DCUM Weblog

Yesterday's most active thread was once again the snow day thread in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum that has led almost every day this week. Yesterday, that thread gained nearly 800 new posts. But cheer up FCPS parents, schools are opening today, albeit two hours late. The next most active thread yesterday was the thread about the Los Angeles fires which I've also discussed already. Therefore, I'll start with yesterday's third most active thread which was titled, "So you let your kids read at the dining table" and posted in the "Elementary School-Aged Kids" forum. I must have missed some sort of backstory to this thread because I am not sure to whom the allegation in the title is addressed. At any rate, in the body of the post, the original poster asks whether those being referenced allow their kids to read during meals. As it turns out, some posters do allow their kids to read during meals. Some posters even have "reading meals" in which everyone brings a book to the table. Some of these posters claim that parents modeling reading helps encourage their kids to read. Other posters allow kids to read during casual meals or when the child is either eating alone or only one or two others. These posters prohibit reading for formal meals and family dinners. Others, of course, don't allow reading at the table under any circumstances. These posters consider such a thing to be rude and, in one case, "the lowest of low class." This thread is mostly characterized by a flame war between those who allow and those who don't allow reading at the table. One of the posters who doesn't allow reading claims that those who allow reading are raising "brats" who are "uncivilized" and lack manners. The pro-reading posters almost all emphasize that they only allow reading books or magazines, no phones or tablets. They counter the accusations that they are raising brats by arguing that it is better than kids playing games on phones. Those against reading at the table, of course, would not allow game playing either. The no-reading crowd sees a lot of value in learning good manners, suggesting that those without good manners will lose opportunities later in life. They also argue that meals should be spent talking with each other rather than being isolated behind a book. Some of the pro-reading posters insist that books can help stimulate conversation and that they talk to their children about what they are reading. Some of these posters also offer an alternative view of manners. Rather than viewing manners as one set of rules that is followed everywhere, they argue that different manners are appropriate for different situations. They say that their kids know that it is acceptable to read during a casual meal at their own home, but also know that reading would not be appropriate when eating at someone else's home.

Once again, the thread about school snow days that I discussed on Monday was the most active thread yesterday. Skipping that one doesn't really change things much because the next most active thread was also about a school snow day. Just as the first thread I discussed yesterday was about the potential for Montgomery County Public Schools to have a delayed opening yesterday, today's thread is about the same school system possibly having a delayed opening today. Titled, "MCPS delayed Thursday?" and, of course, posted in "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)", this is a 37-page thread that is basically a more intense version of the earlier thread. MCPS was closed yesterday, and posters immediately turned their attention to what would happen today. Up bright and early, the original poster started this thread yesterday at 7:17 a.m., predicting that schools would have a delayed opening today. As in all the other snow day discussions, this one is roughly divided between posters who think schools should open and open on time and those who are happy to keep them closed. In the middle are those who see a delayed opening as a sort of compromise. In the view of the "open schools" crowd, only the gross incompetence of MCPS administrators who are acting at the behest of lazy teachers are keeping kids home. They argue that plenty of time has passed, both school parking lots and county streets are clear of snow, and kids should get back to school. On the other hand are posters who say that their streets are still not clear, that freezing temperatures create a likelihood of icy streets in the morning, and, despite the anecdotal reports, nobody can be sure that all 211 schools and offices have been cleared of snow. There is a debate about virtual school, which some posters believe should have been implemented this week. For many posters, "virtual school" is a phrase that they hope to never hear again, and they react very disdainfully to that suggestion. Those who are content to have schools remain closed accused those who want schools to open of being bad parents who don't want to spend time parenting their children. Those supporting reopening argue that they have jobs to which they must attend. One poster actually claimed that the only real solution was to return to a time when one parent stayed at home so that a parent would be available to cover childcare on snow days. That seems a bit extreme to me. At any rate, these arguments went on for 35 pages. At that point, a poster copy-and-pasted an update from MCPS saying that schools would open two hours late. One poster's immediate reaction was to claim that there would be lots of bitter teachers. It was not clear to me that teachers actually wanted schools to stay closed. Rather, this seemed like nothing more than a gratuitous swipe. Moreover, I always marvel at the contradictory expressions of contempt for teachers while simultaneously wanting them to care for children for several hours a day. If teachers were really as bad as some posters would have it, I would think that they wouldn't want their kids anywhere near a teacher. They should support every day being a snow day.

Threads about school snow days have been among the most active for the past two days. As they say, three is a charm. So, lucky us, today another snow day thread is the first to be discussed. The most active thread yesterday was actually the same thread that was the most active on Monday and the first one that I discussed yesterday. The second most active was another thread that I previously discussed, the one about Blake Lively. Skipping those means that the first thread for today was titled "MCPS delayed Wednesday?" and posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. This thread was started by a teacher who lives in Frederick County, Maryland, but who teaches in the Montgomery County Public Schools system. She says that the roads where she lives have all been cleared, but she wants to know how things are in Montgomery County and whether there is likely to be a delayed opening today. This post immediately highlighted an anomaly with this storm. The storm band was fairly narrow and didn't reach very far north. Whereas it is normally the northern sections of Montgomery County that get hit the hardest by snowstorms and are the long pole in the tent, so to speak, for getting the system back up and running, this time it is the central and southern parts of the county. While posters in northern Montgomery County and, like the original poster,  further north have cleared streets, many posters in Bethesda and downtown Silver Spring have yet to see a plow. Generally speaking, once a parent's own street is clear, they are ready for their kids to go back to school and they have little concern for those who are still snowed in. As a result, there is an immediate division between those whose streets have been plowed and those whose streets haven't. Moreover, there are disagreements about how much hardship should be endured in order to get kids to school. Some posters expect fully cleared sidewalks and streets free of any hint of snow or ice. Others complain about the current generation of "soft" kids who are unable to handle a little snow. These posters typically hail from upstate New York and proverbially walked 8 miles to school in 12 feet of snow. Up hill both ways, of course, and at a time before snow plows had even been invented. To those posters’ chagrin, fairly early in the afternoon, MCPS announced that schools would be closed today. Then the blame game began. Teachers were blamed for being lazy and preferring to sit home drinking hot chocolate instead of teaching, despite the fact that they had no say in the decision. MCPS was blamed for not clearing parking lots and school sidewalks, although posters reported that they were, in fact, clear. Montgomery County was blamed for not clearing roads quickly enough. Some posters, likely more accurately, simply blamed the storm which had dumped enough snow that it was taking a while to clear. Then the discussion turned to what this would mean for the school calendar. The closures meant that the planned snow day allotment had been used up and that something would need to change to make up for another day. Basically, posters preferred any solution that didn't impact their own interests. Often, those posters were in favor of taking away a professional day or a holiday that they personally don't celebrate. Teachers, on the other hand, want their professional day, which they use for grading. They generally prefer extending the school year by a day.

One of the most active threads that I discussed yesterday was about schools closing due to snow. That thread was in the Fairfax County Public Schools forum. But the Montgomery County Public Schools forum is no slouch when it comes to snow days either. The FCPS thread led the most active list of yesterday's threads, so I'll skip it and go to the second most active which was titled, "MCPS closing/delaying on Monday?" and, of course, posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. This thread was started a week ago in response to predictions of snow and it reached almost 20 pages before there was a single snowflake. Posters added almost another 20 pages yesterday. From what I've read in this thread, which admittedly is not a lot, the discussion is similar to that in the FCPS thread and, for that matter, every other snow day thread we've ever had. Some posters don't want schools to be closed under any circumstances. The most common reason for this position is their lack of childcare. This is particularly frustrating to them if they don't get a snow day from work themselves. Ironically, work-from-home policies that are normally very convenient can be a hindrance in these circumstances. No amount of snow can really justify a snow day when you are working from home. But regardless of the reason why parents must work, school closings frequently cause childcare issues for them. On the other hand are the parents who want schools to close at the slightest potential for the smallest amount of snow. The creativity with which they come up with justifications for closing is something to behold. One thing I noticed is that the anti-snow day posters tend to be pretty clear that they are upset because they personally are being inconvenienced. The pro-closing crowd is much more likely to argue that they are looking out for others. It's not that they personally have a need or interest in schools being closed, but rather they are concerned about bus drivers, school groundskeepers, kids with special needs who might miss important services, and perhaps to a lesser extent, teachers. A few of the pro-closing group, however, see a snow day as an opportunity for fun with their children and are very happy to have the day off. But even some of these parents start to have a different attitude when the prospect of a single snow day turns into the reality of multiple days. This resulted in calls for virtual school, which reignited many of the arguments of COVID closings. One topic of discussion that was unique to this thread was a video celebrating the snow day produced by MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor. Many posters were critical of the video, arguing that Taylor should be spending his time doing more to get schools reopened instead of making silly videos. Other posters applauded the video and argued that making it would not have taken much time or effort.

The most active thread over the weekend was one that was only started yesterday but managed to reach 34 pages in that short time. Titled, "Golden Globe Awards 2025" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum, the thread is, of course, about last night's Golden Globe Awards show. This is one of those topics about which I know very little and care even less. As posters started making predictions about movies, I realized that I hadn't even heard of most of them and have not seen any of them. I did note that the first poster declared that the gathering would be one of the largest of "known rapists and pedophiles in America". So, right up there with the Republican National Convention and maybe even rivaling one of President-elect, cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump's future cabinet meetings. In contrast, another poster predicted that "Wicked" would win because the movie "highlighted diversity, minority, and women as main characters." Apparently, the Globe judges are the wokest group of rapists and pedophiles ever. As for the thread, I didn't really need any TV or movie knowledge because the posts were dominated by photos of the attendees. This is really more of a fashion thread than anything else. Based on the comments I read, none of the DCUM posters liked what anyone was wearing. I suppose someone may have won an award for something, but you really wouldn't know it from this thread. Instead, it is photo after photo, often with repeats. Zendaya seemed to be a thread favorite as she appeared over and over again in different poses and even different outfits. I don't really have much to say because there is not much to summarize other than there were a lot of pictures. As for my own opinions about the awards, the only strong one I have is that "The Bear" should have won an award for gratuitous yelling. After watching that show, I instinctively yell “YES, CHEF" at the top of my lungs whenever someone talks to me while I am in the kitchen. I really have no opinions on the night's fashion. That's even further outside my area of expertise than movies and television. There was some discussion of the hosts, but since I didn't watch the show, I didn't know to what the posters were referring. However, based on the feedback in the thread, Ricky Gervais was a bit too hostile, and Nikki Glaser exceeded expectations.

The two most active threads yesterday were ones that I've already discussed — the New Orleans attack thread and the Blake Lively thread — so I will start with the third most active. That thread was titled, "Civilizing details that you missed during childhood- share here" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster says that she grew up not learning the "basics" of what I guess we might call proper behavior, though that is probably not the best way to describe it. For instance, she didn't start using washcloths when showering until she learned about them from roommates later in life. Similarly, she didn't know to wash her hands before preparing food until she worked in a restaurant in high school. Her husband grew up not using napkins when eating and washed all his clothes in a single load regardless of the color. He also didn't use mattress pads or pillow covers. Quite a few of those responding say that they don't use washcloths, so that may not be as much of an indication of being civilized as the original poster perceives. In fact, washcloth usage sort of dominated the thread, which it could be argued is actually a thread about washcloths. Disagreement on what is actually appropriate occurs throughout the thread. Another example is offering to pay the tip when a wealthier person offers to pay for dinner. The opinions about this range from it being almost required to it being merely polite to not at all necessary. A disconcerting number of posters were not taught to wash their hands after using the bathroom. I am pretty sure that the original poster meant this thread to be somewhat self-critical in that the posters are meant to reveal things that they now understand to have been shortcomings. That, however, didn't stop posters from being judgmental and piling on posters for their revelations. Some posters had strong differences of opinion regarding the propriety of overhead lights. Some posters were taught that overhead lights are low class and that they should not use them. Lamps only for them. Other posters were taught the exact opposite and consider lamps to be "trashy." Another poster objected to the use of the term "trashy", apparently feeling that not being taught to avoid the term was one more civilizing lesson that had been missed. This is a 12-page thread and I only skimmed it, but it looks like another topic that was subject to much dispute was bathroom usage. Apparently, the arguments about this had less to do with missed lessons and more to do with different cultural norms in various parts of the world. If I understand correctly, the origin of this disagreement was an attempt to prove to one particular poster that even the best upbringing could not possibly prepare her for what is or is not considered appropriate in every situation. It might have been better for these posters to stick to discussing washcloths.

Yesterday's most active thread was titled, "Pitt Jolie FINALLY reach divorce settlement" and was posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. The thread is about actress Angelina Jolie and actor Brad Pitt finally reaching a divorce settlement after an 8-year legal battle. The couple were only married for two years, separating in 2016 after an alleged physical altercation during a flight on a private aircraft. My immediate reaction upon seeing that this thread was the most popular of the previous day was to hope that it is not a sign of things to come. Threads about celebrities are my least favorite, and I really hope that this does not foreshadow a year dominated by celebrity threads. This thread is pretty true to form for celebrity threads. Such threads attract posters who are extremely obsessed with the celebrities in question, who generally believe that they have a full grasp of the facts, and who have little tolerance for anyone who disagrees with them. In this case, the divide between Jolie fans and Pitt supporters is such that both groups were able to read the same account of what was said to have occurred on the airplane and come to completely opposite conclusions. Pro-Jolie posters argued that Pitt attacked Jolie and their children. Pitt-backers contend that, actually, Jolie first jumped on Pitt's back. Whether Pitt "hit" or "punched" Jolie is hotly disputed, with some posters pointing out that Pitt was not described as doing either. Rather, he was accused of pushing Jolie into a wall, perhaps in an attempt to get her off his back. The role of gender in the dispute was repeatedly brought up. When some posters criticized Jolie, one poster reacted by saying, "Look at you women, tearing a woman down. Shameful." Another poster argued that "Hollywood is a misogynist rapist town." Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services investigated Pitt due to allegations of child abuse, but both agencies cleared him. Nevertheless, for some posters, this was just more evidence of how biased the system is against women. This is not the end of the legal disputes between Jolie and Pitt. The couple is still engaged in legal action over a vineyard that they jointly owned. Much of what is known about the divorce proceedings actually came out during the vineyard dispute. Some posters argued that it was the prospect of more information damaging to Pitt being released as part of those proceedings that motivated him to finalize the divorce now. Several posters predicted a quick resolution to the vineyard legal action in order to prevent more details that would reflect poorly on Pitt from being released.

Last year on New Year's Day, I thought that I had a great idea. Instead of writing about the previous day's most active threads, I would discuss the top 10 most active threads of the previous year. Out of curiosity, I wondered what I had done the previous year and looked at my previous January 1 post. Wouldn't you know it, I had written about the previous year's top 10 most active posts. So, my new idea was not, in fact, new. My memory was, however, questionable. This year, I have the awareness to know that writing about the top 10 most active threads of last year is not a new idea. However, I can now argue that it is a tradition. I will also follow the tradition of these posts by starting at the bottom of the list and working up to the most active thread of the year.

The tenth most active thread of 2024 was titled, "ECNL forcing Brave & Union Partnership" and posted in the "Soccer" forum. I originally wrote about this thread on February 21 of last year. At that time, I had a very dismal view of the thread because it had been started with nothing more than a rumor and quickly deteriorated into exchanges of snark and insults. Moreover, the soccer forum had proved to be the source of considerable headache, and this thread did not appear likely to reverse that trend. The topic of the thread was a rumored merger being forced by the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) — a national kids’ soccer league — on two of its member clubs. Eventually, this rumor turned out to be true, and the thread reached 332 pages before posters seemed to have lost interest. Little did I know then, but soccer topics would routinely appear among the most active threads throughout the year.

Yesterday's most active thread was titled, "How to fix our crisis" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The "crisis" in question pertains to the U.S. education system, which the original poster believes is failing on many levels. According to her, the SAT is not rigorous, American students are dropping out of STEM programs "like flies", and students are not graduating with the skills needed to compete for entry-level jobs. This is a 19-page thread full of fairly dense posts and, as such, not easy to summarize. Two things the thread demonstrates are the acute politicalization of education and how data can be manipulated to support an argument. Almost immediately, posters associated the original poster's argument with recent statements by failed businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who has similarly argued that American culture has accepted mediocrity instead of striving for excellence when it comes to education. When a poster described a comedian who had joked about "MAGA friends", a poster immediately assumed that this was a rebuke of rural White kids, and one poster instinctively posted about alleged deficiencies among urban kids, presumably meaning Black and Hispanic children. It is not clear why posters made the connection between "MAGA friends" and rural White students or even why remarks about MAGA attitudes about education are considered derogatory. After all, it was President-elect, cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump who famously said that he loved the "Poorly Educated" and attacks on higher education have been a hallmark of MAGA ideology. While many posters preferred to support their arguments with data, there was considerable disagreement about how data was used. For instance, some posters referred to data showing that American students lagged behind those of other countries as evidence that the American education system is failing. On the other hand, posters suggested that if the U.S. data was limited to the performance of White and Asian students, the U.S. performance would be near the top. This, the posters argued, showed that the U.S. education system was clearly capable of producing high-performing students. If true, however, this data does show the inequality in our system. Similarly, some posters refused to accept that the U.S. education system is failing or suffering from significant problems. Other posters agreed with the original poster that there is room for improvement, but there was little agreement about what exactly should be done. The original poster proposed that calculus be made a requirement for high school graduation. Many posters objected to this, arguing that, for most people, calculus has little value. The original poster also proposed not awarding high school diplomas to those who failed to meet the increased graduation requirements. It is not clear to me that the original poster's proposals would actually increase the education level of American students. Rather, it would probably just create a larger number of individuals who lack a high school diploma. A better strategy might be to ensure that calculus classes, as well as classes necessary to prepare for the course, are widely available as options for those students who want to study the subject.

After taking a week off, I was not sure how to get back to blogging today. One option was to just ignore the last week and start with a discussion of the most active threads over the weekend. The other choice was to look at the most active threads during the entire time I was off. For better or worse, I have chosen the second option. The most active thread during that time was the one that I have already discussed about the murder of the UnitedHealthCare CEO. After that was a thread titled, "Why is Blake Lively so overrated?" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. Let me preface this discussion by admitting that I am probably the least qualified person imaginable to discuss this topic. Frankly, I have no idea who Blake Lively is and could not pick her out of a police lineup if my life depended upon it. I understand that she is an actress, but I am not aware of any role that she has played. I may very well have seen her in a movie or show, but if so, I don't remember it. In fact, were it not for this thread, I am not sure that I could correctly identify her gender given that "Blake" can be a male name. What I can say is that this thread was started in September of 2018 by a poster who believed that Lively has "a weird looking face" and is a bad actress. After three pages, the thread died and sank into obscurity until it was revived just over two years later by a poster who claimed that Lively's biggest accomplishments were getting married and having children. After five posts, the thread returned to obscurity. Then, two months later, it was resuscitated by a poster complaining that Lively's "eyes are small". The thread then returned to hibernation for over a year, being awakened in March 2022 and then taking another year and change off. It was not heard from again until May 2023, at which time it received only a few posts. It was then zombied in August 2024. When the thread was revived in August, it was 8 pages long. Today, it is 95 pages. I understand that most of the new interest is the result of a lawsuit that Lively filed against Justin Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment. However, that lawsuit was not mentioned until page 28, so there were 20 pages of fairly recent discussion even before that occurred. Threads like this that are nearly 100 pages in length present a particular challenge to me. I wouldn't read a thread of this length even if the topic interested me, and this topic doesn't. As a result, if there were a lot of complaints about it, I would probably just lock it rather than devote the effort necessary to moderate it. But, as it happens, there have not been a lot of complaints about this thread. Instead, there was a thread started in the Website Feedback forum suggesting that the entire thread consisted of nothing but "PR bot vs PR bot spam". Apparently, "bot" is used in a rather unorthodox sense to refer to people rather than automated posts. At any rate, I noticed one anti-Lively poster who posted 27 times, another poster who posted 26 times, and a pro-Lively poster who posted a whopping 87 times. I suspect that these are actual humans with too much time on their hands rather than paid public relations professionals. I must admit, however, that the suggestion that Hollywood public relations firms would find DCUM discussions worth influencing is rather flattering, if somewhat unrealistic.