Agree with you 100% based on my own experience. When I was 12 back in the 70s, my friends and I thought it was cool to call into a local radio station late at night and talk to the DJs—not on the air, just on the phone.

I’ll take “Jobs I’d rather die than do” for $400, Alex.

He has Crohn’s disease. I have it too, and it definitely fucks with how I look. The dark circles around his eyes and his emaciated appearance can be manifestations of Crohn’s. 

...who was only quasi-saved by his children being ever so slightly more competent than him...

Between that tattoo and his hideous glasses, he should have been arrested for crimes against fashion a long time ago.

Appreciate the much needed snort-laugh.

Excellent point.

You say they’ll be faced with exorbitant interest rates, but Ross begs to differ (bolding is mine):

It’s heartbreaking that you have to worry about that, but I understand why you do after watching the travails of a co-worker who adopted an infant from Ethiopia. Her child is now 10 years old, and in spite of her efforts to shield him from discrimination and bigotry, it’s impossible in today’s political environment.

I was starting to think I had become inured to the rampant hypocrisy, bigotry and hate that endlessly emanates from this “administration.” But your succinct summary of what happened to Trayvon sent me straight into an ugly cry. That’s a good thing, really, because it lets me know I’m not as dead inside as I feared.

This is my favorite tweet from one of the players:

The same one inhabited by the GOP and Trump supporters, apparently. The rationalizations they come up with are truly mind boggling, but even more astonishing is the fact they have the balls to actually say them out loud with a straight face.

You silly goose. You must not have heard the news that the shutdown isn’t a bad thing at all. Just ask Kevin Hassett, the White House’s chief economic adviser:

You’re correct, stone fruit are without a doubt the best. Driving to the beach every year, a required stop is Clanton, Alabama, where we pick up a bushel basket of the most amazing juice-running-down-your-chin peaches plus a three-scoop cone of the best peach ice cream you’ll ever eat. 

“The sender is no longer in control of distribution” is the most important part of your post. And it’s the point I recently made to two of my great-nieces. They’re both 9 years old and very close cousins, and for Christmas, I got permission from their parents to give them iPods, which is what they wanted most in the…

There’s very little that brings me comfort these dreary, grey Trumpian days, but when I’m at the end of my political rope and need something to cheer me up, I just remember this little nugget from a book by Michael Lewis:

One of my youngest sister’s many positive attributes is the desire to do whatever it takes to help others, and she has a specific interest in feeding them. That meant that at Thanksgiving, she brought at least one homeless person to our family dinner table every year, usually a panhandler she picked up on the side of…

I’m in the middle of the implant process myself, and it ain’t cheap. Mine will end up costing around $40,000. I staved off the inevitable as long as I could, so I at least had some time to prepare as much as possible financially, but damn, I’d sure rather use that money for fun things, like tropical vacations.…

As part of my job, I participate in regular brainstorming sessions. Our general rule is there’s no such thing as a bad idea. We want all of them on the table, no matter how ridiculous they may seem in the beginning. Some of our best work came from something that was initially deemed crazy and unworkable.

That links to an essay about conceptual continuity in Frank Zappa’s music. Is the web address incorrect or is there something in the Zappa article related to weed/opiates that I’m missing?