The whole time I was growing up, my parents never locked the house. Maybe once or twice when we were gone on a two week vacation or something. We'd also leave our cars and truck parked outside with the keys in them.

We'd also leave our cars and truck parked outside with the keys in them.

My Grosse Point relatives did that as well. I'd drop by every now and again to raid their fridge whether they were home or not. Kinda freaked out the friend I brought with.

Humorous tech calls. [link] I'd never heard any of these. This is my fave:

Caller: "Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?"

Operator: I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand who you are talking about".

Caller: "In the user guide it clearly states I need to unplug the fax machine from the wall socket and telephone Jack before cleaning. Can you give me his number?"

Operator: "I think you mean the telephone point on the wall".

I could also tell you a story about how the doorknob on my bedroom door went crazy a while back and trapped me in there. Thank god I the hinges were inside

Both my bedroom and bathroom doors do this all the time. I don't even know how the lock is engaged, because there is no obvious way to lock the door that I can tell--it just happens when you fiddle with the handle in a certain way! I called maintenance over to see if they could fix it, and all they did was unlock both the doors and then give me a thin piece of wire to use in the little hole in the side facing the hallway if it locks again. Of course, this does me no good if I'm actually inside the room when it locks itself! I've taken to making sure I have a flathead screwdriver in both rooms to get the pins off.

From 1957: Spaceport of the Future (painting)

Awesome. From the awesome plan59 website.

Remember when I asked about the (to me) white lie to forestall a guy asking me out? I have been told that unless it's a stranger, that's cruel. Mostly I think that if he doesn't know whether I'm single or not, we're not that close, and I prioritise his feelings over the truth--I owe my friends the truth.

I haven't really changed my mind about how I'm going to deal with this guy, but now I've managed to make myself feel guilty about it.

Grr.

Oh for the good old days, when the family dressed up and watched TV together: [link]

A 1944 book or magazine for kids: Gay Teen Ideas

Gosh, do you think the girl on the cover really is... a teenager? Looks a little older to me....

eta: Also, WTF is supposed to be going on in this picture? [link]

Remember when I asked about the (to me) white lie to forestall a guy asking me out?

I don't think it's cruel, but IME it isn't necessarily effective. If he persists, you may need to say some version of "not interested."

Once upon a time, a former student of mine got up the gumption to ask me what my policy was on dating former students. While I gave him props for courage, I wasn't remotely attracted to him, so I just said that I didn't have a policy per se, but that I didn't think it was a good idea.

Funny how things turn out.

Gosh, do you think the girl on the cover really is... a teenager? Looks a little older to me....

She looks exactly like my mom did when she was in high school.