For what it's worth, an occasional stock-pot full of boiling water and vinegar keeps the dran clear and happy, and is pretty innocuous if you've got a septic tank.

I dye yarn at home and pouring off the water/vinegar is part of the process, and I haven't had slow drains in ages.

Just be careful carrying the pot from the stove-top to the shower. Bad time to trip on a cat.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Lou Stuells at 5:18 PM on September 28, 2008

I'm reading all of these soft "go volunteer in an inner city" responses, and, honestly, at first blush, I'm thinking "oh come on folks just answer the man's question."

And then, on the other hand, I'm a different guy than I was a year and a half ago. Completely different.

About that long ago, I packed up my comfortable life into a 10x10 storage unit (I've eliminated some of it since, but I'm still amazed at how much crap I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by allkindsoftime at 10:45 AM on September 24, 2008 marked best answer

First, be smart from the very beginning. Pulverize all teeth, burn off fingerprints, and disfigure the face. Forcing a DNA test to establish identity (if it ever comes to that) might introduce the legal/forensic hurdle that saves your ass down the line. An unidentifiable body can, in a pinch, be dressed in thrift store clothes and dropped in a bad part of town where the police are less likely to question it. I don't reommend that disposal method, I'm just saying an easily identifiable body is an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by scarabic at 6:27 PM on June 13, 2004 marked best answer

Is there a difference between "discover your passion" and "discover what you want to do"?

I ask because I hear people talk about their Passion (with a capital P), as if everyone has one whether they know it or not. As it it's a special glowing ball inside each of us. Yet I see no evidence that this ball necessarily exists.

To me, it's more likely that we have things we like and things we dislike. A like becomes a passion when... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by grumblebee at 12:22 PM on September 4, 2008

This is a great example of someone sounding so irritating, so smug, and so egocentric that, despite being completely on the right side of the issue, he actually makes the other side, which is demonstratively wrong and basically evil, sound better by comparison.

I call it "Cory Doctorow Syndrome"
posted to MetaFilter by Damn That Television at 8:43 AM on September 3, 2008

Hah! I can't wait until the former Hillary supporters decide that having two X chromosomes is more important than any conceivable position on the issues. Four more years! 100 more years of war! Woohoo!
posted to MetaFilter by nasreddin at 8:03 AM on August 29, 2008

Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: boys Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months, and daughters Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7.

Dear GOD! Vice Presidents don't get to NAME anything, do they?!
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 8:09 AM on August 29, 2008

Oh my god, really?

Really?

Look, to be fair, I was halfway through a post last night on my own site about how ridiculous I though all the hard-right Freepers/Cornerites/etc. were harping about Palin. She was basically their new Fred Thompson. But I am seriously dumbfounded that they would have been this stupid.

Don’t get me wrong, on a PR level this is masterful for McCain. He’s killed all the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by XQUZYPHYR at 8:10 AM on August 29, 2008

She might be inexperienced in absolute terms, but look at the bigger picture, people. Obama is claiming 12 years of experience out of 4.5 billion years of Earth, but Palin's got two years out of a mere 6,000 — she totally wins on the percentages.
posted to MetaFilter by enn at 10:20 AM on August 29, 2008

If you want to be non-angry, but stay with the large rodent theme, I suggest happycapybara.
posted to MetaTalk by amyms at 10:09 PM on August 26, 2008

You are not laid back, or willing to let things slide, and she is not a nag or emotional. In fact, you are making her be in charge of this stuff. You are making it both her fault and her responsibility for things to be done. If you wait until she either a) just does it herself or b) goes apeshit on you, well, gee you were going to get to it, right? Trust me, she does not enjoy nagging, she does not enjoy having to get emotional before you get up off your passive-aggressive ass and she sure as... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by nax at 7:53 AM on August 20, 2008

Um, extroverts don't have an interior life. "Deciding" is not something they do, it's just a word they assign to explain their actions to others post hoc. They have "mental processes" in the literal sense, but not what you or I would call consciousness, the reflective passage of mental processes before an internal executive.

Of course, the tragedy of this question is that it won't elicit true answers from extroverts. The language that they've acquired... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by grobstein at 7:29 PM on August 19, 2008

Your first instinct was correct. Fuck the mixed signals, fuck the anxiety, fuck what she may or may not have meant. Your obligation is to your friend first, as is hers, and whether she in fact intended to breach that obligation does not relieve you of yours. Incidentally, you now have another problem in that you have to explain your recent action to Tom, having alerted him to your earlier suspicions about Martha. FWIW, I think she was pulling your strings - not because... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Inspector.Gadget at 5:44 PM on August 18, 2008

I'm probably the oldest person to respond to this.

Friendships are strange animals. Over the years (60 now), there are probably only about four that I would consider friends...two of them I married, two of them I have contact with once in a while... the rest of the people in my world come and go, are casual and not significant in the greater aspect of my life.

Nurture the people in your life, carefully and with discrimination, there are many... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by HuronBob at 9:09 PM on August 10, 2008

*sigh* I know how to find Sirius

*sigh* Yeah, um, so sorry.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie at 9:02 PM on May 31, 2008

The post above (though second-hand) seems pretty 'recognizable' to me, although it's about Hungary and I lived in what was then Yugoslavia.

One thing to realize is that while the West portrays the Communist period in Eastern Europe as relentlessly monotone and grey, there were (and are) huge, colorful differences in the situations in each country, within the regions of each country and amongst different peoples in each country or region. So it makes a big difference... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Dee Xtrovert at 1:54 AM on May 29, 2008

There were no "good old days". People everywhere are obsessed with sex, just as they have always been; there are famous rakes and debauched women, bawdy houses and sexually explicit entertainments, just as there have always been; young men of every social class discuss women in vulgar terms, and girls compete for their attention with sexual favors - and there's always been someone scandalized and horrified by all of it. There have been cyclical "free love" movements since the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by nicwolff at 1:57 AM on May 28, 2008 marked best answer

I must really be 30, because seeing the words "Thanks, dad." makes me want to reach through the computer screen, grab the commenter by the scruff of his neck and spank the douchebaggery right out of him. Seriously, "Thanks, dad."? What combination of prolonged adolescence, lameness and cliched "rebelliousness" would lead someone who no longer lives at home, has the right to vote and in many cultures would be considered more than old enough to have children of his... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ND¢ at 7:07 AM on May 27, 2008

wemayfreeze: "It's about time Obama stops dipping into the fray. Wouldn't it be great if his campaign released an official statement saying, "I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it"? When he tries to capitalize on her gaffes he admits that she still has a chance."

Are you kidding? Responding to a statement by calling it "unfortunate and has no place in this campaign" is the weakest, most boilerplate message that an... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by DaShiv at 3:33 AM on May 24, 2008

Your answer lies buried in your own question, only slightly re-worded to fix your confidence issues:

The problem REALLY AWESOME NEWS is that [you've] been feeling better for awhile, more confident... [you] asked someone out recently and she said "yes"!

and

she'll see how awkward and out of practice [you are] and it'll turn her off make her think, 'OMG,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Asparagirl at 10:24 AM on May 24, 2008 marked best answer

I was exactly like your daughter, only it continued well into my late 20s (and if I'm honest, I'm still a lot like that). I sure wish someone had nipped it in the bud when I was six. I'm a perfectionist and I've avoided a lot of things in my life because if I can't do it perfectly, why bother? I was a whiz kid, straight As, etc., and the praise perversely made me terrified of others' expectations, so I consciously reduced their expectations as a teenager by not doing my homework and almost not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by desjardins at 8:50 AM on May 23, 2008

you're treating the wrong person. your wife is the one that needs help--she should get the counseling. as part of that process, she'll begin to realize why she is that way, and how she's passing it on to your daughter. once that happens, she'll set a better example for your daughter.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lester's sock puppet at 9:04 AM on May 23, 2008

I seem to be the only one so far that thinks there is some problem that you guys were drawing straws to begin with.

In similar situations, among family, someone usually happily volunteers and says something like "Oh twin beds are fun! We'll take them. You guys take the Kings...No, no, its no problem." This way the twin bed people feel a bit virtuous and everyone else gets their King bed. Win-win, among loving families.

Drawing straws is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by vacapinta at 7:55 AM on May 20, 2008

Wherever you live you should assume that person is there anyway. In your case you'll never forget it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by LoriFLA at 8:15 AM on May 13, 2008

"The typewriter was brand new. I noticed the bad type straight away on my first piece of paper through the machine."
posted by long haired lover from liverpool at 4:58 AM on May 11

I've typed and fixed typewriters for 40 years. 10% chance you are right. 90% chance JimN2TAW is right. It's likely that at least one ribbon went through the machine, maybe more. Takes 10 minutes, an old toothbrush or a fine brass bristle brush, some... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by paulsc at 2:18 AM on May 11, 2008

KISS HER YOU FOOL
posted to Ask Metafilter by klangklangston at 8:29 AM on May 7, 2008

"I'm a bartender."
"Oh, do you know how to make [Incredibly Obscure Cocktail]?"
"Sure. It's rum, pineapple juice and grenadine."
"No it isn't."
"It is if you order it from me."
posted to Ask Metafilter by BitterOldPunk at 10:14 AM on April 28, 2008

Go. No-one ever feels that the turnout at the funeral of a loved-one was too big.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Oddly at 6:55 PM on April 7, 2008

I work in a pharmacy sometimes. I have an answer.

Pharmacy is generally staffed with one pharmacist and one, maybe two techs. When a new prescription is presented at the window, the following steps get taken.

1. We make sure that the person actually exists in our system.
a. If the person exists, we can continue.
b. If the person doesn't exist, then we have to get their name, address, phone,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by pieoverdone at 2:52 PM on March 29, 2008 marked best answer

Man, the noise in Ask Me really annoys me.

Call me a hard-liner but I think if N number of your comments get removed from Ask Metafilter, there should be an instant week-long timeout perhaps with an accompanying email: "It looks like rather than being part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Please take a week off to understand how Ask Metafilter works."
posted to MetaTalk by vacapinta at 4:26 PM on March 17, 2008

My aunt is extremely high functioning, but mentally retarded (birth injury). She reads at 12th grade level and can add/subtract very long columns of numbers in her head. She makes puns, although it usually takes her about an hour to form the response. Luckily, everyone in my family drops and picks up conversations hours later.

She absolutely cannot make a good decision about how to spend her money or what to eat (should I have a candy bar or dinner? guess what she'll... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by crush-onastick at 12:36 PM on February 26, 2008

Take it as a learning experience. All those behaviors that she exhibited which lead to your heartbreak you should now consider to be huge red flags in future relationships. If you're not comfortable with a girl hanging out with her previous boyfriends, you have to tell her, "I'm sorry, I don't find that to be acceptable." She of course would have every right to continue doing so, but then you have every right to dump her. You have to be comfortable with the relationship before you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baphomet at 7:37 AM on February 24, 2008 marked best answer

btw, I don't think the question was "am i bad for reading others' emails?"

can we try to answer the question & stop passing judgement on zembla3?
posted to Ask Metafilter by UbuRoivas at 8:59 PM on February 14, 2008

God, my three bosses are all women, all with d-cup breasts, and one with a penchant for dressing in quasi-inappropriate clothing, and yet I manage to be professional. How fucking hard can it be for people who don't have tits around them all the fucking time? Is it just that my job requires that I actually listen to what the women around me are saying? Is that why I don't stare endlessly at their breasts?
posted to MetaTalk by klangklangston at 4:05 PM on January 23, 2008

No. I feel the same way about your wife.
posted to MetaTalk by Astro Zombie at 4:16 PM on January 23, 2008

If you have the money to cover your share and you are genuinely offering, you know your intentions, who cares what the guy thinks? What you are doing is fine. Offer and if they refuse, don't push it. If they are offended by a kind gesture, do you really want to continue going out with that guy?

Anecdotally, there is the Chinese way that my parents taught me when we were at dim sum with family members. Check drops, violently slam your hand down on it and forcibly take it.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by spec80 at 12:31 PM on January 18, 2008

As that BBC article General Malaise linked says, tea will bind some iron to it, so if you're prone to anemia, you shouldn't drink it near mealtimes. And yes, it does stain your teeth. These things apply to decaffeinated tea, too.

But tea will hydrate you almost as well as water, so why not drink lots of tea and lots of water? When you balance the small negative health effects of any kind of tea (teeth staining, the potential issues with caffeine if you drink that type)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by maudlin at 7:15 AM on January 17, 2008 marked best answer

Here's that Patton on Conan clip, gompa.
posted to MetaFilter by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 6:09 PM on January 8, 2008

I think she wants a husband who's strong, in control and honorable
Haha, if only. Domina makes it clear in the song that she loves foul, dumb, filthy Senex-- she just wants his filthiness directed at HER, rather than at some young nymphet.

I think this song (funny as it is) is about pain: she wants him, needs him, and of course he's off chasing someone else, as he has been off and on for the past thirty years. He always vows reform and it... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Pallas Athena at 12:30 PM on January 4, 2008

I hope we can get a lot of people in this thread saying they don't like Starbucks coffee. Work, people! You can do it! Your sense of taste is fascinating.
posted to MetaFilter by Wolfdog at 12:03 PM on December 30, 2007

OK. For 100% cotton, 500 thread count is high, and they could be labeled as per thinkingwoman's note. If so, your "real" thread count is 250, meaning that your sheets are good quality. But they could be true 500 count, very high quality goods as well. Its just that at that thread count, the individual threads would be so fine as to not gain much strength from being mercerized, which is a common chemical treatment applied to nearly all cotton... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by paulsc at 8:12 PM on December 3, 2007 marked best answer

Protest against the Burmese military junta. Many of their generals are superstitious and believe women's underwear saps them of their strength.

(Embassy addresses)
posted to Ask Metafilter by H-Bar at 6:07 PM on November 30, 2007 marked best answer

I think it needs some fleurchons.
posted to Ask Metafilter by matildaben at 2:48 PM on November 14, 2007 marked best answer

It's not ok to be fat.

What? It's not ok to be fat? Is it okay to be an alcoholic? or a drug addict? Is it ok to be someone who cheats on their spouse?

Of course it's ok to be fat. It's no one's business but the fat person's. But somehow it has become socially acceptable to tell people they should lose weight if they want love. Should they put out too? Should they suffer whatever indignities imposed on them by their... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Pastabagel at 12:38 PM on September 17, 2007

Switchblade
posted to Ask Metafilter by four panels at 11:06 AM on September 18, 2007

I love how everyone gets drawn into an argument they weren't planning to have.

The article is only interesting to the extent that it reveals the psyche of the author: "Don't they know that the mute indifference of nature is as terrifying and empty"

I've long held a pet theory which I call the Background Noise Theory. The background noise theory is quite simple: stupid people, violent people, and people who are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 7:43 AM on September 4, 2007

Read this book; or just read this shorter article by the same author.

Among other things, he discusses the idea that people living in a consumer culture can be roughly divided into two types: "satisficers" and "maximizers." Satisficers are happy to have material possessions that are "good enough" at satisfying their needs, even if there are better things out there. Maximizers always try to make the best possible choice, and are often... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by googly at 9:13 AM on March 6, 2007