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.

response 55 of 79:

Aug 2 17:38 UTC 2003

Er, dissolution.

response 57 of 79:

Aug 2 19:32 UTC 2003

re resp:54: It sounds great.  Except that you can't conceive and raise 
kids in 5 years.

response 59 of 79:

Aug 2 20:24 UTC 2003

In India, physical abuse in a marriage would probably be as common as 
it is in the US or anywhere else in the world. The reason for low 
divorce rate is mostly social pressure, social stigma attached to 
divorce and considerable difficulty in getting remarried.

An example is if you lookup matrimonial ads put up bu divorced Indians. 
Nearly each one of them says "Innocent divorcee looking .....". 
Innocent bcoz the society treats divorce as a fault of one/both the 
partners.

Strange, but true!! Hehe.

response 63 of 79:

Aug 3 01:22 UTC 2003

Re #42:  CGI toddlers will follow the script, and they can be made
to perform as many takes a day as the director demands.  Child labor
laws do not yet apply to CGI toddlers (a glaring oversight IMHO).

response 65 of 79:

Aug 3 03:25 UTC 2003

When free legal aid is first provided to a community of poor people, the
first thing that happens is that they all get divorced.  Seriously.  It
turned out (at the time the legal aid infrastructure was first being
put together in the 1960s and 1970s) that there was a tremendous pent-up
demand for divorce among people who didn't think they could afford the
legal fees and so on.

I once read a sardonic essay by a conservative political columnist
reviewing a video which gave instructions on how to become a porn star. 
Among the helpful hints he mentioned was one about always bringing your
own footwear to a photo shoot, because the floor or ground underneath
gets, um, soiled with stuff you wouldn't want to step in.

response 67 of 79:

Aug 4 04:50 UTC 2003

I still think divorce happens because people don't fully understand 
what they are getting into-- and haven't fully prepared for it, don't 
know what they want, don't have realistic expectations, and don't 
realize that marriage is constant work.  I'd say preparing for 
marriage begins way back in the preteen years in a gradual and slow 
process.  I've explained it before and don't feel like explaining it 
all again.  But I'll still say a good marriage is a well-thought out 
labor of love that is not by any means taken lightly.  (And granted, I 
admit you might not get it on the first try.)

resp:45 (6) With so many hormones kicking in, and bodies starting to 
change, should a person really be making decisions this early about 
sexuality?  Nothing has stabilized yet?  Granted, quite a few people I 
know have had these sorts of feelings, so to speak, from the childhood 
years, but it seems lately that this is more a product of the very 
late modern era-- i.e. in the years when homosexuality could be spoken 
of a little more freely in the U.S.  Whether this is due to supposed 
lessening of social pressure, or society's greater emphasis on sex, 
one cannot tell, but *I* do somewhat suspect the latter somewhat.  
Even the experts admit sexuality is not perfectly fixed, and again, I 
have trouble accepting a confirmation made when hormones are not in 
balance.   The 'coming out' age used to be more around the early 
twenties or so, but again, the debate could be made over sexual 
maturity or social freedoms given around that age.

response 69 of 79:

Aug 4 13:49 UTC 2003

Don't completely agree.  I think that the rise of the internet was a
definite example of some spark-plugs still firing.  And though it wasn't
entirely an American thing (it never is), it was in many fundamental
ways an American development.  And .com bust or no, the internet is here
to stay.