I often wonder where we'd be if Commons debate were required of our leaders.
I thought the "have no sense of time" part was actually about the effects of some drug or other.
w-lfs-n? Taking things extremely literally? Well, I never.
If my experiences of public transport are any indicator, yes they will result in greater social comity. (In the sense that, after hearing enough of these idiots repeat Rush Limbaugh lines, you basically lose the will to defend them or protect them politically.)
These people seem to be absent from Lucy's picture of bus riders. Maybe they don't have them in Britain?
Also, Thatcher apparently said you only had to be over 26 to be a failure.
Oh, I just realized that I linked to the same Thatcher quotation source Ogged linked to. I really need to start following all of the links.
I've always found London buses kind of fun. There's a conductor on one of them that sings and plays the harmonica. Then again, there's that weird etiquette that stops you making eye contact with anyone...
Oh, and there's very little about Margaret Thatcher that's funny.
Dylan forgot 'fatter.' Nothing more discouraging on the morning commute than standing silently, trying to figure out which seat affords the best opportunity for a ride unencumbered by invasion by neighboring cellulite. I used to be a firm believer in PT, but now, I can fairly say that there is nothing firm in my experience of it. I used to rationalize others' obesity by appeal to the infamous explanation by non-culpable 'glandular anomaly.' NO LONGER. GET OFF THE T, YOU FAT F*CKS! Either that, or try standing...or even, perhaps, walking to work. Yes, it requires more effort and time, but a brisque morning walk beyond the boundries of the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen prison in which you likely spend the vast majority of your waking time might do you some good.
I dunno, as a regular public transportation user I buy the 'greater social comity' thing. While it certainly doesn't solve everything, or even most things, there are, e.g., some kinds of racist you can't be if you ride the NY subways regularly. (there are, I hasten to add, many kinds of racist you can still be -- I am not even beginning to claim that public transportation enforces the brotherhood of man.)
I've got family from upstate NY (for whose attitudes I take no responsibility whatsoever -- I didn't pick them) who when they come in to visit are literally afraid of all non-white people. Not terribly so, but they're jumpy and nervous around anyone who isn't white (which given my neighborhood, is most everyone). Exposure is at the least desensitizing -- you can't sustain that level of nervousness for long unless you're really crazy. Likewise the attitude "None of those inner-city (as code for black) people work, they live off welfare," can't be sustained for long in the face of a train full of New Yorkers of all races heading for work in the morning.
It absolutely doesn't fix everything -- there's still lots of racism in NY -- but it fixes some stuff.
LB, I agree totally. Coming from an all-white suburb and going to a virtually all-white Evangelical college, I had a lot of unconscious racist shit to get out of my system, even though I was "officially" a very tolerant liberal.
After riding the bus and train with enough hispanics and blacks, I am starting to realize -- wow, most people of other races don't attack you or rob you. In fact, most people in general, no matter what their race, either just ignore you or else are very polite -- few people will go to the trouble of harrassing someone they don't know.
In a few months, I'm sure that I will have forgotten my nervousness entirely, which will probably lead to an awkward situation or two when my family inevitably visits. The mother of one of my roommates already embarrassed herself at the Mexican bakery down the street by pulling out the old "non-English speaking people can understand you if you talk sufficiently loudly."
Man, Mexican bakeries are so awesome. Fifty-cent macaroons? Fifty-cent other kinds of things which I can't identify by name, but which I know to be delicious? Awesome.
But is there something about public transportation that makes it a better kind of urban mixing? I find that being crammed among people, any people, makes me hate them. Passing them on the street, or buying things from them, is much more pleasant.
See this craigslist post, entitled "I love you, CTA".
Exposure is at the least desensitizing -- you can't sustain that level of nervousness for long unless you're really crazy. Likewise the attitude "None of those inner-city (as code for black) people work, they live off welfare," can't be sustained for long in the face of a train full of New Yorkers of all races heading for work in the morning.
This has been my experience also. Though I've certainly been afraid for my life once or twice on the subway, but I guess that's par for the course when you've been here for eight years.
wow, most people of other races don't attack you or rob you.
Don't be so sure; they are probably trying to lull you into a false sense of security, so you'll let your guard down. Or, you don't own enough to interest them.
Ogged, you would just love one of my train journeys home when the train is shortened from the normal eight cars to four. I think they're why Britain has such strict laws about gun ownership.
But is there something about public transportation that makes it a better kind of urban mixing? I find that being crammed among people, any people, makes me hate them. Passing them on the street, or buying things from them, is much more pleasant.
Now we're just talking about practicality. If a city is dense enough to give this kind of beneficial from exposure to your fellow urbanites, there's no way everyone can drive to work -- where would we all park? If you want a dense city, and you live more than walking distance from work, public transportation is the only practical option.
Ignore the 'from' in the first sentence of the prior comment, please. Attempting to work simultaneously is really hurting my blog-commenting quality control.
Jeebus. w-lfs-n got you, too. Sad, really.
There is no "from" in the first sentence of 17!
Dude, not to screw up the immensely flattering blog-crush or anything, but I've always been like this. Persnickety R' Us.
Speaking of which, look at this shit that a partner just put in my nice clean brief: "There is a fuzzy imprecision built into allusion, which means indirect reference and to "categories of evidence", rather than facts that exacerbate the cloak that the Special Master has allowed the Plaintiffs to throw around their case."
How the hell do you exacerbate a cloak? And how am I supposed to turn this into English without being insulting?
Jeez. The clearly extraneous "from", whichever sentence it's in.
Wow, that's bad, LB. The answer to your question is, "you can't," so just be insulting.
It's sentences like that one that prompted me to flee law school after one semester, LB.
Excellent sense of self-preservation there, Snees.
Ben, I just read the "I love you CTA" post. That's good stuff. But I don't love the OCD lady. When I'm around someone like that, it's like I'm infected with whatever they have, and I start cringing and anticipating disaster for them. Exhausting.
LB:
Change the sentence to, "There is a fuzzy imprecision built into elision...the Plaintiffs are wrong."
how am I supposed to turn this into English without being insulting?
Well, it isn't an insult if you blame it on Google's translating tool, right? If you translate it to Japanese and back, you get:
It is accustomed to applying from fact and means the indirectness reference to section of evidence on the other hand the ambiguity which is made inaccuracy to be, as for special master the thing mantle which makes that you throw the around when the plaintiff is he and others possible deterioration the せ る.
Even a partner would agree that needs a rewrite.
Okay, I just hurt myself trying not to laugh audibly. Something about "Special Master the thing mantle"; it has kind of a kung-fu thing going on: "Perhaps you were not aware that I am third degree Special Master of thing mantle! You are helpless before my possible deterioration attack!"
Exactly! Also, your tiger style is no match for my monkey style.
Holy shit, that's awesome. But if that monkey slips just once...
How about Martin Amis on Margaret Thatcher: She can trap me for split seconds into thinking I am looking at a science-fiction illustration of some time ago showing the beautiful girl who has become President of the Solar Federation in the year 2220. The fact that it is not a sensual or sexy beauty does not make it a less sexy beauty, and that sexuality is still, I think, an underrated factor in her appeal.
Terrifying, no?
Margaret Thatcher might be one of those rare women who have not ever, even for an instant, been sexy. Amis is clearly fucking with his audience.
The fact that it is not a ... sexy beauty does not make it a less sexy beauty.
Ah.
I think we can all agree that Amis is right, in that Margaret Thatcher's sexuality has been not only underrated, but totally ignored, as a factor in her appeal.
And isn't bullying George H. W. Bush into standing tall pretty sexy?
au contraire!
Nope, still not sexy. Compare and contrast.
Nope, still not sexy.
Awww, c'mon. Y'all's standards are too strict.
Hot Prime Minister blogging!
I had a comment all ready to go (with links to pictures) ranking the various female world leaders, but then the browser up and crapped out on me. The short version: Thatcher crosses the finish line way behind (in no order) Bhutto, Indira Gandhi, Kim Campbell, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Cory Aquino, Hanna Suchocka, Edith Cresson and Mary Robinson. I think she's roughly in league with Maria Liberia-Peters, Dame Mary Eugenia, and Kazimiera Prunskiene.
On the other hand, she's way sexier than Golda Meir or Maria Pintasilgo.
Truly, I bow before you. You are insane.
You are insane.
What? You think Golda's better looking than Maggie?
Fiddlesitcks . Also, thwarting the Argentine junta = bonus hott.
You know what, I do. Meir just looks like a Middle-Eastern aunt. But what does Thatcher look like? The ugliest drag queen at the parade, maybe?
you forgot Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Latvia, and stern hottie.
Aww, c'mon baa. Vigdís is a total MILF.
Whoa! I'm behind on my Filipino presidents. Okay, Aquino goes to the bench and Arroyo takes her place at the 2 guard.
Initial ordering has to have Bhutto, Arroyo, Robinson and Campbell at the top. Otherwise, this whole exercise becomes a farce.
Otherwise, this whole exercise becomes a farce.
Goodness, we can't have that.
Admit it - Geraldine Ferraro had it going on - so much more than Ann Richards. What is it about you southern types wanting your women with that fake curly big hair?
20 comments and no one points out that 35 was really Kingsley Amis. Follow the links and check the footnotes!
Gro Harlem Brundtland isn't up there. And Golda Meir is very important to me.
(I don't know whether it's an admission or a boast to say that I knew who said 35 without checking the footnotes.)
Damn, you're right. LB has been dragging down the quality of scholarship on this blog for too long now!
Whoops. Does it get me anywhere to say that I knew that I meant Amis fils, but got their names crossed up?
No, but it'll fascinate the philosophers.
I thought that sounded more like Kingsley.
This may come off as condescending, but in my experience non-white people on the subway are far nicer than white people. If, say, a woman is struggling with a stroller, it is always black and hispanic people who help her out, whatever her race. I've noticed this countless times. My theory is that it's a working class thing, rather than a race thing, white people having more of a culture of self-sufficiency.
Try being 8 1/2 months pregnant on the subway -- consistently, minority teenagers were the only people who got up to let me sit down (with a noticeable correlation between how street the kid in question was dressed, and how likely they were to give me a seat). My theory was that minority kids tend to be brought up better, in the sense of feeling a more active obligation to be kind to people in need, but I don't actually know what was going on.
You two aren't going to start singing, "Kumbaya," are you?
Nope, jut passing out tips for who you should make plaintive eye contact with the next time you find yourself on a packed subway car with a sprained ankle. The man or woman in a suit isn't getting up, but the kid with his hair in braids and the rest of the street fashion look probably will.
Ok, I hate upper-middle class white people as much as the next guy, but could there be some, uh, surprise bias in the reporting here? I was about to agree that the people most likely to give me right of way in car have been young guys in muscle cars, but I could just be forgetting all the regular schmoes because I wasn't surprised when they did it.
Don't think so -- the period of time when you're pregnant enough that people get up for you lasts awhile (say, 2 1/2-3 months) so it was long enough to think about it and be pretty certain of what was happening. What surprised me (occasional misandrist that I am) is that women didn't let me sit down either -- no one middle-class looking, of either sex, got up. (Teenage minority girls would make eyecontact with the closest teenage minority boy, and bully them into getting up for me. Sexist, but cute to watch.)
I don't think the explanation is that white people were just mean -- it looked more as if they were simply much more likely to be engrossed in something to read, or in their own thoughts, and didn't notice that there was someone who needed a seat. (And I should say that on many such occasions I didn't need a seat -- I took one when offered to show my appreciation for the gesture. Sometimes, of course, I really did need it.)
Or more likely just to be entitled jerks.
I do have to admit that I've developed a habit of scanning subway cars in a somewhat paranoid manner to make sure there's no one I should be getting up for -- the thought of being one of those white people in suits who I was mentally bitching about while pregnant is horrifying.
Does it get me anywhere to say that I knew that I meant Amis fils, but got their names crossed up?
No, Kingsley is pere. My superKoranic nitpick power will destroy you!
All right, does it help if I say today is Backwards Day? Damn, I can't get anything straight these days.
Doesn't it make sense that there's more of a helping-people-out ethic in working class people? Just out of reciprocity? It really doesn't seem so outlandish to suggest that.
I once had a problem on the subway - a guy who was following me and threatening me - and I was feeling like Kitty Genovese because there were plenty of people around and no one was helping me out. I was trying to get to a car with a conductor, when this young black guy got up and got in the guy's face and told him to go away.
Another time I was crying on the subway, because a relative of mine had just died. And most people avoided me and looked at me like I was crazy. A motherly black woman asked me if I was OK and gave me a tissue. (And called me "honey.")
Anecdotal, but that's my experience.
If you simply change it to "...that exacerbate the metaphoric cloak that the Special Master has allowed...," you've handed off responsibility.
True kung fu actions here.
I clearly remember that during the brief period I had to hobble onto the subway with a cane, no one gave up a seat to me almost every single time.
If I said Kingsley was the better anthologist, but Martin the more interesting ficton writer, would that be amiss? (Amis and Conquest always struck me as one of the more unusual, though less bad, pairs to ever dabble in skiffy anthologizing.)
You probably weren't looking plaintively at the right people -- it's distinctly counterintuitive. Or, of course, people who will get up for pregnant women are not the same people who will get up for a guy with a cane.
(And if you want to know why people don't comment on your blog, it's because the comments mostly don't work. I left a comment on the second post you did on that Catalano link that took me four attempts over the course of a day to leave. I think it's time to consider shiny new software.)
