Let the Joyous news be spread: New Jersey votes yes on Gay civil union!

[green 6]

There are sooooo many obnoxious things people do these days. I, for one, am just waiting for the moment I snap and take someone's Nextel phone with that horrible loud beeping, and smash it on the ground.

I also hate it when people talk in movie theaters.

And so many other things! It's as if the idea of polite behavior and decency have escaped us.

But now that the DEMOCRATS WON THE HOUSE, maybe everything will get a little rosier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I just couldn't resist random gloating.

Cell Phone Manners and Things I Hate would probably good discussion threads....

I also hate people who talk in movie theatres.

[Carlene 12]

Cell Phone Manners and Things I Hate would probably good discussion threads....

I also hate people who talk in movie theatres.

Posted on Tue, Sep. 19, 2006

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Text-messaging teens lose their seats at movies

By JOHN AUSTIN

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

ARLINGTON - Talk may be cheap, but text messaging could cost you the price of a movie ticket.

This past weekend, teenagers who were using text messaging were escorted out of The Parks at Arlington mall’s 18-screen AMC theater by off-duty police officers.

“All we’re promoting is a distraction-free environment,” said Nate Reid, the theater’s general manager. He added that the policy has been enforced since the theater opened in 2002. “We have a very high teenage audience. It really is a problem with the teenage audience.”

A person using the name “Knotlazy” was so incensed with his daughter’s ejection that he posted a message on Kevin McCarthy’s Dallas Digest message board.

“My daughter just got thrown out of a movie theater,” his message read. “She and a friend were escorted out of a theater for reading a text message on their cell phones.

“They had their phone on silent. It was a text message so no talking, no noise. A uniformed policeman said the theater has a very clear policy on no cell phones and they had to leave, walked them to the door and told them to not come back that night,” Knotlazy wrote. “I can see it if they were talking on the phone, but having someone open their phone and text message in a theater does not bother me. She said the police were escorting teens out of the theater through the whole movie.”

Reid said many movie patrons find lights from cellphones, which are used to send and receive text messages, distracting.

AMC enforces a “Silence is Golden” policy. According to AMC’s corporate Web site, this is a “proactive national program aimed at providing a distraction-free moviegoing experience. ... Employees actively monitor auditoriums to ensure a quiet moviegoing experience. An entertaining pre-feature trailer is also in place to remind guests of the importance of this message.”

AMC spokeswoman Sun Dee Larson said Reid’s actions were “news to us.” But, she said, “any distracting behavior will be addressed.”

AMC has 411 theaters and 5,601 screens and is the No. 1 or No. 2 exhibitor in 22 of the 25 largest U.S. markets, Larson said.

Tadd Mansilla, general manager of the Rave theater at Fort Worth’s Ridgmar mall, takes a different approach.

“I’ve talked to some kids,” Mansilla said. “They just turn ’em off.

“Either that or I’ll sit with them,” Mansilla said.

The Rave chain owns 24 theaters with 382 screens in nine states.

Jeremy Devine, marketing vice president for Dallas-based Rave Motion Pictures, said text messaging isn’t the only offender: Loud talking can also get a warning from the manager.

“We sort of reserve the right to ask people to leave” if they don’t comply with managers’ requests to turn cellphones off, Devine said.

Knotlazy’s post drew a round of applause for the theater from many on the message board.

“Sorry, but I am glad they are kicking them out,” wrote Cliff. “I sat in a theater not too long ago. ... I cannot tell you the number of times I saw people open up their phones and check text messages. The screens were such a distraction I wanted to chuck a shoe [at] them. It ruined the movie. The bright lights from the screens were so noticeable that it took away from the movie.”

Spacecowboy wrote: “Good for the theater!!! It is rude to have your phone light up in the middle of the movie. ... It distracts from the movie by disrupting the ‘suspension of disbelief.’ ”

Knotlazy wrote that he told his daughter “rules are rules, she is supposed to obey even if she thinks it is unreasonable. They lost the cost of the tickets, no refunds.”

That sounded right to OnTexasTime.

“If most people leave the theater to go [to] the bathroom,” OnTexasTime wrote, “they should do the same when they feel the need to use their phone.”

[Sunta 5]

RE: Text-messaging teens lose their seats at movies

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Today is a great day indeed!!!!!! That article makes me soooooooooooo happy! Let's bring manners back to our society!

I myself have yelled at many a teen over this very issues, not to mention them actually TALKING on their phones during the movies. But yes even text messaging is very distracting due to the lit screens.

Who wants to invest with me in the following idea:

A movie theater where no one under the age of 21 is admitted:

1. No talking strictly enforced. If someone talks once, they are evicted FOR LIFE.

2. Sofas and comfortable overstuffed chairs will replace traditional seats.

3. Discussions after the film to be lead by staff members

4. Full bar and restaurant

5. No cell phones, no noise of any kind

6. No coming in late at all. Must be seated before the movie starts.

7. People who think they will need to get up during the movie to go to the bathroom should have special seating close to the exits and should be seated on the end.

So, who's in? There is nothing like this that exists as far as I know. I would love to frequent an establishment like this. Maybe it could be a membership only organization, where one pays a membership fee for the year and then movies are $5 a pop.

Ok, I'm SORRY to be soooooo vastly off -topic. I really am.

Back to Gay marriage: YEAH!!!! Today is the beginning of the end for ultra conservatives! Soon, Gay union will be enacted and chaos will ensue! All straight couples wedding rings and marriage liscenses will spontaneously combust! Gay couples will be running nude through the streets fornicating in front of children! And the downfall of our entire society will begin! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can't wait!!!!

Just kidding.

Can anyone tell I'm happy the Dems are back in control?

[lisah25 3]

Sunta, you do seem a bit giddy!

I'm with ya on the theater.

[BJean 16]

There were people in my previous city who decided they wanted a theatre like Sunta described. They opened their own. They ran a lot of European films. It became very popular. They expanded their menu and seating. Included wine and beer. The whole thing became such a hit they now have their very own Film Festival.

I now live in a city where they have opened a new concept in the theater experience. They are attempting to serve high quality food with their first run movies. It is not exactly quiet since eating a steak or salmon requires knives and forks, but the food is quite good and the chairs are delux cushioned leather on wheels and that rotate 360 degrees. For 4 screens they have a couple of hundred waiters. All the kinks haven't been worked out yet, but it promises to be a neat alternative to theaters offering the usual popcorn/candy/hot dog fare and who attract people who like to talk on or text message with cell phones and talk aloud to each other instead of enjoying the film.

Btw, we figured out that the new theater's really good food doesn't cost a whole lot more than what we were paying for popcorn, candy and a drink at the standard flicks.

P.S. Gay people are allowed at the new theater, married or not. (Didn't want to be accused of straying too far from the thread.)

[beversman 0]

Wow... I tried to clear up the animal issue... and everyone did manage to go another darker route. Let's wade through this one.

First of all, Gay Marriage. That WAS what this thread was about... I think.

Gay Marriage

• It has nothing to do with Incestuous Marriage. Incest is illegal already. Therefore. No point in bringing it up.

To review. Incest already illegal = incestuous marriage illegal.

• Polygamy already illegal in most states. again. issue already addressed by law.

To review. Polygamy and incest are already illegal. They will still be illegal when Gay marriage is allowed.

Breaking News!!!

Polygamy and incest are issues with STRAIGHT marriage too

. You can argue their case right now

without

even talking about gay couples.

I love to watch the crazy arguements that develop when people bring up homosexuals. Every questionable, inconceivable "couple scenario" starts "coming out" of the wood work.

They said GAY. Not a socially challenged, dysfunctional family fiasco.

Allowing same-sex marriage opens up an argument for all these other types of marriage??

Doesn't allowing "traditional" marriage allow the same arguments already??

That's it! Ban on ALL marriage. We can't take the chances people!

[BJean 16]

If we keep lettin' them gays marry and stuff, marriage will go out of style and nobody will want to get married anymore. :heh:

I may be out of the loop since I've been married over 30 years, but it seems to me that many people really don't get married anymore. They live together then sometimes they get married "for the children" and then they break up.

Oh well, it's better than the alternative of NOT living together then getting married to have children and then breaking up.

[Betsyjane 2]

Aren't there more childen being brought up in single family homes now than two parent homes. That seems like a meatier issue than gay marriage. Pun not intended.

[Carlene 12]

Aren't there more childen being brought up in single family homes now than two parent homes. That seems like a meatier issue than gay marriage. Pun not intended.

So they say. Even when my kids were growing up, they were the exception, rather than the norm.

We had a single mom living next door to us. We were in our front yard one Friday afternoon when her ex came to pick up her little boy. As soon as he pulled up, she appeared with child and suitcase in hand, kissed the boy, heaved his luggage into the back of the truck, and disappeared back into her house. I said to my DH, "I wish I had one of those."

"A Toyota mini-truck?" he asked.

"No," I said, "An ex-husband who comes every other Friday to pick up my kids."

[BJean 16]

Carlene: That's funny. Except when you're a single parent and the ex is out having too much fun to be bothered to pick him up. Why are ex's always creeps?

[Wheetsin 714]

I was THE only one of my friends whose parents were still together.

That's a part of why DH and I didn't have kids right away. I always said no - you have to find yourselves as a couple before you find yourselves as parents. You know who "you" are, you need find to know who "we" are. And a little time into the marriage to be absolutely sure things are heading in a good direction doesn't hurt, either.

[Wheetsin 714]

I guess I should really oppose gay marriages.

So many hotties, so useless to me outside of decorating my house or cutting my hair...

And if they give me a chance, I can fix them. Make them straight. They're only gay because they've never had a good woman.

No wait, they're gay because god made them that way, right? I forget...

[Carlene 12]

Carlene: That's funny. Except when you're a single parent and the ex is out having too much fun to be bothered to pick him up. Why are ex's always creeps? :success1:

Because they were creeps before they were exes, that's why.

[Sunta 5]

I just wanted to say that I just read an article about that poor sad soul, Haggard, and it seems he's going to do some three-five year "restoration" process which will include "laying on of hands" and praying, and I feel like they're going to be trying to drive "demons" out of him or something. They stopped short of saying that in the article but it's the impression I was left with. It is so sad. He can never change who he is. God made him and loves him the way that he is. It's so abusive what they're going to do to him. You can't change being Gay. There's nothing wrong with being Gay. His whole life will be miserable because he'll deny who he is (if the "treatment" works).

It is so sad. I wonder how many other kids come under the influence of these barbaric practices (trying to "cure" Gay people)? How much self-hatred will be inflicted on them, these innocent beautiful souls. How many will we lose to suicide because of these practices?

[Carlene 12]

I just wanted to say that I just read an article about that poor sad soul, Haggard, and it seems he's going to do some three-five year "restoration" process which will include "laying on of hands" and praying, and I feel like they're going to be trying to drive "demons" out of him or something. They stopped short of saying that in the article but it's the impression I was left with. It is so sad. He can never change who he is. God made him and loves him the way that he is. It's so abusive what they're going to do to him. You can't change being Gay. There's nothing wrong with being Gay. His whole life will be miserable because he'll deny who he is (if the "treatment" works).

It is so sad. I wonder how many other kids come under the influence of these barbaric practices (trying to "cure" Gay people)? How much self-hatred will be inflicted on them, these innocent beautiful souls. How many will we lose to suicide because of these practices?

Don't worry, Sunta...it's mostly for show. Fundamentalists love nothing better than to forgive a "reformed" sinner.