Any of you watch Jay Leno? If so, you're probably familiar then with the bit they do on the show -"Jaywalkers" in which he interviews people on the street, asks them some questions - usually fairly easy ones about history or geography or trivia type stuff. Needless to say, some of the answers people give to these questions are really wild and wacky to say nothing of being downright dumb too at times.
Well, after a conversation at the table tonight, I think the 16-year-old here would make a great individual for him to interview. Sometimes, I just shake my head in wonder at what thoughts go through this kid's mind, ya know.
Mandy and I were just making general conversation and I don't know how the topic of Easter came up but Kate made a comment about Easter having already passed. Oh really? When did this happen? Mandy informed her Easter is March 23rd and Kate said "Oh, I thought it was about two or three weeks ago." Mandy then told her that Easter often falls in April but sometimes it occurs in March too. I gave her a very rudimentary explanation that it occurs six weeks after Ash Wednesday and it is in conjunction with the moon's cycles and the Jewish Passover so it doesn't happen on the same date every year.
A few more comments went back and forth and Kate then said something about St. Patrick's Day and when is it? Well, Mandy and I both answered together - "March 17th." The look on Kate's face was priceless as she asked "Does it happen every year on the same date?"
Yes, Kate - hence the name "St. Patrick's Day!" One thing for sure, this kid will never make it on Jeopardy or "Do You Want to be a Millionaire?"
I saw in Sunday's Centre Daily Times too that because many Penn State students felt they were being cheated this year since St. Patrick's Day falls during the Spring Break week, they were going to miss the golden opportunity to gorge themselves on Green Beer and make total asses of themselves in the process so, to take up the slack there, they set this past Saturday aside as kind of a Penn Stater's holiday -called it "State Patrick's Day" -so they could drink green beer and become jackasses without being around for the "real deal" on March 17th.
And apparently many of them really succeeded in meeting that goal too. According to the paper, the normal amount of police reports on a weekend is around 80 but this past Saturday thru to 8 a.m. Sunday, the police had logged 120 reports of which the overwhelming majority related to an alcohol issue. One guy even apparently wandered into the high school football field and couldn't find his way back out. Others were arrested for urinating in public, public drunkenness, fighting and the likes of that kind of stuff. Kind of scary you know to realize these people are the future leaders of the country.
Maybe with age, reading about things like this seems worse than it really is - I dunno. I do know alcohol does make a person do some pretty damned stupid things at times though and yes, I am saying that from personal experience too. Kind of makes me feel a bit of a hypocrite to read these police reports and shake my head -asking "What the hell are we coming to anyway?" thing ya know. Is it that police are more in tune to these things now than they were when I was a whole lot younger and a lot dumber too? But over the past decade or so, it does seem virtually any event over around the campus leads to way more violence and destruction than seemed to happen further back in time. Maybe we were just a bit more civilized in our drunken revelry, if that's possible. But there have been many occasions when they had out-and-out riots there with business fronts being damaged, people's yards being ripped up and the responsibility level of many of the students after the fact was a "So what? What's the big deal? It's our right of passage."
Perhaps to some small extent, having fun, a few drinks, etc., is a "rite of passage" but when did destruction of public or private property become something of a fun thing that leaves other people in the lurch, having to clean up the mess, pay for the repairs, and such?
Is there such a thing as "responsible drinking?' Sometimes I do wonder about that.
Somehow, it seems to me there is a connection too between the things the 16-year-old here has absorbed in her mind or rather ignored learning even simplistic things to the actions of a good many college students in their quest to have a fun time.
And then, maybe I'm all wet on all of that stuff too.
9 comments:
Will never understand the need to get drunk and stupid like this. Just makes you shake your head and weep for the future since these kids will one day rule the country. :(
Well I did my fair share of stupid, crazy stuff over the years! Never destroyed property or hurt anyone else but often these kids just get caught up in the moment.
One of the really positive things I've noticed during this Presidential campaign is that more and more young people are getting interested and involved which makes them read more.
That's hopeful.
Responsible drinking in college? Does that exsist? I think they feel cheated cause it is a rite of passage.
Do you think it is okay for me to homeschool my kids when they reach college age? LOL.
Well Jeni, I think it is a sign of the times myself. This generation is not like the generation the I grew up with or that you grew up with.
I saw it while my daughter was growing up. Kids have no respect for authority it seems these days. Put alcohol or drugs into the equation and they get even worse.
It is especially prevelant on College Campuses across the country. For some, it is the first time they are out on their own and they just go crazy. I think that eventually most of them will grow out of it, just like we did. But it does seem to me that with each generation, the things they try and do are a little bit crazier thatn the previous generation.
I think your 16 year old would get along quite well with my 16 year old. We recently tried to plan a family trip to Florida with some friends of ours. It turns out we couldn't go, but the friends never changed their plans. The 16 year old says last night, "Did you know (the friends) are going to FLORIDA?" We all looked at him and said, "YES!" I asked if he remembered that we were originally going to go too, but couldn't work it out. He asked, "We were? And they are still going without us?" And the sad thing is, all of the planning for the potential trip only took place a few weeks ago and he was made very aware.
I can honestly say that I never did the drunk and stupid stuff so it's quite easy for me to shake me head and wonder what on earth these kids are thinking when they do stuff like that.
If you want to get drunk and stupid that's fine but there's no need to get violent like so many of them seem to do these days. I just don't get it.
I am old enough to understand the general principle underlying the date upon which Easter falls each year, but I still, still don't get it.
First full moon after the second Sunday when the sun rises 5 minutes before the year before?
I jest, and yet I feel DUH.
All I know is, I have a few Easter cards to mail out before the 23rd of this month.
I did many a stupid thing, and even a violent thing once or twice. These are certainly not things of which I'm proud.
But luckily I never hurt anyone, or destroyed someone's stuff, or got arrested.
Now, you know how well aware I am of teenagers with no common sense, but...I don't really know how to tell you this...in the Catholic church the date of St. Patrick's Day has been changed this year. Because the 17th falls in Holy Week, it's been brought forward to the 15th!
Looks like you'd better go and confess to Kate!
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