ION, I hate getting research projects with a short deadline, feeling like a failure when you don't find anything, and hearing, "yeah, didn't think there was anything to find, just wanted to make sure!" This one time everyone conspired not to tell me that four people had researched the same topic for a week, just so I wouldn't go into it thinking there was nothing to find.

Oh, I freakin' hate projects like that. Not shockingly, they go on in the web/IT world, too. "See if you can get X to do Y."

It's almost always with an unsupported in house tool, and it's always wishful "maybe if one more person tries" thinking from the manager.

A nice rare steak, perhaps, with a dollop of pâté fois gras covered in bacon?

You would have had me if you stopped at "perhaps." As described, it's just too much muchness for me.

This reminds me that apparently a friend of mine came across some pornographic pictures of a hot classmate on the internet, and he's never sent them to me!!

A true friend will happily send you naked pictures of people you know. I'd cast this soi-disant friend to the curb.

I can't think about work. Too hungry, and also because my mail server looks to have hung -- I clicked send on my last work e-mail a couple posts ago.

I sat there horrified as person after person I was with ordered their steaks and filets medium-well to well.

Oy. That's just asking the chef to give you an inferior cut of meat.

We also have a Morton's, but right next to it is Murray's, which is teh awesome and teh yum and teh sooper old-skool. I start drooling just thinking about eating there.

On a related note, I sat there horrified as person after person I was with ordered their steaks and filets medium-well to well. shudder I can't even go medium on a REALLY good steak. I can't really do rare either, but a good, medium-rare steak or filet? Homer drool noise!!!

Mmm...

You're not supposed to have undercooked meat when pregnant, so yes, one of the first things I ate post-baby other than sushi was medium rare prime rib.

That's kinda evil, bon.

Well, in the second story about conspiring peers, they were not competent conspirators-- I knew they were working on this brief, I knew the issues in the brief, and I knew they'd been researching for a week. So when they asked me to research the primary issue, I kinda knew they hadn't found anything.

That's just asking the chef to give you an inferior cut of meat.

That or very helpfully drop it on the floor and tap-dance on it for you, as it will need tenderizing.

Why is rare stake called "rare"?

My dictionary says that it means cooked briefly and comes from the Old English hrēr. M-W online adds, "Etymology: alteration of earlier rere, from Middle English, from Old English hrEre boiled lightly; akin to Old English hrEran to stir, Old High German hruoren: cooked so that the inside is still red."

The day I discovered beef sashimi was a very happy day for me. I was abuzz with delight.

undercooked meat

Undercooked. Such a subjective term.

Christ. I'm totally putting the lunch in the fridge and going for a mediocre steak for lunch.

Why is rare stake called "rare"? "well done" is relatively self-explanatory, but I don't understand how "rare" = "closer to the uncooked end of the scale than the well-cooked end."

According to www.etymonline.com, the cooking meaning is from Old English hrer while the other kind is from Latin rarus.