supervised reading/dog & pizza/pro Fanfic/name Prosper/end up badly

[meira_q <mb2910@hotmail.com>]

Catlady wrote:

<snip>
should (some class of people) be protected from the knowledge that 
there are real horrors in the world?


Me:

Kids are taught here from a very early age about the Holocaust. Every 
year, about a week before the Independence Day, there's the Holocaust 
Memorial day. There's a siren (which I can't remember if it sounds in 
the morning of the actual day, or the evening before), during which, 
everyone stops whatever it is they're doing and stand up. Even people 
in cars, or buses get out of the car and stand up.
Schools, (as well as workplaces and Yad Va-Shem - the Holocaust 
museum) hold memorial services, on TV, some channels are off, while 
others show Holocaust related movies and documentaries, even the 
children's channel. The films that youger kids see will naturally 
show less graphic images of the horrors of the holocaust, will 
probably talk about children in the holocaust and done a bit more 
gently than when talking about the Holocaust to 15 year-olds, but 
they do learn about it. They have a right to.

When I was in 3rd grade, a real survivor of the Holocaust was invited 
to tell his story to our class. One of my favorite books, that I had 
since I was about 6, was about a brother and a sister (or two 
brothers?) and how they had to hide in all sorts of places, and they 
got separated. I read and re-read it so many times that by the time I 
turned 7 it was all tattered and dog-eared, and sadly I lost it in 
one of the many times we moved around.


***


I wrote:

<< I used to enjoy walking my dog late at night there because it is
deserted, and there's no one there. One day, a car drives by and stops
next to me and the people inside tell me "Why are you walking all
alone in this part of the neighborhood for? Don't you know that you
can get assaulted and raped here?" >>


Catlady wrote:

Only if your dog is so small that the would-be assailant thinks it
unable to defend you.


Me again:

heh:). She's medium-sized. About Labrador-sized. 25kgs.


***


I wrote:

<< i saw in the pizza place menu that they have a pineapple topping
option, so *some* people might like it >>


Catlady wrote:

Pineapple, mushroom, and Canadian bacon (ham) is *my* favorite. You
don't have to watch me while I eat it. You being from Israel, maybe
you are more squicked by the ham than the pineapple. (Later, Meira
revealed that she is more squicked by the mushroom: <<both myself and
my mother hate mushrooms with passion *g* >>.)
<snip>


Me again:

I am not so squicked by ham as much as I don't really like the taste 
of it. I did when we lived in Brazil, though.


***


Steve bboy_mn wrote:

<< I think JKR and her publishers should hold a contest to see who
can write the best HP fan fiction, then compile the best of the best
in various age catagories, and publish them in a book. >>


Catlady wrote:

Marion Zimmer Bradley made her publisher, DAW, publish books of
Darkover fanfic selected by her.


Me again:

In the Star Trek fandom, there's been for a few years now, a contest 
of short stories, and the winners get published in a book, and 
there's a prize money and everything. The books (the ones that I 
have, at least) are called "Strange, New Worlds" (I & II) and they 
have some of the best ST stories I've read.

Meira.

We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
~The Secret Sits / Robert Frost~