samhexum

Right person, wrong spelling. Beane is the A's executive known for Moneyball. Billy Bean is the one who died.

excellent.wav FamilyInsanity.wav Kitty's being a dildo.wav Lili Von Shtupp.wav toodle-oo.wav

DEAR ABBY: I met a man from another country through the internet last year. In the beginning, we talked every day via video chat. We share much in common. We never have a problem keeping our conversations going, and we pick up on each other’s emotions and needs without even trying. Our communication is less frequent now that our relationship is maturing. With this newfound freedom from the phone, I’m starting to question how wise it is to continue pursuing a future together. Although we have never met in person, I feel he is trustworthy and absolutely wonderful, and I would even go so far as to say he’s my soulmate. The questions that are always in the back of my mind, though, are: Am I crazy for thinking this is the real deal? Is it too good to be true? And if I don’t pursue this further, am I missing my only opportunity for a lasting love? — MATCHED IN MICHIGAN DEAR MATCHED: This is not your “only” opportunity for lasting love. Whether this is the real deal or too good to be true remains to be seen. Because you found this match online, you need to be cautious. If it’s possible, arrange to visit him in his country, which will give you the opportunity to meet his family and friends and observe his living situation. If he is genuine, he should welcome it. If he is hesitant, however, regard it as a significant red flag. BE KIDNAPPED & SOLD INTO WHITE SLAVERY. THAT WOULD GIVE YOU PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITIES TO FIND LOVE.

Somebody said "Gesundheit"?

Toco the human Collie has a ‘dog’ best friend: an Alaskan Malamute Dear God, now there's two of them! I breastfed my friend’s twins for almost a year — here’s why Because you're a freak?

First-ever public animal shelter opens in Queens with 50,000 square feet of space — after dogged 24-year saga

Efron hit bottom of pool, ingested water in incident that led to hospitalization Zac Efron dove a little too deep while vacationing in Ibiza, according to a new report.

I just want to be clear that you are NOT going to think you wandered into your favorite bakery and got their world-famous devil's food cake. You're getting something sugar-free with decent taste and texture from a box with little muss or fuss.

I have a Proctor Silex Easy Bake Oven that thinks it's a toaster oven that I bought in a supermarket for $19.99 a few days before Thanksgiving 6 or 7 years ago because the fancy one my sister had given me had died after 2 or 3 years. The timer is only 15 minutes, and you can just close the door if you're using a pie tin. It also makes a mean Shake 'n Bake chicken wing or four.

Was it more aware of social injustices and inequalities with Windows 10?

Greenery practically erupts from the sidewalks and stoops of Deborah Young’s corner of Bed-Stuy, particularly amid the Victorian-style homes lining Stuyvesant Avenue, where the sidewalks are lined with flowerpots and well-tended treebeds overflowing with flora. “Bed-Stuy has always been a green community,” said Young, longtime owner of the beloved neighborhood nursery and garden center Seasons, located at 358 Stuyvesant Ave. – the go-to place for residents looking to further their green exploits and one-up their neighbors. “Always,” she added for emphasis. But it now looks increasingly clear that the neighborhood will have to carry on its green tradition without Young’s critical hand. Young, 64, who was born in and still resides in Bed-Stuy, said the Baptist church landlord of the Seasons property has told her it intends to sell the lot, at a price beyond her reach. Young says she expects to close by year’s end. “I’ve done a lot,” Young said, reflecting on her long service in the community, which is teeming with winners of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's "Greenest Block in Brooklyn" award — especially along Stuyvesant Avenue. “I raised five boys and three husbands here.” Officials with Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, which Young says is not the villain in this transition, did not respond to requests for comment, but neighborhood residents said the departure of Seasons would mark another sign of change in a community affected by rising home prices and rents, gentrification, and new construction, which have sometimes left longtime residents and business owners with few options to remain. Young said she never formally studied horticulture, but picked it up from her father, who was a rose enthusiast. Her parents arrived from North Carolina during the Great Migration, when Black southerners began relocating to the North and Midwest in great numbers, starting in the early 1900s. “Everybody Black down there pretty much was agricultural. When my mom got here, she's like, ‘I'm done (with agriculture),’” Young said, laughing. However, under her father’s tutelage, Young planted her first seed — a morning glory — at the age of 3. “And that plant is still growing,” she said. Back then, Young said, Bed-Stuy had a vibrant neighborhood culture that embraced the beauty of nature, and community gardens brimming with kale, collard and turnip greens, and cabbages, even amid “all the negative press in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” mainly about crime in the neighborhood. On a recent afternoon, G. Giraldo, who lives nearby, sat with Young in front of the nursery as the owner tended to her customers’ plants. “It's one thing to go to Home Depot, which is a terrible place to go,” Giraldo said. “It is a black hole of everything. Or you come to your neighbor and you buy from your neighbor.” Nearby, the manager of her business, Stephen Sunderland, watered peperomia plants and touch-me-nots. “When she sits out on that street corner, it's like the Queen of England holding court,” Sunderland said. “She knows your grandchildren. She knows you got married. She knows where you live.” Customer Eric Smith, 70, stopped by to pick up a spider plant, which Young had freshly repotted. “Plants keep you alive and I like to keep my plants alive,” Smith said, adding, “and I’m talking to them now, too.” Smith, another lifelong neighborhood resident, said he hadn’t heard the news about Seasons’ ill fortune. “We’re gonna miss it,” he said. Even as she confronts the end of her business, Young takes pains to avoid painting the property owner as the villain in her story. She said the church had offered her first right of refusal on the property, and at a substantial discount, though still at a cost beyond her reach. And she said the landlord had been “patient” during a stretch when she fell behind on the rent. “They hung in there with me,” she said. “They gave me this opportunity and I appreciate it.” Young said she was now considering leaving the neighborhood altogether and moving in with one of her sons in New Jersey. She didn’t relish the idea but said her options were running out. She’d been scouring available properties in the neighborhood and found the rents, in the range of $7,000 a month, to be “ridiculous.” “I would have to sell plants and heroin,” she joked. “Maybe put a pole up and have ‘Seasons After Dark’ and put Stephen (the manager) out there in a thong and a pair of pumps.” Her manager didn’t flinch. “This is probably the most fun business I've ever worked at,” Sunderland said. “Everybody who walks out of here, walks out of here with a smile on their face.” He said he hadn’t seriously considered life after Seasons, and said its loss would have a profound effect on the neighborhood. “This is the village green for this area,” Sunderland said. “And when this goes, the village green will disappear.” Stuyvesant Avenue abounds with "Greenest Block in Brooklyn" award winners.

They've softened her up just enough so that she doesn't bother me much anymore and occasionally amuses me. I enjoy the show a lot, although I find that whenever I am backed up in my television watching, it is the last one that I catch up on. For example, I still have the last five episodes of the season to watch and I have finished everything else that I watch. And yet, whenever I inevitably catch up, I have enjoyed all the episodes I've watched, so I don't know what causes my delaying.

What has that got to do with the price of rice in china? jingle_dogs.wav tradition.wav

must you always hope for the worst?

Abbott is going to have a crossover episode with another show this season, but they haven't announced which one. I am thinking that Grey's Anatomy would be the most natural fit.

Confucius or fortune cookie?

I'm sure more than a few members here would beg to differ. (oh, please! please let me differ!)

entered the 9th w/ 108 pitches, got a 4 pitch K, then 2 one-pitch outs.

I stopped by to see of any mention of Blake Snell, who'd never completed 8 innings in a game, throwing only the 2nd no-hitter thrown by a current or former San Diego Padre this year.

Big Apple bargain Huge Midtown office building sells at auction for a 97% discount after receiving just 1 bid The half-block behemoth at 135 W. 50th St., which sold for $332 million in 2006, garnered just $8.5 million at auction this week.

Live 2-foot eel chews through man’s intestines after he put it up his anus

Birthday Time (over the hill).wav happy birthday.wav

Big duck energy! World’s largest rubber ducky lands in New York this week The world’s largest rubber ducky — a six-story tall inflatable social media darling — is waddling her way to New York this week.