Your unpopular opinions and creepy admissions

A guy I meet at the dog park has to go to his granddaughter's kindergarten graduation today. He was not impressed.

 

I buy ice cream from the ice cream man when I do school pickups every day.

 

Sounds like a Norwegian version of The Purge.

 

I bought a He-Man the other day. I remember finding the same one on a Kmart peg when I was a kid.

 

I don't think these are particularly unpopular and I hope they're not creepy, but responding to the discussion:
- I find two categories of people have a understandable and mostly forgivable narcissism: High School Seniors and engaged couples.
- In the school where I work, I always find graduation a chore before I get there, and then find it extremely emotional. We meet these students as little children / freshmen and they graduate, almost always as a far, far better and more mature version of themselves.
- I teach across all tracks, in particular at the top and bottom. I am proud of all of them, but the ones that really get to me are the ones who struggled the most (and gave me a run for my money). This is likely somewhat related to the Ikea effect.
- At the top end, I am ambivalent about graduation awards. It's nice to see talent and hard work rewarded, but for the most part those students are recognized throughout. I always play the "Last Man Out" game, and look through the program to find the student who doesn't get any individual recognition, but was an excellent honors student with a positive attitude etc., but was number 11 if there are 10 awards. It's really heartbreaking and it might be a reason to do away with them all, or maybe just keep the objective ones (GPA, class vote etc.).
- The gold standard that is impossible at most schools for time reasons, is what my sons' (small-ish) school does. Each graduate submits 3 faculty members (ranked) who they feel close with, and one of them speaks for a minute about him when they call him up for his diploma. With bigger schools, you can do a couple of sentences in writing to run on a screen during the refreshments or at senior dinner.

 

Every time I go into Wal-Mart or Target I feel the urge to cruise by the toy aisle and scope out their selection of Transformers and G.I. Joe figures. I've gotten into collecting what's called the "Core Class" of Transformers figures — about 3 3/4 inches, mostly classic characters that cost $10-$12. They're awesome to use as little desk toys to fidget with when I need a quick mental break, amazingly detailed, and cheap enough to be impulse buys if there's one I like.
The current line of Joes is 6-inch figures, though. Some of them are works of art, but they're a little too big to hang out on the desk and a little too pricey ($20 or so) to be a throwaway purchase.

 

Batman, I hear you, my desk is full of action figures.

 

I'll cruise by the toy aisle, and if I ever see one of these organically, I'll buy it for myself as a treat and put it up somewhere: a small plush or proper separate figurine of Bandit, the dad from "Bluey." (I don't want to buy a set, and perhaps it's the ongoing search that is what engages me.)

Every "Bluey" episode just immediately puts me back to my daughter being 3-10 years old and playing with her and her Disney princess dolls and figurines. When she was growing up, we didn't do daycare because I was a small daily newspaper sports editor and my wife was a nurse, so I'd be with the kid from the time the wife left at 6 each morning til 3/4ish each day. Now 21, she'll mention those play sessions sometimes, and it makes me very, very proud. These are some of my best memories.

 

Back in my news days I collected Historical GI Joes. The full-size ones. George Washington, JFK, Teddy Roosevelt and Ernie Pyle (I still have the latter two), nice that there is a journo action figure. Also bought the Hansen Brothers from Slap Shot. A classic.

 

Unpopular take: I think Caitlin Clark takes a lot of bad shots and is a big baby, and I'm so tired of seeing her in my feed.

 

It’s probably for the best that we have essentially stood down when it comes to the war on marijuana, but that shouldn’t be a free license to toke up anywhere and everywhere in public. Keep that shit to yourself like we make the tobacco smokers do. And for God’s sake find a way to deodorize. Some of these folks are so dank that I’m choking just being in the vicinity.

 

I say this as a former pack-a-day cigarette smoker. I don't know why in the hell you would inhale smoke when edibles and brownies are right there.