Old Man

"So what is Groot, anyway?"
 
"He is Groot."
 
"Yes, but what is he supposed to be?"
 
"He is Groot."
 
"Very funny."

Or Danny Dunn?

Speaking as a demon, I consider it an insult to be compared to the cops in most of those localities.

As someone who played airsoft for quite some time, I can say that our club was pretty militant about making sure members kept their replicas in a case unless we were at a field or at home, for exactly this reason.  A cop who sees you waving what is designed to look exactly like a real gun around in public would be well within his rights to shoot you on sight.
 
That said, what's damning about this particular incident is the police report.  The responding officers originally claimed that they pulled up, talked to the kid for five minutes, and only opened fire when he became 'combative' and pointed the gun at them.  Then the surveillance video was released that showed their story was pretty much a complete fabrication.  If they didn't think they did anything wrong, why lie?

Last night my eldest (7) took all his remaining allowance and birthday money (~$40) and put it in an envelope to give to the church. He said, "The church needs it more than I do. It will help."
 
My wife and I were absolutely stunned. He's had his eyes on a big set of Legos for a while and was saving for that.

"So the villagers have never been in this dungeon."
 
"How do you know?"
 
"Because the dungeon is full of zombies and villagers don't like zombies."
 
"Why don't they like zombies?"
 
"The zombies come and attack the villagers, and turn them into zombies."
 
"Why don't the villagers attack the zombies and turn them into villagers?"
 
"Because it works like in real life, where the zombies eat the villagers' brains."
 
"Oh.  Okay."

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy
 
Chinese got a lotta hells, Jack.

A zeppelin? In Canada?

It turns out that's a myth, which is a good thing, because the nurse didn't even realise that I was...
 
I mean, look over there! It's a zeppelin!

Speak for yourself--I throw four dice to hit!

"It's not like any cheese I've ever seen." -Wallace

"Wensleydale?"

Here I must disagree with you. There are ample cases that indicate that in some cases local officials and voters act (or decline to act) in clear violation of both the spirit and letter of the Constitution and federal statute. The beating and drowning death of Joe Campos Torres by Houston PD officers, and subsequent prosecutorial inaction followed by trivial punishment on zero-weight local charges, is case I am most familiar with. In short, even had the local prosecutor been interested in pursuing more serious charges, the Texas justice system (at least at the time) made it more or less impossible to get a conviction even in a clear case. Federal civil rights charges were pressed because federal prosecution operates independently of state and local, and a broader interpretation of venue makes it possible to get convictions when a local community complicitly finds murder of certain ethnicities acceptable or perhaps even desirable.
 
And yes, locally, I am all but determined that Seattle PD needs to be torn down and rebuilt as a police force rather than an army of occupation. When a quarter of the non-suicide homicides that occur in the city in a year happen at the hands of the police, which is the case here, there is something rotten going on. Frankly, I also think the training facility -- there is only one -- for police here in WA needs reconstitution as well.

People have been known to fly to the mainland, buy a car there, and have it shipped back as the cheaper option. Dealer markup here is ludicrous.
 
Otherwise we get a lot of military types shipping their cars out from wherever when they get transferred here. I imagine those might have ice scrapers.
 
I remember going to the mainland on business once and finding an ice scraper on the dash of the rental. I was like "what the hell is this thing?" I think that was the Boston trip.

Aren't the elderly and sick just there to keep the predators from eating the young and fit?

That image search also turned up this work of art:
 

Do you know how that makes me feel?

Would it help if I told you that I have yet to be actually struck by a hurricane?  I guess my DCV is too high?

That image search also turned up this work of art:
 

Would it help if I told you that I have yet to be actually struck by a hurricane?  I guess my DCV is too high?

We've had fire ants for a long time.  For some reason they're not as commonplace as they are, like, everywhere on the mainland.  We also recently acquired what are called "little fire ants", which I guess are pretty much what the label says, although I have yet to actually encounter any.  Supposedly they're like a cross between regular fire ants and drop bears.
 
Have you seen these dudes that go around filling fire ant nests with molten aluminum? 
 

Yeah, I was fresh out of liquid nitrogen at the time.  Really need to get to the market.
 
Interestingly, while the yellow jackets' strong defensive position prevented me from knowing the full strength of their forces or the percentage of casualties I inflicted, it also created a choke point that stopped them from deploying effectively.  Had they been able to do so, their superior maneuverability, numbers, and arsedaggers might have inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat.  Instead, despite their high morale and determination, I was able to defeat their forces in detail with little risk to my own assets.

... if short-lived.

In a runaway-train-with-no-brakes sense, yes.

My eldest has two related medical conditrions that each require a different specialist. He had a checkup with each of them yesterday. Both doctors said he's doing great! One looked at his bloodwork and said, "you know what this blood marker means. It came back less than 2!" (Normal is less than 10. Less than 2 means undetectable to the test.) He sees the other doctor for intestinal issues. That doctor said, "Wait. You just said he went on his own? And this is becoming normal? You're down from three enemas a day to one? That's amazing!"