Pastafarian Victory

(via J.M.G.)

"Prankster Lukáš Nový, from Brno in the Czech Republic, claims that his Pastafarian faith means he has to wear the sieve at all times. Officials ruled that turning down Novy's request would be a breach of the country's religious equality laws. Brno City Hall spokesman Pavel Zara explained: 'The application complies with the laws of the Czech Republic where headgear for religious or medical reasons is permitted if it does not hide the face.' Novy claims to be a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (webpage), when emerged in the USA as spoof on organised religion. According to its tongue-in-cheek website their 'only dogma ... is the rejection of dogma'. Members claim to believe that an invisible alien made of spaghetti and meatballs created the universe after 'drinking heavily."

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I love the way Czech bureaucracy handles the prankster!

Saggy Pants Ban

"Mayor Ernest Troiano Jr. thinks he's found a way to put one of this Jersey shore resort town's problems behind it. Wildwood is ready to ban overly saggy pants, no ifs, ands or butts.The city is set to pass a law Wednesday regulating how people dress on its boardwalk. It bans going shirtless, as well as walking on the boardwalk with bare feet.But the provision that has gained widespread attention is a prohibition on pants that sag more than 3 inches below the hips, exposing either skin or underwear. Troiano said Wildwood has been inundated with complaints from tourists upon whose money the popular beach town depends for its survival. "

Read the whole article at Huffington Post - Weird News Saggy Pants Ban Set To Pass In Wildwood, New Jersey

A Purity Ball for My Buddies

I thought I knew everything there was to know about the American lifestyle - but apparently I did not - because when I was driving to work yesterday I heard about something I had never heard of before. The radio was reporting about a Swedish photographer who had an exhibition of photographs taken at "purity balls" in the United States.

According to Wikipedia a "purity ball is a formal dance event attended by fathers and their daughters which promotes virginity until marriage for teenage girls. Typically, daughters who attend make a virginity pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. Fathers who attend promise to protect their young daughters' "purity of mind, body, and soul." Proponents of these events contend that they encourage close and deeply affectionate relationships between fathers and daughters, thereby avoiding the premarital sexual activity that allegedly results when young women seek love through relationships with young men Critics assert that the balls promulgate messages encroaching upon women's freedom, promote anti-feminist ideals, and ignore homosexuality.(...) The girls can range in age from their college years to 4 years old, however the majority of girls are “just old enough… [to] have begun menstruating” as purity ball guidelines advise. (...) Participants are described as "dates", and, according to Glamour magazine, could be mistaken for heterosexual romantic partners in the absence of information about their consanguinity." The first event of this kind took place in Colorado Springs in 1998.

I was totally amazed and baffled when I heard about this newfangled custom. The first thing that struck me was that it was an extremely male chauvinist concept whereby the father seeks to control the sexual drives of the female members of his family. It also gave me a creepy sense of being sligtly incestuos, I am not quite clear on why this happened, but possibly it was because of my feeling that these fathers were meddling with their daughters sexuality.

From what I have seen in the pictures on Google Images the girls at these events are mostly dressed in all white ball gowns, while the fathers are in their tired tuxedos. That made me think about what my male family members and buddies would wear if I threw a purity party for them in SecondLife 

I hope none of the guys take offence, but this is only me making - sometimes - completely uninformed guesses on their love life in SecondLife for a bit of semi-innocent fun. No harm or malice is intended. (If you object please tell me so and I will remove my remark about you.)

Apmel "The Six Year Old Virgin" Goosson

sirhc "The One Woman Man" DeSantis

Dejerrity "One At A Time" Mycron

Butch "Mr. Discretion Personified" Diavolo

Eddi "I Am Never Telling" Haskell

Guyke "It's Great For My Complexion" Lundquist

Kahvy "Boys Just Wanna Have Fun" Sands

Ziggy "The Eternal Bad Boy" Starsmith

Ryse "Mr. Professional Actor" Skytower

"We Didn't Even Get Dessert..."

Yesterday the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, returned back home from the short state visit to the Kingdom of Sweden.

According to the communiqués issued from both nations the visit went well and the peace and friendship treaty between the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment and the Kingdom of Sweden was signed as intended. This blog however, soon after the return of the entourage, picked up on some rumors from the loose-lipped confidants that had accompanied the laird on the trip that perhaps all had not gone as well as the communikqués declared.

As far as it has been possible to establish it seems the laird himself was involved in an unfortunate incident at the closing luncheon arranged by the Swedish hosts. When we approached the laird for some information about what may have occurred he was surprisingly forthcoming. 

"It was that German woman, what's her name---?, the tall one with one too many facelifts...? (Prince Wild whispered discreetly "Queen Silvia") "....ahh yes Silvio, thank you Wild. That woman, the queen, had been badgering me for two days telling me that I "simply had to come" to the wedding this summer of their youngest daughter to some American commoner. Finally I could not take more and snapped at her that I certainly would not attend because I had much more important things to do, I could not be expected to attend every wedding I was invited to. Besides the same weekend as the marriage I was going to a spa for a purifying and purging colonic and after that there was the annual Farmers Market at Southern Charm where I was going to be head judge in "The Mr. Sexy Farmer" contest for the sixth year running. This kind explanation lead to the German woman getting upset and starting to howl and cry like crazy and it was then suggested that I and my delegation better leave the lunch. Well, what does one expect really from the descendants of a French revolutionary from the Napoleonic era? We didn't even get dessert before being thrown out, imagine that! "

Everybody Else...

On "Word Verification"

I have just managed to leave a comment on another blog. It took me seven (7) attempt to get the comment posted because the bloggers had chosen to avert spam-comments by activating "Word Verification" on their blog.

As some of you may know my vision is impaired, by congenital hyperopia and by emerging cataracts, making it almost impossible for me to interpret the blurry images of street numbers and intricately interwoven letters and numbers that must be entered to get a comment published.

After my horrible experience today I have decided that bloggers who choose to activate word verification on their blogs will no longer be worthy of my wisdom or wit.

In my own experience Blogger already recognizes 90-95 % of the spam-comments and the few that slip through are easily removed so I cannot really see any valid reason for activating that silly option.

Wanted...

(Tipped by Brahm at "alfred lives here")

You can generate your own wanted poster at GlassGiant.com

Tell-tale Email Addresses

Please note that this blogger has a gmail-address!