Speedy's Cafe - General Chat about anything you like!

[Carol the Dabbler]

What do you put on the bread?  And how much of the cucumbers or watercress?

 

[besleybean]

Thin layer of butter.

I think they take the rind off the cucumber, too.

[Caya]

Never heard of a cucumber sandwich round here (then again, I was baffled by the fact that apparently there are bitter cucumbers so what do I know) though they are used as vegetable garnishing in other sandwiches (like, ham with radishes and cucumber). Similar with watercress, though I've also seen that one as the main sandwich ingredient, served with a bit of cream cheese.

[Carol the Dabbler]

About the closest I've ever come to either of those sandwiches is bread and butter with thin slices of either radish or green onion.  That was back when I was a kid, and those were the first vegetables that were ready to eat from our garden in the spring.  We don't do "tea" here, though, so the sandwiches were, near as I recall, just an occasional impromptu snack.

 

[besleybean]

Often the same here.

[Caya]

Our local tea equivalent would be a Jause, but in Vienna that generally involves cake or pastries (Guglhupf is one popular choice). Sandwiches are more of a late morning / cold or on-the-move lunch item.

[J.P.]

Oh my. Vienna's tea. Never believed, water can have an influence on taste of tea or coffee, until I went to Vienna. You people could sell your tap-water.

(Vienna ist the only City I know having fresh spring water supply - it's ice cold and de-li-cious.)

[besleybean]

Scottish water is damn good!

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, J.P. said:

Vienna is the only City I know having fresh spring water supply - it's ice cold and de-li-cious.

They could definitely sell that in several US towns where I've lived!  In one case, the city water came from the local river, and wasn't too bad until spring, when all the dead leaves (and other things) that had accumulated on the banks over the winter were washed into the river by the rain.  In other cases, I think it was from wells, so you never knew what you were going to get, even from day to day.  Sometimes the tap water smelled like you'd just boiled eggs in it.

 

[Caya]

Vienna's tap water comes from a protected mountain spring area that has been municipal property since imperial times. More info here, please ignore the tourist-y spin:  https://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/green-vienna/viennese-water-364316.

And yes, it's protected by the city constitution - we're fiercely proud of our water and when a politician made noises about privatization, it didn't go across too well to put it mildly, and that provision was the result.

[J.P.]

I remember water in DC tasted like a swimming pool. 🤢

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, in most cities if there's any question at all about the safety of the water, they add more chlorine.   (And in the rare event it's even worse than that, they tell you to boil it.)

 

[besleybean]

The other issue we have is adding fluoride to water.

I was brought up with it in England.

But they don't do it in Scotland.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Fluoride is a pretty contentious issue here.

 

[Artemis]

I've noticed water tastes vastly different depending on the source it's drawn from.  In the city where I grew up and spent most of my life, the water supply came from a lake (protected, no one was allowed to swim or boat).  That was the best-tasting water I've had, besides water from Lake Superior.  The next place I moved to drew its water supply from the Mississippi River.  That was the worst-tasting water I've had, barely tolerable, especially in the summer months.  Now I live in a city that draws its water from wells.  It's not good but it's tolerable.  I use a Britta filter, which helps.  I really miss that lake water.

I've had Scottish water and Viennese water.  I can't say I noticed their taste.  Not to say that they aren't good; I just didn't notice, for whatever reason.

 

[besleybean]

Sometimes, well for me it's just knowing they are clean and safe.

[Carol the Dabbler]

14 hours ago, Artemis said:

In the city where I grew up and spent most of my life, the water supply came from a lake (protected, no one was allowed to swim or boat).  That was the best-tasting water I've had, besides water from Lake Superior.

The only time I've personally experienced a "boil your drinking water" alert was in a city where the water came from a protected reservoir.  As I recall it tasted OK at other times, though.

14 hours ago, besleybean said:

Sometimes, well for me it's just knowing they are clean and safe.

That's the bottom line, for sure.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

I am a late bloomer compared to others I know.
I only need to start wearing reading glasses, but still in a confusing transition period. Sometimes it gives me headaches, and sometimes not wearing it gives me headaches. 

I hereby declare:

1. I should be more grateful that I didn't need glasses in my younger days because having that thing perched on my nose is not so fun. Luckily I bought cheap ones (the power will increase, right?) because I ripped four frames in a very short time. This leads me to the conclusion that Clark Kent and many superheroes in disguise are not real. I ripped my glass off the way they did. I just found out you were supposed to pull it in the front direction first, before sideway. How am I supposed to get change and save the world if I have to take off my glasses in slow motion??

2. Most of the indoor things I love have something to do with reading—computers, forums, games, and books. Now I just have to endure headaches, use gargantuan-sized fonts, or squint harder.

3. It doesn't make me look hotter or smarter, or nerdier. Again, movies lie, people.

 

What about you, do you guys wear glasses?

[Carol the Dabbler]

11 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

What about you, do you guys wear glasses?

Well, yes and no.  I'm nearsighted (have been since I was 11), so I need glasses in order to see far away, and I wear bifocals for watching TV or driving or going for a walk -- but in my opinion (and that of my late father) bifocals are no &@%$# good for reading, so I take them off when I'm reading.  They're even worse for using a computer, because of the way you have to tilt your head way back in order to see the screen through the "near" part -- I actually did that for a while, till I started getting a stabbing pain in the top of my head.  So I went to the eye doctor and got a pair of computer glasses -- like reading glasses, only for a bit further away.  I wore those pretty much all the time around the house (except for reading), because they were also good when I was cooking, etc.  At some point I must have stopped using them, and now I have no idea where they are, so I need to get another pair.  In the meantime, I don't wear glasses when I'm on the computer (and have lousy posture from getting my face closer to the screen).

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

I am trying to be at Twitter and

Why do people like to post bare-chested pictures of themselves or intentionally put suggestive pictures out of context? Fishing for compliments, or many whinnies melodramatic, and worse, many more are willing to indulge those? 

I am still trying to understand how it works, but those I put as interests are very nerdy, and I barely have followers. Why do they appear on my feed?

Maybe I'm too old for this? Am I that crazy old person who shakes a fist at the sky? 

[besleybean]

I am on Twitter, @Besleybean....

but I can't follow anybody back.

I am way over my limit.

[Van Buren Supernova]

@besleybean

Do you promise that you don't tweet bare-chested pictures or overflowing cleavages? 

[besleybean]

🤣

[Artemis]

...

 

This was an interesting video I came across the other day.  I agree with many of the points, as well as this comment I read:

"@srebrnaFH
Sherlock was always about characters. Specifically, about John Watson, around whom things happen. The issue with Season 4 is that John Watson stopped being John Watson at some point and became an anger-infested, twisted creature who forgives a murderer and beats up his best friend, blaming him for Mary's death.
Writing in S4 is shoddy (the whole Eurus twist was nonsensical), the puzzles are weird and Mary's character (again) is put through such weird changes that we can't say if it was planned like that or Moffat just wrote another lousy female plot device into the whole thing and changed his mind too many times."

 

[Artemis]