a guy in her building chose to deal with a backed-up toilet not by calling a plumber, but by going in plastic bags and dropping it down the trash chute.

Um.... huh.

But, Nutty, then you get a closet full of pieces of xlothing of different "sizes" if the garment's waist hits me in different places.

Eh. I'm a 6+. I vary starting from there. Knowing my natural waist is 28 and my hips are whatever gives me another starting point. But it's nothing hugely different, in my estimation. Women's clothes have such varied styling. Men's less so.

Five Tips to Increase Your Likeability

In summary,

• Be positive.
• Control you insecurities.
• Provide value.
• Eliminate all judgements.
• Become a person of conviction.

Ah, fuck it. That's too much work. Plus they left out my favorite: "Reject others before they reject you."

For aviation geeks:

"Though it's not being widely reported, this week marks the end of the line for the F-14 Tomcat in US Navy service. First flown in 1970, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat was easily one of the world's most powerful, advanced, and deadly aircraft for many years, capable of flying at Mach 2.3 and firing its half-dozen Mach 5 AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles at targets as much as 100 miles away. Having been gradually replaced during the last several years by the newer F/A-18E/F, the last of the aircraft in US service will be officially retired on Friday, September 22nd in a ceremony at Virginia's Oceana Naval Air Station. However, at least a few F-14s will continue to fly for a few more years: Iran — which took delivery of 79 aircraft before the overthrow of the Shah — still flies the plane, though only a small number (perhaps ten or twenty) are believed to still be in service due to a lack of spare parts and attrition."

So if we attack Iran, we may have to fight Tomcats....

[link]

More details: [link]

But, Nutty, then you get a closet full of pieces of clothing of different "sizes" if the garment's waist hits me in different places.

Better to be in the ballpark, though, right? By using inches (or cm) at least we know that apples are compared to other fruits, and not to lawn chairs or scissors or rhesus monkeys. Also, makes it harder for size-drift to occur.

And anyway, one presumes that the cut of the garment would be reflected in the number of measurements, right? So I couldn't just walk in and buy a 29" waist pair of jeans; I'd buy 29" waist, 33" inseam, 40" rise, 36" hip jeans. (Totally making those figures up.) By looking at the combination of rise, hip, and waist, you'd be better able to predict just by reading which jeans are totally outside the scope of try-on-able and which might actually turn out to work.

Also, that kind of variety takes care of the variations of hip/waist ratio and butt bubbliness. We already get choiced for inseam (at LLBean anyway); why not more shape-variant measurements to work with?

This message brought to you by that experience where you get a thing into the dressing room, and when it is halfway up your legs realize that you cannot get the hips portion over your knees.

Seaking of, Butty, did thos pants fit?

I am leaving the typos, because they are craking me up.

Yes, folks, this is how my first draft of everything looks.

So if we attack Iran, we may have to fight Tomcats....

Tommy, even when we gave those planes to Iran, they were all stripped of any advanced technology for the time. There were Iranians going to avionics school with my ex and me that had to leave the class when certain types of equipment were taught. Meant they didn't have to take the tests on them, either, lucky schmucks.

"Hairy" many-many-legged large-ish bugs may well be House Centipedes, which eat silverfish, cockroaches, and other undesirables. They are not particularly harmful to humans and household pets, having a mild venom at best, though they may be quite amusing to cats.

Details: [link]

Tommy, even when we gave those planes to Iran, they were all stripped of any advanced technology for the time.

Supposedly the Iranians have been upgrading them with their own technology. But this is obvioulsy hard to confirm.

millions without direct access to health care,

This is my nightmare, lately.