So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Harp]

whatever you want to call it, but it is often pretty annoying how it seems to be a tighter or awkward fit going back in than it was on its way out.

double entendre of the year, bro.

 

[Edward]

When I was an active reporter, late-eighties, early nineties -- our town was covered by two daily papers that kept local bureaus here, a local tri-weekly, a weekly, an "altnerative weekly," and two radio stations. There were usually more reporters at a city council meeting than there were people actually serving on the city council, and as a result, local affairs were meticulously covered. Nobody got away with anything, and the town was a better place to live because of it.

Now we have one local paper, a weekly, with one reporter covering muncipal affairs. And the people who run this town get away with murder.

I'm closing in on two decades of teaching, among other things, the significance of plurality in a media - especially 'news' media - context and legal regulation to ensure the same (here in a Council of Europe country signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, our equivalent of the Frist Amendment, Article 10, enshrines a right to receive a wide variety of information, the subtext being that freedom of expression is of limited value if the opinions expressed are formed solely on one, (state) approved narrative). One thing I have come to feel strongly about is this effect of the loss of local journalism (owing to nil money being made or invested), with the result that much of significance to the day to day lives of people goes unnoticed. Not only in terms of local government being held to account (UK political culture exacerbates this, as typically many who bother to vote in local elections view them purely through the lens of national politics and treat them purely as an opinion poll on the government of the day), but equally importantly in terms of reporting of local courts, presenting a significant drawback for 'open justice'.

I carry small hope that local news initiatives will begin to turn if the long term effect of the pandemic is, as many currently predict, people spending more time working and existing closer to home, and therefore paying more attention to local issues.

 

[Hercule]

Trying to put mail back in the envelope in which it arrived. Maybe I just lack the dexterity/hand-eye coordination, whatever you want to call it, but it is often pretty annoying how it seems to be a tighter or awkward fit going back in than it was on its way out.

That ranks right up there with folding a fitted sheet.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Big reason I don't use fitted sheets right there. Flat sheets and hospital corners, that's the ticket.

 

[Touchofevil]

double entendre of the year, bro.

I knew that was coming, but I had to do it any way.

 

[Touchofevil]

That ranks right up there with folding a fitted sheet.

Folding a fitted sheet always starts out with best intentions, but it sure doesn’t look like it when I have finished.

 

[Harp]

I knew that was coming, but I had to do it any way.

Correspondence interruptus. And if you spill any sheets to the ground, a little biblical nod to Onan.

I filled out a federal employees credit union life insurance offer this morning, and stuffing the surprising
one sheet page inside the prepaid postage envelope provided was a two swing strikes stuff.

 

[tonyb]

That ranks right up there with folding a fitted sheet.

I just kinda wad ’em up. I’ve checked out the online tutorials and practiced some and still can’t do it. Investing any more effort might be of some benefit, but really, I don’t care if my bottom sheet isn’t hotel-maid worthy, so I can’t see why anyone else would, either.

 

[tonyb]

Just looked at the upper left corner on my iPhone screen and saw that it’s an hour later than I thought it was.

I like DST. Indeed, I wish it was the year-round “standard.” That way I’d be spared resetting all my time-keeping devices that aren’t connected to some network that reset themselves (such as my iPhone).

I’m never really examined why I’m so devoted to knowing the time of day, but I am. I wear a mechanical wristwatch. I have five analog clocks upstairs and a digital on the face of the microwave. I’ve reset all of those. Still got the three wall clocks and the microwave downstairs to tend to.

 

[Hercule]

I just kinda wad ’em up. I’ve checked out the online tutorials and practiced some and still can’t do it. Investing any more effort might be of some benefit, but really, I don’t care if my bottom sheet isn’t hotel-maid worthy, so I can’t see why anyone else would, either.

While I do fold fitted sheets properly, I must admit that 9 times out of 10 the final product doesn't look very far removed from having been simply wadded up.

 

[Harp]

I'm closing in on two decades of teaching, among other things, the significance of plurality in a media - especially 'news' media - context and legal regulation to ensure the same (here in a Council of Europe country signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, our equivalent of the Frist Amendment, Article 10, enshrines a right to receive a wide variety of information, the subtext being that freedom of expression is of limited value if the opinions expressed are formed solely on one, (state) approved narrative). One thing I have come to feel strongly about is this effect of the loss of local journalism (owing to nil money being made or invested), with the result that much of significance to the day to day lives of people goes unnoticed. Not only in terms of local government being held to account (UK political culture exacerbates this, as typically many who bother to vote in local elections view them purely through the lens of national politics and treat them purely as an opinion poll on the government of the day), but equally importantly in terms of reporting of local courts, presenting a significant drawback for 'open justice'.

I carry small hope that local news initiatives will begin to turn if the long term effect of the pandemic is, as many currently predict, people spending more time working and existing closer to home, and therefore paying more attention to local issues.

I often read the Times, still touch base with The Economist, regularly listen to the BBC courtesy
National Public Radio, and read British academic journals catch-as-catch can. The macro economic
side occasionally surfaces across the Net-The Guardian solicits subscription, understandable circumstance
given all. Brexit though hasn't loosened any strings?

I wish the Oxford Academic American Law and Economics Review was free.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
I’m distressed that Mad Magazine is no longer in print.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's almost impossible to satirize a society that is, in fact, a parody of itself. I know -- I've tried: I did a radio bit recently ridiculing a certain prominent conspiracy theory and I found that even my wildest exaggerations were just minor alterations of that theory's actual beliefs.

 

[Harp]

It's almost impossible to satirize a society that is, in fact, a parody of itself. I know -- I've tried: I did a radio bit recently ridiculing a certain prominent conspiracy theory and I found that even my wildest exaggerations were just minor alterations of that theory's actual beliefs.

How true. Art imitates life. Peter Strzok's Compromised is a seriously flawed rendition of earlier collusion delusion,
and the yellow brick road led to the Wiz, so the path not taken; though the Logan Act and a subsequent interview
with a retired three-star did occur. Which, of course, had to be explained to posterity.
The former director; also involved in the bricks and mortar path now suffers testimonial amnesia.
And, there is another book, whose title and New York Times staff author, I have forgot, wanted to do a Woodward and Bernstein book but the truth kept getting in the way... The book is an unfortunate ring around the rosy reader.

The coin of the realm, whatever side looked at, or ignored, is indelibly etched.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The high cost of higher education in the United States.

Not everyone should get a four year college degree, but those who want one should not have to mortgage their future for decades. And I am not one of those who view education solely in terms of future employment possibilities: the man or woman who wants to be a carpenter or an electrician has the same right to pursue a degree in English Lit or American History solely because of their passion for the discipline as someone who wants to teach school or get into an MBA program. A more informed and literate populace benefits us all.

 

[Harp]

The high cost of higher education in the United States.

Not everyone should get a four year college degree, but those who want one should not have to mortgage their future for decades. ..

Congressional relaxation of the student loan limit strictures prefaced advantage taken and voila, tuition unshackled
by well intentioned but naive souls, and the kids and their parents had the buck passed.

The Vietnam GI Bill was a joke.

Congress should rectify this greed grab by gowned robber barons.

All of which could and should have been avoided with a little foresighted pragmatism.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Man, I hope, that good old revolver-tong will never dissapear!!

Got this one some minutes ago from my smalltown, here. Surely not the best one, but let's see, how long it will work. I always need it for new leather belts, because they mostly got one hole to less. Watch straps sometimes, too.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Congressional relaxation of the student loan limit strictures prefaced advantage taken and voila, tuition unshackled
by well intentioned but naive souls, and the kids and their parents had the buck passed.

The Vietnam GI Bill was a joke.

Congress should rectify this greed grab by gowned robber barons.

All of which could and should have been avoided with a little foresighted pragmatism.

At the very least, no changing of core curriculum or major requirements after a student is enrolled. Changing the damned rules in the middle of the game is flat out dishonest.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've often expressed how much I utterly despise the American system of health care, and it's got a lot in common with the way education is overpriced and extortionately financed in this country. Consider a system under which it's required by law that certain tests be fully covered by health insurance -- but hospitals routinely find ways to circumvent that law. A test required to be covered as a "routine screening" instantly becomes a "diagnostic screening," not subject to that law, the moment anything out of the ordinary is observed -- even though the test was ordered by the primary-care provider as a "routine screening" and was treated as such from the moment the patient walked into the facility until the moment she walked out.

Women in the audience here will know exactly what test I'm talking about, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been rooked out of hundreds of dollars she doesn't have by this nasty and very common piece of dirty ex-post-facto. Death to the "health-care-industrial complex."

 

[Harp]

At the very least, no changing of core curriculum or major requirements after a student is enrolled. Changing the damned rules in the middle of the game is flat out dishonest.

The baccalaureate core requirements were somewhat redundant after four years at Brother Rice,
though enjoyable, but German proved elusive to convenient scheduling. And Gaelic wasn't even offered
at UIC, but Serbo-Croation and Swahili were....

If I could return to that time with sufficient financial resources, I would enroll in a six-year MA Philosophy,
Ancient and Modern Greek, Latin, French, and German included for review and fun. Literature, anything else
that caught my eye. I spent most of my time at UIC in University Hall trying to unravel my GI Bill red tape.
But, on the bright side, college, grad school, and law school never really ended for me, it was all more a
beginning. I just wish looking back I had a few bucks to go along with the books.