Beloit College Mindset Lists

Differences in age fascinate me. Not just generational differences, but even just a couple years in either direction changes perspectives. The Beloit College Mindset List gave me an interesting perspective on my age...or at least how these dudes perceive my age. I originally learned about the annual list from the director at Southfield Public Library. Shortly after that, I was browsing Overheard in the Office and came across this hilariously relevant conversation

called "When hipsters go to work in offices." It goes:

Intern #1: So I'm supposed to go through her Rolodex after lunch and add all of them into Outlook.
Intern #2: What's a Rolodex?
Intern #3: It's this round thing that has a bunch of cards and you put people's contact information. My grandma uses one still.
Intern #2: Wow! I never heard of that, I totally want one!

Ugh, hipsters.

The Beloit list comes out annually and goes back to 2002. I looked up my first graduation year, 2004, and was actually kind of disappointed. Some statements are pretty bold, but I'm not sure they are accurate enough to be so bold. Perhaps I'm a little bit defensive.

Here were a couple of my favorites from the Class of 2004:

• #20: Watergate is as relevant to their lives as the Teapot Dome scandal. (Funny, All the President's Men was one of my favorite books and I read that sometime in 2001.)
• #29: The year they were born, the New York Times announced that the "boom in video games," a fad, had come to an end. (Ha.)
• #38: They have never heard a phone "ring." (Not true - my iPhone "rings")
• #50: They feel more danger from having sex and being in school, than from possible nuclear war. (Ummm, really?)

So here are some from this year that caught my eye. Or make me feel old. Whatever.

• #6: Salsa has always outsold ketchup. (wtf!? when the hell did this happen?)
• #19: They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P. (Oh, come on now. They know that.)
• #52: They have never been Saved by the Bell. (Madness!)
  
• #70: Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power. (Yeah they have.)
  

Take the good with the bad...

I cruised down to Wayne State University in Detroit to do some research for a client at the Detroit Public Library. I had a mixed experience. It dealt with credit and food.

The bad...

As I turned off Warren and headed for the parking structure my eyes turned into tiny slits and I felt my face warm with anger. I saw the messengers of financial doom huddled under their mercenary tent, pictured here. I almost told them they should be a shamed of themselves, but decided since I was looking for a job, it might not be the best time to get smacked with any harassment charges.

The reason that I was so furious about this tent and the Chase minions under it was because of a documentary I watched a bit ago called Maxed Out. If you haven't seen it you must! If you have a kid going to college for the first time, or if you are a freshman reading this blog, take heed: if you are offered a credit card, turn and run like hell.

I understand that people need money in college for stuff, but the reason that these credit card companies come to campus is because they KNOW that students will drop into debt. Students, especially freshmen, are still learning how to spend money, but if they don't learn quick, Chase and all the other thievery corporations of its type bank off the learning curve. Hence, newly graduated high school students think they're getting a taste of independence, when all they're really doing is paving the first stretch of road that leads to terrible debt.

You know who else credit card companies bank of off? Poor people. Like students, poor people don't know how to spend their money and often times fall right into the credit hole as well. Huge corporate conglomerates like this don't make money off of rich people. They make money off poor people who don't know any better. It's disgusting, but all explained very clearly in Maxed Out. Besides, how do you think the mortgage crisis started? Same idea, give to the poor and bank off their mistakes.

The good...

After I completed my research, I took a stroll across the street to Wayne State's Farmer's Market. I was a little late, but still managed to score some beautiful garlic and squash. Good times. There were some good-looking peppers, too, but I didn't have enough cash on me. I've got to say, I'm really happy to learn about all these different farmer's markets in the area - there's one in Southfield every Thursday, one in Royal Oak every Friday and Saturday and there's always good ol' Eastern Market, which I've still never been to. Looking for a farm or farmer's market near you? Check out http://www.localharvest.org/. I haven't visited in a while, but definitely noticed that many more specs have appeared on the map, which is great news for local growers.

In related news, I heard about this really interesting (and controversial) new documentary called Food Matters. Probably one of the biggest draws for me with this flick is that it discusses how doctors aren't asking simple, but insanely important questions about our health: those regarding our nutrition. You know, questions like whether we are staying hydrated, what does our daily diet look like, etc. Thinking back on my visits to the doctor, I don't recall ever being asked that (just being scolded for smoking). What's up with that, doc?

If you're looking for some ideas on how to eat better, I might recommend the website http://www.nutritiondata.com/. There's a fantastic blog there, calorie counters and information about the food you eat, from how nutritious it is to how filling it is. I'm no mega-nutrition expert, but we've all got to start somewhere (and apparently it ain't at the doctors office - that's right, I said "ain't").

Sacrificing to the Writing Gods

When I think of sacrifice, I think of an ancient Aztec alter stained with the blood of many poor souls that were chosen to appease the gods of the day. This visual is how I always tend to view sacrifice and often times it leads me to be shortsighted. I think, "Man, it stinks that I have to give this up," even though in my heart of hearts I know it's for the best. When I am told I need to sacrifice something my first reaction is to vehemently oppose it and I begin to bargain with myself why I shouldn't give in.

However, as I slowly climb in years, I think I am learning to accept sacrifice in a different light. I call it by a simpler title: change. Sometime in February or March of 2007, I decided to quit smoking. I fell off the wagon many times over that period of time, though I smoked significantly less. I haven't smoked a cigarette in over a month and don't even have cravings anymore. This instance wasn't really a sacrifice, because smoking is terrible. It was change. I found my metabolism isn't what it used to be, so I implemented another change: regular exercise. I'm trying to keep food journal to induce more change. I'm finding a lot of parts of my life could use a little tweaking and today I have found another part that needs change: the revival of my writing.

Now, I'm reading this book called Time to Write by Kelly Stone and with every page it is becoming clear that in order for me to return to the promised land of freelance writing, I must change. The problem is...you guessed it...sacrifice. It is unsettling to think that I'll have to sacrifice hanging with Steve, with family, with buddies to make time for my writing. It makes me cringe to think that I might have to once again ditch pleasure reading. So many years I was deprived of pleasure writing and now I'm considering stepping into that situation again. Again, this is all shortsighted.

The book says to keep repeating to yourself, "Writers write no matter what." It also asks the reader to weigh and prioritize what already exists in your schedule and figure out what can be replaced with writing. Sure, I love reading and having dinner with friends, but I have a very strong suspicion that I crave my craft more than these recreational events. Reading, of course, won't be cut out entirely, as it is a tool that enriches writing (and I'm a librarian). Going to smokey bars to hear bands, blabbing on the phone for an hour and burning HOURS online are all things that have no particular importance in what I'm seeking in my life right now.

I am a person that needs solitude in both my personal and professional life. As a librarian, there is no solitude. Period. As a writer, there's lots. I'm by no means saying that I'm leaving the library world; the opposite is true. I'm looking forward to working in the information field for the rest of my life, but I intend to write to the end of my existence as well. I basically want my information topped cake and eat it, too. It's not impossible, but it takes change and it takes commitment.

For some help along the way (and motivation, tips, etc.) I've also been looking to some writing blogs. They, too, claim that this freelance business requires hustle, but they also claim that it is totally possible. Some of my favorites:

• Writing Forward - http://www.writingforward.com/ - a nice, informative blog that explores all types of writing. Very interesting and introspective posts.
  - Benefits of Journaling
  - How to Face the Blank Page When Your Muse is on Vacation
  - What I’ve Learned About Blogging
• Write from Home - http://write-from-home.com/ - fantastically written blog with insight on freelance blogging. It's also really, really funny. I've included a couple of my favorite snippets from a couple posts that I actually go back to.
  - Freelance Productivity and Bad Moods: Survival Tips for Mixing the Two - "Ever have those days when you wake up wanting to punch someone and cry, set your house on fire and move to Europe?" I ask, who hasn't?
  - How I Scored Two New Freelance Blogging Jobs While Waiting For a Train - "I took the train downtown yesterday afternoon to have coffee with one of the guys I met in the SEO class I took in February. I arrived at the station early and pulled out my iphone. Two others pulled out their blackberries. This is the mating call of the Corporate Jungle." I love that last line. A lot.
  - Freelance Writing Success: Your Way or Mine? - This was the blog post that really made me realize I need to apply some changes to get back in the writing game.
• Problogger - http://www.problogger.net/
• How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career - http://inkwelleditorial.blogspot.com/

Got any others? I'm always on the hunt for sweet writing and library blogs, so keep 'em coming!

Book Review: The Jungle

The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair

I checked out Upton Sinclair's Jungle mainly because I was waiting on another book to come in. I figured I'd read a little of it and then come back to it later after the book I was waiting on. Instead, I ripped through it in a few days. It was tremendous. Easily one of my favorite books and possibly on my top ten. Maybe top five.

The book is set in the beginning of the 20th century Chicago and follows a Lithuanian family's journey into the belly of the monstrous meatpacking industry. The tale shows us their optimism and hope in the beginning and their downward spiral as reality sets in. They live in poverty. The whole family works, people die and they never make enough to survive without worry. And that's just the tip of the misery iceberg. The main character goes through a bunch of different phases and then changes his way of thinking. I probably should have known where this book was going, but I didn't and really enjoyed the ending.

This book caught my attention many years ago when I was still working on my undergraduate degree. I was sitting in an American history class that I found boring. Then my professor read a few passages from The Jungle. Whoa. It stuck with me, but I didn't realize then that I would be into such literature (miserable, sad, doom and gloom literature, that is). There's poverty, prostitution, corruption, hobos and more hard luck than you can shake a stick at.

Many years later, a friend of mine saw I was on a big Chicago reading kick and recommended it to me. She said it had a lot of Polish in it (I'm Polish), but it was actually all Lithuanian. I'm used to hearing that the Polish were the bottom of the barrel in the early 20th century era, but in this book it was actually the Lithuanians, Slovaks, Greeks and black people. Finally, I picked it up and couldn't put it down. I read 50-70 pages at a time. You wouldn't think that a book written over 100 years ago would be written in such a timely and clear prose.

The Jungle is post-Zola and you can definitely see the influence in the story, especially when the animals are personified and the humans are described as beasts. Zola is actually mentioned along with Dante and his Inferno. The book kind of reads like the writings of Dante and those of Zola got together and made a miserable lovechild. The personifications are vivid and make the skin crawl, including descriptions of the factories, snow, wind and environment. It certainly does not remind me of the Chicago I know and love today.

It also provided a historical look at how corporations find ways to destroy little people. Sounds familiar, right? There is plenty of talk about the emergence and busting of unions. Graft is a common term and makes me believe that Chicago is the city that graft built. One gets to see the growth and dominance of the capitalism machine and watch how the man is treated as just a cog in the machine. If the machine's not working efficiently, then the cog needs replacing. Some things never change.

Also, because it was published in 1906, there are very vague, but interesting description of diseases and ailments. These sections of the book are not for the faint of heart, as it includes things like blood poison (infection), womb trouble, boils and soars. There are also frozen body parts, plenty of animal guts, fertilizer, vomit and rivers of blood that are called into the reader's imagination as well.

The book wraps up with socialism. I found it interesting to know that The Jungle was first published in a socialist magazine called the "Appeal to Reason". Near the very end of the book there's a religious socialist who said that Jesus was the first socialist. I leave you with that argument, because I thought it one of the most compelling descriptions of Jesus I've ever heard:

"Here is a man who was the world's first revolutionist, the true found of the Socialist movement; a man who whole being was one flame of hatred for wealth, and all that wealth stands for, --for the pride of wealth and the luxury of wealth, and the tyranny of wealth; who was himself a beggar and a tramp, a man of the people, an associate of saloon keepers and women of the town; who again and again, in the most explicit language, denounced wealth and the holding of wealth: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth!' -- 'Sell that ye have and give alms!' -- 'Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of Heaven!' -- 'Woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation!' -- 'Verily, I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of Heaven!' -- Who denounced in unmeasured terms the exploiters of his own time: 'Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites!' ..."

Yeah, it goes on...

"Who drove out the business men and brokers from the temple with a whip! Who was crucified-think of it-for an incendiary and a disturber of the social order! And this man they have made into the high-priest of property and smug respectability, a divine sanction of all the horrors and abominations of modern commercial civilizations! Jewelled images are made of him, sensual priests burn incense to him, and modern pirates of industry bring their dollars, wrung from the toil of helpless women and children, and build temples to him, and sit in cushioned seats and listen to his teachings expounded by doctors of dusty divinity-"

And there the rant is cut off. Pretty intense, huh? Jesus as socialist - who would've thunk it?

Bottom line: this is one of the greatest books I've ever read. I almost considered becoming a socialist.

Just take the book, kid.

Generally, I don't like to discuss patrons on this blog, but recently I was just pushed over the edge. The two patrons that I helped were not rude or inappropriate and they didn't make me upset, but the experience was a rather sad one. Allow me to tell you the story.

A woman and her teenage son approached the desk. The boy said, "Yeah, I need 'Cat's Cradle.'" I nodded approvingly and just before I turned to grab a copy for him, he added, "I need the audio book." Oh. Okay. I checked the catalog to see if we had an audio copy of Cat's Cradle. We didn't. In fact, there's no CD audio book in the cooperative where we could order it from, only tapes. The boy was determined not to read and said, "Cassettes are fine." I said okay. As I entered the mother's information to order the material from who-knows-where, they asked how long it would take. I said it's generally a week, give or take few days. The boy quietly mumbled to his mom that it wasn't worth it, because he needed it by the end of the week.

I said, "You know, we have a lot of copies of the book." He scoffed at the idea. His mother looked at her little baby with pity. "Do you want the book?" she asked carefully. "Yeah, I guess," he pouted. I walked over to the shelf, got a copy of Cat's Cradle and handed it to the disgruntled young man. I watched him tell his sad tale to his friend later. You would've thought I just kicked his dog or something. He was really bummed because he might actually have to read a book. As a librarian, it really made me sad.

Hopefully he reads it. Kurt Vonnegut is awesome.

Fight hunger with vocabulary

The other day one of our substitute librarians passed along this great website to me. Basically, it's a vocabulary game in which you select a word's synonym. If you get it right, the folks from FreeRice.com (also from Poverty.com) will donate 20 grains of rice to United Nations World Food Program. Great fun and a great cause. And, you just might learn something.

Check it out at FreeRice.com.

My CPU sounds like it's being murdered

For the past few weeks or so, I've been struggling with my CPU wailing and working extremely hard. I was obsessively watching my task manager and seeing that the CPU usage was through the roof, rarely under 75% and most often around 100%. This was extremely frustrating, especially when I'm trying to do my yoga and my tower sounds like it's being murdered by the class that I'm streaming. Heck, logging into Gmail made it sound like it was being murdered.

So I decided to do a few things. If you're like me, then you are no computer whiz. If your CPU is really working hard, you might try a couple of these things:

• First, I tried to do a custom start up from my administrator account. I stopped the computer from loading all this nonsense during start up. That sort of worked, but every now and then some program would lock up, not open, whatever and I'm certain it was due to my start up meddling.
• I cleaned my hard drive and then defragged. Although these actions were necessary they did not quell my CPU's suffering.
• I purchased a registry mechanic. I had been installing, uninstalling and battling viruses and my registry was a disaster. When my registry mechanic was finished doing the deed, it had fixed well over 2000 problems. The murderous screaming of the tower carried on, however.
• Here's what worked in the end. I got down on the ground and cleaned the layer of filth off my CPU where the fan cools the tower. It instantly quieted my machine. In fact, I was halfway done and the machine started chilling out.

This brings me back to the old acronym KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid!

Cheap, Free, Fun: Disc Golf

OK, here's the deal: I suck at disc golf. Badly. Yet, I cannot hate on disc golf for a multitude of reasons. Here's a few:

• It's outdoors. As a Michigander, if you can do something outdoors in the summer - YOU SHOULD. You've got plenty of time to sit inside and shelter yourself from the cold, sad winter months.
• It's cheap - no, wait - it's FREE! Well, most of the time it's free. A lot of parks have disc golf courses built in them.
• It's cheap - part deux. Have you ever bought a set of golf clubs? With a bag? And balls? And a glove? (Me neither, but I did score an AWESOME hand-me-down of such treasures!) However, had my cousin decided she wasn't going to have a bunch of children and give up golf, I'd never afford it. In fact, I still can't afford it. With disc golf, you'll need: discs ($12-25), gas money to get there (ok, maybe it's not THAT cheap) and buddies.
• Exercise. Need to stop being fat? Do you at least want to get a little more active? Well, as with golf, you can get lots of walking in with an 18-hole disc golf course. As stated, I suck badly at this disc golf business, but even just hanging out, watching others suck badly and walking with the gang is fun and a workout.

Some resources:

• Great article about the basics: "Disc Golf 101: The basics" from the Kalamazoo Gazette.
• Find courses near you with the Professional Disc Golf Association's Course Directory.

Unintended Racial Inappropriateness

Lately, I have had a keen ear to racism in small, almost undetectable doses. I'm not saying these people that I've observed are racist. Sometimes white people really don't know when they have crossed the line and it's just due to the fact they haven't been around black people enough or they're just still completely unaware of the situation they're in, especially when you're talking about the Greater Detroit area. And, well, frankly its not only white people.

To protect the innocent, I'm not going into too many details, but making snide remarks to someone that's from Detroit about Kwame Kilpatrick or their financial situation is really inappropriate. I'm a former Detroiter and I know I wouldn't have appreciated some crappy comments like the ones I heard the other day. No one would say these thing to me because I'm white, so no one actually knows that I lived in the city for over two decades. I've got to hand it to the lady who fielded these comments, she was a lot nicer and more patient that I would have been. I wasn't in either of the conversations and was getting sort of pissed.

I'm not sure why race and racism has been so much more apparent to me lately, even in it's most minuscule amounts, but I have a few ideas.

While researching in the Detroit Public Library the other day, I heard this fantastic podcast about how this test can reveal that people have many buried biases. There was even a white caller that talked about how upsetting it was for her to see black people sympathizing with mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. She said she basically put them under the stereotypical umbrella of ignorant and stupid; I think those were her words. The podcast can be heard at Implicit Attitude Tests Reveal Buried Bias. Very interesting stuff.

Further, I've been listening to a lot of News and Notes on NPR. This is an incredible program and I often find myself forgetting that it's from an African American perspective. That didn't sound right. I don't forget it's from an African American perspective, but I don't feel like I'm excluded from being able to listen to it because of my skin color. It's such a thoughtful show with fantastic insight on the people that I have grown up with and continue to work with. This is my first solution for clueless white people.

My second solution for clueless white (and other) people is: Chapelle's Show. A quick, concise and hilarious round-up of race relations in American today.

Book Review: Slaughterhouse 5

Slaughterhouse 5

by Kurt Vonnegut

A little bit ago, I found this cool blog with a bunch of literary tattoos called Contrariwise. Although I highly doubt I'll ever get tattooed, I'm always intrigued by what others decide to burn into their skin indefinitely. I found some repeats: tattoos about the Little Prince, The Giving Tree, Dr. Seuss references, tons of elvish writing and a boatload of Kurt Vonnegut snippets out of Slaughterhouse 5. Hence, I thought that if people were permanently putting his words into their skin, I thought that reading his book would be worthwhile. It was.

This book is essentially about a guy in World War II and the firebombing of Dresden, Germany. It's sort of a mind-bender, as the main character, Billy Pilgrim, travels through time, visits an alien planet and survives the ferocious firebombing of Dresden.

Although there's the science fiction twists of aliens and time travel, I actually think that is a bit of a distraction created by the author. The whole time travel concept really made me think about memory and its preservation. I've heard some criticism about this book minimizing the Holocaust, but I thought nothing of the sort. I actually thought it complimented the entire idea of memory during WWII, but this was a story from a very different perspective, namely, the American soldier perspective.

After each mention of death, there is the pictured phrase, "So it goes." It is repeated many, many times, giving a reader an idea of how often in life we experience death. I have found myself using this little phrase more and more often in my own speech. I guess you really are what you read!

Anyway, here's a couple passages I particularly enjoyed:

"Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and
made very good fertilizer.
So it goes." (p. 159)

"Now he quoted Theodore Roosevelt, whom he resembled a lot: 'I could carve a better man out of a banana.'" (p. 176)

History through Poetry

Lately, I've been enjoying lots and lots of poetry. I just picked up "The Straits" from a buddy of mine. It's a book about Detroit by Kristin Palm, who lived here for about a half decade, fell in love with the city, fell out of love with the city and then wrote an epic poem about the city. It's ok. My friend said it was "nothing earth-shattering," but it was deliciously historical. The author herself described it as a "docu-poem" and I would say that's pretty accurate. It helped surface some interesting facts, blurbs quotes and emotions of the day. All and all, it was well researched and sufficiently enjoyable.

In the same day, I read the poem by Matthew Dickman called Trouble. The beginning of the poem makes one think it's going to be sort of trashy, talking about the suicides of Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando's daughter. Those initial lines made me think, "Why am I still reading?" Yet, this poem covers all sorts of trouble and is about all sorts of people. And all of their trouble ends with their own doom. Very interesting. Nothing earth-shattering, but interesting nonetheless.

Yahoo! Answers

Hello again! I know I haven't been posting very much in the past weeks, but I've been conducting an experiment with Yahoo! Answers and that's been keeping me busy.

A little while ago, there was a call to librarians to storm the virtual beaches of Yahoo! Answers and do what we do best. Intrigued, I logged on with my extremely old Yahoo! account and poked around. It was terrible. All these little teenagers worrying about boys that are too old for them, acne and cheating on homework. Pathetic women talking about how their boyfriends/husbands were complete losers, but still didn't know what to do about them. I was turned off immediately and abandoned my attempt to partake in this nationwide question answering session.

However, for some reason that escapes me, I got back into it last week. There's still all the ridiculous questions mentioned above, but I decided to look past these and even answer one. Before I knew it, I was like an addict looking for my next fix. I answered question after question, gaining points and working toward my goal: to become a Level 2 member so I could give the "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down" to others' answers.

Behold, I reached my goal this afternoon. This community is very interesting, here's some of my observations:

• I answered a question about how global warming effects us on a daily basis and made a comment that asked "Who are you people?" to all those that said, "There's no such thing as global warming." Even though I provided a good, clear answer, with a link to a National Geographic article, I was given multiple "Thumbs Down," probably for my "Who are you people?" blast. Anyway, looking through other similar questions I found that there are MANY global warming deniers trolling the Yahoo! Answers atmosphere. Weird.
• This is a politically charged place. I definitely don't want to get caught up in a political online crap storm, so I craft my answers very carefully and neutrally. Yet, those people are fierce. They freak out and yell at each other and, well, they're conservatives for the most part. Anyone that answers with a liberal slant get slapped with many, many "Thumbs Downs."
• Don't screw around with the Harry Potter fans. Talk junk about their books and they, too, will "Thumbs Down" you to death.

Weekend Knowledge: Women Callers on the Jim Rome Show

A short disclaimer for this particular post: I'm not a feminist. Never have been, never will be. However, it's always good to hear the ladies step their game up, as happened in this instance. Further, if you don't listen to the Jim Rome show, you should. However if you don't, you'll probably not understand a lot of the lingo in this post. Rome is a national sports guy and if you don't like sports, well, I'm sorry I guess.

---

I was catching up on my Jim Rome podcasts, I happened to stumble upon an "all-female" call-in fest from June 30. In the third hour of his show, Rome only took calls from women and it started BADLY. I believe the analogy was "nails scratching chalkboard" or something to that effect. It was painful and the first 4-5 women were lame. Mind you, that last sentence was an understatement.

Rome insisted on continuing with the estrogen jammed calls and I thought it would tank, but I was mistaken. The calls got stronger and stronger.

First, Rachel from Houston, a caller who I absolutely adore on the Rome Show, called in and provided some fantastic Ron Artest smack. Rachel from Houston is just fantastic and the dudes on the Jim Rome show HATE here. Baring in mind that I am not a feminist, I really do think that the Jim Rome show is an extremely hostile atmosphere for any females, but ESPECIALLY for a caller like Rachel. She's really smart, knows her sports smack and clearly, CLEARLY is a better caller than 95% of Rome's retarded wannabe smack spinsters. Hence, she gets lots of resentment from dudes that are doomed to be very mediocre in comparison at best. Plus, she sounds like she has a job and a life, which is more than I can say for most of the losers that call in trying to impress the Pimp in the Box. I will celebrate the day that she wins the Smack Off.

Oh, and she also gives me one, small reason to not wish complete and utter destruction on Houston and the state of Texas as a whole. Sorry, I just hate that state. Maybe I need to see more of it, but what I have seen stinks. I digress. Bottom line: Rachel is the best female caller in the Jungle - hands down. She's probably top 3 as far as intelligent, smack-saturated takes.

Then, Kim from San Diego called and gave a good point that there's a lot of women listeners who are just a little too nervous to call into the hostile, testosterone filled Rome show, but we are out there. She then proceeded to provide a nice quick quip (a.k.a. mini-smack for you not-so-learned clones) on Brett Favre to impress Romey. She was nervous. She had a great take. She got racked.

Finally, Christine in Portland Basically said that women don't need to bring smack, bring each other down, have "Augusta National" clubs, and prove we're better than the next guy. We like to listen and enjoy.

I slightly disagree. Frankly, I DO enjoy the smack I hear on Rome, because nothing is better then some male-on-male violence. This very well could explain why I think Mixed Martial Arts is the greatest thing to ever hit the TV screen. Sorry boxers, but you're pretty fairy princesses in comparison. However, I'd looooove to watch Floyd Mayweather get his brains beat out in a cage match trying to prove me wrong. That'd be sweet. OK, again, I digress. I disagree on not enjoying the smack passed around on the show, but agree that I would not generally have the gall to actually toss around a little of my own. Nonetheless, Christine's take was excellent - clear, to the point and not scripted like many of the Jungle's loser callers.

At this point Rome reminded everyone never to confuse the listener with the caller. There's a lot of women that listen, but don't call. The last few callers of this show were phenomenal. They were women and they stepped their game up. Dudes, don't be haters, just shut up and bring it. I shall listen intently.