lookin

Please pass the mayo, I'm thinkin' Turkey sandwich!

Might I suggest one of unrestrained concupiscence?

I would say Step 1 is to stop refusing decent sums of money.

How delightful that you've returned! I'm a bit embarrassed to mention where I thought you'd gone.

No, like other online sites, Amazon didn't collect tax. So I just added up what I bought every year, calculated the tax, and paid it with my State income taxes. That's what California wants you to do, and they made noises about it, but most folks just ignored it. Now Amazon has started collecting state sales taxes, which helps level the playing field for retailers. My reasons for buying from Amazon were never to avoid paying sales tax. They're just really convenient for certain items, and sometimes their prices are better, tax or no.

Call me crazy, but I've been doing it for a few years now. Amazon's my most used site, and I run a report at the end of the year and figure the sales tax. California calls it a 'use tax' and I add it to my State income taxes in a box they thoughtfully provide for just that purpose. It never tops a couple hundred bucks. I figure as much as I bitch when local companies go under, or state services get cut, I'd feel kind of hypocritical not to kick in my share. This way, I can continue to kvetch freely and without a shred of guilt. After Amazon complained for years about the near-impossibility of doing the bookkeeping and collecting the tax, they started doing it this year with a minimum of fuss and bother. I'm sure the rest will too.

Y'know, something tells me you guys already are married! The gentle cooing sounds, the affectionate bickering, and no doubt separate bedrooms on either side of the nursery, why not just put your hair up in curlers and make it official?

I had the same issue some time back and decided to come at it from a different direction. Rather than constantly chivvying my private parts to keep up with my sex drive, I had a heart-to-heart with my libido and let it know that it was beginning to cause problems in the ranks. Over the years, it has fallen nicely into line and now waits patiently until I formally notify it that its services are required. Or someone else does.

In September, the National Security Agency's new Utah Data Center will come on line.

Oi! The issue for me is that the United States of America has people, not charged with any crime, under indefinite confinement and none of us ever got asked if we would like to become a country that does that. We fought two world wars to avoid being a country like that and, when we were done, we asked everybody else in the world to avoid being a country like that too. We helped form international organizations to advance our values, and we helped write international agreements and laws that we are now violating. Why is it unbalanced for prisoners under our direct and exclusive control to request a trial under the Geneva Conventions? Are we now against what we fought for? Who sez? If anybody's interested in discussing balance on that issue, please let me know.

Dare we hope?

First line, you say? Eluded me completely. Zut alors!!

Not me. I just know folks who can cook. I am, however, a fairly accomplished diner.

Sounds divine. Too bad you didn't invite Governor Jindal. Going around the Country doing shrimp boils would be a lot better use of his time than all the other nonsense he's working on. When my friend stays with me, what's left from the last meal is usually part of the next meal. And the final leftovers find themselves in a Po' Boy with lots of sauce. Remoulade sauce: 1/2 cup mayo 1 tablespoon horseradish 1 teaspoon pickle relish 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 tablespoons Kikkoman Ponzu Lime Fr'example.

Right you are! The recipe itself. I have a friend from New Orleans who's an excellent cook, with a sister who's even better. No one but the two of them can make a gumbo, or anything else with okra, that I can get down. Jambalaya, generally made sans okra, is a different story altogether. They, and their friends, also taught me the importance of cooking crawfish with their heads on. The crawfish heads, that is. The friends, not so much. Not sure if intelligent design would apply in all cases. Of course, some of them are not exactly poster children for evolution either.

Jambalaya, so I am told, and a crawfish.

Well, of course, if Governor Jindal starts installing high school concentration camps, it does become another kettle of fish entirely. I'm definitely not advocating all-creationism-all-the-time, just observing that a science-based company that pulls up roots from a place where students are exposed to something other than science may not be quite so rigorous itself. I think that's the point Hito was making. Parenthetically, so to speak, if I were a parent myself, I'm pretty sure that my young 'un would have heard about the various theories of how we got here directly from me, and well before (s)he got to school. Educating a child about something so fundamental (once again, so to speak) should not, in my opinion anyway, be left solely to the school system. As you say, though, Hitler's driving the nuclear scientists out of Germany was rather short-sighted of him. Imagine if he had got there first, instead of us.

Ditto x 4. There isn't a day goes by I don't look for his name among the latest posts. A very informed guy with a great sense of humor, and kind. Isn't that what they call a 'hat trick'?

I should have said some of the stuff. I actually had some pretty good science teachers, one of whom encouraged us to write papers on things that interested us. Looting the local library of everything on 'telephones' and writing an original report was a first for me. I liked doing it, and still enjoy finding out what makes things tick and trying to explain it. I owe that to a good science teacher. I might even have that report lying around somewhere.

I'd like to think that a great scientific mind wouldn't get totally derailed by sitting through a class in creationism. In fact, might it not develop a more questioning nature and become proficient in the skepticism so valued in a good scientist? If I had had to bracket my life's journey by the stuff coming out of my science teacher's maw, it might have been a very short trip indeed.

Perhaps your crew were amateurs. Mine were all madrassa graduates and had done advanced training in Tora Bora.

A dozen or so years ago, I went to The French Laundry. At the time, it was considered the best in the world and was, in fact, 'all that' and more. I had a goose liver pâté that made butter seem grainy in comparison. When the beef course showed up, I was disappointed by how small it looked on the plate; I needn't have worried, as a few ounces of the stuff was as filling as a steak. Thomas Keller dropped by at the end of the meal to a chorus of praise, and threw in a couple of extra dessert courses. I don't know what the tab was for the eight of us, with wine at every course, as a company vendor picked up the check. What I do know is that I have never felt the need to go to a luxe restaurant since then, as I'm pretty sure it would be no better and very likely not as good.

Quick for me too. So what was the culprit?

Oh, he'll have noticed. If memory serves, a massive heart attack may get by you for a few days, or perhaps a perforated ulcer, or maybe even World War III. But not scabies.

Pardon me, but if it's the exact same code, wouldn't they be the exact same sites? One thing I learned from the small amount of programming I've done over the years is that even a single line of code, or even a byte, or even a bit, can make a world of difference in how a program behaves. The only other thing I learned is that I'm glad I'm not a programmer.