So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Touchofevil]

Boneheads who like to talk loudly early in the morning while outside with whoever is around. They have no idea how loud they are. They do not realize that their conversations across the street with each other are at a level most call yelling. Anyone know of a desert island for sale?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Whenever I think of guns shooting off on the Fourth of July I think of poor Barney Doyle, who, on July 4, 1950, was settling down in his seat at the Polo Grounds in New York alongside the 8-year-old son of a friend when he suddenly choked and fell over dead. He'd been hit by a bullet fired off a rooftop on Edgecombe Avenue, overlooking the ballpark, by a kid just fooling around with a gun. His bullet went up and out over Coogan's Bluff and plunged down into a ballpark filled with 50,000 people, and hit Barney square in the head, killing him instantly.

The game went on, and after they took poor Barney away, fans fought over his empty seat.

 

[Fading Fast]

Here's something I don't get to write everyday, the gunfire in NYC have gone down significantly in the almost 30 years (interrupted by an eight-year sojourn in Boston) that I've lived here. Also, rarely do we have any "personal" fireworks issues. The gunfire is down - at least we're told - do to more effective policing and, IMHO, individuals using fireworks has never really been an issue as there is almost no place to do it that wouldn't provoke an immediate response. Most social pathologies are worse in major cities - and other cities have their gunfire issues as do some remote and very dangerous parts of NYC today - but, overall, that's one that has fortunately gotten better over the past several decades.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I don't know about the gun laws in Maine... but I suspect that the mental prowess of the average resident there doesn't far exceed that of those here. You may be playing that game already and dont even realize it. I'm constantly in awe at the lack of understanding of how gravity works. Bullets fired into the air will eventually return to earth, something that $300 worth of windshield for my truck can attest to. And while the firecrackers (as they're known in the local vernacular) are a constant year round, the further in time from any given holiday, the more likely it's gunfire aroud here. The game then is "are they shooting up in the air or at each other?"

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A few years back on the 5th of July I found a bullet on the ground when I worked in Gary.

 

[3fingers]

A few years back on the 5th of July I found a bullet on the ground when I worked in Gary.

In Gary you were fortunate to not find the bullet attached to a body.

 

[Zombie_61]

Boneheads who like to talk loudly early in the morning while outside with whoever is around. They have no idea how loud they are. They do not realize that their conversations across the street with each other are at a level most call yelling. Anyone know of a desert island for sale?

In our neighborhood the boneheads are usually drunks leaving a party thrown in one of the houses across the street, and "early in the morning" is anywhere between midnight and 5:00 a.m.. And as a bonus parting gift, they either throw their empty beer bottles on our front lawn or leave them on the sidewalk or in the gutter.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to live across the street from a guy whose habit was to walk down to the corner at 5 am and buy a pack of really cheap and disgusting cigars, and then sit there on his stoop and smoke them -- which smoke drifted across the street and into my open bedroom window. Once the stench woke me up, I could listen to him muttering "I'm gonna kill that SOB, I'm gonna cut his f'ing throat, that no good rotten f'er." for the next two hours, until it was time for him to go to work. I hope he had a nice day at his job.

 

[Touchofevil]

In our neighborhood the boneheads are usually drunks leaving a party thrown in one of the houses across the street, and "early in the morning" is anywhere between midnight and 5:00 a.m.. And as a bonus parting gift, they either throw their empty beer bottles on our front lawn or leave them on the sidewalk or in the gutter.

Yeah, neighbors!
You really need that island more than I do.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Happened upon a local news story about fireworks and gunshots. An elderly man got into an argument with his neighbors about how loud they were being with their fireworks. He got his gun. The neighbor started shooting.

Yeah. The police said it basically boiled down to idiocy all around.

 

[dh66]

Happened upon a local news story about fireworks and gunshots. An elderly man got into an argument with his neighbors about how loud they were being with their fireworks. He got his gun. The neighbor started shooting.

Yeah. The police said it basically boiled down to idiocy all around.

All around. No doubt.

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[Zombie_61]

Happened upon a local news story about fireworks and gunshots. An elderly man got into an argument with his neighbors about how loud they were being with their fireworks. He got his gun. The neighbor started shooting.

Yeah. The police said it basically boiled down to idiocy all around.

If you think about it, if you're planning to shoot someone the Fourth of July in an "active" neighborhood is a good opportunity--no one would even notice the sound of the gunshot.

 

[Paisley]

Here's something I don't get to write everyday, the gunfire in NYC have gone down significantly in the almost 30 years (interrupted by an eight-year sojourn in Boston) that I've lived here. Also, rarely do we have any "personal" fireworks issues. The gunfire is down - at least we're told - do to more effective policing and, IMHO, individuals using fireworks has never really been an issue as there is almost no place to do it that wouldn't provoke an immediate response. Most social pathologies are worse in major cities - and other cities have their gunfire issues as do some remote and very dangerous parts of NYC today - but, overall, that's one that has fortunately gotten better over the past several decades.

I read in the book Triumph of the City that NYC added 45,000 more police officers in the 90s.

Here in Indianapolis, the air smells like a shooting range on the Fourth of July.

 

[EngProf]

If you think about it, if you're planning to shoot someone the Fourth of July in an "active" neighborhood is a good opportunity--no one would even notice the sound of the gunshot.

I had intentions to do that (almost). I used to do a lot of target-shooting at my mother's house - off the carport and into the hillside.
It has become somewhat more "built-up" in that neighborhood, so I can't do that anymore, or at least I choose not to.
I was planning on the Fourth to do a bit of shooting for old times sake, under cover of the fireworks, but unfortunately got distracted and did not get around to it.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Just as annoying to me are the dunderheads who park in front of my house when the are visiting one of the neighbors. It becomes more annoying when they park in the middle so that they are the only car that can fit in front of the house. Quite often this will happen even when there are no cars in front of the house being visited.

I wish I could find it online but it reminds me of an old FBI surveillance photo I once saw of a meeting of Mob bosses. The photo shows the street outside of the meeting place full of Caddys and Lincolns double and triple parked and even parked on the sidewalk!

 

[Hercule]

We recently made a modest donation ($100 actually) to my son's school for which we received a thank you post card! I've been on a slow simmer about that ever since getting it in the mail last week. We pay full tuition out of pocket to attend that school, and contributing yet more is something that we consider very long and very carefully before we do it, so to have gotten a postcard in appreciation sets my blood to boil. Am I wrong to think that such a response is wholly inadequate if not downright offensive?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Would you rather the school staff spend its time -- and your money -- hand-writing full thank-you letters to every single donor? Or would you rather that staff spend its time and money doing what a school is supposed to do?

Every charity thank you I've ever gotten -- with the exception of events where I've performed as opposed to just sending money -- has been either a post-card or a form letter. No big whoop.

 

[GHT]

We recently made a modest donation ($100 actually) to my son's school for which we received a thank you post card! I've been on a slow simmer about that ever since getting it in the mail last week. We pay full tuition out of pocket to attend that school, and contributing yet more is something that we consider very long and very carefully before we do it, so to have gotten a postcard in appreciation sets my blood to boil. Am I wrong to think that such a response is wholly inadequate if not downright offensive?

Lizzie makes a good point, and at the risk of inflaming your close to boiling blood, giving to charity, any charity, is without condition. So if you get a response, even if it's a round robin, you've had a result, I would have thought.

 

[scottyrocks]

Acknowledgment is always a good thing, afaic.

 

[Hercule]

re: "Would you rather the school staff spend its time -- and your money -- hand-writing full thank-you letters to every single donor? Or would you rather that staff spend its time and money doing what a school is supposed to do?"

The school (it is not a charity) has a full time development person. Do you not think respectfully replying to a donor is a part of their job? I take issue with the informality (which to me is very disrespectful in this case) of a pre-printed post card. While a form/mail-merge fill in the blank letter is not much different, it certainly affords a much better appearance of appreciation. And yes, I am fickle enough to have expected it in this case. It's the little things that have more meaning than you often realize. I am very likely to insist that we NOT donate again for this very reason.

Bottom line, if you would have been happy with the response, well, good for you. I wasn't.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, that's certainly your perogative. Me, I'd much rather get a friendly, informal post card and know that the organization is using its resources for actual operational expenses than get any kind of a stuffy, formal letter -- I'd actually find the latter cold, sterile, and offensive.

Plus the cards are usually more attractive anyway -- I have one sitting on my desk right now thanking us for our support of our local Roller Derby team, and it amuses me in a way that a letter never could.