Comments on: The Watercooler

By: JessicaAPIS

JessicaAPIS — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:25:30 +0000

Hey Jennifer – Just want you to know that as a mom that brings her kids to the fountain to play several times a week (abiding by all the rules and utilizing my First Amendment right to photography, thankyouverymuch) EVERY single time I’m chilling by the fountain, surveying my kids’ safe play, a person will come up to me and say “Hey, do read The Silver Spring Penguin and did you see the @#$%ing hilarious rules she wrote about playing in the fountain?” Seriously. The jokes you have written here are LEGEND amongst the breeders of the SS.

Just though I’d pass along.

xoxo

Editor’s note: Thanks, Jessica! — JD (Jun 29, 2008)

By: isayaah

isayaah — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:14:09 +0000

Kid poop drug out of the fountain? That is hella discusting lol!

By: elysian

elysian — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:12:21 +0000

Personally, little kids can keep their swim diapers or whatever on when I’m near the fountain. The last thing I want to step in when I’m shopping is kid poop drug out of the fountain.

By: Woodsider

Woodsider — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:10:27 +0000

I guess I used the wrong words…my point isn’t that we should be like the Europeans so they don’t laugh at us. It is that we as a culture need to lighten up. Who cares if a toddler runs naked in the fountain? And while on the surface it appears that the list of rules is for our own safety, it is not. It is to reduce the liability of The Peterson Cos. in the event of an incident. In our litigation happy society, it is ultimately they who will pay the price if “anything” happens.

By: Springvale Roader

Springvale Roader — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:25:26 +0000

Yeah, let the Europeans laugh at us with their naked children, and their topless beaches with their thongs and g-strings and, and…

*sob*

By: Thayer Avenue

Thayer Avenue — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:20:16 +0000

Oh, John. Where’s your sense of humor? I take my daughter out there, am happy there are rules, and hope they’re enforced. And even I thought it was damn funny. Let’s hope commenter Bonifant More Sinister than Thayer heeds the last snarky remark.

By: They're All Gonna Laugh at Us!

They're All Gonna Laugh at Us! — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:11:47 +0000

I agree with WeCanDoBetter! Who cares if the Europeans laugh at us? Let them and their little naked children laugh all they want!!

By: WeCanDoBetter

WeCanDoBetter — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:40:08 +0000

No offense to you Woodsider but why would I care if the Europeans laugh at us? There is no doubt that the US on a whole is more conservative than the Europeans but so what? We have a different culture from the Europeans.

By: Woodsider

Woodsider — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:10:21 +0000

I mean with the exception of the ridiculous rule about attire

By: Woodsider

Woodsider — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:09:41 +0000

The rules make sense from a health and safety perspective, with the ridiculous one about “appropriate dress”. Only in paranoid, ultra-conservative US do we find it offensive & innappropriate if a small child runs through a fountain naked. In just about every other Western (or Westernized) society, small children can be naked at the beach, be changed in public areas, etc. No wonder the Europeans laugh at us.

The posted rules also allow Peterson to have the police confront and take action against those who violate the rules. After all, this is private property.