Gal Pal Email sweet 16

Gal Pal Email sweet 16 Edition
80's Flashback

Quote of the Week:
This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning god, have patience and indulgence toward the people. Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem....-Walt Whitman

Ebonics Lesson of the Week:
(Flashback, meaning only old black folk uses this jive) Cleaner than the board of health- means u are stylishly dressed...you never know, this phrase may make a comeback...Discussion of the week:Some of us have grown up on films that have nurtured and challenged us. There are several classics; I probably have seen them all multiple times. If you have not seen a film starring Molly Ringwald, you have not truly experienced the 80's. Here is a summary:John Hughes' Sixteen Candles is probably the best teen film ever made. To some people, this may not sound like much of an accomplishment, since most of the films in the teen genre do not attempt to cater to the most intellectual crowd around. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that teens aren't smart, but most of the films made for them are anything but smart, and they don't really offer anything to their audience except for some mindless entertainment. There are some films, however, targeted primarily at teens that are both funny and clever. Films like Heathers, The Breakfast Club, and Clueless have become classic films, able to be entertaining to more than just a teen audience. Hughes' Sixteen Candles is in the same class as these movies, only even worthier of praise. Part of what makes Sixteen Candles work is the fact that the film's protagonist is a very believable character. Samantha Baker is an awkward, moody teenager, who has a love/hate relationship with her family and is in love with a boy who seems completely unattainable. This realistic portrayal of adolescence sets the film apart from many others in its genre because Samantha is nothing like the one-dimensional teen characters found in many films. The way Hughes portrays adolescence makes it easy for the audience to relate to Samantha's plight. Just about all of us have been embarrassed by our parents at one time or another, after all. And who out there, no matter how old you are, hasn't had a helpless crush on the "perfect" boy or girl? I write to you all about this because there are lessons that we learn as a teenager that I think as we enter college and post collegic experiences we forget those things. The innocence that was once there is gone, but let us not forget the lessons. I have a host of interns that flock to my office. They are all in high school. Their biggest worries the past couple of weeks were prom, gas for their parents' car, and the issues we are still contend with, being accepted and finding love. Many of us have found love. Some of us have found and lost love. Some of us have had love come and it left. I feel that for some of us, and perhaps our friends, have lost the ability to bounce back after the rumble or encounter with love. Life is not just seamless; there are rips and tears that need to be repaired often. Sixteen Candles is a reminder that as we hold onto the memories of our youth, let us also remember the lessons.

Mama's Korner:
This week just a saying:"Patty Jr., you cannot help other people with their sh*t if your sh*t ain't together."This is true. My mom is wise. My dysfunctional (yet funny sometimes) life:(A new section where gal pals voice their answers to random questions.)

Ali Brown feature:"I Blame Daddy" by Ali Brown
People think I'm neurotic, but those people haven't met my dad. I come up with really absurd explanations for things, but it's not me, I'm normal. I grew up with the king of conspiracy theories -- the man who designed a way for bush to plant weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as an excuse for us to go to war. And one day I got caught drawing house plans in my economics of law class, but I grew up with the man who draws houses on napkins at restaurants when he gets ideas so it seemed normal enough to me. My dad can "see" the fancy gardens and forest behind our house, which does not exist, because he wants it there. It's my mom who remembered that we didn't have a back porch and we'd need one before my high school graduation party.The real kicker though is that my dad is the only father in the country who wants his daughter to have sex. I still haven't solved this mystery (or had sex), but it's been fun talking to my dad about it. It disturbs men though. Here is a young attractive girl with a million physical boundaries (other then big giant hugs) who can talk openly about sexuality and male preferences in bed. Applying philosophy here, because ok maybe I am neurotic, it's all about qualia -- a test to see if you can know everything about something you've never done. Normally it's done with "seeing red" but I'm on a mission to see if i can find out everything about sex before I have it and learn something from the experience (obviously i don't really know what it's like, but am I imagining it right). Admittedly a bit strange...but I am the daughter of an engineer who goes overboard analyzing other problems. I'm just solving the mystery of what men really want (my conspiracy theory here: two things, lesbians and blow jobs). Someday when I'm a world-renowned sexual philosopher and a spy (because I correctly predict conspiracies) you can say you knew me when ;)

Shout outs:
Ebun for getting an award at the Denman Research Forum
Irini on her financial boot camp...programming is hard work
Ali B. for always looking out for baby Pete, and that is very hard
Everyone have a blessed week!!

Live Love and LaughPatty Jr