TPBM 101: Introduction to TPBM

And begin.

Aaaand begin.

How is the second message posted a minute earlier than the first one?

TPBM also time-travels.

Mentally I travel back as far as 1962/63. My "landing zones" are spotty tho, with large gaps in the times I can access. Physically, at least as of right now, I seem to only be able to move forward in VERY small increments.

TPBM needs to do some catching up.

Catching up with the new thread, to be sure.
I do worry about the timing of the first two posts - is it something to do with Trump and fake news or maybe Russian hacking of Facebook?

TPBM may spill the beans.

Being an old Bostonian, celery or peas, maybe, but beans I DONʻT spill.

TPBM has once revealed a "secret" -- and regretted it.

Yes. I was ten and didn't know when to keep my mouth shut. I hurt a friend's feelings, and still regret it 54 years later.

TPBM has no regrets.

Only the small ones.

The person below me knows lots of random trivia.

Yes, and one of the trivialiest I know is that my predecessor as dean of ʻAtenisi University
had the same surname as
Professor Edwin G. Boringʻs* middle name!

TPBM has known a teacher or professor with an embarassingly, seemingly comic name.

*Boring: once famous Harvard psychology professor of the 1930s--50s,
whose surname was, of course, the subject of many
lame jokes and pseudo-questions.

//>3 Darth-Heather: >5 abbottthomas: Simple, ordinary, everyday magic.//

None come to mind, but I did find this name online -Dr. E. Z. Filler, Dentist, Roslyn Heights, New York. I think I would go to him...

TPBM has/had a nickname.

Ruthless. But it has never been true.

TPBM has had a pet named Spot.

No, but Parker come within a hair's breadth of being named 1) Captain Spiffy, and b) Pickles.

TPBM named every beast of the field.

I could have last year, when I did a year-long reading of the Bible.

TPBM thought SGiV was clever with his reference and happy for 'Parker' instead of 'Pickles'.

//I think it was absolute genius. Pickles was mean, but I liked Captain Spiffy.//

I'll go with that.

My mother had a cat she called Parker after Lady Penelope's chauffeur in Thunderbirds Are Go!.

I wonder what Parker's ineffable effable Effanineffable Deep and inscrutable singular Name is.

TPBM will offer a suggestion.

Gambolampler! No idea, he told me once but that carney hypnotized me and I gorfot.

TPBM lit a candle.

It's the polite thing to do...

TPBM, in his/her misspent youth, accidentally set something afire; something that shouldn't have suffered such a fate.

Yea, some of my bridges.

// >15 SomeGuyInVirginia: I think Pickles Parker or Parker Pickles would be a great name. All my pets usually end up with multiple names no matter what I originally call them.//

TPBM likes the classics.

I like 'em, have 'em on my shelves, and have read hardly any of 'em.

TPBM uses LT more as a way to record what they've read than what's on their shelves.

About equally balanced, for me. Both are important.

TPBM throws caution to the wind.

If caution were spit, I'd be soaked in my own saliva. Absolutely not true, but I liked the Bohemian aspect of the idea. In fact, I am too overly cautious about to many things.

TPBM feel compelled to straighten out all the shopping carts in the return areas of the grocery store parking lot.

No such compulsion;Iʻm lucky if I can get the one I was just using into whatever order there is.

TPBM, in shopping, would usually rather have a basket than a shopping cart.

I'll split the difference and take the dinky little shopping cart. They say people buy more with a little cart than when they take a big one. . I don't believe it.

My wife (4' 8") loves the little ones. She could never get the stuff out of the bottom of the big ones.

TPBM brings their own bags like I do.

Sometimes. Sometimes not (forgot).

TPBM is not sure what the paper vs. plastic thing is all about, environmentally speaking.

Nope, pretty sure I get it. My town outlawed one-use plastic bags a few years ago, and charge you for a paper bag. But it doesn't affect me much; I've been bringing my own bags to the supermarket for a good 25 years. I even bring my own produce bags. It really bugs me at the farmer's market when vendors offer pre-weighed produce in flimsy plastic bags. And it bugs me even more when the rich people who make such a big deal about being all organic still use those flimsy bags.

TPBM has another bug.

It's such a small thing, but I absolutely hate it when I'm going through double doors, and someone coming from the other side waits for me to open mine and then tries to scoot around me while I'm coming through.

TPBM has another pet peeve.

Yes, when shopping and I only have one or two items and I say, "I don't need a bag" and then the cashier puts it in a bag and hands it to me. I usually don't want to hold up the line and be petty about it, but I'd like to say "I SAID, I DON'T NEED A BAG," then take the item out of the bag, throw the bag on the counter and walk out in a dignified, yet humble way.

TPBM has another.

I'm with you on that one. I'd rather carry a whole armful of stuff* out to the car than add one more plastic bag to the world.

*because I never, well, almost never, remember to bring the cloth bag in from the car.

TPBM has a collection of carry bags.

Yes I do. And I'm good at remembering them.

TPBM is thinking about lunch.

Yep. Do I want to have it before or after I run over to the hospital to get more blood tests? They're not fasting, so I could do them any time today, but I kinda want to get it over with. I'm having company this afternoon.

// >29 2wonderY: I have a couple of nylon bags in my purse. The fold up really small, they're lightweight, and they carry 50 pounds. Perfect for the forgot to get one out of the trunk moments. //

// >28 morningwalker: I have done just that. //

TPBM brunched.

I don't know that I ever have...hmm I don't think so.

TPBM noshes.

Yeah, lots of times I grab lunch out of the vending machine down by the mailboxes.

TPBM lists their goals.

No. I don't have any, really. Well, I need a haircut and I should finish editing the ms I'm working on, and then there;s that tax thing to do....
But really, it's other people who decide what I do and when. I'd rather be maintaining the callouses on my fingers by playing he guitar, but that's not going to happen for at least another week or two.

TPBM is the master of his/her ship.

Pretty much; I'm retired and I live alone. I do pretty well in hermit mode, just seeing some people when I want to. The exception is medical appointments over which I have little control.

TPBM likes control.

I do, but being married obviates that one.

TPBM needs the extra two days for filing taxes this year.

It doesn't seem so much an event here in the UK. I am struck, when visiting the USA, how many retail outlets there are offering accountancy and tax services, more than hairdressers or nail bars even.

TPBM paints their toenails.

You seem to presume that I can get myself into a position where that could be possible. But even if I could, no, it's not my thing.

TPBM is more into power tools.

I have a rechargeable drill set, oh and a blow dryer. That's about it.

TPBM is a clothes horse.

Not any more. I just packed two bags of clothes I'll never wear again to take to the thrift shop.

TPBM has been cleaning out a closet.

Closet, cupboards, and cases. I'm moving again in a few months, and past experience tells me I don't want to dawdle.

TPBM bangs a gong.

And when I do I get it on.

TPBM treads lightly

Only angels look before they tread (forget)

TPBM lives in another world

How I wish. One with no news of lying, cheating politicians, threat of war, poverty, etc.

TPBM thinks we spend too much time on useless entertainment and not enough time on thoughtful meditation.

I feel better after a couple of hours watching "Singin' in the Rain" than after thoughtful meditation about Brexit, Trump and Syria. Oh yes, and I have just hard that the Gulf Stream may turn itself off and give us a climate like Labrador!

TBPM agrees that escapism is not ALL bad.

//>41 SomeGuyInVirginia: Will you still be SGIV or will you be Some Guy Somewhere Else?//

//>45 abbottthomas: My idea of thoughtful meditation was sitting beside a babbling brook and observing the cloud formations overhead and what they looked like.//

In limited doses at a time when it doesn't interfere with the work at hand.
For example, right now, I'm taking a few minutes away from filing for an extension to pay my taxes because ... never mind, it's too long an explanation. But I'll be right back to the task at hand in a jiffy, with a clearer mindset.

It may explain why my nonfiction to fiction ratio is around 15:1.

TPBM employs/enjoys the Power Nap.

No! I'm almost always in a foul mood after a nap. I'm more about the Power Lie In on the weekends.

//>46 morningwalker: I'll still be IV, I doubt I'm even leaving my building. I'm being booted out because the Alien Overlords who bought the joint want to renovate my apartment. And, of course, jack the rent waaay up. It's just nuts here in the Nation's Blah.//

TPBM saw it coming.

Sure did. The Nation's Blah has been getting more Blah all the time.

TPBM has a dream.

Other than a recurring one (since I was maybe 3) of running in my white-with-balloon-print pajamas up the hallway, around the corner into the living room, taking a couple of laps here, culminating on me leaping onto the couch for the final jump which provided enough Cavorite for me to fly all around the house ... I often have nightmares from when I was married to ThiMs. Can't seem to make them go away. Thanks for dredging all that up for me.

TPBM lives the dream.

I often live in what seems a dream, but that's not what you meant.

TPBM dreams of a life.

Every day.

TPBM is waiting.

oh yeah, the waiting is the hardest part.

TPBM takes it on faith.

Faith without works is dead, so I temper faith with action.

TPBM take it on the chin.

I'm more of a ducker and weaver.

TPBM sticks to the Queensbury Rules

I would, except that I just can't give up boots with spikes on them.

TPBM has run a marathon.

My nephew has. I think that's quite close enough, thank you.

TPBM is a standout at ______________.

Candlepins bowling. Well -- in past decades, and then only on occasion. More usually, I was mediocre.

TPBM has competed in at least one of the following:

Candlepins bowling

Bowling-on the-green

Horse shoes

Miniature golf

If one goes to the shore then by definition one will have played miniature golf!!

Does bocce ball count for bowling-on-the-green?

TPBM knows the difference!

Yes. In bocce ball you move the ball around by firing at it with a 12 gauge shotgun. You'll need a lot of balls to play this way. Bowling-on-the-green requires at least two aunts and no fire power. There are other differences but they are minor.

TPBM will see a show this weekend.

Hmmm. We have a Saturday night film club here, and tonight it's "12 Angry Men" - does that count?

TPBM will see a proper show.

Newp. I've set a goal to do nothing at all and so far I am crushing it. My Fitbit thinks I'm in a coma.

TPBM was in a show this weekend.

If audience participation qualifies, then yes. Friday night, I took MrsHouseLibrary to our library's fundraiser -- a mostly-annual original Mystery Night murder play.
This was their 26th, my 25th, event. They do 6 shows over the course of two weekends, and they're always tough, and always funny. The audience participation comes in when you have chances to speak with the characters before the show and between acts. So, you gather clues, and before the final act, you're supposed to fill out forms about who killed who, why, and provide supporting information. I've come in second three times.
We didn't try to figure any of it out; were there purely for the entertainment because it was enough just to get my wife there and sitting comfortably. She's in remission again, but still has three more infusions to go, and the side effects this time, even at 50% the dosage, are taking its toll on the both of us. Yet, we persist.

TPBM has worked as part of a stage crew, either by employment or otherwise.

Does court mandated Community Service count?

TPBM is all about the bottom line.

Yep.
__________________

//>63 WholeHouseLibrary: Glad you and MrsWHL had a good time and keep on persisting!//

TPBM is a good actor/actress.

yep. It's part and parcel of having Asperger's. It takes years of practice to learn to "act normal", and it never stops being an act.

TPBM is a bad actor/actress.

My terrible memorization skills nipped that one in the bud. But I was married to an actor, my sister has her undergrad degree in drama and she met her husband when he directed her in a play. I'm pretty good at ad libbing, though, and I picked up enough from friends and family to be able to do a darn good job in a ritual. As long as they don't expect me to memorize anything.

TPBM ritualizes.

Yes, I ritually press the snooze button at least twice. Gah, I'd actually pay to stay home on a cold, rainy Monday like today.

TPBM doesn't mind the rain.

Well, I don't sing in it but I tolerate it. I'm getting sick of it being mixed with snow though. My God! Where is spring???????

TPBM is getting snow, again, today.

Not snow, but it's cloudy and was 46 degrees on the commute in this morning. Snow adjacent.

TPBM is on vacation.

Only between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m.

TPBM dreams.

I dream of winning the lottery. All I'd have to do is play.....

TPBM realizes that the lottery is simply a regressive tax.

yep, haven't bought a single scratch ticket since my statistics professor showed us why the house always wins.

TPBM always wins.

Nope, but I look at the $2 spent on a lottery ticket as the price of dreaming.

TPBM bets big.

Gods, no, not with my chronic anxiety. I've only been to Vegas once and didn't bet a nickle. Because I need that nickle to squeeze.

TPBM dislikes frugality.

In general, yes. But I have hung onto all the pennies that come up in an issue of change. Havenʻt counted them, but there must be well over a hundred, sitting on the edge of a book shelf.
I pocket a supply of them and kid myself that Iʻm going to use them, whenever Iʻm paying a price that ends between .01 and .09.

TPBM has had the experience of being denied change he asked for in a bank or store transaction.

Only when I asked to change a $20 for 4 $10s.

TPBM is better at math.

I learned to be better at math. It was not easy.

TPBM is naturally adept.

In most-things-mathematical, yes. To rid myself of ear worms (the musical kind), I work out the cube roots of random numbers to at least the fifth digit. In matters of grammar and punctuation, there's a good reason why a substantial amount of my incomes from being a copyeditor.

TPBM likes to think a job like that would be ideal. (It's not.)

I don't know that I would want to do it as a job. Based on what I see around the internet, I shudder at the thought of the grammar disasters you must encounter regularly.

I think I will stick to carrying around a big marker for correcting signs. It's amazing how rarely anyone checks their work before posting it publicly, but once it's out there, it's fair game.

TPBM uses red pen.

Or red font. I once copy-edited a self-published porn novel. It was...terrifying. But at least I got paid for my work.

TPBM gets paid, too.

>81 PhaedraB: //Bwahahaha! That's really funny.//

A pittance, and for Christmas I get a fried egg and one less beating that usual.

TPBM is rolling in dough.

No, but a squid in a polyethylene bag that eats it is fast and bulbous.

TPBM knows the reference without having to Google it.

I have no idea, but right after I type this you can bet I'll be Googling.

TPBM keeps up with the times.

Mostly, although I am usually a pop culture illiterate and only dip into US politics when I want to get depressed.

TPBM gets their news from radio or print.

Now that I can play audiobooks over Bluetooth in my car, I almost never listen to the radio.

TPBM is plugged in.

//As a sad aside, I have just learned that our friend John Vaughan died last autumn. He stopped posting and adding new books. Always a bad sign in oldies. I miss him. RIP.//

// >87 abbottthomas: So sorry to hear that.//

// >87 abbottthomas: I'm sorry too. :-( //

//>87 abbottthomas: He was always kind, a sad day.//

//>87 abbottthomas: so sad . Good bye JV.//

Unfortunately I have to be at work.

TPBM found something they lost.

Joy and wonder, what a beauteous morning. If the people ruled, I'd take a three hour lunch and visit to the National Gallery.

TPBM owes their soul to the company store.

If you mean these guys, then yes:



I am in search of comfortable bedding, which apparently is really expensive.

TPBM is another day older and deeper in debt.

(Played on 93; sorry, 94 wasnʻt on the screen yet when I posted.)

No, there, thank God, isn't any "company store""
at our condominium. And at the store we do have, I pay cash. Elsewhere, a debit card.

TPBM remembers Lawrence Welkʻs obnoxious staging of
"Fifteen Tons"* -- at a time when parts of Appalachia were threatened with starvation.

*Welkʻs point was that the miner in the song "owed his soul..." because he was such heavy eater.

Welk was before my time. I have, however, spent a great deal of time in Appalachia. I love that part of the country, but life there was very hard for a very long time.

TPBM travels on the bus.

I do! I recently got myself a bus pass, and only use the car when a bus would be less convenient (not often). Our local buses have ramps for scooters and special bays for wheelchair and scooter users.

TPBM prefers the train / tram.

I certainly did when I was in Switzerland. No such animal where I live in SE PA. . . got to drive to get there assuming I can find a place to part. TPBM has no trouble parking near the train/tram.

No, no trouble--because I donʻt drive.

TPBM knows why you PARK on a DRIVEway,
and DRIVE on a PARKway.

Probably for the same reason someone can be Pretty Ugly or Clearly Confused.

TPBM is never confused, clearly or otherwise.

Wait, what?

TPBM hums while they eat.

Never.

TPBM (to continue the previous few verbal confusions) understands why NOSES RUN, while FEET SMELL.

I dunno, but my ears ring.

TPBM can offer another.

I think something is afoot ahead

TPBM is not only "pretty", but also "good"

"Blush, blush," why thank you.

TPBM is running on empty.

Gah! Yes! I need coffee NOW.

TPBM sits up.

It's more of a lurch, but yeah, I guess.

TPBM dreams in color.

Partly, I only remember the colour of some parts, areas as the hair of people, the paint of a door, the green grassy hill. Unfortunately not as bright and all in detail as I would wish.

TPBM lives in color

// >93 SomeGuyInVirginia: Always a great idea! What have you watched this time? //

// >87 abbottthomas: sad, I will remember he was someone who mentioned Rotterdam before Amsterdam. :) //

To be sure, but I do have a different view of colour from the Abbess. I painted a wall - I believe the term used by interior designers is 'feature wall' - with what called itself 'Crushed Fig'. I am told it doesn't go with the reddish-brown carpet. Ho hum!

TPBM gets men in, avoiding DIY

Yes, now more than ever, since my husband has a bum knee and my feet are giving me fits. However, I do plan on prepping and possibly planting the vegetable garden this weekend.

TPBM will have a vegetable garden this year, too.

Oh how I wish but the long legged rats and the ground hogs chased me away a number of years ago since I was the last garden in "town". All the cures were tried or ruled out by law so I decided to just let the farmers down the road grow my stuff.

TPBM has the same frustration.

yep. I pass three farm stands between work and home so I would rather support their efforts than fight the losing battle against poor soil, creatures, and caterpillars.

TPBM likes the challenge.

//>111 ulmannc: - ah yes, the dread long-legged rats. We have 'em, too, AND the double dratted ground hogs. I have a fenced raised bed to keep the deer out, but I won't plant beans this year because the ground hogs climb the fencing and hang there, eating the beans and foliage.//

I like a lot of challenges, but yardwork (including gardening) isn't one of them.

//>108 EMS_24: Nothing really, I'd just go an look at pictures. Another pretty day today!//

TPBM overflows with the milk of human kindness.

I can fake it, but for the past year and a half, I seem to have become (proverbially) lactose intolerant. Part of it may be related to occasional "lows" in my blood sugar (not dangerously so, but that headachy, hungry, standing-next-to-myself, sudden-sweat type). Most of it is stress and depression. To borrow a phrase: But, I persist. There are fleeting moments of "it'll be okay;" just not very often.

TPBM votes early (and just once per election.)

Once is quite enough but I vote late - you never know what is going to happen so keep your options open.

TPBM agrees with London's former mayor, Ken Livingstone, that if voting made any difference they would have done away with it long ago.

True, your vote doesn't decide the election (not AS an
individual vote), but it does have an influence as part
of a majority or a big minority. I happened to be in the
majority (D) in the 2016 election, but my candidate didn't win
the electoral college. (My 2000 candidate lost it, too).
But in THREE (!) of the last five elections, the winner of
the popular vote HAS won the electoral college. So, don't
give up on voting. Sure, give up on on the electoral college;
if you can influence your representative to get rid of it,
do so.

Funny because it's true.

TPBM stands in line.

They'll be standing in lines
For those old honky tonk monkeyshines
(from Singin In The Rain)

TPBM also likes to make 'em laugh.

In this town it's better to be feared than loved, so maybe nervous laughter?

We'll see TPBM in the funny papers.

I was a character in a comic book for a few years. I did have some pretty good lines, but I'll credit the writer for those. Although, he did say the character might not look like me, but she talked like me.

TPBM has a laugh.

And it’s identical to my sisters’ laughs too. When the six of us get together we cackle long into the night.

TPBM has just seen a sibling in the last week.

One would think that having so many, I could answer yes to this, but I can't. Growing up in New Jersey, I couldn't escape them, nor my relatives. We'd run into someone we were related to no matter where we went. Now, I have one sister and three cousins still in the Garden State. Currently, my geographically closest sibling lives outside of Denver, Colorado. The most recent face-to-face encounter with a sibling was three years ago with my younger brother in NYC. We're all very close, but the five hours I spent with him was four hours and fifty-five minutes too long.

TPBM has traveled to foreign lands, perhaps even the far-flung Isles of Langerhans.

Must be an inner journey.

TPBM has been to El Torcal and is reminded of pancakes.

Yep, I've been there! , but I remember the Griffon vultures and Churros (or were that doughy fat rings in Ronda? Think so).

TPBM has crossed a polar circle, or has met Neptune

No, I havenʻt -- neither. But I do have a friend who was born above the Arctic Circle in Sweden (and has now lived in Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, and Tonga: philosopher Krister Segerberg

TPBM has friend(s) who have lived, or now live, in some or all the following countries:

Sweden

Armenia

Ireland

France

Germany

Switzerland

b t w , How do you "meet" Neptune? )I became an astronomy buff at about age 9, but havenʻt kept up with it very we'll, into my 80s.

// I have been told: by crossing the equator by a ship, boat/ You live relatively close to that point and maybe can sink that tale. //

My current circle of online friends includes people from all but Armenia.

TPBM is preparing to travel.

Yes, some 45 miles to the Bank of Hawaii Book and Music Festival tomorrow-- its second of two days. You can trade, as well as buy, books there.
But the books on sale are all new, and usually not great bargains.
Iʻll be looking into its symposiums with book panels more than its music. I was last on a panel there about four years ago, when I was a youthful 83 years old.

TPBM has gone in for book-trading as well as book buying.

Don't I wish. . . haven't found a place in SE PA where I can do that.

TPBM knows.

Newp, but according to BookSaleFinder.com, you guys have some mega used book sales.

TPBM is off the sales.

For a while, having just recently bought 80+ books at our own Friends of the Library sale.

TPBM goes to sales regardless of how many unread books are on their shelves.

..."goes to the sales regardless..." (132)

How true!

TPBM goes to the sales, but sometimes finds them disappointing.

At least amusing. I live near three towns that are very similar and the libraries are very similar, but the books are not! It feels like some kind of time travel, since the books ditched at one town are like the ones ditched at the other town five years ago and those are like the ones ditched at "my" library five years ago. Weird!

TPBM has a similar tale to tell.

I try not to go to too many book sales but always go twice a year to our Friends of the Library sales. Unfortunately this year was a bust. I notice the trend of a lot more of the James Patterson, Janet Evonovich, Nora Roberts type paperbacks that seem to be so popular, and not a lot else.

TPBM is in search of his/her next read.

//>135 morningwalker: - as a member of a Friends of the Library board and volunteer during book sales, I saw lots of books by the authors you mentioned above. We've taken to only putting out no more than two of any specific book by those authors except for the ones published in the last year. We're fortunate in that there's a very wealthy retirement community near us and they donate lots of interesting books. //

'In search of' makes it sound like an effort but I'm more in the position of trying to decide what I will take from the growing TBR pile. Among many others there's a virtual pile of Ted Allbeury espionage novels on the Kindle, the reproachful Remembrance of things past (in 6 or 12 volumes) waiting for me to get further than halfway down Swann's Way, The Broken Road which I won't allow myself to read until I've re-read the two earlier volumes (after 30 years), the latest Le Carre or Donna Leon, etc. etc.

TPBM is also spoiled for choice

Yeah, I always ask for books for Christmas and birthday (just gone) so I'm well stocked. One of the gifts was Floods of Fire by Amitav Ghosh and that's a long novel, so will keep me going quite a while!

TPBM has actually read Proust and will tell us what they think.

Nope, and therefore nope.

The person below me has thinks Persuasion is a better novel, but prefers Pride and Prejudice anyway.

It's been so long since I read Persuasion, I hesitate to offer an opinion.

I gave away all my Jane Austens on the principle that if I really wanted to read them again, I could get them from the library.

TPBM gives a better opinion.

Nope. my opinions generally lead to trouble, so I keep them to myself these days.

TPBM has opinions worth sharing.

Of course, however, the problem is getting people to listen to them.

//>136 karenmarie: They seem to be good sellers, as I heard people searching for certain ones in the series, so that's good for the library.//

TPBM likes book series.

Usually not. Mysteries especially seem to get bogged down in dull back story. I gave up on Mo Hayder and Jo Nesbo. (I guess you could say they lost their MoJo! Bwahahahahahahaha! Heh. OK fine whatever.)

TPBM is all about continuity.

//>140 PhaedraB: I'm getting rid of a lot of books and have been using that same standard. Au revoir Graham Greene.//

//Argh! Casting out old friends is what that feels like to me!//

//It's liberating. The past several years my threshold for buying a book has been really low, so now I go through the books one at a time and think '...must have been high, must have been high, was totally high, must have been high...'//

I resolved to give away three books for every one that I acquire. Havenʻt held to it lately. Yesterday I returned 3 books to the library, and acquired 4: 2 library books and 2 acquisitions (to keep or to give away after reading?): John Le Carreʻs Mission Song and Vesaaʻs
Ice Palace, which I had not heard of before joining LT.

Continuity is king!

TPBM did something wild on live TV.

///>146 SomeGuyInVirginia: It is liberating. I gave away nearly everything I owned when I left NY in 2010. Super hard at first but then absolutely liberating. Of course, what I kept were the books. However I've since gotten rid of maybe 1000 of them.///

Weird, more like. When I was 11 or 12, and shy beyond bearing but intellectually precocious, I was on Dr. Julius Sumner Miller's TV show in SoCal (Why Is It So?). I'm not sure I said a single word.

TPBM did something a tad more wild than that on live TV.

Acquitted! But legally bound to not discuss it.

TPBM has never had to appear before a judge.

Not yet.

TPBM has done time.

Not yet.

TPBM got away with it.

So far.

TPBM is itching with curiosity.

Not curiosity; just a small spot of poison ivy I picked up while geocaching.

TPBM is good at plant identification. (Hopefully, better than I am at recognizing the troublesome ones, at least.)

The only plant identification I know is the old "identifying poison ivy rhyme: "Leaves three: let it be!" Would have to leave shamrocks alone, if obeying that lore, but Iʻve been a city dweller of most of my life and havenʻt seen much of either shamrocks or poison ivy. Iʻm still a city dweller -- officially, since Iʻm
in what used to be called "Rural Oʻahu" (Waiʻanae), and the whole island is under one city government.

TPBM has lived in a "city" than was really, by population, more a small town.

I have lived rural and in municipalities ranging in size from 1200 to many millions. The city I live in now calls itself a city, but I was surprised to learn that a population of 20,000 qualifies as a small town.

TPBM thinks 20K is over the "small" limit.

Sounds biggish to me. I live in what likes to call itself a village, population c.7000. Unusually we have a parish council. I think we are a bit big for a village and we do have six pubs including what claims to be the smallest pub in the UK.

TPBM can walk to the nearest watering hole

I live in a rural area but there are a couple of watering holes I could walk to. I probably won't though, as they cater more to biker types.

TPBM has a bike.

Newp, but I've always wanted one. Love road trips.

TPBM fears the reaper.

Kinda sorta. It's not so much the reaping as it is all the personal and legal things I need to do beforehand.

Having a PET scan Monday. It may lead to nothing or it may mean I need an estate lawyer. As if I could afford one. Oh, well.

TPBM is fearless.

Hardly. Some days I don't even want to get out of bed.

TPBM is gung-ho.

Absolutely - about the wonderful book I just finished, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.

Unfortunately, TPBM's last book was a stinker.

Not at all. It was The Wine Lover's Daughter by Anne Fadiman. And if you know anything about me, it's that I think she's a brilliant writer in the memoir and personal essay genres. And her husband, George Howe Colt comes in a close second. Reading their books is like having a conversation with old friends while having coffee and scones in front of a fire.

Mind you, alcohol is a poison to me, so all of her "wine talk" was wasted on me, but the rest of it -- totally relate-able, mostly. She inscribed it for MrsHouseLibrary and me; and it's on my "keepers" shelf.

TPBM also has a shelf containing books that will be swept up and carried to safety should there ever be a fire.

of course - doesn't everyone?

TPBM watches the world burn.

Sadly there's no way to escape watching it, unless one lives in total isolation.

TPBM takes time out of the rat race by _____.

Hanging out here.

The person below me has a shiny new something. (Now that I have a job, I felt OK spending the last $20 of my Amazon gift certificate on a new Battlefield Band album, without feeling guilty that it wasn't "useful.")

No -- a shining OLD something -- which has suddenly become defective: my mail box key! Was working up until today, and is still shiny and new-looking.

TPBM loves many allegedly "useless" things of the type mentioned in 167.

<side note>   >168 rolandperkins: Ha!   </side note>

Most of my favorite things would be described as 'useless', and all of my favorite people.

TPBM is tall.

Depends on which leg I stand on, and one's threshold for what may be considered so. Due to several injuries, etc, my right leg is an inch-and-a-half shorter than my left leg. Blindfold me, and I'll walk in circles. Drop me in a pool, and I'll face west. Still have two screws in my hip from the motorcycle accident in 1973; they will orient north-to-south. At this point, they'll have to break my hip to get them out, as the bone has grown over them.

TPBM is, by anyone's standards, a hoopy frood.

Happy Star Wars Day to ya!

//>171 WholeHouseLibrary: You too, buddy.//

? Maybe. I'm not sure what a hoopy frood is????

TPBM has seen Grey Gardens.

Aaak! I haven't, and I've sat down to watch it several times! I'm always led astray by the latest zombie shocker.

TPBM lived Grey Gardens.

No cats, no fleas, no privet and certainly no raccoons but someone might worry a bit about the contents of our garage and attic.

TPBM keeps a car in their garage

That may be where the old Matchbox collection is at the moment.

TPBM has something REALLY interesting in their cellar.

Yes, but shhhh, I can't tell anyone about it.

TPBM has skeletons in their closet.

Why NO! Perish the thought! Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

TPBM has bats in the belfry.

No, the bats haven't been back for a couple of years now. I wish they would return - we have a LOT of mosquitoes.

I do have Bears In The Yard though:


TPBM has money on their mind.

Well, I do NOW. I want to retire to the kind of place you live in. Rural, wooded, a kid's playhouse converted into a wine drinking room. Place for a hammock, sans bear, natch.

TPBM is all about the bling.

Absolutely NO interest in "bling" except as a new word in the language,as which I kind of like it.

TPBM has a favorite new word in English, or in whatever is her/his first language.

Several (Danish) words: Badstuebad, flaskegasflaske, motorcykelmotor, plantekasseplante, vandhanevand.

// BTW, I've just put my house up for sale, so I can invite you all to see it: https://www.boligsiden.dk/salg/151425671
// (And I don't really expect to find a buyer here, so I don't think it counts as spam.)
// Bats, yes, but in the garden, not the belfry. Bears, no.

TPBM has already spotted why these words are funny.

I have a Scandinavian vocabulary of abut 200 words, none of the new Danish words of 182. Iʻd especially like to hear what is the nearest English to "vandhanevand".

In Swedish movies that are
IN Swedish with English captions, the dialogue never SOUNDS anything like the little of Swedish that TPBM remembers.

// >183 rolandperkins: vandhanevand = tap water (so the word in Danish is something like "water tap water").

I know NO Swedish, but it's uncanny how many of the words I see the subtitled translation of, actually sound like their English equivalent. I have the suspicion that if I SAW the Swedish I'm only hearing, I wouldn't recognise a damn thing!

TPBM will be eagerly settling down in front of 'The Bridge' this Friday or, if American, has seen and loved past series (translation for Americans: 'series' = 'season(s)') of it.

(ETA why did the end of my message disappear, which contained a 'less than sign' i.e. an arrow, followed by a = or - ?)

// >185 Tid: It disappeared because the < sign marks the beginning of an HTML-tag. I.e. it has a special meaning, so you can write <b>HI</b> to get HI.

I'll sit down and watch "The Fridge" since it needs a defrosting and a thorough cleaning.

TPBM is willing to burn another *ridge.

//>179 Darth-Heather: There are bear sightings all around where I live and they have even come on my back deck and tried to drag away the chained garbage can I keep my bird food in, but I have yet to see one strolling along. Oh, I like your wine drinking room. Now I want one too.//

//>188 morningwalker: I was glad to see this guy yesterday, for reassurance that he made it through the winter and hunting season. I don't know why people hunt them; they don't even taste good. Btw, I WISH it were a wine room, but that shed is actually where my husband butchers the deer... I just drink beer on the back porch :) //

All I can come up with is "abridge", which is feasible since I don't like abridged versions. If the author wanted it cut down, they would have made it so.

TPBM likes the short versions.

Heck no, even as a kid they seemed wrong.

//>182 bnielsen: That's a beauty!//

TPBM reads the short and the long.

I certainly do. Mix it up! But never the abridged.

TPBM is in the middle of a long and unabridged book.

Rather long. I'm 100 pages into A. J. Cronin: The Citadel, so it will probably not last the evening.
//>191 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks!

TPBM is precisely in the middle of a long and unabridged book.

Very nearly, I would say. Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh. (I can't be hugely precise as I don't take note of page numbers as I go!)

TPBM is much more precise.

No, I wouldnʻt get precise about
what precise point has been reached in
a reading. Iʻ m reminded of the anecdote about Ambrose Bierce, who said of a very well known writer of that time*:
"He is nothing if not precise. AND he is not precise!"

TPBM knows of an annoyingly "Imprecise" writer.

*The writer critiqued was the once famous, now almost forgotten, Brander Matthews.

Afraid not, like karenmarie I jet annoying books swiftly and with glee.

TPBM danced recently.

Happy dance to make coffee first thing the other morning. This morning I staggered out to make coffee.

TPBM really danced recently.

No, but my cousin is having a big birthday bash tomorrow night with live band, so I will probably be dancing.

TPBM sings.

yes, regardless of the fact that my singing sounds like crows having a fight. I especially like to inflict it on people who have pissed me off.

TPBM sings well.

Well, I sing...

TPBM warbles.

Not at all, but, if there are no preemptive matters, I'll be doing my thing at an Open Mike Night on Monday. Haven't had that opportunity for a good year and a half now. "And now introducing: Mike, the Song Butcher!"

TPBM also goes by another name (for good reason.)

Let's just say on my passport renewal in the space where they asked if you've ever been known by other names, I had to attach an additional piece of paper.

TPBM is far more predictable.

No, I've already had my name changed legally. Rather, the army private who typed my birth certificate got it wrong and my parents had to get it right. Took years.

TPBM answers to anything.

I'll answer to 'Hi!' or to any loud cry, Such as 'Fry me!' or 'Fritter my wig!'

Actually I seldom use my first name, but goes by my middle name which of course confuses anyone who doesn't know me.

TPBM has a very common first name and a very unusual last name (with the expected result wht name-calling (pun intended)).

Actually, my name was so common that I had met (or encountered) over a hundred other "me"s -- one of whom was also born the same day I was (in the same state), and we both took our driver's test on the same day. A year and a half later, I was rear-ended (by an elderly driver) while sitting at a traffic light. He was arrested less than an hour later about a hundred miles away for appallingly excessive speed in a school zone. I ended up getting the points assigned to my record because we were both issued the exact same driver's license number. Took two years to get it resolved.

The very first of "me" I had problems with was a pre-deceased sibling. That's right -- I was named after my older brother, who, oddly enough, died of the same digestive issue that afflicts me. My parents really liked the name. Go figure.

So, I'm not the air conditioner repairman nor the retired judge in Austin; and I'm not the car dealer in Georgetown. That, plus all the others I've been misidentified as, in 2014 I went to court and got a legal name change. Mind you, it's just my nickname (Mike) and my last name, no middle anything, but no one else has it.

TPBM can relate.

Only if itʻs a memorized folk tale. (My spelll check did me the favor or writing "for" instead of "folk" ?!)

TPBM knows a real short for tale and will relate it. A folk tale doesnʻʻt have to be related word-for-word the way you heard it; just get the gist of it.

A "for tale"? Sorry. Closest I can come is a "for sale" -- I once passed a sidewalk chalk advertisement for a "stoop sail" the Monday after it happened.

The person below me will expound on the difference between for and folk tales. Or else will relate an exceptionally good autocorrect fail.

"For", is what you say when you address the ball ...
"Folk", is what you say when it doesn't go as expected ...

TPBM is a masher ...

Hmm, I apparently forgot to correct "for" in Paragraph 2; so, thereʻs your "difference". R isnʻt anywhere near L, K on my keyboard, so I figure spell check was
was inserting "for" on its own initiative.

TPBM has a spell check that sometimes "corrects" words with absolutely its own choice of a "more probable" word that what the typist typed.

Nope! I dismantle all predictive and corrective spell checking, so any errors are all mine. That said, I run reviews from LT through a filter, that gives me any words that doesn't occur in any other of my reviews. I'm reading a Danish translation of some of Mark Twains short stories, so right now it suggests that I should check:
'Støjfri'
Kolportørens
Lucretias
Skolerapporten
Skånsomhed
duellanterne
duellerer
krævende
middelalder-roman
varetaget

All of these words are nice Danish words although not used often.

TPBM knows this poem (and possibly the continuation).

Eye halve a spelling chequer
it came with my pea sea
it plainly marques four my revue
miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Oh that I did as I see the results of too many papers and notes where the "wonderful" code has run amuck.

TPBM most certainly knows this poem and I wish to know it as well!

I've never been good at memorizing pomes, which has made world domination all that more difficult.

TPBM is master of the universe.

No, I'm not even the Captain of my Soul.

TPBM is well rounded.

Yes, ermm, time for the 5:2 again!

TPBM is thin as a rake.

I was. I thought it was a good look for me until I saw photos. I looked like a skeleton. No wonder my friend was buying me milkshakes.

TPBM is an apple or a pear.

Apple. Specifically, a withered apple which I guess is better than being rotten to the core.


//Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it's weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.//

TPBM has recently abandoned a book.

I did. It's back in the Pile so maybe someday I will get back to it.

TPBM never abandons a book.

Neither, at last glance.

TPBM had, in childhood, either an apple tree or a pear tree, or both in her/his back yard.

We had a plum tree, my granddad had all sorts of fruit trees, including pears and apples. We climbed them to harvest the fruit.

TPBM has made several treehouses

I have not, but I've always wanted to live in one. I think they're thrilling.

TPBM kept a diary that was later introduced as evidence in their trial.

Sort of. When I got my first serious telescope (a C-8), I would write about what I saw. (In my defense, I was told this was a good thing to do.) Seeing as how I tend to write in a prose, familiar essay style, I started out each entry by addressing it to Galileo, because, who better than he would understand these sorts of discoveries? Well, ThiMs read them and mocked me mercilessly. At a party hosted by a friend of hers, she then publicly ridiculed me for having written to Galileo. In our divorce trial, some almost twenty years later, she trued to use the fact I had written that way (I had stopped writing that journal way back when and burned it.) as evidence that I was an unsuitable father for our children, and she should have full custody of them. It didn't work out for her. I got full custody, but I think it was more because she had punched her lawyer in the face rather than her being a tattle-tale.

TPBM knows a secret.

I did and I kept it, but it came out anyway.

TPBM knows an uncomfortable truth.

yes, but I'm not comfortable discussing it...

TPBM is a true believer.

No, I'm a good-natured sceptic.

TPBM is immune.

To many things.

TPBM is never late.

That's my wife. SWMBO (from "Rumpole of the Bailey") is always early. I stopped going with her to an outside antique park that opened at 4 AM on Sunday and she wanted to be there at 3:45. I'm known for getting up early but 2:30 for a 45 minute drive with no coffee is TOO EARLY.

TPBM knows all about this.

>227 morningwalker: ???

>226 ulmannc: MrsHouseLibrary MUST arrive for an appointment or even a get-together at least a half-hour before the scheduled time. On a bad day, it may take seven minutes to get to her oncologist's office (including parking), but she gets very testy with me if we're not out the door an hour beforehand.
We once had a 6:30 a.m. flight. We arrived at the airport at 2:30 just in case there might be a traffic delay or long lines for the security searches. The airport opens at 5; maybe a dozen other people arrived about ten minutes before they unlocked the doors.
I have to drive her everywhere, because she can't drive anymore, and we're down to just one vehicle, so to compensate, she drives me crazy.

TPBM knows how many times one can launder a wallet before it falls apart. (Hint: It took me six months to learn this lesson.)

/// >226 ulmannc: >228 WholeHouseLibrary: My dad was so well known as an early arriver we started to tell him to arrive 30 minutes later the time we had given everyone else///

/// >228 WholeHouseLibrary: and >229 PhaedraB: SWMBO's mother was so late getting ready to go, we would tell her the appointment, meeting, etc was 30 minutes before it actually was. That worked most of the time.

Her mother also refused to tell people how old she was. One MD she went to had 4 women with the same first and last name. When they would ask her for her birthday she would say "over 21." I saw her records once (in the days of paper) and they had her birthday and after that it said "aka over 21".///

>229 PhaedraB:

Laurel, definitely!

//>227 morningwalker: yanny. mostly. to me it sounds like yammy. *smile* //

>232 karenmarie: Oh, so you click on Vote to hear the sample. It also sounded like yammyy to me as well.

//>233 WholeHouseLibrary: Great minds, eh, Mike? I find it fascinating that people hear something as different as yanny (or yammy, in our case) and laurel.//

/// >234 karenmarie: When they played it on my local noon news, it was clearly yammy. But then when they played on the network evening news, it was clearly Laurel. They had a sound engineer play with it and at some settings I heard the one and at some the other. Apparently it has to do with your ability to hear tones in certain ranges. There are a lot of low tones I don't hear well because of damage to one of my ears. So the higher-pitched yammy was what I perceived. #science #pedantry ///

// Laurel for me - I have some age-related high tone hearing loss :-( //

>228 WholeHouseLibrary:
Revenons á son moutons, as the French are said to say

I don't know that, but I have washed the odd £5 note in my shirt front pocket. Haven't tried our new polymer notes yet.

TPBM can lay their hands on a silver dollar.

I can! An 1889 Morgan dollar in virtually mint condition. Why are there so many silver dollars from then that haven't seemed to circulate?

TPBM can name a hit song that had 'silver dollar' either in the title or chorus.

Midnight Rider by the Allman Brothers comes to mind.

//>232 karenmarie: and >233 WholeHouseLibrary: I heard yammy too.//

TPBM has a project they're working on.

I sure do! This is near and dear to all of us in LT. Short version is that I was able to find homes for large volumes of bound journals related to trains and trolleys. It freed up four (yes 4!) full shelves in the library. Now I can move more books out of boxes and up to shelves.

Why? I thought they would make good reference documents. . . I never opened them over the 15+ years they lived there. In the one set it was easier to go to the DVD!

TPBM has a similar issue. It's exciting for me!!

PS: 4 shelves in my library is 12 running feet.

If you mean "procrastinating on", then yes. My boss gave me an assignment that I really don't want to do. When the deadline draws nearer, I will get motivated to bust it out.

TPBM never procrastinates.

Eh, I've put off procrastination.

//All I heard was the voice of Baphomet telling me to burn things. Like always.//

TPBM is never, ever late.

I wouldn't put money on that.

TPBM is having a calm and restful day.

Only because MrsHouseLibrary is working on managing the last chemo treatment. That is to say, she's asleep on the couch, and will be for the better part of a week. It's this time that she is most prone to sudden dizziness and to passing out (two unrelated things), so calm and restful is a good thing to have. Her "maintenance" routine while in remission is the actual chemo drug, as opposed to the "biologic" drug she had before. It seems the mean time to recurrence is longer with the chemo drug (which is also used to treat warts, I'm told.) The downside is that three days out of every two weeks, she has to carry a pump around to slow-dose the drug.
Me, I'm working on tracking appointments and expenses, and how much of which bills we can pay this and next month. Calm and restful, in the broadest sense of the terms.

TPBM is somewhat obsessive-compulsive about tracking things. (Me, I've got 40 columns of data I track in my books-we-have spreadsheet. Eventually, I'll update them in LT, but it's a pretty low priority.)

If I can track it, I probably will. My doctors shudder every time I pull out my cell phone with the wellness app. Wanna know my resting heartbeat six months ago? Or the average calories I consumed in March? I got that!

TPBM is not compulsive about anything in particular.

// >238 morningwalker: That was the song! Though it was Paul Davidson's cover I was thinking of. //

Oh yes I am. If all digits are about to be the same on a clock - e.g. 22:22:22 - I have to watch until it arrives then look away quickly before it changes.

TPBM has a different compulsion.

I'm not sure it's a compulsion, more like a weird little quirk. When counting in my head (such as knitted stitches), when I get to the number 44 I always come to a halt for a second and have to think about what number is next.

//>245 Tid: I never heard that cover. Singing it in a Jamaican manner makes it a much more upbeat tune.//

TPBM has a weird quirk.

Well, it's weird now, but at one time in the relationship it was so me.

TPBM is unfettered.

//>227 morningwalker: Laurel //

// >246 morningwalker: Strangely enough, I never heard The Allman Brothers' for years - Paul Davidson had the hit with it over here. //

I wouldn't say that. Plenty of fetters around!

TPBM bears fardels.

I don't think so. At least, I'm not sure (right clicks word "fardels"...). Ah. I think not. But perhaps I fear bardels?

TPBM didn't have to look up the meaning of 'fardel'.

The term sounded vaguely familiar, but I looked it up. (And I bear several hundred/night when at work.)

TPBM confabulates

Never! Unless the circumstance, the story, or the outcome requires it. Other than that, never!

//>249 Tid:, >250 abbottthomas: Congrats on the royal wedding. They are young and so in love and I doubt anything is better than that.//

TPBM makes the world go round round round.

Is this a veiled reference to the Beatle's tune Dear Prudence? If so, I don't get it. If not, then no, I am not Theia. Or maybe you meant something else entirely.

TPBM tends to interpret spoken statements literally.

Only if the devil is inside me, making me cause mischief! Fortunately, I don't live in America, so I don't hear the "I could care less" for the more sensible "I couldn't care less", which is one phrase bound to set me off.

TPBM gets irritated about another well known phrase, saying or idiom.

"It's all good" will make me crazy instantly. Tell it to the Syrians, or lepers, or to the convict and his victim.

TPBM is going to the movies tonight.

I doubt it: the nearest movie theater used to be about 12 miles from here; it went out of business some decades ago,and the nearest now* is about 40 miles. And we donʻt have TV.

TPBM misses at least one of these features of 1940s cinema:

"Short subjects" (usually comedies).

Previews (aka "trailers")

News reels.

* on Oʻahu, HI

Oh, yes. I can hear the militaristic theme tune and the clipped RP English accent - "British Movietone News, Lionel Gamlin reporting!" Not to mention Looney Tunes and the like. "That's all, folks!" A different world.

TBPM thinks that nostalgia is not what it used to be.

//Roland, no trouble from the lava, I trust?//

// >257 rolandperkins: When did trailers stop??? We've always had them over here! A film here is : 1. Adverts 2. Trailers 3. The feature itself //

Sigh, that's for sure.

TPBM has plans for Memorial Day.

Whole lotta nothing, most likely. Husband has the day off, but we don't have any plans per se.

TPBM has real plans for Memorial Day.

yep, barbecue for 20. First time doing whole turkeys in the wood smoker, so I'm a little nervous about getting the timing down.

TPBM gets to kick back.

Newp, my dance card is full for the foreseeable future.

TPBM is a petite wall flower.

Unlikely. My doctor says I need to lose another 40 pounds, and exercise more. And, I've started doing the Open Mic Night thing again, me being billed as "Mike, the Song Butcher" (for obvious reasons), so, despite being morosely depressed, I'm beginning to hide it fairly well again.

TPBM makes the time to keep from stressing out.

Hence the walks. It's a very good form of meditation while in motion.

TPBM has a favorite pastime (besides reading).

yes, baking bread and other goodies. Which leads to the need for another pastime - buying bigger pants. sigh.

TPBM kicks it up a notch.

Yes, because needs must.

TPBM talks out of turn.

I can't kick at all anymore, sadly, I can't even lift my feet unaided.

TPBM sympathises.

I do, Tid.

TPBM wishes we could just snap our fingers and have complete freedom of movement and the energy levels we had when young.

Yes, I agree with the old saying "youth is wasted on the young." We never knew in youth what we had.

TPBM is still quite agile.

I thought you said argyle. So no.

TPBM makes homemade cheese.

//argyle, Larry? Really? You crack me up.//

I don't, but my housemate on the farm would make sheep feta. The cheese was great but milking the sheep was a major pain.

TPBM also has milked sheep.

Nope but I did a few Jersey cows. TPBM did Holsteins and still has 10 toes on their feet! The ones I saw were ornery.

>267 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hope you "got" my >268 Tid: in relation to yours?

I've never milked sheep, cows, goats, or any other ungulate!

TPBM can tolerate - even enjoy - yoghurt that has 0.1% fat.

No way, Jose! Full fat or nothing.

TPBM indulges in at least four dietary indiscretions on a regular basis.

Ice cream, ice cream, fudgesicles, and beer.

TPBM has a little list.

no, not just one, but as many as I can acquire; but not always written down -- only in my head (having to do with LT).

TPBMʻs lists are all in written form.

yes. and then there's the master List of Lists to keep track of the lists. I like to check things off.

TPBM plays fast and loose.

Nope, I can't even go to grocery store without my list. I plan my day on my morning walk and usually stick pretty closely to it. I think anyone on LT probably has a tendency to be something of a list maker or they wouldn't be here cataloging their books. I could be wrong though.

TPBM uses LT for something besides cataloging books.

I confess to having catalogued some 67 year old chocolate - http://www.librarything.com/work/16555518/book/122154384 - as well as a couple of bus tickets.

Oh yes, and two espresso cups.

TPBM might, in extremis, eat that chocolate.

Did someone mention chocolate? (Mentally makes a Homer Simpson drooling noise).

TPBM is "________, and I am a chocoholic"

If I'm going to blow calories on sweets, they darn well better be chocolate.

TPBM is also making chocolate zucchini muffins this afternoon.

Did you lose a bet?!

//>275 Tid: Oh yeah, kiddo, no worries.//

TPBM is ready to set sail.

Never been a sailor. I don't have problems with the ocean but I want something solid and metal with water-tight bulkheads and big engines to carry me along, going ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa

TPBM daydreams.

I don't know if they're daydreams anymore or just lapses of time where I just stare at the computer screen wondering what I was just looking for.

TPBM has a similar problem.

Never (that I remember.)

Goodness! Is it Tuesday already?

TPBM has a good sense of direction.

I'm pretty good out in the woods or someplace like that, but I grew up in the Midwest where streets and roads stay pretty firmly on a grid pattern, so when I'm somewhere where roads are all twisty or angled, I lose my orientation pretty easily.

TPBM knows 'orientation' means knowing which way is east.

Ha! Of course it does! **quickly wipes the silly astonished face away**

TPBM knows why the east is mysterious.

Any number of reasons. For one thing, I'M from
the East (U.S. )!

TPBM has lived,long-term, East, West, and South --
everywhere but North.

Haha. Nay lad, I was brought up on the edge of Liverpool. That's pretty North. And Midlands, and Southwest. But somehow I've pretty much avoided the East side.

TPBM has enjoyed life on the open road.

Occasional jaunts here and there. Someday I would like to travel all the way across the US-especially through the western states. I would have loved to have done it on the old Route 66.

TPBM would like to travel or take a trip somewhere too.

I'm taking a trip June 20 - July 6 (or 13, depending). In addition to that, I'd love to restart my genealogical research and go to some of the places my ancestors lived (upstate New York, Ohio, Michigan).

TPBM has discovered some new tidbit about an ancestor recently.

I did! I learned that in the early 1700s the Virginia area we lived in revolted against the Crown. I don't know that we joined in, but my fear is that we did. Unseemly.

TPBM is in touch with their better angels.

I'm afraid I've let our communication go by the wayside lately.

TPBM has seen the dark side.

I'm still there.

TPBM has a fire starter kit.

Used to carry one: wooden and sulphur-tipped, known as a match -- but no need for it in the past few decades.

TPBM has been able to do without something she/he formerly carried.

Yes, about 5 lbs.

TPBM is starting to think it's the monsoon season.

Elsewhere, perhaps, but here in central Texas, the grass is already dying back. By next week, my yard will be dust (yet, I still need to rake up all the Live Oak leaves that refuse to ever break down.)

TPBM plays math games in his/her head in idle moments.

Never. Not even maths questions. Though I did surprise all my teachers when I scraped Maths O Level with the lowest pass grade possible.

TPBM, on the other hand, is good with numbers.

Guilty as charged. Numbers and I have always been friends. My lucky number is 8 and I see 8s in everything.

TPBM has a lucky number.

Pretty good with arithmetic "in my head". Terrible with algebra or geometry.

TPBM believes the NUMBER OF numbers is infinite.

yes, of course. That's how math works. For instance, there's no end to the decimal digits of Pi, and mathematically there's no such thing as zero.

TPBM is now thinking about pie.

How to bake pi : easy recipes for understanding complex maths

Actually I was thinking about Liouville numbers because you reminded me of a math course I took ages ago.

TPBM knows some absolutely Surreal numbers .

I'm afraid that's too far beyond my notice of abstraction for my 'high school' knowledge; I know irrational numbers and have a faint notion of complex ones, but absolutely surreal numbers, ...

TPBM loves The Solitude of Prime Numbers , The Life of Pi or any other fiction book with a link to maths in the title e.g. mentioned in this thread : https://www.librarything.com/topic/183159#4923458

Well, I have read a few on the list, but never really thought about their links to math. I use math for daily life, but once college was finished, my interested waned for anything too complicated.

TPBM is still sleepy.

Yes, since I had a caffeine-laden brownie last night at book club and was up a fair amount during the night. Neither coffee nor breakfast have really gotten me going.

TPBM doesn't worry about caffeine interrupting their sleep.

No, I donʻt, because I limit myself to two cups of coffee a week, and never near sleeping time.

TPBM has found that coffee, unlike alcohol, can really be "cut down on. "

Yeah, but why would anyone want to?
I used to go cold turkey off of coffee any time I was on vacation. Never had caffeine-withdrawal headaches, but noticed that my migraines always returned within a week. So, I don't ever turn down coffee; I don't care what time of day or night it is. Our coffeemaker grinds the beans, so I've gotten used to very fresh coffee. I'll drink ten cups a day, but they're relatively weak brew. I drink it black; can't remember when I stopped adding cream and sugar to it, but I recall that I never regretted it.

TPBM prefers tea.

Absolutely. With cream and sugar. And I'm something of a tea snob...was forced to buy Lipton last week instead of the Earl Grey I prefer.

TPBM eschews caffeine in any form.

Well, not quite. I allow myself two cups
of coffee a week, and a very occasional iced tea or pepsi-cola.

TPBM eschews carbonated drinks.

Mostly, except water, pressés, ginger beer, proper lemonade, grapefruit 'Ting', soda water, tonic water ... oh dear, that's quite a list!

TPBM never drinks Cola of any brand (Pepsi, I'm looking at you too..)

Correct. I hate the taste and aftertaste. However, I do like the taste of Dr. Pepper, which is not marketed as a cola. I have a diet Dr. Pepper once about every other week or so.

TPBM stopped eating something unhealthy for them this year.

Without really noticing I have considerably reduced the amount of red meat that I eat. Not a conscious decision, it just happened. I don't have an ethical problem about eating cows and sheep; pigs maybe - they seem a bit too human!

TPBM has tried cockroach milk - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/may/28/anyone-fancy-nice...

OMG! Who comes up with the ideas to research things like that. No, I haven't tried it. I don't mind milking almonds, coconuts, or soybeans, but cockroaches, eeww, no!

TPBM wonders why so many books now have - :A Novel - after the title.

Because we live in a post-literate society and to differentiate it from :A Tablet? (BTW, I blame Stephen King for every book being choked with epigrams.)

TPBM casts no shadow.

Oh, yes; a normal one as far as I know. Iʻm reminded of the tragedy of my grand-nephew novelist Colin Doranʻs death the very day his first novel Casting Two Shadows was published. (I thus far havenʻt been able to obtain it from Barnes & Noble

TPBM has read a novel by at least one of the flowing"

James T. Farrell

Colin Doran

Sherwood Anderson

Flannery OʻConnor

Liam OʻFlaherty

I've read Farrell.

TPBM knew that Studs Terkel took his name from a Farrell character.

No I didn't. But I've never read Farrell. I did read a Studs Terkel years ago, but don't remember which one. I love Flannery O'Connor.

TPBM has a favorite author.

Several. Erik Larson for nonfiction, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie for mystery, Georgette Heyer for romance, Jane Austen for fiction, e.e. cummings for poetry. Others, too.....

TPBM has read everything by their favorite author.

Everything I have found so far. I'm down the non-fiction road. Charlie Russell although some of his writing is probably considered fiction. A true non-fiction person I believe I have read all of his books is William Middleton (train stuff). I know I have not read all his articles that have been published over many years.

TPBM has read all of the Studs Terkel books.

I thought Studs Terkel was a 70s porn actor?

TPBM craves potato chips.

Sometimes, but not as big a craving as for
(candy) orange slices or ice cream bars.

TPBM thinks (even though often disagreeing with him) that the greatest Chicago author is Saul Bellow.

//>324 rolandperkins: My grandmother used to make candied orange peel. It was quite wonderful.//

Seeing as how he's the only writer I'm aware of that calls Chicago home, I can't argue against your premise.
I'm sure there are others, but I'm simply not aware of that connection.

TPBM has seen stars and planets in the daytime.

Oh yes! Nothing more magical and even more exciting than the ole moon. Probably only the Dog Star, and those perennial favourites Mars and Venus, but even so...

TPBM can recognise the Plough, The Great Bear, and the Big Dipper.

Yes, although I didn't know the Big Dipper was called the Plough in the UK. I learn so much here.

TPBM has also learned something from the TPBM threads.

I've learned that it's possible to sell a house within one single TPBM thread. (Happy dance).

TPBM has also sold something recently.

What Iʻve thought of selling is books, but we donʻt have the second hand bookstores we used to, and I donʻt know
any individuals who would want to buy, so Iʻm still gradually giving books away.

TPBM has a recent "bargain" purchase of a book that she/he is very proud of.

>329 bnielsen: That's great! It's a beauty, too.

>331 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks!

My recent bargain (less than $1) was a pornographic novel written to make fun of Norwegian judges and policemen i 1968. Uden en trævl 2

Another much older bargain was Katalog over fantastiske opfindelser

TPBM has similar or even crazier books and will give us an example.

Funny! I can't match that.
I have: Het Genootschap : Het eerste handboek voor nutteloze kennis
The Society's first handbook for useless knowledge' with questions as:
What did Simon Vestdijk at New Year's Eve 1955?
What's the Length of Pippin?
Why were there no flowers on the penalty spot in 1999?
Why can't our Dutch 'Vaalserberg' be called a mountain in The European Union?

TPBM can match Kai's book.

Nope, went away for long weekend and returned with nasty cold so I can barely follow my daily work routine, let alone be expected to Google something. Sorry I'm in a mucus fog right now.

TPBM will take it from here due to my being incapacitated.

Okay, I'm still a little under the weather, but I will be a brave little soldier and carry on.

TPBM meditates.

Yes.

TPBM also meditates.

Who has the time? Or the inclination. If Nature wanted to select me to be a meditator, I wouldn't have been born in America.

TPBM burned a wicker man.

//Bread and butter!//

>337 SomeGuyInVirginia: Sorry, but everything here is extremely dry, so we're not allowed to burn anything. My oldest daughter is planning to attend Burning Man 2018 though.

TPBM knows someone at B.I.G.

The Bureau of Interesting Giants?

TPBM knows all the words to the White Album.

Most of 'em, at any rate. I have an original copy with serial number although we don't have a working turntable at the moment.

TPBM has seen their favorite singer/group live.

The Beatles, three times.

Met Jimi Hendrix, never saw him perform. Did smoke dope with his drummer, though.

TPBM also had an interesting youth.

Interesting in retrospect was that (at 8h grade age), though I enjoyed baseball more than football,
I was BETTER AT football Could actual make a tackle occasionally (no running or passing). Probably because the opposition didnʻt bother to block me.

In kidsʻ football, the opposition always made sure to block TPBM.

Not me specifically, but that's because I never played football, except with the family on Thanksgiving, and once in 1977, in Pensacola, Fla.
Due to the injury (at age 4) to my right hand, I've never been able to grip a ball smaller than my head. Balls larger than my head required no hands or two to grip them anyway. So, I tended to be the blocker, not the blockee.
That Florida game -- it was an intramural (not sure of the right word) touch-football game between the company my then-brother-in-law worked for and another similar-sized business. (Think of a bowling league.) ThiMs and I had arrived earlier in the week, having bicycled there from northern New Jersey. In the course of that 50-day trip, I dropped forty pounds and was nothing but muscle. I out-ran and out-maneuvered everyone (yet I still couldn't handle the ball.) One opposing team's receiver kept insisting I failed to touch him with both hands, so I remedied the situation by lifting him over my head from then on, out.

TPBM has employed his own feets (not a typo) of strength.

Acrobatics with the grands. As little ones, they would lay across the bottoms of my feet and be hoisted into the air with arms extended. Isaac and I were planning to join the circus. I've got another grand coming this summer. I hope I can be just as nimble again.

TPBM recalls The Little Rascals and remembers their names.

Of course. Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, Stymie, Porky, etc.

TPBM remembers their dog's name.

Jet and Ruby, my only two dogs ever.

TPBM spends a lot of time finding the right names for their pets.

Not a lot, but Parker's first name was 'Captain Spiffy'. That lasted until I got him home, let him out and he spent the next two hours running through the apartment and jumping off walls. Parker=Parkour. I do have a bunch of nicknames for him, including Tinykin Skywalker. And no, I don't get out much.

TPBM is all about the signal.

//>348 SomeGuyInVirginia: Huh. I had never heard of parkour. Brilliant, Larry.//

//>348 SomeGuyInVirginia: My friend's farm dog is named Parkour!//

//>349 karenmarie: Mercy buckets! Nothing more than simple, ordinary, everyday magic.

>350 PhaedraB: Yikes! That dog must be a handful!//

#>350 PhaedraB: If I had won, our striped cat would now bear the name Spot. Alas the rest of the family chose the predictable Tiger.

Signal?? I must be out of range.

TPBM is up to date.

I've decided to try reading from the best seller list, does that count?

TPBM is up to the minute.

//These two strays showed up on Memorial Day while I was on my morning walk. They were not in very good shape and were running around on the road I walk on which is surrounded by fields and farms. There was a half empty dish of food where I found them and nothing else. Long story short, they followed me home and after a trip to the vet and some medication and a good diet Luna and Bob are getting healthy and have a new home. I didn't have any trouble with their names, they were the first ones I thought of for them. Luna is a big sweetie but Bob has some inner demons he's working on.

http://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/51/ef/51efcf905f2be19636b6c6d7167434b4...

//Aw, they could melt my cold, cold heart. Thanks for replacing some misery in the world with a good home and good food, and love.//

>354 SomeGuyInVirginia: It's more like: I'm up at the moment. The coffee is magnificently rejuvenating me one cell at a time. By noon, I should feel more like myself than I did an hour ago.

TPBM has skipped the light fandango.

//Bob reminds me of our little 3 legged terrier who was a rabbit chasing fool and could even catch them! She was also our resident lap dog.//

//>356 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks. I didn't have a choice. They found me, like all my strays have.//

//>358 ulmannc: Luna obviously has some German Shepard and something else, but I have no idea what mixture Bob is. I know he can be very stubborn.//

// >355 morningwalker: I forgot to say that our little girl's name was Sassi. Our vet seemed to think she had some Chiwawa in her. Some of those I knew could be a tad "opinionated". We had been looking for another dog. "She who must be obeyed" had seen her over at the SPCA on a Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday at lunchtime I got a phone call and she said, "would it be OK if I got the little terrier? I couldn't sleep last night." I said "sure, what's another dog." We already had a blind Dalmatian we bought at a farm sale and a tan Lab that was given to us because the friends of ours kids turned out to be allergic to her.

"She who must be obeyed" said "Great! I'm in the parking lot, can you get away right now so we can go to the vet?"

We took the 3 of them on a number of vacations together and it was a ball. The only issue was that Sassi was a screamer so we put a sign on the car that said, "My name is Sassi and I scream like a stuck pig but I am fine." The other two had painful looks on their faces. Obviously our Dalmatian wasn't completely deaf! Many times she was carried under my arm when we were walking around places to avoid waking up the dead. //

>357 WholeHouseLibrary: I might have turned cartwheels 'cross the floor once upon a time but, alas, no longer. Fandangos, though - never!

TPBM can find a lyric for every occasion.

You better, you better, you bet I can.

TPBM will admit to having done karaoke, or at least an Open Mike night, despite an utter inability to sing.

Done karaoke several times, usually after a couple drinks. This is a public FB post, so the link should be viewable to prove my lack of singing skill.

https://www.facebook.com/paulpiemurlewis/videos/vb.1576991671/1484707729130/?typ...

TPBM is sweltering.

Not today. Temperatures peaked in the 90s yesterday and are much more comfortable today with high only expected in the 70s.

//>360 ulmannc: I can just picture the whole car scene. So funny.//

TPBM is attending at least 1 graduation party this month.

That's tomorrow for me, my oldest son.

TPBM is aghast at how the years fly by.

Sometimes; but on second thought I usually feel the pace was normal, after all.

TPBM wold not want magically to become twenty years younger than her/his present age, if the deal was that EVERYTHING ElSE had to be the same as it was then.

god, no. I wouldn't want to be 25 again for anything. There was a lot of drama. I'm better at being me, now.

TPBM uses an hourglass.

No, my watch is less than a year old and, except for one short breakdown, has been working well since repair.

TPBM hates watches that have
dash-marks rather than numbers.

That depends.
On analog watches and clocks, I don't mind because it's a less-cluttered look. And I'm good at interpolation, so it's a comfortable mind exercise for me.
On digital watches and clicks, those 7-segment displays bug the bejeebers out of me.
Just last night I spent four hours downloading and trying different time-display widgets for my cell phone. I wanted one that supported a 24-hour display that included seconds as well as the date in yyyyy-mmm-dd format and the day of the week. I rejected hundreds of simply because of that seven-segment display. Eventually, I found one, but it's got the date as dd-mmm-yyyy, and the display is smaller than I had hoped, but it works without any significant drain on the battery.

TPBM is also persnickety about details.

Too right! I think the date always has been DD/MM/YYYY and get endlessly discombobulated by the American habit of MM/DD/YYYY.

TPBM will attempt to explain the (?) logic behind MM/DD/YYYY

It's a mystery.

TPBM will enlighten us.

enlightenment from Rome, as of ca. 40 B. C.:

MMD stands for what you cal 2,500. Whatever the next D and the four Yʻs stand for hasnʻt been invented yet.

Itʻs been said that the ancient Romans, because of their number system couldnʻt do long division. A classicist whose name I forgot said that indeed they COULD, and gave an example of it (but admitted
that he made it up, didnʻt find a historical record of it.)

TPBM will get the topic back to
the logic of the modern MDD YYYY.

There is none. Period. Or maybe it's the same reasoning as remaining on Imperial Units instead of going metric.

The obsessive-compulsive in me prefers things in order: YYYY MM DD HH:mm:SS:ms
The rebellious part of me wants the month as three letters, just cause.

TPBM often has bicameral conflicts.

Yes - Nikon or Canon? (Pun intended...) Actually neither - I went digital with Panasonic (Leica lenses).

TPBM has a 'proper' camera too, not just one in a smartphone or tablet.

Yes and that's a Panasonic too. Bought 7/7 2007 and still going strong.

TPBM also swears to Panasonic.

No, I had a 35mm film Canon which worked beautifully, and then we bought daughter a 35mm digital Canon and I gave her all my lenses, filters, and even the case. She's loaning it to me so I can take it on my upcoming vacation to Montana.

TPBM has a summer vacation scheduled.

I just got back from my vacation to Quebec City. Here's a photo:


Feel free to visit my profile to see some of the others I took with my Fuji, which I am finally ready to replace. I am torn between a really nice Nikon (because their lenses are so good) and a Sony that has some great capabilities.

TPBM has vacation coming soon.

No, and I'm so jealous now after looking at your great photos of your vacation. The street with the umbrellas was sooo cool!

TPBM lives vicariously.

//>378 morningwalker: we had a really good time. We stayed in the old part of the city (Vieux-Quebec) which looks a bit like european cities, and I was glad to get some good shots. I use my yearly vacation photos to make a calendar that I give out to friends and family at Christmas, so it's a relief to have some good ones ready for this year's edition. Btw, if anyone wants to receive my calendar, just message me your mailing address and I will add you to the list//

// >377 Darth-Heather: Fuji now have a superb reputation among serious toggers - you thought about something like the XT20? //

Yes, sometimes.

TPBM keeps a journal/diary.

I want to, but I tend to let it slide. It's a shame, because I really like reading my old entries.

//>379 Darth-Heather: Damn straight I want a calendar!//

TPBM's name is written in the Book of Life.

//>382 SomeGuyInVirginia: I am glad to send you one - just give me your mail address. It helps me to rationalize my hobby - of course I need to go on vacation! I have to get twelve good photos this year! I also put in odd holidays and birthdays of authors and musicians that i like :) //

Not yet. The School of Life doesn't send you the book until you graduate.

TPBM has graduated.

Seeing as how I'm writing this, I would have to say: not yet.

You can find a partial list of those who have on the right side of the On This Day section of your home page.

TPBM groks.

May you never thirst.

TPBM shares water.

Absolutely! It's a Get Out of Hell Free card. Karma and all.

TPBM will recommend a writer they feel should be more widely known.

Daniel M. Stein, author of Wall of Noise.
Itʻs a horse-racing novel, and I'm not a racing fan; nevertheless I found it fascinating. i must admit, though, that this author and this title
are two of the few things I havenʻt been able to find listed in LT.

TPBM recommends some of the lesser known works of at least one of the following:
Alexandre Dumas, pere

Sinclair Lewis

Jack Kerouac

Heinrich Mann

Barbara Pym

The Dharma Bums

TPBM has another.

I've only read one of Barbara Pym's novels, Quartet in Autumn, and loved it. I want to read more of her works, and look for them at book sales and thrift stores, but haven't found any so far.

TPBM has another.

I love Barbara Pym's Excellent Women and Jane and Prudence. She is so witty and just a tad snarky, in a refined way.

One lesser-known work I like to recommend is John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent.

TPBM has another.

The Mortdecai Trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli. It's my Go-To recommendation for obscure, readable authors.

TPBM has yet another.

Charles Bukowski is an author who's work at first seemed vulgar, sordid and sexist but the more I read the more I appreciated his style and stories. He wrote about what he knew.

TPBM is shy.

I don't think anyone would describe me that way, but I know I am.

TPBM is walking on sunshine.

Wo-oh, walking on sunshine, wo-oh, walking on sunshine, wo-oh, and don't it feel good!

TPBM is humming along.

yes, I am today - it's my nineteenth wedding anniversary to Mr. Darth. We were engaged for five years while we saved up enough money to have a modest wedding.

19 years ago today it was 100 degrees F at the beach. Fortunately it didn't rain - I didn't have a backup plan.
Today is sunny also, but a milder 70F.

TPBM is enduring a scorcher.

It was 97 and humid for my nephew's wedding on the 16th, but today it is 67 and off and on raining buckets. I've been living on the other side of the Rockies where we have only wet season and dry season, so I am confused by raining buckets in June. We have drought; here in the Midwest they have flood warnings. It's really strange what you get used to and what you forget.

TPBM has visited the old home town.

I last visited by native town,
Woburn, MA, in 1994. Had been to Greater Boston other times but had been mostly in Acton and Cambridge, bypassing Woburn. The town (it actually has long had city government) had changed less than I expected; I thought there would no longer be a business district -- but there was. Our most famous native is scientist Benjamin Thompson (aka Count rumored, born next door to the grades 1-4 school I attended.

TPBM wants to tell LT about his home townʻs must famous son or daughter.

Rachel Carson. And I had no idea who she might be while growing up. There was a tiny plaque with very little information. I read about her in college, but made no connections till I moved back one year. My children attended the summer camp at her homestead.

TPBM is called by the sea.

Rats preempted!

No, but At Open Mic Night, I tend to play a lot of maritime tunes.

>397 rolandperkins: Well, I still consider "home town" to be Ramsey, NJ, although it's been 44 years since I've lived there. Can't think of any particular person who was actually famous from there. The neighboring town, Allendale, was the home town of James Comey.

Here (Round Rock, Texas) we had a local badass named Sam Bass. A notorious outlaw who had a shoot-out with the law in Main Street. When I first moved here, 29 years ago, they used to do reenactments of that day. Oddly enough, while my wife's car was in the shop yesterday, I bided my time by geocaching in the grave where he's buried. I think the cemetery is named after him.

TPBM also has a famous son or daughter, but that person in known for doing something good, please.

>399 WholeHouseLibrary: I wanted to read that as Sam Badass!!

Well, I don't know if she's known for a lot of good but Sharon Stone is from a small town near me.

TPBM hails from a place that is famous for something (good or bad).

Moonshine before there was meth, and now meth. It's a scourge and I hate the show Breaking Bad. Also authors. My grandmother had a crush on Sherwood Anderson and kept up a lifelong feud with Lucy Herndon Crockett, that tramp.

TPBM has another famous son or daughter.

I'm from Chicago so you kinda have your pick of the famous. But some of my favorites like Daniel Burnham were not born here. Burnham at least moved here as a child. Hillary Clinton is from the suburbs, so I don't know if that counts. Walt Disney was from Chicago. Many long years ago I used to work for the now-defunct Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where Disney had been a student before he left to go West. It was a right of passage for office workers to take a look at his record. I hope when the school dissolved someone had the sense to preserve the card for posterity.

TPBM has a few favorites, too.

Well I'm pretty sure George Washington slept here. Oh wait, he slept everywhere.

TPBM has been to Disney World.

I have! When I was a kid my folks took me there.

TPBM has been to an amusement park in Japan.

Never been out of Yurrup!

TPBM, on the other hand...

I've been to Mexico, Barbados, Italy, Canada and a few of the states in the USA. I would love to travel all over if my pocketbook allowed. It's actually going on 4 years since I've been anywhere.

TPBM will be going to an exotic destination soon.

Already there, if you consider Bozeman Montana exotic.

TPBM has plans to go to an exotic island this year.

Not soon, but sometime this year I'm taking two weeks off and will simply gel out.

TPBM is all about hearth and home.

Well, yeah. Home is where the hearth is.

As much as I have a distaste for the idea of travel, I actually enjoy it. The reluctance is mostly because of my digestive disorder and having to repeatedly recite the litany of foods that are deadly to me to each waitperson. It's exhausting.

TPBM has the proverbial iron stomach.

Pretty much. I love hot and spicy food. Especially Indian.

TPBM avoids ______.

Fungus (mushrooms and the like) and anything too acid (strangely enough, I can tolerate limes, lemons, and grapefruit .. but not oranges!)

TPBM has an illogical oddity in their dietary intake.

yes, I can't have chocolate. Anything with cocoa. I can have white chocolate, which has cocoa butter, but none of the brown kinds. My husband calls me a dessert bigot.

TPBM has a food allergy.

I break out in itchy hives between my fingers if I eat cashews, but no other nut.

//>412 Tid: And about 16 years ago I got sick from a sushi restaurant and couldn't drink any citrus juice for months, but taking Nexium fixed that. Miracle medicine.//

TPBM gets by on potato chips and chocolate milk.

Believe me, I've tried.

TPBM can explain to us why pretzels taste infinitely better when consumed after eating a few potato chips.

I don't eat pretzels, but fish with potato chips is the bee's knees!

TPBM prefers chips without vinegar but dollops of salt.

// >414 SomeGuyInVirginia: What would Nexium be known as in the UK? What's its active ingredient? //

//Nexium is prescribed in the UK - esomeprazole is the generic name. Similar to omeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor.//

// >417 abbottthomas: I've recently experienced acid reflux and have used Gaviscon double action tablets - so far so good //

I like chips (french fries here) with salt, vinegar and/or ketchup. Yum!

TPBM is already thinking about lunch.

Is it too late for breakfast? Is it too early for lunch?

TPBM ponders the imponderable.

Lately I've been pondering about the scale of humans to their environment. We seem pretty small compared to our terrain. Maybe given enough time, we might evolve to be 15 feet tall, a better fit to the size of trees and mountains?

TPBM doesn't think so.

Man is the measure of all things, ahfinkso.

//>417 abbottthomas: Heya at!//

TPBM walks tall.

With one leg being an inch and a half shorter than the other, it's more of a gimp. But I do strive for good posture in the process.

TPBM has an unusual personality trait. Come on, you know you do.

.ti yned I .t'nod I oN

.tiart ytilanosrep lausunu na sah MBPT

Do I need to break out a mirror to read that?

The person below me knows what they're doing.

That is the impression I strive for.

TPBM knows that sometimes the problem disappears if you ignore it long enough.

Yes, plus there appears to be only so much dust that can settle on top of bookcases. This much and no more. I find it to be strangely comforting.

TPBM has a magic wand.

Yes, but the batteries won't charge any more ;-(

The problem that won't disappear is the length of the thread. I have been trying to avoid this as the only 102 I can come up with is the bus route from Edmonton to the Brent Cross Shopping Centre and how boring is that? It will have to be (with a nod to George Orwell) "One past the worst thing in the World"