Another story, from my pre-teen days. An old man would call our home phone number.

One year in college, my roommate and I realized we sounded exactly alike over the phone. (This was the 80s, before cell phones. Dorm rooms had land lines.) He would pick up when my parents called and they would start discussing family matters with him. The best part was when his girlfriend called and I picked up. She…

Of course, nothing beats fresh bread from your own oven, but a local bakery is nice too. :)

At my former office we had a great little paper shredder that had a special slot for credit cards, and could be used to destroy CDs and DVDs. I think the thing was designed for the CIA or something, it could destroy just about anything. I always used it for my credit cards; it ground them almost to dust.

Texture makes a huge difference, at least for me. My mom is a great cook in many ways, but she cooks many veggies until they’re mush. I can’t stand mushy vegetables...canned peas make me gag. She used to cook zucchini until it barely held together; I discovered Julia Child’s technique of grating and sauteeing zucchini…

I once had a personal-ad date go quiet for a bit, then look up sadly, and say, “I’m sorry, I’m just not feeling it.” While I was a bit disappointed (he was CUTE) I understood and appreciated his candor. So I said, “Yeah, same here, but I am enjoying the conversation. Shall we finish up the drinks and then go our…

Just to say, I tried Notebook and love it. Hope a web or Windows version is out soon. And an Evernote import tool.

I love horror movies, although prefer suspenseful/eerie/gothic over slashers and torture porn. (Hammer studios, anyone? AIP? Classic Universal?) I also love reading a good ghost story and there’s tons to be downloaded for free online. And E. T. A. Hoffmann, my favorite (my pic is a portrait of him) did some really…

I was out of work and paying for COBRA insurance recently, and I was basically buying a 128GB iPhone 7 once a month to pay for it. I was unemployed for 7 months; just started a new job yesterday. Thing is, I’m a contract employee at the moment (they have the option of hiring me full-time at any point), and I might…

I just started a new job today. No disasters, but it was kinda freaky. I’ve been out of work since last July, so when I went in I kept expecting to be told there’s some kind mistake here, you’re not the one we wanted, etc. And my login information didn’t work at first, but the IT dept. got it done. I’m still in an…

I put the change in a jar after separating out the quarters, which go into a little drawer in my car to be used for parking meters and occasionally tolls. When the jars fill up, I usually settle for Coinstar...I get the Amazon “gift card” and then use it on myself.

Heh...actually, a research position that requires attention to detail.

An unusual question at a recent interview: the interviewer pulled out a shopping bag and dumped out a bunch of different packets of pencils. “List as many differences as you can spot,” he said. I got the obvious ones first (recyclable packaging or not, number, color, etc.) and moved on to the more esoteric (some…

Good question. One thing I noticed was that I’m male and the thin-skinned people were female. I actually got scolded and told I needed to remember that “women are more sensitive,” only this was coming from a female supervisor so I wasn’t sure I could get away with saying that I found that sexist. I wonder if they saw…

Not unless Trump became a gay liberal and isn’t President anymore....

Actually, I had to deal with colleagues who were notoriously thin-skinned. Sometimes it would be walking on eggshells around them (even management admitted and complained about it, but nobody ever told them to toughen up). But if one of them was openly insulting and offensive to me...well, too bad, I had to suck it…

Actually, hater, you have it backwards.

They’re made for people who secretly prefer to gnaw on chalk.

If someone at my former office said I was rude or offensive to them, I was told I had to apologize and grovel to them. But if someone said something rude or offensive to me, I was told, no, it wasn’t rude, I was too sensitive, I needed to focus on my work, just get over it, etc.

I’ve actually found a few recipes for guinea hen. Patricia Wells’ “Bistro Food” has a roasted guinea hen with olives....mmmmm....