Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with recommendations and resolved

Recommendations for wounded yet likeable men in books.

beautifulcheese — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:21:09 -0800

Book recommendations: Recently I have discovered that I really enjoy a certain type of flawed character in television shows. Think Gregory House on House or Dr. Cal Lightman on Lie to Me. Wounded inside with a tough smart exterior that push people away with sarcasm or slight jerkish behaviour. Help me find examples in literature so I can continue my current obsession when I shut the tv off. I'm not sure if I'm explaining exactly the type of character that I like but that is the closest that I can get to. I've read a previous thread about bad but good characters but it just referred to tv shows.

Any recommendations? Or a way to better word what character type I'm actually looking for to help me search would also be helpful.

Recs for easygoing pediatricians near Ridgefield CT

mccn — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:20:02 -0800

[kidsfilter] Recommendations for easygoing, vegetarian-friendly pediatricians near Ridgefield, CT? Good friends of mine are moving, rather suddenly, to Ridgefield, CT next week. They have two sons, under two years old - one is about 20 months, and the other was born a few weeks ago.

They've asked, since I live in the NY Metro Area, if I could find recommendations for pediatricians within a half hour of the area, who are "ok with vegetarians and cosleeping, not prone to panic, and not married to charts." Neither of the kids has any medical conditions that require specialty care, and both are healthy to my knowledge.

Any suggestions you have to offer would be greatly appreciated!

Buying CDs online

woodway — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:37:38 -0800

What online music retailers would you recommend? I'm interested in CDs, new and used, preferably from an independent outfit. Does your favorite bricks & mortar store have an online site? Is there an AbeBooks type of clearinghouse for smaller sellers? I don't have a lot of options in town; Best Buy isn't doing it for me, and I want an alternative to Amazon.

Bring on the private dancers

Felicity Rilke — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:59:46 -0800

Where are the classiest and dirtiest (female) strip clubs in Toronto? Help a lady help a fellow out.

A set designer friend needs to research the interiors of strip clubs for work. I am to be his research assistant. We have been recommended a couple places (Brass Rail/For Your Eyes Only for class, Jilly's/Fillmore's for dirtiness) but really don't know how classy/dirty any of these places are, or if there are other places that should be on our radar.

Toronto strip-club aficionados, where should we go and why?

Entertain my Dad: Suggest Puzzletastic TV on DVD

julen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:48:49 -0800

Help me entertain my father! I need TV-on-DVD recommendations, preferably built around solving things - crime, mysteries, puzzles, world crises, etc. We've just finished up six of the seven seasons of Mission: Impossible, and I'd like to get more tv series that involve puzzles/heists/conning/mysteries or other fun plot-driving play-along-at-home tv series. I just netflixed Hu$tle for him, but I'm going to run out of options soon!

Current TV he likes in this arena: Leverage, Monk, Psych
Past TV he liked: Due South, Get Smart, Perry Mason, M:I, Twin Peaks (the first season), Police Squad!
TV I loved and he thought was too silly: Pushing Daisies

Technology, con jobs, humor, spies, wittiness are all pluses!

Help me hive mind!

lunch in brisbane

southof40 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:25:47 -0800

brisbane-lunch-filter I'm going to be in Brisbane (that's as in Queensland, Australia) tomorrow with Mrs southof40 and would like some mefite lunchery recommendations. Won't have a car and will be in CBD. Nothing too fancy - prefer good food to ritzy views / surroundings. Lebanese or veggie indian would be ideal but open to suggestions.

Twin Cities restaurant recommendations please!

triggerfinger — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:51:50 -0800

Calling all Minneapolitans - looking for a restaurant recommendation. I am looking for a restaurant in the Mpls/St Paul area which has a good view of a lake or the river. The restaurant must serve standard American food - steak, burgers, pizza, tacos etc. Price doesn't matter as much as the food. I know about Lord Fletchers in Minnetonka, Maynards in Excelsior and Sunsets in Wayzata and while these are good, something in either of the cities would be preferable to the suburbs. It's been years since I've lived there so I'm not fully up to date on all the restaurants. Any help much appreciated, thanks!

Before and after a stag weekend in Hamburg...

Happy Dave — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:54:10 -0800

A weekend in Hamburg, with two parts to it - what's worth doing and seeing? Hello! I'm off to Hamburg in the last weekend of August. I'm really looking forward to it, but would appreciate the insights of Ask Me on a couple of things:

1) The occasion for the visit is a stag weekend. As far as I know, the only so-far-organised activity is paintballing on the Saturday. The crowd is not your typical Brit stag party, as it's composed of a multinational, multi-age crowd (Brits, Germans, Americans, some Scandinavians I think, ages ranging from mid-20's to mid-40's, I don't know about 60% of them), but I'd imagine a few steins will be being consumed. So recommendations for things to do in Hamburg for a large (15+) group of people, many of whom don't know each other all that well. I've heard something about a Fischmarket?

2) I'm catching an earlier flight than most of the rest of the group (mainly to avoid flying Ryanair, because we hates them, precious), so will be in Hamburg on the Friday afternoon between 5 and 10pm, before meeting the rest of the party. What could I/should I do with that block of time?

3) Random questions - what's the best plan for transport for the two and a bit days we're there? Any recommendations for budget hotels/hostels? Anything on that weekend that could be considered unmissable?

A beginner's Bergman

thisjax — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:25:13 -0800

MeFi cinemaphiles, where should I start in Ingmar Bergman's filmography? Being a fan of Woody Allen's stronger films, I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I haven't seen any of his greatest influence's work except for maybe 10 minutes of Scenes From A Marriage when I was a kid. Is Scenes the best place to start, or would other Bergman works provide a better introduction to his style?

Is that a textbook in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

shaun uh — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:18:21 -0800

What small, easy-to-carry-around books provide a satisfying introduction to mathematic and scientific fields, topics and/or concepts? I'm a voracious reader who would rather spend my subway rides with my nose in a book instead of an ipod in my ear. Unfortunately, a lot of the types of things I've been reading lately are not easy to carry around with me for whenever I've got ten minutes to spare. Think textbooks - neuroeconomics, artificial intelligence, statistics, and oh, I picked up Roger Penrose's Road to Reality recently, it's great but too heavy to leave my room. Anyway, as much as I've been enjoying my textbooks, it's hard to make much headway, whereas I speed through anything I can carry around with me.

I would really love to be able to read textbook-like books (or at least pop sci books that can function as serious introductions to a topic or field) while sitting on the subway or while waiting somewhere for a friend. Something roughly novel-sized I could stuff into my handbag or keep in my backpack without killing my back. Any recommendations?

(I'm especially interested in learning more about statistics, probability theory, artificial intelligence, computational models, and various maths, but my interests are pretty vast so if you know a good book on a different topic feel free to recommend.)

Help me choose a book to travel with.

mosessis — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:38:48 -0800

I need a longish, interesting, well-written book (fiction) to read on an upcoming trip. Any suggestions? I'm going on a trip where I'll have plenty of time to read and not much space to pack books. I need to find a good novel-type book that could last me at least a couple of weeks. My trip is for a couple of months in non-English speaking countries, and I want something captivating to fall into as a respite from journeying.

I have read both Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder in this same situation, and those worked perfectly for my purposes. I wish I could just bring one of these again, because they were so perfect - dense, interesting, thought-provoking, lend themselves to rereading passages - but I'd really like to find something new.

My general tastes run towards late 18th Century (Burney Lennox, Austen, etc) and turn of the twentieth century (James, Wharton, Wilde, etc). I generally steer away from serializations that have been turned into novels (Dickens, Forster, etc) and overly romanticized, gothic, heroic, dramatic love type stories (Les Miserables, Goethe, etc). But of course I am completely open to trying new genres and authors that I might not yet know I love.

What book was in your backpack that kept you going through the lonely times? What's the best longish novel you've read that you wish you had had the time to just sit and read? To slightly complicate this, I'm leaving in 36 hours and will have to find this on the shelf at one of my (luckily many) local book stores.

Make a winelover's birthday wish come true!

n'muakolo — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:36:20 -0800

What can you tell me about buying one 1978 vintage wine? My boyfriend is turning 30 this year and is getting very into wine and I want to buy him a single bottle of wine from his birth year.

Some factors:
- He likes big, juicy west coast reds (or french or italian).
- I like them too, but don't particularly like wines with a lot of tannins.
- I don't want to spend more than $300, but I do want it to be special.
- I am in MD (apparently you can't receive wine by mail in MD), he is in FL but has no way to receive wine by mail. I could probably have wine sent to a friend in DC or VA. With some more trouble I could possibly find someone to receive a bottle of wine for him in FL.
-I have looked at vintage charts, and it looks like california cabs were good in 1978, but I'm not sure what other options I'd have.
-We would drink this in the next month or so, so it only has to be good until about 2008. Some of the reviews of california cabs I read about sounded like they would have passed their peak by about 2005. Does that matter?
- I have tried good local wine shops but they've told me they don't carry wines like this and they wouldn't order me one bottle.
- How do I find out the history of the bottle - i.e. if it's been through a fire/flood etc. How concerned should I be about this?

General advice & resources about choosing older wines and then actually finding them and buying ones that are not spoiled would be appreciated as would very specific advice per my factors.

Stock my liberry.

zoomorphic — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:51:57 -0800

I just finished the last book on my Must Read list. Help make me a new one. Short-Listed Favorites: Lolita, Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Middlesex, Autobiography of Red, White Teeth, God of Small Things.

Gathering dust on my shelves: Pynchon, Roth, DeLillo. No conspiracy theories or White Man crises about how mass media and technology are snuffing out our souls.

I've undergone the mandatory high school and college reading lists, so I'm looking for something new and mind-blowing.

8,500-10,000 BTU A/Cs with a >=23" Installation Width?

WCityMike — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:45:50 -0800

Please help me iron out two weird quirks relating to the purchase of an air conditioner, says the Chicago MeFite looking at a 104-degree heat index coming down the pike. (And even if you don't have an answer, check out two simple corollary queries you might be able to help me with at the end.) I have a 500 square foot studio apartment, which means about 10,000 BTUs. I was all set to buy a particular model until I learned of two problems: the three windows in my main living area are just narrow enough to screw me, and the window in the kitchen/dining area is not only nowhere near an electrical outlet, it's far enough away that even an industrial extension cord (you shouldn't use normal extension cords with A/Cs) couldn't reach, and even if it did, would be prime tripping material. And the landlord's electrician advises me that there's no wiring anywhere near the window in question, meaning a new outlet can't be installed without gutting a good part of my apartment's drywall.

I'd ideally like to see if I can find a good, reliable air conditioner that nevertheless fits the physical requirements I need to fit it into one of my living-area windows. The window I need to put it in looks like this:

The first "frame" of the window is 23 inches wide. The next step in measures 22 inches. across. The width of the screen window, when opened, is 19-20 inches. Essentially, this means that I need an air conditioner that installs in a 23-inch window, and is physically no more than 19 inches wide. The physical width of an air conditioner is usually discoverable online, but its installation width is often only in the manual. Amazon has quite a few A/C manuals, but not a comprehensive selection.

A couple of quick notes:

The installation width is not the same as the physical width of the unit; it's usually larger.
many air conditioners have a minimum installation width of 24". This will not fit -- unfortunately, that extra inch does screw things up. I know this from experience with a recently purchased twin window fan.)
If decreased BTUs will decrease the size, I'm open to suggestions. I don't think anything below 8,000 BTUs would adequately cool the space, and I'm not wild about decreasing the BTUs, but, if that's absolutely the only solution ... I suppose I'm open.
I'm aware of casement air conditioners and portable air conditioners, but they increase the cost significantly from all research. They are a fallback option.
I'm not willing to put a "normal" air conditioner on its side. I've heard of people doing it and shoring it up with plywood, but my understanding is that not only is it physically unsafe, but it can screw up the way the unit both works and drains.

Now for those corollary queries. Even if you can't help with the specific question above, I'd appreciate (a) casement air conditioner recommendations (with prices and/or links, if you have them handy), and also, (b) the answer to this question: for MeFi apartment dwellers, how do you guys handle storing window air conditioners in cooler weather? Do you leave them in the window with covers around them, or do you store them somewhere in your place (and if so, how do you keep them from getting in the way?

Thanks, guys. (Crammed a lot into this post, didn't I?!?)

Help me choose an intranet.

dirtynumbangelboy — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:47:12 -0800

IntranetFilter. Help me choose a corporate intranet package. My company really needs an intranet (not just my opinion), so I'm researching options, with a view to making a presentation to HR and other stakeholders in the next month or so.

Our IT person is suggesting SharePoint from Microsoft, as we run an Exchange server. My concern with that is mainly bugginess and security, as well as ease of customization--ideally, we'd probably want the intranet to have the same look and feel as our extranet.

I'm leaning towards the product found here, as it seems fantastically simple, infinitely customizable, and without the multitude of security flaws that MS is known for. It's basically an out-of-the-box solution.

Can anyone provide me with pros and cons, personal experience, etc?

My joints crack when I exercise

Tuwa — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 13:25:54 -0800

I've been sedentary all my life and have, just this month, started to get serious about exercise. The problem is not that I'm weak, which I of course still am, but that my joints--especially my right shoulder--crack a lot on pushups. I've been at it for three weeks. I figured the best thing was to start slow, so as not to discourage myself. Right now that means pushups and situps and not much else, taking a day off when I need it, but steadily increasing the reps and sets. I'm happy with it for the most part, but I wish my joints weren't so, er, noisy and stiff. It doesn't seem like a good thing to me to have them cracking so often (or, well, cracking at all).

Most sites I've found addressing the topic suggest exercise as a way of stopping joints cracking. Exercise, in this case, seems to be causing the joints to crack.

I've found that doing the pushups very slowly can prevent the shoulder cracking, but then I can't do very many at all. Should I continue doing them very slowly and just do fewer? Or should I be able to do them at "normal" speed without the sound effects?

What am I doing wrong?