I got my second Pfizer jab today. Such a relief.

I'm supposed to get the J&J single-shot tomorrow.

That's the one I got.

Got Pfizer 1 today. Under 65 but with coronary artery disease and another Morbidity. Not a big relief, but definitely a "that's good" moment. The vaccination process was efficient. It was what I would have expected from government pre-45.

I'm not judging, but all the cool people are getting Pfizer.

I'm getting vaccines for diseases no one's heard of yet.

Work is still a mess due to how much we're responsible for and how few inputs we actually get. There are over a hundred tasks split between me and two other writers, and that's not counting tasks people are supposed to get to us and they just don't realize or haven't bothered. I hesitate to send the third or fourth reminder for people to update long-overdue documents because we wouldn't have the bandwidth to processes their updates.

I don't want to complain too much, people (with some exceptions) are generally reasonable when it matters and I rarely work more than 40 hours in a week, but still, the workload is so big it's a problem even theoretically.

Got an email form a fairly faraway pharmacy whose list I had gotten on back in January. Requested that I take a Covid vaccination "survey." Which I did.

So I now have a Covid Vaccination Ticket which reads:

"Your appointment is scheduled for I ALREADY HAVE HAD THE VACCINE. YOU will get your COVID-19 vaccine at this location."

The internet is going to revolutionize healthcare.

I hate you all.

The internet is going to revolutionize hating people.

Increasing number of places around here opening up for anyone when they do not get booked up. PA continues to lag neighbors in officially opening up to younger folk. The other day when someone was asking about local area info I should have posted this Facebook group which has been pretty good at identifying opportunities.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingpittsburghvaccinated/

Hating people is going to revolutionize the internet.

Revolutions are going to internetize the hate.

The revolution will be internetized.

In North Carolina, one of the medical conditions that qualifies you for Group 4 is "current or former smoker", defined as at least 100 cigarettes during the course of your life. Which I probably did on multiple long weekends in college. They're opening it to all adults on April 7.

There is a guy newly resident on my block who is clearly having some kind of mental health and/or substance abuse crisis. He is outside most of the time, but I think is associated with the house up the street with the revolving door of people with issues. Some of the house's residents have moved out in the past couple of weeks (I saw them loading a U-Haul), but it's been months since I had a conversation with any of them. I'm not sure I want to deal with knocking on their door and telling them to come and get their guy. I don't really want to call the sheriff just because someone is being conspicuously miserable outside my house. Any ideas?

Jealous (but happy for you!) of all your vaccine access. Ontario has record high patients in ICU, out of control variant spread, has vaccinated only 12% of the population, and is only now booking appointments for 70+. Oh, and the AZ vaccine is now only approved for ages 55-65.

On the other hand, we might, maybe, get a half-hearted lockdown announced tomorrow: the premier tells us to "stay tuned!" like we're watching Days of Our Lives or something.

17: Walk up to him, wave, make sure you have his attention, and ask, "Hey, you OK? Do you need anything? I've seen you hanging around a lot and it looks like you're having a rough time." If you're concerned about him grabbing on to you, literally or figuratively, then walk around the block first so it's not obvious which house you came out of. I realize it's easier said than done but it does seem like an obvious early step.

Spouse got shot #1 on Monday. I don't become eligible for another 19 days, though I would be eligible today in 3 out of 6 neighboring states, and Monday in one more.

I'm very annoyed about smokers going ahead of 60+ in PA.

I just busted a cheater so hard, in such an awkward excruciating way, that I actually feel weird about it. I am holding face-to-face exams this semester. If you need to take it remotely, then you have to take a short oral exam over zoom, as well.

One student took the first test remotely. Then he missed the oral exam. We rescheduled, but then the snowstorm came and no one had electricity and everything was closed for a week. So it never happened.

Second exam was yesterday. Same student wants to take it remotely. (I had about 5 remote this time.) There is a lot of memorization on this test, because we're doing derivative shortcuts. In fact, there is a list of derivative shortcut rules that I gave them ahead of time and explicitly said "This is on the test." So I know this test is ripe for cheating. And on the test, I wrote, "Remote students testing over zoom will take this page during the oral exam."

So they all took the oral exam today. The twist is that I asked them to shut their eyes while I read them the derivative prompts and they gave me the answers, and I wrote down what they said. Four of them did great. The last student was excruciating.

Then we went over to the test and I asked him to explain a few answers, just so that I could feel comfortable giving him full credit. I just let him twist in the wind for so long. My mind was wandering all over the place because the whole thing was so uncomfortable. That's the part I feel bad about. I have five or so minutes of the most egregious bullshitting of calculus you ever heard recorded on my computer now. Excruciating.

Finally, I told him that he will be taking the final exam in person, and that I didn't feel comfortable giving him credit for the problems that he couldn't explain, and let him get off the zoom call. I never went down the path of labeling it cheating and launching an accusation and filing a report and all that.

17: if you're in berkeley, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Health_Human_Services/Mental_Health/Mobile_Crisis_Team_(MCT).aspx&ved=2ahUKEwi8rODEr9vvAhUBqZ4KHZiyDJgQFjAAegQIAxAC&usg=AOvVaw3QJUBu4Dg-zwyIOACa_kg5

i called for this years ago when my next door neighbor's issues would circle around to me-centered hostility & obsession (internalized misogyny & untreated mental health issues = bad news!) & they sent round a social worker who clearly knew the neighbor.

I got my 2nd Pfizer shot on Friday.

I'm a bit annoyed. The first shot was intensely painful at the time, and then I had arm pain of varying levels of acuteness that took nearly 3 weeks to fully clear up. The 2nd shot I barely felt at all, and only resulted in mild soreness that was gone in 24 hours. So I think my main side effect had nothing to do with the vaccine itself and everything to do with the fact that someone didn't know how to give an injection properly.

I don't know why they still tell nurses to prime the needle by first jabbing a 2 by 4.

I am due for second Pfizer on the 10th. Tim got Moderna 4 or 5 days after I got mine, so he's not due until the 22nd or so. More people are calling for delaying 2nd shots because nobody is following public health rules. On a population level I would be ok with waiting an extra week or so, but because everyone is throwing caution to the wind and cases are spiking here, I am now more personally invested in getting full protection.

Also, I definitely would not want to have to go back to in-person work before being fully vaccinated.

Seems to me the plan should always have been getting the first shots out as quickly and broadly as possible, then the second shot on an as-available basis (except maybe for the real high-risk groups -- the folks in nursing homes and similar).

The first shot of Moderna and Pfizer were always understood to provide a very large measure of protection -- as in, nobody gets hospitalized for Covid if they make it to two weeks after the first shot.

As it is, I'm scheduled for my second shot on Monday. (Moderna.)

I found my first shot to be unusually non-painful. Same for my spouse, who professed to be worried for a bit that they didn't actually inject her.

28: I had a very experienced nurse. I was chatting with her turned away to look at something and then realized she had already injected me. My arm was sore later, but at the time I didn't feel a thing.

Tim's nurse was young, and he said that the Moderna shot definitely stung going in. I expect he will be out for a couple of days after his 2nd shot.

If you tense your arm at the wrong time, it's going to be painful. I deliberately look away so I don't see it go in.

Alive and well here. Work's pretty overwhelming at the moment, but should return to normal around April 6th, so just working a few more long days.

The weather has turned beautiful, my volunteer yard is in beautiful bloom, and I'm *knock wood* staying relatively ahead of weeding the annoying ones (particualarly the sticker vines) out. In a month it'll all dry out, but for now it's beautiful to see what comes back. Lots of poppies, and an early sunflower are stars.

I was chatting with her turned away to look at something and then realized she had already injected me.

That's how my 2nd shot was. I was still getting ready when they said "OK, done". It was a little sore an hour later but at the time I basically felt nothing.

I feel like, in the unfogged of yore, the above would have set off a long subthread of off-color jokes.

That's what she said.

I got the shingles vaccine earlier this year because I'm old and had essentially no reaction to either shot other than very mild soreness at the injection site. I'm hoping that's foreshadowing.

The shingles vaccine slowed me down a bit, especially the second shot, but Moderna was mostly a non-event. I can't find much rhyme or reason in who has significant side effects from the Covid vaccines and who doesn't.

The Blackfeet Nation can be really proud of where they are on this: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/montana/articles/2021-03-27/montana-tribes-having-success-distributing-covid-19-vaccines

I'm supposed to get the shingles one this year.

Got the first shingles vaccine last fall. Knocked me on my ass for a day. (I got the flu vaccine simultaneously, but the Internet tells me that the shingles one was probably my problem.) Still haven't gotten the second shingles shot (try to say that three times fast.) The pandemic has made me nervous about nonessential trips into the world.

I think last fall I was persuaded that I really needed the flu shot. I read something about how getting the flu and Covid simultaneously was a particular problem.

Bookings just opened up here for 70+ which would be great if my mother hadn't turned into an anti-vaxxer. My sister (RN PhD) is furious, my brother has offered to deliver a program to lock her out of various websites if my sister can get access to my mom's computer. I just cheered them on. Also my brother's whole family has covid because Ontario. They're okay so far but the three kids are beside themselves with boredom and the parents and sick and bored too.

Only 24 cases in the province though and no community spread so we're going to hang out with sister and parents and family for Easter.

It's a less than 4 day visit so I think I can avoid getting in a fight with my mother?

Is it ethical to put parental controls on her computer to block all the horrible sites?

39: we are very confused about getting Tim's mother a vaccine. In Kingston you could get Astra Zeneca at a pharm@dy if 60-65. Peterborough is doing it through the public health unit, but for the AZ, the GPS have to prioritize their patients. It's very confusing. She's eligible, but I can't figure out when she'll be able.

39 There are billboards all over CSKT saying 'protect the elders, wear a mask' and if you clicked through in 36 you see that this has been a very effective pitch for the vaccine, among a population that has every reason to be deeply suspicious of the government.

It seems to me that we might do well to appropriate this bit of culture.

39: How old is she? If there is any dementia involved, by answer is unequivocall6 YES. Even without, it's a strong MAYBE.

39: holy moly, I'm so sorry. What a mess. You have my blessing to block rightwing sites. They literally wreck vulnerable people's brains.

Heebieville announced today that they're ending remote school. I don't know how I feel about this.

I think it's mostly good. There have been a horrible number of suicides and attempts. Jammies literally has 1 student passing one of the subjects he teaches. At the same time, the devil is in the details. If they don't peel off the health exception kids and give them separate instructors, it won't help the teachers and it won't stick.

Wait, how does the blocker work? Does it put up spurious warnings about how the site is unsafe and may steal your information, or does it just cause the sites to hang indefinitely before loading...? I'd be extremely wary of using a tool like that, fwiw. What happens if she finds out what you've done? What if someone without the blocker shares a link with her ("oh, it's not working for you? It works fine for me," etc.)?

40: Yeah the AZ but stuff got really confusing and I assume it's like fetal testing in pregnant people over where there's some magic age where the risks switch from one thing to another. I'll keep watching Instagram to get it explained to me (seriously some good covid explainers there - Science/sam (Canadian) and king/gutter/baby - slashes for google prodding only). Given the state of GPs here/in Canada generally I'm kind of horrified that's the path for vaccination on offer.

41: Fortunately masks are the law and she's law abiding (I'm not sure she considers herself an elder). But does the mask message work for the vaccine-reluctant? I think I'm missing a step.

42-43: No dementia. My sister and I discuss that regularly because her personality does seem to have shifted. But it's pretty weirdo right wing nonsense so we think she's just down the rabbit hole. Don't let your parents read Tr/ad Catholic sites folks. That's a slippery slope.

45: Also she's on the mailing list. I really want a tool that would reduce the frequency of access and then slowly ramp down over time. Like block after 10 pm and then all day Tuesday and then daily from 10:30 to 11:15. Just make it seem like it's broken a lot so that she'd drift away to do something else.

45.b: Well she once stopped speaking to me for 3 months because I admitted I was having premarital sex with my boyfriend of two years so hopefully stop speaking to me.

Ethically, I don't see how it matters if your mother fits some clinical definition of "dementia." By any reasonable standard, she is dangerously demented, and I can't grasp an ethical problem with treating her accordingly. Practical problems have been mentioned here -- I personally don't think that blocking this information would make any difference, even if you could do it, which seems doubtful -- but there's no ethical problem that I can discern.

Pro-tip: It isn't premarital sex if you never get married.

46.2 It's better if she doesn't think she's an elder. She should get the shot to protect valuable yet vulnerable members of her community.

49 is so great.

If you touch a butt, it still might be sodomy.

Pleased to report that I got penetrated by two Johnsons this morning.

It's normal to feel a bit sore afterwards.

Not bad for a Thursday.

I wondered why they said it was going to make my *arm* sore, but maybe I should read my emails more closely.

Just think of the little army of soldiers marching inside you now. What a warm, thick sensation.

At first I didn't want the J&J vaccine since it's not as effective as the other two. But then the usual suspects starting making a big deal about it using cell lines from aborted fetuses, and now it's my vaccine of choice.

A little army of warm, slow aborted fetus soldiers crawling inside of you and keeping you safe.

No fever or chills but I've felt like shit all day. Like a bad hangover. I slept most of the day away.

have been pfizerized, dose 1, just now. 🎉🎉🎉

It's the best one.

Buried my mother on Friday; a good service, in the cathedral. But the wait of four weeks after her death was pretty grim. "They're rushed off their feet at the crem with covid" as the half wit woman from the undertakers said.

oh jeez nw - sending best thoughts. 💔

63: That does sound rough, even with the forewarning. Was it family only in the cathedral?

No -- there were about fifteen people, and they stuck it on you tube, too, so that my son could watch it in HK, and all the various relatives who felt too old and frail to travel could manage. Very strange. There was a robed choir of three, and no communal singing. But it was, and remains, an incredibly beautiful and numinous building.

||

So I just found out that someone filed a false unemployment insurance claim in my name. One of apparently 156,000 such false claims that have been filed in Maryland in the last 2 months. I've already contacted my bank and credit card companies, and will be setting up a security credit freeze tomorrow.

From someone who knows more about this stuff than me: are there other steps I should take? Also, how worried should I be? It seems like Maryland is being deluged with fraudulent unemployment claims during the last 6 months, so it's not like it's highly specific to me.

|>

This happened to me in MA last year, I informed the state AG office and set security freezes, and haven't heard anything since. It was pretty ridiculous because I couldn't log in to the state UI site to fix the fraudulent email address they used, because the recovery contact was set to a phone number that was not mine but there was no way to change that. I suppose if I ever need to file for UI it would be an issue but otherwise nothing has happened.

Somebody used my SSN to try to get a tax refund. It was a pain, but I didn't do anything about it but put a freeze on my credit and go back to filing taxes like it's the olden days.

69: On paper? Do you use tax software or just fill out the forms by hand?

It's extra annoying that I'll have to contact Equifax as part of setting up the credit freeze, since it's very likely their fault that this happened in the first place.

I use software and print the forms.

I got my first Pfizer shot today at a WV pharmacy after registering on their site last week. It was only a 40 min drive but I had to ride my bike through snow flurries to get to the rental car, and there were periods on the highway with very poor visibility. My partner registered with the same pharmacy two days ago and got a call from them today to come on the same day. Luckily this means we can make the trip back for our second shots together.

Congratulations on at least avoiding Ohio.

63: Condolences, NW. Awful to deal with that. I know it's been hard these last few years.

63: Thinking of you, NW. This stuff is just really, really hard; and there's no (honest) escape from that hardship.

72: I do that for the State forms, because I refuse to pay to file online,

I live in a very high tech state.

71 is correct. When you try to set a credit freeze online each agency asks you somewhat ridiculous questions from your credit file to prove your identity. Things like, "which of these streets have you been associated with?" and more often than not the answer is none of the above. I managed to answer Transunion and Experian, but Equifax was the most obscure (what was the approximate monthly payment of the mortgage loan you opened in 2004?) Once you get it wrong you have to request it in writing and send copies of your ID.
Agree with 77. Fuck if I'm going to pay TurboTax another $25 to do something that saves the state processing effort. The state should be paying me to eFile instead of paper.

I got my credit card info stolen for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Best Buy, the police and the credit card people themselves were pretty much entirely uninterested. The credit card just refunded my money, and so far there seem to be no other repurcussions -- it seems to have been limited to that one card.

81. That happened to me with a debit card (more accurately, an ATM card which is really a debit card was well). The local cops were initially excited about it, but then it was discovered the perp had used it to fraudulently buy stuff in multiple states, and so the FBI got involved. The funny thing is that the perp had been doing this for many years, been caught but never done time for it due to being the spouse of a corrupt state representative (not in MA). But the FBI got him for Social Security fraud instead, because he was scamming on that as well. None of the stores he ripped off were even slightly interested in pressing charges, even thought he was caught on video for every place he used: Fruit stores, Superlative Transactions, the Bank of Lotsa States, etc., if you catch my drift. To be fair the Bank alerted me pretty quickly and they shut down the card. I don't know if he ever actually did time for it.

/was/as/, /thought/though/
Forgot to mention his total take was over $10K. I set the ATM card limit lower after this experience. "No, you can't get get a card that only works in ATMs." "Why not?" "Because."

I had someone steal my cc info and buy a bunch of stuff 30 years ago. Got a quick credit, and was surprised by the lack of interest in catching the perp.

I've gotten those fraud alerts maybe every other year for the last dozen or so. 'Were you in Mississippi yesterday?' Deviations from patterns are pretty easy to see.

The only problem is that if I'm somewhere I don't usually go and buying things I don't usually buy, that's exactly when it would be the hardest to fix the problem if the card was preëmptively canceled because it looked like fraud.

84: Most card issuers call or text when they see the likely fraudulent charges, though it sometimes takes 5 minutes or so... so you get the "approve this transaction?" just after you give up and drive away from the pump.

Right, but if you're somewhere that your cell doesn't work -- say Amsterdam in 2007 -- then that call doesn't do any good.

Does anybody know how to reset the counter on the "It's been X days since the last fatal domestic terrorism" sign?

86: My dad had me call my credit card companies and tell them I was going to Europe. This was back in the 90s.

87: Does it do fractions?

Metric time was considered and rejected.

88: I still advise my bank and credit card company before I travel internationally. Is that not a typical thing?

I guess I haven't traveled since. Except to Canada.

I basically never call any business except to order food.

91: A couple of years ago, my card stopped requiring it. (I called them and they said, you don't need to do that any more.)

I have, unfortunately, incurred large expenses lately -- and they went through just fine on my card. But $3,000 at Best Buy online triggered an alert to me, and I was able to cancel the card in probably less than an hour after the purchase. It has to be said, the invasion of privacy implicit in behavioral algorithms has some advantages. (I guess stolen credit cards aren't generally used for digging up sewer lines -- or paying college tuition for that matter.)

Despite the privacy violation, I think it's also nice that they got pictures of the Capitol insurrectionists. But I've read enough science fiction to know it all ends badly.

Anyway, I have arranged to get e-mail alerts for credit card transaction over a couple hundred dollars. Every time I get one, it freaks me out a little because I'm wondering why the bank feels the need to contact me.

"According to our records, it's after 2009 so we don't think Best Buy exists. "

Despite the privacy violation, I think it's also nice that they got pictures of the Capitol insurrectionists. But I've read enough science fiction to know it all ends badly.

Criminals with an objection to wearing masks while committing crimes even in the unexpected circumstance of masks making them less conspicuous is kind of like D&D in that they have a fucking character description and no matter how fucked it is, they play it.

Anyone know offhand what fraction of D&D types are trumpers?

If you roll under 4 for charisma.

I roll, like, 85 for charisma.

There are 54 new cases of covid at Pitt today. I was going to get a haircut, but decided against it since my barber is near campus. Somebody went to England for Christmas and brought back the super-covid.

Wait. 54 over two days.

100-101: Suffolk county, I.e. Boston and a few other cities that have been hit hard, has had an average of 288 per day for the last 14 days. My town of 42,000 had 27. Not a good situation here.

The NY Times has ok data. I think our state dashboard kind of obfuscates the picture.

|| So, our right-wing overlords in the Montana legislature have decided to impose their own little fairness doctrine on the media. Here's the Stop Guilt By Association Act: https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2021/billpdf/HB0711.pdf It's not an April Fools prank.

Here is the Legislative Purpose section:

(1) prevent unchecked media outlets from acting as slander machines by engaging in defamation in-kind, abusing the general public, and degrading the integrity of our institutions of justice through selective reporting on cases and controversies that cultivates false narratives to the point that it unduly injures the accused by eroding their civil liberties, causing them to be shunned and avoided by the general public due to a cloud of suspicion of wrongdoing that does not exactly align with the original allegations or the relief provided in a case and controversy lodged before a government body;

(2) protect the integrity of the press and encourage good character of the members of the press;

(3) deter malicious prosecution and abuse of process in general and deter prosecutors from overcharging defendants or plaintiffs from seeking excessive relief in the original cause complaint;

(4) promote a mercy-centric justice system because no human being is perfect; and

(5) deter convictions in the court of public opinion that do not necessarily align with convictions by our institutions of justice.

|>

And that's not even the worst thing they've done this week. They're busy trying to withhold a huge amount of federal Recovery money from cities and counties that had covid restrictions stricter than the state's. This is (a) nuts and (b) exactly what the people voted for.

They're fighting a culture war by trying to establish that their culture is whiny, entitled, assholedom.

The last time I was in the US I used my debit card exactly twice, and the card information was stolen. When I got home, I was woken up by a call at 5am asking if I just bought something in Indonesia.

It's a nice place to visit, but you need to watch yourself.

All the TV commercials are for online casinos. That seems like a bad idea.

That and for insurance fraud (why it's a bad idea, not how to) .

Do Americans actually eat bacon with their hands or is that just TV bullshit?

We do. How do other people eat it?

111: I also eat asparagus with my hands. I'm sure that's uncouth.

110. American bacon is crispy (or should be). British "bacon" isn't.

111: With cutlery. Crispy or no, it's covered in OIL. Are you fucking with me?

Of course we eat bacon with our hands. Then we wipe them on napkins.

Or socks.

Or we just lick our fingers, barbarians that we are.

112 Nope, that's long been fine.

I'm not sure if you could eat bacon with a fork when it is really crispy.

But, despite the obvious similarities, Beef Wellington does not work if you eat it like a burrito.

Thus proving that mushroom paste has a lower coefficient of fiction than guacamole.

Or that steak is harder to bite through than rice and beans.

Case rates are skyrocketing here. We were at around low 200s just a few months ago, now high 800s for a population of just under 3 million.

We have 1,000 cases statewide right now, 107 new today. Population about a million. Only 38 hospitalized, though.

In 7-day count per 100,000 pop, I think you're 27 and 14 respectively. (Oddly, the Washington Post provides country rates as 7-day totals, and U.S. state rates as 7-day averages. US overall is 20.)

American bacon is crispy (or should be). British "bacon" isn't.

What Americans call "Canadian bacon" is what Canadians call "back bacon." Is that what you mean by "British bacon"? It's not crispy, because it's sort of more like a ham.

My dad used to like a black pudding (AKA a 'blood pudding': ew!) for his Sunday breakfast. So many pork products; and so many of them sound rather disgusting ... so many reasons to at least contemplate a vegetarian diet! ...

So, if British bacon is really ham, what do they call actual bacon? Crisps?

In my experience of English breakfasts, it's more or less US bacon. I hadn't noticed it's non-crispy, but that's possible as I don't cook it crispy personally.

126 -

What I find confusing is that I can get British rashers at a specialty shop. Tim grew up eating both regular streaky bacon and pea meal bacon. Pea meal bacon is closer to ham but not the same as what British people eat.

What I love about the full English breakfast: the beans, and the toast. I grew up eating baked beans on toast for supper, and I find this combination profoundly comforting. I just push the pork product (call it 'bacon,' call it 'ham,' call it 'the fatty by-product of the slaughter of a pig'...) to the edge of my plate, and maybe ask for seconds on the beans, and another piece of toast...

Apparently that English mainstay brown sauce is highly similar to A1 Steak Sauce, to demystify that a bit.

We seem to eat just as much baked beans, judging by its place on the shelves, but it doesn't have as much veneration as comfort food.

Because we don't use toast.

Apparently that English mainstay brown sauce is highly similar to A1 Steak Sauce, to demystify that a bit.

= HP Sauce?

That's the most common one, yeah.

How/why I became a vegetarian (Part X or XI or so):

My mother, attempting to coax me into eating a cheap cut of beef, smothered in HP sauce: "Now, just look at that good blood on your plate."

Me, at about 6 or 7 years of age: "Um, er...what!? Blood on my plate? I'll just have another serving of mashed potatoes, if you please."

Crispy or no, it's covered in OIL.

I have bad news for you about the rest of the American diet.

- diet,+ population

we find that the Alliance data is inconsistent... Maybe preprint servers as currently funded have a weak spot...

I think maybe that's faked data. None of the references are from after 2021 even though it was drafted in 2185.

I guess I didn't read carefully enough. They cite (T'soni, L. 2171).

My aunt with pancreatic cancer died; it was mercifully quick. We're going to do a memorial service this summer, on the thought that by then enough of us will be vaccinated that we can do it in person. The Indonesian side of my family (aunt and uncle) are in the hospital with Covid, but reportedly doing well so far. There are so many signs of hope, and I just want to fast-forward through the next month or two and get there.

My condolences, Sand

Thank you. And now everyone should go back to distracting silliness and give me more excuses to neither think nor grade.

126. What Americans call "Canadian bacon" is what Canadians call "back bacon." Is that what you mean by "British bacon"?
No, Canadian/back bacon is a different thing, as you suggest.
129. streaky bacon
Isn't that what Brits call American bacon?

I admit my experience with "British Bacon" is limited to having had "full English breakfasts" (not always totally "full") in London, York, and various B&Bs in other parts of England; Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness in Scotland; Dublin and various B&Bs in Ireland. (I don't recall if the Scots and Irish ones were actually called "English breakfasts"; that would seem a bit off.)

So my memory is that "bacon" in the British Isles generally fell somewhere in the gap between American bacon and Canadian bacon. Sometimes it was a lot like American bacon, which is usually very fatty and comes in strips, and sometimes it was closer to a strip version Canadian bacon, which (I think) is more like ham slices and less fatty.

I am looking forward to the end of the pandemic so I can perform further research on this vital question.

I really like the breakfast tomatoes. Mostly I just like the UK's commitment to breakfast. Like if you take the overnight ferry from Shetland to Aberdeen you have the problem that it gets in too late to eat breakfast on the passage but too early for the breakfast places to be open, but you can't just leave people on their own without breakfast because that would be inhumane. So instead you can drive your car into the parking lot, and then come back onto the ferry to eat your full breakfast in peace.

On the Full English/Full Scottish/Full Welsh thing, what's kind of fascinating to me is which sub-country regions also give their own names. Like I'm pretty sure a B&B in Cornwall is going to serve you a Full Cornish Breakfast. But what's the breakdown in terms of whether you get a Full English Breakfast or a Full Yorkshire Breakfast?

"Full Yorkshire Breakfast" is a sex act. Don't ask.

If you go to a supermarket in Britain, or even a butcher's shop, you can buy various cuts of bacon. "Back", which is roughly Canadian, is the default; "Streaky " is American;; "Collar" is less common. In Ireland, breakfast bacon is simply referred to as rashers, bacon is assumed.

146: And it involves that Simon character that Mike Myers played in the bathtub.

I don't remember that in Halloween.

Trump took all my tax deductions so it was really easy this year.

I get my first dose of the AZ vaccine tomorrow. Never thought I'd be so excited about getting a vaccine!

149 makes me want to watch Baby Driver again.

I haven't see that yet.

No spoilers.

There is a huge difference, apparent in the frying pan, between the stuff you can get in supermarkets and the bacon from real butchers. The supermarket stuff, whatever its appearance, is all about 25-30% water, and will shrink by that amount in the pan. Butchers' bacon (and I'm sorry to horrify JPJ) tastes of more than salt or a sort of solidified pork stock.

156: Canadian pea meal bacon is distinctly different from British. The latter I have seen in specialty stores in MA, but not the Canadian stuff.

155. Oh, yes. Some specialty brands are good, but the pandemic has made them hard to find. Niman Ranch is one of those. When I was a kid we used to get bacon directly from a local pig farmer, and it was pretty awesome.

156. Is "British Delights" in Westford one of them? I drive by that fairly often but have never actually visited it. (I suppose it could be another 146 with a sex grotto.)

Yeah, well, if you're ever in Ely Minnesota look up Edis pork butchers. It's a small shop and the queue to get in I photographed just before Christmas stretched 200m down the street.

157: I used to see it at Russo's in Watertown. I haven't been in a while, because it's too crowded for COVID.