To be fair, the Japanese (or as propotionally many of the Japanese as the percentage of the psycho-christians in the West) are just as racist and bigoted as any other region. As a practitioner of that “pagan idolatry” (pretty much a racist phrase, itself), assuming you meant Buddhism generally, I do find it…

Cheaper than making commercials, maybe?

A co-worker of mine (some years ago) said on every spam call, he would simply lay the phone down, thereby wasting as much of their previous time as possible. He said one guy even called him back, irate. He said he just laid the phone down again, adding“that one was a slow-learner”

Umps have altered the game in ways it was never intended to be, notably the strike zone. We now have the technology to replace the umps at home plate. We should do it sooner rather than later. 

If you can plan ahead a bit, many (most?) quality wine stores have tasting bottles set up (on some local schedule) so you can try before you buy. My local “Total Wine and More” store has a tasting station open every Saturday morning/early afternoon with their “wines of the week” that are usually also typically on sale…

China - where 1984 is truly occurring, among other places.

Keep it simple. If I don’t recognize the number or if it’s not on my contact list, I don’t answer. They rarely leave a voicemail, which is good, too. Not answering also seems to get my number taken off their list as I might now get only 3-4 spam calls a week. 

We had an older cat (15+ years) and 2 kittens (now adults). The kittens treated him like a deity. Being a ragdoll with long hair, we had to get him shaved once. Completely (except his head). The kittens would not go near him until his hair grew back. They would hiss and run away when he got to close to them. It was…

What is barleywine usually served in? I have had barleywine twice (loved it) but, as a beer, felt a bit gypped when it came in what I think was a brandy snifter type glass, getting about half as much beer as I felt I paid for. Is that the norm? The stuff is pretty hard to find where I live, even at the wine & beer…

Since I was around 35, my mom has always ragged on me with “You ain’t seen nothing, yet.” I am now 65 and she is 86. Now she laughs as she says it. I am beginning to think she’s right. (Oh, my aching body!)

At one time, we paid more in daycare for our twins than we did for our mortgage. The wife wouldn’t let me sell one since we had TWO, dang it!

lol. We told ourselves the exact same thing when our kids were in pre-school child care. Then there was before- and after-school child care, saving in the VSOP for college, two pairs of braces, etc. Now, they are both graduated from college without any debt. It can be done. And we enjoyed doing it for our kids. Hey,…

Which monks were the French wine making monks way back in the middle ages? They were (and maybe still are) awesome.

Well, you just perfectly simplified the Buddha’s First Noble Truth. (Most Asian religions believe in suffering and that there is a “way out”, etc., etc.) Except they believe in hells, which sometimes I think that where we live now might be one of the hells, too.

Take what you just wrote and add the capability for you (or whatever it is that makes you “you”) to move between any one of these infinite worlds (say, perhaps, as you sleep) as your mind changes its attitude about itself and its environment, and you have an infinitude of possibilities. Now if only we could figure out…

Well, he and his buddies are just doing what they have always done in the good ole business world. What in tarnation could be wrong with that? Huh? /s

Yes. And that person always wonders why his or her order is usually mucked up. Then again, that person quite often has a negative experience everything-danged-where he or she goes and cannot figure out the single factor that is common to all those situations.

The last fondue party I went to was at my mother-in-law’s house, 20 years ago where she left something on the stove to keep warm and it caught fire. Destroyed the kitchen. As she lived in a condo, it was pretty tense for a while. The whole family (grandparents, 4 couples, 4 grand-kids) was there. I think it is still…

I think the key phrase is “impressionable age”. I was 31 when this movie was broadcast on TV. (Maybe one of the first disaster movies?) I was more “impressed” by the Cuban Missile crisis. I didn’t understand what was going on (I was born in 1952), but I do remember, right around then, having nightmares of the earth…

It’s usually due to (as noted) high state liquor license fees or state regs that prohibit sale of liquor in restaurants but allow consumption, if bought off premises. (That always just weirded me out. Then again, I grew up in Missouri where there was a tavern on every other corner and the poorest education system in…