Wesley: Illyria can be...difficult. Testing her might be hard without getting someone seriously hurt. Angel: We'll make Spike do it. Wesley: Good.

'Underneath'


Natter 57 Varieties  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


lisah - Mar 20, 2008 8:31:43 am PDT #6191 of 10001
Punishingly Intricate

I went to Yahoo News to check on the basketball scores and noticed that one of the headlines is about one of my studies.

hah! My friend & I were going to have shirts made at one point that would read "Not Flirting, Just Friendly."

Happy Birthday, Mal!!!


sarameg - Mar 20, 2008 8:33:38 am PDT #6192 of 10001

My friend & I were going to have shirts made at one point that would read "Not Flirting, Just Friendly."

Er, so when you WERE flirting, you'd just, uh, take your shirts off? That's probably clear enough....

...

Scrappy, I'm sorry.


Ginger - Mar 20, 2008 8:35:50 am PDT #6193 of 10001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

Can anyone explain to me why the water supply is a public utility and the electric and gas lines are private companies, even though they essentially have a regional monopoly?

That actually differs throughout the country. Some municipalities supply water, gas and electricity. They usually buy the electricity through some kind of group buying with other cities. A few generate power or own part of a power plant. For example, the City of Dalton owns 3% of a nuclear plant.

There wasn't really any planning involved. The system jist growed. In Georgia, for example, a company called Georgia Electric Light Co. started a street lighting and streetcar service and built a dam to supply power to it. It then bought or merged with many other small companies to become Georgia Power. At one time, Georgia Power supplied natural gas, electricity and streetcar services to Atlanta, but SEC and federal court rulings forced them to sell the gas and streetcar businesses, mostly for antitrust reasons. The gas service was then supplied by a Atlanta Gas Light, but the city bought the streetcar system.

I suspect that cities supply water because cities have supplied water thousands of years. There are places where companies have bought the water system and operate it for the city.


lisah - Mar 20, 2008 8:36:00 am PDT #6194 of 10001
Punishingly Intricate

Er, so when you WERE flirting, you'd just, uh, take your shirts off? That's probably clear enough....

hah! Yeah. The reverse problem happens too often as well.


Glamcookie - Mar 20, 2008 8:36:33 am PDT #6195 of 10001
I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world. - Anne Lister

Still sending the ~ma for your niece, Scrappy.


juliana - Mar 20, 2008 8:39:00 am PDT #6196 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

So much ~ma for your niece, Scrappy.


bon bon - Mar 20, 2008 8:40:51 am PDT #6197 of 10001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

I... don't know. Developing an investment strategy based on the TV series Flip This House sounds kinda dumb to me, especially if you develop the strategy after the show's been on a couple of years.

You must have made a killing shorting the "reality tv-based strategies" fund.


tommyrot - Mar 20, 2008 8:43:53 am PDT #6198 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

A lot of the subprime mess comes from mortagage brokers offering credit to people of very poor risk - in many cases they didn't even verify the applicant's employment. The mortagage broker would then get its commission (regardless of whether the loan went bad or not) and pass all the risk to the bank. The bank would then pass the risk on by packaging the loan with other iffy loans.

From this line of questioning and the guy's answer:

Q: This is your loan file. What do Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald do for a living?
A: I don't know. Open it up and find it.

etc...

I assumed that this was one of those mortgages with no verification of the employment of Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald. If I'm right, then I think I could make the case that the mortgage broker is being mendacious in offering the loan to Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald without verifying their income. Certainly someone involved in the packaging of subprime loans was.


lisah - Mar 20, 2008 8:45:26 am PDT #6199 of 10001
Punishingly Intricate

Still sending the ~ma for your niece, Scrappy.

this


lisah - Mar 20, 2008 9:05:43 am PDT #6200 of 10001
Punishingly Intricate

Flight of the Conchords fans (Matilda!) need to get the new issue of Bust.

[link]