Matt the Bruins

And like the monsters in the 2014 Godzilla, it seemed to be constantly following the main characters around the setting despite them being too small for it to take any notice of most of the time!

We had snow all day yesterday, I think 7" to 10" was the final verdict. Felt like I'd be running into McReady and Childs when I was out in it for a doctor's appointment. Wind chill was at -10°F overnight, though now it's up to -2°F and a balmy 11° real temperature in the afternoon sun. (The mama alley cat I fed this morning was NOT HAPPY about walking in snow that was shoulder deep on her.)

Thank goodness your daughter is okay! I know dealing with insurance and repair shops is aggravating, but any auto accident where the people involved emerge largely unhurt is a great outcome.

It had a giant lizard eating trains full of people. OF COURSE it appealed to kids!

I know the Four Zoas are from William Blake's poetry regarding religion and metaphysics, but I've never tended to think of them as "magic" in the same way that, say, the assorted pantheons of gods worshiped by human beings are. To my way of thinking they, and the forces/planes/emanations that are even higher up the Tree of Life, are operating in states of being where magic and cosmic are effectively the same thing. Sort of like how in Marvel comics Eternity and Death as conceptual entities first appeared in Dr. Strange books, but they are also known to and interact with Galactus, Captain Mar-vell, and other cosmic/scientific characters.

Deleted because I was getting too off topic.

I suspect it had more to do with his fights with Marvel/Disney execs about what to include in Age of Ultron and his complaints about the studio during the marketing campaign. Biting the hand that feeds you and hamstringing your own movie's promotion as it's being released are frowned upon by studios, even if the thing does end up earning over a billion dollars.

I mean, all action hero actors can't be Sigourney Weaver. I'd like it if they tried not to be Roseanne Barr, though. I was prepared to give Carano a pass on the pronouns thing because it was in response to trans activists badgering her about *not* having put her pronouns on her profile. As a member of the LGBTQ community myself, I can admit that some of our activists have gotten overzealous on the issue lately, and I'm all too familiar with the experience of counterattacking someone in an argument using terms that are insensitive toward outside parties. But the fuller span of her social media show her promoting every QAnon conspiracy theory she runs across, and equating being disagreed with to being a victim of the Holocaust is just the last straw.

Wasn't there one where he spun his tail to provide lift like helicopter blades and used his atomic breath to propel himself?

I do recall instruction in the basics of civics, including the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and government functions, in my regular 9th grade Social Studies class. Which was a basic requirement for all students not exempted by Special Ed classes—in the Deep South, no less. Mind you that was 35 years ago so there's no telling how much useful information has been scrubbed from the curriculum in favor of native genocide apologia and celebration of Texas frontier heroes in the intervening generations.

Stark was a super egotist who assumed that he'd thought of all the variables and knew best despite his judgment having been proven to be terrible again and again. I wouldn't count on him having identified unforeseen wide-scale consequences of undoing the snap (remember, such only exist because of his insistence that the disintegrated people and animals be brought back 5 years later, rather than undoing it the instant it happened) in the constant slugfest between Bruce using the gauntlet and him doing so. Indeed, his standard operating procedure would have had him refusing to acknowledge that he'd overlooked anything in their previous agreed-upon plan and shouting down any naysayers until presented with overwhelming evidence of it not working exactly as intended.

I heard an anecdote about a comic convention many years ago where Jimenez spotted Perez on the convention floor, yelled "Dad!" with his arms outstretched, and got an immediate "Son!" response and a hug from Perez. 😆

I've had pickled herring, but I'm sure it's nothing like the fermented variety in flavor. I remain skeptical that it could be the smelliest food in a world where durians and limburger cheese exist.

I've found there are limits to that sort of conditioning. Eating a big slab of fudge cake at my grandmother's just before coming down ill with several days of stomach flu made me hate the taste of fudge throughout most of my childhood, but eventually I overcame it. (The pepperoni thing is more persistent, but it made me sick a number of times before we figured out the culprit, and a few after when the devil sausage made it into pizzas unbeknowst to me.)

You got more notice than my mom did. She read her email at the end of the day Wednesday and found out that she'd been notified (not by text or call as she'd expected, but by email) at 11 something a.m. that the vaccine was available that day at the pharmacy she'd registered with, and she should contact them immediately to make an appointment before they closed. Oh, and when she called to see if they might also be inoculating people Thursday the answer was not only no, but she discovered that the pharmacy had helpfully removed her name from the waiting list since they hadn't heard back from her about making an appointment the previous day and assumed she'd gone elsewhere. I am more than mildly peeved now, and if my mother should contract Covid-19 in the next month and die from it (she's almost 82, has heart problems, and has developed pneumonia in the hospital previously) there are some pharmacy techs who better pray to every god they know of that it kills me too, and fast.

When I was growing up, asparagus was a bitter green-gray mush that came out of a can and was stewed in a pot for far too long. Now that I buy and cook my own damn food it's fresh stalks from the produce section that get drizzled with olive oil and a bit of salt and pan-seared. The latter preparation tastes great; the former remains an abomination.

American cheese goes great melted atop hamburger patties and between bread in a grilled cheese sandwich. I don't think it's good to snack on by itself the way a lot of other cheeses are, though. Regarding chicken livers, I once made converts of an entire family of Minneapolis natives when I was seated in the spare seat at their table in a Japanese steakhouse and ordered them as my appetizer. The cries of "ew, gross!" quickly gave way to requests for a sample when the scent from the grill hit them, and I was happy to share with everyone. The consensus was that the livers were better than what everyone else chose as appetizers. Though the one time I got an order of livers mixed up with gizzards I was not only unable to eat any myself, my recently-adopted alley cats turned their noses up at them when offered. This was within a few months of them rooting through dumpsters for edible garbage, so I took that as my guide going forward. I'm of the same mind as your co-worker. I loved the stuff at first taste, and will happily scarf it down when I'm visiting the coasts (not so much inland, where I've run afoul of less than fresh servings). But I do completely understand how that flavor and texture combination could strike people as disgusting.

I don't think Godzilla is short in those clips, he's using an aircraft carrier like a floatie raft!

The things I hate that *everyone* seems to love are pepperoni and beer. (I am, as you might imagine, great fun at parties! 😆) Pepperoni used to make me violently ill as a kid, and I formed a strong aversion to it. I've tried it as an adult and not had the extreme reaction, but it still smells and tastes awful. I never acquired the taste for beer, and I'd rather drink soda or water than spend more money to drink something unpleasant. In general I strongly dislike mayonnaise and similar salad dressings. I want the smallest amount feasible in tuna or chicken salad, and it ruins sandwiches it's slathered on against my request. The one exception is that once every few years I get a craving for pickle and pimento loaf, and a light brushing of mayo really sets those sandwiches off nicely. Ranch dressing is foul unless I'm dipping fried pickles in it, in which case it's wonderful. Definitely in the "it depends" camp. I really like crumbly Danish blues, and Roaring Forties from Australia is the food of the gods. The generic blue crumbles you find in supermarkets are pretty good on salads and with olives. But Roquefort might as well be someone's wet, dirty feet as far as I'm concerned. Generally I find that the more moisture in a blue cheese, the less I like it.

Good luck man. Hopefully any symptoms your wife suffers will be minor and short-lived.

I don't imagine that magic mushrooms that extend across space, time, and into other dimensions (including, apparently, the afterlife!) and let an aircraft carrier-sized spaceship teleport wherever/whenever instantaneously by pumping their spores into a booth with the engineer strapped into an electric chair are going to be winning over that much of the Life Science crowd either. The revelers at Burning Man, maybe...

Another new adopter of Doom Patrol here. Weirdly I'm enjoying almost all of it except Robotman. Fraser is playing him too close to Homer Simpson-as-superhero for my liking. I also caught up to the current CBS (re)broadcast schedule of Star Trek Discovery and I'm enjoying it much more than expected. The plot developments with Jason Isaacs' and Michelle Yeoh's characters suited me more than well.

The only infectious disease I know I've transmitted all year was the bug that killed my new kitten and put one of my adult cats in the hospital. I distinctly remember the big gray alley cat I fed in the weeks previous sneezing loudly, so I suspect that's where I got it from. (Had no symptoms myself so I assume it was a cat-specific disease and the safety measures I employ for Covid-19 just weren't enough of a barrier.)

I still don't know what it is, but it helps make a very tasty spiced tea.