So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[LizzieMaine]

Welcome to my "We Traded Mookie for WHAT?" World.

 

[Harp]

Baseball is a complex, inherently dynamic, constantly evolving game tinged by luck.
A game of tactics and strategy that more than match physical prowess.
And the human variable is forced to adapt to change, circumstance, luck or its lack. And age.
I always considered a runner on First base a king, not a pawn, capable of confounding the opposing
pitcher and achieving added merit by thievery. The pitcher is either dominant, crafty, deadly, or a bust.
The catcher invaluable in concert, a strong rook to the board home plate.

Darvish had two seasons of head problems, confidence, and getting his stuff together.
Gets back to solid production and now is traded.
Kimbrell, whom management hired to close after Wade Davis left for the Rockies, reaches max speed
of 95mph, which is hittable, since players have evolved eye and arm to greater velocity.
But the basic fundamentals remain in this complex game.
Adherence said absolutely requisite for sustained success.

And ownership squeezing the fan like a turnip for ever more blood is suicidal.

 

[Hercule]

Annoyance du jour (well, more often than not, it seems): The US Postal Service.

Mother in law (Pennsylvania hinterlands) sent a package to us via priority mail on November 20. It arrived in Harrisburg on the 21st, then in Cleveland on the 22nd. We live in the Cleveland east suburbs and have yet to received our package. So much for the homemade bread she sent us.

Why again hasn't the post office gone under?

An update: The package has arrived, 40 days after it was sent priority mail which, as stated on the PO generated label, guaranteed 2 day delivery. You should have seen the two loaves of homemade bread that were inside. Still waiting for a package sent from CT on Dec.1 (tracking indicates it hasn't even left Hartford yet). Oddly enough, I ordered a new hat from Akubra (Australia) for Christmas. That came in 3 weeks, and the last leg of its journey was even by USPS! Go figure.

 

[tonyb]

Unnaturally white teeth.

 

[Turnip]

Just ask Kloppo

 

[Trenchfriend]

Unnaturally white teeth.

In supermarket, I'm always thinking, who's really buying these "whitener" toothpastes?

 

[tonyb]

In supermarket, I'm always thinking, who's really buying these "whitener" toothpastes?

Lotsa people, I’d guess. I’m not among them, but if the product wasn’t selling, the retailers wouldn’t devote the shelf space to it.

I have no direct experience with it, but there are procedures available in dental clinics that hold the promise of leaving teeth a color close to that of freshly fallen snow.

I find such bright white teeth distracting, in the way that foppish attire and heavy gold jewelry is distracting. It screams “look at me!”

I can understand how a person with badly stained teeth, which are distracting as well, might opt for such a procedure. But for those of us who brush our teeth daily and don’t smoke, well, our teeth are generally the natural color of teeth.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always think of those bleached skulls the archaeologists dig up. The teeth are whiter-than-white.

It always distracts me in a period movie to see the perfect teeth on all the actors -- when you look thru photos of ordinary people right up into the '70s, you'll realize that cosmetic dentistry was far less common in the real world than Hollywood would have us believe. But over the past forty years, teeth have become a cultural class marker -- to be "middle class" or above, or to aspire to such, you must have a perfect smile. Hence all the wealthy orthodontists and chemical bleaches.

An interesting piece in Slate a few years back explored the class angle in dentistry:

In a country in denial about class divisions, a mangled mouth is the clearest indication of second-class citizenship. Missing or rotting teeth are like a scarlet T, declaring their owner to be trash. Sered and Fernandopulle describe the way that a group of well-meaning Idaho women who volunteered at clinics and early childhood development programs judged "those people" who weren't able to get dental care for themselves or for their children. "These middle-class women," they wrote, "identified bad teeth as a sign of poor parenting, low educational achievement, and slow or faulty intellectual development." When Stu Price, Ed Helms' character in The Hangover, wakes up in Las Vegas and discovers he is missing a front tooth, his horrified response is to declare, "I look like a nerd hillbilly." Every lazy screenwriter knows how to label a character as a menacing half-wit: give him gnarly teeth and a sleeveless T-shirt.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I wish I could honestly say it hasn’t rubbed off on me, child of the scruffier classes as I am. But I must acknowledge that missing teeth, broken teeth, badly stained teeth, have me making negative assumptions. And I have a partial denture myself, filling the spaces left open by missing teeth on the upper rear, right and left.

 

[Zombie_61]

In supermarket, I'm always thinking, who's really buying these "whitener" toothpastes?

Having "the whitest of the white" teeth seems to be far more of an obsession here in the U.S. than it is throughout the rest of the world, pretty much like everything else we Americans tend to overindulge in. I can't fault anyone for taking a proper amount of care when it comes to their oral health, but so many of these whitening products seem like overkill and my dentist once told me that some of them do more harm than good.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Just to add to the discussion... One of the popular stereotypes of Americans over here is “perfect white teeth”. Goes hand in hand with the “superficial” stereotype. Who cares?

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
Gotta wonder if the perception of Americans over your way is built on images from popular entertainments (aka the Fantasy Factory, aka Hollywood) and the real live American tourists they may encounter, neither of which is an accurate reflection of the American population at large.

 

[Turnip]

Would say it’s like pretty much always the same, no matter which nation or society. Those who experienced least claim to „know“ best.

 

[Harp]

Celebratory firecracker nuts.
Expected last night, nothing wrong with a bit of New Year hoopla especially last year.
But the heavy M80 fools need to dial it down to just Black Cats.
Just do a few meows, a couple of cat packs boys, then have a drink or two.

 

[Zombie_61]

Celebratory firecracker nuts.
Expected last night, nothing wrong with a bit of New Year hoopla especially last year.
But the heavy M80 fools need to dial it down to just Black Cats.
Just do a few meows, a couple of cat packs boys, then have a drink or two.

Whatever you do, don't come to the Los Angeles area of California during the Independence Day and/or New Year's Day celebrations if itty bitty M80s bother you, 'cause people here have connections and seem to be able to acquire unlimited quantities of professional grade "this will take down a 747" skyrockets that go on for several hours.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Happy new year, my loungers!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Titanic wreck still fascinating? Yeppers!

But what still fascinates me more, is, that the Britannic still has not even a quarter of Titanic's fame. Depth only 120 meters!

Excellent, powerful and elegant ship and fine hospital-ship in its time!!

Thanks again, Mr. Cousteau! R.I.P.

 

[Harp]

Whatever you do, don't come to the Los Angeles area of California during the Independence Day and/or New Year's Day celebrations if itty bitty M80s bother you, 'cause people here have connections and seem to be able to acquire unlimited quantities of professional grade "this will take down a 747" skyrockets that go on for several hours.

When I was in service, demolitions instruction first day breaking the ice with dynamite and C-4 plastic
required wrapping the stick and blasting cap insertion in both stick and C-4, dual ignition pull,
then kneeling down and planting a kiss on the dynamite, then standing at attention until the EOD
(emergency ordinance disposal) instructors called individual allowance to walk slowly away.
The instructors acted preoccupied until almost too late, of course, but all done to test comfort with
explosive ordinance. A South Korean Army lieutenant failed the course, a good deal of mental/psychological
stress with the firecrackers took its toll among many guys, but CIA relayed back later that the man
was summarily court martialed by a South Korean Army board and executed by firing squad.
When its all part of the job, fine. At midnite or all evening July 4th, I just smile and shake my head.

 

[Hercule]

This may be an odd thing to complain about, as it is probably the definition of trivial, but why can you not buy small chicken breasts? When I last bought them (boneless-skinless) the smallest package I could buy came in at more than 4 pounds for 3 half breasts. That makes them just shy of a pound and a half each! Given recommended portion sizes of 3-4oz, 1 breast would easily feed a family of 4! And that was the smallest! I can only imagine how the other packages would divide up. We can never have stuffed breasts because I can never get any that would be even remotely close to a reasonable portion size.

Ah the difficulties of abundance.

 

[Turnip]

That’s why I buy almost all green food, cheese and poultry on our weekly market, meat from the butcher’s shop, seasonal vegetables, eggs...directly from farms meanwhile. The rest from the supermarket to be sourced locally where possible. Hopefully helping to support local economy and dealers to survive and so to avoid dependence from industrial food, at least until I return my cutlery one sunny day.