@Bernard said: Ford Pinto. Btw when I first went to Japan, the smoking regulations were quite loose. No smoking in school classrooms, thankfully, but most other workplaces were unrestricted. At my first workplace (a junior high), they had decided not to allow smoking in the teachers room because there had been a pregnant teacher, and then after she had her baby, they just kept the policy in place. But for my second job, I was a traveling teacher based out of the board of education, which was inside city hall. The city hall policy was that you could smoke in designated areas during the breaks, so before 8am, from 10-10:15am, during lunch, from 3-3:15pm and then after 5pm. The designated area was right by my desk Fortunately, I was rarely there because I was usually at some school somewhere. After my second or third year in that job, the national law changed and then smoking wasn’t allowed anywhere in city hall — yay!!

My experience was not as dramatic as @jon-nyc 's or @bernard 's (and I believe I wrote about this at the old WTF) but I was living in Japan at the time, so it was just before 10pm. I was brushing my teeth and my husband called me into the living room where the news was on TV. (We didn't have a computer at home at that point). I couldn't process what was happening at first, it seemed like a movie, and we watched the rest of it unfold in real time just like the rest of the world. Then I couldn't get a call through to the US for what seemed like forever, I didn't know where my parents were, whether any of my family happened to be traveling (in NYC or elsewhere)... I have family in many places in Western PA, and the Japanese news didn't use any specific place names in their reporting about that part of it. That made me almost lose my mind. I think being overseas for 9/11 was maybe somewhat similar to being abroad when a family member dies. I felt isolated from the US, and I remember feeling alienated from the Japanese people that were around me (esp at work) in ways I never had before. In the months that followed I went crazy trying to get American flags to decorate our house. (Which, in a small town in Japan, and before the days of ordering everything online, was not very easy to do). It was another year or more before I made it back to the US for a visit, and when I finally returned, I found a country I did not recognize.

oilcan

@dolmansaxlil I know! I don’t see how this is life-changing, but I’m in that other camp. If anyone else reads Yesteryear, I’d love to get your take on it.

I have a high school friend who’s been a flight attendant with United for 35 years or more. I’ll see her in October at our reunion.

Italian Taralli crackers. A bit bagelish (they're boiled before baking) snacky cracker. https://breadtopia.com/italian-taralli-crackers/?utm_content

To be fair, it is easy to miss.

@realplayer You'll find it! It took me a long time to know my sling bag was "the one". It took me some trial and error. The "study abroad" leather bag was too small. Backpack was good when I didn't have a car but wasn't comfortable with security when using both shoulder straps. My messenget bag is large enough for general use. It's also is a stealth briefcase. I've been handling massive amounts of paperwork, forms, documents, etc. for a couple years, and I'm still doing that. Good luck!

I like him and have donated a few times...

Link to video

Oh geez... crazy talk trying to say where the money that will never appear will come from!

On second thought, we met with our financial guys yesterday. They told us we weren’t spending enough money, which felt pretty weird. We live pretty high on the hog as far as I’m concerned, but with my side consulting we haven’t touched our IRAs in seven years of retirement. Maybe I do need one.

Thanks guys!

Link to video Peridot. Richard Yard. It reminds me of the old saying about the Tiffany's counter- if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. I thought that slogan was silly at the time- but it made a point.

Of course. Lol, Joe.

Link to video Ok, I lell my HS story. My best friend Hara and I were the two alternates. We couldn't serve well enough. We had no game to speak of. We didn't have the knowledge needed to get through a match. If we had the experience we would still not have the stamina. So we enjoyed hitting with each other. I loved hitting in the concrete "courts" they have for this. We spent a lot of time together at city parks for tennis. We listened to music (Broadway, Streisand, almost every album). No disrespect to Streisand at all, but when I hear her voice now, I switch it off. It was definitely a brief musical phase for me though. We talked outback dating (others, not each other, lol). Good times. I wish I could have done more in HS but there wasn't much opportunity for playing tennis in inner city Tampa, and more to the point, I didn't have the opportunity to take lessons. So yeah. Glorified waterboy. Lol!

And control. They want to know who is pregnant. They want to know who has guns. etc.