Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

[QUOTE=jasper123;9345813]Yes, they indeed were. I still have my 'Green Card' with my baby picture on it...Dec. 12, 1947!! :eek:

Chris

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

There is to be a ban on sales of cigarettes to be implemented shortly, and small corner/convenience stores will not be allowed to sell them. Have a look - this was posted before the ban was announced, and it has since been passed: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...logos-branding

Cigarette packets here say if plainly: Smoking Kills.

I watched my father die from Emphysema in 1993, and it is not a pretty sight. He was a 3 pack a day man for many years, and did not give up until he got pneumonia at the age of 60, then stopped cold turkey - too late for him. When I say I hate cigarettes - I hate cigarettes. Most smokers seem to think that the butts (fag ends) they throw on the street are exempt from the request to not litter the public space - those of you on here who are/were smokers - can you lay any light on what makes smokers so blind to this fact? I have never understood this, and many of my fellow citizens don't understand this attitude either. But we can't get it across in a workable manner. By the way, this is a genuine question, not a wind up. Rosie

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

My dad died of lung cancer aged 60 - also not a pretty sight and the final spur I needed to give up 8 years ago.

But it's a truly enjoyable habit and one I sometimes still miss. I can certainly understand others who can't give it up.

As for the butts on the floor - I think throwing them on the floor is better than trying to extinguish them, throwing them in a bin, and then having the whole thing burst into flames.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

It's plain old "denial" - same as with any other addiction. When it comes to addiction, the denial can be SOooo strong!

My mother smoked as well and I relate only too well to that denial. I told her many times but she always had one excuse over another. And if you talked about second-hand smoke, she didn't want to hear it.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Nice to see Katy out and about and shopping Thursday at Waitrose Supermarket. She was looking in the biscuits section and I wonder what her favorite is?
They had a picture taken outside Waitrose and it showed it had been raining so I loved that picture.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...s-trolley.html

Pipa out and about.

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrityn...ed-man-201145#

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Yes, Einstein is a great example. He was an amazing man and not just talking about his intellect... very tapped in. But I wouldn't call him a representative example of a scientist.
However, I was very encouraged by your email. I left Uni studies of Psychology and Philosophy because I found them very left-brain, at least in the classes I was taking at SFU.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

[QUOTE=jasper123;9345813]My green card is green. Of course it's no longer any good because in those days you had to register every year in January and were called a "Registered Alien". Lovely name. :thumbdown:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Dropping cigarette butts on the ground has no more to do with smoking as a habit than dropping candy bar papers has to do with the need for a sugar fix. It has to do with the sense of responsibility of the individual.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Nice Cheers.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Voyeur!

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Pippa can be our guest any time. Don

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I think US universities are still largely positivist (I went through 6 years of grad school without ever hearing the words ontology, epistemology, etc. mentioned in class - even in research methods classes). Although people think about quantitative research (i.e., involving statistics) as being complicated and confusing, it is actually a much easier paradigm to implement because the rules are relatively clear, governed by maths, etc. However, I'm pretty shocked that a Philosophy department would be predominantly left-brain (psychology, maybe, because even though it lends itself more to postpositivism, the predominant paradigm has always been quantitative).

This system fits the US school-educated individual because of the emphasis on learning facts, multiple-choice exams, didactic teaching rather than guided learning, thinking outside the box, etc.

The opposite end of the spectrum is much more difficult to learn and understand how to do properly (and to teach - if you start with the premise that multiple truths/multiple realities can exist concurrently, how do you determine what is correct/incorrect?) There are rules and systems, but unfortunately qualitative research is too often misinterpreted as meaning simply that "opinion is fact", and there is no need for a rationale or rigour. If you Google Margaret Mead/Coming of Age in Samoa, you'll see the pitfalls of the qualitative paradigm - doubt has been cast on her research; indeed later interviews with the women who participated in her study revealed that they simply told her lies/stories in order to entertain themselves.

There is as much "art" as "science" in good research, and I think most good researchers and academics understand that.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I have to say that as much as it is very nice to see such a natural couple, I do feel a sense of irony that we celebrate how normal she is by enjoying photographs of her living a normal life - what is so normal about photographers following you to the shops?

Maybe it was a scheduled/agreed photoshoot, in which case I guess it's not so bad, but I hope the press leaves her alone.

They are already digging into her sister and brother's supposedly lurid past, bloody hyenas. Maybe we should get to see embarrassing past photos of the tabloid bosses and photographers, too, seems only fair.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I feel for you Rosie, Yikes I couldn't handle that.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

[QUOTE=bandrui;9346425]The January registration went away around 1980, also the filling out of Tax forms before leaving on a foreign vacation.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Id sooner them be extinguished, less smoke.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Science only baffles those who allow themselves to be baffled.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

As a dog owner, I probably dislike the lazy dog owners as much as the next person (just like, as a cyclist, it ticks me off to see other cyclists breaking the rules of the road, like riding through red lights). Both sets of individuals give the rest of us a bad name.

I think the answer is not to ban dogs, but to penalize the guilty, lazy dog-owners. The number of CCTV cameras in the UK these days, there should be plenty of evidence.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I have never smoked having seen my father cough and splutter his way through life finally dying, as did yours, from emphysema. He had smoked from the age of 19 to 83 and amazingly did not get cancer. What has always surprised me is that smokers do not realise just how much they smell of smoke. Even if they don't have a cigarette in their hand many of them smell strongly enough to identify them as smokers. As for the litter question, what about the car owners who simply dump their full ashtrays in a public space.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I agree with you - it IS the dog owner who is at fault, not the animal. Unfortunately, here in Somerset, the CCTV camera scheme has been discontinued due to lack of funds. Hence my dislike of dogs in town - not saying they should not exist, but not on the downtown streets. I am constantly amazed at the sheer number of dogs in the shopping areas - been in the USA too long to agree that dogs should be tied up outside of shops whilst their owners are inside. Who knows which one is friendly, which one is scared/nervous/skittish therefore don't go near to it?

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I can smell a cigarette from a long distance and through doors/walls, etc. the smell of cigarettes is very distinctive. Interestingly, as a former smoker, it still triggers a positive reaction in my brain (I don't like being in a smoke-filled room, but smelling faint cigarette smoke is an oddly pleasant experience).

I haven't smoked in about 30 years, and have no desire to start, but I can certainly understand how some people become addicted.

Litter is a much bigger problem in the UK than the whole fag-end dropping habit. I just wish legislators would require filters to be biodegradable in a period of less than 1,000 years.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I used to work for a guy who had stopped smoking but missed it terribly. Whenever I came in from having a cigarette, he would take a deep breath as I walked by and say 'lovely!' I think he was the only person who thought that :lol:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

It is a really weird feeling, because my field is physical activity and public health, so I am a staunch believer in not smoking, and cognitively can say without equivocation that smoking is "bad".

However, I just can't help what my brain does automatically when I get a whiff. Must be a different part of my brain. :rofl:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

yes Ive seen that too where you see the driver of a car dumping a whole ash tray of stinky buts onto the street, only seen it in the States though, dont think it would happen here in UK --- just like in US you see people of any age spitting on the side walk as they are walking --- or opening up there car door as they are stoped at a traffic light and spitting on the road, :eek:
Never seen any of that here in UK ---- people just dont do it ---- or wouldn't even think of doing it thats all, plus if your caught spitting anywhere outside its against the law and you will be fined, ----- I wish the no doggie poop law would be enforced a little stronger over here in UK though :thumbdown: ----- oh well I will just have to keep on looking down at the pavement as Im waking and stepping over the poop - or zig zagging in and out and around it all :eek: :eek: :eek:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Rodney you reminded me of something I just came across.

While clearing out, I found a list I made of 'pros and cons' when we were considering buying a house in Toronto years ago. Pros were things like 'nice sized bathroom' and 'new kitchen units.' Cons were 'saw neighbor spitting on the pavement!' We did buy the house and I don't think it happened again, but it obviously made an impression on me because I wrote it down!

Do people not do that in England? I just assumed they did. It's my least favorite thing in the world. Don't care about swearing and I'm used to stepping around horse droppings in Manhattan but I hate accidentally stepping in a gobbet of spit :lol:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I think spitting is pretty common in the UK.

What you don't get in the UK is tobacco-spitting - disgusting habit. I had a student in class (US) who was spitting tobacco juice into a paper cup - until I noticed, then he was out of there.

In football games they seem to do it so much I'm surprised they don't dehydrate themselves. :rolleyes:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

well, we can all relate, I think!
I just ate a crumpet with butter on (trying to get over my years of crumpet-deprivation in USA!!!).
I know, cognitively, that this has hardly any positive nutritional value, and the butter is not good for me....but the other part of brain says, what the hell!

NOT as serious healthwise as smoking, of course...

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Not to be a big fat downer, but there's a case to be made that animal fats are just as dangerous as smoking - if not more. They cause heart disease, the #1 killer in the western world, and there's a lot of evidence that they also play a big role in many different kinds of cancer.

If you think about it, all dairy products are made from the breast milk of another species, which is a bit weird to say the least. I wonder how people would feel about eating butter made from human breast milk :lol: and yet that's more natural really. I avoid milk and butter for this reason, but no matter how much I know it's bad for me, I just can't wean myself (good word!) off cheese. Especially the British imported stuff my husband buys. Yum!

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I'm a Cheese-a-olic...:o Anyone know of a Cheese-Eater Anonymous group?? I'm totally addicted...

:cool:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Well, yes, I do know about the health risks of animal fat, including dairy, of course. I just feel that at least milk, butter, and cheese are foods people have been eating for millennia (tho less in Asia, I know, where people are I believe healthier in many respects) and ARE better than inhaling nicotine, ash etc, to say noting of the addictive effects of smoking on the brain...
also, when I eat butter I am not bothering anyone in the way smokers bother nonsmokers!!

But yes, i know they are not the best. But I love butter on my crumpet, milk in my tea, and CHEESE, as you do--one of the most incredible products of the food-makers' art. And of course I am here in France surrounded by wonderful cheese..
Good British cheese is wonderful too...Caerphilly, Stilton, Wensleydale, aged Cheddar, and all the ones you can't get in USA...Cornish Yarg, Worcestershire Truckle, and on and on....

In moderation, cheese is a gift to humankind.

By the way, there are several companies who make human breast milk ice cream and other products!

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I believe "everything in moderation" is the way to go!! I don't eat buttered crumpets everyday but if I happen to pass by a Trader Joe's I'll go in and buy some! Also cheese- I love it but only eat it occasionally. I bought some Irish Kerrygold for St Patrick's Day! One thing I have stopped doing though is putting milk in my tea. I stopped that about 10 years ago - probably because if I ordered tea in a restaurant it didn't come with milk so I just got used to drinking it black or with lemon. I also got used to dipping bread in olive oil and eat that quite a lot (we have a lot of Italians in this area and that's how they eat their bread). Olive oil is very good for you!

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Ahem....I'm a smoker and can only speak for myself...frankly, I think my brain is operating quite well, thank you very much!! ;)
And I don't 'bother anyone' with my smoking as I don't smoke in public. So I seriously doubt I'm bothering any nonsmokers, anywhere. Most people I know who are non-smokers and when learn I'm a smoker...are usually a bit taken aback...saying..."but you don't smell like smoke"! :eek: Maybe because I bathe and wash my clothes on a regular basis! :thumbup::lol:

Though I can complain much the same about drinkers and those coming out of taverns/restaurants/pubs....pissed drunk, loud, obnoxious and then getting into their vehicles....but they don't smoke...:blink: Smoking in my own home, will not cause loss of life and injury to other humans on the road. Nor will it cause me to beat my spouse and/or children while watching a football game. Or really for no reason at all...other than just being a plain out soused, lout.

And no thank you, I have heard about the breast milk ice cream over in the UK. The last time I had breast milk was directly from the manufacturer..my mother...eons ago. I think I lost the taste for it....yuck...yuck...yuck..

:D

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Exactly....moderation! (Though difficult sometimes !! :)
And bread with olive oil is excellent, yes.

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Derry...I simply love a good Irish Soda Bread with real butter....nummy, especially around St. Paddy's Day. After all I do live in Chicago..and Chicago is well connected to all things Irish. We dye our namesake river Green as well on that day.

I still put milk in my tea...either 2% or fat-free Half & Half. I couldn't drink my tea any other way! :D And of course...a good Italian bread dipping in olive oil, sometimes with a bit of parmesan cheese sprinkled in the olive oil...another nummy. My younger sis is married to an immigrant Italian guy....I love eating at her house!! :thumbsup:

On olive oil...I read once an interview with Sophia Loren and the interviewer asking her secret to such beautiful facial skin. She said she always used olive oil as her moisturizer.

:D

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I'm sorry, I guess I should have made it clear that not all smokers bother non-smokers!
If you don't smoke in public, and no-one you live with is exposed to second-hand smoke, and you don't even smell like smoke (an admirable achievement)--then you are certainly not bothering anyone, and harming no-one but yourself.

I am living in France where so many people smoke all over the place (though at least not indoors any more) that I am very often bothered by it! Hence my sweeping an inaccurate generalisation.

When I spoke about the addictive effects of nicotine on the brain, I didn't mean your brain was turned to mush or anything...simply that the nicotine creates an addiction for itself, a craving for more nicotine; and as is well-known, this is one of the hardest addictions to shed.

That's all I meant, I wasn't impugning the efficient functioning of your, or anyone's, brain!
Sorry if I wasn't clear.

Agreed, public drunkenness and its effects are dreadful and cause untold harm on the road and in homes, to say nothing of the public nuisance factor...

Tina.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Now there's a thought...olive oil moisturiser! Did you see the Divine Sophia was just given a lifetime award for her body (so to speak) of work?!

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Is quite alright Tina...sometimes us 'smokers' just have to get our own smoking backs! :lol:
I'm just hoping that my brain functions efficiently for me, for some years to come!! :D
I've been 'harming' myself for some years now...and honestly am in relatively better health than a few of my life-long, never-smoking friends. The only reason now I would like to be able to give up my addiction ....is the monetary cost!!!! :eek: Maybe, someday!! ;)

Chris

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

No, I didn't see that. She is just a most amazing attractive woman...always has been.

On olive oil moisturizer....on a shopping spree at Marshall's last year...I picked up the most amazing box of bath soaps from France...w/olive oil. Honestly, you could actually feel the difference. Then one of my sons, while he was scouring some small shop here in Chicago, also picked me up some bath soaps w/olive oil..from France & Italy. Again...I was really impressed in how it made my skin feel :wub:...all over...:o Anything to keep the wrinkles at bay!! :eek::lol:
Guess I need to go on another Imported Bath Soap w/Olive Oil Expedition...sooner rather than later.

Chris

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Tina, I hope I didn't sound like I was lecturing. If you want to eat dairy go right ahead. You're not hurting me unless you make me eat it as well :lol:

(I'm not sure the 'people have been eating it forever' argument holds much weight though. People ate a lot of things back in those days that I wouldn't advise now!).

I'm not fond of judging other peoples' habits because I know I'm far from perfect. My own vice is not exercising enough so I am 20lbs overweight. I know I need to do it. I know it would help me live longer. And yet I don't. Idiot!

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Thanks for this, Sally! It's all too easy to sound as if we are lecturing when we are passionate about something--after all, I went right ahead and got all lecture-y about smoking! ChrisWinter rightly called me on it.

I know people haven't always eaten advisable things...I guess I was thinking of smoking as a modern, artificial, non-nutritious thing...whereas dairy, even if from another species, is a natural food--and close to breast milk, our first and most complete food! Milk is an archetypal desired food--Land of milk and honey, etc...

On the other hand, smoking is actually not that modern--the native Americans were probably smoking for centuries before Sr Walter Raleigh or whoever noticed it! But wasn't it just once in a while, and weren't their pipes less addictive than modern cigarettes are???

Well anyway, as we so often say on here, different strokes for different folks...and moderation in all things.

I am right with you on the exercise...not only do I know I need to lose the weight, it would make me look better and perhaps live longer, it would also make me FEEL better...and, idiot that I also am, I still don't do it!

I did lose some, but still have about six pounds more to go...ok ok, I should stop eating butter!!!

Tina.