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Trish

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Everything posted by Trish

  1. No unplanned, unmarried pregnancies among secular friends "that you know of," right? I mean, they wouldn't necessarily tell you if that happened. Nor would it be certain that they were all responsible. It just might appear that way. I do think for this to work there needs to be an effort to reduce opportunities for temptation. The Near Occasion of Sin, as it used to be called.
  2. Police report just came out. They found nothing to corrobrate the original story. The "date" that the woman allegedly went out with on the night she got raped was apparently a composite of the names of two or three men she went to high school with. (all swimmers) None had actually dated her, and the one whose name was closest was competing in a swim meet at another campus on the night in question, and hadn't been to UVA in six years. There was no party at the fraternity, and no one who had dated her at the fraternity. The incident where she had a glass bottle thrown at her by friends of the alleged rapist was not corroborated by her own friends who supposedly helped her after the incident. Nothing was reported to campus police, even though they encouraged her to make a report at the time. The call she made to her mother after the glass bottle incident was not corrobrated by phone records. The woman refused to speak with the Charlotte police doing the investigation on her lawyer's advice.
  3. Merck bought LOTS of copies of the New England Journal of Medicine for use in promoting Vioxx. So on any given issue, the public can be fooled. As can the medical establishment.
  4. I have in fact met people who are slow to vaccinate for perceived medical reasons. (reluctance to cause a vaccine overload, or family history of vaccine issues) So we should be looking at these people as illogical extremists? Or should we be pushing them to vaccinate on schedule to make everyone else feel better?
  5. So everyone goes to the ice machine together?
  6. Latest is that supposedly some Patriots locker room attendant was caught on camera taking the bag of inspected balls, disappearing with them into some room, and then re-emerging with them several minutes later. Is this person a Lone Deflator? Was there a Conspiracy to Deflate? It will be interesting to see what Lee Harvey Locker Room Attendant has to say if he's interviewed.
  7. My theory is this is something they have been doing for a LONG time, maybe dating back as far as 2007, so they didn't do anything to alter their routine.
  8. No, each team uses its own balls. Yes, the officials should have noticed. There was some other writer/analyst who had time on his hands, who analyzed the Patriots' fumble rate compared to other teams over the past 10 years. Since 2007 it is MARKEDLY lower than other teams' fumble rates. Something that would be statistically highly unlikely by chance. (Unless you want to believe that Belichick "coaches" his players not to fumble) That's another hallmark of a ball that has likely been deflated, that it's easier for running backs (and wide receivers) to hang onto. So it's likely that the Cheating Game dates back that far.
  9. Thanks for the transcript quotes, I'm going to comment on them below in bold: Re: cheating and non-denials, here is the transcript of that part. Notice the answer.- Is Brady a cheater? - -I don't think so. - But then the question, -did Belichik throw you under the bus.- Answer: -No.- The contrast is amazing. "Q: This has raised a lot of uncomfortable conversations for people around this country who view you as their idol. The question they’re asking themselves is, ‘What’s up with our hero?’ Can you answer right now, is Tom Brady a cheater? TB: I don’t believe so. [A simple NO is needed here. Instead, we get an answer about how he "feels." Likely, he feels everyone does it, therefore HE is not a cheater.] I feel like I’ve always played within the rules. [Another statement of how he FEELS. Also addresses "playing" within the rules, not "others" altering the game ball on his behalf.] I would never do anything to break the rules. [Notice how this is constructed, I "would never," not I DIDN'T. And likely he had someone else break the rules on his behalf] I believe in fair play and I respect the league and everything they’re doing to try to create a very competitive playing field for all the NFL teams. [This says nothing about the issue at hand, it is a deflection from his own responsibility for the current situation.] It’s a very competitive league. [i think he is telling us here that everyone cheats in one way or another, in his opinion] Every team is trying to do the best they can to win every week. [same] I believe in fair play and I’ll always believe in that for as long as I’m playing. [so what? This apparently is what "fair play" looks like to Tom Brady]
  10. Amazing parts to me were that the NFL had not contacted Tom Brady about this controversy even though it began on Monday. By Thursday, no contact from the NFL? I guess they are more worried about P.R. than what happened. Second, both Belichick and Brady issued similar non-denial denials. "I have no knowledge," and "i just heard about this." The system was probably set up years ago, and whomever is doing it SURELY is doing it with full knowledge of Brady & Belichick. Brady acknowledged that he personally selected the game balls before each game and is very familiar with them. He didn't address the issue of whether they were already deflated at that point, just that he didn't want them "altered" after that. Also quite a bit of equivocation from Brady as to what constitutes "cheating." Both statistically and by their wishy washy denials you can bank on the fact that it was done, has been going on a while, and that both men consider the deflation part of what is expected by teams in order to gain an advantage over an opponent. Likely they think "everyone is trying to gain an advantage" so therefore there's nothing wrong with their method of doing so. So technically not "cheating." As announcer/former coach John Madden said, there's no way ANYONE would alter a ball like that without the knowledge of the QB.
  11. Maybe they're an *irresponsible" gift? Honestly, if a speaker came to my parish and said what the pope said, I'd find it pretty insulting. Since it's the POPE who said it, I guess we're NOT supposed to take it that way? This pope strikes me more and more like that weird relative you're tempted to keep away from the public.
  12. Now that ISIS has hacked CENTCOM's Youtube and Twitter accounts (and threatened military families again). I would think Facebook would be even less appealing.
  13. That's because clothing is a form of communication.
  14. I believe that is one of the FDA warnings. I'm so sorry this happened to your family!
  15. Storage is definitely an issue with no basements! Also a lot of houses here don't have front hall closets because people aren't constantly taking jackets on and off. (Can't imagine a house up north without a front hall closet to stash the coats, boots, hats, gloves, umbrellas, scarves...) We compensated by getting a bigger garage than we need. If you have 2 cars, a 3-car garage would be great! Lots of "extras" end up out there on shelves. Since we had our house built, we had our builder put extra storage above most of our closets. We have lots of suitcases up there. We also have some plastic storage closets out on our lanai. Your property taxes will probably be cheaper than what you're used to up north. Our house is twice the size of my parents, and our taxes are actually less than theirs. Re: Lyme Disease, florida reports fewer than 100 cases annually, and most of those were cases were acquired elsewhere. Northern Florida may have it, but again very rare. Re: bugs, due to their prevalence in Florida many people have a pest control service. Ours comes out quarterly to spray the outside of our house. If we have any problems inside I can just call and they will come out, no extra charge. So we rarely experience bug issues inside the house. Up north we also had occasional bug issues, but no one in my family has ever called a pest control company. It was always us against them, mano a mano. Just a cultural thing, I guess, that it didn't occur to any of us to call pest control except in a dire circumstance. It's very common in Florida to have pest control. You see the Famous Florida Orange depicted on our state license plates. I think that should be swapped out for the even more Ubiquitous Florida Orange Traffic Cone.
  16. I hate smoke also, my parents smoked for years, my mother quit when I was young, but my dad didn't quit until I was in my teens. It was awful! And we were getting all this scary information about smoking in health class, so my brothers and I would bug him about it. What a relief when he quit! I can still remember the days when people were allowed to smoke on planes, as if a "non-smoking section" made much of a difference. Ha. Life has improved dramatically since then, along with air quality. Having said that, I still have sympathy for the smokers, since they are often lectured to. There's no way they don't know the statistics! They may be in denial about them, but they know they're likely affecting their health outcomes. It's an addiction, plain and simple. However, I generally think people feel more at liberty to lecture a smoker than an obese person. And having now looked up the stats, there are definitely more obese people than smokers in this country! So they are affecting the health system and cost more to our society than smokers at this point. Just imagining how it would go over if I told someone they "dodged a bullet" after they finished their apple pie a la mode. I agree with your sentiments re: venting, it's hard to listen to smokers claim their habit won't affect them when we all know it probably will. I do think it's a product of them being overly defensive about a habit that is widely despised in our society these days. But when it comes to health outcomes, I'm reading that obesity will affect your health more negatively than smoking, drinking or living in poverty.
  17. My impression was that this was a conversation with a smoker who was not smoking at the time. I think a Junk Food Eater's opinion of a Smoker's health habit is about as valid as the Smoker's (or anyone else's) opinion of the Junk Food Eater's health habit. Yes, both can be drains on the health system, especially if the Junk Food Eater is obese and the Smoker smokes a lot. But I doubt I would go out of my way to admonish an obese Junk Food Eater who was defending his/her love of cake. Or a smoker who expresses optimism about his/her life expectancy. We probably all have some bad habits that may or may not impact on our lifespans. I haven't looked at any stats, but I'd guess there are as many obese people as there are smokers. And I imagine health care costs for associated diseases are similar.
  18. Haha. I'm from South Buffalo/West Seneca area. We used to do a family camping vacation for a week each year at Letchworth. Yes it's great being within driving distance of Toronto. We consider ourselves the "Buffalo Embassy" in Florida. We purposely built our house bigger than we need so we can accommodate friends/family members. We love getting visitors! Speaking of traffic, wonder how Orlando's rates vs Cali traffic. I just thought of a Central Florida negative: FIRE ANTS. That is something I loved about Buffalo summers, running through the grass in my bare feet. We just don't do that here due to the prevalence of fire ants. I mean, you can, but you have to be careful. Generally they stay close to their obvious mounds, and we treat our lawn for them but it's an ongoing battle. Fire ants give a painful bite, although our home remedy for that is Vicks VapoRub. Takes away the sting and heals faster! Re: the Arts I haven't noticed any lack of them, we just took the kids to see Phantom in Tampa last weekend, got a great meal in Brandon on the way home. We regularly go to the Orlando Repertory and Shakespeare Theaters in Orlando with the homeschool group, along with the Straz in Tampa. Last year we saw a fabulous Davinci Machines exhibit at an art gallery in Sarasota. And we have access to science centers in Tampa and Orlando, as well as the Aquarium in Tampa, and another one in Clearwater where they shot that dolphin movie. No Florida state income tax is kinda nice too. Glad you're still rooting for the Bills, we coulda made the playoffs this year! Maybe next year.
  19. I absolutely agree that jobs is the main issue. We would never have moved just because of the cold. I would love to have a "summer place" in Buffalo. BTW your son's college friends are drinking pop, not soda! Pizza places are absolutely fabulous in Buffalo, it's hard to get a bad pizza there. Here in Florida, the best pizza we can find is mediocre. And believe me we have searched.
  20. Buffalo. During that "snow event" in November, the Weather Channel was broadcasting down the street from my parents' house. They had to rescue the Buffalo Bills players with snowmobiles, to get them from their homes to get to their game which was moved to DETROIT due to the stadium being overly full with snow) That was a rare event, but snow, cold and shoveling are not. If someone were asking about moving to Buffalo I would definitely list a big bunch of positives (the food! the summer festivals! the easy commute! the friendly people!). I think the cold/snow is obvious. I might mention the taxes are a little steep, because that might be less obvious if someone were moving from out of state. But I would first mention all the joys of living there, particularly the ones people might not be fully aware of. People that I knew didn't have screened porches, some of them did screen in their garages. (My mother in law had that) Of course then you can't put your car in it! I just remember every time we tried to eat on the patio, I'd last about 10 minutes and then dash inside with my food and a bee chasing me. I think wherever you are you try to make the most of it, and appreciate what the area has to offer. So I eat and go to festivals when I'm in Buffalo, and enjoy the weather here in Central Florida!
  21. Yeah, you too! Just wondering if you are a native, that you don't appreciate how great the weather is most of the time? Plus, I'm actually seeing these comments on a day when the high is 84 and the low is 66. (I believe that is a bit higher than average for January) 10% chance of rain today, and it was sunny and beautiful when I put the garbage out this morning. I keep the weather for my hometown on my desktop, the current temp is 30 degrees ("feels like 20!" the weather channel helpfully informs me). There's some storm getting ready to hit the Midwest. I'm taking my son to get some hitting in the batting cages in later this morning. (We have 2 sports seasons per year, fall and spring) I think that's why Florida athletes do so well, they get a lot of practice. My goodness, you don't want to "set foot outside" SEVEN months out of the year. Um, wow. I wouldn't even say that about my hometown's relatively challenging weather. A couple decades ago my husband's family came to Florida in August and did a Disney Park on a 95 degree day. (my husband claims "maybe it was 100!" haha) They all suffered, but PUSHED THROUGH! No one suffered heat stroke, but my mother in law swore she would NEVER move to Florida. They did that thing many northerners do. Visit in the summer when they're free, and attend a theme park on a supremely hot day no matter what. Well my MIL has been living in Florida for the past 10 years and LOVES it. We only go to theme parks on nice days. If it's above 90 we hit Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach. I perceive the weather here as being terrific 90 percent of the time. I do truly lament your 7 months of misery. It must be hard to live that way! Another positive (for us): access to two major airports. We're an hour from Orlando, 45 minutes from Tampa. (longer if it's rush hour) Usually we fly out of Orlando, but we're visiting D.C. in the spring, and the prices/flights were better out of Tampa, so that's what we're using. Even if you live in Orlando, Tampa is a very viable airport. Anyway, my condolences!
  22. Just wondering if you like your life here. Someone is asking about moving to the area, and your response fires off four negatives, and the homeschooling is great. If someone were asking about, say, my hometown in the north, I'd probably name a handful of things I absolutely LOVE about the area, and then maybe add, "the weather *can* be a plus if you like snow sports, but winters are a challenge and sometimes seem like they never end." But the summers are fantastic. Weather-wise I do consider life in central Florida to be fantastic. (maybe a northerner's perspective, though!) 90 percent of the time we have great weather. And there is SO much more sun than anyplace I lived in the north. I'm rarely prevented from doing anything I would want to do on any given day. You do adjust for summer heat, exercising at early or late time of day rather than midday or any super hot time. And we have a pool and air conditioning. Heck, summers were more uncomfortable in the north because I never had air conditioning up there, either in my car or house! In the north I checked the weather forecast daily, sometimes more often than that. Here, unless a hurricane is mentioned (no hurricanes in the last 7 years or so) I rarely bother. Just wondering what is the mindset that brings so many negatives to mind when talking about the place where you live. Of the ones you mentioned the most significant in my mind would be traffic. Lizards? They're purely decorative! I would've mentioned love bugs before lizards, if you wanted to mention an actual occasional annoyance. How about those BUGS -- in the north I hated eating outside at picnic or on our patio because food was inevitably divebombed by flies, bees, you name it. Here in Florida we have a lanai, so we can eat outside anytime we want. Loving it! Guess it's all a matter of perspective.
  23. The weather is delightful, and it's sunny most of the time. Hot and humid probably won't bother you unless you don't have air conditioning. Homeschooling is easy peasy. Lots of groups, tons of activities. No huge hassle from the school district.
  24. It's a comfort to know we will all definitely get an answer on this.
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