Absolutely Anything Else

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
No, Hawaii isn't in Asia but you'd never know .
In some places the only thing American is the flag flying over the post office.


And of course, the British flag is - in a small way - also flying over the place...

State Flag of Hawaii

In my time wasting/thumb twiddling today, I checked the Eastern boundary of Asia and it seems to stop near Malaysia as part of the continent but clearly just past Japan, it stops being Asia and then becomes Oceania.  So Hawaii is Oceania rather than Asia. 

But to some people might confuse the subject by saying, what about Australia?  According to my idle and cursory research, Australia is its own continent and therefore is not Asia.

fluffy2560 wrote:
Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
No, Hawaii isn't in Asia but you'd never know .
In some places the only thing American is the flag flying over the post office.


And of course, the British flag is - in a small way - also flying over the place...

State Flag of Hawaii

In my time wasting/thumb twiddling today, I checked the Eastern boundary of Asia and it seems to stop near Malaysia as part of the continent but clear just past Japan, it stops being Asia and then becomes Oceania.  So Hawaii is Oceania rather than Asia. 

But to some people might confuse the subject by saying, what about Australia?  According to my idle and cursory research, Australia is its own continent and therefore is not Asia.


Well there we go, it is patently on the edge of a tectonic plate as they have volcanos erupting all the time, etc... yes it is probably as far from Asia as you can get, in one sense, except that you kinda come back round again, what with the world being roughly spherical.

It's got to be about half way between say Japan and California, I deliberately am not checking, so it was not a bad guess. It was a WRONG guess but not a bad one.

I always wonder whether to go onto a BBC quiz show or something, I was on some when I was a kid, but just the kiddy ones. I would either win the thing amazingly or completely bomb. I have a head full of useless knowledge, and don't know anything useful at all.

fluffy2560 wrote:
Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
No, Hawaii isn't in Asia but you'd never know .
In some places the only thing American is the flag flying over the post office.


And of course, the British flag is - in a small way - also flying over the place...

State Flag of Hawaii
.


Hehehe yes. WE DESIGNED YOUR FLAG. GET A NEW ONE IF YOU DONT LIKE IT.

It is also, the Union Jack, on the Australian flag that we designed, the New Zealand flag that we designed, the Samoan flag that we designed, and various others. Always in the top quadrant, that is technically called the British Ensign, from when we owned it.

South Africa managed to change their flag but if you can't be bothered it is none of my business any more :)

It is bad enough that everywhere in New England is named after places in England and I have to disambiguate, like Boston is a nice town in Lincolnshire then you find it is a huge city in Massachusetts. STOP DOING THAT. I went to London, Ontario, and London, New York, just for the ride, so I can say I have been to all three Londons. Patently London is in England, it is not difficult until you try to book a flight to London and end up in Canada.

And then just for the fun of it, let's have Ontario in California, Ontario, CA. And CA is the booking code for flights to Canada. Well that is extremely helpful, or not. JUST STOP NAMING THINGS AFTER OTHER PLACES. I mean, you are not short of names are you. Las Vegas, is not named after anything but itself.

There is probably a Budapest somewhere in the US I am going to check that now and tell you yes or no,

According to Wikipedia there is one in Georgia (handliy named after King George III, when we owned it), and one in Missouri. STOP DOING IT. I will end up on a transatlantic flight to Missouri when I want to get home, please stop doing it :)

Well Las Vegas means the stars, roughly, but it is not as if it is a town in Glouceteshire. It comes from Mexican Spanish, if I remember correctly. From when THEY owned it.

I wonder what other people get for ads on here. We come here for free so we have to accept ads, I have no problem with that. I get loads for currency transfers at the moment. I have no currency to transfer, but that is what they advertise to me. And then if I mention, for example, a hoover, I start getting adverts for vacuum cleaners. If I mention Herbert Hoover, the US president and inventor of the vacuum cleaner, I expect I will now get more ads for vacuum cleaners. I have a vacuum cleaner. I just cleaned it.

My wife has an annoying habit of using it around the house and making it dirty, so I have to clean it. If she didn't use it on the carpets etc, it would stay nice 'n' clean and I wouldn't have to keep cleaning it out.

It is the law of he conservation of filth, you cannot make something clean wihout making something else dirty. She is always hoovering stuff up and then I have to clean the hoover... it is a vicious recycle.

I was up all last night as I have insomnia, won' kill me but is a bit of a nuisance, and the infomercials, two in a row, were for mattresses. Both were the best in the world. Besides that not being possible, I have a mattress, that was a darn sight more expensive than these foam ones they were advertising, because I want a nice sprung mattress. Which fits my bed, and is absolutely lovely, and cost a lot of money.

These foam mattresses may be OK for some people but don' suit me, I want an old fashioned sprung matress made in the proper old fashioned way.

I should also like a old fashioned millionaire.

I cannot stand smartphones. I am actually capable of writing sentences in English, and I am typing on a Hungarian layout, I have been touch typing since I was seven years old, I am now forty-six, because my aunt was a typist for ICI at Barons Court in London, her typewriter is sitting right here next to me and I have cleaned it all up and got everything working.

My wife also learned touch typing as a trade, and taught it, so I do not need to be told how to type. These stupid smartphones are always second guessing me, and it takes me longer to correct THEIR guesses than if I just had it in the first place what I was typing.

It is incredibly frustrating for me. I know what I was going to say, I know how to spell, leave me alone and stop "correcting" me that is not a correction at all, if I say "sow" instead of "how", I mean "sow" not "how", I am not stupid. I am referring to a female pig not an effing ablative, leave me alone.

I just find it incredibly frustrating.

My mate Barnus from across the street, asked to borrow twenty the other day, which I was glad to lend him. He is a lovely man, although rather deaf and for some reason talks to me in German, which I don't understand.

He paid it back Sunday, that is how honourable he is, that the first thing he did, his pension was a bit late or something, was come round to pay it back.

He even asked us how much interest do we want. Well, none, of course, it is mate's rates.

But Shakespeare wrote "Neither a lender nor a borrower be", I only believe half of that. I don't borrow money, I pay everything flat. But I lend to friends and neighbours and you work out quite quickly who you can trust.

I give them one chance. I have been stiffed and lost money, but then I know exactly what I am dealing with, and not just for the loan, I know the kind of man you are now. And Barnus paid us back the very second he had the money.

I had told him, you can pay me back in January or February or March or whenever, but he paid me back the second he had the money. That is the kind of man he is. I told him, whenever, you are welcome, just ask. He is on a limited income with a pension, we think, it is not our business, but it is kinda a very hard thing to ask someone else for money, it is embarrassing. He is welcome to it, I wasn't actually wanting it back.

And that is where you find the good in people. He paid back money I didn't even ask for. Thanks, but you could have just kept it Barnus, you lend me your lawnmower, and other stuff, so it is just me paying back to you, really.

He drives a car, we don't  have a car, and want to get a water butt and it is light and bulky so will probably ask him to give us a lift to the DIY store as on the bus it would be a right nuisance. He will do that and we will give him a roast dinner or something, that is how neighbours are supposed to do things.

Or have I got it all wrong and I am supposed to be evil? Because he isn't and I'm not.

I used to get in as a minor into over 21 clubs using my older sisters college ID.
Now days, forget it.
When we entered the US a few weeks back they took our photo at passport control.
WTF?? Like my passport isn't good enough?
People just walking over the US border with no ID and me getting snapped, my husband had a X ray thing in Budapest at the airport all because he forgot to take all the change out of his pocket.
Maybe Hungary isn't so bad after all...
My friend has health coverage she must pay for and has to wait another 2 months in the US to see her doctor. He had a 2 month refill on call for her at a huge hospital clinic.
She parked, walked for ever waited her turn only to find out the pills were not ready or even ordered for her!
That has never happened to us in Hungary and we don't pay nearly as much for coverage as she does in the US.
Things seem to be falling apart here in the US.
I;ve long ago given up on people pronouncing or spelling my name properly, from my maiden name to my married name hardly anyone gets it right.
Sometimes it's so messed up that when I am being called I have no idea what they are saying.
Had a slavic maiden name that everyone butchered, now in the US they do not pronounce the ssy as they do in Hungary.
I'm over it, rose by any other name does smell as sweet.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I'm over it, rose by any other name does smell as sweet.


Blimey, Marilyn, I was not expecting you to start quoting Shakespeare....

I like a nice rose, I have not found good varieties for around here, English ones don't seem to do so well. I got some a couple of years ago but they failed, so I think I am going to have to buy some Hungarian variety.

I am not that familiar with Hungarian varieties so this is going to be a struggle for me, but I need to make a garden, at the moment it is more a parking lot. I have lots of concrete kinda tubs, planters, so that is fine but I don't know what to put in them, maybe some bulbs to come out in Feb or March next year, some daffs narcissus maybe, but some roses some climbers would be good on the wall. I have what in English we would call a hornbeam in the Garden, I am not sure it is quite the same but has white bark that is flaking off, obviously this time of year it is losing all its leaves too, i am not sure what it is.

This is my problem I would know what these things are in England but they will be different varieties or species here in Hungary. I know what a rose is, and I know what the word is, rósa, not tricky, but that if I get an English rose it won't sit well in my kert, it doesn't like it, I have tried it.

The English will garden the gates of Hell if you let them :) but I have only just made a start.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Had a slavic maiden name that everyone butchered


I thought I was the only person who said that... I edited my parish church newsletter for eight years and would say that I was "butchering the copy", I thought I was the only person who said that. Yeah, you butcher it, although presumably you don't make it a complete shambles?

My cousin and his wife kept on telling me how "smart" I was, have no clue why they mentioned that several times...Perhaps they were expecting some dim wit cousin with no manners?!
My cousin looks more like I do then my 2 brothers do.
Odd, he kept mentioning how much I looked like his mom, that's hard because she is gone.
Good to finally know however that  my high cheek bones, square jaw and longish sort of face are from my father's  side.
The intense dark eyes are totally native American.

My HU MIL was an expert at gardening, she loved her roses and would make new varieties of her own.
Had fun today, went gambling and drinking beers, so American of me!
My beer however was from Holland.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

My HU MIL was an expert at gardening, she loved her roses and would make new varieties of her own.
Had fun today, went gambling and drinking beers, so American of me!
My beer however was from Holland.


ű

You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think :) - Dorothy parker if I remember correctly.

The Netherlands do some very nice beers, they, the Belgians and British have still retained kinda this traditional brewing style where everywhere else is just lager. The IPAs that Dreher and Soproni do are quite nice though, I like a dark beer like Demon too, but really it is just a lager that has caramel color e140d in it, it is not brewed as a dark beer.

The problem with the IPAs here is that they put too much carbon dioxide in them. Not only does this mean that half the time I lose a third of it over the carpet, to my wife's infinite pleasure, but it is just too fizzy. I know there is this stereotype of British beers being flat, but they are not really flat, it is just they are naturally fermented in the barrel and not gassy a such, a bit smoother and more subtle.

With Guinness etc the "widget" in the bottom of the can contains nitrogen and that produces much finer bubbles than carbon dioxide does, perhaps they should use that.

To be honest I am very impressed with the IPAs that have seemed to become popular over the last couple of years, but it is not quite the same just because it is not cask conditioned.

When you let the beer continue to ferment in the barrel, you seem to get a "sweet spot" we used to call it about half way through, where it is absolutely perfect. We used to have our dray on a Monday, so by Wednesday or Thursday (the barrels were firkins i.e. 9 gallons) you just get this lovely spot where the beer tastes like heaven. It tastes fine all the other time too, of course, that's my job, but it just somehow tastes a bit better about three days after it is delivered and racked. My customers would notice this, and mention it, of course I was behind the bar so wasn't drinking myself (well I would have the occasional half pint if a customer bought me one, or a taster genuinely to check quality, but that was it)

Oddly enough I was actually offered to run the Royal British Legion's club in a village near me, but unfortunately I could not afford to do it, I would be out of pocket by a long chalk and much as I like the Legion I just couldn't afford it. They have an enormous dance floor there, which at that time was barely used, now with the popularity of Strictly Come Dancing I bet it is packed, Hope so anyway.

I think in Aldi or Lidl they do a kriek, that is raspberry flavoured beer. In the Netherlands it is kinda the traditional woman's drink, it is a bit sweet for my taste, I like very bitter beer. My wife doesn't drink so there is no point getting it for her.

Lidl I think it was also had imported a load of English bottled beers I imagine Shephard Neame export them as they seem to look after a lot of that now, although they were not all Shephard Neame's beers so must be some deal. They were 3000 for six half-litre bottles, so 500 a bottle. That is a bit steep for a domestic beer, but I think quite good value for a genuinely imported beer, and these are bottle conditioned i.e. have sediment at the bottom and continue to mature in the bottle.

As the mature they become a bit more alcoholic, but that is not really the point - if I wanted something more alcoholic I would get a bottle of vodka.

Please, though, everyone, do not drink and drive. I did it once, and had a crash, and the consequences were very serious. Fortunately the only thing that got hurt was metal, but I could have killed someone, and I know I did the wrong thing. Yes I paid the price in court, and had my licence revoked, but that is not the point. I could have killed someone and I would have to spend every day with that on my shoulders.

Please don't drink and drive. Get the bus, get a taxi. I like a drink, and I am the first to admit it, but I don't own a car, I have no possibility of drinking and driving. Please just don't even think about it.

The safe limit for driving is ZERO. Whatever the legal limit is, that is the safe limit, ZERO. I was stupid, and I took people's keys off of them when they had had a drink in my pub, and ordered them a taxi and drove their car home at the end of my shift.

Just don't do it. Not only can you lose your licence, like I did, you could kill someone - and that is far more important than a bit of paper.

SimonTrew wrote:

The Netherlands do some very nice beers, they, the Belgians and British have still retained kinda this traditional brewing style where everywhere else is just lager.


What did it for the US was prohibition... the US had lots of little breweries before that, then it was banned of course, then afterwards the huge companies like Anheuser-Busch just took over before the small breweries could get established again. Budweiser, a beer made from rice, no wonder it tastes rubbish. You make beer from yeast, hops, barley, water. Not rice.

I particularly like though the one time I went to Las Vegas they offer you free beer if you play on the tables long enough. Yes, madam, I would like something to impair my judgment, I'll have a Sam Adams...

fluffy2560 wrote:
Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
No, Hawaii isn't in Asia but you'd never know .
In some places the only thing American is the flag flying over the post office.


And of course, the British flag is - in a small way - also flying over the place...

State Flag of Hawaii

In my time wasting/thumb twiddling today, I checked the Eastern boundary of Asia and it seems to stop near Malaysia as part of the continent but clearly just past Japan, it stops being Asia and then becomes Oceania.  So Hawaii is Oceania rather than Asia. 

But to some people might confuse the subject by saying, what about Australia?  According to my idle and cursory research, Australia is its own continent and therefore is not Asia.


Which also has a Union Jack on its flag... but I think they used to call it Australasia and that includes New Zealand and fiddly bits like Tasmania, which used to be called Van Diemen's Land, according to my atlas, whoever he was.

There is a great deal of difference
between biography and geography.
Geography is about maps
and Biography is about chaps.

That is a clerihew, named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley,
who evidently,
invented a verse form of wit,
and this is it.

(Biography for beginners)

Sir Humphrey Davy
Detested gravy
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium

I love clerihews, they are quite easy to just make up on the spot

Simon Trew
Sits on a pew
And prattles on expat
And says it is just that

Or whatever you want, you can make them on the spot.

The thing I like about Fluffy
is that he is not very stuffy
He will chat about things
be it angles or strings
And it always turns out to be bluffy

Hmmm that is more a limerick than a clerihew but it will have to do.

I was born in Welwyn. Now you try telling that to a Hungarian. No, not a Volvo, not a vulva, I was not born in a Volvo, although came out through a vulva, I was born in Welwyn. It is look this is not difficult it is...

I took my missus once to Machynlleth to get my own back. She cannot for the life of her pronounce Machynlleth, which is exactly why I took her there, of course. She can't do the Welsh LL. So of course that is where I am going to take her on summer holiday. Not going to take her to Margate am I.

Although her sister is called Margit and has been to Margate and the pronunciation is cunningly similar, so she sat and was kinda surprised in the opposite way that somebody had named a town after her.

SimonTrew wrote:
fluffy2560 wrote:
Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
No, Hawaii isn't in Asia but you'd never know .
In some places the only thing American is the flag flying over the post office.


And of course, the British flag is - in a small way - also flying over the place...

State Flag of Hawaii

In my time wasting/thumb twiddling today, I checked the Eastern boundary of Asia and it seems to stop near Malaysia as part of the continent but clearly just past Japan, it stops being Asia and then becomes Oceania.  So Hawaii is Oceania rather than Asia. 

But to some people might confuse the subject by saying, what about Australia?  According to my idle and cursory research, Australia is its own continent and therefore is not Asia.


Which also has a Union Jack on its flag... but I think they used to call it Australasia and that includes New Zealand and fiddly bits like Tasmania, which used to be called Van Diemen's Land, according to my atlas, whoever he was.

There is a great deal of difference
between biography and geography.
Geography is about maps
and Biography is about chaps.

That is a clerihew, named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley,
who evidently,
invented a verse form of wit,
and this is it.

(Biography for beginners)

Sir Humphrey Davy
Detested gravy
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium

I love clerihews, they are quite easy to just make up on the spot

Simon Trew
Sits on a pew
And prattles on expat
And says it is just that

Or whatever you want, you can make them on the spot.


I always hated poetry, not sure why maybe because in grade school they forced us to make up a haiku.
My one cousin is very funny and witty and often makes up verses on the spot.
Not me.
I tried and tried in high school to impress people by carrying around books of poetry, Dumb.
Never could get past page one.
I love reading history or bio books but poetry bores me to death.
I only know one poem, a poem my sister told me when I was about 10 years old.
It goes, " You're a poet but you don't know it, your feet are Longfellows!" I would of changed the ending to , "Your feet smell like Longfellows!"

Marilyn Tassy wrote:
SimonTrew wrote:
fluffy2560 wrote:


And of course, the British flag is - in a small way - also flying over the place...

State Flag of Hawaii

In my time wasting/thumb twiddling today, I checked the Eastern boundary of Asia and it seems to stop near Malaysia as part of the continent but clearly just past Japan, it stops being Asia and then becomes Oceania.  So Hawaii is Oceania rather than Asia. 

But to some people might confuse the subject by saying, what about Australia?  According to my idle and cursory research, Australia is its own continent and therefore is not Asia.


Which also has a Union Jack on its flag... but I think they used to call it Australasia and that includes New Zealand and fiddly bits like Tasmania, which used to be called Van Diemen's Land, according to my atlas, whoever he was.

There is a great deal of difference
between biography and geography.
Geography is about maps
and Biography is about chaps.

That is a clerihew, named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley,
who evidently,
invented a verse form of wit,
and this is it.

(Biography for beginners)

Sir Humphrey Davy
Detested gravy
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium

I love clerihews, they are quite easy to just make up on the spot

Simon Trew
Sits on a pew
And prattles on expat
And says it is just that

Or whatever you want, you can make them on the spot.


I always hated poetry, not sure why maybe because in grade school they forced us to make up a haiku.
My one cousin is very funny and witty and often makes up verses on the spot.
Not me.
I tried and tried in high school to impress people by carrying around books of poetry, Dumb.
Never could get past page one.
I love reading history or bio books but poetry bores me to death.
I only know one poem, a poem my sister told me when I was about 10 years old.
It goes, " You're a poet but you don't know it, your feet are Longfellows!" I would of changed the ending to , "Your feet smell like Longfellows!"


See, I even buggled that poem up,
It's" You're a poet but you don't know it, your feet sure show it, the're Longfellows.
Good grief, who even thought that one up?
Not sure why the above statement has several, &quot: written, not my work at all.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

...I always hated poetry, not sure why maybe because in grade school they forced us to make up a haiku.
My one cousin is very funny and witty and often makes up verses on the spot.
Not me.
I tried and tried in high school to impress people by carrying around books of poetry, Dumb.
Never could get past page one.
I love reading history or bio books but poetry bores me to death....


I'm with you on that. I also hated poetry in school.  But it's now a maybe. Perhaps a better description that I underappreciated it. 

Unfortunately I was quite good at remembering it and still can drag up the odd quotation.  Maybe that's just school education doing its job.   

As I got away from school, I actually came to like poetry in the form of song lyrics and from that came to appreciate modern poetry or literature as social commentary or representing a or the human condition.  Even rap or rock music or grunge can be  easily accessible poetry. 

What can stir the interest in me is the message behind it carried in the wordsmithing.  But it's got to be the good stuff. Like wine, there's a big difference between the good stuff and banality*.

Take the classic song - The Bad Touch - by The Bloodhound Gang.

You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
(Do it again now)
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
.....

I'd even throw in Lady Gaga - Poker Face

I won't tell you that I love you, kiss, or hug you
'Cause I'm bluffin' with my muffin
I'm not lying, I'm just stunnin' with my love-glue-gunning
Just like a chick in the casino
Take your bank before I pay you out
I promise this, promise this
.....

Classic modern poetry set to music.  Too many examples to go on further!

* cf.  at worst case: attention seeking people who think they are poets.

Don't get me started or let me date myself but rap is crap!
I have honestly not listened to a "modern' song all the way through unless I was forced to while shopping or stuck in a lift.
What ever happened to talent?
Nat King Cole, or Billy Holiday?
They were way ahead of my day but they still are revolent.
Ok, I may be dated, still think Foghat, Kings, Cream, and of course my Stones are the best of the best.
I'm stuck in the music area of late 50's to mid 80's.
Even rap lovers probably don't even give ,"props" to Run DMC.
They seem clueless, just seems the more bass there is the better they believe the song is. Horrors.

Took a wonderful swim yesterday, my husband warned me to not catch a cold.
How does he always know?
Woke up this morning with a cold and headache.
Weather is still super sunny here but windy and allot cooler. In the low 50's.
Walked from the swimming complex to the car with wet hair wrapped in a towel.
Now I must stay in isolation to not get anyone else in home ill.
It's frustrating at times to know you have some physical limits.
Yesterday I was ready to sign myself up for adult swim lessons and now the thought of water is making my head swim.
Loads of tea with ginger and lemon, vitamin C, and rest, so boring to get ill.
My friend who had her spine rebuilt last month is at the moment like a baby, can't walk by herself yet, has assistants coming into her home to help care for her.
She developed a septic infection in her wound and has it opened with some sort of pump attached to her to keep in sanitary,
Open wound from her neck to her the top of her bottom.
Good thing is she told me she is now 2 inches taller!
She used to be only 5'10" tall, not sure why she needs those extra inches.
I rang her up last week, sounded like she was in allot of pain. Afraid the cure is worst then the affliction.
Hope she doesn't develop a drug habit now.
I should be happy I only have a head cold, things could be much worst.

SimonTrew wrote:

I wonder what other people get for ads on here. We come here for free so we have to accept ads, I have no problem with that. I get loads for currency transfers at the moment. I have no currency to transfer, but that is what they advertise to me. And then if I mention, for example, a hoover, I start getting adverts for vacuum cleaners. If I mention Herbert Hoover, the US president and inventor of the vacuum cleaner, I expect I will now get more ads for vacuum cleaners. I have a vacuum cleaner. I just cleaned it.

My wife has an annoying habit of using it around the house and making it dirty, so I have to clean it. If she didn't use it on the carpets etc, it would stay nice 'n' clean and I wouldn't have to keep cleaning it out.

It is the law of he conservation of filth, you cannot make something clean wihout making something else dirty. She is always hoovering stuff up and then I have to clean the hoover... it is a vicious recycle.

I was up all last night as I have insomnia, won' kill me but is a bit of a nuisance, and the infomercials, two in a row, were for mattresses. Both were the best in the world. Besides that not being possible, I have a mattress, that was a darn sight more expensive than these foam ones they were advertising, because I want a nice sprung mattress. Which fits my bed, and is absolutely lovely, and cost a lot of money.

These foam mattresses may be OK for some people but don' suit me, I want an old fashioned sprung matress made in the proper old fashioned way.


Having insomnia is a ,"nightmare". Excuse the pun.
I had it when I worked night shift, hard to go to bed a 6 am when the world is waking up.

My son bought a nice sort of memory foam mattress for himself, he likes it allot.

My older sister and her ex husband bought a very expensive mattress.
One of those where you can dial a number for how hard or soft each person wants it.
She just couldn't find a comfy number for herself.
In the end she got rid of her husband and slept like a baby.

Everyone thinks I'm crazy but when I am visiting my boy I sleep like a baby on my $11. Walmart camping air mattress. Only down side is we have to blow it  up firmer every few days.
i love it, sleep on the floor, can stash it away during the day and have the room to myself during waking hours.
My husband enjoys the queen size bed but no queen spends the night there, like a king of old, he doesn't have to share his chambers with a snoring old wind bag.
We both sleep great in our own rooms.
When we were younger hearing about people with different bedrooms in marriage seemed so odd to me, now I know, some people toss and turn and wake up the other person, mattress doesn';t matter as much a peace and quite do.

On a different subject,
Just how painful is it to witness a stupid person in public and not respond or raise your eyebrows?
Yesterday we drove over to a large shopping area in the busy afternoon.
Went to Seafood City for a few items which is a new shop near a huge Walmart Super Center.
Parked between the seafood shop and the Walmart parking areas in the huge lot.
It was super windy outside and many lazy people do not but their shopping carts /trollies  in the secure space to keep them from rolling around the parking lot area.
We pulled into a space and noticed the car next to us had a cart loose on one side. Just then the owner of the car came with another cart.
She, ( a older Asian women in her 60's) put her things in her car but instead of walking just 10 feet directly behind her to put the cart in it's proper area she placed her empty cart almost directly in front of her own car.
Super windy outside so at any moment the carts could roll anywhere.
We were about to exit our car when she started her car up and then looked over at us with the expression of, Help on her silly face.
She seemed to be wanting me to go over and move her cart from in front of her car.
No way, I'll help a stranger but not a dummy like that.
Instead of getting out and moving the cart she spent several mins trying to avoid hitting it while she drove face out of her parking space.
I walked away from her instead of anywhere near her.
Thought to myself, WTF too dumb to even realize she was blocking herself let alone not even thinking of it rolling into another car.
People sometimes I do wonder what is in the water?
Came out of the shop , we were carrying our bags and didn't use a cart. Still, I had to move a cart from the side of our car ,
maybe the system in Hungary is better, pay to use a cart and hopefully greed will make people return it for their deposit fee.
Many times I've collected a few rolling carts in, lots and put them where they belong, for some reason that women just got under my skin, no way was I about to help her when it was all her own fault.
And yes, it appeared she was a Walmart Shopper! God save us from Walmart Shoppers!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
Thought to myself, WTF too dumb to even realize she was blocking herself let alone not even thinking of it rolling into another car.
People sometimes I do wonder what is in the water?
Came out of the shop , we were carrying our bags and didn't use a cart. Still, I had to move a cart from the side of our car ,
maybe the system in Hungary is better, pay to use a cart and hopefully greed will make people return it for their deposit fee.
Many times I've collected a few rolling carts in, lots and put them where they belong, for some reason that women just got under my skin, no way was I about to help her when it was all her own fault.
And yes, it appeared she was a Walmart Shopper! God save us from Walmart Shoppers!


That deposit scheme with coins to unlock isn't universal in HU.  They don't have coin ones in Ikea and I've never seen trolleys just dumped in the car park.  People seem to always put them back.  It might be a cultural thing or just the idea that it might damage one's car as you drive out.

In the UK they often put them back although some of them do eventually end up in the local canal. I saw a TV report and where they said a shopping trolley costs about $350 each!

Maybe each large shop like Ikea has 100 of them.

That's a lot of money not to look after!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
What ever happened to talent?
Nat King Cole, or Billy Holiday?
They were way ahead of my day but they still are revolent.
Ok, I may be dated, still think Foghat, Kings, Cream, and of course my Stones are the best of the best.
I'm stuck in the music area of late 50's to mid 80's.
Even rap lovers probably don't even give ,"props" to Run DMC.
They seem clueless, just seems the more bass there is the better they believe the song is. Horrors.


Oh, I dunno, there's talent all over as The Voice and those kind of TV programmes illustrate. Some of the singers on those shows are superb. 

Even RunDMC with Aerosmith was a good record - Walk This Way...rockin' song.   It's got to be their greatest hit.  I suppose it's not poetry but it works with the music.   Could be about shopping trolleys rather than high school love as it's the music more than the words.

Despite the popularity of the song, Steven Tylerhas to be one of the ugliest dudes walking the earth. Gene Simmons has to be in that club too - but maybe gets some extra points as he can speak Hungarian.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Just how painful is it to witness a stupid person in public and not respond or raise your eyebrows?


Not an example of stupid. More an example of egocentric behavior.

Which can get ugly fast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhTAtJSZkrc

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

maybe the system in Hungary is better, pay to use a cart and hopefully greed will make people return it for their deposit fee.


Not just in Hungary. The system is all over continental Europe.

My only problem with this system is I never seem to have the right coin to fit into the slot. Then I got  plastic "coins" from Obi that I carry now that seems to work in most of these carts. Of course, those defeat the "cost" and greed issue since I got the Obi "coin" for free. So there is always a way around any system.

Good God man! What did I just watch on U Tube?!
Lamo, people are so weird sometimes.
It's true ego is the root of all evil and stupidity.
People do not want to take any correction or follow any rules of logic.

All my Ca. peeps are freaking out right now with all those fires in Ca.
From up North to South it's all fires.
My SIL spent over 4 1/2 hours trying to get home from work in S. Ca 2 days ago.
Last night their internet and cable were out, power was off and on.
On top of that they live very close to the shooting in the bar where 12 or 13 people died a couple days back.
Looks like someone or something is burning Ca. down to make room for something else.
My cousin moved back to the states just a few months ago, his plan was to stay in the US for good.
He now has plans to return to SE Asia forever, he has had enough in just a couple of months.
His wife from the Philippines was all excited to move to the US, she doesn't like it at all.
She says the American women are too much for her.
Sort of sad, he says in 2 years and 4 months he is leaving, guess he spent too much money moving home and needs some time to re coop his losses.
They both have nothing but headaches everyday from the air in New Mexico, chemtrail spraying and high altitude.
We always felt odd in NM too. It is 5,500 feet above sea level and takes allot of time to get used to the thin air.
They spray the air very heavy daily here in Las Vegas, much more so then they did a few years ago.
Can't even see the mountains some days because the air is so thick and misty with spray.
Forget seeing the stars at night.
Makes me wonder what is going on here, what are they trying to hide with all this spraying or are they not hiding anything any longer and don't care if we know they are up to something fishy.
I know many people don't really wish to see what's going on but here it is so obvious that the skies are not normal at all.

klsallee wrote:

....

Which can get ugly fast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhTAtJSZkrc


Gluttony and greed are universal and comes in many forms.

See this legendary episode of Peppa Pig where Grampy Rabbit ignores the seriousness of their situation (skip to 2m30s)..

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
They both have nothing but headaches everyday from the air in New Mexico, chemtrail spraying and high altitude.
We always felt odd in NM too. It is 5,500 feet above sea level and takes allot of time to get used to the thin air.
They spray the air very heavy daily here in Las Vegas, much more so then they did a few years ago.
Can't even see the mountains some days because the air is so thick and misty with spray.
Forget seeing the stars at night.
Makes me wonder what is going on here, what are they trying to hide with all this spraying or are they not hiding anything any longer and don't care if we know they are up to something fishy.
I know many people don't really wish to see what's going on but here it is so obvious that the skies are not normal at all.


Sounds more like smog.

I've recently came back from Asia and in that particular country I was visiting,  the main city is in a valley surrounded by mountains and at about 3000 ft ASL (above sea level).  Electricity is produced by burning relatively unclean coal and there lots of cars.  It's a  very cold place, dry and also very sunny.   It's a perfect combination for smog.

I looked out of my hotel window -25+ floors - and there was this yellowish thick layer of cloud across the city. I also had a runny nose and cough for the time I was there.  I went on a field trip to the countryside and the difference in air quality was very noticeable. In the capital, you could almost cut the air with a knife but it was the real stuff up country - oxygen laden and fresh.  It's that typical scenario of intense sunlight

I was in Kosovo many times and they have the same thing there - power station turning out pollution from burning low grade coal.  Within days of arriving you'd get the KK - Kosovo Kough (ok, Cough).  Then when one left, 1 day and it was gone.

True , almost all rock "stars" are on the "ugly "side.
Of course no one if perfect...
Steven Tyler has not aged well at all, won't even mention Keith Richards, dang he did himself in look wise.
Not that he was all that to begin with but dang.
At least his 3rd or perhaps they are his 4th set of teeth look in good shape.

Speaking of gluttony, recently I came across a 500 lbs women on U Tube who  now has over 100,000 subscribers who does nothing but eat and moan, she lives in Las Vegas, of course she is a shut in for the most part.( The comments are also funny at times)
One that made me laugh was ," She is eating for all of Africa"... Perhaps only people my age would find that funny. As children our mom's always made us eat everything on our plate because children where starving in Africa and China. Maybe that's why Americans are so fat, they eat to save the world?
I watched her a few times, just to see the end, could she actually eat a bucket of friend chicken and family size pasta dish and cake in one sitting?
Sort of put one in a trance watching her enjoy every bite of food.
It was disgusting really and sad.
I made one comment on her site saying I couldn't be a subscriber because it was supporting someone hurting themselves, of course my comment was probably deleted.It was like watching a slow kill, just nasty.
Waiting now for a mobile auto repairmen here in Vegas, son found him off of craigslist, one hour late... figures people who have to place adds for work on that site usually don't really want to work.
$50. to come buy for a few mins and have a look-see isn't that shabby, tax free no doubt too.
My bet is he will not show at all, probably opened up a few Coors and decided to watch tv instead.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

True , almost all rock "stars" are on the "ugly "side.
Of course no one if perfect...
Steven Tyler has not aged well at all, won't even mention Keith Richards, dang he did himself in look wise.
Not that he was all that to begin with but dang.
At least his 3rd or perhaps they are his 4th set of teeth look in good shape.


Haha, good call, you're right. I never thought one could have multiple sets of teeth.  Keith Richards is a classic.  Like he's been left to dry out in the desert.  He also has massive ears but seeing as he's 75, I suppose he has an excuse. People's ears get bigger as they get older which in some ways is a contradiction - their hearing gets worse.  My own parents are very deaf now.  I think their ears look bigger because they've shrunk.

See what I mean about Keith - probably too past it for a facelift:

https://nyppagesix.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/keith.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Speaking of gluttony, recently I came across a 500 lbs women on U Tube who  now has over 100,000 subscribers who does nothing but eat and moan, she lives in Las Vegas, of course she is a shut in for the most part.( The comments are also funny at times)
....
I made one comment on her site saying I couldn't be a subscriber because it was supporting someone hurting themselves, of course my comment was probably deleted.It was like watching a slow kill, just nasty.


She's got to be mentally ill.  She needs counselling and treatment by a psychiatrist or even commitment to a psychiatric hospital (they do that for anorexics).  She's just committing suicide in slow motion.  But I do understand how difficult it is to lose weight - I'm no stick insect myself. 

I always thought some Americans were ridiculously overweight was because of driving everywhere. I was looking the other day at somewhere I might have to go randomly to Fort Lauderdale for work purposes and I could see it would be impossible to walk to that office from whichever hotel I had. So I'd have to hire a car or take a taxi which costs more than the car hire.   Anyway, I realised after visiting Miami once or twice that it's very difficult to walk anywhere as it's so hot and possibly even  dangerous to idly saunter around some places.

But I think the overweight thing is mind set, access to cheap (and fat inducing) food and marketing by the likes of McDs.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Waiting now for a mobile auto repairmen here in Vegas, son found him off of craigslist, one hour late... figures people who have to place adds for work on that site usually don't really want to work.
$50. to come buy for a few mins and have a look-see isn't that shabby, tax free no doubt too.
My bet is he will not show at all, probably opened up a few Coors and decided to watch tv instead.


We keep waiting for guys here - the tiler is supposed to come and do guarantee work on his installation.  He pops in whenever the feeling takes him - at the current rate, he puts in about 2h every 6 weeks. I said to Mrs Fluffy, maybe it will be ready in December, and she said, yes, December next year.  Yet another guy is supposed to come and fix some new gutters on the house. These are being custom made as they are "hidden" gutters behind some panels - aesthetic reasons.  But have we seen anyone?  Nope.  Zilch. Nada.

You both are allot more long suffering then we are. F this dude, he never showed up.
In the mean time my  hubby has thought of something else,
You snooze, you lose around here!
We have forgotten that anyone who advertises their skills on craigslist is some sort of low life without a real job.
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

You both are allot more long suffering then we are. F this dude, he never showed up.
In the mean time my  hubby has thought of something else,
You snooze, you lose around here!
We have forgotten that anyone who advertises their skills on craigslist is some sort of low life without a real job.
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for!


Problem is that around here it's a seller's market.  All the workers have cleared off to other countries.

I could do the tiling myself but I've got other stuff to do with time which is either a higher priority or earns me more money than he costs.

So we do the snoozing while we wait and wait.   Zzzzzzz....

Well the mechanic never showed up, no problem, my husband had more time to use his brain power.
I know for a fact he can figure out how to fix it if these "slumps" can fix cars.
He once put together my VW bug with a coat hanger!! Just a temp. fix but it worked until we could do it properly.
Maybe that's a good thing about growing up in old HUngary, if you weren't smart and handy with repairs you had to do without.
I know even if he was a millionaire he would still try to fix anything broken himself first.

Keith Richards never was exactly good looking , always had those huge ears but he had a certain something about him, guess it was sleaze, if one saw a person with his appearance just walking on the st. the smart move would be to run away ASAP.
I personally had a teenage crush on him but dang, not any longer,he reminds one of the devil himself.
In his interviews he doesn't exactly come off as a brain surgeon either.
Allot of dumb things have passed his lips over the years.
Musicians are a breed of their own, my sister dated many of them and  believe me they have ego issues.

Eating issues, known a few young ladies with them.
I for a short time in my teens hung with girls who influenced my eating.
My mom and i used to have huge row over my picking at my dinner.
I took to eating alone and lying about already having eaten.
I have never had a overweight issue  except for being a chubby baby.
Just young women compete in odd ways.
It was getting to the point that I lost my monthly cycle because that's what happens when you are not eating properly.
My mom freaked out, I never mentioned it to her but she figured it out when the female monthly supplies weren't being used.
Took me to the doctor , she thought I might be in trouble... no way wasn't even interested in dating then.
MY mom was so relieved that I was still in tact that the eating issue didn't seem as important to her as that could of been. It became a non issue.
Had a friend who was 5'10" tall and a perfect 140 lbs she refused to eat and went into the hospital. Saw her later in recovery and although she was out of hospital and gaining weight she was still only 98 lbs.
All these young women I knew were A students in school and over achievers , not sure if there is a link with that fact and eating disorders.
I know exactly why I was afraid to  gain weight.
Hate to blame my older sister but yes, it came from her.
She was very pretty and very Mod and slim with perfect long straight hair and  fit the image of the swinging 60's to a tea.
Her husband was also super handsome and cool, I admired them both allot and spent allot of summers with them in their home.
They hardly ever ate anything, I was always a starving teenager when I stayed with them.
Later I realized too late that they both were taking drugs so that's why they never ate.
I thought something was wrong with me wishing to eat normal meals.
Then once they both freaked me out by sitting me down to talk about my weight.
My sister was modeling and always was so perfect in her white jeans and high boots, never any heavy looking areas on her.
They forgot I was only 14 and still growing in spurts, first tall then gain weight then height again.
They sat me down and they both told me I was going to grow up "cute" if I was careful not to get a fat bottom because it looked like I may get fat if I wasn't careful about eating.
WTF??? Who is that direct with a sensitive teenage girl for no reason?
They were not thinking clear  for sure.
After that I never ate much and would walk for hours if my mom forced me to eat dinner.
That's mental I know, the cure for me was running away from home and not having any meals made for me,
I ate when I could and what I could when it was offered after that.
Food issues are problems for the spoiled I think.
I now eat everything I feel like but am underweight by the medical charts.
Never was going to get overweight ,just not in my DNA, crazy to have suffered for nothing with an eating disorder.
I knew a nice Hungarian lady in S. Ca. who was overweight and would hide food to eat later on.
She and her HU boyfriend visited us on Maui after I had my baby.
They only stayed one week with us but she called me aside to hand me a bag of candy bars to hide for her.
She told me I could have as many as I wanted to if I didn't tell her boyfriend about them. I felt bad for her and hid them, of course I wasn't about to spill the beans on her and cause trouble but it was sad.
I didn't dare eat one though...

In recovery mode here, put myself into self imposed isolation until my cold gets better.
We should rename this link to "True Confessions" instead of Anything else.
Went on a bit too much about my past eating disorder.
Something to consider though people , some people could sit down with a bag of chips or a box of donuts and eat the entire contents in one sitting. How many people could eat a natural food an dover do it, never met anyone who could eat an entire bunch of bananas in one sitting, Think natural foods have some sort of way of letting your body know when enough is enough, junk foods, well they do add ingredients to get you hooked on them, Always want the return customer.


I 'm considering pulling myself together and riding my bike to the health food market near this house.
Guess I am getting antsy after all with isolation and rest.
My cousin wrote me last night, he scored 4 seats for a boxing match this weekend.
Sounds a bit like a "who's who" in boxing.
A bit intimidating for us "simple folks"
He said at least 4 ex boxers will be there and Mohammad Ali's daughter will also be there! Some boxer named, Varga will be there too.
I'm not up on the boxing world these days at all.
My mother's 19 year older half bro was a boxer and used to be Jack Dempsey's sparring partner, that;s about all I know about boxing and to keep your hands near your face for protection.
My mom taught us all a few boxing moves growing up, we had to handle our own neighborhood scuffles without calling her for help.

Shoot, what to wear, what to wear???
I am afraid this is a bit too much for my simple husband, should be a blast however, I'll drag him there one way or the other.
He honestly dislikes people doing things for him even if they are family.
I'll try to pick up a gift for their troubles, not sure what however.
Seems my cousins enjoy my company more then my siblings ever did.
Of course they didn't have to share a room with me growing up!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....Something to consider though people , some people could sit down with a bag of chips or a box of donuts and eat the entire contents in one sitting. How many people could eat a natural food an dover do it, never met anyone who could eat an entire bunch of bananas in one sitting, Think natural foods have some sort of way of letting your body know when enough is enough, junk foods, well they do add ingredients to get you hooked on them, Always want the return customer.


Some foods like excess bananas are going to lead to running for the bathroom even though the official wisdom is that bananas do the opposite - at least for kids anyway.   

You'd think that "simple" obesity or anorexia would be self-limiting.   They must be modern diseases. I doubt there would be either of these conditions in the stone age as obtaining food must have been very costly in human effort.  I mean the cost of say hunting a wild goat might take days.   Here, it's just a foraging trip to the supermarket.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.
I 'm considering pulling myself together and riding my bike to the health food market near this house.
Guess I am getting antsy after all with isolation and rest.
My cousin wrote me last night, he scored 4 seats for a boxing match this weekend.
....
He said at least 4 ex boxers will be there and Mohammad Ali's daughter will also be there! Some boxer named, Varga will be there too.
I'm not up on the boxing world these days at all.
....
Shoot, what to wear, what to wear???
I am afraid this is a bit too much for my simple husband, should be a blast however, I'll drag him there one way or the other. He honestly dislikes people doing things for him even if they are family.
...


Boxing is such a primeval sport. Bit like gathering around the Roman amphitheatre to see the prisoners fight to the death.   It's really quite strange that humans need to satisfy our most basest instincts by  watching people pummel each other to submission. 

There was discussion in the UK not that long ago about banning boxing. So many people were dying or getting brain damaged.  I mean, whacking someone repetitively around the head has to be a bad thing for one's brain.  Stupidly even though I actually think it's a really dangerous sport, I actually quite like watching it.   As for dress code, people seem to dress up for it like the Romans did which is a bit weird really but perhaps that's to legitimise it.  I reckon within 30 years, it'll probably get banned.  But maybe it'll survive as virtual boxing.

I am sure I'm not going to enjoy seeing people get punched in the face.
My cuz as lined up a few events for me to do with him while I am in town,hope my husband will enjoy the fight.
Seeing blood and people getting hurt turns my stomach.
OK, sometimes , maybe some needs a A** whopping, but not to the extreme of knocking them out cold.
I have been in school fights but never started any of them.
One thing to defend yourself against a bully and another to start a fight.

PS, I never lost a fight... Not a very fem thing to say but my mother had rules, we all had to handle our own affairs with other children.
The only way we could run away was if we were outnumbered or the other child was allot bigger or a boy.
Another good scare tactic for me was, I'm getting my big sister and you bring your big sister out and we will have a rumble, that usually put the fear of God into any neighborhood bully. My 2 older sisters had st. cred.
'My deceased super skinny sister however beat up 2 boys in school when she was only 14, she wore
braces on her teeth for many years and the name calling got to her one fine day. They never teased her again after she beat them both up.

Guess our mom did teach us a few helpful boxing tips.

I never advocate violence but some people just can't be dealt with on a logical level.
When my sisters were in one high school in S. Ca. just before we luckily moved away to a new house, they went to a very hard core school.
This was in the mid 1960's in the San Fernando Valley of Ca.
Verdugo High School.
Hard core gangsta kids, in those days they didn't bring guns to school but they did bring blades,razor blades and lighters.
My BFF's now deceased older sister who happened to go to the same HS as my sisters did after we moved still had gang issues with others.
Her sister later became a school teacher and was never in a gang, she was just picked on because she was different.
Her sister had razor blade scares on her face from girls slicing her face in school!
This was a so called middle/working class area in Ca. not exactly the ghetto but still...
At my sisters old school they saw worse, they tried to keep a low profile but dressed as Mods and got some attention in Ca for it.
The style at that school was for girls to rat up their hair in a huge updo, my sisters wore their hair straight and long.
The reason the gangsta "chicks' wore the big updo's was to hide the razor blades they had in their hair.
Usually girls pull hair in fights so ,"surprise".
They told me once on the school bus one girls hair was set on fire, they sprayed tons of hair spray on the updo's, Aqua Net, and some other girl tossed a match on the other's hair for revenge of some sort.
So insane, schools were not safe then and they are not safe now.
Guess at that time the UK had Mods and Rockers but the US had surfers , straights( nerds) and low riders or high riders, My sisters being US Mods was different but they didn't have too many issues at school, they hung with the few other Mods and there is safety in numbers, sometimes.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
This was a so called middle/working class area in Ca. not exactly the ghetto but still...
At my sisters old school they saw worse, they tried to keep a low profile but dressed as Mods and got some attention in Ca for it.
The style at that school was for girls to rat up their hair in a huge updo, my sisters wore their hair straight and long.
The reason the gangsta "chicks' wore the big updo's was to hide the razor blades they had in their hair.
Usually girls pull hair in fights so ,"surprise".
They told me once on the school bus one girls hair was set on fire, they sprayed tons of hair spray on the updo's, Aqua Net, and some other girl tossed a match on the other's hair for revenge of some sort.
So insane, schools were not safe then and they are not safe now.
Guess at that time the UK had Mods and Rockers but the US had surfers , straights( nerds) and low riders or high riders, My sisters being US Mods was different but they didn't have too many issues at school, they hung with the few other Mods and there is safety in numbers, sometimes.


Wow, when I was a kid I never thought of CA being anything but sunshine and sea.  Ghettos I thought never existed - people went to CA to find their fortunes.  My warped sense of CA is basically formulated from movies and TV shows of the 1950s, 60s and 70s.  People always had fancy suburban homes, wore hats and drove massive cars that always bounced when they stopped. They never bothered to put their windows up,  lock their car or back doors. I thought it was because crime was so low rather than expedient movie making - imagine watching the star putting the windows up, locking the doors, removing the keys etc every time the script called for entry and exit of a vehicle.  They never seem to be checking everything was secure. 

When I went on a driving tour of CA with Mrs Fluffy we were surprised to see such poverty in downtown SF and LA, pfff....what a weird place and a dump.  Out in the sticks, it was quite different but even there, in small towns, it was very scruffy in places.  Clearly huge disparity in wealth I wasn't used to seeing.

As for razor blades, knives, lighters and god knows what else in school? What are people thinking?! I don't remember that level of violence.  Sure we had scraps between us as kids, but it was never super violent or seriously dangerous.

UK did indeed have Mods - I wasn't one. I was a Rocker (or I liked to think I was)  - leather jacket, jeans, motorbike, the works.  Mainly it followed the music.  If you were a rock music fan, then you had no choice (as I thought then) but to follow that lifestyle - listening to Deep Purple or Motorhead (ancient bands now). 

There is indeed security of being in a group. At concerts, the clothing was a kind of uniform, if you were wearing that, you were "in the club" and therefore part of the team. Ok, I say gang, but not in the modern sense of violent, drug and street gangs with tattoos etc. At least it seemed more innocent back then or I just wasn't in the know.   It seemed to afford a level of protection from others who were looking for a fight. 

If you were Mod, you needed shorter hair, ride an Italian scooter like a Vespa,  wear a Parka coat and listen to the Who and their album Quadrophenia incessantly.  A days outing was to travel down to Brighton from London - about 60 miles.  I used to live near Brighton and I remember seeing the Mods on the seafront there.  Sometimes there would be 50-60 of them on their scooters going up and down.  And of course plenty of movies and TV shows made there over the years.