not to mention, the skill level of a Blue Angel pilot is simply on an entirely different planet than the average general aviation or hobbyist pilot. Also, the technical capabilities of the F-18s they fly make a plane like this one look like a wind-up toy by comparison.

there was a great TED Talk maybe 5 yrs ago by a woman with a long family history of Alzheimers/dementia who said she was actively learning skills that could occupy her time if/when she became a dementia patient herself. Repetitive tasks are good, as are skills gained many years before the onset. She was taking up…

my college roommate was Madonna’s 1st cousin through their respective mothers. For years back in the early 90s, Madonna and Cher had a running gag where they would mail a specific ham bone back and forth to each other on random holidays, wrapped up or hidden in other gifts. I no longer remember how or why this…

His mother is German (Army brat); he’s said before he speaks moderately good German, or something along those lines, probably conversationally fluent except for very nuanced idioms and highly technical jargon (like the names of car parts).

100% agreed. It is also a reflection of a country / society whose citizens can generally reasonably rely on efficient, reliable, inexpensive public transportation for pretty much all the to’ing and fro’ing required by daily life — job commutes, access to medical care, government services, etc., and a well-developed…

next time you’re in Chicago (post-COVID), go to The Berghoff on Adams Street in the Loop. Decent to good german food overall, but the potato salad is proper Kartoffelsalat - vinegar based with dill and slightly warm.  LECKER!

do we have an explanation for the totally random sculpture in the loft of David’s workshop space? looks like a Big Boy-style statute but for an Asian restaurant.

this article taught me more about the anatomy and naming of female genitalia in 3 minutes than I learned in 12 years of Catholic grade school / high school and 4 years of conservative Christian college. Plus, I’m (very) gay so I never bothered with any first-hand fact gathering.

I was an 84 Horizon at a school full of brand-new 87 IROCs and Z28s.  and one Delorean (he’s a hedge fund guy now of course) 

you need to get Plex for those 1000s of CDs. I have an old, cheap Chromebook attached to a drive with all my music on it (like 5gb worth) that I leave running Plex 24/7 at home, connected to the WiFi. As long as that’s up, I can stream any of the music (and movies, too) on my personal drive from home to my phone anywhe…

To use an old Tour de France analogy, I just always assumed Bottas was playing George Hincapie to Hammy’s Lance Armstrong (minus all the doping scandals and the fact that Lance was/is an objectively rancid person) — content to be the perfect lieutenant whose main job is to make sure his team leader wins; maybe take a…

I’d say given what we’ve seen over the past year, the Silverado is going to end up 1/2 tailgate and the other 1/2 grille

Germany also has Schmallenberg (two “L”s) and Schmalenberg (one “L”) and they’re about 4 hours apart from each other. I found out the hard way.

stories of sh*t behaviour like this are rampant in the fashion industry, too. huge multinationals like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton and others outright copying the work of small upstart designers. like you said, worst case for Big Fashion, they’re out a couple hundred grand in legal fees until they squash the upstart.…

ETA -- also used to be lore never to trust anybody whose car had yellow headlights, back when those were mandatory on all French cars until the mid-90s.

The initial letters on German plates designate what city / region the car is registered to, and only major cities get the single letter (“B” for Berlin, “K” for Koln (Cologne), “M” for Munich). Lesser population centres get 2 and 3 letter plates, in order of size.

always a sign of a top-notch comment when they misspell “Rhoades” [sic] Scholar. (Hint: it’s the Rhodes Scholarship.)

Don’t sleep on Phil Collins’ popularity, at least into the early aughts. There’s a great CD from 2001 called Urban Renewal that’s all R+B / rap reremakes of Mr. Collins’ hits. L’il Kim on “In The Air Tonight”. Ol’ Dirty Bastard on “Su-su-sudio” (which is suddenly amazing, compared to the original which is vile, trite…

how is the Edmund Pettus Bridge still named after a man who (at least according to Wiki) was a senior officer of the Confederate Army and was later politically active in — and served as a Grand Dragon of — the Klan. I realize there is already an existing movement to rename the bridge to honour Rep Lewis ... can his…

I totally get this ... because I once jammed the thin, metal edge of a cufflink into my eye once after a long day of work and a boozy client dinner. The doc at the ER could see the scratch on my cornea with her naked eye. Luckily, nothing more serious, and since evolution taught our bodies long long ago that not being…