There are videos saying he staged all of this. Ok. This is what people mean when they say it's not true just because you read it on the Internet. I would look at what the retired top level players both male and female have said. Besides. You only need your eye to see if you know what you are looking at that he's in a radically different physical and mental condition than a short time ago. GOAT! He could retire tomorrow and whether he does or not I don't think we're going to see his level of play again in our lifetimes. He's "coming back" but we'll see.

@kluurs said: "whatever time of the day the person can consistently focus their time." Yep. My preference would be to practice in the morning, but it's just not possible. So it's usually night time, but even if I can only put in a little bit of time, I do. And then when i have a bigger chunk of time, I benefit from that more because I've been at the piano consistently. @kluurs said: if I dedicated myself to playing several hours a day and with proper instruction, I might rise from a bad player to mediocre That's pretty much me. As you say, it doesn't matter. It gives me great joy. (And somehow, miraculously, doesn't drive my husband crazy). So I keep playing.

Impulse

So @steve-miller ... Have to admit I prefer front loading washers to top loaders, though it's been a long time since I've owned a top loader. Yea, there can be issues with the stinky washer problem with front loaders but they are so much gentler on clothes than the top loading models. SQ makes a front loader but of course it has electronic rather than mechanical controls. eta: The clothes spin out better in front loaders, too. Dries faster. Thoughts?

@AndyD Beautiful! I was very much into orchids for a while but ran into difficulties. The environments they come from are so varied that unless one has thousands to invest in a super good, large greenhouse, it's a challenge trying to accommodate all their needs. I am down to one Dendrochilum and one mini Cattleya. The Cattleya was on the discard bin and one day I noticed new growth, so I started watering it again and it's growing! Orchids are so darn fascinating and the colors so stunning, it's hard to resist. I was in the supermarket yesterday and brought home a pink Phal. This happened after I was rummaging upstairs and came across a book on orchids that I sat down with. I think it's rekindled a desire to get more. Heaven help me. [image: 1788217365827-8312.jpg] Another favorite of mine is Streptocarpus. This one has almost doubled in size since I bought it earlier this year. It's outgrowing it's small terrarium. [image: 1788217438477-8311.jpg]

Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Touché!

On a related note... Since AI chatbots exploded in popularity and Google started offering AI-generated answers, people who research foreign influence campaigns have expressed concern that some governments may poison AI-generated answers with false narratives. But an experiment NPR conducted with NewsGuard, a company that monitors online falsehoods and issues ratings about the reliability of online news sources, found that popular AI chatbots mostly pushed back against false narratives spread by foreign states. AI summaries that are increasingly found at the top of search engine results didn't perform as well. But overall, they still pushed back against state-spread falsehoods a majority of the time. NPR also looked at how often AI-generated answers may have uncritically exposed users to false information compared to traditional search results. The experiment found that AI chatbots outperformed search engines, while AI summaries underperformed. The results suggest that compared with traditional web search links, using AI chatbots with web search access is a "good way for users to start to investigate these issues," said Mike Caulfield, a digital literacy expert at the University of Washington, Bothell, who has tested AI tools for search extensively. NPR's experiment revealed that AI summaries at the top of search engine results may warrant more caution, depending on the product. https://www.npr.org/2026/08/30/nx-s1-5876436/chatbots-search-propaganda

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@realplayer Bike helmets FTW. Analogous to seatbelts. A seatbelt and passenger front airbag saved my life ten years ago. Be safe.

Omg.

Exactly.

The joys of property ownership Fix the leaks! Sounds like a new mattress ought to be high up on your list!

My Ting came from State Farm too. It also has a $1,000 remediation allowance if it finds an issue.

AMF.

@DougG said: Great, now Jon’s last post expects me to come up with a rhyme for “lits”. I’m pretty sure there isn’t one. Could this be the end of the word association thread?