Both good points. I was just brain-storming. Maybe a “minimum cover charge for the restaurant per person missing” when seating less than half of a requested reservation?

Maybe the customer should be “on the hook” for a 15% tip times the number of seats at the table if their reservations are for more than, say, 2 people. So, if only 2 people show up at a 6 person table, then on a, say, $40 meal., then $6 x 6 = $36 dollars gets added to the tab. The customer has to agree to this policy…

I don’t remember where we got the idea, but we used music to teach our kids their home phone number and their address (“10 little indians”, if I remember right.) at the age of 3 and 1/2. Music really helps memory work in kids. Enjoy them! They go up SO FAST!!! (Ours are in their late 20's now. /sigh)

I agree with everything you say, but I am totally off bratwurst, forever. Bratwurst is like the lima beans of meat. I do not have either of those two taste buds, apparently. I doubt I could taste the difference between lima beans and bratwurst. Or asparagus. God Help Me, that’s one of my wife’s favorite foods. 

Absolutely. If you aren’t going to (or, for whatever reason, can’t) go as close to full immersion as your resources and situations allow, you are going to spend years, many years, doing what immersion could do for you in many 6-9 months. THEN do all the SRS, Memrise, flashcard-y stuff to get better. Oddly, Duolingo…

I think baseball is the safer and wiser alternative. Also, not a lot of (relatively) short QB’s in the NFL, as in zero. I think Doug Flute, 5'10", was the last QB under 6'. He was as good as anyone (imho) but there were not as many willing to let him lead their team as the 6'4" not-nearly-as-good QB’s abound. (/end…

So much good SF&F out there. Simmons, Hamilton, Brin, Kim Harrison, and on and on. Also, get good writers. Every mega-success has (at the beginning, at least) wonderful writers. Crap shows with crap writers usually don’t do much. 

I grew up in the Midwest and left in the 80's. Never heard of these things. I guess finger-food wasn’t a real big that a keggers. (I do not miss those days. lol)

Agreed. I feel the same way about pistachios. I once found a jar of “unwrapped” pistachios somewhere. I probably ate that whole jar in a ridiculously short time. Trying to remember what I have binged on recently is not always easy.

Yeah, basically, Step 1: Actually stay at a hotel that might even offer Food, Drinks, and Amenities. Well, I assume. I am cheap enough that I don’t remember the last hotel/motel that I stayed at that actually did. (Ok, one was near some fast food restaurants.)

German food with any salt or sugar? When did that start? ( I lived in Stuttgart for 3 years and don’t remember much of either. They don’t (or didn’t at least) understand spicy either. Mexican places were so bland.)

Watch was here first. So, nya-nya-nyaaa.

Yup. Wanna know what it’s like to ride through the Chunnel? Sit with your eyes closed for 5-10 minutes. 

Yes and the tour of Truman’s house in Independence, MO is very well done. The house has been left as he lived in it. (The kitchen, the top of the line in his day, is so small.) The Truman Presidential library (which is what you meant, I think) is very well done. If you are touring the MidWest by car, then it’s also…

Grew up there, then left 30 years ago. Family still there so I visit every few years.

The link to the Google Play Best Hidden Gems of 2018 is bad. The link at the left is good. In the article’s link, the “h” in “https:” got left off by accident, I presume. Enjoy!

Sadly, or maybe not, I was born in 1952. People magazine was a new BIG thing, also sad. I agree with your statement, though. i never actually went to either place until the late 70's or perhaps early 80's (with my memory, it could’ve been yesterday). And quite often since and even recently. I never noticed when burnt…

Yeah, agreed, but back in that day, I wonder if BBQ or the slow cooking for 12+ hours was new to Trillin. (Still, if it wasn’t for the long lines, I would have gone there every day to eat.) He also gave Stroud’s in KC, MO, his vote for best fried chicken in the USA. Being from the mid-west myself, where fried chicken…

Quick question, please: While in London, in the 80's, I was at a party at which someone brought a keg of beer that tasted like strong iced tea. I left soon after and never caught the type of beer it was. It looked reddish, if I remember. I drank a lot of it and didn’t have a hangover the next day. Was it some kind of…

Never would have guessed that the world of 1984 would come to life in China. Always figured it would be Russia or the USA. Sad thing for the people of China.