mike carey

When I was growing up those shoes would be called sand shoes, or sometimes running shoes or runners. 'Sneakers' became popular after that.

Sex work or paying in a foreign currency? (The answer is yes either way.)

Meh, US privilege! (That's a joke BTW.) Seriously though, I wouldn't dream of trying to pay a companion abroad in AUD. Obviously foreign currencies are accepted to a greater or lesser extent in some places and some circumstances, and USD more widely than many other currencies. For what it's worth, the donation I posted to Daddy was in USD not AUD. I had US banknotes from my last trip to the US but would probably have converted money to USD if I had not.

I have said for a long time (in here and elsewhere) that there is an equivalence between prices in AUD, CAD, NZD and USD and to a lesser extend GBP, that means we tend to compare the number rather than convert the currency. Expecting to pull your usual USD rate in Canada or Australia is optimistic.

One thing to consider in whether to use bottled water or tap water (if you can justify the environmental issues with bottled water) is that tap water is often fluoridated and the fluoride it provides is important for dental health. When fluoride was added to town water here, rates of child dental decay fell through the floor.

Lol. No, the ones that still have a label on contain gin, the water bottles have the labels removed.

[Roll], the sausage is a frankfurt, in a roll it's a hot dog, soft drink.

If that's the case then it would most likely be because of chemicals leaching into the water from the bottle. It is most unlikely that a first use would be safe and subsequent use unsafe. These bottles are a great idea to deliver safe water to areas where it is otherwise unavailable but a scourge anywhere else. FWIW, I never buy them but still manage to acquire them (e.g. railways handing them out to passengers having to use a train-replacement bus on a hot day), and I refill them and the occasional soft drink bottle I buy multiple times. I also use Bombay Sapphire bottles for cold water in my fridge.

So sorry to hear your sad news, LatB, my sincere condolences.

Veering further off topic, there are now automated milking machines where the cow goes in when she's ready, stands in the right spot and the machine hooks itself on and milks the cow.

After some trouble with Macquarie Bank that had been reported widely in the media, Virgin Airlines here put up advertising billboards saying, 'Macquarie, what a bunch of bankers', the meaning of which was clear. It's commonplace here, and it's an insult, but not particularly harsh: if your mate did something stupid you'd call him a bit of a wanker. Also, it's a generalised insult for doing something wrong, stupid, pretentious or something like that, never used literally, so it's not a slur as such. I read it as 'watching' a sporting event, not specifically 'at' one, so I assumed watching on TV somewhere. Hearing and discussing the term makes sense in that context, even hearing it and having to ask what was said, not just what was meant. Transatlantic and transpacific conversations about the English language are replete with false friends and unknown idioms.

@bostonman I wasn't challenging what you correctly cited, I was simply using what I said as yet another example of having to come out in most every conversation we have.

I wouldn't buy skinny or slim fit jeans again, I just don't think they are comfortable. I'm also of the view that it's not a good look for 'older' men.

What you describe is not something all that unusual. I know I'm not making any novel pronouncement, but you don't just come out and that's it. You have to come out separately to everyone you know and everyone you meet. Sometimes it will be to a group rather than an individual, but even if you tattoo it onto your forehead it's still a revelation to people you meet. In a public interview, nobody ever says, 'So, you're heterosexual, that's interesting, tell me about that aspect of your life'.

The Chinese government can control where their tourists go, I would be worried that they would 'persuade' tourists not to go to the US. That could hit Vegas hard.

There's a difference between closed system purification and recycling of water and putting purified water back into natural systems, in the latter it's much more diluted. For coastal cities where waste water goes into the ocean the calculation that officials make is different to the calculation on riverine systems. In the former, it is lost to any reuse unless it is captured and recycled, in the latter waste water goes back into the river and is part of the overall supply of water downstream. In the case of Canberra, we are near the top of a river system. Most of our water is sourced from national park areas with no upstream use, although after droughts in the early norties some of it is now drawn from a river that has flowed through settled areas so there is some recycled water in that supply. The whole catchment is managed so the city is limited in how much water it can draw, and processed waste water is counted as a credit when it is returned to the river. It then goes on to be a source of water for downstream cities and agriculture. There, it's not recycled sewage as it's mixed with other water in the river, but everyone downstream is drinking some of our piss.

It grows perfectly well here in Canberra, where we have frequent frosts, but extremely rare snow. We're on a run of -4 and -5 mornings right now. Daytime temperatures are always above freezing so they freeze and thaw on frost days, and that is often more of a problem for plants than consistent below zero © temperatures.

If you live on the lower reaches of a major river, you already are.

Yes, his home is (or was) there, and it's about an hour on the Caltrain from SF. He's five minutes' walk from the station.

Since this thread started about a support peacock ... earlier this year the ACT government talked about a plan to cull feral peafowl in an inner southern suburb of Canberra, but they were in for a surprise. There was a huge public response, over 400 submissions, mostly against culling the birds. They will now be largely left alone, adding a bit of, ... err .... 'colour' to the inner south. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/proposed-peacock-cull-cancelled-after-overwhelming-community-outcry-20180619-p4zmbn.html There is no indication whether either Canberra Airport or Qantas has been asked to comment.

I wondered who that was with Mr Baldwin.

That's one thing that's really easy here, and it's the same system at all the banks. Merchants put a merchant number and an account number on every bill, you go to the bank's site (or log into their phone banking) and enter that detail and the amount into the BPay option. You can use any account to pay or your bank credit card if the merchant allows card payments. Australia Post also has a payment system that uses its own set of merchant and account numbers. You can use that by phone or on-line and you can also take paper bills into any post office where they scan the Post Billpay barcode then you pay over the counter, and they take cheques and credit cards (I'm not sure if you can pay all bills by card). [You can take multiple bills in and pay them in one transaction, with one cheque. The bills are itemised on the receipt.]

It's @TopTierTop's birthday! He sometimes generates mixed feelings here but from what I see he's a good guy. Happy Birthday, hope you have a great day.

I still have cheque books but rarely use them. Using a credit card or bank transfer means that more of the details are in your statement (rather than just 'cheque #15') and I have an unhealthy obsession with the points that I earn from credit card transactions. I am tempted to use cheques when companies have a surcharge for CC transactions even though I have to pay postage to send it in: they charge for using plastic but don't acknowledge that they also bear a [probably greater] cost for banking a paper cheque. All that said, I had to pay the marketing fees for selling a property yesterday and it was over my credit card limit so I used a cheque. The funds have already been deducted from my account.

Interesting! One interpretation is that it's a bit creepy, but another is that he sees your initial approach as half way to hiring him and knowing that you were half way means he is half way to securing you as a client. Thus, contacting you is potentially a higher return use of his time.