Here in Anchorage Alaska, we go to work in the dark and come home in the dark for about five months a year. DST only makes it that much harder to get up on weekdays, starting in early September, when sunrise is already coming after the start of an early-normal working day. Without DST, the sun does not come up until…

You have to click off the auto throttle, too. I have a feeling Lion Air flight crew are trained to be operators rather than actual stick and rudder pilots. Automation is great until it isn’t, and the pilots may have been so focused on going down checklists and trying to out-wit the flight systems that they failed to…

My mother adores circus peanuts (she’s 91). They are getting harder to find. And I will take anyone’s Neccos off their undeserving hands! There’s nothing like a fresh roll to consume at the movies. The clove, chocolate and licorice flavors are the bast.

I was in grad school with an Icelandic student in the late 1970s. He said the prohibition was an effort to reduce problem drinking. Spirits were more expensive and you apparently had to buy the whole bottle at the bar. Of course, people still drank to excess and you can get blotto pretty fast on Akvaviti if your…

I am liking Turkey more and more lately.  Who knew?

When someone touches you without your consent it’s called assault.

Take it from a resident of the state with more earthquakes than the rest of the states combined, and 75% of all earthquakes over magnitude 5 in the USA: you are a complete idiot if your bed is under a skylight or if you hang anything heavy or hard on the wall over the head of your bed. I have nothing on the wall above…

Take your rings off first and put them in a safe place. Use light weights but make your movements very slow, e.g. count to ten as you curl the dumbbell and another ten as you lower it. Use a mirror to ensure your form is good, and pay attention to the rest of your body, not just your arms. Lunges are also a relatively…

Re “be quick about it” — you do know one of the reasons why it takes women longer to pee, right? It has to do with clothing, especially in places where women are likely to be dressed in skirts, tights or pantyhose, etc. It takes a lot longer to declothe our urethras than it takes most men to whip it out through a fly.

Abortion is the big exception here.

I use black electrical tape to cover the annoying tire pressure warning light on my dash. Where I live we use studded tires seven months out of the year, and I have mine mounted on steel take-off rims so I can switch then out myself — cheaper, faster, and far more satisfying than waiting in line at the tire place…

I am so sick of hearing Kavanaugh defenders refer to the presumption of innocence. This isn’t a criminal trial, for God’s sake (although maybe there should be one), but a Senate advise and consent process. The presumption of innocence plus high evidentiary bar in criminal cases ensures that only those proven guilty…

I’ve got a set of flat and Phillips screwdrivers in various sizes that all have handles with triangular cross sections. The amount of torque I can apply with my tiny lady hands is massive with these things.  So much better than the standard hexagonal tools.

I’ve got a set of flat and Phillips screwdrivers in various sizes that all have handles with triangular cross…

Note that the Alaskan city formerly known as Barrow changed its name to Utqiagvik two years ago.

Don’t ask the FAs for re-seating help. If you have to board without having seats together, your only hope is getting other pax to swap. And don’t expect those with aisle seats to swap for a middle!

Agreed. And, furthermore, some of us frequently fly across locations where either, or both, air-to-ground (cell tower based) or air-to-orbit (satellite based) coverage is poor or absent. Flights over the ocean obviously have no ATG coverage, and ATO is bad at high latitudes because geosynchronous satellites orbit…

Lime is the common term for calcium oxide, which is a strong alkali. It is very caustic, reacting with water and producing lots of heat. When you heat CaO to 2400 C, you get limelight. Lye (sodium hydroxide, or NaOH) is also a strong alkali, and can be used to “digest” animal matter (including human corpses) when…

Huh?  I still barely weigh 106 (I am 63).  Menarche at 13.

That’s actually the plane’s main gear, located right beneath its original center of gravity, in contrast to the nose gear.

Bingo! I live in Murkowski’s state and have had to add a dozen or so numbers to my call block list in the past couple of months — too many national organizations (that I am in sympathy with) calling to exhort me to ask my senator to vote against confirmation. I’ve already let her office know I don’t want Kavanaugh on…