Encouraging AndrewZRX

There were 25 responses and the poll is over so I have sent the following message to our friend AndrewZRX:

Andrew,

Hello from me and your friends at the Elgin Street Irregulars Blog.

How are you? I trust you are well and that the reason we haven't heard from you is that your life is full of fun and excitement. If you are under the weather, I hope you are taking your vitamin D to compensate for the lack of sunshine in your day.

I realized we haven't given you much assistance with your blog posting prize so I ran a poll to see what our readers would be most interested in.

You can see the results at this link.

The bottom line: Somebody out there would like to read just about anything you write unless it's about politics.

You'll notice that 10 people would like you to divulge "an embarassing sexual incident" from your recent past, but I would take this with a grain of salt. I know some of those people and there are plenty of sexual incidents they have no desire to hear about.

So far, four people, one of whom would have to be your friend Zoom, say they would like you to write a posting that concisely touches on all the topics in the poll. I say that these people are demanding and greedy and should not be pandered to. Essentially they are asking you, a complete novice, to write the ultimate (or Platonic ideal) blog posting.

Instead, why not tell us about your pet?

Your friend,
Fourth

p.s. I'll be posting this on the blog and suggesting that readers use the comments to the posting to encourage you, ask questions, or make suggestions.

Yahoo Poem: Why Audrey?

I like Audrey because she sticks. By my side.
I like Audrey because she is funny. She tells the story of how she solves a crime.
I like Audrey because she is so pretty! Who is she?
I like Audrey because she's bold
I like Audrey because she gives heart and emotion to the series.
I like Audrey because of her sense of style
I like Audrey because she is in my homeroom
I like Audrey because she kicks girlie butt! I wouldn't wanna mess with her myself!
I like Audrey because to me she always dressed the part of a lady.
I like Audrey because she's very funny and natural.
I like Audrey because she's a smart, independent woman who's shown loyalty and quick thinking.

[The Search]

Man, I feel like (telling) a woman

An intimate reflection from Audrey

I have noticed that, recently, I have had some very deep conversations with men.

They have frequently taken place at the Usual Spot. They have also taken place at small dinner parties (including my own), hockey parties in private homes and bars (Go Sens Go!), and even at weddings (esp. while eating yummy Greek food).

As well, I have had these conversations during vacations in Europe with friends, in e-mail messages, and on the phone.

It seems that, these days, my male friends and I are always cautioning each other, don't blog this, before launching into a detailed story. We seem to be opening up more to each other. It seems that we suddenly all know about each others' salaries and mortgages and love lives and, unfortunately, angst.

In the past, only my boyfriends would have intimate discussions with me. They would tell me of the girlfriend who left them for their best friend, of the father who beat them, of the impact on them when their parents divorced or when one of their parents passed away suddenly, of their financial and career worries.

My other male friends would discuss romances, family, work, and money, but only on a very general level. (My women friends and I have always had these intimate conversations - especially when we have been trying to figure out men!)

However, now my eyes have been opened to the fact that men worry about the same things that my women friends and I worry about!

Men worry about:
1. Why a love interest only wants to be friends with them;
2. How they should treat a love interest if that love interest is already in a relationship, but if there is undeniable chemistry between them;
3. What are the appropriate levels of intimacy with a love interest;
4. How long they should stay in their present job.
5. How to dress well, without appearing to have made any effort;
6. How to take care of friends and family members who are going through a tough time;
7. If they should rent or buy. And, if they wish to buy, should they buy a family-sized house if they are single;
8. If they should have children, get married, settle down;
9. What is the best way to live a meaningful life; and
10. How to get over a broken heart.

Have I changed, or have men?

Say it ain't so, Pho. . .

Oh my... chagrin (deep) and despondency (utter). How could they? Post-last-call gourmets, gourmands and fur-bearin' varmints alike among the ESIs demand to know the meaning of this! For goodness' sake!

After we waxed all exuberant about Mr Pho on Elgin Street's felicitously diverse menu, they deleted poutine from the sign.

If this was the other side of the Ottawa River, perhaps we could see the twitchy hands of the infamous Language Police. But those particular officious bureaucratic twits do not patrol here. Yet. We have plenty of others.

And anyhoo, if I recall my colonial-era geopolitics correctly, Viet Nam and France once had a close relationship, such that decades later, the (heh...) lingua franca of that country is still pretty much French. It's a French Fact.

So why is there not room on Mr Pho's shiny new sign for peaceful coexistence, a diplomatic detente for the two great solitudes of Pho and Poutine? Tasty, tasty solitudes.... I digress.

One hesitates, in these benighted times and in this context, to stir up the currently-loaded term 'reasonable accommodation'. Yet it seems to my dust-glazed approximately-amber prairie eyes that, indeed, nothing on that sign replaces the deliciousity that is poutine. Except, well, a sad, sad blank space, pretty much exactly the right size for the word 'poutine'...

Why can't they all just get along again? I mean, it's not like the remaining Pho (...well, 'noodle soup'...), Pad Thai and Shawarma are exactly kissin' culinary cousins. So what happened? Enquiring minds need to pho... ummm, know...

Let's give AndrewZRX more help

We haven't heard from AndrewZRX for a while. I suspect he has blogger's block. I also suspect that, with the wide range of things he could write about in his one posting on our blog, he doesn't know what he should go with.

That is why I have placed a poll in the side bar. Please take a moment to read the list and vote for your choices.

I believe I can add items to the list until the poll closes, so feel free to suggest additions in the comments to this posting.