Lucky

If they are on Instagram, I wouldn't worry about "public."

Y'all. Never could understand that contraction. I hope that the moderators and administrators have a great time!

Just picked this up at the library!

Especially if it's Wonder Bread.

Are there stats available to see who spends the most time online here? I can kind of guess, but..

We were in Mexico. They made it look like an inquiry of some kind and had us empty our pockets. All cash was taken.

The linked Instinct article gives the cause of death. Embolism.

I stopped going to Tijuana after two cops robbed us on the pedestrian bridge. That made for an expensive trip.

Do you recommend Goose VPN? If so, what are its best features?

I first went to the Nob Hill in 1975, and many times thereafter. While it had its good side, I later didn't go because the place was often full of drugged out dancers with little appeal. It was also often pretty empty.

That is just pure bullshit. No doubt the guys there picked up on your superior attitude, and decided they didn't want to deal with it. It's been suggested, or outright said, in another forum that Asians are just golddiggers. but I think that is the result of a few bruised egos among white guys who didn't get their pick of Asian dick.

MLB meets with the players union again tomorrow. I sure hope they come to an agreement that will allow spring training to start on time. The Athletic (paywall) says this: Everything we’ve seen thus far suggests MLB owners want to test the players. That they intend to wait out the players as long as possible, to see if they’ll crack under the threat of losing paychecks. This lockout strategy at the commissioner’s office appears designed around one goal: minimizing how much owners have to give up. If you, as an owner, wait until the last minute, players might grow impatient, and you can surrender less than you would otherwise. Or if the players totally crumble, maybe you part with close to nothing. And if the players stand tall? Well, at least you didn’t give up any more than you had to, any sooner than you had to. What ownership’s approach means for players is that if they really want change — if after all these years of complaints about the status quo, the players are serious about achieving their goals — they will have to force owners to make it. If you accept the premise that the players failed in the last round of negotiations (or two), then a significant part of that failure was owed to their acquiescence. Players didn’t push hard enough. What players have done thus far in these talks, then, is correct course: They have been willing to tell the owners, repeatedly, “this is not good enough.” And it’s worth noting, in real time, what happens when players choose the alternative path: the owners greeted the players in December with a lockout, and there’s been virtually no progress since. That is not to say players will not or should not move off their own positions at all. Neither side has come close to a bottom-line proposal. But the players have, at least, been direct with their messaging: we need more than the league is offering. MLB, meanwhile, has taken a tack of obfuscation. The league often argues that it’s actually delivering the changes the players want, or should want: The players want younger players to be paid more, right? Look, we’ve made a proposal to do that! How can they still be unhappy? MLB has indeed made proposals that technically address areas like pay for young players. But in most if not all cases, those gives have been small, at best, and sometimes, they shouldn’t rightly be considered gives at all. These proposals are rarely made in isolation. They’re made as packages, where acceptance of one condition requires acceptance of others. Thus far, league packages have come with trade-offs that the players feel ultimately would make their standing worse overall, or would not meaningfully improve it. For example, one of the reasons the players so disliked the proposal MLB made in August to institute a salary floor was because it came with modifications to the luxury tax that would’ve severely hampered free agency. The owners have offered to raise the luxury tax thresholds slightly, while simultaneously increasing the penalties to exceed them. And on the question of getting younger players paid more, MLB keeps offering to pay players by a formula that, in the short term, might bring a little more money to players, but would also sacrifice the salary arbitration process — a mechanism players greatly value because it allows them to argue for higher pay to a third party. The players’ stated goal, which they’ve trumpeted for years, is to make substantive gains. Not to merely move money around in a redistribution from one segment of their constituency to another, such as old players to young. Now, at this point, the players are still undoubtedly asking for more than they will ultimately receive, and likely, even expect to receive. But the players feel they haven’t received much of anything. MLB is saying it won’t touch key areas where changes can add up to big dollars very quickly: time to free agency, time to arbitration and revenue sharing. In a way, it doesn’t really matter what MLB is trying to sell about its proposals, whether the commissioner’s office is trying to convince people that ground chuck is filet mignon. If the players do not like MLB’s positions, then their recourse is clear. The owners are saying, in so many words: you will not get what you want without a fight. And that fight will require withstanding the heat of criticism, and potentially, lost games. With each passing day, the theoretical opening of spring training in mid-February moves closer, as does the pressure of a possible delay to the regular season. This CBA feels like a turning point. Theoretically, players could fall short and come back reinvigorated in a few years for the next round of talks. But if they’re repelled this go-around, it might be hard to muster the same energy right away. Commissioner Rob Manfred, deputy Dan Halem and the owners might sense, then, that this is their moment to stem the tide. That a victory for owners here could have long-lasting effects on not only the particulars of the CBA, but on future player resolve. In every proposal they’ve made, the owners have posed the same question: How badly do the players want change? theathletic.com

That sounds like my Greek: alpha, beta, delta, epsilon, omicron! Probably a fraternity name I forgot could come up too.

A married couple has no problem with Social Security Survivors Benefits. That includes gay married couples. But since gays were not allowed to marry until recently, there exists a whole category of same-sex couples who could not marry and were never eligible for Survivors Benefits. That has changed, as seen in this nytimes.com article. From the NYTimes: The Social Security Administration now allows gay men and lesbians to receive survivor’s benefits if they can show that they were in a committed relationship and would have married had that been possible. The change could mean greater economic protection for a population with higher poverty rates than American adults overall. "Starting at age 60 — or 50 for those who are disabled — a survivor can either apply for a deceased spouse’s Social Security benefits (if these are higher than the survivor’s, or if the survivor does not have the work history to qualify) or apply for them temporarily and delay claiming their own (allowing their benefit to increase until they reach full retirement age or beyond). “The surviving spouses can end up with a lot more income,” said Trinh Phan, senior staff attorney at Justice in Aging. The average survivor’s benefit, the Social Security Administration reports, is $1,467 a month." Also from the Times: "How can survivors prove that they would have married, or married earlier, if they could have? They have to produce evidence like joint bank accounts, leases, mortgages, insurance policies or wills that name a partner as beneficiary or heir. “You shared a home,” Ms. Loewy said. “Or you had a commitment ceremony. Even photos and love letters. There are ways to demonstrate that you were in a committed relationship.”

The irony of Ben going on a virgin cruise! 🙂

He would do anything for love...

I have no idea on how to find the hot guys on Instagram or TikTok. More tutorials needed!

Top ticket for Adele was $30,000.

@RadioRob I finally found those settings in Windows 11. Now I have to see if they changed anything. Already typing this is not showing repeated or mised letters! OK- I left that mistake in there. Maybe not done yet!

The US says it will distribute 400 million N95 masks for free through pharmacies. Are these the same pharmacies that have been closing for lack of staff? Why not distribute them with the free COVID tests? W

I cannot imagine being in the crowd pictured by @Trickabove.

From kennethinthe212.com:

The topic may get more attention by being in the Lounge after all.

https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/127537-atlantis-cruises-your-experiences/?do=findComment&comment=1947787 Already posted.

Going to the ER here always meant waits of 7 hours or so. I can only imagine what it is now. I don't want to find out!