Recent Comments

1. over 4 years ago on Adam@Home

   The reference is surely to Captain Picard (Star Trek TNG)

2. about 5 years ago on Doonesbury

   Ciao Enrico, this is not very realistic given the patient’s age and presumed history. Over the age of 65, one enrolls in “Medicare”; Medicare part A, covering hospital stays, is generally premium-free for anybody who’s getting Social Security or in several other situations. And there is no co-pay for the first 60 days in the hospital (Mike’s mom has clearly stayed less than two months so far). There are many other defects in the US healthcare system, but the one assumed in this arc is just not there; part of why many Presidential candidates, starting with Bernie Sanders, want to move to “Medicare for all”, removing the age requirements (and hopefully simplifying many other aspects of today’s Medicare). BTW, salutami Beppe (and/or Lupo Alberto should you ever learn his right name!_)

3. about 5 years ago on Doonesbury

   So this year (2 years after your comment) I hear the women in the issue are Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. Care to defend your thesis that, despite their triumph in the World Cup, their starring in SI’s swimsuit issue must mean that they are perceived as “dumb”?!

4. over 5 years ago on The Other Coast

   hard to enjoy jokes against vets now we know they’re under such terrible stress that they commit suicide more than 2-3 times more often than other Americans, see https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p1220-veterinarians-suicide.html — especially female vets. If you have pets, be sure to feel and express gratitude to your vet — or would you LIKE to have your pet, e.g., die a preventable death in terrible pain due to lack of any vet to take care of said pet’s accidents and maladies?

5. almost 6 years ago on The Other Coast

   That may be true (and sad) for an “indoor cat”. A cat with free access to the outdoors would have a much, much longer list…

6. almost 6 years ago on The Other Coast

   Murders are chimps’ closest aspect to humans — see https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29237276 . “Apart from humans, chimpanzees are the only primates known to gang up on their neighbours with lethal results”

7. almost 6 years ago on The Other Coast

   Grain from the Black Sea was a key staple for Athens (and I imagine — but, don’t know for sure — other parts of Greece). Rome’s breadbasket was chiefly Sicily during the Republic, and later Egypt.

8. almost 7 years ago on Luann

   Apple manufactured and sold the “ibook” laptop models from 1999 to 2006.

9. almost 7 years ago on Luann

   There are about 32 million teenagers in the US (12-13% of the population).If their total allowance is $32B, then on average each gets $1,000 a year,i.e, about $20 a week or a bit less. Seems a reasonable order of magnitude to me, even in 1995.

10. about 7 years ago on Luann

    If the two males were me and my adult elder son, we’d be hotly debating something or other — probably discount rates differences between the US Fed, the ECB, and the BoE, and implications (if any) about where to invest in securities and derivatives…