5160

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

5161

I have to admit this took me way too long.

5162

If it makes you feel better, I didn’t even give it a second thought until you posted this.

I am notoriously credulous about that kind of thing. One time a buddy had me asking wtf BOFA meant for a solid three days.

5163

I literally googled Richard Bates. :forehead slap:

5164

My work here is done.

5165

See Seinfeld also: The Maestro.

5166

Well said, it’s the usual argument about what is and what was, and to be a devil’s advocate, there is often a strong assertion that something that is obviously in transition, linguistically, is actually perfectly fine and it’s always been that way. It is fine, but it hasn’t always been that way, so give us a minute to adjust, yeah?

Where I think it really breaks down is in the modified verb after the “they” if talking in the singular, whatever the term is for the person is right there so we know who we are talking about at this very moment. “They is right over there” rather than “They are right over there.” They has a lot of plural baggage but I’d say that “are” has even more, but when paired with “they” sounds correct in any context. I’d still stump for dumping all of it and going with a Dan Simmons Hyperion solution like collapsing it all into “M.” This is M. Smith. Where can I find M. Smith? M. is over there.

5167

No, those biblical beards are clearly wrong.

5168

This is actually an understandable view, and in my experience, most people with non-traditional (is there a better word for this?) pronouns are sympathetic to people who are honestly trying.

(My wife, for all her progressiveness, falls into this category. We have friends who have a girl, but when they foster adopted her, she was a boy. I was able to adjust almost effortlessly, but it still occasionally trips up my wife)

But there’s a gulf between people who are trying their best not to misgender others and people who think that people who don’t want to be misgendered are assholes.

5169

How I met your Mother had The Captain.

Best thing about the show.

5170

What about the biblical bards?

And you should be ashamed of yourself.

5171

I didn’t know which thread to post this in, but it’s so incredibly dumb I chose this one. My friend lives in Melrose and told me about this today.

Who is Halloween offensive to? What group is excluded from Halloween? What are “fall holidays”? I googled it. Came up with nothing.

Meanwhile, 15 miles up the road, there’s a town that celebrates Halloween for 6 weeks.

5172

My family didn’t celebrate Halloween growing up because we were superstitious evangelical Christians who didn’t want to give the devil his due. I’ve long-since abandoned those objections to it, but to this day I just don’t care about it. It holds no nostalgic or cultural weight for me so, while I enjoy attending Halloween parties (inasmuch as I enjoy attending any party), I find the decorating and costumes and giving out candy too much trouble to bother with.

That said, I don’t recall ever caring whether anyone else celebrated Halloween, even when I didn’t for religious reasons.

5173

100% of the anti-Halloween sentiment that I’ve seen has been from conservative Christians. I think that is likely what happened here.

5174

Unsurprisingly, as my own background is similar to yours, this is exactly where I fall.

@Wallapuctus it is Evangelicals driving this, 100%.

5175

That makes no sense, Melrose is not a conservative town. Biden won there by 70% or something. Why would they cater to evangelicals? I’ll ask my friend for more info because the article is sparse on details.

5176

I can come up with some if I try:

  • some of the death imagery can be alienating and offensive to some (see: Skeletons in WoW, China and)
  • Young and / or sensitive children may have similar issues, in some cases
  • In practice a lot of halloween is about candy which doesn’t necessarily match with our schools de facto role as dietary and heath guideline educator
  • Halloween parades and other activities that require costumes may be alienating to families that can’t afford them.

While I don’t really buy any of those, in practice, replacing Halloween celebrations with “Pumpkin day” or “Fall Festival” doesn’t seem like that much of a big deal to me. Depends on how you distinguish it from harvest festivals, i.e. Thanksgiving.

Link unrelated:
https://www.orientaltrading.com/religious/halloween-a1-90000+1967+1237-1.fltr

5177

School districts have renamed/rebranded traditional holidays already. “Easter” break, Christmas break etc.

5178

I know a bunch of “Christian” fundies that are claiming that it’s satan’s holiday. So, I assume you could blame the Christian Right for this.

5179

That makes more sense to me. Church and State, and all that. It’s silly that have an Easter or Christmas Break to begin with.