Off Topic!, For all our "general" off topic tendencies Options

[DonnaLJo]

There's one thing I've learned, and that is never start a topic with a ?

Since this is the Off Topic Thread, I would like to post my views about posting & responses. What I think we all have to realize, is that none of this is or should be made personal. For a variety of people to write their thoughts & opinions on topics that can sometimes be touchy & emotional, everyone needs a thick skin.

I know I've been eager to respond to a post that intrigues me, so I quote that post & respond. Am I ignoring or insulting the posts that I chose not to respond to? No, at least that isn't my intent. On the same note, people overlook my posts & respond to others. Sure, we all want our thoughts recognized. I do too. But I don't take that personally, because I know that it isn't.

None of us "know" each other, really. I think 99% of the people on this Board are kind, considerate people. Anyone who loves CI (& especially the highly moral & heroic Robert Goren) appreciate goodness & what is right. We just need to give each other the benefit of the doubt, and this Board will flourish.

Sorry to preach, really. Thank you all for listening.

[abfirefighterchi...]

Since this is the Off Topic Thread, I would like to post my views about posting & responses. What I think we all have to realize, is that none of this is or should be made personal. For a variety of people to write their thoughts & opinions on topics that can sometimes be touchy & emotional, everyone needs a thick skin.

I know I've been eager to respond to a post that intrigues me, so I quote that post & respond. Am I ignoring or insulting the posts that I chose not to respond to? No, at least that isn't my intent. On the same note, people overlook my posts & respond to others. Sure, we all want our thoughts recognized. I do to. But I don't take that personally, because I know that it isn't.

None of us "know" each other, really. I think 99% of the people on this Board are kind, considerate people. Anyone who loves CI (& especially the highly moral & heroic Robert Goren) appreciate goodness & what is right. We just need to give each other the benefit of the doubt, and this Board will flourish.

Sorry to preach, really. Thank you all for listening.

Beautifully put Donna! I agree completely! Part of what makes this board so wonderful is everyone sharing their thoughts and insights. However we all have to realize that someone disagreeing with a thought or insight does not equal to someone insulting or attacking a thought, idea, opinion or insight. Did that make any sense?

As you stated 99% of the members here are not 'putting someone's ideas down', simply giving their reasons for thinking or believing a certain way. So if all of us try to support each other and debate and NOT argue over different points of view, the board will continue to be a fun, interesting, and respectful place to visit and post on.

[krodgers]

Beautifully put Donna! I agree completely! Part of what makes this board so wonderful is everyone sharing their thoughts and insights. However we all have to realize that someone disagreeing with a thought or insight does not equal to someone insulting or attacking a thought, idea, opinion or insight. Did that make any sense?

As you stated 99% of the members here are not 'putting someone's ideas down', simply giving their reasons for thinking or believing a certain way. So if all of us try to support each other and debate and NOT argue over different points of view, the board will continue to be a fun, interesting, and respectful place to visit and post on.

Agreed!

[Flatpack]

Who is ignoring who? i dont understand. i posted and then went out for the day,only just returned. actually we have been doing this jump skipping all day. Yes its done with a skipping rope,but you have two instead of one...its what Donna is describing. its incredibly difficult. at the moment i can hardly lift my legs and i am usually fit from walking,cycling and swimming.

So have you tried it recently KRodgers,Donna etc?
Ive been trying to remember all the rhymes that go with the skipping. Do people remember these?
"All in together girls
Never mind the weather girls
O-U-T sspells out!"

remember any others anyone?
I love all these playground games. i think they have been collected in books.

[Not_saying]

Very well put donna .

Totally agreed .

messages get lost sometimes in the shuffle of other messages .
I'm not ignoring anyone if I don't respond right away some times I mess a message or need to think clearly and thoughtoutfully on what I am responding to there are also times I've chosen not to respond to something that I could consider insulting or flamming ect.


That's not ingorance or insulting thats what I consider thoughtful .


to me thoughtless attacks are far more insulting than the latter of waiting and thinking before speaking with out knowing if a person is ok or a time zone difference ect. .


Have I myself slipped yeah I have .But I have learned from every slipp up .


I would hope that we all do here .


We can say our opinions,feelings,Ideas .
no one here is saying that you can't ...
but lets remember to be respectful in our wording .

also please do remember that alot of us live in different times zones so there's gonna be delays in responses .


and have fun .

[DonnaLJo]

Good Points, Not Saying.

Flatpack, I give you such credit for getting into the jump rope games with your girls! No, I haven't done long jump roping in quite awhile, although I have short jump roped at my gym. And I've NEVER tried the double jump rope - but I would love too. LOL, I probably wouldn't survive!

KRodgers just got confused between my post & yours, that's all. Everything has been straightened out. Just a small misunderstanding.

God, I do remember a rhyme that ends..O-U-T spells OUT! And then you must exit the rope. Can't for the life of me remember the rest. It's been at least 35 years....

[AstonMartin]

Who is ignoring who? i dont understand. i posted and then went out for the day,only just returned. actually we have been doing this jump skipping all day. Yes its done with a skipping rope,but you have two instead of one...its what Donna is describing. its incredibly difficult. at the moment i can hardly lift my legs and i am usually fit from walking,cycling and swimming.

So have you tried it recently KRodgers,Donna etc?
Ive been trying to remember all the rhymes that go with the skipping. Do people remember these?
"All in together girls
Never mind the weather girls
O-U-T sspells out!"

remember any others anyone?
I love all these playground games. i think they have been collected in books.

I haven't skipped in about 100 years and I seriously think if I tried now, my heart would probably explode! Luckily skipping ropes don't really seem to be a boy thing, so maybe I'm safe for now.
When I was a young'un we used to play King Sting (2 people on either side of a group of people in the middle chucking a tennis ball (as hard as you can) to hit someone in the middle - if you get hit you go out and so on. Reading this makes it sound like a lot crueler than it was, but I can't imagine it would be allowed in the playground now.

Thanks for the info on that song about DS. I will check it out.

[Flatpack]

Why is it that children just skip naturally and adults find it so hard,i mean what happens to us that we forget to skip? Its about being nimble. I am making it my duty to long rope skip EVERY day until i get that lightness back in my step!!! I just want to feel that affinity again! Its like you have to DO it to let the body remember that childhood state. I can see its quite addictive.There is something evocative about childrens games in a playground.

Today even the cats were joining in.

Anyway there is a rhyme where about three people get into the rope and then jump out when their birth month is called out. And a rhyme about ladybirds i forget.

It has to be Luke Kelly singing the song, Scorn not my Simplicity. Its the contrast of this wild hairy rough looking man and this powerful emotional voice singing with tenderness about the mothers/fathers/childs feelings.

[Flatpack]

AstonMartin,this might be a game you remember from the playground that might cross gender divides!
"Join up for cowboys and indians". A few pals get together and link arms,moving round the playground calling out "join up for cowboys and indians"( you could do it with "astronauts and models" if you feel like being politically correct and LOCI friendly!!!Ha!). Eventually you have a long line of linked up children. then you start spinning round. Those in the middle who started the game are almost standing still. but the ones at either end are spinning faster and faster until they get flung off into the playground like bullets.

Did you play that game anyone?

These playground games never felt competitive to me, just a sense of bonding in the playground. Something in the group play that didnt degenerate into competition.

Im sure they have done sociological studies into playgrounds and the games that children play as opposed to the games that adults play!!!But unless the sociologists actually relive these games physically then the study is incomplete.

[Rose Bush]

I'm aching all over just from reading Flatpack's posts. Double Dutch (what we called double long rope skipping) was popular when I was growing up in the inner city in the 70's but that was before sports bras and I developed very young so as not to knock myself out...you get the picture, right? My Jamaican classmates had a version with long bamboo poles that they tapped on the ground and you jumped in between them until you got your ankles caught. I liked the sound the poles made on the cement in that game and then you could do the limbo with the poles which amazingly I was pretty good at in my youth. I don't remember cowboys & indians like that but if you put on roller or ice skates and do that here, it's called the whip and the end people got flung into the railing. The game with the tennis balls sounds more brutal that our dodgeball with it's big, soft ball. I don't remember too many kids games because I lived across the street from a playground with basketball hoops, tennis court, a track and a baseball diamond, so we pretty much played there or went skating or swimming at the park that was less than a mile away. Actually, I should have been a lot more athletic given all my resources, but then, as now, it ain't easy to get me away from the TV.

[hullbound]

Re: Double dutch It is amazing the things some of the kids can do. It could be an Olympic event with the degree of difficulty it involves.

Ahhh, dodge ball blaaaaaaaaaaah not a favorite childhood memory. It's banned now in a lot of schools as is "Red Rover". That is where there are two teams lined up across from each other with their arms linked. Someone calls out "Red Rover, Red Rover send (name of someone on the other team) right over" The person called runs over and tries to break through the line.

What do kids do during recessnow. Do they even still have reccess? I know Phys Ed has been cut someplaces or scaled back.

And another thing-LOL don't mean to sound like Andy Rooney- Why don't you ever see kids out playing in their yards, riding their bikes, walking to the corner store or playing on the swings at the playground etc. It's very sad that kids can't seem to go anywhere nowdays without their parents or some other adult.

[stefanl]

Re: Double dutch It is amazing the things some of the kids can do. It could be an Olympic event with the degree of difficulty it involves.

Ahhh, dodge ball blaaaaaaaaaaah not a favorite childhood memory. It's banned now in a lot of schools as is "Red Rover". That is where there are two teams lined up across from each other with their arms linked. Someone calls out "Red Rover, Red Rover send (name of someone on the other team) right over" The person called runs over and tries to break through the line.

What do kids do during recessnow. Do they even still have reccess? I know Phys Ed has been cut someplaces or scaled back.

And another thing-LOL don't mean to sound like Andy Rooney- Why don't you ever see kids out playing in their yards, riding their bikes, walking to the corner store or playing on the swings at the playground etc. It's very sad that kids can't seem to go anywhere nowdays without their parents or some other adult.

Because they're all off playing in sanitized, plastic coated "McPlaygrounds" at Chucky Cheese and having playdates in hermetically sealed environments. And we wonder why so many of them have allergies. We don't let them eat mud pies like we did when we were kids and played in the same sandbox the neighborhood cats relieved themselves in.

[DonnaLJo]

Because they're all off playing in sanitized, plastic coated "McPlaygrounds" at Chucky Cheese and having playdates in hermetically sealed environments. And we wonder why so many of them have allergies. We don't let them eat mud pies like we did when we were kids and played in the same sandbox the neighborhood cats relieved themselves in.

So true. I remember when my kids were little, my friends who wouldn't let their kids in the ball pit at Mickey D's because "God forbid" some other kid's saliva may have gotten on the balls, those kids were the ones who were always sick with ear infections & the flu. I really believe that its better to expose kids to small, reasonable amounts of germs & bacteria, as it allows them to build up a natural immunity. At least it worked with my brood - they were hardly ever sick.

I am also a big advocate of kids drinking real milk. It could be 1% or 2% if you're worried about fat content (although no fat kids ever got fat on drinking whole milk ) I'm tired of hearing people say its bad for you, or you get the same amount of calcium with fortified orange jiuce...you don't.

[abfirefighterchi...]

So true. I remember when my kids were little, my friends who wouldn't let their kids in the ball pit at Mickey D's because "God forbid" some other kid's saliva may have gotten on the balls, those kids were the ones who were always sick with ear infections & the flu. I really believe that its better to expose kids to small, reasonable amounts of germs & bacteria, as it allows them to build up a natural immunity. At least it worked with my brood - they were hardly ever sick.

I am also a big advocate of kids drinking real milk. It could be 1% or 2% if you're worried about fat content (although no fat kids ever got fat on drinking whole milk ) I'm tired of hearing people say its bad for you, or you get the same amount of calcium with fortified orange jiuce...you don't.

If you want real milk you should try organic. I tastes so much more like the 'real deal' stuff I had when I was younger. I don't myself, but I know that some people are better off with goat's milk because the protein in it is smaller and easier to digest. Did you know that the fat in milk can actually help you lose weight? Some studies have shown that your body needs the milk fat to regulate some systems in your body.

Games when I was little I remember Marco Polo, and red light green light. Anyone else remember those?

To quote George Carlin" A little fecal material never hurt anyone!" His logic is actually quite sound. The more germs, bacterias, etc. that were are exposed to(with in logical reasoning, no ecoli or anything) the better. Our immune systems rely on being exposed to everyday icky things, that's how it learns to identify, destroy, and keep on file these bad guys. Then as adults when we are exposed to these and similar little bugs we have to ability to defeat them. Children that grow up in bacteria/germ a phobic homes tend to be sicker, and with worse illnesses than those who live in households that are clean but not sanitized to the hilt.

I almost never went to the doctor's when I was little. It had to be something really serious(like close to death) to go there, and my mom didn't insist on walking out with antibotics everytime either. I have been sick very few times, and haven't had to be on an antibotic in 15 years. Of course when I do catch a bug it's almost always a real dozsy!

Playgrounds, our consisted of a huge shinny metal slide, that if you weren't careful the skin on the back of your legs, stayed on the slide as you went down. Jungle Gym bars the were also shinny skin searing metal, and the ground beneath them was either stones, black top, or if you were lucky concrete(it was a tad cooler to your feet in the baking sun). There were no slip grips, cusioned floors, and rounded corners. In the end we wouldn't have had it any other way, we had the most fun, and didn't worry about hitting your nose that it bled. Scrapped knees, bruises, and assorted booboos were expected and revered. You would compare them to your buddies in school. Kids are too afraid to do anything now, and it shows later in life. There is so much that they do have to worry about, why not let them have fun and enjoy just being a kid.

[hullbound]

Ouch! I remember those hot metal slides. Yikes! I can only remember going to the Dr. once and being given antibiotics when I was a kid. I totally agree about a little bit of germs being a good thing. No bike helmets, no car seats, being exposed to dirt and bugs it's a wonder we survived. The only thing that concerns me about when I was a kid was all the bad sunburns we used to get. I heard once that the burns you get when you are young like before 20 can cause the most damage. There was no sunblock back then.

[stefanl]

Ouch! I remember those hot metal slides. Yikes! I can only remember going to the Dr. once and being given antibiotics when I was a kid. I totally agree about a little bit of germs being a good thing. No bike helmets, no car seats, being exposed to dirt and bugs it's a wonder we survived. The only thing that concerns me about when I was a kid was all the bad sunburns we used to get. I heard once that the burns you get when you are young like before 20 can cause the most damage. There was no sunblock back then.

I've been watching Mad Men on AMC. It's about advertising executives in NYC circa 1960. No seat belts, the kids were flying around the back seat of a car when their mother lost control and rode up onto someone's lawn. One of those same kids was playing quietly in the living room when her mother called her into the kitchen. The kid was wearing a plastic dry cleaning bag. The mother, horrified, told the little girl, "Young lady, I certainly hope my dry cleaning isn't in a pile on the floor in the closet."

HOW did we survive is an excellent question.

[stefanl]

Not exactly sure where this might actually fit so I'm sticking it here. Found this article on the TV Guide website about how much people in television make. There are sections on television anchors, people who work in cable shows (The Closer), Daytime actors... You can read the rest of the article at this link. It's eye opening to say the least.

************************

You can make a nice living in TV. Just ask Simon Cowell, who pulls in $45 million per year (for American Idol and other TV projects). Even the folks who serve chow to the cast and crew can make $3,000 over the eight days it takes to shoot an hourlong drama.
Here's a sample of who makes what, from Oprah to a production assistant just breaking into the biz.

NETWORK PRIME TIME (salary per episode)
William Petersen, CSI $500,000
Zach Braff, Scrubs $350,000
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU $350,000
Chris Meloni, Law & Order: SVU $350,000
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men $350,000
Hugh Laurie, House $300,000
Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy $225,000
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Old Christine $225,000
Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewives $200,000
Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy $200,000
Jeff Foxworthy, Are You Smarter… $150,000
T.R. Knight, Grey's Anatomy $125,000
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy $125,000
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters $100,000
Special guest stars per hour episode minimum $6,527
Stand-ins per day minimum $145
Background actors w/ special abilities per day $140
Background actors or "extras" per day $130

[abfirefighterchi...]

Ouch! I remember those hot metal slides. Yikes! I can only remember going to the Dr. once and being given antibiotics when I was a kid. I totally agree about a little bit of germs being a good thing. No bike helmets, no car seats, being exposed to dirt and bugs it's a wonder we survived. The only thing that concerns me about when I was a kid was all the bad sunburns we used to get. I heard once that the burns you get when you are young like before 20 can cause the most damage. There was no sunblock back then.

Remember riding in the back of the station wagon, you know the trunk? No real seats, much less seat belts. We would sit on the floor in the back at times too, on long trips. One of my favorite memories was going to Summer Bible School with my aunt and uncle. They had a van, a real full-sized one long before the minivan. We would sit on a bench in the back, this wasn't screwed down or anything. We had to hold it upright as we were driving! It was a blast. You have to know that the backroads at the time were mostly traveled by bicycles, scooters, and horse and buggies, very few cars. Some still are, but the out of state population has skyrocketed. Now there are many once back roads that are bustling, much less the highway/main road traffic.

With a local population of 'plain' people, this can make for some hairy accidents.

The only sunblocks that were out when I was a kid, would make me burn! I never did, then once as a teenager I thought maybe I should put some on. I burnt so bad, it was the only blistering sunburn I ever had!

[Not_saying]

Remember riding in the back of the station wagon, you know the trunk? No real seats, much less seat belts. We would sit on the floor in the back at times too, on long trips. One of my favorite memories was going to Summer Bible School with my aunt and uncle. They had a van, a real full-sized one long before the minivan. We would sit on a bench in the back, this wasn't screwed down or anything. We had to hold it upright as we were driving! It was a blast. You have to know that the backroads at the time were mostly traveled by bicycles, scooters, and horse and buggies, very few cars. Some still are, but the out of state population has skyrocketed. Now there are many once back roads that are bustling, much less the highway/main road traffic.

With a local population of 'plain' people, this can make for some hairy accidents.

The only sunblocks that were out when I was a kid, would make me burn! I never did, then once as a teenager I thought maybe I should put some on. I burnt so bad, it was the only blistering sunburn I ever had!

We had a station wagon .
at least when I was lil .
It D E A D now .lol

I can remeber us riding in the back of ours my sis and me .

[hullbound]

I've been watching Mad Men on AMC. It's about advertising executives in NYC circa 1960. No seat belts, the kids were flying around the back seat of a car when their mother lost control and rode up onto someone's lawn. One of those same kids was playing quietly in the living room when her mother called her into the kitchen. The kid was wearing a plastic dry cleaning bag. The mother, horrified, told the little girl, "Young lady, I certainly hope my dry cleaning isn't in a pile on the floor in the closet."

HOW did we survive is an excellent question.

I almost fell off the couch when the mother said that to her daughter about the dry cleaning. I like that show a lot so far. I love the sets, the clothes, and seeing how different things were back then. There's so much smoking and drinking even at work. There is nothing PC about that show and it's supposed to be true to that time period. I saw a program about the making of it and they were inverviewing the creator (who I believe was a writer for The Sopranos) and writers etc. They were talking about how things have changed so much in some ways since 1960 but in other ways they haven't. For example some people still have prejudices but just that they keep them to themselves now.