Ignorance to Make You Gasp

this brings to mind the opening verse of a song by the band, they might be giants

"I remember the year I went to camp
I heard about some lady named Selma and some blacks
Somebody put their fingers in the President's ears
It wasn't too much later they came out with Johnson's wax
I remember the book depository where they crowned the king of Cuba
Now that's all I can think of, but I'm sure there's something else
Way down inside me I can feel it coming back"

many people approach knowledge this way, armed with some half truth or half heard statement, they boldly go about their lives pretending to have some insight into the world around them

djjd, So true, and hair-raising. For some strange reason your comment stirred a memory. "many people approach knowledge this way, armed with some half truth or half heard statement, they boldly go about their lives pretending to have some insight into the world around them."

Many years ago I got my first cat. We'd had birds, fish, and dogs when I was growing up. No cats. My mother was beside herself--against the idea. I was on my own, paying my own rent. I was gonna have any pet I wanted. My family came for dinner, and as the cat inserted herself into our midst, I saw my mother visibly shudder. Absolute terror. "What is with you?" I asked. I could see that my mother was trying to control herself (not one of her strengths), and then she burst out with, "THIS CAT IS GOING TO KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!" "Huh?" I responded. She came back with, "Cats suck the breath out of people while they're sleeping." She said this with absolute certainty--as absolute fact. I knew that my family was extremely superstitious, but I thought this was a bit excessive, even for them.

A strange thought based on suppostion and no thought. Now that I've written all this, I'm not sure I made the connection to your comment. Perhaps it's the half-assed notion believed to be absolute fact.

Aside: Once I convinced her that she was wrong (easier than I thought it would be), she and the cat became friends.

My mother also hated cats. Something about a baby carriage, and I'm not sure if it was me in it saved, or some vision of a cat breath sucking.

I didn't have a pet until I was in my thirties. (Whadda waste....)

Your mother was a smart woman.

this could be a whole new thread, folklore ignorance, my mother knows a women who's teenage daughter became pregnant, she told the woman she'd better be careful and talk to her daughter about not making the same mistake twice, the woman looked at her and said, we don't need to worry about that right away, i've heard that nursing mothers can't get pregnant, my mother just about fainted, and what do you know, less than a year later the girl was pregnant again, she should of kept one foot on the floor, i mean everybody knows that's how you avoid that situation

while my mother is in her 70's, this story is not from the primitive days of yore, it happened about 8 years ago

I've heard people say that about cats, but in a bemused way. Cats is evil, sitting there, staring with those intent, crazy eyes. He he.

I bought rutabaga for Thanksgiving. Bears family does some northern thing where they put rutabaga in their mashed potatoes (1 to 3 ratio) and call it turnip potato.

At the check out the clerk rang it up as turnip greens. (Greens? They aren't anywhere near green!) I corrected him and saved eighty seven cents.

djjd, You wanna start a new thread? My mother's side of the family was steeped in some mighty strange ideas. I've got a bunch of them. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I recall a thread like that. It could have been here--or on another site that existed before a2k was born.

Edgar, I think the particular strange idea in question comes from the fact that cats will sniff a baby's breath because it's got the smell of milk on it. It might look like the cat is stealing breath. I'm just surmising, mind you.

Squinney, I was about to ask what rutabaga tastes like. Fact is, I don't know what rutagaba looks like. Did the turnip potato taste good?

A friend recently suggested to me that prejudice against cats brought on the plague of the Middle Ages. I don't know whether her theory was original or not. Back then, cats were viewed as evil and were slaughtered. There were no cats to kill the rats that carried the fleas that carried the plague. If the rats died, did the fleas die with them, or did they just hop onto something else?

Rutabaga is from the turnip family. Usually next to the turnips in the grocery, but with a thick waxy covering. Gives the mashed potatoes a little "bite."

I'm an old school cook, having grown up in my grandmothers kitchen. I don't measure anything, and can pretty much figure out how to make most dishes I try and like. Following our first Thanksgiving with Bears family I determined that I would learn to make this turnip potato dish since no one ever had it outside of Thanksgiving. None of the other wives could make it.

Bear thought it quite funny when I came home from the store with turnips instead of rutabaga. Never have figured out why they call it turnip potato if it's not made with turnips.

Thanks, Squinney. I confess I'm a bit intimidated. Not sure I'd try to cook something I've never actually eaten. How would I know how it's supposed to taste.

djjd, I found the old thread! (I have way too much time on my hands.) Here's the link. At least I think here's the link. I'm not good at computer stuff.

http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4898&highlight=

George Bush

Well, the cat slaughter thing probably didn't help, but that doesn't explain terriers, who are bred to be ratters. Essentially, the fleas hopped off the corpses and onto a new host. Since people didn't bathe much, didn't have too many walls in their homes (e. g. they were crammed together) and the houses themselves weren't exactly rat or weather or flea proof, a lot of the time, the fleas just jumped off the rats and onto people.

Thanks, Jes. I had a feeling that my friend's theory was just that--a theory. I appreciate the additional info.

Ever order french fries and get asked "You want fries with that?".

Sounds to me like somebody just isn't paying attention, cjhsa. Not ignorant and maybe not even stupid. Just a person in a boring job functioning like a robot.

One time I was hiking in the mountains of Arizona and my cell phone rang. It was my friend Jane from Boston.

"Where are you" she asked.

"I'm doing a little hiking in the mountains", I replied.

"Are you dressed ok? Do you have a first aid kit", she asked with real concern.

"No, I didn't bring a first aid kit", I said, a little annoyed.

"Did you at least bring your cell phone?" she asked.

You guessed it -- she's blond.

Nick, Thud! I'm impressed by the level of, dare I say it, stoopidity.

This reminds of a time when my mother called me to ask me the number for 911. My mother wasn't stoopid; she was suffering from the onset of Alzheimer's, but still thud-worthy, I think.

Hmmmm.

Bush insisting that there is no civil war in Iraq!!

When my best friend gave birth to her daughter she actually had one of the nurses tell her that she couldn't get pregnant while she was nursing because of certain kinds of hormones that were produced. Needless to say her second daughter is only 10 months younger than her first. I about died when she told me about this (regrettably after she was already pregnant again) or I would have set her straight. I was more dumbfounded that it came from a NURSE who's entire job it was to help births. Maybe it was just her own way of creating job security.

I was a manager at a clothing store and one of my employees was a highschool age african american kid. We would discuss different things when it got kind of slow in the store. One day he up an asks me "Who do you think had it worst in slavery,black people or Jews?"

I was kind of at a loss, but then answered with Jewish people on the fact that they were enslaved longer. (I am not even sure if this is correct myself, being of one of the watered down public education victims)

He kind of agrees with me and then asks when were the black slaves freed. Before I could answer he pops up with "It was in, like, the 1930's right? So it's only been like 20 years." (This conversation took place in 2004)

I was stunned. I just stared with an open mouth and the guy who was paying for his purchase just snorted and shook is head and said "You really need to learn your history" and walked out.

I just let the whole thing drop.