"They had espresso machines in 1958? The things one learns at Making Light."
They did indeed have espresso machines in 1958. The yields were very small; the cups were about the size of small thimbles. Whereas now, as all know, one may easily obtain a 20 ounce latte or capuchino.
You're new around these parts aincha, Mr Kiger?
Oh dearie me. Waiting for a hip replacement. I waited nearly ten years for a correct diagnosis. Once I was diagnosed (with necrotic degeneration of the hip joint), I was put on the Waiting List. Where I waited nearly an additional year. But I finally got the operation.
When my second hip went bad, catastrophically (it was necrotic degeneration again, this time the bone in my femur simply collapsed, it was so rotten), I was in the emergency room in half an hour, in the operating room in another half an hour or so. Because it was sudden, and therefore an emergency. But I had waited a long time for a diagnosis which I didn't get, dutifully reporting all the symptoms(I won't bore you), and getting nowhere. Because there are some things that even adequate insurance can't make right. And if you can't get the care, it doesn't matter that you can pay for it.
I expect this situation also to improve under Universal Healthcare.
MICRO WORD informs me on a regular basis lately that "You e-mail address have win . . . "
I don't stay to find out what.
I was a hippy, but not a stupid hippy. I made sure all of my kids got every vaccination that was available. My son, born in 1970, was not allowed to have the smallpox vaccination (it had been required, but of course whatever is not mandatory is forbidden) until the family planned to visit the Canary Islands. The trip fell through, but he had the vaccination, so it wasn't a total loss.
I had been going crazy trying to find someone willing to vaccinate him. This was just after there was a smallpox outbreak in Yugoslavia, and in a Herculean effort, vaccination teams from all over the world swept across the entire country and vaccinated every one. Every one. Of course, before that outbreak the authorities had been saying "Oh, it's been wiped out."
I believe there is still some in a viral zoo somewhere. Godnose why, it's been completely sequenced; if we ever needed it(!) we could build it again.
MaryL (#42): Back in the Dark Ages, when I discovered this website, you didn't have to click on the link to hear the godawful Glaucoma Hymn; it started up without any action on the viewer's part when the page was opened.
I guess all y'all ain't seen the Worst! Website! Ever!:
http://www.globalaigs.org/
The Glaucoma Hymn:
Glaucoma, Glaucoma, Glaucoma
Constricting vision slowly
Halted by progress of science
Vision of a world united
Beyond all science knowing
Mercifully, they seem to have removed the sound from the front page since I last "visited."
I think this site would really benefit from having unicorns. And sparkles.
Mr. Smith's "Really!" at the beginning of that video clip is the best "really" I have ever heard from a news person. In fact, I believe I have been waiting all my life to hear a newsperson say "Really!" in that tone to an interviewee (and they have so often deserved it), and when it happens, it's on Fox? FOX??
Back when I was a rural mail carrier, my son (then a firefighter) said "I don't like to think of you driving those rural roads with the log trucks on them. You should have a safer job. You should work for the fire department." I said "What? You know, where I grew up, there was a firefighters' memorial monument. I've never heard of a mail carriers' memorial." He said "Oh, well, you could be a dispatcher." I said, "Oh, well, I could be a clerk in the post office too, but I don't want to." But it was clear that he thought of the fire department as warm fuzzy employment because he worked there.
I have recently become a bankruptcy auctioneer (a growth industry these days, no fooling). The law requires that the auctions take place in the lobbies of County Courthouses. So . . . I work in two counties. In one, I just, y'know, open the door and walk right into the lobby. In the other, I have to pass through a security gate. I take off all the metal I'm wearing, put all my stuff in a tray and pass it through an x-ray machine. I myself pass through a gate which sounds an alarm, the meaning of which is "Beware! This person has artificial hips!" And I have to give the guard my scissors to keep for me until I leave. These are primary school scissors with no sharp points. Cause, y'know, a kindergartener might stick up the judge or something.
Before I took this job, I had resolved never to have business in the courthouse ever again, but I had to change my mind, alas.
I'm thinking it's about the beryllium. (The fuel tank is lined with beryllium.) They want (why?) to spread a cloud of beryllium bits across the hemisphere. Whoopee! Maybe to see if it's as poisonous as they say. . .
Medievalist (#19): "maybe they have an arrangement by which sexual fidelity isn't necessary" -- I'm pretty sure that I remember an interview a long time ago (maybe even before Bill was elected president) in which they said so. Oh, in coded language, to be sure, but plain as plain could be to people who were familiar with the life style.
Oh, fer chrisake, John A, if idiots are offended by someone's sensible ideas, that does not give them any right to impose their idiotic ideas on a person. So what if they were "offended"? Some people are offended because others wear jeans, or want to go to college although they do manual labor. I'm not responsible for the peace of mind of idiots.
Some years ago, my son's class was discussing why non-white people have a lower opinion of the police than white people. He asked me what I thought and I told him that in my opinion, the opinion of people about the police is dependent almost entirely on how much contact they have had with them. Non-white people on average have had more contact with the police, for whatever reasons, than white people. But it takes only a couple of contacts to lower the average white person's opinion to the same level.
Dave Bell (#7): Unfortunately, here in the US most supermarket chains charge wholesalers (and thus producers) "shelf fees" for access to their shelves. I don't know whether they charge such fees to sellers of produce, but it's well known that they make the sellers of packaged foods pay for being on their shelves.
So far as I know, though, this pernicious practice hasn't been adopted by other retailers.
Bruce Cohen, when did you first do your deli comparison? I am in fact, older, and although I count myself a Portlander, the time is approaching when I will have to admit I've lived longer out of Portland than in it. There was a time when Rose's was a great deli, but that was when Rose herself was alive. Even before she died (and that was at least 40 years ago) she had kind of lost control of the place. We knew it was too late when we walked by on Yom Kippur and saw that it was open (Rose closed for all the holidays). We stepped inside to ask why, and the woman we spoke to didn't know what we were talking about. Never went back. But the New Yorker Kosher Bakery survived for some years after that. (Much smaller business.)
We got our first seat belts in 1960 -- for the kid. She had just done a complete flip off the seat onto her head, at a very minor stop. We looked at each other and went directly to the automotive store. Where they had *no* seat belts for kids, only for adults. We finally found the Rose Safe-Hi Children's Safety Harness, and then we went looking for after-market belts for ourselves.
The Rose Safe-Hi was a full body harness that latched onto a belt around the seat back, or onto a conventional lap belt. A wonderful invention, and the kids loved them. They later proved to have a number of other safety-related uses.
Ah, match head bombs. I remember them fondly. More or less. My kids liked to launch them, using, natch, match head rockets. I remember telling them, "Now you know, you got to do that outside. And don't point it toward anything."
Being old, I of course have many explosion stories. But you don't need to hear them. I will ask, though, did any of you see the video that was around about two years back, showing kids launching bottle rockets out of their asses? Worked about as well as you might think, for the reasons you might think of.
Here in Corvallis (OR) the snow's off the peak (Marys Peak) which means -- tah dah, it's time to put in the peas!! (Sorry to gloat, but we have bad winters too, y'know. A mild one is greatly to be enjoyed. We'll no doubt suffer for it in August.)
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 8 |
| 2008 | 5 |
| 2007 | 9 |
| 2006 | 4 |
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