The 'number of months one SHOULD spend' and the notion that love is not real if it does not involve a common, but shiny, rock that is nowhere near worth what it costs...and often involves near-slave labor to produce, at that...really, really bugs me.

Just like the faux-post feminist 'wear a diamond on your right hand to show the world you take care of yourself' campaign.

"But they say three months' salary! That's crazy!!"

whoa! what happened to two months?!!?!

A friend of mine had some concerns about spending too much money on a ring, but he wanted to get something that she liked. I told him to find a jeweler he liked, make an appointment. Have the jeweler show her a selection of rings in his price range, she can pick from them.

Just like the faux-post feminist 'wear a diamond on your right hand to show the world you take care of yourself' campaign.

That one was deffinately a DeBeers invention.

I don't mean to make light...I really don't...but can I tag this?

I apologise for tiring you, and will ignore you at your request.

Not in the least about the actual conversation, just that I feel this way a lot about my interactions with others. I can't stop giggling.

I think more about the style (how the punches are thrown, the foot work, etc) rather than the rules of the ring

I guess it's because you can't really tell I'm not a boxer until I break one of the ring rules, yet I will kick and scream at the label--that's why I think of boxing as the sport. The punching and the footwork are fairly...well, I'm not good at the footwork, but I would be surprised to see anyone use it if they weren't training with the rules of the sport in mind.

Standard wikipedia disclaimer, but this is close to my opinion:

Boxing, also called pugilism, Western Boxing, prizefighting (when referring to professional boxing) or the sweet science (a common nickname among fans), is a sport in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called "rounds". In both Olympic and professional divisions, the combatants (called boxers or fighters) avoid their opponent's punches while trying to land punches of their own. Points are awarded for clean, solid blows to the legal area on the front of the opponent's body above the waistline, with hits to the head and torso being especially valuable.

I can't stop giggling.

Ha! Yeah, you can have it.

I suspect the whole thing is via DeBeers.

The whole engagement ring thing is via DeBeers to a pretty amazing extent, so I'm pretty sure this is right. But then, I'm no fan of the whole engagement concept, so it could be I'm a little cynical.

Ha! Yeah, you can have it.

Thanks!

My granddad and his 3rd wife both got engagement rings (custom made, so they look kinda like each other in format and stones). His was a gigantic manly-man ring, but, it was his engagement ring.

That's not boxing. That's punching. Lots of people punch. Boxing is when you say "Okay, no elbows, no kicking, no punching below the belt, etc, etc." It's the rules that set it aside from just striking with a closed fist.

I guess that common usage is confusing here. People say "box your ears" and they mean punch or smack. (Although why you never box a guy's face, I don't know!) Kids in fights tend to ape the boxing stance, especially at first (later they are whipping out their best impressions of the brawl from They Live ). The fact it devolves to Rowdy Roddy Piper material suggests that formal boxing rules -- rules of any kind -- are quickly forgotten, but I see a lot of cultural artifacts of boxing in what you call punching. But I can see how you'd make the distinction.

Boxing doesn't interest me, except in their focus on sweet footwork.

Boxing doesn't interest me much at all, except to notice how hugely popular it used to be in the US, and how that popularity has waned and turned downmarket. Pro wrestling has a certain highlowbrow appeal, but I think that boxing's constant problems with corruption have exiled it from the middle class. (Whereas, horse racing, which was similarly popular at the same time, has gone way upmarket.)

Lee - unfortunately, I keep missing tv shows, so I have nothing to comment on.