mike carey

My fave is, '8. There are 10 types of people in this world. Those that know binary, and those that don’t.' Honourable mention to the two crows and the programmer and 12 loaves of bread.

It's gotta be Julie Covington!

South Africans, sometimes mischievously, have claimed this. After all, Afrikaners have been in Africa for as long as African-Americans have been in the Americas. (And what does Afrikaner mean?)

Ace, regardless of anything else, you are completely professional in here. And apart from that, you are a joy to talk with. More fool him. Regardless of age, I know you two would blow me away!

I wouldn't capitalise it, I think it's more analogous to black and white which I also wouldn't capitalise when used about race. In general I would use a capital for groups that are described by national or continental origin, but not groups that are described by a characteristic. In English, country names and the derived adjectives (France, French unless for windows) and organised religions are traditionally capitalised. (In French, the adjectives for countries are not.) To add an element of confusion, I wouldn't capitalise indigenous or aboriginal. Except for Aboriginal/Aborigine in Australia which has become a name, not just a description. I don't see gay/Gay as an issue to go to the barricades about, though!

I wonder if it could be that they don't like the word 'pro' (as in the oldest profession, not pro meaning professional). That he said 'but thanks for the compliment' implies to me that he was reacting to one particular aspect of your communication not the overall message.

I had the complementary initial thought to Greg's. My thought was that there were other sorts of opposites in people apart from their gender so it's only partly true. But that misses the point of the joke, which is to focus on that big difference.

Happy birthday!!

The happiest of happy birthdays!

What is this 'paying by check at the grocery store' of which so many of you speak. [*no I'm not talking about the spelling of check/cheque. Here grocery stores do not accept cheques at all.]

He's apparently not readily available at the moment. Whether that will change is not clear.

Seven to 10 days for me, but I sometimes lose track of the time. I spend time in two houses, so how many times I've slept in the two beds can be hard to keep track of.

Both are fascinating but in completely different ways. Rapa Nui for those statues, and as a study of the results of an unsustainable society, and the Galápagos Islands as a kaleidoscopic display of natural history and geology. It takes longer to do the Galápagos justice.

@VictorPowers is the only one about whom I'd alert others to on that score. (Teasing alert, not serious comment.)

He was escortrod in here but his profile is closed, and his RM ad seems to be gone too.

Interesting, if the ATO sends a cheque, it is always the bottom quarter (or thereabouts) of an A4 page (perforated so it can be removed neatly), the top part of that page has all the explanatory information and goes onto extra (cheque-free) pages if there is more information to convey.

Shoes and socks.

I've seen discussion of this elsewhere, including IIRC from Dan Savage (not that he has the final word). Much of it has been along the lines that there are separate strands of sexual attraction of which physical and romantic attraction are two. Both are real but not everyone is attracted to the same gender for both, or to the same gender for both in equal measure. This society would prioritise the opposite sex attraction over the same sex one whichever way those preferences fell and say, 'not gay'. I don't think we should do that, but rather allow the person concerned to decide how to describe themselves. (I noticed what I did there, I conflated sex and gender, and wrote as if both were binary. That was not part of the point I was making.)

Thanks Matt, well focussed comments.

I'm sure he's been too engaged with the real world to have been in here, but it's @David-SF birthday on 6 Sep. Happy birthday mate, hope you are having a great day (with a friend, I'm sure).

I think the red thumbs up under your name on the left of the screen answers your question. Guy was apparently initially unable to identify you as being the donor he read as 'douterman'.

That strikes me as not insurance but a savings plan. Insurance should provide you with the same benefit regardless of how long you have paid premiums, and cease to offer any benefit if you cease payments. I guess if you knew what it offered when you started the plan, what you call it isn't important. (I have an endowment insurance policy which offers a death payout and separately a savings element that I can cash out or add to the payout if I die while the policy is active. It seemed like a good idea at the time but in retrospect it was a poor investment.)

To a regular poster, it's annoying, but if you were an infrequent or irregular poster who had asked a specific question, it would be useful as you'd receive an e-mail when a reply was posted to your question.

Proof positive that the ancient Greeks had discovered the Americas! Why weren't we told?

Happy birthday, hope you have a great day.