And that is another thing I like, officials and all always look very smart, in uniforms, or high viz vests, but always seem to look very nicely turned out. A(nother) foreign student friend of mine from Asia remarked once that she found the British policeman " so handsome!"

I was just thinking this morning one of the things I like best about being in Britain is queuing. Well, not the actual event, its best of course if there is no need to be in a queue, but when you must, well, the British system of how this is supposed to happen, one of my favorite social customs ( I always wonder if I should spell British on these forums...anyhow!). Even the word has this nice crisp feel about it, very orderly and practical, which is one of the hallmarks of British social custom. I was waiting in a line to get some coffee and biscuits after a tour of an old church a few weekends ago, and the line was somewhat not quite straight, what with a lot of pensioners with walking sticks and frames, and what not, and people standing back to let the pensioners have the first go at the refreshments. Well, when I reached the table for coffee, one of those nice polite British chaps arrived a millisecond ahead of me, from the other end of the table. As he was putting his hand out for coffee, he looked up and realized he had totally missed the queue at the other end of the table--he had, in essence, jumped the queue! You could see this realization dawn on him, he looked horrified, and he almost dropped his coffee cup, and then was trying to hand it to me, saying, bright red, that he was so sorry, he had jumped the queue, by accident, and I was saying oh no worries, go ahead, go ahead.

Another time I was trying to get on one of the national coaches, and people were struggling in a queue with trolleys overloaded with luggage, and a coach driver trying to get the luggage in the full underneath of the coach..and a few people began to jump the queue ( those without luggage), until someone shouted out that there were coach queue jumpers! This brought an official in a high viz vest over, to sort out the queue, and the queue jumper thought of the worst thing he could say to the official: " Your queue is not very orderly!!!"

tine

which sort of off the subject, does anyone know where/when the fork was invented? and until then, how did people ( European) eat--just with fingers, bread, knife?

PINS

I think that Barack Obama is a smart, articulate man with a lot of charisma and talent. I have read one of his books and its very interesting. He is very talented. How would this play out in the White House? Hard to know. I think that some of the debates about him are very revealing of the unresolved race issues in the US--I have seen it argued he is not really "African-American" because his African descent is not from someone who was enslaved! That means that the whole history of slavery remains unresolved in American society--what I think that means is that there is still a feeling of looking down by whites upon blacks because the black population is descended from slaves, and here comes Barack Obama, and what does this portion of the white population make of HIM?

I hope he wins the election!

I am not sure how much the choice of a VP sways voters, I think I have read that despite all the hype, its not much, and many Americans do not even know the name of the current VP at any given point in time! I think its a very interesting election, nonetheless, with the first African American candidate from one of the two major parties, and a woman VP candidate in the other major party--has there been a woman VP candidate before this from the Dems or Reps? I think maybe Geraldine Ferraro??!!! At any rate, interesting politics,with the question of course how close will the election be, and in whose favor? I think that the recent close elections speak to the need to get rid of the Electoral College once and for all, and have one vote/one person for this office. Instead the electoral college apportions votes based on the majority win for a single party from a state, based on population of the state, so a large state has more electoral college votes than a small state, and if you vote, say Democratic but your state goes majority Republican, well, there goes your vote. The Electoral College is a relic of the late 1700s when the idea of a direct vote was seen as a bad idea--and voting was limited to land owning white males over 21.

Me_Me- in that respect the academic setting is no different from a workplace, or even from life outside of academia or work, for instance you might share an interest or hobby with someone such as boating or hiking or art or acting, etc. Of course people feel attractions in various settings and for various reasons. All reasons for a felt attraction are not necessarily healthy ( I am not making this comment specific to your situation, I have no idea, its just a general comment)--for instance, the cycle of behavior of battered women who seem to enter a new battering relationship after leaving one, or people who repeatedly enter into relationships with addicts or people with drinking problems. There is something in the pattern of behavior that draws the other person in, and not for good reason. Perhaps the first question that should be asked, particularly if you are in a situation that suggests the relationship might go against the grain, is to ask WHY you are attracted to that person, and are these reasons for attraction healthy or destructive? What is your own relationship history--are you repeating a familar pattern that does not usually yield a successful and healthy relationship? etc.

The lure of an unhealthy attraction should not be under-estimated ( again this is not made as a comment to your situation, because I have no idea the specifics, but a general observation)--think of the "lure of the forbidden", etc, etc, its a well known thing that adds a spicy edge to attraction.

Attraction is one thing--what you do about it is another.

http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/

New website that tracks surnames (last names) by geography and where they might have migrated to...!

Although I have not been able to actually do the surname search, as the website is apparently being inundated with traffic!

I think that this thread points out the importance of having boundaries in work and personal relationships. Boundaries set the limits. People without well-defined boundaries are apt to find themselves in very confusing situations, as they will probably not have a good internal guide on how to behave, and will be reliant moreso on external factors--and may not know how to process the information they pick up. Or, processing it, may come to some very inaccurate conclusions. I have said this before, and will say it again here, WHY would anyone want to enter into an intimate personal relationship within a professional setting? That is not to say that a legitimate relationship cannot be forged from such circumstances, but I think that it takes mature reflection and decision making to do so. If you are playing guessing games about whether someone is into you, I would say that the chances are that they are not. People have a way of getting their interests across. If you are having to try to interpret and de-code with the skill of the Enigma machine what is before you, then chances are you are reading into it what you want, and not what is.

pits

sheen

city