The headline is the best part: Dog Saves Family From Fire Blamed on Cat

Cote said the fire marshal investigator believes the blaze was started when Princess, the family cat, tipped over a kerosene lantern. Cote says he and his pets escaped safely, but he says Princess did get her tail singed by the flames.

So they left a cat alone in a room with a burning thing?

See, there's a difference between answering a question that can be open to more than one interpretation, and simply making a mistaking and continuing to solve according to it.

I mean, I still remember one exam in which I insisted with the professor that his questions could be understood in a way different than what he had intended. He eventually agreed that I was correct, that it was a possible way of understanding the text as written (even though not as originally meant) and changed me grade. It's not the same as saying "yeah, I made a mistake in the first step, I chose the road not-taken, despite the "beware the tiger" signs on it, but I still want to be marked according to the steps I made on it".

Oh, and of course, there's always the part in which each step of the way is graded according to itself and itself alone, even if some previous step in the way to it is mistaken. So the rest of the work does get credit, if it deserves it.

Only not with the demanding, so much.

Um, that's important. That student tried to convince me that I was the one who is wrong, because I'm not accepting his mistake.

Do you have the Chabad people trying to convince the men to wear tefillin or the like? It's like that, only in reverse, in a way?

We did at NYU. Guys would ask "are you Jewish?" and pounce if you answered yes.

More than once I threatened to rat out a friend running late for class. "I'm telling him! I am! 'Hey! Right over here! Stephen is Jewish!!!!'"...

Ah, good times...

You know, I've been thinking about the stuff in here about people's feelings of entitlement, watching people on the bus, etc. I think some of it is a resistance to growing up.

I wonder if "entitlement" is the default of childhood and that part of being raised right is being taught that it won't always be like this.

The latest "outrage" is that they've instituted a $200 fine for anyone who throws up on the bus.

That's brilliant. The fine, not the outrage.

Well, some of the students are saying there aren't any fines for people who throw up elsewhere ... but I'm thinking they haven't taken that through to the logical end - institute fines for throwing up (due to drunkeness) anywhere. silly kids.

I think that, in generations past, the people who believed themselves entitled to do things like defy the laws of physics were the ones who didn't survive to adulthood. They drowned, and fell off cliffs, and stuck their arms in wood-chippers, and so forth.

Yes, a decrease in child mortality is to blame for adult entitlement issues!!

I think that, in generations past, the people who believed themselves entitled to do things like defy the laws of physics were the ones who didn't survive to adulthood. They drowned, and fell off cliffs, and stuck their arms in wood-chippers, and so forth.

Don't forget to factor in that in times past there was far less in the way of forensic investigation should such a person annoy people sufficiently to have a dramatic effect on their lifespan.

Well, some of the students are saying there aren't any fines for people who throw up elsewhere ...

But it really is less of a hassle when people puke on the street (etc.)! Puking on the bus is exceptionally nasty.

Yes, a decrease in child mortality is to blame for adult entitlement issues!!

There may be more truth to that than is comfortable to think. When idiots survive, idiots thrive.