No, I knew that say, red wine in a sauce doesn’t totally boil away, but I’m talking a quarter-teaspoon of high proof stuff to suspend vanillin...

I want to say thanks for this article. I read it, and realized that it was high-time for me to USE a password manager, and looked into things. I began to change passwords and try out the manager I chose, and the very next day found out that I’d been the target of identity theft, related to my bank account.

What do you do when you need vanilla flavoring? I always assumed the alcohol was burned away during cooking, ala using vodka for flaky pie crusts....

If I were still a single non-father, this would be inspirational. Instead, I just shake my head and get mad at younger-me. How could he be so stupid?

Oh, but you have to opt in to personalized ads. Not sure that’s a win-win.

I think part of the reason this works is because dark liquors like bourbon especially is because it’s aged in charred oak casks. Little-known fact: much fake vanilla extract is actually created from wood pulp, because oak actually contains a large amount of, wait for it... vanillin, the main ingredient in the vanilla…

But vanilla extract - the real stuff, anyway - is almost always suspended in high proof alcohol... you’re not supposed to drink it. It’s like bitters - just a suspension to carry the vanillin.

Somehow my post disappeared, but I basically came to say that a copy of The Wind’s Twelve Quarters would make a fine introduction. It includes my favorite short story of hers: The Darkness Box.

Definitely. I was 11, and was an advance reader, when I first encountered it. I read it for English class in 6th grade, then devoured the next two in the series. Years later, I tried to come back to the same environment and either the writing or myself was different enough that I didn’t connect with later…

Good point. I should have appended my comment with “... and the reason I keep drinking it is because it’s free at the office.” But that’s a little bit of a lie, because I still pay for it myself outside of the office sometimes. Of course, tea is free at the office, too....

I can drink black coffee these days, and I can drink Diet Coke, and I’ve never had a particular problem with seltzer, but... why would you bother imbibing something you don’t like, unless there’s some sort of peer pressure? The whole reason I drink coffee is because of peer pressure, honestly. But I’m getting better -…

I’m not sure if I’m a supertaster or not, but for my entire life, I’ve been extremely picky about flavors, so, maybe I am. Regardless, I could NOT drink black coffee for the longest time, and at some point I discovered the Cafe au Lait. Boom. Coffee drinker. Yay! I’m in the club. Then I had to endure no end of crap…

That used to happen to a friend of mine - his number was similar to a popular business. After a number of wrong number calls (including a few in which he took orders for whatever the business did), he finally got caller ID when it was new, just so he could answer any unknown numbers with “City Morgue, you stab ‘em, we…

Even if you don’t live in the UK, using Mr. Cooper is just begging for being ignored. They used to be called Nationstar Mortgage in the US.

I keep getting emails from another person with my name, who lives across the country, and cannot figure out that his gmail address is not the same as mine. I get frequent “Welcome to [service]!” emails for this guy, and sometimes they’re potentially sensitive. I’ve gone so far as to call a company to tell them that…

Undo your undo. And it uses the letter before Z. Legendary.

Seriously, that Ctrl+F thing in Outlook is officially the worst.

Amen, sir. Amen.

That’s actually what we do - or well, my wife does. When there is a streak of yuck on the inside of the door, I know not to use anything within.

Oh, puleeeeez tell me that everyone did the “Oh baby” all tight-throated and awful. That sounds delightful!