Everett Chard
Copyright 2001
Ecstatic
SWCer graduates from college with honors and turns 40 years of age, AKA dark hill. This was followed, as usual, by members congratulating her and citing their similar accomplishments. But the thread takes a distinctive turn when a man says the 40s are the right age. Face it! The 20s and 30s are for paying mortgages and taking care of kids. 50s are OK, I can take the 60s, but forget beyond. Then came a back-and-forth about which decades were the best.
Strange Encounter with Tinnitus
This thread began with a woman's post about a fierce tinnitus attack that rudely woke her up. She asked if others had this and yes, many had. One with medical background asked if the usual medications had changed. Members wrote about how to control it, and how bothersome the noise was. And finally the thread branched into menopause and perimenopause and their effects on sleep.
Speech Reading Class
This thread began as a straight description of speech reading classes. A few people advised where people will likely find one (colleges/universities with some kind of hearing department - often called Department of Communication Disorders). Oddly no comebacks on that as a quarry for punners. Migration then to a certain LA teacher of speech reading, who has a large mustache and beard. This drew 5+ emails.
Buffet al Fresco
This must be called a mega-Popeye. It had a local personal color to it. The first emails were about a pot luck at a famous party in the East. There was talk about potlatch as its origin but this didn't seem too accurate. It slipped into what pot lucks do and then what food went in and ended in an exchange of recipes and food trivia (the materials and methods of pickling, e.g..). Then it broke into specific foods or recipes. One was a Southern Potato Salad, which bowled me over. I counted 35 emails on it, some one liners. Some posts argued about Rotel, an odd can born in Texas for tomatoes and peppers and not found in other states or countries. There was a discussion of vegemite vs. marmite. If you are familiar with grease . . The recipe for Taco Soup was posted. Bobeee's comments about the recipe for marriage got co-opted and corrupted for a few emails.
I HATE BEING HOH!!!!
This began on June 29th about an SWCer's encounter with a clerk at a small office. The clerk never followed the rules of speaking to a HOH person. The HOH person in question is not meek and told the clerk where to look. The clerk did not. Others jammed in and related encounters and the exchange ended with the disclosure that one SWCer preferred plastic bags to paper bags. This began when the cashier asked the HOH or deaf customer mumble-mumble and mumble.
Alan S. in England - and related subject lines
This thread beginning about July 1 recounted how an SWCer and wife met a popular SWCer in England. This went on a day or two as normal visit stories go and then it jumped to topiaries. I don't know how. If you saw Shining, or read Stephen King, you know. Someone knew which edition. Amazing! If you don't, grab a dictionary and look under topiary. I can't reproduce the pronunciation. An SWCer commented Disney World at Orlando has topiaries of the Disney characters. Another SWCer reminded others that topiaries were in King's version of Shining, not somebody else's. I am likely to have that wrong.
Idiot Neighbor
This one reached about 15 in count. It began with harassment, stalking as it was called later. Then came a lot of advice and one of the last emails advised doing nothing to this person except remain silent. It drifted out.
Deaf Child's Education
This one began when the period was almost through. But in a short period (3 days) it attracted long and lots-of-content emails (7 count). It began about deaf education being under standard - 4th grade reading comprehension for high school graduates, etc. Then it shifted to personal narratives of their experiences and moved on to getting into deaf education. One teacher of deaf children pointed to the real problem: those children of hearing parents too often did not have a language to build upon. Deaf children of deaf parents had ASL.
Mountains make their own weather
This began with a climber's description of Eiger mountain's (Switzerland) north face. There were 6 or 7 posts to this subject until it seemed exhausted. It then turned to volcanoes and regional disorders. Washington state has 5 volcanoes and Oregon has 13. Talk turned to the dangers, particularly in Washington. If Rainier blew its top, houses to the rim of Puget Sound are in danger. The weather made by mountains and dangers of volcanoes then turned to what climate can do. There was talk about someone's tornado signature.
Third tale of a tail
The initial setting was how an SWCer saved a terrier in mad traffic. Congratulations followed. The SWCer mentioned how Boeing redneck workers honked and yelled to congratulate his act. There followed talk about rednecks and feelings toward them (I can't recall anyone admitting to the character of a redneck). Kansas members put in for Wichita as the first holder of Boeing plants. No, Seattle turned out to be first. Somehow this sprang to Star Trek (raise your eyes if this surprises you) and comments about the recent move of Boeing headquarters to Chicago, which was boring, and the predictable exporting of work from Seattle to other countries. This fell into a hot discussion of why Arkansas ends with "saw" as in "George Bush saw an angel," and Kansas ends with "sas" as in "Don't you sass me down."
* * * then there were dog days * * *
Cloning controversy
I guess this came from the discussion then of more cloning, especially human cloning. There were many references to famous sheep Dolly preceded by 77 or 77 + numbers and malformed and dying clones. You might say normal and soon the subject branched beyond Clones to Gods and Monkeys - the nature of. Did the human evolve from monkeys and where did God come from. A newbie to the list jumped in with his formidable religion. A flame started and it continued. The religious poster saw humiliation and denying the truth in many emails and fired some back. In this controversy, which some members took positions and wrote shut up, turn off the religion spout, or get a moderator. The newbie decided to quit. Members argued about this. Many hoped the newbie might lay this aside and come back later. The newbie repeated until his last day that he would quit. For about a week members discussed his departure.
Alan Sprague, a member (Secretary) of the SWC Board, wrote his opinion of this controversy at the end of it. I repeat several important paragraphs of his. We can perhaps recognize what is going on before it happens in print.
"On the one hand, it is distressing to see so many people so upset about a topic or a participant. On the other hand, it is nice to see so much spirited debate and activity on Forum again. Forum has been, in general, the feistiest of the lists -- a group capable of hot debate, no pulled punches, and, yet, all with an eventual overlaying willingness to be accepting, tolerant, and forgiving. You are a good bunch of people.
That being said, I'd like to remind everyone that we are a diverse collection of people with wide ranging opinions and ideas that are freely expressed. We ask people to be tolerant of other's views, not to attack others personally or engage in flaming. Attacking an idea is one thing, attacking a person is flaming. Our Service Terms Agreement that every newcomer is required to agree to specifically forbids flaming. Rarely have we had to invoke the STA and remove a person. It is a decision that is taken with great reluctance, and only made by the board of directors after other interventions have failed."
and at the end, Alan wrote . . . .
"Finally, let me say that the board IS aware of the concerns expressed over the current tone of the Forum list. We ARE paying attention and discussing the issues. It is our habit to encourage each of our lists to be self-governing in the sense that we do not generally interfere with topics and we do not want to be in a position of being censors. We also, however, will pay attention to concerns of individuals and will enforce the provisions of the STA when other less formal approaches (often done privately) do not work."
[Editor's note: This was an effort to define the discussions on the SWC FORUM list, to show others a little of what the SWC FORUM list is all about. Everett had planned to help people on other lists do the same so all SWCers could share what their list is all about; however, Everett is on his way this month to Ghana for a two-year enlistment in the Peace Corps. I invite anyone interested to think about doing something similar for their lists for future newsletters.]
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