STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Cortney1982 · Chanel

Here is another crazy...

tara t · Marc Jacobs

is he friends with the crazy lady in my office?

blubirde · Chanel

Well a very obvious way to disprove that would be to find a returning Japanese Olympian who won the gold in previous years.

And yeah, that's not true.

NCshopper · Hermes

Ummm...I'm pretty sure if that were true that the Olympic committee would probably not let them compete. I think torturing and killing athletes is generally frowned upon by the Olympic committee folks.

Maddie · Coach

Sorry but that's a pretty racist thing to say. Japan isn't some primitive uncivilized country.

hotcocoa · Kate Spade

is your bf hanging out with my husband? mine keeps saying the same sorts of things (not specifically about japanese) he's saying it in a semi-sarcastic way, so we sort of laugh about it.

maybe he's thinking of the iraqi soccer team that was tortured if they lost?

-- Edited by hotcocoa at 20:08, 2006-02-24

Ally S · Kate Spade

Wow! weird...where does he back his ideas from? Sounds like my co worker who thinks everyone gets locked up for something.

jj · Kate Spade

Yep, I remember the story about the Iraqis being tortured.

I also remember when Venezuela lost in the World Cup (soccer) the player who supposedly was responsible for missing a shot was in fact shot and killed a day after the team returned there.

And back in the days of the Soviet Union and Eastern Germany, I don't think any athletes were tortured, but I don't think they had a choice about whether or not they became a skater/bobsledder/skier etc...

Cortney1982 · Chanel

I remember my kindergarten teacher who was from another country (don't remember which) that they did not have a choice which occupation they chose.

I swear people around here don't get a proper education. Two days ago on tv they said Washington state is 46th (I think that was the correct number) of states who spend the most on education. And they even said which I cannot believe that 'Even Alabama and Arkansas spend more!' Like people from those states are nothing but redneck straw-chewing hillbillies. I was offended by that and I don't even live there!

hotcocoa · Kate Spade

i don't think the idea that athletes are forced to compete or tortured for not winning comes from a lack of education.

there are plenty of examples out there in history — examples that we've all heard about like the ones that jj points out and i'm sure there are plenty that we have not heard about. obviously this isn't happening in modern day japan, but it has happened elsewhere in the past and recently in iraq.

when my husband comments, "OH NO she fell! when she returns home she's going to be shot and killed" he's not being racist or stating it as a hard fact, but only referring to those instances in the past where athletes have had to pay a hard price for not performing well. if a government can take you away as a child to train and compete in a sport of their choosing (as in the former communist soviet union etc.), i'd be willing to bet they were also imposing some sort of penalty on you if you come home empty handed. although i'm not so sure it was a death sentence.

what kind of sense of humor does your bf have? could it be that he is just messing with you?