Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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.

a thing i discovered when my mum's grave was dug is this. her plan for it was to be next to her mum and dad under the yew tree, and she had a plot reserved in the churchyard in the village she lived in. but when the gravedigger -- a man with only one arm* and a tiny little digger that he drives -- checked, he said, "can't go there, there's someone already down there". we said "wait, someone buried without a gravestone?"** he said, "oh they probably have a stone somewhere, they move around a lot down there." so anyway we agreed to that the other side was fine, and everything was dug and sorted. but i feel we shd have pressed him more on the information he had so casually imparted.

*in my mind's eye he also has a hook instead of a hand but this is i think unlikely embroidery by my stressed memory
**in fact was with many old churchyards there are graves without stones, because there's reuse and the stones are cleared and repositioned, and any old skellingtons found are carefully reburied. i remember they did this in the 70s and found some bodies buried in leather bags instead of coffins, which everyone found very interesting. the graves are meant to be mapped but the maps go back centuries and are often quite inaccurate and also don't go back all the way (there's been a church of some sort there since c.1200). anyway this didn't apply to the corner by the yew, which was part of someone's farm or garden until quite recently.

didn't seem to have anywhere for any of his immediate family to go

often e.g. husband and wife are stacked not side by side

another thing i was shockingly old when i learned

the gravedigger -- a man with only one arm

Some people are just in the wrong jobs aren't they

Well, he also has a hook to loosen the soil.

How bad 12 Monkeys really is.

Terry Gilliam is amazing if/when you’re a 14-year-old boy.

I learnt about five years ago that Bonnie & Clyde were real people, not just fictional characters from a 1960s movie I watched as a kid.

I think Bonnie is about a foot shorter than she appeared in the film. Listened through the Last House On the Left version of the story a few months ago and watched a few History/Discover channel versions a while back. Think I listened to at least one other podcast on it too.

That chicken pox parties were ever a thing. Mind = blown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pox_party

They’re still a thing