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“Hysteria” about the Singular Most Popular Sex Toy
Jun 23rd
“Singular Most Popular Sex Toy”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hysteria is about the invention of a device that is widely used, but not commonly discussed, and when it is, usually there are snickers and Monty Python nudges of “Know what I mean? Know what I mean?”
And I am not talking about the candy bar.
The word “hysteria” comes from the Greek word meaning a woman’s womb, and in the 1800s when it was used to mean a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, and visceral functions leading to behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unimaginable fear or emotional excess, doctors in England believed that behavior in women was caused by their uterus, and the way to treat them and to cure that behavior was to apply stimulation to the woman’s organ.
What I don’t understand is why any woman paid a doctor to treat her that way for the all-purpose catchword of hysteria would go back to him and pay him again for treatment when she could just treat herself at home for free.
All puns intended.
The story begins in 1880 in London, and Hugh Dancy plays Dr. Mortimer Granville.
Dr. Granville interviews for the job as assistant to Dr. Robert Dalrymple, who asks Dr Granville, “But tell me, Doctor, what do you know of hysteria?”
Dr. Dalrymple says that the work of treating women for hysteria is tedious and boring, but Dalrymple is London’s leading specialist in women’s medicine, and his waiting room is always full of women waiting to be treated by him.
Know what I mean? Know what I mean?
Dr. Dalrymple has two daughters, Emily and Charlotte, who is played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and they, too, are doctors. Emily lives at home and is a phrenologist, or a scientist who feels the bumps on someone’s head, which determines the person’s mental faculties and character.
Charlotte, however, is at odds with her father, because she is always borrowing money to keep her Settlement House in the East End open, where she treats poor people and many women and children. When we first meet Charlotte, she is having an argument with her father and storms out of his office, slamming every door behind her.
Hysteria takes too long to get started, could use some good editing, but eventually gets around to the discovery of the singular most popular sex toy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Snow White and the Huntsman” an Expensive Piece of Nothing
Jun 9th
“Expensive Piece of Nothing”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Snow White and the Huntsman is the second movie about Snow White to come out in two months, and the title indicates that Hollywood is running out of variations on how to make each one different.
Instead, the filmmakers should be concerned about how to make each one better, because this one isn’t.
This time, the evil Queen is played by Charlize Theron, and she even gets a name, Ravenna.
The Huntsman is played by Chris Hemsworth, whom you will recognize as the actor playing Thor in some other action movies, but he doesn’t get a name, just a back story.
And the grownup Snow White is played by Kristen Stewart, whom you will recognize from a lot of other movies.
Once again, we see how it all began, and after Ravenna becomes the stepmother of young Snow White, Ravenna tells her, “I could never take your mother’s place.”
And once again, Snow White is placed in prison by the Queen, high up in the north tower of the castle.
My comment was “Boring!” even before the movie got one-third of the way through.
So, the variation this time is not that the Queen has the Huntsman take Snow White out into the woods to kill her, but Snow White escapes from the castle and the Queen has the Huntsman go into the woods to find Snow White and bring her back.
Now, Charlize Theron chews the scenery as Ravenna, the evil Queen, and that is not easy to do when the scenery is made out of stone walls.
By this time the movie has become a swords and sorcery story, and the woods contain all sorts of menacing things and even a monster.
Finally! About two-thirds of the way through, the dwarfs show up, but right away you notice that there is something strange about them, and the camera doesn’t stay on all of them long enough for you to count them.
Sure enough, you were right, and later in the story an explanation solves the mystery.
Another weird thing about the dwarfs, however, is that you get the nagging feeling that when they are shown in closeup, you think that you recognize the actors playing them, but those actors aren’t actual little people.
Snow White and the Huntsman is an expensive piece of a nothing movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Major transportation study budgeted for city
May 16th
Through the diligent work of a St. Augustine City Commissioner the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization (NFTPO) budgeted $125,000 to conduct a much needed traffic circulation study in the city. The Special Planning Funding awarded by the North Florida Transportation
Planning Organization (NFTPO) came as a result of City Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline identifying the opportunity to budget the funds and encouraging staff to actively pursue the grant.
Planning Organization (NFTPO) came as a result of City Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline identifying the opportunity to budget the funds and encouraging staff to actively pursue the grant.
In budgeting funds, the NFTPO described the study’s purpose as a way to “develop an overall transportation plan, incorporating developments over the past 20 years as well as future potential developments such as pedestrian, bicycling, transit and rail improvement needs to be developed for all modes of transportation in and around the city.” The study is scheduled to be completed in June 2013.
“The city is very fortunate to have received this support and especially at this time,” said Sikes-Kline, who represents the City of St. Augustine on the NFTPO. “This will fund an independent consultant with a fresh set of eyes to look at transportation to and through our city, and then evaluate what we have and speculate on what we might have. It’s a great opportunity, and one we could not afford without the TPO’s assistance.”
The NFTPO pointed out that the millions of visitors who access downtown each year do so via three “constrained roadways,” being King St., San Marco Ave., and the Bridge of Lions adding “Getting visitors into and out of the downtown historic district is challenging.” The NFTPO further identifies the city’s anticipated increase in visitors because of the current multi-year 450th Commemoration, a point emphasized by Commissioner Sikes-Kline.
“The TPO recognized that the 450th Commemoration will impact all types of traffic that moves through our historic districts including motorized, non-motorized and pedestrian traffic. This study will identify what might be done to meet those unique needs,” said Sikes-Kline. “Success with this funding has two parts: because the city has a representative on the TPO, we were aware of the opportunity, and the request was filed because of the work of the city’s Planning and Building Department under Mark Knight’s direction.”
“This is a big deal,” said City Manager John Regan. “Securing funds for a study like this is the necessary first step towards any broad based, long-term changes that will improve traffic in St. Augustine. We should thank Commissioner Sikes-Kline and Planning and Building Director Mark Knight for their diligent pursuit of this support. The payoff for the entire community will be big.”
For more information on the work of the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, visit www.northfloridatpo.com. For more information on this grant, call the Planning and Building Department at 904.825.1065.
Source: Paul Williamson, City of St. Augustine Department of Public Affairs
