response 31 of 79:

Jul 31 19:03 UTC 2003

Re #25: uhhh....the English drive on the left.

response 33 of 79:

Jul 31 20:03 UTC 2003

In most of the divorces I know about one partner left because they fell in
love with someone else, or wanted to 'find themselves'.  No abuse, no alcohol.
My cousin was amicably divorced twice.  My uncle decided to marry someone 20
years younger.  His first wife invited us all to her second wedding.

response 35 of 79:

Aug 1 04:00 UTC 2003

Re #30:  Yep.

Re #34:  Yes, but in many cases it's better than the alternative.  I'm not
         speaking for your case specifically.

response 37 of 79:

Aug 1 07:11 UTC 2003

resp:14 Well, basically why the *English* drove on the left was to 
have your weapon on the ready for that pesky highwayman.  We just 
started driving on the right to spite them and be different, really.  
We embraced Santa Claus because he wasn't that English Father 
Christmas-- if I remember right, there was all sorts of things during 
the 19th century that we did to distance ourselves from Britain.

response 39 of 79:

Aug 1 14:38 UTC 2003

I think the modern image of Santa Claus (jolly fat guy with reindeer) was
created first from nearly whole cloth by the author of "The Night Before
Christmas" and popularized via a series of ads for Coca Cola.  Web
searching...yup...http://www.the-north-pole.com/history/ says Thomas Nast
did a lot to develop the character too, and Rudolf was invented for Montgomery
Ward advertisements.  The night before Christmas was 1823, and the Coca Cola
ads were 1931.  Santa is a pretty modern creation though bits of the legend
have ancient roots.

response 43 of 79:

Aug 2 04:10 UTC 2003

indubitably.

response 45 of 79:

Aug 2 05:26 UTC 2003

Regarding the divorce thing. Do you think that the relative ease of 
getting out of a marriage makes people less adjusting to each other? 
Or tend to hit the eject button sooner than required?

Why do porn stars never take off their footwear in movies (if you ever 
noticed)? ;-)

Do people regularly leave their parents after teenage and see them 
after 5-10 years? Are parents usually left in old-age homes?

How important are relatives to a US family?

How common is sex at say, 13 or 14 years of age? Is it acceptable to 
parents there usually? 

Can you really tell whether a kid is a gay when he/she is 13-14?

response 47 of 79:

Aug 2 07:00 UTC 2003

There's very little I could tell you about porn, but even if I knew a lot more
about porn than I do, I imagine it wouldn't be the footwear that I would have
been paying attention to. ;)

I'm not sure what you mean about seeing parents "after 5-10 years."  A lot
of people move out of their parents' houses when done with high school, or
soon thereafter, in order to go to college or otherwise live their own lives
once they're old enough to not need to be taken care of on a daily basis. 
On the other hand, a lot of Americans make it well into their 20s (or
occasionally longer) living with their parents, either out of being happy with
the arrangement, or inertia, or inability to afford housing of their own. 
As for the "see them after 5-10 years" part, when I lived in the same city
as my parents I used to see them at least once a week, and often more.  Now
that I live a few thousand miles away from them, I still see them several
times a year and talk to them on the phone at least once a week.  I don't
think that's atypical.

A lot of people attempt to care for their elderly relatives themselves, and
a lot of people put their elderly relatives into facilities where they can
be cared for by professionals.  I suspect both have their advantages and
disadvantages for those being cared for and their younger, healthier,
relatives.  I don't know which is more common.

I don't think kids having sex at age 13 or 14 is all that common.  At least
among kids I knew at that age, I think people were still trying to figure out
steps less than that.  Among 15 and 16 year olds, my impression is it's a lot
less common than most 15 and 16 year olds tend to think it is.  But maybe I'm
way off.

response 49 of 79:

Aug 2 14:06 UTC 2003

Re truth vs. movie myths:

New York City is neither a bright bustling joyful metropolis nor a 
filthy greedy violent hell-hole.  Also, the main thing that even the 
most accurate movie depiction of midtown Manhattan can't tell you is: 
what it smells like.

Most US drug-dealers, murderers, pimps and prostitutes are white.  

Most Italian-Americans are not in the Mafia.

Most Jewish Americans are indistinguishable from most other Americans.

Rachael Leigh Cook wearing glasses wouldn't actually be considered 
unattractive in the US, as she was in the movie "She's All That."

response 51 of 79:

Aug 2 15:35 UTC 2003

I do tend to agree with the theory that because divorce is so easy, it's
easier to hit the eject button, so to speak, when the marriage hits a rough
patch. You see so many people get married too young, barely out of their teens
because they think they're in love, and think that marriage is going to be
a bed of roses. At the first sign of the prickly patch, they think it'snot
working, and bail out. That's pretty sad but it happens. Sometimes you hit
a hard patch, you need to work it out. But by making divorce so readily
available, you're also breeding a bunch of people who think it's a good enough
solution to their problems. 

I think the ease of divorce is also the reason that so many people get married
without really exploring the whole concept. Not saying everybody, but I'm
guessing a significant number. Geting married at an early age is all great
and stuff if you're willing to stick through the hard times. And when you're
19, you don't believe you could ever have a fight. 

Divorce is one of those necessary evils. You do need it, for cases when it's
warranted. But it has the ability to be misused so easily.