You’re reminding me of the most complex controls I ever used (although granted, I haven’t really played much of anything for years now). I worked in a computer store that sold the Atari ST, and during the slow parts of the day we played a game called Brataccas. With that one-button Atari joystick, there were so many…

You’re probably normal. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they like the taste of fondant.

Dang it! I just through away a broken drill. I didn’t know it was currency!

Here’s a cake of lye:

In 2004 I was at a show where Carroll Shelby was signing things, and George Barris was sitting anonymously beside him. Nobody apparently recognized him. He’s right there in the background of the picture my daughter took of me and Shelby, just sitting there. It was sad in retrospect.

Anne of Green Gables is pretty well synonymous with old-timey kid lit

I had that one, then discovered it wasn’t a dream after all. Yikes! The only class I ever failed. Just this morning my wife and I were talking about the dream where you don’t know what your class schedule is, or what the next class is, or where the classroom is, etc. I hate that one. Also, if you’re young, I’m afraid…

That method of cleaning a French press seemed obvious in retrospect. I finally thought to do it a couple of weeks ago. It worked great!

Besides our son and his girlfriend living with us last summer during the pandemic, we moved my in-laws in with us last year, too. Now the kids are back at school, and my mother-in-law passed away in October (not COVID and not unexpected—she was 90). So currently it’s just my wife and I and my father-in-law, although…

I’m planning to plant an apple tree and some other fruit trees in the yard this year. I’ve been looking into the self-pollinating varieties, but I don’t know whether to do that, or to plant two trees.

Between our sophomore and junior years, my wife and I rented a trailer and were looking for jobs. We call that our “potato salad summer.” Potatoes and the other ingredients for potato salad were cheap, and we ate a lot of it that summer.

Kroger’s house HemisFares brand balsamic vinegar is a reasonably good and inexpensive version to get if you need it in a pinch. With balsamic vinegar the really good stuff costs a lot more, of course, but is worth it.

Wow, I imagine the chocolate gets super burnt at the temperature needed to pop the corn! I pop mine on the stove top with about equal parts canola oil and butter, and even then the butter gets really toasty. I like the taste of browned butter, fortunately.

Yeah, I wear glasses and use some Sennheiser over-the-ear headphones to watch TV without bothering my wife, so I know what you mean about the comfort problem. But by “around” my ears, I mean the Plantronics have clips or hooks that go above the ears.

Same here. I’m still using my old Plantronics BackBeat FIT phones that go over (around) my ears. I’ve never found any earbuds or tips that stay in my ears even sitting still, much less walking or doing some kind of activity. I guess I just have weird ears.

One year I was part of a media team that followed One Lap of America, taking photos and video and doing some interviews at every track. This was before digital video was really available, so we slapped suction-mount bullet cameras to cars and recorded on an 8mm camcorder we’d throw in the floorboard. We were all just…

Isn’t it like 1800 pounds with a 200hp engine? What else is there to understand? It looks like it would be a blast to drive.

She has a Keurig?!?

Thought of something else. If you’re cooking something Asian, soy sauce is usually the salt component. Invest in some good soy sauce. It’s not even that expensive, but a lot more flavorful than your run-of-the-mill grocery store variety. I live in the sticks, so for me that usually means Amazon, but if you have access…

My salt tip is instead of buying popcorn salt, just put some table salt (or any salt, really) in a mortar and grind it down to a finer popcorn salt consistency. It takes about 10 seconds, and the finer salt gets distributed in and sticks to your popcorn much better.