Unfortunately, our road trip this year is through the upper Midwest - heading to Mt. Rushmore. Don’t know when we’ll be heading south again. Let us know if you’re coming to Cleveland!

@wtg said: @Big_Al said: I wonder if he was working at the Erdemir plant. I worked with an engineer who was involved with a sinter plant for that company. Here is a snippet from my neighbor Joe Faloon's obit. He died in 2006 at the age of 87, so he was much older than you. Joseph and his wife Virginia both graduated from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1939. Joseph was an industrial engineer who worked in the steel industry throughout his career, first for U.S. Steel, then Ford Motor Steel, then Kaiser Engineers, managing the creation and expansion of major steel plants, living in Turkey and consulting in Indonesia, Australia, Venezuela and Mexico. You're right, Joe was indeed much older than me. I got my BSEE from Carnegie Tech in 1967. My early career probably paralleled his in many regards. Dravo Engineers and Constructors, my first professional employer, was a competitor of Kaiser Engineers in many markets. Big Al

@jon-nyc said: They’re trying to save pixels so they avoided ‘ancient’. we prefer the terms “Persons of Advanced Temporal Status” or “Chronologically Gifted Individuals” to refer to the Experience-Dense Demographic.

Very clever!

What a high price for a small diamond the cut of which is not particularly noteworthy. I think that this might say more about the market than about the diamond however rare the color.

It it the second gutting. Who needs diplomacy when none of your former allies nor your enemies takes you seriously anymore? Who needs diplomacy when you have ineffective foreign policy that makes no sense anyway?

@Axtremus said: @Daniel Oh, good, tell me where (you think or believe) your intelligence and consciousness lie. In my humanity. Is this rocket science?

Ax- Still, articles like this makes me question of the American car industry is still alive only because of protectionism. What politician wants to be known for putting thousands out of work?

This is crazy. It’s not that complicated. I bake with my starter every week or two or three. I rarely if ever use fed starter, it’s usually totally flat, and I feed it after I’ve mixed up the dough and stick it back in the fridge. So it gets fed every week or two ( I almost never feed it if I’m not baking something). I never discard. I make mostly pizza dough and sandwich loaves in a loaf pan, and bagels and sweet rolls.. The bagels and sweet rolls go overnight, but the pizza and bread get baked the same day. I don’t weigh, and I loosely measure, sometimes I add a lot of starter to the mixture if I need to use some up. I add water, then flour until the dough feels right. I used a stand mixture and don’t do stretch and folds. It always works.

Bernard, I've just been through the wringer you're describing: trust, trustee, secondary trustee, power of attorney, and medical power of attorney. It's a long, intensive, and expensive process. My advice is to take it step by step, be patient with yourself, take the time you need, and be encouraged that you will accomplish your goals. It can be confusing at times. It can be frustrating. It can seem endless. You'll get there, just don't rush anything. I'll be holding a good thought for you.

+1 re: the DNC

@bernard Did you see that Fetterman was the single vote to decide not to end the Iran debacle? He and his comfy clothes should be in an insane asylum, or he should be in prison for complicity in war crimes, or he should be in a military prison for treason, in my opinion.

I've heard many times the freeholders are often what we would call private equity firms and are practicing financial predation. I'm living where I was born. It's disheartening to see houses of the exact type my family lived in since I was born rise from well under 20k in 1963 to over 400k today. Wages and productivity were decoupled in the '70's with wages flat lining and productivity rising dramatically. People in this country today in general literally are not being paid wages that that equal what it costs to live. This country is and is about to be more so in a foreclosure crisis, also. Our neverending inflation crisis just got dramatically worse, also. This isn't the country where I was raised. It's not prosperous and in fact is holding on by a thread.

@wtg and @bernard I spent so much time on the music school's website, you'd think I was planning to move there! I would love to be in a class with your, Bernard!