Worst:

Coimbatore - Filthy, I was nervous about sitting down on the upholstered chairs.

Chennai international arrivals and departures -- totally chaotic, even at 2:30 in the morning, with one British Airways steward employed to identify non-Indians (i.e. white people, which he was quite obviously and distinctly singling out) in the crowd and say "British Airways?" to them and shepherd them through the mob. Arrivals is also weird, Indians had to re-screen their luggage in order to *leave* the airport but my blonde white self was waved right through. The huge mass of waiting relatives just outside is pretty funny though. The departures "lounge" is dreadful, no shops no food (except for the samosas that someone mentioned earlier) and the BA lounge is *before* security and not well identified at all, so if you miss like I did it that's it, you're stuck inside the horrible uncomfortable lounge area for the next two hours.

Best:

Heathrow, but only if you're flying on someone else's dime -- the Business Class lounge is FABULOUS. Showers, dude! Showers! Free booze, free hot food, comfy chairs, and a really nice cappucino machine. The only bummer is that they charge for wireless internet. That seems unnecessarily parsimonious, to me. If they're splashing out all that dosh on other amenities, why cheap out on the internets?

Oh dear I hope my bumbles aren't affected, I just planted a third meadow sage for them, since that's their favorite. Last year I had two which worked those plants all day well into the evening, and I would sit on my front porch with a glass of wine watching them, to decompress from my day.

She claims that gaining 10-20 pounds after the age of 18 is "materially compromising" to your health.

Jebus. I'm 32 and I weight exactly 20 pounds more than I did at 18, but guess what I weighed at 18? 110 pounds! I'm 5'5"! Dig out yer BMI calculator and see where that height/weight ratio falls!

Yikes.

That said, I would very much like to know what evidence they have against it being an apple. The conspiracy theoritst in me thinks that what they are afraid of admitting is that it was...wait for it...passionfruit.

Apples aren't native to Iraq, which is where the plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates is located.

Wait.

Iraq???

Hmm...

How about this fact. The Holy Bible is very long and EVERY LINE WRITTEN pertains to man's relationship to his God. You probably will not be the same aftewards.

Wow, really? Even the Song of Solomon? That seems to be about man's relationship to his honey's bodacious rack.

That's some divine relationship right there!

Implicit in these expressions of censure is that freedome of the first amendment might not be for this kind of speech.

Nice strawman, that.

There is no "implicit" notion that people should not be free to express their belief in universe-by-abracadabra.

The corollary to that, however, is that since they are free to spew their idiocy, I am free to call them stupid.

For what it's worth, however, the First Amendement only refers to the powers available to the Federal government. If you start in on some ramble about Creationism and I tell you to shut the fuck up I am not treading on your First Amendement rights. I am not the Federal government, and I can tell you to be quiet if I want to. If you are on my property I can have you hauled away for trespassing. If you are my employee, I can have you fired for insubordination or inappropriate workplace behavior. If you spend 27 million "Christian" dolllars to build a museum for lobotomy patients, I can tell everyone in earshot that you are a hypocrite and a bad Christian.

Ahh, love that freedom of speech!

I have always wondered about that, and have never gotten a satisfactory answer.

Well, Genesis 6:1-4 talks about the "sons of God" marrying human women, and producing a race called the Nephilim, who were "the heroes of days gone by, men of renown" (quote courtesy of the New Jerusalem Bible, Reader's Edition published in 1990). Granted that's all post-Cain and Abel, so who Cain and Abel themselves married is kind of up in the air.

If they regard the Bible as gospel, how do they know it wasn't

Because the word for "apple" does not appear in Genesis. T.he word used is merely "fruit".

And as stated previously, apples are not native to Iraq.

Save the "I love you"s for special occasions. If you over use it, it loses it's meaning.

I call bullshit. Saving it for "special occasions" is manipulation and emotional blackmail. My ex actually told me that he did this with his mother, because he knew how much it meant to her just to hear those words, so he would deliberately withhold it from her so that when he *did* say it, she would be extra-grateful to him.

It was that very moment that I realized he was doing exactly the same thing to me. I come from a very affectionate family, and he knew that hugs and kisses are like air and water to me, and that I needed to hear "I love you" on a fairly regular basis -- so he wouldn't do any of it, because when he did I would pretty much fall all over myself doing whatever he wanted.

I was fool not to have broken up with him on the spot. Oh well, live and learn.

What? She has nine animals: four cats, three dogs, a guinea pig, and a fish.

How many animals is she allowed to have?

Hey, is this going to devolve into yet another 300-letter thread on the politics of muff maintenance?

Totally awesome.