Don't mean to add to the downers, but a week or so ago a man and his five-year-old daughter were killed in a crosswalk by an 85-year-old man in his car. They're still trying to find out if it was a case of impairment due to substances or of simply being old.

Bad enough, but that was in the big city so it was classified as "Damn, that's sad."

Until our "son" came by last night and told Hubby, "Did you know that man who was killed was someone you used to know well?" I knew him slightly, but when I finally looked at the pictures on the web, yeah, I know him. Bugger.

My DH is taking Arabic classes on Monday nights that he's enjoying.

I've always thought it to be a very musical language, and very pleasing to the ear. I'd love to learn, maybe trying the Rosetta Stone program.

Oh, Aimee! That sucks.

{{connie}} Bugger, indeed.

Oh crap, connie. How awful.

And what crummy news, Aims. I'm really sorry to hear that.

maybe trying the Rosetta Stone program.

My DH started with this, and he got some vocabulary out of it, but his pronunciation was the pits and he couldn't make himself understood. It's quite possible his ear just wasn't very good at picking up the nuance needed.

lisah - that sounds awesome... you should leave work early and get a macaroni and cheese pizza from BOP as a reward... also, insent.

{{Aimee}} downward-facing dog for the bureaucrats.

teeth~ma all around. for good measure.

It's quite possible his ear just wasn't very good at picking up the nuance needed.

I suspect Arabic is one of those languages where having a good ear helps a LOT. I have a pretty good one myself (to the point of being able to identify famous people doing voice-over based on very small samples.

ugh Aimee I'm so sorry. that's just fucking ridiculous.

you should leave work early and get a macaroni and cheese pizza from BOP as a reward

a what now? That sounds ... really, really good to me right now. Sadly, an almost 90 minute "lunch" means no leaving early. I do have some almonds I can snack on. This evening I will be going to hear Dishwasher Pete talk about his new book and there will be beer there and it will be good.

Maybe one of the colleges/universities has an Arabic speaking lunch table you could get to, Sean? Berkeley's International House had all sorts of those going on for people who wanted to meet up and practice.

Sox is a mac & cheese pizza pusher. But have I ever actually seen one? No!

connie, that's awful. So sorry.

Aimee, WTF? Buggering bureaucracy! That's insane.

Lisah, it sounds good! Hope it works out the way you want!

I stopped using fluoride toothpaste years ago. There's enough fluoride in municipal water to protect your teeth, just from rinsing with it, and there's some evidence that ingesting fluoride is not good for you. I use Tom's of Maine toothpaste with xylitol in it. There's plenty of evidence that xylitol aids in remineralization of teeth. That's what I attribute the vanishing of my last cavity to. It was clearly there on one x-ray, about four years ago, and the dentist was quite disgusted with me for refusing to fill it. Last year, different dentist, no cavity. She looked at me funny when I asked her about it, and showed me the x-ray to prove I had none. She of course didn't believe it had been there at all. Whatever. I wish I'd gotten copies of the x-rays to prove it.