Greetings and salutations! As some of you know, I am Woman. ROAR! As people who know me know, I am a non-stereotypical woman. For the Crasstalk Day Of Woman I decided to make a list of some things which I think help women be better women. This list is but a small part of the continual refinement which is every human’s job. Brave capable sisters, know that I have only your best interests at heart, and gather round: Continue reading
the well-cultured crasstalk
Who likes to laugh, amirite!? Damn straight! Laughter is like tiny unicorn kisses inside your brain, and should be sought out at all times!
For those of you who are old enough to remember this, Dr. Katz was once a super-hilarious show. Airing in the early days of Comedy Central, “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist” featured Jonathan Katz taking the day’s best stand-up comics to his private therapist’s couch. H. Jon Benjamin was there too, dontchaknow. After a long hiatus, Jonathan Katz is back, and OHIMGOD YOU GUYS I’M IN THE SHOW! Continue reading
Good morning Crasstalk. Today we are going to be a little bit more cultured with our Question of the Day. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you and I am sure we will be back to talking reality TV and boy bands tomorrow. So let’s turn our focus to some great books.
While most of us like to read, literature is often something we leave in Freshman Lit 101. This is a shame, and in the interest of creating the well-cultured Crasstalk, I submit the following question:
Who is your favorite literary character? Please, let’s not use books that have been turned into Life Time Movies, or have been adapted to star Skeet Ulrich. Keep it classy.
Mine is not who you would think (although he is up there), but rather I am going way back to Arthurian legend for this saucy and duplicitous lady. Morgan Le Fay, half-sister of Arthur and enemy of Camelot. Powerful, smart, and conniving, she helped destroy Artur and that sap Lancelot. She would have made Alexis Carrington cry like a bitch.
So there’s mine. Whose was the character that made your lit assignments a little less tedious?
Good evening my friends and welcome to Crasstalk. Wishing you all a wonderful day and a great evening. Here are a couple of educational films to help you all learn to be well-mannered Crasstalkers.
Now you are ready to go out and wow the rest of the gang. Have a great night.
“In the well-planned dinner for ten, there should be (taking out the host and hostess): two sparklies from different fields, four solid listeners and contributors from assorted professions, one charity case and one mystery guest whose classification will not be clear until after being auditioned at this dinner.” Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior by Judith Martin
As usual, Miss Manners’ prescription is firmly delivered, but is it definitive?? Many experts on entertaining suggest that six rather than eight guests is the ideal number for a perfect dinner party. Some assert that the number of men and women should be balanced (and seated boy-girl-boy-girl); a subset of this group even continues to assume that all the guests are actually couples.
Others have a more free-form approach, encompassing, say, singleton invitees (of whom, clearly, there must be two unless you include a ménage a trois among your guests as well) or gay couples (who make the boy-girl alternation infinitely more complicated to carry off). In short, who knows? Well, for purposes of this post, you do. Six guests or eight guests, it’s up to you.
A “mystery guest”? Your choice. Do you dare make every guest an A-list “sparkly” who is used to being the center of attention? Can you pick a group whose conversation will sizzle and pop without turning your dining room into an inferno of disagreement and angry discord?
This little game is your chance to show off your party-planning skillz and indulge your own Inner Miss Manners. Your task is to pick a guest list of six (or eight, but no more) whom you believe would make for an unforgettable dinner party. You may select anyone, real or fictional, from any period in history. Mixing the real and the imaginary is allowed, although true purists will pick one or the other.
If you’re a stickler for the proprieties you can further increase the degree of difficulty by balancing the female/male ratio, specifying a seating chart, or applying Miss Manners’ rules to the letter. More to the point is your brief explanation of: why this person? As a foil for another guest, or a gadfly whose inclusion will liven things up, or just because you personally would like to ask him or her a particular question (and if so, what is that question)? Is your goal to solve the problems of the world by putting Socrates and Thomas Jefferson on either side of Jane Austen, or would you rather foment World War 3 by setting a place for Michael Moore between Jan Brewer and Sarah Palin?? The possibilities are endless.
I’ll begin (though, full disclosure, this is not my Be-All-End-All guest list but simply an example.
1. Alexander the Great – Did Aristotle grade on a curve?
2. Pamela Churchill Hayward Harriman – “Greatest courtesan of the century” (W. Paley).
3. Giacomo Casanova – Will he prefer to romance Pam or Betty?
4. Betty Boop – A toss-up between her and Daria Morgendorffer.
5. Marquis de Sade – Will he prefer to torture Betty or Mary.
6. The Virgin Mary — Well, was she?? And what does she make of the Marquis?
7. Daffy Duck – Exactly when will he blow his top?
8. Emily Dickinson – What will she say at dinner? What will she write afterward?
Over to you, Crassies.
Hello Crasstalk. As most of you can tell by the box on the upper right side of the page, Crasstalk is an Amazon Affiliates member. This is to help us raise the money we need to keep the site running and so that someday little Timmy can have that surgery so he can walk again. In an effort to increase the amount of funds we are raising Crasstalk has created its own Amazon store.
However, to make it a success we need to stock it with the kinds of cool stuff that people might actually be interested in buying. To find that cool stuff we are asking for your help. It is clear to us that the Crasstalk Nation has great taste so we are asking for your recommendations to pick the items for the store. Got a favorite band, writer, or designer? We want to know.
Making a recommendation is simple. Just find the item you want to recommend on Amazon, find the ISBN or ASIN numbers from the Product Details section, and post the number here in the comments section. You can suggest anything sold on Amazon. Music, books, accessories, games, or anything else you think other people would enjoy. Hopefully, this will not only be a way for us to raise some cash, but also a way for us to share some cool things with each other.
Anyway, your suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Below are a couple of screen shots with the product codes highlighted so it will be easier to find. As always, it is an honor to serve with all of you.