ArtieShaw

America doesn’t have the capacity to track that in any meaningful way. COVID was proof of this.

I ask my husband this exact question about twice a year. Usually when a cat is staring just past my head. He gets the reference.

Ohio. They’re invasive and only arrived in large quantities here about 6-8 years back. They’re in the Chicago area as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_marmorated_stink_bug

it could use a couple of peepholes and an escape hatch. Otherwise, a solid fort.

Spiders, giant spiders, stink bugs, the new type of stink bugs that somehow look grosser than the regular stink bugs, mice… We’re absolutely at that stage right now.

Two humans and four half-way competent cats can’t keep up.

I’ve devised so many stink bug removal devices it’s not even funny. The first was a paper towel tube with a little bag on the other end. Now I’ve got a wide mouth jar with some detergent water in it. A fancy little spoon coaxes them inside. They die quickly.

I agree. OK - he may have been a bit evil, but as always - he was a voice of reason.

So I remember hearing in HS US history class that one of the arguments against women’s suffrage 100-odd years ago is that married men would now have 2 votes instead of one. This would disadvantage them against bachelors or widowers, who would of course not be able to dictate their nonexistent wives’ votes. Unmarried men would only have the one vote, which didn’t seem fair.

I guess the idea is not a new worry. It just seems like the fretting has reversed its polarity.

I’m sensitive to noise, and usually book late enough that the only seats available are in back. And fly at least once a month.

Absolutely decent noise cancelling headphones are available for under $70 US last time I bought some. Mine were called Q30 or something, and they were better than my Sennheisers from 2016-ish. Worth every bit. If one can afford a ticket, one can afford this one thing to make it less awful.

About 20 years ago I read a grim book about plane crashes. They claimed that the number 1 predictor of crash survivability on commercial craft was being a male between the ages of 20 and 50. They’re apparently much better equipped to claw and climb over the other passengers on the way out.

Grim. I fly a lot and think about it at least every other trip.

That’s some classic cat & wire deterrent advice. Needs to be repeated for every new member of the pride, but it works.

Exactly as you describe.

That scene in the pilot episode of Lost. That’s why.

*Easy answers *Lack of self-reflection (“are we the badies?”) *reflexive reactionary impulse (“I say throw the bums out!”) when external pressures make life tough

I’ve got many people in my life who would fit one or more of these generalizations. I’m sure it’s a vast tapestry.

My mom got hissing mad when one of her friends told her that WalMart wasn’t a good place to be shopping. That was 20 years ago.

Roy is great. He’s no Moss, but he’s great.

She was a really funny comedy actor, but also good in Close Encounters. I’ll probably remember her most for that role.

she had been flagged after she indicated that she was not a U.S. citizen in response to a jury summons

She claimed non-citizenship as a way to get out of jury duty??? Bwahahahaahaha! This just keeps getting better.

They’re keeping you safe!

That would make sense. Unfortunately, I’ve known enough contrarian weirdos to see how that type of logic might make more sense (to them).

“Why are you stressing about this? Can’t you just take those old clothes to Goodwill or throw them away?”

“Well, first I need to buy 30 cases of Coke and then - to make room in the car - I need to visit the park back in Indiana to scatter our dog’s ashes.”

Knowing that it’s probably just illogical all the way down, I could believe either scenario.

I agree, but I think that they all share the something of the same clown quality.

I actually liked Rogan on News Radio (90s sitcom) where he played an idiot-savant repairman who could fix anything electronic, but everyone acknowledged that it would burn the place down in 48 hours if left as is. For reference, Andy Dick was also on that show. He looked competent next to Andy Dick, but not nearly as funny.

I thought Rogan really found his calling on Fear Factor, where he just urged people to eat maggot infested cheese. If that show had gone on, how different would our world look like today??

We also watched the Apprentice, but I remember it as a comedy with Trump as the butt of the joke. Did no one else get that joke?

Musk - crap on a cracker. I’ve heard a lot of comments on how his “pedo guy” comment changed peoples’ perception of him, but holy crap. It should have come even a little bit before that. There were about a dozen children trapped in a cave in SE Asia with “hours to days” to survive, if they had even made it that long. This cave had something like a14 inch vertical choke point and muddy conditions throughout.* What does this lackwit do? This absolute knob releases footage of a prototype submarine in a swimming pool in California, being guided along by human divers and says “EMERGENCY RESPONDERS STOP WORK. I’M YOUR ONLY HOPE.”

Point being: This moron does not understand what a cave is. Probably coupled with “and no one is going to tell him that.”

More of a hardcore Jewel/Osco shopper?

No - I think Mariano’s and PicknSave would be competitors in that region. I travel a bit through the US, and I’m flummoxed. My Kroger discount card works more times than not, no matter where my work takes me and no matter which the local branding is.

Classic cat.

I’d only add the two gross things that mine did while they were kittens is that they enjoyed licking my nose and eyes, for reasons known only to cats. That’s a hell of an alarm clock.