JJ

Dictionary.com: to fix - to influence the outcome of (something, especially a race, contest, or election) by illegal or underhanded means

I've been doing that for the past few years, add another find or two every Halloween. The octopus is my fave (bc it's *so very* bonkers 😂), but the bone snail with the skull shell and the teddy bear skeleton are strong runners-up.

Does it count if you inherited an (old, outdated) encyclopedia set from your parents?

My favorite of all the ones I've seen posted. 😍

I suspect anything Opus Dei is scrambling too hard to stay in existence right now to do anything else (thanks, Pope Leo!).

Stop getting my damn hopes up, I'm still bitter that I never got my corner taco truck. 😠

Don't get my hopes up, I'm still bitter about not getting my corner taco truck. Also, I believe that there was a promise that if Biden was elected, the US would become like Wales. But do we now have a dragon on our flag? We do not. 😭

I'm a dedicated descriptivist, but there are some new usages that have me closing my eyes and counting to ten, sometimes several times... *sigh*

So the term is "strong assurances" now? Hmm, I like the old word "lies" better, it's shorter, more to-the-point-ish, and less double-speak-y.

If that's what it takes to end it, I'm in. 😁

Fantastic! What's the middle vegetable, rutabaga?

Wow! Amazing!

Which raises the question of whether gremlins breed, or if mogwai are the only population source. Also, are gremlins functionally immortal if not actively blended or microwaved? I now realize I have a LOT of questions (which might be answered by rewatching the movies, I've forgotten a lot)

Or else, given that they seem to be native to China and not the Arctic, they just died. Although there seem to be a lot of gremlins in the far north (they blame the mechanical issues on the cold, but <shrug>).

I always assumed dawn, but I grew up in Alaska so I wondered what happened above the Arctic Circle. I eventually assumed that they fattened up in summer and hibernated in winter like other animals.

Gobi Desert is my guess, seeing as how they seem to be native to China or thereabouts.

Depends on your definition of "figured out": Continental drift was proposed (that is, "figured out") in 1912 (Lovecraft included it in his writing in the 30s), but it wasn't until the late 60s that the scientific community formally admitted that it accepted the theory.

Nah, the trick to keeping closet monsters from getting out is stuffing the closet so full, floor to ceiling, that they get wedged in with the rest of the junk (ask me how I know...).

Yeah, if my mom's family can avoid the heart disease that's lurking in the gene pool (a big if), they live forever, nothing else kills them no matter what stupid things they do. Unfortunately, the heart disease will strike anybody, no matter how careful or stupid they are.

OMG thank you for posting this! I didn't get to see any when I was in Okinawa (no idea why) so this makes my heart sing. 😍

My mom was an original Trekkie. She watched TOS episodes while nursing me when they first came out, got all her friends watching, and raised me on reruns (TOS episodes are the first non-cartoons I remember watching). Everything I've seen in fandom has proven to me that she was SO not alone.

This guy can tell his ahistoric "trekkies have always been men" nonsense to my mom, who nursed me while watching TOS when it first came out, talked about it w/all her friends, and raised me on the reruns. And that's just everyday fans, not all the hardcore fans, writers, producers, etc etc... 🙄

Sorry for the lecture, it's just that language acquisition is my jam (master's degree in it and years of teaching ESL). So I know that having a mom who exposes their kid to foreign languages is one of the biggest advantages your kid can have in learning one.

That said, your kid will probably pronounce the words better bc of knowing how they *should* sound. And there's nothing wrong w/having an "accent", I know people with foreign accents who are MUCH easier to understand than some of my "native English speaking" cousins.

But pronunciation is a physical thing of the mouth that needs actual practice (with feedback from interacting w/a native speaker of the language), so what vocab your kid picks up will be said w/an American accent (bc English sounds are the ones the kid is good at making, so they'll be the default).

Sorry but fyi, kids don't learn to speak languages from watching TV, decades of research on the subject says face-to-face interaction with other speakers of the language is necessary. Your kid *might* pick up a little vocab, mostly bc kids' shows say a lot of words clearly and in isolation.

Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party rounds out my top 3 (w/ thriller and monster mash)

I'm a carved law - a little abstract, but undeniably set in stone.

Once had a cat that completely ignored the sirloin steak I would occasionally make for myself, but the one time I brought home leftover filet mignon from a fancy dinner, he went bonkers. Sucked for him to have champagne tastes on my beer budget. 😹

I did the same with my kayak. Also voice commands. Weight shifting worked a little, but overall kayaks are very resistant.