Someone I know commented that one of the things that "killed" indoor malls was the cost of heating or cooling all that "dead space."
I don't know. Where I live now, it seems all the rage are - I don't even know what they're called, back in the day I would have called them a "strip mall," but it seems that's a downmarket term now - a series of stores all lined up, each with their own separate entrance. In places where the weather is nice, if you have decent sidewalks between the stores, this makes sense. Where I go to shop (north Texas), it does not: it's way, way too hot to walk the half-mile or whatever it is from one end of the mall to the next, or in the winter it's usually raining. So you have to drive and find parking for each store (or cluster of stores) you want to visit, which is somewhat annoying. (Also, the "sidewalks" are not that good because the stores have big boxy entrances that project into the sidewalk space).
I think indoor malls have mostly died; the last few times I've been in one they seemed much grubbier and poorly-kept-up than I remember the malls of my youth as being. I guess the rule is "everything turns to crap eventually"?
I am JUST old enough to remember the dying days of the big downtown department stores and I admit I wish those would come back, though I think the "department store" of our futures is going to look more like a shabby wal-mart than it does like a Bergdorf Goodman.
Booze still has carbohydrates so the dietary crusaders probably have it in for that, too.
(We have ads running here basically shaming parents for letting their kids drink anything other than water. The ads are paid for by the "tobacco settlement" money. I am wondering how long before Big Sugar gets sued for some of that sweet, sweet cash)
I work on a college campus (a campus that is technically "dry") and I suspect much in the way of drinking alcohol mmmmmmight lead to some of the behaviors we've had to sit through "avoidance training" for.
(I also work in the South. Maybe not *quite* Bible Belt but certainly Bible Belt-adjacent)
then again....set out a pizza or a pot of chili and we will happily gather and talk. Most biologists are pretty food-motivated.
I figured it was exaggeration for amusement, but I don't know.
I don't drink - medication interactions - so I don't know what's "normal" and what's "not" in re: alcohol consumption but I think if you have booze on your desk at work, there *might* be a problem.
I'm gonna hang on to the link to that first article (about the wine and the Enjoli and the first-world problems) to re-read whenever I feel like my life is a mess. Because obviously my life isn't that much of a mess: I work at a job I don't need a stiff drink to "wash off" after the day, I don't have to worry that much about how my make up looks (just wearing lip gloss means I'm more made-up than 75% of the women here), and I never have to walk home past drunks making gross propositions.
Yup. I have it pretty good. I even make the same amount as a man with my level of experience, thanks to a "salary card" set by TPTB.
(I'm not being sarcastic here. I realize upon reading that article that I really do have it pretty darn good.)
E2: Allegedly*, the rather Brutalist-lite Admin building on the University of Michigan campus was a response to the protests of the 60s- I was told the interior was hard to navigate, and also there were tunnels below it to get the administrators out in a hurry if necessary
(* I also heard that that story was untrue, and the building was being planned long before the protests. I never was in there so I don't know how much of a rabbit warren it actually was)
So I wonder if we'll see another wave of that kind of building - concrete bunkers with slit windows - in response to campus unrest. That is, on the campuses that have the funds to actually build stuff...
As far as I know, there's a LONG history of updating the "little list" to make it topical.
I generally don't have a problem with Shakespeare "resets" unless they're insufferably dumb, e.g., Romeo and Juliet redone with a circus theme where the two families are 'warring' families of clowns (not an actual production I've seen, merely a ridiculous example). But I think this reset would actually kind of work, Renaissance Milan is as "exotic" to us as Japan would have been to the Victorians. And it does get around all the "sensitivity" issues, seeing as all 16th Century Milanese are dead and cannot object to being objects of parody.
(One of my favorite Shakespeare productions EVER was a reset of "Twelfth Night" to the bayous of south Louisiana circa 1890. It worked shockingly well, even down to "Topas" being a stump-preacher.)
I prefer "paper" books to "interactive web-page-like streams" because I am easily distracted. I actually dropped a subscription to a (scientific) journal I used to read because they went heavily to "sidebars" and big infographics and stuff and I'd go crazy wondering, "Do I interrupt my reading of the actual article (and maybe have to go back and start again from an earlier point to pick up the thread) to read the sidebar, or do I wait until I'm done (and maybe miss something I need to comprehend the article that's in the sidebar)?" I also hate the trend in textbooks (I am a prof) to lard them up with sidebars and infographics and stuff that I just find intrusive and distracting. Maybe kids today aren't so easily pulled off task, I don't know.
And about Darkwing Duck: How I wish one of the three Disney channels would start running a block where they re-run some of the "classic" 90s cartoons like DWD, and Talespin, and Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers.....I was already nominally an adult when those came out but I still enjoyed the heck out of them then, and I'd probably watch them again now.
H4: It always seems weird to me to hear about "Lawson Stations" and the like in Japan. I grew up in Northeast Ohio, and "Lawson's" was a very small, local, dairy brand. (We had a Lawson store not too far from my house; they were open when the Acme - yes, we also had an Acme - wasn't). Lawsons in the US closed some years ago, as far as I know. It's just kind of wonderful to me that what I know as an "iconic brand of Hudson" still exists (in different form, I suppose) on the other side of the earth. the logo is even similar and the first time I saw the Japanese Lawson logo, I will admit my heart hurt a little bit from the nostalgia.
I have to admit I like the idea of a multi-service convenience store and one that stocks more healthful food...wouldn't want it MANDATED but it seems it kind of grew "organically" into that in Japan.
I'm just sort of amazed this is still a thing. I only knew it from "Zorba the Greek," where Zorba tried to cure the old French prostitute (? I presume she was) by doing cupping on her. As I remember it, you light a match inside the glass globe to heat it up, so it will create like a small vacuum (?) and you stick it on the skin. It looks painful.
Again, I might be misremembering (it's been a while since I saw the movie, don't remember if the scene was in the book) but I think he was trying to treat her for TB? Not very effective, she died.
Yes, this. I hate grocery shopping and I try to do it at most once a week - carrying enough reusable bags, even for me as a single, live-alone, could be difficult.
Also having to be sure to have some easily-washable ones for carrying stuff like meat, and separate ones for the things that will be eaten raw and the things that are cleaning products and and and.....I try to do it with "little" shopping, also when I shop at the "hippie store" but not if I'm spending over $100 and getting multiple canned and jarred items.
Never really watched the Godzilla movies, but my parents tell me that one of their nicknames for me as a toddler was "'Zilla" (from Godzilla) because of the stompy way I moved when I was learning to walk. (I was their first child).
Then again, I think Godzilla is one of those things you "know" by osmosis if you're involved at all with American culture (or maybe American geek culture?) even without watching it.
(My parents had seen the original Godzillas; they were young-marrieds back in the day when those things were the late-night movie on some tv channels)
"Competence porn." That alone tells me that maybe if I'm looking for bingewatching material, I should look Person of Interest up. (I've seen bits and pieces when it was on various networks - I think WGN America reruns it? But it's never at a time I want to sit down and just watch).
Right now, I'm re-reading (got about 2/3 in and stalled out) of "The War that Ended Peace," an account of some of the stuff that was the run-up to WWI. I feel very ignorant about WWI - it's really badly taught in American schools, even the good school district I attended in the 70s - and that I need to read more about it so I know. I also have "The Guns of August" on my shelf to read some time.
I also (huge, irritated sigh) have a copy of "R for Dummies" I need to start as my uni is allegedly not renewing our stats-package site license and I need SOME way of analyzing research data, and R apparently has the virtue of being free. Programming is so not my forte that I expect there will be several rounds of tears....
I find I get more simple escapist joy (and yet, conversely, more interesting topics to think about later) from so-called "kids' movies" than for ones ostensibly aimed at whatever my demographic would be (47 year old never-married professional woman so I presume that would either be some kind of documentary or perhaps a "meet cute" movie - and I loathe "meet cute" movies).
I enjoyed Zootopia a lot. I don't think I enjoyed it *quite* as much as I enjoyed "Big Hero Six" and perhaps it didn't make me contemplate as much as "Inside Out" did. But oh my, the settings in it are so GORGEOUS....the scene where the monorail is carrying Judy through the different habitats, I have to see that again.
I'm not a parent, but I'm a former kid (some would argue I still am not fully mature...) with vivid memories of childhood.
The author did the right thing. For goodness' sake, the kid is THREE. She's not a teen who vandalized something and now "Daddy" is trying to get her off the legal hook. She's not even an eight-year-old who took a toy apart in a fit of curiosity and broke it. And, as Bath pointed out, as far as he can remember, it's HIS fault the toy went missing.
And I was a kid who grew up with "tough" parents. And I grew up in the 1970s, and was regularly reminded that there wasn't money for stuff. I got toys on my birthday and at Christmas. If something broke and it couldn't be fixed, it went in the trash, and it wasn't replaced.
Even though I said I had "tough" parents, I remember trusting my parents. I remember believing they could fix stuff. As an adult I know you can't really fully trust any human, and that no one can fix everything all the time, even if they are willing to try.
And so I tend to be - from my tired old, maybe-not-quite-an-adult-at-47 perspective, of the opinion that a little kid whose toy has got lost, probably through no fault of her own, and Dad can make it right....well, that's a nice little lesson that the world isn't always an awful place and sometimes things that go wrong can be fixed. She'll have the rest of her life to learn that life is actually otherwise.
Replacing her Hola will not turn her into a spoiled brat.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Morning Ed: Society {2016.09.06.T}”
Someone I know commented that one of the things that "killed" indoor malls was the cost of heating or cooling all that "dead space."
I don't know. Where I live now, it seems all the rage are - I don't even know what they're called, back in the day I would have called them a "strip mall," but it seems that's a downmarket term now - a series of stores all lined up, each with their own separate entrance. In places where the weather is nice, if you have decent sidewalks between the stores, this makes sense. Where I go to shop (north Texas), it does not: it's way, way too hot to walk the half-mile or whatever it is from one end of the mall to the next, or in the winter it's usually raining. So you have to drive and find parking for each store (or cluster of stores) you want to visit, which is somewhat annoying. (Also, the "sidewalks" are not that good because the stores have big boxy entrances that project into the sidewalk space).
I think indoor malls have mostly died; the last few times I've been in one they seemed much grubbier and poorly-kept-up than I remember the malls of my youth as being. I guess the rule is "everything turns to crap eventually"?
I am JUST old enough to remember the dying days of the big downtown department stores and I admit I wish those would come back, though I think the "department store" of our futures is going to look more like a shabby wal-mart than it does like a Bergdorf Goodman.
On “Morning Ed Society {2016.08.29.M}”
Booze still has carbohydrates so the dietary crusaders probably have it in for that, too.
(We have ads running here basically shaming parents for letting their kids drink anything other than water. The ads are paid for by the "tobacco settlement" money. I am wondering how long before Big Sugar gets sued for some of that sweet, sweet cash)
"
This almost makes me sadder than this year's previous famous-person deaths; he was in so much stuff I loved as a kid/teen.
Is it my imagination or has 2016 really sucked for taking people a lot of us out here cared about?
"
I work on a college campus (a campus that is technically "dry") and I suspect much in the way of drinking alcohol mmmmmmight lead to some of the behaviors we've had to sit through "avoidance training" for.
(I also work in the South. Maybe not *quite* Bible Belt but certainly Bible Belt-adjacent)
then again....set out a pizza or a pot of chili and we will happily gather and talk. Most biologists are pretty food-motivated.
"
I figured it was exaggeration for amusement, but I don't know.
I don't drink - medication interactions - so I don't know what's "normal" and what's "not" in re: alcohol consumption but I think if you have booze on your desk at work, there *might* be a problem.
"
I'm gonna hang on to the link to that first article (about the wine and the Enjoli and the first-world problems) to re-read whenever I feel like my life is a mess. Because obviously my life isn't that much of a mess: I work at a job I don't need a stiff drink to "wash off" after the day, I don't have to worry that much about how my make up looks (just wearing lip gloss means I'm more made-up than 75% of the women here), and I never have to walk home past drunks making gross propositions.
Yup. I have it pretty good. I even make the same amount as a man with my level of experience, thanks to a "salary card" set by TPTB.
(I'm not being sarcastic here. I realize upon reading that article that I really do have it pretty darn good.)
On “Linky Friday #181: Bull’s IQ”
E2: Allegedly*, the rather Brutalist-lite Admin building on the University of Michigan campus was a response to the protests of the 60s- I was told the interior was hard to navigate, and also there were tunnels below it to get the administrators out in a hurry if necessary
(* I also heard that that story was untrue, and the building was being planned long before the protests. I never was in there so I don't know how much of a rabbit warren it actually was)
So I wonder if we'll see another wave of that kind of building - concrete bunkers with slit windows - in response to campus unrest. That is, on the campuses that have the funds to actually build stuff...
On “If You Want to Know Who We Are”
As far as I know, there's a LONG history of updating the "little list" to make it topical.
I generally don't have a problem with Shakespeare "resets" unless they're insufferably dumb, e.g., Romeo and Juliet redone with a circus theme where the two families are 'warring' families of clowns (not an actual production I've seen, merely a ridiculous example). But I think this reset would actually kind of work, Renaissance Milan is as "exotic" to us as Japan would have been to the Victorians. And it does get around all the "sensitivity" issues, seeing as all 16th Century Milanese are dead and cannot object to being objects of parody.
(One of my favorite Shakespeare productions EVER was a reset of "Twelfth Night" to the bayous of south Louisiana circa 1890. It worked shockingly well, even down to "Topas" being a stump-preacher.)
On “Morning Ed: Entertainment {2016.08.14.Su}”
I prefer "paper" books to "interactive web-page-like streams" because I am easily distracted. I actually dropped a subscription to a (scientific) journal I used to read because they went heavily to "sidebars" and big infographics and stuff and I'd go crazy wondering, "Do I interrupt my reading of the actual article (and maybe have to go back and start again from an earlier point to pick up the thread) to read the sidebar, or do I wait until I'm done (and maybe miss something I need to comprehend the article that's in the sidebar)?" I also hate the trend in textbooks (I am a prof) to lard them up with sidebars and infographics and stuff that I just find intrusive and distracting. Maybe kids today aren't so easily pulled off task, I don't know.
And about Darkwing Duck: How I wish one of the three Disney channels would start running a block where they re-run some of the "classic" 90s cartoons like DWD, and Talespin, and Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers.....I was already nominally an adult when those came out but I still enjoyed the heck out of them then, and I'd probably watch them again now.
On “Linky Friday #179: Armies of Darkness”
H4: It always seems weird to me to hear about "Lawson Stations" and the like in Japan. I grew up in Northeast Ohio, and "Lawson's" was a very small, local, dairy brand. (We had a Lawson store not too far from my house; they were open when the Acme - yes, we also had an Acme - wasn't). Lawsons in the US closed some years ago, as far as I know. It's just kind of wonderful to me that what I know as an "iconic brand of Hudson" still exists (in different form, I suppose) on the other side of the earth. the logo is even similar and the first time I saw the Japanese Lawson logo, I will admit my heart hurt a little bit from the nostalgia.
I have to admit I like the idea of a multi-service convenience store and one that stocks more healthful food...wouldn't want it MANDATED but it seems it kind of grew "organically" into that in Japan.
On “Michael Phelps has red circles on his back from cupping therapy – Business Insider”
I'm just sort of amazed this is still a thing. I only knew it from "Zorba the Greek," where Zorba tried to cure the old French prostitute (? I presume she was) by doing cupping on her. As I remember it, you light a match inside the glass globe to heat it up, so it will create like a small vacuum (?) and you stick it on the skin. It looks painful.
Again, I might be misremembering (it's been a while since I saw the movie, don't remember if the scene was in the book) but I think he was trying to treat her for TB? Not very effective, she died.
On “Morning Ed: Resources {2016.08.04.Th}”
Yes, this. I hate grocery shopping and I try to do it at most once a week - carrying enough reusable bags, even for me as a single, live-alone, could be difficult.
Also having to be sure to have some easily-washable ones for carrying stuff like meat, and separate ones for the things that will be eaten raw and the things that are cleaning products and and and.....I try to do it with "little" shopping, also when I shop at the "hippie store" but not if I'm spending over $100 and getting multiple canned and jarred items.
On “We Call Him… Gojira!”
Never really watched the Godzilla movies, but my parents tell me that one of their nicknames for me as a toddler was "'Zilla" (from Godzilla) because of the stompy way I moved when I was learning to walk. (I was their first child).
Then again, I think Godzilla is one of those things you "know" by osmosis if you're involved at all with American culture (or maybe American geek culture?) even without watching it.
(My parents had seen the original Godzillas; they were young-marrieds back in the day when those things were the late-night movie on some tv channels)
On “Sunday!”
"Competence porn." That alone tells me that maybe if I'm looking for bingewatching material, I should look Person of Interest up. (I've seen bits and pieces when it was on various networks - I think WGN America reruns it? But it's never at a time I want to sit down and just watch).
Right now, I'm re-reading (got about 2/3 in and stalled out) of "The War that Ended Peace," an account of some of the stuff that was the run-up to WWI. I feel very ignorant about WWI - it's really badly taught in American schools, even the good school district I attended in the 70s - and that I need to read more about it so I know. I also have "The Guns of August" on my shelf to read some time.
I also (huge, irritated sigh) have a copy of "R for Dummies" I need to start as my uni is allegedly not renewing our stats-package site license and I need SOME way of analyzing research data, and R apparently has the virtue of being free. Programming is so not my forte that I expect there will be several rounds of tears....
On “Sunday!”
Definitely have seen Iron Giant (cried at the end of it). Have not even heard of Gortimer Gibbons.
"
I find I get more simple escapist joy (and yet, conversely, more interesting topics to think about later) from so-called "kids' movies" than for ones ostensibly aimed at whatever my demographic would be (47 year old never-married professional woman so I presume that would either be some kind of documentary or perhaps a "meet cute" movie - and I loathe "meet cute" movies).
I enjoyed Zootopia a lot. I don't think I enjoyed it *quite* as much as I enjoyed "Big Hero Six" and perhaps it didn't make me contemplate as much as "Inside Out" did. But oh my, the settings in it are so GORGEOUS....the scene where the monorail is carrying Judy through the different habitats, I have to see that again.
On “The Armchair Parent”
I'm not a parent, but I'm a former kid (some would argue I still am not fully mature...) with vivid memories of childhood.
The author did the right thing. For goodness' sake, the kid is THREE. She's not a teen who vandalized something and now "Daddy" is trying to get her off the legal hook. She's not even an eight-year-old who took a toy apart in a fit of curiosity and broke it. And, as Bath pointed out, as far as he can remember, it's HIS fault the toy went missing.
And I was a kid who grew up with "tough" parents. And I grew up in the 1970s, and was regularly reminded that there wasn't money for stuff. I got toys on my birthday and at Christmas. If something broke and it couldn't be fixed, it went in the trash, and it wasn't replaced.
Even though I said I had "tough" parents, I remember trusting my parents. I remember believing they could fix stuff. As an adult I know you can't really fully trust any human, and that no one can fix everything all the time, even if they are willing to try.
And so I tend to be - from my tired old, maybe-not-quite-an-adult-at-47 perspective, of the opinion that a little kid whose toy has got lost, probably through no fault of her own, and Dad can make it right....well, that's a nice little lesson that the world isn't always an awful place and sometimes things that go wrong can be fixed. She'll have the rest of her life to learn that life is actually otherwise.
Replacing her Hola will not turn her into a spoiled brat.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.