OT - Fireworks?
"Adrian" wrote in message
... "CatNipped" wrote: I can't imagine what it must be like to live in a place of such history - any longer than a couple of centuries' worth. There are several houses in the village I live in which were built before 1492. -- Adrian Wow! I remember once when I was in England having a guide say, "That isn't very old. It's only 200 years old." I was blown away, because here in the U.S. anything over 100 years is *old*. ;-) Joy |
OT - Fireworks?
hopitus wrote:
On Jul 2, 4:18*pm, wrote: "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote: * Lesley wrote: * In the end they almost wanted to come back and hire me as a tour * guide.... but after all the things I told them when I mentioned the * Minnie Lansbury clock they asked "Is she related to Angela * Lansbury" (Sort of Minnie was her grandfathers first wife when the * clock needed work done she put 5K or so into the fund) and shot off * to take photos * ....And then we wonder why American tourists have a bad reputation in * Europe! *At least, in the UK they are justified in expecting the natives * to speak English. (One of the prime complaints against us in other * countries.) I don't understand. What did she say that was objectionable? I mean, she was on the right track, wasn't she? Minnie *did* have a connection with Angela, if not by blood, then by marriage, so how was this an example of being an obnoxious tourist? You are right; she did NOT say anything objectionable. What I believe Lesley was LOL pointing out was not a big deal of Merkin tourists being "obnoxious" but simply pointing out that as tourists out of USA , they have the attention span of a gnat when someone *they ask* on the street (a stranger, if you will) tries to inform them of the answer to their historical question......they run off to shoot photos of the local sights . Kinda airhead behavior but not obnoxious, just thoughtless. Feel free to disagree with my interpretation. OK, no problem. I don't disagree. I was just thrown off because first, the story didn't sound very bad to me, and then Evelyn was talking about people expecting people to speak English? What did that have to do with anything? :) However, I have to say that American tourists do not corner the market on airheadedness or short attention spans. Airheads come from everywhere and they come in every size, shape and color! It's funny - I know I don't come off as the most patriotic type, and I have a lot of criticisms of our government, our economic system, and many aspects of our culture. If someone outside the US criticizes those things, I can only agree with them. Even when it's a caustic criticism, like when Jack said that the goal in the US is to burn up every last bit of available energy. It's embarrassing to hear that, but I can't deny that we are the biggest wasters of energy in the world. And I do think people outside the US have every right to criticize it because it affects them, too. This country has an abysmal energy policy. But when people confuse American *policy* with American *people*, and start critisizing or making fun of us as individuals, I really bristle at that. How is that different from any other prejudice? We aren't all alike, any more than members of any ethnic or national or racial group are all alike. Joyce -- Excuse for Not Doing One's Homework: My pit bull, here, ate it. -- J.D. Berry, Springfield |
OT - Fireworks?
On Jul 2, 5:20*pm, bast wrote:
Yowie wrote: * Combined with the general culture that sees 'outside' as a big scary * place and that 'unsupervised' children are 'neglected', and you have an * indoor culture. According to current wisdom over here, children should * not be left unsupervised for any length of time until they are at least * 12. I was walking to and from school which was just under a mile each * way by the time I was 7. Sometimes I walked with friends, but often I * walked alone. I knew how to cross a road, and not to talk to strangers * /unless it was an emergency/. I knew how to dial emergency on a public * phone, and knew my next door neighbour's phone number (we didn't have a * phone) if something happened and needed to contact my parents. I fell * over and grazed verious bits of me more times than I could coung, got * sunburnt, got beat up by a boy I liked once, and was even approached by * a stranger once (I don't know if he was dangerous or just 'not right in * the head' - I ran home). I went to the shops for Mum to pick up milk and * bread and like you had the kicked-out-in-the-morning, be-home-by-dusk * curfew. WOuldn't, and couldn't, happen now though - that would be * considered neglect. Well, these are kind of opposite extremes. I agree that kids are way, way overprotected these days, and I don't think it's just the fear of a lawsuit. It's a culture of fear - the boogeyman is around every corner. Sometimes these days, he lives right down the hall..... I started noticing this back in the 80s when I became friends with a woman who had a son from a previous marriage. He was like 14 years old and she wouldn't let him ride public transportation to school. WTF?? I took buses when I was much younger than that. She said, "You grew up in a small town, so it was safer. We live in a city." Well, I was going into Boston without parents, via public transit, when I was his age. Her response: "The world is a lot more dangerous now." I don't agree. Some things have gotten worse, but I don't think the everyday lives of most kids have gotten so much more dangerous. Parents are afraid of kidnappings - but most kidnappings are done by the "other parent" (who lost custody) after a divorce, etc. There aren't a lot more random strangers looking for kids to grab off the street and molest, no matter how many TV shows tell us there are. Read these links re your last two sentences here. Joyce TV show? Snork. Here's Mile-High news. Not even going to south FL headliners, http://www.denverpost.com/crime/ci_18383729 http://www.denverpost.com/ci_18389677 http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18385956 http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18...obref=obinsite http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14...obref=obinsite http://www.denverpost.com/crime/ci_18384239 One set of my relatives with a small female child lives within a mile of the last headline above. Am I the last remaining reader of newspapers? Would like to think not. |
OT - Fireworks?
On Jul 2, 6:54*pm, "Joy" wrote:
wrote in message ... Yowie wrote: On 3/07/2011 3:32 AM, CatNipped wrote: LOL! *Your post sent me back to a childhood of playgrounds set in concrete. Bones had to be sticking out of skin before anyone was sissy enough to go home crying to mom when we fell off the top of the monkey bars or "tightrope walking" on the top of the extra tall swing set - not to mention trying to get the swing to go completely around in a circle and more often than not banging into the steel posts instead. *Then there was the ever popular child's game of "Lawn Darts" where children stood on opposite sides of the lawn and threw very large steel spikes at the target at one child's feet - can't tell you how many times I had to pull a dart out of my leg. There were public pools that kids could attend alone at any age, dive off the high dive 25 - 30 feet above the deep end of the pool, and drown if the lone "lifeguard" happened to be flirting with a pretty girl at the time. Not to mention being basically kicked out of the front door with a backpack of sandwiches at first light and not allowed to come back (even had we wanted) until after dark. *I lived next to a large copse of wild woods with many wild animals, such as nutria (think rats on steroids - they could take on a large dog and win). *there were streams to cross on a fallen log, trees to climb to serious heights, ropes strung across the trees to swing on like Tarzan or make a rope bridge. *To build tree houses we had to "borrow" from our garages machetes, axes, hammers, ten-penny nails. saws, etc. - all of which we were never taught how to safely use - we either figured it out or lost a piece of finger. *Any less serious injury was treated with spit and a mud pack (it's amazing how few infections we had - I guess we built immunities pretty quickly). I sometimes think that we were still practicing "evolution in action" in those times. *Anyone smart enough to live through a childhood like that had the privilege to grow up to marry and contribute to the gene pool. I walk past the playgrounds of today, with their moss and wood chip ground cover - nothing high, nothing steel, everything a very light plastic, no monkey bars, no see-saws and more often than not totally deserted (how could kids possibly have fun on those unthrilling, vanilla "toys"). *And children have to be accompanied by parents, they're not allowed to venture anywhere on their own now-a-days (even if they should desire a few minutes away from their Nintendos and WIIs). *It's all pretty sad really. *And I'm sure it's why so *MANY* of our children in the US are seriously overweight and having *HEART ATTACKS* in their *TEENS*!!! *That was unheard of when I was young. There was maybe one poor child in the whole school whose single mother coddled into overweight and that poor child was teased and hounded to misery (there weren't any awareness programs about the damage this did). *I can say, righteously, that I was not a teaser - having lost my dad at age 4 and being brighter than my peers caused me enough teasing and grief from my peers that I could empathize all too well. Most of that is due to the culture of suing if a child gets hurt. If local councils choose to put in play areas for children, they have to be as safe as possible and have signs all around saying that children have to be supervised at all times and that any use is solely at the user's risk. Combined with the general culture that sees 'outside' as a big scary place and that 'unsupervised' children are 'neglected', and you have an indoor culture. According to current wisdom over here, children should not be left unsupervised for any length of time until they are at least 12. I was walking to and from school which was just under a mile each way by the time I was 7. Sometimes I walked with friends, but often I walked alone. I knew how to cross a road, and not to talk to strangers /unless it was an emergency/. I knew how to dial emergency on a public phone, and knew my next door neighbour's phone number (we didn't have a phone) if something happened and needed to contact my parents. I fell over and grazed verious bits of me more times than I could coung, got sunburnt, got beat up by a boy I liked once, and was even approached by a stranger once (I don't know if he was dangerous or just 'not right in the head' - I ran home). I went to the shops for Mum to pick up milk and bread and like you had the kicked-out-in-the-morning, be-home-by-dusk curfew. WOuldn't, and couldn't, happen now though - that would be considered neglect. Well, these are kind of opposite extremes. I agree that kids are way, way overprotected these days, and I don't think it's just the fear of a lawsuit. It's a culture of fear - the boogeyman is around every corner. I started noticing this back in the 80s when I became friends with a woman who had a son from a previous marriage. He was like 14 years old and she wouldn't let him ride public transportation to school. WTF?? I took buses when I was much younger than that. She said, "You grew up in a small town, so it was safer. We live in a city." Well, I was going into Boston without parents, via public transit, when I was his age. Her response: "The world is a lot more dangerous now." I don't agree. Some things have gotten worse, but I don't think the everyday lives of most kids have gotten so much more dangerous. Parents are afraid of kidnappings - but most kidnappings are done by the "other parent" (who lost custody) after a divorce, etc. There aren't a lot more random strangers looking for kids to grab off the street and molest, no matter how many TV shows tell us there are. And don't get me started on the fear of germs! We're making children much sicker by keeping them in such sterile environments. And of course, we're breeding super-bacteria that *will* be scary and dangerous, and unstoppable, because of all the disinfectants and antibiotics we use. On the other hand, Catnipped's description of her childhood environment seems kind of extreme in the other direction. I don't think there's anything sissy-ish about going home when you're injured, even if all your bones are still inside your skin. And I also think it's really weird for parents to kick their kids out for the day and not allow them in until dinner. After I finished my chores, I came and went pretty much as I pleased when I was a kid, and often times I would be gone for the whole day - I'd get home for dinner, and nobody grilled me about where I had been. But if I'd wanted to come in earlier, I could have. It was my house, too. I had the same attitude about Smudge. I knew that her life would probably be shorter if she were allowed outside, but since she had such a strong drive to go out, I felt that a longer and safer life indoors would also have been an unbearable life. You can't protect them from everything. And in the end, Smudge died of something that would have happened even if she'd spent every day of her life cooped up in my apartment. Joyce -- What business is it of the state how consenting adults choose to pair off, share expenses and eventually stop having sex with each other? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *-- Bill Maher I think most parents (and cat slaves) did (and do) what seems best. *My parents knew where I was all the time. *I was hurt twice. *I broke my right arm when I was 6 and sprained both arms when I was 8. *Both times I was in my own back yard when it happened, and I went straight to my mother, who took me to the doctor. I knew where my kids were all the time, too. *My son and many of the neighborhood kids often played in the large tree in my front yard. *I made one rule - no bicycles or other implements *under the tree. *Luckily, none of them ever fell out of the tree. My two current cats are indoor only, because they were three years old when I got them, and had always been indoors. *All my previous cats were indoor/outdoor. *At one time, I did try keeping two of them inside, but they were so miserable I decided to let them be free. Joy- Same here. My mom knew the general vicinity of where I was all the time. We did not live in a neighborhood but I *was* allowed to ride my horse and later Honda-90 to a friend's house a mile away. The only time my mom really freaked out was once the horse came home without me. I had just let the reins drop after I got to the friend's house and I guess the horse got tired of waiting and came home. My mom's biggest fear wasn't that I'd get snatched by strangers but that I'd end up kicked in the head and laying in a ditch somewhere. That's the phrase I remember most. "I thought you were in a ditch somewhere." Sherry |
OT - Fireworks?
"Sherry" wrote in message
... On Jul 2, 6:54 pm, "Joy" wrote: wrote in message ... Yowie wrote: On 3/07/2011 3:32 AM, CatNipped wrote: LOL! Your post sent me back to a childhood of playgrounds set in concrete. Bones had to be sticking out of skin before anyone was sissy enough to go home crying to mom when we fell off the top of the monkey bars or "tightrope walking" on the top of the extra tall swing set - not to mention trying to get the swing to go completely around in a circle and more often than not banging into the steel posts instead. Then there was the ever popular child's game of "Lawn Darts" where children stood on opposite sides of the lawn and threw very large steel spikes at the target at one child's feet - can't tell you how many times I had to pull a dart out of my leg. There were public pools that kids could attend alone at any age, dive off the high dive 25 - 30 feet above the deep end of the pool, and drown if the lone "lifeguard" happened to be flirting with a pretty girl at the time. Not to mention being basically kicked out of the front door with a backpack of sandwiches at first light and not allowed to come back (even had we wanted) until after dark. I lived next to a large copse of wild woods with many wild animals, such as nutria (think rats on steroids - they could take on a large dog and win). there were streams to cross on a fallen log, trees to climb to serious heights, ropes strung across the trees to swing on like Tarzan or make a rope bridge. To build tree houses we had to "borrow" from our garages machetes, axes, hammers, ten-penny nails. saws, etc. - all of which we were never taught how to safely use - we either figured it out or lost a piece of finger. Any less serious injury was treated with spit and a mud pack (it's amazing how few infections we had - I guess we built immunities pretty quickly). I sometimes think that we were still practicing "evolution in action" in those times. Anyone smart enough to live through a childhood like that had the privilege to grow up to marry and contribute to the gene pool. I walk past the playgrounds of today, with their moss and wood chip ground cover - nothing high, nothing steel, everything a very light plastic, no monkey bars, no see-saws and more often than not totally deserted (how could kids possibly have fun on those unthrilling, vanilla "toys"). And children have to be accompanied by parents, they're not allowed to venture anywhere on their own now-a-days (even if they should desire a few minutes away from their Nintendos and WIIs). It's all pretty sad really. And I'm sure it's why so *MANY* of our children in the US are seriously overweight and having *HEART ATTACKS* in their *TEENS*!!! That was unheard of when I was young. There was maybe one poor child in the whole school whose single mother coddled into overweight and that poor child was teased and hounded to misery (there weren't any awareness programs about the damage this did). I can say, righteously, that I was not a teaser - having lost my dad at age 4 and being brighter than my peers caused me enough teasing and grief from my peers that I could empathize all too well. Most of that is due to the culture of suing if a child gets hurt. If local councils choose to put in play areas for children, they have to be as safe as possible and have signs all around saying that children have to be supervised at all times and that any use is solely at the user's risk. Combined with the general culture that sees 'outside' as a big scary place and that 'unsupervised' children are 'neglected', and you have an indoor culture. According to current wisdom over here, children should not be left unsupervised for any length of time until they are at least 12. I was walking to and from school which was just under a mile each way by the time I was 7. Sometimes I walked with friends, but often I walked alone. I knew how to cross a road, and not to talk to strangers /unless it was an emergency/. I knew how to dial emergency on a public phone, and knew my next door neighbour's phone number (we didn't have a phone) if something happened and needed to contact my parents. I fell over and grazed verious bits of me more times than I could coung, got sunburnt, got beat up by a boy I liked once, and was even approached by a stranger once (I don't know if he was dangerous or just 'not right in the head' - I ran home). I went to the shops for Mum to pick up milk and bread and like you had the kicked-out-in-the-morning, be-home-by-dusk curfew. WOuldn't, and couldn't, happen now though - that would be considered neglect. Well, these are kind of opposite extremes. I agree that kids are way, way overprotected these days, and I don't think it's just the fear of a lawsuit. It's a culture of fear - the boogeyman is around every corner. I started noticing this back in the 80s when I became friends with a woman who had a son from a previous marriage. He was like 14 years old and she wouldn't let him ride public transportation to school. WTF?? I took buses when I was much younger than that. She said, "You grew up in a small town, so it was safer. We live in a city." Well, I was going into Boston without parents, via public transit, when I was his age. Her response: "The world is a lot more dangerous now." I don't agree. Some things have gotten worse, but I don't think the everyday lives of most kids have gotten so much more dangerous. Parents are afraid of kidnappings - but most kidnappings are done by the "other parent" (who lost custody) after a divorce, etc. There aren't a lot more random strangers looking for kids to grab off the street and molest, no matter how many TV shows tell us there are. And don't get me started on the fear of germs! We're making children much sicker by keeping them in such sterile environments. And of course, we're breeding super-bacteria that *will* be scary and dangerous, and unstoppable, because of all the disinfectants and antibiotics we use. On the other hand, Catnipped's description of her childhood environment seems kind of extreme in the other direction. I don't think there's anything sissy-ish about going home when you're injured, even if all your bones are still inside your skin. And I also think it's really weird for parents to kick their kids out for the day and not allow them in until dinner. After I finished my chores, I came and went pretty much as I pleased when I was a kid, and often times I would be gone for the whole day - I'd get home for dinner, and nobody grilled me about where I had been. But if I'd wanted to come in earlier, I could have. It was my house, too. I had the same attitude about Smudge. I knew that her life would probably be shorter if she were allowed outside, but since she had such a strong drive to go out, I felt that a longer and safer life indoors would also have been an unbearable life. You can't protect them from everything. And in the end, Smudge died of something that would have happened even if she'd spent every day of her life cooped up in my apartment. Joyce -- What business is it of the state how consenting adults choose to pair off, share expenses and eventually stop having sex with each other? -- Bill Maher I think most parents (and cat slaves) did (and do) what seems best. My parents knew where I was all the time. I was hurt twice. I broke my right arm when I was 6 and sprained both arms when I was 8. Both times I was in my own back yard when it happened, and I went straight to my mother, who took me to the doctor. I knew where my kids were all the time, too. My son and many of the neighborhood kids often played in the large tree in my front yard. I made one rule - no bicycles or other implements under the tree. Luckily, none of them ever fell out of the tree. My two current cats are indoor only, because they were three years old when I got them, and had always been indoors. All my previous cats were indoor/outdoor. At one time, I did try keeping two of them inside, but they were so miserable I decided to let them be free. Joy- Same here. My mom knew the general vicinity of where I was all the time. We did not live in a neighborhood but I *was* allowed to ride my horse and later Honda-90 to a friend's house a mile away. The only time my mom really freaked out was once the horse came home without me. I had just let the reins drop after I got to the friend's house and I guess the horse got tired of waiting and came home. My mom's biggest fear wasn't that I'd get snatched by strangers but that I'd end up kicked in the head and laying in a ditch somewhere. That's the phrase I remember most. "I thought you were in a ditch somewhere." Sherry *** LOL! That sounds like a mother. Joy |
OT - Fireworks?
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OT - Fireworks?
On 3/07/2011 8:47 AM, CatNipped wrote:
I can't imagine what it must be like to live in a place of such history - any longer than a couple of centuries' worth. You, like I, live in a country with many thousands of years of human history. Its just not Western history. Yowie |
OT - Fireworks?
On Jul 2, 3:18*pm, wrote:
I don't understand. What did she say that was objectionable? I mean, she was on the right track, wasn't she? Minnie *did* have a connection with Angela, if not by blood, then by marriage, so how was this an example of being an obnoxious tourist? I didn't find them objectionable I just found it amusing they seemed to expect there would be cheerful Cockney's like Dick Van Dyke in the East End and we didn't go round saying "Lorr luvaduc" or have a pearly king and queen on every street corner. I was just saying how after I;d told them all the stories about how the match girls lived. the suffragette connection etc the thing that really grabbed their attention was the connection to a celebrity Lesley Slave of the Fabulous Furball |
OT - Fireworks?
On Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:56:26 +1000, Yowie
wrote: I'm wondering what "Charlie" is, if it's not what American soldiers called the North Vietnamese soldiers during the Vietnam war. The South Vietnamese Viet Cong were called Charlie, from the phonetic alphabet. VC: Victor Charlie. All the enemy were called Gomers. which was not an insult. Gook was. Casady |
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