Mondrianyone

Yep, I think one will be giving its life for lunch today and the other will continue to float for a while.

I stopped thinking "poor Mikey" even before the racist posts came to light. He got less than nothing--the idiot paid her entire family's living expenses for months. I hope he bankrupted himself. And shame on TLC for going ahead with him, knowing what they know. I may have reached my own moral cutoff point.

Update on the Avocado Project: There are two from the original batch of eight still floating in the fridge, and the poke test tells me they're in great shape. This makes eleven days, which is practically a miracle. It's hard to believe that this harebrained idea really works. I can't decide whether to eat them or leave them to see how much longer they'll last. 🥑🥑

I'm on that list, too. Also vinegarette for vinaigrette. Especially looking at you, Jeff Mauro. I'm usually inclined to let things go, because I see unedited manuscripts by authors who should definitely know better and don't. But I do believe that if it's your job and these are your tools--whatever job and whatever tools--you should know how to say them.

A hack that actually works! On 3/1 (more than a week ago) we did the grocery pickups, which included a bunch of avocados. Out of eight, two of them were somewhat far along, so I gave them to my husband to eat pretty much right away. I told him I was doing an experiment with the other six. I'd been sent an email hack (I forget from where) saying that avocados will keep for a crazy long time if you store them in the fridge in a decanter of cold water (my decanter was just a pitcher). He's always giving me a hard time about letting them go to get rotten before I use them. So he'd been forewarned and wasn't to nag me if the experiment didn't work. Because . . . science. Anyway, we just made guacamole, and all the avocados were perfect. The hack worked better than I could've expected! You have to be brave to try it, 'cause that's a lot of green, in both senses, but I'm here to swear that this is a real thing. You're welcome. 🥑

You're wrong about the idiom and about my level of education (and professional expertise) but right about your having taken us far afield of the episode. Mike has pulled off the Yiddish hat trick: He's simultaneously a schlemiel, a schlimazel, and a schlump. Not to mention a schmuck, a shmegegge, a shmendrick, a shmo, a shnook, and a shlep.

Well, first of all, it's an idiom, and idioms by definition don't make sense in one way or another. We don't literally kick a bucket or buy a farm when we die, but we all know what those expressions mean. Secondly, it does make sense. It means "I could care less, but I don't." I earn a living being the language police for some of the most famous authors in the world, so I'm always right, no matter what I say. 😁

So has "I could care less."

And he also seems to be dishing out much smaller portions of Hunter, which is good.

Mm-hmm.

Keep searching. I know they're available on Amazon, probably lots of other places as well, online and brick-and-mortar.

In other words, "Boobs or bust."

Except it didn't replace PE, at least in our school. It was usually, but not always, taught by the PE teachers, and class time alternated between driver's ed and PE for a single semester, if I remember correctly. I think the general public is a lot safer with my having devoted some of my PE time learning how to drive. I haven't yet killed anybody with a badly executed somersault.

When Usman first mentioned his Grammy, I thought he was talking about Kimbelly. For real.

His last name is Berk, which is almost surely shortened from Berkowitz, and his grandfather's name is Hyman, which is as Jewish as it gets. I think it's safe to say he's Jewish. I think the wife-beater and cross outfit was his sad attempt to look like the bad boy Ximena goes for. If I were her, I'd want to get surgery to remove that cockroach that's attached to the side of her face before the boob job.

That was The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins! My favorite Dr. Seuss book. Every time poor Bartholomew took off a hat, an identical one sprouted on his head. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw Gino the Beano reach for his backup cap.

Do you mean this seriously, @Leeds? Or are you being sarcastic? Because I thought it was a great thing. Our driver's ed classes were very similar to what @Browncoat describes. I see it as a way of providing lessons to kids whose parents might not have been able to afford them or parents who worked all day and couldn't take their kids out to drive except after dark (which I don't even think was legal under the learner's permit system). If you want new drivers to be safe drivers, which benefits everyone, what better way than to teach good driving in school? I still remember points of law and driving techniques I learned way back then.

Cat and birthday bed both adorable. And I'll also say, off-topically here, that I really love that rug!

We're not married to each other, are we?

I was 17 when I took my driver's test. I know that I made a few mistakes, and I was very worried that I'd failed. But apparently the combination of the liquid lunch the examiner had just come back from (I could smell it on him) and the very short skirt I was wearing did the trick. They told me right then and there that I'd passed! They stopped doing that soon afterward because people started beating up on the examiners when they were told they'd failed. Hey, it's Noo Yawk.

Our girl also had her vet appt last week with a great report. Despite the fact of her congenital gum condition, the way we came up with to keep it at bay is still working! Her teeth and gums look great, so we're thrilled. We had to hand her over in the carrier and couldn't go in with her, but the vet says she was perfectly behaved. It's always a point of pride when your kids don't embarrass you.

I find that the outer reaches of my cynicism don't usually extend to what we eventually learn about these folks, but I'm always prepared to be wrong. I have a feeling that Annie's newfound prosperity has helped lift her family out of poverty, so maybe the same fate isn't in store for the girl. The boy seems as if he's really being pressured, and I feel sorry for him. But who knows? I do feel pretty certain that A&D would have no basis for a show without these kids.

It's very common for the daughters of poor families in rural Thailand to be sold into prostitution by their families for the income they can provide or to pay back debts. So if that's true of Annie, the cover story is for herself and to avoid shaming her family for what they did to her, because obviously they would already know what kind of work she was doing. What bothers me about this show is how they're exploiting these kids for their own purposes. Sure, the kids' lives may improve, but they also have a right to continue living in their homeland if they want to. No one needs to be uprooted so somebody else can have a story line and keep from getting a real job for another year.

I'm going to say that if you want to be a woman, it takes more than just boobs--especially those ridiculous cannonball monstrosities. I guess it's good that that couple found each other, although the woman with MD isn't doing her partner any favors by encouraging her worst impulses. A few seasons ago there was a male tattoo artist who I thought was really good. I don't know why they're so invested in this current tattooist. So far I'm not impressed with her work at all.

A few years after we moved to Maine, a couple of girlfriends and I went down to Camden for dinner. I was driving my late, lamented Dodge Grand Caravan (as long as a city block and with an interior the size of Radio City Music Hall). We found a space around the corner from the restaurant, and I slid in. Both of their jaws were hanging open. I said, "What?" And they said, "You did that in one try!" Well, jeez, I've been parallel-parking my whole life. It's not a skill you need to develop up here. So now I know how to show off if I need to. 🚙