Arcadia

Do any of you have "used book" stores in your area? We have 2-3, they're fabulous. You don't get a whole lot for your books (usually you're offered either cash or trade-in value, which is higher) but at least you don't have to throw them out. I've found it's a great way to slim down my collection ... I usually go for the trade-in value, which means I'll take in 20 books and come home with 1 or 2 new ones and a couple CDs. Of course, due to the virus shut down, now might not be a good time to try it, but you might want to start looking to see if you have such a place near you. I suppose another option is contacting one of the booksellers on eBay, but I wouldn't know how to go about it.

I'm good with all of the above interpretations. And I think ARS is a fine-looking acronym....

Alas, these days I find myself wishing more people had the disastrous instinct always to appear nice -- albeit in a more grammatically pleasing way.

Rats, all I get is a nasty note telling me I'm FORBIDDEN to see that page.

I'm not sure what it says about me that the picture I was most excited to see was Josh Whedon's.....

Oh, by the way ... welcome to the forum, Panda!

Actually, we have replacement windows in basement (half-basement, really) because the originals let more cold seep in in the winter than we liked. The new ones are better because the double panes are more tightly sealed, (therefore letting in less cold) and they're easier to clean, too. At least in this house, they didn't have to saw out the old ones ... they had to pull out the surrounding molding, but it wasn't that bad. Still, we're looking at a minimum of like $600 a window for 13 windows, simply because the new ones would be better. The current ones are still to code, which is good enough ... the buyer should pay for upgrades, not the seller. At any rate, that's the conclusion everyone came to, because that request was dropped. After a rain, the onions can usually be pulled out (which is kind of fun! You can feel that little !pop! when they leave the hole. ). But I didn't mean I was literally pulling them out, most of them had to be dug. Yesterday I got three out by pulling, and the other two just broke off, so I had to go back for the spade. Ugh. Anyway, lately I've just been doing it because the weather's been too beautiful to stay inside all day, and I'm proud of my yard, so ... onions, here I come. I'm learning to love the smell. Have no idea what size my construction company is, that would have been a good question! Too late, I'm already committed to them. It's okay, it will be what it will be. The most important thing to me was being able to afford it, literally everything else was of minor concern by comparison. Weird ... it just got dark enough, apparently ... my screen is slowly turning yellow.... for a minute there I thought my eyes were going bad!

Wading in late to this conversation (but what else is new lately? ) but I think your most pertinent point is "there's more to it than that." I do think there's too much over-simplification of almost everything these days, and it makes it too easy for people to take sides. There's "more" to almost everything, but for some reason (some) people don't want to deal with that, they want everything to be simple, and (if everyone will pardon the phrase) black and white. I think I see your point about small ethnicities and dying cultures, but I also see that existence is change, and not everything is meant to survive. Hard for the ones who are dying out, I know. No easy answers for them. But if their efforts to preserve their culture result in actual racism (and I don't know that they do) ... that's a tough one. I have to admit, even under those circumstances, I would find actual racism pretty hard to justify. On a related topic, just a day or two ago I read that the Webster dictionary is going to change their definition of racism. Wonder what they have in mind?

Alas, the only thing that comes to mind at the moment is The Kangaroo Hop from The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. Oh wait ... what is the song they play on BBC Sherlock during The Reichenbach Fall? Nina Simone's Sinnerman! I'll never hear that again without thinking of Sherlock.

Hi all, just reporting in. At the moment, I'm in limbo with the sale of the house ... the inspection report was about 20 pages long, and the buyer's rep asked me to fix every little thing they marked down. Some things I've agreed to (e.g., two of the electrical outlets aren't wired properly ... although we've been using them for 40 years without a problem, but hey) ... some are ridiculous .... they want me to replace every window in the house because, surprisingly enough, they're 40 years old. I laughed at that one ... ain't gonna happen. The yard's been destroyed (again) from trying to find problems with the septic system even though it's obviously working fine. Yadda yadda. I'm learning to really hate the realty business. Meanwhile, the temporary quarters I'm supposed to move into are nowhere near ready, and in fact is probably the filthiest place I have ever had the displeasure to be in. I thought I'd finally finished with heavy duty cleaning when I put this house on the market, now I'm faced with even heavier duty cleaning. Spent last Wednesday out there and managed to clear the trash out of one room, but the whole place needs a good scrubbing. Meanwhile, I spend about half of every day packing boxes and taking stuff to the dump, and the other half pulling wild onions out of the yard. I hate to say it, but this COVID business has been a godsend for me ... if I'd had to do all this AND teach every day, I'd be in the loony bin by now. I don't know how my parents went through this every couple of years. Well .... for one thing, Dad's employers paid people to do a lot of the packing and moving and cleaning and storing. Still .... ugh. I'm supposed to be moved out by the 30th, assuming the sale actually goes through. And I'll start teaching again on the 28th. I have to wear a mask and gloves and stay 6 feet away from my students while my co-worker points a camera at me so they can see what I'm doing. THAT's going to be an ... interesting ... week. On the bright side ... I am now a land owner! Two itty bitty lots in the woods near a lake upon which, someday and God willing, I shall have my very own little itty bitty house. The builder keeps saying they'll have me in by November, but I have my doubts ... based solely on the fact that every person I meet says "no way" they can build a house that quickly. Meanwhile, a McMansion down the road from me has gone up practically overnight. I really don't understand the universe.

Wahhhhhh, I missed it! Serves me right for being absent so long..... Actually, I dimly remember hearing about it and then of course forgot ... pooh. I saw him as Frankenstein but really wanted to see his take on the creature as I thought it was the more interesting role. I imagine all those other projects mentioned above have either been temporarily or permanently aborted. Poor Ben, he seems to have had bad luck in that regard. (I'm thinking of the Edison movie; delayed, then bombed anyway.) I hear a lot of stuff is going straight to pay-per-view, which helps me not at all........

Agh, too busy! Trying to sell my house. Have an offer ... if I take it, I'll be even busier, moving. UGH. Right now someone else is touring the house, so I'm sitting in my car at the library, borrowing their wifi and admiring their astonishing rose garden. This library is about five minutes from my house, and I had no idea this rose garden even existed until now. Every color rose you can think of, it's stunning. Well, wait ... nope, no black roses. Well, shoot, that ruins it.

Hi all, just dropping in to let you know I'm still around, just been super busy. FL, sorry to hear what you've been going through, I'm in a similar situation with someone who I once thought of as my best friend. I'd like to keep her in my life, but she's sure making it tough. I hope your situation resolves. It sounds to me like you're on the right track. Hope everyone is staying safe. I'll try to drop in more often, miss you all!

I don't think I realized before now how much butter/margarine is considered a staple! I suspect people are doing more baking than usual. That's why I ran out in the first place, in fact ... I baked myself a cake. Normally that carton of margarine would've lasted another few weeks. I can go for days with using the stuff, normally. I am picking up so many bad eating habits during this thing. Arrghhh.

Lol, those are brilliant, now I want to read more bad plot descriptions. I think this may have been my favorite scene in the movie.