The Off Topic Topic

[DGuller]

You sure we're talking about the same thing?  Or do you eat a whole slab of watermelon at a time?

I'm talking about those watermelon cubes sold in plastic boxes (or fruit salad bars).

[DGuller]

It's 50/50, I think.

@DG You are not a Plant worker, if you need 15more minutes of lunch time to prepare a healthy & good lunch, take it.

How are you going to cut up a watermellon in a lunch at work setting?  Even if I go home for lunch to do it, I would still have to take off my shirt, because watermellon juice always finds a way to get on your clothes when you cut it up.  The inconvenience is not worth it.

[Grey Fox]

Obviously, you get your assistant to do it.

[Zanza]

[MadImmortalMan]

Finally, we get to be the best at something. 

[CountDeMoney]

I discovered the best way to disarm a wheelchair-bound individual was to dump them out of it, even when they had a weapon.  Never felt threatened enough to shoot one.  But that's just me, I was crazy like that.

  Approximately how many times did you encounter this type of situation?

A homeless guy at a shelter waving a screwdriver at his roommates who allegedly stole something from him once, and a woman pissed at a methadone clinic who had a used syringe.  Dumped them both. 
People in wheelchairs have real shitty coverage of their six.  Just walk around them, get behind them, and over they go.  Don't have to shoot the poor bastard.

[garbon]

Finally, we get to be the best at something. 

And they put us at the bottom.

[mongers]

Finally, we get to be the best at something. 

Being merrily drunk at work ?

[Eddie Teach]

Beer costs nearly twice as much in Canada? Wonder how common it is to hop across the border to stock up.

[Malthus]

From the "Naughty Schoolgirl Spanking & Completely Inadvertent Yet For Some Reason Mildly Intriguing Erection" Desk

Rather than spend two days in in-school suspension for allegedly letting another student copy her classwork, Taylor Santos, a well-regarded student and athlete at Springtown High School, near Fort Worth, Texas, chose to get paddled.

As her mother, Anna Jorgensen, told ABC News affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas, Taylor didn't want to miss any classes because "her grades are very important to her."

So Santos went to the vice principal's office to request a paddling. She called her mom, who said that as long as her daughter was OK with it, so was she. According to school policy, parents who don't want their children to subject to corporal punishment must submit a written statement each year.

What neither Jorgenson nor Santos knew was that a man - the vice principal - would be doing the swatting, while a female watched. As far as Jorgensen knew, she said, school policy mandated that males spanked males and females spanked females.

Because of the force with with Santos was struck, her bottom was fire-engine red and looked as if it had been "burned and blistered," said Jorgensen, who took photos as evidence.

While paddling in public schools has been outlawed by 31 states, as well as by Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, the Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that it was legal unless it has abolished by local authorities, according to the web site Corpun.com.

It is legal in 19 states; efforts to ban it in Wyoming, North Carolina, Louisiana and Texas failed. However, in 2011 laws were introduced in both Texas and North Carolina giving parents the right to exempt their students from paddling.

"A lot of people think it was abolished 20 years ago," Jimmy Dunne, president of People Opposed to Paddling Students (POPS), told ABC News. A former math teacher in the Houston Middle Schools, Dunne founded POPS in 1981 and has been the spanker and spankee. But he refused to participate after noticing that some teachers were "getting sadistic pleasure out of hitting these kids."

He has actively tried to get schools to curb the practice ever since, but he has met with resistance. In June, he appeared at an anti-corporal punishment in schools rally in Washington, D.C., and will be attending a school board meeting on Monday after a 13-year-old student at Barbers Hill Middle School in Houston was covered with welts and bruises after a paddling he received for getting three consecutive zero grades.

"Members of the Texas legislature say, 'I was paddled, and I turned out OK,'" he said. "Or they say they want to leave it up to the local district to decide. They think it's good discipline. But it's legalized child abuse. I always say if this was done away from the school, the person would be arrested."

The day after her daughter's paddling, Jorgensen called the vice principal to complain, but was told it was "normal for her bottom to look like this after receiving swats." The vice principal added that he had no idea about the same gender swatting, Jorgensen said.

Neither Jorgensen, nor the vice principal nor Springtown ISD Superintendent Mike Kelley, was available for comment by ABC News. But according to WFAA, Kelley is going to ask the school board to abolish the same gender policy, since adhering to it can be difficult on some campuses.

Jorgensen told WFAA that she will be at the school board meeting to encourage them not to abolish the same-gender policy.

"I think Taylor is proof that we need to keep that policy," she said. "I don't believe a man intentionally meant to do that to her, but it still happens, because men are too big and strong to be hitting 96-pound girls."

because men are too big and strong to be hitting 96-pound girls."

The hell they aren't.

I foresee a great way to improve discipline and raise badly-needed cash for schools at the same time ... 

[Barrister]

Beer costs nearly twice as much in Canada? Wonder how common it is to hop across the border to stock up.

They charge you duty on anything you bring back.

But it's not uncommon for people to make a trip across the border, stay for a couple nights (after 48 hours you get a duty free exemption) then stock up on beer (and smokes) on the way back.

[Eddie Teach]

He probably did hit her too hard. To keep that from happening in the future, they should have teachers use hands instead of paddles.

[Jacob]

USA! USA! USA!

[Zanza]

@Admiral Yi:
You were asking about Germany's church membership rules a day or two ago:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/9563069/German-Catholics-to-be-denied-Communion-under-church-tax-rule.html

[derspiess]

You sure we're talking about the same thing?  Or do you eat a whole slab of watermelon at a time?

I'm talking about those watermelon cubes sold in plastic boxes (or fruit salad bars).

Then we're not talking about the same thing.  I'll take a picture next time I'm at Kroger.