I like this.

PaulH

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After a few days of general snarkiness it seems like everyone is being nice today. Maybe 'cause its the weekend. Much better!
Paul
 

JudyB

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After a few days of general snarkiness it seems like everyone is being nice today. Maybe 'cause its the weekend. Much better!
Paul

Wait a minute, I just joined, and posted about how friendly everyone seemed here so far! If this isn't the norm, maybe I have to take that back!:eek:
Or maybe I just post on weekends???:p
 

misfit11

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Wait a minute, I just joined, and posted about how friendly everyone seemed here so far!

Yeah, well.... "just stay out of the karaoke bar." That's the advice that I've received around these parts and it's actually pretty good advice.;) People are friendly until you start having differing points of view.
 

Dwight

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snarl , snap , bite , growl , hisssss..............just gettin it outa my system
 

JudyB

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Yeah, well.... "just stay out of the karaoke bar." That's the advice that I've received around these parts and it's actually pretty good advice.;) People are friendly until you start having differing points of view.

Actually I had planned on that the minute that I saw there was a poll to rename it the fight club. Yow. Not my cup of tea, so you won't find me there. I don't get that -with bonsai as the commonality, since it's supposed to teach you patience and center. But it takes all kinds...Thanks for the advice!
 

grouper52

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Actually I had planned on that the minute that I saw there was a poll to rename it the fight club. Yow. Not my cup of tea, so you won't find me there. I don't get that -with bonsai as the commonality, since it's supposed to teach you patience and center. But it takes all kinds...Thanks for the advice!

"Patience and center" are valuable qualities in the martial arts . . .

Well, I can't speak for others, but I've actually had only one death threat here, and we later worked it out and are friends now.

It's a guy thing, Judy: A number of us are like old mountain goats, and it's an instinctual imperative that we butt heads a few times first before we settle down and get along.

I must say, however, that I don't recall us ever playing rough and tumble with the lady goats here . . .

Hey, wait . . . ARE there any other lady goats around here? Or is it really just us guys, playing out our mountain goat and Wild West fantasies?

Someone quick! Post a tree, so we can change the topic . . . :eek:
 

treebeard55

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I'm a billy goat of the same vintage, and I don't think there are very many lady goats here. (Boy, does that comment sound un-gallant!) I don't think we run them off. :confused:

I usually stay out of the Karaoke Bar, seeing it as a waste of time. Unless and until someone says something I feel I really need to address; then I jump in.

I think the Bar serves a useful purpose: there are a few who come mainly for the barroom brawls but every now and then have some worthwhile things to say about bonsai.
 

JudyB

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Yes it seems like Bonsai is mostly a mansport. Go figure. You'd think that the trees would teach you all something, but I suppose old goats eat trees don't they... I work in a environment thats all male, so I'm used to it. I guess that would make me Miss Kitty G52.... (dating myself I know....) I have thick skin, don't worry about me, and I can ignore what I cant shrug off. Cheers!
 

treebeard55

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I think '52 was a very good year. We have some outstanding bonsai practitioners from that year, who are also dashing, debonair, handsome and possessed of a rapier wit and keen Irish sense of humor! :D:D

(You see what my wife puts up with. ;) )

Seriously ... historically and for whatever reason, more men than women have been attracted to bonsai, both in the USA and Japan. On the flip side, the first non-Japanese to earn a bonsai-master certification, in Japan no less, was an American woman, Kathy Shaner. Who knows what the next 50 years will bring?

(Dang it it, Judy, now you've got me pondering why more men than women are into bonsai ...)
 

JudyB

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I think '52 was a very good year. We have some outstanding bonsai practitioners from that year, who are also dashing, debonair, handsome and possessed of a rapier wit and keen Irish sense of humor! :D:D

(You see what my wife puts up with. ;) )

Seriously ... historically and for whatever reason, more men than women have been attracted to bonsai, both in the USA and Japan. On the flip side, the first non-Japanese to earn a bonsai-master certification, in Japan no less, was an American woman, Kathy Shaner. Who knows what the next 50 years will bring?

(Dang it it, Judy, now you've got me pondering why more men than women are into bonsai ...)

I actually always thought it was a Japanese cultural thing. Although I know that some of the Americanized Japanese that came over had some of the wives doing it as well, but I don't know if women were "supposed" to be doing that sort of thing, or at least not to be recognized for it. Maybe it just sort of got handed down that way. Why it stuck, who knows. But you do have to be a little OCD for this, maybe that just suits the male makeup better. Lucky we have spouses that will put up with us... (Is Irish humor funny?) Just kiddin!
 

Bill S

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I would add that for the most part threads out here have been relatively safe, and in the past would usually only include a few regulars that didn't get along, in or out of the bars.
 

treebeard55

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I actually always thought it was a Japanese cultural thing.... Maybe it just sort of got handed down that way. Why it stuck, who knows...

You're right that in Japan it was a cultural thing, to a great degree. Bonsai was considered acceptable for men, ikebana for women, that sort of outlook. And when any custom is adopted from one culture into another, it usually is adopted in toto, with everything done just as it's done in the donor culture. It's not for a decade or two that people in the receiving culture dare to start making many changes.

Musing out loud now ... I wonder if another part has to do with how our brains are wired. In my observation, a woman who is enjoying a sunset, or a flower, or a concert, is more inclined than a man to just stand and let the experience sweep over her, let herself be immersed in the enjoyment of it, than a man is. Men often feel we have to do something, if only take a picture or analyze the music. Again, this is speculation: but I wonder if men are more attracted to bonsai because it requires you to do more, over a long time frame, than some other pursuits...Thoughts, anyone?

(And in regard to political correctness, I don't imply or mean to imply that one sex is more intelligent than the other, when I refer to the wiring of our brains. But we are different in certain ways, and that's just a fact... Not that I give that much regard to political correctness anyway. :p )

...Is Irish humor funny? Just kiddin!

Are you kidding, lady? Why, it's unexcelled! :D:D
 
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