The message forum is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no items, topics, subtopics, etc.

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Message" button to add your entry to the forum.

John Maxwell

Michael McLeod

I'll second the appreciation for any reference to Clockwork Orange, Jack, and although I'm not gonna get into the craptastic mess that public discourse has degenerated into these days on this site, I'm secretly grinning on the sidelines about it. Smirking, actually. Always got into trouble for that.  

James Hamilton, M. D.

There seems to be a lull in our Forum conversation. So, although I am sure there are many things we still can discuss about our past and our present, let us think what may happen for the future generations.

It is Friday, September 20, 2069. The BWHS Class of 2019 is gathering at the New Watterson High School Main Campus for a tour the day before their 50th Reunion. Several driverless cars have dropped the participants off at the moving sidewalk and are heading for the parking tower. As the ex-students gather around the automated bar a holographic figure takes their orders and telepathically conveys them to the robotic bartender.

The crowd separates into several groups and begin to discuss the changes that have occurred in their lives over the past half century.

What do you think they will be discussing?

Jim

David Mitchell

Where the hell did they put their glasses ? 

Janie Albright (Blank)

Jim, what a great topic! I can’t wait to see what people are going to post. I’m not imaginative enough to look that far ahead. I already marvel though at the fact we have all these 70+ year old rockers out there who we listened to when we were in high school and college that these kids, the class of 2019, are still listening to today. The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Eagles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan just to scratch the surface. What new groups from today will be around that far into the future??

James Hamilton, M. D.

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

Yikes, Frank! Who sewed your hand up- the gardener? How is it healing? Kathy Wintering

Michael McLeod

: Kathy: Frank has a head start on Halloween.

Jim: I notice you didn't include anything about living in a warmed-up, strung-out, resource-depleted earth in your future scenario. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Michael McLeod

What's funny about that, Jim - and not funny in a funny way - is how right you are.

I spend so much of my time reading and mulling over the long run.....what's going to happen down the line, long after we're gone. That might sound fatalistic or somber or whatever, but it's a kind of hobby, I guess, and a natural inclination, once you've put in your hours as a human being, and you slow down a bit -- which, by the way, is not a bad thing, intellectually at least -- and you just check out the scene in wonderment and awe and acceptance. What a long strange trip it's been.

Timothy Lavelle

Jim,

If North Cal. is no. 53.....

52?

51?

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mark Schweickart

When I was a kid thinking about the future, the number one thing I remember looking forward to was having my own personal flying car, or perhaps, better yet, being able to just fly like Superman. Of course, it never occurred to me that if I had this capability, no doubt everyone else would too, and therefore instead of zipping along effortlessly like a lonely kite in the sky, I would be in a sky-jammed locust-like cloud, except that locusts seem to all head in the same direction.

These days, I find it difficult to contemplate the future, perhaps because in our pop culture it usually, if not always, seems to be portrayed (to use my two least favorite adjectives) post-apocalyptic or dystopian. Unfortunately, no doubt there is good reason for this grim outlook. My brother was speaking to his teenage ganddaughter recently, and when he brought up the subject of the way things will be for the next generation, she said, “But grandpa, there’s not going to be a ‘next generation.’  Maybe one more, after me, maybe I’ll have kids, but”—her voice went soft, “global warming . . .”

Yikes. What have we done? Or more importantly, what are we going to do about it that our kids and grandkids aren't left with this bleak world view. Then again, maybe when we were kids our parents felt the same hopelessness and helplessness when worrying about what duck-and-cover air-raid drills were doing to our fragile little psyches. Maybe this fear or nucear war, instilled in us as youngsters, is why the pop-culture world view of the future we have generated is always so (here we go) post-apocalyptic and dystopian.

Then again maybe I am being too Eeyore-like this morning. Am I forgetting there was Woody Allen's movie Sleeper, which included the bright prospect of an Orgasmatron in the future?

Timothy Lavelle

Mark,

I think it was easier to be optimistic earlier in life. Simply, we just had more time to play with. As for the bleak outlook, the book 1984 was published in 1949, so our generation (or later gens) didn't start this dystopian thought. 

Jim, 

Pretty sure New Florida will come about when the US picks up Haiti and the Dominican Replublic at a Universal Nations auction in 2043. Sadly, the same auction will see Saudi Arabia pay cash for Mexico where they immediately build a wall to keep 'Muricans out! The revolution in Western Canada, expelling all Chinese residents suspected of trying to establish Mandarin as the official language, will be followed by a portion renaming themselves American Columbia. The sale of Long Island and Santa Catalina is a story for some other time.

David Mitchell

Jim,

I think the question they may all be asking then might be; 

"Is it Autumnal?" 

Michael McLeod

Pretty sure New Florida will be much smaller than the Florida I live in at the moment.

Rising sea levels caused by the global warming that isn't happening have already taken out parts of Miami.

On the plus side any Orlando property I pass down to my offspring will be that much closer to New Florida's new beaches. 

Mark Schweickart

Apropros of nothing, the following little linguistic tid-bit flitted through my head this morning, something I learned  from a very interesting book I read last year called Etymoligicon by Mark Forsyth. Did you ever wonder why the 23 degree north and south latitudes are called the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn? And why do we use "tropes" to describe metaphorical flourishes of language? Forsyth explained that "trope" in Greek means "turn" and when the Greeks applied this to rhetoric, it became what we still call a "turn of phrase."  In gazing at the sky, the Greeks (who assumed the sun was moving and not the earth) noticed that the sun moved in one direction until it aligned with the constellation Capricorn, and then it "turned" and went the other direction until it reached the constellation Cancer. These turning points also coincided with when nights are equally as long as days, and hence became our "equinox."  And of course when the Spanish found a land that sat equally between these two latitudes it was named "Ecuador,"  and thus our "equator." I am not sure if I remember this all correctly, but I think that was the explanation given. Okay, now you can go about your day, armed with this tid-bit of esoteric knowledge tucked in your belt, ready to be pulled out and flourished if you should find a conversation stalled and in need of poking up. You're welcome.

David Mitchell

Darn it Mark,

I was just gonna say that!

Michael McLeod

But then, Dave, you said to yourself: "But that would be apropos of nothing!" 

David Mitchell

Exactly Mike.

Mark Schweickart

And aproprpos of these nothing responses from Mike and Dave, here's another linguistic tidbit, this time from Bill Bryson's book, At Home. Ever wonder where the phrase "room and board" came from? "Room" makes sense, but why "board"? According to Bryson, in ye olde days when travelers found a place offering food and lodging, there often was not a table large enough to accomodate the guests, so they sat next to each other and a long plank or "board" was placed on their lap and knees to support the plates and bowls of food.

He also solved another mystery for me -- why are there "drawing" rooms in English manor houses? Even though the ability to draw was certainly encouraged in young woman, these rooms were not ones dedicated to this activity. No, instead, after a meal, the guests would "withdraw" to an adjoining room for after-dinner conversation, cigars, brandy, and what-not, so the "withdrawing room" over time became the "drawing room" . Similarly, "parlours" were  rooms for conversing, obviously coming from the French "parler,"  meaning "to speak."  And "Butler," you ask?  Again from the French. An original duty was being in charge of the wine celler with its hundreds of bottles, so in French this person would have been in charge of the "bouteilles" and hence be a "bouteillier," or as he eventually came to be called, the "butler," thereby allowing us the pleasure of solving many a murder mystery.

David Mitchell

So you're sayin' it was't Colonel Mustard in the Library after all?

David Mitchell

I just wrote a piece and lost all of it while trying to add a photo.

(Aren't you all lucky?)

2nd try: I just spent a few days in Columbus and had a wonderful time. Went to Tommy's in the People's Republic of Arlington with five ladies and had a blast - Janie Blank, Susan Pryor, Nina Osborne, and Peggy Southworth. A few others were unable to attend (as if I wasn't already lucky enough - Ha!)

Another night with Susan and Keith Groff - reallly enjoyable!

The morning on the way out I visited Al Judy's famous wine cellar and cabinet making shop. Both are serious high quality endeavors. Managed to sneak away with two nice bottles from the cellar master himself. And no accident on the table saw - either one of us. NOTE: We both have "histories" with table saws that would place us in direct competition with Tim, Beth, Jack, and Clare - (but Al is "missing" a bit more than I am)

And then a final lunch at a secret location with 8 or 9 of the guys, including Kevin Ryan, Fred Clem, Mike del Bianco, Bill Lehner, Ray Browning, and Charlie Kaps - (I'm forgetting someone?). Really good time and some short but great conversation, especaily with Ray and Charlie. Funny - once again, you think you know the person and then they turn out to be someone a lot more interesting than you remembered. 

Had so much fun I wish I could have stayed, and stayed, and stayed.

-------

Every time I get into Columbus I like to drive around and visit old haunts. Wow, has Columbus ever changed! And a lot of it is some really cool "inner-city" re-develoment, which I was involved in years ago in Denver. The new stuff in lower Grandview (the "Yards") is amazing. And it's all over town. Condos on High Street in Cintonville and Arlington Lane Ave. The new downtown baseball park, and north of Worthington where High Street becomes a tunnel underneath itself. And on my previous trip home, just for the heck of it, I drove out East Long Street coming out of downtown - - rennovation and development around Mt. Vernon Ave - simply amazing! 

But even though some things change, certain things remain the same. A perfect example of this is when I was going for my one of my "White Castle fixes". Looking for the old Short North location on High Street at about 2nd Ave. Get a load of this photo (can you say "Condos all over the place in short North"?)

What hasn't changed since my mother was their office operator with the NEW  "pull and plug" phone switchboards back in the late 20's?  Like they've always said, "America's only steam grilled burgers. And the holes are free!"

David Mitchell

And in case there had been any doubt before this, YES I am an idiot.

I forgot to take any pictures during any of these fun rendezvous.

Mark Schweickart

Relax Dave, we'd rather see a picture of a 21st century White Castle than pictures of you and your (our) ne'er-do-well friends any day.