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Post by questa on Jun 17, 2021 6:48:49 GMT
While it is always fascinating to see our resident alpha male hold his coterie of fans in his thrall, "Coterie of fans in his thrall"...surely you jest, Sir Settle down there! our pond is large enough to hold several alphas, and small enough to give small fish illusions of grandeur[quote author=" kerouac2" source="/post/368426/thread" timestamp="1623906833" ]that he is just expounding his personal philosophy and not proposing any solutions to the situation. It all looks very " café du commerce" (the French expression for opiniated bar discussions) to me.[/quote] Isn't that the whole point of bar discussions. Heaven forfend if one actually solved one of the world's troubles. Opiniated discussions either run out of steam, or mine host throws the participants out at 4am Let's keep in mind that police chiefs and sheriffs and judges are elected in the United States, so this would totally preclude neutrality in any case. Can you imagine any of them running on a platform of "I will be totally impartial" when voters want to hear about sending the people they don't like to prison for as long as possible? And we all know how successful, democratic, unbiased, educated, wise, compassionate, multi-racial, gender equal and in it for the good of all people this practice is working out, don't we?
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Post by questa on Jun 17, 2021 1:22:30 GMT
Mark is my go-to person when I want anything explained clearly and with well chosen words. I was living with a family where the Dad was Station Sergeant. A minor protest arose over tree felling. I wanted to attend the "demo" but was told that that would compromise the policeman's neutrality as the neighbourhood saw me as part of the family of the officer. I knew he was on the same side as I was but neither of us could attend let alone have a vote....Democracy?
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Post by questa on Jun 8, 2021 0:48:40 GMT
Back in the days when transporting people and goods was done by horses, the right handed carter sat on the right hand side of his cart so as to be able to seize the whip from its stand readily. This tied in with the custom of alighting and mounting into a carriage from the 'near' side rather than the 'off' or' dismount' side which kept the driver on the other side of the horses from the riff-raff.
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Post by questa on Jun 8, 2021 0:13:55 GMT
I haven;t been in a movie threatre since 1978. Maybe even a little before that. I watched "Babe" (about a pig) while flying to Singapore in the 1990s. Usually don't watch movies. After 'Lawrence' and 'Zulu' everything pales into insignificance.
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Post by questa on Jun 6, 2021 0:08:53 GMT
Movement and gestures are the things that give the tranny "that look"...hard to position him/her but I know you will get it.
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Post by questa on Jun 5, 2021 23:59:18 GMT
Don't be scared, tod. I have been at this level for 12+ years and it is normal slowing down, not dementia. If you think about it, our brains today have to learn so much more than we did when we crawled out of the primeval sludge and started a rapid phase of evolution. Even in our life time the advent of millions of new "things to remember" has jammed up the switchboard and we wonder why we can't remember some small detail years later. Even then it is only the Name of the thing we are grasping for, not the thing itself.
We seem to expect our brains to work at peak efficiency when we are 60+ like they did when we were 25...can you imagine the overload we would have if they really did? So we just concentrate on the necessary stuff and the rest gets put on the fridge with a little post-it note.
The rise in the numbers of people with dementia, in my thinking, only shows how many people would have died before they reached this stage but for modern medicine, nutrition and safety laws.
The phase of slowing down is rather good actually. You have left the "Rat race" and now have "Time to smell the roses." Don't you think those pictures give you a better sense of time than worrying about forgetting a word?
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Post by questa on Jun 4, 2021 22:56:50 GMT
Of course it is the big dementia picture that worries me now. We all get bursts of forgetfulness as the years slip away and it is sorting out what is age and what is actual brain defect that worries most of us. The old joke is a neat definition..."If you forget where you put your glasses - that's age, if you forget that you wear glasses - check for dementia."
I started several years ago just by forgetting Capital Names...streets, businesses, movies, countries and people etc. So far I am still at this stage and I can usually find the word given a minute or 2 of no pressure or prompting. Stress makes it worse. My recent check came back as normal for age and I can recommend ginkgo biloba for smoother recall and better thinking .
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Post by questa on Jun 2, 2021 23:52:05 GMT
I quite like it...looks like a mother hen with her chicks. The buildings at the base are the chicks and the hen has her head looking down at them. The white section is her wing.
Anyone else wanna toke?
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Post by questa on Jun 2, 2021 23:25:37 GMT
An interesting effect. The colours are gorgeous. If you are not too "buzzy" could you post the original so we can see the picture you worked on.
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Post by questa on Jun 2, 2021 9:25:02 GMT
Well, with great trepidation I fronted up for my first jab on Saturday. I was not a happy camper because if anything can go wrong in medical procedures, it goes wrong on me...eg a simple appendix op turns into both lungs collapsing, respiratory collapse turns into a hernia in the diaphragm and I gave them hell over the pure carelessness of the Director of Surgery down to the guy who wheeled the trolley and banged into things...ooh...ouch But I digress. My GP surgery had set up camp in the car park and the citizens were being processed just like the ones on TV. I had the AZ formula and a quick chat with the RN about how things had changed. Many of the RNs were retired hospital-trained women who had come back to work and we had a great time discussing why intramuscular injections are inserted into the deltoid muscle at 90 degrees and not 45 degrees as we were taught...you really had to be there! Drove home and waited for the side effects to occur but nothing happened. Next day I was aware of being perfectly normal...no headaches or any of the possible reactions. I squeezed the area which had been the site of needle entry...Nil, nix, nada. So I apologise to those of you who hoped I had a tale to tell of vast and life threatening side effects. I just hope the 2nd shot is just as terrible.
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Post by questa on Jun 1, 2021 2:30:54 GMT
Just as well we do not have deer here ... except a few farmed for venison. The cutesy bunnies do enough damage and now the 'meece' are taking over.
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Post by questa on May 30, 2021 12:35:36 GMT
Reflectors are on the posts beside the road. You love contradicting people, don't you? Why not find your own story and post that instead of putting down other posters' efforts.
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Post by questa on May 30, 2021 4:39:52 GMT
I wonder if anyone else has a "discovered by accident" story. My pair are naturally motoring stories.
1)Thick fog was swirling around their car as the young couple were trying to get to their friend's house. It was night time and they were crawling along with no street lights. They knew they were on a road that ran along a cliff road so were very apprehensive. Suddenly a cat ran across the road, the car stopped and in the glow from its eyes the couple saw they had lost their bearings and were heading for the cliff. The couple lobbied governments etc and at last had almost 100% of roads studded with Cat's Eyes along the middle of the road.)
2)The Monte Carlo Rally is very tough on drivers and cars. Mid 60s the cars to beat were the Minis. The high-powered driving lights were giving difficulties as the light bounced back from the fog and the drivers were dazzled. At a pit stop one of the Mini drivers grabbed a newspaper and tore pages from it to cover the too bright lights. The newspaper was a French one with yellow pages and they found that the yellow light filtered the fog much better than ordinary clear light. And that is why the fog lights on your car are yellow.
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Grief
May 29, 2021 23:57:35 GMT
Post by questa on May 29, 2021 23:57:35 GMT
Fits beautifully !
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Post by questa on May 29, 2021 23:54:29 GMT
And if you get a puncture are you quiet re-tyring
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Post by questa on May 29, 2021 23:48:07 GMT
SO ?
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Post by questa on May 29, 2021 23:44:27 GMT
My former husband drove an automatic V8 car. We lived on the side of a hill and he would come down the hill over a bridge and up to home about 800m away. No matter what time it was, the old cat would wake up and go to the door to greet him. We tried lots of "tests" and found it was the gear change just before the bridge that set off his behaviour. Once home both cat and driver ignored each other so it must have been the sound of the rev change that gave the reward.
Cat's name was Japhy Ryder, K2
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Post by questa on May 29, 2021 2:27:24 GMT
Mark, you have the makings here for a marvellous book...I know I would read it without putting it down. From when you adopted your children, the hassles with bureaucracy and the ways you and your brilliant wife handled the planning of their lives reads almost like an international thriller.
Maybe when you retire...? Fat chance. You won't retire!
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Post by questa on May 28, 2021 22:43:44 GMT
NO, no, no. You have to rub a small amount of butter on to the furry top of the wrist with a tiny bit between the toes on 4 paws. The science (?) is that the cat will spend more time licking himself clean and associate being in the new house with nice reward of butter. The pads of the paws don't get butter om them.
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Post by questa on May 28, 2021 6:34:02 GMT
The car club I am in has its annual major event in a country town in NSW. We got the official 'good to go' and last tune-ups and fancy dress-ups were getting done when this hit us. To get to the venue we have to cross the Murray River and drive about 14km in Vic territory, then re-cross back into NSW We are prepared and almost ready to go. Just hope that we can travel through Vic.
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Post by questa on May 27, 2021 23:38:24 GMT
Last weekend the 2 top teams in our football competition, SA v Vic, were allowed to play with careful seating arrangements for identifying where the fans sat etc. Thousands of people drove from SA to Melbourne and no-one was really surprised when it was found that one of the fans returned a positive test for comid. The tracking teams got to work and in 2 days they had tracked the contacts to 50,000 people who are having further checks.
The disruption has finally awakened the vaccination avoiding masses to the point where we have long queues with up to 8 hour waiting times. It is cold and raining and nobody is very happy sitting in a car in the wet. The fans get a test as well as the vaccination but it is better than missing the finals in the football.
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Post by questa on May 27, 2021 10:06:22 GMT
Generally speaking, these artists seem to lead long, long lives. I wonder if the creative streak they must have keeps them going past the average age.
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Post by questa on May 27, 2021 2:14:40 GMT
Maybe the jacket worked undercover but it was really a turncoat
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Post by questa on May 27, 2021 2:07:08 GMT
The writer, Aldous Huxley, (Brave New World) Had his house burn down in front of him. He had many old books, works of art and musical instruments as well as his personal papers reduced to ash.
When a reporter saw Huxley just watching the flames, he asked ,"What do you feel, watching your house and its treasures in flames?"
"Clean, very clean". said Huxley
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Post by questa on May 27, 2021 1:40:38 GMT
I was going to post this last night, but fell asleep!
Our usual mouse cycle starts in December, and when the cold nights start after the grain is in the silos, March/April the mice die off. This year started early and is not cold enough yet to kill them. Farmers usually have a few cats to keep the silos clean, but I've heard of cats just lying down with mice running over them. Poor farmer has a bumper crop and it is now contaminated, can it be cleaned? probably sold at low price to processers.
Forget trying to mouse-proof your house, or electricity cables, forget trying to save the wild animals. As they munch their way across the landscape everything gets weird. I was watching an army of them crossing a field and climbing a sloping hill. It looked like the shadow of a cloud passing over, or better...like the birds that do swirling shape-changing co-ordinated flight spectacles.
The news today gave the mouse numbers as Fifty Billion. I think it has peaked. When the food is scarcer the cute li'l fellows eat each other. This is a sign that things are returning to normal, I hope it is soon. I was on a farm in Northern NSW during a plague...when the beasts go, there is still the stench, the shreds of vehicles' upholstery and furniture and the crunch of stepping on piles of droppings.
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Post by questa on May 26, 2021 23:53:27 GMT
Sorry about this but...Vegemite on toast for breakfast, hot and buttery. Vegemite and cucumber sandwiches on French baguette for lunch, cool and crunchy. Vegemite on toast or fresh grain bread with a poached or lightly fried egg or two on top for supper, comfort food in Heaven. Zap the jar in the microwave for about a minute and it heats a bit to make it easier to spread, or spread the Vegemite before the butter, it clings onto the bread better.
Hoi-an in Vietnam, 1994, a cluster of outdoor cafes serving mid-morning foods. Most of the tables had 2-3 people but one was crowded. There, hanging from the umbrellas was a rough sign... "Vegemite on bread" (and the cheap price) I still have that photograph.
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Post by questa on May 26, 2021 4:18:03 GMT
Going back to the "one drop" practice...Early in colonial days the men out numbered women by 10 to one at various times. When the women were released from their prison they soon found husbands, and the churches agreed on the principle that it was better than 'living in sin'. Many marriages were between Aboriginal and European couples and the descriptions of half caste and quarter caste arose.
Aboriginal families belong to clans (not tribes)and the settlers soon became part of their partners group, with the ceremonial rituals and laws. Missionaries swarmed in and did their best to kill off these beliefs. They also kept meticulous records of births deaths and marriages.
Jump forward a couple of generations. Education has started to produce professionals in most fields. There are lots of incentives and "freebies" to make it easier to leave Country. Of course applications came from people who had grown up as White and definitions were needed.
Working with the indigenous groups it comes to this.
1)Their birth certificate had to show which "Country" they were born in and identify with.. 2)Which clan they identified with 3) Do the elders and wise women and most of the clan accept the person as a member of their group.
Doesn't matter if eyes are blue or hair is red, and skin colour can be anything.
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Post by questa on May 26, 2021 0:02:43 GMT
Hi Cheery I wondered how the house was going...it was just a block of land in a possible bushfire path when I last heard. Wish them good luck from me (don't forget to tell the landscaper that the house would appreciate fire-retardant plantings)
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Post by questa on May 25, 2021 23:33:25 GMT
Bloody hell...after all the stress and decision making that you have had to endure then this happens. My thoughts really do go to you and your family with hopes for a calm and expeditious outcome.
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Post by questa on May 25, 2021 1:21:17 GMT
As the snake sheds its skin when it is too small for comfort, maybe you feel the same I'm wrapped in here and I need to break out ...new skin...where? Nothing fancy...like before but only hope is Asian, but that's not approving. Go and look elsewhere Check out alternatives. been there, done that, all old stuff again, not worth it. Do I really want to break out anyway? Too much hassle in endemic times.
If this makes you go "AHA! that's it" there are other details I can add. If not, play with it on a larger stage, not smaller.
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