for a time during the 1990s they had an ‘all american meal’ which was small burger or cheeseburger, small fries, small drink. was cheap, too. basically a dollar-store happy meal without the toy or box. this was before those went ‘kids size’ and swapped in “healthier” items.

then they jacked the price up so far, it literally cost more than ordering a la carte.

the og chicken +cheese +bacon +pickles was pretty popular when i was in high school (80s).

‘the chart’ is a good starting point.

note: linking to harvard because they have a static snapshot that is viewable without scripting enabled. just click it to go to the source at ad fontes.

i tend to stick with local public radio. it’s always on when i’m in the car. when i see a post or headline that i want to read more about, i feed it to the duck and look for relevant content at places like reuters, ap, npr, or the nearest major papers (milwaukee, madison) that aren’t in chicago (too much ‘chicagoland’ in them, and i avoid the city).

note that in addition to staff reporting, the ap is also reliant on member publications–which means that those biases end up on ‘the wire’, too.

guessing they’re using the carrier’s data for verification. name, address, phone number, socials and at least partials of credit cards, bank accounts. whatever relevant that they have.

this is all data the credit bureau has on you already

in my experience they change brands about the same time the bulbs start burning out

lifetime guarantee!!

your lifetime? nope.

the fixture’s lifetime? nope.

the building’s lifetime? nope.

the lifetime of their marketplace seller account.

of course they wanna charge you. they’ve been purposefully fucking with incandescent light bulb lifetimes for a hundred years as a means to increase profits.

they can’t do that anymore, so they need another racket to get you to keep coming back and giving them money…

and they found it.

just like every other greedy bastard corporation—subscriptions.

at least they aren’t gimping the led units to some arbitrary lifespan, but you know damn well they’re using the cheapest shortest-lasting sub-components and cheapest manufacturing they can find.

thanks, pop, but i’m good. i’ll just stay down here at home with you and mom.

what’s the play here? just being his usual dipshit self?

just use plain elbows in a bowl, really get 'em worked up.

i use shells a lot, even for bowls of just pasta and sauce (vs a plate of sauce over spaghetti noodles). it’s just easier to scoop 'em up with a spoon.

use plenty of water and stir the pot frequently. i only have a problem with them sticking together while cooking if i neglect to do those two things.

they’re great in pasta salads or mac & cheese when you’re using peas in whatever you’re making. some of the peas work themselves into the shells. it’s like they were made for each other.

in the 1970s, bk didn’t suck nearly as much as they do now. but yea, culver’s is the good stuff–although they have dipped a bit lately. i think they’re expanding too fast in their quest for more dollars.

the uk is also a “collection of countries”.

probably some whining about clinton’s emails… by a half-nekkid blonde (cuz, ya know, ph is blocked in much of magastan. they gotta get it somewhere).

when it doesn’t affect you, and it doesn’t for the vast majority… you can just sit back and enjoy the show.

they turned the projector off. it’s not cheating and fraud when their guy wins, only when it didn’t work well enough (and then it’s the other side that did everything).

if you can’t get your haswell qsv to work (it does here, btw) and need to make a move…

at that budget (100gbp ~ 120eur ~ 125usd), your best play might be the cheapest, lowest wattage video card you can find that works with your software and supports at least the encoding you need (if not also newer formats).

you might find something like an alder lake n-series barebones mini pc or itx/matx board/cpu (might not be a ‘drop in’ swap in your t20) for something at least close what you’re looking to spend. anything else for 100 quid is probably gonna be surplus or used stuff you can find locally.

just a step or two removed from what’s probably their ultimate goal: a unique guid for every device, that you can’t change, can’t remove, can’t decline, and is always with you–including linking multiple devices when you log-in to the same account somewhere across googleland from them.

it’s effective, timely, accurate, and profitable.

ofc they’re gonna use the audio, too; where and when possible.

it’ll blow a door, drop an engine, and veer off-course before crashing, long before it got to ya.