Open Forum Discussions and Debate

Glinda, I thought that sort of thing went out so long ago that seeing it now would make me think it's a joke of some sort.

But I am curious about a couple of things. Could the clothes be interchanged (now that would be very PC; the boy could wear a cute dress under his fireman's outfit).

Who was responsible for the display, the manufacturer or the shop staff? Were they packaged together, or sold separately? If sold separately, maybe the manufacturer was just finding a way to sell both to a parent who wanted a daughter to have the fireman option.

Were they appealing enough that you bought one? Or both?

I suppose you could have the same argument about gender related toys such as Action Man (G.I. Joe?), Barbie and of course Ken her boyfriend. I have personally encouraged three of the four "Action Men" living in my household to wear clean pinnys and and soft soled shoes for indoor use whilst doing their household duties. Barbie has become a mechanic of some repute, working along side McClaren's formula one team. She, of course, maintains immaculate fingernails, enviable skin tone and a beautiful head of blonde hair and always has dinner ready for Ken when he returns home from work. Of course I haven't tried them with 'cut-out' clothes. I feel the winter weather would be too harsh an enviroment for paper posturing although I notice one of the younger A.M. has a slight leaning towards stockings...I give him a wide berth at the weekends.

James...Are you a fireman?

James, I am only jesting with you...please accept, by way of an apology, a complete wardrobe hand crafted by myself from The Guardian and The Times. It is the Financial Times so it has a pleasant pink hue.

*environment...sorry the paper cuts are hurting my fingers as I type!

They were packaged separately, and since the girl's clothes were contemporary I'd have to say that there weren't designed to be self-consciously retro. But they were a throwback.

paper clothing, andre? Sounds drafty. Could you make a paper scarf and mittens? That might help.

Knitted? Or woven?...I may have to use the Sunday supplement.

How about this... going to big box stores versus supporting local merchants. Does anyone here do all their shopping exclusively at locally owned/operated stores?

If you are willing to pay higher prices, and thereby lower your standard of living (even in a minuscule way), to support the local merchant, do you think he does the same for you by lowering his prices and reducing his standard of living accordingly? Or, like everybody else, does he just charge what the market will bear?

Yours very truly,

Thorstein Veblen.

Dear Thorstein: Hard to say. Sometimes service is a factor, since presumably one gets better service at smaller, local stores (but not always, and the bigbox people have realized that service matters, too). But I was astounded recently to learn what a huge percentage of the income (not sure if its net or gross) of locally owned businesses goes back into the local economy compared to that of those of big box stores. I think it's something like 30 to 50 percent more goes back to the local economy. But again, does that matter? Does it make a difference if folks in your own town are getting jobs as opposed to people in another part of your country--or the world?

it's.

Glinda - I just wish that where-ever we shop, we could find some thing made in America! Even when buying from a "local" merchant, the goods are made in China...etc. This includes produce at some produce stands.

Eve, I know what you're talking about, and in many ways I agree. But I guess one question would be, are you willing to pay the increased premium that purchasing domestically-made products would entail? And given the differential in labor costs, that would be a hefty differential--so your new tv might not cost $300, but $1500.

Re trade, see: Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

Glinda: be careful what you wish for. If the draft is reinstituted, should women go?

I suspect the US is moving towards some sort of universal service. Should women be drafted into the military? I think probably not, but it may be that women will then need to opt for some other kind of national service. But by the same token, should women be asked or permitted to serve in combat zones?

I thought universal service meant exactly that! Not all who serve do so in the front line... That said...I despair that any country should have to have such a thing...

I was at a dinner party the other evening and it was brought to my attention that Aluminium cooking pans and pots are highly poisonous. I know that Aluminium is used in other products like deodorant, toothpaste to name a few but...I use my pans all the time...a relic from my family. Will it really harm me? My family, and I am sure other families, always used a light Aluminium pan or two in times gone by...Reheated rice was another no no...Is this more scaremongering?

And a bit of lightheartedness...

Be careful what you call yourself these days!!

Tidbits(wonderful word) from - "Bertha Venation"
Dr. bones, chiropractor
Dr. Looney, psychiatrists
Dr. Cure, emergency medicine
Russell First Baron Brain neurologist to Winston Churchill
Dr. Toothaker, dentist
Dr. Pitts, dermatologist
Dr. Kidd, pediatrician
Harry Strum, high school guitar teacher...

Did I just shoot myself in the foot?

Only if your name is Miss Eda Gaine.

Charactonyms

Dickens:
Scrooge, the tightfisted miser
Mr. Grandgrind, the tyrannical schoolmaster
Jaggers, the rough-edged lawyer
Miss Haversham, the jilted spinster who lives an illusion.

Other examples:

John Bunyan's Mr Wordly Wiseman
Susanna Cantilever's Simon Pure
Walter Scott's Dr Dryads
Willie Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Jim Trueblood In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

I don't think "Scrooge" belongs in that list.

Mrs Scrooge by Carol Ann Duffy shown in the Guardian newspaper in December.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/dec/20/mrs-scrooge-carol-ann-duffy

I always liked the name "Murdstone" from David Copperfield... play on a certain French word, I believe. And there's Sidney Carton...

Nothing so profound or requiring so much analysis.

It's just that all the others use existing words to describe the bearer of the name ("Low man," "Pure," "Trueblood" etc.). Sometimes they're funny, often deliberately so.

But I don't think there was such a word as "scrooge" (or anything close with an appropriate meaning) before Dickens. The name then became a noun. Dickens could not have been doing that deliberately.

You would have to take that up with Lawrence Peel Ashmead, Cal...

Gosh I used up a total of 1487 finger movements to type that up as well. I wonder how much effort that was?

A quick equation:

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses the following amount of effort:

$effort = {
characters => 43, # the number of characters in the text
presses => 44, # key presses need to type the text
distance => 950, # millimeters the fingers moved while typing
energy => 2.2..., # the energy (Joules) used while typing

I think I am having a Haptodysphoric moment...

I wonder if there's any wordplay going on between "scrooge" and "screw," just in terms of "putting the screws" on someone, although I don't know how old that expression is. One dictionary defines "screw" as a miser, though, under British slang, and also an employer from whom one can get no more money. (dictionary.reference.com)

And let us not forget Dudley Doright.

Or Dante Swallow, six-year-old boy bitten by a lion.
Oliver Saucy, chef and of course Shawn Roe, fishmonger at Seattle's Pike Place Market.

Say, was you ever bit by a dead bee?

I have no memory of ever being bit by any kind of bee.

For those who enjoy a bit of historic irony, take a look at

http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/2003/11/An-Anti-Catholic-King.aspx

You may laugh, cry, or just shake your head.

How Little We Know...

A person himself believes that all the other portraits are good likenesses except the one of himself.

With all these dire economic circumstances all over the world, a hugely important question emerges:

Should politicians be promising "good paying jobs" or "well paying jobs?"

or just jobs?

oops, or even jobs?

or even just jobs?

Not to bypass the weight of andré's remarks, I return to the question. Do you mean a "good, paying job"? or do you mean a "well-paying job?"