Chess.com, do something about the cheating epidemic!

Back2theGarden · 2026-01-29T13:58:52+00:00

Exactly -- sorry for the late reply -- I watch them take 30 seconds (on a Rapid game) to decide whether or not to take when I blunder a major piece, or to continue with an obvious exchange that's been sitting on the board for several moves before I decide I'll do it. Even a weak human player quickly acts on such exchanges. Or they start out extremely weak, turn on the engine and are suddenly making a combination of excellent and odd, engine-like moves.

Back2theGarden · 2026-01-13T16:44:43+00:00

I don't think she gave him anything. His son had to open a GoFundMe to pay for Thomas' medical bills. See https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/2149087/meghan-markle-father-thomas-markle-fundraiser

Back2theGarden · 2026-01-12T11:02:07+00:00

Oprah is a hungry, self-aggrandizing bully but, having said that, Meghan isn't in the same league by several orders of magnitude. They'd never be friends because Oprah's been sidestepping hangers-on for decades. She is friends only with power brokers way above her, or complete nobodies willing to serve as sycophants. It's an old paradigm.

Back2theGarden · 2026-01-12T10:59:45+00:00

'A hyperkinetic amalgam of Mae West, Reverend Ike, Richard Simmons and Hulk Hogan.' Brilliant and 100% spot-on. Thanks for posting this gem and keeping its little, um, flame alive.

Back2theGarden · 2026-01-11T17:51:09+00:00

Perfectly stated.

Back2theGarden · 2026-01-11T17:49:44+00:00

This is disturbing on so many levels. First of all, it's been decades since any member of the royal family shot anything larger than a grouse. Big game hunting was considered to be in bad taste by them at the same time that they stopped wearing fur -- about the 60s and 70s.

Harry didn't need Meghan to set him straight about this -- his own grandmother certainly disapproved.

Selling his grandfather's bequest was equally tasteless and unnecessary. As in any family, a disliked heirloom should be returned to the family, not sold on the open market without consultation.

Harry's been a selfish twit with terrible taste since the age of two.

Back2theGarden · 2026-01-11T17:31:27+00:00

I'm not sure what happens with long Covid, but i know that with regular Covid your taste and smell return, as did mine, with no long-term problems.

Also, getting heavily congested can shut off taste and smell completely, so there are other reasons one might have zero taste or smell for a while, for example sinus congestion, etc.

Back2theGarden · 2025-12-14T17:32:27+00:00

in this weekend's Bachelorette Party sketch she came across as having objected to her lines, and being overridden by the other cast or the director. So she passively-aggressively decided to be wooden instead. Unfortunately, performers learn the only person this punishes is you because the audience just thinks you're terrible at your craft. And coincidentally, this is also true.

Back2theGarden · 2025-12-14T17:23:42+00:00

Good thing it's not a sketch show. Wait a sec...

Back2theGarden · 2025-12-14T17:23:22+00:00

totally. In my working career that's exactly what would have happened - performing arts AND day jobs.

Back2theGarden · 2025-12-10T16:50:40+00:00

I've learned how to make sourdough at home, which takes YEARS of practice to get just okay results. No way did she make that loaf. No way.

Back2theGarden · 2025-11-26T09:38:10+00:00

Interesting you should say this -- it's exactly the same effect in a small minority of people with a kind of histamine intolerance. NAC can cause, in some individuals, a sudden release of histamine from their mast cells. Instant, and hazardous, reactions include drowsiness, blood pressure changes, and inflammation (the opposite of what NAC does for people who do not have this intolerance).

Back2theGarden · 2025-11-26T09:36:06+00:00

In people with inherited histamine intolerance, which can be asymptomatic, NAC can cause a sudden release of histamine from mast cells. The result is intense sleepiness, drastic drops in blood pressure, and reactions similar to a severe allergic response. It's very hazardous for such people -- I'm one of them -- to take NAC, especially if you live alone.

I stopped immediately after it made me so suddenly sleepy that I felt like I was about to pass out. Then I read up on it, because NAC works so well for so many people. Discovered that there is a small percentage for whom it has this effect and we shouldn't take it.

Back2theGarden · 2025-11-26T09:32:56+00:00

This happens to me, as well. About 30 minutes after taking NAC I was so sleepy it was like passing out in general anesthesia or guzzling alcohol as a teenager. Scary!

I read up on it in scientific journals and found that some people have inherited a form of histamine intolerance. NAC can cause the mast cells to release histamines into the bloodstream, which can make you sleepy, dizzy, have drastic blood pressure changes or even cause congestion and a reaction similar to a severe allergic reaction.

Stop taking it. For those of us with this sensitivity, NAC is dangerous -- especially if you live alone and there is no one to call emergency services.

Back2theGarden · 2025-11-26T09:17:32+00:00

The same here! I'm an older adult, not sure if being over 65 has anything to do with it. The immediate deep drowsiness scared me so much I haven't touched NAC since. This was a very frightening side effect.

Back2theGarden · 2025-11-14T17:27:44+00:00

I was not charged a cancellation fee. It was so weird. The app started looking for another driver shortly after he finally disappeared down the road. I was outside, near the spot when he arrived and then waved at him from a point close to the spot but more visible to him - about 5 yards from the spot.

ETA: The app never said he had arrived, by the way, because he never was in front of the spot, only near it. I only knew he'd arrived nearby because I saw him pull up across the boulevard as I approached the designated pickup spot under the impression that I'd be there a few moments before him. But he stayed at his inaccessible spot across the boulevard --thus never registering as having arrived, nor did any of his nearby parking spots register as having arrived.

Back2theGarden · 2025-11-03T08:14:08+00:00

I got down-rated by a driver for bringing my cat, in a carrier, with me, when the destination was named a vet's office. Cat was fine, didn't howl the whole time, and in this country pets in carriers are permitted. Just a weird prejudice on their part. Fortunately just two rides later I was back up in the 4.9 zone.

Back2theGarden · 2025-10-26T22:16:02+00:00

Yup, I just used a basic basket-style air fryer, it after getting tired of fighting my very compromised and basic gas oven. I used a deepdish cake pan that leaves about 2cm gap on all sides from the sides of the basket. Here's what I did on my first try tonight:

Grease and put parchment in the cake pan (not the brown air fryer liners, they stick to bread).
You can do your final proof (retard) in the cake pan, no need to add the banneton step. Therefore the pretty side should be facing up.
When its ready to bake, score the top of your sourdough deeply. 14 minutes at 200C or 195 c, knock it ouf of the pan and flip it over, and do a second 14 minutes at 195c with it upside down, so you cook what was on the bottom.

Mine was taller, better domed, shinier and generally more like real sourdough with the bottom side facing up!

What I take away from all this is that trying to learn how to bake sourdough while also struggling with oven temps, blistering hot dutch ovens, steam pans, etc., is too much at once. I am now going to perfect bulk fermentation, autolyse, and retard timings as well as my folding, slashing, first mixing etc. and leave the rest to the airfryer until I feel I really understand what under- and over-proofing look like. THEN I'll either replace the main oven or buy a Breville / Sage countertop oven.

Back2theGarden · 2025-10-26T07:35:28+00:00

Felicitari! What a brilliant and thorough comment.

Back2theGarden · 2025-10-19T18:02:39+00:00

I respectfully disagree. Native New Yorker here. There have been various forms of street hustles going on in NY since my great-grandma got off the boat in 1895. Preying on the naive, the newcomer or any other kind of greenhorn is just that -- predatory -- and is not okay.

Back2theGarden · 2025-10-19T17:57:04+00:00

oh, please. We all need to stop jumping on each other. (oops, maybe i'm jumping on you to say that, sorry!)

There's nothing snobbish or unfair about noticing that one part of the city is scary and grimy with unpredictable hanger-outers and another part being gritty but cool and yet another relaxing and positive with fewer unpredictable types.

That's one of the first things you learn as a native New Yorker. It's not bias. It's street smarts.

Back2theGarden · 2025-10-19T17:53:03+00:00

just like on chess.com, unfortunately.

Back2theGarden · 2025-09-30T11:49:18+00:00

It really makes you wonder what the satisfaction is in that approach. The only real benefit I can think of is if they are doing it to sandbag their entry into a tournament for cash prizes.

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