What Lila @14 said. Never, nohow.
What I may do Friday is go to this. It's almost walking distance.
Some of us in the Twin Cities remember Target when it *was* as local chain.
Another factor in the mammogram recommendations is that it does involve exposure to a dose of radiation, albeit a very small one. I do not recall the exact information, but I read that for every umpteen cancers caught, there was one caused by that radiation. A friend of mine refused to get her first one until she was fifty for that reason. I have heard much debate over the years whether *yearly* m-grams are necessary. Unfortunately, a lot of medical test recommendations are absolute, which can determine whether or not insurance pays for them. They seldom bother to consider individual risk factors, even obvious ones like smoking.
I'm not very scared of cancer, since the only relative who has died from it smoked 3 packs of Camels a day from the age of 14. She died of lung cancer at 78. I'm scared of heart attacks, since I lost a cousin who was 29 or 30 from one, as well as my father and various other relatives. I would like *more* cardiovascular tests and fewer cancer tests, thank-you-very-much.
Thinking healing thoughts towards both Soren and Velma.
Looking through the list, we represent an amazing spectrum of religious beliefs and non-beliefs, and yet we seem to get along pretty well. I wish the rest of the world was more like Making Light.
Dammit, I just ordered a deep freezer from Home Depot because they have free delivery; Sears wanted $65 to deliver, and more to take away the old one.
I rarely go there, because it isn't near my house, but the local hardware store, 4 blocks away, has everything including kitchen sinks - but not large appliances. Made a detour on my way to Convivial (local relaxacon) last weekend to look at freezers. Would have bought it, but the nice middle-aged female clerk said it would be easier for me if I ordered it online, because that's the way to get the free delivery. I'm not invisible to other middle-aged females.
I'm seriously considering canceling my order, but I don't know where to go otherwise. My budget is tight, which is why I want the freezer, to be able to stock up at sales.
Xeger @ #268
If you want music that isn't classical, my two favorites when I'm very down are "Heroin" by Velvet Underground and "Horses" by Patti Smith. I guess they help because they remind me Things Could Be Worse. Also, "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones. And for reading, the poems of Baudelaire and Verlaine.
Happy Birthday to Jon, and to Isaac Bonewits, who also turns 60 today.
I agree with DDB and Xopher.
Another point is that many people are in prison because of discriminatory laws. For example, all the people who are behind bars solely because of pot convictions. They have their right to vote taken away, so they cannot vote to change this unjust law. If more than 2% of the population is disenfranchised, that may keep unjust laws on the books. To carry it to its logical (absurd) conclusion, if everyone who smoked pot was imprisoned, they would be no way to legalize it, because the smokers couldn't vote. (Yes, I realize that people who don't smoke can still be in favor of legalization, but I am taking this to an absurdity.)
Bill @58, and others:
I think the cute Goth Chick Xopher is referring to in #56 is a Sandman reference. I don't have a link, but this is a series of graphic novels. Death is a character and is drawn as a petite Goth chick. Totally different from Discworld.
Miriam @676 and anyone else who uses LJ: Live Journal seems to have stopped providing RSS feeds. This is a nuisance, since I haven't set up feeds anywhere else, and I depend on it for, among other things, xkcd.
If I have to set up my own, any ideas for an easy way to do it?
Happy Birthday Xopher, and a belated Happy Birthday to Serge.
There was a TV series some years back about a young New York City doctor in Alaska, "Northern Exposure". He had to work there for so many years to pay off his loans, or they had financed his med school or something like that.
We have several problems, one is that it's too hard and too expensive to get into medical school, and two, we have too few levels of medical personnel. We could do a lot more with PA (physician's assistant) and NP (nurse practitioner). Medicine is too much a guild, even now. And that's also why doctors protect their own, and don't weed out the few bad apples that give them a bad name and are the root of much of the mapractice.
Seen on Daily Kos, in reference to the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy: In lieu of flowers, let's pass health care reform.
My thoughts exactly.
John @ 152: A friend of mine likes to say "I'm a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings. Drunks go to bars." (sarcasm)
I am very concerned with end-of-life issues and painkillers. Thanks to the current "War on Some Drugs", people who are in great pain and dying sometimes can't *get* painkillers. The DEA regularly arrests doctors who are treating cancer patients because they are "prescribing too much morphine". I don't want to end up a vegetable taking up a hospital bed, but I also don't want the last weeks, months, or years of my life to be agony. That WOULD make me want to end it all quickly.
Marna and Vicki: REI has *great* customer service, IMHO. I've bought several pairs of shoes online, and several in stores from them (and lots of other stuff). Unfortunately, there is no REI in the NYC area, as far as I can tell from their website. (I have no idea where the NJ store is in relation to Brooklyn.)
What I do is have them send the shoes to the store (free shipping to their stores) try them on, and return them immediately if they don't fit. If you have to send stuff back and forth, the shipping charges would add up.
Checks calendar. Not April 1st.
Cyclone? There are *so* many ways to parse that. As in a storm, or a cy(ber)clone or the cylon idea proposed above.
Maybe Wired is having a "trade places with the Onion" day.
Kat @67: Since there is an infinite supply of integers, there's no reason for it to end at all...
which is what I think that Keith @68 is getting at, but I don't know the programming language he is using.
Xopher @76
Gerald didn't come up with the 9 million figure, that was Z Budapest, as I recall. The whole "Burning Times" nonsense has been completely discredited.
I visited Wookey Hole many years ago, on a trip to the Isles. I like caves; the "Witch" was a stalagmite, rather impressive one.
If I lived in the area, I'd apply for the job. Perfect retirement position, as long as I could have a laptop and internet connection hidden away somewhere. My cackle is pretty good. I'm not offended by this, more bemused by the modern "tourist" craze.
Direct political activism: Wasp, by Eric Frank Russell. Old, but still very relevant.
When I first saw the thread title, I thought it had something to do with the newspaper and website "The Onion"....
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 38 |
| 2008 | 84 |
| 2007 | 29 |
| 2006 | 46 |
| 2005 | 45 |
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