Wait wait. You’re starting with Engel’s “Many Waters?” Isn’t it book 4 in a series where book 1 (“A Wrinkle in Time”) is considered a classic?

It’s been a long time but I remember liking book 2 a whole lot. I never did get book 5, though I think there is one?

Yes but also is that just Rothfuss’ excuse when fans call him out about plot inconsistencies? Because that’s how I heard that “explanation” came about.

Wow seeing that gif was a forcible mental teleportation back into the early 90s.

All girls Catholic school (though I am not, and have never been Catholic). We had three nuns on campus, two teachers and a counselor. One of them taught religious studies and that was where we got 9th grade sex ed. This teacher was firm but beloved, a bit of a hippie, also taught a class about spirituality that was separate from religion, said things like “God has no gender” in class but would straight up call God a woman outside of class, exclusively played Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell music… you get the picture.

Anyway it’s become a bit of a legend now, but apparently during sex ed for the girls a couple of grades ahead of mine, one of the students boldly asked, “Sister, how do you know anything about this? Why are we being taught this by a nun?”

The response was, “I wasn’t always a nun. I’ve been around the block a few times.” You can imagine the uproar this caused for a bunch of 9th grade Catholic girls.

Presuming it was a girls school, probably for examining one’s own lady parts.

My bridesmaids wore white. The inspiration was an old tradition where the wedding attendants were there to trick evil spirits so that the spirits wouldn’t know who was actually getting married. I mean obviously that’s stupid but I liked the idea and they looked lovely.

…why don’t you just go to Wikipedia to begin with? I’m honestly asking. URLs still exist.

Yeah, I live in the SF Bay Area and we’ve driven our EV to LA and Vegas. The stops are fine.

I called something “the bomb” the other day and my mind did a record scratch, like, did I actually say that unironically??

Nepotism

If you don’t have it already, highly recommend the Merlin Bird ID app by Cornell Labs. That’s where I’m pulling pictures.

One reason a lot of people default to Coopers is because they’re pretty common in suburban areas. Not sure what kind of area you live in though. In looking at your pic vs the app’s pics of Merlins and Coopers, I’d say it’s close. The one thing that is making me question the Merlin designation is the eye color. All of the pics in the app of Merlins show a fully dark eye, and your pic suggests a yellow eye, though I grant that it’s grainy (not a criticism! Bird photography is very tough in the best of circumstances and I’m certainly no more skilled). Coopers do have yellow eyes, or at least some of them in the pics do; some are quite red, wow. Same with sharp shinned, and they are smaller. The other distinguishing factor I’ve read about between coopers and sharp shinned is the head shape; I believe it’s sharp shinned that have a very round head. So, all things considered, if she was smaller than a crow, I’d probably lean toward sharp shinned at this point.

He’s got that aggressive eyebrow though, which as I understand it is a Cooper’s trait. Could be wrong though, like you said it’s a tough call!

“President Trump is not worried”

Welp, I’m satisfied, how about you? /s

I mean, you do you! My daughter agrees with you in matters of taste. I did think it was awfully funny what the Scots thought of as “American.”

Okay this is totally not what you’re asking but I have to share a funny story. (To answer your actual question, can’t think of anything but I don’t live in NY or Chicago so…)

My family visited Scotland when my daughter was about 6, and there was one night we got to a hotel and just needed some food, and not a lot of places near us were open. But there was a pizza place, which would satisfy the kids. My daughter chose the “American” pizza, which had chicken, barbecue sauce, and yellow corn on it. (Yes, I’m serious.) She has been asking for that pizza for years since then. WTF?

I’ve heard that too; I’m not a WF shopper myself but a lot of other parents at my kids’ school are and that’s what they’ve told me. Bonkers.

I’m 60% through the last book, it’s so good!

That explains a lot. Private equity kills everything it touches.

The chain grocery store near us (Safeway) has had stupidly high prices since the pandemic. I decided I’m not going to shop there anymore unless I really have to. We are lucky to have a locally-owned, small chain grocery store very close to us. Prices are high but honestly not much if at all higher than Safeway and I’d rather pay a small premium to help them stay in business. Also I doubt they would ever opt into something like this stupid price scheme, but Safeway absolutely would and will.

They’re so spunky!