TPBM 68- Proof positive that the game's afoot.

We were discussing how much we're going to miss 2wY when the men in the black sedans take her away.

I would miss her, if I wasn't worried about the men in the black sedans coming after me too....Damn, I wish I wouldn't have gotten involved in all this.

TPBM is stocking up on canned goods for their bunker.

In fact I have 2 footlockers full of canned goods.

TPBM knows how to open a can without a can opener.

//Nicely set-up SGiV!!! No.proof. eh?//

#3 Explosives?

TPBM remembers personally using a bayonet on the bully-beef tins in WW1.

Just ever so slightly before my time. Also before my parents'. But there's some corned beef in the fridge, if you'd like?

There have been trailers on TV for s series of 'WW II in colour', which looked like a pretty miserable time. Mind you, they'd have moved on from bayonets by then. Advancements in technology, eh?

TPBM has at least one Swiss Army knife (and remembers to empty out all emery boards from their hand luggage before they get on a plane)

Re previous thread:
// 384 : Now can the next thread be Summer of '69? //
// 386 : Apparently, I can't count //

Um, actually my husband keeps losing the Swiss Army knives that I have repeatedly given him. And I don't think I can remember the last time I held an emery board.

The person below me is not a fan of corned beef.

// You can't take an emery board on a plane? Why ever not? Are you going to saw a door open? //

//#7 becos' they are a 'props' to the "TSA Theater of Security". Like shampoo, liquid medicines, eyebrow tweezers, tiny nail-scissors and walking sticks. All duly confiscated on our flights. They are what the 9/11 hijackers used after all. Oh - wait! No, that was box-cutters smuggled aboard in another conspiracy by 'ground-staff' and already awaiting them in their seat pockets. Well then - just becos'.//

I'm not a fan of canned corned beef, but properly cooked and properly loaded onto seeded rye with spicy mustard is something to die for and something absurdedly hard to find in central NC!

TPBM lives for deli food.

No, but I do like some of it.

TPBM rarely eats food from a deli.

That depends on the deli.

TPBM has regrets.

Ooh - can of worms.

TPBM will tell us some of their regrets.

Well, I regret not looking for a new job while I still had the old one. I mean, it's not as if I was blindsided by the company closing down.

The person below me has career advice that has been tested in all sorts of job markets and is guaranteed foolproof. (Said person will also tell us why he/she/it is not rich.)

My husband and I went out for dinner on our tenth anniversary to a new restaurant that was going to great lengths to win a clientele. We had a fabulous meal, and for dessert my husband ordered something called chocolate lava cake. I had just started a serious diet, and so I virtuously passed it up, settling for one small bite of his. It was, I swear, one of the three or four most delicious things I have ever tasted in my life.

Why in the world didn't I just go ahead and order it? What difference would it make now, more than 20 years later? Why did I have to suddenly go all righteous instead of giving myself a gustatory memory I would still be cherishing to this day? Silly girl. Overzealous self-restraint: that is honestly one of my great regrets.

(Another similar one involved a handsome folk singer I knew back in my single days.)

So. There you are.

TPBM has grown less cautious with age.

{Edit: Oh, dear, overlapping posts. Sorry.}

#13 - my career advice is "enjoy what you do and do it as well as you can, even if you don't really enjoy it". This attitude has indeed not made me rich, but it saves a lot of moaning!

#14 - more cautious with age, I think - sad the way that can happen.

TPBM loves smoked fish.

Salmon and haddock - Oh yes! Not so keen on mackerel and herring - rather repetitive. I've just seen a recipe for a smoked haddock and chorizo risotto which I will soon try.

TPBM will tell us the right pronunciation of chorizo - choritzo, koreezo, choreezo.........

# 16 - tʃoˈɾiθo - sous-ige.

//Kippers!//

TPBM does not hear that dreadful Sinatra refrain when reading the above.

Leaped!

Newp, did not.

TPBM purposely mispronounces food when ordering in a restaurant. I do.

//18 No? Hmm ... did it your way then.//

No, but I do at other times. One of my college roommates was taken to task by her mother because she picked up one of my usual mispronunciations. Her mother just didn't have the same sense of humor we did.

The person below me has read words and been amazed to find out later that the word was pronounced very differently and was, in fact, familiar. (For me, I remember reading about recipes, two syllables, and finding out later that it was a familiar three syllable word. Edit: and cupboards were really kuhberds, like I'd heard all my, yes, short life.)

I don't mispronounce these unless I'm reading it aloud.
Epitome - I still read it as "eh-pih-TOME" instead of "ee-PIT-oh-me", yet I pronounce it correctly when I say it.
Hyperbole is another, beside being the best thing ever! I read it as "hyper-bowl".

TPBM has a few other mispronunciations to divulge.

ETA: Just thought I'd mention... TPBM #67 averaged 9.05 messages per day - our slowest-filled thread ever.

I always order 'fa-GEE-tas' in Mexican restaurants. I also said 'chimley' for chimney until I was 8 or so and I remember being really shocked when my grandmother told me that chimley was wrong. Like 'You must be wrong, no kid says 'chimney'.'

TPBM admires their poor ancestors enormously.

All of my ancestors were poor. Not all of them were admirable, although there must have been one or two admirable ones in the bunch.

TPBM has a famous (or infamous) ancestor.

//Maybe the ones who fought in the American Revolutionary War or the ones who left Ireland during the potato famine, but I don't know much about any of the other ones.//

Oops. I'm related to Noah Webster.

TPBM knows that one cannot take credit for the good actions of his/her ancestors without also taking the blame for their misdeeds.

I do neither. An uncle of mine made the eagles that are on the Chrysler building in NYC, plus lots of other interesting artifacts (Atlas' armillary at 30 Rock is another one that comes to mind), but he was incredibly mean to his family and a pathological liar.
Neither of these traits (talent and ego) seem to be in any other member of my extended family.

TPBM already knew what an armillary is.

Yep. It's one of those doodads designed to illustrate how a solar system works. Historically they were spherical, with a ring that shows the path that any given planet takes.

The person below me has made an embarrassing typo and didn't notice it until after hitting "send."

Far to many times to count.

TPBM is a born speller and getter of things right the first timer.

Yes, I'm afraid so. If a word doesn't 'look' right, I twitch. I'm a great proof reader.

Not to say I don't make misteaks.....

TPBM relies heavily on their word processor's spell checker.

Well yes. It is much better at it than I.

TPBM also posts on Pendants Corner.

// Earliest entry in my family tree on Ancestry says that Hugh was executed in Igtham Moat (in Kent) for treason. Mind it was the second time he tried to raise a rebellion so he had been told!//

#29 - I do indeed "hang around at Pendants' Corner". Or Pedants' Corner.

TPBM would have ________________ as their last meal.

Edited to correct a typo, naturally.

// But I needed that typo!//

Hmmmm...that's a tough one. I'm not sure about the main meal, but dessert should definitely include either Heavenly Hash ice cream or Angelfood cake.

TPBM has a suggestion for the entree of their last meal.

Chicken enchiladas, refried beans, a bowl of tortilla soup, followed by sopapillas and honey; all washed down with a really tart mojito, heavy on the mint.

TPBM has more refined ideas for their last meal.

Fijian Green Turtle Soup, breasts of thrushes, lampreys, spit-roasted peahen and alpine strawberries with double-Devon cream. Figure putting that together should buy me another couple of months!

TPBM is most surely not a foodie (other than SGiV)

//Hmmm somethings wrong with the new servers! Weird happenings in the thread. Is.it.a. conspiracy.?//

ETA: Talk about this on other threads - so SGiV... Is this Proof positive that the game's afoot?

Nope, I'm not a foodie. But as a last meal I'd want an ice cream sundae and the hearts of all mine enemies.

TPBM recently found a new favorite place to eat. For me, it's the Old Ebbitt Express in Metropolitan Place, downturn DC. All the food's good, some really good, and the prices are the cheapest around. I got breakfast there yesterday, $6 and I had to finish it for lunch. Amazing. Especially since I hate Old Ebbitt Grill with the white hot intensity of 1,000 suns.

The Blue Lagoon deck at Daytona Beach, by the marina. But in DC for 'cheap and cheerful' we liked Teddy's old dive, The Bullfeathers. For posh the Café du Parc at the Willard in downturn DC which is surprisingly reasonable for lunch.

TPBM eats best at home.

Yes. Getting back to the last meal, I don't think I could eat at that time -- that is if the "last meal" means what I think it does.

TPBM has been thinking and it's very tiring.

It was Sophie that started all that Boo - we were being all serious and studious as your ancestor was - dear Noah - discussing spellings and pendants and medallions etc. I think (I never presume) she meant us to think of capital termination (and she corrected my pun-typo) And so - thinking - I got tired too.

TPBM recalls what Dr. Johnson said about hanging and thinking.

//Waait a minute. Cafe du Parc and Bullfeathers? Jayzuz, you're with the Company, aren't you? I'm being retired or are you just glad to see me. Be a good boy and don't let me see it coming, and if at all possible I really would like to take a few sons of guns with me. I'll post a list in the usual spot.//

You mean about hanging being a good way to focus the mind? I can't say I recalled it until I had googled it to remind me what the saying was....

The person below me isn't particularly familiar with Samuel Johnson either.

I am not. Another person that I need to learn about......

TPBM has way too much stuff.

Not anymore. I just need to do more work on organizing the stuff that survived the flood back in September and made it to the new place.

TPBM has a place for everything and everything in it's place.

But we are downsizing. (SWMBO Swarovski crystal excepted.) Old agents long past it, in need of retirement and relief, old expense accounts to do with the aged conspiracy, elderly Scots philosophers with a penchant for younger secretarys, etc.

TPBM knows whom I refer to.

ETA delighted to see I was leapt - but, strangely, within.the. conspiracy. it still worked.

Haven't a clue.

TPBM needs space.

No, I have to admit I have enough space. I just have too many books and too many clothes. I need to start exercising some restraint, but I find that the most difficult thing to exercise.

TPBM can think of something even more difficult.

Exercising at all when you can hardly walk? Follow-up or a witty repost on a post by Morningwalker?

TPBM finds is easy to 'exercise' as in removing or deleting.

I'm getting better at it. I still have trouble deleting any messages from Ancestry.com, but will soon have to, as I'm getting a new computer. Yay! This one is only eight years old.

TPBM is using a computer that is even older than mine.

Yes, my work computer is 10 years old. It had .99GB of RAM when I got it and would crash if I had more than three apps running.

TPBM is sold on tablets.

Horses for courses, really. Without a lot of enthusiasm I take a small dose of a statin and with a bit more enthusiasm a hypotensive drug both of which do what they are supposed to without giving me any obvious side-effects. I don't rush for the tablet bottle otherwise.

TPBM always prefers medication to symptoms

Na; who needs more rubbish inside them. More to the point, who can remember what to take when.

I do love my iPad, though, and take it to bed with me.

TPBM loves ironing (and will help me reduce my mountain; mainly of school uniforms)

YES! I love ironing; and sarcasting too. The topic of school uniforms leaves me strangely uninspired, tho'.

TPBM has six inspirations before breakfast, almost every day.

// followed by expirations, I hope! //

No, I barely think at all that early. But I do love reading these posts as I gradually come awake, and learning lovely new words like sarcasting. That, at least, IS inspirational.

TPBM knows the lowest form of wit.

#55

//There's a fakir in India, still living on the breath he drew when the English left!//

Oh oh! What is 'Running for Political Office'!

TPBM has stood on a plain in Spain in the rain.

No, never been anywhere in Spain, in any weather.

The person below me has been in a hurricane in Hartford, Hereford, or Hampshire.

No, I haven't actually. Although that's not all that surprising since in Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen. (How kind of you to let me come...)

The person below me knows Pygmalion.

And how!

TPBM prefers Rex Harrison to Leslie Howard, though.

#58,59 & 60. Impressive! You were all really on the same (Google) page?

In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire, Hurricanes Hardly Happen ...
snoopdujour.com/?p=349Oct 1, 2008 – Leave us picture an Alaskan Eliza Doolittle – dead moose on her back, shotgun in one hand, hockey stick in the other - instead of a Cockney ...

The Rain in Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rain_in_Spain...
well as singing other exercises correctly, such as "In Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen", and "How kind of you to let me come", ...

Lola, for doing what?

TPBM has something to say about the month of May.

//impersonating Pygmalion!//

Something to say ...
About the month of May ..
SGiV is a poet.
And we did not know it.

May , or the Roman Maia , is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. The first was usually celebrated with pagan fertility dances around a garlanded and be-ribboned pole, later as 'Labour Day' ... in Yurrup anyway.

TPBM has seen that type of pole in Bavarian villages and knows why they have trade-signs on them.

That's the thing about Bavaria, it's absolutely crawling with Poles. Wat thing, you know, but I don't remember them being made to wear signs.

TPBM is off the grid.

Off the grid, off the dope, off the mickey, and off all charts.

TPBM is out of bread.

Yup, until my SS check arrives.

TPBM is out.

No wonder my PB&J was so messy!

TPBM prefers the PB to be crunchy rather than creamy.

ETA: A rare moment of internet connectivity. I miss you guys!

//WHL Welcome back (briefly?) again!//

My dear sir, even with the crunchy your sandwich would still have been sloppy.

TPBM is never sloppy.

No, I'm not, but my husband is. He's still my hero, though.

TPBM challenges John_Vaughan to eat a ham and peanut butter sandwich. It must be Jif, creamy.

//Hi, Mr. House! Good to see your typing.//

Peanut butter on toast, peanut butter and bananas, peanut butter with chocolate, in cookies or in Thai curry sauce. But, no, I wouldn't request that anyone eat it with ham.

TPBM has a good peanut butter recipe.

Yes. With ham too!
Glaze a country ham with peanut butter, good thick stock and brown sugar, stud with cloves and bake.
Think Satay.

TPBM is allergic to recipes.

ETA Hmmm. It is 9. All gone to bed.

First time I try a recipe, I follow it to the letter (unless it omits the garlic, in which case I remedy that bizarre omission). If it works well enough to get made again, then I inevitably go of-message in some way or other. Generally by adding extra garlic.*

TPBM never eats ___________.

*Please be reassured that this does not apply to cake baking, although my hand has been known to stray garlic-jar-wards until I slap it.

Ham or fresh pork, mussels or oysters, eggplant, raw onions (except scallions and green onions).

Once again, TPBM never eats _______________.

Oysters, liver, English Peas or liverwurst.

TPBM thinks it is too early to be things about disgusting foods.

It certainly would be - for disgusting foods. However I can find none mentioned above and #76 is my breakfast menu today... with tacos y tortillas tambien.

TPBM knows why the USA celebrates Cinco instead of the true independence day in September.

//Oh dear! We seemed to have transformed into a food and cooking thread. Was this the dreaded conspiracy SGiV meant?//

No, but maybe because we already have a big holiday in September and felt like we needed one in early May? Or maybe it was the tequila industry who pushed it?

The person below me will do something to celebrate today.

edit: I did just see this.. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/05/us/cinco-de-mayo-origins/index.html?eref=rss_us

Naw, even St. Paddy's Day lost its appeal after I was out of college and felt like I had to at least wear green.

TPBM went to a fiesta yesterday.

Nah, I stayed awake all day.

TPBM was able to see the Super Moon last night. Too cloudy here.

Yes. It was brighter than our yard light.

TPBM would visit the moon if it was an affordable vacation option.

Nah - be just like Arizona! We went to a Cinco fiesta at a friends house (one of the 1%) and could see the moon over the lake - spectacular and it seemed much bigger than the reported 11% larger. I was puzzled at the number of 'fiestas' in his development - until I realized that they were mostly for Derby Day!

TPBM did combine a siesta with a fiesta.

We had a fiesta yesterday with my mother-in-law and I took a small siesta of about 30 minutes before she came over.

TPBM will plant a summer vegetable garden soon.

No. The farming/gardening gene slipped past me entirely. Why my neighbor is trusting me to take care of her house-sale tulips is more than I can understand. But she's sold the house, she's moving and she's giving me the tulips. SO I guess I have to work out the details. Because she's my friend.

The person below me is making a list (as a mechanism for propping up his/her sense of personal competency.)

Yes, I have some things I HAVE to do tomorrow and, if I don't make a list, I might forget something. Tuesday isn't an option.

The person below me loves to watch the horses and/or the interesting sartorial displays at the Kentucky Derby.

(Bowties are back?)

No, but I love the song "Run For the Roses."

TPBM thinks that song has magnificent symbolism.

//(Bowties went out?!)//

Sure, why not? I was wandering in the Utah desert one day and heard then saw a herd of wild horses running up an incline toward me; when they saw our small group they turned east and kept on running. Magnificent beasts.

TPBM is kind to trees.

A tree has never hugged me - why should I hug them? As the old song went "I talk to the trees but they don't listen to me...." Live and let live is quite kind enough for me.

TPBM can't wait to get their axe out and start lumberjacking

///I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK///

:)

Chainsaw anybody? Buttered scones? Suspenders and a bra (just like your dear papa?). I love trees and we live in an old-timey - suburb- development that has hundreds of them.

TPBM worries about distinguished ecclesiastical gentlemen who wander around talking to arboreal creatures.

Do they answer back? Only then would I worry.

TPBM prefers their trees and plants to provide sustenance - fruit, nuts, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.

Not necessary. They already provide oxygen. I might not eat today, but I'm always breathing.

TPBM never skips a meal.

I'm not allowed to, although, I cheat by foraging and snacking throughout the day and call it a meal or two.
//* I'm preparing (mostly in my head) to cut down an oak tree that's leaning over my electric line. It's showing significant rot at the base (the tree, not the electric line).

TPBM needs some firewood.

No thanks but SGiV needs some for his Ikea bookcases (previous thread # 67 - 112 SomeGuyInVirginia).

TPBM is yet another one of us who cheats on those GP required "regular meals".

Yes, I do, as does my husband.

TPBM knows that grazing (small meals every few hours) are actually more healthy for a person than eating three squares.

Problem is, it's then very hard keeping track of what you've ingested during any given day - left to my own devices, though, I probably would nibble here and there all day, just because it's easier than cooking for one.

TPBM has new shoes.

Only because I've worn holes in the soles of my current pair and the cost to repair them is the same as the original cost. I'll have blisters for days.

TPBM doesn't mind polishing shoes.

Only mine. I confess that I have mostly given up shoe polish and brushes in favour of a plastic sponge thingy pre-loaded with black or brown goo.

TPBM regrets the passing of some other superceded household implement.

Those mechanical egg-beaters where you turned the (wooden) handle and the two beaters spun. They were actually easier to clean and control than the electric ones. Hmmm - perhaps they have only been superseded in the household of SWMBO?

Everything else I thought of - scullery, pantry, meat safe, stove blacking - was good riddance.

TPBM knows this superseding (or superceding in UK) is part.of.the.conspiracy. and will explain.

Of course, all those newfangled devices are designed to wear out, break, cease functioning early so we have to buy new ones. SGIV's shoes a case in point.

TPBM knows who (besides Bill Gates) is behind this planned obsolescence.

I do, but I've been sworn to silence.

TPBM has got a shakin' goin' on.

A whole lot of it.

The person below me has a new favorite food.

Double-fired, extra crunchy almonds. I should buy Planters' shares.

TPBM has mixed feelings about nuts.

My Mum taught me to be polite and refer to them as eccentrics. They came in varieties too, "wholly, mildly" and like me, totally.

TPBM is tolerant always.

Oh. Yes. Always. I get on with everyone. If they can't get on with me, let them be. Life's too short.

TPBM wishes the weather would sort itself out.

It never does, which is why all the news channels follow it.

TPBM has a rather strong feeling regarding hairy fruit.

I prefer not to eat the hairy part.

TPBM has given up on gardening.

For today - I am in the middle of removing the sizeable stump of a redundant pyracantha. I am too feeble now to attack it with a mattock so I am slowly digging a five inch trench around the rootball with a trowel, cutting the lateral roots as I come to them. I think I am coming to know how it felt to dig your way out of Stalag Luft III with a tablespoon (no armed guards or German shepherd dogs though). When I have a big enough hole I shall replace said pyracantha with a ten-foot cordyline australis that I have raised from a seed - it needs to get out of its pot! I just know, see. It hasn't said anything to me. Really.

TPBM thinks it is the business of the wealthy man to give employment to the artisan, and that I should delegate.

// 101: We still have a manual egg beater and use it all the time. I can't imagine bothering with a plug-in device for a simple egg-beating chore. //

// 101 and 111. I have a manual egg beater too and use it for 4 or more eggs. When 3 or less, I use a fork. Plus I love my antique flour sifter.

//110. Yes dear Abbott and karenmarie obviously agrees with you and has found work for an elderly flour sifter.

TPBM never heard of any of those plants (? Shrubs? Trees? Garden pests?) the Abott mentioned.

No, I haven't, but then I'm not much of a gardener. A friend is going to send me some seeds for tiny violets, though, and I'm hoping I can grow them.

TPBM uses a fork to beat no matter how many eggs for scrambled eggs or for an omelette.

Actually, I do. I'm really good at that.

The person below me beats eggs with a big wire whisk.

Ah! Now THAT is what I do - as I was taught by my Chef at sea.
(And for my batter,pancakes, crepes.)

TPBM adds cognac to a basic pancake mix to makes crepes.

With my innards having a negative tolerance level of even minor amounts of alcohol, no, emphatically NO, I don't. But, that's just me...

TPBM has hung black crepe over his/her copy of Where the Wild Things Are, out of respect for the late Maurice Sendak.

If I owned a copy, I definitely would do so.

TPBM wishes on satellites.

What a good idea! Much more reliable and kinder on the neck than waiting for the next shooting star.

Just one thing, though - how's the success rate?

TPBM always goes out at night for the Leonids and Perseids

I used to when daughter was young. We have a good night sky and daughter, husband, and I would set up the hammock and comfy chairs and sit on the front deck. Haven't done it so much recently.....

TPBM has a pretty good telescope.

No, bullshit must have quite a shine to it because you can't see a thing over the DC sky.

TPBM is light years ahead.

>121 SomeGuyInVirginia:
**nodding and grinning**

Are you kidding? I'm not on facebook, I don't tweet, I don't have a kindle, and my cell phone usually needs charged for a week before I think of it. I practicallly live in the dark ages.....but I'm good with that, for now. I just don't seem to have time for so much technology.

TPBM embraces technology with both arms and all ten toes.

I use technology at work and am the go to person for computer support for many of my family and friends, but my cell phone makes phone calls and nothing else and I don't do Facebook. I would rather read a book.

I do tweet now and then for professional reasons.

TPBM tweets.

I do. (There's a link to my handle on my LT profile.)

The person below me chirps, or makes some other equally birdlike noise. ;)

I used to crow a lot. And I would squawk if nobody applauded, and I am a bit of a twit.

TPBM is of similar feather.

Are you calling fowl?

TPBM jumped the gun.

Only when it went off. Lucky for me, it wasn't pointing in my direction.

TPBM shot the moon.

Capmangoe indeed! And, my 18-year old daughter derives great pleasure from using that strategy too.

TPBM loves card games and bemoans the lack of opportunities to sit down to a good hand of cards.

The only card game I have really got into is cribbage. Properly it should be played on a table with a surface stickiness from old spilt draught bitter - this is often not acceptable at home. Also at least one of the pegs must have been replaced with a spent match - getting difficult in these non-smoking days.

TPBM owns a cribbage board.

I do - from my Father in laws many "holidays' here with us. And a set of dominoes he left here when he passed away. And both are shiny with spills from his 'alf and 'alf!

TPBM also drinks that beer mix, or knows a relative that did.

No, but since my grandfather came from Cornwall, I assume that someone drank it? Did they have it back in the 1800's? He left sometime before 1890. Would it have been a drink in Cornwall? The trouble with being the last child of an older parent who was also the last child of an older parent is that I know very little about my ancestors and relatives.

The person below me was lucky enough to know his or her grandparents.

Alas, only the grandmothers. One grandfather died in 1929 and the other when I was 4, in 1957. But I did get to know one set of great-grandparents.

TPBM has been doing genealogical research recently.

// Yes xorscape, but it may have been a different mix both there (Cornwall) and back then. As my dad-in-law was from the South of England his was Mild & Bitter. Here in the US I have heard it used to request - in a more PC way - a "Black & Tan'. Horses for courses when the games afoot !//

ETA HTML stuff!

No, but I have relatives who have done massive amounts of research.

TPBM loves to read about what the others have found about the family.

Indeed I do. I don't seem to have the time, patience or funds to do it myself.

TPBM would rather not know.

Actually, I like hearing the stories.

The person below me is sometimes startled at how much personal information is available on the internet.

No, it seems like everything is overdone these days.

TPBM pines for the good old days.

Polo cologne good old days or outhouse good old days?

TPBM is fixed for life.

No, that was our shelter cat, and then only because he misheard us and went along quite happily to be "tutored".

TPBM is scared of the outhouse.

Actually, outhouses were the only option for me as a child, growing up in the woods in northern Canada.

TPBM has issues with modern plumbing.

Well I always had the feeling that there might be something (other than the obvious) "down there".

TPBM has an entertaining story about an outhouse experience.

Yes, from the old Lime-House docks in Liverpool. A multi-service affair with an open gutter. It involves a braver boy than I and crumpled newspaper floating down the gutter under the clients. After Johnny Lord set it alight. And mad running and scrambling over dock-yard walls. But I won't tell it.

TPBM remembers the crescent carved into wooden out-house doors and can explain the symbolism.

Ventilation.

TPBM is a no-holds-barred, down-and-dirty, vicious, kick-ass chess player.

//No sir, Mr WHL I asked what the symbol stood for. It was for ventilation, and light, but in Colonial times La Luna was the symbol for "Ladies". Where we guys went is a mystery - unless we had to join the bears?//

//The other symbol is a full moon (for men), who required even more ventilation.//

To answer #145 - Yer damn right, I am!

TPBM knows that it's really psychologically healthy to talk to one's self occasionally.

Yes, and even to listen, Sometimes.
//Full moon is what happens if the "wind" catches the door?//

TPBM dislikes scatological humour (or humor if you wish).

//#144 I just had to check in my copy of The Specialist - a book which no modren home should be without. The author offers stars, diamonds or crescents - there ain't much choice - all give good service, sez he. A lot of people like stars, because they throw a ragged shadder. Others like crescents 'cause they're graceful and simple. His only symbolic ventilators are twinned hearts for newly-weds and bunches of grapes for the newly rich.//

//It used to scare the &$*%(^*&$#^%$ out of me to use the outhouse when we went to visit my paternal grandparents every summer. I was always afraid I'd fall in, and all those worms would eat me alive. And the wasps and things that flew around in there were awful. I was sitting there once and a black snake crawled through the door, slithered past my feet and back out. I don't CARE if it was ONLY a chicken snake. So, there! Even worse was at night. I could imagine wolves and all sorts of things coming out of the woods across the lane that was right in front of the house -- it wasn't THAT far back to the outhouse. I was one of the happiest kids in the world when they finally got indoor plumbing. Then half the time, there had been no rain for so long that there wasn't enough water to use it. Dayum. Foiled again! :-}//

I like most humor, except for the cruel kind.

TPBM remembers the "cruel" jokes from childhood.

//I thought grapes were for hemorrhoids? I had an aunt only shat on a sieve, said it was good for the compost. Then she swallowed a diamond, we followed its course, 'cuz the butcher won't take crap for rump roast.//

//Wow! Whatta flop!//

Eh, bullies. Punch 'em in the throat and get on with it.

TPBM is just.

Er..Yes...but I don't know if I'm just soso, justified, just in time, or juuust right.

Hey, does anyone want a cat. Another stray showed up..................

TPBM knows.

I haven't had my second cup of coffee, so I can't be expected to know much of anything. Ask me again in a hour or so.

TPBM is also not looking forward to work today (we are going to have an Earthquake drill, which means crouching under a table and trying to keep a room of 55 middle school students quiet).

Gosh, that sounds like a bucket of fun compared to the endless paper shuffling I do. Trade ya.

TPBM is in summer fresh fruit mode.

I love fresh fruit but don't buy it as often as I should. I either eat too much or it goes bad before I can finish it. I'm learning to make smoothies so I won't have that problem anymore.

The person below me buys postcards. (And may even use them!)

Well, it's mid-May and has been pouring - there has been snow in Scotland in the last couple of weeks. Not really a fresh fruit season for us yet. We should, however, be getting English asparagus but the rain has wrecked the crops. I'm gutted but I'm not going to buy asparagus that has flown here from Peru.

I buy postcards most times I visit an art exhibition = I rarely post them.

TPBM adores asparagus, whatever it may or may not do the the odour of their urine.

Or the colour!
Except that gorgeous white asparagus from the Bavarian alps.

TPBM can guess what my pal from Maine said he tasted in his first English Steak & Kidney pie?

//From the Witches Kitchen in Chester below the castle wall at that!//

Probably something along the line of, " This'd taste bettuh if you spread it out ovuh the field and let the cows eat it fuhst."

//I got pneumonia about 2 weeks ago from overexertion and allergies. I was cutting overhanging branches (6 truckloads) away from the roof on a day when there was an overabundance of pollen in the air. The phlegm drained into a lung while I was sleeping, ergo, pneumonia with dark green custard. I've been coughing it out ever since. Last night, a storm blew through. I have almost as much windfall as stuff I cut away 2 weeks ago. Anybody want some firewood? It's blocking my driveway.//

TPBM can use a chainsaw well enough that s/he isn't afraid of losing life or limb (no pun intended).

One does not ask a Southern lady of refinement about her skills with a chainsaw, WHL. I thought you knew that....

The person below me is thinking about the Tombs of the Pharaohs. Extra points granted if you've actually seen them in RL.

Will have to leave this one to our learned Abbott I guess. The closer I ever got them was a visit to the Pyramids just outside Cairo. Although Luxor is quite close to Suez I was always stuck in the canal.

Did see the Tutankhamen Exhibits in London one year.

TPBM thinks all mummies deserve flowers on Sunday.

Yes - Lily of the Nile.

TPBM has been taken in by a pyramid scheme.

British public sector pensions have much in common with Ponzi schemes. I was taken in, but as with all these scams, there are winners, and I suppose that I am one such. Depends somewhat on my falling off the twig before the UK streets run with blood and revolution. At the moment I would put my money on me - if I lived in Greece, however, I would be less confident.

TPBM has visited Greek islands.

//As in The Greek Islands? (by Lawrence Durrell)//

In RL Cyrprus (contested) and/or Crete (Ancient) I guess I might have.

TPBM is far less tentative.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

TPBM joins me in hoping Mr. House is doing well and is about recovered from his pneumonia.

//And the person above you too m'dear!//

Well, of course! WHL is dear to us all.

TPBM is so full that they regret the second helpings.

Phew! Karenmarie your post saved the thread! 23 hours precisely since mine! I though it was gonna be RIP for TPBM...

Yesterday 8:01pm
@ 21:01 (All abed?)
Today 08: 48 (No messages!
Today 16:08 (Still no posts! Is it broken?)
Today @ 18:01 (20 hours without activity! This could be terminal!)
Could it go to a full 24 hours without any activity?
SAVED by Karenmarie Yeah!!

> 157 - 160 : too much info, guys.

Johnny V, you seem addicted to this thread. Chill, man!

To respond, I quite often stuff myself silly (especially dessert, and most especially if it involves chocolate), but right now, ive got a rumbly in my tumbly. I've treated myself to a bit of a lie-in for mothers' day, but now I'm off for breakfast ... early lunch ....

Oh, hang on. Um TPBM gave / received / did something spectacular for mothers' day (whenever in the year that fell, in their part of the world)

Well, I've still got a few hours before Mother's Day starts, but things aren't looking too promising because there's a child who just came home from a friend's house with a fever, sore throat, and headache.

TPBM has a Mother's Day tradition.

//Good Lord humouress ! Do you really think so? I admit I enjoy it and check it out every four hours or so, but addict?//
(: D

Happy Mothers Day ladies.

Yes, I do. I repeatedly dial my wife's mother-in-law's phone number because I get a busy signal on earlier attempts, then I'll leave a message with Stephen Hawking saying it's me and the number of attempts I made, and then some time the next day, she'll call me back. It's a tradition that has been going on for decades.

TPBM knows why Stephen Hawking answers the phone.

Is he your Daddy?

TPBM doesn't know the answer to the above, either.

Erm Because she has his voice on her answering machine? Or maybe the message flies out into space, based, I guess on one of his theories, and never comes back to earth.

TPBM is getting stoked for the summer Olympics, unlike me.

Being as I wouldn't have far to go to watch, I applied for all sorts of tickets in the ballot. I was allocated just two tickets for a football game which turns out to be Korea v. Gabon. The abbess and I are underwhelmed.

TPBM has attended something more interesting at a previous Olympics.

My cousin was living in Atlanta when they held the Games there; my parents live in Sydney - in fact, my dad was a volunteer helper at the Sydney Games; I was living in Asia when they held the Beijing Games; and I used to travel through the East End of London on the Tube on my way in to work. But have I / will I attend any of these Games? Not a chance.

TPBM has / personally knows someone who has competed in the Olympics.

Not quite, but my cousin was a referee for the Ice Hockey games at the Turin Olympics.

TPBM lives in or near London & is planning on "abandoning ship" during the Olympics.

Wrong side of the Atlantic: I'm in Brooklyn.

The person below me has run the New York Marathon.

Sugar, I wouldn't ride a float in a marathon. Long distance running is a zen thing, and watching it about as much fun as listening to people tell you their dreams.

//Post away John, it's an open forum.//

TPBM left their heart in San Francisco, or a kidney in Mexico City.

I do love San Francisco and have very fond memories of it. Last time I visited was in 1993 on a business trip when I was 7 months pregnant. Great time, got to swing down through LA and visit my family.

TPBM nees to renew their passport.

Not for a while yet: I just renewed mine in November.

The person below me needs a passport, period.

Well, I don't have one, but I'm not planning on leaving the country any time soon, so I guess I don't rally need one.

TPBM has a bunch of stamps in their passport.

Just one - Ireland.

TPBM travels often.

As often as I can afford to, which isn't often at all.

The person below me needs a hand in their bookkeeping departments. (I'll take the cheap end of reasonable to start with, so long as I have health insurance and two weeks a year to spend somewhere else.)

I don't, but DC is one region that's been unaffected by the economic downturn (big surprise there) so have you considered moving? Good luck, Anna.

TPBM is all afizz.

No. It's a rainy monday and I'm too pooped to pop.

TPBM knows the score.

Human beings - 0; inanimate objects - 1. It's the law.

TPBM always sees/saw their parents as people rather than just parents.

Yes, and I decided they were probably better people than they were parents.

(one of Mom's favorite sayings when she wasn't pleased with us - "Now I understand why cats sometimes eat their young." - of course she never ate any of her children -that I know of.....)

TPBM is glad to have a routine today.

No, since I have a doctor's appointment in the middle of it (even if this appointment is indeed pretty routine).

SomeGuy - I'd consider moving if my mom does too. I live at home to avoid having to pay rent. Anyway, I'm entry-level enough that any job that wants me to relocate is almost certainly above my pay grade.

The person below me has a stable job but keeps their resume up to date anyway.

Yes I do and I feel very fortunate. I've been at this job for 17 years and am up to 4 weeks vacation. 'Course the economy is causing fits with the business and I haven't had anything approaching a real raise in 6 years, but I've got health care benefits and stability.

TPBM has recently retired and is soooooo glad they did!

No, I'm not retired, although part of the year it seems like I am. The rest of the year I'm just tired.

TPBM has exactly the job they always wanted.

It depends. I'm retired so I can tell you that I love having my days to do nothing or lots. But I think there are jobs that I would have liked to try.

The person below me can name a movie re-make that is at least as good as the original.

(edit: to change tpbm)

Nope, I can't think of anything, although I know there must be. OH! I liked the remake of Dawn of the Dead more than the original.

TPBM is dressing up tomorrow just for the hell of it.

Well, I have put nail varnish on for the first time in ages, that's about as far as my dressing up ever goes!

TPBM has started their annual summer diet and is already about to start eating their desk for sustenance.

No, but I do have a sugar hangover today- I was starving when I went grocery shopping last night and had ice cream for dinner. I feel like a car about a quart low on oil this morning.

TPBM absolutely doesn't understand the point of mornings if not to drink coffee.

There's another point to mornings besides that????

TPBM either by choice or medical condition spurns caffeine.

By choice I spurn caffeine in coffee, but drink iced tea for lunch and am eating a few bites of a chocolate cupcake even as I write this. Sigh.

TPBM has more willpower than I do.

Yes. I have completely gone caffeine free...no sodas, no coffee, no tea, nor chocolate.

TPBM can tell us how great one feels after going caffeine free..

Yes I can. For three to five days you have a sick headache. Then you're sleepy all the time. And when you do finally break down and have a cup of coffee, it's like taking a shot of epinephrine directly to the heart.

TPBM has undertaken a long journey.

Yes. Just got back. Had a lift from some rather conservatively dressed men in a black sedan, who fed me raw caffeine, a freshly polished desk sprinkled with sugar and painted my nails a shade of Berkshire green

TPBM has also just caught up on the thread.

No, I've been following along, but hmmm.......I'm curious, is the Berkshire green shade for your nails easy to match to your wardrobe? I think it requires just the right complexion to pull off that color. I'm too pale for it myself, so I'm envious if it looks good on you.

TPBM looks good in any shade.

I do - especially if it's black....

TPBM is wondering when we're going to have some warmth to the month & can finally put the summer weight duvet on the bed.

!!! It is 88 this morning, the coolest it has been all month!! Whatever can you mean?
//I just made the bed - SWMBO is at work- and was recalling the wonderful, crisp white duvets in Yurrup. Ours is getting on a bit!//

TPBM knows other Canadian expats who migrated to even colder climes.

No, but I know A LOT of Canadians who winter here in Southern Arizona.

The person below me always has to look twice at people with unusual shades of fingernail polish on. I admit I like those really fancy paint jobs.

203// SheWalksbutonlyintheMornings:- Is there such a color? I only added that because CarrotLady's profile says that is from where she hails.

I always wondered about Berk(shire). In the UK if folks were from Buckingham(shire) we called them 'Bucks'. If from Hampton(shire) they were called 'Hants", so folks from Berkshire must be called....//

I do look twice because it just doesn't look ... natural? Of course blood red doesn't look natural either but I've become used to it. One of our Senior Accountants came into the office last week with lime green nail polish on her toenails in honor of her week long vacation to the beach this week ..... blech.

TPBM thinks nail polish is nothing compared to various and sundry body piercings and tattoos that seem to becoming much more mainstream.

I usually only paint my toenails, and then only in the summer when the toes are visible. Too much to maintain the fingernails too.

207 John_V- I don't know if there is such a color, but I was picturing something dark emerald green like....

TPBM is low maintenance.

//I think the men in black just used army camo paint. (;D//

I like to think so - dry shaving; wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat; run a fan rather than turn down the AC; take a sponge bath once a month - whether I need it or not...

TPBM sometimes feels put-upon.

“Baths were actually considered unhealthy during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. Queen Elizabeth I supposedly bragged, “I take a bath once a month, whether I need it or not."
Paul Johnson

TPBM feels it is Mrs. WholeHouse who is put-upon.

Well ......Mrs.WHL does have a cockatiel.

TPBM primps and preens with the best of them.

Who told you I was a pimp?! It was that B!%@#, wasn't it? Damn her lies. And where the hell is my money?! (We don't do preens. We used to but the insurance was just too much.)

TPBM is in love.

Yes.

TPBM will explain the expression 'head over heels.' Aren't our heads always over our heels?

Of course you are Boo! I, of course, being an addict , could not resist this one. What I found is delightful.... The first mention of love comes in 1834, by which time the phrase had crossed the Atlantic, and into David Crockett's Narrative of the life of David Crockett:

"I soon found myself head over heels in love with this girl."

Note: Non-American readers might not realize that Davy Crockett was a real person. Certainly in the UK he has the semi-mythic status of characters like Robin Hood and William Tell. Crockett is best known here by the old joke: "Did you know Davy Crockett had three ears? A left ear, a right ear and a wild frontier."

.. aint that great!!

Oh! TPBM can add to this, with more than a 3 word post.

No.

TPBM can.

//Seems as if "head over heels" isn't anything special, since our heads are ordinarily over our heels. I still don't get it.//

This non-American first came across Davy Crockett in the 1950s TV series - played by Fess Parker. What I do know about the real man was that he, and other fellow Tennessee militia members died in the battle of the Alamo - played in the 1960 movie by 'The Duke'.

TPBM was puzzled by the casting of Laurence Harvey as William Barrett Travis in that film

I generally decline to watch 'Alamo' movies because I have an ancestor who died there. Actually, I don't often watch movies that purport to portray history, because I'm the 'history cop' in our family and the errors drive me to distraction.

TPBM is the family expert in some subject and will enlighten us.

Well Pilgrim, I'm gonna need to take another look at that and get back to ya.

TPBM thought Fess Parker was hot.

Truthiness. Fact-checking. And, tree0s.

When showering, TPBM turns off the water while applying soap.

No, I am totally un-green and stand in the very hot shower until the morning stupor wears off. But I do turn off the water while brushing my teeth, and only run the dishwasher when it's full, so I'm not a complete water-waster.

TPBM makes their own compost.

We used to throw our food scraps into the manure storage, so that could be considered composting. But we don't do it anymore, since roadside garbage pickup started last month. Now everything goes into either the blue bin or the black bin, and every week it just disappears.

TPBM is a big fan of public sanitation.

No but Susie is Sewerage records : an untapped magnificent resource.

TPBM finds it still too early in the day for all these earthy comments.

ETA Now it is not too early, so...

TPBM is a big fan of public transport.

YES, yes, and YES--fervently, in theory, and European practice. I could open threads, start groups, blogs and forums on public transport: the love of it when it's grand (as in Europe, plus minus some Asia), the hate of it when it's wretched (everywhere else). In fact I have an imaginary blog, Toronto Transit Trauma, that I add to pretty much daily... in my head. I'd make it real but I'm afraid the TTC could learn where I live.

TPBM will continue this or that topic in another thread.

No, it isn't time for a new thread just yet. But I'm sure we'd love to hear more about your imaginary blog, Toronto Transit Trauma. Have you any imaginary friends reading it?

To continue the topic, the person below me rides trains as part of their daily commute on mass transit.

226// A fellow Toronto-ian recently published a great book - that I won through ER - Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. Taras Grescoe and his wife have returned to Canada because they want to live without a car. Good book.//

I ride the sub'emway each day. It's its own eco/bio system.

TPBM would not think about a life where you have to scurry down a rat hole each day to get to work.

I think it an entirely appropriate portal to most jobs!

When I lived (briefly) in Mississauga I used TRAMS!

TPBM says Bring them back, along with sailing barges, canals and more trains.

Streetcars, too. There are still tracks but no cars in my home town.

TPBM feels the need for a piece of pie.

//#227

I have nothing but imaginary friends! They leave the best comments...

#228

I listened to an interview with the guy! It was good. I don't know where he had to move FROM if he chose Canada to live without a car--oh wait, I think he's in Montreal now. That's different. Much more civilised.//

//I just realized that trams and streetcars are the same. Duh. //

Pie, no. I can't think of a decent bakery anywhere around here but I do have a hankering for an ice cream sundae. I'm going to get high and finish watching a movie on my Kindle instead.

//Trams like us, baby we were boorn to run. Bruce Springsteen, unreleased version.//

TPBM would raise hell if they saw a TSA agent patting down a screaming child. I've already budgeted money for my defense. Damn secret police.

A sugar high again SGiV?

The whole theatre (or pantomime) of the TSA makes me "unreasonable & uncooperative". Sheer show. Gotta go through it all again Saturday too.

TPBM would help create a fund for the defense of SGiV.

Or perhaps an educational fund for TSA agents? Since they obviously have no understanding of how to approach a 4 year old.

TPBM agrees with me that "common sense" is sadly not all that common.

I learned a while ago that I'm obviously superior in intelligence to the vast majority of life on this planet, and things that are obvious to me require a huge leap of the brain cells in other people. One does what one can to help (but some think I'm just a sticky beak).

Mind you, I've had my moments, too ;-)

TPBM understands.

No I don't.

TPBM was in school a long time.

If you mean 'school' in what I take to be US usage, including university, I confess that from my first whining day, creeping unwillingly to my first kindergarten to receiving my final degree, twenty-two years passed. Until a few years ago that was a third of my whole life! I gues that's a long time.

TPBM got going much quicker than that.

My schooling, including college took 14 years, not counting the 'advancement' courses I took in later years. I skipped 6th grade, so that accounts for some of the shortage and my advanced degree was interrupted, then halted by pregnancy and childbirth.

TPBM will tell us about their favorite class or teacher.

///237 Humoress...you're lucky they just think that of you. I have some of my coworkers that think I'm an asshole when I'll call them on something stupid they do, (like put a half full cup of coffee that was left on the shelf onto the floor in the middle of the aisle where the floor guy could knock it over when he sweeps, rather than walking it to a garbage can and throwing it out.)//

Mrs. Greenblatt at Peter Burnett Elementary School in Hawthorne California in 1963-1964, fifth grade comes immediately to mind. In High School it was my International Relations/Government Teacher Mr. Jack Wooten and in college it was Dr. Glen Rollins, Sociology Professor at Pepperdine University 1971-1975.

TPBM thinks that the emphasis in the US on everybody going to college is weakening the institution and that there should be viable economic options that don't include college.

Our youngest son is an Art History professor and starving ... unable to get permanent positions let alone tenure with an BA and two Masters. It does sometimes seem that all that education did not help much!

On the other hand I left school and went to sea when I was just 15. Luckily, as Lola said in another thread, "Love of reading doesn't depend on the level of education."

TPBM also left schooling very early but somehow made it.

I did not, but the richest guy I know hated school and white-knuckled it to a degree, barely.

TPBM is on Easy Street.

Nah, I think that's at least 3 streets over, but I'm not sure.

TPBM will give me directions to Easy Street.

Hmm Google maps says there is only the one...Easy Street
Nantucket, MA 02554.

TPBM knows from where Easy Street as an expression came.

It looks like there is an Easy Street in Carefree, Arizona too. (The same Carefree as in Carefree Highway by Gordon Lightfoot.)

Does it originate with the Charlie Chaplin film? That's my guess.

The person below me learns all kinds of stuff from this game.

//Link

"Easy Street
This expression comes from a 1902 novel called It's Up to You. One of the more prosperous characters "could walk up and down Easy Street." It seemed logical to describe a person in comfortable circumstances as having an address that summarized his lifestyle."//

Yes, I do, as witnessed from the above.

TPBM is amazed at the variety of subjects evidenced here.

Of course, I am amazed. Just like Inspector Renault was amazed to learn that there was gambling going on in Rick's Cafe.

The person below me sometimes feels quite dull in comparison to the various eccentrics and personalities found playing this game.

I most certainly do.

//I say SGiV I am just a newbie here. To whom is Jill referring in 249? Surely not our lord Abbott? Or dear Boo. Or WHL? Must mean someone who reads Homer's Odyssey, an interesting looking work on the Bayeux Tapestry AND a work on my old regiment The French Foreign Legion - simultaneously!//

TPBM knows exactly to whom Jill refers.

Mum's the word.

TPBM knows better than to divulge.

I will divert and divest and divide and divine and diversify, but I will never divulge!

TPBM knows what to do with a whole lot of rhubarb.

Make strawberry/rhubarb pies or Google for recipes.

TPBM doesn't make very good pie crust.

Well, I've never tried making my own pastry - I leave that sort of thing to Jus-Rol - so who knows? Maybe I'm an undiscovered genius pie-crust maker, in a Schrodinger's kinda way ...

TPBM can tap-dance.

In much the same way as with you and pies, Sophie. If I had some shoes with the dinkie metal thingies who knows what I might accomplish. Alas! the world will never know.

TPBM has another untried and untested talent - maybe.

Retirement. I'm not there yet but am anxious to prove my talent in the area of retirement.

TPBM has just read the most amazing book.

// Who reads books on this site?
Re rhubarb, rhubarb & custard? Oh, sorry - that's the cat. We were always given rhubarb crumble at school. No need to worry about pastry. Just mix flour, butter and sugar in fairly flexible proportions to the crumby stage (no need to kneed or roll out) & scatter on top. And bake, of course//

I very well may have but don't know about it!

TPBM is on pins and needles.

I am indeed today.

//No SGiV, as it seems you are reading"Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation Of Taste Revised And Updated" you have not read the most amazing book. Close though.//

TBPM is unable to read.

I am trying to think of a situation in which I would be unable to read but was able to post a reply.

TPBM can think of a way to avoid this threadstopper.

ETA - maybe this is John's attempt to go cold turkey ;-0

Pictures!



John can go back to the first thread in 2007 if he gets bored. Endless entertainment.

TPBM has been there.

eta hint

I have now!

//Wow! Average time between posts is just minutes. Must all have been addicts -including a certain WHL I note.//

TPBM knows how to ask open-ended questions (to maintain posting-flow)

Of course, I do. Example: So, Person Below Me, tell me all about yourself. But could we all agree that could get messy very quickly?

The person below me loves books with colorful end papers.

Oh, yes I do! Especially the marbled ones. I think they're classy.

TPBM is glad it's Friday and has exciting weekend plans.

Yup. (Although being retired means that TGIF has little meaning anymore.) Off to the NATO Summit in Chi tomorrow. We get to see our Granddaughter.

TPBM also finds that an exciting plan.

p.s. And those marbled end-papers are very classy indeed.

//John, please be careful. The news about protesters in Chitown doesn't look good.//

That would be an exciting plan.

TPBM thinks it might be too exciting.

I hope not unless it is in a very good way.

The person below me is a reluctant adventurer.

A man's gotta know his limitations...

TPBM knows his, or hers, as the case may be.

A teacher of mine used to say that a good magician understands his or her own limitations. I've tried to remember that.

TPBM has no boundaries.

My imagination has no boundaries, however, my body is complaining about the flat out pedal to the metal lifestyle I used to live. Still have trouble understanding I can't do it all and I especially can't do it all in one day. (sigh)

TPBM has no longing to return to days of old, but enjoys remembering them.