|
[18 Dec 2006|01:22am] |
In a more innocent age, it was said that Gregory Efimovich Rasputin's legendary power over women was due to his piercing eyes.
But a new museum of erotica here suggests that the mad monk's charm may instead have been, ahem, concealed beneath his cassock.
Measuring 28.5cm (about 11 inches) - allowing for shrinkage caused by pickling - Rasputin's penis displayed in a tall glass bottle is, to put it delicately, a big attraction at the museum.
Director Igor Knyazkin said he bought the object from a French antiquitarian for $US8,000 ($A11,500), along with several of Rasputin's hand-written letters.
It was not known if he had a certificate of authenticity for such a remarkable piece.
The aura of sexual power and mysticism lives on. Some Russians think just by staring at the object, they can cure sexual impotence.
One visitor asked Knyazkin if this is true.
"Without a shadow of doubt," he replied with a smile.
Knyazkin, 37, a urologist and sexologist, set up the museum in the clinic he runs, partly with the aim of helping his patients overcome impotence. The atmosphere of the museum makes patients "more optimistic and relaxed," he said.
"The aim of the doctor is to free his patient from anxiety and fears. Men who come here are ill at ease because of their problems, and our light and happy atmosphere reassures them."
Only part of Knyazkin's collection of 12,000 erotic objects is displayed in the clinic, which is staffed by buxom nurses wearing short white blouses and high heels.
"I keep the valuable stuff at home," he said.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/12/1086749947298.html?from=storylhs
|
|
|
[25 Sep 2006|04:31pm] |
The beginning of "The Perfect Crime 2" off the Decemberists' new album, "The Crane Wife" (which I'm loving, incidentally):
"Sing, Muse, of the passion of the pistol"
COLIN MALOY MADE A HOMER REFERENCE!!!!!!!!!
And then I exploded.
|
|
| Thank you, Mom |
[19 Sep 2006|05:32pm] |
The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A".
|
|
|
[05 Sep 2006|10:41am] |
2 fire alarms (new and improved, by which i mean horrifically loud and impossible to ignore) in high rise before 8am, and what caused it?
Drumroll please...
Spiders crawling on the smoke detectors.
I hate spiders.
|
|
|
[01 Sep 2006|07:58pm] |
|
i have a roommate and she's totally cooler than i am and my apartment just got even BETTER!
|
|
|
[31 Aug 2006|01:58pm] |
back on campus and IN LOVE with my new apartment - it's on campus, so it's not a real apartment, but i don't care and i love it. the kitchen is tiny, the common room has a pillar in the middle of it, and the toilet is sort of dysfunctional but it's perfect and i love it - my room is huge, too. i tested out the oven yesterday on a batch of blueberry muffins. also, my apartmentmate (a girl i don't actually know at all who i found randomly at room selection because i could only have an apartment and a kitchen if i had one more person) is apparently taking a semester off...so i have the apartment to myself for now, and i'm working on finding someone to live with me who i know so they don't put some sociopath football player in. i'm not saying they would, but it's not impossible, let's put it that way. there's a housing shortage on.
in other news, o'rourke's, the best diner in the world, burned down this summer. R.I.P., and i really hope they rebuild and get back to serving those raspberry pancakes with clotted cream that make my world go round.
|
|
|
[02 Aug 2006|12:40pm] |
Heath Ledger is the new Joker.
"New 'Batman' names its Joker"
I mean...as one of my colleagues has pointed out all that makeup was a little gay, but Heath Ledger? Really? Does he have that kind of flamboyant villain in him?
|
|
| Yasas! |
[30 Jul 2006|02:43pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 cheerful |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
the pipettes - ABC |
] |
About time for an update, I suppose - Greece continues to treat me well. There's all kinds of drama among our lovely colleagues, but it's all good fun and passes the time. We spend a lot of time in our hotel, what can I say? We finished our classes last week with a course on Homer from Greg Nagy, who's a slightly lunatic fringe Homer expert, and it was quite interesting...I mean, he's a nice guy and well-respected, but mostly he's insane and incapable of maintaining any sort of cohesive theme in his book or in the classroom. However, damn if his class didn't get my crazy-for-classics streak going. (It's like being cuckoo for cocoa puffs...that's the best explanation I can give.) I am so damn excited about my major I can't even stand it - I've been reading all sorts of random things to feed the fire, it's a good time. I also might have an internship for next summer, as Nagy is talking to his Center for Hellenic Studies people in DC about me, apparently...and hey, as Mikey's mom edited his first book, I should think there would be room for two interns, right? It's a little early to be thinking about next summer, I know, but I can't help it. I really want to learn Greek and get on with things, and an internship would be a surprisingly practical addition to the schedule. Fresh from Rome, summer in DC...Rory, we'll talk.
So anyway, this week we write an 8-12 page final paper and then it's all over. I can't believe how fast it's gone by, but I have to confess that I am in fact homesick. It's just a little bit and only really this past week, but I miss my mommy and my Mikey and my family. That being said, this week is going to be amazing: I'm finishing my paper early and going to Athens on Thursday with a bunch of other people from here, so we'll pal around there for awhile. One of our professors - she taught us a class on comedy which I loved - has offered to give us a tour of 19th century Athens by night and have dinner with us, which is very exciting. Then I fly to Paris on Sunday and meet Jordana from school, run around Paris for a day, stay in a passable hotel, and fly home on Monday. I get in at like 1pm in Newark, but I don't know that I'll be much fun that day...7 hour time difference and all. I hear flying home is easier than flying here, though. I am SO excited for my low-fat ice cream and muffins and Weight Watchers food, it's sick. I mean, feta is great, but you can only eat so much of it and A) not vomit and B) not double your body-weight. I'm hoping to go to a meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday next week, I don't know if I've lost all that much but I might have reached the 10-pound mark while I was here and I want to see how I did. I feel bad, people at school tried so hard to start it up last year and now that they failed several times I want them to do it...maybe I'll join them and we can try again.
And then I go to Nantucket on Thursday! My life is insane but so good!
|
|
| It's only fair to tell you - I'm absolutely cuckoo. |
[04 Jul 2006|10:19am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 busy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Read my entry again and guess. |
] |
So, as you might imagine I'm really enjoying this trip so far. The food has been rather fabulous, although it's been pretty tough to stay hydrated and stick with Weight Watchers, and the group is quite diverse and a lot of fun. There are people from Greece, Turkey and Britain as well as Harvard, Harvard extension, Rice and Bates (naturally my roommate is from New Jersey and Connecticut, goes to Bates, uses my brand of conditioner, has the same color notebook...so much for diversity, right?) and major in chemistry, political science, foreign languages and literature, classics...the list goes on, it's quite a group. I'm shamefully rusty when it comes to discussions in class, but oh well - they'll all see my genius soon enough. In my spare time I've been doing the ridiculous amounts of reading as well as swimming, developing an obsession with Magnetic Fields and Boy Least Likely To and taking pictures, as you'll see on my facebook. We're two days into the Byzantine Empire class and start on the Ottoman Empire tomorrow, and during the fourth week we have a class on Homer and the Athenian Empire with one of the leading Homer scholars in the world...SWEET. Oh, and Harvard gave us chapsticks, so clearly this program has been worth every cent.
And I still don't know any modern Greek (or any ancient, but that's less of an issue)...well done me.
PS....
Don't fall in love with me yet
We only recently met
True I'm in love with you but
you might decide I'm a nut
Give me a week or two to
go absolutley cuckoo
then, when you see your error,
then, you can flee in terror
like everybody else does
I only tell you this cause
I'm easy to get rid of
but not if you fall in love
Know now that I'm on the make
and if you make a mistake
my heart will certainly break
I'll have to jump in a lake
and all my friends will blame you
There's no telling what they'll do
It's only fair to tell you
I'm absolutely cuckoo
The Magnetic Fields = beautiful genius.
|
|
|
[18 Jun 2006|06:51pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 bored |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Tilly & the Wall - Fell Down The Stairs |
] |
Friday: Tilly & the Wall
Happy indie rock is a swingin' good time, even in an Amazonian 90-degree church basement. So is the turquoise eyeliner I found in my bathroom and put on...drank Yuengling from Wawa coffee cups and caught the last train back from the city. Have lost 5.4 pounds in 3 weeks on Weight Watchers...way to go, self! Mom gained a little weight this week, blames it on my cookie-baking efforts (I was making them for a party Mikey's mom was throwing, it was a good deed! I couldn't fit them all on the tray. My bad) and is crotchety. Nora fails to adjust for this, as you will see.
Saturday: Might as well have been Friday, I got up so early for my doctor's appointment...I know I should be grateful that she came in before the office even opened so I could see her, but a tetanus shot at 8:30 am? Really? And you people who wake up early as a rule...allow me my indulgences. And complaints. My dad found two crushed beer cans up by the pool after Nora's bbq the night before...well done, Nora's friends. My family was over and damn if that strawberry-rhubarb crisp I made wasn't amazing.
Sunday: Nora got home at 4:30 am. Mommy apoplectic. Apoplectic...good word. Slept late, checked out digital cameras (well, what good is paying all that money for Greece if I can't record it? Poor logic...whatevs, I found amazingly good deals on the camera and the flights, I'm making an effort here), had a really good omelette for lunch (had to go buy eggs first, had lunch at 3pm), applied to work at Red and Black in the fall, told SARN ladies to get heads out of asses and do something useful, gave them 5 excellent ideas conceived by conversations with faculty advisor, therapist and Mikey (independently of each other). Had a lovely swim with my mom which seemed to calm her down, which is definitely a plus.
Rest of life: Bored. Don't want to exercise. NuvaRings are weird. Have not learned Modern Greek yet. But hey, summer!
Also - Definitely: spelled D E F I N I T E L Y. De-finite-ly. It's getting to be an epidemic, damn if I'm not going to do my part.
Yes, it is important.
|
|
|
[30 May 2006|11:13pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 pleased |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Alton Brown's teachings |
] |
Things are good here, I must say.
I've been puttering around my house cooking to my heart's content, I swam today, I've been sleeping quite a normal amount, and I've started Weight Watchers with my mom and we're doing well together. Granted we've only been doing it for 4 days or so, but the beginning's the hardest, right? I've discovered to my great surprise that not having refined sugar at all is way easier than having a little bit, and it's actually really fun coming up with recipes we can eat. We had a party with my dad's family on Sunday, and my mom and I had a fabulous time cooking together and outdid ourselves, all with food we could eat. Except the Jack-spiked pecan bars, but it's not like I wasn't going to make everyone go without dessert.
I do rather hope it cools off a little though...I met Mikey after his class for lunch and a little light shopping in the city today, and my clothes were pretty well melted onto my body by the time we got on the train back.
|
|
| Devon Horse Show |
[18 May 2006|02:57pm] |
Want to come?
Saturday, May 27, 8pm - Junior Jumpers Championship, Hunt teams, Parent/child teams, Family class
Tuesday 5/30, 10pm - Police competition
Wednesday afternoon - Ladies Sidesaddle
Thursday, 7:30pm - Grand Prix
Friday, 10pm - Gambler's Choice (my personal favorite)
|
|
|
[15 Feb 2006|04:40pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 happy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
food network |
] |
My boyfriend is lovely.
He wins the Valentine's Day prize.
8:30 pm last night:
(my phone rings)
Mikey: "Hi Jo - I know I said I wouldn't call you during Gilmore Girls, but it's really cold out here and I'm going to need you to let me in."
Jo: "What?"
Mikey: "Come let me in!"
Jo: "AAH!" (careens down stairs, throws self on surprise visitor)
|
|
|
[30 Jan 2006|04:58pm] |
I HAVE A COMPUTER!!!!
it feels much better now...apparently it had a dust bunny colony in residence in addition to some singed bits. cool.
|
|
|
[06 Dec 2005|11:24am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 pensive |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Beethoven's 6th |
] |
Since we all seem to be in need at the moment, here's what my social psych text has to say about ways to make yourself happy. Take it with a grain of salt, but I thought it was nice - and it's all empirically based, so he's not lying when he says it:
1. realize that enduring happiness doesn't come from "making it." Wealth is like health: its utter absence breeds misery, but having it doesn't guarantee happiness.
2. Take control of your time. Set goals and break them into daily aims. Although we often overestimate how much we can accomplish in any given day, we generally underestimate how much we can accomplish in a year, given just a little progress every day.
3. Act happy. Talk as if you feel positive self-esteem, are optimistic, and outgoing. Going through the motions can trigger the emotions.
4. Seek work and leisure that engages your skills. Happy people are often in a zone called "flow" - absorbed in a task that challenges them without overwhelming them. The most expensive forms of leisure often provide less flow experience than gardening, socializing, or craft work.
5. Join the movement movement. An avalanche of researche reveals that aerobic exercise not only promotes health and energy, it is also an antidote for mild depression and anxiety.
6. Give your body the sleep it wants. Happy people live active, vigorous lives yet reserve time for renewing sleep and solitude.
7. Give priority to close relationships. Confiding is good for soul and body.
8. Focus beyond the self. Happiness increases helpfulness, but doing good also makes one feel good.
9. Keep a gratitude journal. Those who pause each day to reflect on some positive aspect of their lives feel heightened well-being.
10. Nurture your spiritual self. For many people, faith provides a support community, a reason to focus beyond self, and a sense of purpose and hope. Study after study finds that actively religious people are happier and that they cope better with crises.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
chegelidamanina's journal
Dear Santa...