ArtieShaw

It’s old. I remember detergent commercials from the early '80s that claimed they were the best for "no wax floors "

“Mom, do we have a no wax floor?”

“Have you ever seen me wax the floor!!?”

It was definitely a thing.

About a thousand (metaphorical) years ago, biochemistry and genetics was in still in its fairly early stages. I read articles about deciphering plant genomics and finding a way to make them naturally more resistant to insects and disease by exploiting the native resistance of certain plants. And I was a science nerd who had experienced food insecurity AND ready to head off to college.

“Hell yeah” I thought. “That’s what I want to do with my life’s work. Everyone gets to eat and we don’t need to spray everything with poison to get there.”

What we got was Roundup-Ready corn.

I’m glad I didn’t go into that line of work because I may have tried to burn Monsanto to the ground and come to regret it later in a federal prison.

Even just through personal experience - I drove more than 1200 miles through the US midwest this summer. Corn country.

30 years ago I would have needed to squeegee my windshield at every gas station. This year I think I hit one bug large enough to even notice it.

My yard is mostly clover and similar ground cover, but I think my patch of lawn may be having less of an impact than industrial agriculture.

I’ve always preferred skirts to pants, precisely because they’re less restrictive to movement. I’m not sure why, but the comment was always, “I’m not sure you’d be able to do this while wearing a skirt.” It seems like people who haven’t worn them habitually don’t know how they work.

Worst case: I fall down and you can see my knickers. Well that’s why I wear the knickers. And in nearly a half-century, I can think of maybe 2 times that’s happened. Both times I was sprinting madly to catch a bus and both times were due to my shoes and/or bad decisions.

Field hockey and lacrosse are both traditionally played in kilts.

Some other objections:

Need to don some Tyvek coveralls for work? It’s really no problem with a basic skirt. You just hike it up a bit. Those suits are baggy and everything fits. You also avoid the discomfort of two layers of leg fabric.

Cold weather? Tights are great, as are thigh high socks. And boots. All of these also look cute.

Oh, and packing for vacation? I can pack 3-4 skirts for every pair of jeans. It’s just a simple cloth tube which folds down to nothing.

Wasn’t that 10 years ago? If I remember correctly, one of those companies was partially owned by then Speaker of the House John Boehner. Yeah, that was some bullshit.

I voted against that measure simply due to the blatantly self-serving aspect. It was a fun time when reactionaries and progressives aligned to reject a terrible proposal. Everyone else was just mad that they still needed to drive to Michigan to buy weed.

But last year’s less shitty ballot initiative means that the first recreational dispensaries in Ohio opened up a few months ago. There was some discussion in the statehouse about blocking that referendum, but even the dullest knives came around eventually.

Growing for personal use is also now legal. Of course that won’t stop county sheriffs from raiding your home with an assist by DEA helicopters. It’s “an education.”

https://www.wdtn.com/as-seen-on-2-news/greene-county-sheriff-responds-after-raid-over-alleged-illegal-marijuana-plants/

Wasn’t Mitt the dude with the lady binders?

It’s not for everyone, but Penguin Island by Anatole France features great auks. I read it many years ago and enjoyed it (in a dorky 19th century satire sort of way). Not for everyone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Island_(novel)

I think you get it from eating turkey.

That tracks. One of mine hates delivery people, squirrels, anyone wearing shoes, and the other cats.

He is cool with moths, but he wants them to fly into his mouth so I’m not sure that’s entirely OK with the moths.

This is so goddamn exhausting.

Thirty years ago I was reading poorly photostatted (sic) fliers at the local record shop explaining the difference between Nazis with red shoelaces and Nazis with yellow shoelaces. It was exhausting then, too. They’re all basic removed Nazis. Treat them the same way you would treat a potentially harmful arthropod, like a scorpion. You don’t have to be a fucking entomologist to understand this shit.

Shun the Nazi. Leave it alone. Don’t ask for help from Nazis.

oooh - pure destruction. I can respect that.

That’s wonderful!

My orange cat has appointed himself as house monitor, so he’ll alert us to any danger or weird situations. When the kitten escaped from the back patio, which is enclosed, he ran to my husband and alerted him. He can be a jerk, but overall he’s a good dude.

When I’m home alone I can always count on him. If I hear a weird noise? If that little guy is snoring I know that it’s just the wind.

My current oldest was a stray for about 4-5 months and she seemed to regard anything wrapped in plastic as a valid food source. We assumed that reason is that she had been scavenging garbage.

One of my favorite “new kitten” moments was coming downstairs to find that she had taken about 12 sample bites from a package of toilet paper. She stopped doing that.

I swear we fed her well, but she had some habits from life on the streets.

My best girl is really into being petted while standing in a bathtub or shower. No water. She’s done this since she was a kitten. Like Kika, she’ll lure you to the spot for petting, then meow until you and she are both standing in the tub and she’s getting pets.

Two different houses and three different tubs are involved here.

I sometimes wonder if it’s related to the time I had to give her a bath when we first took her in as a stray. She was weak and underfed, and had a bad case of fleas. I gave her a bath, which she hated and I hated - but when she hit the water you could see blood in her fur from all the flea bites. Poor kitty. It was probably the first time a human had given her much attention. And it helped with the fleas, so she probably felt much better afterwards.

Sometimes I tell myself that she’s trying to tell me she’s still grateful for that, and that she trusts me.

Or else she’s just a weirdo. I’m fine with either.

Oh no. I feel that. Back when ipods were a thing, I liked to call it my husband’s “tiny radio.” Particularly on planes, with lots of captive listeners.

But I was mainly torturing him.

It’s OK - he does similar shit to me. 30 years and counting…

I didn’t really expect anyone to know that, which was sort of the joke. He was very famous in his time, but by now it’s a bit of a deep cut.

Artie Shaw was a clarinetist who ran a jazz band. In addition to that, he was also quite the weirdo. Womanizer, liked math a lot (like more than is natural), was an expert marksman who was nationally ranked in that sort of thing, and really into fly fishing. Also, currently, very dead. And that’s good because otherwise he’d be 114.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artie_Shaw

here’s a sample of his work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_v3GY3ZqdM

Shock: I’m not really Artie Shaw.

The actor cat who played Lucky was pretty chill, but ALF was pretty insistent upon telling the family that he wanted to indulge in some tasty cat recipes. It didn’t feel violent or real. Just silly. I haven’t seen the show since 1989, but that screenshot seems dead on balls accurate.

I collect ancient coins and this explanation doesn’t fly for me. There’s a certain amount of “artisanal-ness” in the production of ancient coins - which were all handmade. Like, I’m looking at a tray of coins right now and there’s no way a simple go/no-go tool would be helpful. Also, for this purpose a simple handheld counterweight balance would be more accurate and portable. The existence of these simple balances, along with reference weights for various denominations, is well documented.

Moreover - if you’re an ancient merchant, what is more important? The weight of the silver or the ability for it to pass for a denarius issued by Rome? Particularly for international trade, it seems to have been the former. Bankers’ cuts and countermarks are commonly seen on coins, and seem to have been an early form of foreign exchange. (eg - I’m travelling from Athens to Ephesus with a stock of my local currency. If I pass it to a local banker in Ephesus, they can evaluate it, determine the local exchange in terms of silver, and give it a locally recognized countermark to assure their own merchants that they’re getting the equivalent local value).

That being now off my chest, I’ve got no great answers for the dodecahedrons. I strongly suspect that it was a nifty thing that metal workers made as a master’s thesis.

This was 1981, so no. I think he’s just the “ice cream man.” Weird play on words.