Yankees*, because both my parents' families (along with my wife's) are Yankee families, and have been since the 1930's.

The Giants...hmm, that's odd, my Dad prefers the Jets, but I find the less hardcore football fan in the tri-state area (of which I'm one) can theoretically root for both, except in those extremely rare instances both are halfway decent at the same time. I think I gravitated toward the Giants in the mid-eighties as a response to Mark Gastineau's hair.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 9:23 PM on August 20, 2008

I don't think I've written a check in 6 or 7 years - Obviously I don't know the ways in which my specific financial protocols vary (whether by choice or necessity) from yours, but broadly speaking, I can heartily recommend it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:57 PM on August 12, 2008

In a purely aesthetic sense, you want people looking at the car, not at a potentially brightly colored spot on it -

I've never seen this on car adverts in the UK so perhaps the reasoning is unique to the US.

While many countries have lettering/numbering schemes that reveal geographic information about where a car is registered, the US and Canada have distinctly colored, illustrated and typeset tags for each state/province,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 11:03 AM on July 31, 2008

This was so asked and answered yesterday:

This is so a different question.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 12:50 PM on July 31, 2008

Late to party, but one security reason is as follows:

Let's say (purely as an example, of course) I'm looking to steal a car to rob a bank. Let's say I see a white Corolla on TV with a legible license plate. Then I steal a white Corolla, and doctor some plates to reflect the number I saw on TV - It won't survive close scrutiny, but if someone reports a stolen white Corolla and a cop sees my car and runs the plate, it will come up as the non-stolen white Corolla.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 12:48 PM on July 31, 2008

I ate no beef, poultry or seafood for 6 years, and when I decided to start again, I ate normal amounts of pretty much whatever I wanted (as I recall I started off with a juicy hamburger) and my system didn't even blink.

Taking it easy will probably be good just to reassure yourself, but I'd consider all of the urban legends about your colon hurling itself out of your belly button just 'cause you ate some bacon, well, urban legends.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 9:52 AM on July 9, 2008

Seconding Monica's, and I will specifically state that in my humble opinion Modern's Lobster Claw (as they call them) are better than the "tails" at Modern.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:02 AM on May 30, 2008

..the above was supposed to end 'better than the "tails" at Mike's' - of course - thinking about Italian pastry has addled my typing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:04 AM on May 30, 2008

My (then 6-month old) son is visible with the rest of his daycare buddies out for a stroller ride a few blocks from our home. I saw a Google car drive past our house but my hopes at internet non-stardom were dashed when I realized my street was filmed going the opposite direction.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:11 AM on May 21, 2008

Worked like a charm! - Thanks folks, you've saved the right-brained designer from a giant "I don't understand this gibberish" headache.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 1:15 PM on April 30, 2008

It may also be that he's Taiwanese.

He is from Taiwan (T'ai-nan specifically), if that adds to the discussion at all..
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:20 AM on April 17, 2008

When I wanted to stand out from the Camel Light and Marlboro Light crowd in college, I smoked Rothmans. Fairly smooth, and they always reminded me of Derek Bell. No idea what sort of image that would project to a Brit (though I'm guessing I'll hear soon enough).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 6:00 AM on April 15, 2008

Oh, and shaken, not stirred.

Only because Bond drank vodka and vermouth, which is of course not a martini. Always gin, always stirred.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:20 AM on April 15, 2008

Every now and then I'll drive in with a duffel bag of clothes, though my office is really casual (in the summer, I might put on jeans instead of shorts if I'm feeling like dressing up) so I don't need to worry too much about things staying pressed, etc..

I'll generally take it easy on the ride in to minimize sweat and the flushed red "he's about to have a coronary" face I always get when I exercise, and push a bit harder on the way home -... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:15 AM on April 4, 2008

Lots of good stuff above - I just want to echo a broad point I've found very true for me: Lots of protein in the morning (I try to have between 30 and 50 grams for breakfast) tends to keep my hunger at bay, give me more energy, and generally keeps me regular - I find eating healthy foods for the rest of the day and practicing good portion control is a lot easier when your stomach isn't screaming for attention every time you smell a co-workers' french fries, etc.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 11:08 AM on April 3, 2008

I would check in with your local SCCA (or Sports Car Club of America) chapter and find out where members with vintage race cars go to have their required modern safety equipment installed - You don't need a 5-point harness or a fire supression system, obviously, but I'm guessing the same shops could advise on shoulder belts, etc. Keep in mind, though, given potential liability issues, this work may be more extensive/expensive than you think. Good luck!
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:57 AM on April 3, 2008

When I was in college in the early '90s, my school's bookstore had a deal where students could get a monday through friday subscription to The New York Times for something like $30 a semester. I have no idea if that's still the case, but might be worth checking out at your place of education.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 3:18 PM on March 31, 2008

My guess is the 3+ rating is for the Plan City line as a whole, certainly you'd want to keep some of the sets out of the hands and mouths of smaller kids. That said, I'd strongly second the "ask the parents" advice, and/or take advantage of the astoundingly large selection of age-appropriate toys available these days.

As the parent of an 11-month-old, I'd (while it might make me feel a bit silly and overprotective) probably not let my son play with these, just... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 2:00 PM on March 24, 2008

I'm typing this on my work-provided MBP that's sitting next to our home MacBook, and in a quick test I'd have to say the MBP is considerably better, at least to my ears; if the MBP is a 10, I'd have to give the MacBook a 6, maybe 6.5.

As to increasing the maximum volume at the system level, I've read Audio Hijack can do that (along with a bunch of other things) though I don't have any firsthand experience with it - You can download a free trial.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:03 PM on March 20, 2008

Another wrinkle to point out would be new releases from "classic rock" artists - Stuck listening to a lot of classic rock stations in the late '80s / early '90s on a house painting crew, I'd almost never hear anything from bands that didn't exist before 1980, but there was always room for the new Clapton single, or whatever lame-ass "super"group of geezers from older, more famous bands was in vogue at that moment.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:58 PM on March 16, 2008

Fourthing the Consulate - My guess is that while the official rules and standards have generally tightened over recent years, some off-the-books flexibility may be present, in the broad sense that you, with French grandparents, a father born in France, and a potentially in-demand skill set, would have a better chance of becoming a French citizen than, say someone like myself, whose only claim to Gallic heritage is having once owned a Renault.

I'll go further out on a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 12:20 PM on March 14, 2008

I am not a lawyer or a french law expert, but generally citizenship criteria do not include your education, occupation or linguistic ability.

Apologies if I was unclear / sloppy - It looked as if ancestry had already been ruled out, and I was proposing a work visa route.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:21 PM on March 14, 2008

On a strictly medical level, I know of 2 friends with ADHD who had "so so" experiences with Ritalin and were both switched to Adderall by their doctors. Both reported a pretty dramatic difference.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 2:48 PM on March 11, 2008

When I had long hair, it was curly and tended to grow out rather than hang down. I began to shave the sides and back about 3/4 of the way to the top of my head, and let the hair at the very top grow down and over. The nice thing was during the transition, the shaved bit with longer hair on top was a reasonably fashionable look, or at least one unremarkable enough I never felt self-conscious.

Enjoy it my friend - while I still have a full head of hair, I'm prematurely... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:23 PM on March 10, 2008

Just here to second Matt Murphy's - In fact, the newspaper wrapping used to be the Irish Times, but I think they were spending a bit too much on media, so now it's the Boston Globe. In any event, excellent fish and chips, and they have this great, chunky, homemade ketchup - as to a "real"chip shop - dunno, but I'll also be be curious to hear of any.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:39 AM on February 18, 2008

My Mother and Father-In-Law are a few years older than my parents, so first names didn't feel right. I pretty much avoided calling them anything, my wife was lobbying for "Mom" and "Dad', which just felt weird - then my Sister-In-Law got married and her husband started dropping the "mom"s and "dad"s left and right I realized I had to get with it or lose most-favored-son-in-law status. It was a bit strange at first, but given that I am very close to them it... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 6:55 AM on February 18, 2008

No crystal ball here, but I cannot believe that Dish Network will allow themselves to be in a position where they aren't offering a service (seen as increasingly neccessary by consumers) that their closest rivals do, nor would they want anything to do with the bad PR and fallout of having existing customers lose that service.

My guess is that they'll set some folks scurrying around to either make or brand a DVR that won't infringe, while grudgingly... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:32 PM on January 31, 2008

We have a counter-depth side by side (we needed both the shallower depth and side by side doors given some tight geography in our kitchen, otherwise I'd have gone for a freezer drawer). We cook a lot and while I wouldn't consider it spacious, we make do. Agree with the above warnings that if you've got a lot of frozen stuff, you may be frustrated, but I've found having drawers in the freezer (even if they're fairly narrow) makes organizing things a bit easier. Ours also has handy retracted... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:23 AM on January 29, 2008

Random Related Fact - I remember reading something about Donald Sutherland getting offered either points or $50,000 for his one day's work in Animal House. He took the cash; the points would have netted him many millions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:23 PM on January 21, 2008

Bicycle stuff: King headsets, Thomson seatposts, Brooks saddles. Park or Pedro's tools.

All very bulletproof and drool-worthy, all (with the possible exception of the Pedro's) very not cheap.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 6:43 PM on January 13, 2008

I've not played an Ibanez, but I've picked up a few Squiers and found them pretty variable, if decent.

If you're looking at Yamaha, may I suggest seeking out a used example of my beloved Yamaha BB300? (just the first one I googled). They're available for a bit less than the new RBX374 and sell for roughly what I paid for mine new 20 years ago. Simple, extremely rugged* and good looking, with a slightly more compact body than a Squier/Precision, I found it a great bass... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:57 AM on January 2, 2008

If you get a CPAP, do all you can to get the fit right, and BE PATIENT. It took me about 2 months to get used to it. Stage one will be discomfort, then you'll find a comfortable position but realize you can't move, then you'll get the hang of rolling over, etc., and based on comments above, you may take to it much more quickly than I did. It's a bit of a chore, but worth it in the end. I hate sleeping without it at this point.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 6:58 AM on December 17, 2007

Plenty of good advice here - As the dad of a 3.5 year old daughter and a 8-month old son, I'll add a few tidbits:

Against a backdrop of having read just about everything we could get our hands on and having taken an 8-session childbirth class, I adopted an attitude roughly described as, "Despite the knowledge I've felt it important amass, the one thing I know about this whole thing I have no idea what this will really be like until it happens.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:05 PM on December 7, 2007

In Poland a few years back they instituted a ban on alcohol advertising. Suddenly every brand of beer had a non-alcoholic version.

I don't disagree marketers would find away around things, but the example above (as smart as it is) where you advertise a similar but exempt product is removed enough from the idea of a ban on all advertising as to be almost irrelevant. Rehashing some of what appeared above, I think... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 12:08 PM on December 5, 2007

As a person, viewer, or customer, it's not my job to endure whatever you dream up just so you can make money - no matter how you 'justify' it.

Of course it isn't. If you choose not to embrace that job, you do so by not viewing the content (or not purchasing the product, etc). If you embrace your right to view it while blocking ads, knock yourself out, but don't pretend you're "doing right" by anyone. I'd say you're the one contorting logic to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:34 PM on December 5, 2007

I have (gathering dust in the closet) a non-digital Canon EOS that I love dearly but it began to feel like a third person tagging along when my wife and I traveled. About all I use it for now (given its half-decent 100-300 telephoto zoom) is shooting motorsport, and when I have more time for such activities, I'll most likely upgrade to a digital SLR -

My 2 cents: While giving up a bit of flexibility in low-light conditions, a Canon (or Nikon, etc) digital... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:20 AM on December 4, 2007 marked best answer

I've got a similar camera (A630) and I've been having some success using settings I originally came up with for night shots anytime I'm shooting indoors - Flash on, set ISO for the lowest setting (80 on the 630), use a sheet to set white balance, or choose the "flourescent" setting. I've found the Canon presets to be reasonably good, and much better than the "auto" setting.

I use the AV (or aperture priorty) mode and start with a middle value (4-6ish)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:24 AM on November 28, 2007

Also, try hydrocortisone cream. It does - eventually - thin the skin, but as long as you aren't using whole tubes of it every week for years on end you're probably fine. One tube lasts forever, and Aveeno makes a super fancy calamine kind if you've got the dosh.

I've been told by more than one doctor that it would be just about impossible to thin skin with 1% hydrocortisone, even with very heavy usage. Otherwise, I'd second the advice above, I think... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 8:43 AM on November 19, 2007

Interesting question - certainly some mutts of today may be the classics of tomorrow (the recent T-bird?)

The new Mini, Beetle, PT Cruiser are just modern day fads. They are old models, just made to look modern.

For many reasons, I can see why the MINI/PTCruiser/NewBeetle are lumped together, but of the three, I could see the MINI emerging as something of a classic down the road. The PT Cruiser never existed before, it's a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:08 PM on November 10, 2007

Possibly the Holden/GM Monaro for being the hard-to-find apotheosis of the muscle car in the 2000s (sorry, Americans)

No need to apologize - we get a Pontiac version of it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 9:58 PM on November 10, 2007

Let's go easy on the tool; it's not hard to put together a disaster of a website in Flash, and goodness knows plenty have worked hard to prove that statement. It's also possible to do some amazing things with it. My company specializes in full Flash sites that are compact, dynamically populated via XML, indexable, bookmarkable, and broswer back-buttonable. Flash for us is more a programming language than an animation tool.

That said, I fully agree that unless you're... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 10:01 PM on November 2, 2007

We've been very happy with our DirecTV DVR, the dual tuner capacity is key.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:00 AM on October 3, 2007

Wow. I do this aaaallllll the time.

When I'm sitting in a line waiting for a green I wish ill things upon those who think they're so important they can't wait for a light - sorry about that infected boil on your.... ;-)

Seriously, didn't think it would be quite that expensive, but I've always known (and a quick, non-scientific poll here at the office agrees) that cutting through a lot to avoid a light is illegal. Depending on... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2007

There shouldn't be any problems unless your cat is a psycho that attacks people.

Well, we have a psycho cat that attacks people (my wife and I included) and she's never gone after either of our kids (3.5 yrs and 5 mos.). We were very concerned when we brought our daughter home, and closely monitored the cat for quite a while, who showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in a newborn. I realize it's hardly a rigorous scientific... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 9:47 AM on September 6, 2007

Is the browser resizing the graphic? - that's one issue that would result in decreased image quality no matter how you'd prepped the image - make sure your height and width tags in the html match the actual dimensions of the image.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 6:36 PM on August 31, 2007

They also bent over backwards to try to get me to take advantage of their "$2,000 cash back offer" or whatever it was, in lieu of the 0% financing.

I could be wrong, but the dealer was probably pushing the cash because it was a manufacturer's incentive, and thus not out of the dealer's pocket, whereas they derive some revenue from your financing. You should run all the numbers in any case:

When we bought our car a few... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 1:56 PM on August 17, 2007

Aluminum will generally be stiffer and climb better, but after a day in the saddle you might feel more beat up than you would on a steel frame.

Keep in mind the Aluminum/Carbon combo is designed to counter that "beat up" feeling. Depending on how sensitive/experienced a rider you are, you will feel a difference between an all-alloy bike and one with carbon stays, with the carbon smoothing out the ride somewhat. In poking around some of the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 11:08 AM on August 13, 2007 marked best answer

Sounds like you might have smart guides enabled? Go to VIEW - SHOW to unselect them...
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 7:39 AM on August 13, 2007

...and be able to transfer things to and from the MicroSD card. I also enabled bluetooth file transfer to mate the phone with a computer and put ringers and photos on the phone through bluetooth. Verizon, by default disables these things...

Is this still true? I have a Verizon LG VX8600, and I've had no trouble moving data with either the microSD or the bluetooth connected to my Mac.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 1:48 PM on August 8, 2007

Hmm - this is sort of an engineering conundrum: Cheap, light, or strong - pick any 2...

We use Fantasy League - We do a manual draft (tomorrow, in fact), but the point updates are close to real time, and they have different levels of competition ("classic" if people want to pick the best team for "x" money, regardless if players are recycled, "Professional" with a true draft, transfers, etc along with tons of stats and write-ups) Plus all... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jalexei at 12:26 PM on July 31, 2007