What’s on your mind?

[Septembersrain]

What was the panic about in 1973? Watergate?

Apparently it was during a time of shortages but the toilet paper scare started with an unsubstantiated rumor. That's what I read anyways.

The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 - Priceonomics

Following a poorly-timed Johnny Carson joke in 1973, millions of Americans hoarded every toilet paper roll on the market and induced a mass hysteria.

priceonomics.com

 

[0388631]

Hit the grocery store today, and noticed something.

The grocery store had a limit of 250 people, at the time of day though that wasn't an issue, but it's who was shopping that was noticeable. Literally every 3rd shopper was an Instacart shopper, or employee doing it. It makes me wonder when this is all over, if people aren't going to be more comfortable with just pulling up for the groceries or having them delivered.

Also a week's worth of shopping is almost 1/12th of your stimulus check, dependent on the amount you are buying for.

Wouldn't mind having a Costco all to myself each time I decided I or we had to go. Would be fantastic fun.

 

[JayMysterio]

Wouldn't mind having a Costco all to myself each time I decided I or we had to go. Would be fantastic fun.

It's so weird looking at every other shopper picking their items by looking at a cellphone, and realizing you are one of the few people shopping for themselves.

 

[Stephen.R]

But I also wear a mask, well, a neck guard pulled up bandit style.

Like this right?

 

[compwiz1202]

It's so weird looking at every other shopper picking their items by looking at a cellphone, and realizing you are one of the few people shopping for themselves.

Some of those could be people who put lists on their cellphone too, like me.

 

[JayMysterio]

Some of those could be people who put lists on their cellphone too, like me.

Nah, you can tell the difference. Some have lanyard badges so the store & customers who they are delivering to know who they are, others had other identifiers as well like colored armbands with badges in them.

 

[LizKat]

The Design and Graphics forum and the user who's been posting a lot of… interesting threads recently.

Another rising star meteoroid? The one that's gone already?

 

[JayMysterio]

Another rising star meteoroid? The one that's gone already?

I thought on the front page I saw they just posted recently today. The fact that I now know that name, cracks me up.

 

[Stephen.R]

Just had a successful first use of a recent purchase. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....1812245/page-374?post=28330972#post-28330972

The problem is what to do with the little ****ers once caught. Tonight's guest of honour got thrown into the river at the back of the block, but it turns out they can ****ing swim. Thankfully for him, he chose to swim to the other side. Maybe transfer to a rat trap and give them the usual all-expenses paid trip to the deep end of the trash-can aquatic centre?

 

[yaxomoxay]

Recent purchases

 

[D.T.]

Recent purchases

We're on deck to play MoM this weekend, still just on the core game and scenarios. We did a replay on the intro scenario, using the "cheater" rules, with 3 actions-per-turn (only 2 consecutive moves allowed), it was so much more fun with 2 players (one character each). Otherwise, it gets a little tricky to deal with monsters, events, etc., you wind up just spinning in place too much (or vs. playing multiple characters).

 

[yaxomoxay]

We're on deck to play MoM this weekend, still just on the core game and scenarios. We did a replay on the intro scenario, using the "cheater" rules, with 3 actions-per-turn (only 2 consecutive moves allowed), it was so much more fun with 2 players (one character each). Otherwise, it gets a little tricky to deal with monsters, events, etc., you wind up just spinning in place too much (or vs. playing multiple characters).

MoM is just great; it can be adapted and it still works. Granted, it's not like Arkham Horror 2E in which you could change half of the rules and still worked well, but it's still amazing how well designed the game is.
So far I am loving all the expansions, I can't wait to try Horrific Journeys as it brings adventures on ships, trains, and blimps! We usually play in 4 or 5... it can get convoluted at times but it's fun.

I am also really curious to try Arkham Horror - Final Hour. The idea of playing an Arkham game in less than an hour is quite exciting. I've read that the game is far from perfect design-wise, but it seems that it's a good deal to get a fun thematic adventure in less than 60 minutes.

 

[LizKat]

Did you guys know there was a toilet paper scare due to panic in 1973?

What was the panic about in 1973? Watergate?

Apparently it was during a time of shortages but the toilet paper scare started with an unsubstantiated rumor. That's what I read anyways.

The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 1973 - Priceonomics

Following a poorly-timed Johnny Carson joke in 1973, millions of Americans hoarded every toilet paper roll on the market and induced a mass hysteria.

priceonomics.com

It's not like the planet hasn't had economic crises before, pandemic-induced or otherwise.. the Dow lost like half its value during 1973-74, events like the OPEC oil crisis not helping, and a severe recession kicked in that lasted into 1975.

1973–1974 stock market crash - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

When Truckers Shut Down America to Protest Oil Prices—and Became Folk Heroes | HISTORY

The strike started when one driver, mad as hell about the OPEC oil crisis, turned off his engine and got on his CB ra...

www.history.com

That series of declines and panics was how I as a mere systems analyst brought in as a consultant to a huge corporation ended up in a "mahogany row" area, with an office more suited to royalty than to regular infotech peonage. I mean the office I had all to myself was the size of one I might usually have expected to share with two other people.

Meanwhile the company had fired practically everyone in middle management across the board and were working their way through the bulk of the HR department, apparently having realized that the answer to "how many HR folks does it take to vet a potential consultant" was about three: one to report to the CFO equivalent of that era, one who liaised with corporate legal counsel, and one to call up consulting companies when panicked upper tier managers couldn't field questions from the extremely cantankerous CEO.

How many consultants it took to unravel their existing in-house IT code though? That played very much to our advantage: about 50. I hung onto that office for almost four years and was eventually poached from the consultants to work for the corporation in house as the recession faded. So it turned out great for me as time went on. Still I can never forget the look on the faces of displaced employees packing boxes of personal stuff on the day the consulting company first brought me into that place. It's no joke when a corporate layoff sweeps through a place right before a holiday and empties the place out in a single afternoon.

The ones who were left always called it the Thanksgiving Massacre for as long as they remained at that company, and even the handful of us who had been brought in as consultants and later became employees never really assumed anything again about "job security". The competence of the workers had zip to do with what happened to those jobs. A sobering lesson, and startling at the time because it wasn't yet any kind of even occasional "norm". Back in those times there was still an expectation on both sides that if you took a corporate job you were more or less set for a career, if you wanted it that way and weren't a hopeless incompetent on the job. Looking back, that time was probably the beginning of the end of broad belief in the idea that there was such a thing as loyalty being a two way street at the job.

 

[D.T.]

Holy smokes, so the neighbor brought us some amazing looking lobster bisque (apparently some crab snuck in as well). The most incredible thing about it: he sent a good friend, a ship captain he knows from up in the Maine area, some fresh flounder. How fresh? Caught, packed with coolers and shipped out, next day morning delivery, to the tune of like $200-something!

Well, the guy was so appreciative, he sent a package back, the same method, and it contained __live__ Maine lobsters.

Speaking of seafood ...

We got takeout from a local place, a family fried shrimp dinner, ~2lbs of shrimp, hushpuppies / corn fritters (basically fried cornbread), 4 huge sides of coleslaw, 2 she-crab soups, 4 huge fries, smoked fish dip. This place is in the neighborhood (amazing wine selection), they switched to more takeout / family sized menu, it was fantastic. The shrimp we are still eating (air fryer does an amazing job at heating/rejuvenating), they were like 21-22 count, but there must've been 55 in the takeout! Nicely put together too, plenty of sauces, everything nicely portioned, soups had a huge dollop of fresh crab, just fantastic service.

 

[AngerDanger]

I just tore a receipt in half with my teeth. Had a brief moment of panic then remembered it was from The Before Times.

 

[LizKat]

I just tore a receipt in half with my teeth. Had a brief moment of panic then remembered it was from The Before Times.

LOL, right, back when the worst thing you could catch off a 20 dollar bill was a contact high...

 

[Bluetoot-]

Hello everyone; I’ve been reading MacRumors for over a decade at least. I even had an account at some point but maybe I deleted it. Not sure.

What’s on my mind is that I’m running out of things to watch. I admit that I border on addicted when it comes to YouTube. Lots of tech stuff, old Late Night w/ Conan clips. But I end up watching so much of it that I end up hating it. Not healthy, but I’m just trying to take it day by day.

Any interesting podcasts anyone has been listening to? I’ve actually really liked “Mobituaries” and “Spectacular Failures” as of late.

 

[LizKat]

Hello everyone; I’ve been reading MacRumors for over a decade at least. I even had an account at some point but maybe I deleted it. Not sure.

What’s on my mind is that I’m running out of things to watch. I admit that I border on addicted when it comes to YouTube. Lots of tech stuff, old Late Night w/ Conan clips. But I end up watching so much of it that I end up hating it. Not healthy, but I’m just trying to take it day by day.

Any interesting podcasts anyone has been listening to? I’ve actually really liked “Mobituaries” and “Spectacular Failures” as of late.

If money for a sub is an issue re "watching" stuff.. how about some of the freebies HBO is streaming until the end of this month? Or if you use Hulu, how about Prime Suspect if you never saw that series.

Podcasts... wow.. there are so many hundreds of thousands! have a look at this link and scroll down towards the bottom where they have a bunch of suggestions by category of listening

The 15 Best Podcasts to Listen to in 2020 | The Manual

We’ve rounded up some of the best podcasts to listen to in 2020. Whether you’re into politics, sports, true crime, or learning, we got you covered.

www.themanual.com

 

[Bluetoot-]

Podcasts... wow.. there are so many hundreds of thousands! have a look at this link and scroll down towards the bottom where they have a bunch of suggestions by category of listening

The 15 Best Podcasts to Listen to in 2020 | The Manual

We’ve rounded up some of the best podcasts to listen to in 2020. Whether you’re into politics, sports, true crime, or learning, we got you covered.

www.themanual.com

Podcasts are like apps at this point; there’s so many that you’re not even sure where to begin. But I will check some of these out; thanks!

 

[Septembersrain]

Hello everyone; I’ve been reading MacRumors for over a decade at least. I even had an account at some point but maybe I deleted it. Not sure.

What’s on my mind is that I’m running out of things to watch. I admit that I border on addicted when it comes to YouTube. Lots of tech stuff, old Late Night w/ Conan clips. But I end up watching so much of it that I end up hating it. Not healthy, but I’m just trying to take it day by day.

Any interesting podcasts anyone has been listening to? I’ve actually really liked “Mobituaries” and “Spectacular Failures” as of late.

I found stuff to watch but my internet has now been down 4 hours.

Gotta love how the ISP's are handling this pandemic.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I found stuff to watch but my internet has now been down 4 hours.

Gotta love how the ISP's are handling this pandemic.

No internet during a lockdown? That’s tough. We have broadcast TV through an arial as well as streaming. That way if one goes down we have the other.
I have to say I think the internet has been holding up very well.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

No internet during a lockdown? That’s tough. We have broadcast TV through an arial as well as streaming. That way if one goes down we have the other.
I have to say I think the internet has been holding up very well.

Yes, the internet is a necessity - and not a luxury - these days.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yes, the internet is a necessity - and not a luxury - these days.

Indeed. Going without electricity, running water or the internet is like living in the dark ages.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Indeed. Going without electricity, running water or the internet is like living in the dark ages.

Running water - actually, hot running water - yes, agreed.

One of the things that struck me about the Yugoslav wars - I was in Bosnia on a number of occasions to observe (and indeed supervise - it depended on the respective mandate for the respective election) elections - initially, in the late 1990s, and I also observed a number of elections there much more recently - was how rapidly a developed society could unravel and unspool.

To us in the west, it has always been possible to almost shrug off catastrophe, corruption, war, civil wars, famine, destruction, state collapse, in some of the remote parts of the world, an unconscious "Othering", i.e. falling prey to the fallacy that "They" are not "Like Us", because They are Other, They are Different, they come from wonky countries with weak systems of governance, an attitude that can all too easily allow one to casually assume a failure of character or country, or competence.

But Yugoslavia was different, because, it was in Europe, and, although communist, it was a form of communism that owed nothing whatsoever to Russia (or its parent, the USSR), or Soviet occupation, and was entirely independent of it; and they were clearly European, and - by the standards of the east of the continent and the south of the continent - they equally clearly had an advanced culture and country and society, and political system.

And then it imploded into a destructive civil war followed by political disintegration, military conflict, and complete state collapse.

In Bosnia, in 1997, to my stunned stupefaction, I recall seeing defeated looking women (and men), clutching buckets and pails, queuing for water that came from a roadside tap in the winter drizzle. People that were Once Like Us.

And now, parts of our world also look less secure and solid than we may have thought.

However, for me, personally, today the heating - which has decided to shut down - is on my mind.

 

[Apple fanboy]

At least it’s not cold.