Yeah, talk about your Sophie’s choice.
mmm
Reuben über alles!!
Ditto.
A grilled cheese sandwich is simple perfection on a plate.
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There were only four vegetarian sandwiches in the poll, so that narrowed it down for me!
For the car theft poll, I had the same car (an '86 Jeep Cherokee) stolen twice. The first time, it was stolen from a hotel parking lot and the cops found it on a side street after a home owner called to complain about an apparently abandoned car that had been outside their house for a week.
The second time, it was stolen from the curb in front of our house and found stuck up to its axles in mud out on the mesa and the yard they towed it to informed us after two weeks, just before the insurance would have paid out. Not coincidentally, that’s the amount of time they’re allowed to hang onto towed cars before contacting owners. It was totaled, but the amount the insurance was going to pay us wasn’t enough to buy a replacement, so we took the cash (less salvage) and fixed all the pieces they’d managed to scrape off the bottom (just some exhaust pipe, since it was a Jeep). We drove it for another 10 years after that.
Okay, so in my naive understanding, a car is “totaled” if it cannot be repaired, or rather repairing it would not be worth the cost. So if your car could in fact be good to go after washing the mud off and replacing part of the exhaust pipe - how is that totaled by any reasonable definition?
Stupid question, but do you put mustard on your grilled cheese?
My understanding, having experienced several car collisions in my life, is that “totaled” is an insurance term, and is a verdict reached by the insurance company, when the cost to repair the damage that’s been done to the car will cost more than the value of the car.
If the car is old enough that, according to the book values of cars (based on age, model, mileage, and condition), it effectively has little or no remaining value, then even the cost of a relatively minor repair can lead to a “totaled” declaration.
That may not seem reasonable, but it’s how the insurance companies work. My understanding is that you would typically have the option to take the insurance company’s offer of payment for the “cash value” of the car, and then seek to have it repaired yourself.
Totaled also has legal meaning.
I used to drive an old civic. It was rear-ended. Repairing it to the condition it had been in before the accident would have cost considerably more than the car was worth, so it was totalled. But i was able to restore it to drivable condition for a lot less than the car was worth. The shop pulled the frame back out, and got the hatch to close properly, and patched the paint. The insurance company paid me the book value of the car, i paid some of that to the shop, and i kept driving the car for another two years, before i sold it.
But the insurance company reported my car as totaled to the state, and my title was tagged as “totaled”, and i was legally required to tell the buyer that my car had been totaled when i sold it.
Yeah, by the time it was stolen that second time, our Jeep had been through the wringer, and it wasn’t worth what it cost to fix. I was playing down the damage, too - there was some pretty ugly body damage that we considered cosmetic and I have a vague recollection of some suspension work that had to be done. But we had two little kids, we needed a 4WD car to get up to their grandparents’ house, and there was no way the insurance check was going to cover enough of even a used car. Also, we’d put a rebuilt engine in it just a year earlier and we didn’t want to trade it for a car with problems we didn’t know about yet.
Just in case there’s anyone still on the SDMB who’s young enough to think this was a good decision, though, it wasn’t. Once you have a car with a title marked “salvage,” the only way to get rid of it is to junk it or donate it (which is what we did 10 years later).
ETA: What @puzzlegal said!
I sold mine for $400 to a guy who drove it for more than a year. I gave him a full page of everything i knew was wrong with the car, including that it was legally totaled. He read it, and said, “that’s in pretty good shape for a car this old.” Which it was, it still drove fine. The sale was perfectly legal. He was able to register it without any problem. (Well, except it took us half an hour to get our plates off, the bolts had rusted.)
I suspect your car was more saleable than ours. Come to think of it, I wonder whether there are more salvage cars around nowadays, given the higher costs of replacing them and the lower stock of used cars.
Mustard is good with everything.
(especially onion rings)
mmm
Never had a car stolen, which is funny, considering that I’ve driven Jeep Wrangler soft tops the past 30 years. I’ve mostly left the key in the ignition and the doors unlocked, since a knife would easily open it. Maybe the manual transmission plays a role, maybe car thieves don’t like Jeeps.
I’ve never had a vehicle stolen, but my Dad did - twice. The first time cops found it abandoned in a nearby canyon, stripped of cap and tool box. The second time we got a call from police in another city asking about it. Turns out the guy who stole it used it in a kidnapping attempt. We got it back with a couple of bullet holes in the tailgate. Turns out the designated kidnapee didn’t want to be kidnapped and fought back.
I had one vehicle upon which a theft was attempted. I guess the POS didn’t know what he was doing so he failed to start it. In an apparent snit, he proceeded to slash all the seats, the headliner, and break every knob and dial he could. The interior was a mess.
Here’s the good news: The police caught him that same night breaking into another vehicle. They made him pay for my damages. I went down to the police station a few days later and picked up $800 in cash.
They even gave me his name. I looked him up but did not extract any type of revenge.
mmm
I’m curious as to why the sandwich poll included two very specific kinds of “sub” and the generic “po boy”. Appending either term to “Italian” or “meatball” will get you the same thing. What it’s called just depends on where you get it.
And don’t get me wrong - I love a grilled cheese sammich, but almost a third of respondents picked it over a crabcake, which is currently in single digits.
Y’all are crazy! 
I think of an Italian sub as prosciutto and salami, not meatballs.
In 5th grade gym class we ladies were taught how to do “girls’ pushups,” in which you rock on your knees instead of your toes. Then we were never allowed to do them or mention them ever again, so I don’t know why the gym teacher bothered to show us in the first place.
I used to be able to do 25 or 30 “legit” pushups, so I thought I could surely do 2-5. I was wrong. Apparently, I can’t even do one properly. I managed two knee pushups before my left shoulder noped out, so I’m thinking my pushup days may be behind me.
As for language evolution, I’ve reluctantly accepted that it will happen with or without me.