lookin

Cf. For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.

The description of synchronic figures of substitution leads, by an inner logic embedded in the structure of all tropes, to extended, narrative figures or allegories. De Man poses the question whether such self-generating systems of figuration can account fully for the intricacies of meaning and of signification they produce.

Either there needs to be less badinage around here or OZ needs to up our quota of 'likes'. You guys are funny!

In that job, I inherited one of the best looking guys I'd ever seen. He was wonderful to look at but, sadly, he wasn't cut out for the business and I had to help him realize that. It took a few months and I was grateful for every day.

All great advice, Tomcal. Thanks! I have a hazy recollection of something similar happening to me once. I woke up in my room, face down on the pillow, and a strange pair of underwear over my head. My valuables were all OK, but I was woozy and had a hard time standing. Even the next day I had trouble walking and couldn't even sit down without an extra cushion. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before so that evening I went back to where I'd met the guy with the gum to see if I could find him and find out what had happened. He finally showed up after a couple hours and I went over to talk to him, but he was out of gum.

I think a lot depends on the business. In the seventies, I was working in a fairly mature marketing business and got the best results by doing a lot of the grunt work myself and executing as well as I could. In the early eighties, though, I found myself managing a sales team and retail operation in the PC business, right before IBM got into it. Unlike the stable business I had come from, this business was changing rapidly quarter-to-quarter. I found the sales reps were down in the weeds making sure their product got ordered correctly, delivered, billed, and paid for, and so were my fellow managers. I told my folks I wanted no such responsibilities. In fact, I told them I wanted nothing to do at all. My job was to figure out where the business was going to be in three-six months and make sure we were ready for it. The only exception was sales calls which I would be delighted to make with them, as many as they wished. I got a really good back office team and told the sales reps their entire focus should be on bringing in new customers and new orders and the operational team would take care of everything else. It took me a few weeks, but I eventually got them out of the back room. When I first told them their jobs had just gotten simpler and that I personally wanted nothing at all to do but think, they laughed at me. Then they started making money.

Insider sees speedy approval of the XXXL pipeline

First they came for the illegals, and I did not speak out— Because I was not an illegal. Then they came for the druggies, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a druggie. Then they came for the underaged, and I did not speak out— Because I was not underaged. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. Which was fine because I was on my way to Rio.

I'm the humble one No, I'm the humble one My tattoo is crooked My hat's too big I'll never find love Or a Sugar Daddy Sigh Sigh Sigh

They'd show up on somebody's meter, no? Maybe a hotel's or a farm's or a restaurant's? Unless, of course, they land in one of the areas in California that don't even have water meters. Like Bakersfield, Merced, and parts of Governor Brown's own Sacramento. In a recent and surprising step backwards, a California appeals court just ruled that tiered water pricing violates the state constitution. Most water districts and the Governor have vowed to pay the ruling no mind. The area where I live is one of the very few that has slightly above average reservoirs right now, but we're also getting mandatory cutbacks. I've been conserving so long, I doubt there's another twenty percent to cut. They usually exempt us bottom-sippers, but who knows as the Guv is spinning around like a sizzling Sufi.

Good thing he's not a urologist.

They're not mailable either. You must be here to pick up your exploding penis

No issue with all you say, and I can sure understand Netanyahu's being wary of the Palestinians and making sure he covers Israel's security concerns. What gives me the pip is his nibbling away at Palestinian territory for years and years and years, while trying to distract everyone with gum-flapping about everything else under the sun. If he's planning to take over Palestine a settlement at a time, then at least stand up and say so. The Palestinians are starting to say so and, if they can get the ear of the ICC, maybe Netanyahu will come clean and I can go right on back to loving him.

My new low-flush toilet is nice. Once for yellow, for brown I push twice. Though once in a while There appears such a pile That a torrent will barely suffice.

As MsGuy indicates, the meaning of a Jewish state could unfold in a number of ways and it will no doubt take time to iron out the details, should it ever happen. One thing it means though, even if it never happens, is that a two-state agreement with Palestine recedes further and further into the distance, should that ever happen. Netanyahu has gone on record demanding that the Palestinians have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, whatever that turns out to mean, before he will sit down to discuss any chance of statehood for them. In the meantime, especially given his new coalition government , Israel will most likely continue to expand settlements and lock up territory that the Palestinians had hoped would be theirs. The more time passes, the stronger his hand becomes. No doubt there are a number of visions for a Jewish state but at least one opinion is that one purpose of the Jewish state discussion is to further delay two-state talks.

In case anyone's been wondering why Netanyahu's been so quiet since his Likud party won the March elections and he continued as Prime Minister, it's because he's been working his ass off trying to build a governing coalition, and he's got just a few more hours left to do it. Actually, he was supposed to have it done a couple of weeks ago, but he got an extension from President Rivlin until midnight tonight. He'll probably get it done but, on Monday, Avigdor Lieberman pulled his six Yisrael Beiteinu seats out of the coalition, meaning that Netanyahu will have only sixty-one seats in his coalition, a one-seat majority. Even worse, his coalition will consist of Israel's most right wing parties, including the Jewish Home party, which wants new settlements in occupied Palestinian territories and even annexation of parts of the West Bank, as well as passage of a bill that would declare Israel a Jewish state. Of course, all of this will increase tensions with President Obama and other western leaders, and probably earn Bibi another Republican invite to address Congress. For some years, I've been reading Sheldon Adelson's Israel Hayom, Israel's largest-circulation newspaper (at least since Adelson started giving it away for free), and have often been surprised by the vitriol heaped on President Obama whenever he failed to carry Israel's water. What's even more surprising is that the same vitriol, from the same writers, has been lately heaped on any Israeli politician who similarly opposes the right wing agenda. I guess vitriol is just something that flows through the Israeli right like shit through a goose.

I understand that poor people tend to pollute less than rich people and, so far as I know, His Holiness is not calling for an increase in the number of Koch brothers.

This guy never disappoints. Even when he's talking about industry consolidation, he somehow manages to make it sound fresh.

Of course, it's always nice when someone likes his job so much that he can't think of anything to gripe about. Most folks I've met, though, usually have one or two suggestions for things they'd like to see improved.

Sure, for two hundred bucks I'll put a hot dog in it!

Funny stuff! Thanks. Was curious how it came to be and here's some background. Apparently, the process begins with the President's own speechwriters, in particular a chap from your alma mater named David Litt. President Barack Obama meets with Cody Keenan, right, Director of Speechwriting, and Presidential Speechwriter David Litt in the Oval Office, April 30, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Very nice summary, Suckrates. I missed the interview but now feel I haven't. Thanks.

Try this. If that doesn't work, try this. Or this. Or maybe this.

Once again, I think you've given me credit where none is due. I liked the lines when I read them, and knew nothing about the man who wrote them. Now, freshly informed, I'll stick with him as a parfait example of your many fine qualities. Walpole apparently intended the 'inspired idiot' soubriquet to reflect Goldsmith's exemplary literary work as well as his dissolute lifestyle. I expect your Tales from The Web alone would turn him green with envy. And any residual umbrage you've taken I hope will be returned in a plain brown wrapper as Samuel Johnson wrote Goldsmith's epitaph and called him a man "who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, and touched nothing that he did not adorn. Of all the passions, whether smiles were to move or tears, a powerful yet gentle master. In genius, vivid, versatile, sublime. In style, clear, elevated, elegant." If Oliver Goldsmith were posting here today, I bet I'd have to keep checking avatars to tell you two apart.