Absolutely Anything Else

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Someone had too  much time on their hands and a love of "art".
I probably shouldn't share this neg. view from my hubby the Hungarian. he said words to the effect that if they put pig's heads up on the fences then the refugees might look into putting a few guards heads on sticks... Hope not, things could get really nasty if people let their base animal out.

Your hubby might be right.  I can easily imagine someone getting killed down there. 

People will feel they have nothing to lose and make a dash for it even if armed with sticks.

Hope it never gets that violent but desperate people do desperate things.
Could get ugly, let's just "pray for peace" like that ever really stopped wars...
I know from personal experience as a teenager, talking about peace only works with like minded people who also wish to avoid fighting, wars etc.
Found my peace freak self in a street fight against 3 girls in school, the peace talks went sour.

All the questions about favorite alcoholic beverages has made me nostalgic.
Seems just about every family event growing up involved some sort of drinking.
I actually did have my own special beer drinking glass as a toddler, one of those tiny little jelly glasses.
Drank beer fairly regularly as a 3 -4 year old.
My mother told me that to keep us asleep all night long she would put in a tbs. or so of whiskey in our baby bottles!
I often would sit at the bar on a high stool in Conn. in the late 1950's with my dad.
He would have a few beers while waiting for my mom to finish up her weekly shopping. I didn't have beers in a bar but a soda, it was no big deal back then for a kid under age to sit in a bar with their parents.
No food served, a real drink bar.
Now days if a bar is even close to a playground parents don't like it much.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Hope it never gets that violent but desperate people do desperate things.
Could get ugly, let's just "pray for peace" like that ever really stopped wars...
I know from personal experience as a teenager, talking about peace only works with like minded people who also wish to avoid fighting, wars etc.
Found my peace freak self in a street fight against 3 girls in school, the peace talks went sour.

Look around the world today. And then read this:

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in every country."

Sound familiar? You bet it does. Because it is common rhetoric today. In far too many countries. Just look outside in Hungary (if you speak Hungarian) at the current government PR campaign for the up coming referendum. You may notice this same "truism" in there as well.

Who said the quote above? You can look it up of course, but you get a cookie if you know already. If you have to look it up, your jaw may drop when you discover who said it, because it is that scary.

Peace and love everyone. 

klsallee wrote:

....
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in every country."

Well I got that one wrong.  Thought it was his boss.

But yup, same old theme being pedalled the world over. 

Nice to have an individual scapegoat too.  Someone to pin the blame on.

The old dived and conquer.

I would say something about the upcoming referendum but I am not allowed to view  my opinions  about anything serious any longer... Yes, I had a warning.
Anyways... Good thing we are not allowed to vote as ex pats in HU affairs.
I was thinking back about when we had been writing about taxes on luxury items in Hungary.
Handbags to be exact.
Made me think of my son and just how "looney sweet" he can be.
He is an adult man now, or so the calendar says.
I thought back on a couple of his old relationships with much older women.
This was after his torrid divorce from his HU wife.
He had a lovely looking Chinese girlfriend for a couple of years time in Vegas. She was from Hong Kong and very smart and modern.
She was 10 to 12 years older then my son but of course , lucky her she didn't really look older.
He decided to break it off after those years because he said he wasn't being fair to her as she was aging and she should find someone more suited to her own age, he should as well as he may of wanted children at some point.
He bought her a break up present. I have never heard of such a thing before only a divorce settlement with lawyers etc.
He bought her a $1,500 LV handbag.
I asked why he would spend so much, I mean he was not rich, was driving a half broken down car etc.
He said she deserved the best in life and he always wanted her to think fondly of him.
When he later broke up with his Korean GF for about the same reasons as with the other lady , he also bought her a "parting gift" of a $1,500 LV handbag!
My kind son, has insane humor just like his dad and I have, he gave me the store bag with the LV logo on it, said, my mom also deserves the best! Crazy kid, he said I could walk around with the paper bag and empress my friends.... crazy or what?!
Who ever thought of a "parting gift" as a break up item, thought a box of tissues would be more suited for the situation!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
Who ever thought of a "parting gift" as a break up item, thought a box of tissues would be more suited for the situation!

I was lucky to get away with collecting my clothes in one break up.

klsallee wrote:

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in every country."

Just a quick follow up on this one. I just happened to read the following article which describes similar situations in the animal kingdom and that this behaviour could be innate.

Bullying is an evolutionary strategy

A contributor to that article says "...while politicians use "scapegoating" to incite antagonism against minority groups. This approach "creates a common enemy when there are tensions in a society,"

Nothing radical there as we know but it raised the question in my mind...(and I am somewhat biasing the framing of the question already).

What are the tensions in HU society that makes the scapegoating of refugees necessary?

That is funny!!
My son, what can I say, he is one of a kind.
The sad thing is I actually liked all his ladies, even had "excuses" for his crazy HU wife.
I personally did see her violent side a few times.
Once they were in our apt. in Vegas, my son said something she didn't like so she picked up books off of our bookcase and started throwing them towards my son's head!
Glad the door hit her on the way out!
I once took my HU DIL to my  very close group of friends at a yoga center. A small class of 7 or 8 of us. My instructor was from Germany, Munich and another friend was from Switzerland, all the ladies in the class were "classy" people. I asked the  opinion of my 2 European friends about my DIL, this was before my son married her, They both looked a tiny bit nervous answering me, didn't want to hurt my feelings, they said she was a bit "gothic". Yes, guess she was and then some!
All his other lady friends were really sweet, I liked them all really, lived with 3 of them for between 8 months to 18 months, never a bad word or hurt feeling between us.
His HU wife, I doubt I could spend a day with as her temper was out there.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
Once they were in our apt. in Vegas, my son said something she didn't like so she picked up books off of our bookcase and started throwing them towards my son's head!
Glad the door hit her on the way out!....
His HU wife, I doubt I could spend a day with as her temper was out there.

Any violence like that and I'd have given her the bum's rush. 

Getting violent is failure  to engage  on the antagonist's part.

Do you think you son was a victim of domestic abuse?   Men can be just as women can.

Or was it just civil war?

He was abused by her and the one time he stood up for himself, gave her a well deserved slap in the face at 4 am after he had caught her kissing another man on the mouth at a party he was busted and hauled off to jail!
She had him totally 100% in the Stockholm syndrome.
He was alone in HU with her and her "witch" with a B mother when she slapped him across the head so hard that she broke her own hand!
My goodness, my husband and I have been through it as parents I have to admit.
If it was up to me, she would of been pushing daisy's!
Not bragging but I know people who know people in Vegas...
He so much wanted to marry and have a child with a Hungarian women, not sure what went wrong except he went in for the wrong one.
I am still not even sure as a parent why in the world he felt the need to marry at a young age.
She BS him so much he felt he could "save her", some people are not worth saving!
My one blessing is she never had a child with my son, if she had she would of abused us all I am sure of it.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....he was busted and hauled off to jail!
She had him totally 100% in the Stockholm syndrome.
....
I am still not even sure as a parent why in the world he felt the need to marry at a young age.
She BS him so much he felt he could "save her", some people are not worth saving!
My one blessing is she never had a child with my son, if she had she would of abused us all I am sure of it.

At least he's out of it.  Breaking up sounds like it was  a matter of survival. I hope he's happy now.

Thanks, hope so too, one  child that is like having a dozen.
More worry as having several kids they can watch out for each other.
Think it must be easier to have allot of kids, roll of the dice at least one or two will turn out right?! maybe...

I made a few  "goofs" today with posting on the wine tasting section and not here.
Silly me...
Tried to delete my posts but had no luck .

All good, just have to be more vigilant next time around.
Hope you made it to the lake for your bike ride.
We bought a few used bikes in Vegas last visit over, was really fun to take rides used the sidewalks there for safety as no one uses them for walking.
Too many drunk drivers and fast drivers in Vegas to even share the roads with the bike lanes.
Problem is with the heat there ,one can only use a bike for 6 or 7 months a year or risk heat stroke.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....One day while she was taking care of the lawn she noticed the empty camping cabin shaking and moving back and forth.
She opened the door up and saw the next door neighbor girl in there by herself naked doing what will make you go blind!!!( The girl was 11)
My mom spanked her butt and sent her home letting the girls mother know what had happened.
Seriously, I just found this out a couple years back, my younger sibs. told me.
Not suppose to leave those campers unlocked just like a empty fridge, put a chain on it!
Small town livin' just can't beat it!

I wonder if it was just something of the times then or maybe it's a different attitude in Europe or I'm a liberal.    I think probably I would have said, please be more discrete and find somewhere else for private activities.

But I would certainly not have told her mother!

Poor kid would probably get it in the neck for exploring and doing what comes naturally.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
All good, just have to be more vigilant next time around.
Hope you made it to the lake for your bike ride.
We bought a few used bikes in Vegas last visit over, was really fun to take rides used the sidewalks there for safety as no one uses them for walking.
Too many drunk drivers and fast drivers in Vegas to even share the roads with the bike lanes.
Problem is with the heat there ,one can only use a bike for 6 or 7 months a year or risk heat stroke.

I think it'll be next week for Velence.  I should encourage the kids to do it as well.  My son will be up for it but my daughter will complain about it. 

The usual thing is to complain a lot but when actually doing whatever the objectionable activity is, she actually starts to enjoy it. She's at the age to complain about just about everything. Might get relief from the teenager'ish behaviour by the time she's 16/17.

I babysat for that neighbor girl and her sibs once, their mom was an odd person to me.
I went over to sit them and the mom had a box of donuts on the table, she said they were hers and her kids were not allowed to touch them.
I thought it was odd to leave them out and tease her kids like that.
My mom was the sort to give her last bite of food away to her children not hoard food.
Often one of our friends would be over around dinner time, I would ask my mom if they could stay for dinner.
I know more then once she gave away her meal to one of our friends, her excuse always was, I already ate or I am not hungry right now.
Some people are just born givers and some are takers.
We never did anything like that neighbor girl did as kids, darn we didn't even go dating until we were 16.
Even then I was just too odd for the boys in our little town, never was asked out on a date, or just once at age 16.
We were allowed to date at 16 but only on mom's approval and with limits on where we could go and when we got home etc.
Had to have good grades, as well.
A 17 year old boy asked me out for my first date, it felt weird but I wanted to be "normal" so I said yes.
He drove a car too.
My mother talked with him for the longest most embarrassing time before she said I could go to the movies, only a walk-in style movie not one in the car, in the US they used to have drive-in movies where you could watch a film in your car.
This boy was also a "Eagle Scout" seriously he was a bit nerdy but I thought he was cute enough, tall and talked nicely. We had often walked home together from school  and he was always so nice.
What a load of BS, he was a perve!
First off he drove to the drive-in movie after telling my mom and I we were going to the walk-in movie.
I thought to myself, ok don't want to seem like a baby so just go with it and watch the movie, don't go out with him again after this as he was a liar.
Next thing I know He grabs my hand and not to hold it either!!! He had other ideas about what I should be holding!!!
Freaked me out, I asked to go home and he took me right away, I never spoke to him again.
Didn't like him that much and hated the sneaky way he acted, no respect, all fake.
Just wasn't ready at age 16 to date,no hurry to grow up it happens like it or not.
My mom raised "good girls" at least we had to be for as long as we lived in her house, could be why we all moved out ASAP, one at 19 one at 18 and me. I just took off one morning at age 17 1/2.
My friends and I would smoke, drink and party on LSD starting at age 15 when my eldest sister bought me a bag of smoke for my BD, thing is we just were not into dating anyone, we were on a journey to find ourselves first, didn't need complications like boys bothering us.
I wonder if my mom knew of my drug use as a kid if she would of rather me date instead?
I honestly would hate to be raising kids right now, so many young people are not ready to date but do it out of peer pressure. I know if it was up to me I probably would of not dated until I was over 20. Just wasn't emotionally ready for all of it. Strange thing was I met my husband when I was 19, he married a baby really.
Our son was also slow at growing up, one reason he had so much trouble when he did get married, he had only been down the st. and his wife had already gone around the block, several times...
My husband cracks me up with his wild European dating habits, he was 14 and going out with 18 year old girls in Budapest... So daring and so wild, he was drinking and smoking at a young age,man o' the world as a kid, of course he was holding down a full time job at 14.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Might get relief from the teenager'ish behaviour by the time she's 16/17.

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

-- quote usually attributed to Mark Twain

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
My mom raised "good girls" at least we had to be for as long as we lived in her house, could be why we all moved out ASAP, one at 19 one at 18 and me. I just took off one morning at age 17 1/2.....

My biggest (either gender) kid fears (off the top of my head):

Abduction
Violence
Drugs
Accidents/Injury/Illness(mental or physical)
Dropping out of school
Pregnancy (being or giving)
Wrong type of friends (Boyfriends/Girlfriends)

Quite a wide range of things. I am sure there are more.

We try to be as open as possible.  We let them do whatever they want within (safe) limits.  When they are 18 they can (and will) do whatever they want.  We want them to have fun in their lives and to enjoy it.

My own parents were, looking back on it, quite liberal.  We used to bring our partners home and sleep with them there.  My mother even made up the beds!   She recognised it was either the back of the car, in a field or somewhere uncomfortable so she decided better to at least make it safe an environment as possible. 

My sister was on the pill at 14 and my mother's insistence. 

Not bad really.

Back in the 90s I used to see lots of couples snogging (kissing) on the Budapest late night metro trains.  No space or privacy at home. Shame really.

Good grief, I say your parents were super liberal if compared to my mother.
My mom, was raised very, very strict the old Victorian style by her native American grandmother and 2 half native aunts.
Her mother died when she needed her the most, when mom was 13, her mom had been ill for years so basically her extended female relations raised her.
Depression years bla, bla,bla... Had to make sure a young women had a "proper" upbringing because of  many social issues at the time.
My mom was 22 years old and dating my father, worked full time and owned half a house with one of her aunts, paid for the upkeep of her younger sister and her grannie but still had to follow the house rules.
My father had to have her home well before midnight on a Sat. night or all heck broke loose.
Once she said he got her home around 1 am.
All 3 female relations were waiting at the door with rotten potatoes, they cursed my father and threw potatoes at him , told him to never come back.
Even with all that "mafia" of protection ,my father " tricked my mom and she found herself in "troubles. Mom said she didn't even know what he had done?!
Her aunts forced her to try different ways to make herself "good again, hot baths in boiling water, all sorts of insane things, none worked. Then she was forced to write our dad a  suicide note!!!
Talk about pressures!  They married , were always very attracted to each other but not good for each other at all.15 years into it it was over.
I suppose considering what my mom went through, she was a liberal too, in her own twisted way.
My eldest sister was a great student, a proper young lady who never got into any troubles, she met through a friend her future husband who was a family friend and well known by her friends parents  He was  7 years older then my sister but a "brainy chemistry major with a bright future.
A real nerdy straight good guy who came from a "proper" family etc.
When my sister who was in college at the time would go out with her fiance, ring given and all, she still had to be home by 10 pm during the week and no later then midnight on Sat.
Her fiance would park in the front of my mom's house for a few mins, before my sister got out of his car after their dates.
She had exactly 5 mins to get in the house.
First my mom would turn on the front porch light,"warning sign" if that didn't work she sent the dog outside.
Not sure why sending the dog out was the end but it gave our mom a great excuse to open the front door and start calling the dogs name, code for get you butt in the house NOW!
Happened once and they had a screaming.crying match till 3 am.
My sister swears, I believe her 100% that she was a pure bride, no wonder, no time to do anything.
My mom was slightly crazy but then again, having 4 girls and no father , only a step -dad around put allot of pressure on our mom.
Her major goal in life was to raise her girls to not bring home a bun before marriage and to make sure all her kids finished school.
It is crazy to think of all the drugs and sneaking out we did under such pressure, the sneaking out was not to meet boys but to just get out of the house and breath. At least I am speaking for myself, My eldest sister never did drugs and was always "perfect".
The old double standard, our bros had it easy.
I "turned out bad" had my son out of "official" marriage, my husband once came to visit my son and I, as we had a short time away from each other but were working on it.
My mother made my husband sleep in his car, she wouldn't allow him in her house since we were not "officially" married. Our son was one year old too!
No biggie different generations, when we did get married my mother was over the moon!
I was her biggest disappointment.
My second to eldest sister got in a jam with our mother, it was actually so funny in the end I still smile even thinking of it.
Her BF came from a huge military family and he was drafted during the vietnam war.
My sister had already been a single women on her own paying  her own bills and having her own flat in Hollywood for almost 2 years time.
He was sent to a boot camp on the other side of the US and my sister was going with him.
Our mother made her promise that they would marry ASAP in the other state.
6 months went by, they were sent back to Cal to another military base.
My sister came to stay in my mom's house during the move.
Mom noticed she was ill in the mornings, pregnant and discovered that they had not yet gotten married.This was in the late 1960's.
Holy heck all heck broke out, big old fight, screaming my mom pulling my sisters hair, name calling the whole nightmare of emotions.
She made my sister call up her fiance and tell him it was Vegas time.
Mom called up our father, my step-dad gassed up the station wagon and we were all off for a quickie wedding in Vegas!!
I was 14 years old and thought it was so funny!
Mom insisted we all bring formal clothing to change into once we got to Vegas.
BIL had on love beads, sister in a micro-mini skirt headband, me in a Mexican vest, headband , jeans, boots all in our "Hippie" wear for the long 5 hour ride down old route 66 to Vegas. ( almost wrote route 666)
Plan was to check into a hotel, change into our formal wear and get them two kids "hitched" ASAP.
Our father drove in turn with our step-dad, full metal to the petal, like the baby would arrive before we got there.
Mom was so afraid my BIL would change his mind that we skipped the formal wear and went into the first justice of the peace we could find.
I was laughing my self to death, the minister was wearing a huge 10 gallon cowboy hat while my sister and bro in law were dressed as Hippies, it was just like the movie, Kill Bill but for real!
Our parents were so darn happy afterward that they all had cocktails and sprang for a celebration dinner. Mom was happy at last.
Didn't matter that they divorced less then 3 years later...

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Good grief, I say your parents were super liberal if compared to my mother.

.....Mom noticed she was ill in the mornings, pregnant and discovered that they had not yet gotten married.....This was in the late 1960's.
.....
Didn't matter that they divorced less then 3 years later...

Massive post there. 

Yes it seems my parents were pretty cool with many things. My Dad was quite the socialist but definitely not communist.  He is a product of the age  - born between the wars, depression era, soldier in WW2, his father severely injured in WW1 with bad government between.   

I didn't appreciate how cool they are. And they are still going as well.  Quiet easy going relative to other people's folks.  But they were very worldly - travelled all over - so had experiences outside the usual environment

Being pregnant out of wedlock is the norm now.  More babies are born out of wedlock than they are in these days - at least in Britain.

I would never believe in forcing anyone into marriage just because of being pregnant.  Why bother?!  If it's meant to be, they'll stay together anyway.   No point in getting out the shotgun.

I must say though, if Fluffyette1 came home in such a state, I would definitely be more than unhappy, more mainly because she didn't take precautions and I would have hoped she was sensible enough to know not to have relations without being suitably equipped with protection.    But she's at the wrong age to have those kinds of discussions - we've tried to introduce it.  Mrs Fluffy says it's too early for her to listen.

But anyway, I see that kind of information and education as a health issue than anything about morality.

I would be quite nervous about being dumped with a baby as a surrogate parent because of a kid's mistake.  I was kind of hoping not to have  to do the baby thing again.  Too old and too lazy now!

Yes, sorry for that long post, I hate to give only half a story because it can be hard to follow the where's.why's and who's.
I do tend to give too much info though.
My parents were born in 1921 and 24.
Mom was raised by her grandmother, mostly who was born during the reign of Queen Victoria, big influence in social customs even in the US.
Also being a native American married to a Brit, my grandmother probably felt more pressure to be "proper" then average.
She was born on a res. but moved to the "white world" after she married an Englishman.
She dumped all her formal ways onto my mom and auntie.
Not sure, don't quote me but the news in our family was that my father's dad, who was born in the US with immigrant parents was a communist. In fact he took a ship over to Ukraine, Poland, Russia around 1916-17 not sure the exact years but he took part in the Revolution or so m father said on the QT. Not a good thing to advertize back in the 50's and 60's in the US, Oh my grandfather is a card carrying commie!  Don't think that would of gone over well in the states. He met my grandmother in Poland, they married there and my dad and aunt were born in Poland.
My dad told tales of his dad riding horses with Cossacks running people down all sorts of wild stories, hard to believe but I know my grandfather was a force to be around all 5'6" of him,small and tougher then nails.
Grandpa later returned to the US and later sent for my dad, aunt and grandmother.
I read some old translated letters from my grandfather to his bro and seems they had words about politics etc.
My grandfather also used to send monthly articles to Pradva about life in the US. 
I honestly do not know if any of this is true but sort of think it is, otherwise why would my father talk about it and hardly ever have anything to do with his father. Seems he was afraid of his dad's views.
What a family...

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

father said on the QT. Not a good thing to advertize back in the 50's and 60's in the US....

What a family...

I think everyone has quite a family, if nothing else but based on the six degrees of separation. For example, I am personally only three degrees separated from Hitler.     Weird..... Very, very weird.

klsallee wrote:

..... For example, I am personally only three degrees separated from Hitler.     Weird..... Very, very weird.

Wow!  That's some claim to fame.

But the real question is how far away you are from Kevin Bacon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon

BTW, I like Kevin Bacon.   

And to be truly British you have to like bacon sandwiches - smoked, with mushrooms, in toast, preferably with HP sauce.  I don't know if that qualifies for a Bacon Number.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
What a family...

Jeez Marilyn, that could make a movie.  Artistic license encouraged.

Something to while away the long nights in Budapest while not enjoying yourself in Vegas.

Maybe Kevin Bacon could play your grandfather (just to tenuously link the threads).

I'm opening the casting call for your grandmother.   Meryl Streep?

Funny, my mother wanted to write a book about her life, i guess I could do a volume two.
As a hairdresser I got to talk to many people, believe me, I am a bore, some people have the most interesting lives, from the outside one would think they worked in a library but actually they lead fantastic lives.
Pilots,actors and everyday people.
I have heard we are related to the country singer, Slim Pickin's, my niece's grandfather on her dads side just passed away a couple months back, he was the founder of the Cal. group the Letterman!
Never knew that as he had a stage name, didn't go by his family surname, the female 80's band the Go-Go's went to his funeral because he wrote a few of their tunes!
Interesting stuff.
Hitler, hmmm, have to look into that one, there is a documentary on Netflix called, "Hitler's Children" that is also interesting stuff.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
Hitler, hmmm, have to look into that one, there is a documentary on Netflix called, "Hitler's Children" that is also interesting stuff.

Ye gods, you're not suggesting our dear fellow poster ksallee is a "Boy from Brazil"?

Boys from Brazil

I think this discussion is an exception to Godwin's law.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Ye gods, you're not suggesting our dear fellow poster ksallee is a "Boy from Brazil"?

Well, the fact I have that connection at 3 degrees despite the time difference (half of the theoretical maximum for contemporary persons) is very interesting, but the reason how is far, far more prosaic than that. As in everyone has to have someone deliver their mail at all the different addresses one has in their life. And the event occurred just once, in the early 1920's, before all the stuff hit the fan.

By the way, I am 4 degrees from Eisenhower. But no personal family connection there. Just knew someone who had a 3 degree family connection. Well as far as I know that is. My mother was a Captain in the US Army, so maybe I have even a shorter, family related degree of connection, but just do not know it.

fluffy2560 wrote:

But the real question is how far away you are from Kevin Bacon.

I have no idea. But if the theory holds, within 6 degrees. 

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

But the real question is how far away you are from Kevin Bacon.

I have no idea. But if the theory holds, within 6 degrees. 

Yes, of course. Nice one. But some people have numbers higher than 6 depending on who it is.  Someone in the Amazon rain forest is likely to be unconnected with anyone (worth mentioning).

Actually the Bacon number is a bit pointless.  If you read the Bacon wikipages on Bacon numbers it can indeed be as tenuous as postal deliveries.  And being interested can be quite postal.  Just to round that bit off.

Oh, just to get the Hungarian bit in, the Bacon number is paralleled with the  Erdős number (as no doubt many are aware).  In any case, it would be a Szalonna number, not Bacon number.

I have a German ancestor from Hamburg which probably could increase my chances (lower my degrees of freedom) to Adolf H.  I cannot see any possible relation to Kevin Bacon.  I guess someone has already linked Mr Bacon to Adolf H within 6 hops.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I have a German ancestor from Hamburg which probably could increase my chances (lower my degrees of freedom) to Adolf H.

Probably. My grandfather immigrated from Germany in the late 1920's (he is in my degree path of course). And many people I think who lived in Germany during that time knew someone who knew or at least met Hitler even if just in passing. So my degrees of connection, when one thinks about it, really is not all the special**.

** Do not tell my wife I said that. It would ruin years of careful cultivation on my part I have been working on in our relationship. I think I might just now have started to wear her down to when she does not roll her eyes when I tell her how very special I am in every way. 

klsallee wrote:

..... So my degrees of connection, when one thinks about it, really is not all the special**.

...... It would ruin years of careful cultivation on my part I have been working on in our relationship. I think I might just now have started to wear her down to when she does not roll her eyes when I tell her how very special I am in every way. 

Hmmm....far be it from me to give advice but.....

....well, first there's the maths about specialness.... there's that test of birthdays and there's something like a 50% chance in a minimum number of people (23 actually) that someone has the same birthday as someone else.  And there's that other one which is more important and that's compatibility. Amongst a random group of people (forgot the number but quite low) there's a good chance of meeting a compatible partner.  So actually, sadly, no, no-one is really that special.

....and then there's the charm bit.... I spend some of my time telling Mrs Fluffy how special SHE is.   Usually she laughs (yes, and rolls her eyes) as I work it into a joke or something but then again, she must like it at least a bit.....I hope.... unless she's humouring me by laughing......hmmm....yes, the double "cross"....now I wonder who is conning who on the charm offensive....

We are all "special" which actually means no one is all the special, just don't tell people in LA they are not special, ego city!
I will say though that most people are very interesting.
Our son spends allot of his time when he is in the company of his father, telling him how "special" he is, my husband knows he is buttering him up for a favor or two.

I have met a few people I think are a bit more "special" then most but what makes them special is the way they live their lives without knowing they are special.
I am not one of them.
Just everyday people one meets who have gone through some really difficult things and have not let it get them down.
I had a girlfriend in the 1980's, she was 7 years my senior so more like an older sister to me.
Her two boys used to play with my son in the apt. complex we lived in.
She had a serious case of polio as a child and was put in a iron lung for over a year, her spine was fused together and a rod placed down her spine to keep it as straight as possible.
I knew her for the longest time before I knew that, that is how hard she worked to walk and carry on.
I probably would never have known if she had not shown me her back when she had a swimsuit on.
We were fast friends for around 6 years.
The odds for a normal life were not easy for her but she married her HS sweetheart, they lived in the UK for years while he was in the US military, she had her two lovely if slightly wild boys and never let her physical pain stop her.
She opened up her own business with her mother, retail shop of children's clothing, was always like a mentor to me, very much a positive person.
Sadly she came down with breast cancer and died, never even told me how ill she was, always covered it up by saying the tube for breathing in her neck was a post polio thing and she would be alright.
I moved out of state, we talked on the phone often, she was there emotionally for me when my sis died.
I called her up just a couple months later and her husband told me she had died.
I think she was special, didn't ever want to burden people with her problems, was there all the time for a friend in need etc.
A rare and special person is truly never forgotten.
Wow, way too serious here, I like bacon sandwiches but must have it on rye.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

......
Our son spends allot of his time when he is in the company of his father, telling him how "special" he is, my husband knows he is buttering him up for a favor or two.

I shall keep an eye on the Fluffyettes for that behaviour.  I'm more into straight talking as it works better with me than dancing around the subject.   Mrs Fluffy is an expert in manipulating them (and me but perhaps she would deny any manipulation).   

I am always telling the kids that they need to say EXACTLY what they want and not to whinge and complain about whatever it is.  OK, they are kids and they are unable easily to articulate their needs.  In some ways, even at their ages (6 and 11) they are still babies. But the older one is at least getting a bit better.  But even so, we're patient so they can try to try and put into words or even draw a picture.   

Being a mind reader was never my strong point.

Best to tell kids right out how it is going to be.
The world plays enough head games with people I think.
We always told our son to tell us the truth because if he ever lied just once, we would never believe another word out of him.
Sometimes he now shares a bit too much info!
For some reason though he is always trying to BS his dad by telling him how great he is, how he can do things other people can't etc. How smart he is, we know he is lazy and just trying to get his dad to pick up the slack for him.

fluffy2560 wrote:

So actually, sadly, no, no-one is really that special.

But.... but.... my mother said I was a special snow flake! 

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

So actually, sadly, no, no-one is really that special.

But.... but.... my mother said I was a special snow flake! 

She might have been right....then.

Personally I feel like a muddy puddle on Monday mornings.

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fluffy2560 wrote:

Fidesz/Jobbik reminds me  of the US George Dubya's election.  Shock wasn't that half people voted for the other candidate, it's that half the people actively voted for George Dubya.

Or that over half voted for the Brexit? The US electorate is not the only "problem".

I personally am not shocked at all by these events.

A lot of people believe they were "left behind" by economic factors like globalization, and are responding accordingly. These same people are also correct that political systems have failed them. And there has been a lot of rhetoric and dis-information spread via web-2.0 outlets that let the most bizarre conspiracy theories have an equally loud megaphone that specifically target such people.

Let me give you one example I read recently. From:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/us/zi … itoes.html

“People here can survive what nature throws at them,” said Gilda Niles, 64, who arrived in Key West from Cuba in 1967 and moved to Key Haven in 1980, when it was just a plot of earth with cheaper land, water on three sides and more space. “Hurricanes, bring them on; long-timers here seldom evacuate. Mosquitoes, well, that’s the price of paradise. Zika, this too shall pass, like dengue. But science and government, I’m not so sure about.”

There is an almost non-stop assault on "science" and "government" by right leaning media in the US. So you can note that Gilda Niles completely is unaware of the fact that dengue fervor was dealt with by applying pesticides created via science and through a spray program organized via government agencies.

In short, critical thinking skills are basically in the toilet. And I have to say that those that know better --- i.e. the "Intellectuals" --- are usually the first to be lined up against a wall and shot in a revolution because they know too much and so question things. And questioning things is dangerous in the bifurcated extreme political world we live in.

Because I question everything, I am mostly a moderate. I have found the right and the left are usually wrong or ignore the facts when doing so is politically expedient. The facts often lie in the middle. So in the increasing polarized world both the extreme left and right scare me these days because neither is interested in facts (but to be honest, currently I find the right today is less interested in facts than the left).