WTF-Beta

@chas I've always flown with one carry on and put it under my seat.

Exception in the beginning when we'd have plastic "hard-sided" suitcases.

Suitcases of course were still "a thing".

They let you fly alone as a child (like 6 yrs old) back then.

I did and ditched the suitcase.

My dream bag is hard-case actually.

(I like leather, wood, stone, paper, like that, boxes; I'm a nerd).

It's the traditional briefcase at the TimeResistance site. Black.

The best quality craftsmanship, less than $600. Unreal.

Many here use a briefcase or have, but it's the last type of bag that would suit me.

In the old blues songs, you needed "a suitcase and a trunk".

I don't know who was supposed to be on hand to move the trunk.

@RealPlayer said:

I was gifted an electronic coffee mug that maintains a constant temperature, but if you want to program a different temperature (or other things) you need their app.

The whole thing is pretty unnecessary, tbh, with or without the app

@realplayer I am pining for a traditional coffee pot. There are a million used ones floating around. I want to buy mine new. Farberware brand it is? I think. It will keep the coffee I made hot. I've wanted to hit the "buy now" button more than once.

I hope I'll have it eventually.

It has no software. It has no camera watching you, and it's not recording your voice.

Bonus.

However, I use a French press. I like it.

Pros- Fast, Inexpensive

Cons- Not many are insulated. Glass breaks. Coffee has to be made each time you want a cup, or you have to microwave what's left (or bring it to a simmer?. Not inexpensive if you break the glass. Being made now with glass too thin for purpose

@chas @wtg Truth.

@jon-nyc Thanks for the correction.

I believe this too is around the corner.

Link to video

Yikes.

Every leather product made gets torn down aftermarket and researched by someone somewhere.

The same thing happens with tech products apparently.

court

Link to video

Ok. Unless this is AI, it is astounding.

Please watch about 2 or 3 minutes about a Bosch dishwasher.

This has to be fake, but it it's not, it's around the corner.

Can you image all of this complexity, expense, and surveillance- and what you would get out of it is- the ability to hit the start button on a dishwasher?

I lean toward this being real or a type of prototype template because I know for a fact that all new cars starting model year '27 will have a camera pointed at the driver's face and a kill switch. I'm not making this up.

I've owned a few Bosch dishwashers. You bought at Sears. They were somewhat more expensive than the other dishwashers Sears sold, but the difference was nothing in retrospect to the cost of living today. They washed the dishes. I didn't have to do anything to dirty dishes, pots, pans, etc. and they would end up spotless.

I have a dishwasher. It's new. It's the lowest price point model Lowes sells. So, you prepare the dishes, run them, and then hand wash everything that came out dirty.

I have a double basin sink and hand wash my dishes.

@jon-nyc said:

Not surprised. A round trip flight to Europe is like getting a chest xray or two.

I remember when I was getting a lot of imaging done before transplant. When I asked about the amount of radiation I was getting a doctor put it in terms of equivalent flights and that gave me perspective. It made me realize imaging was safer than I thought and/or flying was more dangerous

@jon-nyc

You do a lot of imaging and flying, no?

You have to live your life.

That's my bottom line this topic.

My brother has Stage IV bone cancer.

He had six days of radiation out of seven days at one of the NY hospitals.

That must have been brutal.

I wish I knew the organs where it's spread.

He doesn't want to to talk about it.

His right.

I used to worry about radiation but short of avoiding power stations and transmission lines IDK anymore.

My best friend in HS became a flight attendant.

Well, I hope he's OK.

I definitely believe there's something to it.

But when people have cancer of course there often isn't a proximate cause.

Cancers caused by smoking are one exception.

I've mentioned this before but there was a bad accident at a uranium processing facility in Pawling, NY.

See: Wikipedia.

They dumped the uranium waste in a lake.

We knew it as "Nuclear Lake".

Then they covered the lake by re-routing the Appalachian trail over it.

Pawling is a village of 2,000 people.

Of course nobody can/ will ever know who got cancer because of it.

What is this First Amendment of which you speak?

trauma

Also, what are your memories of that time and/ or your thought about it today?

I think most people (nobody here) forget it happened or unfortunately just don't have time to think about it.

The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression wasn't called "the Great" for nothing.

I remember this data point-- the time period for unemployment eligibility in Hawaii reached 18 months.

Elena Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to win the 2026 US Open Women's singles title on Saturday, September 12, 2026, NBC

Congratulations to Elena Rybakina.

Yeah, like automobile racing and its history.

But those circuits could go away.

Beautiful!

I don't really try to celebrate the holidays since my beloved aunt passed. She had been assigned "the keeper of the faith" role in her family because she was the only female born to her parents. The holidays and traditions meant so much to her. I could really never piece together the calendar, the holidays, nor their meanings. And this was spite of celebrating the holidays formally with my father's family, his mother's home (my Nanny's) growing up.

I can't explain it.

Hanukkah was an exception.

I recently learned a story about my Nanny, and her family, that I couldn't have imagined in 1,000 years, that was a family secret nobody (not one person) not once (not ever) told me, refered to, hinted at... nothing.

I don't even know if my mother knew it.

It was anything but the easy to follow narrative I was told.

It was as if one version of the American dream was being lived, and one story of the American experience had been filed in a kind of vault.

This was by design of course.

Families.

Maybe one day I will write more about it or talk about it with... anyone.

For time being though not my place.

Daniel, Wondering whether to rest on Saturdays, Sundays, or both

@wtg said:

I'd forgotten half of this stuff...

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/1970s-life-in-photos

36/39

@Mik said:

I never did pay Columbia for the 6 free records.

You win the Internet today!

Omg.

I'll have to look for them on a map.

J/k.

There was/ is a Soviet "aesthetic" that appealed/ appeals to American culture as I'm sure you guys know.

It appeals to me.

It has since I took Russian in school.

I think it's often combined with an interest in actual Russia.

To be clear, I'm not talking about communism or other economic fill in-the-blank-isms.

Thanks for the post.

Definitely going to look at this final, clips, and maybe watch the match.

I don't know about you guys but watching tennis puts me is a centered (sic), calm, state.

The opposite of doom scrolling but well enough about that.

@jon-nyc said:

.

I was one of those people too.

I smoked on my London trip as a 14 yr old.

Nobody cared.

Except my uncle/ MS history teacher in charge of our group
when he busted me.

It was a 747 and smoking was allowed in the upstairs lounge.

I smoked on planes all the time.

Looking back it should have been illegal.

@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!