u/OttoHemi

"The die is cast" is a variation of the words spoken by Julius Caesar at the crossing of the Rubicon. It means, of course, that a decision or action is final, absolute, and impossible to change. But here's how stupid I am: I had no idea that it literally meant throwing dice. In my mind it came from "die casting," the metal-working process used for producing everything from moveable type to injection molds. Once the die is cast, it can't be changed, so it's final. But that ain't it. It's that once the die is thrown, you can't change the outcome (apparently they didn't have loaded dice in ancient Rome).

Doesn't matter if I wear them over the belly (Florida) or under (Texas), they just won't stay up. I can cinch my belt as tight as I can, but by the time I'm halfway through the supermarket, I'm sagging like a hip-hop musician. And, although I wore them as a fashion statement in the '80s, I don't think I'm ready to face suspenders.

That's right...a septuagenarian. But as we learned on Jeopardy! recently, we're all mispronouncing it. You've got to get that "U" sound in there: sep-ˌtü-ə-jə-ˈner-ē-ən. If it helps you to remember, you can just think of the Hawk Tuah Girl.

I mean the city in the show. Note: I also felt the same way about the Apple TV show Tehran, especially since it had a huge story arc about disabling Iran's air defenses (turns out that wasn't really necessary IRL). But something they both have in common is a fairly robust Westernization of the populace with lots of drinking and drugs. I wonder if this still goes on, and how it will be addressed in future seasons. It just seems to me they'd have to give up a whole lot of the drama.

On normal days, I usually turn it on at noon when I eat lunch, then leave it on in the background while I work on my computer until 4:00 p.m. when I watch it continuously until 9:00 p.m. Should I turn it off after lunch to save those four hours? Or is cycling it on and off more harmful?

I went to the dentist today for my 6-month checkup. They took x-rays, did the thing where they scrape your teeth with that pick thing, then polish them, then floss. It's the same cleaning I've been getting all my life. Went to check out, and they said that would be $118. But my insurance says checkups are free? Well, because you had a deep cleaning in the past, you now get a periodontal maintenance. But it sure feels like the same thing. No, it's not. What's the difference, besides the name? No answer.

Okay. But my question now is, can I just start seeing a new dentist and go back to getting regular cleanings?

Like when my iPhone went out of Do Not Disturb mode, I'd get a notification on my iMac. Same with any phone call I got, the number would show up as an alert in Notifications. Now it's stopped. I haven't changed any settings, and have done no system updates. What happened?

My midwest Kroger store has been running a weekly coupon in their mailers that gives $5 off on a $50 purchase. That’s a pretty good discount—10%. That is, if you buy exactly $50 worth of groceries. You go above that, and the discount lessens. A few times I’ve been able to come out to almost exactly that amount (once having to add a candy bar to get there), but that’s rare.

And here’s the other problem: sometimes I have coupons that come due all at once, or there are big items on sale that I can freeze, so I need to spend a lot more than $50. The only way that would work is if I bought $50 worth of stuff, then went back in with another coupon and bought $50 more. But isn’t that just a little too much work? Still other times I have to put off buying things I need just so I can keep it at $50 each week.

Honestly, most of the time, I don’t even get near that $50 amount for my weekly groceries (I’m single), so it doesn’t really matter. But the times when it does can be nerve-wracking.

It ain’t easy being frugal.

H.G. Wells 19th Century classic sci-fi novel (maybe even the first) is about an invasion of Earth by aliens who succeed at first but are furiously fought against and eventually defeated by dumb luck and earthly pathogens.

Nevil Shute’s 1957 apocalyptic novel focuses on humanity trying to survive in the aftermath of nuclear holocaust. The search for other living beings is a small subplot (heh, literally), but it’s mostly just a story about a bunch of people dealing with dwindling resources and growing fatalism.

So far, Pluribus seems a lot more like the latter than the former. Which way will it go in season 2?