The Tangential Conversation

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Being that "tangential speech" is seen as a trait of AS, I thought it'd be quite fun to have our own conversation where each poster just goes off on a random tangent...

Here are the rules:
Pick out one point or topic from the previous post and pursue a tangent on that point or topic. Eventually this will lead to a fascinating network of vaguely-related tangents, creating a spiderweb of disjointed, incoherent, beautiful nonsense.
Feel free to be as obsessive, pedantic, and obtuse as possible.

I'll start....

Did you know that potatoes, and tomatoes are so genetically similar that you can graft one plant onto the other and create a hybrid plant that grows potatoes underground and tomatoes above-ground?! Both of thse plants belong to the nightshade family, or Solanaceae, which also includes eggplants, peppers, tobacco, petunias, and of course, deadly nightshade. All plants in this family contain poisonous alkaloids in varying degrees, and some are actually quite lethal.

ok, your turn

I heard that if your tomato plants grow very near nightshade plants, that the tomatoes will be poisonous, too. I'm not sure if it's nightshade, but there's a vine that grows in my yard that is a weed. It gets a small purple flower that turns into a green berry that eventually turns black when ripe. It grows like crazy and if you try to pull it out of the ground - it will come right back if you either leave a piece of root or of one of those dreaded berries lands on the ground and seeds itself. The worst part is that if you do try to pull this plant out of the ground, it has a very strong, awful odor. These weeds don't die over the winter - the just come back stronger and spread until they are the size of a small shrub. They actually like to hide near shrubs because the leaves of this vine often look just like the leaves of the shrub - and you don't know this sucker is growing until it gets taller than the shrub and is a tangled mess to have to undo and it has seeded itself throughout your whole garden.

speaking of poisonous plants....

Hey Acacia, do you know what would be the best things to plant when you have problems with wallabies (small kangaroos) eating all your plants. I'm unable to fence around the house (it's on the side of a hill) and the little buggers come and eat my plants at night. Anything I don't want them to eat I have to put a chickenwire fence with stakes around and even then they can trample those or much thru the holes in the chicken wire. Anything in pots I have to put up on a table so they can't reach it.

I've just started spraying plants with white oil as a deterrent, but I'm wondering what might be a good thing to plant that they won't eat. The only thing they don't seem to eat is Irises which are slightly poisonous I think.

A deadlier shade of night tangent topic

Tobacco, known to contain over four hundred chemicals, has got to be the most deadly of the nightshade family, because an ingredient in it, nicotine, is what is the most addictive. Tobacco is of course, smoked, and/or chewed, and research has shown that after years of use it is a cause of various cancers, both through direct inhalation or due to second hand smoke.

Chicken wire... I remember there was a big chicken wire cage in back of our old house in Louisiana when I was a kid. One of my earliest memories is of cutting my arm on it. I still have the scar. I seem to have a lot of little scars, burns, cuts, melting plastic scars because my stupid sister told me you could make Barbie hair from melted sam'ich bags. I never like those bags, that you just flip over, so I use ziplocs now. They're also good for disposable diapers. Oh, sure, they have a billion crappy diaper pails on the market, but they all start stinking after a while. Stinking... Anyone remember that episode of M*A*S*H where they refused to bathe? So the camp jumped them with soapy water one day and scrubbed them, clothes and all. That's not my favorite, though... I really like the one where they all got Salmonella poisoning and gave a feeble cheer when Klinger got it. Jamie Farr was actually in the movie Kismet which amazed me because he didn't look that old on M*A*S*H. I can't decide if I like Kismet because it has some corny musical bits, but also some nice ones, and Howard Keel has a cheesy voice but is a funny actor. He was very good in Kiss Me, Kate, but of course that had Cole Porter music and I like Cole Porter. I can't believe they had Cary Grant play him in his biography.

I could go on, or I could go into detail on any one of those. My husband is a very patient man. Tag.

I think we have a winner.

Well, speaking of winners, winning is not everything. I believe it has been said also that quitters never win.

I am by no means a quitter although I must admit I seldom win anything either.

Gambling wins of course can be problematic as they just encourage the gambler to keep playing, and as we all know gamblers eventually lose all and turn to drink.

Although as a child I did once win a small barbeque grill in a raffle, I would not encourage others to squander money on raffle tickets,because ever though the raffle may support a noble cause, it is still a form of gambling.

So as the road to hell is paved with good intentions, I don't know how churches can countenance raffles and bingo which are forms of gambling, as money raisers for their good works.

Speaking of bingo... I worked there last night. I didn't make anything cause I spent my tips on food. Shrimp and fries. I did make $ 15 though. I think I will go count my money.

Speaking of money.... I will have $100 BILLION dollars from my company in 2 seconds and my brother is annoying as heck. I just love annoying brothers that poke you and call you things that don't make sense. Humans don't have a brain...oh wait! What's a brain?

Speaking of $100 I am just ten dollars short from that. I might save ti or maybe I will buy something cool.

As you are short, may I mention that the 'short' or electrically closed circuit is essential for computer design. Transistors provide information about their closed or open state. The electrical opposite of a short circuit is an 'open circuit'.

Oh and Tom Cruise is short. Very very short. Getting him to play a 6'5 soldier was cruel.

O I am remember last year when we put on a play at school. For reading class we had to chose from 3 stories that were myths and reenact them. It was fun and my teacher liked ours.

At school I wrote a mediocre comedy for a theatre event. I played a middle-aged woman desperate to get a husband. I wore a long skirt for that character, and I remember that my mother got angry that day because she didn't like the idea of me wearing lipstick. I used to sneak upon her purse and take out her lipstick to smell it. I loved how it smelled. I also love the smell of new books. If I ever die of intoxication, I wish it be from the smell of ink.

Well, on the subject of intoxication, I do not believe that ink is a substance that would qualify.

There is demon rum of course. And many years ago the Women's Christian Temperance Union was founded to fight against this.

They had posters to picture sad little children starving while their father's wasted the paycheck in the bars, big eyed waifs is how they were shown.

And speaking of big eyes, are octopi the largest eyed animals on Earth? I had not thought about that before but perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Speaking of pictures... Lots of pictures were taken at my station today as memory card were filled. We got a new truck and boy is ti nice! Everyone was flashing cameras and lights were going off. I didn't have much of a over load however.

I had a truck once. A brand new pickup. It was the nicest vehicle I've ever driven. It was black with a tan interior, had remote locks, automatic everything, good towing capacity. And it matched my height. Most cars are too short/small for me.

Well anyways, several months after I got the new truck, I found out that my girlfriend and I were going to have a baby. Well... since you can't legally put a carseat in a pickup truck (no backseat), I was in something of a dilemma.

I ended up having to sell my brand new truck, and settle for a cheaper, four-door sedan. It was smallish, not new, and not nearly as cool. But it worked for our family. And it still does. I've had it for nearly 5 years and it hasn't caused me one problem.


(by the way, this thread is going great! you guys got it! keep it up!! !)