SPLIT TOPIC: Kids in restaurants redux

Old Time Brooklyn wrote: It's just the same attitude as when restaurants were segregated: I don't want to eat with them.

Well, shoot, you just said that you'd not go drinking with Super Bowl fans! So it looks like we all have some prejudices, no?

Old Time Brooklyn wrote: And that's what the internet and this board are: a way to find out exactly where to go and where and whom to avoid and not go anywhere near a place that might make you the slightest bit uncomfortable. Again, that's a shitty narrow dying society.

I hate to break it to you, but that kind of thing has been happening way before the Internet ever existed. Does the expression "Never trust anyone over 30" ring a bell?

...And you know another thing that's been around, though, fortunately? Living and letting live. And part of "letting live" is "leaving other people alone to enjoy a place instead of demanding that you have it all to yourself." And so is "sitting out and letting other people have a turn."

And, "sitting out and letting other people have a turn" is not the same thing as "avoiding the game." It's just..."sitting out and letting other people have a turn."

Old Time Brooklyn wrote: And that's what the internet and this board are: a way to find out exactly where to go and where and whom to avoid and not go anywhere near a place that might make you the slightest bit uncomfortable. Again, that's a shitty narrow dying society.

Umm, is no one going to comment on the blatant hypocrisy of OTB's entire argument? How can you be arguing for tolerance when you are intolerant of others even having a different perspective?

KILL THIS THREAD, PLEASE. OTB DOES NOT MERIT OUR REPLIES.

This is really a strange thread. BTW, I don't go to restaurants that serve Black people or kids either, I much prefer Pork Chops and Mac and Cheese :-'

putz wrote: KILL THIS THREAD, PLEASE. OTB DOES NOT MERRIT OUR REPLIES.

An insult really loses its power when you can't spell.

Old Time Brooklyn wrote: I know parents who read the threads on this board and are afraid to go to restaurants anymore because they know what y'all are thinking. So mission accomplished.

Now you've got me. _This_ is what is killing Brooklyn, no? People who read something on a bullshit message board and then are too afraid to go to a restaurant for fear of what someone may be _thinking_?

Seriously, WTF?

I've got no problem discussing this, but when it comes down to it, I'm going to take my kids to whatever restaurant I feel like at whatever time I choose, and I couldn't give two shits what anyone _might_ be thinking about that. Really.

And I'm not sure how to say this without it being a personal attack OTB, but grow some thicker skin and share it around to yer buddies who are too scared to eat out. There are always going to be people that don't like you for whatever reason, and fuck 'em. Ya know?

Wow, Old Time Brooklyn, you may be one of the most narrow minded people I've ever come across. If a benign comment gets your panties in such a bunch you need to find a freaking hobby.

daver wrote:
And I'm not sure how to say this without it being a personal attack OTB, but grow some thicker skin and share it around to yer buddies who are too scared to eat out. There are always going to be people that don't like you for whatever reason, and fuck 'em. Ya know?

So again, when restaurants had to allow African-Americans into their restaurants and they went and people gave them dirty looks and whispered or just walked out...the solution was a thicker skin? I guess. But again, I think the owners of the shitty attitude play a big part in causing this problem. That they don't see it or see it as no big deal and all part of their daily business, no wonder this world is in the shape it's in.

Old Time Brooklyn wrote: [quote=daver]
And I'm not sure how to say this without it being a personal attack OTB, but grow some thicker skin and share it around to yer buddies who are too scared to eat out. There are always going to be people that don't like you for whatever reason, and fuck 'em. Ya know?

So again, when restaurants had to allow African-Americans into their restaurants and they went and people gave them dirty looks and whispered or just walked out...the solution was a thicker skin? I guess. But again, I think the owners of the shitty attitude play a big part in causing this problem. That they don't see it or see it as no big deal and all part of their daily business, no wonder this world is in the shape it's in.

Let me try explaining this again.

There is a difference between Billy Bob giving Martin Luther King a pointedly dirty look and walking out of the Five-And-Dime becuase he doesn't think black people should be allowed to eat in restaurants, and Carnivore deciding "I'd like to have a quiet meal, but I'll bet that it may be noisier at six because kids may be there, so I shall wait until nine."

The difference is: Billy Bob doesn't think black people should eat anywhere at all ever, and Billy Bob wants the restaurant for himself at all times. But Carnivore is willing to share the restaurant. Rather than going at six and being a prick about things, like Billy Bob would, or by giving kids dirty looks, Carnivore is graciously letting the kids have a turn and waiting until later.

In Billy Bob's world, whites would have restaurants all to themselves 24/7. In Carnivore's world, Carnivore is SHARING the restaurant with kids. Both parties get to eat at the restaurant, just at different times; both have pleasant experiences; and everyone wins.

...Now, exactly how is that like segregation?

Let's not pretend that this is the first remark made on this board about kids in restaurants or bars or wherever else and how people don't want them there.

Segregation it's not. But the attitude, again, is the same. Avoiding people doesn't win you any prizes.

No I didn't. You said something about avoiding some Super Bowl party as an example of avoiding people. I agreed to the extent that sure, once and a while, if I get invited out, I don't go because I just don't feel like it. I may have a Bukowski weekend and shut out the world. Avoiding your friends and family once and a while isn't the same as avoiding a whole class of people.

You're avoiding a crowd not a certain kind of person.

I can understand that. The crowd doesn't offer you anything as you see it. As a serious moviegoer myself, I'd probably agree with you. Of course, there are times when a crowd makes a film. But whatever.

I guess what it boils down to for me is that if you're avoiding kids, all kids, then I suppose you think they have nothing to offer you and again, I just think that's sad. Just like the people who thought blacks had nothing to offer them so they didn't want to be around them let alone befriend one. The tone in Carnivore's post or any of the myriad of posts on the subject, the Union Hall thread, etc. is that kids have nothing to offer you people except for annoying you while you eat. And I just don't think that's true and if you feel that way, I truly feel bad for you.

Fin.

Old Time Brooklyn wrote: I can understand that. The crowd doesn't offer you anything as you see it. As a serious moviegoer myself, I'd probably agree with you. Of course, there are times when a crowd makes a film. But whatever.

I guess what it boils down to for me is that if you're avoiding kids, all kids, then I suppose you think they have nothing to offer you and again, I just think that's sad. Just like the people who thought blacks had nothing to offer them so they didn't want to be around them let alone befriend one. The tone in Carnivore's post or any of the myriad of posts on the subject, the Union Hall thread, etc. is that kids have nothing to offer you people except for annoying you while you eat. And I just don't think that's true and if you feel that way, I truly feel bad for you.

Fin.

Please clarify where in Carnivore's statement that he was advocating avoiding children AT ALL TIMES. He was simply making an observation.

Just as you at times want to avoid crowds at films and other times feel "the crowd makes the movie", surely you can understand that there may be occasions when a couple may wish to have an intimate dining experience and as such may want to be in a quiet environment where they may freely engage in private, intimate conversation, but at other times wouldn't mind if there are children present (because on those occasions they won't be flirting at dinner so it's okay)?

Or, let me put it this way -- say that I were going to be having dinner with my boyfriend, and I were planning on teasing him by engaging in some racy banter at the table. If I did wait until a later hour, so as to ensure that not very many children were around to lessen the chance of someone overhearing (thus creating an awkward, "....Mommy, what's a vibrator?" conversation for some parent), would you consider that a case of me avoiding a class of people, or being responsible and respectful OF those children?

Actually, that's another analogy -- do you think the rating system is exclusionary to children? Do you think children should be allowed into R-rated movies?