Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438

You can direct Amazon to donate to the NRA based upon how much you buy. My latest report: "This is your quarterly AmazonSmile donation notification. Your charity, NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund, recently received a quarterly donation of $5,736.18 thanks to customers shopping at smile.amazon.com.To date, AmazonSmile has donated a total of: $85,569.51 to NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund $144,958,582.84 to all charities Thank you for supporting NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund by shopping at smile.amazon.com. You can track your impact throughout the year at your My Impact page. I get a chuckle everytime I see this - my own type of Social Justice. LL

1860 Henry 159 years....and still being used competitively...well, sort of. LL

My Dad was a big Brylcreem user back in the '60s. He also traveled a lot for work. In the early morning darkness of an Iowa motel room, he once brushed his teeth with what he thought was a tube of toothpaste....just a little dab will do ya! Yuck! LL

Well, I didn't know we were going to get into citations and footnotes... https://www.dictionary.com/browse/anon Reading the OP again, it seems that SD has it right. LL

I think you are thinking of "anon"; an antiquated word for "presently" or "for the moment". Too many years reading English poetry, where antiquated words and usages reign supreme. LL

Had a partner who represented a meat wholesaler who sold non-USDA compliant meat to foreign countries. Some of the descriptions of contaminated products in his cases were absolutely disgusting. I don't eat beef or pork when I travel to the Caribbean. LL

Well, you can't rely on just one image....

No, but it might provide an audible indicator of your level of excitement.... LL

Cute superstition...but I tend to think that a rider hurtling down the Interstate at 60-70 mph on a totally exposed vehicle probably has more to be concerned with than gremlins at ground level. The part about riding bikes that always bothered me was how much you had to rely on the good sense of the other drivers on the road....an iffy proposition, at best. LL

Marshal: I hope you put a bunch of pennies in that box. My MIL used to insist that a friendship was severed by a gift of a knife, unless a penny was included; others believe that pennies must be given in exchange for the knives. Maybe that's your answer - a roll of pennies. If I were you, I'd be asking for some of her culinary masterpeices in exchange. LL

It must be a terrible thing to not know what or who you are; no matter the source of the dilemma, I feel bad for such folks. LL

Now they are a randomly generated series of 8 digits, preceded by a letter. Now that folks want to steal and wrongfully use your SS number. LL

Oh, but to live in a free state..... No auto openers, assisted openers or switchblades; No butterfly knives; No stillettos, dirks or double edged blades. Sooner or later, we'll all be carrying rounded tip scissors..... LL

There are worse things than a fire resulting from broken gas lines......

Social changes forced me to stop carrying a knife to work. Every courthouse, and some office buildings, now have metal detectors and/or wands in use. Knives are forbidden in most public buildings, or must be surrendered upon entry and picked up on departure. Airlines....well, we all know what happens when you show up at check-in with a blade. It's become too much of a burden. LL

Well, I'm hoping that THIS post is a " tongue-in-cheek, farcical, self effacing and friendly rib elbowing". It is illegal in my state to text while driving; I believe that it is in some other jurisdictions as well. Even if it is not, I can't think of a better definition of "distracted drivers" than the mindless fools I see driving down a multi-lane highway with their eyes focused on their hand-held devices, trying to use their thumbs to reply to those urgent grocery texts. Get a voice activated device, or pull over - all of our lives depend upon it.

I had a lot of friends at DEC. Many described similar scenarios. LL

De nada... LL

If you're dead, what do you care? LL

THE Goat

Sounds like we are all suffering from the same health problem - extended aging in place. If you live long enough, it's almost inevitable that the job you once loved will become unbearable. It's the cycle of life. I started out to be an engineer, but took a detour into the practice of law. For about 30 years, I handled primarily products liability cases, investigating and trying cases involving equipment failures, explosions, fires, electrical events, chemical events, etc. People died in these cases, or were horribly injured; some involved massive losses of property or profits. The folks I worked with - insurers, manufacturers, engineers, consulting experts, police, fire investigators, doctors and others - took their work very seriously; for us, it was much more than just money. We wanted to get it right, which usually meant an extreme effort involving forensic investigation, scientific experimentation, interrogation and cross-examination of witnesses, and intensive critical thinking and analysis. There was no room for short-cuts, untested assumptions or sloppy logic. The process was demanding and expensive. For the first 15-20 years or so, I was in heaven. Great clients, full technical support, close working relationships with the client's engineers and safety people, unquestioning dedication to finding the answers and trying the cases. Starting in the late 1990's, we began to notice a shift. Our traditional manufacturing clients, more and more, were being run by bean counters, not engineers. The emphasis changed from defending the integrity of the product (and the people behind the product) to minimizing legal expenses. Companies that had traditionally been self-insured, and so in total control of their defenses, were now buying insurance, and turning over the claims and defense roles to claims people with no experience with the product. Outside counsel were being saddled with onerous reporting requirements, and subjected to unilateral editing of invoices without regard to the actual value of the services. It became a race to the bottom. The cooperative, coordinated effort was gone. By 2010, I had moved as far away from working for insurers as I could. My concept of doing a good job for the client just did not mesh with their cost-cutting and total disregard for the long-term financial health of their insureds. But the die was cast; even my self-insured clients (whose numbers were rapidly dwindling due to outsourcing to offshore manufacturing) were hiring both managers and lawyers who were ignorant of the history and functioning of the products. There was no longer a market for expertise or institutional knowledge. It was the age of the MBA consultants - absolutely devoid of any understanding of the products, but absolutely certain that they could "save the business". At 67, I can see the end of the track ahead. I have a small core group of clients, but the joy of the work is largely gone. My wife will retire at the end of this year, and I will play out the string for another year or two, while we transition to our retirement home and sell off the excess stuff. I treasure the memories of work well done during the heyday; I have no affection for the business decisions that have gradually disassembled the integrity of the manufacturing process in so many of these companies. I am anxious to leave it all behind, raise a sail, and head out for new destinations. LL

Is there a Game of Thrones dragon on the end of that funnel???? LL