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Articles by Reality Chuck
Interesting non-commercial t-shirts you have seen
I have several. Front: “Help is on the way.” Back: “Help is heading out the door.” (I was in IT.) “National Sarcasm Society. Like we need your help.” “Salvador Dalek” (A picture of melting Daleks from Doctor Who a la Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory.”) A shirt with the entire “Who’s on First” routine on the back. A picture of ET’s bicycle towing the TARDIS by Tom Baker’s scarf. A parody of the Arm and Hammer logo with the words “By Grabthar’s Hammer.
Heating Oil sticker shock
People are rightly bothered by the high cost of gasoline these days, but for me, that’s more of annoyance. I can adjust how much I drive. I can’t change how I need to heat my house. We just got our first oil delivery. $6.20 a gallon. Last year at this time, $3.68. We’ve already spent 38% of what our oil bill was for the entire year. The thing is, we’ve done what can be done to keep our heating costs down. The house is insulated, and we keep our thermostat at 64°.
Limits of zombie decay?
September 27, 2026, 12:02am 1 Terry Pratchett once described a walking skeleton as “a zombie who has really let themselves go”. Funny, but it does raise a point: just how damaged can a “walker” be before it simply can’t hold together in one piece any more? I can’t think of an answer beyond the obvious “torn to shreds”, because with the exception of plague victim pseudo-zombies, it doesn’t make any sense that they could move or react to stimuli at all.
What are the actual, as in legally established, rules regarding inheriting royal status? (English)
September 19, 2026, 3:33pm 1 Okay, I’ve now seen way too many offers of YouTube videos questioning the genetic parentage of the Sussex kiddos. There some haggard looking blond woman who seems to go by “Lady C” that has a whole slew of 'em, but plenty of others, stuff about timing of births and whether Meghan’s baby bumps were consistent and secret DNA tests and on and on. What I’m wondering about is what rules actually apply?
Bugs in my eyes
I was at the ophthalmologist today. My vision is ok, but it seems I have Demodex blepharitis. In slightly less scary words, overgrowth of eyelash mites. I knew that everyone has mites, but evidently these are more than usual and can cause irritation. (I haven’t noticed it.) I have to use special wipes a couple of times a day. Not too scary, but one more thing I need to treat. susan August 26, 2026, 3:43pm 2 Good conversation starter for certain types of conversational partners, though.
The Most Disparate IMDB Credits
April 13, 2026, 8:16pm 1 George Miller is likely best known for his writing and directing of the Mad Max movies. Spanning the course of 35 years, Miller brought to life the post-apocalyptic Australia of the Mad Max movies. His final installment of Mad Max: Fury Road began pre-production in 1998, didn’t start even start filming until the 2000s, was met with delay after delay, and finally wrapped in 2012. The film is a masterpiece.
A couple of questions related to real estate taxes
April 13, 2026, 5:57am 1 I’m a relatively new homeowner, so my knowledge gaps are considerable. So I wanted to tap the brain trust of a…more experienced audience. While checking my mortgage, I looked up my escrow account. In 2025 and 2023, I apparently had a surplus. I have my documentation set to paperless, so the checks attached to these docs weren’t real. But I do not recall ever getting or cashing any escrow related checks.
Dan Simmons has died
March 2, 2026, 3:45pm 1 the Guardian – 2 Mar 26 Award-winning science fiction and horror writer died in Colorado on 21 February with family at his side The Hyperion Cantos is still one of my favorite book series. Too bad he turned into such a nutjob douchebag in later years.
Is the Winter Olympics just various types of sliding?
A friend pointed this out, and in the moment it seemed most of the Winter Olympic events are just sliding of one type or another. Of course, winter itself might simply be characterized as sliding plus cold. Does this somehow demean the value of the Games? I don’t think it demeans anything. It is winter, like you say, ice and snow are present. People who create these sports way back in time got the idea by needing to use the environment they lived in to travel. Do you know how they score the Olympics?
Winter Olympics: when did this stunt skiing event get added?
I’m watching right now, and there’s this downhill skiing event going on, but with a series of ramps and rails. The skiers hop onto the the rails with their skis turned sideways and ride them like teenage skateboarders riding stair rails. It’s been awhile since I paid much attention to the Olympics of either season. Has this event been an Olympic thing for very long? What’s it called? It seems like a weird mishmash of downhill skiing and skateboard stunting.
The incompatibility of invisibility with vision
January 18, 2026, 5:17pm 1 I think there have been several fictional works that directly addressed the issue that if a person were rendered invisible, they would be unable to see, because vision requires light to be focused by their eyes’ lens and absorbed by the retina. That interaction would make at least the eye itself visible. The earliest example that I’m aware of is the 1968 novel The Goblin Tower by L.
The Pitt, season 2 (TV show, open spoilers)
January 11, 2026, 5:22pm 1 S2 I had been late to watching S1 so am starting S2 with only 2 weeks break. Literally just started streaming the first new ep, so it can’t count as a spoiler, and I’m taken out of it and had to stop just to post! Unless it becomes a plot point … ED docs see enough motorcycle head injuries that they nearly to a one always wear their helmets. The ED docs I know generally refer to those riding without helmets as “organ donors”.
Preventing home title fraud
This latest scam is to used forged documents to file a title to your home and then use it to sell your house out from under you or take out a loan using it as collateral. It’s insidious because you don’t know it happened until it’s too late I found out my county clerk (I’m in NY) has a service to prevent this. You give them your name and email. If anyone files a document in your name, you get an email alert I’ve learned it’s also available in New Hampshire.
Fictional Birthdays
November 11, 2025, 7:45pm 1 Celebrating the birthdays of fictional characters, of course. Today is the 113th birthday of Woodrow Wilson Smith, aka Lazarus Long. I would say may he live forever…but that would be redundant.
Who has ever been a stooge/in on the magic trick?
3 I saw Michael Carbonaro in Vegas. He took an audience member on stage for a trick, while the volunteer was being “prepped” backstage, he told the rest of the audience the trick was BS, and we were just going to mess with the volunteer. He was going to pretend to make the guy disappear and we should all go crazy and act like we couldn’t see the guy. So really the only person not in on the trick was the volunteer.
Musical: Come From Away
September 30, 2025, 8:19pm 1 A few nights ago I saw the musical, “Come From Away”. It was outstanding. I am not a huge musical fan but this was amazing. The play is loosely (very loosely) based on real events. A small town in Newfoundland with 9,000 residents had 7,000 airplane passengers forced to land when 9/11 happened. How does such a small town cope? They rose to the challenge (in real life did). The play hits all the marks. Humor, drama, highs and lows, good musiic. It is amazing.
Dept. Q - a British crime thriller television series [Open Spoilers]
June 11, 2025, 7:01am 1 “Department Q” is the crime thriller series I’m currently watching. It’s received high ratings—but that’s not why I’m watching it. Maybe it’s just me, but very few shows these days offer any real sense of escapism. Most lose my interest within ten minutes. I’m not a binge-watcher. What I love about streaming is the flexibility—I can watch five minutes now, fifteen later, and pick it up whenever I feel like it.
What sitcom had a lot of child actors that were regulars go on to success as actors . Actors had to be minors to count, not playing minors
May 24, 2025, 1:10pm 1 So Happy Days does not count except for Joanie & Chachi. Andy Griffith Show does count and it is 1 for 1 on success. Family Ties, only Mallory would count, Michael J. Fox was 21 when Family Ties started. On Partridge Family; David Cassidy was 20, Susan Dey was 18 so neither count. The 70s Show only Milas Kunis was under 18, so they’re 1 for 1. If Freaks and Geeks counts as a sitcom, it probably wins. The 3 younger kids were under 18 and all successful and still working as actors.
Have you heard of this word? (Second time)
April 24, 2025, 10:30am 1 So I’m still playing Wordle (UK dictionary) and up comes: sepal I got it - but only by luck. Do you know it? Honestly, I was paying attention at school (which was from 1957 - 1971 ) For reference, here’s my previous thread… Have you heard of this word? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board
The Pitt -- TV show
March 28, 2025, 10:57pm 1 I’ve started watching The Pitt on Max. It’s basically Real Stories of the ER, though with fictional characters. One difference is that unlike Real Stories, the outcome is not always good. Another conceit is that each episode is one hour in the ER, so it’s showing things in the equivalent of real time. It doesn’t dumb down the medical terminology.
Do you dress up/down to exercise?
March 28, 2025, 5:10pm 1 I often see people IRL and on-line who seem to make a bit of effort to make sure that when exercising they wear matching, coordinated “outfits” - often seemingly designed for a specific sport/activity. Others (like myself) just toss on whatever is comfortable. To the extent that you exercise, do you care about how your clothes look to anyone else? Does how your clothes look affect how you feel about exercise?
What's with those huge PO box numbers for tax returns?
March 26, 2025, 6:07pm 1 I’m just preparing my tax payments to mail in, and I’m struck by the huge PO box numbers for both the federal and California payments. The address for the federal payment is PO Box 802501, Cincinnati, OH 45280, and the address for California payment is PO Box 942867, Sacramento, CA 94267. I’m pretty sure that neither the Cincinnati post office nor the Sacramento post office has anywhere close to a million PO boxes, so why do they use these ridiculous 6-digit numbers?
Classical music performance as an exercise in memorization
March 26, 2025, 3:35pm 1 We saw a Performance on Sunday of Beethoven’s piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”). And while I was of course impressed by the skill and talent of the pianist, and genius of Beethoven… I am always struck by the fact that the soloist is performing without the benefit of sheet music. And this is typical: any solo performance you see (concerto or Sonata) the soloist practically never has music in front of him/her. This seems a superhuman feat.
I sold a novel
My novel, The Cadaver Princess, will be published by Experimenter Publishing (Amazing Stories Books). I learned today that the cover will be done by award-winning artist Ron Miller. So cool!! Congratulations! Ninja’d! But yes, congrats. I think a lot of people have visions of writing a great novel but, to actually follow through successfully is a fantastic accomplishment. Well done!
What was your first record (or cassette, or CD...)?
February 6, 2025, 2:38pm 1 The thread on old bands you’d forgotten got me thinking about my CD collection, so here’s one for the longtime music listeners/collectors: Do you remember the first piece of music you bought or owned? And on the different formats? I got my first cassette player for Christmas 1981, and my folks included a couple of tapes with it: The Beatles “Blue” album (1967-1970), and Hooked on Classics. Got a CD player in the summer of 1988.
What version of the twilight zone do you like best and why
November 22, 2024, 9:14pm 1 So, IMO there are 5 different versions of the twilight zone TV series The original 60s version The 1980s remake The 2002 remake The Jordan Peele 2020 remake The TV show night gallery. This one isn’t technically twilight zone, but Rod Serling hosted and wrote many episodes. For me, I think the 80s version is the best. I know most people will probably prefer the original, but the 80s have some really interesting storylines.
Craving a Chef's Salad and can't find one. Why?
Chef’s Salad used to be a common item on restaurant menus. Not franchises like Wendys and McDonald’s. It was the pizza places, BBQ, Cafes that offered a Chef’s Salad. It was packed with protein. Diced ham, boiled eggs, shredded cheddar, purple onion, black olives, cucumber, and tomatoes. Your choice of dressing. A complete meal. I ordered a chef’s salad every week for lunch, for many years, in college and my early years working.
Incredibly useful math concepts that everyone should know how to use
July 26, 2024, 7:57pm 1 If I had a nickel for every time that I’ve used cross multiplication to figure out an unknown quantity, I would have an extraordinary amount of nickels. I’ve used the Pythagorean theorem on occasion and even a little trig now and then but none of them have been as frequent as cross multiplying. I’m sorry Mr. Jackson, even though you made each of us get up and sing the quadratic formula in Algebra class, I have yet to use it as an adult.
Who's the most famous {living} writer of science fiction?
July 6, 2024, 1:37am 1 Neil Gaiman’s name up in another thread. (Don’t know how to link on my phone. We’re having an outage.) To the readers of f&sf, he’s a big name. Yet a number of posters said they had no idea who he was. I said he might be the most famous f&sf writer in the world. That quickly got shot down. J. K. Rowling and George R. R. Martin surely top him. Neither is a writer of science fiction, though. (Martin did some long ago before his game.) So who is the most famous living sf writer?
Turn On (1969 comedy series that totally flopped)
June 26, 2024, 10:30pm 1 I had long heard of this competitor to “Laugh-In” that only lasted one episode (for the stations whose directors didn’t stage-hook it before it ended) and that TPTB would always ensure that none of the episodes would ever see the light of day. Several days ago, I found out that this pilot episode, and the others that were made, were posted on YouTube by the series’ creator, and took one for the team a few days ago and watched that pilot episode.
Spinoff companies that retain a defunct large sompany's name
May 10, 2024, 11:29am 1 I notice that some spinoff companies of large and famous companies have in some cases continued to exist long after that famous parent company has disappeared. The one that stands out particularly is Todd-AO Sound The Todd-AO organization was founded in 1953 by Mike Todd in collaboration with the American Optical organization to develop, market, sand promote an original ultra-wide screen film process, called “Todd-AO”.
Was Perry Mason unique for the era? Showing Police and Prosecutors as incompetent
April 20, 2024, 12:23am 1 I’ve been watching a lot of Perry Mason on one of those old TV stations. I think he pretty much always wins. Usually cuz the cops didn’t do a good job finding the real killer. While I am sure there were isolated movies or Tv show episodes that might show the legal system in a poor light, generally the police were portrayed as hard working honest investigators.
Tips for giving a cat pills, or how to effectively cover up the taste
3 My dad flunked out of vet school, but not before he learned to pill a cat, a lesson he shared with his family. You’re not going to like this, because it takes a little practice and isn’t especially fun for cat or human. But I am able to pill my cats pretty successfully as needed using this method: Immobilize cat, more or less.
What are your thoughts and opinions on "temp" jobs? (Probationary Periods?)
March 8, 2024, 6:20pm 1 After learning about “temp” jobs that may or may not require all new hires to go through probationary periods, along with having to wait to get hired on as a permanent full time employee (depending on the company) I have mixed reviews on why certain companies don’t hire new employees as regular workers: The main reason why (IMO) is that these companies want to know how dedicated you are and if you plan on staying with their company long term, along with how productive...
Question about the use metonym vs synecdoche
5 I`ll lend you a hand → pars pro toto, synecdoche (thus also a metonym) She is the bread winner in the household → sure a metonym, perhaps a synecdoche, and some would see a metaphor there too. Anything can be a synecdoche, a metonym, or a metaphor if you use it as such. The question is whether the listener will understand you in the sense that you mean. So strictly speaking I would say that neither “hand” nor “bread” are a synecdoche or a metonym per se, but they can easily be used as such.
Steve Miller (the author, not the musician) dies
February 21, 2024, 5:24pm 1 Steve Miller, who, with Sharon Lee, wrote the very successful Liaden Universe novels, was found unresponsive last night. CPR and EMTs couldn’t help. I’ve known Steve and Sharon for a couple of decades, and this is a shock. He has had heart issues for a long time, but seemed to be doing OK. He was posting on Facebook just the day before. He was a good guy and much fun to talk with. He attended Albacon regularly (and shared the GOH slot with Sharon)
How many pills?
I just had a checkup and the doctor wants me to take another pill. I’m now up to 18 a day, plus eye drops. Now six of those are nonprescription vitamins, one is a prescription mineral supplement, and four are part of a prescription that requires four pills a day. Still, it’s a big number. It wasn’t so long ago I didn’t take any. How many do you take?
Plays (and movies) where an important character never appears
There seem to be several of these. Some character – usually very important to the plot – is spoken about, referred to, and described so well (sometimes better than characters appearing onstage) that they are clearly major features of the play/movie. Yet they never actually appear. Marguerite (Andrew Wyke’s wife) in Sleuth is the first one I think of in this context. She’s having sex with both Wyke and Milo Tindle, and is clearly one of the drivers of plot motivation.
Great police interview/interrogation scenes
My daughter is studying the policier genre in her literature class. As an exercise, students have been asked to memorize and perform a scene in which a police officer or detective interviews/interrogates a suspect. I’d like to find a few good representative scenes she can watch or read for ideas.
The Great British Baking Show question
1 I’ve been bingeing this (among other shows) this month. Of the three challenges that the bakers face each week, they are given advance notice of two. My question: are the bakers told how much time they’re going to be given on these two challenges?
Anyone else watching The Windsors?
It’s a comedy on (I think) Acorn that does a parody of the Royal Family as a soap opera. Mostly pretty funny (if sometimes crude if that’s not your thing). And they don’t have a version of Queen Elizabeth. Apparently that was the one thing everyone agreed shouldn’t happen. Starts pre-Megan Markle, and for some reason there’s a running joke that Kate is a “gypsy.” For some reason it won’t let me add a link to a trailer. I watched it awhile ago. Vicious satire similar to Spitting Image.
Do you suppose there'll be a great demand for cover bands as original artists die and retire?
1 Of course, no one still alive today ever heard Beethoven perform one of his piano concertos or direct an orchestra, yet his music is still played today in front of live audiences. As modern-day original singers and music bands die and retire, do you suppose there’s a great future market for people to perform their songs in front of live audiences? Or will we just have to settle for recordings? (Yes, I know cover bands are a thing, but they’re kinda niche.)
Movies that could not be made in today’s world
1 (Rather than bump an old thread (10 years +) I decided to start a new one) I re-watched Things To Do In Denver When Your Dead recently. I had fond memories of it from when I first watched it in the late 90’s. Now… I’m not prudish or overly woke, but I must say I was bit shocked at the language. I get that they loved playing with “dangerous” topics like disability, pedophilia, murder, and death. But why did the the characters need to bash gays so much? The racism was a bit over the top, too.
Why did tea become so popular
8 Personally, I like the lower but still positive caffeine content of tea. There’s a lot of regional variation in tea v coffee drinking. Map: US and Scandinavia are coffee-centric. Latin America likes coffee, except Bolivia and Chile which have a weak preference for tea. Asia and the former USSR likes tea. Worldwide 3 cups of tea are drunk for every cup of coffee.
Automobile frustration
I accidentally hit someone backing up. Their car was undamaged. I had a small dent in the bumper, and the quarter panel had come loose. It didn’t look like much, but I have to replace the bumper to fix it (it doesn’t look like a big problem, but there was no other way to do it right). Insurance is covering all but the deductible and paying 2/3rds of the rental. The cars been in the shop for a week and a half, delayed by supply chain issues. I got a call that it’ll be another week.
Idiocracy - your thoughts?
Lumpy August 9, 2023, 12:44am 4 Yeah, The Marching Morons described a world that (mostly) worked thanks to the intelligent minority, whereas depicts a world gone to Hell in a handbasket. P.S.: I would love for someone to make the sequel , in which the dysgenic trend is reversed by deliberately creating lots and lots of ways for really stupid people to accidently kill themselves and their children.
The last thing that made you LOL
I was in my car, on the way to pick up dinner, when I got a text message. I tapped the play button on my car’s screen, and this is what Siri read: Record, upload, share! SndUp is a social network, for audio! We enable you to upload audio clips and share them with the world. Sharing your talent is simple! (click on link above to hear the message). I laughed out loud when she read it. Joey_P August 6, 2023, 11:36pm 2 The first scene in this video always gets me. For those who haven’t seen The IT Crowd.
Your favorite Ray Bradbury story?
So many to choose from, but I just reread “The Fog Horn” and that one’s haunted me ever since I first read it, decades ago. Here’s a link to the text. “All Summer in a Day.” I appreciated it when I was a kid, but did not truly understand the horror of it until I became an adult. Every time I read it as I grow older, it strikes me as more and more appalling. “Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed” is a really, really good one too, as are many of the stories collected in The Martian Chronicles.
Got fired- owe employer password info, etc...?
Long time reader, first time poster, putting IMHO due to potential legal questions. My wife got fired last week for insubordination. Some background, my wife worked for a small real estate agency (the owner was the only agent) as the office manager.
Why did Charles Dickens misrepresent the French Revolution?
In “A Tale of Two Cities,” Dickens portrays the French Revolution as something planned years in advance by a secret society. Not Freemasons or Illuminati – just a nameless group of peasants who meet in secret and call each other “Jacques.” This is an important plot point, because the DeFarges are leading figures in this organization, which has considerable political power – indeed, seems to be the actual government – once the revolution gets going. Historically, no such thing existed.
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