Chit-Chat: What's On Your Mind Today?

[StatisticalOutlier]

4 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

@StatisticalOutlier was this little gallery in the Lake Anne shopping area? I love that unique area...so European in style. Reston is a planned community & that section was the original town (the goal, back in the late 60's was people could walk/cycle to work, to stores etc).

I'm interested in urban planning, so Reston has been on my "must see" list for a long time and I finally made it there. 

The gallery is located among the condos that face Lake Anne due south of the shopping area (but you have to go around the lake a little to get there).  Also in this area is this cool rock garden, I guess you'd call it.  There's a whole row of units that have decorated their outdoor areas with rocks.

This is why I like to ride bikes in places I've never been to--to run across odd things like this but covering a lot more distance than walking, even at my very leisurely 7 mph pace. 

For you dog fans, here's a stick library in Sycamore, Illinois, in the corn fields west of Chicago.  I don't really understand why they require you to return them, especially since you can keep what you find in free little art galleries, or the little free library across the street from the stick library.  Oh well.  Their stick library, their rules.

 

[shapeshifter]

16 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

The gallery is located among the condos that face Lake Anne due south of the shopping area (but you have to go around the lake a little to get there).  Also in this area is this cool rock garden, I guess you'd call it.  There's a whole row of units that have decorated their outdoor areas with rocks.

 

Ooooo. These rock gardeners must be my kind of people!

Edited January 11 by shapeshifter

[StatisticalOutlier]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm curious if you know the medium of the mini-art? Is it heavy enough to be painted on masonite? Or is it light enough to be on cardboard or foam board? Is it acrylic or oil? (That could be uncertain if not labeled — perhaps with a miniature title card🥰).

That's what they need in these galleries.  A tiny description that you need a magnifying glass to read.

I don't know anything about art.  It's 3" x 3" and on the back, you can see where the canvas (I think it's canvas--it has a grid texture) is folded over along all four sides and a square piece of white vinyl (?) covers the edges of the folded over part, making for a smooth back almost to the edges.  It's about 2 millimeters thick, and when I tap it on the table it sounds kind of clacky.  It weighs maybe 1/3 of an ounce.

I don't know the difference between oil and acrylic, but whatever the artist used it's thin--you can clearly see the texture of the canvas even in the painted areas. 

3 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Ooooo. These must be my kind of people!

Here's another one, where the rocks look like a stream flowing out of the sideways flower pot.  It really was a super fun find.

[stewedsquash]

I wonder if they don’t care if you take the sticks with you but want you to return them to the box if you don’t instead of leaving them on the ground in the area?

[EtheltoTillie]

Speaking of Popeye's, @StatisticalOutlier and anyone else, TIL that Popeye's has a new offering, the Spicy Truffle Chicken Sandwich.  "Smooth taste of truffle perfection."  I can't believe that was the product Popeye's customers have been begging for.  I'd like to have heard the focus group on this. 

 

  Here's a picture from the window of my neighborhood branch in case you don't believe me. 

 

[annzeepark914]

I've never tasted truffles, but I read somewhere that they have an earthy taste & that turned me off. Why would Popeyes be messing around with truffles? They already have a great product.

[shapeshifter]

19 hours ago, stewedsquash said:

I wonder if they don’t care if you take the sticks with you but want you to return them to the box if you don’t instead of leaving them on the ground in the area?

Maybe. 
Or “Please Return When Finished” could mean these are specifically selected sticks of a shape and size for dogs? 🐕 🐩 
I really don’t know.
I don’t own a dog, but my daughter does, and I grew up with them.
Is it okay to reuse sticks with different dogs?
Or do vets advise against sharing dog toys if you don’t know whether, say, the other dogs are healthy?

Actually, as a retired librarian, I may be conflating a curated collection of books with random doggy sticks. 🤣 
 

[supposebly]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Speaking of Popeye's, @StatisticalOutlier and anyone else, TIL that Popeye's has a new offering, the Spicy Truffle Chicken Sandwich. 

They're unlikely to be actual truffles.  

https://10best.usatoday.com/interests/food-culture/youre-probably-eating-fake-truffles-heres-how-to-tell/

Real truffles go by about 3,000$ per pound and are generally quite rare and cannot be found very often. I seriously doubt that Popeyes will have that actually on the menu.

White truffles are even more expensive and can go by up to 200,000Euros per kilo.

And what is often sold as truffle oil, is usually not.

https://www.tastingtable.com/693090/truffle-oil-fake-no-truffles-priceonomics/

[stewedsquash]

@shapeshifter I can see we have both over thought the stick box.

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, supposebly said:

They're unlikely to be actual truffles.  

 

https://www.tastingtable.com/693090/truffle-oil-fake-no-truffles-priceonomics/

Exactly, I figured it had to be truffle oil.  Truffle oil is fake luxury.  There's an Instagram page called "middle class fancy."   They'd post something like this. 

Again, it's $5.99! 

OMG, I love the adorable stick library!

[Yeah No]

On 1/10/2024 at 10:50 AM, BlueSkies said:

Tell me more about services to wipe someone yourself from the internet 

This article talks about the ways to do it yourself or with a service.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/10/how-to-delete-yourself-from-the-internet.html

On 1/10/2024 at 12:19 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Anyway, I miss the solid, actual information that we had in phone books and city directories.  I've used online sources to look up people, and they're stunningly inaccurate.  Or, well, they have some accurate information but it's buried in massive amounts of inaccurate information, and there's no way to know which is which.

My local area still passes out phone books if you can believe that.  Every year I wonder when that's going to end.

Regarding the aircraft boneyard, I worked for Pratt & Whitney about 20 years ago for a VP involved in a joint venture with a similar boneyard in Victorville, CA.  I don't know why, but at the time I had a fascination with the place and wanted to go there.  I don't think it's there anymore or if it is it's under different ownership.  I think an episode of "Mythbusters" was filmed there back in the day.

15 hours ago, supposebly said:

They're unlikely to be actual truffles.  

https://10best.usatoday.com/interests/food-culture/youre-probably-eating-fake-truffles-heres-how-to-tell/

Real truffles go by about 3,000$ per pound and are generally quite rare and cannot be found very often. I seriously doubt that Popeyes will have that actually on the menu.

White truffles are even more expensive and can go by up to 200,000Euros per kilo.

And what is often sold as truffle oil, is usually not.

https://www.tastingtable.com/693090/truffle-oil-fake-no-truffles-priceonomics/

Thank you for saving me the time and effort to write this post, LOL!

[shapeshifter]

On 1/10/2024 at 12:19 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Anyway, I miss the solid, actual information that we had in phone books and city directories.  I've used online sources to look up people, and they're stunningly inaccurate.  Or, well, they have some accurate information but it's buried in massive amounts of inaccurate information, and there's no way to know which is which.

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

My local area still passes out phone books if you can believe that.  Every year I wonder when that's going to end.

Yes and yes. But what I really miss is the early days of the internet (up to maybe 2004 or 5?) when phone numbers and reverse lookup addresses and a lot of academic stuff was not yet locked down behind paywalls. 

 

++++++++++++++

 

Posting down here because I like to bury the lede for private stuff to keep it off the radar of bots:
Lambchop's sibling has arrived safely. 

 

 

Edited January 12 by shapeshifter

[StatisticalOutlier]

47 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes and yes. But what I really miss is the early days of the internet (up to maybe 2004 or 5?) when phone numbers and reverse lookup addresses and a lot of academic stuff was not yet locked down behind paywalls.

And it was more accurate because the incentive was to provide information and not to generate as many clicks as possible or entice people to want to buy your collection of addresses and phone numbers over the many others, which is aided by having more content, not more accurate content.

[ECM1231]

Congratulations, @shapeshifter on the birth of your second grandchild! 👶🍼

[meep.meep]

On 1/10/2024 at 6:55 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

I'm interested in urban planning, so Reston has been on my "must see" list for a long time and I finally made it there. 

The gallery is located among the condos that face Lake Anne due south of the shopping area (but you have to go around the lake a little to get there).  Also in this area is this cool rock garden, I guess you'd call it.  There's a whole row of units that have decorated their outdoor areas with rocks.

Reston is home to the national headquarters of the U.S. Geological Survey and many employees live in town.  They love their rocks.

[StatisticalOutlier]

3 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Reston is home to the national headquarters of the U.S. Geological Survey and many employees live in town.  They love their rocks.

They love their security, too.  We wanted to do their Trek Through Time walk, and looked on the satellite view of the campus and saw giant parking lots, so on our way out of town went by there.  We drove the car and motorhome separately, and parked in a corner of an empty lot, and a security guard pulled up within a couple of minutes.  "This is government property and you can't park here."  I said we were there to do the walk, but he wasn't having it.

He went away and came back and said he had a place for us to park, and to follow him.  We ended up in a bus parking space that was like a bus stop--just a wide part of the street.  Much more intrusive than where were were.

And he told me I had to park the car in the adjacent visitor lot, but I couldn't park in the empty spaces near the motorhome--he made me park farther away.

Whatever.

[ebk57]

Mazel tov @shapeshifter!!

[PRgal]

Mazel Tov, Congratulations and Gung hei @shapeshifter  (had to get all of my family's cultures in there)

[Yeah No]

12 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes and yes. But what I really miss is the early days of the internet (up to maybe 2004 or 5?) when phone numbers and reverse lookup addresses and a lot of academic stuff was not yet locked down behind paywalls. 

Ah yes, I miss those days too.  I did most of my genealogy online in 2006 and 2007 with free information that you'd now have to pay for.  And even for a price the information available today is often not as good even though there's supposedly more of it now.

I remember being sad when things started to change online.  For the first several years it was a much smaller but nicer place to be than it can be today.  Although over 20 years ago I belonged to a few academic chat groups that could have some spectacular flame wars.  I'm not unhappy that is not tolerated for the most part anymore.

BTW, congratulations on becoming a grandma for a second time!  ((HUGS)) 🤗

 

[PRgal]

5 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Ah yes, I miss those days too.  I did most of my genealogy online in 2006 and 2007 with free information that you'd now have to pay for.  And even for a price the information available today is often not as good even though there's supposedly more of it now.

I remember being sad when things started to change online.  For the first several years it was a much smaller but nicer place to be than it can be today.  Although over 20 years ago I belonged to a few academic chat groups that could have some spectacular flame wars.  I'm not unhappy that is not tolerated for the most part anymore.

BTW, congratulations on becoming a grandma for a second time!  ((HUGS)) 🤗

 

Ahhh vintage flame wars.  I remember being part of those as well.  And 20 odd years later, I still haven’t learned to stay away from them.  

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, PRgal said:

Ahhh vintage flame wars.  I remember being part of those as well.  And 20 odd years later, I still haven’t learned to stay away from them.  

Remember this?

We Didn't Start the Flame War-

[annzeepark914]

Hey...if anyone really misses flame wars, you can find some (maybe not too flamey) in the comments sections under certain articles in Huffington Post and Washington Post. The WP doesn't let you use terms like "dumba$$" though 😁. HP is free to sign up. WP charges for digital subscriptions. Good fun!!

[shapeshifter]

So, as someone who attempts to throw verbal cold water on flame wars, am I a killjoy?

[Yeah No]

29 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

Hey...if anyone really misses flame wars, you can find some (maybe not too flamey) in the comments sections under certain articles in Huffington Post and Washington Post. The WP doesn't let you use terms like "dumba$$" though 😁. HP is free to sign up. WP charges for digital subscriptions. Good fun!!

Over 20 years ago until about 10 years ago there were a lot of chat boards on YahooGroups and the ones for Myers-Briggs personality types, especially the INTP and INTJ boards were full of that kind of banter, although there you could use any words you wanted and moderation was almost nonexistent.  Some of the people there were hysterically funny even as they insulted each other and it was mostly good fun!   I moderated a board there for INFJs and let's just say we "NF" (intuitive feeling) types are usually too sensitive and conflict-averse to want that kind of atmosphere on their boards so I enforced a strict no-flame/treat with respect rule there.  However, when I felt like a good laugh without rules I went over to the INTJ board to watch the fur fly.  Back then, though, most of it was in good fun and despite calling each other names the atmosphere was generally congenial.  Unfortunately that's often not the case on comment sections and social media these days....

Here my local online "Patch" newspaper had comment sections under every article until last month.  I guess they got tired of the trolls and nasty comments going back and forth.  They have a message up that they're looking for a "new and improved" way to comment on their site, but I'm not holding my breath that it's coming back any time soon.   I'm increasingly seeing comment sections going away online, unfortunately.  I don't think some of these sites want to spend the effort to moderate them so they just do away with them altogether.

[annzeepark914]

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

So, as someone who attempts to throw verbal cold water on flame wars, am I a killjoy?

I think I need to ask...what exactly is a flame war?  I figured it's just never ending arguments online, complete with some insults. Yahoo and AOL have taken control over their discussion threads by no longer allowing OTT nasty insults. I remember, pre-pandemic, being glad my user name was gender neutral as the women were getting verbally assaulted. It finally got cleaned up. I prefer the Washington Post & Huffington Post for discussing articles.

[JTMacc99]

Hey everybody! I just wanted to give you a heads up that festivus and I will no longer be the moderators for this Everything Else section. When we are replaced, I'm sure the new moderators will introduce themselves.

I've really enjoyed overseeing the area and expect to continue chiming in with my two cents and stories about lost jars of mayonnaise. 

Much like the way many of you were invested in my mayonnaise saga, I am invested in all of your stories and your experience here. I've recently become concerned that I am unaware of some things that might have been impacting your experiences in the forums. And just to be clear, I am very aware of anything people have posted here or in bugs or officially reported, and I hope that somebody worked to solve those things. I know that if it were something I could do, I did my best!

What I would not be aware of would be any bullying or other similar attacks sent as a Private Message. If you have ever received a troubling private message from anyone, regardless of who they are, would you please open up a new PM with me @JTMacc99 and let me know what happened.

I really like all of you, and I want to do what I can to make sure this kind of behavior doesn't impact you or any other users here.

 

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, annzeepark914 said:

Hey...if anyone really misses flame wars, you can find some (maybe not too flamey) in the comments sections under certain articles in Huffington Post and Washington Post. The WP doesn't let you use terms like "dumba$$" though 😁. HP is free to sign up. WP charges for digital subscriptions. Good fun!!

I like to read the comics on Arcamax, If you go into the editorial comics, boy are there flame wars in the comments.

[Mr. Sparkle]

8 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I like to read the comics on Arcamax, If you go into the editorial comics, boy are there flame wars in the comments.

Me too! But I just read the fun comics & stay out of the political ones. Luann and 9 Chickweed Lane have enough battles for me. 

[peacheslatour]

34 minutes ago, Superclam said:

Me too! But I just read the fun comics & stay out of the political ones. Luann and 9 Chickweed Lane have enough battles for me. 

We still get the paper so I read LuAnn in there but I like editorial comics too and I also read Dinette Set comics because they remind me of my late in laws. 😆

[Gramto6]

On 1/12/2024 at 10:23 AM, shapeshifter said:

 

Posting down here because I like to bury the lede for private stuff to keep it off the radar of bots:
Lambchop's sibling has arrived safely. 

 

 

Congratulations grandma @shapeshifter on your second grand child!! How exciting"  🎉

Edited January 13 by Gramto6
deleted random period

[stewedsquash]

Congratulations on your new grandson@shapeshifter

You mentioned not being able to pick up your toddler grandson anymore. Are you able to hold him if someone picks him up for you? I don’t understand the popularity of this item but would this help with your issue? Or cause more trouble from a balance standpoint? It is supposed to take pressure off your body and allow you to do other things while holding a kid. My middle son’s mother-in-law got one for herself recently. She is 50 so not elderly but she does kind of follow trendy things. Or maybe she is keeping up with her son’s mother-in-law, which seems to be a thing with her.  I think the other mil has one. We share two grandkids Nov/2yro and May/8mo and her son has a newborn now (Nov). She didn’t get one until the new arrival from her son. Maybe your daughter would be interested in it if it is not something you could use. My daughter-in-law got one (because her mother is the one mentioned above) and she said her mom likes hers  but I have never seen my dil use hers.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TushBaby-Only-Safety-Certified-Carrier/dp/B07R4C4VFX

 

Edited January 13 by stewedsquash
Link

[shapeshifter]

Thank you, everyone!

18 minutes ago, stewedsquash said:

. Maybe your daughter would be interested in it if it is not something you could use. My daughter-in-law got one (because her mother is the one mentioned above) and she said her mom likes hers but I have never seen my dil use hers.

I'll share it with her. If it would get her to not carry the kids on the same hip all the time, it would be worth it. 
But I'm 70 and the pain I was feeling when holding him began to feel like my ligaments were being stretched beyond their capacity to hold my bones together. 
So we're beyond the point of just lifting being the issue. 

In spoiler tags, here is my NY Times Wordle comment for today to commemorate his birth:

Spoiler

Wordle 938 3/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨BIRTH  34 WL
⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨CHEER  1
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩HEARD

Skill 89 / Luck 81

𝔦𝔫 𝔥𝔬𝔫𝔬𝔯 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔶 𝔡𝔞𝔲𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔤𝔦𝔳𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔟𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔥
— Her choice

 

Edited January 13 by shapeshifter

[BlueSkies]

I was never much into being a rebel.  About all I did to rebel when I grew up was buy Playboys I couldn't have as a kid with Geri Halliwell and Cindy Crawford on the cover.  Ditto some Maxim magazines with Christina Aguilera on the cover.

 

I did drive around "bad neighborhoods' out of intrigue though sometimes as my dad never liked driving through them.  

 

 

I think thats shows maybe my parents weren't as pushy as I thought.  Forcing or talking down to people I think creates the rebel effect if you will.  

Edited January 13 by BlueSkies

[shapeshifter]

43 minutes ago, BlueSkies said:

I was never much into being a rebel.…
I did drive around "bad neighborhoods' out of intrigue though sometimes as my dad never liked driving through them.  
I think thats shows maybe my parents weren't as pushy as I thought.  Forcing or taking down to people I think creates the rebel effect if you will.  

Interesting, especially because, in a kind of reverse of your experience, my Dad once drove by skid row in Chicago because, he said, he wanted me to see what happens to down and out people as a warning.
This was right before he dropped me off at an art class at the Art Institute.

I did "rebel." That is, I wandered off the beaten path that it would have been better for me to have pursued uninterrupted. 

But I still fondly recall coming "home" for a bit and seeing a small decoupage plaque on my dresser from Mom with the words:

• “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer” (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)

❤️

 

[Browncoat]

28 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer” (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)

One of my mother's favorite quotes.  We used it in her obituary.

[PRgal]

Other than drinking ONCE underage, I don't think I've ever rebelled in the bad girl kind of way.  Of course, unless you consider strength training a sort of rebellion (my maternal grandmother HATED the idea of women being muscular.  If she knew I lifted weights (not even HEAVY ones. We're talking 20 lb at most if I'm not with my trainer), she'd be turning in her grave)...

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, PRgal said:

Other than drinking ONCE underage, I don't think I've ever rebelled in the bad girl kind of way.  Of course, unless you consider strength training a sort of rebellion (my maternal grandmother HATED the idea of women being muscular.  If she knew I lifted weights (not even HEAVY ones. We're talking 20 lb at most if I'm not with my trainer), she'd be turning in her grave)...

Speaking as a Chit Chat Thread Grandma:
Keep up the good work!

Edited January 14 by shapeshifter

[Yeah No]

I never rebelled.  My parents were more socially progressive than most parents at that time and I was kind of an artistic bookish nerd so I wasn't the rebelling type.  If I rebelled against anything it was with my parents' encouragement.  I was a tomboy and my parents didn't discourage me from liking boy's toys and having interests that weren't traditional.  People older than me were going to Woodstock and doing all the rebelling and I was in that Brady Bunch generation where we kind of sympathized and watched from the sidelines.  So while I didn't rebel myself I definitely had a progressive point of view.

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Interesting, especially because, in a kind of reverse of your experience, my Dad once drove by skid row in Chicago because, he said, he wanted me to see what happens to down and out people as a warning.
This was right before he dropped me off at an art class at the Art Institute.

My parents used to drive me through bad neighborhoods in NYC to show me where they used to live.  And sometimes it was hard to avoid those neighborhoods just to get from point A to point B.  We lived in the North Bronx when the South Bronx started to burn down and everything became rougher.  I was determined not to go to the local high school so I took every test to get into a specialty school.  I made it into two art high schools in Manhattan but it was considered dangerous to take the subway there so I ended up going to Bronx Science instead because I could take a special bus only for students.  Otherwise I'd have to take the regular bus or walk there and risk getting mugged.  I never regretted going there!

[annzeepark914]

@Yeah No Bronx Science...Sen. Shumer went there and who else--was it another senator??

[Yeah No]

18 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

@Yeah No Bronx Science...Sen. Shumer went there and who else--was it another senator??

Chuck?  I just read he went to James Madison HS.  I don't know about another senator, but I'm sure there is at least one more. 

Neil DeGrasse Tyson was in my graduating class (and my Physics class) and I have photos of him I took in class, LOL.

[shapeshifter]

21 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

Neil DeGrasse Tyson was in my graduating class (and my Physics class) and I have photos of him I took in class, LOL.

 🤩That  is so awesome!🤩

57 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

…it was considered dangerous to take the subway there so I ended up going to Bronx Science instead because I could take a special bus only for students.  Otherwise I'd have to take the regular bus or walk there and risk getting mugged.  I never regretted going there!

In the 1940s my Mom had to take 2 buses to high school from their apartment in Newark, NJ. She didn't mention any problems with the getting to and from school, but she did tell me about some girls in the bathroom putting a knife to her throat. 😳
Now that I'm reading your post, @Yeah No, I'm wondering if the knife incident was at a local school, and that was why she took 2 buses to get to (maybe?) another school?

Edited January 14 by shapeshifter

[Browncoat]

Hee, hee, hee -- our local news reader just now said that severe weather is affecting "seventy-thousand million" people today.  

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

Hee, hee, hee -- our local news reader just now said that severe weather is affecting "seventy-thousand million" people today.  

So, 70 trillion people?
Earth has 8.1 billion.
🤔

Edited January 14 by shapeshifter

[Yeah No]

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

 🤩That  is so awesome!🤩

Thanks, he comes to reunions too. 🤩  I remember when he spoke in class I knew he was extraordinary and destined for greatness.  My best friend (who is still my best friend) grew up in his neighborhood and was in class with him all through elementary and Jr. high.  He was the head of the astronomy club in HS and she belonged to that.  I came with her to their meetings a few times although I didn't belong to the club.  He was also head of the wrestling team and was quite buff back then, LOL. 😉

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

In the 1940s my Mom had to take 2 buses to high school from their apartment in Newark, NJ. She didn't mention any problems with the getting to and from school, but she did tell me about some girls in the bathroom putting a knife to her throat. 😳
Now that I'm reading your post, @Yeah No, I'm wondering if the knife incident was at a local school, and that was why she took 2 buses to get to (maybe?) another school?

  Newark was a rough place back in the day.  I don't know how it is now but yeah, I can believe your mother had to do that.  For my first year at Bronx Science I had to walk almost 2 miles each way to school because we didn't move to the neighborhood that had the special bus until the following Summer (which incidentally was the same bus Neil took to school, LOL).  My old neighborhood had gotten rougher and I was mugged a couple of times walking home from school by tough "mean girls" at the end of my block if you can believe that.  And taking 2 buses there would have been even more treacherous.  By that time both my parents were working full time so there was nothing they could do about it and no way could they afford cab fare for me.  Unfortunately I was pretty much the only kid on my block that went to Bronx Science so there was no one to walk with there.  At least in Jr. High I walked to school in a small group.  So moving solved that problem.  That was the same apartment my father lived in when he died in 2020.

[annzeepark914]

Re: The Bronx? I was just talking with one of my cousins yesterday. She grew up on E. 225th St. in the Woodlawn section until they moved to Mt. Vernon when she was just starting high school as the neighborhood was getting too dicey. She was telling me that, as a little kid, she hadn't been allowed to go trick or treating, so the move to Mt Vernon was good. 

Bobby Darin & Stokely Carmichael went to Bronx Science!  I'm glad you survived that way-too-long walk to & from school. I had a long walk too, but it was 6/10 of a mile & was an hour north of the city (but I did it 4 x a day as the cafeteria was too noisy & smelly 🙄).

[emma675]

On 1/13/2024 at 11:03 AM, JTMacc99 said:

Hey everybody! I just wanted to give you a heads up that festivus and I will no longer be the moderators for this Everything Else section. When we are replaced, I'm sure the new moderators will introduce themselves.

I've really enjoyed overseeing the area and expect to continue chiming in with my two cents and stories about lost jars of mayonnaise. 

Much like the way many of you were invested in my mayonnaise saga, I am invested in all of your stories and your experience here. I've recently become concerned that I am unaware of some things that might have been impacting your experiences in the forums. And just to be clear, I am very aware of anything people have posted here or in bugs or officially reported, and I hope that somebody worked to solve those things. I know that if it were something I could do, I did my best!

What I would not be aware of would be any bullying or other similar attacks sent as a Private Message. If you have ever received a troubling private message from anyone, regardless of who they are, would you please open up a new PM with me @JTMacc99 and let me know what happened.

I really like all of you, and I want to do what I can to make sure this kind of behavior doesn't impact you or any other users here.

 

I hope you'll be sticking around, even if you and Festivus won't be the mods!

[Yeah No]

14 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Re: The Bronx? I was just talking with one of my cousins yesterday. She grew up on E. 225th St. in the Woodlawn section until they moved to Mt. Vernon when she was just starting high school as the neighborhood was getting too dicey. She was telling me that, as a little kid, she hadn't been allowed to go trick or treating, so the move to Mt Vernon was good. 

Bobby Darin & Stokely Carmichael went to Bronx Science!  I'm glad you survived that way-too-long walk to & from school. I had a long walk too, but it was 6/10 of a mile & was an hour north of the city (but I did it 4 x a day as the cafeteria was too noisy & smelly 🙄).

I know that area.  I lived not far from there for about 9 months in 1981 after I got married and left as soon as possible.  I don't know when your cousin was a kid, but in the 1960s my area in the West Bronx was still very safe and I went trick or treating with a group of kids and someone's parent.  It wasn't until the early '70s that the neighborhood changed.  Everyone was moving to the suburbs.  I remember I went away to a travel camp through the Y for about a month in '73, then my parents and I drove cross country for another couple of weeks and when we came back it was like a completely different neighborhood.  That's why we moved to the Kingsbridge/Riverdale neighborhood in '74.

Yeah, that was a long walk!  I have photos of me taken then and I was skinny-skinny-skinny!  I used to save my lunch money to buy egg creams, teenybopper magazines and "Seventeen", LOL.

[annzeepark914]

@Yeah No I can only remember one overweight student in my high school. In a small city (that was really two old villages merged), we kids walked everywhere, and thought nothing of the long distances. It kept us in good shape. I think it was that way all  over America back in the 60's. Of course, it wasn't as treacherous for young kids back then as it is today.

[BlueSkies]

It was an expression I never used to care for but I’m feeling it a lot right now

 

It is what it is 

Edited January 15 by BlueSkies

[Browncoat]

Snow day!  This storm gave us our first significant (measurable) snowfall in almost two years.  It's just a couple of inches, maybe three, although it's still snowing a little, and I'm already tired of it.  I dread the next few days, too, as the temperatures are meant to drop dramatically, and the wind is meant to pick up.  I don't really mind the cold, but I don't like the wind.