MISCELLANEOUS
 

Post your miscellaneous thoughts, words or misdeeds here.


LOL. Pity the poor owner of this vehicle in NYC who came out of the house & found their car like this early last Thursday morning. What a way to start the day. :eek:

This is the darndest list I’ve ever come across. Never even heard of some of these people.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...actresses.html

There was so much strange movement while scrolling through the list that it was dizzying to read. :dizzy:

Right? ;)

Form should always follow Function.
It's fine to get creative, but not to the point where the creativity defeats the point of purpose of the piece.

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I went to Tesco after work with the letters BMP on my hand to get a few things for work as well as a big food shop, B was for Brush, M was for masks, but damn P, could not remember, for 20 minutes I walked around trying to remember P and COULD NOT DO IT, even went through the P + vowels in my head, so phoned a member of staff outside and it was a ******g Plug, as in for a sink.

Stay tuned for more exiting miscellaneous stories from my life next week!

By the time I get to the store, I never remember what's on my shopping list, so I use a phone app called ColorNote. It's easy to use, and it's free.

I always think about using the voice recorder on my cell phone to remember things (when I was younger I always wanted one of those portable, pocket recorders you'd just speak into throughout the day to make personal notes for yourself)... but, I always forget it's a feature on the phone and forget to use it!

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I'm old fashioned, pen and paper for shopping lists. :)

True. It was much easier on the app itself.

:up: me too!

That's what I had for food, got all that. Trusting my 36 year old memory for 3 initials was my downfall.

Why didn’t anyone tell me how horrid this stuff is? Sickeningly sweet.

You didn't ask. ;)

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And it's such a big tub of it too, yikes I hope she didn't eat the whole thing:p

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Keeping to yourself is nice but boring at times.

I have no idea how to use the voice recorder on my cell phone. I figured out how to use the video recorder once, but that was out of necessity at the time. (I don't even know where it saved the video that it recorded. :rolleyes:)

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If turkeys are so great, why are they always hiding in packaged slabs of meat at the grocery store?

Took a few bites & gave it to someone else.

Does anyone know what the heck “cheersin” means? :rolleyes:

Covid warning! Covid warning!


*joking🙂 I'm sure you gave it to your husband or family member (the cottage cheese that is)!

You're not the first one to ask! LOL!
Got a box of donuts for my family last week - both my brother and mother said, "'Cheersin'??? What does that mean?" :D

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⬆️ I love words, but this one is driving me nuts. Gone to the source to ask them & will report back. :)

I think it has something to do with the company changing it's name to just "Dunkin'".

:eek:

I don’t eat food from the containers! :eek:

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Why is it so messy to simply re-pot an indoor plant? Didn’t help this morning that the first thing I did was tip the open bag of potting soil onto the kitchen floor. Oh, my, I sure did make a mess. Just hoping I didn’t kill the plant. :rolleyes:

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Surprising how many apartments I walk by who run their air conditioning when it’s freezing outside. Today is 38 degrees & I could hear ACs running. :rolleyes:

Came across this previously-unseen photo of Lennon + family taken at the Dakota in December 1975. Lennon took a 5-year sabbatical to be with Sean, his son, full-time.

It’s a terrific photograph.

Forty years since Lennon’s murder.

Yikes, there’s nothing worse than seeing this on the weather channel. Fills me with horror. :(

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Chad Stuart (left) of Chad & Jeremy has died, age 79.

https://youtu.be/vfvL2oLeBYs

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Nice.

https://youtu.be/zL9JR0A4yCU

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...y-anatomy.html

Amusing quiz. I got 50% wrong. :o

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I was a member of my Boy Scout troop for a number of years. Though I sometimes felt like an outcast in it, I also talked to a number of people there and really liked the troop overall. I got a lot out of it which benefitted me in high school, right now in college, and I imagine more so in the future. In Boy Scouts, you can become an Eagle Scout, except it's not easy to achieve this. It's estimated that only 4% of Boy Scouts earn this rank. Factoring in the amount of people who aren't Boy Scouts though, the percentage of people with this rank is even smaller. When I first joined the troop, I had no intention of achieving this rank. It seemed way too hard, so I decided to not even attempt it.

However, this was before I met an elderly gentleman in my Boy Scout troop named Mr. Bill Vasilides, or Mr. V, as we called him. He was a Korean War veteran who was part of the troop for many years. Though he didn't have any children who were current members of the troop, he liked helping out the boys. He was a really nice man and his presence was greatly appreciated by everyone, me included. After I told him I had no intention of becoming an Eagle Scout as I thought it was too much of a commitment, he responded with "What commitment?" and gave me quite a bit of encouragement to achieve the rank. The longer I stayed in the troop and the more I talked to him, the more interested I was in becoming an Eagle Scout. Eventually, I was fully set on becoming an Eagle Scout, with his encouragement to guide me along the way. I also chose him as my mentor when I went about completing my Eagle Project, in fact. Eventually, on July 6th, 2017, I completed my final board of review and earned the rank of an Eagle Scout. I believe that, without Mr. V's encouragement and guidance, I wouldn't have ever earned this rank.

A few years ago, I was saddened to learn that he was diagnosed with cancer. Hearing that news for the first time felt as if I had the wind knocked out of me. In spite of that, however, he was strong and he kept fighting it. At one point, my entire troop went to visit him and his wife at his house. I could tell he was deeply moved by the experience. That was the last time I met him in person though. He passed away on January 6th, 2021. Earlier today, I went to his memorial service. While there, I got to meet his family and many members of my troop from current and past generations. It was nice seeing them all show up and getting to meet them as I haven't talked to a few of them in many years. Overall, it was a somber atmosphere and though his death greatly saddens me, I want to let you all know that he was a wonderful and kind-hearted man. He helped me out a lot in Boy Scouts and in my life. I'll never forget him. Rest in peace, Mr. V.

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Who's up for some politics? ;)

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@SpelingError Thanks for posting such a nice, heartfelt post. I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds like your Eagle Scout mentor was a positive influence on you, an all around nice guy.

Thanks, Citizen! That means a lot.

Interesting statistic: According to the New York Times, 90,000 packages (Fedx, et al.) are lost or stolen every day in New York City. Staggering.

The sender needs to utilize Adult Signature Required service for Fedex or UPS, otherwise they will leave the packages on the doorstep unattended, which invites theft.

Nobody in the city is gonna do this. (I also detest anything that needs a signature.)

Many places in the city don’t have a package room or a doorman or a front desk where stuff can safely be left. And the locked mailboxes in the foyer are too small.

One solution is to have one’s packages delivered to the nearest fedx office, but even this could be a hassle as most New Yorkers don’t drive.

Question: How are Fedex/UPS Signature Required packages handled in these NYC apartments, compared to Fedex/UPS no signature required? I would image in both cases the delivery person goes to the apartment number and rings the bell to delivery the package. Is that right?

So wouldn't that then be a problem for all types of packages, not just signature required? I've never lived in the city so I don't know how this works.

I heard a news report on the radio before Christmas - it said that some boroughs of NYC wanted to add a $3.00 charge onto every single individual online delivery order (at least during the holiday season) during the pandemic - since so many more people were shopping online and not in stores!

The reason given was that the trucks (UPS, FedEx, USPS & others) were creating gridlock on streets as they'd stop in front of buildings to make drop offs - double, triple & quadruple parking!

That the foyers of apartment buildings were filling to the ceilings with packages that had to be staged there before their owners could retrieve them - and doormen were becoming overwhelmed.

Don't know what happened to the idea, but I never heard about it going through.

Everyone’s at home now due to the pandemic so I would imagine it’s easier now. The deliverer wouldn’t go to the person’s apartment. He would ring the lobby bell & the person would come downstairs. All the buildings have an inner locked front door.

It’s a problem, of course, which is why 90k packages are lost annually. :rolleyes:

I like my Connecticut delivery service: all packages are vaulted over the front fence. Easy. :p

Interesting news: Sex & the City, minus Kim Cattrall, is returning for a 10-parter on HBO. This seems like a terrible idea to me. Bleeding this excellent original show dry. No one loved it more than me, but the first movie was only passable & the 2nd movie was garbage. Oh, well, what do I know.

In other news: Nicole Kidman is slated to play Lucille Ball & Javier Bardem her husband in a new movie. Not a huge fan of I Love Lucy so will be interesting to see how this plays.

So a very famous primetime TV news anchor here, who is also currently dating a former Chief Minister (equivalent to a state Governor for USA) was duped by scammers into thinking that she was offered a teaching job at Harvard.


Kinda sounds mean to laugh at her expense, but this is someone who has indulged in fake news on several occasions in her career. So it's not a surprise she didn't thoroughly investigate this offer.


Remarkable story of scamming and it also shows how some people think too much of themselves.


https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/...outputType=amp

Not sure how you reached this conclusion.

To assume that you can get a job of a professor at the prestigious institute like Harvard without even having a PhD, shows you exactly that. NDTV, or the channel that she worked for, only employs kids or relatives of politicians and high profile bureaucrats. These people come from privileged backgrounds and have a history of things being handed to them.



Also, I have watched her on the telly and social media for years now. One of the most pompous reporters out here (working with a channel that routinely indulges in fake news and which was just recently fined millions for share fraud), who in the past has mocked people for lesser mistakes.
And even in this case, she hasn't revealed all the details because it will reveal Visa fraud.

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Lady Gaga sounded fine at the inauguration today. She was gracious enough to thank the marine who escorted her to the podium. JLo did not thank her marine.

Wow, look at all these Capital steps. Very metaphorical.

Amusing how so many of the bad boys of rock & roll have turned into such sweet old geezers. Here’s a few of them.






Can you think of others?

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@Yoda, strange post from a newbie. ⬆️

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Thanks, got it.

It's spam. If you click the gear icon and then click report...and two other people do the same, the post will be automatically removed.

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Or just tag Yoda!

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Gear/spam report definitely best, noting for anyone else who stumbles across this. But I'll take any form of reporting over none. :)

Can’t believe The Naked Cowboy is still doing his thing in the city. I had forgotten all about him.

But, here he is in the middle of a snowstorm. :eek:

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What a great photo! I wish I had taken it I might have won some kind of photo journalism award with it. I use to enter photography competitions.

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I know there used to be a thread for impersonations or impressions, but I can't find it...
I'm a little behind the times ;) but I just found this guy... literally a guy... "Guy Marks."
His Bogart & Gary Cooper are amazing and his face almost becomes the characters in a way that's almost scary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0nxGYRzP3o&t=374s

Marks was a riot. I saw him on one of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts years ago, and couldn't find him afterwards, because they'd introduced him as John Whitestone. Later I found out his name was Guy Marks (real name Mario Scarpa). Here he uses some of the same material, but funnier. This is one of the best comedy routines I've ever seen.

https://youtu.be/IbD41MtaYqc

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Seems like Guy Marks was doing "Deep Fakes" before there was any CGI.

I just can't get over how his face changes into Bogart - and it's not overt (like Jim Carrey doing Nicholson or Eastwood) - I can't even see Marks changing his face or tell exactly how he's doing it, he just suddenly "becomes" Bogart! (With Gary Cooper it's a series of expressions, but with Bogart it's like the bone structure of his face just morphs into Bogie's.)

P.S. this is the only impersonation of Gary Cooper I've ever seen - and it's dead on.

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Goodbye February. You totally sucked!

hopefully march will be a good month!

Yesterday was brutal. The wind chill due to fierce winds was so horrible. Yes, spring is just around the corner, but March in New England can be horrible. We easily can have more snow.

Thank God for these things.

damn hopefully theres no snow storm there D= here its almost autumn the month of the flus ugh :rolleyes:

Studies show that - due to COVID? - there is almost no flu this year. I can attest that, thus far, at least, I have avoided the horrible flu this winter. Always puts me out of commish for a week even with a flu shot.

its safe here from covid its back to normal here in australia.
last time i had flu was last yr last winter ugh.
damn that sucks, i need to get flu shot

That's because they're counting everything as Covid including the flu.
It's all political and I could explain it... but we're not supposed to talk about politics. ;)

I'm out the door by 4:35am. Usually it gets better when the sun comes up but it didn't feel like it this time.

I can attest to it too. I use to catch a cold or mild flu every couple months. But for the last year since I started wearing a mask and keeping my hands clean & out of my face, I haven't had a cold or flu. It's because of prevention.

Can somebody - anybody - tell me how to boil eggs?

No matter what level of water I use, what kind of pan, how much boiling time, how much resting time - I can never get all the shells off. If I boil 6 eggs, 3 will be ruined because the shelling pulls off the whites.

Please please HELP. :(

Try searching Google and YouTube for help.

I'm not the cook in our house, (and Hubby is sleeping right now, so I can't ask him), but when he was having the same problem of the shells sticking to the eggs when he tried to peel them, he Googled it, and watched several YouTube videos about it. He must have figured something out because he's been able to make perfect hard-boiled eggs that peel easily almost every time.

Don't quote me on any of this, but I heard that adding vinegar or salt to the water might help with the peeling (but I might be confusing this with something else).

I think you only boil them about 5 minutes, the turn off the flame, then let them sit in the hot water about 12 minutes. I also seem to remember reading that refrigerating them for a couple hours after removing them from the hot water will also help the shells come off better.

After the eggs have hardened in the boiling water, simply drop them into a bowl of cold water. That separates the shell from the egg.

Googled the subject to death already.

Please please ask your husband for me.

I think you bring them to a boil & then remove from heat. 12 minutes is exactly what I’m doing.

Maybe I have been trying to shell them too soon. Will wait a little longer in the cold water. Someone said gently roll them before peeling.

Thanks everyone so far.

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lol. I'd read something about the age of the egg can be a factor too. I just can't remember if you need older eggs or newer. The comment was to buy two cartons. One for regular cooking and one just for boiling, after keeping it in the fridge a bit longer. Like a week longer. Who knows. The common idea I'm seeing is to chill them in ice water after. I SWEAR I once read to either cook them either with the boil or to drop them INTO the boil. Hell if I know. It's danged sasquatch at this point for me.

HAPPY HUNTING!

He's usually asleep before I log in here at night, but I'll try to remember to ask him tomorrow.

good thing to remember is to write it on the hand or phone that what i do

I put a Kinder Joy Egg on his desk as a reminder. Hopefully he'll see it tomorrow and ask me about it, and that will remind me to ask him about how to boil eggs. (Even if he eats it, he'll still probably ask me why I left it for him, so it should still work as a reminder. :lol:)

ooooo thats clever i need to do that to my roommate lol.
i hopefully it goes well lol

It's not foolproof, nothing is, but if we're talking hard boiled eggs then hitting the top and bottom of them on a surface, then roll them backwards and forwards with downward pressure. This will usually fracture the shell into small pieces and allow you to tear it off in strips. I don't know if there's any science behind this, but I do find that the longer it's been since I boiled them, the more likely the shell is to come away more easily. What you really want is the membrane to adhere to the shell so that it all comes off together.

I've seen the pro's put them into a bowl of ice water, but I don't know if that's just to cool them more quickly (for TV time restraints) or if it actually helps with the peeling process.

Fortunately, leaving the Kinder Joy Egg on his desk worked. He said this is how he makes hard-boiled eggs. (He usually makes a lot of them on the weekend, so he has them ready all week.)


How to boil eggs:
He said, "This is eggactly how I do it." :lol:

1) Let the hot water run until it gets really hot.
2) Fill a tupperware (large enough to fit 8 or 9 eggs flat) with water. (He uses Grade A Large Eggs.)
3) Make sure that all of the eggs are submerged in the hot water. (This is to make sure that the eggs don't crack when they hit the boiling hot water.)
4) Fill a 3 quart tupperware half way with water. (Our tupperware is about 9 inches by about 5 inches.)
5) Add 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons of salt to the water.
6) Without the eggs, heat the water in the microwave for about 3 minutes. (Our microwave is 1100 watts, so adjust this to match your microwave wattage.)
7) Move the eggs, one at a time, from the hot water to the boiling water.
8) Heat the eggs for 3 minutes.
9) Stir.
10) Then heat the eggs for another 3 minutes. (Making it 6 minutes total so far.)
11) Stir.
12) Then heat the eggs for another 3 minutes. (Making it 9 minutes total.)
13) Stir.
14) Using tongs, remove one egg. Run it under cold water.
15) Spin the egg on the counter like a top. If the egg spins straight up, (meaning that it doesn't flop around), then it's done.
16A) If the egg is done, tap the egg on counter. Submerge it in cold water. Then, the egg should peel easily.
16B) If the egg is NOT done, put the whole bowl of water and eggs back into the microwave for 60-90 seconds, depending on how much it wobbles when it spins.
17) Then repeat the spinning steps, until they're done.

He said that he did a lot of trial end error before he figured out these steps, but this is what works for him, with our microwave. Your microwave may vary based on the wattage.

Also, our microwave has a lazy-susan type of tray on the bottom that spins while the food cooks. That may or may not make a difference.


I hope this helps. :)

Exactly! This where I run into the difficulty getting the membrane & shell off simultaneously.

Huge thanks to your husband & to you. I really appreciate you taking the time.

I will try & work with what he says, but the problem is we don’t have a microwave. :(

You're welcome.

I know that there are ways to convert the cooking time from oven or stove directions to microwave directions. Maybe you can Google it and find out the reverse?

I picked out bits of what everyone here advised & my eggs turned out better today. I think I have to let them cool off longer before peeling. Only one was ruined since I banged it too hard on the counter.

Thanks again to your husband & everyone else here. :p

You're welcome. I'm glad that the info helped. :)

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Decided to investigate the numerous bags of stuff underneath our spare room bed. Seasonal blankets, that kind of thing.

Opened a bag & found a large summer bed comforter that I swear I have never in my life seen before. It’s been washed at some time - more than once since some of the stuffing is bunched up - but too big for my washing machine.

Is this something I had when I lived in NYC & have forgotten about? So bizarre since I do not forget. :rolleyes:

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Does anyone know a trick to clean Velcro?
Ya know how everything gets stuck to it? Is there any other way to clean it than sit there with a tweezers or use your fingernails to try pick out every bit of debris one by one (which is very time consuming and trying on the patience)?

Nope and I've had to clean those little velcro hooks before. What a pain! An aside: did you know that Vulcans reportedly introduced velcro to Earth in the 1950s?

Have to wonder why you would bother?

Certain things I use have Velcro, and it's just kind of gross when it's all dirty.

Last night I used a plastic ankle brace for my walk (trying to mitigate the effects of tendentious in my left ankle) and the brace fastens with Velcro - which is all dirty because it has all different color fuzz from socks & stuff stuck to it.

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I always hate getting poodles stuck on that =\ I imagine that would be hell on your ankle.

We Capricorns like everything in good order.

Have you tried a stiff bristle brush?

Yeah, what is up with that?
I almost border on OCD with that stuff sometimes...

Also on my evening walk I sometimes take a "Lance Peanut Bar" (so good!)...

https://smhttp-ssl-60529-live.nexces...-bars-solo.jpg

...and even though it's dark, I have to open the package ONLY at the top! It's GOT to be in the position so I can read it - so I check it under a street lamp before opening it to make sure it's right side up! It's the same at both ends so it would make absolutely no difference if I opened it at the bottom - but I won't! Why? What is wrong with me?

Nothing. You're normal. I've never had one of those, but what kind of mad man (or woman) would open the wrong end when there clearly is a correct end to open?

I’m definitely OCD in certain circumstances. It’s a matter of feeling safe in one’s routine especially during a pandemic. It’s something we can control. I have gotten worse during this past year. Breakfast must be going by 8 o’clock, not 8.30 a.m. & so on & so forth.

I’m upset that my favorite DUNKIN for some reason has temporarily closed. Upset even though there’s a DUNKIN at the end of my street. Every day I walk by the closed one hoping it has re-opened.

I hate disorder & disarray of any kind (which makes me hard to live with) & I can get very upset if things are topsy turvy.

And I would never open my KIND bars upside down. :eek:

You guys are all nuts!:)

I think we said we are.

What’s your zodiac sign?