Random randomness

[Blackhawk]

I've been married twice, divorced twice. The first one lasted about a year and a half, mostly because we were a terrible match and I was nowhere near ready to be a grown-up (I was 20.) Now I'm three years back into a relationship with wife #2 (Michelle.) We were together a total of 12 years the first time, then apart for 11.

My parents were each married once and divorced before I was born (which is why I have three half-siblings who are significantly older than I), then my father got married again within a year of my mother dying, a marriage that lasted about 30 days.

[Z-Corn]

Cheating changes things for sure and I could understand divorce in those situations. That is probably why my parents got divorced the first time...which was after their second marriage.

As far as my marriage...cheating would mean an Everyone Dies Scenario. We both drink and he have guns around.

[Skinypupy]

Two of my old friends are serial cheaters, and (believe it or not) I've had conversations where it was clear that the spouses knew this even before the marriage. In both cases they're still married, so perhaps the "cheating" might be less a bug than a feature.

I would suspect that, in those cases, there’s likely cheating by both parties.

Good friend of mine had been married 3 years to his HS sweetheart. Had no clue anything was amiss until he came home one day to all his stuff on the front lawn and some random guy he’d never seen standing in the doorway of his house refusing to let him in. They were divorced within a couple weeks. Fast forward 2 years, and they reconnect and get remarried. They’re still going strong 15 years and 3 kids later.

Relationships are weird, yo.

[stimpy]

Good friend of mine had been married 3 years to his HS sweetheart. Had no clue anything was amiss until he came home one day to all his stuff on the front lawn and some random guy he’d never seen standing in the doorway of his house refusing to let him in.

That right there would be jail time for me.

[Holman]

Two of my old friends are serial cheaters, and (believe it or not) I've had conversations where it was clear that the spouses knew this even before the marriage. In both cases they're still married, so perhaps the "cheating" might be less a bug than a feature.

I would suspect that, in those cases, there’s likely cheating by both parties.

Good friend of mine had been married 3 years to his HS sweetheart. Had no clue anything was amiss until he came home one day to all his stuff on the front lawn and some random guy he’d never seen standing in the doorway of his house refusing to let him in. They were divorced within a couple weeks. Fast forward 2 years, and they reconnect and get remarried. They’re still going strong 15 years and 3 kids later.

Relationships are weird, yo.

Yeah, but in these cases I actually believe the partners had worked out a system. It's something like "You have discreet outside affairs but bring in the income, I get my security and my significant interests, and we're affectionate partners who raise the children we made and love together."

I can't imagine signing on for that, but I'm able to see how it would work very well for people who do. It's stable and supportive as long as you don't insist that love requires single-partner sexual monogamy.

I'm a monogamy traditionalist, but even I can see how sexual fidelity matters for some people than it does for others. For some people, the commitment is more about stability than sexuality.

[Kraken]

Pandemic baby booming I intuitively understand.

I'm not going to look this up because we pay Isgrimnur for that...but I think I read that there's a pandemic baby BUST, because people haven't been free to mingle/hook up. Expect a boomlet nine-ish months from now, because people are just plain done with covid now, even if it's not done with us.

(edit) I'm hoping that we'll get the all-clear in time to celebrate our 38th anniversary in August.

[Isgrimnur]

Forbes

In June 2020, the Brookings Institute estimated that the U.S. would see between 300,000 to 500,000 fewer births than in 2019. This came just a few months after restrictions had been implemented across the States. After taking into consideration school and daycare closures and the pressures of working from home, researchers said that they think their estimation of 300,000 fewer births is accurate.
...
Sociologist and demographer, Philip Cohen at the University of Maryland has monitored the changes in family planning throughout the pandemic. He not only found that the birth rate had dropped in recent times but also fewer people had searched for pregnancy and sex-related topics online. When the NBCLX news outlet looked into the baby bust they found that birth rates in Florida, California and Ohio had dropped between 5% and 8% in the second half of 2020.

Further research at the Guttmacher Institute found that 34% of American women have reduced the number of children they expect to have or have delayed their plans to have children due to the pandemic. This wasn’t just a phenomenon seen in the U.S. Francesca Luppi, Bruno Arpino, and Alessandro Rosina looked at the impact that the virus had had on birth rates in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the UK. They concluded that many people had decided to postpone plans to have children or had made the decision to have fewer children.

[Paingod]

The baby boom happened, IIRC, in response to the end of WWII and the following years of "Rebuild! Repopulate!" mentality.

COVID is more akin to the Great Depression. Having more kids with no work is a liability, not a benefit. People have spent the pandemic learning how to bounce ping-pong balls off of 16 surfaces and into a small cup instead of reproducing.

[LordMortis]

Young couples locked at home together are fighting and fucking.

First thing google pointed to... This site says it's up but not as much as I would have imagined. Definitely not a boom but also at the same time it's up for the first time since 1989.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/U ... birth-rate

[Daehawk]

People get stuck at home together and learn they just dont get along like they do when they can be apart.

Also remember the baby boom from the 1977 New York black out?

[Blackhawk]

Auto worker employee receives 91,500 pennies in final wages

Mr Flaten said he was a manager at the auto repair firm, which is based in Peachtree City, south of Atlanta, until he quit last November in a disagreement over when he could leave work to pick up his child from day care.

When his outstanding pay failed to arrive, Mr Flaten filed a claim with the US Department of Labor, which confirmed to US media it had contacted the repair shop three times over the issue.

The money did eventually materialise, as a pile of coins at the end of Mr Flaten's drive. On top of the pile was an envelope, with an expletive written on the front, and a pay stub inside - which was filmed by his girlfriend Olivia Oxley and posted to her Instagram account.

The pennies were also apparently sabotaged by being covered in grease.

[Jaymann]

Years ago I read about a guy that tried to pay his alimony with a jar full of pennies in honey. A judge ruled it was not legal tender.

[dbt1949]

I went to the VA today.
Why do doctors squeeze your balls real hard and tell you to whistle?

[Kraken]

I went to the VA today.
Why do doctors squeeze your balls real hard and tell you to whistle?

They don't. Your doctor should buy you dinner and a movie if he wants the hanky-panky.

[Daehawk]

That wasn't the doctor.

[raydude]

Finally bought myself glass coffee mugs so I can watch my Vietnamese coffee being made.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"Whattaya mean there's no ice? You mean I gotta drink this coffee hot?"

But seriously, that's all the sweet thick milk you use? And where's the ice?

I like my coffee like I like my women. Strong, hot, and not sickeningly sweet. Seriously though, if you’ve ever had Asian pastries you’ll know they’re not as sweet as their American counterparts. And if you prefer Asian sweets, like I do, then a little sweetness goes a long way.

Finally, ice is an option in Vietnamese coffee. Not a requirement.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sudy]

I like my women how I like my cheese puffs. Stale with a cartoon cheetah on the bag.

[Blackhawk]

I like my coffee black, strong, aromatic, and a little bitter. Take that where you will.

[Madmarcus]

I like my coffee.

[Z-Corn]

I like my coffee like I like my women. Strong, hot, and not sickeningly sweet. Seriously though, if you’ve ever had Asian pastries you’ll know they’re not as sweet as their American counterparts. And if you prefer Asian sweets, like I do, then a little sweetness goes a long way.

Finally, ice is an option in Vietnamese coffee. Not a requirement.

I was giving you a hard time, I drink it both hot and iced...

Do you use Trung Nguyen coffee?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F ... UTF8&psc=1

[Jaymann]

I like my beer like I like my violence...domestic.

Back in the before times, somebody got fired for putting that on a white board in a restaurant.

[hitbyambulance]

i don't like coffee at all! yet i hear it would be good for my liver.

[dbt1949]

The VA doctor told me my cholesterol was extremely low.
Means all that sugar I eat is keeping it low.

[hitbyambulance]

local barcade modifies pinball machines to use foot pedals for bumpers:

https://www.king5.com/article/news/heal ... 473dc0d51e

[raydude]

I like my coffee like I like my women. Strong, hot, and not sickeningly sweet. Seriously though, if you’ve ever had Asian pastries you’ll know they’re not as sweet as their American counterparts. And if you prefer Asian sweets, like I do, then a little sweetness goes a long way.

Finally, ice is an option in Vietnamese coffee. Not a requirement.

I was giving you a hard time, I drink it both hot and iced...

Do you use Trung Nguyen coffee?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F ... UTF8&psc=1

I just started using coffee from nguyen coffee. Prior to this I was brewing regular coffee in my coffee maker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Z-Corn]

I like my coffee like I like my women. Strong, hot, and not sickeningly sweet. Seriously though, if you’ve ever had Asian pastries you’ll know they’re not as sweet as their American counterparts. And if you prefer Asian sweets, like I do, then a little sweetness goes a long way.

Finally, ice is an option in Vietnamese coffee. Not a requirement.

I was giving you a hard time, I drink it both hot and iced...

Do you use Trung Nguyen coffee?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F ... UTF8&psc=1

I just started using coffee from nguyen coffee. Prior to this I was brewing regular coffee in my coffee maker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting. It's not the same product as I listed but their coffee looks pretty good. I still recommend the Trung Nguyen from Amazon if you are curious. It's got chickory and butter in it which give amazing mouthfeel.

[Daehawk]

When I open a can of corned beef hash I do a double check to make sure I didn't open dog food.

[Holman]

In the morning my dog was barking like crazy in the back corner of the yard, like he was agitated at something just over the fence where we park the car. This was near the bike shed (which abuts the fence), beneath which we've long suspected a possum of taking up residence.

Eventually I went to check it out, and it was an absolute animal crime scene. A possum had been torn open. The big wounds were on its back, and there was the beginning of a dug hole where it seemed to have been trying to get to safety by digging a new route under the shed. I felt really bad for the poor thing. I bagged the body and turned over the earth to cover the blood and scraps of fur.

What killed the possum? The dog didn't, as the violence occurred outside of the fence. There's a raccoon living in a tree in our neighbor's yard, but I don't think they kill possums. Some friends have seen foxes in the neighborhood recently, apparently coming up from the large river park nearby. The most likely killer was a fox, a hawk, or an owl.

The mystery is that, while the possum was torn open, apparently not much was eaten. I had what felt like 95% of a possum corpse to take care off. Do foxes (or hawks, owls, whatever) leave most of their prey behind?

[Sudy]

local barcade modifies pinball machines to use foot pedals for bumpers:

https://www.king5.com/article/news/heal ... 473dc0d51e

So... I guess they missed the part about surface contact not being the primary transmission vector. By multitudes.

On the other hand, I'll cheer for anything related to pinball.

[Jaymann]

My son played a lot of poker, and I explained to him that "on tilt" came from pinball machines. He had no idea.

[hitbyambulance]

Do foxes (or hawks, owls, whatever) leave most of their prey behind?

there have been a number of rabbit corpses in my neighborhood where the eyeballs and brains are gone, but the rest of the rabbit is basically untouched. i heard raptors (especially barred owls?) in a time of plenty (and there are a lot of rabbits here at the moment) tend to eat those most delicious tidbits and leave the rest of the dead animal due to its weight and not wanting to carry it back if they don't need to. if i'm wrong, someone please correct.

[Holman]

Do foxes (or hawks, owls, whatever) leave most of their prey behind?

there have been a number of rabbit corpses in my neighborhood where the eyeballs and brains are gone, but the rest of the rabbit is basically untouched. i heard raptors (especially barred owls?) in a time of plenty (and there are a lot of rabbits here at the moment) tend to eat those most delicious tidbits and leave the rest of the dead animal due to its weight and not wanting to carry it back if they don't need to. if i'm wrong, someone please correct.

My cat used to tear open chipmunks, eat the liver, and leave the rest. Maybe something like that is going on.

[raydude]

I like my coffee like I like my women. Strong, hot, and not sickeningly sweet. Seriously though, if you’ve ever had Asian pastries you’ll know they’re not as sweet as their American counterparts. And if you prefer Asian sweets, like I do, then a little sweetness goes a long way.

Finally, ice is an option in Vietnamese coffee. Not a requirement.

I was giving you a hard time, I drink it both hot and iced...

Do you use Trung Nguyen coffee?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F ... UTF8&psc=1

I just started using coffee from nguyen coffee. Prior to this I was brewing regular coffee in my coffee maker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting. It's not the same product as I listed but their coffee looks pretty good. I still recommend the Trung Nguyen from Amazon if you are curious. It's got chickory and butter in it which give amazing mouthfeel.

Thanks Z-Corn. I will definitely give that a try!

[dbt1949]

Weasels and skunks use to eat the heads of our chickens but left the rest behind.

[Isgrimnur]

If The Wonder Years were relaunched today with the same yearly separation of the original, it would be set in 2001.

Instead, they will reboot it for the 1960s.

The Wonder Years reboot has found its narrator. Don Cheadle has been tapped to play adult Dean Williams in ABC’s single-camera pilot from Saladin Patterson, the original series’ Fred Savage, and Lee Daniels.

Written by Patterson and directed by Savage, the reboot of the classic 1980s family comedy-drama is set in the same era as the original. It looks at how the Williamses, a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, AL, in the turbulent late 1960s made sure it was the Wonder Years for them too.

The new Wonder Years centers on the family’s teenage son Dean Williams (Elisha “EJ” Williams), much like the original series focused on Kevin Arnold (Savage). Both iterations are narrated by adult versions of the lead character. Cheadle is taking on adult Dean while Daniel Stern narrated the original as adult Kevin.

[Jaymann]

Driving on the freeway today for the first time in a year, I saw a BMW with the license plate 3 SMOOVE. Escape from New Jersey?

[Holman]

If The Wonder Years were relaunched today with the same yearly separation of the original, it would be set in 2001.

Instead, they will reboot it for the 1960s.

The Wonder Years reboot has found its narrator. Don Cheadle has been tapped to play adult Dean Williams in ABC’s single-camera pilot from Saladin Patterson, the original series’ Fred Savage, and Lee Daniels.

Written by Patterson and directed by Savage, the reboot of the classic 1980s family comedy-drama is set in the same era as the original. It looks at how the Williamses, a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, AL, in the turbulent late 1960s made sure it was the Wonder Years for them too.

The new Wonder Years centers on the family’s teenage son Dean Williams (Elisha “EJ” Williams), much like the original series focused on Kevin Arnold (Savage). Both iterations are narrated by adult versions of the lead character. Cheadle is taking on adult Dean while Daniel Stern narrated the original as adult Kevin.

Please tell me they're not doing "black family in 1960s Alabama" as a quirky coming-of-age comedy.

[Fardaza]

The VA doctor told me my cholesterol was extremely low.
Means all that sugar I eat is keeping it low.

Was this before or after he squeezed your balls and asked you to whistle?

[Daehawk]

This is the 3rd time Ive seen a USPS mail truck delivering mail on Sunday. Ive never heard of that. It always seems to stop at the same group of mailboxes then zooms off with no other stops.

[Jaymann]

This is the 3rd time Ive seen a USPS mail truck delivering mail on Sunday. Ive never heard of that. It always seems to stop at the same group of mailboxes then zooms off with no other stops.

That's the DSPS*

*

Spoiler:

Deep State Postal Service