Nuggets of information I have gleaned since Friday, in no particular order:

*last Christmas, my uncle took two servings of the little plastic cups full of wine during Communion. today at a family bbq, upon hearing this, I called out, "uncle __________ double fisted during Communion?" to the endless pride of my mother. Luckily, both grandparents are pretty hard of hearing.

*my cousin*'s high school boyfriend made a bong out of a water bottle. that my aunt found in my cousin's drawer years ago, stashed in her [my aunt's] closet and promptly produced today at lunch. much fun was had figuring out how the thing would work before deciding it would make a cute planter. [*my cousin is no longer in high school. by a long shot. and shockingly, she's not a dope fiend, either. but no matter, kids, don't do drugs.]

*I have enough clothing to supply a small third world country. I know. That is such an ethnocentric comment to make. Do people even say first and third anymore? let alone second. and I'm not saying the people of this country would be dressed in the heighth of nadzat fashion or anything. I'm just saying, if they need some socks, nylons, or black shoes, come on over to my house. there is currently a box of each sitting on my mother's living room floor.

*Clerks II: cinematic gold AND a vocabulary lesson. I am from Baltimore. Baltimore, Maryland. Needle City, as my dear former roommate refers to it. It's kind of like an overgrown small town with a fairly sizable history of racism and poverty and whatnot (see also: the corner. or homicide. or barry levinson movies). And while Baltimore has nurtured and grown some pretty awesome things (National Bohemian beer, Johnny Unitas, the BALTIMORE Colts, any blue crab I've ever eaten, and the movie "Diner"), Baltimore has also grown a fair number of racists. So, although I do not share the views of the racists I've run across in Baltimore, I have been exposed to their vocabulary. Slurs of various races, creeds, colors, social classes, economic classes, geographic locations, sexual orientation, preferences of food, etc. Thus, I was floored that I had never heard the term used in Clerks II. I will not type it, because, well, it's a racial slur. I will tell you that the initials are: P M. And I am glad I now know this because what if one day I were thinking of some kicky title for a blog post or a short story and this phrase just popped into my head. Forever after I would be branded a racist. or a Racist. Even though, at that innocent time in my life, I would have had no idea it was a slur at all. I would have thought it was a garden ornament. Man, the english language...it is fraught with danger. I hope French is safer.