ArtieShaw

My husband had a weird job many years ago doing this very thing. He worked (via a temp agency) for the federal government. They reviewed hospital billings for their agency’s workers and send mildly threatening letters if they charged $12,000 for a procedure that averaged $5,000.

It had some success, but some states had outright outlawed this sort of thing. Texas.

Headline: Ohio Pastor, Homeless, Cold Weather, City - Legal Action

Me: It’s fucking Dad’s Place again, isn’t it? Yes. Yes it is.

This happens every year with this place. And they always make national news. Somehow, this sort of injustice only happens to them. Repeatedly. In a town of less than 10,000 people. In the US’s 7th largest state.

They’re not equipped to handle the amount of people that they want to accommodate in this facility. They’ve ignored warnings for years. They’ve refused to improve their facilities, but they’re quick to get their story on Facebook whenever there’s a cold snap or snow event. Even if this weather is not happening in Ohio.

There’s a shelter literally next door to them. [yes - this other shelter has rules about substance use. They are probably also compliant with fire codes.]

But they’re martyrs here at Dad’s Place! Isn’t it a shame no one will fund them? /s

Here’s one going back to 2023 https://thevillagereporter.com/gofundme-established-for-dads-place-in-bryan-as-dispute-with-city-continues/

The “conventionally attractive” Marx brother, who usually played the straight man. Still better known than Gummo, if I were to guess.

We’re personally fans of Harpo, mainly because of the metaphorical whiplash that comes from watching his scenes. One minute you’re laughing at the comical clown or admiring his musical skill, and the next you realize that he’s actually a dangerous maniac. (Run, children!!! He is not safe!!)

Is this list facetious? Or a pop culture reference that I don’t get?

Some of these items have existed for thousands of years in non-petrochemical forms (dice, tool racks, tents). Others are currently obsolete, weirdly specific (soap dishes?), or weirdly vague (tubing), or a weird combination of the same (water pipes).

I’m also struggling to understand vitamin capsules. Don’t most of those use standard gelatin derived from animal sources? Or fish or vegetable sources? And why vitamins specifically? I’ve visited several factories that make capsules for vitamins or pharmaceuticals. Is there an additive to the gelatin formula that I’m forgetting? And why specific to vitamins?

I don’t know. It’s early and this doesn’t make sense

We seem to have some sort of natural immunity to that. Whether for good or ill, only time will tell.

Not a doctor, but I’m interested in the subject. I think the current consensus is “yes and no.”

200 years ago, people may have answered yes. Thirty years ago it was popular to discount the idea entirely because germs are what make you sick. Can’t deny that.

Lately I’ve been hearing some acknowledgement that a stress to your body may make you more susceptible or less able to fight off an infection. The wiki article includes a recent study that pointed to poor sewage treatment near the White House in Harrison’s day. For whatever reason WHH wasn’t able to fight that off but the rest of the residents seemingly were.

People have been making the connection of “he stood outside for hours in the snow and drizzle, then caught the dropsy and died” for centuries. I don’t think they lacked for sense or couldn’t make the obvious connection between exposure and sickness. I do think they lacked for microscopes.

I’m probably being annoying, but I’m a lapsed space/astronomy nerd. And I’m old.

When I think of cheap and fast, I think of the soyuz program.

It’s just that 30 years ago I heard so much public boosterism about the promise of private space flight and nothing much of substance has seems to have materialized in the subsequent 30 years. Older nerds that I knew (in their 30s or 40s at the time) were pretty skeptical of that '90s narrative. To be fair, most of them worked at Fermilab or Argonne NL rather than NASA. It’s not exactly an insider’s view. It was just nerd gossip overheard by a teenager.

I was born into a world where people had been to the moon a few years earlier. They had launched Voyager, Mariner, and that Venus one. My family ate weekend breakfast at a restaurant called Skylab (it was shaped like it). The shuttle flies. Shuttle explodes. Shuttle flies again. All before I graduated middle high school.

Had to look that last one up. 1988. It seemed like an eternity at the time.

Thirty-five years later?

Hoping for another Wm. Henry Harrison?

When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe… He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day.[104] He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history

In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30 p.m. he uttered his last words…

The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier.

Things one learns in high school.

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

Wasn’t the first shuttle launched 45 years ago? Or is this talking about something else?

I honestly haven’t been paying that much attention since the '90s, but to this casual observer it looks like it has taken 45 years to find a different way to reach low earth orbit.

Two references:

Local Farmer Seizes Territory Along the French/Belgium Border https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56978344

And a story less amiable and fun… Since the state of Kentucky was established before its neighbors, its border was defined as the northern shore of the Ohio River. Indiana and Ohio were established with reference to the Kentucky border. Basically, they start where Kentucky ends. When the river moves and islands form, legal disputes begin. Kentucky usually wins.

https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2021-04-21/oki-wanna-know-why-does-kentucky-own-the-ohio-river https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/comments/17c0pv0/the_ohiokentucky_border_does_something_real_weird/

I have met people who were quite incensed about this situation.

I think there’s also some weird shit going on along the Mississippi.

Mexico became part of “South America” about 20 years ago if memory serves. That continental drift is a bitch these days.

I think there may have been a joke in there.

Or maybe not.

Nah. Conventional wisdom says he can either

1. the the priest all about it and do some chants
2. find himself a baptizer and spend the rest of his time Jesusing real hard.

Johnny’s options will depend on his local wise man, but I suspect either way he’ll also be strongly encouraged to buy some merch.

What’s funny is that I also think I’m on the spectrum.

And to continue the conversation - my husband and I have been talking about visiting a South American country this summer where roasted guinea pig is on the menu. I honestly think I could give it a try even though I try to save any mice that my cats corner.

Food choices are both weird and personal. I’ll always respect that.

I sort of like snakes, but am hesitant to handle them because 1) they’re wild creatures and therefore unpredictable and 2) I heard that they will poo on you if they’re alarmed. I don’t need that. It’s more practical than visceral.

Spiders? Hell no. It’s not even an option.

Most people I know fall on either one side or the other. It’s not a bad ice-breaker or conversation starter.

So I’ve got some cats. They’re small, but they can fuck up your day.

That being said, I rely on them solely as an early warning system. If I’m home alone and hear a strange sound that may be cause for alarm, I look for cats. If they’re sleeping peacefully there’s no external threat. If they can’t be found, someone is nearby. It may just be the mail delivery, but they know when a human is in the vicinity.

Spiders of the sea. Crabs too. I wouldn’t want to touch one that wasn’t cooked.

Although I find the comparison discomforting to think about, the sea spiders both go well with butter and are generally regarded as delicious.

That introduces the question: if there were a land spider large enough to nullify the risk/reward/deliciousness equation, would I give it a try? My gut answer is no, but I think the realistic answer is, “I’ll wait and see what my fellow apes do with it first. If they have any good recipes, probably yes.”

I would say that the hair is the set of raccoons that hang out on the roof of the house and do weird shit at unexpected times.

I was going to say that The Servant wasn’t that bad - particularly at the beginning.

Then I read the Wikipedia synopsis of the other one. Holy shit, that looks like a mess. May watch it anyway out of morbid curiosity and masochism.

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

That was how I was assuming the rationale went. You do see ocean going vessels on the Great Lakes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lawrence_Seaway

And I think that’s how everyone wound up with the zebra mussels. (Bilge discharge from those ships)