I know, you’re thinking, “A feel-good thread from Knead?” Well, hey … we can’t all be depressed all the time can we? 
So, who has inspired you today and why?
I’ll start: Scarlett67, for her seemingly indefatigable patience and good humor.
[sub]Fine Print[/sub]
[sup]Just because I picked a Doper, you don’t have to.[/sup]
As of late, with my writing and my attitude and my feelings about the world I have three inspirations that guide me through the day:
Eric Bogosian - writer, performer. I find his style of writing appealing, plus I got a nice email from him that inspired me to keep writing when I felt it was getting too hard.
Steve Dahl - the MAN in Chicago talk radio. I love him to death, and he always says what I think. He kept me laughing through the 9/11 crap, not being scary like Stern. I want so badly to be a talk show DJ, and when I am, I’ll be just like Steve.
And of course,
Till Lindemann - who inspired me to dress how I want, say what I want, act how I want, drink what I want, and fuck everyone who doesn’t like it. He’s increased my self confidence, energy and creativity in all arenas. All hail.
jar
The late Rick Rescorla, VP for security for Morgan Stanley, who was largely responsible for the fact that only 3 of Morgan Stanley’s 2700 employees in the South Tower - aside from him and two of his assistants, that is - died on September 11.
This guy was truly something special - it makes me proud just to have been in the same universe with this guy. Follow the link. Read.
This may sound weird, but I find Larry Walters to be a big inspiration to me.
Follow your dreams, no matter how stupid.
Sunny von Bulow is my role model.
She’s thin, she’s rich, she’s gorgeous, and she never has to get out of bed! Now, THAT’s the life.
EVE!
Holy happy holidays! Thank God I found you.
THANK YOU for the link, RTFirefly. I was indeed inspired by it. What a guy. I can’t express how much I relate to his words, “I have accepted the fact that there will never be a kairos moment for me, just an uneventful Miltonian plow-the-field discipline…” And he quoted Eliot. And he died trying to do his best for people he felt responsible for.
And welcome back, Eve.
blink, blink.
That can’t mean what I think it does.
Can it?
he inspired her to dress, say, act, drink, and…
naw.
my kid, Miller. born 9/18/2001
too much fun! can’t wait to get home to change a diaper and get puked on! we just hang on the couch and i pretend to watch TV, but really i’m just checking him out! i can see he is getting bigger everyday and in a little more control of his limbs, arms and legs flailing around as i tickle him. he is my hero, starting to hold his big old head up by himself. mom and i will have a quick dinner, then back to the couch. he is fun to watch taking his bath. he gets so excited and smiles in the water. mom is teaching him to swim already in the tub! then we curl up and go to bed, and he smells good cause he just got out of the bath.
last thing i do before leaving the house in the morning is give him a quick change so mom can sleep a little. then i think about him most all day at work, just waiting to get home again…
[sup]“Happy, thrillennium?”[/sup] - Anubis
Well, hell. How am I supposed to stay in today’s unfounded funk with a lovely remark like that? (Although I don’t know if I’m patient so much as stubborn. 
)
It’s a fun game, though, and I’ll play! I have two nominees:
First, my friend Diane. She’s had a rougher life than she deserves. She’s your basic whole-wheat-cookie, hippie-earth-mother, herb-drying, vegetarian organic homeopathic aromatherapeutic goddess type. She’s a single mom with two great kids and has been pulling her own weight since before I’ve known her. She’s worked mostly crap jobs with matching pay (although this past year she actually got a pretty good one that she really enjoys), and she’s had to manage without already-meager child support from time to time, but I’m amazed by her ability to pinch a penny. She’s thrifty to the bone. Her house is crappy and needs a ton of repairs, but it’s all hers. She drove a POS car for years, and managed to keep it barely running until finally she hit a deer and totaled it. Somehow she managed to buy a really nice replacement, long-deserved. She knows all about herbs and plants and cooking, and for a while now she’s been stuck with an old stove with one working burner and a broken oven. (I rejoiced with her yesterday when she called to say that she finally threw in the towel and bought a new stove that’s being delivered today. I wonder if the first loaf of bread is out of that new oven yet!) Even though I wouldn’t fault her for being bitter about her lot, she is very sweet and always concerned about other people’s problems before her own. I truly admire her spirit in the face of adversity. Her life has been getting better in the past few years, and I wish her continued growing joy.
My other inspiration is my friend Phyllis. She’s a springer spaniel, and I can only aspire to having her boundless energy, enthusiasm, curiosity, love, sweetness, and joy.
Oh, and add me to Eve’s “Welcome Back” committee!
Hmmmm… We’re talking about today? Just today?
My boss. My coworker was making disparaging comments about another college in this state. It was in the context of analyzing data which shows that we don’t really compete with this institution for students–they’ve got a different market than us. But the data we had was showing why our students don’t go there, and it painted us as the better place academically. My coworker took this farther and added some additional insulting comments about this place.
This is the same college to which my boss’ younger daughter was just admitted. It’s a very good fit for her, for some very good reasons. They feel good about her going there–it was a real source of joy this week that she was admitted. So much so that our boss sent us an email to let us know.
So here’s my coworker insulting the intellectual atmosphere of the place. My boss never said a thing, never embarrassed him by reminding him her daughter is headed there in Fall. I would have told him to cool the hell off and shut up, but she didn’t take it personally. She’s a bigger person than I am.
If I can go back 24 hours, I’d like to say that the people in jarbaby’s “Horrorrrrrr” thread were inspiring yesterday. I loved how people weaved the best of the horror movie cliches into their posts. I got some real giggles out of that thread.
Emerson.
Ralph Waldo, that is.
Today, yesterday and tomorrow. I always seem to be able to open my well-thumbed volume of Emersonian essays and poems and find just what I needed at almost any given time.
How does he do it?
It means that I saw someone who spoke his mind and did what he felt, no matter how odd or badly it was perceived. So I did the same.
It doesn’t mean I do whatever he does.
How long do I have to do penance for picking on the wrong person? I’m just wondering.
jar
WHOOOOSH!!
woosh what?
Ethil is comparing Till to Oprah.
I’m saying it’s incorrect.
No, jarbaby, I’m afraid you did indeed get whooshed.
Go back to your original post and remove “dress . . . , say . . . , act . . . , drink . . . , and” from the sentence about Till.
Are you really, literally going to (dress . . . , say . . . , act . . . , drink . . . , and) fuck everyone who doesn’t like it?
Here, have some of these fabulous Hughes dark chocolate toffees. You’ve had a bad day.
What? I don’t know what’s going on?
I guess I’m wooshed and I’m still lost…sorry Ethil.
I think I need a drink, that’s what Till would do
jarhoney, very respectfully (you know I’m a Big Fan) the whoosh is this:
oh, I see Scarlett got there first.
Well, best wishes anyway.
Redboos
Scarlett67 has had my back for the last 24 hours, so let me see if I can help you out, jarbabyj:
Read your original comment
in the form of a list:
[quote]
Till Lindemann - who inspired me to
[li]dress how I want,[/li][li]say what I want,[/li][li]act how I want,[/li][li]drink what I want, and[/li][li]fuck everyone who doesn’t like it.[/li][/quote]
The confusion is over the notion that Till has inspired you to fuck everone who doesn’t like the way you dress, what you say, how you act, and what you drink. When (and I’m really guessing here :)) what you probably meant to say was that Till inspired you “to dress …, say …, act …, drink …, and say ‘fuck you’ to everyone who doesn’t like it.”
Better now? 
[sub]I just hate the idea of people getting whooshed on my feel-good thread.[/sub]