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[Nabubrush]

I don't know, The Fly, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Magnificent Seven were all pretty good. I take your point, though.

[pmcd9]

There will always be the rare exception to the rule.  You can add The Lord of the Rings to that list.

[Nabubrush]

The exception proves the rule!

There's also The Thing. And Scarface, I suppose. And like twelve movies Hitchcock did more than once.

[pmcd9]

Yeah, the Thing, definitely.  I was going to put that, but I already hit send.

[jay-ell]

Today I'm gonna find out that my daughter is old enough to play hockey on the special-needs hockey league this year!

My son played last year (on the rec-league, learn to skate/learn to play team), but I thought my daughter would need to be 5 years old before she could start. Apparently, the rule is, if she can learn to skate in the first month of practice, she can stay.

Which is awesome, because (a) they can be on the same team together indefinitely, unless one of them gets good enough to join the A/B competitive teams (the teams are grouped according to ability level, not size or age), and (b) she desperately wanted to skate last year, but she was only 2.

I'm so excited I can barely wait 'til the first practice in September.

[wombat]

Today it's gonna occur to me that maybe JL can answer this nagging question:

I go ice skating all the time and it's like going to the zoo - so hard for adults to enjoy it with all these kids in the way. But what I don't understand is, how is it that modern parents think that ice skating is a good activity for children? Children are so carefully protected compared to when I was a kid - car seats, bike helmets, no hard surfaces in playgrounds, antibacterial everything - my sister had a lock on the toilet seat to keep the kid from drowning in it, for pete's sake. And yet I see all these children at the ice rink - they are barely able to stand, surrounded by equally unskilled people with sharp blades on their feet, constantly falling down on hard cold frozen water.... What gives? Are these all the children of parents who just don't like them very much, or what?

[Nabubrush]

I was at the mall recently, and I had to go by the ice rink there and there were quite a few kids skating without helmets. Not to be part of the nanny state, but a person can get killed smacking their head on the ice. We had a guy die from that at work. Walking along, slipped and hit his head on the ice, medivac, gone. And he didn't have a bunch of other out-of-control people around him, to say nothing about knives on their feet.

[wombat]

One of our skating teachers once mentioned seeing someone lose a finger (or more than one, I can't remember) when they fell and their hand was on the ice and someone skated over it.

It's not that I want to scare all these kids off the ice and leave more room for me, I swear. I just really don't get it, in the context of a society where children seem to basically be raised in bubbles. It's like the ice rink is the land that time forgot.

[pmcd9]

Danger!!!

[jay-ell]

One of our skating teachers once mentioned seeing someone lose a finger (or more than one, I can't remember) when they fell and their hand was on the ice and someone skated over it.

It's not that I want to scare all these kids off the ice and leave more room for me, I swear. I just really don't get it, in the context of a society where children seem to basically be raised in bubbles. It's like the ice rink is the land that time forgot.

I don't know. I do make my kids wear helmets on the ice, and during practice they're required to wear big, bulky hockey gloves, which makes me less worried that they'll lose a finger. But I don't keep my kids in a bubble, they play outside, get dirty, skin their knees -- hell, I helped my daughter use a butcher knife the other day (hand-over-hand, I lost a bit of my left thumbnail actually 'cause her aim's not so good, but at least she didn't draw blood). So maybe I'm not the one to ask.

I guess the idea is maybe that skating, like riding a bike, is exercise, and anything that's healthy like that can't possibly hurt you? I see a lot of kids riding bikes in the street without helmets in my neighborhood, too. So maybe it's just that bubble-parents are more vocal, while there are a still a lot of us who are a little more relaxed about stuff going about our business while the helicopter parents are busy petitioning their local councils for mandatory youth curfews or whatever they do.

[side_show]

Speaking as a Canadian, I can honestly say I've never considered skating to be dangerous unless it's on thin ice.  I've never been to a skating rink though.  There's really no point in that when there's so many outdoor options for half the year.  I've never been in a situation where anyone skating over my finger is a possibility as far as I'm aware.  Also my dad used to flood the whole back yard and turn it in to our own private little rink, but I wasn't allowed to have friends over, so most of my childhood skating was done alone, in my backyard, in the dark, alone. 

I do recall one time I was skating around the back yard at a serious speed and I thought, as I was skating up to the picnic table, that it would stop me.  As I lay face up under the table after I fell, I thought two things at once:  "why did my dad ice the area under the table?" and "gee, I'm glad I wore my helmet tonight."  I didn't wear it most nights, but thankfully that was one of them.  I smacked the back of my head so hard!  I lay there looking at the stars from between the picnic table slats before getting up to skate more circles.  What a weird, lonely childhood memory.  Me in the dark, under the stars, the ice cracking, my breath in the air.  Maybe when I have my own kids we'll do the same for them, only we'll join them and have them invite their friends.  That would be super fun!  Gotta add that to the bucket list.

[pmcd9]

It's only right that the trail runs along the assbone river.  But maybe a sore ass bone from skating is just my own personal experience.

[jaydub]

Helicopter parents don't let their kids within miles of a skating rink.  Or if they do - its for private lessons with an instructor while the parent stands at the rink door and yells corrections to the kid.

[side_show]

Today I'm gonna be sad.  Jack Layton, the official leader of the opposition died of cancer.  Layton was the voice of the marginalized, and he lead the New Democratic Party to its first time being the official opposition.  Many of my friends and some of the greatest humanitarians I have known knew Layton and valued his optimism and passion.

Layton wrote a letter to all Canadians two days ago, when it became clear that his treatment wasn't working.  These are his final words to Canadians and the world:

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." - Jack Layton

[jay-ell]

Smells, I needed that quote today. I had a shitty day, my son had 3 meltdowns (autistic-style screaming fits, complete with head-banging, kicking, scratching, hitting, and self-injury) and I have no idea what triggered any of them. During the last one, he was completely unable to speak except to scream, "Go away, mama! Go away!" All I could do was put him in his bed, where he's least likely to hurt himself, and pray that he'd calm down on his own.

He did, eventually, and fell asleep at 7:30. But I listened, helpless, at his door while he cried for almost 45 minutes straight, knowing that if I went in to check on him, it would only increase the odds that he'd resume the self-injury.

He doesn't do this very often any more, thank goodness. But he's big and strong enough now that when he does, I can't physically contain him enough to ensure his safety. Last time he melted down like this, he put a hole in the wall of my in-laws' beach condo with his head.