Caipirinha

Four years of Latin classes and a horrible fascination with Mythology ahead, please excuse my animation and intensity. Pandora wasn't just some woman who foolishly opened a jar (yes jar. In the 1500's Erasmus of Rotterdam mistakenly translated the Greek word Pithos meaning jar in to the Latin word Pyxis meaning box.) The story starts with Prometheus. Prometheus was the child of the Titan Lapetus and the Oceanid Clymene. He was extremely intelligent and spectacularly clever. So much so that he was seen as a threat to Zeus omniscience/omnipotence. At the site of Sicyon Prometheus used what was supposed to be a peace offering as an opportunity to play a trick on Zeus. A sacrifice was supposed to be made to the gods as an offering to settle the score between immortals and mortals. Prometheus presented two sacrifices; the first was the meat of a bull wrapped in the rotting stomache of an ox, the second was the bones of the same bull wrapped in the tender, glistening fat of the ox. One gift was edible, but in a ugly packaging, the other was inedible but wrapped in a desirable packaging. Zeus, so tempted by the glistening fat, chose the second package. He had accidentally set a precedent for human sacrifices to the gods: Humans would keep the meat, which the gods desired, and burn only the bones wrapped in fat for ever more. Zues was terribly angry at Prometheus for the trick that he had played and in retalliation he stole away from man kind the gift of fire. Prometheus was angered by this. He approached Athena, bringing with him only a single stalk of fennel and asked to be admitted to Olympus, to which she agreed. Once he was brought to Olympus he immediately lit a torch at the fiery chariot of the sun. When no one was paying attention he broke off a glowing ember of the torch, hid it in the stalk of fennel he had brought with him, extinguished the torch and made a hasty retreat back to earth, bringing with him fire for man kind. Zeus had never been so enraged. He immediately commanded to Haphaestus to help him create a punishment for Prometheus and all of man kind. Haphaestus created the very first woman. He fashioned he rout of clay and had the Four Winds breath life in to her. She was presented to all of the gods and was bequeathed great gifts from all of them. Aphrodite blessed her with beauty, Athena wisdom, Apollo music, Hermes persuassion, and so on and so forth until every god had given her a gift. She was named Pandora, meaning all gifted, and was sent to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. But before she left she was given two special gits by Zeus; a jar, which she was told contained innumberable blessings for man kind but that must never be opened, and insufferable curiosity. Prometheus had warned Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from the gods, fearing retalliation, but when Epimetheus saw her, he was swept away. Her beauty was astounding, her grace and charm irresistable. He married her immediately and brought her in to his home. After being left alone by Epimetheus in her new home, Pandora tried in vain to ignore the jar that called to her. She even started to believe that she could hear the gifts inside begging her to be let out. Her curiosity began to get the best of her and she eventually went to the jar and put an ear up to the lid. Sure enough she did in fact hear the blessings of Zeus asking, begging, to be let out. She practiced as much as restraint as she could, but her burning curiosity won and she opened the jar. As soon as she did the sun became dark in the sky and great clap of thunder rang across the whole world. The room was filled with the stench of rotting flesh and tears began to fall from her eyes. The scourges of man kind were escaping, laughing as they flew out of the jar and in to the world. War, famine, poverty, disease, all of the most hideous creatures man kind had ever seen. All the while Pandora was trying to close the lid, but the tears that fell from her eyes blinded her. When she did eventually close the lid, it was too late. Every torture of the body and mind had already been released. Pandora became instantly terrified of what she had done, when she suddenly hear the jar speak to her again. "Please let me out," begged the voice of an angel. Pandora wanted to resist but she was simply unable. She lifted the lid again and one last, beautiful creature flew forth from the jar. The woman wiped away the tears from Pandora's cheeks and said "When you have nothing left, you will always have me." "Who are you?" Pandora asked frantically as the woman turned and flew towards the window. She turned to Pandora and smiled. "I am Hope," she said, as she floated away in to the wind. It's one of my favorite myths, can you tell? P.S. Not that this has anything to do with Pandora, her jar, or this particular myth, But Zues punished Prometheus by chaining him to a giant rock where he would spend eternity being tortured by a giant vulture. Each day the vulture would rip his flesh open and devour his liver. Each night his flesh would heal and his liver would grow back. It wasn't until Hercules, years later, that he would be freed from his bonds. Hercules, as one of his 12 tasks, shot the vulture and broke the chains, freeing Prometheus.

I guess we differ at gender roles. It seems like you are a good mix of both masculine and feminine roles, so it makes sense that you would want the same and that you wouldn't understand someone's desire for more specified gender roles. Me personally, I grew up in a family with very very clearly defined gender roles...I just happened to grow up in the wrong one. My brother would sit at the table after dinner playing cards with the men. I would help clear the table, wash the dishes, and get dessert ready for the men...with the women. In fact dinner guests used to comment that I "worked like a woman" which sounds borderline offensive but it was a compliment (women are recognized as harder workers in the area of Italy my parents come from.) So I guess because I fit so well in to the one gender role, it's natural to me to want someone outside of it, once again to balance it out. I guess I could take the long way and give you avery verbose answer (as if I haven't already) but I guess in the end, really, we're both looking for a balancing act--we're just looking for it in different ways. Makes sense to me. I mean, to me, it seems like people are attracted to what they wish they were. But then again, what do I know. :-)

Kevin kept mentioning balance in his post. Well my answers are a sort of balancing act themselves, except that I'm more comfortable with one person balancing the other out instead of finding perfectly balanced individuals. I'm effeminate. Very effeminate. And I'm also very okay with that. It is what it is. Of course I wish I was a little more butch so I so could blend in with the common folk better, but I'm not. My voice is high, my taste is outrageous, and no matter what I'm doing (with few exceptions) I'd rather be shopping for shoes. As far as I know none of my friends have first names; they're all honey, sugar, lady, or girlfriend. I don't lisp, but I do drag my S's. And the only thing I understand about football is the spandex. I'm literally only a matter of inches away from being a girl. Which, in my mind, explains why I am attracted to very, very, masculine guys. I like taller guys with wide shoulders and broad chests. I like 6-packs and biceps. I like muscles. Not gross body building muscles but something like Justin Spring (Olympic Gymnast) or Ryan Reynolds (Circa Blade 3). I like guys who drink beer, can make sense out of football, and get hard over cars. I guess really though it has less to do with actual looks than it does with gender roles. When I go out shopping I want to go out shopping with my girlfriends, not my boyfriend. When I get home from shopping I want to sit in the kitchen with my girlfriends and complain about how stupid our boyfriends are, as they sit in the next room screaming at the t.v. because someone missed a pass. I want my guy to fix my car, because Lord knows I don't know how to and he also knows I don't want to pay someone else to. I want to drag him to sappy movies and romantic dinners, and I want him to drag me to gory slasher movies and car shows. And I would so much rather be the (more) thoughtful one in the relationship. Is that to say I'm never attracted to effeminate guys? Absolutely not. But I think at the core of it, I really do think that opposites attract because they balance each other out, and I wouldn't want to date someone who was just like me. And for the record, yes I would invite an effeminate guy over to meet my family. I agree with Tiger; you have to consider the whole individual, not just the mannerisms.

Welcome to (almost) legality. Happy Birthday :-)

If I remember correctly it's after. It's in the scene where they are having the mock interviews (Mrs. Lintott asking Rudge how he defines history).

It's just one f*cking thing after another. ;-)

I have a whole repertoire of tricks I use in bars. Order a drink that looks interesting, if he's interested he'll come over to ask what you're drinking. Ask him if he wants a sip, it's a good sign if he tries the drink. (I realize that one might be a little grody to the germaphobes.) Find a reason to walk past where ever he's sitting. If he looks, give him a smile (friendly, non-committal). Returned smiles are a good sign. Do completely normal things, but do them in a way that makes you noticeable. I make people laugh. Like, really, really, laugh. People tend to want to know what's so funny. And if all else fails, be blunt. The line "Hi, I'm drunk and friendly. How are you?" Has worked for me more times than even I can believe. But most of all, be yourself. Everything in my list works for me. The bravado to do half the things I do comes naturally. I am completely comfortable walking around a sports bar filled with men drinking beer with a Tequila sunrise with more fruit hanging off the rim of my glass than the produce section at the grocery store. I am perfectly okay with introducing myself to complete strangers and offering them sips of my drink if they seem interested in it. I genuinely think it's not any of my tricks, it's the fact that I'm comfortable doing them. Confidence is a man's sexiest accessory. And I agree with Kevin, you might expand more energy than you have trying to get him to show tangible interest in you. If it's not working, show some interest in him and see how he responds.

My primary car is dark blue '01 Saab 95 My fun car is a red '04 convertible Corvette (At least I think it's '04, I don't remember exactly off hand. Forgive my ignorance, I just inherited her.)

Hey Graeme, I need to be taken off the list, I posted a story in one of the 2006 anthologies. Sorry about that ;-)

Merry Christmas guys! Even though I'm a total scrooge ;-) Felice Auguri e un Buone Natale!!

It really was a good article, I devoured it. And you're right, it is disgusting how ignorant people are.

Love love love the pixie cut. It totally suits you. :-)

To someone very special and who obviously means a great deal to a lot of people. I'm honored to know you and excited to be the first to wish you a Happy Birthday! All my love and best wishes for a wonderful year. :-)

I think maybe I like your version better :-)

I love the mass hysteria you cause by posting a blog. :-)

Yeah, us locals thought it was pretty cool too. :-)

I voted no. All is fair in love and war. However I don't think the same holds true for conscience and karma.

I want to go to Ghana to watch the men play the Djembe drums while the women dance. I want to play Jumbo with the village children in the streets. I want to spend Carnivale watching teams Samba down the streets of Rio De Janeiro. I want to stand under a mango tree in Venezuela and wait for the ripe fruit to fall into my hands and then eat it for breakfast, like my grandfather did 60 years ago when he worked on a pineapple plantation there. I want to go to the Tampobata clay licks in the rain forest of Peru and watch the Macaws flock by the thousands. And maybe while I'm there take a detour to the Andes and buy a blanket hand knit from the wool of the alpacas that the artisans surely raise themselves. I want to go Jaipur, India and watch the parade of painted elephants during their Elephant Festival. I could go on and on forever. But I guess the moral of the story is I basically want to do everything.

Firstly: Welcome to the gayborhood. Secondly: To use one of my favorite lines: "Girl, if I were straight I'd let you say no to me!" :-)

I don't write about myself. I write about who I wish I was ;-)

Happy Birthday :-)

You know it's not often that a penis can render me speechless...

In Italy, at weddings, they give out Jordan Almonds with a saying something to the effect of "For the sweet and also for the bitter." Many , many congratulations and many happy years together through both the sweet and the bitter. :-)

Happy Birthday... A million percent late.