Wednesday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday's most active thread was posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The thread was titled, "WARNING before you send your child to an upper Midwest cold weather college" and quotes from an article lamenting the lack of sunshine in Michigan in early January. The poster warns about the dangers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and cautions about all Midwestern states. As a native of the Midwest and graduate of the University of Illinois, I find the original poster's concern to be ludicrous in the extreme. Mark Twain is often credited with the saying, "If you don’t like our weather, just wait a few minutes", but at least one quote investigator has traced that expression to an anonymous resident of Chicago, a place where the sentiment is certainly fitting. The original poster may be shocked to learn that there are people who actually enjoy seasonal weather changes. Some of those responding share the original poster's antipathy for the cold and sometimes gloomy weather of the north, but others recall pleasant experiences in such places. Other posters note that the Pacific Northwest and parts of northern New York state also have similar weather. This thread is part of a trend where posters have fixated on weather as a major factor in college choice. This is the second thread about cold weather colleges that has been among the most active and weather was a big part of another most active thread about southern universities. The thread is also part of a second trend involving posters obsessed with the University of Michigan, which — as a proud Illini alumn — I am contractually obligated to hate. But, I actually have fairly fond feelings for the school.

Yesterday's second most active thread was titled, "Staying fit for spouse" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster says that she is about 40 pounds heavier than she believes her husband wants her to be. However, the weight does not seem to be a deal-breaker in their relationship and is not negatively impacting her life otherwise. As such, she is not overly motivated to lose weight and asks if anyone stays fit exclusively for their spouse. Most of those responding say that they stay fit and try to lose weight for themselves because of what they believe to be the health and lifestyle benefits. If it increases their attraction to their spouses, that's just a lucky side effect. Other posters described attempts to lose weight that caused harm to their lives and said that they are happier being a little heavy. Of course, as with any thread such as this, a few male posters jump in to say how much they dislike extra weight on women. It's not clear whether any of these guys are staying fit for for their wives or even what their posts have to do with the topic of the thread. The other expected development that normally occurs in such threads is arguments about which foods to eat or avoid in order to lose weight. Such posts are also off-topic in this thread, but just as in the case of the fat-hating guys, never stops them.

The third most active thread yesterday was posted in the "Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers" forum. Titled, "Late to the party - did lobbyists take down the breastfeeding post?", the thread left me confused about to which "breastfeeding post" the original poster was referring and what lobbyists would have to do with anything. It appears that the original poster's goal was to increase awareness that large corporations are promoting infant formula. Breastfeeding is one of the perennial hot button issues on DCUM and I would be shocked if there were any posters not fully aware of the corporate promotion of formulas. As such, the first responses mostly consisted of snarky replies or warnings that the forum is anti-breastfeeding (an assessment with which I would not agree). By the second page the thread had turned into a full-fledged debate about breastfeeding. A quick scan of a few pages of the thread suggests that things have backfired significantly for the original poster and most of the criticism in the thread is targeted at breastfeeding advocates rather than formula manufacturers. Reading threads such as this I think there is a lesson that applies to politics as well as breastfeeding. People seem to be used to and accepting of well-produced commercial advocacy. They will sit through thousands of slick television ads without complaint. But one shrill grassroots advocate will turn them off for life. I'm not suggesting that the original poster was shrill. To the contrary she was quite the opposite. But, her viewpoint is associated with over-zealous breastfeeding proponents and that is enough for many posters.

The final thread of the day was titled, "Would you buy a house without a garage?" and posted in the "Real Estate" forum. The original poster explains that her current house in the DC suburbs is too small and, rather than moving, they are considering converting their one car garage into additional bedrooms and an office. The original poster asks whether people would be willing to buy a 4000 square foot house without a garage. There turned out to be quite a bit more variety in the responses than I would have expected. Of course there were posters for whom a garage didn't matter and a small one wouldn't be used anyway and there were posters who wouldn't even consider a house without a garage. But, in between were a lot of more nuanced replies such as those suggesting that it depended on whether garages were common in the neighborhood. Not having a garage in a neighborhood where most houses didn't have garages would not be much of a handicap. Other posters advised keeping the garage but building an addition on top of it. Some stressed that without a garage, a sizable storage shed would be a requirement. Several posters described their own experiences converting garages and generally were happy with their choices, but others argued that garage conversions were rarely done well.