Tabishland

Well, FIRST of all, we still have gas station attendants in NJ, Joe - you can't pump your own gas. One of the many reasons why NJ is so great.

I think the most notable thing besides computers is entertainment and electronics. The fact that we only had 4 channels on TV and you had to watch what was on at that moment, no taping. You couldn't rent movies. The only portable music was the radio. Even the walkman didn't come out until the 80's. You had to sit still to talk on the phone, and you answered the phone when it rang. If you weren't home, oh, well. No answering machines.

But, we DID have 8 tracks.
 

Funny story. CE's nephew was here from NJ and stopped to get gas. Came back to the house furious that the he sat at the gas station for 10 minutes and not one #@$ attendant came out to serve him. The fact that everyone else was pumping their own gas didn't seem to register with him while he waited to be served.
 

Oooh, can I be the contrarian? They may not have some good things that we had, but they have other things that are much preferable-

My daughter goes to school and plays in an environment where racial slurs and making fun of somone because they're diffreent is considered unacceptable- not just to the parents, but the kids themselves. She goes to school and plays in an environemnt where bullying is frowned upon and the kids police each other to keep out bullying.

Kids today have more information about stranger danger and are equipped with some of the tools needed to defend themselves- in ways that left our generation vulnerable and victimized.

Children today with mental illness have a much better chance of being diagnosed through the diligant work of the schools- so that, instead of being ostracized and placed in special ediucation, they can get treatment- and, for the most part, it is treated as an illness rather than a character weakness.

Children with life threatening diseases, injuries and birth defects have a much better chance of living a normal, healthy, happy life because of the tremendous advances in medicine (practiced and advanced by Samaritans like Dr. Timmy)

Girls live in a culture that (although not quite fully yet) encourages them to live a life as full as their aspirations and talents lead them - the idea the a woman couldn't be a Law Enforcement Officer, a CEO, a Professional Basketball Player, a Scientist or even the President seems laughable now.

My favorite title of a book even was "The Way Things Never Were"

(The sound of me getting off my soap box)

and now back to our regularly scheduled sock puppet blog entries.
 

(Dangerous move here opening up this can of worms in front of Hansmann, et al) but,

Wasn't there some Python riff about "we had it so bad, our mum used to wake us up and hour before we went to bed....lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road...dad would beat us to death before dinner..."?
 

Geez Tim, that wasn't Python, I thought that was your riff from high school.

;-)
 

Should I post that three times for effect???
 

Or is that 'affect'?
 

You shuold see the looks I get on campus tours when I mention to kids that I went to college before the salad bar was invented. Some kids get that look of amazement, while the parents just nod their heads wistfully.
 

I'm pretty sure is was some Python oneupsmanship routine, "YOOUUU had it bad, what? Well, ME dad used to beat us to death every night before dinner , than feed us battery acid...."???
 

No???
 

Part of that kinder, gentler kidworld thing Ian was talking about?:

Greased, naked student disrupts lunch
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) - A high school lunch period was disrupted Monday by a greased, naked student who ran around screaming and flailing his arms until police twice used a stun gun on him, authorities said.

Excuse the cheesy, pisswarm comment I did in "Q#5" that takes up so much server space. I susbsequently noticed that it also recalls "swingin high....up in the sky". Which realls a pisswarm memory of a JH muscial in which GD was THE STAR (and had to kiss Nell, correct?).

And when did our Blog-god ("blod") quit playing teacher's pet to THE MAN and revoke the trademarks and copyrights. Is T-Land now FREE and OPENSOURCE?

And where is Pumliconni's blog?
 

Getting back to Ian's post, where "Girls live in a culture that (although not quite fully yet) encourages them to live a life as full as their aspirations and talents lead them ..."

I agree and all, and Ian did qualify his idea. But there still isn't equal pay for equal work. We still have a way to go.
 

you're right Nell. Absolutely- and isn't that silly that we're still stuck witht that? And itsn't it absure that if people voice that opinion, people still get called names? I mean, instead of "womens libber" now it's "femanazi."
 

Ian, very good points indeed. Especially the mental health and educational issues for kids. Re women, I still remember an episode of "Maude" in the 70's that centered around the fact the she, a woman, was outrageously running for political office. Not that it wasn't ever done, but it was that rare. I can't believe that.

Tim: YES, darlin', there was indeed a Python riff about that, I think we even have it on a CD. And the long post was worth the read.
 

The Four Yorkshiremen.
 

Ah, those good old, bad old days. Ya gotta luv 'em. Thanks Joe!
 

Thanks, Joe. Got my day started just right.
 

The CMU teaching center, a university resource for teachers, spends time trying to help professors contextulize the incoming students. The truth is that things that are meaningful to us are meaningless to the students and one has to find a way to bring the experience to them, rather than trying to make them come to your experience. This is a list of contextual items for the 2006 incoming class:

• Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Richard Burton, Orson Wells, John Lennon all died before they were born.
• The Osmonds are just talk show hosts.
• Bert and Ernie are old enough to be their parents.
• Rock and Roll has always been a force for social good.
• Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
• A “45” is a handgun, not a record with a large hole in the middle
• An “automatic” is a weapon, not a transmission.
• Datsuns have never been made.
• Stores have always had scanners at the checkout.
• Cars have always had rear window mounted break lights, CD players, and air bags.
• Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In the USA” could have been played to celebrate their birth.
• The Kennedy Tragedy was a plane crash, not an assassation.
• They’ve never lost anything in a shag carpet.
• Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
• There has always been a woman in the Supreme Court.
• Peeps are not candy chicks, they are their friends.
• They have never seen a lady in a real fur coat.
• Directory Assistance has never been free.
• They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up and their parents were children when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
• Neither they nor their parents know what a "party line" is in the context of Bell Telephone service (or for that matter know who Ma Bell is/was).
 

Nor have they or will they ever shake Gerry Ford's hand.

FYI, part of a neurologist's mental exam is to ask the patient to list the Presidents backwards to about Kennedy.
Ford is skipped so regularly that subsequent medical studies feel missing him does not constitiute any evidence of mental status changes.

I'll miss Gerry though not Chevy Chase.
 

YouTube:
1948, python, four yorkshiremen

see Marty Feldman, too.