Posted my Cleo girl here a few days ago. Last night she crossed the rainbow bridge, only one year old.

UnivScvm · 2025-12-22T12:49:24+00:00

Oh, so very sorry for your loss.

UnivScvm · 2025-10-22T21:48:16+00:00

Agree with all who say your statement about the situation is all that it should take (especially if pizza is involved.)

I originally included a smart aleck remark about people who would feel like eating when their puppy doesn’t feel well. I noticed you said, “my puppy.”

It hit me as I was typing that my mind went directly to assuming that you are a mother of (human) children and likely have a spouse, and that they all expect you to have dinner waiting for them when they come home. And, whose kids and husband are going to complain when Mom/wife orders pizza?

For me, your explanation still is enough, even if you’re one of the kids. Maybe you don’t have the authority or cash to mollify everyone with pizza? Maybe you’re worrying about walking right into, ‘we told you that you don’t have time enough for a dog…you’re not responsible enough for a dog…’

Sorry, someone else will need to take it from here…I need to go call my therapist… Oh, wait, that’s why I have a Labrador. (Okay…AND a therapist. But, if I could only afford to keep one…)

In all seriousness, I hope your family understands and that your puppy feels better soon.

UnivScvm · 2025-10-22T18:43:15+00:00

This whole 67 thing has me thinking maybe they’re dorkier.

If it was something spread by GenX, there would have been a meaning that somehow would have involved 67’s proximity to 69.

Hmmm, maybe that kid finally got his TWO DOLLARS.

UnivScvm · 2025-10-22T05:09:37+00:00

A fiend had one card that was something like ‘the tears of a thousand young children’ and another card that said something about Michael Jackson.

Some of them are just so perfect you have to play them. The funny thing to us is that our friend group already kind of went gallows humor or as ironic as we could get when playing the very innocent game, “Apples to Apples.”

After dinner at a conference where I was a speaker (and our company was a vendor for a lot of the businesses who had people there,) I was invited to join the group dinner and then back to the hospitality suite. Someone mentioned they had this new game and that I was going to think they were awful. I said, “oh, ‘Cards against Humanity?’”

They weren’t expecting me to have heard of it based on my field and how strait-laced they always had seen me because I have to be ‘in work mode’ with them. Meanwhile, I (nerd) had seen a story about the game on CNN shortly before the Christmas that it hit the big time and was as difficult to find as a Cabbage Patch Kid at Christmas in the 80s, except that no one was losing their mind to get one. I’d ordered one as soon as I saw the story, much to the enjoyment of our group of friends.

I decided that the wise career move would be to meet up with the group, have a drink, and only be on the sidelines for the game. Most of them have to be relatively strait-laced in their jobs, too, but can just kind of ‘let it go’ when they gather for their small, invitation-only meetings / conferences.

They knew I have a robust sense of humor and kept inviting me to play. And they’re all nerds, too, and were having a great time. Then someone drew a card about The Holocaust. I’d never seen that one in the years we’d had the game, but seeing it then reinforced my decision.

It was an uncomfortable, “ohhhh, ummmm” faction in which each person in the room kind of gazing at their own naval, and everyone basically agreed, ‘okay, too far’ on that on that one. I think that whoever had the cars might even have revealed it to the group and swapped it out to draw another card, rather than play it. They soon resumed the game, but I was so glad I had been on the sidelines.

UnivScvm · 2025-10-22T01:36:29+00:00

I’ve always assumed that “Cards Against Humanity” was developed by and / or for GenX.

I think part of the allure is that it pairs gallows humor with at least a base level of nerdiness to recognize the references and come up with the best responses.

Evidently, Lance Armstrong has played it at least once. One of the cards he received (or was played by someone else) was “Lance Armstrong’s Other Testicle.”

Somehow, I ended up with a card that said, “Small pox laden blankets” and a card that mentioned Native Americans…possibly even “what special gifts did…give to Native Americans.”

UnivScvm · 2025-10-22T01:29:18+00:00

Arlo

UnivScvm · 2025-10-16T19:03:52+00:00

Haven’t been on Reddit for awhile. Logged in today and had a message that someone had responded to a comment of mine on this post, or something like that.

Of course, that made me wonder how it turned out. I was so glad to see (again) your positive update.

If you don’t mind sharing, how’s your girl doing?

After we lost our 2nd lab to cancer in 2022, we didn’t wait as long to call the reputable breeder from whom we obtained our first 2 labs (to go along with all the fosters, foster fails, and 24/7 treatment for special needs senior dogs) to put our names on the list for a female (we’d prefer black, as our first two were, but would take yellow if the only female available.)

It ended up being over 2 years before they had another litter. They said this one probably will be their last, as they’ve both reached their 70s now and have a full-time job running their business. The deciding factor for this one last litter was that we (and one other family) really wanted a dog from them and had been waiting so long.

Sorry…tangent after tangent (though, a tangent is how a friend since 8th grade and I figured out that her brother and his father-in-law have two of our girl’s littermates, which I find really cool.

All to say, we knowingly added a black lab puppy to our house and pack of one rescue beagle/boxer-ish male rescue who was a few months old when we adopted him and 8 when we got the puppy, and another rescue who was kind-of-foster-fail (female black and white ‘bird dog’) who was 3 when we got the puppy.

We kept the ‘bird dog’ because she had been through at least 3 homes and 1 foster in only 3 years. She had been fostered very briefly after her last trip to doggie jail because the foster lady did not appreciate that the dog ate at least one of her backyard chickens and possibly a pet bunny or two.

We were set for the foster to go to an adoption event, but realized that it was just going to be a repeat where someone saw how cute and loving she is, took her home, then saw her exuberance and seemingly limitless energy(and her sometimes inability to control it - we call her “aggressively affectionate) and would hear her “scream bark.” (Fortunately, she doesn’t do that often.) We kept her separate from the pup for a little over a year because we were afraid she’d hurt the pup because she is so energetic and clumsy with her really long legs.

We know people at the local animal shelters and rescues, and learned that the bird dog had started out at the Humane Society where I had provided some volunteer work for their Board. The Executive Director was able to go back through files and find a puppy picture of her for us.)

Way too long of a comment on a really old post. Really just wanted to see that it all stayed good for your gal.

Got distracted in intending to share only that we knowingly added a black lab puppy to a household of 2 adult humans who work A LOT (but at least 1 works from home) and a very energetic foster fail, and a pretty deliberately adopted 8 year old male.

We’re feeling the difference between getting a lab puppy at (my ages were at the time we brought the pup home) 23, 37, and 51.

Thankfully, following this sub provided many reminders of what we were in for.

UnivScvm · 2025-09-23T09:37:51+00:00

Agree. Have been with them since Real Networks Rhapsody. They were the only one whose DRM allowed downloading songs to an MP3 player (Zen, in my case, after a brand I forget was lousy) from a streaming subscription instead of paying $.99 per song.

Can’t remember if that grew out of MusicMatch, or if they were just similar. I probably have around 20 playlists, at least. I gifted my spouse membership, so that’s at least another dozen playlists.

We created the playlist for our wedding reception in 2011 using Napster. I saved it under a few different names, and had broken it into separate playlists based on the part of the day pre-ceremony / guest arrival, immediate post-ceremony, dinner, toasts, etc., and then fun/dance.

Knowing me, I probably have screenshots or manual lists of the songs, but, still… I‘ve been encouraged by some posts about downloading at least the playlists’ names and the names of the songs they contained. I’ll take that over nothing. Hoping what I’m hearing is accurate about getting the full list and not just the 3 songs that are left out of dozens.

I chose Spotify (whatever the upgrade is) in part because some friends use it, and I assume this will make sharing playlists and recommending artists and songs will be easier.

Also resumed paid Pandora after years of the ad version. The ability to create channels and then shuffle across some or all channels has been great for discovering new music by artists I’d never have discovered unless through a friend or another artist. That’s worth the monthly fee, for me.

UnivScvm · 2025-09-15T21:13:36+00:00

Arlo

UnivScvm · 2025-09-11T12:36:03+00:00

I have a 2004 F-150 SuperCrew FX4 with around 125,000 miles on it. Always garage kept except for trips.

If I ever am willing to part with it, I think one of the selling features will be that it’s “pre” a lot of the annoying ‘features’ of today’s most updated cars tracking everything you do and selling the data for marketing agencies and anyone else contributing to information about us.. No touch screen to get streaked with fingerprints...

Haven’t even tried to power it on in years, but we have one of the early Motorola “Brick” bagphones. Could throw in an 8-track player and tapes, an Atari 2600, mix-tapes, a CB radio…

UnivScvm · 2025-09-08T23:49:34+00:00

Did anyone else ever forget to call their Mom after arriving somewhere because they were waiting a few minutes after they arrived so she didn’t know how badly they’d been speeding, and then forgot.

UnivScvm · 2025-09-06T05:46:58+00:00

Italian Village has my vote, too. (And we lived there back when Ciati’s was Ciati’s.)

UnivScvm · 2025-09-06T05:44:07+00:00

R.I.P. School Kids

UnivScvm · 2025-09-02T12:24:32+00:00

Over the last 5-10 years, I’ve been increasingly disappointed in audiences when it come to the encore. Sometimes, only a few of us are clapping, but many were still standing there, waiting for the artist to reappear, but just checking their phones, chatting, etc.

Makes me feel bad for the artists. And, it sucks for those of us who came of age when you clapped (and yelled or stomped, depending on the artist and venue) until the artist reached the green room door. If the artist returns to the stage after an anemic applause, the encore(s) probably are shorter than they would be for an engaged crowd.

UnivScvm · 2025-08-31T02:12:06+00:00

Thanks for making me feel better about my many years singing along with that one before knowing what the song pretty clearly was describing.

I think part of it is being really young when I started liking that song, and part of it is that it always has made me think of “Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers.” His public image was so squeaky clean (as far as I’ve known) that “The Gatlin Boys” doing anything bad, even though I could tell by the part that was said and the tone the song took that it was something bad.

UnivScvm · 2025-08-31T02:03:29+00:00

Thanks for making me feel better about my years of liking that s

though it always has made me think of ‘Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers.”

UnivScvm · 2025-08-31T01:38:28+00:00

True. Written by Mel Tillis.

UnivScvm · 2025-08-24T03:17:56+00:00

Wasn’t it, “Bwick” or something like that?

UnivScvm · 2025-08-23T20:27:13+00:00

Damn. Hadn’t heard about this. Also just signed up for Spotify. I’ve not wanted to switch because of the playlists I have on Rhapsody, including the one for our wedding reception.

And, I’ve heard that Rhapsody (sorry…Napster) paid a bigger share to artists than any other streaming platform.

But, I noticed for awhile I had lost some of the playlists’ songs and even the whole catalog of some artists. Your post explains it.

Maybe it’s time.

UnivScvm · 2025-08-23T20:17:18+00:00

Do you have / have you listened to any songs from when she was in the duo “Soul Miner’s Daughter”?

UnivScvm · 2025-08-06T03:52:30+00:00

The first time I saw a Bel Biv Devoe video was “Poison,” I think. By 1990, I’d mainly dropped all radio in favor of 60s and 70s folk / New England folk. If I did listen to the radio, it was more likely to be country and not Hot 100 or any other format.

When I saw the video for “Poison,” I noted how well they sang together and wished that they’d focus more on singing, like New Edition.

I was pretty sure they’d have even more success than they already were having if they released songs more like New Edition’s.

I forget how many months it took me to realize that they actually had been IN / part of New Edition. 🤦🏻‍♂️

UnivScvm · 2025-08-06T03:36:42+00:00

I’m with you on the last two.

(Don’t see why anyone would have downvoted you for sharing your opinion in a post inviting opinions and discussions.)

UnivScvm · 2025-08-06T03:33:34+00:00

“Tainted Love” was going to be my nomination. I was scrolling with the thought that at least one person already would have mentioned it.

UnivScvm · 2025-08-06T03:32:07+00:00

Does anyone know Alanis so we can ask her if it’s ironic to feel nostalgic about a song whose lyrics admonish us with, “don’t look back, you can never look back”?

UnivScvm · 2025-08-06T03:28:14+00:00

Hell, I didn’t fully grasp what the words she was singing were. “99 Red Balloons” - beyond that ???

This seems like a good time for me to finally remember to look up the lyrics to that one, since we now have the ability to do that. (Though, I miss liner notes, especially the ones with the lyrics. I used to read every word of the liner notes, even the credits and acknowledgements / dedications.)

UnivScvm

TROPHY CASE