I'll agree on one thing. Having a hearing on a company using a loophole is not really a good use of time. If what they are doing is not illegal there's really no value in shaming them. Spend your time closing the loophole.

This is sensible and straightforward, and must therefore be wrong.

Isn't Olive Garden one of those places where families go to eat cheap? I'd think the tips would be miserly compared to slightly more upscale casual restaurants -- which is what Granite City looks like. My entirely uninformed opinion says go for the brewpub over the family restaurant.

Yeah, the artifact-of-the-week angle is getting stale and I was never able to get into their off-and-on story arc. I'm glad they're going to wrap it up before it humps the shark.

I was kind of hoping that somebody would try to make that case.

I watch Mad Men. Every time I start to wonder wtf I'm doing watching this soap opera, they come up with a completely awesome episode that draws me right back in. It may be a soap opera, but it's an extremely well-written soap opera. And I was the same age as Don's daughter in the 1960s, so it's set during my childhood. The period detail is very accurate.

Gotta go with Nixon. Fuckin' EPA!

Have we ever had a more socialist experiment in the market economy than Nixon's wage/price controls?

That's what conservatives call Obama, and they really believe it. But I don't think so. The center drifted way to the right from the 1980s through the 2000s. The pendulum is swinging back now, but the center is still farther right than it was when I grew up. Jimmy Carter was more liberal than Obama. JFK might have been, too, although his presidency didn't last long enough to find out. LBJ's Great Society was certainly to the left of Obama. Obama gave us a conservative-designed, market-based healthcare reform, but I don't see a War on Poverty or Civil Rights Act or anything similarly transformative.

So who do you think was the most liberal president of all time?

I would say FDR, with the proviso that his foundational social welfare programs were more of a pragmatic response to the Depression and the threat of American communism than an ideology.

Go see Iron Man 3 now if you're interested.  Everyone will be watching the new hotness.  You can probably get a Sunday matinee to yourself.

Nah, that's a rental. I don't really like superhero movies, although I eventually see all the blockbusters anyway. I keep wanting them to be science fiction, and they keep being action/adventure -- which I fear is the direction that the new ST movies are going.

I want to wait a few weeks for the crowds to die back, then go to a weekday matinee.

Wife wants to go during Memorial Day weekend.

Pray for me.

If you want to go WAY back, this is the first album that I ever owned. I must've listened to it 20 times and could recite all the stories verbatim.

Who doesn't want an iPad?     So much for my cool big gift. 

Me! I won't take it off your hands. Sorry.

My first cassette was Abbey Road, but I never bought many prerecorded tapes. Always preferred to make my own.

Don't remember my first CD. I joined a music club and bought a lot of them all at once, mostly replacing vinyl. Knowing me, it was probably Bowie or Peter Gabriel-era Genesis.

So we'll give the state govs MORE money to mismanage?

No, you'll give them the money you already owe them so that many can work towards not being woefully underfunded at the moment.

The reason they're "woefully underfunded" is because when times are good they go on a spending spree using every dollar available, committing themselves to long-term obligations as if times will always be good. Then a dip in the economy happens, tax revenues drop and all the sudden they are scrambling to cover the expenses. Giving a spendthrift more money is not a good way to change bad habits.

Don't most states have a rainy day fund like MA does? During good times we build it up, during recessions we draw it down. Worked pretty well until the Great Recession drained it dry.

Bought that more to freak out my parents than any other reason.

Support

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 15,000 for the first time ever Tuesday, but fewer Americans than ever are benefiting from the stock market boom.

According to Gallup, only 52 percent of Americans own any stock. That is down from a high of 65 percent in 2007 and the lowest number ever reported by Gallup. Meanwhile the richest 5 percent of Americans own 82 percent of all the stock.

Do you know if that includes stock "owned" through retirement account mutual funds? I would think that the number of people who benefit from rising markets is higher than just those who own stock outright.

I don't have anything to back that up, but mutual funds are stocks, so yes it should include owners of mutual funds. With all the different good and bad mutual funds out there, they probably have the same success rate as the average individual buyer has.

If that is true, then I'm surprised that only 52% of us have even a little skin in the game.

Support

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 15,000 for the first time ever Tuesday, but fewer Americans than ever are benefiting from the stock market boom.

According to Gallup, only 52 percent of Americans own any stock. That is down from a high of 65 percent in 2007 and the lowest number ever reported by Gallup. Meanwhile the richest 5 percent of Americans own 82 percent of all the stock.

Do you know if that includes stock "owned" through retirement account mutual funds? I would think that the number of people who benefit from rising markets is higher than just those who own stock outright.

People who have done worse are buried in cemeteries.  

Your point is? Also, provide an analogous example.

This link is probably paywalled, but here ya go:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/07/remains-reviled-figures-typically-buried-cremated-outside-public-view/2bwxdIV6E5cr0FvR9Ibp6H/story.html

a number of reviled, ­infamous figures, from Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo to defrocked priest John Geoghan, have been laid to rest with minimal outrage, typically in private ceremonies that drew little attention.

Geoghan, who was accused of molesting about 150 children and became a symbol of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, was buried in a Brookline cemetery, the burial site of former Boston mayors and several members of the Kennedy family. Geoghan, who was killed in prison in 2003, was buried with no protests after a private funeral in West ­Roxbury.

DeSalvo — the man known as the Boston Strangler, who admitted to 13 murders — was buried in Peabody in 1973, ­after he was stabbed to death in his cell as he slept.

More recently, Newtown gunman Adam Lanza, who killed 27 people before shooting himself, was laid to rest privately at an undisclosed ­location, according to published reports.
...

“There are convicted murderers buried in Roman Catholic cemeteries,” said Bob ­Biggins, a funeral director in Rockland and past president of the National Funeral Directors Association.

Presidential assassins have also received burial. Lee ­Harvey Oswald is buried in a Fort Worth cemetery, where workers are forbidden to provide the location of his grave. Several infamous mass murderers, including Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, were cremated. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was put to death in 2001, was also cremated.

In Massachusetts, the case of Charles Stuart, who shot and killed his pregnant wife then blamed her death on a black gunman, caused widespread furor. In 1990, he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett after taking his own life. At the funeral, the minister said, “We cannot explain why the events of the past week took place, and we can never understand them.”

Six years later, John Salvi, who killed two receptionists at abortion clinics, was buried in Peabody after killing himself in his prison cell. In a eulogy, a minister described Salvi as a “troubled young man whose uncontrollable emotions drove him to act irrationally,” according to a published report. “We can’t judge what transpired in his troubled mind,” the Rev. Lawrence Wetterholm said.

In 1927, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were cremated at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston after their execution. Their ashes were later returned to Italy.

Five years after the Cocoanut Grove fire, a 1942 nightclub blaze that killed nearly 500 people, club owner ­Barnett Welansky died and was buried in Woburn.

Cremation would be a neat and easy solution, but Muslims aren't down with that.

I actually love the reserved seating at my local theater.  They offer motion seats called D-Box seating and they are reserved only. Nothing quite as satisfying as ordering tickets a couple days in advance, walking into a packed theater 5min before previews start, and sitting in the exact seat you want.

It's an interesting convergence that tickets to plays are sold in the same manner. Do you pay a "convenience charge" when you buy movie tix online?

Professionally, it would be a good thing since my business is comfortably below the $1 million compliance trigger. Remaining tax-free would partially offset my inability to offer free shipping (due to being too small to qualify for bulk rates) and make me more competitive with the big sites.

Personally, I only ever buy clothing and beer, and as necessities those are both tax-exempt. Adding tax to the couple hundred bucks a year that I spend on luxuries online won't make much difference. If more money in the state's budget means lower taxes or more services, then that's a win.

So...on balance, I approve. Go ahead and tax the big spenders.

The Walk of Shame is an example of the type of a cappella I like. Hard to find decent youtube recordings of these songs.

I like a cappella quite a lot. I used to make a point of tuning into a college radio station's a cappella show every Saturday afternoon, but it didn't take me long to get my fill of their repertoire -- too many college groups covering show tunes and pop songs. I guess that's probably what their audiences want, but I soon found that I was only enjoying about 1 song out of every 5 or 6 they play.

It's hard to find good youtube versions of my favorites, such as "Galileo." I do like this version of "Wanting Memories," though. 

What gas do most scientists believe causes temperatures in the atmosphere to rise?

You answered "Hydrogen"

The correct answer is "Carbon dioxide"

Heh. If the atmosphere held a lot of free hydrogen you can bet it would be hot. As in, on fire.

I got 13/13, although I admit I hesitated over the sunscreen question.

3's time-travel "origin of K" story was clever. Would like to know if the next installment will have Will Smith and Tommy Lee again, or if they're going to pair Josh Brolin with some actor playing a young Will Smith. Both of the original actors are getting a bit long in the tooth for the action aspects. I'm intrigued, at least.

Do you realize that Josh Brolin and Will Smith are the same age?

I didn't. You could pair them up again with another time travel motif, but that could be kind of lame. After 3 gave us the bridge 4 should either be Smith + Jones or Brolin + ?? playing young J. But the later would probably be box office death.

3's time-travel "origin of K" story was clever. Would like to know if the next installment will have Will Smith and Tommy Lee again, or if they're going to pair Josh Brolin with some actor playing a young Will Smith. Both of the original actors are getting a bit long in the tooth for the action aspects. I'm intrigued, at least.

Make it 8 batteries and we can talk.

Fail. All that commercial made me crave was grape Nehi.

I could barely understand a word that girl said.

and renewed!

Yay?

There are many examples of sf shows that started out weak and got better after a few seasons. I do not think this will be one of them. But one can hope.

When served a plate of french fries, I line them up so that they're all parallel.

I stack potato chips neatly, by size. First I eat the broken ones, then the rest from smallest to largest.

I don't know how Normals can live oblivious to chaotic potato products, but I try to fit in when I'm out in public.

Can anyone remember a scene like this from prior to 1998-1999?

maybe there is one somewhere in here.

That's pretty amazing.

Makes me want to go out and run down pedestrians. Squishy bastards.

A company that I used to work for had a "hit by a bus" policy. To wit, we were expected to document our work so well that someone else could take over if we were hit by a bus. "Getting hit by a bus" was, of course, our employer's euphemism for being fired. 

I wasn't even going to put this one in my netflix queue based on several poor reviews that I've read, but the Forum Effect is strong...and it's not like all that many sf movies come out anyway. It should float to the top of my list in a year or so.

I hope they nab this kid soon. I'm far enough from Boston to not be directly affected by the lockdown and manhunt, but the whole area's been in crisis mode for five days now. If it's getting tiresome for me I can only imagine how people in the city proper feel.

By all indications this was the work of two amateurs, apparently without outside support or encouragement, and it will be all over when they get the 19-year-old.

I already whitelisted GT. What more do you want from me?!?!?! Besides money, I mean.

Don't get me started on Bunker Hill Day.

Barbers are "hair artists" now? That's worth a vote.

Although the holiday date varies from year to year, the battles that started the American Revolution were fought on April 19. Anti-government zealots have made that date a rallying point (see Waco, Oklahoma City). That, and the coincidence with tax day, is the main reason that my first hunch was right-wing domestic terrorism.

Quick Question; was it a public Holiday for you guys on Monday?

Nope.  Nothing special about it other than it was the normal deadline for turning in taxes.

Patriots Day commemorates the Revolutionary War battles of Lexington and Concord. It's observed in MA and ME, and to a limited extent in some other states. Really it's an excuse for giving government workers and many other Bostonians the day off for the Marathon. Virtually nobody else gets the day off, although schools are closed. We also get one extra day to file our state tax returns.

So technically it's a holiday.

FWIW, I've found boston.com to have a good balance between timeliness and accuracy. At the moment they're hedging with "conflicting reports" on whether a suspect has been arrested. News conference at 5 pm.

Four people do not a colony make. 

I assume they are a vanguard to prepare the way for more.

I'd apply in a minute if I had any skills to offer. I wonder if they'll send a telephone sanitizer ship too?

Not Syria Civil War bad, but very sad.

Today's Globe was, as you would expect, almost entirely consumed with coverage of the bombing. There was also a story about 55 people dying in bombings in Iraq yesterday, the highest daily death toll in "almost a month."

Not to diminish the carnage in Boston, but it kinda puts things in perspective.