Isn’t that why the license plates all say New Mexico, USA?
I mean, it’s the only state in the union that feels the need to point out that it is, indeed in the union. (Which doesn’t say much about the rest of us…)
I don’t understand a single sentence in this entire post, except the quote about blacks and mexicans.
Can somebody translate?
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one.
I’ll try. Really Not All That Bright went out to smoke (on break at work I assume.) Somebody called him anti-social, the herd of workers followed that person over to Really Not All That Bright, at which point he heard all the quoted clever thoughts escape their lips.
Here in Canada we used to have a show called “Talking to Americans.” Yeah yeah, I’m sorry we bashed you, but it WAS funny. Here is one of my many favorites. Rick Mercer was telling people that us Canadians were trying to stop our “National Igloo” from melting by putting a dome over it.
How long ago would these people have been in school? According to my Holocaust professor, the Holocaust was not talked about or taught in schools in Germany, and likely other nearby countries such as Austria until the 70s/80s due to a general feeling that they wanted to “move on”. However, after the Holocaust miniseries came out in the 70s or 80s (I forget which), it sparked a shift in perspective in those countries. Today there is extensive attention paid to the Holocaust during schooling. If you’d like a cite I’ll need to dig through one of my old papers to find the actual source for that.
But what do the clever thoughts mean?? I got the first one though - they wanted to say Greta Garbo, “I vant to be alone.” I’m confused about the “Ay-rabs” one, the cow-orker one, and the “litterbug Ru-Paul.”
The early posters that said “Return of the Cradle” are valuable collector’s items now.
He’s typing an accent. Arabs, and they mean “the litterbug Ron Paul” the politician.
Thanks for that.
I have no idea how old these people were, having never met them, but I’m pretty sure they were adults at the time. This probably would have been in the early or mid 80s. And yes, they had just seen that movie.
ETA: That movie was made in 1978.
I thought they really meant Ru Paul (the transvestite), which is why I didn’t get the joke since I pride myself on my lack of Ru Paul knowledge.
Sorry, but there is an answer to this. Salt is necessary for al dente pasta; it raises the boiling temperature of the water and changes the ionic concentration gradiant; the pasta cooks faster and absorbs less water as it cooks.
Salt raises the boiling temperature of the water because of the energy of solvation of salt, NOT because of the change in density or surface tension of the water.
If we added salt just for taste, we could do that after cooking; salt is added is for texture.
I’m a she, and I was trying to type the worst imitation of an accent I have ever heard, but other than that, your explanation is correct. Thank you.
The “let me talk to someone who speaks English” thing was from a stupid, xenophobic fellow call center-type employee who said it to someone who speaks perfect actual English. Speaks it better, in fact, than anyone in the office, since we are all Americans living in the United States. The cow-orker was bragging about being stupid.
Cow-orker was originally a typo (in the Pit IIRC) that became a SDMB nickname (dare I say meme?) for an unpleasant fellow employee. It is overused, and irritates the hell out of a lot of Dopers.
The point was that very little of what I heard DID make sense to anyone but the people saying it. Sorry. I should have been more clear.
Thanks, MadPansy64 (and everyone else who gamely took a stab)
Somebody already explained that salt in solution is absorbed by pasta much more readily than just sprinkled on top afterward.
My grandmother lives in an assisted living apartment. It’s all we can do to keep her out of a nursing home.
I was unlocking the front door and was holding it open for a blind woman walking in after me.
She thanks me, and as we’re walking in together I comment, “Oh look, they’ve repainted the walls!”
…
…
:: smack ::
Googling produces plenty of links that suggest the effect of normal amounts of salt on boiling temperature is tiny. Here’s one:
Something like 6 times a normal amount of salt let to a temperature increase of 4 degrees F.
She could smell something, and might not have realized it was paint. You might have solved a mystery she had. “What is that smell?!” 
My cousin, who now works as an engineer for a MAJOR company, was convinced that I lived in a grass hut in Hawaii.
I would also encounter visitors who would discuss their “return to the states.” Invariably, these people were old enough to be cognizant of current events when Hawaii obtained statehood.
When swapping “customer stories”:
customer calls in about cellphone bill: “There is absolutely no way my bill is correct, I didnt use all that ‘air-time’, I’ve never even been on a plane!”
:smack:
that made my brain hurt.