WTF-Beta

@wtg thanks for this. My most recent hotel stay was actually on a university campus, so I used the campus wi fi service (which is called eduroam and should be very secure). But I have a lot of conference travel coming up this fall and next spring, and most of those are massive hotel/convention center places.

Subs

BTW from the Guardian article:

The news industry in the US used to hold corporations more accountable for the quality of their products and service. But consumer-facing business news was decimated when local newspapers disappeared and national news outlets shifted their corporate coverage to focus on investors.

Yep, it's all connected.

Brilliance

This is why I'm terrified that something in our house will break. Not because we can't afford to replace it, but because the options we'll have to replace it with will most surely be lower quality and not last as long.

@Bernard said:

When a brand changes hands this many times, the name becomes the product and the pan becomes a cost to be managed beneath it: thinner steel here, an offshored handle there

And this is why Mr SK can't find the kinds of pans he wants.

Order

Always

Wow indeed! Congratulations!!!

Squeaker

I took these photos in April 20202, when I was WFHing because of the pandemic.

Very cute — until it started chewing on the wooden window sill and then we kicked it out. It never came back (or if it did, it stopped eating the sill)

@AndyD said:
fingernails...

That was another thing I quickly noticed, was that trying to continue both classical guitar and piano would be near impossible because one requires fingernails and with the other, they are totally in the way!

Long

@wtg those are fun!

I have a piano score the for Wellerman Sea Shanty, but it’s not very fun as a solo piano piece!

@axtremus that’s hysterical!

@kluurs I'm sorry to hear about your concerns. Hopefully it's nothing to worry about, but you're smart to get it checked out.

@kluurs said:

My physician retired - and it's taken over a year to get a new pcp.

That is the worst! Sadly, I can relate. When we first moved here, it took forever to establish care, and I finally found someone I liked, and had some things scheduled, and she left the practice. I got kicked out the system and had to re-establish care from zero. Fortunately, I was able to get some specialists for some things and that helped to keep my prescriptions current, but it took two years to get things back on track with a PCP. It was so frustrating.

bullhorn

Beautiful photos everyone!

Some of you might remember that I was worried about something eating our black eyed susans before they had the chance to bloom... Well whatever it was decided that they didn't actually like the black eyed susans, so this is what it looks like now.

They are actually trying to take over, so when fall comes, we're going to have to figure out how to rein them in. But for now, they look so cheery, right outside the front door.

@AdagioM oooh those are pretty!

Amp

OMG. That was horrifying. Is that really Martha Reeves??? As in, Martha and the Vandellas?

How sad.

@wtg That was lovely, thanks for linking it!

I like what the video description says:

We are accustomed to remembering him as the "Clown Prince of Denmark"—the brilliant satirist who turned classical concert halls into arenas of laughter. Yet, in this rare and precious recording, the comedy completely fades away. Victor Borge lays down his comedic armor to bare the profound, aching soul of a true classical master.Performing Fritz Kreisler’s "Liebesleid" (Love's Sorrow) through the rich, virtuosic lens of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s transcription, Borge delivers nothing short of a musical revelation. His hands breathe life into the bittersweet Viennese melody with an exquisite elegance that belongs to a bygone golden age of piano playing.There is no rush in his fingers, no modern sterility. Instead, we hear the hallmarks of the old-school tradition: a warm, singing tone, independent inner voicing, and a romantic rubato that stretches time without ever breaking it. Borge transforms a demanding showpiece into an intimate, heartbreaking monologue. It is a stunning, poignant reminder that behind the mask of history's greatest musical humorist stood a deeply sensitive poet of the piano