The "What Are You Thinking About Right Now?" PIP

[elfstone]

Good riddance!

 

[Prettyphile]

20 years together ❤️

[Matt!]

 

20 years together ❤️

Congratulations team Pretty! 

[Enrico_sw]

 

20 years together ❤️

 

That's awesome, friend

 

Congrats and I wish you to spend many more decades together.

 

[Stromboli1]

 

20 years together ❤️

 

[Matt!]

 

Money well spent 

[frenchkiki]

 

20 years together ❤️

[Matt!]

 

[Enrico_sw]

^X Gender Passport

 

The USA is becoming a giant meme country. Real news is funnier than the Babylon Bee

[Enrico_sw]

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

 

[Matt!]

 

^X Gender Passport

 

 

That's just Biden trying to secure the LGBTQ community votes.

 

[Enrico_sw]

^ I guess he's not trying to secure rational people's votes.

 

BTW, what does "LGBTQ community" mean? There should be one community: the people. That's how rational countries used to see their people: united, not divided.

 

Also, what's the sense of aggregating gay people and transsexual people in the same group? Andrew Doyle (aka the wonderful Titania) is gay, but he's not part of this community (and he's one of its best critics).

 

Anyway...

 

[frenchkiki]

 

^ I guess he's not trying to secure rational people's votes.

 

BTW, what does "LGBTQ community" mean? There should be one community: the people. That's how rational countries used to see their people: united, not divided.

 

 

 

L pour lesbienne, G pour gay, B pour bisexuel, T pour transgenre et Q pour "Queer"

I am the B and also the + But I am part of any community.

[Cult Icon]

In the US, the term "community" is used to describe various groups:

 

gay community

black, asian-american, and latino community

 

It goes without saying that over here (NY/NYC/NJ, a more multi-racial region) that racial groups tend to self-segregate on their own from an early age.  My entire schooling had a certain racism: the races self-segregated into groups of friends, relationships, clubs, and even fraternites. Race mixing happened but most minorities self-segregated into their own cliques.  Also there are towns, parts of cities where various races cluster together.

 

The current US obsession with race, gender, and sexual orientation IMHO is annoying but can be good if it breaks up the self-segregation and generates more a community of different races being friends and working together.  Things are somewhat different with zoomers.

[Matt!]

 

👻

[Matt!]

 

[Matt!]

[Matt!]

https://www.10best.com/interests/festivals-events/10-fun-facts-you-didnt-know-about-halloween/

 

Halloween is a celebration of all things spooky, and in the United States, it's surrounded by a few odd traditions like trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving. Here are a few interesting facts about how some of today's practices got started as well as other fun tidbits about the unique holiday.

1. "Jack o'lantern" comes from the Irish legend of Stingy Jack

 

Legend has it that Stingy Jack invited the devil to have a drink with him, but Jack didn't want to pay for the drink, so he convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin. Instead of buying the drink, he pocketed the coin and kept it close to a silver cross in his house, preventing the devil from taking shape again.

He promised to let the devil go as long as he would leave Jack alone for a year – and that if Jack died, the devil wouldn't claim his soul.

After a year, Jack tricked the devil again to leave him alone and not claim his soul. When Jack died, God didn't want such a conniving person in heaven and the devil, true to his word, would not allow him into hell.

Jack was sent off into the night with only a burning coal to light his path. He placed the coal inside a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the earth ever since.

People in Ireland and Scotland began creating their own creations of Jack's lanterns out of turnips, beets and potatoes. The tradition traveled to the United States along with the immigrants and people began to use pumpkins, native to North America, for the lanterns instead.

2. Candy corn was originally called Chicken Feed

 

Though many would argue that candy corn tastes like chicken feed, that's not how it got its original name. Created in the 1880s by George Renninger, it was sold to the masses by Goelitz Confectionery Company (now Jelly Belly Co.) at the turn of the century.

Because corn is what was used to feed chickens, the creation was called "Chicken Feed" and the box was marked with a colorful rooster.

3. Trick-or-treating comes from "souling"

 

Having children dress up in costumes and go door-to-door like little beggars demanding treats is kind of weird. Like several other Halloween activities, the tradition can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the rituals of Samhain.

It was believed that phantoms walked the earth on the night of Samhain, so people would dress up in costumes in an effort to repel the spirits.

As the Catholic Church started supplanting pagan festivals with their own holidays (like All Souls' Day), the act of souling became popular, and poor children and adults would go door-to-door dressed as spirits accepting food in exchange for prayers.

4. The most lit jack o'lanterns on display is 30,581

 

According to Guinness World Records, the highest number of lit jack o'lanterns on display is 30,581 by the City of Keene, New Hampshire in 2013. Keene, represented by Let it Shine, has broken the record 8 times over since the original attempt. That's a whole lot of pumpkins!

5. Halloween folklore is full of fortune-telling and magic

 

Old English folklore about Halloween is full of superstition and fortune-telling that still lingers today, like bobbing for apples or avoiding black cats. One piece of folklore says that if a young unmarried person walks down the stairs backwards at midnight while holding a mirror, the face that appears in the mirror will be their next lover.

6. Day of the Dead should really be called Days of the Dead

 

The Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, takes place October 31 through November 2 in Mexico and a few other Hispanic countries. November 1st, Dia de los Inocentes, honors children that died, and family members decorate graves with baby's breath and white orchids. On November 2nd, Dia de los Muertos, families honor adults who have died and place orange marigolds on grave sites.

The original Aztec celebration actually lasted a month long, but when Spanish conquistadors came over to Mexico in the 16th century, they merged the festival with the Catholic All Saints' Day. Today's celebration is a mix of both Aztec rituals of skulls, altars to the dead and food with Catholic masses and prayers.

7. Michael Myers' mask is actually a William Shatner mask

 

The classic 1978 horror film "Halloween" can be easily recognized in just one image: the psychotic Michael Myers in his iconic pale-faced mask. Without a doubt, it's one chilling look that has struck terror into the hearts of partying teens in slasher flicks.

The movie was actually filmed on such a tight budget that the crew used the cheapest mask they could find: a $2 Star Trek Captain James Kirk mask. They spray painted it white and reshaped the eye holes, making William Shatner look incredibly creepy.

8. Halloween originated from an ancient Celtic festival

 

According to History.com, the Halloween we know today can trace its roots back to the ancient Celtic end-of-harvest festival of Samhain. During Samhain, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off evil spirits.

In the eighth century, in an effort to spread Christianity, Pope Gregory III decreed November 1 as All Saints' Day and incorporated some of the rituals of Samhain. All Saints' Day was also called All Hallows and the night before, when the traditional Samhain festival used to take place in Celtic regions, was called All Hallows' Eve.

9. Des Moines has a hilarious tradition called Beggars' Night

 

The night before Halloween, young children in Des Moines hit the streets for Beggars' Night. According to an article in the Des Moines Register, the event began around 1938 as a way to prevent vandalism and give younger children a safer way to enjoy Halloween.

Beggars' Night is very similar to regular trick-or-treating, except kids are required to tell a joke, poem or perform a "trick" for a treat. The best part? The jokes are notoriously groan-worthy like, "If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?"

"Pilgrims." Get your best dad jokes ready!

10. The White House is haunted

 

The United States' most famous address has had several reports of ghostly appearances and eerie sounds – and that's not even including election years! The most common ghost sighting is of Abraham Lincoln who has been spotted by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Sir Winston Churchill. Other paranormal guests include Andrew Jackson, David Burns and Abigail Adams.

[frenchkiki]

 

In the US, the term "community" is used to describe various groups:

 

gay community

black, asian-american, and latino community

 

It goes without saying that over here (NY/NYC/NJ, a more multi-racial region) that racial groups tend to self-segregate on their own from an early age.  My entire schooling had a certain racism: the races self-segregated into groups of friends, relationships, clubs, and even fraternites. Race mixing happened but most minorities self-segregated into their own cliques.  Also there are towns, parts of cities where various races cluster together.

 

The current US obsession with race, gender, and sexual orientation IMHO is annoying but can be good if it breaks up the self-segregation and generates more a community of different races being friends and working together.  Things are somewhat different with zoomers.

As I said, I am a white bisexual woman and I belong to none of these categories & I'll kill myself if I had to hang out with only white bisexual women 

And I will never understand this obsession about "race" in the US. There are NO different races among humans. We are not horses or dogs.

The white race doesn't exist. The black race doesn't exist. All the "races colors" between white and black, they do not exist.

 

 

[Enrico_sw]

 

L pour lesbienne, G pour gay, B pour bisexuel, T pour transgenre et Q pour "Queer"

I am the B and also the + But I am part of any community.

 

OK, je comprends. C'est donc encore un truc bien débile qui nous vient d'amérique du nord... C'est quoi le rapport entre tous ces gens et pourquoi devraient-ils former une "communauté" ?

 

See, that's what so good with France: you can have whatever sexual orientation you want, you're free to do so, but that's your own business. There's no such thing as "communities".

 

Communities tear us apart.