“If I believed in polls, then five years ago I would have backed the war in Iraq like she did.”
Quotes of the week
– Barack Obama, appearing on CBS News’ Early Show, on polls consistently showing him trailing Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race
“I completely appreciate the sensitive nature of all this, but all the appropriate paperwork was filed.”
– Dawn Nuff, Houghton County Medical Examiner, about the exhumation of legendary Notre Dame football player George Gipp from a cemetery in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
“My desire was to kill as many Arabs as possible, as many Muslims as possible. But things change.”
– Emmanuel jal, Sudanese rapper, on how his outlook has changed since his days as a child soldier
Drink of the week
Hot buttered rum
It’s a cocktail to keep your hands warm by the fall-time bonfire, to give you a taste of colonial-era boozing or to make you feel like Harry Potter drinking a Butterbeer.
First, take an electric mixer to a medium bowl holding all ingredients except the cinnamon sticks, rum and water. When the mixture has turned smooth and consistent, pour it into a pitcher and add the rum and boiling water.
Stir it all until the water and rum dissolve the thick mixture into a frothy liquid.
Ingredients:
-2/3 cup dark brown sugar
-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
-1/4 cup honey
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
-Pinch salt
-3/4 cup spiced rum
-2 cups boiling water
-4 sticks cinnamon, for garnish
– JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
Theme party Suggestion
Apple affair – Celebrate the release of Apple’s new operating system, Leopard, by letting your inner wildcat out at your own Mac expo. Everyone knows Apple users have more fun, even if they can’t left click.
Throwing this party? Let us know. TheStatement@umich.edu
Wikipedia article of the week
“Spandex fetishism”
Spandex fetishism is a fetishistic attraction to people wearing stretch fabrics or, in certain cases, to the garments themselves.
Many people refer to spandex fetishism as Lycra fetishism, Lycra being INVISTA’s trademark for their own brand of spandex fabric.
One reason why spandex and other tight fabrics may be fetishized is that the garment forms a “second skin,” acting as a fetishistic surrogate for the wearer’s own skin. Wearers of skin-tight nylon and cotton spandex garments can appear naked or coated in a shiny or matte substance like paint. The tightness of the garments may also be seen as sexual bondage. Another reason is that nylon-spandex fabric (preferred by many spandex fetishists) is often produced with a very smooth and silk-like finish, which lends a tactile dimension to the fetish – as well as a visual one.
Spandex is often produced in bright or sheer colors.
Full-body suits called zentai entirely immerse the wearer in skin tight fabric. The suits are essentially catsuits with gloves, feet, and a hood. The wearer gets to experience total enclosure and those who enjoy erotic objectification might make use of the garment’s anonymizing aspect. Zentai fetishism appears to be quite popular in Japan and Europe. The word zentai (??) means whole body in Japanese
Talking Points
Three things you can talk about this week:
1. Turkey
2. “49 Up”
3. The scabies epidemic in a Harvard
residence hall
And three things you can’t:
1. Tila Tequila
2. Group
Halloween
costumes
3. T.I.’s guns
By the numbers
300 billion
Dollars lost in wars between 23 African countries from 1990 to 2005
15
Average percentage damage to the economies of warring African nations
95
Percentage of the weapons used in African wars imported from other continents
Source: The Associated Press