Annoyances (con't)

[Anthony Bonner]

So Williams or Amherst?

[voyager]

Yes.

[AaronS]

I don't know if you used the selective high school system or not, that's the one that uses a test for stuyvessant, bronx science, brooklyn tech, and a few others. it lets you into the highest ranked school the test score allows, so listing a school with too high a cutoff first doesn't reduce your chances of getting into a less selective school listed second.

there's another system (that's definitely changed) that uses a lottery number and sorts grades into tiers. our lottery number makes the workings of that system irrelevant, it's almost impossible for us to get into something better than tech. really hope her practice test scores are representative of how she scores on the real test, because if they're not she's not going to a good high school. there are at least half a dozen schools we'd pick over tech, it really blows my mind that the fact that she got tier one grades at what's regarded as one of the more rigorous middle schools in the area is irrelevant. blah blah blah and blah.

Edited October 29, 2023 by AaronS

[voyager]

An aside, San Francisco had for 100+ years a superb academic public high school.   VERY difficult to get into, even from the most rigorous private schools.    Recently, it was proposed that it was too heavily weighted toward Asian students, put to a vote and its requirements and curriculum modified to suit a less rigorous norm.    So now we have no free, public high school recognized nationwide for excellence.   If there's a win here, I can't see it.    

FWIW, for some 30 years my aunt was the Latin teacher at this school.  She joked that she loved teaching Latin, not just for its discipline, but because since it was not a required course, she had no qualms kicking an obstreperous kid out of class. 
When I got to college, many kids were from this school.    When they heard that she was my aunt, they were in awe.   Apparently she was herself an institution.

[voyager]

Another aside.     Tests are such an arbitrary screen.     Our son always tested easily, without stress and showing his best self.    Simply his nature.    A friend of his told how he had to press his knees together to keep his whole body from shaking when taking a major test.   Again, simply his temperament.     Doesn't seem fair to award either of them on the basis of the same test.  
 

[splinky]

On 10/29/2023 at 12:35 PM, Anthony Bonner said:

So Williams or Amherst?

neither of those are ivy league schools

[mongo]

move to a small town in the upper midwest. there is only one middle school and only one high school in our town. 

the drama is in the elementary school years. there are three elementary schools, one of which enrolls most of the children of the town's growing working class latino population. it's the school with marginally lower test scores (whatever the fuck those mean in elementary school--both our boys attended it and it was great). we actually have a bit of white flight in our liberal town of <25,000 souls as a result, as some people actually choose to move across town after they spawn. there's also a "progressive" charter school that is quite the cult among a segment of the town's liberal population. lowest diversity and also the lowest vaccination rates. trolling my friends and colleagues who sent their kids to this cult used to be one of my favourite pastimes.

[Anthony Bonner]

9 hours ago, splinky said:

neither of those are ivy league schools

I was under the impression when she said "small ivy league" she meant "little ivy" especially given the description.

[Anthony Bonner]

11 hours ago, mongo said:

move to a small town in the upper midwest. there is only one middle school and only one high school in our town. 

the drama is in the elementary school years. there are three elementary schools, one of which enrolls most of the children of the town's growing working class latino population. it's the school with marginally lower test scores (whatever the fuck those mean in elementary school--both our boys attended it and it was great). we actually have a bit of white flight in our liberal town of <25,000 souls as a result, as some people actually choose to move across town after they spawn. there's also a "progressive" charter school that is quite the cult among a segment of the town's liberal population. lowest diversity and also the lowest vaccination rates. trolling my friends and colleagues who sent their kids to this cult used to be one of my favourite pastimes.

My favorite elementary school story will forever and ever be when New Canaan tried to consolidate elementary schools and parents at one school objected to being mixed in with dual income families.

Maplewood one of the more "progressive" towns out here banned Halloween this year btw.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Anthony Bonner

[bloviatrix]

3 hours ago, Anthony Bonner said:

I was under the impression when she said "small ivy league" she meant "little ivy" especially given the description.

Whereas I and, I assume, Splinky thought it was Dartmouth.

[rozrapp]

47 minutes ago, bloviatrix said:

Whereas I and, I assume, Splinky thought it was Dartmouth.

So did I.

[Anthony Bonner]

I promise I know what the constituents of the ivy league are.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Anthony Bonner

[Behemoth_Munich]

My kids are at a really excellent (public) gymnasium, a short bike ride away. Only criterion was making the cutoff grade which was easily done. The challenge is more about maintaining the GPA to stay in and their Abitur grade when they get out. 

We went for a traditional Humanities gym - the science curriculum is at least as good as the science focused gyms (they participate in Olympiad) but tend to be more demanding because Latin/Ancient Greek weeds out a lot of families. So yes basically they are reinforcing the class structure but it’s not something I’m going to be able to solve personally and certainly not through our school choice. 
 

(We did however skip the Ancient Greek option...)

[Anthony Bonner]

Does Germany have a big private high school thing? 

[Behemoth_Munich]

1 hour ago, Anthony Bonner said:

Does Germany have a big private high school thing? 

No. Or let’s say, they are mostly for expats or people who want a bilingual school for whatever reason, or rich kids who are less academically inclined. Private colleges are also less academically selective. 

[Behemoth_Munich]

The elite thing to do though is to send the teens to a British boarding school for a semester or so. 

[Wilfrid]

I didn't want to drop this in the Barcelona thread because the holiday was magical. Getting home, not so much.

Monday: 10.45 direct flight on American, repeatedly delayed, then canceled around 2pm. Chaos ensued as the ground stuff tried to assign us hotels and get us on buses. Took at least a couple of hours with some passengers completely losing it. All the ground staff's ideas were right, but execution not so much. For example, have separate lines for priority and non-priority customers to get hotel assignments? Fine. But identify the lines, because if someone waits in the wrong line for 45 minutes, and is then told to go to the other line, they will shout at you. (I was in the right line by sheer dumb luck).

Hotel about 20 minutes from the airport was actually very nice. Simple buffet for us. The bar was hilarious. I asked for a Tanqueray martini. Bartender, young man with mischievous smile, refused. I pointed to the Tanqueray and said (in Spanish, of course), "You have vermouth? What's the problem?" Oh, I know how to make cocktails, he said: it is my policy not to. It is not, he said, normal for Spain. I listed for him some of the cocktail bars just downt the road in Barcelona. Not budging.

Okay, battle of the wills. I ordered a large Tanqueray on ice. He was okay with that. Then I ordered a dry vermouth. Knowing himself beaten, he begrudgingly added some vermouth to my gin.

Then the next customers, also from my flight, showed up and ordered cocktails. "A lot of Americans in tonight," I told him.

Tuesday: We were all rebooked on a direct flight for 9am. By the time we went to bed (we are all talking to each other by now) it had been delayed until 12. One became skeptical, and indeed when I arrived at the airport the next morning, it had been canceled. The best American could do was put me on a British Airways flight to London with a two hour stopover to get a direct American flight from there. What with getting off at Heathrow, changing terminals and finding a connections desk to get a boarding pass (BA couldn't give me an AA boarding pass), I actually had to hurry my drinks and nuts before boarding time.

The 1.35 (UK time) direct flight was impeccable. I got home about 6.30 (NYC time), which is of course after midnight in Barcelona.

It's the most difficult journey I've had since the 36 hour Nashville to New York trip several years ago. In each case, the cause was not weather or external circumstances but irreparably faulty aircraft.

[Sneakeater]

It was all worth it for that bar scene.

Maybe you should have asked for a G&T.  No way THAT isn't Spanish enough!

[rozrapp]

2 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

 

…The bar was hilarious. I asked for a Tanqueray martini. Bartender, young man with mischievous smile, refused. I pointed to the Tanqueray and said (in Spanish, of course), "You have vermouth? What's the problem?" Oh, I know how to make cocktails, he said: it is my policy not to. It is not, he said, normal for Spain. I listed for him some of the cocktail bars just downt the road in Barcelona. Not budging.

Okay, battle of the wills. I ordered a large Tanqueray on ice. He was okay with that. Then I ordered a dry vermouth. Knowing himself beaten, he begrudgingly added some vermouth to my gin.

Then the next customers, also from my flight, showed up and ordered cocktails. "A lot of Americans in tonight," I told him.

This reminded me of the famous scene with Jack Nicholson and the diner waitress in “Five Easy Pieces.” Though unlike your bar situation, it did not end pleasantly.

[Wilfrid]

3 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

It was all worth it for that bar scene.

Maybe you should have asked for a G&T.  No way THAT isn't Spanish enough!

He was willing to serve G&Ts. He was asked for a gin and club soda. He said he had none. One or two of us observed that he had agua con gaz, which is essentially the same thing. Turns out he thought club soda was a sweet drink.

[Orik]

Aviation lessons - 

Never follow an airline to a second location - go to a hotel or airbnb of your choice (nobody forcing you to go to theirs) and hand in the receipt, along with any dining and clothing costs. You're also under no obligation to show up for the first flight they suggest.

If the airline is clearly at fault insist on the first flight out on any airline, send a letter to their legal department and do not negotiate anything under $3k or $5k if it was an emergency landing. 


 

[hollywood10]

Were they double thick?

https://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/oreo-domestic-battery-082619

[MitchW]

17 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

He was willing to serve G&Ts. He was asked for a gin and club soda. He said he had none. One or two of us observed that he had agua con gaz, which is essentially the same thing. Turns out he thought club soda was a sweet drink.

In San Sebastián, not necessarily a city known for its cocktail scene, we went to the fancy bar in our somewhat fancy hotel.  Ordering a wet Martini for my wife, and explaining how she likes her Martini, said Martini was served. Only problem was, it was made with Martini Rosso. 
 

However, last night here in Madrid:

both the “wet” Martini and the rye Manhattan were just fine (albeit free poured, but at least not shaken). Del Diego Cocktail Bar, in Chueca.

[Mitchell101]

This should go in the When Complaining Is Really Bragging thread. 😁

[hollywood10]

Had to go to the post office to mail some gifts.  OMG what an ordeal.  Lines.  Crazy computers for self service.  Not enough clerks.  Customers going postal on the clerks.  Better go now before it gets worse.