We've talked about how long people have been reading Goats. But how long have you been, period?

"Ask again later"

Okay. Now how old are you, O Zammy 8-ball?

Eeek! I canna take it, there must be a 40something out there to take away the pain!

Interesting. 40somethings=bodhisattvas of age-anxiety. Of course, then they have the 50somethings to focus on.

As opposed to the 18-21 bracket, (which I am about to age out of) who are far too young to be bodhisattvas of anything, and the ones claiming status as such are lying/deluded/trying to hop on the 'cool alternative religions' bandwagon.

I may be 21, but I have a mental cynicism rating of at least 37.

I have been the perfect age my entire life.

Yeah, yeah, 42 here. Feel better now?

Dude, you're 42, but you're also a professor with a family. That's cool stuff!

Hey, I didn't say I minded being 42. I was just trying to help NV cope. Now 41, that was a tough age. As were 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, ....

My least favorite ages were 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...

Nooo, you didn't just send us back to Da Vinci!

Mine will be precisely 66 and 6 days :P

I really don't know how old I am anymore.

I stopped counting at 32.

*I meant my favorite age will be that, not my least... I hadn't seen the "least" before.

No, I'm not prone to such superstitions. Besides I recently read that the 666 in the bible is more likely to make reference to Nero and than to Satan according to some historians.

They passed the Dorsai, reached the big Corson floatboat. Completely filling it was a very large Venerian Dragon. The dragon turned an eyestalk toward them; his tendrils touched his voder, "Greetings, Doctor Lazarus Long. Greetings, new friends. May you all die beautifully!"

"Greetings, Sir Isaac. Sir Isaac Newton, this is Doctor Hilda Burroughs Long, Doctor Jacob Burroughs Long, Doctor Deety Carter Long, and Doctor Zebadiah John Carter Long, all of my family."

"I am honored, learned friends. May your deaths inspire a thousand songs. Doctor Hilda, we have a mutual friend, Professor Wogglebug."

"Wait, wait! Don't tear up your tickets. The Valkyries are having a problem. Yes, the judges hae confirmed it. No contest! The Dane has 'killed' a totally empty suit of armor! Better luck next bout, 'Pou-- Holger."

"Oh, how delightful! Zebadiah and I saw him just this past week in delivering our children to Oz for the duration of this convention. Did I just miss you?"

The dragon answered, with a Cockney lisp, "No, we are pen pals only. He can't leave Oz; I had never expected to leave Venus again... until your device-- perhaps I should say Doctor Jacob's device-- made it simple. But see what our friend Professor Wogglebug sent me--" The dragon fiddled at a pouch under his voder.

The InterSpace Patrol Agent O'Leemy tapped Zeb on the shoulder. "I heard those introductions. Come along, Carter!"

"--spectacles to fit my forward stalks, that see through the thickest mist." He put them on, looked around him. "They clarify any-- There! Get him! Grab him! That Beast! Get his Number!" Without a lost instant Deety, Hilda, and Lazarus closed on the "agent"-- and were left with torn clothes and plastic splints as the thing got loose. The "special agent" vaulted over the bar, was seen again almost instantly at the far end of the bar, jumped on it, leapt for the canvas top, grabbed hold of the edge of the illusion hole, swung itself up, bounded for Bifrost, reached it.

Sir Isaac Newton played: "Mellrooney! The worst troublemaker in all the worlds. Lazarus, I never expected to find that Beast in your quiet retreat."

"Nor did I until I heard all of Zeb's story. This convention was called especially to entice him. And it did. But we lost him, we lost him!"

"But I got its Number," Hilda said and held out its shield: "666"

The fleeing figure, dark against the Rainbow Bridge, grew smaller and higher. Lazarus added, "Or perhaps we haven't lost him. He'll never get past Sarge Smith."

The figure appeared to be several klicks high now, when the illusion suddenly broke. The Rainbow was gone, the terraces melted, the clouds were gone, the towers and castles of Asgard could no longer be seen.

In the middle distance, very high up, a figure was tumbling, twisting, falling. Zeb said, "Sarge won't have to bother. We've seen the last of it."

The voder answered: "Friend Zebadiah... are you sure?"

Much better, as long as you're not cheating.

I feel 50 some days. Something to do with being very busy all the time and never getting a rest day.

If I use a single time zone, then I leave home 3:30 Monday morning, in the office about 9:00 and rarely leave before 6:00. Tuesday to Thursday is 08:00 - 20:00+ and Friday is 08:00 until I get home about 10 pee emm. Weekends are non-stop - trying to get a week's worth of quality time with the firls in two days - and then start again on Monday...

Weekend just gone was supposed to be *restful* for me. We went down to Kiskunfélegyháza for a family party. Twenty+ Hungarians all speeking Magyar and expecting me to keep up. Real easy time, thank God for the beer.

I don't know much about you, but I thought you were speaking Hungarian. Or is Magyar some sort of dialect?

Magyar [wikipedia.org] is what Hungarians call their own language. The term also refers to the ethnic group usually called "Hungarian" in English, as opposed to the broader sense of "Hungarian" to mean "someone from what was once the Kingdom of Hungary".

as long as you're not cheating.

If I were going to cheat, I would pick a number other than 42.

thank God for the beer

Details, man!

And I presume the alleged Hungarian tradition of not clinking glasses was in force at this family party? Or is that just a legend?

Almost right. The important thing is BEER glasses. Anything else you can, and generally do, touch. If either glass contains beer then the two must never meet.

Talking of beer. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and it's lunchtime, so...

...Outdoor beer frenzy!

the broader sense of "Hungarian" to mean "someone from what was once the Kingdom of Hungary".

Where does that definition come from? I didn't see it in that Wikipedia entry. I'm sure there's a lot of Romanians, Slovaks, Serbs and other in territories that were once in the Kingdom of Hungary that would object at being called "Hungarian". Right now in Romania it's more of a self-identification thing. You're a Hungarian if you consider yourself to be one.

My question was more a puzzlement about why Nagy would find it boring or annoying that people only speak Magyar at the party. My understanding was indeed that it was their word for Hungarian.

I think that NV was saying that it was hard for him to keep up--which I took to mean that he doesn't speak the best Magyar. So it wasn't all that restful a weekend for him.

Where does that definition come from? I didn't see it in that Wikipedia entry.

Oh, come now, surely I don't have to provide every link [wikipedia.org].

Label-by-location is both inane (as you indicate) and common. My favorite bad example of this is from Casablanca [imdb.com]. The character of Viktor Laszlo is referred to as "Czechoslovakian". Well, we can pretend he had one Czech parent and one Slovak parent, but more likely is that the writer of the scene didn't know any better.

I see. I wouldn't have asked for the source if I didn't think the definition was wrong. Actually what they say is "referred to all inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary" which means at the time where the Kingdom of Hungary existed, all its inhabitans were called Magyars, which is just fine.

The way you quoted it, it sounded like the current inhabitants of any territory that was once part of the kingdom are still called Magyars, and that's not true for many of them. For anyone who doesn't know, the Kingdom of Hungary included territories that are now part of Romania, and I believe also bits of Slovakia and former Yougoslavia (and maybe more - that's as far as my knowledge goes). That's why I reacted to it, in the spirit of being precise.

The thing in Casablanca is that Viktor Laszlo could have been a citizen of the country Czechoslovakia and it wasn't a reference to his etnicity. But I don't remember such details from the film so you may be right about it.

The thing in Casablanca is that Viktor Laszlo could have been a citizen of the country Czechoslovakia and it wasn't a reference to his etnicity.

Also, Hollywood.