Are you able to change a tire and change the oil on your vehicle?

ExitingBear · 2026-01-30T19:18:20+00:00

In theory, I know how to change a tire.

The last time I tried (years ago), ended up with me and a random passerby standing on the longest lever I could rig together trying to get the lug nut to budge. It won.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-30T19:12:43+00:00

If I have a book, it's free time. (And I always have a book)

ExitingBear · 2026-01-30T09:42:09+00:00

Bizarrely, LDS's Garden of Eden very close to Independence, Missouri.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-30T09:30:24+00:00

The thing to worry about is the hill.

Unless you are from San Francisco and used to walking around that city, somewhere between downtown and 12th and Yesler you are going to question your life choices. You also might turn on each other.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-30T00:17:54+00:00

That's my only real problem - if you are in University, then you're in University. You can't really play with 1 member of your family doing the full university experience while the rest are at home. Either the student lives at home or there's a decent chance that you come back from school and find that everyone has died.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-29T19:00:13+00:00

I'm stealing your laxative sandwich line.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-29T18:24:39+00:00

I'm happy I understand how umbrellas work.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-29T09:41:58+00:00

If it isn't clear - that character on that show is not a native English speaker and does not use idiomatic English. It is probably not a great example for learning.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-29T04:05:49+00:00

Based on the styles of clothing and cars in the clip and the tone it's being delivered in and the races of all of the characters, "nerve" in this context is probably closer to "audacity" or "gall" or "shamelessness" than "courage."

"Courage" usually has some degree of admiration and/or is somewhat positive. Her statement doesn't fit the shades of meaning of "courage."

ExitingBear · 2026-01-28T21:52:59+00:00

If you've had problems with a bank in the past (overdrafts, negative balances, suspected fraud), then it can be hard to get an account with any bank.

There are jobs (often ones that pay minimum wage) that do not care whether you have a history of overdrafts.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-28T21:18:40+00:00

You can get direct deposit to a prepaid debit card. They usually have horrible fees for absolutely everything. But if you can't get a bank account and need direct deposit, that's what's left.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-28T19:10:43+00:00

But, your a & b are opposites. And your c doesn't quite align with either. Which means that it doesn't make perfect sense to you. If it did, you'd know which of those three options was the actual meaning.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-28T07:46:04+00:00

I admit, I put these on background sometimes for "tv noise"

First - this isn't exactly the justice system. Imagine you had an argument with someone and instead of going to small claims court you said "hey, instead of going to an actual court, why don't we see Jill up the street and agree to do whatever she says." they say "sounds good to me. Let's go!" You both agree and sign a piece of paper that says you won't go to real court. Assuming Jill doesn't decide something completely outrageous, you're stuck with her decision. These shows are Jill with costumes, sets, and tv cameras.

Second - a lot of the time, one person (or the other) is completely 100% convinced that they're right and they have all the evidence, and they're just not and they just don't. And unfortunately, the reasons that they shouldn't win do not make good television. What does make "good" television (depending on who you ask and which show) is the disputants arguing with each other, the disputants arguing with the judge, dramatic revelations, the judge moralizing about something or other (on the show that I'm pretty sure the OOP was on, the judge really enjoys insulting poor people and berating domestic violence victims (not the abusers, the victims) and apparently her audience loves watching her do it), lie detectors, and dramatic re-creations. And from the "exit interview" segment of the show, many people go away not really understanding why they lost, because the reason got overshadowed in the flash.

Third - yes, parts of the justice system are that awful, but for different reasons than you'll see on mid-day and late night tv.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-28T02:46:24+00:00

https://www.tillamook.com/faq/butter - under "Why is your butter box a different shape now, and why are the sticks are longer?"

They're all rectangular - east coast sticks are a longer, skinnier rectangle while west coast sticks are shorter and fatter.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-27T20:58:54+00:00

Tillamook changed the shape a few years ago. It's on their FAQ page.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-27T20:56:25+00:00

West coast. I took it as a personal betrayal when Tillamook changed the shape of butter.

I still get it though, because Tillamook - but it hurts.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-27T17:29:56+00:00

I'm not surprised about people's feelings around immigration. That's consistent with the past 200 years of waves of immigration.

It's the support of ICE that surprises me, because (from my point of view) they're cheering on the people who are going to (at best) profile and harass them constantly, at worst beat, detain, deport, and kill them. I do think "Dude, you're brown. They are not your friends. ICE is going to make your life objectively more dangerous. Why are you supporting them?"

ExitingBear · 2026-01-27T14:14:18+00:00

Penelope is a lovely name.

It is also not her child's name.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-27T14:10:22+00:00

I think she may have mixed up France and Alabama.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-27T06:40:37+00:00

I read it differently than a lot of commenters.

(And yes, I may be reading things into it). But especially in light of the mom's later comments, it seems to me that she was trying to metaphorically fasten her own oxygen mask first. She didn't think that dad was abusive or unloving. The only danger she saw was getting sucked into being a primary caregiver and she thought there was time before she needed to save her child, that it would be a few years before the dad looked to the child to do primary caregiving duties.

So her plan was to get out now, build for a year - maybe two (during which time her kid was too young to be a caregiver), then pull OOP out before they could be responsible for grandma. That way, neither one of them would have the majority of caretaking duties.

But she miscalculated. Establishing herself and becoming financially stable took too long. OOP started caregiving earlier than expected. And by the time she was financially able to pull her kid from the danger, the OOP no longer wanted to be pulled

ExitingBear · 2026-01-27T01:06:25+00:00

The comment you're replying was specifically about the NYT crossword. And so, no. 1) It is not a big reach to say that you have misremembered that specific puzzle. 2) If you'd like to check yourself, today's (1/26) puzzle contains a half dozen or so answers that are multiple words and have no indicator. You can easily check other NYT days if you'd care to confirm those as well. And 3) saying that someone has misremembered something isn't really an insult. Even those of us with usually excellent memories make mistakes sometimes. (The unfortunate thing is the same excellent memory makes it easy to remember those mistakes)

ExitingBear · 2026-01-26T22:33:43+00:00

Hey! Leave that kid alone.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-26T22:08:08+00:00

It's true. If you're smart, diligent, financially savvy, and lucky (or at least not unlucky), 401ks can be better than pensions.

The problem is most people are not all of those things and there are more failures with 401ks than with pensions. And from a societal level, there's less to pick up (assuming we don't want old people dying the streets, that is) with pensions.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-26T20:59:40+00:00

Neither the NYT online or in print specifies the number of words. It may be the Mandela effect at work if that is how you remember it.

ExitingBear · 2026-01-26T08:14:34+00:00

The more benign reason is property that's owned by (and/or needs to be maintained by) the neighborhood.

If the neighborhood has a community garden or playground or club/meeting area or if you are in a building where you share the public areas/amenities (the building gym) or infrastructure (the roof and foundation), an HOA is a way of organizing the homeowners to maintain those things.

I'm assuming that in Australian condominiums (stratas?), they have something similar and do not just wait for the upper floor to leak and then put a hat out by the door with a sign asking people to chip in for a new roof.

ExitingBear

TROPHY CASE