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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 28, 2020 22:19:14 GMT
Put EU and Coronavirus into Google and see what you get.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 30, 2020 11:03:00 GMT
This was actually last Wednesday but I haven't been able to access my computer until today -
New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory burned down on this date in 1911. One hundred and forty-six workers — most of them immigrant women and girls — died in the fire or shortly afterward. It remained the deadliest workplace disaster in New York City until the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The owners of the factory were Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, known as New York’s “Shirtwaist Kings.” They employed seamstresses to work 13 hours a day, seven days a week, at a rate of 13 cents per hour. Blanck and Harris already had a history of suspicious factory fires, because they would torch their buildings in the middle of the night to collect the insurance money. This isn’t what happened in the Triangle fire, but they had never installed fire sprinklers in the building in case they decided to burn it down as well. The building was horribly unsafe: the factory floors were cramped and overcrowded, the hallways and fire escape were extremely narrow, and only one of the four elevators worked. Of the two stairways that led to the street, one was locked to prevent the workers from sneaking out with stolen goods. The other opened inward, making it almost impossible to open when a panicked mob was trying to escape. The fire hose was rotted and the valve was rusted so badly it couldn’t be opened. Six hundred workers were in the shop when the fire broke out in a rag bin on the eighth floor. Workers rushed to the elevator, but it only held 12 people at a time, and broke down after only a few trips. The lone fire escape collapsed. Some of the girls, desperate to escape the blaze, jumped down the elevator shaft or out the windows to their deaths. Blanck and Harris happened to be on a floor above the fire; they were able to make it to the roof, where they escaped to the building next door. They were later brought before a grand jury on manslaughter charges, but not indicted. Frances Perkins, who would later go on to be named Labor Secretary under FDR, witnessed the fire. She knew something had to be done about workplace conditions. “We’ve got to turn this into some kind of victory, some kind of constructive action,” she said. Perkins and New York governor Al Smith did finally bring about some safety reforms in New York City, including the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law.
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Post by bjd on Mar 30, 2020 11:13:28 GMT
That sounds a lot like the Rana Plaza and other sweatshops in southeast Asia. How many decades later?
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 31, 2020 12:28:00 GMT
Oklahoma opened on Broadway 1943.
I rather like Oklahoma.
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Post by casimira on Mar 31, 2020 13:12:48 GMT
It's so very "corny" but, it works despite.
Do you have a particular favorite song from it Mick?
(just curious...)
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Post by Kimby on Mar 31, 2020 13:26:09 GMT
(My fave - “Poor Jud is dead, a candle lights his head He's lookin' oh so purty and so nice He looks like he's asleep, It's a shame that he won't keep But it's summer and we're running out of ice.”)
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 31, 2020 14:14:11 GMT
Actually the title song. In my football playing days in the clubhouse at about 10pm after a few beers this was our favourite. Although we struggled with the end when you have to spell Oklahoma...
"We know we belong to the land And the land we belong to is grand.."
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 31, 2020 20:48:44 GMT
I am far too young for any of this.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 1, 2020 16:16:02 GMT
It should have been my son's wedding today but cancelled until same date next year. Perhaps a blessing in disguise as it is dull and freezing.
Eldest grandson's 21st birthday.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 1, 2020 17:34:37 GMT
That's a lot for just one day. And April Fools on top of it.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 1, 2020 17:38:12 GMT
Fortunately we live with grandson so we shall be with him for his birthday meal.
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Post by bjd on Apr 1, 2020 18:30:02 GMT
A friend of mine got married on April 1st and when friends and family were invited everybody thought the couple was joking.
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Post by htmb on Apr 1, 2020 18:55:50 GMT
My biological mother was born on April 1st. Seems a very appropriate birth date for her based on what I’ve learned of her personality. She also gave birth to my younger brothers on the same March date, two years apart, and to me on the date that happens every four years.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 1, 2020 19:10:07 GMT
My college roommate got married on a Friday (March 31) to avoid being married on April Fool’s Day...
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2020 19:39:20 GMT
We adopted our three kids on April 1st, seventeen years ago. I'm still not sure who the joke was on.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 1, 2020 20:23:22 GMT
You adopted 3 at the same time??
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Post by Kimby on Apr 1, 2020 20:34:51 GMT
We’re thry siblings before they were yours?
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2020 21:24:05 GMT
Siblings, yes. Twin girls then aged three and their elder brother aged five. From Colombia - because trying to adopt in Germany or the UK is, as an understatement, 'rather difficult, time consuming and complicated' and in Colombia it was a lot simpler and they have a reciprocal agreement with Germany and the UK, so once the paperwork is complete in Colombia, they are deemed also as adopted according the the UK and German systems. Thus before we left Colombia with them we easily obtained German passports and citizenship for them from their Embassy in Bogota. It made future bureaucracy a lot easier.
Mrs M has connections there, not anyone official but she spent a few years there studying. In Germany and the UK the system spat me out as being too old unless I wanted to adopt children aged twelve and older. We didn't. Colombia allowed us/me to adopt from two years old on, which suited us as we didn't want a baby/babies anyway. Something house trained, as I put it privately. Some countries will let you adopt quite easily, often some African and Asian countries, but we were reluctant to possibly disadvantage them as the reality is they will often be judged in Europe on their different looks alone and preconceived opinions can come into play.
We also jumped a few queues in the waiting process because we didn't want babies, which most on the waiting lists did, plus, the big thing - we were willing to adopt, and apparently deemed authorised, capable financially and otherwise, to adopt a family group of siblings up to four - which more than obviously, would have normally been split up. With these criteria there was a waiting list of one. Us. Hence things went rapidly. Mrs M speaking Spanish with a Colombian accent didn't hurt either. I just smiled a lot, dressed smartly and nodded my head at the right moments. The dressing smartly was the most difficult thing for me. I also had to shave every day. Without cutting myself. That was a trial.
In fact, I can feel a book in there somewhere, especially with the language/cultural/social differences in adopting them and bringing them up. One with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and ADHS, one who has the numerical equivalent of dyslexia (Dyscalculia) and the last being a princess who has motivation/determination problems and gives up at the slightest bump in the road. They, and other things (my brother, as a reminder of one thing), make for an interesting life.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2020 21:54:46 GMT
By the way, they do know they are adopted. We've never hid it from them and none show any particular interest in their biological parents. If ever they become curious, we will hide nothing from them. They are quite happy to know that whereas parents have little choice in their biological children, we sought them out and chose them because they are special.
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Post by htmb on Apr 1, 2020 22:03:50 GMT
That’s what my parents always told me. I felt secure in knowing that I was wanted, cared for, and loved. Now that I’m older, and know more of the "bigger picture" of my biological family, I can appreciate the security and love my parents offered me even more so than when I was a kid.
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Post by questa on Apr 2, 2020 0:36:46 GMT
What can happen when an adoption fails. I've told elsewhere about my brother (9) and I (12) became Wards of the State when there were no family members available to care for us. The Public Trustee sorted out the mess and arranged for us to live in a Masonic Children's Home and go to local schools.
Then a family asked to foster us for the 7 weeks of Xmas holidays...on a farm...hand milking cows. The family had their main home down by the sea but went to the farm week ends etc. There were 4 kids same ages as us. The Dad was a solicitor and knew my parents from business dealings.
At the end of the holidays the Trustee paid a visit and asked if we would like to be adopted by them. The family wanted us, he said, and he outlined every clause so we knew what was happening.
As we signed in front of The Justice of the Peace, I said, " My father used to be a JP. What do they do?" "They help people" he said "Sometimes people want to get things changed but don't know how to do it" So my brother and I, with new surnames, became farm kids and beach kids and for a while things were good.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 2, 2020 9:02:40 GMT
When I was working I had clients, a Cambridge academic and his wife who did exactly the same thing although the children are English. They were a lovely family and I thought them unique! Not so!
Good on you Mark.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 2, 2020 11:13:38 GMT
Ta muchly.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 2, 2020 15:52:08 GMT
A friend of mine got married on April 1st and when friends and family were invited everybody thought the couple was joking. Two of my best friends made a special point of being married on April 1st, I was best man stayed up partying until the wee hours and was on a plane to Italy the next morning.
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Post by questa on Apr 4, 2020 1:19:56 GMT
Continued from 2367...sorry got overtaken by friend gone stir crazy!
For a couple of years and many adjustments we got on OK. When I was 14 I was still treated like their daughter who was 12. The sea-house to farm routine played hell with my school work and I had no friends in either place. My brother was older than their son who resented that and would stir up fights. My parent's business was sold and by using the interest there was enough to send me to a inexpensive boarding school. After a bad fight, my brother was sent to another boarding school. This brought the Trustee back into the picture.He said that they had been waiting for this to happen ever since the solicitor and wife realized they would not get control of our inheritance.
So it was live at school and holidays with school friends. Joined in with many different lifestyles, read every book I could...one thing spoiled it...I was still legally their daughter. Can you get an adoption annulled like a marriage?
I was in charge of the old gramophone at school so when it broke down the man came to fix it. Gave me his card, Mr...Elboz JP. Instant flashback to "Helping people". "My Dad was a JP How do I get an adoption annulled?" So this good man found me the forms and spoke with the trustees. I had to wait a few months until I turned 16.I had started school with a large wound on my ankle which the Matron said should have had 5-6 stitches to close it. Instead the 'Mother' had taped it up with masking tape. At the trustees' advice we stuck with failure to provide medical treatment and I presented my scar to the Supreme Court of NSW.
The solicitor did not contest and the court officer said later he had never seen a 16 year old take a case to court.Some years later I became a JP and have helped my community for 37 years. I keep in touch with my brother but he has a different life to mine.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 4, 2020 1:44:23 GMT
Have you considered writing a book, questa? Quite a story.
(I seem to have missed the chapter in which you became a ward of the state. Were you orphaned?)
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 4, 2020 15:59:31 GMT
Muddy Waters was born this day 1915.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 4, 2020 16:00:55 GMT
Btw, great story questa. Well done you.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 4, 2020 18:45:46 GMT
Good grief, Questa ~ that is quite a rocky story! When I read the part in #2367 I was thinking how nice that there was a relatively happy ending after the tragedy. What a turn-around to read the rest of the story in #2371. Kimby is right -- your story deserves a wide audience, whether fictionalized or as a memoir.
Mark, I'm filled with admiration for you and Mrs. M. Your kids appear to have turned out beautifully, but it couldn't have been easy, especially when they were teens. Mich posted something elsewhere online about military kids, something that, as a military brat, I felt hit the nail on the head. How did your children do with all the moving around that's part of your family's life?
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 4, 2020 20:18:00 GMT
Questa has certainly got some interesting stories.
Bixa, they lived with us in Germany for some years, were then educated in a German school in Egypt for five more, then an American school in Jordan for three (no German school there) and then came back to Germany in their teens to go to boarding schools up to the age eighteen (their choice as to doing so). They are educated but we understood from an early age three things, first is that none of the three would excel at school, moving them as little as we could would even affect their scores anyway and in 'compensation' they would have a wealth of experience few kids would have and build their characters in a different way than purely schooling would.
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