What kind of car is that?

Well, I can't say I've ever seen a "Nouveau Riche Sport Sedan" but the animators do seem to pay some attention to detail in talking about cars.

The other day I was watching the episode "That was then, This is dumb" with the stereo turned on. I hear a lot more that way. I noticed the characteristic lumpy, rolling idle of the beetle as it rolled up. "That's not a car, it's a time machine." They must have actually tracked down a VW beetle and recorded the engine sound. The sound is quite distinctive. Also, though I'm no expert on this particular "marque," the shape of the taillights seem to date this particular car to the early 1970's.

The Chevy van, otherwise known as "The Tank," can anyone date it?

I'm still working on trying to figure out what it is that Jake is driving. Seems familiar but I just can't place it. The Landon's "Jag" has a correctly-shaped grille, though I don't see too many cars like this around here for comparison.

It seems obvious now that Mr. Timothy O'Neil drives a Saab, probably a 900. When Daria and Jane were getting into the back seat the rear quarterpanel seemed to indicate a Saab--the thin "C" pillar, the flat rear deck, and the louvered quarterpanel. An interesting thing about the Saab: it uses brake fluid to operate the hydraulic clutch. So, as Mr. O'Neil says, "Self-esteem is like your car's brake fluid, you may not know you're low on it 'til you go to change gears--and nothing happens." --"That's transmission fluid!" Actually, O'Neil is right. Also if your car is low on transmission fluid it simply may not move at all, not merely not change gears. Not so sure about self-esteem though.

That heap that Trent is driving. I'm still trying to identify it. The pointed rear quarterpanel is somewhat reminiscent of some models of Buick but the grill isn't right. Ford Torino maybe? mmm..Still working on it. Someone else must have made the identification.

And then there's Aunt Amy's car.

Bob

On Sat, 23 Jan 1999 12:49:22 -0500, "R. K. Henry" wrote:

<snip>

Between this and that art post before it, you've just show how much goes into these episodes! Now I know why they only produce as many eps a season as they do; how often do you find a group of writers, artists, and sound guys with quite that much attention to detail? I don't think that, aside from little messups (the "Oops" section of Planet Daria), I've ever seen such a meticulously groomed show. In order to produce a show of this quality, you have to have quality people. You can't just say, "hmm... Heart of Darkness, sounds like her type of book", and, in a crapshot, get it right on the mark. (That was an excellent book, though I can't say my classmates agreed with me on that asessment.) The people who write these eps know just as much about these subjects as any of the fans. In a world with movies like "Anaconda" and "Armageddon", that's pretty rare.

Tarvok wrote:

(Snip)

I loved the Anaconda promos, as they showed that some writers can't even make decent ad copy.:)

"It swallows it's victims whole."

It's? With an apostrophe? So "it swallows it is victims whole", then. Nice to know they couldn't afford a word processor with a grammar check.:)

[email] (Len Pitre) wrote:

It's nice to know that I'm not the only person on the net that is also irritated by the bad grammar that has recently reached pandemic proportions in the U.S. of late. Two more examples of anguished English-- your and you're, and their, there, and they're. Your and their are a possessive pronouns -- your big fat paycheck, their roach-infested apartment. You're is the contraction for you are, and they're is the contraction for they are. You're looking smashing tonight, darling, oh, look, they're here! And, of course, there is just a place. I'm here, you're there! (Of coursem the guy at the T-shirt shop in SC spelled you're there "your their." Needless to say we did not purchase the T-shirt from him.)

Oooh, and before I forget, here's one of the most irritating examples-- the abuse of the apostrophe to indicate the plural of a noun. One car, two cars, not two car's-- the apostrophe indicates the possessive, not the plural. Now, the car's color is green, but the cars piled up on the highway. "Apostrophes never indicate quantity, they only indicate posession or contraction of two words; I will not abuse my apostrophes any more; I love my apostrophes, and I will treat them with the honor and respect that they deserve." Come on everyone, chant the mantra with me! %-)

Okay, okay, I know, I know, I blame it all on the late hour and my general goofy feeling right now. I promise, no more grammar rants. (And this time, I mean it. <g>) But that doesn't mean that I won't reserve the right to rant about our precious bodily fluids at a later date. <vbg> (For those of you who don't get it, ask someone who saw "Dr. Strangelove.")

rich.

Jane: Usually when I have this dream I'm wearing pink taffeta.

On Sun, 24 Jan 1999 08:32:47 GMT, [email] (paperpusher) wrote:

And for those of you who don't get the first joke, watch Larry Miller's standup bit about "the five levels of drinking". :-)

Martin (to send e-mail, remove the "nospam" from my e-mail address) ---- "Don't worry. Today it's brains, tomorrow pierced tongues, then the next day, pierced brains." - Jane Lane ---- Outpost Daria: Your Online Database for All Things Daria! http://systech.simplenet.com/daria/

On 24 Jan 1999 11:43:39 PST, [email] (Martin J. Pollard) wrote:

Tell me Paperpusher, what do you know about flouridation?

6 levels if you live in a trailer park!

[email] (Happydude) wrote:

I know that it damages our precious bodily fluids, and can taint out purity of essence. ;-) It's a communist plot to weaken our precious bodily fluids, I'm sure of it.

maniacally, rich.

Jane: Usually when I have this dream I'm wearing pink taffeta.

hilarious! "at the fifth level the waitress comes over with fresh stiches in her head.. and you think to yourself.. 'someday i'm going to marry that girl'. you're all drinking some kind of.. thick, blue liquor.. which is usually used to clean combs...."

heheheheh...

On Sun, 24 Jan 1999 08:32:47 GMT, paperpusher wrote:

[snip a lot more]

My personal peave? Hand-lettered signs that use quote marks for emphasis, when all-capitals, italics, or underling would do. We have the "lowest" prices in town! Yeah... really... snicker snicker... they're really the lowest, oh sure, you can trust us... snicker... [for the record, quotes generally indicate doubt or sarcasm, eg: I'm trying to keep this "on-topic" post short...]

Even better is when they're emphasizing something that doesn't even need it. We "are" your source for used cars!

god! i thought i was the only one who gets annoyed with improper grammar! i correct my friends sometimes (only my really close friends who wont get too pissed). saerah

Shame about your punctuation then isn't it! :-)

did i say that i'm not a hypocrite?

Saerah

Len Pitre wrote:

There was this big discussion on alt.music.manics about this, the Manics have a song called Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart (that is so hard to type without the spaces!) and some people think it should be Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart instead. I was pretty sure they'd got it wrong before everyone started arguing about it, but now I'm completely confused so don't start this apostrophe thing again..... please..... :)

Alli

"endless, nameless" wrote:

too late. ;-)

rich.

"This is Precious Roy, and I just ate a handful of honeybees!" -- Precious Roy.

paperpusher wrote:

Yes i guess it is but id on't fucking care anymore i have morreen=important thigns to worry about now aaaaarrrrrrggh....... nb x

Alli

"endless, nameless" wrote:

I'll try that again typing more carefull, it should have been; Yes I guess it is but I don't fucking care anymore, I have more important things to worry about now, aaaarrrrgggh....... or someething like that anyway. Who cares/

Alli

On Sun, 24 Jan 1999 03:33:25 GMT, [email] (Len Pitre) wrote:

Actually, the apostraphe is used to indicate the possesive form, in this case. "Its" without the apostrophe would indcate the plural form, which in this case makes no sense. :)

[email] (Tarvok) wrote:

Well, theoretically, a group of things, each referred to as an "it" would be "its," but the third person singular objective possessive pronoun is "its," not "it's," but don't worry, you're not the only person to get this a little confused. I was an editor for two years on a law journal, and I had to fix the *worst* writing by professors and other supposedly learned types, so I've had to explain this a number of times. :-) The apostrophe is one of the biggest pitfalls of English grammar, always lurking to trap the unwary. A good way to remember the rule is that pronouns *never* have apostrohes to show posession-- they only have apostrophes to indicate a contraction with a verb, like it's for it is. (and yes, as an English major in college, I was required to take a full semester-long course in grammar. *shudder*)

Fowler's Modern English Usage should have a lot of in-depth info on the topic, should you wish to kill a few minutes of your precious time. :-)

the horror, the horror! rich.

Jake: I love camping! I love it! ... Has anybody seen my pants?

On Mon, 25 Jan 1999 09:12:41 GMT, [email] (paperpusher) wrote:

Ahh! That would explain it. I didn't know that. In fact, I don't think anybody's taught me anything about apostrophes since I was in, perhaps, the second grade at the latest. After that, they pretty much assume you know how to use it.

Tarvok wrote:

We didn't get taught anything about apostrophes until year 8; we spent 2 lessons on them, after which the school went back to never teaching us about apostrophes again. We never did any grammar in English either, as far as I can remember. Everything I've ever been taught about grammar stuff was in French and Spanish lessons.

Alli

"endless, nameless" wrote:

It figures. When I was in Junior High (7-9th grades) we had nothing but grammar in 7th and 8th grade. We only started doing the lit thing in 9th grade. Come to think of it, we did grammar in 4th 5th and 6th as well, but not as hardcore as they got in 8th. In fact, we had to keep a special notebook just for grammar that got checked daily. At the time, I hated it, but now I realize that it was for the best. (I love Big Brother! <g>)

The real problem isn't the students, and oftentimes not even the teachers-- it's the idiots in administration who come up with stupid new pedagogical theories regarding how English should be taught, and then cram them down everyone's throat without consulting anyone. grrr... I could tell a few horror stories from friends of mine who are teachers, but I don't want to go off on a rant here... <g>

rich.

Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.

Jake: Jefferson!

Helen: Stalin.

Exactly! I happen to have one good teacher (out of six... not bad.), Frau, my German teacher, who is now also my College Writing teacher, who often gets off onto how many high school students have really more poor grammar... I hadn't had any grammar lessons since 5th grade. Another problem is that certain people for a while were taught to read "holistically" I think it was like Virginia was and therefore can't spell or pronounce anything, can't pronounce them out. Not that that's entirely bad since that gave me my website title- Parsley Firefly. She couldn't try to pronounce "Pyralis" and so just equated it with a word she knew: Parsley.

Awwww whats alt.tv.daria for if not to go off unto rants?

Dagny misery chick, cynic, general loony

Visit the Parsley Firefly http://members.aol.com/Eccles9697

"One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you." Friedrich Nietzsche

Eccles9697 wrote:

What's "holistically"?

LOL.

Erm, discussion of Daria, perhaps? :) But yeah, rants are more fun.

Alli

Basically told them NOT to pronounce out the words by sounds but to learn the whole word as connected to how it sounds, which can severely screw up writing/spelling of words

Aww, you're no fun anymore!

Dagny misery chick, cynic, general loony

Visit the Parsley Firefly http://members.aol.com/Eccles9697

"One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you." Friedrich Nietzsche

[email] (Eccles9697) wrote:

"Right! Who said that?? I warned you people that the next one of you who said that would get run over by a train!" "If you can spot one first."

or something like that. which one of you knows the exact quote? I have a feeling I won't have to wait too long for the right answer. ;-)

feeling silly, rich.

"The robot took my sandwich!" --Chester

I think it's something about "I'll throw you under a camel!"

Dagny misery chick, cynic, general loony

Visit the Parsley Firefly http://members.aol.com/Eccles9697

"One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you." Friedrich Nietzsche

endless, nameless of Cable Internet writes:

That was the same with us, the only grammar terms we were taught were verbs nouns and adjectives. In French they tried to teach us things like subjunctive forms, but we didn't even know what a subjunctive was in English!

I think one reason grammar went out of style was that it used to be full of arbitrary style rules, like the notion of the split infinitive which was basically just a hang-up that Latin scholars had, since the infinitive in Latin is a single word. Indeed some people But now language has been allowed to boldly go forward without such strictures. Nowadays people don't know nothing about grammar yet they still manage to produce sentences that people can understand.

-Shez.

Shez wrote:

That's not as bad as us. In French, they tried to teach us verb endings, at which point it became clear that not a single person in the class even knew what a verb was!

Alli

endless, nameless wrote:

Hmmm...I take it no one in your class had ever played Mad Libs�. ;-{)>

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"Siento que debemos saber para el sue�o de qui�n brillar� esta luz o consagrar una propia estrella" --Alberto Felici

N.P.:"Pilgrimage Of Water"- W a p p a G a p p a / A M y t h

Progbear wrote:

Erm, no, what is that?

Alli

endless, nameless wrote:

Hmmm..must be just an American thing. A silly kids' party game. There are stories with blanks with parts of speech written under them, adverb, plural noun, adjective, exclamation, etc. One person asks the others for parts of speech and then fills them in the blanks. The result is ridiculous nonsense: "*Ouch!*", he said, *magically*, as he jumped into his convertible *sock* and drove off with his *waterlogged* wife. There are dozens of different Mad Libs� books in print, and they was really popular when I was a kid. Of course, by the time you got to junior-high, the sophomoric-humor chip inside your brain kicked in, and you quickly tried to use as many vulgar words/phrases as you knew.

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria

N.P.:"Z Ktorych Krwi Krew Moja"- S B B / P a m i e c

I know what a plural noun is. It's where you put an "s" on the end of a word. Only you're not allowed to with "sheep" for some reason.

It's Big Brother's fault, on account of newspeak and all.

LOL... i wonder what newspeak Madlibs would be like..

"ok, here's one... ' I turned in my parents to the thought police today and it made me feel ________'" "doubleplusgood!"

CrtoonDude wrote:

ROTFLOL! Thanks for giving me my biggest laugh of the day. Incidentally, I sincerely hope you others got the joke. (What am I thinking? This is alt.tv.daria! You guys are readers, right?)

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria

N.P.:"Munich"- C r e s s i d a / A s y l u m

[email] (Progbear) wrote:

Well, looks like we got us a *reader* here! (Sorry, just had to quote Bill Hicks.)

rich.

Quinn: I can't be a brain! My friends will hate me!

Ok this started out as a question: What kind of car is that? but we ended up talking about Mad Libs and the grades in school. What are you on about?

paperpusher wrote in message ...

and

Incidentally, I

Zoe Ward wrote in message ...

Hi Zoe (Zo�? [That's with a diaresis over the "e" - I'm trying to be courteous and get the name right!][And showing off, of course <g>]).

One of the charms of this ng is the way threads can wander off into desultory (and sometimes erudite) conversations about just about anything.

The breadth and (sometimes) learning of discussion here says something about the people who count themselves Daria fans. "Get back on thread, you guys!" posts are rare here. We're a tolerant bunch.

Sometimes gentle hints are dropped, and people are good about self-policing: like a thread I took part in, that turned into a discussion of the implications of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle for theories of free will and determinism; we stopped it when we sensed other people were getting irritated.

Hope you enjoy this ng as much as I do, Zo� (Zoe).

Martin.

Progbear wrote:

<rolls eyes> Only in America.... :) Like, why? And do American children know what all those are?, adjective, plural noun, etc.

More questions: what is junior high, and what is a sophomore? I have been wondering that for ages. The school system in the US seems very different to the English one, but maybe they just call everything different names or something.

Alli

"endless, nameless" wrote:

We did in 4th grade-- that was when Madlibs ruled recess-- everyone tried to outdo everyone else to make the funniest ones. It was a great way to learn English grammar... but you already know how I feel about grammar. ;-)

Okay, US system, in a nutshell.

Preschool: for children too young for Kindergarten (younger than 5), whose parents either both work, or who want their children to get a jumpstart on the other kids, or both.

Kindergarten (K): age 5. Cookies and juice, coloring books, crayons, and such. Only met for a half-day when I did it, oh, 24 years ago.

Elementary School: Grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or K,1,2,3,4,5,6, depending on the school district. (Usually a money/overcrowding issue.)

Middle school: Grades 6-8 / Junior High: Grades 7-9 (depends on school system as well.)

High School: Grades 9-12 / Senior High School: Grades 10-12 (again, depends on the local system).

Freshman: First Year Student in College/University or High School/Grade 9

Sophomore: (Means "Wise Fool") Second Year at College/University or High School, First Year at Senior High School.

Junior: Thrid Year at College/University or High School, Second Year at Senior High School.

Senior: Fourth (and Fifth+ for the students who can't finish in 4 years) Year ar College/University ot High School, Third + Year at Senior High School.

Some schools have dropped the whole Freshman, Sophomore, etc., labels in exchange for "non-threatening, non-gender-specific titles" like first-year, second-year, etc., at Colleges/Universities, and 11th grade, 12th grade at schools.

Until college/university, you move on to the next grade so long as you pass your classes, and, in some states, an end-of-grade exam. In High School, you take a standardized test called either the SAT or the ACT for college/university admissions. Only a very few schools (usually engineering, art, and music departments) require you to declare your major at the time of application.

Confusing enough for you? ;-)

Now, can you tell me just what the heck A and O levels are? ;-)

rich.

Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.

Jake: Jefferson!

Helen: Stalin.

O=Ordinary, A=Advanced. O level & CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education, an easier exam for the lower achievers) were combined a couple of decades ago to form the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). People do GCSEs at age 16, then A levels at age 18 if they stay on at school . Typically people will take about 8-9 subjects to GCSE level and then specialise in 2-4 subjects for A level. Each course involves 2 years of study.

In addition people get now get SAT tests at ages 7 & 14 I think, but these seem to be done mainly to check that the school is doing its job and actually teaching people. AFAIK they don't count for anything once you leave school.

-Shez.

Shez wrote:

Really? Everyone here has to take 10, except the really stupid people.

And there's AS levels which are half-A levels, sort of. And there's GNVQs, NVQs, IBs, Modern Apprentiships.....uh.....and several more.....it's all very confusing. We just got a 6th form thing for our school today, so I'm completely confused right now about all this.....

Ages 7, 11, and 14. We only had to do them at age 14, but the year below us had to do all of them, I think.

Alli

Maybe they've got easier. :) Or possibly non-exam subjects have been squeezed to fit more in. IIRC we had to do 4 hours of Games a week, plus an hour of PE. I can't remember if there were other non-exam subjects too. But anyway, our school timetable only allowed for 9 GCSE subjects, and some people did fewer if they weren't as bright.

If you're going to university then strictly speaking you only need enough A levels, of sufficiently high grade, to meet the entrance requirements, which is usually 3 subjects, or 2 in some cases. In turn you only need enough GCSEs, of sufficient standard, to meet the school's requirements to get you on the A-level ladder. You could probably get away with 5-6 GCSEs really, eg. English Language, Maths, plus whatever subjects you intend doing at A level. Of course you'd leave school knowing proportionately less about the world, but it would make it easier to get higher marks in the subjects you take.

Once you've got a degree you'll find that employers don't really care how many GCSEs and A levels you have, unless you have a specific one they're interested in, eg. they might want people who can speak a foreign language. Similarly universities don't care about your GCSEs except in borderline cases, they're just looking at your A level results. Doing more subjects than the minimum you can get away with may enrich your understanding of the world, and impress your fellow students, but it doesn't cut much ice in employment, as people are really only interested in your most recent or most advanced qualification.

Also known as worthless pieces of paper... I don't know what Modern Apprenticeships are, but real apprenticeships used to involve being employed in the job for 3 years and studying at college one day a week to supplement the training the employer gave. Of course this all fell apart during the Thatcher era, when companies started saying "why the fuck should we bother training people?", and axed their training budgets and apprenticeships. A couple of years on they started moaning there was a skills shortage! Duh!

I think GNVQs etc were invented as a result of schools having to pick up the tab for giving people job skills once employers had mostly decided to renege on their social and professional responsibilities regarding creating a trained workforce. Certainly there weren't any such things when I was at school.

-Shez.

Shez wrote:

4 hours of Games and 1 hour PE?!?! Why?? We have one lesson (70 mins) of PE a week. We have one lesson of RS and one of PSE every two weeks, too.

You could theoretically, according to the list of 6th form courses at my school, do 3 A levels with only two GCSEs. If you did Music, Sociology, and Psychology, you'd need a C or above in English and Maths, and "grade V or above in Associated Board examination on an instrument". But how anyone could get a C in Maths and English and nothing else is beyond me.

Modern Apprenticeships are something along the lines of what you describe, working and going to college one day a week. One of my friends is probably going to do one. Though why she chose to do that rather than A levels - of which she is undoubtedly capable - is, again, beyond me.

Alli

What's PSE? (We didn't have it when I were a lad).

Tony Walton wrote:

Personal and Social Education. Supposedly. Lessons on bullying, why you shouldn't smoke, stereotyping, how to deal with stress, all sorts of things. The stereotyping stuff really pissed me off, especially the gender stereotype work we did, because our form tutor is a misogynistic dickhead and is the worst person alive for believing stereotypes. He was obviously completely ignorant of the subject, too. Oh yeah, and when we did racial stereotypes he asked my friend if she'd be annoyed if someone treated her differently because of her Asian origin. She looked extremely pissed off and replied

"Of course I bloody well would, I'm Welsh!" LOL.

Alli

"endless, nameless" wrote:

Ah, we called it PDR. Personal Development and Relationships. Never liked it. I figure if you're going to discuss morals and how to survive the day-to-day rigors of school life, teenagers are *not* the ones you should be talking to. Kind of like telling someone who fought in the trenches for a few years how to fire a gun.:)

(Snip)

:D That this a good one!

Len

Hehehe.... our Jr High us real into that sort of stuff. We had 35 minutes each morning and we'd watch videos on saying no to drugs, self esteem, argument resolution, all that useless crap no one paid the first bit of attention to thank god. It was that and watching "Channel One" which is an even more dumbed down news broadcast (if that's possible) for school students. It was really stupid, like they were trying to be MTV.

That was just what was called "Paws Time" which was their littke "clever" name since our mascot is a bulldog (or "Bulldawg". Great education idea: misspelling) I think they're doing even more of that now, is what Jake said. That and "team teaching" which he hated because he was in the "mini team" which is a random group of about 40 kids totally seperate from everyone else.

Dagny misery chick, cynic, general loony

Visit the Parsley Firefly http://members.aol.com/Eccles9697

"One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you." Friedrich Nietzsche

In article ,

which

In our school we have a good deal of things like this. For instance, as far back as 3rd grade, we had "Project Charly". A video designed to teach us how to act, and be politicly correct. Ok I enjoyed this, less time I had to spend at my current worst class, spelling(can you tell?). With video was followed by open discussion, for soem reason I get the idea this was held on Wednesdays, around One O'clock...not shure why. In 3rd grade I was not nearly all the cynical about msot things, so I enjoyed it with the intent msot 3rd grades do with a video "ooooooh....TV. Must.watch.TV"

The program was stepped up a few levles when we reached Middle School. Here, starting in 7th grade, we were subjected to Health class. This , once again, was nto all that vad. While being subjected to SOME things I dind't like on the whole it wasn't to bad. The studing of such things as how the body works, made it a little better. Although the Sexual Edgucation part of it ,I still think, was tres tres....*thinks of right word* well stupid, just the way teachers ALWAYS handle it.

Then along came my current Junior year. With it a Gym teacher who, when I was in 1st and 2nd grade, seemed terrifing. This was no longer the case. Here was a guy who was so sappy that he blew his nose with pancakes, who could make "time Managment' seem sappy, and who was even wrose than Mr. O'neal in some instances. By this time, although not nearly as cynical as I had been the year before and in a much better mental state, I was able to look on to this class with a normal Daria type humor. I found it hilarious, but a waste of my time, which I said at times.

My fondest memory came when the teacher was explaining the one of the two topics teachers ALWAYS hound into students, Self Esteem -the other being peer pressure-. After putting up with this for two days, and feeling my glucose lelve taking a sharp upturn, I spoke. I pointed out that it ahs been shown that criminals have some of the best self esteem out of the popualtion. Also that, although compliments are good when deserved, people of certian dispositions can be harmed by constant apraisle if not deserving. That these people will be told how "good they are" and grow very comfortable with this image. After being subjected to it for years on end, they begin to grow very used to it. Hwoever, should someone BREAK that idea, call into question their faults, they can't take it and will snap, leading to shootings, at the worst, and such. My teacher just stood three for a few moments he store blankly into space. I had seceeded into detailing his heavily memorized train of thought. Finaly, after a few moments, he conceeded that I had a point, and then tried to forget it ever happened :)

And so, that is where it stands in my school today. The terror of councilers flocking down on you for anything is still there, including the "well if I'm so bad at it, why dont' I jsut KILL myself and have the gene pool taen care of ai". yep persoanl experience there *mutters about Drive'rs Ed teachers*. Perhaps,e one day, this trend will end, but I don't see that any time soon.

Daniel McCollum Mono@Transformers: Lost years "death is a feater, duty is a mountian" Ravid Wisconsinite Nationalist

Actually it might have been two hours Games, come to think of it. We had to do football, rugby and cricket in rotation through the year. Plus two half hour PE lessons in the gym or sports hall. I think nowadays maybe kids are allowed to be unfit and vegetate, after all since the invention of the remote control people haven't really needed legs or anything.

I think we gave up religion before starting our GCSE courses. And we didn't have PSE at all, in those days we were expected to leave school without social skills or a clue about anything real worldish generally. I think sex education was done as part of biology, though I can't remember exactly. (A lot of us had already been taught it at junior school anyway so we didn't pay attention second time round.)

Actually, here's another US/UK difference: AFAIK the US Constitution forbids the state to get involved in religion, which means it's illegal to teach RS! Whereas in the UK it's compulsory, or at least ISTR that there must be at least a nominal Christian element to education, like some sort of religious observance in assemblies. I think this is why British people grow up thinking religion is a load of crap whereas America has a lot of zealous Christians, as they were deprived it at school whereas we were force-fed it. This is why none of the fundamentalist nutters and televangelists that America seems to be renowned for have managed to get a toe-hold here, as we've sort of been immunised against religion.

I think you should treat that as a challenge Alli.

Sometimes parental pressure does it. I knew one girl who didn't do A levels because her mum (who was a widow) made her get a job to help support the family. Another common reason is some people get sick of academic studying and just feel they have to leave before they go crazy. They want to get out into the "real" world and get a job, the fools.

-Shez.

Shez wrote:

I am horribly unfit. Very weak as well, but then that's expected of someone weighing six stone.

We've had to do PSE since year 5, IIRC. I can't see how it's helped anyone's social skills, though. If anything, it's made mine worse. Being shown a video about domestic violence was horribly painful for me, especially as we were then told that we could tell the police if we or anyone we knew was experiencing domestic violence. It was just like "So now you tell me! It would

have been nice to have known that when I was seven, you know!"

I believe the law actually states that there must be a Christianity-themed assembly every day. This is, apparently, not enforced, but even so it's still a pretty stupid law to have in the multi-cultural society we live in. I'm not sure whether RS is compulsory. I think it should be; I don't think it's good for people to be completely ignorant of religions other than their own.

I'd try it, only my dad would murder me if I got a C in Maths. :)

That would appear to be my friend's reason. And she's desperate to get enough money to move out. I can't help thinking this is a bit silly; much as I hate my family, I do not intend to move out before I would otherwise be bothered to do so. Of course, how much longer my family will keep me is another matter entirely. I can't see what their problem is, it's not as if I'm a whore or I take drugs or anything.

Alli

paperpusher wrote:

I see. That's pretty different to over here. You have pre-school/playgroup/ whatever, then primary school or infant and then junior school (reception, years 1-6), and then secondary school (years 7-11) and then the 6th form (years 12-13) which is optional, and you don't usually change schools for it.

So, are you held back if you fail? At what age are you allowed to leave school? I asked the American guy in my year and he didn't know. He says you start school a year later in the US, which is why he was put in our year instead of the year above, or something like that.

There are no longer O levels, instead there are GCSEs. You do your GCSEs in year 11, then you leave school. You can stay on in the 6th form at most schools or go to college to take A levels for two years after that, most people do three. Instead of that you can do a NVQ, an IB, a GNVQ, a Modern Apprentiship, AS levels or various other things I can't remember the names of. Probably because us year 11s have been given so much information about all of them that everyone's decided it's all too confusing and given up. Or maybe that's just me.

Alli

That seems to be a major difference between the UK & US systems. In the US people seem to have to pass every subject they take, or retake the class, or even year, if they fail, hence that thing about Quinn being "held back" if she doesn't get an A in English. But in the UK, if people aren't doing well they're simply put onto less demanding courses, or simply fail. I think US subjects must be more modular than UK ones, with lots of little tests for each part. Eg. in the UK, you don't do stuff like Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry etc as individually examined courses in the way I noticed happening in My So-Called Life. Instead you just do a monolithic two year Maths course with one big exam right at the end. The nearest things I've heard of to "holding back" here is I think that people are sometimes held back in the first year at infants school when they're like 6 years old or something. Also if people fail their GCSEs at 16 then they can usually stay on an extra year and retake the courses.

That's another big difference here. In the UK you apply to university do a specific subject (Chemistry, Physics, History, Electronic Engineering, etc etc). It is then up to that department at the University whether or not to accept you. If the department doesn't want you, you don't get into that university. By the same token, people tend to select which university they want to go at least partly on the basis of how good the department they are applying to is. Different universities have different strengths and weaknesses and only a few famous ones trade on an image of overall excellence. Eg. the place I went to was known as a centre of excellence for Computing, Physics, Biology, Law, and certain branches of Engineering. You could also do all sorts of other stuff there, eg. History, Maths, French, etc. etc., but if you were a bright student you'd probably have applied elsewhere to do such subjects.

People don't have to specialise 100% in their degrees though. There are some "joint honours" courses where you can combine two subjects; also people often major in one subject but take a subsidiary subject too which accounts for up to a third of their time, eg. many science or engineering students take Maths as a subsidiary subject. But wholly generalised courses, eg a "Science" degree, tend only exist as fallbacks for those too dim to pass a proper degree course.

-Shez.

Shez wrote:

That's pretty much the American school system in a nutshell: an elaborate form of punishment. Which explains why so many Americans need psychotherapy after high school is over. It also explains the popularity of the GED test. ;-{)>

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria

N.P.:"Goodbye Post Office Tower Goodbye"- C r e s s i d a / A s y l u m

On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 23:00:21 +0000, "endless, nameless" wrote:

Included in this is very basic arithmetic (counting, adding, perhaps subtraction... can't quite remember), and very basic reading ("See Jane Run... no relation to the Daria ep. wouldn't want this to get on topic, would we ;p

K-6 in California

7-8 in California

9-12 in California.

Not that everyone pays attention to that.

When I was in kindergarden, that was the case. I was held back; I had a november birthday and was the youngest in my class in Kidergarden. The teacher thought my shyness was the result of basic social immaturity, and being held back a year would be beneficial; if the shyness was the result of my development phase, let's say I didn't "grow out of it" until I was 15 ;p

Unfortunately, schools are VERY reluctant to hold people back these days, due to this idea of "self esteem"; they call letting them go ahead without the proper knowledge "social promotion" and claim holding them back hurts their "self esteem." This is, of corse, a load of BS, and results in 9th graders who never learned to process basic fractions.

Once you're 18, you're pretty much free to do as you choose, though in reality, one who doesn't complete the 12th grade has little prospects of employment outside extremely low skilled industrial jobs (which are becoming rarer and rarer in this country as time goes by).

[email] (Tarvok) wrote:

Well, when I was in school, my dad would get transferred every 2-4 years, so I got exposed to a lot of different school systems... oddly enough, and counter to stereotype, the best schools I went to were in the South. (Of course, I'm a Southerner, too, so maybe I could just finally understand what the heck the teachers were saying in the first place, and nobody made fun of my accent or tried to correct it, either.) ;-)

I gotta say that the one thing that really clicked with me with this show was the very first ep-- "Esteemsters" -- that was me every few years, having to get used to a whole new bunch of idio--- I mean classmates. (And having a Southern accent didn't help much in Illinois and New Jersey. *shudder*) But, hey, the emotional scars fade eventually, or so I've heard. ;-)

I went to a Senior High... at the time, it had three grades, and 2,500 students. 1,000 kids in my class alone. We had about 20 buildings spread all over the place, just like a real campus. No wonder the transition to University didn't faze me. :-)

Depends on the school. At my SHS, Sophomores were routinely thrown into the shrubbery. (No, I don't have the faintest idea why, other than it was a tradition. A very stupid one, I might add. And, no, I never got thrown in-- I was too busy doing Student Activities during lunch. Yes, I was a Jodie. ;-)

<snipppage>

Amen, brother. I'll take neurotic, intelligent people over happy dullards any day. :-)

In NC, you could leave at 16. Of course, you could also get your driver's license and get married (with parental permission) at 16 as well.... I hope they've finally changed that-- I know a few people who made some really stupid choices at 16 because they were too impatient to wait to grow up a little bit more.

rich.

Jane: You know, I don't know why people say we have a bad attitude.

Daria: Screw 'em.

In article , [email] wrote:

Hi there...have been reading through the multimillion posts here (ha ha), and stumbled upon this. You're a Southerner too? Cool. I'm Texan so let us both take off our cowboy hats and shout out "yeeee hawwww" (only KIDDING).

What is tragic, though, is that I actually _like_ some country music. I tried to write down a list of country songs I like and I actually got to five. *gasp*

Good god, remind me NEVER to go to Illinois or New Jersey...even though I have no accent at all (or maybe a slight "Midwestern" accent), I don't want to go to places my fellow Southerners don't feel comfortable in. Note to self: write book exposing Southerners as being intelligent types whilst blasting Northeners like they've been blasting us for the last umpteen years.

Oh...and just in case the Catholic school system hasn't been detailed, here it is:

Grade School: Usually consists of grades K-4 (prekinder, start off when you're 4) through 8th grade (exit when you're 14). K-4 and K-5 (kinder) are in one part of the grade school building, while 1st - 5th grades are in another part and 6th - 8th grades are in yet another part. Depending on size of parish and/or wealth of parishoners, the school is either huge (featuring many classes for one grade level) or small as small can be (like my grade school, where we only had one group of 20 - 30 students per grade level). The more expensive schools are usually the more equipped ones, but they all essentially give you the same level of education.

High School: Consists of 9th grade (freshman year) to 12th grade (senior year). Usually since there are so fewer high schools than grade schools, it is not uncommon for a grade level in even a small school to have about seven different homerooms. These high schools are, unlike the co-ed grade schools, mainly single-gender. (I loved that part -- I wish I were going to an all- girls' college right now!) And also high schools tend to have stricter rules and regulations than grade schools. Usually these high schools require you to do community service as a graduation requirement.

And in Catholic school the people don't have to keep you, so you can instantly get kicked out if you violate one of their rules. This makes teaching at such a school easier but not at all more attractive (seeing as though most Catholic schools pay their teachers so little).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm about to fall asleep right now. I hope what I said at least made some sort of sense.

deena lissa (eyelids feel like leaden weights)

"Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over, Wise or naked in Secret Oktober..." -- "Secret Oktober", Duran Duran (1983)

deena lissa wrote:

My parents live in "The Metroplex," actually. (I'm sure you know where that is.) In fact, I just got back from there a few weeks ago. We've lived in the DFW area twice, actually. Once, a very long time ago, we spent 4 years in Plano, where I finished learning how to talk. So when we moved to Illinois, I went up there with a Texas Twang on top of an Eastern NC mumble. <g> (I'm originally from NC, also where my family's from as well-- we go back before records there, actually.) After that, I did 4 in NJ as well, and by the time we moved back to NC, my Twang had been "modified." Now, after being back in NC for the past, oh, lemmesee... 17? Has it been 17 years? Aiiiiiiiii! Well, I got my Eastern NC mumble back. <g> (We moved to Charlotte when I was in 7th grade, and after HS I moved back to Chapel Hill, where the "Family HQ" is, and where I went to University as well.) But LSS, I still have strong Texas ties as well.

Ever been to the Grapevine Opry? <g> I only like the old stuff-- the new stuff doesn't have any pain in it, IMO. Y'know, like Patsy Cline, George Jones, et. al. My favorite country music song has to be either "I've Got Tears In My Ears From Lying On My Back Crying Over You," or "I've Been Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart." They just don't write songs like that anymore. (Probably because there isn't any wood alcohol in the liquor these days.) <g>

Well, now that I'm all growed-up, I wouldn't mind going back to NJ (on the way to the City), or to see Chicago again. I just wouldn't want to go to school there. *shudder*

I remember when I told the kids in my class in 7th grade in NJ that I was moving to NC-- they kept asking me if there was electricity or plumbing down there... I just smiled and nodded, because I already knew better. (We went to NC every Summer.) Jerks.

The ironic part is that all of those jerks I went to school with up Nawth are all moving down here by the busload. <g> Apparently it's not that great up there after all, and now that they've found out that we not only have beautiful, syringe-free beaches, but we also have running water, they can't wait to load up the moving van and head down here. (Where it was 68 degrees today.) ;-)

<snip!>

That's about what I expected. Personally, I was at the mercy of the public schools the whole way. Some good, some bad, some excellent, some dreadful. I think going to a huge HS helped make the transition to attending a large University a *lot* easier, though. Ah, yes, the old Alma Mater, where they didn't just treat you like a number, they treated you like a *small* number. ;-)

Sure did. BTW, there are other Southerners who post to the group as well, so we're not as small a bunch as you might think.

Jane: You know, I don't know why people say we have a bad attitude.

Daria: Screw 'em.

In article , [email] wrote:

Wow, cool. My family goes all the way back, too...to the 1920s, that is. My grandparents were born in Mexico (kiddies, let us shout, "ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-HAH!" -- NOT). I do know where the Metroplex is and have actually been there several times -- have some relatives there as well. I'm sure the Illinois kiddoes must've really loved your mixed accent -- must've kinda confused them (visualize a bunch of kids scratching their heads, a look of puzzlement over their faces). Seventeen years...wow, that's a long time. But it does make it so that NC is where your heart is, I'll bet. (Oh good God, am I spouting off Hallmarkisms already?)

LOL...point well taken. Um...haven't heard of the "Grapevine Opry"--wait, I think I know what you mean. Oh gosh, George Jones, ever see footage of that guy from when he was young? Buzz cut, deer caught in headlights look, really thin...definitely not the type of person to seem to be able to defend himself against bullies. I like a lot of the new stuff, though. "Easy on the Eyes" by Terri Clark, "Come on Over" by Shania Twain, "Twist and Shout" by Mary Chapin- Carpenter, "These Arms" by Dwight Yoakham (sp?), etc., etc., etc. "Twist and Shout", especially. (blushes and immediately hides head)

OIC. So you've been to NYC? Oh, I wanna go! My two dream travel destinations are England and NYC. I'm probably going to England soon so my next goal is to go to NYC. Chicago...actually, I do have family there...hm....

Oh GOD, no way, they really asked you that? (visualizing response: "no, actually there is no electricity or plumbing down there; the TV & radio stations and newspapers are all run by sheer luck and magic, and we all know that a place with no electricity cannot possibly have plumbing either" *rolls eyes*).

Doesn't it seem rather weird that that is happening? I mean, gigantic infestations of Yankees in Southern soil due to the friendlier climes and nicer surroundings. 68 degrees?? Really...you must have the same type of weather south Texas has, because that's approximately what we had as well. How intriguing. Just call us "Sun Belt People".

I neglected to mention in the previous post that you have to take an entrance exam to enter into high school; that way they can either accept or reject you, and place you into the "correct" classes if they've accepted you. It's kinda like SATs and college. From what I've seen, though, the nicer males are from the public schools and the complete moron jerks are from the Catholic schools. I'm glad to see your high school experience wasn't a complete waste...LOL, I got that last bit. Naw, I'm sure you had a good education because you're able to express yourself intelligently and concisely. Besides, you watch "Daria", right? What better way to show that yes indeed, you do have intelligence. :)

Thanks for letting me know. We'll just have to all gather 'round and...and...and prove that...um, scratch that, make sure...um...I don't know what we would gather 'round for except for maybe a southern DariaCon (can you imagine....)

Take care. Thanks for the welcoming.

deena lissa

"Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over, Wise or naked in Secret Oktober..." -- "Secret Oktober", Duran Duran (1983)

we managed to trace my tree back to the mid-600's, i think it was. this is the weird part: we cross-refrenced our history with that of our neighbors across the street, and they intersected somewhere along the line.. anyway, it turns out i was distantly related to my best friend since about 3. i thought i was odd.

CrtoonDude wrote:

Weird. My grandfather managed to trace back our family tree to......hang on, it's up on the wall......1624. That's on my mother's side. My dad's side of the family....well, we probably trace back quite far on his father's side, but my grandmother never even knew her own birthday, she was orphaned after the Turkish massacre at Smyrni when she was really young so it'd probably be much more difficult there.

Alli

I can believe that. I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, and then decided to go to U. of Idaho for college. Horrible potato jokes for the rest of the year. I spent my first Christmas break trying to convince my Grandma that things were actually civilized out here. We killed off the outlaws and cattle rustlers that were bothering the town, and there was a pretty big potato crop this year so we can get those newfangled electric lights. Plus, the cabins we're living in are really nice.

Ann

deena lissa wrote:

Yes, but you're forgiven for that. Yeah, 17 years actually is a long time, I guess, but it's gone by rather quickly. And while I like to visit Texas every now and then, yeah, NC is where my heart is. (As well as my liver, spleen, and pancreas, IIRC.) <g>

I doubt it. It's just a little place in Grapevine, TX, where you can catch local "talent." <g>

It's okay to like music that's different from what everyone else likes, but I'll have to admit that I don't really listen to the new stuff, and not much of the old stuff, either. But I prefer the raw emotion of the older stuff-- the new stuff seems a little overproduced. Of course, YMMV.

NYC is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there. <g> Actually, that used to be true until Disney took over Times Square and started to suck the life out of-- er, I mean make it more "tourist friendly." Actually, I just found out that I'll be going back there in about 7 weeks to visit an old friend or two. It's been a while since I've been there, so I'll post any relevant info I acquire for anyone who's curious. And this summer I'll be stopping briefly in England on my way to Germany to help my Aunt move.

Way! But I kept my own counsel, and just laughed at them, the fools! Muahahaha! <g>

Well, we *had* a 68 degree day. This morning, we briefly had sleet and snow. Tomorrow (today?) it'll be back around 60 again. It's actually been a warmer than usual winter, but even then it never gets too cold.

As for the folks moving down South, I classify them into two groups. "Northerners" are people form the North who move down here and take the time to learn, understand, and contribute to the local culture without whining about every single damn thing. "Yankees" just whine and complain about how everything's better in New York. (To which the reply is usually, "Delta is ready when you are," or "We don't care how they do it in New York" or "Well, if it's so damn good in New York, then why don't you go back?") Oh, and the best way to have a Southern waiter/waitress spit in your food is to refer to Southerners as "You people." We *hate* that. <g>

True, true, except the part about being concise... I run to garrulity at times. <g>

Wow, there's a thought-- a DariaCon. *chuckle* Can you imagine it? A whole group of people sharing their various misanthropic tendencies... it staggers my imagination. <g>

rich.

Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.

Jake: Jefferson!

Helen: Stalin.

endless, nameless wrote:

     Junior high is in between elementary school (Kindergarten to sixth grade,
generally ages 5 to 11) and high school (grades 9-12, ages 14-17). The two
grades of junior high are generally separated in their own school because kids
of that age, just entering puberty, are seen as being so unmanageable neither
elementary school nor high school teachers will have anything to do with them.
;-{)>
     Sophomore is one of the levels of high school. Grade 9 is Freshman, grade
10 is sophomore, grade 11 is junior and grade 12 is senior. The terms used to
be used in four-year colleges and universities as well. This system is also the
origin of the term "sophomoric", meaning juvenile or immature, usually used to
describe one's sense of humour.
     They have a different system in Canada, with 13 grades instead of 12.
You'd have to have a Canadian explain it to you, though.

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria

N.P.:"Lisa"- C r e s s i d a / A s y l u m

In article , "endless, nameless" wrote:

even

;-{)>

are

and

Actually, this kind of thing taught me the parts of speech better than any attempts made by my elementary (primary) school.

Junior high included the 7th (and often 6th) thru 8th grades. Basically, 12 through 14 year olds go there. Need I say more? As for sophmores, there are people int heir second year of high school or college. "Sophomore" translates to "wise fool" in some language (Latin, I'm guessing) and "sophomoric" humor refers to humor made by people who think they're pretty damn smart, but they're not. Being a sophomore doesn't have anything to do with sophomoric humor....well, it's not supposed to. Any given comedy film is usually described as "sophomoric" by critics.

"R. K. Henry" wrote:

I can't either, but I know the type of car, as it always seems to be cutting me off... grrr...

At first I was thinking Neolithic, but then I had to take into account that the Carbon-14 dating might be a little off due to the spillage encrusted on the van, so I guessed paloelitihic instead...

It seems like a Honda Accord to me, but then again I don't pay much attention to Hondas, except, of course, when they cut me off!!!

I agree with you on the Saab, but it'd have to be an older model, considering his teacher's salary. I wonder if he's ever spilled wheat grass juice into the ignition switch? (It's mounted inbetween the front seats on Saabs, and it's always getting spilled on... stupid engineers.)

My first car was a 75 Ford Torino... what a heap... a shining example of planned obsolescence. I never could get the driver's side window to *stay* rolled up, and the AC never worked, and the emergency brake release cable broke, so I had to chew up my shoes in order to work the release... but it had one hell of an engine-- it could blow away anything on 4 wheels. (351 cu. inch V-8, Cleveland factory.) Of course, it only got 6 mpg in the city, and a whopping 11 on the highway. And, of course, there were the lovely vinyl seats that left interesting patterns on bare legs in the summer, and the solid battleship steel frame that could destroy anything without giving in a millimeter... ah, memories...

Oh, sorry. But, anyway, I don't *think* Trent's car was a Torino, but then again, I could be wrong. I'll check it out when they run "the Invitation" again. (And hopefully I can get it on good tape this time!)

Either an MG, Alfalfa Romeo, or a Miata. I'm guessing Alfalfa Romeo, as MGs are a PITA to keep running, and Miatas are cliche. An AR, now, that has style... <g>

all over the place, rich.

Mr. O'Neill: Let's pledge to make Daria's dream a reality!

Daria: You mean the one where people walking down the street burst into flames?

Mr. O'Neill: The coffeehouse!