Hijack This Thread

#5651

Good choice!!

#5652

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Fri Jun 16, 2023 12:12 pm My grand baby girl has grown up. She's heading downtown for the Taylor Swift concert.

Really? So they got all that clusterflunk on the failed presales promo straightened out/? Tell me how much the tickets cost over/above the face value? Ticketmaster, I hate you!

#5653

I have no idea what happened to that mess called Ticket Master. I also hate them.

You can't get into the concert without a Ticket Master app on your phone, and every venue within the stadium is cashless. My granddaughter is going with four friends and at least one adult. I guess the adult will have to spring for anything the girls want or need.

We're going out tomorrow with the family. I'll get the dish on it then. We're going to a vegan restaurant that was listed as one of the top 50 restaurants in the country last year. And it's Polish. Who knew there were Polish vegans?

I've looked at the menu, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Flatpoint High · #5654

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Fri Jun 16, 2023 5:14 pm I have no idea what happened to that mess called Ticket Master. I also hate them.

You can't get into the concert without a Ticket Master app on your phone, and every venue within the stadium is cashless. My granddaughter is going with four friends and at least one adult. I guess the adult will have to spring for anything the girls want or need.

We're going out tomorrow with the family. I'll get the dish on it then. We're going to a vegan restaurant that was listed as one of the top 50 restaurants in the country last year. And it's Polish. Who knew there were Polish vegans? I've looked at the menu, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

There is a reason it's called "TICKETMONSTER"

Volkonski · #5655

Happy Father's Day!

Thanks to our new grandson our younger SIL will celebrate his first Father's Day as a father today.

#5656

Happy Father's Day to all!

#5657

I'm enjoying Doctor Who's ***** digs.

Twelfth Doctor: Like sewage, smart phones, and Donald Trump, some things are just inevitable.

#5658

#5659

I was in Seattle last week for my sister-in-law's memorial service, flying home Friday. My flight was at 1:47pm, so I planned on getting to the airport by about 11:30am. I hadn't realized, when I made my reservations, that this was a holiday weekend. The airport was busy!

HOWEVER...

I made it from being dropped off through TSA in about 20 minutes! I'm still amazed.

I had printed my boarding pass the night before. I went to the Delta area to print my luggage tag - no lines there - and a wonderful woman hovered, asking if she could help. I accepted her help to put the long luggage tag on my suitcase. She then pointed me to the luggage check-in area. As I neared it, a kind Delta employee offered to help me. He opened a new luggage check-in line for me (I was flying first class, also a Delta SkyMiles user). After he checked my luggage, I asked where TSA Checkpoint 2 was. He said "I'll show you the way." He closed his line and escorted me to TSA Checkpoint 2 where I had used TSA's SpotSaver to reserve a spot. There was no one in line there. The TSA agent confirmed my reservation and let me through a No Not Enter door which put me at the FRONT of the TSA line. The TSA scanning machine alerted for my Apple watch, but a visual inspection solved that. I was in!

By the way - VERY IMPORTANT if you are flying out of -

Denver (DEN)
Orlando (MCO)
Los Angeles (LAX)
Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP)
New York City (JFK)
Newark (EWR)
Phoenix (PHX)
Seattle (SEA)

You can reserve a TSA time! It will put you at the front of the line. MSP was just added. Two articles which talk about this - How to Skip Security Lines at the Airport Without Paying and MSP Reserve? SEA Spot Saver? A Free Security Reservation System is Expanding.

Edited to add - check the articles and airports for details. MSP is just trying it and it's only at Terminal 2, the smaller of our airports.

Maybenaut · #5660

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 4:30 pm I was in Seattle last week for my sister-in-law's memorial service, flying home Friday. My flight was at 1:47pm, so I planned on getting to the airport by about 11:30am. I hadn't realized, when I made my reservations, that this was a holiday weekend. The airport was busy!

HOWEVER...

I made it from being dropped off through TSA in about 20 minutes! I'm still amazed.

I had printed my boarding pass the night before. I went to the Delta area to print my luggage tag - no lines there - and a wonderful woman hovered, asking if she could help. I accepted her help to put the long luggage tag on my suitcase. She then pointed me to the luggage check-in area. As I neared it, a kind Delta employee offered to help me. He opened a new luggage check-in line for me (I was flying first class, also a Delta SkyMiles user). After he checked my luggage, I asked where TSA Checkpoint 2 was. He said "I'll show you the way." He closed his line and escorted me to TSA Checkpoint 2 where I had used TSA's SpotSaver to reserve a spot. There was no one in line there. The TSA agent confirmed my reservation and let me through a No Not Enter door which put me at the FRONT of the TSA line. The TSA scanning machine alerted for my Apple watch, but a visual inspection solved that. I was in!

By the way - VERY IMPORTANT if you are flying out of -

Denver (DEN)
Orlando (MCO)
Los Angeles (LAX)
Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP)
New York City (JFK)
Newark (EWR)
Phoenix (PHX)
Seattle (SEA)

You can reserve a TSA time! It will put you at the front of the line. MSP was just added. Two articles which talk about this - How to Skip Security Lines at the Airport Without Paying and MSP Reserve? SEA Spot Saver? A Free Security Reservation System is Expanding.

Edited to add - check the articles and airports for details. MSP is just trying it and it's only at Terminal 2, the smaller of our airports.

The longest time I ever spent in line at any airport was Seattle. 2.5 Hours.

#5661

Bill -

Sam the Centipede · #5662

Fogfolk like a bit of sentimentality, mystery, history, etc.

I thought some might be interested in this engrossing piece in The Guardian which I stumbled on: The mystery of the Holocaust survivor and the Dukes cricket ball.

Don't worry, it's not about cricket, it's barely even about cricket balls, it's about a mystery. In a match, a cricket ball is used for many deliveries (pitches), up to about 480 I think (the article mentions 80 overs, and an over is a set of 6 deliveries, so that's 480). With each delivery the ball bounces on the ground, and on a significant fraction strikes or is struck by a heavy bat. So the ball gets a battering, and wear of the leather cover is important for how much the ball deviates from a straight line to bamboozle the batter. So the ball is more of a factor than in, say, baseball (a distant relative of cricket, both descended I believe from 18th century bat-and-ball games, such as "stool ball", which Jane Austen played).

The article talks about how a Holocaust survivor's expertise is an unexpectedly important factor in the production of the balls now used in international and top level matches in England.

Flatpoint High · #5663

The Orcas are partying@@@
https://clickhole.com/they-are-far-more ... earch-sug/

According to a paper published this week by marine biologists at the University of Oregon, orcas are able to not only acknowledge one another’s birthdays, but also block off the nearest Friday-through-Sunday for celebrations, fully understanding that they will be obligated to shower the birthday whale in attention for the entire weekend or else risk hurting their feelings.

“These animals have a keen understanding of the need to feel special on one’s birthday, and they dutifully go out of their way to celebrate fellow pod members’ birthdays for whole entire weekends, even though it’s kind of a big hassle and many of the orcas would much rather spend their Saturdays and Sundays on their own unwinding from the long week,” wrote lead researcher Leon Meyer, adding that there’s an implicit expectation among pod members to lavish birthday whales with celebratory fin bumps, extra seal meat, and gifts of shiny bits of litter for pretty much half of their birthday week. “We’ve long known orcas to be incredibly intelligent and social creatures, but not to the degree that they would know how to guilt their friends and loved ones into giving them gifts of kelp on their birthday, and then more kelp on the day after, and even more kelp on the following day, ultimately wringing three days of love and adulation out of what by all means should’ve just been a half-hour shindig on their actual birthday.”

#5664

Yeah, orcas are cute until one murders Dawn Brancheau. They don't come around here, I'd pop 'em one.

#5665

IIRC, the other name for orcas is killer whales.

#5666

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/06 ... 687255459/

June 20 (UPI) -- The aging sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg -- the infamous American couple executed for spying 70 years ago this week -- are demanding the U.S. government release all records related to the case in an effort to prove their mother's innocence. In an online statement published on Tuesday's anniversary, Michael and Robert Meeropol -- now ages 80 and 76 -- called on National Intelligence Director Avril Haines to publicize thousands of documents held at the National Archives and National Security Agency.

Last year, the brothers filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the NSA to release as many as 200 boxes containing more than 500,000 classified papers about their parents' actions before they were put to death on June 20, 1953. "We would like to know the full truth about our mother's case before we die," the brothers said in a statement. "On the 70th anniversary of our parents' execution, we call on Haines to follow her own wise counsel and direct the NSA and the National Archives to open these files to us and to every American."

The Rosenbergs were in their 30s when they were sent to the electric chair at New York's Sing Sing Prison following their convictions on federal charges of conspiracy to commit espionage."Plain, deliberate, contemplated murder is dwarfed in magnitude by comparison with the crime you have committed," Judge Irving Kaufman said in sentencing them to death on April 5, 1951. "Millions ... may pay the price of your treason," he said.

The true depth of their involvement in the Soviet spy ring, however, was a secret that went to the grave as the Rosenbergs refused to cooperate with the government to save themselves, remaining closemouthed in a final act of defiance. The Rosenberg's children, meanwhile, were orphaned at 10 and 6, and as they grew older began to have serious doubts about their mother's exact role in the crime, while acknowledging they have questioned and re-examined their own theories through the years.

#5667

Without asking for them, I'm getting the "Washington Free Beacon" ("But Hunter Biden!") and the "Babylon Bee" ('nuff said). No double opt-in, or even opt in. Just appeared. Straight to junk.

Dave from down under · #5668

https://au.yahoo.com/news/bull-shark-pu ... 18143.html

RTH10260 · #5669

I remember this curious restriction had been mentioned over the times

Oregon’s self-serve gas ban voted out by lawmakers after decades

Updated: Jun. 23, 2023, 8:54 a.m.|Published: Jun. 21, 2023, 2:59 p.m.
By Elliot Njus | The Oregonian/OregonLiveJayati Ramakrishnan | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oregon lawmakers on Wednesday voted to end a prohibition on self-serve gas that’s been in place since 1951.

House Bill 2426 would require gas stations to staff at least half of their open pumps for people who want assistance. But it would allow other pumps to be open for self-service.

Stations are prohibited from charging different prices at self-serve and attended pumps.

The bill passed the Senate 16-9. While the bill had bipartisan support, each no vote came from a Democrat, while four Republicans and the Senate’s lone Independent Party member did not vote.

https://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/20 ... g-ban.html

#5670

I remember how surprised we were the first time we went to put gas in a rental car in Oregon years ago.

#5671

Me too. They weren’t nice about it either. Stoopid tourists.

Shizzle Popped · #5672

I got yelled at by the guy at the service station when I started to fill my own tank on our first trip to Oregon. I had no idea there were states where you couldn't pump your own gas.

sugar magnolia · #5673

My mom fell and broke her hip yesterday and the Idiot Sister has already pissed off most of the family. Not looking forward to the next few days/weeks of dealing with her, either. It's just unnecessary stress added on top of worrying about my mother and dealing with the insurance claims for the downed trees, ruined fence and holes in the roof. I' already 3 days behind on my sleep and it's not getting better.

#5674

I hope your mom does well. That's tough.

Volkonski · #5675

sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Sun Jun 25, 2023 8:15 pm My mom fell and broke her hip yesterday and the Idiot Sister has already pissed off most of the family. Not looking forward to the next few days/weeks of dealing with her, either. It's just unnecessary stress added on top of worrying about my mother and dealing with the insurance claims for the downed trees, ruined fence and holes in the roof. I' already 3 days behind on my sleep and it's not getting better.

Wow, much trouble all at once.