Spaghettieis is the way to a Free Thread
August 14, 2023 6:25 AM Subscribe
BBC: "At ice cream parlours around Germany, you might come across a perplexing menu item, simply labelled Spaghettieis." Some pictures on Flickr. Metro: "5. Optional: grate some white chocolate over the top for ‘Parmesan’." (Previously) And what's your favourite regular or combo or speciality ice cream, or just talk about everything because it's your .
In other news I just heard that my company is going to deliver something very tangible, very useful to Ukraine that will almost certainly save lives, possible many. I'm pretty chuffed, despite being sad that it's needed.
posted by Harald74 at 6:32 AM on August 14, 2023 [27 favorites]
posted by Harald74 at 6:32 AM on August 14, 2023 [27 favorites]
GO REGISTER PROGRESSIVE VOTERS!
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 6:46 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 6:46 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
At the Jersey Shore last year I discovered an ice cream place that served Churro ice cream, which I never knew existed. It was amazing.
This year, back at the Shore, I had it again and it was as life-changing as I remembered.
Upon returning to the wilds of Northern NJ I searched for it as I had the previous year (to no avail) and lo! and behold! Ben and Jerry's now makes Churray for Churros.
Not as transcendent an eating experience, but still very verrrry good.
posted by papercake at 6:50 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
This year, back at the Shore, I had it again and it was as life-changing as I remembered.
Upon returning to the wilds of Northern NJ I searched for it as I had the previous year (to no avail) and lo! and behold! Ben and Jerry's now makes Churray for Churros.
Not as transcendent an eating experience, but still very verrrry good.
posted by papercake at 6:50 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
On ice cream:
We had a house guest for the past month; my roommate's sorta-kinda-maybe girlfriend-ish. She flew home to Germany last night. ....Early on during her visit, she did us a great favor (I stupidly left my bedroom window open, and she shut it for me) so I offered to make ice cream for her; she prefers frozen yogurt, and loves blueberries, so I made a batch of blueberry frozen yogurt for her.
....I think she had some, but most of it is still there.
In other news -
Nowadays, when you apply for unemployment in New York State, you now have to attend these mandatory meetings with a "career services coach". The DOL just arbitrarily picks a time for you, without consulting as to your availability. I had one scheduled for last Monday, on a day when I was meant to be at an office where I've gotten a part-time temp gig. I frantically tried to reschedule, then tried to arrange to take the call at the office - no one called me, and I finally got a message that I'd been 'excused' from that meeting and they would be 'reaching out to reschedule soon'.
I tried a couple times to find out when I'd been rescheduled for, because my schedule is getting pretty zoo-ey. I was also grumbling a lot about it to my co-workers; they all warned me that it was going to be kind of pointless, because it was going to be 90 minutes of someone telling me how to write a resume, how to write a cover letter, how to use a job board....
I joked that I should probably just tell them everything I'd BEEN doing already and ask if that was really necessary, and maybe they'd give me a pass. "oh, no," they all told me. "I tried that too, but I still had to sit there the whole 90 minutes, it was awful."
I had some free time on Friday afternoon and decided to just show up at the DOL in person and see if we could take care of it then. When I got into the meeting, the person I was meeting with noticed I'd originally been scheduled for Monday. "Yeah, I know," I said, "but that was during my temp job."
"...You have a temp job? How did you find that?"
"I had an interview a week after my layoff with a company that ultimately eliminated the position, but needed my help for a couple months."
"....How did you find that interview?"
"The job office at the business campus in my neighborhood."
"....Job office? Where is this and what kind of things do they have?...."
And then we spent about 15 minutes with me telling her about that job office, where it was, what the hours were, what kind of jobs are in the business campus and such. She took copious notes, remarking that this would be great information for her to share with others.
Then she sat back, looked at me a moment, and then shrugged and said, "okay - so you know about LinkedIn and Indeed.com and those sites, right?"
"Yep. I'm using them."
"Okay. And you know that you have to keep a record of job search activity while you're collecting unemployment, right?"
"Yep. I have it on LinkedIn right now, but I was going to copy it to the DOL site soon."
"Great. Okay - you may also want to upload your resume to the DOL site. I'll send you that link." She looked at her notes, at the screen, and then back at me, and shrugged. "I think we're good here. We'll follow up in about a month, but you're done for now."
I was in and out of that "90 minute" meeting in 20 minutes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:52 AM on August 14, 2023 [19 favorites]
We had a house guest for the past month; my roommate's sorta-kinda-maybe girlfriend-ish. She flew home to Germany last night. ....Early on during her visit, she did us a great favor (I stupidly left my bedroom window open, and she shut it for me) so I offered to make ice cream for her; she prefers frozen yogurt, and loves blueberries, so I made a batch of blueberry frozen yogurt for her.
....I think she had some, but most of it is still there.
In other news -
Nowadays, when you apply for unemployment in New York State, you now have to attend these mandatory meetings with a "career services coach". The DOL just arbitrarily picks a time for you, without consulting as to your availability. I had one scheduled for last Monday, on a day when I was meant to be at an office where I've gotten a part-time temp gig. I frantically tried to reschedule, then tried to arrange to take the call at the office - no one called me, and I finally got a message that I'd been 'excused' from that meeting and they would be 'reaching out to reschedule soon'.
I tried a couple times to find out when I'd been rescheduled for, because my schedule is getting pretty zoo-ey. I was also grumbling a lot about it to my co-workers; they all warned me that it was going to be kind of pointless, because it was going to be 90 minutes of someone telling me how to write a resume, how to write a cover letter, how to use a job board....
I joked that I should probably just tell them everything I'd BEEN doing already and ask if that was really necessary, and maybe they'd give me a pass. "oh, no," they all told me. "I tried that too, but I still had to sit there the whole 90 minutes, it was awful."
I had some free time on Friday afternoon and decided to just show up at the DOL in person and see if we could take care of it then. When I got into the meeting, the person I was meeting with noticed I'd originally been scheduled for Monday. "Yeah, I know," I said, "but that was during my temp job."
"...You have a temp job? How did you find that?"
"I had an interview a week after my layoff with a company that ultimately eliminated the position, but needed my help for a couple months."
"....How did you find that interview?"
"The job office at the business campus in my neighborhood."
"....Job office? Where is this and what kind of things do they have?...."
And then we spent about 15 minutes with me telling her about that job office, where it was, what the hours were, what kind of jobs are in the business campus and such. She took copious notes, remarking that this would be great information for her to share with others.
Then she sat back, looked at me a moment, and then shrugged and said, "okay - so you know about LinkedIn and Indeed.com and those sites, right?"
"Yep. I'm using them."
"Okay. And you know that you have to keep a record of job search activity while you're collecting unemployment, right?"
"Yep. I have it on LinkedIn right now, but I was going to copy it to the DOL site soon."
"Great. Okay - you may also want to upload your resume to the DOL site. I'll send you that link." She looked at her notes, at the screen, and then back at me, and shrugged. "I think we're good here. We'll follow up in about a month, but you're done for now."
I was in and out of that "90 minute" meeting in 20 minutes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:52 AM on August 14, 2023 [19 favorites]
The Spaghettieis looks like the opposite number of the roast beef sundae, a state fair staple which is a savory dish. My favorite is probably a banana split from Baskin-Robbins, because they will let you pick the flavors and toppings, although I haven't had one for a while because the BR/Dunkin place near me has, since the pandemic, been utterly random as to whether they will be open, drive-thru only, or flat-out closed.
My week was boring and routine, which suited me right down to the ground as I'd been traveling the previous two weeks. The most unusual thing for me was running across an online ad for a butt-shaped pillow. What what, one might say.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:24 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
My week was boring and routine, which suited me right down to the ground as I'd been traveling the previous two weeks. The most unusual thing for me was running across an online ad for a butt-shaped pillow. What what, one might say.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:24 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
I turned 50 today!
posted by joannemerriam at 7:24 AM on August 14, 2023 [41 favorites]
posted by joannemerriam at 7:24 AM on August 14, 2023 [41 favorites]
Happy Birthday!
posted by Windopaene at 7:26 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 7:26 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
...and yet we have the chocotaco taken away from us.
Happy birthday joannemerriam!
Got my parking permit, picked up my last few school books from the college bookstore, my next semester of college (after a 20 year break) starts next Monday. A little nervous, because all my classes have been online so far but this semester I have one filmmaking class where I have to go in and sit in a desk. One advantage is I've known the instructor for a while, before I even considered going back for this degree, so that should help. Technically I've been getting invites to participate in the 'welcome back to school' events going on this week, but they seem primarily aimed at people living in dorms and without full-time jobs, so I'm passing on most of those, except for the "sign up for clubs" session, where I'm primarily going to go visit with the film appreciation club people -- I'm already a member and attended one event last semester -- but maybe there's something else to join in on too. "Participate" is one of my new Rules For School, designed based on where I think I went wrong the first time I was in college. I never joined anything or volunteered before, but I think that was a mistake. Plus, being in clubs in college looks good on a resume, right?
Other than that: I had a bad cold three weeks ago, and I still have a nagging dry cough that won't go away. Went back to the doctor on Saturday who kind of shrugged and prescribed 5 days of steroids, which I've been on for 2 days with no discernable effect. It doesn't seem that bad but it definitely is impacting my concentration, every cough resets where my brain is at and it takes a while to catch up where I was.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:29 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
Happy birthday joannemerriam!
Got my parking permit, picked up my last few school books from the college bookstore, my next semester of college (after a 20 year break) starts next Monday. A little nervous, because all my classes have been online so far but this semester I have one filmmaking class where I have to go in and sit in a desk. One advantage is I've known the instructor for a while, before I even considered going back for this degree, so that should help. Technically I've been getting invites to participate in the 'welcome back to school' events going on this week, but they seem primarily aimed at people living in dorms and without full-time jobs, so I'm passing on most of those, except for the "sign up for clubs" session, where I'm primarily going to go visit with the film appreciation club people -- I'm already a member and attended one event last semester -- but maybe there's something else to join in on too. "Participate" is one of my new Rules For School, designed based on where I think I went wrong the first time I was in college. I never joined anything or volunteered before, but I think that was a mistake. Plus, being in clubs in college looks good on a resume, right?
Other than that: I had a bad cold three weeks ago, and I still have a nagging dry cough that won't go away. Went back to the doctor on Saturday who kind of shrugged and prescribed 5 days of steroids, which I've been on for 2 days with no discernable effect. It doesn't seem that bad but it definitely is impacting my concentration, every cough resets where my brain is at and it takes a while to catch up where I was.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:29 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
Spaghettieis reminds me of Tschisi (meant to sound like cheesy), cheap vanilla icecream shaped like a piece of cheese.
There is also Eispizza
posted by 15L06 at 7:33 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is also Eispizza
posted by 15L06 at 7:33 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh man this article totally glosses over the joy of the German eiscafe/gelateria.
Most small towns have one or two eiscafes, typically owned and operated by Italians, who open for the summer and then close up to go home for the winter. As one relative put it: "only Americans are crazy enough to eat ice cream in the winter".
The menus in these cafes are insane, here's an example.
Spaghettieis is just one dish, and like the article says it was kind of targeted at kids. (There are also cute Mickey Mouse and Maya the Bee dishes for kids). What you really want to get into are things like the fancier Bechers (cup or goblet) loaded with gelato, fruit, chocolate syrup, cookies and Ferrero Rocher balls and covered in liquor, usually rum, coffee or egg liquor. Those are amazing.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:39 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
Most small towns have one or two eiscafes, typically owned and operated by Italians, who open for the summer and then close up to go home for the winter. As one relative put it: "only Americans are crazy enough to eat ice cream in the winter".
The menus in these cafes are insane, here's an example.
Spaghettieis is just one dish, and like the article says it was kind of targeted at kids. (There are also cute Mickey Mouse and Maya the Bee dishes for kids). What you really want to get into are things like the fancier Bechers (cup or goblet) loaded with gelato, fruit, chocolate syrup, cookies and Ferrero Rocher balls and covered in liquor, usually rum, coffee or egg liquor. Those are amazing.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:39 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
And then we spent about 15 minutes with me telling her about that job office, where it was, what the hours were, what kind of jobs are in the business campus and such. She took copious notes, remarking that this would be great information for her to share with others.
That's as delightful as my favorite ice cream, if not more!!
My favorite ice cream is pretty simple, just chocolate ice cream with the red hard shell from this specific Dairy Queen.
My other favorite ice cream was Friendly's Reese's sundae after a band concert or play in elementary & middle school. The restaurant would be completely packed with other kids and their families, everyone energetic with relief. It's a temporally locked kind of favorite ice cream.
posted by Baethan at 7:39 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
That's as delightful as my favorite ice cream, if not more!!
My favorite ice cream is pretty simple, just chocolate ice cream with the red hard shell from this specific Dairy Queen.
My other favorite ice cream was Friendly's Reese's sundae after a band concert or play in elementary & middle school. The restaurant would be completely packed with other kids and their families, everyone energetic with relief. It's a temporally locked kind of favorite ice cream.
posted by Baethan at 7:39 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
(waves at joannemerriam)
it's my birthday too! hi! we're practically twins! happy birthday!
posted by emmling at 7:40 AM on August 14, 2023 [16 favorites]
it's my birthday too! hi! we're practically twins! happy birthday!
posted by emmling at 7:40 AM on August 14, 2023 [16 favorites]
BG3 rules lawyering creates: OLWBEAR ORBITAL CANNON.
Most amazing thing, I hope Larian doesn't patch it out because god damn it, it's just as stupid as a 10-fold flurry of blast arrows in Dragon's Dogma and that's cannon/canon too.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:43 AM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
Most amazing thing, I hope Larian doesn't patch it out because god damn it, it's just as stupid as a 10-fold flurry of blast arrows in Dragon's Dogma and that's cannon/canon too.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:43 AM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
In the backyard of our 'new' old house there's a root cellar which is free of roots and principally a meeting place for approximately one million spiders. There is a spider President , a 'Winkelspinne' (lat: Eratigena atrica) an absolute giant among domestic arachnids with a common leg span of *holds hands kinda far apart* like that. Too big. And, too fast - they move in such a way that you infer cognition and emotion. You infer intent. And, as such you strive to convey in your own demeanour, deference and modesty.
We've only had three meetings, the spider President and I, (yes, I have only been in this medium-sized, half-underground, brick-walled shed three times) and I am more than happy to accede the building to them. I don't need the space, and if I do in the future I'll probably try and find a way not to.
OK, all that said, the structure has an attic, accessible by a small hatch at the front of the building, by the President's entrance, that I have only looked into once, when we bought the house a couple years ago, with the intent of seeing what was in there and if the roof was about to collapse. Roof looks fine, in the attic is lots of hay - makes sense, it's good, cheap insulation. The floor of the attic is cement - it could well be that the building had a second intended use as a fall-out shelter (it was originally in the DDR and not far from a militarily sensitive location).
Night before last we were sitting outside, enjoying the clement weather, waiting to see if the sky would clear so we could look for shooting stars, when a sort of 'coo-ing' came from the trees around the Spider palace. I have an app, of course, and so I turned it on and moved closer, so the microphone could get a clear recording. I could hear the sound, it was showing on the spectrograph but it was not reacting to bird-song. I got my flash-light, shone it at the tree and picked up two eyes. Well. Shifted a little and there were two more and behind them, one more, trying to climb the tree to get onto the small roof over the entrance. They were clearly living/squatting in the attic.
We've tried to get in touch with their guardian - the parents don't seem to be around - but so far no luck. I don't know for sure but I think we're just gonna let them stay there, if there's any issue I'm sure the President will sort them out.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:52 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
We've only had three meetings, the spider President and I, (yes, I have only been in this medium-sized, half-underground, brick-walled shed three times) and I am more than happy to accede the building to them. I don't need the space, and if I do in the future I'll probably try and find a way not to.
OK, all that said, the structure has an attic, accessible by a small hatch at the front of the building, by the President's entrance, that I have only looked into once, when we bought the house a couple years ago, with the intent of seeing what was in there and if the roof was about to collapse. Roof looks fine, in the attic is lots of hay - makes sense, it's good, cheap insulation. The floor of the attic is cement - it could well be that the building had a second intended use as a fall-out shelter (it was originally in the DDR and not far from a militarily sensitive location).
Night before last we were sitting outside, enjoying the clement weather, waiting to see if the sky would clear so we could look for shooting stars, when a sort of 'coo-ing' came from the trees around the Spider palace. I have an app, of course, and so I turned it on and moved closer, so the microphone could get a clear recording. I could hear the sound, it was showing on the spectrograph but it was not reacting to bird-song. I got my flash-light, shone it at the tree and picked up two eyes. Well. Shifted a little and there were two more and behind them, one more, trying to climb the tree to get onto the small roof over the entrance. They were clearly living/squatting in the attic.
We've tried to get in touch with their guardian - the parents don't seem to be around - but so far no luck. I don't know for sure but I think we're just gonna let them stay there, if there's any issue I'm sure the President will sort them out.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:52 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
I have this thing where a long word will hit the blind spot in my reading eye, and my brain will fill in the missing letters faster than my eye can pan across them. So I was sitting there for a minute wondering if Spaghettiitis was some sort of pasta allergy.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:53 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:53 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
Happy birthday, joannemerriam and emmling!
Fun fact: Go to your MeFi profile and look where it says "Birthdate:" Click on the date. You will see a list of all the other MeFites who you share a birthdate with (who have actually entered their birthdate in their profile.)
It was my mother's birthday last week, so my siblings and I took her to a swanky venue for lunch on Sunday afternoon. My siblings and I don't always get along, but we had a really nice meal on a beautiful afternoon, and my mother enjoyed herself, so I am really grateful for that.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:59 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
Fun fact: Go to your MeFi profile and look where it says "Birthdate:" Click on the date. You will see a list of all the other MeFites who you share a birthdate with (who have actually entered their birthdate in their profile.)
It was my mother's birthday last week, so my siblings and I took her to a swanky venue for lunch on Sunday afternoon. My siblings and I don't always get along, but we had a really nice meal on a beautiful afternoon, and my mother enjoyed herself, so I am really grateful for that.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:59 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
I turned 50 today!
Happy happy! Welcome to the fun half century!
You know, it's odd -- when I turned fifty, I was your age too. What are the chances?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
Happy happy! Welcome to the fun half century!
You know, it's odd -- when I turned fifty, I was your age too. What are the chances?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
Happy birthday, emmling! (Twinsies!)
posted by joannemerriam at 8:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by joannemerriam at 8:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
it's my child's first day of middle school
it's my child's first day of middle school
it's my child's first day of middle school
[breaths in paper bag]
posted by daisystomper at 8:06 AM on August 14, 2023 [11 favorites]
it's my child's first day of middle school
it's my child's first day of middle school
[breaths in paper bag]
posted by daisystomper at 8:06 AM on August 14, 2023 [11 favorites]
As you should daisystomper. Middle school is just about the worst. Good luck! Breathe deep.
My youngest moves into his dorm tomorrow. Sigh.
posted by Windopaene at 8:18 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
My youngest moves into his dorm tomorrow. Sigh.
posted by Windopaene at 8:18 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
Happy Birthday, joannemerriam and emmling!
As a cantankerous old man once told me, "Shit, at your age I was 52." He was a hoot.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:28 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
As a cantankerous old man once told me, "Shit, at your age I was 52." He was a hoot.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:28 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
From Bklyn, but what were they? Cooing spiders? Birds? A new critter as yet undocumented?
Happy birthday to the birthday twinsies!
daisystomper, I'm sending good vibes to you and your child that the first day is good. Give yourself and kiddo some grace for the first few weeks, it is utter chaos. And yeah, middle school is just about the worst (my kiddo's first day was an utter shit-show that ended in a call to the vice principal).
The thing I hope for you and kiddo is that you see and experience how resilient and capable your child is about making good decisions on the important stuff. By the end of last year I was utterly blown away at how thoughtful and reasoned my kid had become.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 8:31 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
Happy birthday to the birthday twinsies!
daisystomper, I'm sending good vibes to you and your child that the first day is good. Give yourself and kiddo some grace for the first few weeks, it is utter chaos. And yeah, middle school is just about the worst (my kiddo's first day was an utter shit-show that ended in a call to the vice principal).
The thing I hope for you and kiddo is that you see and experience how resilient and capable your child is about making good decisions on the important stuff. By the end of last year I was utterly blown away at how thoughtful and reasoned my kid had become.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 8:31 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
From Bklyn, I know all about the spiders, except unfortunately they seem to believe they own my actual house, where I live. I've always been fond of spiders, so I'm not scared of them. But they tend to build webs and then abandon them after a while, and if I go away for a week or two, as I often do, the house will look like the set of a horror movie when I return. I vacuum them, and then instantly empty the vacuum cleaner out into the garbage bin outdoors. Most of them will escape the bin and make a new life somewhere that is not my home, so I feel no guilt.
You should see when they have babies! Each nest has hundreds of tiny little spiders, and that is the problem. They have no natural predators in my house except some other spiders that don't reproduce as rapidly.
Happy birthday to the birthday kids on MetaFilter! Are you both 50 today?
I've had one of those Mondays where you just can't get started. And my laptop overheated, so I even have an excuse for not doing much. My desktop is old and there are tons of things I can't do on it. It has also been too hot all afternoon, after weeks of biblical rain storms. But things are fine, I think. The kids are home for dinner, and I'm planning a Chinese meal, which will be good.
posted by mumimor at 8:42 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
You should see when they have babies! Each nest has hundreds of tiny little spiders, and that is the problem. They have no natural predators in my house except some other spiders that don't reproduce as rapidly.
Happy birthday to the birthday kids on MetaFilter! Are you both 50 today?
I've had one of those Mondays where you just can't get started. And my laptop overheated, so I even have an excuse for not doing much. My desktop is old and there are tons of things I can't do on it. It has also been too hot all afternoon, after weeks of biblical rain storms. But things are fine, I think. The kids are home for dinner, and I'm planning a Chinese meal, which will be good.
posted by mumimor at 8:42 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
We went to Taste of the Danforth on Saturday, one of the larger street food festivals in Toronto. It hasn't been held since 2019 because pandemic, but people were bored enough to give it a go this year. Street food festivals are fraught for my family because 1) we can’t eat wheat, 2) low executive function makes ordering food hard and asking questions impossible, 3) prices are just fucking insane, 4) heat and crowds and noise make all of the above even more difficult. Still we managed some feta fries and they were good enough to justify the walk, and it’s always nice to explore with my best beloved.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:01 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:01 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I lived in Sicily in 1988-1989, and I used to get these tartofu gelato cups. They were transparent, and you could see the layers of gelato and cake layers. I remember the very thin cake layer tasting boozy, and the tops having a dollop pattern. The local restaurant just had them in a small refrigerator display case, and it was some mass-produced thing. Every now and then, I try to find them, but I haven't succeeded. I'd settle for just a picture at this point.
posted by betaray at 9:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by betaray at 9:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
there is/was a restaurant in I think Toulouse (FR) that had a menu of pasta dishes only. and their desserts were 'pasta' too. they had chocolate lasagna and 'raviolis' filled with ice cream. it was damn tasty!
posted by supermedusa at 9:05 AM on August 14, 2023
posted by supermedusa at 9:05 AM on August 14, 2023
It's the first day back to school for the Los Angeles Unified School Disctrict (where my wife is a teacher).
Hey, if you're ever wondering why there's an ongoing teacher shortage take a moment to consider that this morning my wife opened her email to discover that LAUSD had sent out an email encouraging parents to send their kids to school sick during a spike in Covid cases.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:08 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
Hey, if you're ever wondering why there's an ongoing teacher shortage take a moment to consider that this morning my wife opened her email to discover that LAUSD had sent out an email encouraging parents to send their kids to school sick during a spike in Covid cases.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:08 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
Lots of spiders indoors is often due to drafts (spiders like to web up near drafts to catch bugs). Taking care of drafts around windows might help with Too Many Spiders. Though if it's a shed, forget it.
Saw a restaurant sign that looked like they made something that was a mochi/ donut combo yesterday, and so I will soon investigate.
posted by emjaybee at 9:08 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
Saw a restaurant sign that looked like they made something that was a mochi/ donut combo yesterday, and so I will soon investigate.
posted by emjaybee at 9:08 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
In Stockholm with the wife and kiddo, and it didn’t take him long to figure out “glass” meant ice cream. Now we’re on a mission to try pistachio at every location we can find. Mrs Frogs is enjoying this as much as the tadpole is.
He’s also ordering meatballs everywhere, and is prepared to be a snob next time he’s at IKEA (these are ok, but not as good as the meatballs in Stockholm, and the lingonberries are better when you pick them fresh…)
posted by caution live frogs at 9:16 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
He’s also ordering meatballs everywhere, and is prepared to be a snob next time he’s at IKEA (these are ok, but not as good as the meatballs in Stockholm, and the lingonberries are better when you pick them fresh…)
posted by caution live frogs at 9:16 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
In the realm of ice cream desserts ... in spite of my intent to eat healthier due to elevated cholesterol and all that, I had a hot fudge cheesecake brownie sundae with two scoops of grasshopper ice cream (mint ice cream with Oreos) last night. Spouse ate 1/2 of it (it was A LOT). My only regret was that I did not see chocolate with Oreos as an ice cream option until after I ordered.
I've signed up for a national health research study and have my first appointment for the study next week. I figured that since there is not enough data from 50 year old women (or even women in general), I should contribute to the pool. I've seen so many doctors in the the past 12 weeks, what is one more at this point?
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 9:16 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
I've signed up for a national health research study and have my first appointment for the study next week. I figured that since there is not enough data from 50 year old women (or even women in general), I should contribute to the pool. I've seen so many doctors in the the past 12 weeks, what is one more at this point?
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 9:16 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
Every time I make my own ice cream, I wonder why I don't do it all the time. It's cheap, easy and tastes far better than most commercial ice creams. I guess I'm not a dessert person. I think I'll teach the grand-mumitrolls as soon as they can man the whisk.
posted by mumimor at 9:20 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 9:20 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
So: twenty years ago this afternoon the lights went out for about 55 million people in the biggest North American blackout in a generation. (MetaFilter thread here)
At 4:10 PM, I was watching a DVD and was annoyed that I had blown a fuse. Wait, the entire apartment is out. Wait, the entire building is out. Wait, the entire block is out. Wait, the entire neighbourhood is out. Wait, the entire city is out. My internal map of how big it was kept expanding until finally I called friends on the west coast to see if they could turn on CNN or something to see how big it was.
A couple of friends were supposed to be coming over that evening for video game carnage. All but one cancelled, so he and I ended up playing chess by the light of an oil lamp.
For me the only real inconvenience was that the power took two days to come back on, and the DVD in the machine was rented and due back the next day.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:23 AM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
At 4:10 PM, I was watching a DVD and was annoyed that I had blown a fuse. Wait, the entire apartment is out. Wait, the entire building is out. Wait, the entire block is out. Wait, the entire neighbourhood is out. Wait, the entire city is out. My internal map of how big it was kept expanding until finally I called friends on the west coast to see if they could turn on CNN or something to see how big it was.
A couple of friends were supposed to be coming over that evening for video game carnage. All but one cancelled, so he and I ended up playing chess by the light of an oil lamp.
For me the only real inconvenience was that the power took two days to come back on, and the DVD in the machine was rented and due back the next day.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:23 AM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
The family is going on vacation in a few months, and no one seems to be taking an interest in actually *planning* -- so I am going to create a schedule of about 50% museums and 50% ice cream/bakeries/chocolate shops (with as many in a row as I can manage).
If you don't like that, you have no standing to complain.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:30 AM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
If you don't like that, you have no standing to complain.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:30 AM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
Happy birthdays. When we turned 50, it was a take-stock/count-blessings moment. Things had worked out pretty good for us. We decided to take 3 months off (May-June-July) since neither of us had taken a summer off since childhood. And we went to Europe for 3 weeks with a railpass and bounced around; I'd never been to Europe before, but loved it. So - if you've made it to 50, and things are pretty good, reward yourself.
Taste of the Danforth - I hear you on the prices. There was a ribfest near us in S Etobicoke. The prices are sit-down-restaurant high, but you still have to line up for warmish ribs that are somewhere between adequate and tasty, served in a floppy cardboard takeout shell. And this year, they wanted $3 a head just to enter the grounds. Pass; we do better ribs at home anyway.
And 20 years since that Great Blackout - wow. I remember that fairly clearly. With no streetlights the night sky was awesome. Lots of BBQing.
posted by Artful Codger at 9:30 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
Taste of the Danforth - I hear you on the prices. There was a ribfest near us in S Etobicoke. The prices are sit-down-restaurant high, but you still have to line up for warmish ribs that are somewhere between adequate and tasty, served in a floppy cardboard takeout shell. And this year, they wanted $3 a head just to enter the grounds. Pass; we do better ribs at home anyway.
And 20 years since that Great Blackout - wow. I remember that fairly clearly. With no streetlights the night sky was awesome. Lots of BBQing.
posted by Artful Codger at 9:30 AM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
We're having record high temperatures yesterday through Wednesday (nearly 110F today and tomorrow) here in western Oregon. There are several forest fires in the area although none particularly close to me. We do live in forest so it's a nerve-wracking time of year. Not that we've translated that anxiety into preparation for evacuation. The sky is brown but the air quality is only "moderate". ... Oh, the wind has shifted and we've got ash on our cars now. Ash is nonreassuring.
I've nearly finished Samuel R Delany's Nova. It's been sitting on my shelf for a decade but the recent amazing New Yorker profile of Delany prompted me to read it. It's not wowing me but I have resolved to read more Delany. My favorite sf writer--Alastair Reynolds--has named Nova as an important early influence and I can definitely see that to be true.
I have become obsessed with sugar-free Outshine frozen "fruit" bars. Which are sweetened with sorbitol. Which has failed to limit my intake of them.
posted by neuron at 9:32 AM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
I've nearly finished Samuel R Delany's Nova. It's been sitting on my shelf for a decade but the recent amazing New Yorker profile of Delany prompted me to read it. It's not wowing me but I have resolved to read more Delany. My favorite sf writer--Alastair Reynolds--has named Nova as an important early influence and I can definitely see that to be true.
I have become obsessed with sugar-free Outshine frozen "fruit" bars. Which are sweetened with sorbitol. Which has failed to limit my intake of them.
posted by neuron at 9:32 AM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
I have become obsessed with sugar-free Outshine frozen "fruit" bars. Which are sweetened with sorbitol. Which has failed to limit my intake of them.
Same, it is difficult to stop at just one bar. They are so good.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 9:38 AM on August 14, 2023
Same, it is difficult to stop at just one bar. They are so good.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 9:38 AM on August 14, 2023
I just contacted siriusxm to cancel the account I had set up temporarily for travel purposes, and I had to give up and call back and scream AGENT!! into the phone 4 times before they would let me talk to a human. That human was very nice so I didn't bother telling her that her company's phone tree is The Worst. She probably knows that already anyway.
posted by JanetLand at 9:47 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by JanetLand at 9:47 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
One of my Members of Parliament has returned for a visit. They all left about a month or so ago, but I see one back maybe once a week. I don't know if he's feeling nostalgia or if that's just a really good perch by owl standards. Maybe he just likes getting his picture taken. I heard him singing his love song the other night from about 12 feet away. That was very cool.
posted by Horkus at 9:49 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Horkus at 9:49 AM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
I turned 50 last month, and my housemate turns 50 in October, so we are having a mutual 50th birthday celebration in the middle, on Labor Day Sunday. We are aiming for a big bash, we are renting out our neighborhood bar.
My sister, who is a couple years older than me, asked if she could also officially turn 50 there too, because her 50th was in the middle of quarantine. Of course the answer is “yes”! We will be announcing at the party that anyone who wants to turn 50 with us is more than welcome to. Anyone else is welcome as well, even if you’re only there in spirit.
posted by notoriety public at 10:00 AM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
My sister, who is a couple years older than me, asked if she could also officially turn 50 there too, because her 50th was in the middle of quarantine. Of course the answer is “yes”! We will be announcing at the party that anyone who wants to turn 50 with us is more than welcome to. Anyone else is welcome as well, even if you’re only there in spirit.
posted by notoriety public at 10:00 AM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
congrats to the bday babies in general, but especially to those crossing the 50 yard line! it is indeed and time to celebrate, to contemplate, to be thankful. and most of all: to have some eis scream!!!
posted by supermedusa at 10:06 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 10:06 AM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh, man, the blackout....at the time I was working on the 32nd floor of a bank, and was at the time dating a guy who lived (with his mother) about 3 blocks from work. I somehow managed to phone him right when the lights went out, and he said I could come crash with them a couple days until the power was back on. I then proceeded to walk down 32 flights to the street....then 3 blocks to his place...then up 14 flights to what I THOUGHT was his apartment, realizing too late that I was in the wrong tower in his complex. So then I had to walk back DOWN 14 flights, over to the right tower, and then back UP another 14 flights. I staggered through the door when they opened it and gasped "GIVE ME A PLACE TO DIE."
...That was also the same year I was heavily involved with a show in New York's Fringe Festival (RIP). The East Village got its power back a day or so behind everyone else, and that threw an ENORMOUS monkey wrench in the works at the Fringe; the organizers had planned out all participating shows' schedules in advance, and for 3-4 days none of the scheduled shows could perform since none of the venues had power. The organizers did what they could to try to reschedule any affected performance once the power came back on - squeezing them into the other venues whenever there was an opening - because the shows affected would have been TOTALLY screwed if they lost a chance to make back some of their money. However, my show's schedule was happily not affected; our regular schedule was set up such that our 2nd performance happened to be the night before the blackout, with our 3rd performance scheduled for an afternoon 2 days after the power came back on.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:08 AM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
...That was also the same year I was heavily involved with a show in New York's Fringe Festival (RIP). The East Village got its power back a day or so behind everyone else, and that threw an ENORMOUS monkey wrench in the works at the Fringe; the organizers had planned out all participating shows' schedules in advance, and for 3-4 days none of the scheduled shows could perform since none of the venues had power. The organizers did what they could to try to reschedule any affected performance once the power came back on - squeezing them into the other venues whenever there was an opening - because the shows affected would have been TOTALLY screwed if they lost a chance to make back some of their money. However, my show's schedule was happily not affected; our regular schedule was set up such that our 2nd performance happened to be the night before the blackout, with our 3rd performance scheduled for an afternoon 2 days after the power came back on.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:08 AM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
Much Ado is over, I am sad. That was my best role ever and may be my best role ever in my lifetime. We filmed Much Ado and I got all the lines right the last night, huzzah. Hopefully I end up with a recording I can show to those who still refuse to come to my shows again. I got named in the review and that was it--the other leads were all praised, but not me. I just had to remind myself that (a) I can't have ego like that, and (b) it was a pretty poorly written review and I don't know what my former paper was thinking to not edit that up a bit. (Beatrice, an English professor, was all, "I had to start drinking, reading that.") Getting my name in a review at all is still huge for me and higher praise than I normally would get or deserve, after all.
I did get compliments on my acting IRL after the show and a few people actually went to see me on Saturday and we had a pretty full crowd that night. This was followed by my going to the cast party Sunday and a multi-person birthday party after that, so much partying but also got tired. I also did an online play reading over the weekend, which was also fun, even if I ended up with Zoom Technical Difficulties yet again.
Now back to boring normal life...though I did get an invite to a castmate's IRL knitting group today, so there's that, I suppose. Otherwise will probably go back to karaoke and the like. People keep asking me what I'm doing next and honestly, I dunno after doing tech for Something Rotten (assuming I'm still doing that, I agreed to do it but probably won't hear any updates until late August when tech week starts). It looks kinda feast-or-famine lately with the shows I'm more likely to like all running around the same times in spring and there being dead times where there's nothing I super want to do this fall. The one major audition coming up in fall is Oklahoma, which I am so-so on. (This is to say I like Ado Annie but would never get cast as her, otherwise feel eh on being ensemble in it. I don't hate it other than the Jud stuff because that is a giant HOO BOY, but I'm not super into country stuff after my upbringing in the sticks.) I did run into an older lady I know from storytelling who just moved to town who says she wants to audition for Aunt Eller, and even though I sorta doubt she'd get it on her first try, I volunteered to help her learn how to audition for a musical, we'll see if she follows up with me on that one. I may be slightly more motivated to do it (a) out of sheer boredom, (b) I miss this company, (c) if she needs company while auditioning.
Tomorrow I say goodbye to my longtime therapist, I do not look forward to that. I know people have been giving me shit for years about how she's no good and how come I don't get better (frankly, that's my fault, I'm just a pain to deal with and I don't know how to get me to do things I don't want to do either), and she's been mostly absent for the last year, and I don't like how she's suddenly been all "time to shove baby bird outta the nest immediately!" once I had a potential new one lined up, but she's been good to me and worked with my being an infant in some respects and that's helped a lot with learning Grown Up Things. It will be weird being without her entirely, and I still have reservations about the new one. Well, we'll see.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:02 AM on August 14, 2023 [10 favorites]
I did get compliments on my acting IRL after the show and a few people actually went to see me on Saturday and we had a pretty full crowd that night. This was followed by my going to the cast party Sunday and a multi-person birthday party after that, so much partying but also got tired. I also did an online play reading over the weekend, which was also fun, even if I ended up with Zoom Technical Difficulties yet again.
Now back to boring normal life...though I did get an invite to a castmate's IRL knitting group today, so there's that, I suppose. Otherwise will probably go back to karaoke and the like. People keep asking me what I'm doing next and honestly, I dunno after doing tech for Something Rotten (assuming I'm still doing that, I agreed to do it but probably won't hear any updates until late August when tech week starts). It looks kinda feast-or-famine lately with the shows I'm more likely to like all running around the same times in spring and there being dead times where there's nothing I super want to do this fall. The one major audition coming up in fall is Oklahoma, which I am so-so on. (This is to say I like Ado Annie but would never get cast as her, otherwise feel eh on being ensemble in it. I don't hate it other than the Jud stuff because that is a giant HOO BOY, but I'm not super into country stuff after my upbringing in the sticks.) I did run into an older lady I know from storytelling who just moved to town who says she wants to audition for Aunt Eller, and even though I sorta doubt she'd get it on her first try, I volunteered to help her learn how to audition for a musical, we'll see if she follows up with me on that one. I may be slightly more motivated to do it (a) out of sheer boredom, (b) I miss this company, (c) if she needs company while auditioning.
Tomorrow I say goodbye to my longtime therapist, I do not look forward to that. I know people have been giving me shit for years about how she's no good and how come I don't get better (frankly, that's my fault, I'm just a pain to deal with and I don't know how to get me to do things I don't want to do either), and she's been mostly absent for the last year, and I don't like how she's suddenly been all "time to shove baby bird outta the nest immediately!" once I had a potential new one lined up, but she's been good to me and worked with my being an infant in some respects and that's helped a lot with learning Grown Up Things. It will be weird being without her entirely, and I still have reservations about the new one. Well, we'll see.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:02 AM on August 14, 2023 [10 favorites]
When I feed my car gas, I’ve always let the tethered cap dangle or set the cap on top of the car. I’ve just learned that most cars have a holder inside the gas tank door which neatly holds the cap out of the way. I used it yesterday and felt like SUCH a smartypants.
posted by kinnakeet at 11:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by kinnakeet at 11:04 AM on August 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
Nothing to do with ice cream, but I do have a classic example of beanplating. On the way to work, I notced a temporary road sign which stated "N. B. Grosse Point road closed ahead." I thought "hmm, Nota Bene is pretty sophisticated language for a road sign. I wonder if people are going to get that?" Eventually, the penny dropped and I realized that NB stood for North bound. I felt like a fool, but I like laughing at my own expense anyway!
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 11:25 AM on August 14, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 11:25 AM on August 14, 2023 [10 favorites]
...and I realized that NB stood for North bound
I don't recall how it came up, but my wife had to ask me what DP meant in the context of television because she...only knew of one other meaning for that abbreviation.
I'm not linking to the other abbreviation's meaning, you can look it up.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:30 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't recall how it came up, but my wife had to ask me what DP meant in the context of television because she...only knew of one other meaning for that abbreviation.
I'm not linking to the other abbreviation's meaning, you can look it up.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:30 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thank you for that list, JenFM!
We make a lot of ice cream here at Casa Dojo Enestvedt, and I love reading about it more than I do reading about most food. I will see how many of those I can capture for my Kindle on the flight over to our winter get-away!
posted by wenestvedt at 11:42 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
We make a lot of ice cream here at Casa Dojo Enestvedt, and I love reading about it more than I do reading about most food. I will see how many of those I can capture for my Kindle on the flight over to our winter get-away!
posted by wenestvedt at 11:42 AM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
My more solid, dependable step-sibling has become... not that. He's all but abandoned his teenaged child. She's staying with my mom now. My mom's not really loving living with a teenager again.
I'm greatly enjoying some TV programming and time with dogs. While avoiding the work that needs done, and really trying hard to avoid thinking about forced back to office with a LOT of people I do not miss at all, and a whole bunch of new faces who haven't had the pleasure of trying to work with me.
posted by DigDoug at 12:12 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm greatly enjoying some TV programming and time with dogs. While avoiding the work that needs done, and really trying hard to avoid thinking about forced back to office with a LOT of people I do not miss at all, and a whole bunch of new faces who haven't had the pleasure of trying to work with me.
posted by DigDoug at 12:12 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
So I have a long-delinquent audio cassette digitizing project that I have decided to tackle. Apparently the last time I did any of this was pre-2015 because 2015 is when I got this computer and it doesn't have a line-in port whereas my previous one did. The laptop I have also doesn't have a line-in. So off to the store to get dongles! Dongles acquired, fiddled until I got sound from the cassette player coming out the speakers on the computer, it was all easier than I was expecting it to be.
And when I went to rewind the cassette the player stopped working.
Okay, off to find the other boom box. Different wiring scheme, should still work just fine.
Only the cassette unit on THAT boombox doesn't move any of the spindles during playback. FF/REW, those things spin just fine. Push play and the only thing that moves is the tension clamp roller which then just eats the tape.
OKAY.
I guess I can just buy a new walkman thing for like $30. That might be the way I have to go with this.
I was so excited about actually moving forward on this project today, too! -pout-
posted by hippybear at 12:25 PM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
And when I went to rewind the cassette the player stopped working.
Okay, off to find the other boom box. Different wiring scheme, should still work just fine.
Only the cassette unit on THAT boombox doesn't move any of the spindles during playback. FF/REW, those things spin just fine. Push play and the only thing that moves is the tension clamp roller which then just eats the tape.
OKAY.
I guess I can just buy a new walkman thing for like $30. That might be the way I have to go with this.
I was so excited about actually moving forward on this project today, too! -pout-
posted by hippybear at 12:25 PM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
Oh I worked in the ice cream but not the 50? Yikes. Should have mentioned that this family vacation (which we put off for 3 years for SOME REASON) turned into a 50th birthday present (and 25th anniversary present) for my lovely wife.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:28 PM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by caution live frogs at 12:28 PM on August 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
Happy happy birthday to all.
The squatters in the Spider house are raccoons. Preposterously cute, and one hundred percent non-native. I should feel kin-ship to them for being immigrants but they're pretty naturalised.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:41 PM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
The squatters in the Spider house are raccoons. Preposterously cute, and one hundred percent non-native. I should feel kin-ship to them for being immigrants but they're pretty naturalised.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:41 PM on August 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
I'm a chocolate chip guy. It's a lot harder to find chocolate chip ice cream than one might think. Not mint chip. Not cookies and cream. Chocolate chip - just vanilla with chips of chocolate in it. It's like rolling up to the bar for a beer and hoping they have something that isn't an IPA.
posted by Chuffy at 12:44 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Chuffy at 12:44 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
hippybear: I guess I can just buy a new walkman thing for like $30. That might be the way I have to go with this.
Aaaaaaaand that's where my own cassette-digitizing project died, too. When the car's tape deck went kaput after 15+ years, I just threw hundreds of the things away. I think I have one soft case of a dozen or so for sentimental reasons, out of the 400+ I used to play regularly.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:45 PM on August 14, 2023
Aaaaaaaand that's where my own cassette-digitizing project died, too. When the car's tape deck went kaput after 15+ years, I just threw hundreds of the things away. I think I have one soft case of a dozen or so for sentimental reasons, out of the 400+ I used to play regularly.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:45 PM on August 14, 2023
mumimor, on the r/icecream subreddit recently someone was making hummus ice cream and then refried beans ice cream.
I realized that I really wanted to try them!
posted by wenestvedt at 12:50 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
I realized that I really wanted to try them!
posted by wenestvedt at 12:50 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm not good at reddit but I may have to check those out, since I really enjoy savoury ice cream. It seems reddit is one of the many things I can't do on this old stationary thing.
So I was working my wok today as planned and we had dinner 90 minutes later than planned. Everyone was cool, but we talked about how to do it better next time, including doing it together rather than me alone in the kitchen. I'm not whining, I thought it would be easier, and I really like pottering about on my own, listening to a podcast.
posted by mumimor at 1:11 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
So I was working my wok today as planned and we had dinner 90 minutes later than planned. Everyone was cool, but we talked about how to do it better next time, including doing it together rather than me alone in the kitchen. I'm not whining, I thought it would be easier, and I really like pottering about on my own, listening to a podcast.
posted by mumimor at 1:11 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
Aaaaaaaand that's where my own cassette-digitizing project died, too. When the car's tape deck went kaput after 15+ years, I just threw hundreds of the things away. I think I have one soft case of a dozen or so for sentimental reasons, out of the 400+ I used to play regularly.
I still have a bunch of cassettes, although most of the ones that had material on them that wasn't otherwise available I digitized a decade or more ago. And weirdly a couple of crowd-funded music projects I've thrown money at in the past few years have included brand new factory recorded cassettes as part of the reward package, which I guess is a thing the youngs are enjoying these days.
The tapes I want to work with right now are voice recordings of the grandfather of my best friend from college. He sent me them ages ago and I lost the box and recently refound it. My goal is to convert them all and get the tapes and maybe CDs but certainly a data disk back to him soon.
I ordered a portable cassette walkman thing off Amazon for $30. If it suffices for this project, it will also be a nice addition to my library of tech as I haven't owned a walkman type object in maybe 30 years.
posted by hippybear at 1:31 PM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
I still have a bunch of cassettes, although most of the ones that had material on them that wasn't otherwise available I digitized a decade or more ago. And weirdly a couple of crowd-funded music projects I've thrown money at in the past few years have included brand new factory recorded cassettes as part of the reward package, which I guess is a thing the youngs are enjoying these days.
The tapes I want to work with right now are voice recordings of the grandfather of my best friend from college. He sent me them ages ago and I lost the box and recently refound it. My goal is to convert them all and get the tapes and maybe CDs but certainly a data disk back to him soon.
I ordered a portable cassette walkman thing off Amazon for $30. If it suffices for this project, it will also be a nice addition to my library of tech as I haven't owned a walkman type object in maybe 30 years.
posted by hippybear at 1:31 PM on August 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
hippybear and others - for transcribing important audio cassettes, I recommend borrowing or buying the best (working) vintage stereo cassette deck you can find. Maybe a friend or a friend's parent still has one. A better deck will give you the best sound recovery possible, and you can even tweak heads on them. A decent audio interface is also recommended over just any old USB audio dongle, and again maybe you could borrow one.
For each cassette I've transcribed, I:
posted by Artful Codger at 2:18 PM on August 14, 2023 [8 favorites]
For each cassette I've transcribed, I:
- fast-forward and rewind it end-to-end to ensure the tape is freshly packed and moving
- take it out and clean the tape heads, pinch roller, capstan and guides on the machine,with a Q-tip moistened with 99% isopropyl alcohol. Old tape often sheds oxide.
- pop the tape back in and set up to record on the computer (or a stand-alone digital recorder - eg ZOOM H series)
- start recording and roll the cassette
posted by Artful Codger at 2:18 PM on August 14, 2023 [8 favorites]
The failure mode for cassette decks is the rubber drive belt failing because rubber does that after 20 years. If you open it up you can pop a regular rubber band in there for short duty.
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:19 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:19 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
...And for better decks you can often buy a proper-fitting replacement belt from ebay. I resurrected an old MiniDisc component deck with a replacement belt for its eject mechanism, and from the same (British) supplier I also ordered spares for a SONY Walkman Pro cassette recorder. The belts run $5 to $10 each, but they're as good as the originals.
I've also bought a bag o' belts from AliExpress, but the quality is uneven and its a crapshoot whether you end up with one that fits what you're repairing.
posted by Artful Codger at 2:27 PM on August 14, 2023
I've also bought a bag o' belts from AliExpress, but the quality is uneven and its a crapshoot whether you end up with one that fits what you're repairing.
posted by Artful Codger at 2:27 PM on August 14, 2023
The failure mode for cassette decks is the rubber drive belt failing because rubber does that after 20 years. If you open it up you can pop a regular rubber band in there for short duty.
For the record, I look out every screw I could find on at first deck that worked at first and then failed, knowing it was likely the belt that had gone. Especially since it had worked fine but then failed when I switched modes. However, after removing every screw I could find, I still couldn't get the unit open. I will continue investigating this.
The second deck, that one really mystifies me. FF/RW both work great, but Play has zero spindle movement at all. So there's something more complicated going on in there. I didn't try to take that one apart today because I'm out of spoons for this, after driving an hour round-trip to buy dongles and hooking things up and fighting to get sound to work and then having two different cassette player failures.
I might look at the local pawn store for a cassette deck, but the next closest one is 30 minutes each way from here and I'm not sure I'm going to pursue this beyond that as I have a thing arriving later this week that should let me do the thing.
posted by hippybear at 2:29 PM on August 14, 2023
For the record, I look out every screw I could find on at first deck that worked at first and then failed, knowing it was likely the belt that had gone. Especially since it had worked fine but then failed when I switched modes. However, after removing every screw I could find, I still couldn't get the unit open. I will continue investigating this.
The second deck, that one really mystifies me. FF/RW both work great, but Play has zero spindle movement at all. So there's something more complicated going on in there. I didn't try to take that one apart today because I'm out of spoons for this, after driving an hour round-trip to buy dongles and hooking things up and fighting to get sound to work and then having two different cassette player failures.
I might look at the local pawn store for a cassette deck, but the next closest one is 30 minutes each way from here and I'm not sure I'm going to pursue this beyond that as I have a thing arriving later this week that should let me do the thing.
posted by hippybear at 2:29 PM on August 14, 2023
I'm not linking to the other abbreviation's meaning, you can look it up.
Years ago we had a Toronto MetaFilter meetup at a games cafe. We were not yet sick of Cards Against Humanity so we played that.
The waitress mentioned that earlier that week she had had a few middle-aged suburban women in, PTA types, who had also tried out the game. They mostly liked it, even if it was a bit naughty for them, but they did flag the waitress down at one point because there was a word on a card that none of them knew. They solemnly asked her, “Now, what is bukkake?”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:31 PM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
Years ago we had a Toronto MetaFilter meetup at a games cafe. We were not yet sick of Cards Against Humanity so we played that.
The waitress mentioned that earlier that week she had had a few middle-aged suburban women in, PTA types, who had also tried out the game. They mostly liked it, even if it was a bit naughty for them, but they did flag the waitress down at one point because there was a word on a card that none of them knew. They solemnly asked her, “Now, what is bukkake?”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:31 PM on August 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
I'm heading out on a scavenger hunt this afternoon. A friend is away in rehab, has asked me to gather some things from her apartment and mail them to her. There are around 17 list items, with comments of where they might be in her place. She's the one who started referring to it as a scavenger hunt!
And this week is the hottest it's been here yet this year, triple digits in NW Oregon. I finally broke down and turned on the AC when it was 90 degrees in my bedroom by noon. Down to a pleasant 84 in the house now, not super excited about going outside on errands!
posted by dorey_oh at 3:09 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
And this week is the hottest it's been here yet this year, triple digits in NW Oregon. I finally broke down and turned on the AC when it was 90 degrees in my bedroom by noon. Down to a pleasant 84 in the house now, not super excited about going outside on errands!
posted by dorey_oh at 3:09 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yes, this heat has been something awful. I work outside every weekend at a big box garden center. On pavement. In the sun.
This weekend was the one where everyone came in for us to load up their vehicles with pavers, mulch and topsoil. Why? Who is going to do yardwork in this weather? Every one mentioned that it was so hot they weren't going to unload until night. Of course they didn't mind watching us load their stuff in the heat....
The heat index was 107. Do y'all know that measurement is taken in the shade? I was about literally fried by the end of my shift on Sunday.
Yep, I did eat ice cream after getting home on Saturday.
posted by mightshould at 3:46 PM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
This weekend was the one where everyone came in for us to load up their vehicles with pavers, mulch and topsoil. Why? Who is going to do yardwork in this weather? Every one mentioned that it was so hot they weren't going to unload until night. Of course they didn't mind watching us load their stuff in the heat....
The heat index was 107. Do y'all know that measurement is taken in the shade? I was about literally fried by the end of my shift on Sunday.
Yep, I did eat ice cream after getting home on Saturday.
posted by mightshould at 3:46 PM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
If you find yourself working in the hot heat, if you can get to an asian market and find white chrysanthemum flowers you can make yourself a tea with those that is way more cooling than you'd expect. I learned this when I was driving delivery in Phoenix during a summer when all I had was a very old Dodge Ram truck with no air conditioning.
posted by hippybear at 3:51 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:51 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
On the plus side, the triple digits have come later than usual this year to NW Oregon, and we've even had very few 90+ degree days overall (at least in my corner of the city). I usually hole up in my house with AC on from July through the beginning of September, but this year hasn't been too bad...until now, anyway. Supposedly it will get cooler next weekend (fingers crossed).
My first foray into breadmaking had lackluster results. I started with flat bread made from a yeasted pizza dough recipe, on the premise that it was less finicky than some recipes. I made a batch of dough, split it and put it in 4 containers, and stuck them in the fridge to slowly develop over a week. I used one at 3 days, one at 5 days, and one yesterday at 6 days. They were all...ok. They didn't rise like I'd hoped, and seemed to overcook before they got a nice brown crust; I didn't mind eating them but they weren't something I'd feed to guests.
I just got a pizza steel, which I'm hoping will allow my weak rental-unit oven to get me closer to success, and I've got one more container left - but I don't want to heat up my apartment this week and the dough may be too far gone by next weekend. I'll try with a fresh batch (maybe with double yeast this time) next weekend.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:55 PM on August 14, 2023
My first foray into breadmaking had lackluster results. I started with flat bread made from a yeasted pizza dough recipe, on the premise that it was less finicky than some recipes. I made a batch of dough, split it and put it in 4 containers, and stuck them in the fridge to slowly develop over a week. I used one at 3 days, one at 5 days, and one yesterday at 6 days. They were all...ok. They didn't rise like I'd hoped, and seemed to overcook before they got a nice brown crust; I didn't mind eating them but they weren't something I'd feed to guests.
I just got a pizza steel, which I'm hoping will allow my weak rental-unit oven to get me closer to success, and I've got one more container left - but I don't want to heat up my apartment this week and the dough may be too far gone by next weekend. I'll try with a fresh batch (maybe with double yeast this time) next weekend.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:55 PM on August 14, 2023
You can just put the dough in the freezer and it will just still be there later.
posted by hippybear at 4:13 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 4:13 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I have exactly one cassette tape left, unlabeled. But I'm pretty sure I kept it because it's the very last KROQ Flashback Lunch with Rodney on the Rock and it has a nice in studio session with Adam Ant playing I forget what. I so miss old KROQ. I'm far to lazy to get the things needed to play it for digitization.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:34 PM on August 14, 2023
posted by zengargoyle at 4:34 PM on August 14, 2023
Oh...yeah, good idea.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:35 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:35 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm far to lazy to get the things needed to play it for digitization.
It is quite a drag, which is why this particular project has gone so long undone, along with having lost the box of tapes for a number of years.
In an ideal world I'd just have it all set up waiting to be used all the time. Would that be amazing!
posted by hippybear at 4:36 PM on August 14, 2023
It is quite a drag, which is why this particular project has gone so long undone, along with having lost the box of tapes for a number of years.
In an ideal world I'd just have it all set up waiting to be used all the time. Would that be amazing!
posted by hippybear at 4:36 PM on August 14, 2023
The menus in these cafes are insane, here's an example.
That menu is EPIC.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:50 PM on August 14, 2023
That menu is EPIC.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:50 PM on August 14, 2023
When I'm working at my (Viennese) boss's place in Mimico, he insists we go out for ice cream at Ed's after lunch. It is very very good. As I'm an ice cream puritan (and perhaps supertaster) the plain sweet cream is amazing. Reminds me of Glasgow Italian ice cream.
I remember the blackout. Took me hours to get home, and the cell phones were jammed so I couldn't call home. One picture I took from Queen St stayed with me: I wonder who she is?
posted by scruss at 5:20 PM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
I remember the blackout. Took me hours to get home, and the cell phones were jammed so I couldn't call home. One picture I took from Queen St stayed with me: I wonder who she is?
posted by scruss at 5:20 PM on August 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
Inspired by gingerbeer's Watergate AskMe, I've been listening to the Slow Burn podcast. The ads are PSAs telling me to look out for my ballot or registration or something for the upcoming elections in Miami. My first thought was "oh good, they're telling people who listen to Watergate podcasts to vote!" but my second thought was "I live on the other side of the country, why are they wasting their money like this?" and my third thought was "I wonder if this is deliberate."
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:27 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:27 PM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Georgia indictment is in. Should be an exciting Tuesday.
posted by interogative mood at 7:12 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by interogative mood at 7:12 PM on August 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
My wife was also unfamiliar with the term "bukkake" when our child (now 21) played it in CAH.
posted by Tool of the Conspiracy at 1:39 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Tool of the Conspiracy at 1:39 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Recently I had Spaghettieis from a fancy chef, and they actually put real Parmesan on top! It was very delicious.
posted by leahneukirchen at 3:47 AM on August 15, 2023
posted by leahneukirchen at 3:47 AM on August 15, 2023
I remember the blackout. Took me hours to get home, and the cell phones were jammed so I couldn't call home. One picture I took from Queen St stayed with me: I wonder who she is?
That was one of the things I recall most strongly from the blackout: many intersections had people step into the streets and take their turn for an hour or two directing traffic, while other passersby brought them sandwiches and bottles of water. When people use the terms “chaos” and “anarchy” interchangeably, I recall that these self-selected traffic wardens were the ones who stopped the traffic from being chaos and changed it into decent anarchy.
Oh, and of course the other thing that comes to mind was passing the Skydome just about 48 hours into the blackout and seeing that they had their huge digital billboards hyping upcoming games and concerts blazing out at the Gardiner Expressway while my seventy-nine-year-old grandmother was about to head into a third night of no air conditioning or lights in her nursing home.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:35 AM on August 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
That was one of the things I recall most strongly from the blackout: many intersections had people step into the streets and take their turn for an hour or two directing traffic, while other passersby brought them sandwiches and bottles of water. When people use the terms “chaos” and “anarchy” interchangeably, I recall that these self-selected traffic wardens were the ones who stopped the traffic from being chaos and changed it into decent anarchy.
Oh, and of course the other thing that comes to mind was passing the Skydome just about 48 hours into the blackout and seeing that they had their huge digital billboards hyping upcoming games and concerts blazing out at the Gardiner Expressway while my seventy-nine-year-old grandmother was about to head into a third night of no air conditioning or lights in her nursing home.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:35 AM on August 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
When people use the terms “chaos” and “anarchy” interchangeably, I recall that these self-selected traffic wardens were the ones who stopped the traffic from being chaos and changed it into decent anarchy.
Rebecca Solnit wrote a whole book, A Paradise In Hell, about how this is the more common human response to a disaster or crisis. The narrative is that it gets all Mad Max with everyone trying to fend for themselves, but history has shown again and again that people step up and start working together and get grass-roots systems in place to sort shit out in the immediate aftermath:
* Immediately after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, people were setting up soup kitchens.
* You've pointed out people volunteering as traffic wardens.
* Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, guys with boats banded together to take on search-and-rescue missions in the Lower Ninth Ward and other flooded parts of the city; they called themselves "The Cajun Navy".
And so on.
In fact, things tend to not start going south until the government finally sends in the National Guard or whoever, and the government responders opt to trash the existing grass-roots system and set up their own. The grass-roots system is working WITH the community so they know what they need - the government responders are operating out of a single playbook which may not apply as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:59 AM on August 15, 2023 [7 favorites]
Rebecca Solnit wrote a whole book, A Paradise In Hell, about how this is the more common human response to a disaster or crisis. The narrative is that it gets all Mad Max with everyone trying to fend for themselves, but history has shown again and again that people step up and start working together and get grass-roots systems in place to sort shit out in the immediate aftermath:
* Immediately after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, people were setting up soup kitchens.
* You've pointed out people volunteering as traffic wardens.
* Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, guys with boats banded together to take on search-and-rescue missions in the Lower Ninth Ward and other flooded parts of the city; they called themselves "The Cajun Navy".
And so on.
In fact, things tend to not start going south until the government finally sends in the National Guard or whoever, and the government responders opt to trash the existing grass-roots system and set up their own. The grass-roots system is working WITH the community so they know what they need - the government responders are operating out of a single playbook which may not apply as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:59 AM on August 15, 2023 [7 favorites]
....I was going to add this "in other news" to that comment above but better to let it stand I think.
I'm currently still in doing a part-time temp job while I job hunt; it's something I picked up very quickly after getting laid off; I applied the night I got laid off and got interviewed only a week later, but then the Powers That Be decided to hire internally. But they were going with someone who was out on maternity leave until September. And the guy who interviewed me needed help right away. So he suggested bringing me in 3 days a week to tide them over until then (and maybe impress everyone else the way I'd impressed him, and maybe they'd decide to keep me on as well; I know they can afford it, because one of my duties is processing all their accounts receivable so I know how much money they have).
I've continued to job hunt - I have a regular weekly call with a job coach, and I've sent out several applications and gotten some interviews (the interview for opportunity number 5 is tomorrow). I sent out a handful of applications today before the job coach call, in fact. And literally just as I was in the middle of typing this comment, I got a call from another staffing service wanting to talk about yet another opportunity.
And as for the rest of the day now...my roommate is out at work, and our houseguest is back at her home now. It's also going to be a little on the gray and gloomy and rainy side, so I'm planning on sort of laying low and taking care of little homey domestic things.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:21 AM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm currently still in doing a part-time temp job while I job hunt; it's something I picked up very quickly after getting laid off; I applied the night I got laid off and got interviewed only a week later, but then the Powers That Be decided to hire internally. But they were going with someone who was out on maternity leave until September. And the guy who interviewed me needed help right away. So he suggested bringing me in 3 days a week to tide them over until then (and maybe impress everyone else the way I'd impressed him, and maybe they'd decide to keep me on as well; I know they can afford it, because one of my duties is processing all their accounts receivable so I know how much money they have).
I've continued to job hunt - I have a regular weekly call with a job coach, and I've sent out several applications and gotten some interviews (the interview for opportunity number 5 is tomorrow). I sent out a handful of applications today before the job coach call, in fact. And literally just as I was in the middle of typing this comment, I got a call from another staffing service wanting to talk about yet another opportunity.
And as for the rest of the day now...my roommate is out at work, and our houseguest is back at her home now. It's also going to be a little on the gray and gloomy and rainy side, so I'm planning on sort of laying low and taking care of little homey domestic things.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:21 AM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
...and I realized that NB stood for North bound
A few years back when ISO was a popular prefix for Ask post titles, I was like, "wow, has the International Organization for Standardization become a meme recently?", until I realised people were using it to mean "in search of" - not "find me a version that's [literally or metaphorically] aligned with the International Organization for Standardization's standards".
posted by terretu at 8:34 AM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
A few years back when ISO was a popular prefix for Ask post titles, I was like, "wow, has the International Organization for Standardization become a meme recently?", until I realised people were using it to mean "in search of" - not "find me a version that's [literally or metaphorically] aligned with the International Organization for Standardization's standards".
posted by terretu at 8:34 AM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
A few years back when ISO was a popular prefix for Ask post titles, I was like, "wow, has the International Organization for Standardization become a meme recently?",
I have done some contract work for ISO. One of my favourite things, along with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, is that ISO has a trilingual official name ( International Organization for Standardization / Organisation internationale de normalisation / Международная организация по стандартизации ) and the letters I-S-O is not the abbreviation for any of them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:27 AM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
I have done some contract work for ISO. One of my favourite things, along with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, is that ISO has a trilingual official name ( International Organization for Standardization / Organisation internationale de normalisation / Международная организация по стандартизации ) and the letters I-S-O is not the abbreviation for any of them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:27 AM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
I didn't think this worth making a front-page post over, but 40 YEARS AGO TODAY:
The Far Side & Dennis the Menace's Caption Swap Created Surreal Genius
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:44 AM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Far Side & Dennis the Menace's Caption Swap Created Surreal Genius
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:44 AM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
The "next" link on screenrant to Calvin and Hobbes Secretly Takes Place in the Marvel Universe contains an image of such horror that I refuse to link it. Just in case anyone else comes across that article and thinks "awwwww I adore Calvin and Hobbes! I must see this!" No, no you don't, save yourself
posted by Baethan at 10:09 AM on August 15, 2023
posted by Baethan at 10:09 AM on August 15, 2023
During the blackout, my roommates and I headed over to Prospect Park to get high (we lived only a few blocks away), assuming there wouldn't be any cops there because there were plenty of intersections that needed traffic management. We were baffled to find tons of cops in Prospect Park and only noticed bystanders directing traffic on our way there. Well, we smoked up in the park anyway. Then we directed traffic in one of the busier nearby intersections for a couple hours. I don't remember which -- looking at a map, it may have been Church Ave and Coney Island Ave.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:27 AM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:27 AM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
It is quite a drag, which is why this particular project has gone so long undone, along with having lost the box of tapes for a number of years.
I tried to digitize my cassettes some years ago, but they all had warped, probably due to heat. Sorry, but Rotting Pinata by Sponge and In Utero by Nirvana weren't good enough to pay full price for again, so I just cancelled that project. Still have the cases though for nostalgia purposes at my parents' house. Randomly went to a swap meet a few years ago,and some guy sold a CD organizer case-thingy with basically all the '90s rock and pop hit songs' albums included for $20, so problem solved. I still haven't digitized every one of those CDs either, but did do all the ones I at least sort of liked.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:29 AM on August 15, 2023
I tried to digitize my cassettes some years ago, but they all had warped, probably due to heat. Sorry, but Rotting Pinata by Sponge and In Utero by Nirvana weren't good enough to pay full price for again, so I just cancelled that project. Still have the cases though for nostalgia purposes at my parents' house. Randomly went to a swap meet a few years ago,and some guy sold a CD organizer case-thingy with basically all the '90s rock and pop hit songs' albums included for $20, so problem solved. I still haven't digitized every one of those CDs either, but did do all the ones I at least sort of liked.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:29 AM on August 15, 2023
Off-topic for the indictments thread, but: how do people who speak out loud on a regular basis pronounce the 'Georg' in Spiders Georg?
posted by mersen at 10:39 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mersen at 10:39 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Gay org
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:43 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:43 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Gee-orge.
I name all the spiders around the house Georg.
posted by Windopaene at 11:18 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
I name all the spiders around the house Georg.
posted by Windopaene at 11:18 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don't know that I've said it aloud, but in my head I hear it pronounced like George with a hard g at the end. Like Jorg.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:23 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:23 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
I tried to digitize my cassettes some years ago, but they all had warped, probably due to heat.
Tape-nerding out some more: Find a good example of a name-brand blank cassette (Maxell, SONY, TDK, BASF, etc) - their shells are usually held together with 5 teeny Philips screws, making them easy to open up and close again. When you encounter a cassette tape with shell damage, you open that f'ed cassette, carefully lift out the two tape spools and load them into the opened "good" shell, close that up, and you're good to go. The good shell is reusable until the screws strip out, which is a long time if you're careful.
It's not hard to do, but maybe practice with that Cowsills cassette from the yard sale, before tackling a more precious tape.
posted by Artful Codger at 11:40 AM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
Tape-nerding out some more: Find a good example of a name-brand blank cassette (Maxell, SONY, TDK, BASF, etc) - their shells are usually held together with 5 teeny Philips screws, making them easy to open up and close again. When you encounter a cassette tape with shell damage, you open that f'ed cassette, carefully lift out the two tape spools and load them into the opened "good" shell, close that up, and you're good to go. The good shell is reusable until the screws strip out, which is a long time if you're careful.
It's not hard to do, but maybe practice with that Cowsills cassette from the yard sale, before tackling a more precious tape.
posted by Artful Codger at 11:40 AM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
Hard G's at both ends, like ghee-org.
I still adamantly stand by soft-g GIF, though
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:49 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
I still adamantly stand by soft-g GIF, though
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:49 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
its not peanut butter Greg_Ace sheesh
posted by supermedusa at 12:09 PM on August 15, 2023
posted by supermedusa at 12:09 PM on August 15, 2023
I've heard either "Gay-org" or just plain "George" (per "She Loves Me") on that name.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:21 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:21 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Actually, I name all the spiders in and around my house "Spider Georg".
I don't live near a cave, so they are probably pretty safe. Hard-ish G at the end, sort of. I do add a vowel sound and didn't type that right. I may be an outlier adn should not be counted.
posted by Windopaene at 12:39 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't live near a cave, so they are probably pretty safe. Hard-ish G at the end, sort of. I do add a vowel sound and didn't type that right. I may be an outlier adn should not be counted.
posted by Windopaene at 12:39 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Georg like in the Sound of Music.
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:42 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:42 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Georg, like in Spiders.
posted by scruss at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by scruss at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
its not peanut butter Greg_Ace sheesh
(In case you're not just ribbing me in good fun, the inventor of the format deliberately pronounced it like the peanut butter, which everyone was cool with for years before some snot-nosed ignorant kids started making crap up about it on the internet.)
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2023
(In case you're not just ribbing me in good fun, the inventor of the format deliberately pronounced it like the peanut butter, which everyone was cool with for years before some snot-nosed ignorant kids started making crap up about it on the internet.)
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2023
All spiders shall be called Boris. or Charlotte.
posted by Artful Codger at 12:45 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Artful Codger at 12:45 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
There is so much going on, it's hard to handle. I also have a lot of challenges in my personal life. So what I am doing right now is getting an update on Leon the Lobster
posted by mumimor at 12:49 PM on August 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 12:49 PM on August 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
You can handle it mumimor!
And Leon is a pretty badass looking lobster.
posted by Windopaene at 1:04 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
And Leon is a pretty badass looking lobster.
posted by Windopaene at 1:04 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Just finished with my longtime therapist. Sigh. Though new one may be willing to start tomorrow after all, so there's that, I guess.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:29 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:29 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
thanks Windopaene. This afternoon my actual real job was to get get drunk with nice people. So right now things are looking good, and I won't worry again till tomorrow when all the usual stuff reappears.
posted by mumimor at 1:44 PM on August 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 1:44 PM on August 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
It stands for Graphics Interchange Format not Jraphics
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:18 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:18 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'd explain the Girrafic Interchange Format to you, but it's over your head.
posted by hippybear at 4:30 PM on August 15, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 4:30 PM on August 15, 2023 [10 favorites]
It stands for Graphics Interchange Format not Jraphics
OR SO WE'VE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:24 PM on August 15, 2023
OR SO WE'VE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:24 PM on August 15, 2023
I pronounce the Georg in Spiders Georg as zhORzh. Like he's French.
posted by Horkus at 6:20 PM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Horkus at 6:20 PM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
The creator of GIFs pronounces it, "JIF."
posted by Chuffy at 1:07 AM on August 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Chuffy at 1:07 AM on August 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
So apropos of nothing I was really chuffed with this high idea I had for a meme, and well... I am off of Twitter and Reddit so you're the only social place I have to share besides my blog and fb, so freethread it is:
I present: The Pankopticon
It's a really crumby surveillance system.
Panks for appreciating my crumby puns.
posted by symbioid at 9:15 AM on August 16, 2023 [5 favorites]
I present: The Pankopticon
It's a really crumby surveillance system.
Panks for appreciating my crumby puns.
posted by symbioid at 9:15 AM on August 16, 2023 [5 favorites]
The creator of GIFs pronounces it, "JIF."
"Jpeg" is French for "I am pegging".
posted by Wordshore at 11:35 PM on August 16, 2023 [8 favorites]
"Jpeg" is French for "I am pegging".
posted by Wordshore at 11:35 PM on August 16, 2023 [8 favorites]
The creator of gif pronounces “gif” incorrectly.
posted by interogative mood at 1:37 AM on August 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by interogative mood at 1:37 AM on August 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Things went well with new therapist!
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:00 AM on August 17, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:00 AM on August 17, 2023 [9 favorites]
The sweet husband visited the doctor today, after ten days of poison ivy rashes in various locations. Hopefully, the shot and the prescription-strength lotion will do the trick.
First step after finding the rashes, a good shower and dosing the areas with isopropyl alcohol, then calamine lotion. Wash the clothes, wash off the tools (he was mowing and running the weed eater at his parents' property).
But then he spent the rest of the week in and out of the heat, driving back several hours each way to his parents' place to help out. Clothes are not optional on the interstate highways.
So the rashes never got better on his neck, arms, leg and forehead. It surprised his brother -- he hadn't seen my husband outside without a hat in years and wondered out loud which of them had more gray hair.
Poison ivy and triple-digit weather are brutal.
posted by TrishaU at 3:21 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
First step after finding the rashes, a good shower and dosing the areas with isopropyl alcohol, then calamine lotion. Wash the clothes, wash off the tools (he was mowing and running the weed eater at his parents' property).
But then he spent the rest of the week in and out of the heat, driving back several hours each way to his parents' place to help out. Clothes are not optional on the interstate highways.
So the rashes never got better on his neck, arms, leg and forehead. It surprised his brother -- he hadn't seen my husband outside without a hat in years and wondered out loud which of them had more gray hair.
Poison ivy and triple-digit weather are brutal.
posted by TrishaU at 3:21 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Washing sheets is also imperative for poison ivy issues.
posted by hippybear at 4:12 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 4:12 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
A theater company I worked with for all of my 10-year career is effectively folding, and last night was a farewell event thrown for old company members and patrons.
This was a really special little place - it was off-off-Broadway theater, so no one was getting rich off this, and it took on a mission of reviving older American works, from the 19th and early 20th Centuries. It had an actual "home base" for 29 of its 31 years - and both of those details are remarkable, the longevity and the fact it had a home. That home was a small performance space on the 2nd floor of a community center, one flight above a bigger and better-outfitted theater.
The space wasn't perfect by any means. We could only get about 60-70 people in the audience. The office and dressing rooms were impossibly cluttered. The way the performance space was designed, there was no way to cross from one side of the stage to the other without walking directly across the stage itself (the space was a room with audience seating built along 3 of the walls). The space had a tin ceiling, so it got super-hot in summer, especially if you were sitting in the stage managers' booth built into one of the lofts. (I ran a couple shows there topless, because it was so hot and from the angle I was at, no one would have known.) The electrical wiring was slipshod - I know from first-hand experience what an electrical wiring short smells like (if you ever turn on a light and then smell something like the grease trap in a fried clam place, turn that light off again and check your wiring). And we were an off-off-Broadway house, which meant audience sizes were often small; we actually had a company guideline that "if there are going to be more people on stage than there are in the audience, consider cancelling the show"; we did do that once for one of my shows).
But oh. Magic happened there too. We discovered, polished, and presented plays about things like congressional sex scandals, gender politics, immigration, media responsibility, and national identity - from the 19th century. The company also started a couple of contemporary new-works festivals, one of them celebrating New York's Lower-East-Side neighborhood; I wrote a short play about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that was staged there. They also started a festival of one-person pieces based on interviews with LES residents. It won a couple of OBIES as well.
But theater is TOUGH. The whole thing has been going largely through the will of the artistic director, a guy who took on the role in 2001 - about 3 years after the founding AD had to step down. Alex joined, and has kept the lights on and everything going ever since, as many of other assistants, playwrights, actors, stage managers, grantwriters, and such came along and did what we could to help and then got sucked into other lives through choice or chance; Alex still was hanging in by the skin of his teeth, doing whatever he could to keep the lights on - a series of chamber concerts, an annual Christmas performance event, a series of virtual performances over Zoom during the pandemic. He was in his 30s when he joined us; he is in his late 50s now and just can't do it alone any more. He's instead shifting to working to develop an online archive of the wealth of material we've amassed over the years, in the hopes that our notes, scripts, photos and resources can tempt other companies into staging some of these plays we've done (especially one of our own adaptations).
I joined the company before he did; and some of the founding members, people from my OWN first show with them, were there last night. So were people from my last-ever show with them, and a number of people in between. Alex wrote a quick little play to stage for us all as a sort of farewell (and there were a number of in-jokes, one of them about the stage manager getting trapped on one side of the space that had me guffawing). He came out to address us all and got a 3-minute standing ovation first, and was awfully choked up. No one wanted to leave; the line to talk to Alex after the play was like 30 people deep at one point, and people kept talking to each other as well, catching up and trading stories and introducing each other to "this is Tony, he was a playwright here about 8 years before you came along" and such. At some point I found myself in a seriously in-depth conversation about astrology and tarot with an actor from the 17th season, an associate producer from the 28th season, and a donor. And Alex is unbelievably gregarious and charming (and SERIOUSLY attractive - I was nursing quite the crush on him for a year when he started with us, I have to confess, he looks like a sort of combination of Hugh Grant and Kenneth Branagh), so he would speak with one and all as long as he could, accepting thanks and condolences and laughing about "what his retirement would be like" and eagerly talking about what the online archive would be.
At some point things dwindled to just about ten or eleven of us, finally, and Alex knew where there was a secret bowling alley in a building up the block and we went on a secret clandestine pilgrimage there, a couple bottles of wine in tow, and stayed there another 3 hours keeping the party going. Any time anyone tried to leave and pay their respects to Alex he would buttonhole them in another 10 extra minutes of conversation. It was about 2:30 before I finally managed to peel myself out of there - but not before seeing Alex somehow get TWO STRIKES in two separate lanes on a single ball (and none of us is still quite sure how in the hell that happened, he just collapsed on the floor laughing harder than I've ever seen him laugh as the rest of us laughed along and marvelled and remarked how this was a great end note for the evening).
Alex has already said he'll be reaching out to me to help him with compiling material for the archive; I'd bought some anthologies of older plays years ago that I've donated to the company, and I have some first-hand knowledge of some of the works from before his time. Good - that was my family for 10 years and I would miss them terribly.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:15 AM on August 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
This was a really special little place - it was off-off-Broadway theater, so no one was getting rich off this, and it took on a mission of reviving older American works, from the 19th and early 20th Centuries. It had an actual "home base" for 29 of its 31 years - and both of those details are remarkable, the longevity and the fact it had a home. That home was a small performance space on the 2nd floor of a community center, one flight above a bigger and better-outfitted theater.
The space wasn't perfect by any means. We could only get about 60-70 people in the audience. The office and dressing rooms were impossibly cluttered. The way the performance space was designed, there was no way to cross from one side of the stage to the other without walking directly across the stage itself (the space was a room with audience seating built along 3 of the walls). The space had a tin ceiling, so it got super-hot in summer, especially if you were sitting in the stage managers' booth built into one of the lofts. (I ran a couple shows there topless, because it was so hot and from the angle I was at, no one would have known.) The electrical wiring was slipshod - I know from first-hand experience what an electrical wiring short smells like (if you ever turn on a light and then smell something like the grease trap in a fried clam place, turn that light off again and check your wiring). And we were an off-off-Broadway house, which meant audience sizes were often small; we actually had a company guideline that "if there are going to be more people on stage than there are in the audience, consider cancelling the show"; we did do that once for one of my shows).
But oh. Magic happened there too. We discovered, polished, and presented plays about things like congressional sex scandals, gender politics, immigration, media responsibility, and national identity - from the 19th century. The company also started a couple of contemporary new-works festivals, one of them celebrating New York's Lower-East-Side neighborhood; I wrote a short play about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that was staged there. They also started a festival of one-person pieces based on interviews with LES residents. It won a couple of OBIES as well.
But theater is TOUGH. The whole thing has been going largely through the will of the artistic director, a guy who took on the role in 2001 - about 3 years after the founding AD had to step down. Alex joined, and has kept the lights on and everything going ever since, as many of other assistants, playwrights, actors, stage managers, grantwriters, and such came along and did what we could to help and then got sucked into other lives through choice or chance; Alex still was hanging in by the skin of his teeth, doing whatever he could to keep the lights on - a series of chamber concerts, an annual Christmas performance event, a series of virtual performances over Zoom during the pandemic. He was in his 30s when he joined us; he is in his late 50s now and just can't do it alone any more. He's instead shifting to working to develop an online archive of the wealth of material we've amassed over the years, in the hopes that our notes, scripts, photos and resources can tempt other companies into staging some of these plays we've done (especially one of our own adaptations).
I joined the company before he did; and some of the founding members, people from my OWN first show with them, were there last night. So were people from my last-ever show with them, and a number of people in between. Alex wrote a quick little play to stage for us all as a sort of farewell (and there were a number of in-jokes, one of them about the stage manager getting trapped on one side of the space that had me guffawing). He came out to address us all and got a 3-minute standing ovation first, and was awfully choked up. No one wanted to leave; the line to talk to Alex after the play was like 30 people deep at one point, and people kept talking to each other as well, catching up and trading stories and introducing each other to "this is Tony, he was a playwright here about 8 years before you came along" and such. At some point I found myself in a seriously in-depth conversation about astrology and tarot with an actor from the 17th season, an associate producer from the 28th season, and a donor. And Alex is unbelievably gregarious and charming (and SERIOUSLY attractive - I was nursing quite the crush on him for a year when he started with us, I have to confess, he looks like a sort of combination of Hugh Grant and Kenneth Branagh), so he would speak with one and all as long as he could, accepting thanks and condolences and laughing about "what his retirement would be like" and eagerly talking about what the online archive would be.
At some point things dwindled to just about ten or eleven of us, finally, and Alex knew where there was a secret bowling alley in a building up the block and we went on a secret clandestine pilgrimage there, a couple bottles of wine in tow, and stayed there another 3 hours keeping the party going. Any time anyone tried to leave and pay their respects to Alex he would buttonhole them in another 10 extra minutes of conversation. It was about 2:30 before I finally managed to peel myself out of there - but not before seeing Alex somehow get TWO STRIKES in two separate lanes on a single ball (and none of us is still quite sure how in the hell that happened, he just collapsed on the floor laughing harder than I've ever seen him laugh as the rest of us laughed along and marvelled and remarked how this was a great end note for the evening).
Alex has already said he'll be reaching out to me to help him with compiling material for the archive; I'd bought some anthologies of older plays years ago that I've donated to the company, and I have some first-hand knowledge of some of the works from before his time. Good - that was my family for 10 years and I would miss them terribly.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:15 AM on August 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
Oh - forgot to add that our space is being taken over by the bigger performance space downstairs as a second rented-out space. At some point last night I snuck back up to the booth (you have to climb a vertical ladder and crawl through a loft behind one of the rows of seats to get there) and gave everything one last look over; I found a pen up there, and left some graffiti on the wall:
"[EC] Was Here, 1998-2008 - and loved it"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:57 AM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
"[EC] Was Here, 1998-2008 - and loved it"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:57 AM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Well, making some progress on my cassette-ripping project. Ended up purchasing a little walkman unit that has a direct USB out on it, but then ended up with a bad cable or something so it couldn't connected reliably with the laptop. This meant trying it out on my big computer, where it worked! Even better, it works recording in the background while I continue to watch videos or listen to music or whatnot on the same machine!
It's still dropping the connection to the computer here and there, so maybe I have a bad unit. I might try returning it for a new one sometime soon. But I'm so happy to have this project moving forward one cassette side at a time.
posted by hippybear at 11:20 AM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's still dropping the connection to the computer here and there, so maybe I have a bad unit. I might try returning it for a new one sometime soon. But I'm so happy to have this project moving forward one cassette side at a time.
posted by hippybear at 11:20 AM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, well, this has gotten exciting. Apparently there's a brush fire not too far from here which has already initiated the evacuation of a nearby town, and now we're under Level 1 "Get Ready" orders. Never really had this happen in my life before.
posted by hippybear at 7:01 PM on August 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 7:01 PM on August 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
"Exciting" is one word for us, I guess.... Take care, stay safe.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:47 PM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:47 PM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
We were at Level 2 for a while, and that got rescinded.
I'm not sure what is going on, or whether I'm sleeping anytime soon. The alert system here is very patchwork so we're piecing this together as we can. But we have bags in cars and cats in harnesses and a plan, which is more than we had a few hours ago.
posted by hippybear at 8:50 PM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
I'm not sure what is going on, or whether I'm sleeping anytime soon. The alert system here is very patchwork so we're piecing this together as we can. But we have bags in cars and cats in harnesses and a plan, which is more than we had a few hours ago.
posted by hippybear at 8:50 PM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Oh, man, hippiebear, I hope your family stays safe through this. Your house, too. And please, mask up if the air quality starts getting bad, you don't want to be breathing wildfire smoke if at all possible.
The 21st century is a wild ride, huh?
posted by MrVisible at 9:15 PM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
The 21st century is a wild ride, huh?
posted by MrVisible at 9:15 PM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Woke up to find new maps that have evacuation levels 3 and 2 near us but not for us yet. Based on the maps I'm thinking it's just the matter of some hills that rise around town that has kept the flames away. Our "big road" evacuation route is closed so we'll have to take winding country roads if/when we do have to leave.
I'm glad I did get some sleep last night. Mr. hippybear is a bit of a wreck today, but that's okay because I'm rested and can be competent if needed.
posted by hippybear at 5:58 AM on August 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm glad I did get some sleep last night. Mr. hippybear is a bit of a wreck today, but that's okay because I'm rested and can be competent if needed.
posted by hippybear at 5:58 AM on August 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
Apparently the real tragedy of all these local fires is that Boys II Men had a concert scheduled in an outdoor venue that is now postponed or cancelled due to air quality.
posted by hippybear at 12:20 PM on August 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 12:20 PM on August 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
No, I'm wrong, the real tragedy is the fire went through at least two communities around here. It's avoided my town entirely, I think due to geographic features and the wind shifting at the right moments, but it's really fucked things up around here.
An interstate highway is closed and my town has a few roads in and out of it but only two of them are open right now as far as I know. The air is bad in my house and even worse outside. The entire day has been living inside a well-lit ping pong ball. Not the red sun, but certainly a grey sky all day.
We still have go bags ready, but we're a tiny bit more relaxed than we were last night when the winds were really blowing.
We do have a friend who said we could land with him if we need, so if we to need to evacuate we won't be heading to an evacuation shelter situation with our cats.
Anyway, life is a bit in limbo here right now as we have no idea what is going on. Communications are spotty and while the cell phone alert system is happy to tell me about some old man who drove away in his Mercedes in California and didn't come back at ANY time of day or night, it's apparently not wired in to let us know about fire evacuation alerts. So, refreshing web pages and just kind of waiting.
posted by hippybear at 7:52 PM on August 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
An interstate highway is closed and my town has a few roads in and out of it but only two of them are open right now as far as I know. The air is bad in my house and even worse outside. The entire day has been living inside a well-lit ping pong ball. Not the red sun, but certainly a grey sky all day.
We still have go bags ready, but we're a tiny bit more relaxed than we were last night when the winds were really blowing.
We do have a friend who said we could land with him if we need, so if we to need to evacuate we won't be heading to an evacuation shelter situation with our cats.
Anyway, life is a bit in limbo here right now as we have no idea what is going on. Communications are spotty and while the cell phone alert system is happy to tell me about some old man who drove away in his Mercedes in California and didn't come back at ANY time of day or night, it's apparently not wired in to let us know about fire evacuation alerts. So, refreshing web pages and just kind of waiting.
posted by hippybear at 7:52 PM on August 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
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posted by Harald74 at 6:30 AM on August 14, 2023