The Dinette Set by Julie Larson for December 21, 2011

Do they still do lobotomies??

Good Morning All

How thoughtful of them.This smells like another Penny tax deduction.

The needy are very happy that you can’t do more…

Surely these aren’t the real Pennys. Just look at that huge pile of gifts around their tree. Silly me, those are empty boxes that Joy has wrapped to “fill out” the tree.

I can just imagine the delight that some poor family will have when they get the Gump’s catalog or those skin diving goggles and fins. Makes me all teary to think of it. Like looking in the window of the Crachit family and seeing Tiny Tim holding the Sears Christmas book to his narrow chest, coughing his life away.

We do too. We have a 1962 edition Jenny got for a wedding shower gift and a 1997 edition. We both like the earlier edition better for some things. I went online to find a replacement for the old book and found a brand-new 1962 edition—for $500! I also found a VG used one for $24. The original price was $5.95.

Morning Crustwood!

Actually the needy have some very specific wishes regarding what they wish you could do, Burl.

Unfortunately, I can’t list them on a family-friendly web site….and some are anatomically impossible anyway.

Speaking of which, Leaky’s and Mikie’s suggestions for surgical procedures are both too little too late.

Hmmmm…. a big lighted mirror like the ones in every thrift shop…. no hot roller set, Joy?

One of their many empty key racks….

A single swim fin (c’mon, there are one legged poor people!)…

Verl spies a 2003 Sears catalog but she’s holding a 1998.

I can’t see the Pennys giving away a perfectly good cookbook.

Maybe the pages have all fallen out,or it fell in the toilet last fall and dried all stuck together, or… it’s a folk-rock album they got for Christmas in 1973.

Nice to see you in town, Radish.

Such generosity. Are you sure you can spare them, Burl?

Re: Susan SunshineI totally agree with your last post yesterday!!Sometimes being overly cautions can be hazardous to your health!!

So true it’s pathetic.

I hate these people more and more each day. Hate them.

Look at the present under the tree just to the upper right of the pink vanity mirror. Is that a skull?

I bought an extra copy of the Pope cook book which I had bought years ago when they had a TV show (before Julia Child). I think it was only broadscast in IL. The replacement I found was a later edition but still $$. At least it has some of the recipes I want to share with the kids (one DIL has a large collection of cook books). My original has many stains and burns from electric ranges, but also all my notes on my personal changes to recipes – the improvements, not the things that failed like beer in place of white wine in clam chowder (horrid, but I was out of wine so tried it).

Good morning Susan and Leaky. I answered Susan’s last comment on yesterday’s this morning. Read at your risk because it is long and a downer ;-)

I’m sure the donation of Joy’s cookbook is just meant to emphasize her cooking method (buy it and put in your dishes). Burl’s shirt gives only a Penny for a phone call (not sure what a pay phone would cost now) has anyone SEEN a pay phone in the past few years? Or a stand alone mailbox (for sending only)? We have slots for outgoing in every row of our ganged boxes.

You get the feeling that the bottom of that box also contains burned out strands of mini lights.

Unfortunately, too many people think the needy will accept anything and be happy to get it. The local food bank actually had to put up a sign that they would not accept food that was past the expiration date. Must be the Penny’s made a donation.

I would enjoy the old road atlas, but this kind of “charity” is what we in the church call “Junk for Jesus!”

Two “Find-It”s today…. A skull… and…. A finger… I take it JOY’s finger…. is the “Find It” finger……

@VldazzleWhere we live the lowlifes have taken to stealing the whole drop off mail box. I am sure that we will have a bunch of identity theft cases up here. A lot of the old phone booths have been removed because they were used for arranging drug deals.

Using my DOS magnifier…. I notice that most of the presents under the tree…. start with the words “To Burl”……… ! ! !

Is the finger on Verl’s hand?

You can find the finger on the hand of the poor person waving their gratitude……

It’s a cautionary tale to us all, I think.

had ‘em, and had them work for me, too. the sort that think anything not locked up or bolted down is free for the taking, and see absolutely nothing wrong with it. they’re out there, alright.

Ya know, they used to use catalogs for a completely different purpose. Maybe that’s what the Penney’s are thinking . . . ..

Just when I thought the Penny’s couldn’t possibly get . . . .oh never mind! :-0

Radish — I’m late getting back here…. but… but…. For my sake you must stay, for if you go away, you’ll spoil this party I am throwing!

Are there really such (people) as these in the real world? I hate them too Tom Falco.

I’m thinking Julie might not even notice when she draws 5 fingers and a thumb, and at the same time, the big finger that looks like Joy’s thumb is awfully long to be attached to her.

So I thought GymShoe was right, and the latter is the Find-It, and not really part of her hand.

The skull must be that one everybody agrees on, though it looks more like the face from “The Scream.”

I thought I could puzzle out a skull two different ways in the bottom of the curtain, just to the right of the gift pile…..

But now I think it’s Mickey Mouse! Nose to the left, one ear partially hidden by a big box on the right…..

Can anybody see that besides me??

Dry — hey, anything you want, since it’s online in Crustwood!

Actually Radish the (this week) Elvish started it…

Didn’t have time to get back to this earlier but thanks, Leaky — and Dazz… I went back and read your last yesterday comment.

This answer is long, sorry.I suggest those not interested in this particular discussion just skip it.

Ok, I finally get what you’re talking about with the meth — you’re referring to psuedoephedrine, as in Sudaphed, which is a decongestant, not an antihistamine, and yes, speeds people up rather than slowing them down.

It bears some chemical relationship to the amphetamines, but was developed as a much safer and non-addictive form.

So yes, it can be used by amateur fools to produce what is said to be a very rough and sometimes poisonous form of amphetamine.

Speed is bad for people anyway — but what mostly makes this home made version actually poisonous is the LYE you ingest, not the psuedoephedrine.

You’ve already admitted to using lye in crafts, which is more dangerous than taking Sudafed, because the latter has no lye in it.

In any case I wasn’t suggesting decongestants — they’re more used for sinus pressure, pain and headache than drippy noses.

I don’t take them either cos they mildly speed up my heart. My doctor says it’s safe but I say no.

Meanwhile, you’re cutting yourself off from perfectly safe and mild antihistamines, whose only side-effect is drowsiness, and which DO dry up a drip, though I can only take any when I plan to sleep anyway.

So, on the one hand, it surprises me that as a person with a technical mind, you don’t research the scientific facts about medication.

On the other, there are the philosophical aspects of what you said….

Leaving aside the ethical or moral questions, which I consider everyone’s personal choice, and not something to argue, especially here…

Your method doesn’t work!

If we could but pick and choose what will kill us, slow us down, make us ill, or merely be an inconvenience, it would be far easier.

There are annoyances, like runny noses, that will never manage to be the cause of your demise if left untreated, but it might make life more pleasant if they were eliminated.

For example, I have pain in my legs and hands, from arthritis and other stuff. That’s never going to kill me, no matter HOW much ibuprofen I refuse to take — but I DO hurt a lot more without it.

Ibuprofen, OTOH, MIGHT kill me one day, if I live long enough, cos it slowly damages my kidneys.

My doctor, therefore, would rather I take stronger, prescription pain medication, which spares the kidneys, but I won’t, because I don’t like the other effects.

So I take OTC ibuprofen, not a lot, but enough to help….

and if my kidneys do get damaged, I have to decide how to treat that.

Life for most people requires a delicate balance among the choices for treatments and medications: relieving symptoms, causing harm, living a longer or shorter time, and affecting the future prognosis.

It’s a sad fact that diet, exercise, self care and other somewhat controllable options can’t protect against everything life could throw your way.

Just choosing a blanket refusal of all medication can in some cases condemn you to a LONGER life full of suffering that could have been eliminated.

I fear that much more than death.

@GymShoe, and I do look ladylike, I think. I will admit, sometimes my wording here may give question, but those who know me, consider me a lady. At least I think so. :-)

@Susan, If I had severe pain I would probably use something, but as I found I was using something year round for mild allergies, I decided to eliminate it, as I did with all the diet sodas I was drinking (now only have 1 a day in warm weather – none now). As you say, we have to chose what poisons (and I only made lye soap the once for a historical lesson, outdoors at the house of a friend who also keeps chickens).