd look so pretty if only she'd get rid of
    >the weird hair and make-up and clothes and adopt a look that's more
    >mainstream".  
    
     Oh, so we're of the "it's not what you are or what you do, it's how 
    you look" school? Splendid.
    
    >I personally think that this world would be a lot more interesting if
    >more people were weird in their looks and clothing.  
    
     I think the world would be a lot more interesting if people stopped
    worrying so much about how they looked and channeled that energy into
    actually getting off their rumps and doing something. I guess I just
    don't subscribe to this notion of having to achieve a look to have an
    identity. I've always figured you could have an identity by _doing_
    rather than by looking like something.
    
    >and you don't get leered at as much  by idiot guys.  
    
     Nor non-idiot guys.
    
    >I've also practiced this "look",
    >it's great for clubs where there's lots of smoke and you get beer
    >spilled on you, 
    
     I guess that fitting in is facilitated by looking just like everybody
    else (that you want to fit in with.) Undoubtedly this was one of my
    problems in certain circles; I didn't look the part enough to be really
    accepted.
    
    
    
     

  .160 easy for you to say, handsome. ;>

    :-P

    Re:Alanis Morisette
    
	She has a lot of dirty words that get edited out of her songs. The,
	"Do you think of me when you BEEEEEEEEP her" is one that comes to
	mind. Very smutty mouth on her. :-)

| <<< Note 129.155 by LANDO::OLIVER_B "tools are our friends" >>>

| does she sing "if god was jack martin"?

	No, she does not sing that....no one should sing that.....

    >	"Do you think of me when you BEEEEEEEEP her" 
    
     "And are you thinking of me when you <do> her?"

    re: the Doctah
    
    How did the connection between "looks weird" and "does nothing" get
    established?
    
    As for spending too much time on your looks, I bet it takes more time 
    for a woman to do the blow dry, make-up application, and proper
    accessorization for a "professional" job than it takes the "weirdo"
    with the purple cellophane job on her ez-care black bob to throw on her
    black turtleneck,  oversize black cotton sweater and long straight
    purple velvet skirt, a dash of eyeliner, wing-tip Doc Martens and leather 
    jacket and head off to her computer hack job.
    
    Yeah, I spend time roving the vintage stores for the right dress, and
    the shoe stores for the right shoes, and the antique stores for the
    gnarly earrings I don't make at home, so I have a nifty outfit when I
    want one.  I don't like being one of the crowd, I don't listen to
    mainstream music or read mainstream books or watch mainstream music,
    I fill my living space with an eclectic assortment of items that make
    me happy when I look at them, and I hang out with people who are
    "weirdos" who have the same tastes and mindset as me.  And it comes
    across in my clothes sometimes.
    
    I sense that the people that the Doctah are referring to are the
    "poseurs", the ones who don't wear grunge or eyeliner or dye their hair
    until 17 magazine says it's cool.  Those aren't the real "weirdos"
    those are the ones who just want to be trendy, not unlike people who
    spend lots of time learning to country line dance.
    
    Lisa

    Lisa, confess to the fact that you've got "the shopping bug", which is
    a virus all women eventually contract.

    Yup, I admit it.
    
    I LOOK at everything.  Which allows me to pick the absolute most
    fabulous things there are to actually BUY.  
    
    Oh, and when I'm not shopping I do really boring things like garden,
    read, and go see punk rock bands.
    
    Lisa

    This troubles me.

    I'm glad I trouble you.
    
    If I didn't trouble you, or at least make one of your many
    personalities think about typing that in, then I'd be a boring old
    fart, and I can think of few things worse than that destiny.
    
    Lisa

    
    > ... then I'd be a boring old fart, and I can think of few things
    > worse than that destiny.
    
    I can.  You could be Jack Martin.

    Good to see Lisa Gassaway "gassing" away once again.
    
    As an aside,I saw Kieran Murphy on Saturday. (This is the bloke you
    and er,your friend whose name escapes me know) met in Boston that
    time. A few years ago. And funnily enough,he mentioned your name. And
    your friend`s name. 
    
    Er,anyway.
    
    Alanis Morisette was on the Brits Award show last night. She looked
    alright to me. Not a bad song all about sticking her hand up and giving
    a V sign or something. 
    
    Though she`s not as good as Pulp or Oasis. So there.
    
    

    >>Not a bad song all about sticking her hand up and giving a V sign or 
    >>something.
    
    that would be a peace sign, wouldn't it???
    
    and i have to say that i do like her song about it raining on your
    wedding day and getting a free ride after you already paid (the song
    has been running thru my head for a couple of days now, but the name
    just won't come!!)
    

    re: .173  I believe the title is "Ironic"
    
    
    Mike
    

    Michael Jackson did a Mickey Mouse production of his dreadful ditty,
    "Earth Song". There was lots of actor luvvies dressed up like they
    were homeless or something surrounding him,while he whinged about 
    chopping trees down or wot not.
    
    Rather amusingly,Jarvis Cocker (lead singer of the band Pulp) ran
    on the stage and pulled his trousers down. arf!arf!
    

    Ah, so how is Mr. Ken?
    
    I remember their visit.  They showed up drunk, drank more on our front
    porch, posed for a couple incriminating pictures, and then were driven
    off to the airport or somewhere, at which point Mr. Ken referred to me
    using the British term for "hot chick" which I found fairly
    entertaining at the time, but I can't remember what the term was now.
    
    My roommates were Kathy and Paul.  Kathy doesn't work at DEC anymore.
    
    Lisa

    Ah,yes. Kathy Gallup. I remember now. I wonder what he called you. 
    Perhaps "bird",though a tad coarse for you to find amusing. Or totty,
    er,or tasty bit of crumpet. Difficult to tell,really. Depends how much
    he had to drink. He tends to get cruder and cruder to the point of
    embarassing,depending on how much he`s drank. Whatever he said,I`m sure
    he didn`t mean it. Honest. 
    
    
    

    
    	IMNSHO, trying to be a weirdo is no different from trying
    	to be a Barbie.  To be truly different would be to try
    	to dress unlike even your closest friends, to assimilate
    	your own style, not copy the "weird look of the month".
    
    	Karen
    

	Karen has spoken!

    She`s got a point. 
    
    Trying to shock is about the most unshockable and boring thing you can
    do. Er,if you see what I mean.
    
    Eg,if I said "ooh,I got my tongue pierced and a tattoo of a donkey`s
    pork sword tattooed on my bottom,and died my hair blue",I doubt anyone
    would be shocked.
    
    I`d merely be a very sad case indeed. 
    

  I DEMAND a beanie baby !!!

  bb

 after throwing a tantrum, I have been placated with a beanie baby

  bb

    
    	Thanks for the reminder bb.  Gotta stop into the craft store
    	and see how the first day went and check out these beanie baby
    	things.  Had a dream last night that all of my jewelry, with
    	the exception of a couple pairs of earrings, sold on the first
    	day.  :/
    

    I've never seen or heard of Beanie Babies.   Maybe they're not sold in
    Canada?

I'd never heard of them till my kid got one for her birthday in November.
They're not sold in places like Toys-backwards-R-Us.

    you have to dial an 800 number and you receive it in a plain brown
    paper wrapper.

    
>    you have to dial an 800 number and you receive it in a plain brown
>    paper wrapper.
    
    or try         
    
    http://www.ty.com/
    
    you can see every beanie baby ever made 
    
    
    Greg_dad_of_6-year_old_beanie_baby_addict
    

    one store i went by last nite had bigger versions of the beanie babies,
    tho i don't know if they are "beanie biggies", but they were cute.
    
    

Ty is privately held.  Somebody is making one heck of a lot of money off
these things.

    
    are you talking about the "beanie biggies" i mentioned??  they were a
    ty product, or at least according to the tag in their ears, they are...
    

  how much can they be making ?  a beanie baby sells for $4.95, or 3
 for $12.95 some places.  A beanbag with a stuffed animal design, cute,
 with a little nametag.  Some addicts buy all 70 or 80 or whatever, but
 a sane beanie baby user like myself will sit one on top of a terminal
 like a plastic troll and be done with it...

  bb

They're selling in vast quantities to 6 to 10 year olds (so I'd guess).
Even if they make only half a doller on each one, when you multiply that
by a zillion, you get half a zillion.

    They make two dollars on each one.  Prolly assembled in some ghastly
    sweatshop by waifs no bigger than the beanies themselvs.

    
    	Yeah, I would have said that there was a $4+ mark-up on the things,
    	assuming less than $1 each.  But that's unrealistic.
    
    	Manufacturing cost is probably somewhere around 50 cents each, but
    	then you have to factor in several middlemen.  So my guess is a $1
    	profit for the store.
    

    "...beanie baby user?" one's imagination just runs with this.

    The store buys them for $3. They are made in China, where we all know
    that labor is at a premium. 
    
    Gerald's right: they are making a fortune.

    
    	Especially when you start looking at inventory turns.  I mean,
    	the shorter something sits on the shelf and is replaced, the
    	better for the company because something else sellable will be
    	able to take its place.
    
    	And small items are even better, because more can fit in the
    	same amount of space.
    

  yes, Nuts was indeed made in China.

  now that I look at him, his eyes look vaguely oriental...

  bb