I suspect a placebo effect – is asphalt really that much softer than concrete? A fad around here for a while on the freeways was noise-reducing asphalt that had tire shards mixed in or something. A new stretch of highway has laid with it and the day before it opened for traffic, they were letting pedestrians roam around on it. Curious, I was one of them and made a point of kneeling and seeing what it felt like under my hand. It wasn’t like it was springy or even as soft as dirt.
It did have to be more resilient than regular asphalt because it was noticeably quieter even inside the car, never mind to the folks neighboring the freeway. Alas the resilience was its downfall. It would wear out after five to eight years and as it did it was removed and not replaced, the concrete underlayment being grooved instead.
We live in a townhouse with three steps down to the front door. Our Amazon guys/gals usually toss the packages onto our door mat and take the pic from the top of the steps (unless it’s a bigger or bulkier package).
Our UPS guys usually ring or knock, but not always.
I wonder if the little bit more roughness in the asphalt allows you shoes to sink in a fraction of a millimeter instead of the perfectly flat concrete.
Parents that go on and on that people without kids should not go to Disneyland, just people with kids.
I mean Walt himself said- "To all who come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.*
Fresh asphalt is significantly more resilient than concrete - every particle of sand and aggregate is encased in flexible goo. It hardens as it ages and loses it’s bounce, but it’s a very notable difference when fresh.
In the grand scheme of things, I suppose this isn’t very important:
I get infuriated when I take the time to fill out a web contact form - and then nobody bothers to respond. I can’t tell you how many times that has happened just this summer!
I mean - why even bother having it on your website if you aren’t going to use it?
Another one: I do the Connections puzzle every day. If you don’t know it, it’s a puzzle from the New York Times in which you group 16 words into 4 sets of 4 related words. Sometimes the groupings are synonyms, or pop culture references, sports etc.
Every morning, there are comments from posters from the UK complaining bitterly about Americanisms in the puzzle. It drives me mad, why wouldn’t you expect a puzzle from an American publication to use American clues? I know I shouldn’t look but I always do.
I know this word isn’t actually new but I go ballistic when I hear it in an ad - “melty”. It appears to be used as an adjective and we already have common words for that - “melted” or “gooey”. Melty sounds like a word a toddler would use.
I guess I feel the same way about “bespoke”. Freakin’ use “custom” or “tailored”. If you’re from the UK you get a pass since the word seems to come from your side of the pond, but Americans are using it in ads to sound sophisticated. Ugh!
Hmmm. I think of melty to mean a cheese that will melt in an ordered way. Not separate, clump, become rubbery or go straight to runny liquid upon the application of heat.
More important, it is smoother. Sidewalk is full of cracks, both intentional and unintentional (tree roots and such).
I have multiple scars on my knees from tripping on cracks while on a run that ended up on sidewalks. It used to be a major event every two or three years when I’d call my wife to come rescue me as I stood bleeding and dazed in 90-degree heat at the side of the road.
My final outdoor running incident: I tripped on a crazy tall 8-inch curb and fell in a way that broke my shoulder. Wife said “Never again!” and now my running is all on an indoor track.
Proper road-running is done on the asphalt shoulder, facing traffic, so you can hop out of the way when danger approaches.
I don’t mind “bespoke” if it’s used properly, but I’ve never seen it used properly in an ad - and I kind of can’t imagine how it could be. “Bespoke” doesn’t just mean “custom” or “tailored” - for example, in clothing it means that there is no pre-existing pattern, while “made to measure” means a pre-existing pattern is altered to fit the customer and both are different from off-the rack clothing that has been altered to fit the customer.
Ironically the last time I almost tripped, I was running across a crosswalk in the road and my foot hit one of the raised reflective patches that were glued to the ground.