Some people like living in a neighborhood where all the mailboxes look the same. Some people like living in a neighborhood where the neighbors can't own chickens, a rooster or other things that get classified as livestock.

Our HOA has dues of $25 a year per house, and that covers the electricity bill to a streetlight, maintenance of the entrance structures, and property tax on a small piece of land that no individual owns but is part of our HOA. We also have a neighborhood watch.

The fact that there's an HOA is disclosed in the paperwork you sign when buying a house. You could also ask the realtor when he/she is showing you houses. Some HOAs have petty people ho put a lot of effort into getting elected to "The Board" and delight in telling people that their car is parked too close to (or too far from) the curb, or that the potted plant on their porch violates some rule. I like just having the streetlight so visitors know where to turn to get to our neighborhood.

Yeah, polygamy is having many wives, and having one wife is monotony.

I wonder if those doors are for something that can't be brought up through the stairways...something too long to go through the stairs but can fit through a door....like, a piano maybe? Then, it can be raised from the ground by a crane on the roof. Why there are steps from one door to the other, well, ya' got me there.

I worked with a guy who was a skilled "maker of special one-off things." As his hobby, he made hyper-realistic Star Wars models. Like, not just accurate physically, but had blackened battle damage, dirt and oil stains at exhaust ports and vents, etc.

Using "murder" as the act which causes no concern is a doubly delicious pun.

That's a pretty weird thing to be proud enough to share...but by strange coincidence I am weird enough to appreciate how cool that looks.

Duh. We all know it takes three licks, right?

He knows how to mend a broken heart.

Closer to the truth than you might think. When I lived there, the French government tried to convince people to stop saying "le weekend" and use "le fin de semaine," and stop using "le bulldozer" and substitute the long French phrase for earth moving machine whose name I can't recall because everyone said "le bulldozer."

"The Last Of Us" fungus makes the leap from humans to autos.

Disney created characters to fit a story line, and the "strength" was just contrived. People want actual strong women, not what corporations want to push as strong women.

RIpley from Alien/Aliens
Sandra Bullock drove the bus in Speed
Wonder Woman

You don't have to like those, but their strength seems authentic.

(for the health benefits)

"We're from the government, and we're here to help you."

They can afford to make a prediction like that, because they have the resources to make it happen if it doesn't occur naturally.

It's weird to hear both "I have such a huge vocabulary" and "I can't think of the word for this" in the same sentence.

Doing CAD work (Unigraphics if you're interested) I use the mouse in one hand and the SpaceBall in the other. A SpaceBall is a sphere that you manipulate to make the object you're designing move...closer, farther, rotate, move left/right up/down, etc. It's weird to only be able to do certain tasks with your "off hand."

Pam Beesly voice: "They're the same picture."

In Hexadecimal, that number is $100.

If you are *required* to work extra, they better be paying you for those extra minutes. If not, there's a labor law violation right there.

No argument that this is a sign to look for a new job, because this can't be the lone asinine thing that employer does.

But no track suit?

Or is that the Serbians that do that?

The guys that got Mohawk haircuts were the Pathfinders. They jumped into Normandy on June 5/6 1944 to set up directional beacons to guide the gliders with troops for the June 6 D-Day invasion.

Imagine...being 19 or 20 or so, jumping by yourself onto a continent controlled by an enemy that many feel will win the war. You've got your carbine, a couple mags of ammo, a beacon and a job to do with dozens of men counting on you for the success of their mission, and maybe their lives. If you don't pull this off, the invasion may fail, and there won't be enough men, materiel, or possibly the will to try again.

No surprise those guys got a little wacky on D-Day minus 1!

Way to DISARM that criminal, Max!