Pamie -

Our wishlist had sat dormant for so long that it was sorely in need of attention. Thank you for waking it up! Since your launch of the 2004 pamie.com Book Drive, we have been the fortunate recipients of 32 new books which we have added to our children and young adult collections. I have just put additional items on our wishlist and refined the "Unique Facts" section to better reflect this library's importance to our growing community of young families. Many families who use our library were victims of October's devastating fires mentioned on your website. These families came to the library to find information on rebuilding their lives. They came to find books to read to their children - to calm them when they were upset by what was going on around them, to comfort them with their favorite books that had been lost in the fire. They came to find a quiet place to sit and reflect. We have an amazing community that loves their library. Our story times are well attended, and this year's Summer Reading Program is off to a great start. And now this overwhelming response to your book drive from people all around the country - ain't life grand?

Barbara Sutton
Youth Services Librarian
San Diego County Library
Rancho San Diego Branch
11555 Via Rancho San Diego
El Cajon, CA 92019

Thanks so much to all of your readers who have donated!! I'm Sylvia Wolfe, a children's librarian at Vista branch of the San Diego County Library. Yesterday we got 4 boxes of books from your readers and today one more!! This is great!

I was so surprised when I got to work this morning and opened my email to find a message from Betty Waznis of our Aquisition Department. She forwarded messages from your customers who had purchased books from our Amazon Wish List. I have to confess that the email had me in tears. As I stood at my computer and read of their generousity and comments, I was filled with such love and hope for our small branch and community. My husband and three children have lived in Campo since 1980, and my grandmother homesteaded here in 1929. My father, who is a young 86, is so excited that the small town where he grew up is finally getting a new library, more than four times its current size. Our local Friends of the Library have worked so hard for many years to see the new library become a reality and we can't wait to move into a larger facility. One of our concerns, with such a small book budget, not to mention cutbacks everywhere, is how we could afford to get the books we needed to increase the collection. Your generous readers bring me such hope and faith that this will happen. Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful program, and please thank your readers for their generous gifts of books and loving thoughts for our little branch.

Respectfully,

Vickie Mulrean
San Diego County Library
Campo-Morena Village Branch Op. Manager

You guys, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to do it. But I did. I killed Brando.

I killed him badder than you think. For you see, in the conversation I had with Tracie yesterday that was universally embraced as the best blog entry of its time, we spoke of Brando, but we spoke of him quickly. An introductory, off-hand comment about his recently-discovered poverty. A rhyming couplet in a musical about the life of AYN RAND.

But, in the interest of time, I left out the whole section of the convo in which Brando was totally holed up in Encino using his Oscar as a weapon to beat back creditors. How he hurled angry comments at his tiny black-and-white TV when he didn't agree with the guests on Ricki Lake. How section eight housing was becoming too pricey and so he had to go on food stamps and subsisted on a diet entirely comprised of government-subsidized cheese. About how other destitute and/or crazy Hollywood stars were always trying to take advantage of his dementia, and how they would often break into his place to steal some of his government-subsidized cheese. MC Hammer took some cheese. The kid who played Cousin Oliver took some cheese. Sharon Stone took some cheese, and, for good measure, also his Oscar, and since then she's been spotted running around the streets of Van Nuys wearing a dress made entirely of government-subsidized cheese, going door to door and delivering a deranged acceptance speech for best actress in The Mighty. Tracie noted she might have scratched out Brando's name with a car key, and I might have noted that she smeared her own name over it. In government-subsidized cheese. Oh, the folly of life.

I know this is in bad taste. A MAN IS DEAD, PEOPLE. But really, I just had to apologize. I killed Brando. I have a legend's blood on my hands.

Tracie: poor Brando.
Dan: can you believe?
Tracie: i know you're busy, but i had to tell you that i just finished the fametracker blue moons piece about demi moore, and that it almost made me pee my pants.
Dan: that thing almost killed me.
Tracie: jolt cola. man.
Dan: they're very clever.
Tracie: and now i'm reading your SFU recap.
Dan: the first recap of the season that didn't suck?
Tracie: oh, stop that.
Dan: okay. last night, i totally got all drunk and self-righteous about monica's awesomeness. it wasn't pretty.
Tracie: you DID?
Tracie: did you guys go out after the movie?
Dan: in fact, yes. aimee mann announced a free concert in this little park in tribeca, so we went in for it.
Tracie: who?
Dan: like, everyone we know. we've been moving in packs lately. it's like we've regressed to the period after we graduated from college and we're all, "i don't know where to go without my entire a cappella group accompanying me."
Tracie: i'm sad that i identify as much as i do with that reference.
Dan: so we had a picnic and sat outside and it was lovely.
Tracie: and then, things are about to go terribly wrong.
Dan: but THEN, everyone went home except for me, miranda, and heather. and we found this bar that had six dollar pitchers of bud ice. because we are first-class, all the way.
Tracie: did they listen sympathetically?
Dan: if they didn't at first, they did after i told them for the fourteenth time how awesome we are.
Dan: though i might have been slurring.
Tracie: are you excited for the meeting?
Dan: i've been watching pre-game coverage all day. sure. i guess i'm "excited."
Tracie: did you get any premonitions about what was going to happen with the show?
Dan: premonitions? who am i, the great dan-dini, broadway soothsayer?
Tracie: let me look at your horoscope.
Dan: i shall plan my life around it accordingly.
Tracie: okay, Aquarius: You will be able to think quite clearly today. Do the best you can with what you have to work with. Do your own thing and let people do theirs. Don't dwell on other people's dramas. Don't be a cheapskate. Spend a couple of dollars to make your life easier.
Dan: wear shades of blue and mauve.
Tracie: mine is so weird.
Dan: do tell.
Tracie: Despite all your rage, you're still just a rat in a cage. Get out of your box, dear Libra. You will find that influences from other people are apt to cause some serious transformations in your general frame of mind. Let your belief systems become loose and let them morph into other frames of mind. Consider new ways of living. Do things to get out of the streamlined social construction of how you should live your life.
Dan: streamlined social construction?
Dan: is this from a scientology website?
Tracie: why is my horoscope written by ayn rand?
Dan: oh, man. that's funny.
Tracie: "MSN horoscopes...with psychic AYN RAND!"
Tracie: we should make a website.
Tracie: "Horoscopes by AYN RAND."
Tracie: except we'd need an AYN RAND expert.
Dan: nah. we can just read one article online. that's how i become an expert on anything.
Tracie: AYN RAND!
Tracie: i need to type her name in all caps, always. i don't know why.
Tracie: AYN RAND.
Dan: AYN RAND!
Tracie: AYN RAND!
Dan: AYN RAND!
Tracie: AYN RAND was all about homewrecking and making her young married lover's wife believe it was for the cause of objectivism.
Tracie: is that from when AYN RAND was a writer for Passions?
Tracie: yes.
Dan: Pieces: Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Also, wear shades of blue and mauve.
Tracie: Totally.
Dan: Leo: Reason, the conceptual faculty, is the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses. Reason is man's only means of acquiring knowledge. Also, call your mother.
Tracie: Libra: The purpose of art is to concretize the artist’s fundamental view of existence. Unless you have written a dead-end musical about Bill Clinton.
Dan: sagittarius: the progress of a society is dependent on buying Anthem, now in paperback!
Tracie: Leo: Man is a rational being. Except for maybe Ross Perot.
Dan: WHAT?
Dan: AYN RAND has lost it.
Tracie: i know!
Dan: she's gone mad.
Tracie: then everyone will be all like "what is UP with AYN RAND?"
Dan: "have you seen her column? did you see the one where she told all aries that their heads were all made of cauliflower?" what did that mean?
Dan: AYN RAND!
Tracie: AYN RAND!
Tracie: maybe we should write a musical about AYN RAND!
Dan: "I'm With The Rand"
Dan: "marlon brando is hardly fatless / he can't move around, or shrug like atlas."
Tracie: brandon chows on rinds of pork / unlike the hero howard roark
Dan: it's good, but it's not enough like Dreamgirls.
Tracie: heh.
Tracie: and then when everyone is on to the fact that her horoscopes are just plain crazy, she'll start an advice column.
Dan: Dear AYN RAND:
Dan: My husband is always staying late at work. Should I trust that he's there trying to make a better life for us, or should I be concerned about his fidelity? Signed, Confused.
Tracie: dear confused (because no one gets capitals except for AYN RAND!):
Tracie: the only social system that bars physical force from human relationships is laissez-faire capitalism.
Dan: ps. try talking to a member of your clergy.
Dan: pps. religion is mind control.
Tracie: dear AYN RAND: i'm, like, totally in love with this guy, but he has a wife and a kid and another baby on the way. we just got engaged. people are saying i'm a whore. it all feels so right...how can it be wrong?" sincerely, spitney brears.
Dan: dear spitney:
Dan: you fucking whore.
Dan: love, AYN RAND
Dan: ps. subvert the dominant paradigm.
Tracie: She's tough.
Dan: But fair.
Dan: Holy hell, WAIT.
Tracie: Yes?
Dan: from some RAND-y website: "From 1950 until the end of their association in 1968, psychologist Nathaniel Branden was the foremost spokesman for Ayn Rand and her philosophy, Objectivism. Founder of the Nathaniel Branden Institute and the organized Objectivist movement, a prolific and best-selling author, and a brilliant public speaker, Dr. Branden is also known as "the father of the self-esteem movement" in psychology. The following are excerpts from a recent exclusive interview with The Atlas Society's Robert Bidinotto, to appear in The Banner, the newsletter of The Atlas Society."
Dan: and then...
Tracie: yes?
Dan: from the FAQ: Did she like musicals? No, not American ones. She liked 19th century Viennese operettas, but she didn't like musicals in general -- not the American ones.
Tracie: HA! SHE HATES US!!!
Dan: when did AYN RAND start running the o'neill center?
Tracie: heeeee! maybe she funded the whole thing.
Dan: NYMF is mind control!
Tracie: which is why this season's headliner is Vienna Fingers of the 19th Century.
Dan: great play.
Tracie: totally.
Dan: and, WTF:
Dan: "We loved The Untouchables on TV, especially the first two seasons. Then it began to fall apart."
Dan: AYN RAND, culture desk.
Tracie: is that for real?
Dan: Apparently.
Tracie: holy shit.
Tracie: "I remember her talking about Zorro."
Dan: she really WAS nuts.
Tracie: yes. she was all like, "the first season of Laverne and Shirley was pleasing, with the exception of the Fonzie crossover. Though he was a heroic man, it violates all conceptions of reality."
Dan: this discussion has been quite fruitful, consdering how little either of us really knows about AYN RAND.
Tracie: yes, we know nothing, though i have seen a movie and read The Fountainhead, so i feel like a bit of an expert.
Dan: not i. thank you, google.
Tracie: AYN RAND!
Dan: AYN RAND!

Hey Pamie!

Despite my lack of both money and a summer job (I'm a college student), I decided to give two books to the Poway Children's Library. After all, kids' books aren't all that expensive, and I loved Greek and Roman mythology as a child. And then I discovered I still had $5 left from an amazon.com gift certificate I'd forgotten about -- I think it was the good karma I got from donating books. So, I decided to use the extra money to donate another book. Now the library will be receiving:

Myth-O-Mania: Stop That Bull, Theseus!
Myth-O-Mania: Keep a Lid on It, Pandora!
Myth-O-Mania: Nice Shot, Cupid!

Thanks for doing this, Pamie! Our country would be a sad place without libraries.

Casey

Anybody know how to translate?

I'm happy to report that in five days we've made 184 donations.

You guys are awesome. Last year at five days we were only hovering around the hundred mark. At this rate we stand to make an impressive contribution to San Diego's shelves.

Still waiting to turn in your donation? Why? The librarians love you and so do I.

Pamie,

You appear to me to be an open-minded and accepting person, which puzzles me as to why you seem to be such a fan of Christian-bashing. If someone were to try to use your blog as a forum for racial or homosexual slurring, you would put a stop to it immediately. Why, then, do you feel it is okay to print emails (along with your supportive comments) ridiculing people who possess certain religious beliefs?

If you're going to lambast religion, why limit yourself to just Christians? Please, for the sake of fairness, don't hold back from ridiculing Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Buddhists and Jehovah's Witnesses. Don't waste all that anti-Jesus fervor on the Christians alone - there are a wide variety of gods and higher beings on which to heap your disdain.

Part of me is wondering what happened to you to foster all of this Jesus-hate. Where you held down as a small child and forced to watch "Jesus of Nazareth" for hours on end? Did a roving band of Baptists kidnap you and force you to go to Bible camp? Were you traumatized by someone singing "Jesus Loves Me" slightly off-key while standing uncomfortably close to you in an elevator?

It is unacceptable in this day and age to harass someone based on their skin color or their sexual orientation. Common decency demands that we treat each other with respect. Why does this not extend to religious beliefs, as well?

I understand that there are some Christians out there who are ruining it for everybody by spewing messages of hate and discrimination. I take issue with that, as well, and agree with you that it's not right. But please understand that just as all Muslims do not share the beliefs of the 9/11 terrorists, not all Christians are Bible-beating gay-haters preaching fire and brimstone.

I respect your right to make choices regarding your religious beliefs and to share those decisions with us if you desire. What I do not respect, however, is giving a forum to and encouraging the disrespect of Christians simply because their beliefs are different than your own, seem strange to you or perhaps even make you feel uncomfortable.

I enjoy reading your blog, Pamie, but I will stop if I continue to feel hurt, insignificant and/or the object of ridicule because I love God, was a member of the FCA and have a "Jesus fish" on the bumper of my car.

Praying for you,
Veronica

Veronica,

Your intuition is correct. I've had several encounters with Christians, with Southern Baptists in specific, who told me that I was going to burn in hell forever, that my parents were going to burn in hell forever and that I was a horrible, dark soul until I accept Jesus into my life forever. I've had an entire classroom stop lessons, surround me and ask what it feels like to worship Satan, since I don't go to Church. I've had Watchtowers left on my desk, a co-worker tell me that she could see my soul burning when I participated in the office Halloween party, and classmates stuff pamphlets into my locker at school. I've had church groups show up at our house when we moved to a new neighborhood, informing us that it would be in our best interests to choose a church soon "before people began to make conclusions."

Then there are those Christians who feel the need to keep people of the same sex from marrying. The Christian agenda has been pushed into our schools and government, and I know that it can be incredibly intimidating if you don't know there are others who share your beliefs, who feel okay not to believe in the Christian idea of God.

"You're already a good person," an ex-boyfriend once said to me. "Why don't you just be a Christian?"

I don't think you have to be a Christian to be a good person, but there were several times in my life when someone of that faith told me I was dead wrong about that. And as for why my disdain of organized religion seems to have a Christian focus, it's probably because I've never been told by a Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or any other non-Christian that my beliefs were incorrect. Wait. A Pentacostal turned Islamic, after having a long discussion with me about the amount of oppression she has to go through in both religions for being female, then asked me how I was going to feel when my parents were both rotting in hell. That might be the best example of what I've gone through. I try to talk openly and honestly about how I feel, knowing that it is just how I feel and not the law, and I'm met with the same "Burn in Hell, Sinner" answer because at a certain point, it seems people who are religious just to be religious get scared of questions that don't have easy answers.

My father was Catholic, my mom an Atheist, and at thirteen I was allowed to find my own religion. I went to several churches, temples and Vacation Bible Schools. In the end, I couldn't find a single religion that didn't say that I was the weaker sex. I wanted to find a belief system that didn't single out one group as better than another. That's my main problem with religion.

It is my blog, as you pointed out, and if I went through years and years of being told that I was a bad person for who I was, then I can certainly write about it, talk about it, and make fun of my scary past. There are Christians out there who aren't as open-minded as you are, and perhaps I should be more specific about who I'm referring to when I joke about those who take the word of their Lord as reason to hate and judge.

I certainly don't hate those who love God. I don't think that people who believe in such things are delusional, or worthy of ridicule. I do take issue with those who use their religion against me or my friends, who think they're worthy of more rights, better laws, better education, or a better afterlife. I'm sorry you have felt slighted by my comments, but I've never called you out by name. I think it's wrong for public schools to enforce a Christian-only education. All it encourages is a backlash, which I think you're responding to as you're reading it on the blog.

There are Christians and Non-Christians who post on pamie.com, and we've certainly gotten into more than a few religious-centered debates on the site. I am pretty sure that I haven't ever bashed a particular religion, but just as today I bashed Brittany Murphy and her low-rise jeans or myself when I do something particularly lame or geeky, or bad television shows or Renee Zellweger just for having the career I envy, I will continue to make fun of the ridiculous. From the Power Team, to the girl who thought the Jesus Fish came from the car dealer, to my high school banning the Star of David for being "Satanic" -- everything has its silly and stupid points, and nobody's excluded in the name of comedy.

Hope you stick around, but I understand if you don't want to.

-Pam

My pants are all too big. They hang off my hips and give me a basket crotch that is unacceptable. All of my other jeans and pants have been given away over the past two months. I've held onto three pairs, because I need something. They're all very roomy and require the use of the one belt I own.

"Pamie.com," Liz said to me the other week. "You need new jeans."

I had just bought these jeans less than two months ago when everyone was telling me I needed new jeans. "I know," I said. "But what happens if these get too big in six weeks again?"

"You need hot, new jeans for your hot, new ass," she said. "It's time for you to buy hundred dollar jeans."

I have never spent that kind of money on denim. Actually, thinking it over, there is only one item in my closet that cost a hundred dollars and it's the dress I bought for Omar's wedding, which I wore to another wedding this past weekend, as well as the high tea day with Dan a few weeks ago and I think I just wore it one other time just to wear it because I won't be happy until I've worn it one hundred times. The only other item that broke the hundred-dollar mark is the item I'll be wearing when I get married.

So. Hundred dollar jeans? Come on.

But then I started thinking. Maybe I had, in fact, earned the hundred dollar jeans. It was time I gave my ass a thank you for running itself off over the past two years. Perhaps I should treat it for not having to get an assectomy two weeks ago when that doctor was worried that the staph was getting worse. And I wear jeans just about every day. Maybe hundred dollar jeans would last longer, fit better, not get all baggy after the second wearing. Maybe hundred dollar jeans wouldn't have that damn fading under the ass cheeks that every single pair of jeans have. Maybe they wouldn't look slightly acid washed. Maybe I'd find out what people are talking about when they say "Paper Denim and Cloth."

Liz loves her hundred dollar jeans, so she took me to the store in Beverly Hills where she bought them.

On the table when you walk in are about thirty pairs of jeans. Each one boasts a sticker price of at least $125. Here are the sizes: 25. 26. 27. And 28.

At first you think, "Okay. My waist is that small. No problem." Then you pick up the hundred dollar jean and see that the jean is so low-rise that it's just about going to clear the pubes. This means that the number now doesn't refer to your waist, but your hips.

YOUR HIPS.

"Ugh," says SuperSkinnySalesgirl as she watches me paw through every single pair of jeans, wondering if there's even a possiblity I was going to put my bootyliciousness into a 30. "You know who's a 24? Brittany Murphy."

You know who's not just a single size bigger than Brittany Murphy? NOBODY. Starving people. Children. Saplings. People. A 24-inch hip? What does that make her waist? What does that make her? What is she?

The salesladies are convinced that I'm going to pull off a 30 in a hot way. They put me back there with a 30 and a 31.

Okay. Hundred dollar jeans, for all they cost, are seriously lacking in fabric. These jeans only came halfway up my ass, just clearing the crack, creating in my body what can only be described as a "Roll."

"Oh, my God!" I shouted from inside the dressing room.

"Come out! Come on out! Let us see!"

The one thing I had made clear to Liz is that I hate swarming salesladies. Now I had two, with Liz standing nearby, blushing, covering her mouth with her hand.

"They look soooooo good on you," one said to me.

"You're a liar," I said back.

"No, look. When I first got low-rise jeans? I thought I looked terrible in them too."

"You can see my ass crack."

"Yeah, but you totally get used to it. Those are super cute on you."

I weakly pointed to this new square shape my hips had taken in order to find a place to hang over the 30-inch restriction I'd put on my pelvis. "This is not super cute," I said, trying to hide it with the edge of my shirt.

"Aw, it really does look good on you," she said.

Liz pointed at everything from the top of the jeans down. "This all looks really good on you."

Crackheads. My ass was stuffed into a flat surface. And my ass? It likes to be free. It's round and full and damn right, it's better than y'all's.

"I'm taking these off," I said. I tried to sound normal, but the truth was I was humiliated. Two years of work down the drain. I tried to be another LA Woman, and here it was reminding me: "You are normal. Go back to the Gap, honey."

"No, wait. Come look in the big mirror! You have to see how good you look."

I was now in a full sweat, terrified, mortified, and seeing red. Other people could now see me in these jeans, these too-small jeans that would fall to the ankles of Brittany Murphy. I looked like every fashion don't there was, and all I could think was, "I can't believe I ever thought I was hot."

"I look ridiculous," I said.

"No, you really just have to get used to it," that woman insisted.

I was flushed and sweating, covering my face.

I was infuriated with these jeans and these salesladies and this notion of what kind of body is supposed to wear these jeans. I was mad at myself for being so embarrassed. I was mad at myself for thinking I was skinny, when clearly skinny is Brittany Murphy, and I am the opposite of Brittany Murphy. I tried to remember good I looked when I wasn't wearing the jeans. I tried to remember how I'm buying clothes in sizes smaller than I wore in high school. I tried to remember all of that, but the blood wasn't going to my brain because it was all trapped around my ass crack.

"Please let me go change," I asked quietly. My ass was literally getting sore. My abscess was as angry as I was.

"Oh," the woman cooed, like she was finally getting it. "You're not from L.A., are you? Where are you from?"

Now Liz jumped into action, grabbing my arm. "Come on, pamie.com."

"Where are you from?" she asked again, head to the side, treating me like the clueless tourist I must be. "Are you from the midwest?"

"I'm outta here."

I took the pants off and we left the store. Liz has apologized over three hundred times since. I haven't found a pair of jeans that isn't Super Low Rise, by the way. My favorite pair right now is from American Eagle, and when I went back there, they were only selling shorts and skirts for the summer.

"You just have a tall ass," Liz concluded.

"How is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"You're just not a Super Low Rise girl."

"How wonderful to find out that I don't need to spend a hundred dollars on jeans. I can go back to twenty-five bucks."

"Please don't hate me."

"I don't hate you. I hate the current state of fashion."

I have to tell you the best part. The perfect punchline. The name of the store?

Curve.

Hello, Pam. One of our littlest rural branches just got their wishlist up. I hope it is not too late to mention them or add their link. They are pretty poor. It is the Campo Branch.

Once again, thanks so much to you and to everyone. This is one of the most exciting things that has ever happened around here.

Betty Waznis
San Diego County Library

The Campo-Morena Village Branch of the San Diego County Library System is the smallest branch in California. The library is currently 490 sq. ft. and we're waiting for a new library to be built with completion around October 2005. As we are a rural community that services a community of approximately 6,500, we are in need of books featuring farm animal care and gardening/landscaping materials. Thank you for your interests in our community.

Over at the book drive blog.

Hi Pamie-

I've never emailed you before. I swear I'm a normal, non-stalking person. But your blog entry today was such a perfect description of my high school experience, I had to write.

I try to describe teenaged life in Glendale, AZ to people here in my nice, liberal, adopted city, but they won't believe me.

But did we have the soda machines? Yes, yes we did. I anticipated my first year of high school by perfecting a "soda can" pose for while I took notes while simultaneously sipping on my Sprite. I imagined that this made me sophisticated and not unlike a college student. Marketing executives, take note; I was a one-girl focus group.

We had the rule about no fund-raisers except for candy sales. And the teachers had a rule about no candy purchases except during the first TEN MINUTES of each class. Those hardasses!

We didn't have the Power Team, but we did have the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. They got school funding to hold meetings and pray for various causes, including the unborn and for the "reformation" of homosexuals. They had a special prayer vigil for the Model U.N. club, because we were assigned to represent the U.S.S.R. (oooooh, now I'm totally carbon-dating myself. It sure was the 80's). We had the horrifying "Cruisin' Without Boozin'" assembly series, featuring a "cool dude" in a wheelchair who relived the horrible drunk-driving accident that left him unable to walk.

My Advanced Placement Biology teacher, a born-again Christian, assigned us as a class project to debate creationism vs. evolution, and creationism WON.

There is so much more to shudder about. Really, a lot more. Now that I'm out in the world, I meet people who went to high schools where they protested the Iraq war. Once, supervising a field trip for high school students, I overheard one student call another, "Fag!" only to be met with an immediate and angry response from several of his classmates. I am in wonder of these young people and sometimes feel like I got a bum deal. Yet I turned out fine with a good career in a lefty field surrounded by like-minded people who didn't share their parents' politics. And I have you to remind me of the absurdity of it all. Thanks, Pamie!

Carrie
Seattle


Carrie,

I meant to mention the FCA on that entry, too. I always thought it was absolutely crazy how much church and school were allowed to combine, but I got sent home one day for wearing a peace sign. No kidding, it was against the dress code, as was the Star of David. You were only allowed to wear a Christian cross.

I didn't realize how much we were the targets of corporate branding until after I got out of school. My elementary school was sponsored by DR. PEPPER. That was the one field trip of the year.

And the scholarship I got in college by busting my ass and raising scholarship money for UT? Was from Pepsi.

Everybody in Gap,

-p

Time to start feeling proud of yourselves.

Los Feliz 3, the theater where I saw Fahrenheit 9/11, was also playing Super Size Me and The Stepford Wives.

Might as well have renamed the place "Houston Blows."

People couldn't believe I went to a high school where vending machines were installed next to the gym, Cokes were allowed in the classroom, and the only fundraising allowed in school was candy sales. Gym wasn't mandatory, particularly if you were an honor student, and our school was nestled between a Sonic and a Dairy Queen.

Military recruiters would sit at tables in our lunchroom, asking us what our plans were after school. They'd give away t-shirts while promising futures of world travel and a free ride through schools our parents couldn't dream of affording.

Absolutely nobody believes me when I tell them about The Power Team, the crazy pumped-up athletes who would break boards and ice for Jesus. They would come to our school and we'd be trapped in the auditorium, watching them pump and yell for Jesus. "POWER TIME!!!!" Then they'd sign you up for Jesus.

Why is a Power Team school assembly effective?
It's hard for a speaker wearing a suit & tie to get most students attention. The Power Team brings a contemporary, relevant approach to get a message into the student's heart. They use feats of strength from their massive size to get kids attention. Some of these feats include: ripping 3 license plates in half, bending an inch of steel in their teeth, pressing 500 lbs. Over their heads, and exploding three 2 x 4's with a flex of their chest.

Seriously. And then I had a calculus test.

Finally there are films that illustrate what my high school experience was like. My friends have a whole new sympathy for me.

We've almost hit the hundred mark on book donations. Thanks for being patient during this weird email thing. If you sent me mail since Saturday, please resend.

And a huge thank you to everybody who has helped so far, from donations to links on your own websites. The word is spreading faster than you can say "staph."

The surgeon said to me today, "You're looking really good. Keep doing what you're doing and I'll see you in two weeks, and you should be completely healed. There's literally almost nothing you can do to screw this up now."

note the "almost."

I can't send or receive email until further notice, and if you sent me something since Saturday it's gone into some kind of email ether, so please report donations on this comments thread and I'll keep updating them over here.

They're working on the problem, and hopefully things will be back to normal soon. Thanks for being patient with me.

EDITED TO ADD: I think the email might be working again, but just to be on the safe side, post your donation here after you resend the email. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have found all of them, one way or another.

My mail server stopped delivering mail somewhere around the evening of the 26th. If you sent me notification that you donated books, I haven't received it yet.

I've contacted my web hosting company and hopefully all of that mail will arrive at some point. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, feel free to mention the donations here.