Utah has passed a “free-range parenting” bill that frees parents from hovering over their children. Some people thinks this is terrible and irresponsible.
See https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/controversial-free-range-parenting-now-legal-utah-heres-means-203114763.html.
Thanks goodness I was a free-range kid from the time I was six (1944). I walked to school by myself. I walked to playgrounds myself. I went to the movies with my younger brother. And when I had a bicycle I rode many places far from home.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Friday, March 23, 2018
Sunday, January 08, 2017
More jobs that never returned
And they are not riding beneath the streets of Boston.
Film processors and film manufacturers.
Once upon a time, it was easy to get a job at Kodak in Rochester making film. Now it is hard to even find a place that sells film. The new jobs, but not many, are converting slides and photos to digital images.
Parking lot attendants
Parking meters on streets have been around for decades, but often parking lots had attendants who either parked your car or took your money when you left. At least on parking garage in Duluth is fully “automated”. You take your ticket when you enter, go to a machine to pay when you leave, and insert the ticket at the gate. Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport has more automated exit gates than attendant gates.
Longshoremen
One hundred years ago there were 40,000 longshoremen in New York Harbor. Now most of the work is done by less than 3,400 longshoremen in New Jersey operating cranes and straddle carriers. You have to read “Along New York Harbor, ‘On the Waterfront’ Endures” to get an idea how big some of these straddle carriers are. http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/nyregion/new-york-harbor-on-the-waterfront.html
Shoe shiners
How do you shine “athletic” shoes? It is rare to see a man wearing glossy dress shoes. If you wear glossy shoes you will either have to polish them yourself or go to a major airport. I know there is no shoe shine stand in the Duluth airport.
Movie ticket sellers, ushers, and projectionists
Once upon a time ushers found a seat for you, then they only took tickets, now there are hardly any neighborhood movie theaters. Until I was in high school, I could walk to a movie theatre. Then I had to go downtown to see a movie. Now there are only four movie theaters in Cleveland proper. Surprise, two neighborhood theaters that I had walked to still exist, but there is only one downtown theater.
Watchmakers
A well-crafted watch, even for middle-class people was a pride to wear. And if it had a problem, there were several watch repair shops in any major city. In Duluth, Google lists four watch repair shops. None are downtown and one is Batteries Plus. I think the last, and probably the others as well, offer only battery replacement. There are two downtown jewelers who sell watches and change batteries.
You can probably see ads for fine watches on sites like the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/, but few of would consider them.
I think the reduction in watchmakers started with Timex. Just looked at my wrist: I have a Timex. $50 at a downtown jewelry store, after the buttons on my previous, more fancy Timex, became inoperative. Was there anyone to repair it for less than $50?
See also "No, the jobs never returned”.
Film processors and film manufacturers.
Once upon a time, it was easy to get a job at Kodak in Rochester making film. Now it is hard to even find a place that sells film. The new jobs, but not many, are converting slides and photos to digital images.
Parking lot attendants
Parking meters on streets have been around for decades, but often parking lots had attendants who either parked your car or took your money when you left. At least on parking garage in Duluth is fully “automated”. You take your ticket when you enter, go to a machine to pay when you leave, and insert the ticket at the gate. Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport has more automated exit gates than attendant gates.
Longshoremen
One hundred years ago there were 40,000 longshoremen in New York Harbor. Now most of the work is done by less than 3,400 longshoremen in New Jersey operating cranes and straddle carriers. You have to read “Along New York Harbor, ‘On the Waterfront’ Endures” to get an idea how big some of these straddle carriers are. http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/nyregion/new-york-harbor-on-the-waterfront.html
Shoe shiners
How do you shine “athletic” shoes? It is rare to see a man wearing glossy dress shoes. If you wear glossy shoes you will either have to polish them yourself or go to a major airport. I know there is no shoe shine stand in the Duluth airport.
Movie ticket sellers, ushers, and projectionists
Once upon a time ushers found a seat for you, then they only took tickets, now there are hardly any neighborhood movie theaters. Until I was in high school, I could walk to a movie theatre. Then I had to go downtown to see a movie. Now there are only four movie theaters in Cleveland proper. Surprise, two neighborhood theaters that I had walked to still exist, but there is only one downtown theater.
Watchmakers
A well-crafted watch, even for middle-class people was a pride to wear. And if it had a problem, there were several watch repair shops in any major city. In Duluth, Google lists four watch repair shops. None are downtown and one is Batteries Plus. I think the last, and probably the others as well, offer only battery replacement. There are two downtown jewelers who sell watches and change batteries.
You can probably see ads for fine watches on sites like the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/, but few of would consider them.
I think the reduction in watchmakers started with Timex. Just looked at my wrist: I have a Timex. $50 at a downtown jewelry store, after the buttons on my previous, more fancy Timex, became inoperative. Was there anyone to repair it for less than $50?
See also "No, the jobs never returned”.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Cut! A story of two movies
On Saturday we rented two movies to take to our cabin: Chris Rock's "I Think I Love My Wife" and Helen Hunt's "Then She Found Me".
I liked Chris Rock in "Head of State" and thought we would have quite a chuckle with this one. In "I Think I Love My Wife", Rock comes across as a nice, well-meaning guy with a good job. His problem is that his wife is only interested in sex when she wants to have another baby; they already have two children. Then Nikki appears from his past, sweet talks him into signing a recommendation letter that he didn't even read, and persuades him to have lunch with her. Over lunch she starts asking lots of personal questions, including about his sex life. Cut!
"Then She Found Me" is about a school teacher who marries at 39 to a guy who turns out to be gay and leaves her. Her grousing adoptive mother dies, and another woman appears who claims to be her birth mother. The birth mother invites the school teacher to lunch. The mother starts asking lots of probing questions while bubbling over how glad she was to find her daughter. Cut!
Why cut? It was the manipulation. In "I Think I Love My Wife", we just knew that Nikki was going to draw him into deeper and deeper trouble at home and at work. In "Then She Found Me" we wondered if this was some scam being played on the school teacher or if it wasn't just a bit too cloying. Enough!
Oh, the advantage of renting DVDs, especially at senior rates - $1.08 each. If we had been in a movie theatre or had rented them from Netflix, we would have sat through to the bitter end. Oh, well, there is probably a happy ending in both cases, but it would have been a tense wait for the happy ending.
I liked Chris Rock in "Head of State" and thought we would have quite a chuckle with this one. In "I Think I Love My Wife", Rock comes across as a nice, well-meaning guy with a good job. His problem is that his wife is only interested in sex when she wants to have another baby; they already have two children. Then Nikki appears from his past, sweet talks him into signing a recommendation letter that he didn't even read, and persuades him to have lunch with her. Over lunch she starts asking lots of personal questions, including about his sex life. Cut!
"Then She Found Me" is about a school teacher who marries at 39 to a guy who turns out to be gay and leaves her. Her grousing adoptive mother dies, and another woman appears who claims to be her birth mother. The birth mother invites the school teacher to lunch. The mother starts asking lots of probing questions while bubbling over how glad she was to find her daughter. Cut!
Why cut? It was the manipulation. In "I Think I Love My Wife", we just knew that Nikki was going to draw him into deeper and deeper trouble at home and at work. In "Then She Found Me" we wondered if this was some scam being played on the school teacher or if it wasn't just a bit too cloying. Enough!
Oh, the advantage of renting DVDs, especially at senior rates - $1.08 each. If we had been in a movie theatre or had rented them from Netflix, we would have sat through to the bitter end. Oh, well, there is probably a happy ending in both cases, but it would have been a tense wait for the happy ending.
Friday, August 07, 2009
Review of a great anti-war movie
Wired.com has a very interesting review of "The Iron Giant", a 1999 animated science -fiction movie. It was a flop at the box office apparently because it didn't have enough destruction of evil. The article includes a YouTube clip of the final eight minutes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)