| Author |
Message |
    
Joanne G
Citizen
Username: Joanne
Post Number: 154
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 6:11 pm: | 
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Just wondering why no comments on Gwen S's baby boy (congrats to her from me!), or on the floods etc in Thailand; the riots in Solomon Islands and East Timor - both requiring international intervention to help maintain only moderate levels of continuous violence and mayhem; the earthquakes in Java/Yogyakata? Even Australia's suddenly public 'welfare/race debate'? Has the news not reached the USA or is MOL not interested in them? Either way is OK, just wondering. When I first joined, there was frequent discussion of international events (and often I didn't agree with your take on those events but hey, at least you discussed them); lately discussion has been a lot more home and family based. This is happening on a few lists to which I subscribe - including Aussie ones too - so I wonder if it's a sign of some kind of sociological phenomenon... |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3536
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 6:30 pm: |
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for me...exhaustion, disillusionment, despair. Can't convince anyone here of anything, so I don't try. Also, survival is becoming more difficult, and we have less time. I am speaking for myself, of course. |
anon
Supporter
Username: Anon
Post Number: 2717
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 7:34 pm: |
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Who is Gwen S?
I haven't seen news coverage of floods in Thailand, riots in the Solomons, earthquakes in Java or any debate in Australia. I don't think the US press is interested. |
Glock 17
Citizen
Username: Glock17
Post Number: 1015
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 8:18 pm: |
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Gwen Stefani of No Doubt I would think. I didn't even realize she had a kid. |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 7502
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 8:32 pm: |
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Joanne:
You won't find me discussing much more than the Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony between now and Monday afternoon. It takes a lot of time and effort to organize a parade of this size and let as many people as possible know about it. I only wish you lived close enough to come see the parade for yourself. It is a wonderful example of small town America at its finest. Jamie has promised to take pictures (anything to avoid marching with an MOL contingent, assuming we can get one organized between now and Monday morning?) Check out the photos section later in the week to see if anyone posts any shots of this year's parade.
It seems as if most posters to the message board are either already planning/taking their summer vacations or concerned with local issues such as the AK-47 shaped artificial floral display on Flood's Hill, the Township Committee primary election in Maplewood or the dramatic car chase earlier in the week which ended on a front lawn about a mile from my house but practically next door to some of our posters.
This does not mean that many of us don't follow international news. Stories about floods, earth quakes and riots on your side of the globe do reach us, mostly along with pleas for assistance; but, we are less likely to hear about issues such as Australia's public welfare/race debate. I wish you would start a thread on this topic along with as objective a summary as you can supply. We have problems here with race relations and welfare as well and it would illuminating to hear how Australia is dealing with it. Certainly this is one area in which we can learn from each other.
PS: Sorry, I don't know who Gwen S is either. |
Nancy - LibraryLady
Supporter
Username: Librarylady
Post Number: 3492
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 8:50 pm: |
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JOann, I am sooo happy that you are participating on "my" board. It adds so much to read your views and insights. I'm not even jealous any more that you seem to have "more' friends on line than I do!
I think we are all so jaded these days with hte local, national and international news. 3000 dead in Indonesia-oh well! Riots somwhere we've never been or want to be.- So what. It's time to light up the bar-b-que and get ready to celebrate 3 days off from work. Why? Who cares about why? It's a vacation!!
All said sarcastically of course. Thank you Joan for all your hard work in honouring our Veterans. I plan to be at the So. Orange service but I wish Maplewood the best.
take care,
N
P.S. Gwen named her kid Kingston James McGregor Rossdale. Not bad in the celebrity realm of things. |
anon
Supporter
Username: Anon
Post Number: 2721
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 10:23 pm: |
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Gwen Stefani? I know who Dr. Stefano is, but who is Gwen Stefani?
Good luck Joan, with all your efforts. Maybe I'll stop by and watch the parade. |
Maplewoody
Citizen
Username: Maplewoody
Post Number: 1222
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 10:44 pm: |
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L.A.M.B.
congrats to Gavin & Gwen
on lil' Kingston's arrival . . .
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Joanne G
Citizen
Username: Joanne
Post Number: 157
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 2:25 am: |
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 Now I'm happy - some people knew who Gwen Stefani is and that she's had a baby boy. I gather she'll be a happier mum than Britney (although I gather that won't be too hard; but really, potentially nick-naming your child 'King James'???!!!!) - and that's my bitchiness for the year. Thanks for the other thread, too, on Brangelina's babe!! I thought more people would have known Gwen, given the reaction to Pink's pic earlier this week, but hey - we all have different muscial taste.
We've already had our major military veterans' commemoration day in April, with its own share of controversy so I certainly don't envy Joan her hard work and delicate diplomacy to get the event successfully together, enjoyed, disassembled and then re-done for next year.
But I still wonder about how easy it is for stuff to slip past us when we're so overloaded that we don't take time to notice, as Tome said in his blog, the smells you sniff while riding on a bike; or notice the bits of the world exploding and dissolving; or celebrating the 95-yr-old table tennis champions who just don't want to sit down ('time enough for that when I'm dead')...We work so hard to maintain old traditions and old places that sometimes we no longer recognise when they are no longer relevant because there are no longer enough people around to enjoy them (and this is NOT about Memorial Day parades or ANZACs).
Rant over - I'm off to get a mid-afternoon coffee! |
Maplewoody
Citizen
Username: Maplewoody
Post Number: 1227
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 6:36 am: |
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Joanne...
at 2:25 in the morning? ....mid-afternoon???? |
SO Ref
Citizen
Username: So_refugee
Post Number: 1849
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 8:05 am: |
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Joanne's in Australia... |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 7505
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 8:54 am: |
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Joanne:
Stuff does get past us. It has to. Just think of all the things which are occurring on the planet at any one time! What human being could possibly keep track it all? What is mundane to some of us may be literally earth shattering to others. It becomes a matter of interests but also a matter of those built- in filters designed to keep us sane. There are days when I long to crawl into a Skinner box and just stay there. I am sure we all feel that way from time to time.
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Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 1246
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 9:28 am: |
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Why does anyone care if some "celebrity" reproduces? If it were my next door neighbor, I'd wish her joy and buy a gift. If it were another grandchild for me, I'd be over the moon. But Gwen whoever? Come on. |
Lucy
Supporter
Username: Lucy
Post Number: 3864
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 9:56 am: |
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Amen Lizziecat but sometime it's nice to deal with fluff. |
Joanne G
Citizen
Username: Joanne
Post Number: 158
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 9:59 am: |
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gotta giggle at some reactions - thank you, you do keep me sane!!! Yep, it was a mid-arvo cuppa here, my time was only 4.25 pm when yours was 2.25 am; I don't really care who has babies but some days it seems everyone else around me seems to want to talk about celebrity babies/marriages/bust-ups or that Code book/movie/conspiracy 
What I meant about stuff slipping by was, for example, the massive industrial relations overhaul that our prime minister managed to bring in earlier this year that just resulted in the huge pay increase of - wait for it! - 2 cents and hour new-negotiated contract for certain kinds of white-collar work. Our PM is that guy that supposedly is best-buds with your man in the White House and with Blair, so they 'rule the world', yeah? They have our best interests at heart, yet manage to twist and pervert social change so that we concentrate on celebrity/non-entity and due to information overload and to fear loverload the other, real-worry stuff sneaks between the cracks of our awareness. But this is the non-political category so I will keep to the sociological theme of families feeling more under pressure and less like discussing real-world issues outside of their circles for fear of offending others. In many cases we seem to have lost a taste for debate, recognising only argument or appeasement instead. IMHO. What do you think? |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 7506
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 10:06 am: |
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Thread Drift:
Nancy:
Thank you for your kind wishes. As you and every other South Orange resident should know, the Memorial Day Parade kicks off at 9 AM and the ceremony in South Orange starts at 10:30 AM. South Orange residents can easily come to the parade in Maplewood and then leave for the ceremony of their choice.
This year's parade will be of special interest to South Orange residents. Former South Orange resident Augie Schroeder is being honored in the parade by at least one of the groups marching (See Mary Anne's post in Virtual Cafe). |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 14511
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 9:48 pm: |
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Joanne, the celebrity stuff is usually either in the Virtual Cafe or the Arts and Entertainment section.
The disaster stuff doesn't get enough play here on MOL. Maybe it's because we can't figure out how to divide and bicker about it.
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anon
Supporter
Username: Anon
Post Number: 2728
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 1:28 pm: |
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The earthquake in Yogyakata made the front page of the New York Times the day after this thread was started. But isn't it tomorrow in Australia? |
Joanne G
Citizen
Username: Joanne
Post Number: 161
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 3:37 pm: |
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It's possibly even the day after tomorrow already - I can't keep up by now *sheepish grin*
Given the new activity stats, theoretically we could be discussing world events 'as they happen' but then I haven't been even been on MOL for almost 24 hours, so I'm a great preacher aren't I?!
My excuse is an early morning phone call from vet about ageing kitty's arthritis - which was a lovely gesture but which included the offhand comment that yes, of course she has low-grade cataracts and of course they won't do anything about them because she's way too old. So now I have an arthritic, vision-impaired kitty with age-related hearing loss who's becoming vague with pain on her bad days and delightfully playful on her good days; three newsletters to write and an interstate trip this week for my 10 hours a week job; and a quarter-of-a-million-dollars research project design application to mail by tomorrow (complete with letters of support, clinical evidence and literature search) for the 26 hours a week job.
Excitement in our household: my parents in law have been individually nominated for State awards to be announced next week for their voluntary work! They live in Queensland, which is quite north from here - we moved away from them, well not from them exactly but we were the ones who moved!!!! June 6 is Queensland Day and the awards are anounced in time for the national celebration of Queen's Birthday on second Monday in June. http://www.govhouse.qld.gov.au/ceremonial_honours/queensland_day.asp |
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