mike carey

At 211cm and 115kg, throwing him out of bed might well be a challenge. Leaving that to one side, when I saw this a couple of days ago I was more impressed with this 'coming out' and the context of him seeing athletes being an example to others, than I was with Josh Cavallo's, but they get to choose how they do it, I don't. While it should not be news, it still is, and to some extent needs to be as long there's an element of 'you can't be what you can't see'. It's easy for me to say I don't need the example, as it is for most of us here but there are still people for whom 'not looking like the predominant group' in any field of endeavour can make them think that they have no hope of going there. As with Josh, I had not heard of Isaac before, but then I'm not a follower of the NBL so there was no reason that I would have been aware of him. I doubt I will watch any more basketball than I did before.

I don't know about that.

I confess to being boring, I've never tried underwear on in a shop, much less taken anyone underwear shopping. Of late, in addition to the chain store boxers and briefs, I have ordered underwear on line from Mosmann, an Australian company. I've found their close fitting boxer style made from bamboo very comfortable.

Couldn't agree more. But I will add that, as one poster already said, and was suggested when it was discussed on TV here, the company could have had better publicity if they had made a donation of €1,000 to a charity of his choice.

A serious problem for the experts to resolve, but not one for the rest of us to worry about. It affects arcane technology but not our quotidian existence.

Unless things have changed since my last visit in 2019, the immigration stamp in your passport has the date you are authorised to stay in the US. Not clever to ignore that date. When you check in for your flight home, your information is passed to the immigration authorities, as you said, even if you have a domestic flight to your overseas gateway. Conversely, when I flew on QF12 from New York to Los Angeles and had a stopover there rather than continue on QF12 to Sydney, my NYC check-in isn't reported to them.

This will test your definition of 'cute' ...

So, apparently the October Revolution wasn't sufficiently noteworthy?

One of my paternal great-grandmothers died when I was about one, but otherwise I only knew two grandparents. My maternal grandfather died when my mother was eight.

I'm glad I wasn't drinking coffee when I read this.https://twitter.com/Nicolsonraea/status/1589427100561592320?s=20&t=jbcdx3Iiei2p4rZvMVhbjg

That when an RM ad is frozen it doesn't appear in an RM search.

I had this issue a couple of days ago (perhaps coincidentally after I'd shut down and relaunched my browser) but it resolved a few hours later without my having closed the browser in the interim. Content wouldn't load to the unread content view either via the button or the drop-down menu, but the content showed in bold in the forum views. (It works for me now.)

They certainly have weight restrictions and even with them some JFK-AKL flights have planned a refuelling stop in Nadi (even pre-positioning a relief crew) and rebooked passengers with onward connections onto later flights. As far as I know, so far they've been able to recalculate en route and miss the diversion. Fares between the US and the South Pacific are generally eye-watering at the moment. Qantas has since announced SYD-JFK flights via AKL so ANZ will have competition on the route. This won't be QF's longest flight, that's Perth to LHR, and I haven't seen reports of that being weight restricted. QF and ANZ are/will be using B787-9 on these routes but they may have different configurations that explain weight/distance performance. Of course wind conditions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans also differ.

Not strictly a funny, but still a bit of a laugh:

I think I'll need to seek @BenjaminNicholas's advice on what to see in NY.

'Semi-famous' sounds to me to be a claim that a you-tuber can make based on their own assessment. Whether anyone in this forum has heard of them is not likely to be relevant. @JoeWinkoReturns can claim that status without fear of any informed contradiction from the narrow slice of opinion here. I hadn't heard of him before he joined the forum, but there's a lot I know nothing about. More power to him!

I had been unaware of this phenomenon but talking to a relative last Christmas they mentioned that having talked to a mental health professional they were alert to what that meant, and worse had found that their partner 'had a plan'. That prompted them to radically reassess their life priorities to concentrate on their partner and their life together. That was how shocking it had been to my relative. Asking your friends or family 'RUOK?' is one thing, but finding someone 'has a plan' whether it is one's own plan or a loved one's should be a red flag. I would never have thought that it was a significant indicator, much as you did not. Most of us are aware of things that are critical indicators of physical disease, knowing this is such a significant mental health indicator is a potential life saver. (This is not medical advice, people need to consult a professional for that.)

It varies in different countries. 'Paid time off' is often used for various workplace entitlements like the ones KeepItReal listed that are available at short notice, but not including annual leave. In Australia there are statutory requirements for four weeks of annual leave for permanent employees and any PTO is in addition to this (some types of PTO are required by statute, some are not). I have always interpreted 'vacation' as being what we would call going on holidays, that is time away from home not just away from work.

I balance the cash rewards against the value of points, and it's not simple to do that. I make my own decisions, some are rational some are not. I have heaps of points in several programs, and these things affect what I do. I'll earn points from all sorts of things and I'll chase them!

On Wednesday afternoon, England (the original cricket superpower [except that Australia won the earliest test matches, but I digress]) played Ireland in Melbourne. It rained, the match was delayed but Ireland batted through their innings and England most of theirs. Then it rained again and the match was abandoned. Ireland had had the better of the English, and England was behind where they needed to be in the run chase. The calculations, and how it happened matter not, the records will hold that Ireland had beaten England! The men in green on the field and their countrymen and women in the stadium, and their supporters could rejoice, and they did. A famous victory!

Those comments that creep up on you:

Oliver, this is terrible news. My heartfelt condolences to you and everyone he was closest to. He was such a good friend to you but also a friend to all of us and an institution in the forum. I'm so happy that he was able to undertake his recent trip to the UK, and to continue to be able to enjoy life to the fullest, still planning his 'dinners and fun' with his chosen companions. His passing will cast a pall over next April's meeting but by then I hope we will have had time to grieve and to then make the gathering a celebration of his life. Vale. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Although probably largely unnoticed in North (or indeed South) America (except the Caribbean) what is arguably the biggest global sporting event of the year [Edited to add 'so far', as the FIFA one is a little bigger - hat tip to @KeepItReal] is under way in Australia. It started a week ago with a final round of qualification matches for four teams to join the eight teams that had qualified automatically for the main tournament. This weekend saw the opening games and among the fixtures, the draw had pitched local rivals against each other, including Australia and New Zealand (we wuz thrashed) and South Africa and Zimbabwe, but there was one monumental clash that had a knife-edge finish. Tickets for the game went on sale about six months ago and the 100K seat stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, sold out in five minutes. This was for the third of the games between local rivals, India and Pakistan. (As it turned out, only 90K spectators turned up.) A cricket journalist was on a 6am flight to Melbourne and as the plane taxied to the gate the captain did the usual welcome to Melbourne and thank you for choosing us announcement and finished by saying, 'Enjoy the cricket' upon which the passengers erupted into competing chants of 'Bhaarat jeetaga' (India will win) and 'Pakistan zindabad' (sort of equivalent to Viva Pakistan). Allegiances in the crowd appeared to be about even (few neutral spectators) and even on TV the atmosphere was electric. Each team at times appeared to have thrown the game away, but half-way through the Indian innings their run chase was insurmountable. But it wasn't. India was within reach of a still difficult victory with a few balls to go and Pakistan made some, what could be called rookie mistakes, but that's unfair, pressure forces errors, and India needed one run from the final ball of the innings. And score it they did.

My savings and transaction accounts are paying 3.2% now, haven't looked at term deposits. (I realise that I'm talking about Australia not the US.)

My recollection of this didn't include the first P you quote but did include one your version omits. Before 'Poor'.