Thanks Clovis! My DH also doesn’t see lots of things . . . unfortunately for me, what I miss most when I travel is fresh fruit and veggies, and obviously these things don’t last during trips. (In fact, I can count on getting to throw out all the rotted vegetables from the drawer when I get home.) We don’t have…

Oh, how I wish my husband would assume at least 50% responsibility for inventorying and managing our food supply! I work full time; he is semi-retired. I travel a lot; he’s home all but a few nights/year. A month ago I got home from a two week+ trip in the wee hours one morning. Eight hours later, as I hauled my…

Correct. I’ve worked for one of the aforementioned federal agencies for 26 years. While I did not waive my First Amendment rights the day I was sworn in, I think it’s inaccurate to say, as this article implied, that the Hatch Act protects me. It doesn’t; in fact it constrains what I can do re partisan political…

We’ve got the $20 Amazon model. Be aware that these don’t fit well over some one-piece toilets that are very wide towards the back. The control device sits just to the right of (sorry, southpaws) and under the seat, back towards the hinge, and if the bowl is too wide at this point, the control piece has to sit on…

I’m in the US. The nearest major airport in the closest state to mine is 1500 nautical miles away. The driving distance to the border of the closest states is about 2300 miles, on a two-lane road for all but the first 40 miles. In places that road is gravel-surfaced, and in winter it is seldom plowed, and there are…

The calculator is off by a month at each end of the growing season where I live, i.e. it overestimates the length of our frost-free season by two months. In reality we have about four months between the last and first frost of the calendar year, give or take a few days. And soil temperature is a major issue, because…

Nooooo!!! I tried chilling my bag o’white in the river on a float trip once, but rising waters swept it away. It is really hard to tether those bags with rocks etc. Instead, invest in a quality mesh bag, the kind with loops and handles, and use a knot like a bowline that won’t loosen in water to attach the mesh bag…

As usual, a couple of states, totaling over 20% of US territory, are missing from the map . . . And who uses the color red to indicate good while blue and green are bad?

Exactly. When airline employees try to cite FAA regs and get them exactly back-asswards, is there any hope? And an FAA spokesperson interviewed for the story apparently thinks it’s up to parents to print out the actual regulatory language about separate seats and restraints for children, and carry it with them, in…

Matzo with butter. Mmmmmmmm . . . .

Dutch licorice. Dubbel zout.

This guy did not refuse to obey a member of the flight crew. He refused to obey a gate agent. Not the same thing.

Actually, the airline likely violated federal law in this case. Once you are on the plane, the only legal grounds an airline has for forcibly deplaning you is if you represent a safety threat or violate FAA regulations. Refusing to *voluntarily* give up your seat when asked to by a GATE AGENT is not the same thing…

Distilled water tastes terrible. Do what we do in Alaska and simply save, wash and periodically refill (from the tap — NYC has excellent water) PETE milk or vinegar etc. jugs. I have them stashed all over the house because our biggest threat is earthquakes, and it’s hard to tell which part of the house will still be…

No ticks AT ALL in Alaska — HaHaHaHaHa!!!!!

Clearly the Indian version of bad hombres.

Two Subaru household here. 2000 Outback (bought in November ‘99) and 2009 Impreza (Oct ‘08). Both bought new, no major repairs, neither has even broken down or even failed to start. And we live on a mountainside in Alaska where the cars are driven on icy/snowy roads 7-8 months/year.

I think “most Americans’ who eat sushi with any frequency know that raw fish with nothing else is called sashimi.

Obviously, it would be better to eat it. Perhaps they will make a version from rice flour?

The parts of the map shown here are missing the most earthquake prone part of the USA. We had a 5.6 yesterday that I’m sure none of you heard about, but it sure got our attention. Had a 7.1 a little over a year ago and a 9.2 back in 1964, which was the second greatest earthquake ever recorded anywhere. Guess which…