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24729. alistairconnor - 12/6/2008 1:37:59 PM Ah crap I missed you.
I am definitely up for some chat if we can come up with a timeslot.
I have missed you!!
How many tenses can I say that in? (I'm trying to help the lad with his English, it's his worst subject. He's good with maths)
I have been missing you these last couple of years.
I had missed you the last couple of times you showed up, and I missed you again.
I had been missing you, now I'm looking forward to a chat.
I will miss you if you don't come back.
I would miss you if you didn't come back.
By January, I will have been missing you for at least two years.
etc...
Sadly, I couldn't put a grammatical name on all those tenses. Anyone care to have a go?
(Starting on the 17th I'll be in NZ for a month which might or might not make the chat time slot easier) 24730. alistairconnor - 12/6/2008 1:39:19 PM Bossing boys around on night shift. My girlfriend does that too, sometimes. In Spanish too (and at least three other languages) 24731. judithathome - 12/7/2008 12:21:06 AM Big fat rasberry to people who are so low as the ones who just swiped my 80 year old neighbor's purse out of her car in Sam's parking lot. The shitheels took it while she was returning the cart to the rack.
She had $210 in cash in it along with her checkbook and driver's license and a 50$ gift certificate she'd received for her birthday.
Yes, she was an idiot to leave her purse in her car but she is 80 and too trusting for her own good. Also on a fixed income.
Sometimes I just hate the human race....
24732. judithathome - 12/7/2008 1:04:54 AM Jeezus, I just got a call from her and she said she got her purse back! A young lady called her and asked if she had lost her purse and said she had it; they arranged a place to meet and MJ said everything was there...her money, checkbook, everything.
The two girls said they'd found it in Sam's parking lot and figured she would need it back...she offered them $100...twice!... and they refused to take her money.
I guess it fell out of her car and luckily, these two young ladies were angels in disguise and returned it to her. 24733. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/7/2008 6:32:48 AM How nice! 24734. alistairConnor - 12/7/2008 12:53:10 PM There you are Judith, always jumping to hasty conclusions about the human race!
Where would we be without a few faith-recharging moments like that one? Thanks for that... 24735. judithathome - 12/7/2008 4:54:45 PM Yes, it's true...I jump to hasty conclusions. Usually I am right and am thrilled to proven wrong in this case.
I've known this lady since I was 12 years old...she is slipping A LOT these days. I'm so happy that something good happened for her. 24736. Jenerator - 12/7/2008 6:28:59 PM Speaking of good things, I was in the line at Starbucks for a latte yesterday, when a stranger showed a cool act of kindness toward me. As I pulled up to get my drink and pay for it, the cashier said, "Your drink is paid for. The woman in front of you bought your drink for you."
I have no idea who she was. Isn't that a sweet thing to do?
I tried to catch up to her, but she was long gone. 24737. thoughtful - 12/7/2008 9:01:14 PM Be careful of that 'return your purse' thing.
That happened to someone I knew...had her purse stolen then they called her to meet them somewhere to return the purse. Well of course they never showed....they were busy robbing her house since they knew she wasn't home and even had her keys! 24738. wonkers2 - 12/7/2008 9:18:21 PM My daughter had a similar faith-in-humanity-restoring experience last year. Around the time of her visit home I'd bought a new camera so I gave her my old one and a camera bag. (It was not a cheap camera.) Anyway, she left it on the plane when she got off in Oakland. A couple of days later I got a call from a woman in the Bay area inquiring if I had left my camera on the plane. The light went on, and I replied no but my daughter may have. She described the camera and of course it was the one I'd given to my daughter. Fortunately, my card was in one of the camera bag's pockets and the bag was still tagged with my name and address. I explained the situation, and the woman gave me her name and phone number which I passed on to my daughter who called her and picked up the camera. End of story. I hop my daughter has since tagged the camera bag with her name and address! 24739. robertjayb - 12/7/2008 10:21:18 PM Give a thought to this day, December 7, "...a date which will live in infamy."
I remember confusion and anxiety at home and at my little country school. My brother and his buddies scurried about and huddled for earnest conversations in front of our house. Then in just a few days they were gone, all the young men in the community were off to the great war.
24740. JJBiener - 12/8/2008 12:01:34 AM Greetings and salutations. I posted a new article to BarackObamaRevolution.com earlier this afternoon. I am now waiting for my Oatmeal Potato Bread to rise, so I thought I would see what was going on around here.
The local library had a book fair Friday and Saturday. Of course I went both days. I found some great books. Seven or eight cookbooks, a few books on writing, Charles Kuralt's America, Richard Rodgers auto-bio, books on superstrings and consilience (for a little light reading) and a copy of a PJ O'Rourke book I lost in the divorce. I also found several books which will be good Christmas presents for my wife. She got a healthy stack of books as well. The grand total for both days of book shopping? $12 for both of us. I love book fairs. 24741. wonkers2 - 12/8/2008 12:12:25 AM
Your point about the comparison with 1975 is well taken. Still it was a big jump, and that's a lot of people walking around without jobs. The Michigan Unemployment Compensation fund has been broke and borrowing from the FED for months now. This means that taxes on employers will have to go up soon which nobody thinks is good for economic development.
I agree the quality AP reporting frequently sucks in my opinion. Sometimes the NYT makes similar errors. Not long ago one of their columnists referred to a 1 point decrease in the interest rate as a one percent drop. By my calculation the decrease was more like 20% (from 5% to 4%--I don't remember the exact numbers.) 24742. JJBiener - 12/8/2008 1:45:11 AM Wonk - Yes, it is a large number of jobs to lose in a month. That said, if the media continues its campaign of scaring the hell out people, those people are going to have to wait a long time before they find new jobs. Right now employers are scared to hire people.
I too am shocked at the low level of literacy demonstrated in the media. I have seen the 1 point/1 percent confusion many times. I have seen plenty of other equally egregious errors as well. 24743. arkymalarky - 12/8/2008 3:36:25 AM My students have that problem: "79%! Couldn't you give me one point?"
Two things about unemployment right now: first, the situation worked up to these numbers and at a time when more are usually hired for the holiday season; and second, why would people be afraid to hire if they need workers? Aeound here they're trying not to lay people off, but they're about to have to. It's going to get worse based on factors that have already occurred. 24744. arkymalarky - 12/8/2008 3:39:21 AM Just saw Bro! They should be on pretty quick. Evidently they're up pretty high on the HGTV Top Ten Christmas Town list--and I've never even been there for Christmas. 24745. JJBiener - 12/8/2008 5:45:22 AM Arky, the numbers are seasonally adjusted so they take into account hiring for the holidays.
As for as why employers would be afraid to hire people, hiring decisions aren't simply a function of need. Hiring a person is a major commitment in terms of time and resources. A company has to be pretty sure that they are going to be able to recoup the investment and then some before they make the decision to hire. If an employer is concerned about the state of the economy, the will put off hiring as long as possible. Trust me, I have had a great deal of experience with this recently. 24746. judithathome - 12/8/2008 4:56:11 PM Give a thought to this day, December 7, "...a date which will live in infamy."
Not to make light of it but it certainly WILL...I met Keoni on that date in 1979!
And Arky, I taped that show but will have to wait until this afternnon to view it...Leslie had three more instances of vertigo over the weekend and we are leaving for the doctor in an hour.
24747. arkymalarky - 12/8/2008 10:46:16 PM My lands. Let us know how it goes. 24748. arkymalarky - 12/9/2008 12:48:53 AM Thanks JJ. When I heard the number (don't remember what news channel) they made reference to holiday hiring.
I realize there's more than immediate need to consider in hiring, but things are bad in reality and state of mind is reflecting it. In mid-November Bob asked the owner of a very successful business up the road on the interstate (not the truckstop!) If he'd noticed any changes and he said his business had dropped by half in three weeks. That's how fast what happened in Sept was reflected by interstate traffic. If it doesn't improve he will be forced to lay people off, but he told Bob that if things stay as they are he may be gone by spring. I don't think that will happen, but businesses are now unable to borrow so they can ride this thing out.
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