Tolkien did describe hobbits this way [emphasis mine]: “...their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers....”

I could really confuse some future owner of our house. I installed laminate where the decorative layer is real wood. No repeating patterns.

There’s a traditional Georgian dish called khachapuri that is essentially this.

I tried some of that Genova albacore in olive oil for lunch today. It was good; I’ll be buying more.

Hmm. Kind of makes me wonder if there’s an opening for a fast food restaurant that only serves all-day breakfast items. I think none of the others (except maybe Sonic?) are offering them all day now.

Ha! I was thinking along similar lines. When I lived where there were Schlotzsky’s delis, one of my favorite sandwiches was a kind of hacked-together muffaletta substitute: their ham and cheese, plain (no lettuce, etc.), plus their olive relish. Really tasty.

I have basically that problem with my father-in-law’s 2014 Buick Regal that I’m driving today. There’s some kind of wonkiness with a switch in the shift lever. About one in five times when I shut the ignition off, the key won’t come out until I wiggle the shift release button and lever a bit.

I kinda feel for you! A few weeks back I did far fewer cherry tomatoes with this method, maybe 20, and it was still something of a pain to peel them. I was making a Spanish dish, papatas bravas (I think that’s the name—“angry potatoes”). It did turn out tasty, though, with the fresh tomatoes.

I fill with hot water and a bit of dish soap, then let it soak for a while. Even easier to shake and clean after that.

Very interesting! I like how for the past couple of seasons of Chopped, they’ve started including more context and a little bit of a wider perspective, where sometimes you can see more of the set, some of the crew, etc. It gives you a better idea of what’s actually happening.

My neck hurts like crazy if I watch TV at my parent’s house, where it’s mounted at least 3 feet higher than it should be. A couple of years ago my elderly father-in-law moved in with us, so my wife and I moved to an upstairs bedroom. I took the opportunity to get a new 4K TV and mounted it here, which is a really…

By that logic, why grind beef up at all? Why not just have a steak?

Being in the Midwest, I’ve never been to a Friendly’s, but the chopped cheese sounds like a cousin of our “loose meat sandwich.”

Clearly you need to be baking more cookies!

Galadriel as a sword-wielding warrior goes against my head canon, for one personal example

But as I mentioned above, I’m about an hour east of St. Louis in rural Illinois in a county with no single town over 10,000, and even here Obama got 49% vs 51% for McCain. The weird thing is, somehow in the same county Trump got 72%? I just don’t understand that.

Kind of. I live in rural downstate Illinois, and our county is—or was—pretty purple. Yes, it almost always goes R, but it did vote 49% for Obama to 51% for McCain. And then, somehow, voted 72% for Trump?!? I just don’t understand it.

I know what you mean. You should see some of the stuff I’ve found in my walls. Wallpaper, paint, and more wallpaper on top. Places old windows and doors were once framed in. Behind a mirror I found that someone had taken out an old medicine cabinet, and just papered over the hole! I could hardly believe it.

Kind of along these lines, I now just wash the board, knife, and whatever else I’m using immediately after I’m done with them. As you say, it’s exponentially easier to do it then, instead of after food residue has dried. If I do it immediately, it’s a quick scrub with soapy water and a brush, sponge, or rag, then…

Our house was built in the ‘40s and has (very!) hard batten and plaster walls. They’re also nowhere near flat and smooth. We used texture on them when we were remodeling, because it really helps cover up how uneven the original plaster surface is. Putting up dry wall, or—heaven forbid—re-plastering them, was…