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Yukio
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Username: Yukio

Post Number: 113
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 05:55 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

What do u think of this review?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/books/review/28SKURNIT.html?pagewanted=1
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Yukio
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Post Number: 114
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 05:56 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

damn....i guess u can't use the link w/o an username....
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Bookgirl
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Post Number: 40
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 08:41 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

'The Darkest Child': Song of the South
By LIZZIE SKURNICK

Published: March 28, 2004


In the fall of 1996, Jerry Leath Mills published an essay in The Southern Literary Journal asserting that the sole characteristic linking all Southern literature -- the signifier, in academic parlance -- was a dead mule.

There is no dead mule in ''The Darkest Child,'' the first novel from a Cleveland-based psychiatric nurse named Delores Phillips, but the black coming-of-age novel of the South has its own array of pernicious archetypes. In the story of one Tangy Mae Quinn -- a 13-year-old bookworm at the darker end of her mother's band of multihued offspring -- an entire ragged crew is assembled as if from Deep-Fried Central Casting. Apart from the precocious narrator herself, there's Rozelle, the light-skinned, brutal slattern of a mother; Zadie, the stooped, snuff-chewing midwife; Hambone, the soapbox-ready revolutionary upstart; Junior, the wandering, enigmatic mystic; and assorted white thugs (in mob form and otherwise). Because ''The Darkest Child'' is the story of a young black girl's coming-of-age in adverse circumstances, even the title does not escape a rhythmic nod to its spiritual progenitors, ''The Bluest Eye,'' by Toni Morrison, and ''The Color Purple,'' by Alice Walker.

We first meet Tangy Mae in the late 1950's, on the cusp of the civil rights movement. The great question of the novel is how, as a penniless black girl in backwoods Pakersfield, Ga., strong-minded Tangy Mae can escape the life of prostitution that has swallowed her mother and her older sisters Tarabelle and Mushy, whom Rozelle introduced to the oldest profession. Lying on a pallet on the floor of her shack, rain dripping through the rotted roof into an assortment of tinware, Tangy Mae imagines she's found the solution: a merger with her light-skinned, deaf-mute sister Martha Jean: ''We would blend together, and my thick nose would become thin; my coarse, tangled hair would become silky and straight, and I would have deep dimples in my cheeks,'' Tangy says. ''And, in turn, Martha Jean would be able to hear and speak. We would come rushing from the womb fused together, yelling at the top of our lungs, and no one would know that there were two of us. We would be smart, beautiful, and white, and Mama would love us with all of her heart.''

Such high-flown speech is the rule rather than the exception with Tangy Mae; Phillips is so eager to establish that her narrator, as Junior awkwardly avows, devours knowledge ''like a buzzard on a corpse,'' that Tangy Mae, an otherwise likable character, is forced to wield purple diction to alternately tendentious and semi-humorous effect. Her family's house ''groaned under the weight of celebrations and sorrows and did not crumble,'' Tangy Mae intones magisterially at the start of the novel. Describing Tarabelle as having the eyes of ''a dead poker player,'' Tangy Mae elucidates, ''I had never seen the eyes of a dead person -- in fact, I had never seen a poker game -- but I had heard that poker faces were expressionless, and I knew that dead people showed no emotion.'' Loud exterior knocking at their shack becomes ''an object striking rapidly against wood,'' while her sister Laura's nighttime incontinence means she tends to ''routinely ammoniate'' Tangy Mae. By the time our narrator, in the space of four pages, has put forth both ''loquacious'' and ''chatoyant,'' her internal monologue resembles nothing so much as the notes of a high school junior studying furiously for her SAT's.

This faux-Dickensian prose is at its worst when it should be sharpest: during the scenes of Tangy Mae's family crises. When Martha Jean's boyfriend looks helplessly at her after she has been beaten, Tangy Mae reveals that the ''wretched sob that escaped him echoed my own anguish.'' And after Tarabelle reveals to Tangy Mae that their friendly neighbor, Miss Pearl, is in fact the friendly neighborhood abortionist, Tangy Mae, metaphorically unsavory in the extreme, is appalled that ''people passed, spoke and waved with no idea that innocence had sloughed from my body and lay in a heap at my feet.''

During the scenes that establish the tyrannical hold that Rozelle maintains on her unhappy family, Phillips's prose takes a hard left at ''realism'' and plunges straight toward unintentional satire. ''Something in her tone jarred me and awakened my hibernating foresight,'' Tangy Mae says as Rozelle warms up to a typical act of ferocity. ''I saw . . . Mama dance across the floor at a side angle. . . . The belt snapped, then struck and seemed to wrap around my head like a tourniquet.'' Lost in the image of an antic, asymmetrical Rozelle -- whose belt can somehow crack into a complicated bow -- the reader quite forgets about Tangy Mae and her predicament. A similar disconnect occurs when Rozelle hurls her newborn, Judy, over the porch: ''Mama, staring blankly into space, opened her hand and released Judy,'' Tangy Mae tells us. ''I saw my baby sister sail through the air, flipping and jerking, as she began a descent that took her over the rocky incline and down into the gully.'' One imagines it's difficult to capture eloquently the horrors of a baby being thrown out with the bath water, but that's probably why most first-time authors don't attempt it.

If Tangy Mae's voice smacks of a Dickensian urchin, the voices of those surrounding her stray from a faithful rendering to a parody of Southern speech. In a typical example, Tangy Mae's father, Crow, is incredulous at how little his daughter knows about him. ''Rozelle never tol' you nothing 'bout me. Never tol' you how I used to sit for hours just holding you and looking down at yo' face,'' Crow says. ''It's been some years, but y'all oughta remember me. Who yo' mama got you thinking yo' Daddy is?'' In that long stretch of cutoffs and elisions, why do ''nothing'' and ''looking'' escape the knife -- and why is an ''oughta'' next to the cleanly bared ''used to''? Phillips's awkward renderings of accent and erudition make it difficult to concentrate both on the characters and the story.

What little of it we have not read before, that is. ''With a cup of water, Pakersfield soil can swallow itself and make a puddle,'' Tangy Mae tells us towards the middle of the story. ''During an all-day rain, it swallowed my mother's car.'' Like the hungry mud of Pakersfield, hokey dialogue, settings and characters have swallowed up the clean lines of Phillips's story. These are ruts, not roots. Let's hope that in her next work, Phillips clears her own path.

Lizzie Skurnick is a writer living in Baltimore.

(Just takes a little cut and paste job!)
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Klb
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Post Number: 9
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 08:42 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I kind of agree with this review. There were alot of things in the novel that did not go well. When you write such a disturbing book certain elements have to be fleshed out. For instance, I never really understood what motivated the mother. I can dig the main character having a love of literacy but with all the other things going on it just didn't work-- my mom sold me as a prostitute-but I love to read, live in extreme poverty-but I love to learn, mass chaos and distruction- but I read the Illiad this morning. I just couldn't buy it. I wanted to post on this book so bad before the chat
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Bookgirl
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Post Number: 41
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 08:53 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

What is the reviewer saying; that the character is unbelievable because she was able to paint such descrioptive pictures with words? Is it unbelievable that such intelligence existed in a young Black girl (who devoured every thing she could get her hands on) in the backwoods South during that time . . .that such a gift is not realistic?

Well; I thought that Tangie Mae was believable. I thought that the Darkest Child was one incredible saga and that the author did a really good job in creating the story; especially for a debut novel. I loved it. Rozelle was one crazy lady and as a pyschiatric nurse; I am sure Delores Phillips has seen patients just like her; as well as dysfunctional family members of the patients she has worked with.

But the question Yukio raised was; what do you think of this review?

I think the reviewer missed the point. I think her review was full of opinions and (according to my granmother) opinions are like ayzzholes...we all got one.
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Jmho
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 09:31 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Bookgirl wrote:
I think the reviewer missed the point. I think her review was full of opinions ...

Isn't that what a review really is ... a person's opinion of the book they read?
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Emanuel
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 09:47 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Hello Everyone,

I think a big problem with that review is that it reads like a dissertation. Reviews that read like they've been written with a thesaurus are a turn off. If you ever read Roger Ebert's reviews, you'll see that reviews do not have to be so complicated. To me, Ebert is one of the best writers around.

I reviewed this book for The Midwest Book Review (and Amazon.com). I loved it and made that point very clear. If a person is really looking for a flaw, she will find one. That still doesn't take away the fact that this book is a masterpiece, especially as a debut novel.

Best regards,

Emanuel Carpenter
Author of "A Job Ain't Nothing But Work"
www.geocities.com/emanuelcarpenter
www.midwestbookreview.com
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Cynique
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Post Number: 143
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 10:08 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I've never read a book review written by Roger Ebert, but his in-depth movie reviews are certainly focused on whether or not characters ring true. In fact, his most recent review of "The Lady Killers" complained about the very thing the reviewer of "The Darkest Child" complained about: Plausibility!
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Emanuel
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 10:21 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I do agree with the point the writer makes about consistency in the second to last paragaraph.

As far as plausibility, I thought of the book as an adult reflecting on her childhood rather than a child writing as if she were an adult.

BTW, my post never said Ebert wrote a "book" review.

Best regards,

Emanuel

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Cynique
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 11:17 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Not to belabor the point, but as I'm sure you know, Emanuel, point of view in a novel is a very tricky thing to pull off. I haven't read this book but if it was written in the first person, it was apparently not made clear to the reviewer that the narrator was reflecting as an adult and not as a child. And I made mention of the fact that Roger Ebert is a movie reviewer because there is, after all, a difference between critiquing a book and reviewing a movie.
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Yukio
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Post Number: 115
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Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 11:55 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I believe a complicated story requires a nuanced review that is efforlessly explained. Perhaps, Phillips' narrative is not complex...i don't know. The language, ie vocabulary, is welcomed, for how else does one improve their lexicon?

I would think if the point of view is not obvious then the author has failed and the novel is really incomprehensible, NO? This is only a question, as I have not read the book...
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Klb
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 11:08 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Overall I have to say that I DID like the book. It's just that time spent playing up the betterment (no post on the use of this word please) through education angle could have been used elsewhere- we got the point. As for the use of language in the novel it 's entirely up to the author to choose what language he/she wants to use to convey the story. I don't think we should be upset by the reviewers critic- some of the points may be valid. It says alot that of all the books published that this book was reviewed-- In the NY Times no less. I take it to mean that it's worthy of all the praise and critics it receives. BRAVO Mrs. Phillips.
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Cynique
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 02:25 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I disagree that language is entirely up to the author - not if the author is striving for credibility. Dialogue, especially, should ring true. Characters should speak in a way that is natural to their circumstances. (And there's nothing more distracting than a white author trying to write in black dialect.)
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Yukio
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Post Number: 116
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 03:34 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

hmmmm....i don't know. If the person is illiterate then the person shouldn't use big azz words[baw]; one's institutionalized education [ie school] does not change the integrity of their intelligence, wit, and charisma, etc...at the same time, there are folk who are bi-lingual; folk who can speak both socalled "formal" english and slang...as Cynique succinctly argues, "Characters should speak in a way that is natural to their circumstances," although i don't really believe much is "natural."
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Cynique
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 03:41 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Welcome to the Platinum Club, Yukio. I'm still trying to re-configurate you in my mind as a guy. What's really funny is that I think at one time ABM tried to seduce you. Or maybe that isn't funny... BTW, do you have any Asian blood in you since "Yukio" is a Japanese word?
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Yukio
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Post Number: 118
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 04:45 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

none...but when i was a child, according to my mother and others, people used to mistake me for being socalled mixed[i say socalled cuz there is no such then as being pure blooded, at least not among african americans] cuz of my socalled "chinky" eyes...now, they aren't so "chinky."

Yes...ABM did try to seduce me... It was quite funny to me too! It is a mistake to attach one's views with their race, gender, sex, etc[though some people do speak from a very socalled black or female or male or white perspectives]...but of course, some folk did not know that Yukio is a man's name...
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Tee
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 05:30 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yukio, I like that BAW acronym... <wink>

-Tee
(originator of BAB)
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Bookgirl
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 05:40 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I thought Yukio was a woman too. Don't ask me why.
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Klb
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 06:01 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

"Such high-flown speech is the rule rather than the exception with Tangy Mae; Phillips is so eager to establish that her narrator, as Junior awkwardly avows, devours knowledge ''like a buzzard on a corpse,'' that Tangy Mae, an otherwise likable character, is forced to wield purple diction to alternately tendentious and semi-humorous effect."

This is the point the the article I was responding to. I think it's a given that the language used in dialogue should reflect the demographic particulars of the novel. IMO the parts of the novel that is not directly in dialogue can mirror any authors style of prose.

Although I agree with the point above , the more I read this article the more I think the reviewer is a hater.
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Jmho
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 08:00 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Bookgirl wrote:
I thought Yukio was a woman too. Don't ask me why.

Me three.

It might have been that the first person who made the assumption in responding, and since Yukio never say otherwise, the assumption by default, became a fact, in our minds.

Yukio, since you knew that some posters thought that you were a female, is that a particular reason(s) why you didn't say something? Or rather why make it known now, that you are not a female? I am just curious.
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Jmho
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 08:05 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

KLB wrote:
the more I read this article the more I think the reviewer is a hater.

KLB why do you say that? What specifically was written that now makes you think the reviewer is a hater?

Or generally if one writes an unfavorable review, should the reviewer be labeled a hater and totally dismissed?
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Bookgirl
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 08:43 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

KLB; I thought the reviewer was a hater too. It was the tone of her comments that made me think that she was hatin' on the author and her work or even hatin' on the idea of an intelligent Southern Black girl.

It was not so much that the review was unfavorable; but the points she made were picky. And that seemed to me to be the meat of her review. Just my fiddy cents.....
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Blkmalereading
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 10:05 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Let me chime in on this one.
I think when you review a book it's your personal opinion. But I agree that to be reviewed AT ALL by anyone much less the NY Times is 'saying something'. I haven't read the book so it's really difficult to comment on the book per se, but rather those who haven't read the book can only comment on what the reviewer had to say.

I'm with bookgirl, my thoughts were, is she saying that Black Southern girls can't be intelligent? There are many real life examples of people who succeed and excel regardless of circumstances and/or education. Frederick Douglas and Ben Carson immediately come to mind.

You can only review a book from your own POV and experiences. I personally found it interesting that she was even able to be so 'picky'. This means in a back-handed way that this book could be worthy of finding itself as a pick in high school and college literature reading list where it will certainly be picked apart far worse than it was done by the reviewer.

To have a first novel reviewed to this extent in such a major rag is no small feat.

The review seemed to trash the book but it has made me curious enough to want to read it. So even 'bad' reviews have their place.

I agree with the genius of Ebert as a reviewer. Love his honesty and explanations as to why he feels the way he feels even when I don't agree with him.

I think when using dialect in a story it's extremely important to try to 'get it right', make it as authentic as possible.

I also disagree with KLB: that it's unrealistic to be in the middle of chaos and choose to escape with books, music or some other love or hobby. This is not unrealistic to me at all. I will go out on a limb and say that genius sometimes grows out of such chaos as you are forced to dig within and deal with self. History has shown us many examples of this. Jesus being one of the most quoted examples of this...

As for Yukio's gender, I think quite a while back, if you were paying attention, he often made references to the fact that he was male or said something that made you know he was male. But I always think when I read his post that women must love this guy, he would certainly be given an honorary feminist/womanist award by the best of them. Alice Walker would easily fall in love and probably marry him and then confuse the heck out of him. LOL!
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Emanuel
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 10:05 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I agree with the "hater" opinion. It sounds like the review is a response to all of the positive press "The Darkest Child" has been receiving, as if to say "ya'll don't know what ya'll talkin' about for liking this book. Let me break it down on technical terms for you..."

Sometimes bad publicity is still good publicity. It's great to see "The Darkest Child" reviewed in the Times. That probably means more national recognition than any other printed media. I wonder why it hasn't hit the Essence bestseller list yet.

Cynique:

Is there really such a thing as black dialect? Does one particular race own any certain aspect of language? I think about this a lot when I hear non-blacks using slang that they may have heard on TV or a rap record. But is it my place to tell them to stop talking black, even if they may have grown up using the dialect?

I know of a white author who did a pretty good job of writing it what may be viewed as black dialect. Pete Dexter in his book "Train." Although it can be somewhat upsetting and controversial if you don't know whose point of view he's expressing when he uses it in the book.
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Klb
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 10:35 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I never said the reviewer was a hater because the review was negative. Please see my prior post that validates the reviewers right to his/her opinion. I read hate in the article because if a negative review was going to be given to the book there are a lot more worthy grounds than nit-picking at use of language.


Also I never said that the escape from poverty or what have you through learning was not realistic. I said the author played on this element too much and could have spent the time and ink a little more wisely- we/I got the point the first few hundred times it was brought up. We have always been intellegent it just fails to register on the WASP radar but we don't spend a great span of time on it considering our intellgence is a reflex- kinda like breathing.

The point that the novel is generating such lively conversation is proof of it's merit. the bad/good publicity thing.


As for the big YUKIO controversy I think it was assumed that he was female because when our debates, discussions, wars and lovers quarrels fell along male female lines he always seemed to be on the female side. Poorly put, he never clutched his nuts like some of the rest--Still poorly put he stuck with his opinions in a gender non- specific fashion.
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Cynique
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Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 10:50 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I agree that just because a young girl lives in southern poverty doesn't mean she's dumb. By the same token, just because she uses big words doesn't mean she's smart. Intelligence is innate and it doesn't have anything to do with speaking pretentuously; it's all about communicating ideas effectively.
Emanuel, I guess we should make a distinction between slang and dialect. And I am reminded of stories about how black actors who, when trying to speak the dialect written for them by white writers, have had to request that they be allowed to say the lines the way a black person would naturally speak them instead of the way a white person writes them. Of course, there are exceptions to every generalization.
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Eviana
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 02:19 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

First of all we need to recognized that Lizzie Shurnick definitely have not felt the blows dealt to the black race especially at a time when black struggled to have what was given readily to the whites. Reading was denied our people for years and because of this their way of speech was observed as such. Their sentence structure was not complete and those who had a desire to become more than just another n....a did just what Tangy Mae did. They listened to their masters teach their young to read and therefore they learned themselves or found another way of learning.

The NY Times is a creditable newspaper who still believes that we as blacks are secondary. This will never change no matter how much noise is made among the black community and a review like this should not be a shocking one. Racism is still alive we just are not out-right sold to our masters.

I must agree with one thing Lizzie said, if Delores Phillips chooses to write on this line of topics then she should get it right. A author can't mix modern day language with that of the South of years ago. That's like mixing oil and water, no matter how many times you stir it just don't mix. There are still people in the South this very day who have the same way of language as was spoken during the 50's. Dialogue and narrations of a novel is what makes the books a success. If you confuse the two it makes a mess of everything.

And lastly, any review in the Times is not always a good thing, just because your name and book is mentioned. Remember the credibility that the Times have and the readers who faithfully look to what their reporters in that paper have to say. Lizzie could have very well killed what chances Delores had of really succeeding with her next novel by this review.
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Yukio
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 10:22 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Jmho: I didn't say anything about my sex, not gender, because I didn't think it was relevant. When I initially posted on the AALBC, it seemed that men were too impressed with women who could write and think intelligibly, almost as if these skills were primarily the attributes of men. Also, men would say things that were irrelevant to the subject, often not commenting on what the female poster actually stated. Interestingly, some would take these comments as affirmations of their socalled femaleness, etc...though the value of their comments had unfortunately disappeared from the discussion.

Also, no one asked[until Cynique]. I don't think I ever tried to hide my sex. Though, I do make it my businesss to think without a gender-specific analysis on issues that don't require a socalled gendered analysis. Of course, this is impossible, but I try nevertheless.

In other words, I totally don't believe in "something that made you know he was male" commentary, unless it sheds light on the topic. Inherent in Blkmalereading's comment is the assumption that views, ideas, and things in general are almost natural to men and other things are natural to women. Now, besides our sex[anatomy and biology] I think our intellect can go beyond a socalled gender-specific analysis. Imagine if we could get past/beyond the typical, "Oh! that how men think...well, you know how women are...." These comments often prevent people from talking about the content and value of what has been said rather than its socalled gendered underpinnings. This is no way, means that I believe in a socalled sexless human or what have you...nor do I believe that men and women think the same or that our phyiologically differences do not influences how we think, etc...Yet, I don't believe as KLB humorously put it that I have to "clutched my nuts." I prefer what CH hayden did when he talked about Toni MOrrison's LOve, which was to make the point that he couldn't image a young man behaving as Roman(i think) behave...nor could I; both of us could use our experiences as men to make the point that Morrison's characterization was not persuasive. Yet, people sometimes, men and women, often go on tangets about their sex when it often doesn't contribute anything to the conversation...this is also fine.
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Eviana
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 05:18 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Eloquently put Yukio!!!
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Yukio
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 06:08 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Tee:

I always use the acronym "BAB"...my friends love it...so in an attempt to be like u, I thought of BAW...cuz i have used a few myself...and it makes me laugh when they come from no where into a conversation...
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Jmho
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 07:19 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

KLB:
I never said the reviewer was a hater because the review was negative. Please see my prior post that validates the reviewers right to his/her opinion.

KLB, I know you didn't say that nor did I say you said that but it was the question I asked in trying to understand why you thought the reviewer was a hater. I read when you initally said: "I kind of agree with this review. There were alot of things in the novel that did not go well." Then you said: "Overall I have to say that I DID like the book." And then you said: "Although I agree with the point above , the more I read this article the more I think the reviewer is a hater. "


If say you that a lot of things in the novel did not go well, and someone else says the same, why are they a hater and you're not?
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Jmho
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 07:24 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Blkmalereading wrote:

I'm with bookgirl, my thoughts were, is she saying that Black Southern girls can't be intelligent?

BMR, I didn't get that at all from the review. I thought the reviewer was saying that the vocabulary attributed to the main character didn't seem to match or was authentic especially her family and others around her wasn't speaking in a similar manner. She's 13 and in rural Georgia. I would think this is in the late 50s and the schools were not probably fully intergrated, so was her public school system able to provide books were she was able to pick up all these two dollars words? And, if she was speaking like this yet neither her family nor friends, then how did they respond to her using such words?

This was also very telling to me:
Describing Tarabelle as having the eyes of ''a dead poker player,'' Tangy Mae elucidates, ''I had never seen the eyes of a dead person -- in fact, I had never seen a poker game -- but I had heard that poker faces were expressionless, and I knew that dead people showed no emotion.''

and

...our narrator, in the space of four pages, has put forth both ''loquacious'' and ''chatoyant,''
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Jmho
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 07:29 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Blkmalereading wrote:

As for Yukio's gender, I think quite a while back, if you were paying attention, he often made references to the fact that he was male or said something that made you know he was male.

BMR, what references did Yukio make or what things did Yukio say, that allowed you to know Yukio was a he and not a she?
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Bookgirl
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Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 10:49 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Eviana; That's what I meant when I said that the reviewer missed the point.

I so enjoyed the book that I think the reviewer pissed me off because she seemed to knit pick about things that were not as important as the big picture. My initial response was emoitional. LOL

I'd like to read the transcript from the online chat. I'm sorry that I missed it but I had company that Sunday.
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Bookgirl
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Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 11:35 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

The on line chat(Coffee Will Make You Black Book Club discussion) on the book is posted. Check it out. The author talks in detail about how she came about writing the book.

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Thumper
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Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 08:19 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Hello All,

I know I'm late chiming into this discussion, but speaking as a person who read that review and the book, I have to say that I disagree with ol' Lizzie on this one. Concerning the book, I got the impression that Tangy Mae, the grown woman, was telling the story of her past. Phillips made it quite clear that Tangy Mae loved books, and was extremely smart. Not only does the reviewer give the impression of not seeing the forest for the trees, she was very much comparing The Darkest Child to other books, and in her opinion The Darkest Child came up short. I don't have a problem with that, I've done it and will probably do it again. Ol' Lizzie wanted Tangy Mae to sound as if she was a slave in Gone With The Wind, or something. It may not be racism on her part, but her views of the book are certainly stereotypical.

I am not surprised that the NY Times reviewed The Darkest Child. Someone posted a link a few weeks ago stating how the NY Times was changing the types of books they reviewed.
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Cocowriter
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Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 11:51 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I'm going to chime in on this one. First of all, I want to say I have read several books this year and was waiting for the WOW book and found it in the The Darkest Child. That said, I have to agree with Thumper and some of the others, as much as I hate to play the race card, it cannot be overlooked that the review is racially motivated.
Although it is unlikely, it is not impossible for a girl of Tangie's circumstances to speak in a manner different from her environment, especially if she is a voracious reader. However, I never got the impression she spoke in a manner that would bring attention to her, but her thoughts were in the "foreign language". She was talking that way in her mind. Her intelligence however was evident to everyone who came in contact with her.
As far as what motivated the mother; I saw Rozelle as an inherently evil person. That is all the motivation needed. She was evil as a child and her mother withdrew from her. here are people who are mentally ill emotionally and mentally. Her stark mistreatment of her children in backwoods Georgia in the '50s and '60s would not cause a stir. Today, she would have had her children taken from her and diagnosed as schizophrenia or bipolar or some disorder. Like someone said, the author is a psychiatric nurse. She probably modeled the character after one of her patients.
This novel was very well written, the imagery of the language was astounding. I am writing a coming-of-age novel set in the south. My characters come from middle class circumstances. I expect to get flak about having black folks who were not steeped in poverty, not scraping and bowing and living in the 50s and 60s deep south. " Gee golly, the characters don't wring true. Whoever heard of educated, prosperous blacks in that time period of the rural south, gasp." White folks like to put us in a box. I for one am happy to see a writer step outside the box.

Cocowriter
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Cynique
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 12:22 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I, for one, was not stigmatizing the way poor black southerners talk. I just felt that they should talk the way they typically talk, for purposes of autheticity.
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Blkmalereading
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 01:38 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Jmho:
I can't recall the exact post(s), but Yukio pointed to one example: His discussion with Chris about Love. I think he agreed or was able to see chris's POV from a male perspective, not saying he had to be male to say this, but the chances are more likely that a male/man would relate to certain things dealing with male gentitals.
I also know that Yukio is a male name, I went to school with a Japanese guy named Yukio. So I naturally assumed as soon as I saw the name that he was male. His non-gender specific postings at times would certainly confuse me at times.

Yukio means: gets what he wants, God will nourish.
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Jmho
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 07:22 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Blkmalereading wrote:
Jmho:
I can't recall the exact post(s), but Yukio pointed to one example: His discussion with Chris about Love

BMR, but Yukio referenced this after telling us his genger (and not during the actual thread) and you gave the impression that you read some things he wrote *before* this thread that lead you to know his gender. And, yes, while Yukio maybe a male name, some people post under initials or pseduo gender names, which doesn't leans one to know which gender the person is. Thanks for the response.
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Jmho
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 07:32 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Cynique wrote:I, for one, was not stigmatizing the way poor black southerners talk. I just felt that they should talk the way they typically talk, for purposes of autheticity.

Cynique, this was my point too. There are many adult writers who don't write well in the voice of a child. Or even a northerner who writes well in the voice of southerner. I would just think a child speaks in the language (voice) in which he or she hears from all those around him or her. And, not only what they have picked up from reading books. We're not speaking impossibility but probability. That's like reading a slave novel and the characters are using terms from 21st century. And, further, I don't anyone would expect the child to speak in th vocie or tone of a slave since the setting was in the late 50's though it was in the south.
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Blkmalereading
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 10:33 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Jmho:
I thought I answered your question. The fact that yukio is a male name was the very first thing that made me assume that they must be male. I know that some folks post with "initials or pseduo gender names" but it's rare for either gender to take on a specific name that is of one specific gender, unless there's a boy named Sue or something like that. It's rare.

I was using the discussion that took place during Love as an 'example' of past post(s) that were discussed and the way Yukio responded. I don't recall the post(s) at this time. But if I ever run into an old one I will be sure to post the example that I'm talking about.

The name automatically made me assume that he was male. I didn't change from this or question this until a few post where he was obviously assumed to be female and he didn't correct the poster...
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Yukio
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 02:43 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

interesting exchange...but i didn't correct anyone because my sex doesn't matter, only my ideas...unless, though this often this seems the case, this is some type of love connection website...lmao!
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Chrishayden
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 03:58 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yeh--Yukio Mishimia is a writer whose work I respect--"Spring Snows" was this book of his I was most familiar with--but maybe more for his apocalyptic, seppuku ending.
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Eviana
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 06:05 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

You know what Yukio,

I agree with you. Who cares what your gender is, if you're male, female, bi-sexual, heterosexual, or are even into beastility. As long as you can type your opinion, which is the only thing that counts on the board, what difference does it make?

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Thumper
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 06:23 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Hello All,

Although Cynique wrote: "I, for one, was not stigmatizing the way poor black southerners talk. I just felt that they should talk the way they typically talk, for purposes of autheticity." In the case of The Darkest Child, I do believe that that Tangy Mae's voice was authetic. But there are other novels that would have been greatly enhanced if the author add include the characters diction and accent that was prevalent in their part of the country, neighborhood, etc. As I travel over the country, I certainly notice the difference. Take for instance, Mississippi Blues or whatever that book is called that everyone is raving about BUT me. The main character was born and raised in Mississippi, yet she didn't talk in a Mississippi accent. Not saying that everyone from the south talks with an accent that is indicitive of their environment. My father and grandmother was proof of that. But there were certain words that they spoke that yelled GEORGIA and MISSISSIPPI all day long. All this to say, we need more of characters speaking with authencity of their surroundings.
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Lambd
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Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 06:36 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yukio, are you into beastiality? Because if this was a love connection site, it would be interesting to know which one of these beasts you were hitting up on. I know that I assumed you were female at one time, but it really doesn't matter to me either. I honestly couldn't give less of a pig's tail one way or another...That crack about pig's tail isn't raising your nature, is it? That whole beastiality thing is pretty scary. That's even scary to think up, Eviana.
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Eviana
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Posted on Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 06:09 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Not really Lambd. It's going on in the world just look in the news and you'll see. But the point which obiviously you missed was that it shouldn't matter what he is or into to express his opinion. If he has an opinion and want to share it with whoever is reading and replying to it why should he have to explain in what gender he did so. What difference does it make that if he was a she and used a man's name or if he posts in a feminine manner. Who cares? Does his posts offend someone? If it does than mention that, not critize the man for posting in a feminine manner but is really a man. AGAIN WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE!!!!
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Lambd
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 12:47 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Read my post again, Eviana. I didn't miss it. I was agreeing with you. Remember the part about 'not giving less of a pig's tail'...It should have been clear. It matters not to me if the man wants to pretend to be a woman, or if he's mistaken for a woman for some other reason. I really don't care. I don't care about the beastiality thing either...unless you are really hung up on it. Even if it is in the news, its still kind of scary. And you are starting to scare me because it doesn't scare you. People and animals should not be having sex with one another.
How do we know that it's consensual on the animal's part? And if it isn't, isn't that rape?
Hmmmmm...some things to ponder indeed. If it turns out to be rape, animals don't have money for a lawyer so, the counsel representing the animal would have to do it pro bono. Unless, of course, the animal had something to barter. Then it would have to be quid pro quo. Except in the case of an octopus getting raped. Then it would have to be squid pro quo.... Or a black bird, then it would be crow pro quo...A pig would be like chinese take out...>>"PORK PRO QUO"!!!!!!!!!
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Yukio
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 05:52 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

lambd: if it is so "scary" WHY do you seem so consumed with beastiality? Especially when the term was used for emphasis...
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Jmho
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 09:32 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Blkmalereading wrote:
I thought I answered your question.

BMR, you did answer my question ... you didn't recall the references in specific post/posts that you've read over past months, which indicated to you that Yukio was male and not female, as thought by so many other readers.

Eviana wrote:
I agree with you. Who cares what your gender is, if you're male, female, bi-sexual, heterosexual, or are even into beastility.

I don't think anyone has stated that it mattered one way or another about Yukio's gender. And how in the world did sexuality practices, i.e., bi-sexuality, heterosexuality, beastility, come into this discussion? We are/were speaking of gender and not sexual practices.
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Lambd
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 12:40 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yukio: Was the term used for emphasis? We don't really know. We don't really know anything about anyone here on the site except what people reveal about themselves. For some reason, you decided to reveal that you are a man. You may still be lying for all we know. I may be consumed by the thought of beastiality because it is new to me and it is indeed scary. Or maybe it isn't so new to me as I put on. Maybe I am married to an ostrich. Maybe I am not married at all. Maybe me and the ostrich are just living in sin. Shacking, if you will. Maybe her name is Sophia. Sophia the ostrich and I love her very much. If I am satisfying her sick sexual urges and she is the best damn ostrich sex I've ever had, isn't the point that its noone's business but our own as long as it's consensual? I can't tell if you are defending beastiality or opposing it. It doesn't matter anyway. You could be one of those chimps at the University of San Francisco that the students taught to type and Eviana could be your professor/live-in lover. Who would know? Does anyone care?
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Lambd
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 12:49 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Before we go on, I want Eviana and Yukio to know that Sophia did not take offense to anything you posted. She enjoys this site very much. She was somehow transported to Africa before she was hatched and raised on a farm in Kenya. I met her here in DC when she was working on her Doctorate in zoology at AU. She applied for and received her citizenship in the US in 1994 and therefore considers herself an African-American. She contributes to this site daily under a different username that she has asked me not to reveal...Please don't judge her. She especially enjoys the latest postings from Chrishayden, Cynique and JMHO. However, sometimes, Thumper is the only one that can get her head out of the sand.
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Cynique
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 01:29 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Lambd, you have a very creative sense of humor - warped, but creative nonetheless. I'm wondering, however, is a bird considered a beast? Or am I crying "fowl"??
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Cynique
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 01:43 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yukio, you have inspired quite a controversy. We haven't had this much repartee since Kola Boof was unmasked as Snake Girl. But, as I'm sure you would say, - or have said, "intellect is not gender specific."
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Abm
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 03:14 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Lambd,

You are KILLING me with your ostrich love story. Hey, playah! Does 'Sophia' have any feathery sisters? If so, can you hook a brothah up?

HAHA!
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Lambd
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Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 04:20 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Heeeeeee's baaaaaaaaack! None other than trouble himself to the nth degree. Abm, finally, a brother with something to say! No Abm, Sophia does not have any sisters. She was adopted by a Kenyan farmer and his wife when she was but an ost-chick. However, I'm sure she could introduce you to Fewhaddit. Fewhaddit is one phat stallion that works down at the breeding stables. If you can look past her reputation you will see one hell of a set of hind quarters.
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Yukio
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yukio

Post Number: 131
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Monday, April 05, 2004 - 12:12 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

no contro, here....just horny folk using the site to market their sexual pleasures, or humour...cann't tell, don't know what the emphasis is...
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Crystal
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Username: Crystal

Post Number: 19
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Posted on Monday, April 05, 2004 - 01:09 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I went to an ostrich farm once. Maybe I should have paid more attention!
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Eviana
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Username: Eviana

Post Number: 29
Registered: 03-2004

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Posted on Monday, April 05, 2004 - 08:22 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yo Lambd,

Since I have to explain everything to you, the emphasis is WHO'S CARES!!!!!

But you want to talk about scary. You're the one that seems to be a little frightening. Did I hit a cord with you. Your little story about the ostrich may not be as fictional as you would want us to believe, claiming not to have heard of beastility - but then you knew that wouldn't fly so you tried to cover it by asking - or have I? - I think out of all that I said you paid more attention to beastility because it's apart of you.
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Lambd
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Username: Lambd

Post Number: 52
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Posted on Monday, April 05, 2004 - 11:19 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Calm down, Eviana. I understand all about the emphasis. I was joking...that is, I was joking about everything except the part about Sophia. That part is true. Beastiality is a very important part of my life now and I am not ashamed of that. Nor am I ashamed of Sophia. Thank you, Eviana. Thank you for liberating me. I'm sure that Sophia thanks you, also. In her own shy, little ostrich way.
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Abm
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Post Number: 11
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Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 01:20 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Lambd,

Don't mind Eviana. You know how sistahs can get 'jello' from a lil' competition. (Eviana: It's the tailfeathers and the clucking that's turned Lambd out.)

BTW, not intending to quibble, but my tastes eschew more to a philly (female horse) than they do a stallion (male horse). But if Fewhaddit is packin' doze kind of bumps, I'll be over to kick up some hay with her. And tell her not to fret about how we'll be 'gettin' down'. Cause from what I've been told about certain "aspects" of myself, before long, she'll want to call a brothah "Trigger". <<neeaah!_snort!_neeaah!_snort!>>
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique

Post Number: 200
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 01:45 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I'm sure I speak for other females when I say that as far as this subject is concerend, who gives a horse's ass??(Altogether now, men: "WE DO"!)
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Emanuel
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Username: Emanuel

Post Number: 9
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Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 10:19 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Maybe you folks should have started a new post when the conversation digressed from "The Darkest Child" to Yukio's gender.
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Bookgirl
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Username: Bookgirl

Post Number: 59
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Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 02:20 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

My thoughts exactly; Emanuel
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Yukio
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yukio

Post Number: 151
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Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 02:27 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

yes, yes....i'm tryin to get darkest child this week...and if it isn't good, i'll return that sucka for my money back!
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Lambd
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Username: Lambd

Post Number: 56
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Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 03:05 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Emanuel,
How observant of you. I should have thought of that, except for the fact that I really didn't think that the conversation was going to digress this far for this long. However, I did notice that most of the people that keep their noses the highest seem to be the first to make a comment about the digression. I also found out that people tend to want to make comments here rather than start another thread themselves. I ask you, Emanuel, does that make these people stuck, stagnant, or just plain shocked into a standstill?
Now, are we going to change the subject or continue? Yukio, be he man or be she woman, let us know what your opinion of the Darkest Child is
and then get your money back.
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Yukio
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Username: Yukio

Post Number: 155
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Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 03:44 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

lambd...i will, but if its good...i'll keep it, gotta support blk writers!
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique

Post Number: 215
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 04:18 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

My, my Lambda, you're getting a little testy. You used to be so playful. Mellow out, baby.
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Lambd
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Username: Lambd

Post Number: 57
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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 07:29 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Playful still, just growing weary of the wannabe snobs that say what they think people want to hear rather than what they think. Maybe they think they are saying what people are thinking rather than thinking about what they are saying.
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Abm
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Username: Abm

Post Number: 26
Registered: 04-2004

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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 11:40 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Lambd,
You have an enviable feel for humor. Your wit should be applauded, not discouraged. Please don't let the persnickety residence schoolmarms (some of whom secretly ENJOY your humor) get your goat.

And life is more fun when you are willing to embarrass yourself a bit. I'd much rather be (and I often am) the guy flopping around on the dance floor whom some people laugh at than be that most dreadful of sorts who's too afraid to dance.


BTW: Does having a "Silver Member" hurt? If so, what kind of ointment do you use?
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Lambd
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Username: Lambd

Post Number: 58
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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 01:47 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

If I weren't so busy trying to stay away from my explicit innuendos, I would say something like>>>>>I don't use ointment on my silvered member because I like it raw...However, I'm not going to fall into the trap of saying things with sexual undertones, and I don't care how many lines you feed me....

PS>>> I thought that was you flopping around like a flacid...I mean, a wet noodle. I wasn't laughing, and I wasn't holding up the wall either.
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Lambd
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Username: Lambd

Post Number: 59
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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 01:50 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I can't believe I posted that thing about thinking. I never think. Well, almost never. One thing I think about is the way people think about things. The thing that gets me about thinking, is that I think I'm thinking about one thing, but in actuality I'm thinking about an actual thing that I'm not even thinking about...I think.
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Abm
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Post Number: 28
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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 02:27 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Come on now, Lambd. You’ve got to admit the softballs that Troy/Thumper serves up with this whole "Silver Member" rating system is just too easy for a comedic sensor to ignore. (And don’t worry: I won’t ask why your palms are always SO silvery.)

Well, Lambd, I guess ‘rawdog’ is the route to take. Cause I guess it’s like my bigmomma used to say when I skinned a knee..."Lookit here, boy! Deh best thing to do ferit is tah let it git sum air...cuz dat’ll make it dry-n-heal fastah."

Is "Diamond D@#%!" the highest rating a male poster (including Yukio?) can score? If so, that’s what I’ll be ‘shooting’ for!


BTW: I saw you trynah grind-up on a honey when they played Marvin’s "Let’s Get It On". Dude. Ain’t nobody ever told you that "No means NO!"?
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Thumper
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Thumper

Post Number: 79
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 05:49 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Hello All,

Abm wrote: "Come on now, Lambd. You’ve got to admit the softballs that Troy/Thumper serves up with this whole "Silver Member" rating system is just too easy for a comedic sensor to ignore."

And yet, I know you're going to do just that, right? *eyebrow raised* Especially since we are in mix company.
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Cynique
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Username: Cynique

Post Number: 219
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 06:05 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Leave Yukio alone, ABM! You're so devilish.
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Lambd
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Username: Lambd

Post Number: 60
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 06:32 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Are you implying that Troy and Thumper are one in the same? My, my, I would have never guessed that. Besides, Troy already made it quite clear that he is not Thumper, and I believe him. Then again, I don't remember Thumper saying that he is not Troy. Just because I believe Troy doesn't mean that I believe Thumper, even though Thumper hasn't commented yet. Anyway, Thumper's member is gold, so he wouldn't lie. After all, I've been told that my member is gold in various circumstances. Does that mean that I could be Thumper? I'm sure some of these Thumper-lovin' loonies are going to tell me that I could never be Thump-thump. I could, however be Abm. But then Thumper/Troy could clear that up. Couldn't they?...them? He? She? Ostrich?...Now I'm all screwed up. Could someone please talk about the Darkest Child?!!!!
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique

Post Number: 223
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 07:04 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Once The Darkest Child got penetrated by a gold member, she saw the light and screamed like an ostrich in heat. Yes, this tarnished her reputation but she didn't care, because she like how it felt having her bronzed cup polished.
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Lambd
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Username: Lambd

Post Number: 62
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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 10:42 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

OMG! Take a picture of the event, blow it up and we'll make a Platinum Poster out of it!

Cynique, you have been posting on this site way too long. I guess once you have posted 223 times you start loosing it and now you sound like Abm!
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique

Post Number: 227
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 11:27 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Don't stop me, I'm on a roll. Shootin' for double platinum!
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Abm
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Username: Abm

Post Number: 39
Registered: 04-2004

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Posted on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 02:55 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Come on know Cynique. You should know me well enuff to know I can't even let Yukio get away with playin' "The Crying Game" without me ribbin' him a tab. I GOTTAH get’em fer dat. If I didn’t, I wouldn't the ABM that you know, love (and fantasize) about. But don't worry, Yukio is a big boy (or girl...or 'whatever'). I am sure he (or she...or 'it') can take it.

"May ‘The Darkest Child’ bronze chalice always ‘runeth over!’"(And if it doesn’t, tell her to hit a playah up on his ‘celly’.)


Thumper, I'm not sure if you are kidding or scolding me (as is often the case between us, the 2 seem to be very much the same). But, of course I do what I do in "mixed company". What's the fun in a boy being "mannish" if there aren't any girls around to see him act-up?


Lambd, do me a 'solid'. If dat 4-legged freak "Fewhaddit" ask you do you know where I'm at, tell her dis ol’ root’n-toot’n cowboy dun rode off into the sunset. If there's one thing I hate, it's a NAG. And when I told her no-can-do to riding ‘bareback’ (gottah saddle-up cuz you never ‘no where a philly’s been), she started kickin’, neaghin’, snortin’ and buckin’...which, in this instance, WASN’T a part of our usual hayrolling activities...I had to let dat horse outtah the barn!

Can you believe she had the audacity to carry on like that even after I played for her my favorite recording of Rossini’s William Tell Overture?


And regarding how I have caused Cynique to be "loosing it" ..."Lucifer can only awakens the ‘devil’ that already lies within."
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique

Post Number: 231
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 03:18 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yukio hasn't posted lately, ABM. You may have made him self-conscious. You know I gotta stick up for my fellow platium poster. Yukiooooooooo -- where are you?
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Yukio
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yukio

Post Number: 158
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 05:15 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

thanks cyn:...had a short break and didn't bring the laptop with me...(spring break)....

and abm: Naw man...i don't take it...but if you do use protection...also, i'm too young to get the "diamond...." etc....

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