1. I find that the girl looks a lot like me, minus the coloring and and dramatic eyebrows. So, she is kind of pretty in a fat-faced kind of way. She
    looks in her eyes a bit too young to be presented in this way.
2. Fashion-wise, perhaps the 1840s?
3. Girl - age 16; guy - age 30
4. Guy looks like his right eye is turned inward a bit, I'm thinking due to the fact that he is peering into such a narrow opening.
5. Agree, guy looks like a tool, leering in where the girl expects privacy.
6. The girl looks like she is thinking, "What a douche, but some men are like this, so I am a bit amused."
     The guy looks kind of desperate.
7. If I were the guy, I would not peer into her door because I would want to be respectful. I would immediately dump the guy if I were the girl.
8. If I saw a young girl dressed like that, I would tell her that she is beautiful, but ask her if she wants to be viewed primarily as sexual in this
     situation and if not, to consider putting on a wrap.
9.  I like the painting because the facial expressions and placement of the subjects provoke a lot of inferences on the part of the viewer.
10. If I were the guy's best friend I would tell him that what he was doing is very uncool.
10. 

Chocolate Shake Man-
Thanks for that info.; I was misinformed!

The Captain - Perhaps not useful in everyday life, but beneficial in others. True Canadians and Americans have benefited from English being the lingua franca  at a cost, although don't Canadians have to learn both French and English in school?

NOLA BB Fan -

     Agree. And there are many cognitive benefits. One that particularly interests me, as a woman of a certain age, is that being bi-lingual tends to slow the development dementia as we age.

The Captain and RRA1 -

Yes, I would have to agree that our educational system really does tend to give foreign languages short shrift. I took both French and Spanish, but really can't say I am fluent in either. I live in Pennsylvania, where there were/are traditionally a lot of people of German-speaking origin. As a result,
the majority of my peers opted to take German class in secondary school. A  local station even devotes an evening each week to a call-in show where people speak Pennsylvania German, a dialect  of Low German and English. Things are changing a bit, though, as there are some public schools around the country that offer immersion programs, in which elementary school kids are taught another language, usually Spanish, and some or all classes are conducted in it.  A few local districts now offer Mandarin or Russian in high school.

It's not as it used to be. I remember that it was quite mandatory, unless on e was a Jehovah's Witness. But in recent decades, it's typically purely voluntary, with students just required to be silent if they do not wish to participate. In the schools in which I've taught recently, there was not time set aside for the pledge. It may be different in different states or areas, however.

It still does in many schools.

You have to understand that my answer is from the perspective of so someone who is part Native American who looks White, and someone who has a lot of Black and mixed-race people in my family, so I probably see things differently than some Black people. In my experience, and I've typically taught very mixed classes in terms of ethnicity and race, they isn't a lot of mistreatment of Black students. As a teacher, I do see staff going out of their way to make sure that everyone is treated equally. The kids tend to have friends of different groups, although they tend to have more close friends who are like themselves. In some inner-cities there are neighborhoods that are mostly poor Black and/or Hispanic, they don't disallow others to come in. Rather, they are dangerous neighborhoods that others avoid because of this. In reality, most crime in these areas are within the same race. As a group, Black people have better educations and standards of living than they ever did. I personally know few Black people in my non-teaching life who don't have a decent education, a good job, stability. On the other hand, there is till have a sub-culture with a disproportionate amount of poverty and crime rates in comparison to their number in the overall population. (Keep in mind that there are more poor White people and more Whites in prisons, however, there are more of then to begin with.)Personally, I see a lot of kids not taking their education seriously because they see their mothers (few dads in the picture) collecting welfare benefits not on a temporary basis to move forward, but to maintain their status quo - they don't feel any urgency to bother.  Many of their schools pass them from one grade to the next so they can give them a diploma, but the diploma doesn't mean anything when they face the demands of the real world. So it's difficult to help them and they don't do better than their mothers did. There are a lot of poor teen mothers with no means of support and no stable relationship with the fathers having babies in every race here, but a lot more in Black communities. Studies show that this results in much higher rates of addiction, poverty, etc. for the kids. In terms of certain states, traditionally, there has been more discrimination against Black people in the southern states. For example, they were extremely resistant to integrating schools so that all races attended together and has the same quality of education. Up until the 1960s, there were still lynchings of Black people (beating and/or burning and hanging) for ridiculous reasons.
Things are much better, although I am making an educated guess that progress in this regard has been slower than elsewhere. But again, it is not fair to paint  every person of the same race or location with a broad brush. People are people and there is a wider variety within races than between them, IMO.

In the US middle schools and high schools kids move all day from class to class. But typically, they start the day with "homeroom," when attendance is taken, the pledge to the flag is done (not always), kids give teachers excuse notes for absences and permission slips for trips,  someone makes general announcements over the intercom for the whole school, votes are cast for things like prom king and queen. Then kids sit and talk and waste time, or there is occasionally some kind of social activity to build a sense of community and belonging (this is where the "home" part comes from). If there is an assembly, kids usually sit in spaces according to homeroom. They are normally assigned to one based on their last name in the alphabet and are together throughout their years in the school. (So, for example, my last name started with K, so I was with kids whose names also started with K until we graduated.)

As for villains in literature, I can't say that I actually liked any. I hate the bad guy, mostly because I've had too much experience with them in my own life.

Chris Montez is not related to Olivia Harrison but they're both from Hawthorne high.

So the author was fibbing?

OK, to finish up. The Native American population in very general terms is the poorest, least educated, most unemployed, least healthy group in the US with severe addiction and abuse issues. This is more seen on reservations in the West where many feel an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Many feel their own way of life was destroyed, yet they don't feel part of the larger culture. Still there are many groups who are doing quite well. Some built casinos on their land where the law does does permit them for others. They are well managed, often include nice hotels, often cultural education attractions, etc., and make enough to employ everyone and insure a very decent income. Other NA don't live on reservations, but in cities, towns, and rural areas. While most seem proud of their heritage, they tend to live like anyone else.

Funny story: The Lumbee, an NA group of North Carolina, had lived for a very long time as White people did, with their own individual home ownership, were farmers, business people. In the late 1950s, the Ku Klux Klan (a racist group formed after the Civil War to try to make sure freed Black people didn't get their rights) planned to march through a nearby town to intimidate the Black population. When they arrived, the Lumbee men rode in really fast on horseback with war paint and head dresses screaming like the Indians did on cowboys and Indian movies. The KKK ran back to where their wives and children waited for them in  cars they parked in a muddy field. Some of the cars got stuck, and the Lumbee helped to push them out!  The KKK never marched in that county again. Interestingly, many people did  not know who the Lumbee were, because they didn't live together, just went about their lives in that region. even the US government never recognized them as a tribe, but THEY knew who they were and were proud of it.

Wow. A fascinating article with a special glimpse into Brian's teen time. Montez was a real surfer at Hawthorne High who became a professional musician, jammed with the Boys in their home, and his sister is Olivia Harrison! Love the conversation between to two old classmates. Thank you.

Should have said "Some were in the movie Dances with Wolves."

Yes, I've been to places where there were Native Americans. A lot of Americans don't know this, but they live in every state, although there are many more in the western US because Europeans settled first in the East and forced many West, where there were already others living. I don't know how most feel, but I assume that many would be resentful. The US treated them very, very cruelly. Hitler himself admired how we "handled: the Indian problem." Also, in some areas of the west, NAs resent Black people because Black men, called Buffalo Soldiers,  were used to control NAs (and killed many) during the late 1800s. On the other hand, some NA groups in the East brought runaway slaves into their area to protect them, while of NA enslaved Black people. It is very complicated.

From what I understand, native Americans resented the fact that NA characters tended to be played by non-NA actors. They also did not like it when NAs played characters like Tonto because he was so stereotypical. I do know also that this happens less and less. I have a friend who is Lakota, from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Some of his relatives were in the movie. And in Code Talkers, the lead actor, because he was not Navajo, insisted that the producers of the movie get the tribe to approve his playing one and hire others for it.

I think that the states with the most NAs would be Nebraska, South and North Dakota, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, although there are significant numbers in Washington, California , Utah, Texas, Oregon. I've been to Navajo country and have seen their beautiful blankets and some older people in traditional dress. As for their language, there are different language groups, within which are different dialects. So some groups speak similar dialects, others from opposite areas of the country would not understand one another. In reality, most speak English, with a few older people remembering their dialect. In schools on reservations, though, more and more kids are being exposed to the language of their forefathers in order to help maintain the culture. Many NAs live in rural areas and towns, as well as cities, although some return to their relatives on reservations and most seem very proud of who they are.

I live in the eastern US, and have been to areas in New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and other states  where there are groups living. While NA groups are not all alike, one can generalize that they all have great respect for nature and nature is a huge part of their cultures and belief systems.

I had more to say, but "timed out" and lost my whole post before, so I'll stop  now. 

I am laughing at your reactions to Up the Down Staircase! You have a very funny perspective on people. Because of the places in which I've taught, I've met many bizarre school staff. I think that those who work with troubled people are often as much troubled themselves, but blend in better in the odd atmosphere. I loved Sandy Dennis in her role, the perfect balance of clueless and not at all clueless.

My favorite Goosebumps story was Ghost Beach, where a brother and sister stay with older relatives and meet other kids from their extended family. The problem is, as they discover, everyone is actually a long-dead ancestor.

As for what you like in a story, I really get into everything, including what characters are thinking, details of the setting, etc. This is probably because I mentally "go" to where the story takes place and feel part of everything while I am reading. I get really p----d when I'm interrupted for that reason - I don't have to just take my attention away, but come all of the way back to real life. It better be for a good reason!

Yeah, 49 states, but never Hawaii, which is probably the most exotic locale. I know many people who have been there, but not most other states. By "plastic" I mean kind of fake, with plastic surgery and a lot of emphasis on competing to make more money, etc., and so much was there to impress tourists - Disneyland, bus rides by the homes of movie stars. I like a more authentic experience. Camping means staying in campgrounds or the wilderness. Some people have a trailer that they tow with a car or truck, very home-like and comfortable. We always has to set up a tent wherever we were at night, sleep in sleeping bags, cook our meals on a little propane gas stove, take a cold or hot shower or use a flush toilet or outhouse, depending on the place. I agree with Vasiliev - San Francisco is a really nice city. I'd love to see Russia one day, especially to see the places I've read about. Wouldn't mind looking at Lenin, just out of curiosity. St. Petersburg would be my priority. When I read about and see pictures of the palaces, I almost can't imagine what they are like. It's said that Danish, German, and British royalty, back in the day, were a bit overwhelmed when they saw the Winter Palace, for example, as they had nothing in comparison. By the way, my travels were not exactly riveting. I did most of it growing up. More like a hard slog fighting three older brothers, rarely being able to eat in restaurants, always having to set up the tent and everything after a hard day of travel in the back of a hot car with the drooling dog. My parents didn't really believe that vacations were for kids to have fun, and a lot went wrong. "Sloop John B." went through my head over and over again. Once in a while, my brothers and I get together to watch "National Lampoon's Vacation"because we can identify with so much of it.     

I did read what was called here The Gulag Archipelago a few years after it was published. It's neat that you like RL Stine - my three sons loved all of his books, and I enjoyed reading the books to them until they could read them themselves. the "choose your scare" ones were  especially fun. I've also read most of Agatha Christie's books after I graduated from reading all of the Nancy Drew Mysteries. (She was a rich girl who was finished high school, but did not have to work, so she drove around in her sports car solving mysteries as she waited for her boyfriend to finish college and marry her. LOL.) I never knew that Up the Down Staircase was based on a novel. It was one of my favorite movies! As a young teacher, I felt just like the main character, actually, still do.

Thanks for disagreeing with me politely! I was taught in school, and have been told by the three people from the former USSR that atheism was encouraged under communism and church attendance fell dramatically, to mostly little old ladies. My cousin-in-law from Moscow (in her forties), who spends time both in Russia and the US says that she was raised atheist, but is amazed at the number of people investigating their R.O. Church roots. Whatever... My parents were to Russia several times in the early 80s, twice in the 90s, and were quite taken by the architecture of churches and palaces.

I've been to every state in the US except Hawaii, every province in Canada, and every state in Mexico. I've also been to most countries in Europe.
My parents had little money when I was growing up, but my dad had a lot of vacation time, so we camped, for the most part, which saved a lot of money. Can't say what impressed me the most. If anything, it showed me that there is both physical and cultural beauty everywhere and to better understand and appreciate differences in people. I do remember the shock of seeing "Whites Only" water fountains in the Deep South in the mid-1960s, primitive camping near the pyramids in southern Mexico before they were tourist sites and feeling that I was being taken back to ancient times because the locals spoke only their native dialect, not Spanish. The Canadian Rocky Mountains were breathtaking and made me feel very, very small. Seeing how poor people lived in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee made me feel very fortunate, even though I never had fashionable clothes to wear. I loved seeing the school my grandfather attended in Birmingham, England and the factory where he started working at age 13, then having tea with an older cousin who invited a friend over who was originally from Dresden. They both shared the same memory of being three years old during the bombings in WWII, having to sleep in reinforced steamer trunks "just in case" and being afraid of dying before the next morning. I know you like California. I actually never liked the Beach Boy's area of Southern California - too many plastic people, ostentatious wealth, miles and miles of housing developments, blah. But I do like the rest, with wineries, redwood forests, a much more laid-back feel, especially as you go north. Where have you been? Even if it's just around Russia, it's new to me!

I really don't have a favorite book, but tended to favor mysteries growing up. I have now lost my taste for fiction, and only read biographies, history, sociology, and anthropology.  I tend to read in themes, so a few years ago I read a book on the role of Nazi psychiatrists and the Holocaust, women and the Holocaust,  a nasty French rescuer of many Jews (no one suspected!), and the art/writings of children kept in Theresienstadt concentration camp, etc. The last couple of years began with a book on the familial relationship between Wilhelm II, George V, and Nicholas II and its  influence on WWI, which led me to a book on Americans in the USSR under Stalin. I've just completed a dozen or so readings on Nicholas I through Nicholas II, and made many detours into the British Royal family, then back to the Romanovs and German royal families in order to make full sense of it all. European Royalty, it seems, was even more inbred than I ever imagined! And we make fun of southerners here in the US....
What about you? What do you like to read? 

Many people here go to church weekly, although not most. A lot attend on Christmas and Easter only. I asked you about it because I know that religion was discouraged under Communism, but was told that many people are now returning to the R.O. Church in part because it was so integral to Russian nationalism before the revolution and there is a movement to regenerate that. As for drinking water, with a few exceptions, it is safe in the US out of the tap. A lot of people do drink bottled water, though, because they might think it tastes better or they believe it's healthier. In reality, water sources are highly regulated and tested a lot. For people who live in the country, their well water is fine, although they should test it once in a while to make sure that their private septic system doesn't contaminate their wells (eeeeeew).

I've always been fascinated by the custom of having a dacha, even for people who do not have much money. Here, a second home of any sort is not the norm for the average person, although some regular people might have a small cabin in the mountains or at the seashore (my dream). No Daylight Savings Time is very sensible, IMO. It is a headache to try to figure time differences while taking this into account. And here, there are some areas that refuse to go on DST.  You mentioned Pancakes Day, I guess from the Christian Shrove Tuesday custom of using up all of the fat that cannot be consumed during Lent, what is more commonly called Fat Tuesday, or, of course, the wild Mardis Gras. I've only heard of Pancake Day in the British Isles, otherwise. Where I live, in Pennsylvania, there are a lot of people of Pennsylvania German descent. They make a big deal of Doughnut Day. My evil ex-mother-in-law fries up dough and rolls it in sugar, usually adding poison to mine. Are more people returning to the Russian Orthodox Church now? Several years ago, I saw a very funny picture of Putin at a Christmas Eve service leaning down to talk to a little boy, then in the next picture the poor thing looked absolutely terrified - wonder what he said?

Oh, I just took a closer look. Agree.

Re: "Cottonfields" - Tell Johnny Cash that only Black people worked the cotton fields.

"Bluebirds over the mountains" -because there isn't enough oxygen and they would die in most cases,,unless it's a small mountain...
"Cottenfields"-what can i say they are white and only black people work in the cotten fields..
"whistle in"-since it's the last song shouldn't it really be "whistle out"?
"getting hungry"-they aren't cannibals...or ARE they? hmmmmm.
"the surfer moon"-wouldn't the moon be too big and cause a lot of destruction if it decided to go surfing?
"Baby blue"-doesn't make sense unless you are a smurf

Most houses and flats (apartments in US) are not built with fans on ceilings, although some are, especially in the southern US where it can be very warm much of the year. I had them installed in my home for a bit of relief when it is warm. People still use free-standing fans. I suppose that they are most effective on windowsills (some are made specifically to be put under a window that is slid up for that purpose), but they are also used anywhere in a room. Ceiling fans set at low speed can also be used in cold weather to help force the warmer air downward. Your questions are fascinating, as I've never really thought about much of what you are curious about. What are some things about Russian life/things that might be very different from in the US? In a book that I've read about Americans in the USSR under Stalin it described apartment building being built with the usual front door entrance from the hallway, but also a back entrance to each apartment that is accessed by a stairwell used by the NKVD when they wanted to come in in the middle of the night to take people away during the "Terrors."