Former Member

GPS can be useful and I think anti-lock brakes are vital, but most of the assistive technologies being added to new vehicles are just making operators much lazier and poorer drivers. One prominent crash involving a Tesla had a driver who had previously complained about the vehicle’s response in that very location, yet was playing video games instead of paying attention to the road! And this was a computer engineer who was supposedly smart enough to know the limitations of computerized controls.

I prefer to relax in comfortable temperatures without having to strap my feet to long, flat planks of wood and rely on chemical enhancements to modify my mood. ;–)

The Bay Area has 80E/580W (Eastshore) heading north from Oakland, through Berkeley, and into Richmond, naturally, it’s labeled for the opposite direction as well. ;–)

We don’t say that in the Bay Area either. That’s an Angeleno thing. It’s only recent transplants or those trying (too hard) to sound hip and trendy who call our freeways ‘the 101’ or whatever. We either use their nickname (eg Eastshore Freeway or the Nimitz) or we use their number (eg 80). Most Californians outside ‘the Southland’ hate LA! ;–)

This is a major reason why I hate facial hair! My hair and skin are apparently less thick and coarse than some people’s and ‘sandpaper’ rubbing even gently irritates my skin. Sorry Wayne, dolphins all the way! ;–)

You wouldn’t ever find me on a ski trip. The two things people seem to love to do on them are things I won’t do: skiing and drinking! It’s a wonder there aren’t more ski accidents. ;–)

Scribe, what else could I do but chuckle? Incredibly shallow characters written too close to real life, then they create a doubled-over plan while the rest of us are sweating along trying to earn a bit of respect the old fashioned way. A greasy spot of the salve of "okayness" seemed to salve our protag's yearnings. Still chuckling about the begging bowl. That one had a good sharp bite. TY v

"Fifty dollars! Golly, how will I spend it all?" Chuckled all the way through this tale. Unusual perspective on respect, more unusual way to obtain it. This was an interesting, enjoyable read, thanks. v

Are southpaws left wankers? ;–)

It’s supposedly based on the track of Roman chariots. But it’s kind of indirect and convoluted, so Snopes rates this as a mixture. Roman chariots were standardized and designed to accommodate two horses, side by side, pulling the chariot. Those chariots created rut in roads. Later wagons roughly matched that track so their axles wouldn’t break. Early railroad equipment was built by wagon builders who were accustomed to the gauge. Other gauges were common in the early stages of railroad development. A wider gauge would probably have been more efficient for steam locomotive boilers because the boilers could have been larger around, yet closer to the ground for a better center of gravity. But the majority of railroads in England were built to 4’ 8” gauge and Parliament dictated that future lines be built (in England, but not Ireland [5’ 3”/1600mm] and did not mandate a gauge for the various British colonies) to that gauge for more efficient interchange between rail lines. When Northern US railroads were being built, they inaccurately assumed that many of the locomotives would be imported from England. Much of the US South built to a 5’ gauge, but there were relatively few interchanges making an incomplete overall system. After the Union won the war and returned the South into the Union, the Southern railroads were rebuilt to the standard gauge. Legislation approving a ‘transcontinental’ railroad from the US Midwest to the Pacific Coast mandated the standard gauge be used. Throughout much of the world, similar factors influenced adoption. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, theoretically cheaper narrow gauge (3’ 6”/1067mm) was adopted, but is not well suited to hauling the raw minerals that are the major cargo. Brazil uses a Meter gauge (1000mm/3’ 3⅜”) and Australia has a mixture of gauges in different states (including Irish gauge, standard gauge, and narrow gauge). BART runs on a wide gauge (5’ 6”/1676mm) in part to provide ‘first class seating,’ something that is very noticeable when you transfer to either SF Muni Metro or Caltrain (which are both standard gauge). BART pays a heavy price because almost all of its equipment has to be custom built or modified to function (including maintenance equipment). But the Toronto Transit Commission uses 4’ 10⅞”/1495mm gauge on its streetcar and subway lines.

The UK’s OO gauge trains (1:76.2) is similar to the more widely popular H0 scale (1:87). After H0, N scale is the second most popular format worldwide, but although the track has a uniform width worldwide (9mm/0.354 in), the scale varies between 1:148 (UK) and 1:160 (US, Europe, and Japan's wide-gauge Shinkansen) with 1:150 being used for Japan’s standard gauge trains. Real world trains don’t all run on tracks with the same gauge (ie distance apart). 54.8% of the world’s railways use 4’ 8½”, including most railroads in North America.

All the time that I’ve read about them, I never realized I used to wear similar shoes when I was in elementary and junior high school! When I was in elementary school, Keds were the fancy brand, but Sears sold knock-off ‘boat shoes’ that my parents could afford. Starting in junior high, we wore Converse All-Stars (‘Chuck Jordans’ or just plain ‘Chucks’) in gym. And Fred Rogers apparently wore Keds on Mister Rogers Neighborhood! ;–)

I have enjoyed your collaborations very much! ;–)

That Notification sounded sacrilegious somehow. How does one update Purgatory? What changes would you make to an in-between place? And what would all the Cupids, Devils, and Angels think of all that? It sounds like you and @Timothy M. need to do some consulting and collaborating! ;–)

;–)

Georgette will be that brutally honest parent who doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Either that kid will grow a very thick skin, or Aaron will be consoling the child frequently. But the child will probably need therapy as an adult! ;–)

Then what about Puma, Jaguar, or Tiger (or any of the other early Mac OS X codenames)? ;–)

Or maybe there was a top-secret test on medical students for that rumored Gay bomb that the Pentagon wanted… ;–)

Kitten? How about (were)wolf or bear? Maybe even badger! ;–)

Wayne has unusual friends. And there are tons of pot farms (legal and illegal) up in the far northern corner of California where Wayne lives… ;–)

I think being released from the secret about how Grant found out about Troy only adds to the pressure to do something about the Journal! Up until now, if their relationship had crashed and burned, the rest of the gang would not have felt as strongly about Grant. But now, they are all friends and it would be much more devastating to Grant if things fell apart. Now is not the time to pull a ‘rogue FBI agent’ again, @Wayne Gray!

I remember making a joke about a friend being pregnant. I had thought they had chosen to remain childless (probably a decade into their marriage). She walked me outside to her porch when I was leaving to ask me how I knew! It was a secret because they’d tried so many times, unsuccessfully (but they’d never mentioned that to me). They eventually had a daughter and a son. But she got a rare, very fast developing cancer and passed away about ten years ago, shortly before I became homeless. Damn, I really need to try to contact her husband! (They were my ‘Mexican Family.’ He had the cutest ‘Mona Lisa smile’ for her, but he was just a great friend. She proposed to him, by the way!)

The LA Times of the Seventies was a massively thick beast with the Sunday edition being around 3” or so! I cannot remember if they even tried to fold it in half or not. The Sunday combined San Francisco Chronicle Examiner (two different editorial staffs) was about 2" thick into the Eighties. Newspaper carriers only deliver one paper here, there are separate carriers if there is more than one paper available in the area. Mergers and takeovers have left two basic newspapers in the Bay Area, the SF Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury-News (the SJ’s publisher also uses numerous other mastheads, but they rely on mostly the same reporters out of probably three offices and the majority of the content identical). Even into the Nineties, there were probably four or five different publishers competing with the behemoths SF Chronicle and SJ Mercury, but focused on their local areas. Today, the newspaper industry is a pale, struggling ghost of its glorious, if checkered past.

I’m sure you’d wipe me out in just a few turns! ;–)

It’s no secret that the killing of significant characters only got worse! Quite a few of my favorites died tragic deaths. But George RR Martin was continually adding new characters and situations. Not everyone we loved initially remained loved. There were interesting shifts and repositionings among the various factions. The TV show didn’t end the way I had hoped, but my bigger complaint was that the last two seasons felt very rushed (and not necessarily in a good way, more that we didn’t get to appreciate what was happening before we moved on to the next scene). One or two major revelations didn’t have the major payoffs I expected.