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They'll never stop. The philosophies they preach are very lucrative to a certain class of people. That class will always be able to afford mouthpieces. The philosophy will always have adherents beyond that class because it states that if you disagree, you're a lazy pansy.

That's great-- assuming we expand the train capacity to where it was. From what I'm hearing out of red line commuters, additional cars/trains are less about excitement and more about relief.

I haven't ridden it for a while, but from what I'm hearing, three-car trains is the only way the western red line can handle any more road closings. The trains are crazy full already, even if the parking lots aren't quite at capacty.

Interesting choice of location for a church group-- right on debauchery lane, right where they hold Rover-fest. They might as well set up in the bathroom of a strip club.

If that could be done with some sort of Super Mario moving platforms, I'd be interested. And anyone who thinks Tremont to downtown via Lorain Ave is workable needs to come try it one time. That's ridiculous. From Tremont you should be able to walk or bike to downtown and to Broadway.

Agreed generally, but some highways and bridges really are important. We're fooling ourselves if we think the red line can make up for the 90 bridge-- the red line is already at or near capacity on the west side, and so is the bus system. The problem is not cars or suburbs, the problem is the fact that Cleveland has a canyon in the middle. You won't find many other large cities like that. It creates special transportation challenges. I've heard nothing so far about walking lanes on either of these bridges, which I thought we were supposed to get.

That to me sounds like down is up and red is blue. Put downtown on an island and within two years, all the offices move to Westlake. Getting people from place to place is good, not bad.

I don't remember what those are called either, but he's still writing them and they're going into sci-fi Indiana Jones territory.

He is the modern master of a genre that can often be too full of itself. To make it work it has to be deeply detailed, which he does. But he adds an awareness and a realistic filth level that it never had before. And I love his device of running you through different people's minds to see everything. It needs to become a movie fast, I can't believe more people don't know about those books. It will make you like that stuff again.

I've been to weddings there and never seen anything like that, that's tremendous. I meant the cookies, but I've been in that church too and it's great. The weddings I go in Warren just have liquor and cameras. Though not in that church, I mean after.

I didn't read the last (fourth) one. Huge fans told me it sucked. It's all that one girl, they say. Maybe I'll read it when school's over, just to get ready for the next one. I didn't realize he was in bad shape. That's the worst, when they go, and that's happened to a lot of series. There is graffiti on a toilet paper dispenser in a bathroom at school that says something nasty in Tolkien language. You have to have not only read the Hobbit, but taken the time to personally translate the map from the front, in order to be in on that joke.

Same general idea. Noodles & mashed potatoes generally aren't done with just plain noodles; usually there's beef or chicken, and the liquid is thicker, like gravy. The version I'm familiar with spared the beef or chicken but not the salt. The generation that raised me came of age in the Great Depression; it well may be from those times - an economical way to feed a hard-working family. After working outside in winter as a teenager, I was always happy to see it on the table. Nothing satisfies a hungry stomach quicker. This is also a way to do stroganoff.

In honor of the economy, here are my college recipes. Nice and simple and cheap. The SANDWICH Toast Mayo Tomato Hot pepper rings *** GORP: a casserole 1 package Hamburger Helper, prepared as directed 1 family serving mashed potatoes 1 can random vegetable Dump, dump, stir. *** GOOP: a multifaceted Mexican substance 1 lb. ground beef or substitute 1 package taco seasoning 1 can refried beans Make taco meat as directed. Dump in beans, and cut up hot peppers if you want, fry a little more. Use as dip or filling or salad fixture or just as goop. *** SLOP: involves elements from the Middle East through Southeast Asia... based primarily on Thai matsaman 1 lb. some kind of meat or substitute (pork or chicken or lamb is best) 1 medium onion 1 can coconut milk 1 can sliced new potatoes Handful of peanuts Handful of raisins Curry paste, not powder 1 family serving of rice Sesame oil, soy sauce, cumin, coriander, cardamom, garlic, ginger, black pepper Cut up meat and onion. Throw in peanuts. Coat with everything from the last ingredient line. Not much soy sauce, especially if the peanuts had salt. Fry. Dump the potatoes in toward the end of frying. You may want to cut them up a little with the spatula. Dump in coconut milk. Add curry to taste. Simmer. Make rice while you're doing all this, adding the raisins and some of the spices you put on the meat originally. Dump the stew on the rice.

Re: massage parlors, go to Warren. They've got to be the US capitol of Asian massage parlors. It's unreal how many there are there, and how open they are about being there. Big billboards. Group ads in the Free Times for places all over Warren. In Columbus I lived next door to a rental dominatrix. :whip: She sometimes taped it and let us hear some. She was pretty open about it, so I assumed it was legal. I also assumed she never had sex with them because she was gay, and she didn't work with girls. She was ordering people to drink out of their toilets and stuff like that. She was also, in real life, some kind of priestess. Or at least she said that's what the knife was for. So I agree, a little regulation might be best for everyone. One of the topics suggested, and rejected by me, for my big thesis paper was that prostitution should be legal for the sake of those who can't get anything else. They have needs and they have rights too. It's better if they don't keep it bottled up for years on end. Interesting argument, but unnecessary, because there's no reason to make it illegal in the first place.

A Song of Ice and Fire is probably my all time favorite series. HBO has purchased the rights to it and supposedly it's already gone through a couple of script iterations. I really hope they don't blow it if it get green lit. A Dance with Dragons was supposed to be out months ago but it's still totally up in the air as to when it'll be done (according to his own blog entry). Didn't know move versions were that far along. Sweet. HBO is a good place for it, since the themes are so... adult. The first one does start out a little slow, just because there are so many characters and relationships to introduce. I've had friends who love the genre give up on Game of Thrones about 1/3 through. DO NOT DO THIS. The payoff is there. Plus, the third book is in a class by itself. Anyone who read six WOT books owes it to themselves to at least read Martin's first three. I got through 3.5 WOT books and could not continue. The only aspect of that series I liked was "the ways." But I couldn't get over how Jordan would name people to match their initial personalities (loyal, naive, etc).

every day, one way or another...... You're lucky she doesn't read this. But yes, you're totally right.

No way. But live and let live.

sounds like shepherds pie! Yeah, pretty much. You just don't bother baking it.

Absolutely.

By the third day you really don't want any more gorp. But you need the pan, and if you weren't too poor to throw food away, you wouldn't have made gorp in the first place. I ate a lot of hamburger helper growing up. I'd still be eating it today, but they quit making all the versions I liked. I now have a pan-Asian thing I make called slop. It costs a few bucks more but it's worth it.

Gorp, we called it. Goop was more of a taco dip, eaten with chips or in roll-ups, or as a casserole by itself, or as a salad dressing. I still make goop but not gorp.

Forget Wheel of Time. Wheel of Time cannot touch the Fire and Ice series by George Martin. Game of Thrones, etc. Read those first. There's a new one coming out soon.

Watch out with some of those temp deals. I encountered a situation where the client company wanted to hire me full time, but the contract I had to sign to get in there attached a $12,000 fee to any direct hire, if I hadn't worked a full year as a temp or something. Some sort of revenue guarantee for the agency. Another time, I told the Area Temps in Lakewood I was looking for downtown or west side, so they gave me E 69th & Quincy ("that's downtown, right?"). If I turned that down, despite my initial request, they wanted nothing to do with me. I took the job, and that place also wanted to cut out the middleman, since they were paying 12/hour for me to get 7/hour. No dice. I quit when they found a dead body out front, her shoes laid out nicely beside her. So ask about that sort of thing whenever you deal with agencies.

Depends on the features, whether you're overpaying. If that includes heat, and the place has AC, private W/D, maybe a dishwasher, and ample parking for both of you, it isn't a ridiculous number at all. That's 450 apiece, which is about what I'm paying once you add in the ENOURMOUS gas bills. 900 plus gas, without some of those amenities, would be well above the typical Lakewood deal. I was comparing your raw number with my raw number (650 for 2BR) when I initially freaked out.

A roundabout way of doing this is to put hamburger helper over mashed potatoes, with some random can of vegetables mixed in. Ten bucks feeds you for three days.