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I once had an overnight for ten bucks, two beers, and a roofie. Actually, scratch that, the ten bucks was for the roofie. Glad you're back out on the streets. Had he known you were laid up, so to speak, I'm sure Tomcal would have brought the party to your room.

It seems to be a 'hang' issue for me as well. Once a page continues loading, it's zippy enough. Using the limited diagnostic tools in my Safari browser, it looks like there are close to a hundred elements that have to load before I get to the completed page I'm on now, and my guess is that one of those elements is not responding reliably fast. Can't tell which one, but your programmers should have a better diagnostic tool that identifies the miscreant link. One hint is that, for me anyway, the culprit is early in the loading sequence. The Safari progress bar gets about ten percent into the loading process, and then hangs. Not always, but often enough to be annoying. As it's happened since the last software upgrade, I'd recommend they focus on something new that's been added early in the page load process for "View New Content". And please thank them for bringing user names back to the "View New Content" page. Ip Ip Array! Update: Just discovered the hang seems to arise right before the Flirt4Free banner loads. Maybe something to do with that site's recent difficulties? Update to the Update: Just found there seems to be a hang at this element: maintitle.png Also early in the loading process.

I've been to a dozen or so countries over the years and owing, I guess, to a rather nondescript appearance and a natural diffidence, have nearly always been addressed by locals in the local language. I used to take it as a compliment but, since the passage of the Patriot Act, am now concerned that I might be letting down the side. Lest there be any such misunderstandings in future travels, I've decided to take a few precautions.

Perhaps she's free to come sing at your house. Provided, of course, her shoes don't smell.

Can't speak to Brazil but, in ParisRio's defense, rates have gone up considerably, in this country at least. When I was in my twenties, I could get laid for the price of a sarsaparilla and now, not even a half-century later, the increases have been unreal. In fact, I recently had a guy tell me he wouldn't touch me for a million bucks. Talk about inflation!

National Security ! A-a-w-k ! ! ! War on Terror ! ! Don't know the answer but I'm becoming increasingly convinced the question is, "How do freedom and terrorism exist in the world together?" Until we figure that out, I expect freedom to continue taking a hit, no matter who's in the White House. Before 9/11, we had the luxury of not concerning ourselves with that balance but the pendulum has now swung mightily in the other direction. I'm not too surprised that we haven't yet found the answer to the question, as it's not an easy one, but I am surprised that no one seems to be asking it. Might as well start here. Any ideas?

No matter how inexpensive, Tom vows this is the last time he'll order a merkin from Kazakhstan.

You mean they're not supposed to have a patina?

For me, the news in all this is not that they had a technical glitch. That, as many have said, is to be expected with such advanced technologies. The news is that the present technical glitch involved lithium ion batteries bursting into flame. That is so yesterday! Is there anyone on Earth who hasn't heard stories about lithium ion batteries bursting into flame? This is not a brand new technology and it's not a brand new problem. Boeing itself acknowledged the issue from the get-go and said they had a fix designed into the batteries that would keep a runaway thermal reaction from spreading. Even in the unlikely event that one cell heated up, they said they had designed the battery so that it couldn't spread to a second cell. Well it did. And now they say they've redesigned it so that it won't do what they said it wouldn't do in the first place. I'm not sure how a runaway lithium ion battery caught them napping the first time. They knew the problem and they knew the solution. Perhaps they trusted GS Yuasa to get it right, and they failed. But, if that's true, then what other outsourcers did Boeing trust to get something right, and which of them has a surprise waiting to be uncovered? Even recently, according to this article, Boeing and the Japanese battery company were at odds over whether or not the proposed battery fix was the right one. With so many outsourcers involved with the plane, it seems reasonable, to me at least, to find one day that another fix will prove inadequate. And that's for mature technologies, like lithium ion batteries, or windows, or tires. What happens when some of the really new technologies log enough flying hours to manifest problems? I expect Boeing will solve them, one by one, but it seems remarkable that something as basic as a hot lithium ion battery could have cost so much money, so much time, and so much bad publicity this early in the aircraft's life.

Seems like the press has been more interested in this than most folks I know. I read that there were 6,000 credentialed reporters hanging out at the Vatican this week talking about some of the goofiest stuff like the Pope paying his own hotel bill and riding the bus. You'd think one of them would have mentioned God somewhere along the way. And, as far as I know, Jesus had to walk most places and probably never saw the inside of a Crowne Plaza. I'm glad there's a new Pope, I hope he does some good stuff, and if he gets around to including all the people Jesus would have included, I'll be tickled pink.

OK here too. Could it be there was a problem and now your regulars just need to clear their cache? Along with a little of their cash.

I knew I'd seen that walk somewhere before.

I think the various state 'insurance marketplaces', and the federal version for states that don't want to set up their own, will begin educating consumers about the inefficiencies of for-profit healthcare. If the comparison shopping is really as easy as promised, those companies who gouge consumers will stand out like a sore thumb. I'm looking forward to the day when a single-payer option will be among those offered. Naturally, the for-profit insurers will lobby to the death to keep it out of our hands. Of course, the more they spend on lobbying, the worse their prices will look. It may take a few years, but I think the ACA will eventually evolve to the universal healthcare ideal that most other countries already have. It's a complex piece of legislation, no doubt, but I think those who crafted it were not unaware of the trajectory it was likely to follow.

'Toned down' is certainly one way of putting it, though it's kind of hard to tell who's now implacably inside the tent and who remains on the outside. Guess I'll find out when the Garden Party invites go in the mail.

You're lucky he thought to do this, and smart to have called him in the first place. This article has some good tips on caring for a ruptured eardrum, along with a theory that it can be caused by a strong sucking kiss, which I'm sure you would have told us about if it were the case. Do take good care until you're healed. Maybe the extra time in Fortaleza was meant to be. If I ever write a novel, I would like your permission to use these as the opening lines.

It's intermittent. Sometimes ya see 'em and sometimes ya don't, thank Heaven for small favors.

Perhaps the same courtesy could be extended to this thread.

In preliminary negotiations we are.

I believe it's called trickle-down economics.

I heard Jenna Wade Marchetta Krebbs (Priscilla Presley) will be there. Isn't she one of the few characters that JR didn't piss off? Maybe he finally got around to it and she did him in.

Unlike your own good self, I'll wager.

Well, I'm going to be there front row, center, with a big bowl of buttered popcorn. I've always had the hots for Matt Damon and look forward to seeing him lounging around the pool. I'm also looking forward to learning more about Liberace, and hope there's some good scholarship in amongst the glitz and glamor. For example, did he sleep with his rings on and did he wear boxers or briefs or, I should be so lucky, a thong? The snag is I cancelled HBO in a fit of pique and austerity last year, and hate crawling back to my cable company hat in hand. Does anyone know if there's any other way to watch it?

Yes, it's a very nice finger! Mind my asking if it's 'before' or 'after'? It looks like there's a bunch of lube under the nail, but it's out of focus and hard to tell. If you're looking for a new camera, I got a pretty nice Canon for a couple hundred bucks before my last trip, but I'm not sure what the prices are in Brazil. You take really good pictures, and it would be a shame to have to leave to our imaginations what it is you're getting into.

I had a Yellow Lab like that once but, unlike Tomcal, she wasn't averse to letting a few dogs get into the rotation. Nor did they ever take her home to meet the family.