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Chuck E. Cheese's newest attraction: Fight Club
By adamg on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 9:02am
The MetroWest Daily News reports two mothers got into it at the Natick Chuck E. Cheese over the issue of issue of whether one of their kids was hogging an arcade game:
"Unfortunately, a birthday night out turned into a birthday melee," police Sgt. Paul Thompson said. "I don't even know if they finished their pizza."
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Comments
Trying to be like Leominster - the hard way
I'm glad it isn't just my town with the low-life clientelle at Chuck E. Cheese. Where a mom can be a felon (TM).
I was wondering why my hit count tripled yesterday...I should have suspected it was because of this story when I saw it in the paper...
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From the brains behind http://www.bigdumptruck.com
Where you live = who you are?
That's nice. Trash from Fitchburg. Leominster=bad place. Have you ever been to either? Known someone socially from either place?
Are you teaching your kid that all people from X are bad people, and all from Y are the "right" kind of people, too? Now that's responsible parenting! Given the state of geosegregation by race, class, and ethnicity in this region, that is such a convenient shorthand, now isn't it!
Why does the place someone hails from explain all their negative traits or justify their marginalization? Is that because ill-tempered, poorly educated people don't live in YOUR fine town/city? Is it just sooo much better to practice effete and exclusionary snobbery and backstabbing to prevent participation of "outsiders" and "different people" from participation in local democratic institutions, because that's what "civilized" people do?
I'm rushing out for some popcorn, anybody want some?
Because I want to be back in my seat for this one.
I normally like Big Dump Truck
But this time, it was hauling Deer Island Sludge.
As a trailer-trash PhD I'm more than a bit sensitive to geodeterministic stereotyping.
The Blogger Known As Big Dump Truck ...
... lives in Leominster, as she clearly states in her post about the melee in the Chuck E. Cheez there back in '05.
*joining Adam w/some butter-flavored topping*
As a trailer-trash PhD I'm
As a trailer-trash PhD I'm more than a bit sensitive to geodeterministic stereotyping.
REALLY? It doesn't show.
Ph.D. = Piled High and Deep.
Ph.D. = Piled High and Deep. Grad school students learn to cringe when someone pulls the Ph.D. card.
I must have missed something here
Because I don't see bigdumptruck saying that her town has any more or fewer thug moms than any other place. She just says that they hang out at Chuck E. Cheese.
So maybe she's teaching her kids to be wary of Chuck E. Cheese. Personally, it kind of creeps me out, so I have a hard time thinking that's a bad thing.
From the linked blog entry
I understand that people get upset about ill-behaved people brawling, particularly in front of their own and other children. But what does "from Fitchburg" have to do with it?
Perhaps They Were FROM Fitchburg?
Maybe that's where they were from? I don't see the problem.
(Damn. I was going to get some popcorn, too, but now I'm in the middle of it.)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
It's relevant
as "people from [Name of Other Town] came into [My Town] and made a mess here".
Doesn't matter really whether the Other Town is Fitchburg or Carlisle.
Maybe...
It's because they were ... from Fitchburg?
I don't get the whole 'it's a regional slur' concept. The thugs were from Fitchburg. The blogger is from Leominster... which is right next door. So? Is there some great inter-podunk flap going on that you're aware of?
Reread it, please
"trash from ...". Implication (clear implication) that "we gots invaded by those Others!". Of course nobody from our city/town would do that.
I hear this all the time about
slumervilleSomerville. See also "fear of "those" people coming from "the city"" in Green Line hearings.Unless one is riding a bus in Winchester, where the "feared others" are invading from Medford ... or in Medford, where the feared others are invading from Somerville, Everett, etc. If you actually get around the area much, by bike or by train, the town-by-town shift of paranoia and stereotyping can get quite amusing.
"feared others" can be richer, too
For instance, old-time Somerville folk lament the arrival of yuppies from Cambridge.
Converstation on Bus in Somerville, 1988
Woman 1: Screed against "barnies" destroying everything
Woman 2: Yeah, driving the prices up - who can live here anymore
Woman 1: profanity, hate, continued
Woman 2: So, how's your ma doing in Florida? I heard she sold her house ...
Somehow, the woman's mother selling her house for a mint and retiring to Florida - a house she had very likely inherited from her parents - wasn't connected in their heads with the huge rise in prices hampering these women!
No, it's all the buyers, never the sellers!
Assumptions
So you're saying I should just take on good faith your assumption that there's some kind of discrimination against people from Fitchburg on behalf of the people from Leominster? And be offended by this assumed inter-podunk bad blood because it's totally unfair for those assumed snobs from Leominster to act like you assume they do?
How about, noo.... in the absence of any evidence, it appears more likely you're just making up crazy shit so you can get your snit on?
Just what I expected from someone from _______________ (insert random origin. Provide own indignation).
Don't get around much, do
Don't get around much, do ya?
Certainly not
to places like Leominster and Fitchburg. I knew where Fitchburg is, because it's where the great big dumps are on Rt. 2, but I had to look up Leominster. They're beyond The Pale (Rt. 128). Why should anybody know where they are?
Hey, there's an opportunity to work yourself up into a froth of righteous indignation!
I Was Born in Fitchburg
Not that I have to defend myself. My mom was born and raised there. I was born there, but raised in Leominster, where I still live.
I don't see why my comment put anyone into such a tizzy. Unless she's from Fitchburg. [Insert humorous comment here]
There is an inter-podunk thing between Fitchburg and Leominster (because of one of the nations oldest schoolboy rivalries) and as an LHS graduate, it's part of my DNA at this point, but, hey, some of my best friends live there.
They just aren't thugs.
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From the brains behind http://www.bigdumptruck.com
Reverse that
She's from tizzy, and your comments sent her into a Fitchburg.
Wow. Someone has issues.
Sorry I hit your hot button there. Yes. I'm an exclusionary snob when it comes to the Chuck E. Cheese at the mall I can practically see from my house. Yup. You pegged me.
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From the brains behind http://www.bigdumptruck.com
Sure!
I have issues - I have issues with characterizing people by their place of residence, and characterizing their behavior according to their place of residence.
I'm also wondering why it is "civilized" when many communities are run by anti-democratic cliques(like the Democratic ward committee that my husband was elected to by the community that selectively tells only certain members the meeting times to prevent "outsiders" from participating - and ostracizes those who publicize the info because only the chair is allowed to control communication), but "uncivilized" when couple of people duke it out?
In that case
You should talk to whoever it was yesterday that was going on and on about how "Massholes" will never get the awesome coolness of West Coast nirvanae like Costco and Nordstrom.
You define DEMOCRACY how?
I was always taught it had to do with open processes and citizen participation. My kids attend school around here, and that still seems to be the official story.
I didn't know it had to do with "being part of the clique you formed in High School and living in one place all your life".
Silly me!
Actually
I was only responding to the first paragraph, when you said you have issues with characterizing people by where they come from.
I can't speak as to why they might not tell everybody when and where their meetings are held, but I have some suspicions.
So You Are a "Living in one place all your life" Snob?
I'm sorry, but you know nothing about me and I'm offended by all of the assumptions you are making about me.
But of course, I'm a far worse person than moms who pick fist-fights in front of an establishment full of school children, simply because I pointed out where they live.
You know, under ordinary circumstances if someone points something out to me that they think sounds inappropriate, I will actually consider editing it. But your approach? It's staying as-is.
Feel free to go back through my archives (I started my site in 1996) and look for other things that make me a bad person. I'm sure there are plenty there. Maybe someone cut me off in traffic and I insulted the make of car they drive, which, of course, makes me a Foreign Car Snob. Or maybe you can jump on the "she prostitutes her kids because she joked about using cute girls to attract drivers to high school car washes" platoon. Surely there must be something else that makes me a bad person. Did I mention I'm voting for Obama?
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From the brains behind http://www.bigdumptruck.com
Oh, snap
She can't handle the truth.
Fitchburger says - I got no problem with this...
"Mouthy trash from Fitchburg" could have easily been "from anywhere". In this case the people behaving badly happened to be from Fitchburg. There is no negative slant toward Fitchburg in this article expressed or implied. Looks to me like someone is jumping to conclusions and being a little too thin skinned--indignation looking for an injustice.
I've lived in Fitchburg for 15 years, and this city has serious problems, but nonetheless I still like living here. Yeah there's mouthy trash here--there's mouthy trash everywhere--but I don't take what BigDumpTruck said as any kind of personal slight. Where would my self esteem be if I were to get all upset over that?
Fitchburg's crime rate dwarfs the surrounding communities and its fiscal issues are daunting. We have a lot of things to worry about in this town. This article is not one of them.
Tempest in a teacup, this.