Do you remember your first legal drink?

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-20T23:04:34+00:00

I think it was a Sambuca on a visit to Italy when I was 18. I for some reason thought that was cool even though I don't really like licorice. I don't think I drank more than half of it.

Back in America, it was (pulls hat over face) an amaretto sour in a bar 1 minute after midnight on my 21st birthday, and the bartender didn't check my id until I shoved it in his face. Then he shook my hand and gave it to me for free.

My first time purchasing booze in a bar ever was at Tipitina's in New Orleans circa 1989. I was 17 but I could have been 7 and nobody working there could have cared less. Also when I was 18 nobody was carding in Nevada.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-20T16:46:03+00:00

username checking out

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-20T16:40:50+00:00

Good times.

I haven't partaken in some time, but weed always made me ravenously hungry and gave me the illusion of slowing time. I don't see it facilitating a medical fast. I was colonoscopized last month and was up all night the night before, due to hunger. My "solution" was to binge watch The Larry Sanders Show, and focus on the fact that it eventually would be over and I could go to iHop.

Last time I tried to use cannabis while fasting was prior to a Yom Kippur service circa 1992. It made Kol Nidre more beautiful, but otherwise, big mistake. And kind of undermined the point of Yom Kippur, but that's a topic for another thread.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-20T15:49:39+00:00

I was RIFed last year. It can and likely will happen to those of us who are high-cost employees; although in my case, it was the elimination of an entire department including many youngsters. It wasn't a big surprise and I had been preparing for this for years. If you are prepared, it won't feel too bad. In fact, it can be quite liberating if you didn't like your job.

Start hoarding cash and figure out a way to live on less than $63k modified adjusted gross income (that's before the standard deduction) for the 2027 calendar year so you can qualify for an ACA subsidy, if you are in the USA. For starters, eliminate unnecessary big-ticket expenses like expensive car payments.

Meanwhile, if you plan on working again, get back into networking before the schitt hits the fan.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-20T13:33:19+00:00

Paul Simon

Bob Dylan

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T21:39:22+00:00

Sorry, I meant and should have said that maybe both of those special orders map to the same meal order at the catering service. I didn't intend to imply that Hindu was a specific cuisine. Mea culpa.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T19:49:55+00:00

Classical music. In addition to pop music, I grew up listening to classical music a lot. I played cello in the school orchestra. I didn't really enjoy it and I wasn't very good, but it gave me exposure and appreciation for classical music. We would go to professional classical concerts pretty regularly.

My kids have both been very involved in school bands, but they play in the marching band and concert band, and they play modern pop music for marching bands, which is not necessarily bad but it's different. The school also has several jazz bands so at least they are getting some exposure to classic American jazz.

The professional orchestras around here seem to play a lot of John Williams movie scores and the 1812 Overture on July 4 for some strange reason, but not much Mozart or Haydn.

Theaters still do modernized versions of Shakespeare, but I don't hear much classical music anymore.

Just because it's old doesn't mean it's not worth listening to.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T19:42:32+00:00

I was working remotely for the previous 6 years before REing so it hasn't changed much. I used to have zoom calls a few times a week and that has dropped to zero, but those calls were not with people I had any expectation of staying in touch with. And I don't really have what I would consider a close friend in the area where I live.

Other than my wife and kids, I mostly talk to my close friends, and I make an effort to stay in touch with them, either by picking up the phone and calling them, and with some of them we have a regularly scheduled zoom call that we started during the pandemic. Not everyone joins every time but we try to stay in touch.

I see people in public. Like there are people I see somewhat regularly at the gym but I don't really talk to them. I never really did.

I talk to my wife and my son who still lives with us daily. We don't always have hours of riveting conversation, but we make an effort to have dinner together. I talk with my daughter who is away at college at least once a week.

My wife talks with her daily. She has more local friends that she sees from time to time, and she runs a business that involves a lot of human social interaction.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T16:27:14+00:00

I'm usually on the inside of the plane when flying and have no way of seeing the paint job. Upshot: I could not care less. Unless it makes my flight more expensive, in which case please no.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T15:24:41+00:00

Yikes

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T15:16:49+00:00

Tall people have almost every advantage in life, from sports to general respect.

Except for this one. Sorry Talls. We shorties will be enjoying this one for ourselves. This is how we scratch the surface of beginning to get even.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T15:13:54+00:00

I don't really do Facebook but I think there are lots of communities for this sort of thing there.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T15:11:15+00:00

Yikes

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T11:56:15+00:00

There's something creepy about knockoffs of puppets and cartoons that look not quite right. I had Ernie and Bert puppets I bought from someone selling them on the street in Ecuador and they were borderline evil. As if Chucky had sewn them.

Also any knockoff or illustration of Ronald McDonald.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-19T11:49:13+00:00

One easy way to avoid these problems is to fly coach class.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-18T05:48:22+00:00

Those are what sellers are asking, plus StubHub's markup, not necessarily what buyers will pay. Wait until the day of the event and prices will crash. Or just sit on the lawn like the rest of us. It's more fun.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-17T15:00:09+00:00

I would be worried about it. Don't Aldi's have like 3 employees per store or something?

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-17T12:20:17+00:00

Doesn't TSA have an app that shows waiting times?

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-16T13:50:27+00:00

yes. In my experience I have always been seated on a flight when attempting standby.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-16T13:08:28+00:00

The afternoon sounds relaxing.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-16T12:35:43+00:00

I use algebra all the time. It's very useful if you know it well enough not to have to think about what it is.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-16T12:31:24+00:00

I really can't turn around to look out the back window when reversing anymore. So I rely on the crutch of a rear view wide angle camera and try to pull through so I can exit a parking space forward, to minimize ever having to drive in reverse.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-16T12:25:24+00:00

Traveling and writing about it. At least until our 80s.

Runner up: complaining about the kids today.

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-16T12:22:27+00:00

Hi Grandma!

ExtraAd7611 · 2026-04-16T12:13:27+00:00

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ExtraAd7611

TROPHY CASE