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  1. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    A battle I long ago lost was to preserve the “apostrophe s” in making possessive the words ending in “s.” In my book, it will always be “the Jones’s house” and not “the Jones’ house.” But nobody’s reading my book.
  2. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    And lest we forget, grammar and its formalized rules are always changing. Always have. In the above paragraph I committed a couple of what used to be commonly considered errors. C’est la vie, as we say in the trailer park.
  3. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    ^^^^^ I’ve seen that for as long as I’ve known not to put an apostrophe before the “s” that makes a plural. And that goes back to my primary school days. I heard a radio item a few years back about an informal club that dubbed itself something like The Society to Save the Apostrophe. Their...
  4. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    Is literacy really on the decline? I’m not necessarily arguing that it isn’t, but I’ve yet to see much but anecdotal accounts on both sides of that debate. I can offer that I know of kids in high school who were writing the sorts of term papers I didn’t see until college. And I’ve known people...
  5. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    A common question among journalism students is “how long should this story be?” The only good answer is “as long as it has to be.” Too many writers get waaay too windy. And too many find it too difficult to keep themselves out of the story. I’m not talking about just avoiding the first-person...
  7. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    On the nonfiction side, there’s many a book that would have made a better long-form magazine piece. Alas, there are few remaining magazines that publish long-form nonfiction.
  8. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    For all their ills, there remain good reasons people wish to relocate to some countries over others. My passport is expired. I’ll get around to addressing that one of these years. It’s not that I’m averse to international travel. But I don’t feel at all penned in by limiting my voyages to...
  9. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    If disclosure benefits the drug manufacturer (or medical device maker, or healthcare provider), in that it shields them from liability should adverse effects result, well, that’s fine by me. By protecting themselves they’re protecting their patients. I’ve scribbled my signature on many a...
  10. tonyb

    Vintage posters and other paper ephemera

    I’d bet on it being retro rather than true vintage. I’ve seen numerous similar works in the pages of design magazines. What are the dimensions?
  11. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    ^^^^^ I’m torn on the entire matter of the advertising of prescription drugs. Still, a failure to disclose the potential for adverse effects would be irresponsible at best.
  13. tonyb

    Coffee Grinders

    ^^^^^ Twenty-four years is darned good for a home-duty espresso machine. I take it that heating unit you refer to is a thermal block? I voided the warranty (which was expired anyway) on mine by opening the case to install a steamer control knob to replace the original one, which was something...
  14. tonyb

    Coffee Grinders

    I just noodled around online and I see that KitchenAid reintroduced the A-9 grinder at some point much more recently. It doesn’t take a particularly keen eye to distinguish the reproductions from the original. There are a few obvious changes to the design, but if one is still uncertain, know...
  15. tonyb

    Coffee Grinders

    That’s pretty cool. How well would they work for an espresso grind? I’m not in need of a grinder, seeing how there’s a good one built in to my espresso machine, but I dig vintage appliances and wouldn’t mind having one of those babes for that reason alone.
  16. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    ^^^^^ I’m getting on in years and I ain’t in great health, yet my concern for the future increases at a rate pretty much commensurate with the advancing years. The dewy-eyed bride wants a cabin in the mountains. I argue that it’s not the wisest use of the money. That’s apparent when you divide...
  17. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    ^^^^^ I hesitate to say this because people tend not to believe it, but here goes .,, My brother, who died in 2007, bought his 1908-built house in 1975 for $2,051. His daughter sold it a couple years ago for nearly $800K. When he bought the place the Seattle economy was in the gutter. HUD had...
  19. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    “I believe in luck. How else can you explain the success of those you dislike?” — Jean Cocteau I always loved that observation,
  20. tonyb

    You know you are getting old when:

    The dewy-eyed bride and I have “paid off” mortgages only when we refi’ed (not to take out any equity, but to get a better interest rate), but that just means we acquired a new mortgage, so as a practical matter we didn’t really retire a debt; or when we sold a property and had to pay off the...
  21. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    Maybe this more belongs in the “you know you’re getting old when” thread, but I strongly suspect it won’t be long until wood as a primary heat source will seem like something straight out of a Wild West tale for most city dwellers. But Seattle is a city, a pretty good sized one, where it wasn’t...
  22. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    “Age is just a number.” People I actually like, capable adults, not notably unintelligent adults, have uttered that phrase. And it’s pure horse doo-doo.
  23. tonyb

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I and several people of my acquaintance burned wood as a primary heat source for several years, as recently as c. 1995. It was messy. It was dirty. It was a PITA, a much greater PITA than any electric or natural gas appliance I’ve ever used, whatever its vintage.

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