anyone going alone?

[Heather]

My 18 yo son and his friends are coming, but I doubt they'll be hanging around with me.

You talk all crazy. What 18-year-old son wouldn't want to hang out with his mom at a drunken concert on a holiday well known for drunken debauchery?

You talk crazy!

Not that crazy, my fiance's 21 year old son wants to hang out with him.

[Aineen]

My 18 yo son and his friends are coming, but I doubt they'll be hanging around with me.

You talk all crazy. What 18-year-old son wouldn't want to hang out with his mom at a drunken concert on a holiday well known for drunken debauchery?

You talk crazy!

Yeah, yeah - you must have graduated from the same sarcasm school because that's what he says when I tell him to at least check up on me once and awhile.

Legal or not, I know he's planning on having a few (?) Guinness' before the show and probably after. I just hope I don't end my night dragging him and his pal's back home...

[DzM]

I know he's planning on having a few (?) Guinness' before the show and probably after. I just hope I don't end my night dragging him and his pal's back home...

Pff. Not your problem.

Part of drinking is learning to deal with the curve-ball of waking up the next day in a city 300 miles from your last memory, naked, in a dumpster, sporting a new badly spelled tattoo from shoulder to shoulder ("AWSOME!"), without your wallet, next to a passed out hooker.

If you shield him from this growth experience then he'll be unprepared for the world.

[Chichi Ramone]

I know he's planning on having a few (?) Guinness' before the show and probably after. I just hope I don't end my night dragging him and his pal's back home...

Pff. Not your problem.

Part of drinking is learning to deal with the curve-ball of waking up the next day in a city 300 niles from your last memory, naked, in a dumpster, sporting a new badly spelled tattoo from shoulder to shoulder ("AWSOME!"), without your wallet, next to a passed out hooker.

If you shield him from this growth experience then he'll be unprepared for the world.

Hmmm... do I detect an excerpt from a lesson experienced?

Aineen: And why would they not want to "hang" out with a cool mom in the first place? Enjoy your dance, that should be worth a million!

[redandblack78]

Part of drinking is learning to deal with the curve-ball of waking up the next day in a city 300 niles from your last memory, naked, in a dumpster, sporting a new badly spelled tattoo from shoulder to shoulder ("AWSOME!"), without your wallet, next to a passed out hooker.

I am glad that I am not the only one that this^ has happened to.
Except, my tattoo said "HIS BITCH" with an arrow pointing to my left and greased up bunghole.

[DzM]

Except, my tattoo said "HIS BITCH" with an arrow pointing to my left and greased up bunghole.

Well, it's the small details that make us all unique.

[Aineen]

I know he's planning on having a few (?) Guinness' before the show and probably after. I just hope I don't end my night dragging him and his pal's back home...

Pff. Not your problem.

Part of drinking is learning to deal with the curve-ball of waking up the next day in a city 300 miles from your last memory, naked, in a dumpster, sporting a new badly spelled tattoo from shoulder to shoulder ("AWSOME!"), without your wallet, next to a passed out hooker.

If you shield him from this growth experience then he'll be unprepared for the world.

Dzm - you're absolutely right and as a mom, that's probably the area I find most difficult. He's already paid a few mild dues, but it's hard letting go....

[CraigBatty]

Dzm - you're absolutely right and as a mom, that's probably the area I find most difficult. He's already paid a few mild dues, but it's hard letting go....

He's obviously lucky to have a fine mum - hope yez have a fun reading of 90.6 on the Craic-o-Meter.

MAN, I cannot believe a country that virtually gives handguns to schoolchildren, and yet prevents 18-y-o's from enjoying a pint. Oh, yeah - could you duck off an' die fer us in a foreign clime fer no good reason, but DON'T ferget yer not old enought to drink or fuck? *Sheesh*

I hope MILLIONS of good, honest, fun-loving young Americans get HAMMERED off their collective trees at The Pogues gigs, then all go off and REGISTER TO VOTE. (end of todays rant)

[DzM]

MAN, I cannot believe a country that virtually gives handguns to schoolchildren, and yet prevents 18-y-o's from enjoying a pint. Oh, yeah - could you duck off an' die fer us in a foreign clime fer no good reason, but DON'T ferget yer not old enought to drink or fuck? *Sheesh*

Clarification is needed here.

In the USA the typical age of consent for minor on minor sex is 16, though this varies from state to state. Sex between adults starts at 18. If you're 18+ and do the nasty with a 17- then you're in for a world of legal hurt (we'll just ignore all the other aspects of this).

In the USA legal age for driving typically is 15 for an adult required permit, and 16 for a "real" license. Again, this varies from state to state.

Firearms can be owned/possessed by minors so long as they have parental consent. Typical ages to acquire guns legally at 18 for long guns (rifles and the like) and 21 for hand guns. These ages are largely controlled by the states as well.

Military service age starts at 18. This is controlled by the federal government.

Age for alcohol consumption is 21. This is controlled by the states, but is very strongly influenced by the federal government (the feds contribute a large sum of money to each state for highway maintenance, and that sum has a stipulation on it that it will be witheld if the age of consumption is below 21).

No real point to all this. Just clarifying those breakthrough ages.

[dave 81]

I'll kind of be on my own at the St. Pat's show in NYC. My 18 yo son and his friends are coming, but I doubt they'll be hanging around with me. (Though my son did ask me to dance with him during FONY )

I think that's great that you and your son can enjoy the same music!
Had I danced with mom and her favorite, I would have been trying to move to Nat King Cole.

[CraigBatty]

No real point to all this. Just clarifying those breakthrough ages.

Cheers, DzM. Trust me, I'm not unmindful of the dichotomous relationshipship between state vs. federal rights/responsibilities.
We have similar issues here in Oz, but by the sacred ruby slippers themselves, it just seems to be an issue magnified to alarming proportions in the US by the inclusion of millions of fire-arms in the mix. At least to an outsider that is. I am a keen observer of world affairs, with a strong social conscience and a world-weary grasp of realpolitik, so.... pass me another E-Jameson, would ye?

BTW, can I ask you a tech question sometime, on behalf of a muso mate of mine?

[Aineen]

Dzm - you're absolutely right and as a mom, that's probably the area I find most difficult. He's already paid a few mild dues, but it's hard letting go....

He's obviously lucky to have a fine mum - hope yez have a fun reading of 90.6 on the Craic-o-Meter.

MAN, I cannot believe a country that virtually gives handguns to schoolchildren, and yet prevents 18-y-o's from enjoying a pint. Oh, yeah - could you duck off an' die fer us in a foreign clime fer no good reason, but DON'T ferget yer not old enought to drink or fuck? *Sheesh*

I hope MILLIONS of good, honest, fun-loving young Americans get HAMMERED off their collective trees at The Pogues gigs, then all go off and REGISTER TO VOTE. (end of todays rant)

Aw, thanks Fintan. When he turned 18 last September, he had to register with the Selective Service. I just pray they don't start the draft again. Don't they understand that even though he's 6'3" and 200 lbs. he's still my baby?!?!?

[neilinseattle]

My Grandmother was all in favor of a reduced drinking age. She would always say, "If they can send you off to war to die, the least they can do is allow you to have a drink."

As for the draft, I'm going to get my kids their Irish passports this year. I want them to have a way out when King Bush III has us in some other Middle Eastern country fighting for oil in 15 years.

[Eric V]

I can't see them starting up another draft. We have a volunteer military, and people are still joining up. And not that anyone said otherwise.... I didn't vote for him.

As for the drinking age. I agree. Its absurd. Our government panders to the puritanical common denominator.

[CraigBatty]

..... And not that anyone said otherwise.... I didn't vote for him.....the satanical(Fintan's edit) lowest common denominator

That's the problem... good people like you and Aineen being abused by a junta of criminals and murdering thieves (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, I'm looking in YOUR direction...).

America needs a NEW revolution, a new Thomas Paine to proclaim the updated v2.0 upgraded Rights of Man, a new Franklin to invent new, socially equitable infrastructural systems (mail etc), a new Washington to lead the hordes of not so quiet and no longer huddled masses, as they march in force on their bloated so-called political masters shiny marble edifices. Shit, don't get me started. Somebody ring that fucking Liberty Bell so loud it splits in half, and TAKE BACK YOUR NATION.