From fork-admin@xent.com Thu Sep 19 11:04:56 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.spamassassin.taint.org Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 44D5C16F03 for ; Thu, 19 Sep 2002 11:04:55 +0100 (IST) Received: from jalapeno [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Thu, 19 Sep 2002 11:04:55 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g8IIcfC11476 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 19:38:41 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76BD12940AC; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 11:35:06 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org Received: from hall.mail.mindspring.net (hall.mail.mindspring.net [207.69.200.60]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id F364929409E for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 11:34:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-119ac86.biz.mindspring.com ([66.149.49.6]) by hall.mail.mindspring.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 17rjiB-0006LF-00; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 14:38:07 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: rahettinga@pop.earthlink.net Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: <20020918104740.5A00BC44D@argote.ch> <200209181145.50631.eh@mad.scientist.com> To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org From: "R. A. Hettinga" Subject: Re: [VoID] a new low on the personals tip... Cc: Digital Bearer Settlement List Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@spamassassin.taint.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 14:13:32 -0400 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I know it's not the popular choice for a lot of people, but I'd suggest, um, church. :-). Like Woody Allen said, 90% of life is showing up, right? Almost anyone can find a church where the sermons don't make you bust out laughing, and you're set. I, for instance, am a Unitarian, which, as someone once observed, is merely a decompression chamber between a real church and a golf course. (ObUUJokes: Mid 70's bumper-sticker: "Honk if you're not sure"; Lenny Bruce: "Did you hear about how the Klan burned a question mark on the Unitarian's lawn?"; "Unitarians would rather go to a discussion group about heaven than to heaven itself."; "Unitarians pray 'to whom it may concern'"; etc...) But, seriously, folks, my teenage-adopted denomination (I'm, um, lapsed, on several fronts, a Dutch-Reformed-turned-atheist father and an agnostic mother who used to be a southern Baptist of some stripe or another) and frankly limousine liberal secular-humanist congregation is about as orthogonal to my present congenital-Republican small-l libertarian turned anarchocapitalist politics as it is possible to be (except for the secular-humanist bit...), and I still go pretty regularly, though not as much as I used to. Heck, the older I get the less of the divine I believe in. I'm asymptotically approaching my father's atheism, these days, and I show up at least once a month. Nice folks though, when I can keep a civil tongue in my head -- smart too, when I can't and end up arguing with them. :-). Anyway, if *I* can end up hitched, anyone can. Talk about orthogonal. I met my practically-socialist state-education-bureaucrat wife one year after I started, moved in with her 6 weeks later :-), married her 2 years after that, and I wasn't even trying meet women. I was just looking to make friends as I was new in town. The trick to the church thing is, whatever denomination/congregation you end up in, expect to end up with a mate, not a date. I mean, some guys manage to stay single, but most, like me, don't. You can practically see the laser-sights light up when you walk into a room... That's because, of course, most churches are *run* by women. Most regular attendants are women. Hell, 65% of all new *ministers*, in protestant denominations, at least, are women. No matter your age, looks, intelligence, whatever, you'll end up surrounded by women. You'll be outnumbered, even several to one -- some of whom are at least better looking than you are. :-). The only place where there are *more* women running things is in grass-roots Republican politics - -- but I won't go there, I promise. If I may make a presumption here, since you brought it up, I figure that between the sophistication and diversity of the subcontinent's religions, and the ubiquity of Indians in various stages of assimilation in So/NoCal, you can find some place to hang out near you, Rohit. You probably don't even have to go, um, native, like I did -- backsliding on my own ostensibly rational godless upbringing and becoming, horrors, a Unitarian... Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 7.5 iQA/AwUBPYjCBcPxH8jf3ohaEQI2vwCbB2UkMyii/XwKQvvJFSWlMMRheBsAmwUB jDmfQrNRQED3LmW6V8YutN54 =vQ/A -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'