^Ice cream in any form.
TIL...
- Thread starter Holdfast
- Start date
Here's what to do about it (if you are really mad about it):
Every time there's a wrapper in your garden you call ALL of the schools and rant for no less than ten minutes about how they aren't doing their jobs if that's what they teach the children and whatever else you can think of (don't cuss but talk in upper case and don't let them get a word in). It would be good if you could also get your neighbours to do this.
Shortly after this kind of campaign you'll see the schools beginning to take the problem serious, either by employing someone for the sole purpose of listening to your rants or by trying to teach the kids not to litter (not that it is the schools job to teach kids this sort of thing, but they are the ones you can rant to... they'll then have to contact the parents of the little delinquents).
This, basically, is due to bad parenting: Breast milk is sweet, kids like this so when you stop feeding them this sweet milk they won't take the substitute... one way to make them is to sweeten the substitute and this is done in most of not all commercial products plus loads of baby-foods are actually extremely sweet -for things made out of peas, broccoli and whatnot.
Letting the older kids have fruit-juice or soda with their meals might make for a more smooth operation of the family at this time of day where tired adults, just home from work, only want a bit of peace and quiet with their meal and are in no mood to do their second job; the hard one called parenting.
Obviously the industry complies with the wishes of the consumer -they are not to blame (for once).
^Not my own theory, something I read years ago.
TIL that when you take an umbrella with you because the weatherman says it's about to pour buckets, nothing happens. But when you don't take one with you just to walk down the road and buy a gallon of milk, you get wet.
^
I've been using umbrellas since I was twelve
I've been using umbrellas since I was twelve
That's the cultural difference speaking; here it's normal to WALK to the corner-shop or to the bus-stop... I'm guessing you didn't ever do a lot of that 
I just walk if it's only a couple of blocks or so. No sense burning gas in my car just for something that'll take only five or ten minutes to walk to. Besides, I need the exercise.
These days when I live 'downtown' I rarely go anywhere so far that I need even my bike.
And: yeah, that's a real bike! -not a motorized one.
And: yeah, that's a real bike! -not a motorized one.
That's the cultural difference speaking; here it's normal to WALK to the corner-shop or to the bus-stop... I'm guessing you didn't ever do a lot of that
Well, considering the "corner shop" was the large grocery store several miles away and that we didn't have any form of public transportation that could take us there, no, I never did that.
^That's what I thought 
Although, I also used to use an umbrella rather than a raincoat when going to school (which was n the same suburb we lived in).
Although, I also used to use an umbrella rather than a raincoat when going to school (which was n the same suburb we lived in).
Exactly. My mother taught me many years ago to carry an umbrella -- not to stay dry in the rain, but to keep it from raining in the first place.
^ So if you are carrying your umbrella and you walk past someone washing a car, what happens?
^ So if you are carrying your umbrella and you walk past someone washing a car, what happens?
Universe-ending paradoxes occur.
There's an old joke/tradition - no longer observed, of course, and probably never really was - that an Englishman would never unfurl his black city brolly, regardless of the downpour.
It was popularised by a very eccentric (in many ways) Colonel by the name of Wintle who never unfurled his own brolly, except once to insert a note saying, "This umbrella was stolen from Col. A.D. Wintle".
It is widely known that an Englishman would carry an umbrella by holding it in the middle and having the pointy end point forward, but it's also used to carry an umbrella 'as a walking-stick' -how exactly does that work?
I tend to walk with an umbrella while 'swinging' it forward and a little upward, putting it down quite deliberately (sometimes more forceful, sometimes less so -depending) taking the two steps it takes to pass the point of ground-contact, then lifting it and making it swing forwards again in one big swoop again. I'll normally hold it (off the ground) slightly in front of me when standing still for a short while (waiting for a green light) or letting the tip rest on the ground and my hand on the handle if standing still for a longer time (waiting for a bus).
Am I being totally boorish?
I tend to walk with an umbrella while 'swinging' it forward and a little upward, putting it down quite deliberately (sometimes more forceful, sometimes less so -depending) taking the two steps it takes to pass the point of ground-contact, then lifting it and making it swing forwards again in one big swoop again. I'll normally hold it (off the ground) slightly in front of me when standing still for a short while (waiting for a green light) or letting the tip rest on the ground and my hand on the handle if standing still for a longer time (waiting for a bus).
Am I being totally boorish?
TDane, that has to be the most detailed description of how one carries an umbrella that I've ever seen.
I carry an umbrella by swinging it around a la Gene Kelly, or gesturing at people in a vaguely threatening manner a la Burgess Meredith.
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