My parents were born in the 1920s and were adamantly against racial slurs such as the n-word. Their parents weren't. After a visit from one grandparent, Mom heard six-year old me use the n-word and made it very clear it wasn't acceptable. And the grandparents never used that language around me again. It turned out my parents told both sets of grandparents that if they ever talked like that around my sister and me again, that would be the last time they ever saw us. And it worked.

My parents and grandparents were both from Michigan. The difference may have been partially generational, but I think it was also partially due to the fact that my parents traveled a lot more than their parents and interacted with a wider variety of people.

My grandparents (b.1912/1913) were making donations to the United Negro College Fund in 1945 (it was founded in 1944). And in the 1950s my grandmother used to routinely call and give the Cincinnati Police department pressure about integrating their patrols. (Of course, she also had a running letter war with the New York Times about their tendency to hyphenate words in strange places - not all of my grandmother's fights were fraught with justice.) So, yeah, racial slurs were not an issue in my 67 year old father's upbringing.

Ok, "not all of my grandmother's fights were fraught with justice" just won the Trudy's Phrase of the Day Award (which I just invented).

Had my grandmother been born 60 years later, she would have embodied xkcd 386.

I was trying to remember what we called Brazil nuts when I was a kid, but I don't think I ever even saw one until after college. I don't like them much.

Where my brother and Mom and nephew live are "Blue Ghosts" - fireflies that have a blue glow. They don't blink on and off as quickly and they sort of hover near the ground. It's only during a short window of time and in a very small area.

Ooooh, where?

I don't recall hearing any casual racism from family members until my paternal grandparents attended my high school graduation and commented on my classmates. I didn't confront them directly but I did tell my parents I wouldn't stay in the room and listen to that.

I never knew Brazil nuts as anything but Brazil nuts and I always caught a tiger by it's tail.

This is some cool twitter metadata. [link]

I never knew Brazil nuts as anything but Brazil nuts and I always caught a tiger by it's tail.

I was also blissfully unaware of any other versions until well into adulthood. My childhood was very blessed in this way.

AHS is way disturbing--I'm trying to work out if it's engaging enough to be this disturbed or not.

I think I watched the first three episodes, but Constance and Adelaide's trespasses were so enraging, capped by Ben's failure to put a stop to them, that I gave up. I was shocked at myself -- never before or since have I felt such an overwhelming desire to see physical violence done to people. I didn't know I had that button, but it sure got pushed. I couldn't handle it, so I quit.

Pretty soon I need to put on some outside pants and go to a sports bar for the playoffs game. Considering that I've been out and about a lot today already, you'd think this would require less effort.