HBE4

One of my all time favorite movies, mostly because I fell madly in love with Marisa Tomei. She has a supporting role in a new movie called "Upgraded" and she still has "it"! 🥰

I love some of those old John Wayne westerns. In addition to "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", there is "Fort Apache", "Red River" and "The Searchers" that are some of my favorites, along with "True Grit", his only Oscar winning performance. I just recently watched John Wayne's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" with Jimmy Stewart and "Stage Coach which was his breakout movie that made him a star. I had seen both before. Amazon Prime has a 1954 movie called "The High and the Mighty" in which Wayne plays a co-pilot whose passenger plane develops engine trouble over the Pacific. It's considered the granddaddy of disaster films, 20 years before the "Airport" series of disaster movies as well as "The Towering Inferno", "Poseidon Adventure", etc. and serves as a template for those movies with their all-star casts. Fun Fact: Robert Stack plays a serious role the pilot fighting his own inner demons which he would later lampoon in the "Airplane" satire spoof movies 20 years later.

Link has been bookmarked & saved for a rainy day or sleepless night. The whole premise of Postmodern Jukebox sound very familiar and now I realize I have seen some of their performances when one of my most favorite American Idols to never win Idol "guest performed (??)" on some of their songs. It seems they have a rotating cast of lead singers. Haley Reinhart performing Radio Heads "Creep"

I just turned on the news & saw video of the Iron Dome at work. Impressive. Good news is always welcomed.

One more electric vehicle post? At the NY Auto Show, Dodge* was showing off their not-yet-released 2025 full-sized, electric RAM pickup truck. with an almost 700 mile range (better than most diesel trucks), that can haul 14,000 pounds (that more than most other pickups) and go from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds (faster than most exotic sports cars). The secret to this magic is a V6 gas engine that powers a generator that charges the batteries that provide power to the electric motor. . You can plug it in at night or take it to a charging station and when the batteries run dry, the gas engine will charge the battery. Technically, it's not a hybrid as the gas engine is not connected to the transmission/drive train so it doesn't drive the car, just recharges the batteries. But with a 700 mile range, that should satisfy the most ardent back country, off-road adventurers. It's the best of both worlds. How real world production models perform is yet to be seen & I'm sure it will be outrageously expensive when it first comes out but with time, price may drop??? And of course, it will suffer the usual first year teething problems but it seems like a step in the right direction. * Officially, RAM is it's own brand, no longer under Dodge. But they will always be Dodge to me.

I saw what you did there. Glad you enjoyed the cruise, in spite of all the uncertainly leading up to it.

I did hit the "Like" button on @dani negreanu's post but it's really me just acknowledging her horrible situation. I did hit the "Like" button on your post because I like it and extend my virtual arms into the virtual group hug as well.

Probably when I was growing up, some of my Italian friends used that word fairly often so I just associated with them.

Agreed. And perhaps both technologies can peacefully co-exist. EV's in densely populated areas where range isn't an issue & the car spends more time sitting in traffic jams than it does moving (and where auto-restart engines really shine!) and gasoline engines in sparsely populated areas or when towing power is really needed. Families might have a few of each depending on their needs. I can hear the arguments now. "Honey, can I use the EV, I don't like driving that loud, smelly, car that's leaking oil!" or "Dad, can I borrow your car because I forgot to plug in my EV last night".

I learn something new every day. I've heard the word used in conversation before & was always a bit confused as to context. I thought it was an insult like saying someone is just "meh!" Unexceptional, dull or average at best. Now I know better when someone is using mensch was a way of praise. Other Yiddish words like Chutzpah and Kvetch actually sound like their meanings. 😉 And since I'm looking at a Yiddish online dictionary, never knew Nosh, Klutz and Schmuck were Yiddish words and always thought Putz was Italian. 🙂

I believe people reap what they sow. The fact that you are on the receiving end of so much love and caring tells me a lot about YOU as a person. And I doubt it's because they want to hear the latest dad joke. 😉🙂

Speaking of TV shows, I just finished watching "Midnight Mass", a horror show on Netflix. Great acting and interesting story line although every episode was about 15 minutes too long, Very preachy. Literally. The ending is pretty heavy too so now I'm alternating between "The Gentleman" and "Kleo" for some lighter, more fun topics.

i loved Elsbeth on The Good Wife. I never saw the spin-off show - The Good Fight (?) - but I guess she was a regular on that show? I watch very little cable/network TV these days but I'll definitely check out her new show.

I was at the NY Auto Show last week and every manufacture had their electric cars displayed proudly front and center under bright lights while the older cars were relegated to the dark, back corners. While talking with the many automotive representatives there, they told me the biggest obstacle in selling EV is most people have "range anxiety", that they will get stranded when their car run out of juice. The irony there is that study after study shows that something like 80% of people will typically (key word) refuel their gas-powered car after driving 300-350 miles which is within range of most EV. Again, talking typical range, not maximum range. So their "range anxiety" is really unfounded. The bigger obstacle is charging time. Rapid chargers have reduced empty-to-full charging time from several hours to as little as 30 minutes, which is still substantially longer then the 5 minutes it takes for gas cars. One big benefit to EV's is that you can charge your car at home, which you can't do with a gas-powered car. So there's that. People just will need to get in the habit of plugging in their cars at night, just like they do with the cell phones. And for most driving needs - going to work, school, shopping, etc - that will be just fine. It's the long road trips where you need to fill up 4 or 5 times what it still the big obstacle that the industry needs to work out. All the other "obstacles" being suggested - not enough electricity in the power grid, how to recycle, cars catching fire, etc - are valid concerns that can be fixed just like all the "obstacles" that faced gas-powered cars when they first came out. Not enough gas stations, no paved roads, no traffic lights, no auto mechanics to fix cars , no schools to train auto mechanics, no drive thru McDonalds, no XM radio, etc, etc etc. It just takes time. In 1900, there were 8,000 cars in the US. Yet despite all the obstacles I listed, by 1920, there were 8 million and 25 million by 1930. From 8,000 to 25 million in 30 years. Give EV 30 years to mature. and solve the obstacles. BTW, while I sound like a EV proponent, I'm in no rush to buy an EV and I think it's silly to mandate them by 2035 or even 2055. The technology still needs more time to mature. If the government is going to mandate/encourage, it should be for vehicles that drive a predictable range every day. Commuter buses, school bus's, garbage trucks, mail carriers, delivery trucks etc while the geniuses that invent stuff figure out to to charge a light-weight battery in under 5 minutes giving a car a 500 mile driving range under all extreme weather conditions and never needs to be recycled.

It's ok, we all make mistakes 😉😇

Meeting my accountant tomorrow. Hope I don't end up in the hospital like @Ocean Boy 😄

I watch the entire series too. Loved the first couple of season but the later ones start to get a bit repetitive. It's kind of the same story over and over. Love the 70 & 80's references as well. The science fiction part of the show can get pretty deep but I think you may enjoy it. The final season was due to come out this year but has been pushed back to at least 2025, almost 10 years after the first season. Those young pre-teen kids will be young adults by then.

"The People vs OJ" is a great series about the trial with an all-star cast. It was originally on FX back in 2016 but can now be found on Hulu. Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story) is one of the producers and the series examines how the case evolved from an open-and-shut, no doubt about it guilty verdict to just enough doubt to not convict. Very well done. It shows the case from the perspective of the prosecutors, defense and LAPD, https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/how-to-watch-people-v-oj-simpson-rcna147442

He posted yesterday in the thread about The Atlantic article about a writers first time cruising.

That oh so adorable Bella head tilt!! For some reason, pets always look so much cuter when they tilt their heads.

I thought the same thing at first as well. I thought it was a bit extreme to knock down a house just because you don't like the texture of the ceiling. Maybe they meant knocking down the walls and/or ceiling? I now know that it's a special knife/trowel called a knockdown knife used to create the texture.

Thank you both for posting this here. I had not been over on the FOB thread in a long time & had no idea what was happening.

After reading the article, I still consider it to be satire or as someone else said, dark humor. I found myself chuckling out loud a few times and he very creatively seemed to nail a few topics that are frequent CC subjects. I'm also pretty sure some the people he met might be fellow posters here. LOL. Having said all that, some of his comments about his fellow passengers did have a very sharp edge to them. The author definitely knows his audience. I can see & understand how someone might be offended if they consider this article to be a serious cruise review. I do not. But on the whole, I considered a very enjoyably read. Special shout out to thank @NorthStarStateCruiser for the link so I didn't have to sign-up for the free trial

Thank you both for the question and answer. This whole time I was thinking knocking down the ceiling seems pretty extreme, not to mention messy & labor intensive. I was having a nitwit moment. I blame the earthquake & solar eclipse.

No, the line was strictly for those buying solar eclipse glasses. It was an impulse purchase for me as I had every intention of viewing the eclipse on TV. I was in an Irish pub where I caught the beginning of the women NCAA championship game, the topic of conversation in the place was the eclipse, where to watch it and where to buy glasses. Someone mention B&H and as luck would have it, I'd be walking right past the store on the way to the hockey game. Silly me thought I could just run in & grab a pair. But everything turned out just fine. I had an hour to kill after the Auto Show & before the doors opened at Madison Square Garden & i had some interesting conversation with my fellow line mates so the time passed quickly.