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founding

Best Quora answer I've read in a long time: Someone wrote as a question, "I regret having voted for Trump, but I don't think all that well of Biden, either. What shall I do? Answer given was this:

Imagine you are in a plane and they are serving lunch, and the flight attendant asks, "Would you prefer the chicken, or the platter of shit with broken glass on top?"

Being undecided in this election is pausing, and then asking how the chicken is cooked.

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author

Excellent!

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For the record, David Sedaris wrote that. About the Obama/McCain match up.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/27/undecided

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author

Alas. Good for him.

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founding

Didn't know that. But it does fit tRump so much better than McCain.

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This is perfection.

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What I am most afraid of: losing my marbles. I have spent the last four years experiencing my mother's cognitive decline, and I am so scared it will happen to me. It is awful. I hope I have my paternal grandmother's genes...she stayed lucid until she died at 100.

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I have faith in this group that the comments won't devolve into an Israel-Palestine debate; but since you brought it up, I'd just like to say thank you and agreed wholeheartedly. I've been trying to make the point to many my conflicted progressive friends that it is not inconsistent to sympathize with the Palestinian people and disapprove of Netanyahu while condemning Hamas and their recent actions.

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founding

On the one hand you have a corrupt, impotent Palestinian Authority and Hamas which took control of Gaza by force and has no interest in governing (sound familiar ?) or the welfare of the people under its control. Its only mission is to kill Israelis and destroy any chance of peace or stability. On the other, you have a corrupt Netanyahu pandering to the far right for his survival (sound familiar ?). And in the middle, as usual, are the people themselves who are always the victims. But until the lives of the people it claims to represent and protect are more important to Hamas than the deaths of Israelis --- or is itself rendered impotent by force or by virtue of the normalization of additional relationships in the region --- there will be no peace or stability.

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Yes on all points. I do point out to those hesitant to support Israel that the government (unlike Hamas) remains (so far) a democracy with free elections, a free press, and freedom of speech. Netenyahu is a nightmare, but like Trump here, he won't be around forever.

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Oct 12, 2023·edited Oct 12, 2023

It's probably worth pointing out, however, that the Palestinians voted in Hamas, and it's not like Hamas made any secret of who they are or what they intended to do. Yes, the Palestinians live in horrid conditions. Yes, Israel has really screwed the pooch by continuously building settlements on Palestinian land. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Hamas' main goal of destroying Israel is never going to happen, and the Palestinians voted in anger instead of thought. Had they elected a more moderate government that was willing to renounce violence and instead encourage dialogue and compromise, they would probably not be in this position.

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Actually Fata divided into factions and ran two candidates in 2006, allowing Hamas to win that election WITHOUT a majority (sound familiar?). Hamas then cancelled elections and there hasn't been an election in Gaza since.

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I, too, have felt this same conflict and it was nice to see it put into words.

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Great contest. Great winners. Loved this one.

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founding

In the Beginning there was Wordle. And they saw that it was good and it multiplied. Literally. To the point where there is Sexaginta-Quattuordle with 64 words (the most the last I looked). But there is now some relief from this unbridled escalation. It's called "Connections" which was released by the NYT in late August and may have some interest here at Words-R-Us (aka TGP). It's a combination of wordplay, trivia, colloquialisms and being able to see hidden relationships. Worried that after Wordle, crosswords, Sudoku and the Invitational, you still have some time to waste ? (Yes, yes, I know --- mental hygiene). There's now "Connections."

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Occasionally, Connections botches the category. Several days ago, the category was given as "Past Tense Verbs." The verbs were drew, rose, will, and may. I had envisioned a category of "Names that can be verbs." Someone reported that the category was later changed to "Irregular Verbs." I still think mine was better.

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N-12: SHIT: A mild expletive. "After reviewing the rules for this Invitational I immediately searched your grid for swear words, but I only found 'shit.'"

...I am a 47-year-old man with three degrees, one of which is a doctorate.

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author

That tells more about you than about even The Invitational. You can't use it for this week's contest, however. It has to be a word you make up. (We have in some similar contests given the option for a witty definition of an existing word, but not this time.)

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My dear Madame Empress, I would never *dream* of wasting your time or the other guy's by submitting potty words to the Invitational. Especially when in the alternative I can use them to publicly humiliate myself about how incredibly juvenile I am.

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author

The Other Guy's?

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Ohhhh, right. Sorry.

The other *person*.

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founding

I think on reflection you'll understand gender is not the irritant. It's being referred to as an "other." Something he's not used to now that he and his older brother no longer share the same abode. I was going to say "space," but they do share that here, so the phrase "other Weingarten" does again have some currency --- as in "Don and the other Weingarten."

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I take it back -- "piss" is there too (L-13).

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There is no way to take shit back just because piss is in there, too.

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There are several, at least one of which is obviously intentional. I’ll leave their discoveries as an exercise to the reader.

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"Q: Who are the three voters in the Is Trump An Asshole poll who think he is not an asshole?

A: Assholes. "

THIS made me LOL. It's funny because it's true.

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So it DOESN'T take one to know one? My whole childhood was a lie.

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"Triage" sounds to me less like "The Lottery" than like the French Revolution.

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Trump is not an asshole because assholes can be cleansed.

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In case anyone else is having trouble finding it--the author of TRIAGE is Leonard Lewin, with a W. (not Levin with a V.)

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Thank you. With your insight. I have found that it is available to download for free as a PDF from the Internet Archive if anyone has an interest: https://archive.org/details/triagelewi00lewi

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I should say you can "borrow" it for 14 days.

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