My dad used to be really into Court TV and both my parents like the ones with crime re-enactments like that one that looks for escaped bad guys. They also used to really like the Cops shows. The OJ trial about the theft was fascinating because everything was on video. It was like a crime re-enactment only with the real people. There was videos of OJ and his posse walking down the hotel hallway Kill Bill-style. There was video of the crime. There was video of the cops and the crime scene people, and video of the camera being discovered. I remember one part I reacted "No one would really say that! ... Oh, yeah, I guess they really did" Years ago, pre-CourtTV, Dad was on a jury in a rape trial. There was an old couple watching that seemed to have to have no relationship to anyone. Dad talked to them after the trial. They were retired and this was what they did for entertainment. They said it was much better than TV. Dad asked if they usually agreed with the jury verdicts. They said almost always, unless they got to see things that the jury didn't.

I am starting to wonder if the result wasn't what was intended. My heart rejects that as evil, but my head says only someone dumber than a rock wouldn't have seen that leading to food shortages. If farmers could grow as much food organically as non, then they would. It would be cheaper if they didn't have to buy the chemicals. The problem with organic is that the yield drops dramatically.

I'm the kind of fan that likes them all. Even the later series. In college my best friend had a large box with the low-number original series books. She had older brothers who liked the books. I loved that, particularly since I didn't have money. There was one book in there that I didn't like. Captain Kirk was captured and ended up being totally submissive. That was no good. There was another one in DS9? that had in depth descriptions of dominant-submissive female s-- with the submissive being deliberately injured. That was no good. Other than that, I've loved them all.

I don't read many mysteries, so I don't have a suggestion. But, I do understand the idea of having a line of books on hand when you need a Happy Place. For me, that is Star Trek books. I have one printer paper box marked Unread Star Trek and another marked Read Star Trek. When I need a Happy Place book, I just reach into the Unread side blindly. When I was pregnant it seemed that every stinking book had children in danger. Being pregnant, this was very upsetting, so I reached for a Star Trek book. The plot was All Children On A Planet Were in Danger! I might have been hormonal, so even knowing that the kids would end up fine, it was still upsetting.

You know, all-purpose flour looks enough like powdered sugar that if you think you 'know' it is a container of powdered sugar you will make two batches of frosting before you realize the problem. In my defense, I was new to making frosting and the first time I just thought I really messed something up.

Generally speaking, cooked food is more bioavailable too.

Spaghettios (and the other varieties) was that thing for me. I only got it from my maternal grandparents and I loved it. Then I went to college and was on an extreme food budget. Then I saw a large can of the Ragu on sale. Happily bought it. What was I thinking? How can even kids like that?

Another advantage. You can need to do big shopping trips less frequently. I'm not one that replaces as I use. I should be, but I'm not there yet. But, I'll buy about a year's worth of iced tea when I buy it. When we first married I was running to the store for his tea and he'd fuss at me when I bought more than one. There is one and precisely one brand of Stevia that he likes. Fortunately it been on subscribe-and-save from Amazon and we had a stockpile when it had shortages for about a year and a half.

Yeah, I've known this was coming for a couple of years. I live rural surrounded by farms. There has been a noticeable lack of planting (fallow fields) and much less livestock. I've never been a farmer, so for me to notice while just driving around means it has been extreme. And we've had plenty of water for the last several years. My best friend grew up on a farm, has a farm and used to work in soil conservation for the gov. and knows about these things. She said people were letting their fields go fallow because of the fertilizer prices. They would lose money by planting so they didn't. Most of those that are planting have switched to much cheaper fertilizer.

I agree with this. Combine that with the suggestion that it is coming from people without the authority. I think it is a shitty way of doing things. My mother does something similar and she thinks she is being polite. She'll say something like, "Do you want to load the dishwasher?" As a late-teen I finally said, "No, I don't" She got upset, but Dad backed me up maybe because she'd been particularly bad about it then. I also feel that something is lost with the indirect method of requesting an action. Say someone requests something directly that is outside your required stuff, and you do it, then you get a sort of brownie points for doing it. But with the indirect method they think in their head "Well, I never told anyone to do anything so I don't owe any favors."

I normally avoid chain restaurants like the plague. In fact, a part of a former job was to take a few customer engineers out to lunch while I was visiting them. They'd ask for my preference of types of places since I wouldn't know the area. I'd say, "Let's go to your favorite non-chain restaurant." Otherwise everyone wanted to play it safe and go to Applebee's (gag). I ate at some amazing places that way. BUT, I was pleasantly shocked by the quality of Cracker Barrel recently. We were driving to Florida for vacation and DD asked to eat at someplace that had both mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. She'd been amazing and we were in vacation mode, so we said Yes. Being a chain we knew Cracker Barrel fit. I forget what we ate but it would have been middle-of-the-road Southern. I always try to order within the restaurant's theme. It is so rare to get really good hush puppies that I never order them. This fish take-out place in Gettysburg is an exception.

This is lovely to read. Although the babies on their backs didn't do much to help babies live. Not a conspiracy though. Because of the intense research effort into SIDS, it got a Medical definition at around the same time as the babies-on-back campaign started that was better than, "Healthy baby died while asleep." Any death that would have been counted as SIDS before, but not under the better definition was called SUDS. The U for unexpected. If you add up the SIDS and the SUDS, nothing has really changed.

This is an example of why we can't have nice things. And why I make a rude gesture in my head whenever someone throws the accusation of Racist, Homophobic or Misogynistic. These are things that I care about but it seems rare that the accusation means anything more than, "This person annoyed me"

Destin. One of the few places that you can Snuba. I highly recommend that. A cross between Scuba and Snorkeling and you don't need certification. You breather with a mouthpiece that has a hose attached to a little boat on the surface. You aren't very deep so worst case, you can just go to the surface. But, it is like snorkeling without the bother of going to the surface.

I've joked that I was born in Minnesnowda and that is why I think Ketchup is a tad spicy.

I recently bought this one and really like it. It is a canister one, so the while thing isn't lightweight, but it isn't tiring to use. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYE6IS4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think that everyone needs one with a blower in their home if they are over 60. My MIL used to be a home health aide. There is a clear distinction between those that are able to wipe themselves and those that aren't. As in the # of people willing to be aides drops substantially and the pay rate goes up by a lot also. Thinking about one time when I had an injury and I could get around fine but couldn't wipe myself for about two days, I was very upset by that. Imagining how I'd feel knowing that I'd need someone else to wipe me for the rest of my life. (shudder) There are certain things that are often the beginning of the end for people, like death of a spouse. I have a theory that the wiping thing is another one. My theory is that if people had one *before* they needed it, it would be an existing luxury and not disheartening.

You have convinced me.

Why is it illegal to put laundry water someplace other than the Septic system. Genuine question. I've never lived with a septic system just curious. I can see how toilet water needs to go straight to the septic.

Amen! Best BBQ is easily Texas. There are other places with good BBQ. Kansas gets an honorable mention for their Burnt Ends. The thing that makes Texas BBQ stand out is that the worst BBQ place in Texas has to rank at least an 8.5 on a 10 scale. We went to what is supposed to be the best BBQ in Nashville and it was really good, but only about a 8.5. NC is disgusting unless you are fond of vinegar. In NC, I had to throw my food away even though I was hungry and I'm not a BBQ snob. I assume BBQ anywhere else to be BBQ-ish. Like how Olive Garden is Italian-ish. The food can still be good, I just don't expect real BBQ. It could happen outside of those areas. For example, we ate at an amazing mom-pop Tex-Mex place in remote Indiana (of all places).

The reason I'm really against forced voting can be boiled down to, that guy who renamed himself Jack Sparrow would win. Even if there was None of the Above as an option. You force someone to vote, they'll be cranky when there. Even if it was just a heavily Get-Out-The-Vote area but not forced, people won't be cranky but they won't know who to vote for and will go for name recognition.

CA seems even worse than the U.S. national method. Basically no primary, just an election and a guaranteed run-off. Australia has a warm place in my heart for many reasons, and the Australian Ballot is one. One problem with the method I'm used to, which is open primaries and then the general election. I don't know if this is in all of Texas or just Dallas, but the Democrats have the voting areas ridiculously gerrymandered so that a white Democrat will win most of the elections in the primary. I'd rather primaries were closed. I remember when Hillary and Obama were running against each other and it wasn't decided by the time it came to Texas, which is rare. The Democrat line for the voting booths were Disney-World-ride-in-July long. You know that was Republicans just messing with people.

I'm in a club that votes for their officers this way. It is a good system and I'd like it for politics. It is a bit of a pain when you are dealing with slips of paper and multiple offices. Because you have to do each office at a time, and then you make piles for each candidate , then you redistribute the smallest piles, one pile at a time. Then you do it all over again for the next office. I am opposed to any forced voting. I am even opposed to Get Out The Vote campaigns. I think people should understand what they are voting for before they vote, and if they do, then they'll care and won't need a campaign to get them to vote. Maybe a reminder of the voting day, and that is it.

Speaking of beautiful games. Kodama 3D is a good strategy game that is pretty. You make trees by hanging leaf segments. Another really good one is Victorian Masterminds. I go to this convention every year that isn't a game convention but does have a game room with several thousand unique games for people to play. When this was added, it was always easy to gather people interested in playing, even more than once.

If you want one big game, Surburbia might be an option. We Splendor that someone else mentioned. Nefarious is a good one too. Every game you bring out two Twisted Rules, and that really changes things. We got Marvel Fluxx used recently and that has been fun. If you have the Groot Keeper, you are only allowed to say, "I am Groot" and if you say anything else you have to give the card to someone else. Unstable Unicorns sounds like a game for little girls but it is vicious. They aren't joking when they say, "Betray your friends. Unicorns are your friends now" Because it varies so much based on which Unicorns people get, each time we play, it is different. For example, the first time DH played with DD and I we traded to beat up on him. He played a card that made all his Unicorns into Pandas and we couldn't do anything bad to him. Then when he had enough, he played something else that got rid of it and won.