Xenophon Hendrix

Getting rid of small, chronic annoyances will probably make you happier in the long run than splurging on large, temporary pleasures. Buy a comfortable mattress. Make sure the chair you sit in the most minimizes your aches and pains. (My Aeron chair is the best purchase I've ever made.) Save some of every paycheck. The best way to do this is take it right off the top and pretend that your income is lower that it really is.

doily

Mister Mxyzptlk

You can find photographs online of persons who appear to have eight-pack abs.

I've largely quit watching video versions of books, unless I have no intention of ever reading the book. Otherwise, I just tend to get angry at how badly the movie or television series is screwing things up. I did find one or two exceptions before I instituted the ban. For one, the Michael York version of The Three Musketeers does an honorable job that stays true to the spirit of the novel. (Yes, there are some slapstick scenes in the book.) For two, the version of Dracula with Louis Jourdan is pretty good.

Hollywood is as cynical as it gets.

Norse gods

I like it. I don't have any guess if it's true, but I like it.

I don't know if they still exist, but back in the 1980s they still did. My aunt's husband was one. (Both have now passed away.) I forget the year he eventually retired. It finally got to the point where he would make more in pensions than he did on his route.

I found this completely by accident:

It's an alternate universe from ours.

Bonesaw

As I was making my supper, I was thinking that maybe I could help out a little more. These are some rough guidelines: If you are going to make bone stock the way I described, use a couple teaspoons of salt, an eighth teaspoon of black pepper, an onion somewhere between a tennis ball and a baseball in size, four cloves of garlic, four to six stalks of celery, and two or three bay leaves. You can also add an eighth teaspoon of red pepper flakes and a peeled carrot, if you feel like it. Remember to peel the garlic, but you can add the cloves whole, or you can use a couple tablespoons of the crushed stuff you get in a jar. You don't have to do more than peel and cut the onion in half, and cut the celery and carrot into quarters, because it is all going to dissolve away to glop anyway by the time the stock is done. If you do what I said in my posts, you will end up with a gallon of stock less the unspeakable gudge -- perhaps three-quarters of a gallon by eyeball. When you dilute it properly, it will be about a gallon-and-a-half of stock. You can freeze it in convenient-size containers, either diluted or not, if you aren't going to use it all right away. When you decant it from the slow cooker, you will have a basic stock that is about twice the concentration you see in recipes. So if you have a recipe that says, "Add a quart of chicken stock," you would add a pint of this bone stock and a pint of water. Otherwise, follow the recipe. You will still have to adjust the seasonings to taste, though.

There might be few laws about magic and magic tech in general. Didn't the author say that magic can do anything but time travel? It's difficult to pass laws about something like that. The prime rule might be, "Don't let the mundanes know how easy magic is to get, or we will end you." Otherwise, kidnapping is still kidnapping, and bank robbery is still bank robbery, even if you use magic to commit the crimes. As for Tedd specifically, he is the son of a big wheel, but he is also someone DGB certainly wants on their side and a good guy. As long as Edward is keeping an eye on what he is up to, Tedd might have a whole lot of latitude to do as he wishes. For all the readers know at this point, Tedd's magical analysis ability might be rare enough that DGB is happy that he is carrying out his research. Heck, for all we know, Edward is fully aware at just how much of a "dangerous rarity" Tedd is but hasn't been saying anything so as not to influence Tedd's choices.

Well, you taste it and use your tongue to tell you what it needs. Is it salty enough? Could it use some more pepper? If you were using it to make a stew, for instance, you might want to fry up some more onion and garlic in the bottom of the pot before you add the stock. If you are making something that you want to have an Italian character, maybe you add some basil and oregano. When you are making the stock itself, you don't want to season it too much. That way, you can use it for a bunch of different things. You could leave the pepper and salt out entirely, but be aware that if you give it a taste that way, it will be vile. There is nothing wrong with it, though. Your tongue is expecting at least a little salt, and if it's not there, it tastes off.

The shape doesn't have to do anything to do with the power, but making them relevant to the power seems to be Pandora's pattern, except when she was trolling Sarah.

This comic says Susan has a "natural talent for spells that create objects out of magic," so it doesn't have to be weapons.

The marks we were shown don't necessarily have to have been handed out at that point in the storyline. Tedd, for instance, didn't get his mark until later. As for the two marks being Luke's friends, it ain't necessarily so. It could be, but we have been given little information to go on so far.

I'm pretty sure the author is setting things up for Diane to be marked. My best guess about which way he'll go with it is that the smoke-shaped mark seems to fit Diane's pride in her stealthiness. On the other hand, I have no idea what the circle-rectangle mark might be. On the third hand, Sarah got a mark that wasn't given here.

merkin

Given Elliot's ability to absorb smart phones, he probably gets a low-level thinker rating, too.

I think Diane could be given a mark that reflects her personality, strong desires, or her affinity.

Slow-Cooker Bone Stock The place where I usually do my grocery shopping often puts whole, cooked chickens on sale for $4.30. At that price, I find them hard to pass up. They come either cut up or whole, barbecued, glazed, baked, and fried. For quite a while, I was just throwing the bones away, but that seemed like a waste, so I started keeping them in the freezer with the intention of making stock out of them. In the meantime, I read about bone stocks -- stocks made my simmering the bones a long time. Anyway, I take the bones from four to six chickens; put them in my gallon slow cooker with garlic, onion, celery, bay leaves, pepper, and salt; fill the remaining space with water; set it on low; and let it simmer for about three days. Every twelve hours or so, I give it a stir, break up any bones I can stab with the edge of the spoon, and top off the water. Once finished, I strain it a little at a time through a fine strainer to separate the stock from the unspeakable gudge. Most of the bones have disappeared by this time. The end result is dark brown and very strong. It needs to be diluted about 100% before you can use it for anything. Once diluted and properly seasoned, it tastes good with a deep flavor, but it's more beefy than chickeny. I suspect the color and flavor are the result of the bone marrow having a chance to dissolve thoroughly. You can use it the way you use any other stock. I recommend you give it a try. It works on turkey bones, too, or a mix of turkey and chicken.

I'm about to warm up some barbecued chicken I picked up at the grocery store.

How's this for a wild guess: The blonde is Susan and Diane's human DNA donor. She and Susan's adoptive father both worked at the corporation doing the mad science with the Uryuom eggs. Raven, of course, is the half-immortal DNA donor.