Liza

I'm about to switch service providers, and my current email address has the sbcglobal.net domain. Will I have to give up my Yahoo!Answers account and start from scratch with my new email account?

My son wants desperately to go to Jingle Bash. Has anyone seen this? Is there a reason why I should not take my son? (Other than my having to sit through it...)

How do I get the default search on my Yahoo home page to be Google search instead of Yahoo search?

My 3rd grader has a writing assignment today that reads:

"How did the day go without Mr. Smith?" (Mr. Smith was at a conference today)

Her paragraph reads:

"I was so happy that Mr. Smith wasn't there. It was good without him being there. It was just like a normal day. Except different cause we had a substitute. It was a good day!!!!"

Hmm....she's being totally honest. This is a teacher that is considered extremely cool by most kids even though he is very strict. My daughter doesn't care for him (obviously).

I'm torn about this paper. It's very honest, but if she turns it in, the teacher will hold it against her. He is very arrogant and does not do well with criticism. But it's also sad for me to tell her to make it politically correct. Tough lesson for a 3rd grader.

Any suggestions?

I would like to hear from parents who require their children to wear helmets when they ride bicycles.

We live in a large metropolitan area with lots of bad sidewalks and uneven terrain. Almost all the parents I know require their kids to wear helmets when riding bicycles. But only half of those make their kids wear helmets when they ride scooters.

My personal feeling is that even though you can't go as fast on scooters, the chances of hitting a crack and flipping over the handlebars of the scooter are just as great as having a bike accident. This is why I make my kids wear helmets when they scooter. But my kids think I'm ridiculous (they are 8) and whine about this constantly because their friends don't have to wear helmets when they scooter.

I say, too bad. If they want to risk serious head injuries when the prevention is so easy, then let them. But I won't risk that for my kids.

I'd be interested in hearing from other parents, and especially from people who have witnessed head injuries from bike and/or scooter accidents.

I would like to hear from parents who require their children to wear helmets when they ride bicycles.

We live in a large metropolitan area with lots of bad sidewalks and uneven terrain. Almost all the parents I know require their kids to wear helmets when riding bicycles. But only half of those make their kids wear helmets when they ride scooters.

My personal feeling is that even though you can't go as fast on scooters, the chances of hitting a crack and flipping over the handlebars of the scooter are just as great as having a bike accident. This is why I make my kids wear helmets when they scooter. But my kids think I'm ridiculous (they are 8) and whine about this constantly because their friends don't have to wear helmets when they scooter.

I say, too bad. If they want to risk serious head injuries when the prevention is so easy, then let them. But I won't risk that for my kids.

I'd be interested in hearing from other parents, and especially from people who have witnessed head injuries from bike and/or scooter accidents.

I want to take my 8 year old daughter to Mamma Mia but am wondering if it's appropriate. It has a PG-13 rating and I'm wondering why....

My son is 8 years old and I just bought him a BMX bike. We live in the city and he rides around mainly in our complex, and sometimes to the park. We don't do any long distance riding. He's a big kid for 8 and very hard on bikes. When I told this to the guy at the bike store, he steered me away from a gear bike and said that a BMX bike would be a wiser choice. Both the gear bikes and BMX's were in the same price range. He said that if my son threw down the gear bikes, they would be much more expensive to fix. And since we don't live in the mountains, I didn't think he really needed gears. With the type of riding he does, I'm certain that after the novelty of gears wore off, that he'd most likely leave it in one gear most of the time.

He and his twin sister have been enjoying the back pegs for giving rides, but he still gripes about not having a gear bike. Last night he was riding to the park and one of the front pegs got caught in a fence and he flipped over the handlebars....

I've been second-guessing my choice here. His sister is due for a bike soon and if the BMX was a mistake I don't want to make it again. Seems like a cool bike, but was wondering what you thought.

I live in a large metropolitan area which is seeing a huge increase in bicycle traffic. The mayor supports the growth of bicycle traffic and has built bicycle lanes on many roads. I think that especially as gas prices rise, that seeing more bicycles is a great thing. It's great exercise, it's cheap, and it's good for the environment.

However, what I have noticed is that most bicycles that share the road with the cars, ignore traffic laws. For example, unless they are at a really busy intersection, they just blow through the stoplight. And 4 way stop signs might as well not be there at all. I feel that if they are going to share the road, that they must follow the same rules as cars. Sure I don't like stopping at a 4 way stop when I don't see any cars, but I stop anyway, because you just never know, and besides -- it's the law.

I'm sure that bicycles technically are supposed to follow the rules, but I've never seen a bike pulled over and given a ticket. I think this needs to change.

My question is for those of you in similar situations. How have your cities handled bicycles and following the rules of the road? Do your cities ignore the problem or have they come up with ways to deal with this problem?

I live in a large metropolitan area which is seeing a huge increase in bicycle traffic. The mayor supports the growth of bicycle traffic and has built bicycle lanes on many roads. I think that especially as gas prices rise, that seeing more bicycles is a great thing. It's great exercise, it's cheap, and it's good for the environment.

However, what I have noticed is that most bicycles that share the road with the cars, ignore traffic laws. For example, unless they are at a really busy intersection, they just blow through the stoplight. And 4 way stop signs might as well not be there at all. I feel that if they are going to share the road, that they must follow the same rules as cars. Sure I don't like stopping at a 4 way stop when I don't see any cars, but I stop anyway, because you just never know, and besides -- it's the law.

I'm sure that bicycles technically are supposed to follow the rules, but I've never seen a bike pulled over and given a ticket. I think this needs to change.

My question is for those of you in similar situations. How have your cities handled bicycles and following the rules of the road? Do your cities ignore the problem or have they come up with ways to deal with this problem?

I have two Garmin 260 gps units. One has the 2008 maps in it and the other has the 2009 maps in it. When I tried to locate my local auto dealer, the newer one (2009) unit could not locate the dealership, which is definitely still in operation.

I'm also trying to locate a store in Michigan which I also know exists, but which neither unit can locate. Where do they pull the merchant directory from? I can't believe these places wouldn't be listed.

I'm using a USB turntable to convert my vinyl lp's to digital format. It works fine, but as I record the songs on the lp's, it also records any noise in the background, such as me talking to someone else. When I used to record from lp's to my cassette recorder, it didn't do this. Is this normal?

I have a turntable and tons of albums. Is there a simple way to get the songs on the albums converted to digital? Like a adapter we could attach to the receiver that would convert the music to digital files which we could then copy to the Mac?

I'm wondering why the order of the answers to a question changes after I vote for an answer. I can't figure out what order the new order is. It's sorted by number of votes, or by the date/time of entry. Does anyone know what order the questions get sorted in after you vote?

I think that if someone is a "Top Contributor" that they shouldn't be allowed to make their answers private. Or if they want their answers private, that the "Top Contributor" label should be hidden also.

I enjoy reading the answers of these people, and somehow when I see that their answers are private, it makes me wonder what kind of answers these top contributors are providing...

Question for saggers? What is with this sagging thing? Aren't you embarrassed to have your butt crack showing? And don't your pants fall down sometimes?

Please help me understand. I would like answers from people who like the sagging look and can help me understand what the draw is. I don't need opinions about sagging. I want to understand....

I think I may be having a very general talk with my daughter soon about the birds and the bees. I was wondering if anyone has come across a particularly good book for younger kids, that goes into details without too much detail.

I used to have the soundtrack to the movie Gigi in French. The words were wonderful and very clever. Oddly enough, they are different (and more fun than) the French words that you hear when you listen to the French track on the Gigi DVD.

Does anyone know where I can find the French soundtrack to Gigi?

I wish that Yahoo Answers would create a "spanking" category, so that we wouldn't have to see this question, and the ensuing 45 answers every hour of every day....enough already!

Is it too much to ask that we all agree to disagree and then move on? Does anyone thing someone has actually changed their opinion on the issue by reading about it here?

I vote for a new category....