The guy sitting beside me on the Capitol Limited really needs to take a shower.
Took a train once that had that problem. From Salt Lake City to western Colorado (friend picked us and drove us to stay at his place in Gunniston.)
Why can’t my nose hairs function as an N95 filter?
Somewhere between “Fuck Today” and “Meh” – I found out (as I suspected) that I have psoriasis in addition to all my other problems. Fortunately (?) it’s something that’s controlled by Humira, which I hope to go on for Crohn’s disease (instead of the steroid w/its attendant side effects I’m on). So Humira will be doing a twofer.
I’d go on it right away if I didn’t have latent tuberculosis, which can be turn into the real thing on that drug. I have to go on an industrial strength antibiotic for to get rid of it first. I’ve been procrastinating due being frightened of side effects.
Sigh.
oh shit! I’m sorry to hear about all this…
I got a letter from my insurance company, that the hospital system I have used for 25 years is not going to be covered in 2024.
The reason this is a meh (and not a fuck today) is that my long time, well-liked Gyno has moved, and my GP has become dismissive, overworked and unkind. The NP in her office did an “exam” so delicate I’m not convinced he could actually feel my thyroid at all. Plus he made a face when I continued to wear a mask in the office. So, I guess I’m going to try a whole different set of doctors.
Good luck!
I cleaned out my Bialetti too thoroughly last night. Today it just superheated the water. Instead of boiling it sent up a stream of superheated steam. It did not smell too good.
Mmmmm, burnt coffee. Tasty!
I’m not a connoisseur by any measure (I drink coffee only for its “medicinal” effects), and only recently learned of the effect of too-hot water on coffee.
I’ve tolerated the terrible flavor of instant coffee made with boiling water for years, and now by letting the water cool for a moment before use, I find instant coffee to be, well, slightly less terrible.
(While the flavor is generally better, it is also somewhat inconsistent due to my totally unscientific method of preparation. No tip for the barista again this morning!)
I had that happen with a microwave at work. I think it was because I had heated it once before, but didn’t get around to putting the tea bag in. It cooled off completely so I microwaved it again. When the machine went “ding” I picked it up and it boiled over on my hand. Not badly burned fortunately - I think I dropped the mug in time.
By being heated once before I think I got all the air out of the water. There were too few nuclei for steam bubbles to form. The motion alone gave it just enough energy to boil it.
Some years ago my mother had a glass kettle. The kind that you find in any hardware store. Why she got it, I can’t be sure, but that is beside the point.
I once cleaned it out so well that it wouldn’t boil. The inside was too smooth. It just sat there on the stove generating steam, but it would not boil. The water wasn’t doing anything but it just seamed angry. I figured out what was happening and took it off the heat and let it cool for a while. When I carefully poured it into a mug for tea, it was still hot enough that it went a bit wild.
That’s what I thought was happening with my Bialetti. But no. With a little experimentation I tracked down the problem. Along with giving it a thorough cleaning I also changed the gasket. It had been two years and I decided it was time. This gasket was too new. My old gasket was well broken-in, and it would provide a complete seal without much torque. I was tightening this new one too lightly and steam was bypassing the ground coffee.
The Bialetti is a simple, robust coffee-making machine, but it still relies on a delicate balance of forces.
Getting back to this.
A recap: 3 weeks ago I gave my Bialetti Moka Express a thorough cleaning and, because it had been a couple of years, I changed the gasket and the “filter plate.” Since then it has not been working property.
Through deductive reasoning I have determined that the holes in the new “filter plate” must be smaller than they were before, thus requiring the coffee-making to occur at a higher pressure and therefore a higher temperature. This changed what had been normally reliable and relaxed coffee making into a hellscape of sputtering coffee and stream. I wondered my Bialetti would change something that worked so well. I also wondered if I was losing my mind.
Today I noticed there is pale silver writing running up the side of the gasket/filter plate package that says “Venus • Musa • Kitty.”
Thanks, Bialetti, for making that so obvious.
So although they appear exactly the same, and they perfectly fit into my standard Moka Express, this gasket and filter plate are intended for one of the superfluous, trendy coffee makers they produce.
So at least I know the laws of physics have not changed and I have not lost my mind.
Apparently instead of a package with silver details, I need a package with red.
It’s nice — like a package of Fox’s Glacier Mints — but I’m not sure it’s bland enough.
Ope, fer sure.
That’s raci… no, not gonna finish that joke.
I once was in a hotel in LAX for work, and had a problem, so I called the local help number… the person who helped me had an extremely strong Minnesotan accent, which (on top of only being in LAX for a short time) really threw me off balance. And I feel like that experience really fits with this thread. 
and all the
thousands of submissions
were above average
During my morning commute today, two women got into a fistfight on the train.
My local train stopped at Atlantic Avenue. We waited a moment for the express train across the platform. “Woman A” had been in my car and was crossing to the express train. Possibly she bumped into “Woman B.”
Soon there was shouting and scuffling outside the train. Fortunately there was one of those large MTA guys standing there who tried to get between them. He was only partially successful. This fight was something the two women really wanted. But he persisted and eventually Woman B was in my car and had found herself a seat.
At that point it looked like the situation was over. But it wasn’t
Woman A charged back into my car, threw her rather sizable paperback book at Woman B and shouted “Here, you can have the book, b****!” And at that point the true fight began.
This was not a usual media representation of women fighting. It was the kind of thing that wouldn’t appear in a movie after, say, 1940. Punches were thrown. They ended up wrestling on the floor of the crowded train car. It was something worthy of Mayo Methot.
I hadn’t slept much last night due to coughing, so I wasn’t too widely awake. It all seemed a bit like a dream.
James Stewart would have emptied a bucket of water over them, but I didn’t have one. And that might have made things worse. So I asked myself, what would James Cagney or Clark Gable do? So I excused myself from the car.
I have no idea what the fight was about, and I can’t imagine it was really worth it. Whatever the cause, it was not worth missing an express train during a morning commute.
Getting back to this.
As you may recall, I was having problems with my Bialetti 6-cup Moka Express since I changed the gasket and what they call a “filter plate.” It only steamed. To get it to make any coffee I needed to use it at a high temperature unsuitable for good coffee. At first I thought I had cleaned it too well and the water was becoming super-heated instead of boiling. But that wasn’t the problem. Then I noticed the packaging for the replacement gasket and filter plate were for Bialetti’s more trendy models. These two parts had fit into my ordinary machine perfectly, but I assumed there must be some difference.
Recently, I managed to find the appropriate replacement gasket and filter plate for a six-cup Moka Express. While searching for them I also found a rather decent kitchen store I had not been aware of. That’s a positive thing anyway. I told the person who checked me out " you would not believe how hard these are to find." He said people were ordering them online from California.
So I now have the correct gasket and filter plate, and guess what I discovered? They are exactly the same as the ones for the trendy model I already have. Exactly the same.
So that wasn’t the problem either.
I gave this device a good looking over. It is so simple, where could the problem be?
The only thing I can think is this: The coffee sits in a part named “the funnel.” The rim of this funnel needs to make a tight seal with the gasket. My funnel has developed a few imperfections over the past six years. The funnel is made out of a thin piece of aluminum, so I was able to smooth-out some of these blemishes with a hard surface and the blade of a small screwdriver.
Now it works, but I need to tighten it down with all the strength I have. I suppose the old gasket must have had a groove worn into it, and the new one is just too smooth.
So after the holidays I will think about getting a new funnel.