Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 1)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
2422

Aha. That’s where I know it from. Hubby says wahdur, but prefers ice cream. Oddly enough, I don’t I’ve actually been to a Rita’s, which used to call it “wooder ice”.

Cheese fondue has both wine and hard liquor, and I’ve made that many times. Plus I add beer to stew. Sherry and cognac I use quite often as a quick marinade, and orange marnier makes its way into brownies and cranberry sauce. And I bake. I also make rum balls, but they are not cooked. Which reminds me, I now have cocoa powder.

Data pronunciation depends on how I’m using the word and with whom I am speaking.

I live in, but cannot vote in, Switzerland, which has a direct democracy. Switzerland has its own problems, but it definitely helps people feel connected, that their vote is counted directly. So I chose get rid of the electoral college. It hasn’t done us any favors in the last decade or two.

And while I do agree with gun control, I do not necessarily think that everyone has to give up their existing gun collection.

Masgouf looks amazing. I would try it if I was with someone who already knows what it is, and can tell me how to eat it. Earlier this week I went out for Chinese Hot Pot with coworkers. I did not organize the event. The person who did organize the event had never had Chinese Hot Pot, they had only heard of it. Having 11 people for Chinese Hot Pot, when no one had ever had it before, meant it was a tasty meal, but was rather confusing.

As I am originally from Seattle, I’ve eaten at the Space Needle a number of times, and we ate at the rotating restaurant at the top of the Pinnacle Hotel in Vancouver during our honeymoon.

For the what about:
Dorney Park (Pennsylvania)
Fun Forest (Seattle)

With my parents, I have driven across the U.S., twice (maybe 3 times?), across Canada, and also along the west coast of the U.S. (at least twice). I have been in so many small towns, I couldn’t even list most of them.

I would study information management - the amount of information which is available is rather useless unless it can be structured.

Math would also interesting. In college I used to go to math lunches, where different students and professors would give presentations. I think I learned more about fractals there than I did in my normal engineering courses.

First game I ever played was Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. My friend got a PC Jr. Actually, I think her dad got one, as part of the school program, to get teachers familiar with computers. We had TRS-80s at school at the time.

Looks like we have enough people to play Euchre. There are pictures of me, aged 9 months, sitting on my grandmother’s lap while she was playing cards. Most likely Pinnochle, as my other grandmother favored Euchre.

Probably because of your former avatar, I thought you were much older. But July will be 31 years, as well. Also no kneeling.

My parents have an ice maker and water dispenser in their fridge. I prefer that water, becaus the chlorine has been filtered out. We have osmosis filtration here, so I’ve become really sensitive to the smell of chlorine in water.

Our own fridge is built-in, with the freezer at the bottom. No water connection.

2423

I picked ‘never or almost never’; but I drink carbonated beverages only rarely, and never paid attention to whether I got the hiccups afterwards, so maybe it almost never happens to me because I don’t give the beverages the opportunity often.

I think I’d be a lot more likely to be able to get my hands on a piano, and afford to keep it in usable condition once I had it, than to be able to afford to fly a helicopter.

2424

I voted for flying a helicopter, because it has the most practical benefit and could actually be a career - and it must be majestic to fly in downtown at skyscraper height. Whereas doing complex math problems in one’s isn’t of much practical use when a coworker or peer who has access to software could do the same, just a bit slower while still producing the same result.

I can play piano by ear but it’s not much use except as a parlor trick or on the church worship team.

2425

Not only can I not play piano at all (well, I can bang on the keys), but I have a tin ear. So being able to play piano by ear would not only give me a skill I haven’t got, but would have to make a significant change for the better in my hearing.

2426

Setting it up, finding the right software, etc , can be challenging. I actually do solve moderately complex math problems in my head, both for work and on my own. I used to be able to do harder math in my head. I would greatly value being able to do complex math in my head

2427

I know, or at least knew, how to play piano. Not quite “by ear” but I could figure out pieces to some measure by just listening to them. Eventually grew tired of piano and took up guitar, where I was/am also quite good at just figuring things out by ear.

I’m too chickenshit to pilot a helicopter, so intuitive mad math skills sounded a lot more useful to me. And yes, understanding how to solve the problem would be part of that intuition, which IMO is much more the useful part of doing things in your head.

2428

I picked to play piano by ear, because I could use it to entertain myself if not anyone else. I almost picked helicopter pilot, but I’d rather fly planes.

2429

Yeah, I know they’re not that dangerous, but I’ve known two people who’ve died in helicopter crashes. I’m very leery of them.

2430

That’s why I picked it. I can’t play any instrument. If I could suddenly play piano well, that would be a blast.

I had a tough time with the freezer question. We have our main refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen, our old one in the garage (freezer 2) and a refrigerator/freezer drawers in the kitchen as well. So we have three, but none of them are stand alone. We don’t have a stand alone freezer, because we have no need.

2431

I decided it only meant stand-alone freezers. I bought a stand alone pandemic freezer, which i really like. (But it’s not as full as it was during the pandemic.)

I previously had two refrigerators, each of which has a freezer compartment. I still use both of those, although the one in the basement has a lot less in it than it used to.

2432

I’m w/ the crowd that abhors exercise, maybe because I used to have jobs that gave me more than enough. The idea of going to a gym, and actually paying money to get tired and sweaty??? That was something a lot of us got paid FOR, not the other way 'round. This was pre personal computers though.

In my time, we got that runner’s high the way every red blooded American should have gotten it. We toked a doobie. Usually from morning to bed time, all under the time tested belief that anything that was worth doing was also worth overdoing.

2433

My mother would have never catered to me by slicing off crusts or slicing a certain way. I was the third kid and it was the 60’s, she’d probably had her fill of picky eatiness by then from my two older sibs.

2434

Definitely piano, because what in the hell am I going to do with one of the other skills? I’m too old to be farting around with helicopters (I certainly can’t afford to fly one!) and the math skills would be totally useless to me. So what if I can figure Google’s corporate tax return in my head? You still have to write it down and check it. Waste of brain space.

As for sandwiches…not more than once!

2435

I think that one definitely qualifies for “other”. I didn’t think to put in there “I don’t have a standalone freezer, but I have multiple freezers that are part of multiple refrigerators.” But I did think to include “other” (and I see somebody’s used it; maybe that was you.)

My mother cut the crusts off. For most things I didn’t want to eat, the choice was ‘make yourself a sandwich, then’; but if I cut them off myself, I cut way too much of the slice of bread off with them, so she did it. I think she either ate the crusts herself, or used them for breadcrumbs or put them in something. She’d been a Depression kid, and she didn’t waste much.

She gave us leeway in eating things, for which I will be forever grateful. Some of what I wouldn’t eat I refused because it made me nauseated; though that included some things children are expected to love (and some things which, because she didn’t make me eat them then, I now like a good deal). The crusts weren’t in that class, though; but I did eat most stuff, including some things I wasn’t wild about, so she gave me leeway on those.

2436

I was a picky eater, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to complain about the way a sandwich was cut. Everything i was picky about was about taste or texture. Mostly taste.

I still am a picky eater.

2437

I can’t do simple math in my head and it hasn’t held me back much. Doing complex math in my head doesn’t hold much appeal to me.

In my first Army career as an aerial observer I had to learn how to fly a helicopter enough to not kill me. I was able to take off, land fly straight and level and hover. If I had the money and the time I could still learn to do it. Since I have neither the money nor the time it doesn’t appeal to me.

I have always wanted to be able to play an instrument expertly. I know I don’t have any talent for it. If I could magically learn to play piano by ear I would jump at the chance.

2438

I’ve always liked crusts - they’re the most interesting part of the bread! As a child, I wanted my sandwiches cut into triangles. They just didn’t taste right if there wasn’t a pointy bit to start with. However, my mother would have glared me into the ground if I’d ever made a fuss about the perfectly good food someone was kind enough to make for me.

I still prefer most sandwiches that way, but if I have a sandwich with sloppy fillings on sturdy bread, I’ll sometimes cut it straight up and down into rectangles in order to minimize spillage.

We have a stand-up freezer in the garage. We’ve had it for over 40 years, and it originally belonged to my in-laws, so it’s probably 50 years old. It still works fine, and it doesn’t draw all that much electricity (I’ve checked). Early on, we didn’t really use it much, but for the past 20 years or so, I’ve been in the habit of making extra food so I can grab dinner or some of its components out and defrost it rather than cooking from scratch.

2439

I don’t actually care how the sandwich is cut. Which wasn’t an option.

But I also think we may have already had that poll, so voted for that. However, maybe I’'ve only got a “mismemory” –

2440

Grilled cheese and its variants (ham melts, tuna melts, and patty melts) should be cut into triangles. PB&Js should be cut into squares. All others should either not be cut or cut into rectangles.

2441

I never asked my mom to cut the crusts off my sandwiches, but I can easily imagine the look she’d give me if I had!

I took piano lessons as a kid and would love to be able to play well now. I couldn’t afford to regularly fly a helicopter, and have no interest in a second career as a pilot. For what little math I need these days, a calculator works just fine.

We have one fridge in our kitchen and another in the basement. No need for a second freezer, really.