flea cloned herself.

Actually, I think it was the flea!mom that did that, because flea and Nutty and Casper all look so much alike.

For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, "Don't be a jerk!" or "Be a little nicer now." A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, "Wow, you're a smooth talker."

And life starts to imitate computer games.

However, the Jerk-O-Meter also could be set up to test the voice on the other end of the line. Then it could send the tester such reports as: "This person is acting like a jerk. Do you want to hang up?"

Um, usually I can figure this out for myself.

If this gets implemented, hopefully it will be optional. The tons and tons of phone calls we fielded here over the weekend would all have pegged the "Jerk" scale, as everyone was very tense and businesslike about the plane crash. And it wouldn't work cross-culturally; a pleasant chat between two Greek friends sounds like a shouting match to Americans.

Speaking of, I just had one of these shouting matches with my landlord. Someone has been putting meat out for the Feral Cat Clan (FCC) in the front walkway. Meat chunks, like from the butcher. So not only are there big ugly bones everywhere and begging cats constantly underfood, the grease from the meat soaked into the marble walk and steps, making them extra slippery (and it doesn't come out of marble).

The landlord accused me of putting the food out, so we got into it. We started in German, as usual, but then I discovered I'm losing my German in favor of Greek, so it went something like:

"Ich gab den Katzen τίποτα...shit!"
"Δεν habe στις γάτες τίποτα gegeben...shit!"
"Ich έδωσα στις Katzen nichts gegeben...shit!"
"IT WASN'T ME!!!"

Suddenly, I am finding Casper's name REALLY FUNNY.

In an X-Files kind of way.

Which seems esp. amusing with the Nutty connection.

I am back from Vay-cay. Nothing like ending a trip with the FAA delaying your flight, then running life a freaking maniac from Gate 34 to Gate 7 in Atlanta only to find my connection was ALSO delayed, then lots of "rough air" (as they seem to be calling it these days). Now home after 11 hours of travel time. Off to collapse.

I emailed Gus and got a reply from him early this am He is not in a good way but he seemed more upset about his venting last night.

This is just amazing:

A herd of cows in Sverdlovsk, Russia, will have to be fed confiscated marijuana as part of their winter diet after drug enforcement workers destroyed sunflowers and maize that 40 tonnes of dope had been planted among.

A herd of cows in Sverdlovsk, Russia, will have to be fed confiscated marijuana as part of their winter diet after drug enforcement workers destroyed sunflowers and maize that 40 tonnes of dope had been planted among.

They're going to be able to charge a lot more for THAT beef, I tell you what.

The landlord accused me of putting the food out, so we got into it.

OMG! Yes, we had a similar thing last year. Well except for the part where we WERE feeding the dog who lived in the carpark opposite our flat. But she was a nice dog, and she'd just had puppies, and she was all skinny looking. But this was food given IN THE CARPARK, to a DOG. On the basis of us doing that, our boab (porter guy) decided that we were responsible for a chicken carcasse upstairs in the building, because he decided we were feeding the cats in the building too.

Our baffled denials were, he told our landlord, lies.

To say that things went from placid to warfare in under sixty seconds would be something of an understatement. We had much the same kind of discussion as the one you posted above, only with less Greek & German, and more patchy Arabic. And a lot of yelling.

I came in here and dumped my personal crap all over the thread yesterday. Apologies to all.

Mad-at-the-world posts should probably have a thread of their own. I would suggest that formally, but it would likely cause a foment in B'craxxy.