Don Edwards

Yep. In her own mind, "works at the video store" became part of Susan's identity. Now she's contemplating NOT working at the video store, the video store being closed and the shelves and counters bare. And even in that state, she's mentally still in the video store.

Indiana used to also ignore DST. From what I read (and if I remember correctly), the state legislature commissioned a study of the economic impact, and found that taking up DST like the rest of the country would have an economic impact on the state's economy of NEGATIVE 3 billion dollars a year - so they decided to do it.

Relative to where the time-zone lines would be if not adjusted for geographic and political barriers and various sillier reasons, most of the US was *already* an hour ahead of where we should be - and then most of the US (I think everywhere in the States except Arizona, plus the Navajo reservation in Arizona, minus the Hopi reservation inside the Navajo reservation in Arizona; dunno about territories and possessions) just shifted the clock another hour ahead. And people keep saying we should keep the clocks that way year-round. So which of the following do YOU think is a better idea: A ) Grade-school kids in rural areas standing by the side of the road in the dark before sunrise, waiting for the school bus - and then having plenty of light in the evening to get off the school bus and run into the house. B ) Grade-school kids in rural areas standing by the side of the road AFTER sunrise, when it's light so people can see them, waiting for the school bus - and then getting off the school bus in the dark and running into the house. Me, I like B better. So DST in winter is a bad idea. Whether summer DST is useful is questionable, but at worst (and as far as I'm aware) it's merely a silly and somewhat wasteful idea - not an actively bad one. And yes it's real. We tried A for a year while I was in high school - and after a second-grader in the district I was in was hit by a car and carried to the hospital, the school district shifted its schedule so school started at 9:45. The little girl didn't return to school that year and is crippled for life.

Actually, that's well understood. There is a single factor that gave VHS a huge lead early on, and even though Beta later caught up technically, it was already too far behind in the marketplace. That factor was: a single Beta tape could (when the format was first released) only hold an hour of movie, while a VHS tape could do two hours. Since essentially-all feature films are significantly more than one hour long...

And the person who's to be tied up being currently unconscious would be an even bigger advantage.

Well, they definitely got one thing right: it's stuck in the mud.

Also, just because she wouldn't do something doesn't mean she can't daydream about it...

She'd like to...

I've heard that people over 8 feet tall have a hard time finding clothes that fit.

Rich has figured out Nanase's perfect plan. Nanase, unfortunately, hasn't.

From all I've heard, that's pretty common. For a fairly-small fraction of people (a larger fraction than is typical for influenza), covid really really sucks, and for some of those people it sucks for a long time, but for everyone else... I had one day of being a bit off-balance, at the start of five days of unusually-mild cold symptoms. The second dose of the vaccine... if you have a steady sleep schedule, it'll be about 32 hours from when you go to bed one night to when you get up after the *next* night. After getting the vaccine, I slept for about 26 of those 32 hours and was semi-functional for the other six. Fortunately I had absolutely nothing that I *had* to do that day. This is the only vaccine I've ever had any discernible reaction to. Even the ones where they tell you your shoulder will hurt for a day or two... maybe ten minutes.

An opthalmologist told our medical insurer "she has cataracts. She's almost legally blind." And let them assume the two facts (both true) were related. So my lady got cataract surgery, even though the cataracts were barely detectable. She'd been almost legally blind - extremely nearsighted - her entire life. (The opthalmologist had to special-order the new artificial lenses from a supplier he didn't normally use, because nobody else made them in the needed power.) Several months of astonishment followed, with her seeing perfectly ordinary things she'd never seen before - supplemented by a few deliberate outings for extreme things to see, such as a stunt-parachute show.

Just because Raven hasn't been knighted by anyone with the authority to actually do so (at least, not under his current identity), doesn't mean Noah won't consider him a knight. And yes, Noah is Susan's new uncle. He is, after all, her great^n-aunt's adoptive sister brother. Edit: fixed typing-while-half-asleep error

Heh. I saw one on TV a few decades ago. Two cowboys facing off, one of them says "this town ain't big enough for the both of us" - then the camera pans out and the town is actually a model-railroad town around their feet.

Squirrel heritage is probably not a big problem. Most people don't realize it, but squirrels are omnivores and predators. Kind of like humans. Their normal diet is mostly high-protein things you find in trees: seeds, nuts, bugs, lizards, eggs, baby birds...

We're having an online discussion. Of an RPG. Overthinking is inevitable.

Might want to distinguish between genetic contributors and parents. I doubt that Grace received much parental supervision or affection from any adult squirrels.

Or explaining what kobolds are in D&D 5E to people who know what they are in non-D&D northern-European mythology.

Well, that's appropriate - the Winged Hussars were Polish armored cavalry. In 1683 they were probably the world's best heavy cavalry, much to the Ottoman army's dismay. They broke the siege of Vienna, after which the Islamic threat to take Europe by force pretty much dried up.

Ah, the Winged Hussars arrive!

Then there was the year that a church outside Seattle, in mid-June, had the following on their marquee:

One of her magical abilities is persuasion, as I recall... Unfortunately, if there's any human on the planet immune to that power, it's gonna be Mom.

I have driven in ice storms in three states. I don't recommend it - if you have a viable alternative, do that instead. That said: it's worse in areas that rarely gets such things (such as Seattle where I lived for 30+ years, Portland OR that I was driving through during one, and Dallas where the Professor is) than in areas where they are fairly common (such as Indiana where I went to college). There are several reasons why the areas that rarely get them get it worse. Three big ones: 1) Almost nobody knows how to drive in them 2) Almost nobody - not road maintenance crews, not emergency services, not electric line crews, not city buses - has specialized equipment to deal with them. (Seattle buses typically need chains for one 24-hour period, or less, every five to eight years; guess what they usually aren't carrying when that time arrives, particularly if it starts in mid-afternoon.) 3) Ice at 31.5 degrees Fahrenheit is much slicker than ice at 0 Fahrenheit.

"Mom, I recently learned something that I need to talk to you about... but... there are a bunch of other people's secrets involved in how I learned it, so if you think I'm not telling you everything, you're right."

I endorse the decision for everyone to stay put.