Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

neverdespairgirl

Nikkster wrote: »

I don't think I've ever met a passing border collie with a toy pheasant!

You need to spend more time in Kent - it's a regular occurrence in my parents' house (-:

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

I've just had one of those penny drops moments. They're sdiscussing photographs of WW1, and described a phto of Tommies (British soldiers and Jerries (Germnan soldiers) shaking hands.
When I was growing up one of the most populoar cartoons were a pair of fighting animals Tom and Jerry, natural enemies - wonder if they were names after the Brits and Germans.
Also wondering if I'm the last person in the world to have learned this!

Not cheating and going to look it up, but I think that was a very early cartoon series, something like mid to late forties, so would make sense; both in terms of timing and who got what name.

michaels

zagubov wrote: »

I've just had one of those penny drops moments. They're sdiscussing photographs of WW1, and described a phto of Tommies (British soldiers and Jerries (Germnan soldiers) shaking hands.
When I was growing up one of the most populoar cartoons were a pair of fighting animals Tom and Jerry, natural enemies - wonder if they were names after the Brits and Germans.
Also wondering if I'm the last person in the world to have learned this!

Hmm - Wasn't Tom the stronger but stupider character always being bested by the more nimble Jerry? Would that have been the way the US would have presented things during that period?

Generali

I thought Tom and Jerry was older than that, 1930s perhaps.

I assumed Tom was a 'cat name' like Tiddles just as Spike is a 'dog name' like Rover. Never thought about where Jerry came from.

I wouldn't image Tommy would make Americans think of English people. More likely the Tommy gun.

bugslet

SingleSue wrote: »

I'm sure the boasting on Facebook by some would be pretty incriminating....

So vandals and numpties as well, probably goes hand in hand:(

lostinrates wrote: »

Hi this is Foundinrates, just wanted to let you know that Lir is fine, Open Reach might be working faster than they said but if not she's still fine. She wants you all to know Big Dog is doing ok.

Look forward to seeing her soon fir and woofs from mine to yours.

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm so sorry, what with work and running around after MIL, I can't keep up with all these posts!

170-odd posts, and the new thread only started a day or so ago.

Take care of yourself and Lady GDB, it gets tiring and you have little time for anything else.

vivatifosi

Re Tom and Jerry, did start in 1940s, but earlier than I thought. Plus I got the character names the wrong way round. Tom being nothing more than a tom cat (very American expression) rather than being Tommy. Jerry's name was apparently chosen by one of the animators.

I do like Hanna Barbera cartoons, but my favourite is the Jetsons. I always wanted to be Judy Jetson growing up. Not a big T&J fan.

Which leads me on to an NP question. Who did you want to be growing up?

Generali

I was desperate to be an airline pilot. My Mum kept on for years about how it was like being a glorified bus driver, "and your don't want to be one of them". I also wanted to be a computer programmer.

She was absolutely insistent that I had to study maths at Uni and then become either an accountant or an actuary. My Dad insisted that it was much better to study anything other than Computers to work with computers.

It was only when I went on a University open day and asked one of the maths students how they coped with studying something they hated and got the response, "Oh no, I love it" that the scales fell from my eyes.

tomterm8

zagubov wrote: »

I've just had one of those penny drops moments. They're sdiscussing photographs of WW1, and described a phto of Tommies (British soldiers and Jerries (Germnan soldiers) shaking hands.
When I was growing up one of the most populoar cartoons were a pair of fighting animals Tom and Jerry, natural enemies - wonder if they were names after the Brits and Germans.
Also wondering if I'm the last person in the world to have learned this!

Tom and Jerry was suggested by John Carr because it was a common phrase for kids misbehaving in the 19th century. The phrase came from Life in London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom (1823) by Pierce Egan.

LydiaJ

vivatifosi wrote: »

Thanks fir. Glad to hear that lir and big dog are fine. You should pop by more often now we have a shiny new home.

Indeed. Nice to see you in here fir, and best wishes to all the rateses, both the two-legged and four-legged ones.

Generali wrote: »

I was desperate to be an airline pilot. My Mum kept on for years about how it was like being a glorified bus driver, "and your don't want to be one of them". I also wanted to be a computer programmer.

She was absolutely insistent that I had to study maths at Uni and then become either an accountant or an actuary. My Dad insisted that it was much better to study anything other than Computers to work with computers.

It was only when I went on a University open day and asked one of the maths students how they coped with studying something they hated and got the response, "Oh no, I love it" that the scales fell from my eyes.

Did you discover that in time to change what you were applying for? Or was it too late? Or weren't you able to stand up to them? Do you still feel you hate the career you're in now?

As teachers, we find it so frustrating when parents will insist on pushing kids in directions to which they're unsuited. It's one thing to persuade your kid that they will be grateful later on if they've got a decent education and some qualifications, even if they do feel quite certain now that they are going to end up in Hollywood. It's another thing altogether to be too prescriptive about what form that education should take.

I remember, a few years ago, the worst case of this sort of thing that I think I've seen. I was teaching a most unfortunate German boy. He was quite significantly dyslexic, and had failed to get into whatever the German equivalent of grammar school is called. His father, unable to cope with the loss of face, decided that the best thing to do with him was to pack him off to an English boarding school. Imagine! The poor kid was having trouble reading and spelling in a nice phonetic language like German, so how was he likely to find it any easier in English, which was not only foreign to him but insanely irregular? Then the father proceeded to choose all his subjects for him. When I taught him, he was enduring lessons in A-level physics. Nice boy, well-behaved, but completely crushed in spirit. I discovered pretty rapidly that he had come to a passive acceptance of the way life was for him - decisions were made for him that he should try to do things that he had no chance of succeeding in doing, and then he failed at them. That was the story of his life, over and over again. He had no concept of self-determination, no real idea of what he enjoyed, or what he was good at, or even that there might be anything that he might enjoy and be good at. It made me so angry. :mad:

michaels

Tintin

Then when the Simpsons came out I wished I had been Bart when i was younger whereas in reality I can't even aspire to be Homer.