Thread Drift

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Originally Posted by Crankin

Zen, I kid you not. This is what he said. OK, maybe it's not an extra rib, but he definitely said something like that, describing in detail some physical anomaly in that population.

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Wha? *feels ribs* I do know of two friends that both have unusually long backs. It's not visible, at least it doesn't look weird or anything, but I do believe they have an extra vertebra. Maybe it's more common here, never thought about it. I kid them that they're like these modern pigs that are bred with an extra rib.

I wouldn't mind an extra vertebra. My female friend has the loveliest elegant back you can imagine and looks stunning in long gowns.

Re: prayer and kids: not quite the same, but I can also vividly remember the discomfort I felt about the Pledge of Allegiance when I visited my grandparents in the States for 3 months when I was... 9 or so, and went to school there. Not surprisingly it just felt very wrong, which I "solved" in an extremely unelegant way, by mumbling, rolling my eyes and generally being a pain :D Funny, that no-one ever asked if I might want to pass on it and just sit. Do kids still recite this in school?

Skeletons aren't nearly as uniform as they'd have you believe in grade school health class.

I've got a transitional sixth lumbar vertebra, which is a very common variation - I think something like 20% of people have one (most people have only five lumbar vertebrae). It certainly hasn't made my back long though. (Or who knows... without it, maybe my ribcage would actually touch my hipbones. :rolleyes:)

My first husband's family was prone to having six fingers on one or both hands. Most of them had them amputated in infancy. That's a rarer variation.

The kneecap and the sesamoid bone of the ankle may be two bones joined by a ligament, rather than one as in most people.

There are several other bones that may be present or absent in humans - some are more commonly absent, some are more commonly present. Some are related to fetal skeletal development, but others are genetic variations that would be more common in distinct populations.

That's very cool, OakLeaf. My son has webbed toes, up to the first joint of 3 toes on each foot. I was told that this is just a common "defect" that happens sometimes, one of the harmless ones. No-one else in the family has anything like it. They look a little weird but I just tell him it's a sign he was born to love water :)

lph, I also feel the same cringe at reciting the Pledge. I don't know why. I always have, even as a kid. I am American, and while I don't agree with a lot of things going on here, I don't want to change my citizenship!
I think it has to do with actually "pledging" to something, which seems a little Nazi-ish to me. I can't really describe it. Saying the Pledge had dwindled in practice when I was a teen, going to school here. Then I moved to Florida, where, let's say it didn't go over well when I refused to stand for it.
As a teacher, we mostly could do it if we wanted, at the beginning of the day, in the middle school. For awhile, I had a principal who said it aloud, over the PA. Only once, did I have a kid ask me why our homeroom didn't say it. I told them, we could, if they took turns leading it. No one volunteered.

Yup, I have no problem with people being proud of their country, their countrymen and especially founding ideals, but ideals are just ideals,what matters is what is actually done. I do have a problem with being asked to blindly pledge loyalty to a *country* (or a flag, which amounts to the same thing), not the ideal as such. What if the leaders of that country act in opposition to those ideals - are you still expected to loyally support them?

And having an enforced pledge, even though it's just an expectation, sort of pulls the ground under the whole loyalty thing. "I promise to be loyal (cause my teacher sez I have to)" :rolleyes:

There has been a suggestion that people seeking Norwegian citizenship recite some kind of pledge. I think it's focussed on pledging to abide by the laws of the country though, which is easier to swallow.

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Originally Posted by lph

There has been a suggestion that people seeking Norwegian citizenship recite some kind of pledge. I think it's focussed on pledging to abide by the laws of the country though, which is easier to swallow.

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The US citizenship oath for persons seeking naturalization is different from the Pledge of Allegiance - and it's much scarier than pledging allegiance "to the flag" (whatever that means).

I know at least one person who would like to become a US citizen, but won't seek citizenship because of that oath.

man, if I was born with 6 fingers on each hand, i'd be furious with my parents for cutting it off!!!
that would be SO COOL!

Unless you wanted to wear gloves (mittens would work for warmth, but for cycling, motorcycling, cutting, mechanical work, working with harsh chemicals or oils, etc. you need fingered gloves); learn to play a keyboard or stringed instrument, or touch-type without devising your own exercises and fingerings; etc.

I can see both sides of that one. IIRC what he told me, many of them were born with six toes as well, and those were left intact.

I admit gloves would be a problem - but people can knit and sew custom gloves easy enough, it's not rocket science!
I learned to play a stringed instrument, it fails me completely to understand why you think it would be harder if i had an extra finger.
and ah, on a typewriter/keyboard, how nice that finger would be to hit the end key and perhaps the escape key!!

Nitrile gloves for working with solvents in the garage are like $8 for a box of 50. Vinyl or latex gloves for washing dishes in hot water, cleaning the toilet, etc., are $5 a pair. Who knows what it would cost to get them made custom.

"Meat cutter's" (kitchen) gloves are $5-10. Those I guess someone could easily knit if they had access to kevlar yarn.

Bicycling gloves are $20-$50. Getting a custom pattern made and assembled would have to be at least triple that.

Motorcycling gloves are about $200. Getting a custom pattern made, custom carbon knuckle protectors molded, and the whole things custom sewn, I shudder to even think what it might cost.

I (used to) play keyboards. Sure, it could be done with six fingers. Jerry Garcia famously had four fingers and played the guitar just fine. What I said was devising your own fingerings and exercises. All commercially available exercise books are written for five fingers. Beginners usually rely on fingerings that book editors have worked out; devising your own fingerings is a rather advanced skill. I wouldn't ever have known how to come up with my own exercises, even when I was studying secondary piano at a conservatory/college. So it's not that it would be harder to do, it would be harder to learn.

Kevlar yarn is available on Ebay.

thanks Pam, I'll stock up so i can use it in my next life when i have 6 fingers on each hand and my parents don't cut them off.

:cool:

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Originally Posted by PamNY

Kevlar yarn is available on Ebay.

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Ok, I really had nothing to add to this discussion...until I saw this. Now that is worth commenting on! And it made me smile--ok, almost chuckle. And now I am picturing some "mature" women sitting around knitting kevlar bullet proof vests (oh, and 6 finger gloves and socks, too!):D

Ed, Farrah, and now Michael. :(

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Originally Posted by Tuckervill

Ed, Farrah, and now Michael. :(

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Yeah, but at least my Mom came home from the hospital after getting an E-ticket * (ambulance) ride this morning. Texas heat + morning walk + underlying cardiac problem = trouble.
She's fine, didn't want to talk, wanted to just check in, then go watch M*A*S*H! :rolleyes:





* anyone actually remember what an E-ticket is?