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Where were you when you heard that John Lennon had been killed?

(For me, it was the next morning. I can't remember if I heard it first on a Good Morning America kind of show or not, but I remember that my father drove me to school that morning for some reason, and that the news was on the radio. At the time, I honestly didn't know anything at all about the Beatles.)

A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter

Favorite Disney villain -- GO!

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Leaves: rake 'em or leave 'em?

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Oh yeah, today's Wednesday, innit? Sorry!

You're with some people, and you all chip in for pizza. When it comes down to a single slice left...do you eat it? (I saw this question someplace else this week. Apparently this is one of those social conundra.)

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Everybody has something that's less than two hours' drive from their home that they've never gone to see, even though they know they should. What's yours?

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It's Costume Season! I saw this creative one on Facebook this morning:

Got any plans to do the costume thing this Halloween? And if so, what's the costume? If not, what's the best costume you've ever seen?

(Cubist photo via)

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Last day of vacation: Do you try to squeeze in one last adventure, or do you catch up on domestic odds-and-ends before returning to work?

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That lunar eclipse was pretty cool, right? Did you all get to see it?

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Hey everybody! Yes, I'm still alive. Yes, I'm still in a blogging slow-down due to work on two books at the same time. Keep checking in, though! I do have content coming, eventually.

Anyway, I have a point-counterpoint thing today. Point: A couple that has taken their adoration of the Victorian era to really high levels..

Counterpoint: Screw those idiots. (Second article is a tad foul-mouthed.)

I'm of mixed mind on this sort of thing. I honestly tend to default to "live and let live" on stuff like this, but on the other hand, I always have a hard time when people start evangelizing in favor of their time-period of choice, the point on the clock beyond which they think everything started trending downhill. There's a fine line between admiring certain stylistic things about an earlier time, and fetishizing it to the point of cherry picking the stuff we liked.

But then, my mixed reaction to things like this might just be simply because my preferred time period is four hundred years in the future, so there's that.

Thoughts?

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So a coworker showed me a photo he took of a bumper sticker he saw on another vehicle. The sticker read: "My autistic student ignored your Honor student." Neither of us could figure out what the heck that means.

Anybody got any idea what that sticker is saying? Is it something good about autistic students, something bad about Honor students, neutral on either, what?

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Fall is nearly upon us. What's your favorite thing about fall?

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Ever re-read, and love, a book you were made to read, and hated, in school? Which book?

A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter

This question is, I suppose, pretty much limited to non-teachers and non-retired people: How do you allocate your vacation time?

What I mean is this: suppose you get, say, three weeks of vacation time a year. Do you take three entire weeks off? Or do you scatter the days off throughout the year by taking a three-day weekend here, a four-day weekend there, and so on?

I do the latter. I will take a full week off if we actually have a trip planned that requires it, but otherwise, I prefer to just take four-day, five-day, or even the occasional six-day weekend. I'll take Friday and Monday off, or Thursday-Friday-Monday, or if I'm feeling extravagant, I'll throw in the Tuesday as well. Now, taking the entire week off means getting nine days off from work in a row, as opposed to the four, five, or six I get doing it my way, but here's the thing: I always find it hard to return to a full work week after taking an entire week off. By the time I get to Thursday morning in that first week back, I'm inhaling fumes. I don't know what it is, but bracketing a bit of time off with a pair of shortened work weeks really appeals to me, so that's the way I almost always use my vacation time. (Plus, this way allows me to get a bit of time off more often. I'm not just scheduling my entire weeks off and being done with it.)

This question also assumes that you're allowed to scatter your vacation time thusly. I did work for one company that required that all vacation time be used in full-week chunks, so you had to do the nine-day-off thing.

What say you, folks?

(Yes, this question arises from my having just been on a four-day vacation weekend. And it was awesome.)

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How messy is your desk?

Mine is probably just past the point where a neat freak would go "GAHHH!!!!" at the sight of it, but I don't think my desk is really messy, either. I think I'm generally in-between. My whole library area could use some tidying, though. Maybe on an upcoming long weekend....

How about you?

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BLTs: Yay or nay?

And if "yay", how do you make yours? (As in, what kind of bread, condiments, do you add anything other than B, L, and T, et cetera.)

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Should we get rid of the dollar bill in favor of a coin?

And what changes would you make to US currency in general?

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An early episode of South Park established that if Cartman hears the tiniest snippet of "Come Sail Away" by Styx, he has to sing the entire song. I suspect we all have a song that we just have to finish if we hear its beginning, no matter where we are...call it a "Stay In The Car" song. What's yours?

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Asking this question with no hint that it is relevant to anything going on in my life today whatsoever...what's the most expensive car repair you've ever had to pay for?

I'll sit back and glower at the replies. (For no reason, really.)

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Startin' to get a little warm, innit? So recommend to me some cold summer dishes! Salads, fruit dishes, adult drinks, non-adult drinks, whatever!

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I'm always wary of people who claim to have 'OCD', but I do believe that we all have little OCD tendencies. Here's one of mine: I always try to arrange the eggs in the carton in such a way as to be symmetrical.


What are you 'OCD' about?