When I get my meds, the number of available refills is printed on the label.
I should have thought of that. For a while, my psychiatrist wanted to see me once a month. He called in a month’s worth of prescriptions to the pharmacy. It was simple. He just switched to seeing me every two months. I forgot to ask how that would work in regard to medications. I do no think the bottles said anything about refills. I am starting to run low. I called his office again. I await a call back.
In New Rants
I have mentioned a few times on the SDMB that I love Baba Yaga (the boogeywoman of Slavic folklore. A cannibal witch who lives in a hut that walks around on chicken legs). I saw a post on Facebook for a new book Becoming Baba Yaga. I was very intrigued and read the post. The author has less than zero understanding of Baba Yaga. She calls her an “enchantress” “a feminist” and “endlessly complex”. Baba Yaga is an old, ugly hag. She sees humans as lesser animals who are annoyances, amusements, or food. She cares not even a tiny bit if one group of humans oppresses another. She is not complex. She is the embodiment of the Russian wilderness. You can enter that wilderness and come home with furs, meat, honey, fish and fruit- or you can enter that wilderness and die in a hideous way that ensures nobody will ever find your body. That is The Iron Hag.
I had written a very long post about all this. I was in the process of writing still more, when my beloved sent me a message. I clicked on her chat icon to read the message. A split second after I clicked, I realized I should have copied what I had written on to the clipboard just in case. Sure enough, when I went back to finish my post all the text was gone. Usually, Facebook either warns you that ‘work may be lost and do you want to continue?’ or just keeps the progress you have made under a minimized header.Nope.
“Hut of brown, please come down!”
I am a fond of that myth as well. 
The term “baba” literally means “old woman” or “grandmother” in Slavic/Russian languages, and it’s usually a pejorative term. So you are 100% correct.
The original post I lost included a long list of pop culture appearances by Baba Yaga. I did mention that over at least three decades there have been D&D products featuring her and her hut.
The Hellboy comics properly represent Baba Yaga.
When she first appears, we know she is massively powerful, hates Hellboy and is missing an eye.
Eventually, we learn in a flashback story that when she and Hellboy first met, they fought directly, Hellboy took out his huge gun and shot Baba Yaga in the eye from a range of about two feet. The total damge done to her wa that she lost that eye. The story ends with a caption ‘For a year every child born within a hundred miles of that battleground was blind in one eye. Such is the reach of Baba Yaga.’
All the Hellboy comics I’ve read have been great. The two Ron Perlman/Guillermo Del Toro movies were great. The third film was clearly written by somebody who did not understand the comic or the characters.Baba Yaga and a lot of other characters are thrown in for no good reason. I have not seen the fourth film yet.
The first book in Time Life’s Enchanted World series, Wizards And Witches, has a Baba Yaga story. I recommend Wizards And Witches highly. The rest of the series is great too.
Toy Vault made a plush Baba Yaga and a a plush hut on chicken legs. I bought one. It is great.
The mostly very well researched toy line Monster In My Pocket (Kali was the big exception) had a Baba Yaga figurine.
She appears in at least two of Sierra’s Quest For Glory games.
She was in an episode of SyFy’s original series Lost girl.
She was in a re telling of a Russian fairytale in the great independent comic series The Dreamery. Sadly, I do not own that issue.
She was in at least one episode of MST3K.
She is a major power in White Wolf’s old World Of Darkness. The book (Rage Across Russia) mentions that there is a story Baba Yag was an innocent nature priestess before being turned into a monstrous vampire. The book also mentions that this story may be a lie spread by Baba Yaga and her servants. Considering that there is an ancient group of vampires (IIRC The Niktoku) who were never human before they were turned into vampires, it is more likely that Baba Yaga was already an ogre or something similar beofre she was embraced.
Somewhere I have a dvd of a Russian cartoon telling the tale of Vasalisa The Beaurtiful. Baba Yaga should be in that.
The animated Anastasia (I own a copy. I have never been able to bring myself to watch it. Rasputin chdeating death through infernal sorcery and having a pet, albino bat voiced by Hank Azaria? Sounds great! Rasputin driven by a desire to kill the last of the Romanovs? The fraud turning out to be the real Anastasia? That’s a big no!) had a direct to video sequel Bartok The Magnificent. Baba Yaga appears in it and is also massively misrepresented. Here, she has a very bad reputation but is actually just a kindly old woman with magical powers. Bleh.
The children’s book Babushka Baba Yaga also teaches that she is really kind and loving and just misunderstood. Major bleh.
I do have a children’s book which depicts her properly. She is evil. She is powerful. She has magical servants like Koschie The Undying. I love this book.
Oh, I first heard of Baba Yaga in the second grade. There was a series of films telling mysths and folktales from around the world. One of them was a great introduction to Baba Yaga. When I got home, I eagerly told my Bubby about the story. Bubby was the child of Russian/Romanian/Ukranian/Polish (we cannot be sure) immigrants and stunned me by knowing all about Baba Yaga. Since that day, I took every opportunity to learn more about Baba Yaga. I read and watched all the stuff I could find. I bought all the merchandise I could afford.
She is not a feminist. She is not an enchantress.
Almost Forgot
After Kaylasdad99 posted, I checked the labels on my pill bottles. The two I am low on both say I have a refill left.
It is the perfect ending to a terrible year.
I love Hellboy comics so much. I read a ton of them, binged them pretty much, a while back. I had access to a ton of them through Comixology (which is now folded into Kindle Unlimited through Amazon). My favorite thing about them is how Hellboy would go through the most insane experiences ever, then at the end would usually shrug and say something like, “Well I guess that happened.” Like nothing phased him. If he could get a beer and light a cigarette all was right with the world.
Oh and Lobster Johnson is the greatest superhero ever.
That’s actually what pops in my head first when I think of Baba Yaga. I played that entire series back in the day.
Re Baba Yaga, you might enjoy this T.Kingfisher book:
So sick of this cough. Not 10 minutes go by of every hour when I’m not coughing. Its been 9 days.
Two Rants In One
I put out a single trap by the kitchen wall. I had seen a rodent run along that space a few times. The trap remains unsprung. I think this is because the vermin have chewed their way into my kictchen trash can. Oh, I am sure they have gotten into the trash can. The last two times I pulled out the bag to replace it, it had holes in it. I also hear them chewing in the trash can.
I have a wonderful painting my Dad gave me. I put on the mantle prior to hanging it up there. Today, I have been hearing odd and unidentifiable noises from that area all day. About an hour ago, I heard a loud series of those noises. I turned and saw the painting falling forward and knocking a whole bunch of valuable and/or fragile objects off the mantle.
I typed in the group chat for my employer that I had to go off queue for a minute. I rushed to pick everything up, make sure it was undamaged and put all the objects back on the mantel so I wouldn’t step on them. I left the painting lying down on my futon mattress. Shockingly, not a single item was damaged in the slightest. Two large ceramic eyeball salt and pepper shakers landed in my laundry bin. I have learned my lesson.
It’s not always pejorative, and depends on the culture. Sometimes “baba” can be a child’s affectionate term for a grandmother. But even in cultures where it has non-pejorative connotations, it can be made pejorative by putting an adjective like “old” in front of it. While this is technically redundant, linguistically it emphasizes the “old” part, so ends up with a similar connotation to the English “old hag” or “old bat”.
Sure, but I believe where the Baba Yaga stories come from it’s a pejorative which is to @DocCathode’s point; she wasn’t meant to be some symbol of female empowerment or spirit of feminine wisdom. She was the stereotypical (or even archetypical) evil witch you hear about in fairy tales.
Can you get a can with a tight lid? Target and Walmart carry inexpensive ones.
New year, new thread for complaining:
I may have known this earlier, but I probably forgot.
Ronald Reagan killed the Metric Conversion Act which was signed into law by Gerald Ford. Yet another reason to dislike Reagan.
I was too young to vote at the time, but I remember voting for Anderson in a classroom exercise. I wonder what would have happened if Anderson had won the Republican nomination, or even if Bush had won.
Anyway, because of this, every time I talk to my parents, I have to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit makes no sense.
I like the music !
(Surely you’ve posted enough info here to recreate your lost FB Post ?)
I don’t think the lid is the problem. I am reasonably sure the rodents are gaining access from the bottom of the plastic garbage can. Either they have chewed a hole somewhere in the base or they are getting in through the small hole that connects the foot pedal to the lid-opening mechanism. I may need to buy a garbage can made of metal.
I’m not sure I’ve heard that one. Today is the Mummers Parade (streaming for free and entirely legally on metv2.com and wfmz.com ) I will give a listen later.
I posted a shorter version of my deleted post on FB. It just posted a link to the book Becoming Baba Yaga and my new post. It entirely removed my commentary on why the author completely failed to understand Baba Yaga. Fortunately, I noticed quickly and added that back in.
Phone rings. Caller ID shows it’s the eye doctor so I answer it. Apparently once the dust settled, I did meet the deductible so they’re calling to let me know they’re sending me a check for about 2/3rds of what I originally paid them. Therefore, I would like to officially withdraw the above mini-rant!
I don’t think that is possible once it has been ratified by the SDMB council.
You may apply for a revocation by submission of form SD-MRRC-003 which
must be completed and received by the council within 45 working days from
completion of your original post.
Don’t forget to send enclose the doc’s refund check with your request for rant-rescission. 
We had to have a smart meter installed - the power company mandated it. It didn’t require access to the house, i.e. in theory we didn’t need to be home, but it would cause power to be interrupted for a few minutes.
My husband scheduled the visit. They never showed up. This happened twice.
They recorded that they had attempted to come, but could not access the existing meter due to the fence.
WE DO NOT HAVE A FENCE.
When we got a letter saying that if we didn’t let them take care of this ASAP, we would start to be hit with a surcharge. That’s when my husband called them up and raised hell.
Basically the technicians must have lied about even attempting to do the swap, since there was NO impediment to their accessing our meter. That may have been what heppened with your gas technician.
Oh, you mean you live at 123 West Bumblefuque Ave. We thought it was 123 East Bumblefuque Ave.
At least that’s the excuse I get from one particular brand of delivery company over and over and over.