Category Archives: humor

A Fascinating Article

“Body Ritual among the Nacirema”
by Horace Miner

Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or pattern of perceiving the world often leaves its stamp on several institutions in the society. Examples are “machismo” in Spanish-influenced cultures, “face” in Japanese culture, and “pollution by females” in some highland New Guinea cultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that “attitudes about the body” have a pervasive influence on many institutions in Nacirema society.

The anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different people behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe. The point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to clan organization by Murdock.[2] In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.

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The End of an Era!

Today, at a crucial moment, the end of an era arrived. My food processor, a sturdy though not-much-used workhorse died.

I was pulsing flour and butter together for a few seconds at a time, barely starting the task to make dough. It just went ‘click’ and then  . . . nothing.

Needless to say, I had to finish by hand. (Ouch.)

I guess now I need to decide how much I was actually using that food processor, and for what. Do I really need to replace it? Will a replacement be better, and make me use it more?

Hmmm . . . .

EDIT: The reason its the end of an era is that I got this appliance in the early ’90s. So, I’ve had 20 years out of it.

Tiredness, FTW!

Yes, that is my attempt at humor.

Yesterday — Saturday — I worked a 10 hour day. We have a big project going to the client (hard deadline) on Tuesday and they are still writing one portion of it. One of my ‘hats’ is report production, so I went in to take all of the other portions of the report and make them pretty. This is after working a normal week.

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Wednesday Silliness: Sasha with ‘duck’

Because this picture makes me laugh.

She really doesn’t like her picture taken, for one. For another, she doesn’t understand why J. is taking so long to throw the duck into the water so she can keep playing!

The white rope is about 6 ft long and attached to her collar. We need it because sometimes she likes to play ‘keep away’ and that is not acceptable.