The Tangent Thread: "That reminds me of the time...."

[Slithytoves]

I am an ace at derailing people's threads with tangents. Apologies all around. For those of us who tend to wander off in another direction, this thread is for you.

Take some small detail from the following personal experience and go somewhere, anywhere, totally different with it. It doesn't have to be anything funny or dramatic. Just a random story from your own life with enough detail for somebody else to grab a thread and pull away.

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The first time I went to a Wiccan ritual, I knew nothing at all about Wicca but was too curious not to take a friend up on an offer to go. We drove out into the middle of nowhere to some forested land owned by the coven's priestess, and hiked in about 500 yards -- in pitch darkness, with a small flashlight -- to a clearing with a blazing fire in the middle. About a dozen people were already there. I ended up standing due east in the circle. It was a dark moon ritual so the priestess was dressed as the Crone, in a heavy black robe with the hood hanging low over her face. I didn't know in advance that circles are cast starting in the east in the tradition I was visiting. Wish I had. Everybody went dead quiet, and the hooded priestess walked over and stood directly in front of me. She raised her athame (ritual dagger) high above her head to do the invocation, just a foot or so from me. Before she could speak, I thought, "Oh, sh*t! Wicthes really do sacrifice people!" I yelped aloud and took off into the woods. My friend and her husband found me after a few minutes, calmed me down and explained everything. Man, was that embarrassing! When I reached a level of initiation where I was running rituals for the group as a stand-in, I made sure all newbies stood smack in the eastern quadrant. We were all in on it. Worked almost every time.

 

[Vinca]

I was in france on a school trip and was around the age of 15 ish. It was the last night and everyone except me and another 'odd' girl, had gone out to a club. I'd reached social overload point and the idea of going to a club with lots of people made me go inside. The hostel we were staying in had what I think is known as a 'cortile', a coutyard in the centre of the building that extended up the hieght of the building, with windows on each floor, overlooking the courtyard. It was probably about 20 metres square. I was sat on the ledge at the window doing sketches in a sketch book. A lad at a window several floors down started talking to me in french, which I tried to do in return. It turned out that he was from England too. He came up to the floor I was on and we continued talking. Then three of my teachers walked into the corridor and the sense of akwardness that I felt was so overwhelming, that I legged it along the coridor, into the dormitorys.

 

[tree]

My sister went to France with the band,
when she was in high school.
I was never in France or in
band.
She brought me back from France
two little white & blue porcelain kittens,
made in Japan. I can only find one of them now.
I don't know where the other one is. It's not broken.
I know it didn't break. I just don't know where it is.

 

[Vinca]

At college there was a girl who came from Taiwan. The first thing I asked her was if there were lots of factories in Taiwan, thinking that there must be, as there are so many products that are made in Taiwan.

 

[NTgirl4276]

did you ever notice how many times politicians say things like "let's see more products stamped, 'Made in America!' on the bottom"? when, in reality, most products made in America are stamped "Made in U.S.A." because it's shorter.

according to some political strategists and speechwriters I know, the inaccurate "Made in America" phrase is used because it sounds better in a campaign speech, because "America" is political shorthand for "freedom" and "unity." the only time we hear "U.S.A." is during chants at sporting events and, thus, it connotes competitiveness and aggression.

 

[tree]

Spelling changes show attitude.
Spelling 'America' with a K,
for instance, is a very negative
stance. [Amerika]

 

[Flinty]

For some reason, while the scientific measurement system uses meters and seconds, they use Kilograms (instead of the base unit grams), which gives us the MKS system.

 

[Vinca]

Babies are still weighed in pounds and ounces, as far as I know, in the UK, rather that grams and kilograms.

 

[Beverly]

The same shell casing and same caliber bullet will need a different number of grains of gunpowder when you are reloading depending on the brand and type of powder, the weight of the bullet and, the velocity you desire the bullet to have when it is fired. Those new to reloading often mistake grains for grams.

 

[tree]

The most frequent word in Post #9 is 'the.'
Next most frequent is the word 'of.'
'Bullet' and the word 'and' occur equally often.
The words 'to,' 'same,' 'when,' 'reloading,'
'grains,' and 'you' each occur twice. The rest of
the words occur only once.

I counted these words so that for awhile I wouldn't
be thinking about the phone call I made today to the
lawyer who is handling my mother's will.

 

[Beverly]

Speaking of phones, I have lost my bandmates to an iPhone app called Bridge Constructor. For some odd reason the NTs thought they could out logic DJ and I on the app. Why are they still in zone one while DJ and I are in zone three then? LOL

 

[tree]

In high school I idolized guys on the radio. [dj's]
It seemed a magnificent power to me, to be able
to speak to thousands of people and be invisible.

 

[Bird]

Radios (the handheld "walky-talky" kind) make me nervous. They make sudden noises when you are completely alone and not expecting it, and I get nervous about talking over them. Everyone can hear me. And what if I break radio etiquette? Or what if I interrupt someone in the middle of something important?
On the other hand, it can be very useful to have a radio. I, paradoxically, get nervous when I don't have it on me at work.
And the radio etiquette is also very important. A few days ago, I was helping with a birthday party our aviary was hosting and someone reported a "code 4" mallard over the radio. "Code 4" means dead. I was grateful the seven year old kids I was watching didn't know that.

 

[Beverly]

We had Mallard Ducks when I was growing up and, mom tried to make us eat their eggs but, she fed them garden trimmings and, the eggs tasted horrible the one time I tasted a duck egg form those ducks. I like duck eggs now, from grain fed ducks.

 

[tree]

As a child I preferred Daffy Duck to Donald Duck.
Daffy Duck, to me, was funnier than Donald Duck.

 

[Flinty]

The Donald has completely gone off his Rocker, literally.

 

[umbrellabeach]

Scrooge McDuck once got a rocking chair for his birthday and it made him feel old so he set out to find the fountain of youth.

 

[tree]

People try all sorts of things to retain/regain youth.
Grandma said she thought Bing Crosby had had
monkey gland implants. geh.......

 

[zurb]

Maybe its a generational thing, but I never really knew who Bing Cosby was. I've heard some songs, but never associated them with the name. When I hear his name, I always think of Bill Cosby instead. We used to watch the Cosby show when we were on holiday when I was a kid. My mother approved of him more than most other things on TV. Funny that as she's got older she watches more now, but my parents still prefer nature documentaries to soaps.

 

[tree]

Carlos, in Batteries Not Included, referred to Bing Crosby as
Bing Cosby.