waysider

I totally agree with this sentiment. The thing is, though, over the years it's been talked about here on GSC until the cows came home and left again. Almost any conversation you might find interesting has been preserved in the threads that WW was kind enough to provide links to. Discussing it again is like proving the Pythagorean Theorem over and over and over again before you set out on a math project. Anyhow, the original subject, if I understand correctly, was a discussion of the referenced book. This has devolved into a meta discussion.

I answered your question yesterday, Allan. Also, they weren't all gassed to death. Some died of starvation, some died of unattended medical problems, some were shot and on and on. As the saying goes, "You're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.".

What you are missing is that the Holocaust was not limited to Germany alone. Poland saw a Jewish death toll of over 2 million, as did the Soviet Union. Half a million died in Hungary. A quarter million died in the Baltic States and another quarter million died in Romania. In total, 20 countries fell victim to the Holocaust. And these are just the Jewish deaths. Non-Jews, such as the handicapped, gay men, POW's, Roma, and political opponents died as well. In all, it is thought the total number of deaths may be as high as 11 million.

Blaming devil spirits for everything was like the Easy Button in Way World. Got cancer?...devil spirits. Depression?... devil spirits. Substance abuse?...devil spirits. . And if you don't understand something... just S.I.T. more. This need for easy answers was probably a big draw for people who were searching for meaning, myself included. But guess what, life is complex and sometimes the answers are complicated. Other times, there simply aren't any answers. Life is an endless search for answers but sometimes that's what makes the journey so exciting and rewarding. Never stop searching and questioning.

In the U.S., pants are trousers, though usually, trousers are made of higher quality material than regular pants. For example, you might buy a business suit with two pairs of trousers. Under pants is simply an older term used to mean mens underwear.

One of life's little pleasures is sitting on the front porch and seeing how far you can spit the seeds.

I think you may have dropped this: /s

I don't think it was ever available for purchase by non grads. The excuse I remember hearing was that if people bought it they might not take the class. We certainly couldn't have that now could we?

I have some seedless grapes on the kitchen counter. I took a peek behind them but all I found was a mushy old banana and a shriveled up grapefruit.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/gormless

I heard that one a lot. It was usually prefaced with "Grace Bliss said....".

Meals in FellowLaborers. I'm not sure I would know how to describe it. Let's just say that a wilted endive salad, by itself, is not my idea of a hearty dinner after a hard day's work.

I did a bit of snooping around the internet to see if there was any information on this subject. I didn't put very much effort into it, but here is what I found: Stories of this nature have been appearing periodically since the mid 1800's, when exploration of Egyptian tombs caught the attention of the public. There are a couple of fundamental problems with this concept of sprouting ancient seeds. The Egyptians did indeed include seeds as part of their funeral rituals. They symbolized burial and resurrection and were placed in the hands of the deceased. Some researchers also speculate the custom may have been a symbolic offering of food for the journey into the afterlife. It should be noted that some seeds, under optimal conditions, can remain viable for decades. The general consensus, though, is that vegetable seeds only remain viable for a few years, with about 30 years being a best case scenario, under ideal conditions. Any viable seeds that may have been discovered are thought to have been introduced by trespassing rodents and other pests. Now, please understand, I'm not accusing Mr. Hearne of dishonesty. For all we know, if the incident even really happened, he, himself, may have been an unwitting victim of a cruel hoax. If I ever write a book, I'm going to include a chapter labeled "snow covered gas pumps and magical seeds". edit: I'm never going to write a book so feel free to use that title if you are ever in need of a clever name for a psychedelic cover band.

...and people think pineapple is weird.