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Unconscious Mutterings 183

Unconscious Mutterings 183

Unconscious Mutterings

Weekly Unconscious Mutterings Meme – Week 183

I say … and you think … ?

  1. Affair :: of the heart, Family (that dates me), adultery, euphemism

    Family Affair: Season 2

  2. Package :: books, chunky, tied up wtih string, delivery
  3. Warner :: Brothers, Time, Dena, cartoons
  4. Drop :: cookie, balance, from the tree, down, silver, drip
  5. Balance :: drop (nice reversal there), sneakers, beam, centered, judicial, viewpoint
  6. Shore :: rocky, cliffs, New England, hug, lighthouse, hurricane, up
  7. Confirmation :: notice, payment, tickets, hearings, appointment
  8. Nose :: nuzzle, ugga-mugga, Pinocchio (and see HK), pry, needle
  9. Talking :: low, points, whispering, together, conversation, negotiation, reconciled
  10. Bend :: it (name of a song I used to warm up to), stretch, break, flex, rules

And here’s an example of the ugga-mugga, almost at the end.

Did you know that Mister Rogers once saved PBS from Nixon? This is terrific!

I would love to see a warrior of caring such as this change hearts and minds in Washingon today. I loved Mister Rogers (and I liked the comedy sketches based on him too – it was easy to make fun of him, and many did). But what a wonderful voice and what a great form of communication, especially for children. Now, as a mom, as an American, as someone who can still be affected even today by what he is saying here and how he is saying it, I can’t help but think that this is the kind of thing we’ve been missing in our public discourse.

We don’t have a love and peace movement, and I can’t see how one could succeed at the moment. Our religious leaders seem to present more of a problem than a solution. The progressive faithful still lack strong voices in the public sphere.

Are there still people who can speak in contemporary terms, who can speak like this? Wouldn’t that be something to see? Imagine how differently Senate hearings would go, for instance, if the testimonies rang with authenticity, not mendacity.

Impose Freeze on Oil Prices

Impose Freeze on Oil Prices

How can the gas/oil companies still continue to defend rising prices when they are making millions of dollars a minute?

Anger over oil profits is justified, especially now that we know about things like the $400 million retirement package for outgoing chairman of Exxon, Lee Raymond. Give me a break.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights released a new study yesterday that confirms that rising gasoline prices in California are because of “corporate markups and profiteering” not rising crude costs or the national switchover to higher-cost ethanol, as the oil industry claims.

Is anyone calling for Bush and the US Congress to freeze gas and oil prices to reasonable levels, as Nixon did? Is there any investigation going on at all?

Is anyone capable of and willing to put any sort of leash on the runaway greed that has led to so much exploitation and death?

Tiny Tooth Horror

Tiny Tooth Horror

It’s a matter of aesthetics. I simply find certain kinds of mouths repulsive. For me, it all has to do with the teeth.

The worst mouth? The one where you have to wonder whether or not there are any teeth at all. The person hardly ever lets you see them. I dislike the bulldog expression – the bottom teeth appear, but the top teeth do not. I dislike very small teeth – they look like corn on the cob.

If you add tension, smirking, and other strange manneristic muscular signals to the secret-teeth, bottom-teeth-only, or corn teeth, then I have a very primal sort of reaction.

It’s a kind of prejudice – it is certainly a preference. Back in the day when I was basically a serial monogamist, all of my boyfriend/lovers had medium-to-large white teeth (not that it matters here, but I am also partial to strong chins and warm expressive eyes). My husband shows his nice white teeth. My whole family has big white gleaming teeth. Maybe it’s a narcissistic tribal affiliation.

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but my Dad lost all his teeth when he was young. I had the most trouble relating with him when his dentures were rather small. Later, when he was older, the dentures were (or at least seemed) bigger, and he smiled more often (and more naturally). We got along better – but that was probably for other reasons altogether. Still – I wonder if this sort of thing could really be a subliminal/unconscious factor i our responses to others?

I don’t care about skin color or language or class or sexuality – but I just don’t like those scary little teeth set in those hard unfeeling mouths. In such a case I may have to admire him (usually it’s a him I mean) in spite of teeth capacity or expressive usage. Someone would have to be so brillant or witty or creative that I would overlook the scary teeth situation, like say… Anthony Hopkins.

I never realized this about myself until now. I know this is a really odd thing. I wonder if I am alone in feeling this way. Having realized this, I’ll have to be more conscious of it in my daily interactions with people. It may be unfair, maybe, may… be.

I like big clean white teeth that show up and make a strong appearance. Americans are known all over the world for our big white honest teeth. Sometimes the teeth may suggest some sort of aggression, like a tiger baring its teeth, but I still prefer that to the scary little teeth. I’m very welcoming to Mormons at the door despite having been a door-to-door cousin Jehovah’s Witness – for some reason they tend to have great teeth (and they are so wonderfully earnest).

Actually I think there are people who prefer the secret teeth, the corn on the cob, show-the-bottom-teeth like a bulldog kind of thing. Maybe they are equally repulsed by people who show their upper teeth. Maybe they are self-conscious about their own teeth. I can’t say that I have the answers on this.

Could there be a political divide – could teeth actually be a factor?

I started having wild thoughts about this. JFK and Jimmy Carter showed teeth. The Clintons have the teeth and so does Kerry. Hollywood people are, of course, big teeth-showers. I’m sometimes undecided about Ahhnold – I like his teeth – but I notice that he doesn’t show them much when he is around the President.

It seems like such a shallow sort of thing, but I wonder if there really are any perceptual differences or other psychological effects across populations based on tooth preferences. I have really gotten to dislike the white male republican kind of mouth. Here’s what I mean.

Nixon had a nice smile:

nixonteeth.jpg

But is that how we remember him? No, here is the mouth I think of…

nixonbotteeth.jpg nixonbottteeth.jpg

Bush is more attractive to me when he shows his teeth.

bushteeth1.jpg See? This is nice.

But here is how I see him in my mind’s eye:

bushmouth.jpgbushmeet.jpg bushnoteeth.jpg bushdebate.jpg bushmon.jpg

It’s probably not a consistent thing. I’m sure there are lots of attractively-toothed Republicans and some scary little-toothed bulldog-underbited Democrats. Condi has a big toothy smile, but that one is a bit terrifying. Zell Miller looked like what he really was, a DINO. Joe Leiberman is borderline – smallish teeth but he shows them sometimes.

Still, here are a few examples of mouths with expressions that I find particularly unattractive.

cheneyteeth.jpg Cheney

rumsfeldteeth.jpg Rumsfeld

roveteeth.jpg Rove

tomdelaymouthm.jpg DeLay

perduemouth.jpg Perdue (GA Gov)

chamblis1.jpg chamblis2.jpg Chambliss (GA Sen)

Man O man, show me thy teeth.

100 Mistakes for the President to Choose From – Center for American Progress

100 Mistakes for the President to Choose From – Center for American Progress

100 Mistakes for the President to Choose From – Center for American Progress

Here is a nice little list of a hundred mistakes Bush has made, although he couldn’t really think of any (maybe a couple of appointments) during the debate.

Personally, I think the way he ignored the State Department’s plan for peace in Iraq was pretty major… Anyway, after looking at this list, which is pretty damning, I really truly can’t understand how anyone could think that Bush is good for this country in any way.

He is the worst president in my lifetime for sure – I wonder how far back you really have to go to find a worse one? He even makes Nixon look pretty good. It’s hard to believe now that Nixon was hated so much for Watergate – doesn’t it now seem a little, well, quaint? It seems like some of the presidents after Nixon were involved in things an awful lot worse than that.