Now I just wonder

Stop wondering. Arm yourself with the knowlege that people can be infinitely stupid and jackassed.

And perfect the slapdown.

And that was the end of that.

No doubt!

perfect the slapdown.

Mostly I have a quizzical look that at least stops the train of discussion. Which is the most immediately important thing.

Going home now! Meeting ended on time! Whee!

Going home now!

Poopyhead.

two gaskets in between the carb and the spacer, and no gasket in between the spacer and the intake manifold

That's bad enough to report to the mechanic's boss.

Using a torque wrench is always a better idea than guessing at it. Under-torquing risks things coming loose, and over-torquing risks pinching the gasket too thin to do the job.

I've known mechanics who had a good feel for their own self-calibration, but I've also known some whose idea of wrist-tight was less than 10ft-lbs., and one whose idea of finger-tight was more than 15.

I have a racism question for the hivemind. At the movie (Batman, of course) this weekend, there was a bit of talkback in the audience (comments every scene, basically). Afterwards, one the the people I was with exploded about black people talking during movies. His rant was "I know this is a cultural thing in certain sectors of Black America, but why can't we have talking and non-talking theaters? Why do the rest of us have to put up with this?" I didn't have an answer, except to mention that I would MUCH rather sit in a film with an all Black teenage audience than an all senior citizen audience. His statement made me uncomfortable, and I am not sure how I should have responded.

For me, it's usually dark and hard to see people who are talking. If "shush" doesn't shush them, I head to the manager. I got a whole group of people thrown out of The Two Towers for yelling, "RUDY" every time Sean Astin came onscreen. I didn't care what color the people were--just that they were loud and stupid. And I'd paid $10 to see a film I couldn't enjoy while they were yelling.

OMG, during The Two Towers? They had what, an entire year of FotR to get used to Sean Astin as Sam Gamgee NOT!rUDY and they STILL yelled, "Rudy"?

Idiots!

(Now, I'm feeling very lucky in the audiences I've had for all the LotR films.)

I just had sushi.

Robin, that's a toughie. I think the thing that gets me about that statement would particularly be the "the rest of us" bit, as it belongs to the same group as "those people," particularly as it posits talkers as the "other" and non-talky people as the default "us".

On the other hand, I find myself thinking, well, if by "those people" you mean people who are talking in the movie, I get irritated by them too. And it doesn't matter what the ethnicity of the talker is, but it is true that there's a cultural divide there. And, er, now I'm all turned around and confused. Cause I would find lots of talking extremely annoying. But that quoted comment makes me uncomfortable too.

Also, honestly, I do believe there are people who use "Jew down" without ever thinking about it having anything to do with, you know, Jews. I know it sounds absurd, but when you grow up with something you often never question it like that.

I mean, not that it's an excuse for people to go on using it. Just saying. I've known some people who've said some just awful things without, seriously, any awareness that it's offensive or intention to be offensive.

Also, honestly, I do believe there are people who use "Jew down" without ever thinking about it having anything to do with, you know, Jews.

I can't wrap my head around that. I don't really want to.