Bastet

I certainly coughed and probably looked rather bug-eyed on my first cigarette (in high school), but didn't have a reaction anything close to what has been described. I was only ever a social smoker, and it wasn't even close to every time I was out drinking with friends who smoked, just if I was in the mood; a pack would last me months, if not a year. That tapered off to nothing by probably 23 or 24, and then around 30 I came across a pack with one cigarette left and enjoyed that out in the backyard, and that was the last time. I can't say a cigarette will never sound good again (and I'd have no trouble indulging, since I think I've established I'm not going to get addicted), but it hasn't in nearly 15 years.

Prazosin would help with that.

Yep, that's what I do with celery, and it last a long time. I set the leafy tops aside for making stock, and then the remaining stalks get snacked on (with dill dip, peanut butter, or ranch dressing, usually) and used in soups, salads, and Bloody Marys.

It did win Best Picture outright. It's common, at least in my area, for Oscar-winning films to get a revival in the theatres. I do agree, however, that there may be more people filling those theatre seats than is typical in such a scenario -- I think general awareness of the film was increased by the circumstances in which its win was announced compared to how it would have increased had the announcement gone smoothly; especially in this social media age, a lot of people who wouldn't normally have been reading/talking about the Oscar winners the next day found themselves surrounded by chatter about it.

That's not only on TV, though (more frequently on TV than in real life, though, probably because screens don't look good on camera - and might impede storyline hijinks); I've traveled a fair bit, and there are areas of the country and world in which window screens are not common, yet people keep them open. I distinctly remember wondering about it as a kid, the first time I encountered "naked" open windows, but I've long since grown used to it as a possibility. My windows have retractable screens (because I find screens ugly and magnets for dust, so I want them tucked away other than when I need them), and I don't open them without pulling the screens down, but only one of my doors does, and I frequently leave one or two of the others open without issue during daylight; the occasional something flies in along with the fresh air, yes, but they either fly back out, I shoo them out, or their short lifespan expires.

If that smile of his was any indication, he certainly did. I could not be in a bad mood when seeing it. Per the Los Angeles Times obituary, quoting his partner, Osborne died in his sleep.

I don't have Netflix, but my parents do, so I created a list on their account that I work my way through whenever I stay at their house to cat-sit. They just announced they'd be leaving again on the 19th for two weeks, apologizing that it's not that long since they got back from their last trip -- I thought about milking it, but went ahead and confessed that I really needed them to be gone on the 24th and several days after, so this is great news.

I loved Trevor’s take on the George W. Bush nostalgia. Because, yes, I would take Bush back in a heartbeat if I could somehow sub him in for Trump, because Trump is just that horrifyingly, on a level never previously imagined, sweet heavens, someone save us dangerous, but only because of that – I haven’t forgotten how awful Bush was. The blank canvas for Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was great, but my favorite was Trevor's "Really, you were set up for something light and funny like choking on a pretzel and instead made light of destabilizing an entire region on false pretext?" part of that segment. I liked the tapped calls, especially calling the NY Times tip line to say “You’re fake news” and hang up. “What’s one of the things Republicans hated most about Obama? That he was –“ “Black.” I liked the Benghazi/Yemen comparison, and that whole “Republicans, how is this your guy?” piece in general. I don’t normally watch the celebrity interviews unless it’s someone I really like, but I didn’t change the channel for Jennifer Lopez, and thus greatly enjoyed her and Trevor grooving per the video to If You Had My Love.

If you have a toenail fungus that can be eradicated that easily, thank your lucky stars.

Good on that black cat's owner for knowing something was amiss in the middle of the night, and how quickly a urinary blockage can become life-threatening, and thus heading off to emergency at 3:00 in the morning. Sometimes blocked cats show no symptoms other than general lethargy, so their poor owners don't know something horrible is happening, but too few owners know how dangerous it is for a cat to block and thus don't take immediate action when a cat is unsuccessfully straining to produce urine. Thus, I like when vet shows include blocked kitties on a recurring basis to help get the message out. Like Dr. Jeff said, in short order, it becomes two days of miserable pain and then death. That needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Nearly 10 years ago, a friend whose cat I was going to be checking in on while he was attending a funeral, called on his way to the airport to say the cat kept going to the box and either doing nothing or just dribbling out a little; his girlfriend said it was probably a UTI and he should get some antibiotics for him when he returned in a couple of days, but he wanted to check with me because I'm quite knowledgeable about cat health. I said it could be, but could also be a blockage, which was very serious, so I'd head over immediately to take the cat to the vet. He opted to cancel his flight and meet me there, and kitty did, indeed, need surgery for a blockage. He'd had no idea, and we're both to this day so happy he'd called -- it would have been about 24 hours before I'd have gone over, and depending on how long the cat had been blocked before my friend noticed the litter box issues, that could have been a dangerous delay. The shot of that German Shepherd cowering and shivering in her cage haunted me, so I'm glad to see the update on her progress.

Proteinuria or something different? At any rate, I'm sorry to hear about the boy cat. But you're taking such good care of him, and however much more time he has with you will be good time. Well, the good news is that a high-quality canned food may do him a lot more good than the prescription food (which has low-quality, species-inappropriate ingredients, yet costs an arm and a leg; those companies should be ashamed), and cost you less. What caused his blockage -- mucus plug, struvite crystals/stones, calcium oxalate crystals/stones, etc.? The cause of the blockage will guide you in choosing a diet, but grain-free, meat-heavy canned food (and whatever extra water you can get him to drink) is almost always the way to go. I'm glad Captain is finally home. Is he a little less miffed now? I'm glad everything is going well so far, and hope Zooey is running around on three legs in no time. Sounds like a good party! Happy anniversary.

Osborne's health had forced him to pull out of so many things over the past couple of years that I'm not at all surprised by this news, and 84 ain't bad, but I'm a little sad -- I've missed him on TCM, so knowing there will never be another appearance feels like the end of an era. I'm sure the network will do a tribute.

Well, of course -- that's the nature of eating! I don't like tomatoes when they're not in season locally (there are several fruits/vegatables I can eat year-round, but not tomatoes; even here in southern CA where the growing season is long, there are months when I find the output bordering on inedible), but I eat BLTs like they're going out of style every summer. Seeing this post, though, I realize lettuce is the least-important ingredient for me -- if I had the toasted bread (wheat, please; I don't like most white bread other than ciabatta), mayo (or mashed avocado with a little bit of mayo to try to substitute some of the bad fat with healthy fat), fresh tomatoes, and bacon, I think I'd be just as happy without the lettuce (I've subbed spinach several times, but come to think of it, I'd probably be fine with skipping the green altogether). And now you have me quite bummed it's not tomato season! I wonder, as posted earlier, how much of it is regional. Because I can't specifically say I've ever had anyone local serve a tuna sandwich with eggs, but I also can't specifically say that only happened when visiting So-and-So in Such-and-Such; it's unusual to me, but not rare enough that I don't cautiously check my sandwich looking for egg (if it was just egg white, I'm sure I'd be fine -- a complementary taste, plus extra protein -- it's just the yolk I seek to avoid). I once had a friend in Vegas serve me a tuna melt with capers in it; I kind of hate those little suckers, but it was okay with all the other ingredients. And the first time I ever had a tuna sandwich as a melt, with cheese, was in San Francisco. (Growing up, my mom always asked "toasted or plain?" but there was no cheese involved if I opted for toasted.) It was on sourdough, which I like but generally as toast, not as a sandwich bread, and it was delicious. That got me started on the tuna melt thing. Despite the fact that 98% of the rest of the time (I do like frutti del mar pizza, too), I want nothing to do with a seafood/cheese combination.

When going from a hard surface floor to carpet, it's not unusual to have to "shave" (with a wood planer) - or even straight-up cut - off the bottom of the door to achieve clearance, but this is a bathroom, so I'm assuming you replaced one hard surface floor with another. If so, what on earth did they do? Cut corners by just dumping the new flooring on top of the old one (with a whole lot of adhesive in between)? (It's not always wrong to go on top of an existing surface, but the height of adjacent flooring - and clearance of doors - does need to be taken into account before deciding to skip the demo and remove step.) In that case, the door issue should never have happened, and you're right to be pissed. It's not terribly difficult to do, but sounds like it may be beyond your comfort level, and the flooring installers should cover the cost of having it done. Sorry you're dealing with this last frustration when your project is otherwise done.

I can't stand Miracle Whip, so it's mayo for me, but chicken salad sandwiches are even more of a "whatever I have in the fridge at the time" thing than my tuna salad sandwiches. I do, however, grow tarragon for the exclusive purpose of adding it to chicken salad for sandwiches; I really don't like it with anything else, but I love it in those sandwiches. And whereas I'd never use "good" tuna (to channel Ina Garten) to make a sandwich and instead use the canned stuff, the flip side is true with chicken; I only ever make chicken salad with leftover chicken breast from when I've roasted a chicken. No pickles with the chicken, but definitely onion and celery if I have them (something else for crunch in place of celery is okay, just like with tuna), and I love walnuts (or any of several other nuts) in it, too, if I have them.

That makes me think of Roseanne: Tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad, turkey salad, shrimp salad. What difference does it make? It's all just different words for mayonnaise.

I hate egg yolk, so if anyone makes me a tuna sandwich, I cross my fingers they're not someone who uses egg. Mustard would be a horrifying discovery, as I hate it even more (and that would be a much more pervasive flavor than just a few pieces of yolk per sandwich), but I've never come across that. I usually use mayo, celery, onions, and sweet pickles, but it depends on what I have on hand. I've used cucumber, radish, other things that aren't coming to mind right now. I usually make it as a tuna melt.

It's about whether the bloom has been disturbed (e.g. by washing the eggs with water) as to whether they need to be refrigerated; if not, no need to refrigerate, because the bloom is a natural defense against bacteria. I buy my eggs with the bloom intact (a couple down the block raises chickens; so convenient!), so I keep them in a pretty glass bowl on the counter -- they get to be decorative (and they are pretty, since there's such variation in the color of the shells) while they wait to be consumed.

Whether Dottie dropped the ball on purpose has been long debated, but I can't find anything where Marshall, Davis, etc. have commented. The first time I saw the film, I thought she did, and I was so enraged that she would screw over her teammates for that insufferable brat of a sister, I didn't watch the film again for many years. When I finally did come around, I took it the opposite way, and I think it's just the slowed-down effect of the drop that makes it look deliberate. Plus, in the original cut of the film (which is something like a whopping four hours), Dottie is shown to be not just a great player, but a ruthless one. And she went through the trouble to come back to play in the series when she'd originally been heading home (and didn't have any conflict about it; her husband was supportive and rooting for her). In all, I just can't see her choosing to lose the championship. There was originally (in that insanely long version) a lot more backstory for all the characters, so maybe Kit came off better in that one than she did in the final version. But even if Kit was not such a shit, it is still such an odd narrative choice to me -- we spend pretty much the entire film with the Peaches, and then one of them splinters off to the Belles, a team we know and care nothing about, so why on earth is the victory given to one main character - who is not the main character; that's Dottie - and a bunch of nobodies, and every other main character is made to lose? I'm often a fan of movies doing something different than what's expected, but not in this case. I still love the film (I own it on DVD, I watch it every time I come across it on TV), but, yeah -- if it wasn't for that one thing.

Yeah, I've read about how they can still get hot enough to burn, even though they don't get as hot as metal slides and the burn injuries went way down when the switch from metal to plastic was made, but that's a good point on people not thinking to check the temperature on a plastic slide the way they would on metal. (I've never been on a plastic slide, because they seem to have made the slides shorter in addition to changing the material, so there's no fun to be had.)

Oh, that's a little eerie -- after having not thought of him for decades, on Monday, I was helping a friend sort through some stuff in storage, and we came across a box of cassette tapes. Lots of hair metal bands, and then a Tommy Page album. We both started singing, "Picture this, you and me" (from Paintings in My Mind) and then that was as far as we could get (and there was one other song, I'll Be Your Everything, we recognized by title, but couldn't come up with any words). I'll have to email her this sad news.

I miss swings, especially tire swings. Well into adulthood, a friend and I would go hang out in parks near our apartments late at night, just swinging away and talking (it was after hours, but when the cops would find us and realize we were sober and non-destructive, just acting like kids while discussing life as adults, they'd leave us be). And I used to love coming upon an empty playground in the campground at Thanksgiving and getting on the swings. But they took all the swings away. (And replaced all the metal slides with plastic, but the burns from sliding down those metal suckers in the summer sun - that I don't miss.)

Mine often spoils before the date, because I don't use it very often, so it's about how long it has been open (and I use organic, which seems to spoil faster than the non-organic milk at my parents' house, even though it's supposed to be the opposite). Milk is something I automatically sniff before using, unless I've just opened it. If I went by dates, rather than how the food smells, looks, etc., I would waste so much food (as a friend of mine does, which drives me around the bend -- I know, I know, it's not a long trip) -- it's just me, and while I don't go crazy stocking up on things, I don't want to be running to the market every few days, and there are some things that just are the size they are, so food takes a while to be used up in my house. I have never thought something was still good and had it turn out to be spoiled.

Yeah, the gas produced by an aging egg is a factor in the changing density that leads to floating, but the main culprit is the expansion of the air pocket between the membranes over time as more and more air penetrates the shell.

I will only fly first class, with a couple of exceptions over my many years that I instantly regretted, but I'm not sure I'd spring for it on a red eye. That you'd be stuck in cattle car, without any options in between, does speak in favor of it, but I think it comes down to how likely you are to truly sleep through most of the flight. Because, really, unless you're on a trans-Atlantic flight where first class gets you a bed rather than a seat, it's just a matter of how comfortable the upright seat in which you'll be trying to sleep is -- on a continental red eye, you'll get a wider seat, more attention, and better food (and free drinks) in first class, yes, but it's not like it is during a daytime flight; they expect you to sleep. If you're reasonably assured of sleeping - and the wider seat isn't likely to have a big impact on that - you'll largely be sleeping through the amenities for which you'd spend the extra miles. If you'll be awake, go ahead and opt for the better seat/food/drink/everything.