What made you happy today? :)

[Murfreesboro]

Sorry to hear that a performer you enjoyed has passed away. I grew up in Jackson, MS, and well remember all the ads for pro wrestling. As a young girl, I couldn't understand the appeal, but now that I am familiar with reality TV, I understand it. You are right, it is (or was) a sort of soap opera. Just as there is nothing "real" about reality TV, the pro wrestling matches were sort of unscripted dramas, with easily recognizable characters, etc.

[Kolchak]

There was something innocent and at the same time silly about those days. You could turn off belief and for an hour or two, just live vicariously through the wrestlers. It was a guiltless pleasure. You knew it was all show, but you didn't care. Kind of like going to see a magician and knowing he is not really cutting the woman in half.

I caught some grief for it in college though. My advisor would ride me about the shows in Tampa and if I was down there with all the little old ladies watching the matches and jeering the bad guy from Russia? I explained the bad guy was from Saint Louis, not Russia, and his real name was Terry and not Ivan.

More as a goof than anything else I wrote a paper for his Social Problems class. I was quasi-serious, but had my tongue firmly in cheek, for some of the treatise. I talked about how it was a morality play, performed in a ring. I talked about how adults could suspend belief and that it could actually be therapeutic. You could pretend to be the bad guy, and do the dirty things you saw in the ring to your boss at work. And you would never get fired for it.

Blah, blah, blah...My advisor liked it so much, that with a few minor changes had it published in a sociology quarterly. I laughed, my butt off when he showed me. That was 1980, so I was ahead of the curve in one of the few times in my life. Lol.

But by the mid to late 90'so, the product and the people who were performing, had just gotten to the point, it wasn't worth watching. There was the incident of the murder suicide of Chris Benoit, and his wife and son, that really showed how low the bar had fallen. The crime occurred in a different part of Atlanta, but I have seen the crime scene photos, and they're not pretty. This along with the other so called normal deaths, that occur to young men in great physical condition, is simply horse manure. Murder, suicide, alcohol and drug problems are so much higher within this group of people to be beyond coincidence.

You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, but I would if I could.

[Murfreesboro]

That paper sounds like it was really interesting! I am not surprised your prof liked it.

Too bad the world of that sport degenerated.

[Andybev01]

Rip, Nada.

[Kolchak]

That paper sounds like it was really interesting! I am not surprised your prof liked it.

Too bad the world of that sport degenerated.

Show you how things have changed since 1980. I started off the paper talking about how when we're young everything is black and white. Very little gray when we're kids. How do we know wrong from right? We have our mom and dad to tell us. We use them as our childhood template. In 2015, the number of homes with mom and dad been reduced greatly. This I can attest to for a fact, by the number of people behind bars that didn't have the support of both parents, and wound up in trouble.

[Murfreesboro]

You are right. My husband is very concerned about the absence of fathers in young people's lives. He says the culture itself has undervalued the importance of fathers for decades, and now we are reaping what we have sown.

Of course, I grew up without a father (mine died when I was 7), but I had a terrific mother, I was female, and I knew my father had died--he hadn't abandoned me willingly.

[Andybev01]

The flip side of broken homes is of course no kid homes.
It seems that the American millennials are steering clear of parenthood in remarkable numbers.

We may end up like Japan, with too few bodies in the workplace to support our elder population.

[MauEvig]

Five more days guys. Five more days until I can say good bye to my cashier job; then a day off on Sunday and the new career begins next Monday.

I really wish I could get started now though. I'm excited!

[Murfreesboro]

Hooray for being excited about work! I wish I could feel that way.

Andy, I'm betting the millennials will have kids later, the way so many in my generation did. There weren't many kids in the '70s & '80s either, then there was a huge number in the '90s. The year after my eldest started school in 1994, I heard on TV that that year's first grade class was the largest in American history. You never hear about this, but it is obvious. Think about the Renaissance in the Disney Co. in the '90s, for example. Everything became very child-oriented. And one reason my daughter had difficulty with college admissions, being turned down by her top choice, despite her being such an excellent student, was the intensity of the competition for those slots. That generation born in the '90s is bigger than the baby boom, but nobody ever talks about it.

Of course, the nos. of them won't mean much if the jobs aren't there for them. I do worry about that.

[MauEvig]

I'm so disappointed in what they are trying to pull at the job I'm trying to leave. I'm really upset about it. I think I'm at a loss for words.

I'm trying to focus on the positives but right now, I'm just upset. I don't think I'm going to feel better until I'm done with this place for good.

[Murfreesboro]

I guess tell us when you are ready.

ETA: N/m. Saw it in the other thread. . . .

[Kolchak]

The flip side of broken homes is of course no kid homes.
It seems that the American millennials are steering clear of parenthood in remarkable numbers.

We may end up like Japan, with too few bodies in the workplace to support our elder population.

Don't worry about that. We have millions of illegals here to take their place.

[Murfreesboro]

Honestly, I am not worried that there won't be enough people to work. I am more worried that there won't be enough jobs for the people.

[Andybev01]

The flip side of broken homes is of course no kid homes.
It seems that the American millennials are steering clear of parenthood in remarkable numbers.

We may end up like Japan, with too few bodies in the workplace to support our elder population.

Don't worry about that. We have millions of illegals here to take their place.

Donald, is that you?

[Kolchak]

No. My hair is real!