ArtieShaw

My husband had a weird job many years ago doing this very thing. He worked (via a temp agency) for the federal government. They reviewed hospital billings for their agency’s workers and send mildly threatening letters if they charged $12,000 for a procedure that averaged $5,000.

It had some success, but some states had outright outlawed this sort of thing. Texas.

Not a doctor, but I’m interested in the subject. I think the current consensus is “yes and no.”

200 years ago, people may have answered yes. Thirty years ago it was popular to discount the idea entirely because germs are what make you sick. Can’t deny that.

Lately I’ve been hearing some acknowledgement that a stress to your body may make you more susceptible or less able to fight off an infection. The wiki article includes a recent study that pointed to poor sewage treatment near the White House in Harrison’s day. For whatever reason WHH wasn’t able to fight that off but the rest of the residents seemingly were.

People have been making the connection of “he stood outside for hours in the snow and drizzle, then caught the dropsy and died” for centuries. I don’t think they lacked for sense or couldn’t make the obvious connection between exposure and sickness. I do think they lacked for microscopes.

Hoping for another Wm. Henry Harrison?

When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe… He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day.[104] He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history

In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30 p.m. he uttered his last words…

The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier.

Things one learns in high school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison

I would say that the hair is the set of raccoons that hang out on the roof of the house and do weird shit at unexpected times.

Pippin has a hell of a fight face.

It seems like everyone is talking about these cascading failures.

It sounds like she had a lot of fun in your home. I try to remember things like that when I’m feeling a loss like this.

hotel and meal vouchers

In the US? Not in the past decade. I usually get a link to an app that’s like shitty Expedia for local hotels. You can race to compete for rooms with other stranded passengers while your partner tries to re-book the flight for the next day. “I’m sorry - all flights are full until next Tuesday. We can put you on standby, but there’s a list of people ahead of you.”

This probably goes hand in hand with the trend of providing sleepable bench seating in airports. For awhile they were doing the anti-homeless park bench design. You’ll have to fight your fellow passengers for space, but it’s better than the floor at DIA or ORD.

masks in the cabin aren’t designed to keep you awake. They’re just designed to keep you alive.

In that situation I’m perfectly fine with that. More than perfectly fine, in fact. Sounds like a feature I’d pay extra for (don’t tell United).

Right? I think that gave him a reverse Uno card of some kind. Hmmm. That did seem to smooth over some things.

True - and I think that drove a lot of his early popularity. His entire head is unfortunate and his name seems like a cruel joke. He embraced nerd things that are relative to my interests. Basic empathy and compassion kick in when you see something like that. From a first impression, he just seemed to have been dealt poor hand in life.

Then he started talking. Damn.

I honestly can’t let this older one go. But no one seems to be talking about it lately.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich

https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1862257_1862325_1862324,00.html

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-shadow-of-marc-rich

Right. In that episode, Pakleds were snaring the Samaritans. Basically grifting their way through the universe by taking advantage of good Samaritans. OP is still not quite nailing it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Faye_Messner

Some people just like to fuck their shit up.

Oh, those eyes. You are about to be murdered.

This advice always gets downvoted, but it works for me. I’ll offer it for what it is.

When I lose something I’ll take a moment and politely ask the thieving house elves to give it back. Then I stop thinking or stressing about it. I usually find it within a day.

I heard a version of this sentiment in 2016. I was sitting near a well-dressed elderly couple at the regional airport. The woman was on her phone, explaining her support for Trump. I’ll paraphrase.

“He knows so many rich people! He’ll appoint them to the government, and they won’t steal from it because they’ve already got so much money they won’t want to.”

I disagree with that statement for so many reasons, but that’s what she expressed. This opinion was boggling enough at the time that it stuck with me almost ten years later.

That’s an odd question without an easy answer. And the question is vague enough that it probably doesn’t warrant a serious answer.

“Small pharma” plays many roles. One of the most basic is working with “big pharma,” whether in research or manufacturing commercial products.

But I’m going on 30 years on the scientific side of this business, so I’m trying to avoid going into a whole spiel on the topic.

Having moved to Canada as a 23 y-o with a valuable (NAFTA approved) skill set that got me a quick but temporary work visa. Hahahahaha. No.

At the time, the process for landed immigrant status took 2 years and $1,500 in 1996 money (neither of which I had to spare).

My best advice is to look at the official immigration website. If you feel like there’s some special loophole, consult an immigration lawyer from Canada. It will be worth the money, even if they can simply spell out the reasons why you shouldn’t waste your time.

Also - good luck finding housing in Canada. It was bad in 1996 and hasn’t gotten better.

Not that I know of, although he does seem almost aggressively nice? Surely he’s hiding something.

Since you mentioned the possibility - I’ve never had an actual Foley encounter, but one time while at a restaurant in TO in the early 2000s we were pretty sure we spotted Dave Foley in full Kathy costume at the next table. I’m sure it wasn’t him, but sometimes we talk about that time “we saw Dave Foley’s mom” at the restaurant down the street.

I’d be sadder to encounter Kevin on a bad day