Perfect night.

The older one is going for a minor in International Studies, and at 19 has now visited 10 countries, plus lived in Canada and the US (so, a dozen). Most of those he’s visited without me.

I watched a woman in Zion National Park picking flowers (orchids? I can’t recall) from a small wetland at the side of a trail while people walked by ignoring her. I told her to GTFO and then promptly went and found a park employee. Turns out park employees are pleasnatly surprised when someone comes to them with info…

Yeah, my spelling comes via my grandfather. Obviously there’s Irish in my family, but we came over generations ago.

They certainly still have their issues. We took our kids for one last big family vacation last February (the oldest is in university now) and on a trip down the Cano Negro towards Nicaragua the guide told us the ranchers on the one side of the river pay the annual fines to allow their pasture to encroach on the rain…

Alan, my friend, so good to see you here. Been years and years, since I hardly go to cons any more and I suspect you don’t go to many.

What would also be nice to read would be that the CR authorities have identified some of these idjits and banned them from the country. At the very least.

I have a 12 and a 17, and the 12 is the better one. Like all single malts, I drink it neat with a wee drappie of room temp water.

I was on CompuServe, which for some reason insisted on numbers for everyone at first. So I was 73522.1404. Yes, that’s committed to memory. Don’t ask me to tell you the names of most of my wife’s co-workers. Or several of the characters on The Walking Dead.

“Helicopter parent.” How the hell are commenters supposed to do their jobs when you take all the good lines?

Not sure I understand how this is hard with domes:

He’s trying to find all the horcruxes! Quick, someone stop him with a Vulcan nerve pinch!

President’s Clearing House. Once in awhile Joe Biden comes to someone’s door with a giant novelty check, too.

In England (and, I imagine, pretty much everywhere else real grass is used) the soccer - football - stadiums have giant lighting systems they roll out over the grass when the pitch isn’t being used. I would think in the long run this would be cheaper than paying a crew to take out the individual sections week in and…

This all makes me think of the wonderful and funny Iranian film Offside, about women who dress and act like men (or boys) so they can sneak into a soccer game. (And hey, I just looked it up and see it’s estimated budget was $2500 US. That’s nuts.)

Applause.

“...and also capable of shooting anyone who tries some shit in the face.”

It (just a little) has the feel of an old Graflex 4X5 shot, the subject not narrowed down to just one or two players, and crystal clear. Except of course in color instead of B&W.

This makes me miss Pete’s Pond, which we used to visit regularly with our kids when they were young. Anyone here remember it?

Possibly the best science fiction show on TV right now, and certainly one of the funniest shows, too.