VIOLET’S GUIDE TO UNDERWEAR 1

VIOLET’S GUIDE TO UNDERWEAR

“Why hello there! Violet here to give out some direly needed advice on everything under the sun—including the stuff the sun doesn’t shine on. Today I’d like to have a very serious discussion about a very very verrrrrrrrrrrry serious issue. That’s right, I’m talking about the underwear issue of the Atlantis High Clothing Catalogue.

 

UNDERWEAR

Many of you may recall the dark days of prohibition when innocent students were not allowed to wear or carry underwear to school with them. I would like to set the records straight on some ugly, disgusting rumours.

Many, including the editor of the Sunset Cove Herald, have called me a hypocrite after a series of inconsistencies in policy came to light. I would like to note, Mr. Montana, that I am in no way related to the mamalius hippopotamus, and your statements show quite clearly that you have been nowhere near my underwear chest. I happen to be a size 12, and I resent any statements to the contrary.

As for the origins of prohibitions, I can say without any qualms that I would never try to come between a child and their underwear.

You may recall a time not too long ago when clothing of any kind was banned from Atlantis High. This was a measure created by a group of concerned parents who were worried that their children were tanning unevenly and that their tan-lines might impede their absorption of Vitamin D and other important information fed to youth at school.

Now I won’t call the man an idiot, but I do think that our nation’s president was making a mistake when he overruled our ban on student clothing. It is clear that he did not have the interest of the children in mind, but that he was operating under the duress of special interest groups such as the Rebelz Clothing Manufacture Group and the Coalition to Eat More Bananas.

Now I suggested at the time that we simply ignore the president’s orders, but my suggestion was overlooked, due to a fear that there may be spies hidden in Sunset Cove. So we had no choice but to concede, and, regrettably, to re-clothe our impressionable young students.

At the time of the president’s folly, the ban on underwear seemed to some concerned parents to be a reasonable conciliatory measure that would allow the poor children to remain nekky in spirit, without risking lifelong imprisonment for a violation of ridiculous public decency laws.

I chose not to stand up against the parents, despite my desperate affinity to underwear. I can see only in retrospect that this was a mistake. Our little town is founded on individuality. In choosing to hide my true feelings, I was cheating Sunset Cove and Atlantis High out of my valuable opinion and expertise.

Additionally, I agreed to implement a rule to which I was morally opposed, and with which I could never comply.

I love underwear! Sometimes I wear 6 or 7 pairs at a time. So starved was I for underwear in a school full of wear-burners, that I used to make a daily 40 km trek to the underwear museum housed over in the Big Smoke. When they banned me from their premises after an incident with a thong and a buffalo, my underwear addiction really got out of hand.

And we all know where the story goes from there.

Luckily, it ended happily, and we all got to keep our scanties.

As an offering to appease the community I betrayed, I would like to give out a few free lessons in underwearology.

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DOROTHY’S GUIDE TO PICNICS 2

DOROTHY’S GUIDE TO PICNICS

“Ça va?” said the man but Pick just looked blankly at him.

The man laughed and this time spoke in English.

Pick and Pierre spoke for many hours. He told her of his travels from Spain and of how he felt he had fallen into paradise the day he jumped off the ferry and set foot on the golden beaches of Sunset Cove.

Pick’s stomach began to rumble. She fidgeted a bit, not wanting to leave Pierre but aware that unless she ate something soon she might well faint again and that would not do at all!

Whilst fidgeting, Pick came across a lump of bread that she must have had in her hands when she left the cottage. Pierre nodded in approval when she offered him a piece and he spread his cloak on the floor and sat beside her. Taking two plums from the ground under the tree Pierre and Pick shared their meal and thoroughly enjoyed it.

To Pick it was the best meal she had ever had and she thought aloud that she could eat like this for the rest of her life.

Pierre agreed but said that he had to carry on with his journey. Pick burst into tears and Pierre agreed to come home with her and to marry her as she had pretty eyes and could bake nice bread.

Pick and Pierre were married before long and to celebrate had a meal with the family on a rug under a tree. They called the meal pickpierre after the happy couple.

Every Sunday after the marriage the Gordon family had a pickpierre and soon all their friends started to join in the fun.

After a few months, Pierre got the wanderlust and decided he had had enough of married life and scarpered leaving Pick and the Gordon family to their own devises.

Dorothy’s Top Ten Tips for a Great Picnic

1. Always use fresh bread
2. Never boil your peas
3. Embrace the ants, they are your friends
4. Bedsheets are easier to shake off than blankets
5. Cut your sandwiches into rectangles, that confuses the seagulls
6. Only posh people use china plates, paper plates are just as good and easier to clean
7. A man can be judged by the way he carries the picnic hamper
8. Always use fresh bread (that’s really important)
9. Chicken drumsticks are really nice
10. And so are hard boiled eggs.

Pick was not as devastated as she had thought she might be as she had not liked Pierre’s garlic breath, She had only really married him because no other man had ever looked at her before (though she was old enough to realise that it was because she had never left the cottage before so it had been impossible to be noticed!)

The lads of Sunset Cove certainly noticed Pick now as she sashayed herself down the High Street and after a while she began to date a local fellow who ran a bakery and also admired her baking skills.

The happy young couple soon started up with the pickpierre’s again but when they got hitched the name had to change to include the new groom – picnic – and history was made.

Pick and Nick enjoyed a happy life together and their love of eating outdoors was passed to all residents of Sunset Cove and all around the world by the travelling Pierre.

So if you are ever in a foreign country and hear people talking of having a pickpierre, you’ll know what they mean!

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DOROTHY’S GUIDE TO PICNICS 1

DOROTHY’S GUIDE TO PICNICS

“Picnics have always been a part of the Gordon family. In fact, it was the Gordon family who invented picnics…

 

 

One hot sultry summers afternoon my Great Great Great Great Grandma Pick, blinded by the sun rays that shone in through the closed window, sat down by the fire and wondered why she was so hot.

The bread that she had just baked and sliced had toasted itself in the heat of the kitchen. The peas that she had just shelled had boiled themselves in the pool of her sweat that had trickled onto the floor.

Pick wondered if perhaps she had turned menopausal for that was the only reason she knew of that women could feel so darn hot.

Wiping a bead of sweat from her hairy upper lip, Pick wondered aloud if this infernal heat would ever die down. Maybe when the menopause was over and done with?

A swift clip to the ear rattled Pick’s brain and made her sit up straight in the chair. Her mother Dennis (my namesake) muttered in disbelief. “My girl, you’re only 17 years old! The menopause is some 40 years away. The heat you be feeling is from the fire, from the sun and from not having any windows open!”

Dennis muttered many more things too when she found the toasted bread, the boiled peas and pools of sweat all over the floor but we won’t dwell on that part of the story.

Pick went outside and reveled in the cool breeze that hit her face. She ran around and pretended to be a nun on a mountaintop. She twirled her way up the lane and stood under the shade of a willow tree. What a joy, what a wonder to be outdoors and not feel that heat anymore…BAM!

Pick fell flat on her face, overcome by heat exhaustion.

She awoke some time later and looked around her in a daze. She knew that she had been shaken awake but she didn’t see anyone near her. She pinched herself, maybe she had just been dreaming.

When she sat up though she saw that there was a young man leaning against the tree eating a plum. She knew from the look on his face that he was a nice guy and meant no harm and when he eventually spoke she could tell that he wasn’t from around these parts.

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GILES’ GUIDE TO BEING A GEEK 2

GILES’ GUIDE TO BEING A GEEK
The Basics

Ok. The shower? Not for the smart kids. Geeks are intelligent enough to know that the shower strips your body of essential oils and nutrients. Your hair isn’t healthy until you can maintain that robust still-wet look all the time!

Now, I’m not advocating that you never bathe. I’m just gently suggesting that your mother will throw you into the shower in disgust at just the right time. Like Norman Bates always said, “mummy knows best.”

Anyway, geeks adhere to the pheremone theory, and if you wash off all of your stink, how are the popular girls going to smell how much they like you.

Next.

Socks. Most of your body heat escapes through your ears and toes, so its socks, socks, socks all around! Socks are a valuable asset when disguising the blackened pallor of your unwashed feet. And when shopping for anything this important, it pays to know that bigger is always better.

Don’t let your small geekly stature fool you. You need the biggest socks of all. If they don’t climb halfway up your thighs when fully extended, they are not warm enough to protect you from the sweltering summer heat.

Pants and suspenders have already been covered above. Underwear. Well, I must say that I am not the expert in this department, but I’ve heard that the cheaper pairs tear more easily, and as we all know, lime green looks good on anyone.

Shirts present an interesting quandary. Typically, the best geeks have always worn the button down shirts that their mother bought for them five years ago. But for some strange reason, this look has been assimilated into a new social genre: geek sheik. Does the modern day choose to acknowledge his geekly roots and dress the part, or does he choose not to participate in modern geek fashion, not to sell out, not to allow everything special about the geek become flattened out to the norm?

As you can see, I’m quite passionate about this issue.

I prefer to go “geek casual.” This is a geeks euphemism for the fact that I still let my mom dress me. This is the peak of geekly goodness. I am geeko supremo! Do not steal my thunder.

Glasses. These are a very important part of the geek ensemble. Please note: you do not want your glasses to have the correct prescription, as this would eliminate your cause for squinting and craning your neck, thus creating a serious risk that your hidden good looks might find their way to the light of day. This is a geek no-no.

For those whose glasses have the correct prescription, a good trick is to break them. Breaking the lens is quite effective, but it is also possible to break the frame and tape it back together in such a way that the lenses do not sit right and thus no longer match your eyesight. Added bonus: as the lens remains in tact, meddling mothers will not insist that you need a new pair of glasses right away. This is the thinking man’s solution.

That’s all I have to say for today, as I still need to translate Homer’s Iliad from ancient Greek to modern Samarian.

One final note: why laugh when you can cackle?

Thank you. Now let the revolution commence!

Geekously yours,
Giles..Next page

 

 

 

GILES’ GUIDE TO BEING A GEEK 1

GILES’ GUIDE TO BEING A GEEK

“Hi, I’m Giles Gordon – supposed “Geek” of Sunset Cove and the world. Here’s my guide to being the ultimate geek…

 

Geektitude…

Hello! Giles here! Have you ever noticed how perfectly your name rhymes with beguiles? Or made muscular diagrams to explain why your mother’s nose wiggles when she shouts at you? Perhaps you have trained your voice perfectly to crack only when making public speeches and proclamations of servitude to girls named Octavia. No? Aww, come on! I’m trying to show you how you how very similar we are!

Alright! Well….whether you admit it or not, hidden deep inside of you, screaming and asthmatically panting to get out, is a little critter I like to call “your inner geek.”

Inner Geek is a hearty fellow. He may be a scrawny weakling, but he’s a strong little guy, with narrow buns of steel and a mouth to match. Just when you think you’ve got him under control, he overtakes you, and, before you can say ‘ailurophilia,’ Inner Geek forces you to mention complex number theory on your first date with that blond girl from the volleyball team.

What can you do to fight the little freak?

No, no, you’re not getting the point. What I’m trying to teach you is that you don’t have to chase momentum to keep up with it. The point is Go With the Flow. The point is Let Inner Geek See the Light of Day—drown the pale loner in sunlight. –No! Don’t drown him! Embrace him! That’s right. Love your geek. (For he loves you.)

Ok. That’s settled.

Now, troops! I want to see you on your best behaviour. Pimples, RISE! Bronze skin, FADE! Don your high-water pants, strap on some suspenders, tape those old glasses back together and make for the streets. We’re about to start a geeky revolution.

In the spirit of age-old geekitude, our revolution will not be spontaneous, but rather a re-enactment of a revolution we’ve read of in too many not-for-school books. Re-enactments are cool when you’re a geek.
Your mission is to be your geek at its best. Show those snobby cool kids that geek is the new pink.

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