Time for another installment of Conversations With My Logs!

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1)  Is chicken fighting a misdemeanor in SC - Section 16.17.650 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, current through the end of the 2005 Regular Session, lists cock fighting as a misdemeanor.    South Carolina Act #68 of 2005, amending the laws relating to uniform traffic tickets does not, as enacted, include language amending cock fighting from a misdemeanor to a felony, so in the absence of other information I assume the misdemeanor classification still stands.

2)  What does adore voce mean - In Portuguese it is adore você, which translates to he/she worships (or adores) you.  Or, it could be a misconjugation of the Italian verb adorare (to adore), which should be adoro voce (I adore [the] voice) or adori voce (you adore [the] voice).  Most likely, it is the Portuguese. 

As a side note, a voce in Italian means "word of mouth," while in Portuguese a você means "to you."

3)  Where to hire skywriters in Massachusetts - Superpages.com has one listing for AeroAds.com, which does serve the entire state but seems to focus on banners rather than actual skywriting.    I was unable to find a listing for an actual skywriter (though a number of articles ever so helpfully suggested I use the Yellow Pages and look under "skywriting"), but if you contact AeroAds and they do not offer the service, they may well know who does.

4)  Feminist dystopia - I would think a feminist dystopia would be a dystopia for most.  While a primary theme of the feminist dystopia is the oppression of women by a patriarchal society, most dystopias, of any category, are patriarchal in nature.  In that sense, every dystopia not run and controlled by women (and there are but few literary examples of those) is a feminist dystopia on some level.  However, for the more explicit and overt examples, you can look to Gilead in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, and Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country.

5)  Definition horsepucky - It's something of a polite colloquialism.  In a word, it means bullshit.

Time for another installment of Conversations With My Logs!

1.  How could Edgar Allan Poe's genius be both a blessing and a curse - My thoughts: It is believed Poe suffered from bipolar disorder.  We know he dealt with bouts of paranoia and binge drinking, possibly alcoholism.  While he penned several works of literary depth, eventually becoming one of the acknowledged greats of American literature, he was quite ahead of his time and died a pauper, having been unable to support himself in anything but poverty with his writing.  His lasting creative genius seemed to have developed at least in part from his mental illness(es), but suffering from those illnesses at that time - without any support - would have to be categorized as "curse."  He was a terribly unstable man, particularly when he drank.  As noted by Thomas Poulter:

Alcohol ruined his life. He had no good jobs. He had no stable world. He had nothing to anchor him to reality, so he induced fantasies and drown fears with a bottle. Therein lies his attraction--would a stable man have been able to write such amazing tales of life, death, the fantastic, and the incredible?

His work is undoubtedly genius, but it is genius born of intense psychological pain and physical misery.  Poe's blessing was his creativity; his curse was his life.

2.  Who died on Desperate Housewives - Haven't lots of people?  Try googling for "Desperate Housewives" + "episode guide," then figuring out the season/original air date you're looking for.

3.  When is congressional districts per state determined - There are two answers, depending on how you mean the question.  First, at the national level, for determining the number of House representatives to which each state is entitled: Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States calls for the establishment of a national census, to be taken every ten years.  It is based upon this enumeration of the population that the 435 available seats are apportioned.  Therefore, changes in a state's number of House representatives may change once every ten years, though shifts in population may remain stable enough in a region that any one state will not see a change.  Further, every state is entitled to a minimum of one representative, regardless of population.

Once the number of seats are allotted, the state's legislature may redraw district lines as they see fit, as often as power changes hands or population shifts require they be moved in order to retain power.  They could conceivably face legal challenge to any such move, but the courts generally uphold the legislature's right to redistrict with impunity.

4.  Playing Abigail in The Crucible - Why yes, yes I did.  However did you know?

5.  The birthing process of chickens - Well, chickens are egg-layers, so I have to assume "birthing process" refers to the process of laying an egg.  Here's an article on the process, complete with illustrations.

6.  Bimble women - Outside of Kentucky, I really don't know.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming.

Okay, seriously, I'm not sure what is up with this spate of inquiries regarding what can go wrong when you're thumbing it.  Is there some sort of movie, some song or other pop culture reference to which I'm totally oblivious? 

Look, the other post you all visit wonders whether or not the recent film version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy stayed true to the book, or if it lost something in translation.  Unless you're traveling with a towel and a two-headed narcissist with poor impulse control, it is not what you want.  What you want is here: the dangers of hitchhiking, item #3.

Now.  Don't hitchhike.  Take the bus.  Jeez.

This has been a public service announcement.

 I look at my referral logs.  I like to see how people get here, and sometimes the things that lead them to A Voce are a little different than I expect, like "Beetlejuice Treatment."

Anyway, I don't get many commenters through here, and I do like to talk, and some of these keywords and questions need to be answered, so I'm going to start having regular conversations with my logs.  Questions/phrases/key words are in italics.

1)  How to copy and send a link - There are two ways.  First, if you have Outlook on your local machine, then you can click on "File" on the pull down menu, then choose "send," then choose "Link by email."  This may work with other local email programs like Lotus, but I'm not sure.

Or second, open your email and start composing the message.  Open a second window and pull up the page whose link you want to send.  Put your cursor in the address bar (the part of your screen that shows the http location).  To use the keyboard shortcuts, press and hold the control button (<ctrl>) and the <A> button.  This selects the address.  Press and hold <ctrl> and <C>; this copies the address.  Now switch to your email, put your cursor in the body and press <ctrl> and <V>; this pastes the link.  Alternatively, you could use the mouse to highlight the URL (that's the http address), then right click and choose "Copy," then switch to email, right click in the body and choose "paste."

2)  Will Quack Quack - Apparently he is popular duck in the UK.  I'm sorry, but that's the extent of my knowledge.

3)  What are the dangers of hitchhiking - Well, you could get hit by a car if you're standing too close to the road, or if its dark or raining, or if the driver is drunk.  If you are female, you have a very good chance of being raped.  You could be robbed or otherwise assaulted. You could be murdered.  More mundanely, few normal people pick up hitchhikers, because doing so means they run the risk of rape and/or assault and/or murder, so your rides could be few and far between.  In bad weather, this will mean exposure to the elements which could lead to something as trifling (if you have health insurance) as a cold or as significant as hypothermia and death.  Overall, it's just a really rotten idea.  Try taking a bus instead.

4)  A Voce Manhattan - Sorry, I'm not affiliated with the restaurant.  I hear it's excellent, though.  If you go, pick something up for me, 'kay?

5)  What page quote pop I'm a dime a dozen and so are you - I hate to break it to you, Likely Student, but the page on which the quote appears depends rather heavily upon which version you have in front of you, so you will need to reference your particular copy of the script.  The quote comes near the end of the play (Death of a Salesman), as Biff is experiencing his epiphany during a fight with Willy.

6)  Beetlejuice - Back atcha!