kochleffel

Annals of Stupidity: a man in Michigan had to attend a court hearing over Zoom about his suspended driving license. When he signed in, everyone could see that he was driving at the time. https://wapo.st/4bVA016 He was ordered to report to jail by 6:00 p.m.

Exactly. Some of the other suggestions are not crazy. For example, spa treatments are wildly overpriced compared to where I live, but if it's a luxury you enjoy and can afford, you shouldn't let some online personage tell you not to. I think that an average cost-conscious passenger would be able to figure that out on their own. I think it was altogether wrong to say that there's free wifi at some bars and shops onboard. However, if your needs are flexible and not too extensive, you might be able to manage with free wifi on shore. I'm currently buying not only onboard wifi, but premium wifi, because of having classes on Zoom. (If you must have wifi on board, for work or school, avoid cabins that are all the way forward or all the way aft, because on some ships they have poor connectivity.)

I need help understanding the itinerary for a Panama Canal cruise that I've booked. It's a one-way cruise from Miami to Fuerte Amador. (Either you fly back from Panama, or you book it B2B with a one-way in the other direction.) The itinerary shows Panama City, Pacific Cruise Terminal, as a port of call for the next-to-last day. The day after that, disembarkation is at Fuerte Amador. Are they the same place, or...? NCL offers no excursions for Panama City on that next-to-last day.

The AMA website says that the Wellness Exam under Medicare is not an annual physical, nor is it a follow-up for existing conditions. Anyone who scheduled a wellness exam by itself would likely be disappointed. It's about prevention and screening for unsuspected problems, and does not require hands-on examination or labs. I don't think that annual physicals as such are even covered under Medicare, although some practices might do the equivalent under cover of a diagnosis. In theory, the wellness exam could take the form of an online questionnaire, except that they don't think we're sufficiently compos mentis to fill one out.

I'm in favor of creativity but there are times when it's not wanted. Are we supposed on water only one flower today? Too many people in my circle have MS. I always made bean salad for my former organization's annual meeting, which revolved around grilled chicken and burgers. I'd skip the drink, because of the pineapple juice. Many Finger Lakes wineries grow pinot gris, so today I'll turn to one, Idol Ridge, that I haven't mentioned before, for its 2021 bottling. "Fruity, creamy, and savory with aromas of peach, pear, lemon zest, & vanilla," $20. I haven't been to College Fjord and it's not in my 2025 itinerary. I'll think after the Panama Canal cruise about whether to keep that booking. I lived in Indiana for some years, but as I was in Bloomington, I'm more familiar with the Little 500 (bicycle race).

Thank you for posting the close-ups! I was curious enough to run a search, and found that there are companies with entire lines of "coastal Christmas ornaments," including sharks, which I think I would rather not have if I were to do that sort of thing.

Lenda @Quartzsite Cruiser, I composed a reply in yesterday's thread and CC locked thread before I finished! I also read about the wellness check on the AMA website, which says that it's mainly to check for recommended screenings and immunizations. The substance of the reply was that I'm willing to be examined by a PA or NP, but I won't accept medication changes that the doctor hasn't approved. About five years ago, the NP in the practice (not the current one) changed my blood-pressure medication in a way that required follow-up labs, but didn't order any, and I didn't know that they would be needed. If I hadn't broken my arm later that year, resulting in labs being done in the hospital, it could eventually have killed me.

This has always been a difficult question for me; it's why I used to have a morning newspaper delivered.

My PCP's office phoned recently to tell me that I was due for a Medicare something-or-other. They've never done this before. Now, the doctor would be embarrassed to ask me those kinds of questions, and the nurse practitioner would think it was hilarious. It's possible that an inexperienced PA might try. Which combination of them I see varies, largely depending on whether there's a medical student in the office that day--if so, the student does all the routine parts. I'm going to ignore the Medicare-whatever visit and book an ordinary follow-up, with blood tests done before it.

I don't think that you would find many "made in Norway" things in a shop selling souvenirs -- they would be too expensive for the souvenir market. Many would be almost too expensive for the luxury market! I was startled by the reference upthread to cheap pottery. I don't buy much at all when traveling, but during a Greek islands cruise I bought a piece on Rhodes, not very expensive but handmade on Rhodes, that copied the form and decoration of classical pottery. I was especially taken by its depicting the death of Achilles, because I had Achilles tendonitis at the time. But when Venice was working up to banning cruise ships, one of the arguments was that cruise passengers didn't eat in restaurants or buy anything authentic products in shops -- just got food from McDonald's, dumped the wrapping into the canals, and bought made-in-China trinkets. That may have been true of many passengers on day calls, but the result was that cruises from Venice shifted to departing from Trieste or Ravenna -- even though passengers embarking and disembarking typically stayed in Venice before, after, or both (would have been both with me, but I changed that booking to one departing from Athens).

I believe that Holland America cruises, however, all use Whittier. This is OK for land tours, not for Kenai Fjords boat tours. I have a 2025 booking on NCL that also disembarks at Whittier, which was a surprise and not a very happy one since the cruise is a catch-up for one in 2020 that would gone to Seward. Then, I had booked a Kenai Fjords tour with Major Marine, and I can't find any practical way to get to Seward from Whittier.

IIRC, Ken Kovach, quoted in the WEWS report, was the choir master even then and was credited in the movie.

I could make the menu suggestion today, with a different mix of vegetables. I'd try the drink, once. I had to look up cachaca; it's sometimes called Brazilian rum but is made from fresh cane juice, not molasses, and has distinct flavors (variable depending on whether and how it's aged). Cabernet Sauvignon really isn't a top grower in the Finger Lakes, but wineries grow a lot of it anyway, because of market familiarity and demand. We might try Barnstormer Winery's 2022. "Cool climate expression of Cabernet Sauvignon. Dark peppery notes, black cherries, leather, and a hint of smoke and vanilla," $30. I slept well last night, which is so rare that it feels abnormal. Did you see the film The Deer Hunter? The church in it, St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland, caught fire last night, apparently in connection with work being done on the copper onion domes. Because the fire at the roof level, the body of the church was saved, but with tremendous water damage. https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/firefighters-battle-church-fire-in-tremont.

There is a thread on the NCL board about that line's having denied boarding to passengers with a guarantee because the entire ship was oversold. NCL does not routinely offer GTY cabins; there is a discounted sail-away category that is offered in regular booking and sells out quickly that is the equivalent, but it's offered while other cabins of the promised type are still available. The prevailing opinion in that thread was that the line should have extended move-over offers to some number of passengers. IIRC, the departure was from a Florida port where there would have been retirees who lived near the port who could easily accept such an offer.

Have you considered getting a little cart, no electricity involved, that could be drawn by a team of hounds? (I actually heard once of someone in Kentucky who liked the idea of dogsledding, got a sled, and had it pulled by eight Walker hounds.)

Brisket is a once-a-year food as far as I'm concerned, for both cost and health reasons. The price of kosher brisket is always sky-high, but I remember how ordinary brisket was a loss leader in OKC before Labor Day, at $1/pound. I don't mind tofu; in fact I have some in the refrigerator, but tofu tacos don't sound all that good to me. I would be afraid to order the drink. How do I know that they don't have a live duck hidden behind the bar? For the wine, we might try Billsboro's 2021 skin-fermented Sauvignon Blanc, $34. "Aromas of baked pear, orange peel, and toasted cashew. The palate is rich yet invigorating, with powerful citrus and floral qualities. Best served like a chilled red wine, from 48-54F." I didn't need a weather forecast this morning to know that it was working up to a thunderstorm, but so far it hasn't live up to the forecast: a lot of wind and a little rain, and now it's sunny. Trash and recycling are usually picked up around 9:00 a.m. but not yet today, probably because of the holiday yesterday, and I wish I had thought to remove the cardboard from the recycling bin.

In general, linking to other threads is allowed. Was the link you posted to a roll call? That ought not to be allowed, because only logged-in users can view roll calls; other topics are open to the public.

Thank you. the course wasn't especially difficult, but it was extremely long and in a field where I had little background or aptitude.

Remember when the wine of the day was a Pinot Blanc from the Mosel and you mentioned the association of the Finger Lakes with Riesling? There is a winery here founded by a man from the Mosel region who chose the site because the climate and soil (shale) were like back home, and so he thought that it would be perfect for making Mosel-style wines.

I finished the Leuven course.

Many of us here have been treated for skin cancer. Young people, however, not only aren't getting the message when it would do them the most good, but are increasingly receiving counter-messages. Two new surveys suggest a troubling trend: Young adults seem to be slacking on sun safety. In an online survey of more than 1,000 people published this month by the American Academy of Dermatology, 28 percent of 18- to 26-year-olds said they didn’t believe suntans caused skin cancer. And 37 percent said they wore sunscreen only when others nagged them about it. In another poll, published this month by Orlando Health Cancer Institute, 14 percent of adults under 35 believed the myth that wearing sunscreen every day is more harmful than direct sun exposure. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/well/live/sunscreen-skin-cancer-gen-z.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vE0.k4wg.9mZPnxVdiKCI&smid=url-share Salmon, smoky chickpeas, and greens are all fine with me, but I'm not sure that I would like them together. Would pass on the drink but if I had some lactose-free ice cream I could certainly pour a liqueur on it. There is still no Tempranillo in the Finger Lakes, so I'm treating this as a wild card and suggesting the Classic Red from Hunt Country Vineyards. "A dry red wine with subtle oak barrel aging and hints of cherries and plums, our Classic Red is a great everyday wine. It’s a wonderful partner to pasta with tomato sauces, pizza, sharp cheeses, and hearty soups and stews," $12.

Cherry tomatoes do well in containers. Many of them do better with caging than staking, because they tend to grow in all directions. One limitation is that tomatoes won't set fruit in very hot weather. If you find that flowers develop but fruiting doesn't follow, cut the plants back to keep them growing so that the new growth can set fruit later on.

A pesto chicken quinoa bowl would be OK with me. I have some not-quite-tricolor quinoa on hand, no chicken or pesto. I'll save the drink for later. For a Chardonnay, maybe the unoaked Doyle Family vineyard 2021 from Fox Run, 91 points from both James Suckling and Wine Enthusiast, $14. If you disliked the California Chardonnays of a few decades ago (oak and more oak, plus heavily charred barrels), this one is for you. I haven't been to the Isle of Man but two women from there joined me and another American for a DIY excursion to the Matisse chapel at Vence, from Cannes, a few years ago. Fortunately, they didn't hear when the other American told a car-rental agent, in French, that they were English. Today I hope to plant some vegetable seeds: last try until the fall for lettuce and peas, first for bush beans, maybe some Swiss chard. Also prepare a raised bed on the north side of the house for heuchera and carex, joining dicentra that is in flower. Mona Lisa didn't wake me at 4:00 a.m. but I was still up too early.

My most recent cruises have been on Holland America and Royal Caribbean. It seemed to me that Holland America's main-course portions were smaller than before, although adequate. RCI's portions weren't smaller, but the preparations were less complicated. A couple on the Holland America cruise last year did that, and asked that it be served along with the other mains. I've never ordered all the appetizers, but I sometimes order two, such as a fish starter and a salad. I always ask for them to be served together.

I'm always trying to get closer to plastic-free, but not succeeding. When I was in graduate school in Boston, I had a part-time teaching job in the outer suburbs. The building was next to a Dunkin Donuts and the other teachers all stopped there to buy coffee on the way in. I brought coffee from home in a Thermos® that had belonged to my father. Another brown-bag story: my great-uncle started life as a dry-goods peddler with a pack on his back, but came to own a large, fashionable clothing store that occupied a three-story building downtown, plus suburban branches. Before labor laws forced him to put in a staff lunchroom, saleswomen ate their lunches in the fitting rooms. When he discovered this, he cried out, "You are inwiting mice into mine store!" I would be fine with the menu suggestion if I had any of the ingredients beyond tomatoes and olives. I'd also appreciate a Manhattan. BTW, rye whiskey was the preferred liquor in the Northeast before Prohibition, but many of rye distilleries, most of which were in Pennsylvania, never reopened, and Bourbon and Canadian whiskey became the replacements. It's more available today but mostly distilled in Kentucky. For the wine, Ravines 2022. "Delicate layers of lemongrass, papaya, clementine and floral notes establish this wine that is balanced by the trademark acidity and minerality on the palate. A juicy and refreshing lift include a lingering citrus finish and invite another sip. A wonderful expression of Finger Lakes Sauvignon Blanc that's 100% estate fruit from our 'home farm' White Springs Vineyard," $22.95. Mona Lisa was inspired to explore my bedside table at 4:00 a.m., tickling my face with her tail as she did so. I had breakfast at 5:00 and went back to bed.