I read that. Good book, Bright-Sided. I love her.
Couldn’t answer Buck’s djinn-and-president poll because Trump and Pence are the only names I recognise. I think it’s fairly obvious that Pence would be better than Trump, but I have no idea how he stacks up against the others.
I selected the Subaru (my favourite brand) as a knee-jerk reaction on the EV poll, but after comparing the cars I changed my vote to Hyundai (which, as it happens, is my seconf-favourite car). My real answer, however, is None of the Above – I definitely do not want an EV.
What the hell is an “instant camera” ? My phone is an instant camera.
I’d guess most radios (I have a “clock radio” with a radio I never use) that has AM. My car has AM. I’d think really many people have access to AM radio.
I assumed it meant Polaroid or the equivalent. You point, click and it prints out / pops out a complete physical image. I’ve got one old enough to vote sitting in my closet.
That’s what I thought, too, but I had to stop and think about it for a minute.
I did my best to answer that poll honestly, but there were several where I had to stop and think, “Do I still have that somewhere or did I get rid of it?” And I’m not positive I got them all right. I’m not going to go digging through the basement and garage just to make sure I answered the poll completely accurately.
My “something else” was my VCR, which I figured belonged on the list.
I also have a VCR, which was one of my “something elses”. But I also have a Commodore 64, an original IBM PC, and several other old school computers.
For the surgeon with the much needed specialty, I voted for some other restitution - he’ll be offered a semi-literal prison doctor sentence. In other words, a form of house arrest and restitution in the form of paying the entirety of damages they are responsible for in the form of pro-bono surgery.
Note though that all the serious crimes listed for the poll are financial and/or property based, none of actual direct violence to another person or persons such as murder, assault, or rape. If those are involved, I’d have to rethink.
I still have, and use on a daily basis, the General Electric clock radio which I bought in 1988; it sits on my nightstand. It does get AM, as well.
It looks like this:
Yeah, I thought of imposing community work service on the surgeon, too, with him performing unpaid surgery as his form of service.
He would be subject to supervision by other doctors with no known ties to him; if he wasn’t giving it his best effort, I’d add time to an actual prison sentence he would serve after, say, three apparently-purposeful screwups. (He could also be prosecuted anew for those as separate offenses). The supervising doctors could advise the court when an operation failed through no fault of the defendant, and of course I would not hold those cases against him.
I still have my Panasonic clock radio my parents got me in 1978. Okay, so the tiner is shot and the alarm doesn’t work, but it still tells time.
I have actual Opinions about the various EVs, but there’s just too much research to do for me to answer that poll well. If a genie is giving me a $60,000 car, though, I’d come up with an answer - probably the one with the longest range. I’m already driving a Chevy Volt (plug-in hybrid), and I love it, so the Bolt would be a pretty safe choice for me.
I’d hold my nose and pick Christie for president. He’s corrupt and power-hungry, but in an old-school way that’s more likely to leave a few civil rights standing. And given the opportunity to have one of the fine folks of this message board instead, I’d leap at the chance - just look at how few of you have had a serious head injury! But given the choice, I’d want the actual voters to vote, since that’s our form of government.
We have far too many of the obsolete forms of technology listed, and most of them don’t work. I really need to clean out the garage. I’m keeping the DVD players (one multi-region for the discs my daughter’s gotten from Japan and one Blu-ray) handy for times when the internet is out or we just want to watch one of our DVDs, and the two typewriters we have work just fine. The turntable needs some work, but I still have hopes for it.
I realized when I couldn’t answer the Golden Girls polls that I’ve still never actually seen more than a few minutes of the show. I should remember that the next time I’m feeling nostalgic for the programming of my youth.
I’ve had two concussions; I might not be your best choice. 
Yeah, sorry. If you’ve been knocked unconscious, I’m gonna be looking a lot harder at your cognitive abilities before giving you the Presidential nod.
I have that very same model sitting on my nightstand.
Give him the same sentence; imprison him as close to a good hospital as possible; and let him out each day, under supervision, long enough to perform surgery. His pay for this goes into an account to pay a set amount of restitution and to pay for the extra supervision; if he succeeds in paying the restitution off, the rest over the cost of supervision can go into an account he can access after his prison term is over.
I am deeply skeptical that Nugent could be persuaded to refrain from reprisals.
I can carry quite a few grenades in a standard back pack. My pitching arm isn’t what it used to be, so I’ll probably have to throw a few to get the range right.
It’s appealing, but I don’t see how this is different from forcing prisoners to do other kinds of labor, and I oppose forcing labor on anyone.
The world will have to live without him, I guess.
I agree, and certainly meant to imply in my prior post that the house arrest with pro-bono work was an offer, that if they preferred to take a like kind and quality jail sentence instead they should have the choice.
Of course, I strongly suspect they’d accept but I do agree that @thorny_locust’s scenario seems to be a step too far for me at least.
I choose to believe the clams are happy. I have tendency to… um, pretend I’m a creature, and clams are one of my favorite things to pretend to be, because sitting at the bottom of the ocean cozy in my little clam bed being bothered by nobody seems like a pretty sweet deal.
Have to include my favorite clam poem here, which is where pretending to be a clam first became a thing. I wouldn’t want you all to think I’m weird or anything.