Samson's Wig

And by default may be the most at peace among us. That could just be the quiet desperation, though. Or the meth.

"Slowly dying" is exactly the words I would use to describe how I feel while waiting four hours for my food anytime I've made the mistake of pulling into a Dairy Queen on a road trip over the last twenty years. I know there are some locations managed by solid folks who run a tight ship, but most of them are a place for country folk to inadvertently learn mindfulness meditation.

Okay, yeah, I kind of want that.

Were they all a bunch of great big fat people, or do they avoid getting high on their own supply?

It seems like there's a Halloween deluge every other year or so.

Fuck those people. I'm a dog guy, I guess, but there's a special place in hell for the people who take dogs into grocery stores who don't absolutely need to.

Dog talk in the cat thread not going away. I think off-leash training has become more difficult for many due to leash laws in most cities. If you're walking your dog off leash in an urban or suburban environment, regardless of how well trained, you're an entitled asshole. There's always a handful in every neighborhood. They all think their dog is special and that they train them better than everyone else. They're always wrong. The downside of the leash laws is that most dogs now don't know how to respond well when they accidentally get loose. We have taken our dogs to designated off-leash areas to work on that training, and that has worked well. In defense of (some) dogs that aggressively bark while on the leash, it most often happens after they have been attacked. Their fight or flight response is kicking in when they sense another dog that is a threat to them, and they can't run because they're on a leash - so fight it is. Our current dog (no small yapper, but not huge - 40 lbs) never barked aggressively at another dog on walks or any other situation until he was four years old and a dumbass neighbor let his pit bull get loose, and it attacked my dog. Now any dog he deems even a mild threat gets the full blown "I'm a crazy mother fucker and you do NOT want to mess with me" treatment. It sucks and I feel bad for the folks with the other dogs as they don't know the how or why of it. Training it out of him has been a major chore, but we're working on it. Back to cats - has anyone seen the latest trending XL Bully cats? Holy shit.

Your Scottish fold is a beauty as well, but I was asking about the new kitten.

Beautiful kitten! Do you know if it's a particular breed, and if so, which one?

Thanks! He's a 7th grader, so he's plenty old enough to handle everything, and he is good with animals. We have a dog that was initially intended to be a de facto service animal for him, but the dog latched on to his sister, and it completely backfired. Dog sleeps with her every night. The plan with a cat is that it will be 100% his responsibility (I know), with food and water in his bedroom along with anything else for the cat, like a scratch post/tower or whatever. We'll probably cut him a bit of slack and not put the litter box in his bedroom, but then again . . .

That light can kiss my ass. Those folks can enjoy heading south when they want to go north once the highway work is done (at least, I don't think they're getting an overpass there).

I can't believe no one has postulated that this may be a "Gone Girl" situation. This forum is full of dudes, and not one has considered the possibility that this is all a brilliant ploy by this woman to exact revenge on her hapless frat bro husband. Bunch of misogynists, I tell ya. Apologies if this has already been brought up. I didn't read the entire thread, but I did read that silly book.

The only way this story about Abercrombie and Fitch would be surprising is if any women were involved. I'm not sure how they went from outdoor goods supplier to gayest retailer in history, but they were 100% of the way there by the mid-nineties.

My son wants a cat. I've read a lot about the benefits of cats for autistic kids and want to make it happen. I've been allergic to them (cats, not autistic kids) all my life, although some breeds, e.g. Maine Coon, don't seem to bother me. We actually had a Maine Coon for fifteen years before he passed. He was awesome, but was a kitten rescue and grew into an unexpected monster. Anyone have experience with a breed of cat that is good for allergies, but isn't the size of a school bus? Any thoughts on males v. females, especially if we really want the cat to bond with my son rather than his sister or my wife or me? Thanks to anyone with any thoughts on the matter.

"Medical Device." "Former owner." It's okay to admit the truth. This is a safe space. EDIT: Damnit, Brisket beat me to the joke. Should have read the rest of the page before commenting.

At first I was skeptical of his story, but then I remembered some of the doctors I know and realized it was probably true.

I'll take your word for it, and that makes sense. My dad's pacemaker alerts his physician's office with irregularities, so I'm familiar with that process. I assumed in AB's case that it was the physician's office that maybe had an itchy trigger finger in terms of calling in support. That still seems more plausible to me than a sheriff and EMT showing up based on his phone, or whatever, monitoring his conversation with his wife.

That was definitely your pacemaker sending out the bat signal.

If what happened to Alberto doesn't make your blood run cold at the thought of the lengths our government will go to destroy an individual just for holding an opinion that differs from those in power, even when it's one of their own, I don't know what will. We're run more like a communist regime than we like to think. We just flip which assholes are in power from time to time, so those being persecuted get a brief respite while a new group gets a turn. As for the Cuban government, count me in the club that thinks communists are pieces of shit, due in large part to the inevitable violence baked into their supposed cupcake ideology. However, I also agree with those who think the best way to subvert the Cuban system and gain some measure of influence over the country is to normalize relations. The CIA is a joke and has been pretty much since its inception. Cuba is perhaps the ultimate example of their ineptitude. We shouldn't be letting those clowns dictate policy. Ever.

Here's a great article about a buddy of mine and what lengths those hawks will go to in order to keep the status quo: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/07/the-assassination-of-alberto-coll.html

Well, yeah. Lie detector tests don't detect lying. Never have, never will. They're just a tool to try to get a confession, or at least a slip-up, out of you. I'm sure most of you already know this fun fact: Willam Marston, the inventor of the lie detector test, also created Wonder Woman. Lasso of truth and all that.

I wrote and deleted a few things. I can't seem to find the words for this one, but I'll try two: people suck.

Fucking you without consent? It sounds like they may be Pikes, too. I smell a conspiracy.

What does your sticker say?

Thank you for bringing up the second item in particular. I have no particularl knowledge whatsoever of traffic systems beyond experiencing them as a driver, but Austin's system has (for decades) felt like it is nonsensical, inefficient, and constantly leaving huge blank spots in traffic. It's something that has always bugged me when driving here versus many other larger cities, and it's rare that you hear any discussion of it at all. It seems like the most obvious, least expensive, and easiest-to-implement solution for the traffic woes here is to throw some money and experts at updating the system and ensuring traffic is flowing as optimally as possible on the roads we already have. We instead waste money on projects that don't solve anything but make a handful of vocal groups happy. We seem hell-bent on making the same mistakes as in the past, only dressed up in modern notions. Austin neglected ever to build a decent public transport system while expanding roadways haphazardly; consequences be damned. Now we take every opportunity to reduce lanes in some quixotic quest to magically reduce traffic while still neglecting to build a public transportation system to fill in the gap; consequences be damned. We've just swung from one idiot branch of the dumbass tree to another one.