Rudynate

My grandmother made bread and butter pickles. She used small pickling cucumbers and sliced them paper thin. They only came out at holidays. She even had a special dish with a little gold fork that she served them in

My father grew up speaking German in a Volga German community in Kansas.

We had that for dinner frequently when I was a kid. My father usually made it. He cut the ribs into sections, put them in a dutch oven, covered them with the sauerkraut and braised until the meat was ready to come off the bones. Nothing else added. It was really good.

I like it in a vinaigrette dressing instead of vinegar.

I think a BFE should include generous amounts of affection.

I almost never offer unsolicited advice. For that reason alone, I would never make a recommendation that they lose weight. Addionally, with somebody fat, I would assume that they had already heard anything I could possibly tell them, so why bother. On the rare occasion when someone solicits my advice on a persistent problem like weight, I say something like, "This probably isn't anything that you don't already know. . ."

I enjoy a fair degree of discomfort when bottoming. I encourage the top to lube with just spit.

I like dogs. I've never had one because they require more care and attention than I'm willing to provide. And I can't see how it can be good for the dog to leave it alone in a cage all day while its owner is at work and to get out twice a day for a short walk. I wouldn't find it objectionable to see well behaved dogs in restaurants. There is a certain type of dog owner, that I associate with California, who assumes that their dog is welcome anywhere and they bring their dog along without even thinking to ask if it's ok.

If ADC doesn't ship to Belgium, others may not also. If they don't ship to a particular country it is usually because of prohibitive laws in that country.

I misidentified the articles. "The" is the definite article. "These" is a demonstrative article.

In American English, we make distinctions that they don't seem to in British English. "The people" is an assortment, "the University" is a corporate body. In French, they say, "les gens, " but in German, they say "das Volk." But even in German, when they're just talking about a bunch of people, they say "die Leute" rather than das Volk. Das Volk is more like a body - the population, the German People, the community.

I think it is still fairly common to refer to the United States in the plural. I don't understand why the definite article "these" would have to precede it. Why couldn't the indefinite article "the" precede it?

Money is mostly a collective noun. As you note, The Brits treat collective nouns differently from Americans. We say, "The council is . . .." They say, "The council are . . . ." Not sure because I'm not around British English every day, but I believe even the Brits say "money is." But money doesn't always need to be a collective noun. As noted above thread, money can have a plural form when referring to funding sources or financial instruments or particular accounts. Since we grew up with the occasional inconsistency and illogic of English, it doesn't bother us. It must be disconcerting to native speakers of languages like French and German that are so logical.

Years ago, hospitals used reusable glass straws.

It's a good start, but when you think about the multipicity of single-use plastic containers in our lives, it is really discouraging.

I don't much anymore, but I always used to use a straw with coffee. I didn't like the feel of the sharp edges of plastic caps on my lips, so I used straws. They don't seem to have sharp edges on them anymore.

That's how I experienced it. We got out of the car to see just how hot it was. I don't think we were out of the car for even five minutes.

The only time I have experienced 120 degrees was crossing Death Valley.

The definition that immediately springs to mind to gay men is not the only definition for the word.

That's funny. That's always been my retort also.

People are surprised when I say I've never been to PS. I've always been mildly curious, but never enough to board a plane and go. I have one friend who insists I simply must go, so I probably will eventually.

Of course, years ago while we were all still in the closet, I did. But coming out causes you to abandon a lot of that self-oppressive behavior.

I think it works great. Out of sight, out of mind. I see the messages indicating the presence of ignored content and it's as thought they're not even there. I'm not as quick to use the 'ignore' feature as I used to be because I realized there's just no substitute for a thick hide and the only way to get one is to expose yourself.

I had a cat who lived to age 20. When she was 17 or 18, I asked the vet how we would decide when to put her down. In the next sentence, I answered my own question. I told him, "Our criterion will be 'Is she happy?' I'll give her pills, shots, whatever it takes, as long as she's happy.'"

I use it.