yes, several times a week. but, uh, we have two dogs.

DO you like to visit parks? Does anyone without a dog use or enjoy them?

yes, and what kind of dumb question is that second one?

I think he’s just curious if anyone besides dog owners employ them.

At our neighborhood park (read: the hood) it’s packed on the weekends with dudes playing soccer and families having birthday parties. On the more posh side of town the park is full of joggers and bikers. All parks here are always awash with frisbee golfers.

yes, but more so in the summer.

Abbott is a she. I use parks. They’re nice to walk in. And picnic in. I don’t have a dog.

I live across the street from a little park, it’s fantastic. Major factor in our decision to buy this house—we can mow our yard with pinking shears but have a playground and greenspace out the window!

i don’t have a dog.

i had a dog. he is in a much better place now. but he’s not dead.

are you the guy who gave us bandit?

I actually never go to parks! Or only if other people want to. I should, I almost always enjoy it, but having grown up in the country I kind of take it for granted, I guess, and figure it will be there if I want it at a later date — an unwise sentiment, I know.

parks are great! i go to them. they are good for walking to and in.

(though i avoid at night, usually.)

haha, yeah, i grew up in the city.

Aha, I hate walking! As Robyn knows. So maybe I only like parks for the 3-ish months of the NYC year that it’s comfortable to sit in them.

I love across from a park too and it is indeed fantastic! It means my yard can be made of PECAN SHELLS, too!

A bazillion kids live in the neighbs and I have a rep now as ‘nice grown-up who lets you play with her dog but won’t let you practice soccer with her.’

I love across from a park

parks are also good for exhibitionists, true

wtf laurel, you live right by prospect park too, right?

wait, pecan shells yard? your yard is all ‘fuck you, squirels! yes, that’s right, they are all EMPTY, ha’

i cannot spell things

Yeah, Stence, and I live even closer to it now.

R: but you can wub things, and that’s what matters.

squirrels. was almost there.

xpost

true!

i wub walking. but i don’t wear heels, usually. i mean, you really can’t walk all that far in heels no matter how good at it you are—i mean, i walk for an hour+ to get downtown. i also prefer walking to public transit. and walking fast. though in a park, one strolls, right? you can stroll, laurel.

okay, laurel, please don’t be a retard. go to prospect park, like, a lot. it might just be the best city park in the country (it’s definitely the best one in new york).

Stencil, I will be precisely as retarded as I please; the library interests me far more than the park and is climate-controlled. :D

it was only five degrees cooler than l.a. in nyc today, you retard.

I didn’t get home from workday until almost 9pm and I owe my roommates some chores so it’s a moot point. Stop being so grouchy, it’s making me even more contrary than usual.

i’m not being grouchy, prospect park is really that good of a park. stop depriving yourself.

Wow, who would guess that a thread with such lovely potential would degenerate to such vituperation! All of you, go out for a walk in the park, now!

I’ll go in the spring, when being outside makes me happy. Right now I want freezing cold winter weather and hibernation! I was just at home in MI for the hols, we’re seasonal like that.

talk to me about winter weather when you get stuck in an airport for two days.

that said, i still walked around albuquerque on friday night, in the snow, because i love winter weather.

it seems like Minneapolis has a lot of parks. and during the winter they sometimes scoop out dirt, fill with water=giant iceskating rink dedicated to your neighborhood, and folks hardly ever use them so it is really fun. we took pets, thermos full of hotchocolate+booze.

Winter is a turning-inward time for me, I am waiting hopefully for the weather to change and make the indoors a refuge and going outside an adventure all its own. I just moved in Nov-Dec and would like my first winter in this homey place to start anytime now! But okay, parks! This year if it ever snows we MUST GO SLEDDING.

I love walking in the winter, because there aren’t so many other people around. My dog is not always gentlemanly around other dogs—at 16 yrs old he still thinks he’s bad. Much potential for embarrassment. Plus I love cold air in my face, that pinched-nostril effect. And it’s so amazingly clear!

sure, i’ll go sledding. in prospect park.

i’m pretty sure sledding is not retarded!

xpost, yeah!

as far as winter sports/recreation goes, no, sledding is not retarded. not sure i can say the same about curling, tho.

curling is really fun and requires thinking!

you cannot convince me that any thinking is required with that ‘sport.’ sorry to offend, y’all should stick to claiming hockey as the national sport or something.

i believe lacrosse is canada’s national sport. unless you were talking about the former czechoslovakia. i think it was their national sport.

i thought the injuns invented lacrosse? wtf, did whitey steal THAT from them too?!?

lacrosse is the official cdn sport but obv hockey is more important.

curling requires some thinking and strategy. it’s not quantum physics but is any sport?

wormhole tobogganing

downhill wave-particle duality

strategery

multiverse luge

Seattle is chock-full-o’parks, many designed by that Olmstead (?) guy that did Central Park in NYC. They are lovely for hanging out in, almost any time of the year it is not pouring rain. The best park day from last year involved drinking beer with our kids on the shore of Lake Washington near the Madrona boathouse while the dog (but uh—not OUR dog, our grand-dog) fetched stuff from the lake.

that would Henry L. Olmstead, he also designed the park system in Louisville.

Jaq, that sounds like a perfect day! Loaner dogs are good, especially dogs who like to fetch things. That gets old after the first delightful hour.

lacrosse is our summer sport

hockey is our winter sport

we have no fall or spring offical sports

my place at school is across from a small park/community center and every day there are kids from the neighborhood playing soccer or little league. it’s nice to see. i don’t really use that park though because it’s just a small athletic field and i don’t play any sports.

i’m a little park-ed out right now because i just finished a course on public space and we talked about parks all semester long.

frederick law olmsted designed central park. and his sons were in the business too, so they built some of those “olmsted” parks as well.

frederick, why did i think his name was henry? duh.

Loaner dogs are good

This is so true. I think I make a better pet sitter/dog walker than dog owner.

I think it was Frederick Olmsted who did Seattle’s parks—he had a vision of greenspace ringing the city.

I think I make a better pet sitter/dog walker than dog owner.

it usually works out this way

Since I don’t have a dog at the moment :( I don’t really go in parks. I just feel strange walking around a park without a dog, plus you see all the other dog owners and they ask where your dog is, and...

i spent many a sunday morning this spring/summer waiting for my hangover to pass by sitting under a tree in wicker park with a large iced coffee and half a pack of cigarettes. i’d usually bring a book in case the people watching got boring but it rarely did.

oh and I forgot to brag on st louis’ forest park—bigger than central park I think and full of great free stuff. the history museum, art museum, and the zoo are all there and they are all free!

there was an article in the paper about the lack of greenspace in a booming exurb of st louis, it grew so fast and the city didn’t set aside any land....

Oh yes, I love parks.