I hit the thrift stores at least once a week - more if I can - looking for board games. I have found some amazing deals, and lots and lots of copies of Trivial Pursuit and Scattergories

@wtg no, after all our discussions here! I decided that he's in business for himself, he sets his rates... I hope that's ok. (Let's see if he comes back... I did give him some cherry ginger ale after he finished. @Rontuner thanks for all your PMS and support!! Now that I'm done yelling, I wrote a longer report, here: https://wtf.coffee-room.com/topic/209/piano-tuning-report

@AdagioM said in SCOTUS 2024: Is it immunity on all levels, or only for federal crimes? The payoff was made while he was in office; the arrangements were made before, I think. Was signing those checks an official act? Cohen got reimbursed in 2017, but I think the transfer of the money to Cohen's Essential Consultants LLC in October is part of the conspiracy, so that was pre-presidency. https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-hush-money-trial-case-evidence-michael-cohen-payment-2024-5?op=1

Ax!!

Went under contract a couple of days after it went on the market. I'm not surprised.

We should have a thread about the nastiest, most heart-attack-inducing weird regional food from your area. I thought nothing could out-nasty a Rochester NY garbage plate, but I was clearly wrong LOL!

She gave me a bunch of forget-me-nots that blooms every other year, and it's going strong again this year!

Funny - just drove back from The Lou today. (I guess they call it that. Cardinals have it on their uniforms).

@wtg said in Watching the debate?: The debate was not an anomaly. This is my biggest concern.

Great article! It made me think of one of my favorite movies, The Ghost and Mrs Muir. It's set in the early 1900s and the heroine goes for a swim in the sea. There's a little shack on wheels at the water, and she walks out the back of it and climbs down a few stairs to get to the water. Here's her daughter in the shack. bonus points if you recognize who the young actress is. [image: MV5BZWY3M2NhODQtNWM1Ny00OTYxLWFhNjQtOGUxNThhNjg1N2NlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE4MDg3NTIz._V1_.jpg] Here is Mrs Muir coming back from the sea. Dig the swimwear. [image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.PBTvR1B2Bnm5LzUMCmalBgAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=4df950fd3c23893d15f559fd6a9e93d9e7a92976de444f342b11ec7ad0f1d3e8&ipo=images]

Chas,

The Band’s Visit. It was on TCM a few weeks ago, otherwise seems like it’s available to rent via a few different streaming services.

Excellent!

I gor my Ph.D. at age 47, does that count?

@Axtremus said in AI email from a friend: you still need some human efforts initially to get the machine to write/draw/paint something. Right, the point of the meme is, let’s use that human effort on creative endeavors, and get AI to do the mundane tasks. I think people are seeing that, at least for now< the promise of AI has not materialized in terms of making life easier, and instead people feel like AI is taking away all the fun things and leaving humans with the short end of the stick. That’s an over-simplification of course, but that’s the meme.

Dennis Lehane's "A Bostonian (in Cambridge)" is a really good short story that involves TAMERLANE AND OTHER POEMS. I've taught it in my mystery class. I found out about it when it appeared in THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE 2022, so it's not just me that thinks it's great. When I googled it to see if I could find a link where it could be read for free (no such luck), I saw that there are plans to make it a movie.

Ooh good tips, thanks!