Absolutely Anything Else

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
Waiting for a vision or ghost... Now that is down right scary.
2 village idiots in one family.
Hmm, hope not to read years from now that they found something unsavory buried under their house.

I don't think they are dangerous or idiots, just mentally ill and left on their own.  They look happy as they are always smiling if someone looks at them although who knows what's behind the facade.  One of them hangs about on a particular street corner most afternoons.  I think he's waiting for the dead mother to return from the bus stop.   The other one wanders around aimlessly talking to himself. 

I've heard that with a propensity to mental illness, isolation can lead to a kind of "infection" of mental illness from one person to another.  Possibly one became mentally ill, then the other went as well, and their mother had previously kept them both under control.  From what I heard, this kind of thing can manifest in people hoarding stuff - it's about not wanting to lose things and avoiding a sense of loss, i.e.   like the mother.  They are not homeless but where they live, no idea. But I can imagine a real dump piled up with old bits of everything.

They really need scrubbing up and a total makeover.  But without supervision, they'd definitely revert. They need to be supervised and to take their medication.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I really wanted to know what made you think you were weird as you said in the past posts?

When in doubt, I usually agree with dictionary definitions.

weird -  adjective

  -  suggestive of or relating to the supernatural; eerie
  -  strange or bizarre

I am at times a bit..... strange.... to others. And that is not just the pony tail, the van dyke, or the ear ring....

fluffy2560 wrote:

Weird is relative.

I guess eccentric is harmless, weird is possibly dangerous, interesting is interesting and quackers is daft.

How would you classify a woman walking down the street with purple hair, black mascara, and a nose ring that had a chain to her ear lobe? Many people would probably call that "weird". I would call it rather attractive. And if not married, might ask her out (Side note: my wife is the complete opposite of this type by the way -- opposites attract I guess    ) 

For myself, weird is not dangerous*. Weird people (especially women) were historically considered witches, thus the source of "supernatural" in the above definition. And historically, anything supernatural was considered "dangerous".

As I already said, it is stupid that I consider as dangerous.

* Well, not in the "traditional" sense of dangerous that is. But a weird woman can be so enticing and exotic and captivating that she makes you do stupid things.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I was discussing the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's paintings with Mrs Fluffy (there's an article on the BBC web site) and I said she's interesting and eccentric but Mrs Fluffy thinks she's weird.

IMHO, Frida was interesting, eccentric, and just plain weird. I like her art by the way.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Anyway, more importantly, why is anyone on this forum on this sunny day.  It's a day for being outside...surely?

Ain't sunny here. Overcast and cold.

Darn. You were right. There really is only two good months at the Balaton, because June is proving a washout this year.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
Waiting for a vision or ghost... Now that is down right scary.
2 village idiots in one family.
Hmm, hope not to read years from now that they found something unsavory buried under their house.

I don't think they are dangerous or idiots, just mentally ill and left on their own.  They look happy as they are always smiling if someone looks at them although who knows what's behind the facade.  One of them hangs about on a particular street corner most afternoons.  I think he's waiting for the dead mother to return from the bus stop.   The other one wanders around aimlessly talking to himself. 

I've heard that with a propensity to mental illness, isolation can lead to a kind of "infection" of mental illness from one person to another.  Possibly one became mentally ill, then the other went as well, and their mother had previously kept them both under control.  From what I heard, this kind of thing can manifest in people hoarding stuff - it's about not wanting to lose things and avoiding a sense of loss, i.e.   like the mother.  They are not homeless but where they live, no idea. But I can imagine a real dump piled up with old bits of everything.

They really need scrubbing up and a total makeover.  But without supervision, they'd definitely revert. They need to be supervised and to take their medication.

You must look up "ObsoleteOddity." On U tube.
The Grisly case of Bela Kiss
The other is: Hungarian Female Cross-Dressing killer of the 1920's Viktoria Fodi
On the funnier side, the detective that was trying to hunt down Bela Kiss was named Nagy.
Mr Big looking for Mr. Small.
Oh Frida Kahlo, now that "lady" had a stash on her, a uni-brow as well.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I really wanted to know what made you think you were weird as you said in the past posts?

When in doubt, I usually agree with dictionary definitions.

weird -  adjective

  -  suggestive of or relating to the supernatural; eerie
  -  strange or bizarre

I am at times a bit..... strange.... to others. And that is not just the pony tail, the van dyke, or the ear ring....

fluffy2560 wrote:

Weird is relative.

I guess eccentric is harmless, weird is possibly dangerous, interesting is interesting and quackers is daft.

How would you classify a woman walking down the street with purple hair, black mascara, and a nose ring that had a chain to her ear lobe? Many people would probably call that "weird". I would call it rather attractive. And if not married, might ask her out (Side note: my wife is the complete opposite of this type by the way -- opposites attract I guess    ) 

For myself, weird is not dangerous*. Weird people (especially women) where historically considered witches, thus the source of "supernatural" in the above definition. And historically, anything supernatural was considered "dangerous".

As I already said, it is stupid that is is dangerous.

* Well, not in the "traditional" sense of dangerous that is. But a weird woman can be so enticing and exotic and captivating that she makes you do stupid things.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I was discussing the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's paintings with Mrs Fluffy (there's an article on the BBC web site) and I said she's interesting and eccentric but Mrs Fluffy thinks she's weird.

IMHO, Frida was interesting, eccentric, and just plain weird. I like her art by the way.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Anyway, more importantly, why is anyone on this forum on this sunny day.  It's a day for being outside...surely?

Ain't sunny here. Overcast and cold.

Darn. You were right. There really is only two good months at the Balaton, because June is proving a washout this year.

I like Frida's art as well.  I think it's intriguing and similar to the purple hair woman, I want to know more about her, her thinking and insight.   Maybe that's eccentric as appearing slightly "nuts" is a very attractive quality to me.  What's nuts anyway?  My ex- is an artist and she's nuts but not in an attractive way.  Insult to nuts.

Interesting you mention opposite attractions, Mrs Fluffy is not eccentric at all (relatively) but has an acute sense of the absurd which is a very nice thing.   

Fluffyette1 is exploring eccentricity and I'm rather OK with the kinds of expressions of individuality currently.  I obviously don't really want her to have tattoos or take drugs as that would be permanent and dangerous.   She's taken to drawing shapes on her arms and hands using marker pens, wearing black nail polish and getting her hair dyed.  But still mostly a kid at nearly 13.  Mrs Fluffy and I don't really say anything about it  and let her get on with it.  I expect when she's 18, she'll come back with a tattoo or a tattoo'd partner.  Oh, well, c'est la vie.

It's baking here.  27 C inside and brilliantly sunny.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

You must look up "ObsoleteOddity." On U tube.
The Grisly case of Bela Kiss
The other is: Hungarian Female Cross-Dressing killer of the 1920's Viktoria Fodi
On the funnier side, the detective that was trying to hunt down Bela Kiss was named Nagy.
Mr Big looking for Mr. Small.

Now that Bela Kiss stuff is just creepy.  If it had been 2018, they'd have caught Mr Kiss in 5 minutes.

Viktoria Foti I cannot find anything about - popular name it seems.

UK has its own share of serial killers, the worst one in a position of trust was Harold Shipman. Up to 250 victims.

fluffy2560 wrote:

What's nuts anyway?

Almonds. Walnuts. Etc.

Answer not quite what is expected? Shrugs..... I told you I am weird.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I obviously don't really want her to have tattoos

My parents had a heart attack when I got my ear pierced. As if they thought I was becoming one with Satan*. But an ear piercing can heal over. A tattoo is far more long term and more problematic. The dye from tattoos are actually quite a problem:

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and … tattoo-ink

But telling a 13 year old that is waste of time. As Mark Twain wrote:

"When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. When I became 21, I was astonished how much he had learned in seven years".


* Side note: I got my ear pierced when I was 25. And my parents still acted like that. Parents too can be "weird". 

klsallee wrote:

But telling a 13 year old that is waste of time. As Mark Twain wrote:

"When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. When I became 21, I was astonished how much he had learned in seven years".


* Side note: I got my ear pierced when I was 25. And my parents still acted like that. Parents too can be "weird". 

Ah, Mark Twain, yes indeed.  Try explaining that to a 13 year old.  I just saw she had a water based "tattoo" on her arm. It was of a Minion.  I think I can classify that as harmless "play".

When I got my pony tail my mother made numerous comments.  I was about 48 with 4 kids and she was about 80.

I still get these comments from her even now.  I'm going to see her soon and she'll no doubt tell me to smarten myself up.   I would have thought she'd realise by now I'm actually incapable of doing that. I am not even sure what she wants - me like a G-man or an IBMer, short hair, polished shoes and in a grey suit.  I think my head would implode if I had to wear a suit these days or they'd have to take me away in a van.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

What's nuts anyway?

Almonds. Walnuts. Etc.

Answer not quite what is expected? Shrugs..... I told you I am weird.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I obviously don't really want her to have tattoos

My parents had a heart attack when I got my ear pierced. As if they thought I was becoming one with Satan*. But an ear piercing can heal over. A tattoo is far more long term and more problematic. The dye from tattoos are actually quite a problem:

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and … tattoo-ink

But telling a 13 year old that is waste of time. As Mark Twain wrote:

"When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. When I became 21, I was astonished how much he had learned in seven years".


* Side note: I got my ear pierced when I was 25. And my parents still acted like that. Parents too can be "weird". 

Same here, had to be "out from under mom's roof" to get a ear piercing.
Was high on Loods and got one ear pierced like a pirate at 17 as a run away.
( Silly since I knew mom was only a phone call away)
No tats ever, she would of had to burn us at the stake for witchcraft if we ever went that far.
My bro who is 14 year my jr. visited us during one of his between marriage times with his hard core LA Mexican girlfriend in Vegas.
We came over from HU to see our son and my bro and his lady drove from Ca. for a few days over.
What a trip those 2 were together.
He has gotten himself together a bit now with his marriage to a school teacher who is a few years his senior ( mommie figure I guess)
Thankfully so.
He has tats all over himself, my husband just came out of the hospital with a heart scare on that trip over and my bro was talking to him and using a Sharpie pen to draw on a tat onto my husbands upper arm.
It was rather sweet in a strange way... Good thing it washed off in a few days time.
We almost got 86 d out of the Las Vegas Hard Rock because of my baby bro... Now that's takes some doing... Guess the fact that he was super loud and drinking hard with his pants going past his waist by accident and him going commando was part of the reason.
The security man was saw this happening actually covered himself by looking away really fast like he never saw that coming...We were on our way out, so the guy thought it better to "look away".
My bro made me laugh like a lone, skinny old me with big old wild him just was the oddest combo. He kept picking me up and carrying me around by one arm... Not someone I would chose to hang with if not related to.
That was his second visit with the same lady to Vegas when we were in town.
First time was more wild then that.
He thankfully had checked into a hotel room and didn't stay with us like the next visit.
He brought in his huge amps for his guitar and plugged himself in at 3 am or so and let it blast.
His lady had a fight in our apt. , it was Easter Day, she stormed out and was ready to drive back to Ca. without him. I had to calm her down and get him into the car, otherwise we'd be stuck with him and have to take him home to Ca on our own.
We all went out to hear some music after a few shots of old Hungarian palinka.
I am a super light weight drinker and was ready to go down once we arrived to the music event.
They took me home to sleep and everyone went back to hear the music.
Seems my bro almost had a huge fight again with his lady, he asked a sexy black lady to dance and is lady  had a fit on him. First my husband had to hold my bro 's huge long bowie knife before he went to the dance floor. Like who walks around with one of those tucked in their pants?
Here was my little old hubby standing with these wild people holding a bowie knife in his hands like it was normal and all.
We at another time drove from Vegas to S. Ca on Thanksgiving to spend a few days with my 2 younger sibs and my bro's then teenage son in Ca.
What a trip, my bro was super sweet to us as usual but good grief, Would hate to of been his neighbor.
2 am music blasting time, he had a thing with the neighbor of just banking on the walls.
His bathroom was so bachelor  pad style that I couldn't even see my face in the mirror. It was so dark and black in the bath. Everything was skulls with melted candles and black Harley Davidson items.
Never knew they made black shower curtains and towels.
It's a wonder I didn't slit my throat while trying to shave my legs, couldn't see a thing in there.
So happy now that he is married to a little old school marm and has settled down a tiny bit.
He had been living for months before all of this in Honolulu with my husband after his divorce.Just as insane over there, we wanted to help him find work and sent funds to his ex and his son, instead he brought over some super sexy blond women he knew and all my husbands single HU friends in Hawaii were going ga-ga over her. My baby-bro the lunatic wild man.
After that he married his second wife who was in the music industry as a host for a record studio in LA. Older women who we found out later had long time family connections to the Mexican mob.
My bro did 6 months in prison for throwing his ex BFF through a window when my bro came home early from work and found his wife,"entertaining" the guy.
Everyone wanted to get close to her because of her music connections. ..
Crazy bro, that's what happens when your father passes away when your in grade school, no one around to set you on the right track.
He finally got out of the slammer to find she had sold all of his musical equipment, sold their new BMW and their house. She used all the money for a new body...
sad thing is we met her once in Vegas and she was charming as all heck, seemed like such a funny wild cool lady. Just don't get on her bad side.

I had one of my ears pierced when I was 16, my Mum did not talk to me for a week, I thought I am on to a good thing here, so went and had the other ear pierced. My dismay it didn't work. I had a yelling at and she began to start talking to me again.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Sorry about your near drowning. ( heard the lungs hurt badly)

Since I smoke tobacco as if it has just come off the ration, my lungs are hardened to almost anything beyond liquid plutonium, they already suffer enough that they have got used to it so a minor bit of water ingress probably gave them a decent clean.

I think it is very good of God to keep all this human plumbing stuff on the inside where you can't see it and don't have to worry about it.

Although technically your stomach and in fact the whole of your intestinal tract etc is on the outside of the body, if you consider yourself as an enormous Polo mint/Lifesaver candy that from mouth to anus is one great big hole through you and the stomach lining nd all that tubing is on the outside of that toroidal wall.

God  must be a woman because only a woman would say "Tell you what, we'll get the most sensitive parts of a man's body, and STICK THEM ON THE OUTSIDE"

I did what I was told, to treat my body as a temple. Unfortunately I modelled mine after an English parish church so bits of it keep falling apart, nobody ever wants to see it or enter it, and it makes very weird noises on a Sunday morning.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Anyway, more importantly, why is anyone on this forum on this sunny day.  It's a day for being outside...surely?

Rather cloudy here in the XV, not seen the sun all morning. I know you live in the posher part of town and can afford better weather.

SimonTrew wrote:

Since I smoke tobacco as if it has just come off the ration, my lungs are hardened to almost anything beyond liquid plutonium, they already suffer enough that they have got used to it so a minor bit of water ingress probably gave them a decent clean.

Go and see the Body Exhibition and then you'll see what your smokers lungs look like on the inside.  We were there a week ago.  Quite interesting.

SimonTrew wrote:

Although technically your stomach and in fact the whole of your intestinal tract etc is on the outside of the body, if you consider yourself as an enormous Polo mint/Lifesaver candy that from mouth to anus is one great big hole through you and the stomach lining nd all that tubing is on the outside of that toroidal wall. .

Read this book: Gut

Surprisingly entertaining!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

sad thing is we met her once in Vegas and she was charming as all heck, seemed like such a funny wild cool lady. Just don't get on her bad side.

I thought the old saw was "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". It seems not to be true in your case, it spills out to South California, Europe and the whole webosphere

My missus, who has never been to America, wanted this weekend some recipe called for Graham crackers. The British English I think is cream crackers I am not sure that is an exact translation. Or it may have been Graham wafers I dunno. I learned Spanish from a Texan so you can imagine how much use that is to me in Spain i.e. not very. It is quite good sometimes when I am struggling with Hungarian that they ask do you speak English? I tend to reply (in Hungarian) well, I am English. You know the way how people then overenunciate and talk to you a bit more lassan and stuff, it is quite amusing.

Last night I was trying to pull out of a Hungarian what "7 Days" croissants were called in Hungarian. The girl behind the till says seven days is hét nap. I bloody know that, but how do you translate 7 Days, is it "szévén" or "hét" and it says Days on the packet not "Nap". I still do not know what Hungarians would call the things. I thought presumptious to pronounce croissant in the French way, that would be adding salt to the fire

Now I am wondering if the Islamic sibling of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, would be in French Le Croissant Rouge. Sounds like a little bistro, shall we go out this evening to Le Croissant Rouge?

(I checked) It is the Croissant-Rouge in French. That still sounds to me like a little bistro, but then I live  on the only street in Budapest that is named for a Swedish charity, that even Hungarians can't pronounce properly. (Swedish "ä" is not part of the Hungarian alphabet).

fluffy2560 wrote:

Go and see the Body Exhibition and then you'll see what your smokers lungs look like on the inside.

No need. They have big pictures on the packets.

I know how to say roken is dodelik in dutch, fumer tue in French, and that smoking is harmful in most European languages. Rauchen gefardhat das gesundheit.

But I do think that every now and again they should have "non-smokers die every day" (Bill Hicks I think) or "smokers are less likely to die of carbon monoxide poisoning", just about one in ten the warnings might be a bit cheerful. "Smokers get cheaper life assurance", "Duty on cigarettes brings more money to the Exchequer than is paid out for cancer treatment" that kind of thing, just once in a blue moon.

Smokers are a net benefit to society because we pay a lot of tax, we die seven years younger on average than non-smokers so that saves a lot of state pensions etc, smoking is damned good for the economy. It's disgusting and so on, we all know that. What it is not is a drain on society. Give me every health argument against smoking I will agree with you, but don't give me an economic one.

I like the way they put "Cigarettes contain 47 harmful drugs". Sheesh, I was just after the nicotine, can you keep the other 46? No wonder they are so expensive you keep packing 46 more drugs into them than I wanted.

My nascent campaign to extend warnings to other products seems only to have a founder member and 0 votes. They should put the warnings on everything, "Cornflakes are full of sugar", on water bottles "if inhaled into lungs may cause drowning", that kind of thing. "Warning: Potato when placed in oven may get hot".

(Singing) It's illegal it's immoral or it makes you fat The Beverley Sisters

It's hard to break a  long time habit.
Smoking is very serious and hard to break the habit.
7 years shorter life, well maybe, maybe not but not fun to have health issues related to smoking or have to lug around a oxygen tank.
In Vegas it would blow our minds to see people in wheelchairs with a oxygen tank strapped on them and lighting up a cig.
I had to quit my casino job because of second hand smoke. I had a bad case of bronchitis from all the smoke inside the casino.
Went to the doctors for a bad cough and he told me to quit smoking, said I wasn't a smoker but worked in a casino.
I probably should of taken it to workers comp. and got paid to quit but I wasn't in the mood for a years long hassle and all the paperwork etc.
Worked with a women who got medical payments for her asthma from her dealing job.
Took her years and many doctor visits to prove her case.
So smoking can cost other people as well as the smoker themselves in the long run.
Not judging anyone just stating the was it is.
I still often cough when I get a whiff of smoke from the st. or pass a groip of smokers. Not sure if bronchitis ever really clears up.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

It's hard to break a  long time habit.hiff of smoke from the st. or pass a groip of smokers. Not sure if bronchitis ever really clears up.

It is a habit I do not want to break. Smoking cigarettes is legal, and enjoyable. I never smoke around children or others. I am from the generation where everybody smoked, and I am the last of the dying breed that persists on smoking against all evidence, it is my little rebellion against the world.

I don't smoke in bed and I don't sleep in ashtrays.

On the dartboards target signs in the dohanybolt you know the red white and green dartboards they have outside, with enormous "18" in black. Why can"t they make it a proper dartboard, 20 1 18 4, the 18 should be at north-north-east not slapped in the middle.

I am trying to work out how to upload a picture here. Don't know how to do that yet.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

It's hard to break a  long time habit.
Smoking is very serious and hard to break the habit.

My dad was a smoker, and when my mum was expecting with her first (my sister). She turned to him you either quit smoking or get out of the house and move back with your parents. He quit!

When I first lived in Texas I went into the shop and asked for twenty Winstons. The guy went round the back and gave me two cartons, i.e twenty packets. In British English, twenty cigarettes means one pack - for some bizarre reason we count them individually. I thought he was just stocking up and wondered what he would do with the other nineteen packets. Apparently he thought I wanted them.

Divided by a common language, as Wilde said. But then he was Irish, so what would he know about it.

Smoking is a big subject in Austria at the moment. It was set to be banned in bars and restaurants in April this year. But the NEW government scrapped it.

I do think its a choice and should be up to the owner.

But depending on the size of the place, there are already Non-smoking areas in them which I think works well. Anyway, Austria has pretty good weather in late spring going into summer and a lot smoke outside if there is seating available.

SimonTrew wrote:

When I first lived in Texas I went into the shop and asked for twenty Winstons. The guy went round the back and gave me two cartons, i.e twenty packets. In British English, twenty cigarettes means one pack - for some bizarre reason we count them individually. I thought he was just stocking up and wondered what he would do with the other nineteen packets. Apparently he thought I wanted them.

Divided by a common language, as Wilde said. But then he was Irish, so what would he know about it.

There is a non-stop tobacconists on the corner a bit of a walk away, the youngish guy in there is learning English, lovely fellow, so I teach him really bad English that you don't get taught in school. I don"'t mean swear words, he knows all them, but we call a ready rolled cigarette a tailor-made, and you won'"t learn that in school will you.

I have hidden shallows.

A few casinos in Vegas have non smoking rooms with glass doors to try and keep the room smoke free, good idea but sometimes the better paying machines are in the smoking room plus the cocktails waitresses move allot faster in the smoking sections.
Guess they figure smoking and drinking go together, more tips for them.
I quit my very light smoking habit at 20 when I found out I'd be a mom.
Never really smoked again, no time for it and no free hands with a baby around.
Again, I often upset my husband when once every couple of years I bum a cig off a friend just for old times sake.
Husband just says it isn't "lady like" to have a cig in ones mouth.
Not sure why everyone takes me for a prude.
Guess trying to have manners makes one come off as a bit prudish?
I remember once at my first dealer job in Vegas.
Some nut job come to my full table and sat down.
He was mumbling and talking to himself the second he sat down.
The other players seemed a bit put off with him.
As I went around the table collecting bad bets he kept mumbling and getting upset that he wasn't winning, well no one was.
I came around on the next hand and while picking up his bet he grabbed my wrist.'A huge no-no personally with me and also with the casino, hands off the dealers.
I just didn't think twice as I pulled my wrist back and screamed so loud at him and used the F word that all the games in my area of the pit stopped and everyone turned to look at me, another no-no for dealers to look away from a live game.
All my co-workers smiled at me and later when we got off the games they said they couldn't believe it was me screamed and yelling in a foul manner, they said they thought I was a ,"priss"... Well I suppose I did a good job fooling them all because I don't think I have ever been prissy.
Guess my public persona is different then how I see myself.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Guess my public persona is different then how I see myself.

That is what mirrors are for sweetheart

"And if thou gazeth too long into the abyss, the abyss shall also gazeth into thee". Nietzsche I think.

Mind you, old Narcissus gazed too long into a pond and look what happened to him. Gets remembered for people who think too much of themselves, narcissists, and Hugarian daffodils.

There is a good history of people dying in ponds, I should write a book of it really, history of people you kinda know who ended up in ponds. William Schwenck Gilbert, he of the Gilbert and Sullivan, died in a pond trying to rescue a little girl. What is left of him, except a few Savoy operas and a bloody good middle name, you cannot beat Shwenck as a middle name if you ask me.

x oh that was a typo that x but I blow you a kiss you deserve one.

I probably should not be so serious here but Marilyn, there is nothing wrong with self respect. Your goodness and kindness shines out of you, and it makes my day to read your anecdotage.

SimonTrew wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Guess my public persona is different then how I see myself.

That is what mirrors are for sweetheart

A mirror only shows the surface. And is extremely shallow (i.e. tells nothing of the "person"). And, actually, is still relative.

The old saying goes, when you walk into a room, three people are there:

1) the persona you project
2) the person others see
3) who you really are

SimCityAT wrote:

I do think its a choice and should be up to the owner.

And the employees? They have zero say or input, even though they are affected? Maybe they can get no other job. Are they then required to breath in second hand smoke and suffer the health consequences in the future just because the boss wants to allow smoking? Or maybe they should just starve today without having a job? Or go on the public payout?

In other words, why do others have to suffer because some selfish people like to smoke in public? Want to smoke? Smoke at home.

By the way. I enjoy a good cigar. At home. I will not inflict my selfish vice on others.

SimCityAT wrote:

But depending on the size of the place, there are already Non-smoking areas in them which I think works well.

Went to a restaurant recently, where every single outdoor seat was for smokers. Not a single place without an ashtray. I wanted to sit outside. And not get second hand smoke during my meal. But I could not. So, no, it does not always "work well".

klsallee wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

I do think its a choice and should be up to the owner.

And the employees? They have zero say or input, even though they are affected? Maybe they can get no other job. Are they then required to breath in second hand smoke and suffer the health consequences in the future just because the boss wants to allow smoking? Or maybe they should just starve today without having a job? Or go on the public payout?

In other words, why do others have to suffer because some selfish people like to smoke in public? Want to smoke? Smoke at home.

By the way. I enjoy a good cigar. At home. I will not inflict my selfish vice on others.

SimCityAT wrote:

But depending on the size of the place, there are already Non-smoking areas in them which I think works well.

Went to a restaurant recently, where every single outdoor seat was for smokers. Not a single place without an ashtray. I wanted to sit outside. And not get second hand smoke during my meal. But I could not. So, no, it does not always "work well".

As a smoker, I totally agree with you. Nuisance as it is for me to have to go outside for a cigarette, nobody wants to have smoke drifting over them when they are eating. It is far nicer that smoking was banned in restaurants.

It of course shifts the problem as you suggest, you then put all the smokers outside in a huddle and you still have to get past it. On that kind of thing I tend to get a bit dogmatic, since I paid Orban some money to be allowed to smoke the things, I should be allowed to smoke the things.

I know there is a habit that is quite expensive, injurious to your health, makes you ugly sticking it in your gob , makes your breath smell, and those who do it tend to drop their detritus all over the street.

I am of course talking about chewing gum. Disgusting habit, ban that instead.

klsallee wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

I do think its a choice and should be up to the owner.

And the employees? They have zero say or input.

Indeed they do not. Smoking in the workplace is banned under European law. The whole justification for the Europeanwide smoking ban (Ireland was first) was that it affected barstaff etc with second hand smoke. So now they do not have to suffer it, because the whole pub or restaurant is a workplace and nobody is allowed to smoke in it.

Passive smoking if you are a nonsmoker such as my missus, to live with an habitual smoker such as me, the odds are increased by one part in three thousand that you might get cancer in any given year, that is the odds over you just might get cancer if you are a nonsmoker, i.e. it is the extra risk not just the basic risk. Those are the published figures if you bother to look them up.

There is no doubt that smoking is unpleasant, but my smoke is very unlikely to kill you. You are far more likely to be killed by your sofa.

Even with smoking, I injest far more dirty filthy crap from the back of drivers' exhausts than I do by sticking a coffin stuck in my gobbin. Yet it is perfectly fine for drivers to be selfish, smokers are the newest people to pick on. 30% of adults in Hungary smoke.

So leave smokers alone and ban the internal combustion engine. It causes far more trouble than my dirty habit.

The words "nut" and "sledgehammer" spring to mind.

I don't drive a car, I walk everywhere or get the bus. There seem to be a lot of people who are addicted to motor vehicles, so much so that I have to ingest their second hand smoke from the back end of their exhausts every time I walk. Full of particulates and carcinogenic chemicals, and I do not have the choice of walking on car-free streets. They are noisy and ugly, yet people who drive cars seem to think they are more important than people who don't.

When you ban the internal combustion engine, I shall give up smoking.

klsallee wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Guess my public persona is different then how I see myself.

That is what mirrors are for sweetheart

A mirror only shows the surface. And is extremely shallow (i.e. tells nothing of the "person"). And, actually, is still relative.

The old saying goes, when you walk into a room, three people are there:

1) the persona you project
2) the person others see
3) who you really are

Honestly if I only judged by my reflection then, like my friend said about one of my swimsuit photos," Not bad for a old lady"! I hardly know of anyone who is actually themselves at all times.
People often build image of themselves in their minds and try to live up to their own fantasy.
At least that's my 2 cents, not worth all that much...
My biggest problem is I no longer care one way or the other about how anyone "sees" me.
There is allot of freedom in aging, don't give a darn about too many things.
Gets harder and harder to believe what most people try to project to others about themselves, been there, seen or done that and not impressed very often.
Sort of like one has a 6th sense about many things and not too many are worth the time to investigate too deeply.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I don't think they are dangerous or idiots, just mentally ill and left on their own (....) 
They really need scrubbing up and a total makeover.  But without supervision, they'd definitely revert. They need to be supervised and to take their medication.

I had the pleasure, and that is not being sarcastic or euphemstic, to know in my small village there two outhouses kinda remedial care safehouses, I do not know what technically they are called. Vic and Chas and Michelle were a bit more capable, some were really screwed up, but everyone in the village knew them well and kinda kept an eye out for them, in the best possible way I am not being sarcastic. The rest of the village would look after them when they forgot their keys or were not sure which way to go etc, genuinely it was a pleasure to know them. You are right, they need supervision cos of course there is a whole stretch of mental illnesses. "Care in the Community" was a con to save money, but it does work in small villages where everyone kn ows each other and takes care of each other. One of the lasses, they used to go to the pub on Friday night and she was a magpie, I put down my pack of benson and hedges and it would disappear because of the gold colour, she could hardly speak just any trinket she would hoard. She wasn't born loopy, her parents locked her up in a cupboard for twenty years, that would send anyone loopy.

Care in the community works when you nhave a small close knit community, Paul and Dave who ran the two lodgings were on first name terms with everyone, and they had a garden and such and such. Vic and Chris worked at Tesco pushing trollleys, Tesco was five miles from the village and they would walk each morning to work and back after their shift. It sounds patronising written, I know, but mentally ill people are not stupid or incapable. They are just a bit different.

Vic was amazing he liked to tune in to the police radio, that was his kinda hobby. Someone would say there has been an accident on the A14 and he would say I know it was between Wilbraham and the Coton turn or whatever. I saw he and Chris walking, a bit out of their way, once on a five mile stretch to where I lived, single country roads, not sure quite what they're doing there have they got lost. Hey Vic, Hey Chris, do you want a lift?  We are walking to Cambridge. Okay do you want a lift or do you want to walk? Well I have a lift if that is OK, sure it's fine Vic. Where are you going (somewhere in Cambridge) oh OK I give you a lift to the corner and you can walk the rest, is that OK? Yes Simon that's fine.

Along the way, Oh there was an accident here last week,  as I went over a bridge, oh there was an accident here two weeks ago, I am amazed my car got in there in one piece, Vic was always on the scene and I think Vic, do you cause the accidents? Don't think that, eyes on the road, hands at ten to two, just keep driving....

One of the older lasses, every friday night the whole of them would come down the pub, Friday night out. Every week for seven years she would ask me what's your name. I am Simon, pleased to meet you, what is your name? She would look a look and put her finger on her nose, no this is a big secret what her name is. Of course I knew her name. She would ask everyone what is your name.

There but for the grace of God go I. I am lucky, I am sane and fit and healthy, have a roof over my head albeit it leaks a bit, have internet and am white and blonde and astonishingly good looking. I got sponsored to go to university and the government paid me to go in those days. I fully expect one day soon I shall be under a bridge begging for money, because my luck cannot last this long.

There but for the grace of God go I. Or you. It could happen to you.

SimonTrew wrote:

.......Care in the Community" was a con to save money, but it does work in small villages where everyone kn ows each other and takes care of each other. .....

Care in the Community assumed far too much about the altruistic nature of individuals.  It's like Communism. People will sacrifice themselves for the greater good.  Oh, yes, my eye.  No-one is going to do that unless they are "safe" themselves.   And these days, what Community? 

People in the burbs don't even know their neighbours, let alone the nearest disabled or mentally ill person.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.......Care in the Community" was a con to save money, but it does work in small villages where everyone kn ows each other and takes care of each other. .....

Care in the Community assumed far too much about the altruistic nature of individuals.  It's like Communism. People will sacrifice themselves for the greater good.  Oh, yes, my eye.  No-one is going to do that unless they are "safe" themselves.   And these days, what Community? 

People in the burbs don't even know their neighbours, let alone the nearest disabled or mentally ill person.

Many of the homeless do have a few mental issues.
Used to be they had a home and 3 square meals a day in a hospital setting.
Of course who knows what sort of things happen behind closed doors.
Sorry, that Jimmy Savile thing in the UK was rather a shocking. .. Vile actually, no pun intended.
Taking advantage of sick children in hospital has to be one of the lowest things ever.

My husband read that it is soon or will be soon actually "Illegal" to be homeless in Hungary.
The homeless will be forced to go to a shelter , no longer allowed to be laying about on benches etc.
There is a fine line between them being a eye sore and on infringing on their personal freedom.
Down the st. a ways a group of homeless have set up shop under a overpass. mattresses and chairs and tables even a baby stroller always out in the open. They just have to walk over a few feet to cars waiting at the light to ask for money.
Sort of a ugly thing to have to see all the time but then again,who knows.

I'm fine, would hate to be homeless, can't even imagine what they go through but then again most have mental issues and may not even be aware of how bad their lifestyle looks to the rest of us.
In Hawaii it was illegal to camp out on the beaches but many people live here and there in the open jungle, a blue tarp to keep the rain off of them.

A decade or so ago my half sister who we all believe has a few lose screws, was homeless by choice.
I was here in HU and my bro was sworn to keep her secret from the rest of the fam.
She had a new car and was making payments on it, had 2 large storage units with her furniture stored away,a cell phone and a full time job in a grocery store.
She met a drunk /homeless guy at her job when she saw his lifting some booze.
Great way to met the man of your dreams...Yes, she is "weird".
She was married to a red neck sort of guy who had his then teenage son living with them.
She had enough of her marriage at that time and left to take care of the homeless guy.
They lived in her car for 5 years!
Went to different churches daily to shower and her job never knew she was sleeping in parking lots around town.
This was in S. Ca where rents for a grocery worker will not cover the rents.
Her lazy boozer guy would drop her off at work , take her car and buy cig and booze with money she gave him and hang in the park all day long with his buddies while she worked.
Now to me that's very mental on her part.
After 5 years her husband flew from the mid west where he had moved with his son and "collected" my sister and her 2 storage units of junk and end of story.
For awhile though after she left town her old boozer love would knock on my brothers door for a few bucks, my bro finally told him one more shower and here's $40 and never knock again.
At the time my bro was raising his own teen age son and didn't want some homeless drunk bumming money and food off of them all the time.
My husband and I visited the uS towards the end of my sisters 5 years with the homeless community.
I finally found out what was going on and we drove to Ca. to see what we could do for her.
She refused at that time to leave the bum. We all stayed at my bro place for a 3 day holiday and we talked and talked until we were blue in the face with my sister.
The homeless guy popped over while we were there and he rightly so was afraid of me. I told him off and then calmed down because it was Thanksgiving.
Then as soon as I almost wasn't about to murder him, he ran off with the last of the beers from the fridge .
What nerve.
When my little half sis was about 3 years old mom took her for a mental exam, something was just "different" with her. Mom was in her mid 40's when she was born and she thought maybe something happened while she was pregnant with my sister.
Doc said she was ok, but mother's always know their kids. She always said she wasn't as "sharp" as the rest of her 5 kids and that we all should keep an eye on her.
Felt a bit guilty that she was homeless but dang, can't take care of a grown women and have my own life too.
How can strangers help out if family can't even do it.
She had even lived with our eldest sister when she was 18 for about 6 months, she had to be sent home because my eldest sister and her husband had enough.
We tired hard to help her before she was homeless but there is just so much one can do without going mental themselves.
Now she seems OK.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.......Care in the Community" was a con to save money, but it does work in small villages where everyone kn ows each other and takes care of each other. .....

Care in the Community assumed far too much about the altruistic nature of individuals.  It's like Communism. People will sacrifice themselves for the greater good.  Oh, yes, my eye.  No-one is going to do that unless they are "safe" themselves.   And these days, what Community? 

People in the burbs don't even know their neighbours, let alone the nearest disabled or mentally ill person.

I think you are right. In a small village where everyone knows everyone, and has a bit of money etc, people can afford to be altruistic, if that is not a contradiction in terms.

I do not want some kind of award, but I looked after my next door neighbour in her eighties, doing little jobs and stuff and we would have a chat and a drink on a Sunday night, she had roast Sunday dinner with us every week, she was very independent and so on but she enjoyed the company. I know that sounds patronising written but I enjoyed her company too, it was kinda a ritual Sunday Bren comes round for lunch, I think it is ok to name names cos they are dead, Mandy her daughter would come to see her from Brum about once a month with her "friend" A. (Mandy died of breast cancer, after she had been given the all-clear, and I took her Mum to her daughter's funeral).

Her "friend" A. she had known since childhood and I am not sure if they were lesbians or not, her mother would not really have the concept of maybe A. is more than just a "friend" and I really don't know, but she never had a boyfriend, so I suspect they were lesbian lovers but don't tell Mum, so of course I never asked.

I give to the Royal British Legion and Salvation Army, not much but those are my ones. Give to what you care about, those are my two. I should give blood I suppose because I seem to have the stuff spilling out of me every time I get a Stanley knife so it would be better in someone else's body than my having to mop it up.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.......Care in the Community" was a con to save money, but it does work in small villages where everyone kn ows each other and takes care of each other. .....

Care in the Community assumed far too much about the altruistic nature of individuals.  It's like Communism. People will sacrifice themselves for the greater good.  Oh, yes, my eye.  No-one is going to do that unless they are "safe" themselves.   And these days, what Community? 

People in the burbs don't even know their neighbours, let alone the nearest disabled or mentally ill person.

The most ironic thing is that "Care in The Community" was designed by the very same woman who said "There is no such thing as society. There are individuals, and there are families. There is no such thing as society".

Orban Viktor seems to have learned a lot of lessons from old Mrs Thatcher.

fluffy2560 wrote:

People in the burbs don't even know their neighbours, let alone the nearest disabled or mentally ill person.

I live in the 'burbs, in the XV, and I know all my neighbours.  That, I think, is your personal choice if you don't bother to get to  know yours.

It would not surprise me in the least that Vic will legislate that homeless people are somehow illegal. Then what are you going to do with them? Stick them in a Panelház? Build some new homes? Export them all to Romania? What are you now going to do with all these homeless people.

Perhaps I am too nice but when  I see an old man or woman sleeping on a bench (I am rather nocturnal) I just put a couple of cigarettes and maybe a thousand forint note in his or hers pocket where they might get a nice surprise when they wake up.

I have taken in the homeless and got them homed, I have done that. I am very lucky, I have spare rooms, I do not want to make out that I am holier than thou but the bind that many homeless are in is that you can't get a job without an address, and you can't get an address without a job. It is quite easy to break that vicious circle, come and stay for a few days with me, it is not a palace or a poorhouse, but then you can get your address, then you can get your job.

It doesn't always work, one homeless in UK was a crack addict and stole a lot of my property to pay for his habit. I had to chuck him out in the end. But that was my only failure my record so far is 5 out of 6 back homed and in work.

There are still another million or so to deal with but at least I made a start.

SimonTrew wrote:

Passive smoking if you are a nonsmoker such as my missus, to live with an habitual smoker such as me, the odds are increased by one part in three thousand that you might get cancer in any given year, that is the odds over you just might get cancer if you are a nonsmoker, i.e. it is the extra risk not just the basic risk. Those are the published figures if you bother to look them up.

I already know the stats. Which is why I wrote "health consequences", not specifically "cancer". Because heart diseases is actually a far more likely health consequence from second hand smoke than cancer.

And numbers such as 1:3000 are when one applies second hand smoke effects across an entire population, which is misleading. Those who work in service industries when smoking is allowed, such as in bars and restaurants (or who live with smokers who smoke indoors), are far, far more at risk.

A basic stats review is available at:

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statis … /index.htm

SimonTrew wrote:

Even with smoking, I injest far more dirty filthy crap from the back of drivers' exhausts than I do by sticking a coffin stuck in my gobbin. Yet it is perfectly fine for drivers to be selfish, smokers are the newest people to pick on. 30% of adults in Hungary smoke.

I overall agree in general principle. I grew up in Los Angeles. I developed real breathing and lung problems from the smog. One reason I moved away once I became an adult.

SimonTrew wrote:

The most ironic thing is that "Care in The Community" was designed by the very same woman who said "There is no such thing as society. There are individuals, and there are families. There is no such thing as society"..

That quote is something I would expect from the Cosa Nostra, not a national leader.....   

SimonTrew wrote:

In a small village where everyone knows everyone, and has a bit of money etc, people can afford to be altruistic

That is sweet. Very idyllic.

Sadly, in my village, everyone knows everyone. But few have a bit of extra money, and because of long simmering issues, and maybe living too long and too close together in too small a village, many hate many others and would never be altruistic to them.

Oh, yes, and if one has lived in the village for "only" 20 years, you are still an "outsider".

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I had to quit my casino job because of second hand smoke. I had a bad case of bronchitis from all the smoke inside the casino.
Went to the doctors for a bad cough and he told me to quit smoking, said I wasn't a smoker but worked in a casino.
I probably should of taken it to workers comp. and got paid to quit but I wasn't in the mood for a years long hassle and all the paperwork etc.

where I get dogmatic about this Marilyn is that you have presumably to take the US Government's own statistics. The FDA said on a national survey, in 1988, that if a nonsmoker lives with an habitual smoker their chances of getting cancer from secondhand smoke is 1 in 3048 per year, that is the risk over and above the chances of you being run over by a bus  or an anvil killing you in a cartoonish fashion. You are far more likely to be killed by your sofa (12  British people in the last twelvemonth are officially recorded as being killed by their soft furniture) than you are to die from my disgusting habit

I imagine you don't gamble because if you are that side of the table you know why there are billion dollar hotels and mug punters, I won a few games of cribbage this weekend and we were betting a filler a point, I now have five filler that the shop will not accept.

People in general have an skewed idea of risk. Fireman in the UK quite often work in Hospitals on their night shift etc to make a bit of extra, and they are so used to people coming in a cropper they are amused when they work as a porter in the A and E/emergency ward and people are forever coming a cropper in unlikely ways.

A girl I worked with managed to get a paper cut on her eye. How do you manage it, what possible way can you get a piece of paper and manage to stick it in your eye? How is that possible?

I also can read braille and a bit of British Sign Language for the deaf, because I worked with blind people and deaf people. But I am no expert but i can get by in British Sign Language. Don"t know American Sign cos didn't know any deaf when I lived in America, and don't know Hungarian Sign, so that is not very useful when I meet an Hungarian deaf, that I am signing in British and they are signing in Hungarian, that don't work too well

You are far more likely to be killed by a vending machine falling on you than you are by my second.-hand smoke. Your  chances of drowning at sea are next to zero in Hungary (1 Hungarian drowned at sea last year, according the KSH, the Hungarian Office of National Statistics) so you are fairly safe in Hungary for not being drowned at sea. Fire is far more likely. Chainsaws are safer than sofas, only 24 people were admitted to hosptal from chainsaw injuries, 37 from injuries from their sofas.

You have to be careful with your sofa, they seem to be the most dangerous.

klsallee wrote:

More simple*: What is "normal"?

That"s simple, the normal is the right angle to the tangent as any fule kno, basik trigerrnemetry.