Things you were shockingly old when you learned

that "spring break" is just what Americans call the Easter holidays, just now.

except often enough they don't fall on Easter

not structuring your school terms around a holiday which moves around a 5-week period from year to year is an advantage of keeping religion out of schools which I hadn't previously considered.

yeah what is "michaelmas" exactly

some oxbridge prod thing

a type of daisy, or, the best time to go on the dodgems and win a goldfish in a bag

as a kid in IL, spring break was "easter break" and started Good Friday

Re: Dylan covers

The Albums That Never Were blog has a recreation and write up on the Basement Tapes-era promo acetate that was responsible for all those early covers.

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2015/03/bob-dylan-songs-for-dwarf-music.html?m=1

cool! file links are busted, but so it is with the passage of time.

michaelmas is one of the two days a year that farmers pay rent, is a thing i know that may no longer be true

Here spring break is called spring break, and to further avoid the appearance of religion, while the kids don't have school on Good Friday it's not for Good Friday but for an Institute Day, one of several days off they give each year when the teachers have mandatory instruction.

that "spring break" is just what Americans call the Easter holidays, just now.

Wait, I don't think this is true? Isn't US Spring Break always in March?

Yes, don't need to move it around if it isn't called "Easter holiday"

Although guessing "Easter holiday" means "Easter religious observance day" in the states, rather than "the two-week break you get in the spring" as it does in the UK.

Does that mean that the Reading Week in February is what Canadians call the Easter holidays then?

In my USian experience, Spring Break is one week long, not two. It has never been called Easter break or Easter Holiday.

However, Easter is usually at one end or the other, because my schools have tended to have a lot of either cultural or religious Christians. We're not Christian but my kids do dye eggs, hunt for candy, and bite the ears off chocolate bunnies. Whether they were in school the week before or the week after that particular Sunday is irrelevant.

A neighboring jurisdiction is heavily Jewish and their calendars lean toward being out on Passover if they can. It's very convenient when Pesach and Easter line up, but it's broadly accepted that it will not always be the case.

Beaches in my region are way too cold for Spring Break - we've generally done like an arts camp, gone to an indoor waterpark, or visited a historical site to walk on cobbly bits and wear tricorn hats.
It is nothing to do with porn or disease.

Easter fell on Apr 21 last year. Surely that was not on either end of Spring Break?

I have explained very clearly what I mean.

Was responding to YMP fwiw

Sund4r, our Spring Break last year was, in fact, April 15-19.

This year's was scheduled for April 6-10.

So yes, our jurisdiction does, in fact, try very hard to track to where the religious holidays are.

Oh, interesting. The college where I taught in the US always had theirs in the first half of March (2-6 this year).

Ah. Colleges are a different kettle of fish. I am speaking of elementary/secondary peeps (ages 5-18). Generally they do not do porn.

Ha, I didn't know US elementary/high schools had an Easter-adjacent Spring Break. We get an Easter holiday consisting of Good Friday + Easter Monday as well as a March Break for schools or a Reading Week in February in uni.

We do porn for every holiday, though, as long as 30% of the content is Canadian.

my public us elementary/high school had no 'spring break' at all, just good friday off. the school year was done by the end of may, tho. lunch on fridays alternated between fish and cheese pizza; the area was like 90% catholic

university had a week off in march following midterm exams, not sure there was anything official surrounding easter

wait y'all get TWO weeks off for spring/easter?

Cambridge uni students get three and a half weeks off at easter.

I think that's true of all universities, innit. Private schools tend to have 3 weeks or a month, too.

o_O

don't think my uni had that long, but it was a rubbish uni, and twenty years ago.

Cambridge students have a whole 6 weeks off for xmas which is crazier, they're all having their xmas parties in November.

What the fuck

Hate speech in the US is protected by the first amendment? Harassment laws have to be narrowly tailored to avoid placing limits on what you can say (is this true? I won't lie, it would explain a lot)

Yeah it's perfectly legal to promulgate hateful beliefs, but if you do so in a way that constitutes a crime free speech defenses aren't going to avail you much from what I understand. Cf. the ACLU defending the Nazis in Skokie.

Like, you probably can't hold forth at work about (bigoted nonsense of your choice here), but it's not because it's illegal to say hateful things, it's because it's Title VII workplace discrimination.

If you post calmly as you normally do in the public square the government generally can't tell you to stop just because of the content of what you say. Despite everything I still probably think this is good not bad. After all, everyone else can tell you to stop.

tbh the idea of hate speech laws -- as in being subject to fines and imprisonment for expressing a view -- is pretty shocking if you've grown up in the US! first amendment law is pretty deeply established here and attempts to criminalize speech haven't been successful.

when I used to bother with reddit there were constant debates about the meaning of free speech. there were a lot of americans shocked that count dankula went to jail in the uk "for making a joke video where he trains his girlfriend's dog to be a nazi" (having seen the video I can report that it mostly consists of him saying "gas the jews" and giggling like a prick)

tbh I find that aspect of uk law pretty vile.

I would never get tired of punching "count dankula" in the face

the guy who made the joke bomb threat against the airport I have some sympathy for, but would be happy to throw that third rate scottish muttley "dankula" in a dungeon for any reason.

The US OTM on this one.

Not generally in favour of that law either - except when it comes to pricks like that guy and Tommy Robinson.

the number of people who cite the first amendment in the usa when what they're talking about has absolutely nothing to do with the first amendment is very high, though

Seriously. The 1st applies to governmental attempts at censorship, not to, say, a publisher who doesn't want to publish your shitty novel.

or ilx posts

Thgat some graves have tiles, does that make them a mausoleum. Only really noticed when they were lowering my dad down.
THink I may have seen that kind of thing before but it would have a slab over it.

Also taht my dad was a massive book buyer hadn't realised taht was something he did. It's something I('ve done for years and never knew there was a connection. His 2nd wife spent a part of her eulogy to him talking about the extent to which he followed the pursuit. & if his kids wanted money from him they'd be much more likely to get it if they said it was for books.
Meanwhile I can't go by charity shops or remainder, even new bookshops without having long looks.

THought it really weird, was expecting to see the earthen sides of a grave and there's these white tiles going down 6 feet or whatever.
Maybe the soil is wrong to be planted straight into it or at least in a coffin. But it was white tiled like a shower room or something.
I thought poart of the ceremony was normally to thrown the first handful of earth on top of the coffin or at least if you were the spouse or closest kin. Wondered why that wasn't happening.

Could it be that those are temporary panels for holding the dirt back so the hole maintains its shape, and they are lifted out before the hole is finally filled?

I vaguely understood that most USian burials take place in a concrete vault - there is no dirt-to-casket contact. the casket is lowered into the concrete box, a concrete lid goes on top of that, the dirt is filled in around said vault. Surely practices vary by location and region and funereal industry practice

But the vault doesn't go up to ground level, does it? It's just high enough to fit the casket inside.

I think it looks like a solid wall from looking back at a still I have.

This burial was in the land around his house which is what was the area he grew up in. His dad's original home etc.
May be that as much, that it's not a normal graveyard. Just surprising cos I don't think I'd ever seen a structure like it. Surprised it only had the space for one grave and didn't seem to have anywhere for any of his immediate family to go.
I wondered if this was the structure taht was under large marble grave slabs in graveyards too.