I used to work with an IT project manager who had an ~8yo daughter. He used to keep a My Little Pony figure on his desk. It was a present from his daughter when she was the age to think that Dads liked the same things little girls did and Mom had indulged her gift-picking fantasy. It had a long mane of bright blue wavy fake hair and a little comb.
When shit got too hectic / stupid / insane at work he’d comb the mane over and over. At first I thought that was pretty lame; I now realize he was the smart one, not I.
Speaking of which, since we’re hijacking all over the place, coal notoriously tends to contain small amounts of uranium and thorium and their decay products, radium and radon, all of which are radioactive. It’s not so much a problem with the coal itself as with the increased concentrations in combustion byproducts, particularly fly ash, if those are not scrubbed and contained. Thus coal plants can potentially emit more radioactivity into the environment than a properly operating nuclear power plant.
Thanks for the MMP info, been there a while: My first impression is that it is completely different beast. Maybe because this thread is still young and has not developed idiosyncracies yet.
I wonder why some kind of threads do develop them and others don’t. I’ll think about it while I muse about possible hijacks. You never know when you need one, better be prepared.
There’s no Thanksgiving in Switzerland, so everybody started putting up the decorations two weeks ago. Official lighting ceremonies, where they haven’t been canceled due to the cost of electricity, are usually a few days before the first Sunday in Advent. Which is (checks calendar) on Sunday, November 27th. So this Thursday is the official lighting ceremony in Zurich. Bummer, since I’ll be there on Wednesday.
The people who should really go to the special level of Hell is those who take Elf on a Shelf seriously, and those who put Santa figures on their chimneys.
And are near the Reading Prong. Pain in the ass when we sold our house, as the home inspector required a 24-hour test. Not to mention trying to dig anything was a pain - lots of boulders. Neighbor was standing outside chatting with a neighbor when a boulder, the size of a Fiat 500, decided to slide down the hill and stop in their front lawn.
Speaking of rocks, my former office had had a door stop made of depleted uranium. Somebody finally reported it and it was removed with great fuss. Same person (the one with the office) clicked on the Anna K virus. Twice.
Grapefruits aren’t sour, not any more. And that annoys the hell out of me. Same thing with lettuce - people breed all the flavor out of them to make them more “acceptable”. If lettuce was still proper you would never have heard of rocket/arugula/eruca.
I really need to go get something else done that involves getting off this web page. Must . . . resist . . . temptation to discuss lettuce flavors . . .
failing . . .
Some lettuce has flavor that isn’t bitterness!
but I’ll grant that a lot of modern lettuce is just flavorless.
You beat me by two, I know because I have bought only one pack of six. Two were used to make a cake, two for the stuffing and sauce of a chicken. I hope to plant an apple tree in my swamp next year, an ancient variety. Let’s see how that goes, I fear apple trees don’t like wet roots. But I am willing to try.
It’s not an apple but it’s related and it’s definitely ancient - can I recommend a medlar? We’ve discussed them before. (My garden is very wet, but Maddy the Medlar seems to be doing fine).
By the way, if anyone else is willing to reveal how many apples they’ve eaten this year, I’m all ears. More than zero but less than six would be interesting.