Originally Posted by jbdlfan (Post 590360)

It's sort ironic that it comes up as a reference to living here. It is a term that many of the employees use on a regular basis. I realize some may find the phrase painful and offensive, I guess thats the part I find ironic. Many employees feel they are "forced" to speak and act in a particular way in order to keep their job. In other words, you are not to speak your true opinion if it differs with "It's a beautiful day in The Villages." Flame away.....

Originally Posted by senior citizen (Post 590376)

I've actually never thought of it in relation to Jonestown at all.
I doubt if anyone would want to rub salt into a wound or cause more grief to those who lost loved ones in that tragedy. I certainly would not.

I first began hearing about "Don't drink the Kool-Aid" in reference to Casey Anthony's stories prior to her conviction (while the remains of her daughter had not yet been found)...........it was quite a big repeat phrase in the Orlando Sentinel (which people from all over the country were devouring on a daily basis). Entire blogs were devoted to Casey and her Kool-Aid.

As children, my husband's immigrant Polish grandmother would make them "sugar water" which was really Kool-Aid........ditto for my Ukrainian grandmother.........I guess to them, Kool-Aid was a simple inexpensive treat on their meagre budgets. That's how we remember it. FONDLY.

HOWEVER, I HAVE ALSO HEARD IT USED OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN CORRELATION WITH THE ROBOTIC CONFORMITY OF THE STEPFORD WIVES from Ira Levin's book.....and the subsequent movie, etc.

Plot summary
The premise involves the married men of the fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut, and their fawning, submissive, impossibly beautiful wives. The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life. As time goes on, she becomes increasingly disturbed by the zombie-like, submissive Stepford wives, especially when she sees her once independent-minded friends – fellow new arrivals to Stepford – turn into mindless, docile housewives overnight. Her husband, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men's association, mocks her fears.
As the story progresses, Joanna becomes convinced that the wives of Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men's club. She visits the library and reads up on the pasts of Stepford's wives, finding out that some of the women were once feminist activists and very successful professionals, while the leader of the men's club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating lifelike robots. Her friend Bobbie helps her investigate, going so far as to write to the EPA to inquire about possible environmental toxins in Stepford. However, eventually, Bobbie is also transformed into a docile housewife and has no interest in her previous activities.
At the end of the novel, Joanna decides to flee Stepford, but when she gets home she finds that her children have been taken. She asks her husband to let her leave, but he takes her car keys. She manages to escape from the house on foot, and several of the men's club members track her down. They corner her in the woods and she accuses them of creating robots out of the town's women. The men deny the accusation, and ask Joanna if she would believe them if she saw one of the other women bleed. Joanna agrees to this, and they take her to Bobbie's house. Bobbie's husband and son are upstairs, with loud rock music playing – as if to cover screams. The scene ends as Bobbie brandishes a knife at her former friend. In the story's epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, and has given up her career as a photographer, while Ruthanne (a new resident in Stepford) appears poised to become the conspiracy's next victim.
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NOTHING WORSE THAN A DUMB WOMAN, in my opinion anyway.
Well, maybe there is...........people with their heads in the sand.

Conforming to the point of not giving offense to ANYONE and agreeing just for the sake of conformity.......submitting meekly to what is perceived as authority..........??????????

No one should hurt other people's feelings intentionally, but to not be able to speak one's own thoughts and opinions is very very very strange to me. As another said, no place is perfect. I also agree that people become bullies when unseen, hiding behind the keyboard.

If everyone had to weigh every single word, just because that word might dredge up painful memories for someone else..........go figure.
We'd all become mute.

How have the Jewish folks managed to survive all the years of repeating stories on the History channel and others about the Holocaust? I have friends who lost their entire families in the concentration camps......good neighbors of ours.

They don't tell people NOT to bring up the tragedy. It's actually cathartic to discuss it. We always listen with interest and tears in our eyes.....even my adult children. Better to talk about the memories and family stories than to bottle it up.

The biggest kick I have gotten reading TOTV is when so many folks DENIED that the lawyer had jumped into his backyard pond to rescue his little pooch that was truly being attacked by a REAL LIVE ALLIGATOR.
They denied the man existed, that it was all a made up story......even when the gator was captured by the trapper..........it was still denied, even when it made the GREAT BRITAIN (England) newspapers.

Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?????????

Everyone knows there are alligators in Florida . We found out back in 1972 after we had taken our 2 year old son and 5 year old daughter wading into a lake one hot summer day.........naively NOT KNOWING there was a killer alligator lurking beneath. Next day the newspaper told of a teenaged girl he had killed in that same spot we were in. Gave me the willies then and now. I really doubt if this truthful statement will kill Florida tourism.

Originally Posted by Barefoot (Post 590398)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is a metaphor commonly used in the United States and Canada that refers to a person or group holding an unquestioned belief, argument, or philosophy without critical examination."

This is typically what happens when newbies visit The Villages. They "fall in love" with the concept offered by the Developer and out comes the checkbook. It happened to us in 2007, and it's the best decision we ever made, even though we made it without critical examination.

This phrase has become commonly used and is never meant to be painful or offensive. However, because we are hopefully all kind and sensitive souls, I suggest we should try to find a better way to describe the wave of euphoria that has motivated many of us to buy in TV.

My creative well is dry today. :mornincoffee: Anyone have a suggestion? PTurner, you have a way with words ....