The Goat Pen

my mouth is sore from eating steak!

Sometimes if a panhandler asks me for money and I'm not in a good mood or don't like their attitude, I reply with smiling scorn, "Sorry, all I've got is hundreds"...

eCat wrote:I'm thinking maybe only Cletus can relate to that out of this bunch here. I think our preschool may have asked us if our daughter ever stabbed kids with scissors as the conditions for entry.

I paid $23,000 for my two kids this year - one in two day preschool and one in five day Kindergarten. And, I was thrilled to do it. My neighborhood public school is shit, our lottery number for the open enrollment CPS schools didn't come in, the local Catholic schools get bad after 2nd grade, and I can't afford the premium private schools (assuming I could get in which is a long shot at best). This school is my lifeline to the city. If we didn't get in, the suburbs were looming and that makes me suicidal. It's a good school and I'll be happy to send my kids there for years to come but it's ridiculous that I pay that much and I got extremely lucky to even have the chance to pay that much. But, I'm the one who refuses to consider the suburbs so it's the price I pay. I comfort myself knowing that this is nothing compared to NYC or SF.

EFZ on the suburban conundrum.

Also, that's why I was looking towards Chicago a couple years ago when I was going to leave my firm. I need a major city with the pace and options it provides, but it has to have a viable finance industry. Out of the players in that space, Chicago was the most attractive, considering I have a family. But, when it came down to it, my firm sweetened the pot for me, which pretty much guaranteed I'd be in NYC for a few more years.

I don't know if this run will hold up, though. Between property costs and schooling costs, I'm only hurting my retirement plans staying in NYC (not like having two small ones while I was staring at 40 years old didn't have more of an impact). I do love it here, though. Moreso than any other city I've ever lived.

Cletus wrote:

eCat wrote:I'm thinking maybe only Cletus can relate to that out of this bunch here. I think our preschool may have asked us if our daughter ever stabbed kids with scissors as the conditions for entry.

I paid $23,000 for my two kids this year - one in two day preschool and one in five day Kindergarten. And, I was thrilled to do it. My neighborhood public school is shit, our lottery number for the open enrollment CPS schools didn't come in, the local Catholic schools get bad after 2nd grade, and I can't afford the premium private schools (assuming I could get in which is a long shot at best). This school is my lifeline to the city. If we didn't get in, the suburbs were looming and that makes me suicidal. It's a good school and I'll be happy to send my kids there for years to come but it's ridiculous that I pay that much and I got extremely lucky to even have the chance to pay that much. But, I'm the one who refuses to consider the suburbs so it's the price I pay. I comfort myself knowing that this is nothing compared to NYC or SF.

Bless you Cletus.

Growing up in Massachusetts, people would move from city to town specifically because the public school that their kids would have had to attend in whatever city they lived, is shit. That was like the number one driving factor. Drove Senator Teddy Chapaquidick Kennedy nuts because he would say that it wasn't "fair" that a poor black student growing up with single mom in Brockton Massachusetts is stuck with one of the worst school districts in the state whereas wealthy white suburban kid in Easton (town just 2 miles away) had a wonderful Oliver Ames school district simply because of geography. Instead of firing those shit teachers in Brockton, Teddy Kennedy wanted all property taxes collected at the state level (not town) and redistributed to each town/city per capita.

The Parochial High Schools in Massachusetts are all pretty good (not all of the awesome, but all of them at least "good") and are still somewhat affordable, so if you had to live in the city and the shitty inner-city public school was looming, Catholic Memorial, Cardinal Spellman, Arch Bishop Williams, or (for the richer families) Xavarian Brothers and BC High were options.

sardis wrote:My kids go to private school. I will be paying less in college tuition next year for my oldest than high school tuition for his younger sister.

Do you send them to Latin?

Sometimes if a panhandler asks me for money and I'm not in a good mood or don't like their attitude, I reply with smiling scorn, "Sorry, all I've got is hundreds"...

I only do that when Im packing heat.

I'm picturing alot of camoflauge

lmao at (artist's concept)

They going to be defending themselves from the Turkish horde? or Napoleon or what?

I love The Citadel. Heh.

We have a group of doomsday folks in a compound here. Maybe 80 or 90 folks, I guess. Never hear much from them. They're pretty good neighbors. I keep waiting for the ATF to kill them all. Hasn't happened yet (knock on wood).

I'll bet the views are fantastic.

DooKSucks wrote:

sardis wrote:My kids go to private school. I will be paying less in college tuition next year for my oldest than high school tuition for his younger sister.

Do you send them to Latin?

No, Charlotte Christian for obvious reasons. But it is only 15K a kid versus 20k at Latin.

rename each part 'drone target area'

Deaf Twins Going Blind Euthanized

Two deaf twin brothers in Belgium were euthanized by their doctor after realizing they were going blind and would be unable to see each other ever again, their physician says.

The 45-year-old men, whose names have not been made public, were legally put to death by lethal injection at the Brussels University Hospital in Jette, on Dec. 14.

The men, who were born deaf, had a cup of coffee and said goodbye to other family members before walking into hospital room together to die, their doctor told Belgian television station RTL.

"They were very happy. It was a relief to see the end of their suffering," said Dr. David Dufour.
"They had a cup of coffee in the hall. It went well and a rich conversation. Then the separation from their parents and brother was very serene and beautiful," he said. "At the last there was a little wave of their hands and then they were gone,"

More than 1,000 people legally availed themselves of doctor-assisted deaths in Belgium in 2011, most of them were terminally ill cancer patients.
The brothers are unique in that their illness was not terminal. Belgian law, however, allows doctors to euthanize "suffering" patients who are both mentally sound, over 18 and want to die.

Belgian lawmakers are considering a law that would extend euthanasia to dementia patients and children, whose families and doctors consented.

Interesting.

Pretty easy from my vantage point to tell them to hang in there, see what it's like (no pun intended) to be blind, give it a few months, it might not be as bad as they think, blah blah blah. But hey, if somebody wants to die, it's their life and their choice. Might as well make it as safe and effective as possible. And guilt free. Hope I never get to that point, and I'm pretty sure I could do the job myself, but I don't have any objection to doctor assisted suicide as long as it's a free choice from somebody reasonably mentally sound...

I haven't fully formed my thoughts, but it doesn't sit right with me.

Also, I effin' LOVE this Citadel shit. Can we please get this land bought, pronto! I can't wait for the first legal challenge of residency by a tree hugging hippie. Ed Norton should play the Community Captain in the movie version.

What do their daughters look like?

Bklyn wrote:I haven't fully formed my thoughts, but it doesn't sit right with me.

Also, I effin' LOVE this Citadel shit. Can we please get this land bought, pronto! I can't wait for the first legal challenge of residency by a tree hugging hippie. Ed Norton should play the Community Captain in the movie version.

I call dibs on franchise rights for mcdonalds, Wal*Mart & Kroger & my cousins strip joint