Has he read the book? In reading the book you understand the significance of the Queen music (though if he's a Pratchet fan maybe he already read it). Muskrat Love will do it too though it doesn't have the same ew factor for teens thinking about their parents' afternoon activities.

Is it clumping bamboo? There are some types that don't spread out of control.

Until recently south also didn't have as many immigrants as larger northern cities so there wasn't much diversity. Many of the immigrants (often Italian) they did get were mostly agricultural workers, with the exception of New Orleans. Even as late as 1970 when my family moved to where I currently live, there was little ethnic diversity. Deeper in the south it was even less so.

WRT age: I was much older when I met and then married dh, but both of my SIL's were young and they never said mom or dad to my IL''s. We all called them by their first names.

My almost 22yo doesn't like music from his generation, with the exception of some alternative rock. He prefers classic rock. I did right by him. 😄

Armadillos do a lot of damage to suburban yards here. They're invasive. Hurricanes helped rid the Everglades of some pythons but apparently they've made a comeback. The 2004 hurricanes also helped destroy some invasive Australian pines in my area. I used to see them everywhere and haven't seen them in years so hopefully they aren't coming back. Hurricanes can destroy invasives but they can also bring them. Matthew brought us a weed called Florida snow that was previously mostly found in South Florida. Irma gave us balsam pear, which I've been trying to pull down off our fences ever since its seeds arrived on the wind. It's hard to remove without dropping seeds so I try to get it when it's dormant. It's a losing battle. Air potato vine was once a big problem but it's being eliminated by a beetle that apparently likes it. I just hope the beetle doesn't like other, native plants as well. That happens often when trying to eliminate an invasive - the natives suffer too. One of our biggest problems is Brazilian pepper, which is everywhere on the side of highways and has been found in yards as well. We've been fighting it in our yard for years. There are people who call themselves "pepper busters" who try to get rid of it. Ds always wanted to be a pepper buster and had a chance one summer with Campfire USA, when they spent a few weeks removing it from a state park near Tampa. He said it's extremely hard work. You can't just spray it because what kills that plant also kills native plants and harms wildlife. It's illegal to plant or sell invasive species in Florida. The pythons and hogs are newsworthy because they're more interesting but it's invasive plants that are doing most of the destruction. They choke out native species that wildlife depend on.

My first teaching job after college was in South Georgia near Americus and that was the first time I saw kudzu. I was amazed at how it covered entire abandoned buildings. That was 1977. Of course now kudzu is as far south as South Florida. I saw an article about the tardigrades on the moon. Wow! I had no idea. I just looked it up.

My grandmother, a child of Italian immigrants, used to say di nulla and prego interchangeably.

Blame the Spanish. They brought them here in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Some escaped, some were intentionally let loose to provide food for future expeditions. That map is from 2016. I know I saw a later one but couldn't find it in a quick search

If they're not in your state yet, they're moving your way.

That makes sense I guess. But yeah, the saying I'm familiar with is sticks and stones.

They're near Disney too, along with bears and deer and wild turkeys. We regularly see turkeys on the side of the highway on our route to dss' house, and we often see deer or hogs on the way home from Orlando.

We have bears in neighborhoods too. Most people probably think of snakes and alligators when they think of Florida wildlife. We have it all. Plus mosquitoes the size of drones. 😂 They're rare in my county though are plentiful in neighboring counties. We've only seen a few in the 50 years my family lived here. One was earlier this year. http://interactive.orlandosentinel.com/bears/index.html

We have a lot of feral hogs in my area of East Central Florida. They're even out on the Kennedy Space Center, which is across the river from me. We had a minor problem with them at our old house. March of this year, in a not rural neighborhood - https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2019/03/19/group-of-wild-hogs-destroying-cocoa-yards Hogs at KSC - https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-hogs-kennedy-space-center It's legal to hunt them year round, with land owner's permission. No license required. Only in wildlife management areas is there a specific season - https://myfwc.com/hunting/wild-hog/

Mine have both passed but they always referred to themselves with their first names to me and to their other dil's. None of us ever referred to them as mom or dad. Our spouses called our parents by their first names too.

I couldn't come up with any reason to choose a Speed Queen dryer over another brand, nor have I heard the kind of raves for the dryer you hear about for the washer. I have a Speed Queen washer and bought a less expensive dryer. I haven't been sorry.

It doesn't bother me and I sometimes say it myself. I'm 63, born right in the middle of the baby boom, so I definitely qualify as "older people".

Well, it's $3 off. After our Dave Barry discussion a few weeks ago I looked for my well worn hardback copy of this book and it's nowhere to be found. I think I might have loaned it out years ago and it never came back. I decided to spring for the Kindle book, and paid $7.99 for it.

Toni Morrison has passed away. She was 88. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/06/toni-morrison-author-and-pulitzer-winner-dies-aged-88 She's one of my favorite authors. I haven't read all of her work and I haven't loved everything I read (Milkman comes to mind as one I didn't care for), but I absolutely love her prose.

Two of my recent reads have been inspired by my tv viewing. Bill and I started watching Black Sails on Hulu after my brother and SIL told us about it - I think it was originally on Starz or Showtime. It's a prequel to Treasure Island but don't let that fool you. It's not at all kid friendly. The show includes both historical and fictional pirates and we just started the fourth and final season. From what I understand the show ends where the book begins. I can see things starting to wrap up as the historical pirates meet their historical fates (though not always accurately) and the fictional pirates are being positioned for the start of the book. And...I had never read the book and only marginally knew the story. So I finally read Treasure Island and though I didn't love it I'm glad I read it. If nothing else it will give me perspective as we finish the series. I also watched an American Experience documentary on the Everglades called The Swamp. As with any good documentary on the Everglades, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas is featured prominently. Watching this inspired me to finally read River of Grass. I feel like a Very Bad Floridian for having never read it. I'm loving her descriptions of the area as well as her obvious respect for the indigenous people of South Florida.

He's young and inexperienced and it's hard to know what to do in that situation. He might have been watching in horror as the intoxication progressed but didn't know how to handle it. The more I think about it, the more angry I get at the employer. I was 23 when I first started bartending and at my first bar job my boss made it clear that I should cut someone off when they had too much. He also made it clear that if I couldn't do it I should let him know so he would handle it. That's how it should be.

It's been several weeks since I checked in. I went to bed last night thinking the scratchy throat I had all day yesterday was just from my usual seasonal allergies. This morning when I woke up I realized I have a full blown cold. I rarely get sick and even more rarely get the dreaded summer cold. I haven't felt like doing anything all day, which means I've done a good bit of reading. During Prime Day Amazon had a deal for a 3 month trial of Kindle Unlimited. I've looked at the books before and never found anything worth the monthly fee but figured I'd take the 3 free months. I still don't see much there, or what I do see that I would want is also available in Kindle from my library. I did find Penny Marshall's memoir My Mother Was Nuts. It's one of those that allows you to switch back and forth between audio and Kindle version but I've been mostly listening because Marshall herself narrated it. There are a few times when she's talking about the death of someone close to her that she actually chokes up in the reading. There's not really anything shocking - she seems have been the person she appeared to be in public. It's interesting but not a memoir to rave about. I'm about halfway through Courtney Milan's historical romance, The Duchess War. I enjoyed the prequel novella but this is just okay. It's good bedtime easy reading so I'l finish it but probably won't read any more of the series. I'm also still reading River of Grass, Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500 Year History, and The Sound and the Fury. All three require mental energy, which my cold has sapped along with my physical energy, so I probably will put them aside until I feel better. Since I missed a few weeks I don't know if this was mentioned, but Andrea Camilleri, the creator of Detective Montalbano, passed away a few weeks ago at age 93. He didn't begin writing his detective series until he was 70 yet it's one of the most popular series around the world and has been translated into at least 30 languages. I've only read eight of them so I have plenty to keep me reading for a while but it will be sad when I finally reach the end, knowing there will be no more of Salvo Montalbano. https://www.fredericknewspost.com/public/ap/camilleri-author-of-montalbano-detective-series-dies-at/article_1b028bb2-a37f-5915-8436-f02efd2d7fc0.html

Disclaimer: I haven't tended bar since the 1980s. When I was a bartender it was my responsibility to stop serving a customer if I observed they'd had too much. The cocktail waitresses (that's what they were called then) had the same responsibility and in fact they'd tell me if they cut someone off so that the person didn't try to order straight from the bar in order to get around being cut off by their server (yes some people did that). I don't know about calling an Uber or taxi or whatever but he probably should have refused to serve them the 2nd or 3rd bottle. Some states have laws about serving someone who is intoxicated and I don't know what yours is. That will make a difference in what he should do in the future. He should definitely talk to his manager and ask, though imo they should have included that in his training when they hired him.

I agree. I don't think anything you said was in reply to any of my posts but I always appreciate your input and always find it respectful @EmseB Yep. It's the same with politicians. It's news when politician is caught cheating on his wife but it's BIG NEWS when a politician who shouts from the rooftops about family values is caught cheating on his wife. We notice those people more than we notice others who commit the same offenses.

There are quite a few Canadians here. Hopefully more will chime I'm not Canadian but just popped in to say Welcome and to let you know there are others here from/in Canada.