It's good to know that the extra money they are charging me is going to a great cause. I'm sure his family really needs it.

Fucking EPIC. Sully! Get a load of this fucking double dunkin’ you cawksukkah

So they can withstand a siege. Duh.

Yes. My. comment was clearly a Milton Friedman-like analysis of the styles of communal vs. purely capitalist profit schemes.

Right. Fiddleheads aka Stop & Shop with higher prices and fewer items.

Because MONEY

But if this were Hitchhiker's Guide they could easily be confused as being the dominant life force on the planet.

NYC >

I listened to an episode of WTF (dislike Maron but enjoy him as an interviewer) with Huey Lewis and it was WILD. He was apparently going to become an engineer and had a full ride to MIT and was basically a genius but his parents were hippies and DEMANDED that he travel the world with no money for 1 year before entering college. While in Morocco he was broke, doing drugs and playing harmonica on the street for money when he decided to be a musician instead.

That is AWESOME. I feel like we would get along. I am in my 40s and confused as to why no one wants to be very quietly and patiently maniacal with me. I never was able to obtain an actual stink bomb. I just did horrible, horrible things in high school and somehow got away with all of it and never, ever got in serious trouble!

I had 134 tardies out of our 160 days of school. They called me into the headmaster's office to reprimand me. And I said, "you know, if you had any sort of punishment system for tardies I wouldn't be late." So the following year they actually had rules about tardiness and how it would affect you (we didn't have detention or anything). The year they made a policy with punishments I had 0/160.

Here's how you punish someone: it's say... April. You go to the store and buy sour cream or cottage cheese or tapioca pudding, whatever. Something with dairy that will spoil. You go outside in your yard and you put the container inside a bucket and just leave it there. All summer. I mean until the weather breaks and it's almost winter. Then you go to their house and (I did it to a car) you cover your nose, open it up, open a window and hurl the contents into the car. That smell will never, ever come out.

Just another calm, regular night on [street]

"without incidents"

*aside from hurling gas-filled cannisters into the home.

Connecticut IS beautiful. Don't tell anyone and keep encouraging the haters to move the eff on. I just want to look at views like this and pet cows.

Oh same. Except I have an old rifle in my attic and when I have people check out the roof or put in a fan or anything (my family never goes up there) I'm like "dont' be scared! it doesn't work" and then when they get their head level with the floor a rifle is pointing at their head. And I'm like "I really need to move that one day!" (same thing happens 3-years later)

THIS IS WHY WE NEED A POLICE FORCE THAT IS CONSTANTLY FIRING BULLETS IN A 360 CIRCLE. CONSTANTLY.

I'm dying. I would LOVE to see a mashup of bears vs. humans attempting to get into childproof, bearproof, etc. objects.

I've spent a LOT of time in upstate New York (where my dad, grandparents, etc are from). Talking like Corning, Horseheads, etc. There are a LOT of bears there. My grandfather would keep an unloaded shotgun by the window. When a bear would curiously come up and start pawing at the window and looking at us he would pick up the unloaded shotgun, pump it once and point it at the bear. EVERY TIME the bear would open its eyes wide with fear and run away.

So they are savvy enough to know what a gun is but not savvy enough to know if its loaded.

Everybody needs a designated driver. This big guy called an Uber because he had been overserved on fermented berries. I think we should APPLAUD his behavior.

Oh great. More meat = more cancer = more cancer centers for our TWO hospital systems to [not] treat effectively!

That's basically my life.

Don't they hold like six figures of people? I mean HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people? That's very large.

Fairfield is likely an incredible school system. And the food alone in Fairfield is amond the only acceptable places in Connecticut. In fact, some of the best falafel I've ever had (including the Middle East) was in a strip mall in Fairfield! The pricing is terrifying. My school is now mid-$40K/Year for day school. Very difficult to justify. But, in a place like Fairfield you'll have access to shows and art and music and NYC and all the things a child could ever need to learn about culture! You're going to nail this. Best of luck!

Hello. I attended private school in Connecticut. I wouldn't make too much out of the fact that public school teachers have to have certain requirements and certificates. All my teachers were beyond competent in their subjects. Where I think the true benefit exists is in the student/teacher ratio. My school was 11 teachers for every student. That's a very, very low ratio that means your child will get a LOT of individual attention. Some other perks are that you don't have to attend school 180/Year. You get roughly twenty fewer days depending on the school. And, if you're Jewish (like I am) you get all of the Jewish holidays off from school so you don't have to miss school and make up a bunch of homework just because you went to shul on Yom Kippur. I would say another benefit is that your child will be extremely well-prepared for college as that is the goal of a preparatory institute. We also read a much higher level of literature than the public school near us. We also had Latin as a mandatory class (which I do think really helped me) and a daily assembly that featured a guest speaker, musician, artist, dancer, athlete, etc. That was very unique and extremely beneficial as an exposure to different cultures, artistic styles and prospective careers.

That said, my three best friends (and a 4th from Finland so we won't count his eduation here) all attended public school and we all met through arts. One is a professor of poetry, one is a librarian and one is a restaurateur. So I don't think anything played into their intelligence, love of art, culture, etc. aside from their personality and their families. Meaning, what goes on at home will likely have more of an effect on your child's future than the school they are in (provided you're in a good system which, since we are in a Connecticut forum, I will assume we all are).

My wife is from Europe so my daughter's first language is going to not be English. She will probably learn two languages before English becomes a major factor for her. I'm hoping that our house will provide enough of a base for her that public school will be an option because, as you might have noticed, private schools are vomit-inducingly expensive right now. So we are absolutely going to start out in our public system and see how it goes. We might move to a different town for high school just to get the "best" public high school we can for our daughter.

tl;dr: Despite attending private school myself I will be starting my daughter in public school and hoping she can remain in that system for as long as possible.

Are you telling me that the Bible Belt is not #1? The place that forbids teaching evolution LOST? This is BS. I am ashamed to have come from a state that teached actualy math, science, arts, etc. and turns out intelligent, well-adjusted kids.