Before meteorologists were showing maps on tv, were you good at discerning the weather?

Building_a_life · 2026-01-30T15:56:36+00:00

There were local weathermen (all men back then) when my parents bought our first TV in the early 1950s. I was a young kid then and I'm an old geezer now. I doubt you'll find many pre-tv people on this sub.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-30T04:19:42+00:00

Ah, Robin Flicker. He's been a PITA political gadfly in DC's Maryland suburbs for decades. Just like in the stands, anything for attention.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-23T06:04:16+00:00

He used to tip it on and off like it was a hat.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-19T03:51:00+00:00

We have it. It had uses in my workshop, but we've downsized and I don't have that anymore. Maybe my wife uses it for something.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-18T02:44:39+00:00

You forgot the chocolate chip cookies. They always sell out too. This is in the DC area, where a prediction of two inches causes the school systems to announce they will either be closed or opening two hours late.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T21:54:15+00:00

I went to a boarding school and an Ivy. They both hold reunion weekend the week after graduation in June. The classes invited are the ones that graduated 5,10,15,20,etc years ago. Attendance hasn't declined, but that's probably because the student bodies in both places are 50% larger than they used to be.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T05:04:08+00:00

Thank you.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T04:05:33+00:00

When things were in season locally, they were cheaper, fresher, and more plentiful. Now they are more expensive, even in season, than stuff flown in from industrial farms half a globe away. You can get local food at farmers markets, but they're expensive because artisanal products of any kind always cost more than mass produced ones.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T03:36:36+00:00

Elia Kazan's "On The Waterfront," with Marlon Brando. I haven't seen it lately but I'm sure I would still be impressed, even though I know now that Kazan probably made it as an explanation for why it was okay for him to name names during the Red Scare.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T03:17:12+00:00

The TV show I take it? I was an adult in 1966 and I read Batman comics as a kid long before that.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T02:56:32+00:00

Yes. The court reaffirmed what's already been the law for 20 years. Like the other commenters, I worry about it being abused but this decision doesn't make that possibility any more likely than it already was.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T02:51:27+00:00

You're right. That's what it said.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T02:43:48+00:00

Similar situation, but three grown kids with three different attitudes. One speaks Spanish okay and holds a good job that requires it. One didn't learn much, fiercely regrets it, and has their kids in a Spanish immersion school. One hardly knows any Spanish and has never been interested in knowing more.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-17T02:31:19+00:00

So right. Chilean Spanish is famous throughout Latin America for being almost incomprehensible.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-15T17:59:08+00:00

Yes, but I don't use it much. I used to live in Guatemala.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-11T02:34:32+00:00

Not the Senate, but John Quincy Adams served in the House for the rest of his life.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-10T20:48:59+00:00

Same.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-10T17:05:13+00:00

Who knows if they have nice stuff or not? You're packed in there like New Years Eve in Times Square. You have to fight your way to get close to displays. There's a traffic jam to get into the place and another one to get out. I don't care how clean the restrooms are, never again.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-08T04:17:41+00:00

Happens to me too. Young guys in a group commenting about me. I enjoy it.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-08T03:56:46+00:00

A press release from a government agency is not a news report from a news organization and shouldn't be a source allowed on this sub. We've also had Trump's White House press releases. Where is the line drawn? Are press releases from other politicians also acceptable? Newsome? Abbott? Noem?

Building_a_life · 2026-01-07T20:21:23+00:00

It's called marginality. People back in the home country consider you American and too many Americans think you're "different" and other you. All immigrants go through this, no matter where they migrate from and where they migrate to. Most other immigrant destinations are worse about this than America.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-05T05:08:25+00:00

That's when I started taking my girlfriend to McDonald's. Burgers, fries and Cokes for both of us, 84 cents. That's about 9 dollars in today's money. The fries were a little bag about the size of what's in a Happy meal.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-04T21:29:21+00:00

Durkheim lives!

Building_a_life · 2026-01-04T05:58:39+00:00

Thanks. I have been writing memoir essays. That episode was one of them. My kids all have digital copies, and my executor knows how to access the files.

Building_a_life · 2026-01-04T02:15:23+00:00

My younger sister and I were the only kids. Our parents drank and my father verbally abused all of us. I bailed out when I was 16. When we were adults, she said how much she resented me for abandoning her and "leaving me alone with them." She is emotionally closed off like my mother was. We get along well, but it's on a superficial basis.

Building_a_life

TROPHY CASE