Back when I was employed (I've only ever had desk jobs), when people asked me how work was going, I would reply how bad could it be? I work long hours, but I work in a climate controlled environment sitting in a comfy chair staring at a screen all day. Compare that to the guys working on the road crew in 120 degree…

Thank you for this explanation - I personally have no musical training other than listening to it. You can learn a lot that way, but it will only take you so far.

When I was in high school, the pregnant girls got sent to the "other" school - the one with the juvenile delinquents in it. Because getting pregnant is as bad as the things that they lock juveniles up for. Even then, I thought it would make more sense to keep these teen moms in the regular school so all their…

For layman, I would say that your items 1, 2 and 4 are "the voice." Speaking as an opera fanatic and long-time season ticket holder, I will tell you that I see very little of #3. I can count on one hand the operas that I have seen where the performers could actually act, and I have seen hundreds. What makes Placido…

Those critics might be professional critics, but I have trouble believing that they are professional opera critics. The one time that I had the privilege of seeing a performance by Luciano Pavarotti, he was playing the male hero/love interest - a dashing young man. He was quite old and fat. It was the greatest…

What I got out of his comments is that he never really liked her, was using her for emotional support and for sex. Decided that he could do better but didn't want to give up the sex and that she would be home waiting by the phone for his booty call when he didn't score with someone else. Have you heard the expression…

The problem that I have with this attitude is that it makes it impossible to enjoy anything that is more than a few years old. In days of yore, racism was open and culturally accepted. You would be hard pressed to find a book, song, movie or TV show that doesn't have some racist history from even 50 years ago.

When I was a kid, German Shepherds had straight backs and Yorkshire Terriers weighed 8 to 10 pounds (not 3). Also, same problem in cat breeds - the Siamese was an attractive cat when I was a kid, now not so much.

This is the worst vet story that I have ever heard. It sounds to me as if all of his former employees should be disgruntled and trying to get his practice closed - a sane reaction of any animal lover. Even if his version of events were true, what kind of vet can not only watch an animal in his care suffer through…

I hear about pranks involving cows and I always wonder how the prankster isn't caught. Wouldn't you have to use livestock that belongs to your family or it's theft? I wouldn't want to"borrow"a cow from someone with no sense of humor.

The best senior prank at my high school was not in my year. In Southern California, the campuses are open air - many separate buildings of classrooms strung across a wide area. There was a little shortcut between two of the buildings. Some senior class pranksters bricked it up. This cracked me up even though it…

If you hike by yourself, you have to take a selfie if you want a picture of yourself at the top of the mountain, or in front of the waterfall. Doesn't his mom like him, though? Why didn't she take the picture?

I will never forget the fight to wear jeans on Fridays. This is in Los Angeles, too, where we are more relaxed. One of the partners told me that if people are too comfortable, they get too relaxed and don't work as hard.

It's a nice thought but every place I've ever worked had a dress code. The professional staff wore less make up than the administrative staff. Probably because they could afford better clothes so it was easier for them to look "professional." It's generally stated in the dress code that way - "professional…

I spent 15 minutes on my eyebrows on Saturday and I only managed to make them tidy. Now that I'm getting older, I'm getting fuzzy caterpillars. I thought that only happened to old male literature professors, along with hairy ears and cardigans with leather patches on elbows and the aroma of pipe tobacco. One more…

Even after makeup, my skin isn't as beautiful as the just-washed face of the young woman in the before photo. Also, her eyebrows are so perfectly tweezed. I might be willing to believe some part of this study if the women used were a bit plain. The difference between just-washed and made up is less extreme for…

The benefit of home ownership that I didn't anticipate was freedom from resentment. I had never had a good landlord in my years of renting and the last one was the worst. When the shower stopped draining, for example, we waited three days for someone to show up with Drano, and another four days for the plumber. …