What's on your mind? (2025) - good way to start... even if a bit early... :-)

Not About Food
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Yeah, but I’d rather split between donations and Uncle Sugar (or donate enough that Uncle doesn’t need more) before the year-end deadline. Re the estimated periods, I sometimes still get caught a bit short for the 2nd period because I tend to forget it’s only 2 months, Apr-May.

We were a bit short last year for that period, but losses in the next period wiped it out. TurboTax kept trying to apply a penalty (which strictly speaking we may have owed), but my wife somehow managed to talk TurboTax out of it.



Wowza. I about had a heart attack when I got a letter telling me that I’d failed to report a monster stock sale about 3 years prior. And I had - that year in January I’d liquidated my overloaded position in my newly former employer’s stock.

When I got my BP back under control, I checked and had only gained $243. Phew! I wrote a letter explaining what happened (I’d downloaded all but the last 2 pages of the 1099) offering to pay $42. Got a nice letter back saying “never mind”.

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Well, I’m just freaking tickled all my kitchen goodies have now arrived. Not pictured, the citrus press & the garlic press :slight_smile:

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#joysofmidlife

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Kind of ironic, considering the curated makeup, hair, accessories, and flattering lighting and pose.

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I guess? I’m much more drawn to the actual message and paid far less attention to her looks. Aside from that it’s conceivable that the person in the picture didn’t create the meme :wink:

Lastly, can you not imagine someone doing this just for their own, personal enjoyment — not for someone else?

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It’s possible to have ideals but still have to swim in the water we live in to get by. “A woman’s currency is her body.” [At least under patriarchy].

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That was an interesting article – definitely worth a read.

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Interesting short summary of a study on a link between Botox and decreased empathy (with an embedded link to a NYT article (I don’t have a subscription or I’d include a gift link to that):

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In my limited lifetime experience, absolutely not so. I have swum with the most aggressive sharks and come ashore intact.

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It’s all about someone else. If you’ve never had cosmetics pushed at you (I really, really hate that industry) I doubt you’d draw on yourself in that specific manner.

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I hate everything about the beauty and diet industry myself. You are preaching to the choir.

I for one don’t wear any makeup during the day, and sometimes not even when I go out at night.

That said, I love putting on makeup on occasion, just like I like putting on a nice dress or wear jewelry. For me :woman_shrugging:t2:

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https://inspection.canada.ca/en/animal-health/terrestrial-animals/diseases/reportable/avian-influenza/latest-bird-flu-situation/investigations-and-orders

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Two of five weekly entries from my favorite column. The others were OK, but these two stood out to me as being good/funny enough to post here.

Toothache

Dear Diary:

My tooth was aching as I got off a packed northbound A train at 175th Street. I joined a river of people flowing at rush hour through the long tunnel that leads to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station.

I was deeply lost in my thoughts when I was overtaken by an immaculately dressed, middle-aged man.

To my astonishment, he stopped, turned and, blocking my way, looked directly into my eyes with an indignant expression.

“May I help you?” I asked.

“You missed a whole passage,” he said in an angry voice.

“What passage?” I said.

“From the ‘Trout Quintet’,” he said. “By Schubert.”

“Was I whistling?” I asked. “I frequently do that unconsciously, usually classical music.”

“I am sort of tone deaf,” I added, trying for some reason to assuage his anger.

“Tone deafness has nothing to do with it,” he said. “You missed a whole passage.”

I tried to ask if he was a musician, but just then my voice was drowned out by someone in the tunnel who started to play an Andean panpipe really loudly.

“I am sorry,” I said apologetically to the man before continuing on. “But I really have to get to my dentist.”

Submitted by Bronek Pytowski

In the Bag

Dear Diary:

I was waiting in line to pick up a prescription at a crowded Duane Reade. An older woman who was clearly exhausted left the line to sit down in a nearby chair.

When it was her turn to get her prescription, she stood up, left her belongings on the chair and went to the counter.

While waiting for the pharmacist, she turned and looked at the man who was sitting next to where she had been.

“You know what’s in that bag?” she asked, motioning toward her stuff.

The man shook his head.

“My husband,” she said. “He died last week, and I have his remains in there.”

Submitted by Brad Rothschild

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I missed where you posted your source for these excerpts, but I love them. They’re snack-sized stories!

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Here ya go!

They usually appear every Sunday morning.

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Interesting that they’re (allegedly) true stories.

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I was chatting with a guy on an intermittent fasting dedicated website who was eating 2 meals a day and ate nothing but takeout/processed food all the time, claiming that it was too uneconomical to eat healthier foods.

I priced out what he was eating and gave an example meal plan that was healthier and a bit less expensive. His defenders jumped in, saying I should “check my privilege” and that maybe the OP lived in a food dessert where only stores like Dollar General were available, and in a sort of “so there!” flounce cited to ramen packs as the ultimate cheap processed food.

Well, I’ve lived in such places, and it’s still possible to eat healthier foods, and get more protein, for about the same price as ramen. The upfront cost is higher because large bags of rice and beans etc. last a lot longer than a single week.

Like the folks you posted suggested, I think some people just want to do what they want to do, and use “too expensive to make at home” as their rationale. But it would have been interesting to see the explanation regarding “lost productivity” from the guy Matt. Maybe he’s making so much money all the time that stopping to shop and cook costs him more income than the take-out costs?

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