BSR

I love Lin's design because it is beautiful in its sadness, which (imo) perfectly captures our nation's feelings about that particular war. While the Vietnam War Memorial design initially sparked much controversy, I was struck by its beauty when I first saw it. Something can be stark and somber, yet beautiful. I'm so glad to hear that the war's veterans and gold star families have come to embrace it.

What struck me most about this couple's expat (mis)adventure is that they never bothered to become fluent in French yet were frustrated that they weren't able to make friends or adapt to the French way of doing things. DUH! What the hell did they expect?

Does anyone know what happened to the lawsuit against Smollett? The Chicago PD sued him for overtime costs incurred by the investigation into Smollett's hate crime hoax, but I couldn't find anything about the outcome.

I think Americans have been "fleeing" the US for a while now. I read about a (supposed) spike 10-15 years ago. Americans choose to live abroad for many reasons, sometimes political, often something else. I've read a lot of accounts by American expats in Spain because I was considering the move myself. Most cite lifestyle and culture as their motivation, very rarely politics. I think the Internet and social media facilitate moving abroad because so many more resources are available to anyone considering it. The big move is less daunting when you can connect with the expat community in your destination and talk to people who have done it.

I saw a feature a while back about miniature horses trained as seeing eye guide animals. Mini horses can do just as well as dogs, and their biggest advantage is they live a lot longer, 30-40 years vs. 10-12. As much as I love dogs, miniature horses are so much cuter. If I ever saw one in person, I'd just melt. Sorry, nothing to do with grocery shopping. Back on topic ...

I love this dog ...

He might very well be a meth addict, but he doesn't look like he's starving.

You're just like my mom, LOL. When out of curiosity she took a sip of my quad espresso, she almost sprayed it across the room, but she can eat coffee ice cream by the gallon.

The large size has 171 grams of sugar!! The "added sugar" is 156 grams, maybe the other 15 grams come from the lactose in the milk. For reference, a cup of sugar weighs 200 grams. Imagine measuring 3/4 cup of sugar and stirring it into your coffee. Yikes!

I'm totally doing this to the next Karen I run into ...

To avoid losing it. I had a Tag Heuer that I wore 24/7/365 for 20 years. If I were constantly taking it off, I would surely have lost it somewhere. But my old Tag was a diver's watch rated water resistant to 300 meters. It looks like the guy's wearing an Apple Watch, which don't have great water resistance (except maybe the Ultra).

One Direction was hugely successful, one of the biggest ever boybands. Out of all of them, I thought Liam had the best voice. While I can't claim to be a fan, I did appreciate his talent. It makes me sad that he couldn't reach out to get the help he needed with his mental health struggles. Tragic to lose someone so young and talented.

Unfortunately, that is not an option if you bought your ticket in California. Apparently the state wants the public to know that real, everyday Joes (or Edwins) win those big jackpots. From the CA Lottery website: The California Lottery is subject to public disclosure laws that allow access to certain governmental records. Your full name, the name and location of the retailer who sold you the winning ticket, the date you won and the amount of your winnings, including your gross and net installment payments, are matters of public record and are subject to disclosure. The Lottery will not disclose any other personal or identifying information without your permission unless legally required to do so.

Lump sum after taxes, Edwin Castro took home "only" $628.5 million. Still a shit-ton of money, but a lot less than $2 billion.

Does the current vaccine prevent transmission?

I also support any measure that discourages the poor from buying lottery tickets, but I wonder if the jump to $5 results in the poor spending the same amount per month but just buying fewer tickets. The thought of poor people "saving up" because the price of tickets went up 150% breaks my heart. Yes, it's voluntary, certainly no one is forcing the poor to spend what little they have on the lottery, but I also think it's wrong for the government to exploit human vulnerability.

Same here, I forget how old I was when my little brother & I started going trick or treating by ourselves in suburban Kansas City, but pretty sure I was real young. We lived in such a wonderfully safe neighborhood. Crime was literally nonexistent, and we kids could go out by ourselves without a worry in the world. It was something we just took for granted growing up, but looking back, I realize how lucky we were.