Questions in the Grab Bag category.
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February 28
How much past in the present is "good"?
Looking to better understand the range of other people's experiences around the frequency and impact of remembering and thinking about past events. Check below the fold for the many, many questions I have. [more inside]
February 26
Not an earworm but a...brainworm?
Is there a name for a song that repeats itself in your head for decades? Not just a catchy earworm that you can’t get out of your head for a couple of hours/days, but a song that crops up whenever your mind is a little bit quiet; the song you always whistle. [more inside]
Short Fiction Filter: Woman Collecting Apologies
Asking for a friend: "Literary friends: does anyone remember a short story about a woman who collected apologies as though they were physically tangible items? I’m positive I read it once but I can’t find it or recall anything else to identify it. Help?"
What is this pan?
February 24
Need a new cigarette now that Nat Sherman is gone
Now that Nat Sherman has ceased operations, I want to find a cigarette to replace it.
Shermans were great in that they went out if ignored, and I wanted only a few of them every week. Has anyone else found a good substitute?
February 22
What can I use to weigh down paper so it won't roll up?
This is a ridiculous question but here goes: I have 12 very large charts, currently rolled up in tubes, that I need to flatten out and closely examine over a period of several weeks. What can I use to weigh them all down? [more inside]
What Was/Is My Character's Name?
I'm trying to name the main character of a writing project, and can't seem to come up with the kind of name I want. Suggestions? [more inside]
February 20
How to solve this tailoring problem?
People with boobs, how do you deal with a button-up shirt that fits in every way, except has a gap between the buttons in the chest area? [more inside]
February 19
What's it like living in Tulsa?
What's it like there for young families with prechoolers? Details inside. [more inside]
Sense of doom after waking up at 3am
I noticed that recently, if I wake up in the middle of the night for any reason, (for example, to let my elderly dog outside to pee, or to use the bathroom myself), for the period of time that I'm awake to do the thing, I notice that I have a strong sense of doom and intense level of anxiety that I never normally have. (more inside...) [more inside]
Concealed carry off-body sling bags for women
If you are licensed to carry a concealed gun, are a woman, and prefer sling bags, this question is for you! Inquiring minds want to know what bag you use. [more inside]
What the heck did my friend and I witness in Spain?
In June 2013 during a road trip from Altea to Valencia, a friend and I noticed a peculiar occurrence. Friend is now a social worker and suggested an entirely possible but disturbing explanation. Could there be any other explanation that we're overlooking? [more inside]
Postcard Printer or similar
I need a machine that has the following as its only goal in life. It prints photo-sized photos. I plug in my camera or non-smartphone-that-takes-photos, use it to grab a photo, and it prints the photo. [more inside]
2AM Wake-up call
For the last several weeks, I have been dealing with sleep fragmentation. I reliably wake up around 2-2:30 AM and can't get back to sleep for a couple hours. This means that I get somewhere between 4-6 hours per night, except for weekends where I make up my sleep debt by hardly getting out of bed at all. I start feeling human again by about Sunday afternoon, just in time for the cycle to repeat itself. List of things I've tried inside. If you have had this, what worked for you? [more inside]
February 18
Tell me more about this red plastic hippo in a suit
I have a plastic hippo(?) figurine of unknown origin and my image search for "red hippo figurine" has not helped. Image album: https://imgur.com/a/OqhJYT4 [more inside]
February 17
Where can I download free/cheap sheets full of clipart images of things?
My son likes to stick things that start with a letter onto the letter. E.g. Get a picture of an A and cover it in stickers of apples, alligator, ax, and ant on them. He has some sticker workbooks like this, but there's one page per letter and I can't keep him in stickers. And he could work on his cutting skills. So I want to basically print out a page with pictures of fruit/vegetables/animals/household objects/whatever etc. and let him cut them out and glue them to the right letter. Where can I find suitable printable sheets? [more inside]
February 16
Reading material request
I am at the bottom end of the BMI, and I have to work hard not to fall off. I do not have anorexia, I do not have bulemia.* I have overcome enough of my childhood picky eatingness to pass as normal. I am not a child, I am not the parent of a child. I have a high metabolism.** Executive function issues with preparing food are also play. I don't know anyone who deals with this and I feel alone. Any workarounds I've figured out, I've had to reverse-engineer from articles directed at people who aren't me. I'd really like to read some articles written for people who are like me.*** [more inside]
February 12
My brain on words
In the past few weeks I've been thinking how much the reality I perceive is actually a story I construct (sometimes very different from the story other people construct about the same reality!) and how much my perception of reality is limited by and contingent on my words and language. (Does that...make sense?) I would like to read what wiser people have said about this topic from a psychological point of view. [more inside]
February 9
Where is the "sweet bread" cycle on my bread machine?
I recently purchased a Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus bread machine to replace my old machine. I wanted to make a recipe that called for using the Sweet Cycle, but the machine apparently doesn't have one. Does anyone know what I ought to use in it's place? The cycles it has are: White, Whole Wheat, European, Multigrain, Gluten Free, Salt Free, Sugar Free, Vegan, Rapid White, Rapid Whole Wheat, Dough, Sourdough Starter, Cake, Jam. Which of those would map most closely to Sweet Bread? (Also - what exactly is "European" used for?)
February 8
What kind of ladder is this
The closing minute of season 3 episode 5 of Deadbeat has a character using an unusual rope/wooden ladder [image]. Does this style of ladder have a name and what was the original use?
