i got bored with my ASSignment, so i bundled up in my warmest clothes (earmuffs and all) and went for a walk for a little while... omigod! why are there so many shooting stars out tonight???? i mean, there are way less city lights up here than in toronto, but this is not a normal sky... is there something i'm missing? does this happen EVERY day at 5am? (i'm not usually outside at 5am, so it's a possiblilty) is the world ending? am i just tripping out? why are their so many shooting stars? it's SO BEAUTIFUL!

No, this is the time of the Leonid meteor shower. It happens every year around November 17. There's also another yearly meteor shower in the middle of August (don't know it's fancy name). Breathtaking, no?

the one in august is called the perseid shower. I meant to go out to the columbia gorge wednesday night and watch for shooting stars but I ended up going out drinking last night. just like tuesday night. just like last night. just like tonight and tomorrow night too. after that, I think I better take it easy for a while. and no more fried ravioli!

i tried to look for them the other night, but no such luck. ther was a marine layer over the city and the clearest view was had by looking straight up and that was polluted with light....

It's been raining. I wanted to see the shower too. My friend David, over in Boston, went somewhere in the counrtyside and got a really good view of it--he's been making me envious ever since.

Oooh! Thanks for telling me. Lather has a great telescope. I think I'm going to have to make him take me stargazing again.

Actually I think last night was the last night you could see them. Or maybe not. I know they're supposed to last 3 days...but it's still fun looking at the sky, especially with a good telescope. Plus the moon's out, so you'll get a nice view of that. Have you ever noticed how you can stare at the moon for hours and you never get tired?

There used to be a story in Archie Comics about Archie trying desperately to get to see hailey's comet (I think) and every day it was supposed to be around he'd get screwed up somehow or other and miss it. Poor little guy. One of the reasons he missed it is because he was making out with Betty. I remember that.

And having Veronica on the side.

A telescope is no good for viewing meteor showers anyway. The field of view is way too tight. Meteors are a naked-eye thing.

telescopes are great for meteor showers. when you get sick of watching falling stars, then you can look for planets and stars and nebulae.

the depth of field of most telescopes is way too deep, it's not wide enough....but hey if you see meteor showers through it.....more powere to ya

I meant they're great to bring along if you're going out to a dark-sky location to watch falling stars. while you're out there, in the dark, looking up, you might as well have a telescope with you to look at other stuff.

if swine is the voice of reason, then cyst is the voice of practicality. You know what i mean.

I totally agree with you Cyst. I thought it was a great idea. In fact, when going out to dark sky sites to use the telescope I've seen some of the best meteors. Since only one person at a time can look through the telescope, and I'm always looking up at stuff while others are looking through the scope, I've seen alot of em that way. I just never thought of turning it around and bringing out the telescope on a meteor shower night. BTW, there are several other showers besides the Leonids and Perseids. The next one is the Geminids meteor shower, which peaks on December 14th.

but so cold. when I'm in the states during the summer, I go out to the mountains in central oregon to stargaze through other people's fancy telescopes. and I always freeze my ass off, even in august. a brilliant entrepreneur sets up a red-light latte trailer at the annual oregon star party.

Sorry to ruin this colum with perversion but my star's about ready to shoot I can't wait for tomarrow what am I saying later today! I'm such a nympho. Sex is great sex is grand put this dick inside your hand-and stroke it at a medium pace. Squirting loads all on your face cause it's the Milky Way and what a good day it is.

Dave, did you see any?

a couple. maybe 20. i heard it was best just after 2am local. the fog had everything obscured by 1:30. i promised cleo i'd wake her up but it never really got going good enough to drag her out of bed on a cold night. i saw 1 really good one just after midnight. probably covered 45 or 50 degree arc of sky. exciting and disappointing.

just like turkish delight!

I'm glad you saw them. I saw about that many, too. I woke up at 5 and went out onto my balcony -- that gave me a view of the eastern horizon but not much overhead sky. I saw about 1 per minute. I was disappointed that the tails weren't lasting that long. When I saw the Perseids while I was in the Nevada desert about 8 years ago, the tails had seemed to last for a couple seconds. It was still a cool experience, though.

Cameron saw one which left behind a greenish nimbus. Viewing conditions on 9 mile hill, near Albuquerque, are damned near perfect.

It was overcast, which made me very sad.

turkish delight is sort of gross. it's rose flavored. saturday night I went to a bar in an old passenger train box car. I watched "rocky" on tv and was confused by the ending. did apollo creed win? how could the movie be a classic if the italian stallion lost?

It was cloudly overcast and a little rainy here in StLouis so I missed the little trailing flaming pieces of rock, but in talking with my buddie from Florida, she tells me they were B-E-A-uti_ful from the beach. Should have been a great view from the ridgetop here except for the clouds and rain.

Because he survived in the ring with Apollo... The first one was just a setup for the rest of them.

wow. rocky lost. in the second one, he wins, loses, wins, right? that's the kind of narrative trajectory I can understand.

i think that the fact that rocky lost in the first one is supposed to be what makes it a classic. when stallone wrote the first one, it was based on a true story: a two-bit prizefighter groomed for an easy win for whoever was the champ at the time, and he gives him a run for his money; but loses. i think that if rocky won, it would've changed the story into a fairy tale. kills the drama and poignancy of the striving and running up stairs to the "rocky" theme and punching meat. hey, if winston smith didn't end up loving big brother, would that book be a classic? the subsequent narrative trajectory was: the first one made a buttload of money, let's make another one and make another buttload of money.

the fact that he lost, seems, to me, an obvious ploy to lead into a part 2, 3, 4, 5. have i lived here to long? this morning, i went out for a smoke to a grandstand of tourists and a jousting match on the blvd.....some rigamoral for the new martin lawrence flick..then sir "maut enn" showed up thanking god and so forth for the chance to put his hands and feet in the sidewalk. schmuck

oooh ahhhh... People suck.

Fog fog fog. No meteors for me. So I sat with some of the crew in the hotel and drank. I sat across from the woman on the crew I am attracted to and tried to be cool, I did buy everyone a round. but that's another thread.

no meteors for me. i forgot. we made angry sam a birthday dinner. he practically passed out in the potato and leek soup. nico went beserk and put that Food and Wine mag that comes in the mail to use. She made stuffed tomatos, the aforementioned soup, herb crusted bread, filet with orange marmalade, butterscotch pudding with "chocolate Pollocks". heebeegeebee we ate well. I stayed up late getting drunk till three ish watching Eyes Wide Shut.

stuffed tomatoes- brrrrrr. i was confused when rocky lost, too, but it makes sense to me now. i saw about ten meteors, they were pretty cool, but i don't think i saw any of the really good ones.

"brrrrrrr" is that a sign of a wetting-appetite or a shiver of disgust? i didnt think id like em, but she stuffed them with a mix of baguette, romain lettuce, sweet sausage, and basil...then baked. They were actually outta of sight. It was one of those dinners....a rare treat...that you kind of get a buzz from. Everything was made with such a passion...working on it all for nearly 10 hours...using the purest ingrediants. The stocks made with beef instead of bouillon, real whipping cream in the potato soup etc etc. One of those meals your body just kind of hums..."butta" is the best word i can think of. ya know?

That sounds really, really good. God Almighty, am I hungry. I'm learning to appreciate the tomato.

You say tomatoe and I say fuck you....just kidding:)

yeah me too spider. i used to not dig tomatos raw or in any whole or chunky form but im starting to cook with them more...making my own pasta sauces. Ultimately its better for you. Antioxidants are your friend. Also they say there is a significant reduction in colon cancer in Mediterranean/Italian cultures simply because they tend to eat more tomato and tomato based foods. Im all about dong anything i can to avoid cancer butt. Nevermind the prospect of dying...just the thought of having doctors and nurses fiddle around back there is enough.

those tomatoes sound scary. i have big issues with cooked tomatoes, though. the rest of the meal sounds excellent.

I love tomatoes.I had a stuffed onion once,it was good.

whetting appetite. most people have problems with raw, not cooked, tomatoes.

in this instance, the stuffed tomatoes practically melted in your mouth. they added tang to the sweet/spice of the stuffing. i was really surprised. raw tomatoes havign repulsive texture. cooked tomatoes im down with.

my dad used to eat tomatoes like apples. i do too, sometimes. i ok with raw carrots, but for some reason i hate cooked ones. or strongly don't much care for them.

i like raw tomatoes. my friend merc has this theory about vegetables, there are hot vegetables and there are cold vegetables. tomatoes are a cold vegetable, primarily, as is celery. however, they can effectively be made into hot vegetables in the right conditions. she's got a whole list of these. i'll find out what they are and let you all know, so that you can eat your vegetables correctly. before anyone gets snippy on me, I AM KIDDING.

Where's broccoli on that list? I think it's great both raw and cooked. Broccoli r0x. It is the king of the vegetables.

I wish I had a tomatoe and mayo sandwich.I love Tomatoe soup creamed.I like any veggie excpt sweet potoes and some sqash(the ones that taste like pumkins) and pumkins.

i like cream cheese and tomato on a bagel. as a sandwich. my mother got back from italy yesterday. she brought some kind of hot sauce back and gave it to me. it's all in italian, but i recognize the words "bloody mary" on the back label. now there's a good use for a tomato.

persian foods are classified like that too agatha, hot and cold. Its a strange classification...for example...rice is a cold food. They prepare their meals accordingly....appropriate portions of hot and cold foods.

You're all making me hungry.

I am fucking starving. when you spend all day out in the cold, it relly makes you hungry. Like, cramped hunger.

I haven't eaten for two days. But I just had goat cheese, mint and chilli jam on toasted turkish bread and I'm in heaven.

i have a sandwich here. i don't know what it is. the french guy who sold it to me out of the back of his van said "it looks like ham, but it's not pork, it's turkey." written on it's bag it says "ballolin" or "balltolir" or something. tastes like pate. no, not pate, you fool... pate. mushroomy. hm. i'll put this on my list of things i like that patrick wouldn't try. i like to toast a bagel, hit it with cream cheese and sliced tomato and lemon pepper and a short stay under the broiler.

you buy sammich's out the backs of vans often nateo? i could see you as the seller of sammich's out the backs of vans.

I can see him as the guy in the van driving by the preschool and yelling "How much for the little girl?" Wait. I did. Nevermind. Carry on. LS

LS..........comments like that will get you a tomato up your arse.And not meant in an anti-oxident manner. Brussel sprouts,asparagus and artichokes are the master vegetables. And,I too,find it alarming that Nate is procurring foodstuffs from the back of mobile eaterys.I would have thought he would have learned his lesson after the faggot incident.

I only get my food from the sides of mobile eateries. The Burrito Bus' back door is its emergency exit, and I wouldn't want to get in the way of an exiting emergency.

they're good sandwiches. it's a local deli that sells to office people. they have a walk in place too. oo! buzz! sandwhich man here now! bye!

Yez... I too enjoy the local Taco truck from time to time. It's some good shit. Especially when walking home drunk. LS

we call em Roach Coach's here. They have funny horns, serve hot ass taquitos and huevos rancheros early in the morning.