Captain Know-It-All stories

[magician5]

What is this, Sparta? Were you preparing for your child to leave for battle training?

"It's tough trying to get into a good college. Now go off to preschool, my child, and come back carrying your notebook ... or on it."

[magician5]

A friend of mine was RECENTLY told to stop nursing her sons at three weeks because after that age its "No better than formula and will make the boys develop perverse fetishes."

Now wait a minute ... you come into this world and the first thing they do is jam a breast into your face. Then for the rest of your life, they try to prevent your mentioning them or seeing them.

[mmswm]

A friend of mine was RECENTLY told to stop nursing her sons at three weeks because after that age its "No better than formula and will make the boys develop perverse fetishes."

Now wait a minute ... you come into this world and the first thing they do is jam a breast into your face. Then for the rest of your life, they try to prevent your mentioning them or seeing them.

My initial smart-alec remark in response to this would probably get me banned. 

(And no worries, it wasn't an insult to magician5, but a remark that highlights the idiocy of what Kimblee's friend was told)

[Twik]

I never really considered a man's interest in breasts to be a "perverse fetish". I thought it was the default.

[mbbored]

I watched last night's NCAA men's basketball championship game with the world's greatest authority on basketball. Too bad she had never watched a single game before. I don't mind a person not knowing about a sport (heaven knows I know next to nothing about any sport except college basketball) but don't constantly correct people who are lifelong fans.

For the record, it's turn overs, not turn arounds. It's fouling out, not getting a red card. No, the referee can not arbitrarily decide to give a person 4 or 5 free throws. And no basket is worth 4 points, even if a person shot it from behind the half court line (which did not happen in last night's game.)

[AngelicGamer]

I watched last night's NCAA men's basketball championship game with the world's greatest authority on basketball. Too bad she had never watched a single game before. I don't mind a person not knowing about a sport (heaven knows I know next to nothing about any sport except college basketball) but don't constantly correct people who are lifelong fans.

For the record, it's turn overs, not turn arounds. It's fouling out, not getting a red card. No, the referee can not arbitrarily decide to give a person 4 or 5 free throws. And no basket is worth 4 points, even if a person shot it from behind the half court line (which did not happen in last night's game.)

I agree with all you said but I do think that if someone can complete a shot from half court, it should be more than three.  However, that is my own mindset and not anything official.

[TootsNYC]

When I was in high school, a guy from our "currently being thoroughly trounced" team made a last-ditch heave toward the basket from beyond half court.

It didn't hit the basket--it went into one of the open-from-the-top windows, teetered in the edge, and fell out.

The *OPPOSING* team started chanting, "five points, five points."

It wouldn't have helped us, but it was cool that they thought it was cool.

[Margo]

Magazine 'health' advice from the middle of the 20th century can be very scary. 

I remember looking through old issues of 'Vogue' for something else and stumbling across 'The Healthy Man Diet'.  This consisted of almost nothing but red meat and plenty of it. 

A suggested lunch included a full pound of steak and several alcoholic drinks. Vegetables were verboten. 

Of course, readers of 'Vogue' were expected to have the money to afford this sort of thing.  You have to wonder if they also expected to inherit the wad when the 'Healthy Man' dropped dead after such a diet.     

Have you ever read Mrs Beeton's advice about pregnancy and child care? I don't remember all the details, but I'm pretty sure that expectant and nursing mothers are warned to avoid fruit and vegetables like the plague, and to build themselves up with beer. A wet-nurse should be entitled to Porter (beer again) in addition to her wages, but should not be encouraged to drink spirits.

I think she does concede that opening a window and  allowing a little air into the room once a day  probably won't kill a healthy person. Although a mother who has been subsisting on plain boiled rice and beef tea for 7 months might wish it would.

[Cami]

What is this, Sparta? Were you preparing for your child to leave for battle training?

Ha!

When my mother told me this tidbit, it was when my daughter was a few months old. I was holding her and gave her a kiss and my mother commented that, "It's such a shame that when she turns five, you'll have to stop that."  I questioned this idiocy and she told me of this advice and we had QUITE the conversation as a result, which led to her belatedlly realizing how stupid her doctor had been.  My mother was a reasonably intelligent person with a college education, but she fell into this trap of believing experts over some really basic common sense.

And thanks to those of you who expressed sympathy.

[Thipu1]

When my mother was a child she was considered 'painfully thin'.

  She lived only about a block away from her primary school and the doctor prescribed that she should have lunch at home.  The lunch was to include a bottle of stout (yes, it was the alcoholic kind) to 'build her up'. 

This was prescribed for a child of 7 or 8 years old. 

It's a wonder that my mother didn't fall asleep in afternoon classes. 

[RooRoo]

Even doctors...

I recently had cataract surgery, one eye first, the other two weeks later. The ophthalmologist prescribed steroid drops for my eyes, to continue for six weeks.

1. I have been told by more than one doctor to avoid steroids - they cause a rise in my fasting blood glucose. I told him this.

2. The prescribing information that comes with the bottle says, specifically, to use them for two weeks after cataract surgery (not six).

At the  two week checkup for the second eye, I asked him if I could stop taking them, because they were irritating my eyes. He said no, for various good-sounding reasons. So I kept on, until my eyes felt sunburned all the time. I stopped two days ago, resolving that if my eyes and my glucose levels didn't get better, I'd start again.

Today, my eyes feel normal, and my fasting blood glucose is back where it should be - 20-30 mg/dl lower than it has been since I started those drops.

Yeah, doc, I'm sure that keeping my  eyes irritated and painful for 6 weeks would do them a lot of good. And, may I remind you that uncontrolled diabetes causes blindness, among other things? 

[ladyknight1]

RooRoo, I would seek out an opthamologist that specializes in patients with diabetes. That is bad medicine.

[mbbored]

I was at a cook-out and had this boggling conversation.

Friend: mbbored, I'm headed to Charlotte next week for work.
CKIA1: Oh, that's part of what NC calls "The Triangle;" it's a very pretty area.
Me: Actually, Charlotte's not part of the Triangle but it is a nice area.
CKIA1: Yes, it is.
Me: Well I grew up, went to college and worked in the Triangle, so I'm pretty sure I know what cities it contains.
CKIA1: Fine, what do think the Triangle is?
Me: Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill.
CKIA1: And Charlotte.
Me: No. You see, those three cities are all right by each other and adding Charlotte would add a fourth point several hours away.
CKIA2: Yeah, and in between those three towns is a bunch of computer and biotech companies that built the colleges in those towns.
Me: Actually, the universities predate the Research Triangle Park and are a large part of why RTP got built.
CKIA2: No, everybody knows North Carolina didn't have any colleges until the 1980s.
Me: OK, you are definitely wrong about that. UNC is the oldest public university in the country and opened in the 1790s.
CKIA2: We'll have to agree to disagree.
CKIA1: And I still really think Charlotte is part of the Triangle.
Friend: Anyways, as I was saying, I'm headed to Charlotte this week for work. Got anything I should try while I'm there?

[Diane AKA Traska]

I hate when people "agree to disagree" about facts.  You can agree to that all you want, you're still wrong.

[RegionMom]

Can i toss my 17y yr old son into this category for now?

He had THREE job opportunities for a summer job handed to him, and he turned them all down, saying that he does not see why he needs a job.  He says we are going to pay for his college, so he needs a break to chill, because he has worked so hard on school.  (true, but all summer?!?)

One job was related to the field he wants to study in college, another was to teach a skill he has honed himself, the other was through his school and only a few select students are chosen.

We have told the dear boy that if he does not work this summer, he will not have internet.  period.

he thinks we will cave.  he thinks knows-it-all already and that his (admittedly quite-good up to now) resume is all he needs until college fall 2014. 

I know he does not Know-It-All. 

And I am having to let him realize his own potential mistakes and not fix it for him. 

but come 2nd week in June when he is bored out of his mind and ready to find some sort of job, I will allow myself a small smile when he realizes he shot himself in the foot, not once, but three times, and may not have any job opportunities available.