>   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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