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    >   Mine don't either.   
    >   Don't want to get into modern socio-politics and treading lightly: If you   
    > were born a boy or girl you are always a boy or girl regardless what you   
    > think (or feel like) today.    
    >   When your chromosomes change, come back and we'll talk about it.    
      
   Yup.  like the story goes:   
      
   Girl asks her besty, "So you just had a baby?"   
   "Yup."   
   Is it a boy or girl?   
   "Duh! How can I know? It's not old enough to tell me yet!"   
      
   *facepalm*   
      
   I blame the governmemt: they began using "gender" to ask if male or female   
   because certain staff were afraid of the word "sex."  Now nobody knows that sex   
   & gender are two very different things.   
      
   Sex, as a noun: male or female, period, no other options.   
   Gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter -- refers to outward behaviours, not   
   actuality.   
      
   I've thought about being cheeky & answering "F" on "gender?" questions, until I   
   realized it would just be taken seriously without question.   
      
   Or like the teenage boy who was looking at the question "Sex?" & thought "Well,   
   I'd like to F, but I guess I should be honest & put that I only M"   
      
    > > How many siblings did you have?   
      
    >   Altogether three.   
      
   I was eldest of three; now two, as my younger brother(middle child) died in   
   Korea (in 2003, not the war)   
      
   My baby sister is up north working her ass off as a business owner (accounting   
   & bookkeeping office) & enjoying her many grandkids. . . (she was first to make   
   my mom into a great grandma--not overly appreciarted at the time)   
      
      
    >   I had a brother (b. 1922) and sister (b.1924) from my father's first   
    > marriage.  "Big Joe" was killed in the Pacific in 1945.  I was born five   
    > years and three days after his death in my parents second marriage).   
    >   My mother had Charles in her first marriage in 1938.  He's the only one   
    > still alive.     
    >   Being 12 years old than I we had little in common.  He married his high   
      
   So you're a big o' 71 now, eh? Quite young, still. . .   
      
   Most of my real-life friends are closer to 80 or 90. . .   
      
   But I pay attention tot he world so I understand you young'uns, too (yes, I   
   know the irony of me being 54 & sdating such things, but I'm an ancient soul)   
      
    > school sweetheart in 1958 and I was an uncle at 10.  They are still married   
    > to each other, have two kids (two years apart, a boy and a girl) and several   
    > grand and great grand kids).   
      
   Back when you could say "one of each" & not cause confusion.   
      
   So you're a multiplicate uncle, eh?  Any family yourself? (wife, kids,   
   grand'uns, etc?)   
      
    >   I came along in 1950 and was what I call an "oops" baby.  "Oops, honey,   
    > remember that night we...."  :)     
      
   Did your parents consider you a "mistake" or a "surprise"?   
      
    >   In the late '90s I worked as as temp in maintenance at a local bank and   
    > one of my jobs was mowing the grass, trimming the hedges, etc.   
      
   Nearly 50 & doing manual labour/yardwork, eh? Fun times we live in, eh? :P    
      
    >   Now I was never that good a trimming and had a power trimmer.   
    >   I was cutting along, stepping back to check how I was doing, etc and when   
    > finished I was pretty well pleased with myself.  Until I noticed there were   
    > all waves on the sides and dips in the top of the hedge.   
    >   Like a bad haircut I thought, "well it'll grow back".  :)   
      
   Like the ad of a groundsworker at a stadium whose mind was drifting as he   
   imagined himself on a Harley. . .  "Think they'll notice?" (swerve-y lines. .   
   oh, definitely!)   
      
   Lke they say: don't like the job the barber did on your hair? Wait a week.   
      
    > > But apparently I'm an old fuddy-duddy who doesn't understabnd life as it   
    > > is now.   
      
    >   Join the club.  I'm a charter member.   
      
   But we understand plenty, because we know the truth & we watched it go wrong. .   
   . powerless against a juggernaut of ignorance sweeping our respective national   
   populations. . .   
      
   I've coined the phrase, "insistently ignorant" for how some do their jobs.   
      
   It's usually misheard & written as "consistently ignorant" which usually   
   achieves mty dewsired result anyway." (in the last instance, I wanted a   
   particular home care worker to no longer be sent to me.)   
      
   Now my wife & I decided to fire the lot of them & figure it all out ourselves.   
   Keeps nosy strangers out of our home, too.   
      
   My wifge fgiguyred out how to proerly install my pressure wraps on my ever-   
   swelling left leg & foot, so that wass the last thing I had care for (Once   
   married my wife fired the cleaning folk, saying she's trust her own job better   
   anyway)   
      
   Much better -- now they have to do specvial macinations to make excuses to   
   snoop, & we're on to them & are watchingt hem at all times (the house is never   
   left empty.)   
      
   I'm kind of a rebel & on several watch lists, it seems. . . (lists ala Joe   
   McCarthy in his latter days in the Senate.)   
      
   I'm actuallky not a danger or problemn at all; I'm just more aware than most. .   
   . & I dislike & publically debunk lies.  I think "iconoclast" is the term; at   
   one point in human history, iconoclasts were well-respected & appreciated, now   
   they're enemies of the State. :P   
      
   You couldn't even LOOK ast the seats of govermewnt uynless you were in   
   intellectual back in the latter 18th c, it's quite the oppositre n ow -- if   
   you're revealed as an intellectual, you'll be facing away from the seats of   
   government in a hurry!   
      
   Ignorami are intimidated by intelligence.  Not realizing that they're   
   controlled/manipulated by such, but just by the dishonest ones.   
      
   Oh, if only we could have a bunch of Lincolns hit the ballots these days. . .   
      
   At leat you have a rich hisrtory of noble intyelligent mewn committed to the   
   people they served.  Our early history is filled with sots, who essentially   
   said "*hic* f--- it, let's do it!"   
      
   I'm especially impressed by how Mr. G. Washington was offered to be made   
   king(absolute ruler) of his new country, & he lit into the people, reminding   
   them of why & his compatriots fought long & hard against the British.   
      
   He was an early(not first) president & well-earened the title "leader"   
      
   To me the only leaders are the original sense of it: people who led the way in   
   the fight against trouble, who were first in literally putting themselves   
   between danger & the non-combatant people behind him.   
      
   I say him only to be historically accurate -- if & when there's a woman   
   lieutant in the army who leads the chare into dangerous territory & succeeds at   
   it, I'm happy to call her a true leader, too.   
      
   To me, this isn't politicsa, it's sociology. . . ;)    
      
   Your friend,   
      
   <+]:{)}   
   Cyberpope, Bishop of ROM   
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