Post your asides here

[Istiblennius]

Word of the day:
Monomania (n) extreme enthusiasm or zeal for a single subject or idea, often manifested as a rigid, irrational idea.

American Psychological Association Dictionary

[Parasaurolophus]

I mean, he ignores the facts in his own purported discipline, so...

[mahagonny]

Here's story that sank like a stone. How is she doing now? The most recent news is four days old.

https://news.yahoo.com/george-floyd-four-old-great-135744435.html

[little bongo]

I'm taking this to the "aside" post so as not to sully the R.I.P. thread any further:

So here's why I reported the R.I.P. post to mods:

Use this function to inform the moderators and administrators of an abusive or wrongly posted message.

Now, if you really need me to walk you through why that was a "wrongly posted message," I don't think I can be of much help, except to consider the following.
1) the name and overall subject matter of the thread, and
2) how a mini-dissertation on why a 55-year-old pop hit is now creepy relates to #1.

Yes, the previous poster asked a question regarding "creepiness," but I would submit that calling the song creepy on that particular thread was already off the mark, and any answer to the "creepy" question should have been taken elsewhere.

Has a student never thanked you for being helpful and making a difference in their life? Because I'm pretty sure that's all Lulu was doing in that context.

And finally, mods and other intelligent folks might disagree with my take on the post, but a report to the mods is a judgment call.

[marshwiggle]

I'm taking this to the "aside" post so as not to sully the R.I.P. thread any further:

So here's why I reported the R.I.P. post to mods:

Use this function to inform the moderators and administrators of an abusive or wrongly posted message.

Now, if you really need me to walk you through why that was a "wrongly posted message," I don't think I can be of much help, except to consider the following.
1) the name and overall subject matter of the thread, and
2) how a mini-dissertation on why a 55-year-old pop hit is now creepy relates to #1.

Yes, the previous poster asked a question regarding "creepiness," but I would submit that calling the song creepy on that particular thread was already off the mark, and any answer to the "creepy" question should have been taken elsewhere.

Has a student never thanked you for being helpful and making a difference in their life? Because I'm pretty sure that's all Lulu was doing in that context.

And finally, mods and other intelligent folks might disagree with my take on the post, but a report to the mods is a judgment call.

So as to not "sully the R.I.P. thread", I'll reply here.

The song "Baby, it's cold outside", when it was written, was understood to be about flirtatious banter. However, in today's context, it comes across as sounding like it's about date rape. The point is that the message the song was intended to convey is not the message that it automatically conveys in a different context.

Several students have thanked me for being helpful, as happens to many (most?) teachers, but the effusive terms in the song, especially between a young female student and an older male teacher, are way beyond what would be considered normal in today's reality.

[apl68]

I'm taking this to the "aside" post so as not to sully the R.I.P. thread any further:

So here's why I reported the R.I.P. post to mods:

Use this function to inform the moderators and administrators of an abusive or wrongly posted message.

Now, if you really need me to walk you through why that was a "wrongly posted message," I don't think I can be of much help, except to consider the following.
1) the name and overall subject matter of the thread, and
2) how a mini-dissertation on why a 55-year-old pop hit is now creepy relates to #1.

Yes, the previous poster asked a question regarding "creepiness," but I would submit that calling the song creepy on that particular thread was already off the mark, and any answer to the "creepy" question should have been taken elsewhere.

Has a student never thanked you for being helpful and making a difference in their life? Because I'm pretty sure that's all Lulu was doing in that context.

And finally, mods and other intelligent folks might disagree with my take on the post, but a report to the mods is a judgment call.

So as to not "sully the R.I.P. thread", I'll reply here.

The song "Baby, it's cold outside", when it was written, was understood to be about flirtatious banter. However, in today's context, it comes across as sounding like it's about date rape. The point is that the message the song was intended to convey is not the message that it automatically conveys in a different context.

Several students have thanked me for being helpful, as happens to many (most?) teachers, but the effusive terms in the song, especially between a young female student and an older male teacher, are way beyond what would be considered normal in today's reality.

I failed to see that this conversation was taking place here, and did make the mistake of posting on the other thread.  I'm now moving what I tried to say there here:

Marshwiggle, you're not exactly wrong in your observation that the lyrics to the song haven't dated well, for reasons that you give.  But are you honestly not able to see that it was inappropriate to bring it up on a thread dedicated to the memory of somebody who has just died and is much missed?  It's not in the dancing-on-the-grave category, but it's still hugely disrespectful of both the deceased and of the still-living who are mourning the deceased. 

This is, unfortunately, all too consistent with a marked tendency on your part to treat each and every thread on the board, regardless of subject matter, as an open invitation to post political commentary.  Look, I am fairly often in sympathy with some of your positions on issues, but when you do something like this from out of left field, in a place where people are emphatically not looking for political commentary, I can see how you might make yourself unwelcome.  For your own sake and the harmony of the Fora, please think about context before you post stuff like this in the future.

This is meant to be a friendly warning, not an invitation to a debate.  You would be well advised not to try to have the last word here.

[mamselle]

One thing that could have helped (now less possible) would have been if, when I opened the thread, I had carried over the clear injunctions on the old/CHE thread to avoid posting more than the obit link and a very brief, appreciative note (or else don't post as an RIP, which is inherently meant to be honorific).

At the time, there was no immediate indication that CHE would just delete all the links and make the old forum inaccessible: apparently a change in personnel in that office adopted a new-broom-sweeps-completely-away policy, and efforts even to get it back for a little while were unavailable, as several noted.

To our loss, and my regret, since it would have been easy, then, to have copied the set-up page with its intentions spelled out...

Mods, is there maybe a way to insert something in that first entry?

It was worded, as I recall, a bit like the HOF page opener.

M.

[kaysixteen]

Teachers used to have platonic relationships with students, and esp former students, all the time.   I still communicate with many 20- and 30-something former students.... and many former teachers and professors of my own.  I get that having worked in small private schools makes this easier than Boston Public, but the To Sir song indicates that a teacher like Poitier's character was exactly what those disadvantaged urban youth, many even delinquents, needed, and it was clearly their intent to show their gratitude.   And to compare the tune to the wholly unwholesome 'Baby It's Cold Outside' is, well... like comparing apples to arsenic.

[little bongo]

Agree that the comparison between songs is inapt. Clearly the movie means a great deal to you, and understandably so--I'm sure it inspired a great many teachers. And "To Sir, With Love," the song, functions both as soundtrack for the museum trip as well as a diegetic musical gift to Poitier's Mr. Thackeray, so I can see defending the song as well (personally, I think the song still holds up).

The sixties were definitely a different era, of course--one of the "To Sir, With Love" movie posters features the tagline: "A Story as Fresh as the Girls in Their Minis." But there's definitely still a part of me that would like to be a teacher as groovy as Mr. Thackeray.

[Parasaurolophus]

One thing that could have helped (now less possible) would have been if, when I opened the thread, I had carried over the clear injunctions on the old/CHE thread to avoid posting more than the obit link and a very brief, appreciative note (or else don't post as an RIP, which is inherently meant to be honorific).

At the time, there was no immediate indication that CHE would just delete all the links and make the old forum inaccessible: apparently a change in personnel in that office adopted a new-broom-sweeps-completely-away policy, and efforts even to get it back for a little while were unavailable, as several noted.

To our loss, and my regret, since it would have been easy, then, to have copied the set-up page with its intentions spelled out...

Mods, is there maybe a way to insert something in that first entry?

It was worded, as I recall, a bit like the HOF page opener.

M.

I'm happy to edit in whatever you'd like!

I always thought the thread was supposed to be for people one actually knew (guess I interpreted 'us' proximally, rather than more broadly), but I stand many pages corrected.

[kaysixteen]

Indeed, I actually taught the movie once, when I was serving as a teacher/ librarian at a special boarding school (underachievers, mostly, and some ld).  I had a 'general studies' class made up of mostly minority kids on scholarship, and thought it would be a good thing to show.   They liked it.   I think it was a good idea still.

[kaysixteen]

I neglected to add that I was able to teach it there because I bought it for the library.

[Parasaurolophus]

You can say that again.

[Istiblennius]

got a mirror?

[mahagonny]

Wealthy elite liberals conversation. It may be nice to worry about child labor in China, but people in our own country are worried about safe streets, drug gangs, how to bring up their children with healthy self-esteem when their public school sorts them into oppressor/victim categories (bring back segregation, anyone?), inflation because these things affect them.