As someone who is trying to keep his weight down and is addicted to chocolate, this article presents an almost existential crisis. But, Ms. Lower, as a fan of your articles, I won’t hold it against you. I would suggest that the recipe can be made with 100% chocolate. I’ve weened myself from chocolate with sugar in it,…

As someone who raised a couple of children and who is helping raise a couple of almost grown grandsons, I will implore you to always answer your children’s questions with the truth. Shining them on, bs’ing them, or lying, is completely obvious to them and you will quickly lose their trust. Tell them the truth, don’t…

Had this problem years ago where pigeons were picking away at exterior siding to make a hole in it and nest between the siding and the interior walls. A friend knew that vineyard keepers flew kites with pictures of hawks on them to scare birds away that ate their grapes. The kites were clear plastic with a color…

Nice! 

My first client when I began my career as an agent and manager for roots musicians was Elizabeth Cotten, best known for her iconic song, “Freight Trian” and winning a Grammy when she was 90 years old. Her life was full of incredible coincidences, and here are a couple I was involved in. At the beginning of the first…

I’ve seen articles about how liberals are celebrating the inauguration, and the end of the republican catastrophe. But all I feel is burned out, and trying to pump myself up for at least eight more years of hard work. But when I feel like this, I know music is the answer. And it does do my heart good to know that 45…

RainX and towels, good. But a tire gauge and jumper cables? How 20th Century! For around $40 one can get a cordless tire inflator which includes the pressure gauge and can top up all four tires or reinflate a flat. For $72 one can get a car jump starter battery with enough oomph to jump start a couple of cars before…

RainX and towels, good. But a tire gauge and jumper cables? How 20th Century! For around $40 one can get a cordless…

Thank you for mentioning the most wonderful Diane Ferlatte! She does important work for us grownups, too, like Sapelo: Time is Winding up which chronicles the 400 year history of the Gulla speaking Black people of the Georgia Sea Islands. Sapelo Time Is Winding Up/Cassette: Ferlatte, Diane: 9789993286950: Amazon.com:…

What temperature do you use for roasting garlic that way?

A few years ago I was with a group of parents who began discussing what they thought the most difficult age was. Some said 2, others 11, others thought 16 was the worst. I ventured that in my experience, the most difficult age was 48.

Two things I didn’t see mentioned:

Have you tried used coffee grounds to clean your grinder? I imagine they would have to be dried to work.

I use the Workona extension to create collections of tabs that can be open or snoozed. I’m pretty sure I found out about Workona from a Lifehacker article. I have about 150 tabs open and maybe 300 snoozed. I save tabs in workspaces like read, listen, watch or for specific things I’m interested in. For example, I have…

I cut the cord a few years ago and get Comcast through Earthlink for about $10/month less than I could get it through Comcast itself. My VOIP is with Ooma, less than $5/month. I can order the best of what the cable channels offer through my public library. So a Tb cap doesn’t bother me at all.

Having bought my first pc in 1982, I learned to love mechanical keyboards, and worse than that, I love having the function keys in two columns on the left side. So I have accumulated a small stash of Northgate Omnikeys that should last at least as long as my brain. I would like illuminated keys, though...

Online dating might have a low percentage of good outcomes, but I think the best way to find a good life partner is to get involved in activities where you meet real people who share your values. The best way is to volunteer for organizations that do things you are passionate about. And get over the “looks” trap. You…

This is a “do” if you are polyamorous. Don’t keep it hidden, as dating someone who is monogamous is a waste of time for poly people, and leading someone on if you are poly and they are not is a mean thing to do.

You have several categories for search functions in your spread sheet, but my attempts to search in both OneNote and Evernote find them lacking, at least in ways that make sense for me. Search on a phrase, and you get a huge number of false positives, hits for each individual word. Search for “make love not war” and…

Ralph Nader deserves our thanks for kinder and gentler airlines. Around 1971 an airline bumped Nader from a flight because they had overbooked it to assure that it would be full. This caused Nader to miss a lecture engagement. Nader sued the airline, won, and the result is that they now ask passengers if they are…

You might suggest to all the people who are not sure about settling down that they read “The Ethical Slut” and see if settling down in an open relationship would take a lot of the anxiety out of it. There are huge numbers of people doing that now, in a variety of communities: swingers, polyamorous, and relationship…