For extra mojo, say that the shakers were carved out of Hawaiian lava rock.

I’m in Canada and was about to apply for it right around the time Chase closed it down. Why? Because, to quote creditcardgenius.ca, “The reason we loved this card so much was its 0% foreign exchange fees and great cash back earn rates, especially for a no fee card.” The new card will apparently lack these two features,…

I live in a civil service town. Although many government staff have flexible hours, almost everyone leaves for lunch at noon sharp. This means the restaurants are pretty much empty until 12:05 onward, when the doors open and people start streaming in.

Or just keep your stuff in a single, consistent spot (per Marie Kondo etc.) and check it when you run out of something. We use labelled plastic shelving units of various sizes, along with plastic shoeboxes (example: one is dedicated to multivitamins and other supplements), and it makes things soooo simple.

Over the last 3 years, our Perseids viewing has been hampered by some combination of full(ish) moon and cloud cover — not to mention the omnipresent light pollution (which I can escape only partially). The local weather report is predicting some clouds for the next 2 nights. Oh well, there’s always next year... I hope…

Many thrift stores would be happy to get good-quality used hangers (although probably not the wire ones). I volunteer at a charity shop and although we are generally well stocked, hangers break and need to be replenished eventually.

Project Gutenberg has lots of books available in Kindle format (they used to be listed as MOBI format, which is basically “Kindle without the DRM”).

Ugh, I always ask Amazon to consolidate orders, both to save money on shipping but also to save on packaging, fuel, etc. Kiss a tree, hug a whale, etc.

I love perfumes and (“but”) I wear them almost exclusively at home now because there are so many people out there whose day could be ruined if I put on perfume, then go out in public.

I never learned to drive. My mom was a single mother who was on a tight budget, and terrified of her car insurance rates going up, so I was the only kid I knew who didn’t get driving lessons in high school when they were offered. Then I ... basically never had access to a practice car / lived in cities where public tra…

Disinterested means being neutral or not taking a side on something. It does not mean uninterested or lacking interest.

The reluctance of many people to use the grammatically appropriate ‘me’ is utterly baffling. I can only guess that people imagine ‘myself’ sounds more tasteful.

It’s much easier to identify Jupiter & Saturn when you have a VR night-sky astronomy app. SkyView Lite is the free version of SkyView and works beautifully for this, although of course there are other great apps too.

Yup, exactly. We used to freeze ours for storage, too.

I linked to a webpage about them and everything!!! Click the link!

These things are great. I use one to whip up batches of hummingbird nectar. Because the glass is so strong, I can put the nectar in when it’s still very hot and it won’t break. It’s tough as nails and the birds don’t care whether I made it in a “genuine” mason jar or not.

This is a good development.

OMG, my parents used to use milk bags for everything. The transparent plastic bag containing the milk was unbelievably strong and durable, so they reasoned why waste such a great bag after the milk was gone? Each bag would be turned inside out, mixed thoroughly with soap and water, and hung (or “perched”) to dry.

Holy cow! Here in Canada, my 10-year passport cost $160. If someone chopped up my passport, I’d murder them. (Only politely.)

Dondoo only lets you upvote or downvote the etiquette entries. I wish there was a way to comment on the illustrations. Some of the pictures for behaviour no-nos in Japan are misleading — yes, you should bow slightly when you thank someone, but you don’t press your hands together in gassho, unless perhaps you’re…