In baseball and golf, there’s a phenomenon known as “the yips”. It’s when a player who routinely does things at a high level suddenly and inexplicably just... can’t. Pitchers stop being able to throw strikes, or even get the ball to home plate. Position players start throwing balls 12 feet over other players’ heads.…

Anecdata: I had an ablation and it’s the best thing I ever did for myself. I’ve noticed that my periods are getting a little heavier over the past year - probably perimenopause, given my age - but even the heaviest days are what would have been a light day for me pre-ablation.

From what I can tell, having employees continue to wear masks is both a workplace safety and a liability thing: The employees are protected from the potentially unvaccinated masses; and the customers are protected from potentially asymptomatic employees, cutting down on the likeliness of lawsuits.

Dispatch from Los Angeles:

Choices do have consequences. In choosing not to get vaccinated, they’re choosing to accept the consequence of not attending your wedding in person. If they choose clinging to ideology over being there for you — well, it’s sad, but they’ve made their choice.

I’m maybe 10 years younger than you (Gen-X, represent!). A lot of kids in my high school had after school jobs, but they weren’t for casual spending money. They were to help their families pay the rent, or to buy necessities. 

I remember that one. 1988 Olympics, right? He hit his head, got stitched up, and went on to win the gold medal. It was scary to watch, but kind of badass to see.

For what it’s worth, “Lilibeth” (usually, but not always, with the “th”) is an old nickname for Elizabeth, even though etymologically it seems to be more related to Lily. From a quick search, it looks like it’s never been popular as a given name in the US, but it does well in the Philippines and Venezuela.

I don’t have any great insight here - but as an outsider with a reasonable knowledge of English history, I can’t think of a lot of men in the royal family who are a) worth honoring; b) have/had names that other family members haven’t recently given their own children; and c) have/had names that wouldn’t seem out of…

Congratulations on the new job! I second everything you said. Do I have a story? Of course I do...

Since Kim is doing an apprenticeship, it’s highly unlikely she took the LSAT.

I find that I can get away without foundation on the rest of my face if I color-correct under my eyes before applying the concealer. Dark circles tend to be blue/purple, so yellow goes a long way towards canceling them out. I just dab a little liquid yellow concealer on the circles, pat it in, add my regular concealer…

Quite a few of my friends work in bars and restaurants. Even with the enhanced benefits, they’re not bringing in as much money as they’d get from working — but they’re not spending as much money, either, thanks to not having to commute. It almost balances out. Almost.

I had my second Moderna jab two weeks ago yesterday. Tomorrow I’m going to a barbecue at a friend’s house. I’ll be spending an afternoon with a bunch of people for the first time in over a year. I’m hoping I remember how to just hang out. I have a feeling I’ll spend a good amount of time with the dogs. (Who are very…

Congrats! I had my second Moderna jab last week, and the sense of relief more than made up for a slightly sore arm.

See if any rental car companies have sales lots in your area. They rotate cars in and out of their rental rosters pretty frequently, and some of the companies sell off the ones that have been pulled. In my experience, they’ve tended to havedecent ranges of recent model years with lowish mileage.

I had a great time seeing a late-night screening of Snakes on a Plane. Having that great time required a theater packed with groups of drunk people yelling at the screen and each other. I didn't hear much of the movie dialogue, but I definitely saw Samuel L. Jackson, a plane and some snakes. 

My first thought when I read about the capacity limits was, “So, let’s see: Normal capacity for Disneyland is about 85,000... 25% of that is 21,250... and there were about a million annual passholders before Disney canceled those... Yeah, good luck getting tickets, stans.”

The job I had before my current one was at a nonprofit. It wasn’t full-time starting out, and even when I was brought on full-time the pay wasn’t the best, but it was fufilling enough that I didn’t mind doing some freelancing to make my rent. My manager and coworkers respected what I was doing and didn’t bother me…

Are you me? I got my first dose at a Kaiser in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago. I had no idea I was part of an at-risk group, but I got a text from Kaiser saying I was eligible to sign up. I wasn’t asking too many questions. As best I can figure, it was either a function of my being treated for bronchitis so many times…