Just an FYI... Rule 14... If all you do is follow someone around...

[ThatOwlWoman]

Definitely shelters and food banks, they're all on my list for donations, along with kitty charities.

I'm planning to once again make some local food pantries and the homeless shelter and the new hospice center smile when our stimulus shows up. I feel so blessed to have enough that we are warm (or cool), have clothing, pets, food, can pay our bills, want for nothing. Been on the other side of that. How lucky I am to be able to give to someone else.

I am open though to hearing if you guys have other ideas on how best to boost our local economies with the checks. What would be your priority(ies)?

[ThatOwlWoman]

It is self medication, the dopamine from fulfilling the nicotine addiction aids a bit in their illness. Among the homeless mentally ill you will find nearly universal smoking. Almost as guaranteed as folks at an AA meeting.

Exactly right.

[Cypress]

I confess to being one of those suckers who hands a dollar out the car window when someone homeless is standing there with a sign. The reason being "there but for the grace of God go I."

It's true about a higher percentage of smokers among the mentally ill. I read somewhere that it has to do with dopamine levels.

Me too. I will occasionally spot them some cash, sometimes food, and if they have an animal companion I might pick them up some dog food

[ThatOwlWoman]

I'm always surprised anyone from my generation still smokes cigarettes, seeing as how they were successfully deglamorized before any of us could strike a match. Since there was no social pressure to smoke them in HS, you would think it would have never got anyone hooked. Obviously, pot is a completely different story.

Nicotine is extremely addictive. My mom smoked since age 12, and died at only age 66 from COPD. Unfortunately I smoked too for a couple of decades. It gave me energy, made me the fashionably thin woman of those years. I tried to quit multiple times. Have five kids, was able to put the cigs down the moment I learned I was pregnant, but I picked them up a day or two after delivery. When you quit, you dream about smoking, and you get that same enjoyable rush of energy and pleasure that you got in real life. They say it's one of the hardest addictions to quit, and one reason is that it used to be socially acceptable. Makes it easy, just as alcohol is easier to get hooked on because it's so much a part of our socially-accepted behaviors.

Damo mentioned dopamine. That's why.

[AProudLefty]

Nicotine is extremely addictive. My mom smoked since age 12, and died at only age 66 from COPD. Unfortunately I smoked too for a couple of decades. It gave me energy, made me the fashionably thin woman of those years. I tried to quit multiple times. Have five kids, was able to put the cigs down the moment I learned I was pregnant, but I picked them up a day or two after delivery. When you quit, you dream about smoking, and you get that same enjoyable rush of energy and pleasure that you got in real life. They say it's one of the hardest addictions to quit, and one reason is that it used to be socially acceptable. Makes it easy, just as alcohol is easier to get hooked on because it's so much a part of our socially-accepted behaviors.

Damo mentioned dopamine. That's why.

I have smoked and dipped over 10 years, sometimes in combination, lol. Then one day my lungs and coughs got painful. Then all of the sudden something snapped in me. That was it. It was as simple as clicking the light switch off.

[Minister of Truth]

I have smoked and dipped over 10 years, sometimes in combination, lol. Then one day my lungs and coughs got painful. Then all of the sudden something snapped in me. That was it. It was as simple as clicking the light switch off.

My parents can both remember my grandfathers' quitting. In my dad's case, it was because my grandfather chased after him in a rage, couldn't catch a five-year-old after collapsing on the street, and was so ashamed he quit overnight (my dad had ridden his bike through fresh cement).

[ThatOwlWoman]

I have smoked and dipped over 10 years, sometimes in combination, lol. Then one day my lungs and coughs got painful. Then all of the sudden something snapped in me. That was it. It was as simple as clicking the light switch off.

Yes. And that is exactly how I quit too, after decades. Went to my oldest g-kid's 7th birthday party. On the way home I was thinking about how smart and excellent she is, and threw my pack of cigs out the window. Have never touched one since. And she IS still super smart and excellent, now aged 22.

I guess there has to some trigger, some goal, some reason. For me it was always my kids/g-kids.

[AProudLefty]

Who knew that a mod creating a thread warning and reminding members about a certain rule turned out to be a wonderful and productive thread?

[Doc Dutch]

Who knew that a mod creating a thread warning and reminding members about a certain rule turned out to be a wonderful and productive thread?

I saw an interview recently about a new movie on Prime, "The Sound of Metal". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5363618/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The actor spoke about both learning to play the drums and also to sign. He immersed himself in Deaf Culture and spoke about how the limits of signing created communication idiosyncrasies. This was a new angle for me and made sense since radio operators, ground or air, tended to speak in clear, succincted terms such as brevity codes.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but it's on my list.

[AProudLefty]

I saw an interview recently about a new movie on Prime, "The Sound of Metal". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5363618/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The actor spoke about both learning to play the drums and also to sign. He immersed himself in Deaf Culture and spoke about how the limits of signing created communication idiosyncrasies. This was a new angle for me and made sense since radio operators, ground or air, tended to speak in clear, succincted terms such as brevity codes.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but it's on my list.

This one is a great movie to watch. Me and my parents identified with it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113862/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[Doc Dutch]

This one is a great movie to watch. Me and my parents identified with it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113862/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Agreed. Good movie.

[AProudLefty]

Agreed. Good movie.

I loved the part where the teacher played a Beethoven music then explained that he turned deaf in his later life.

Rock n roll has always existed since the dawn of mankind. Nothing new.

[Doc Dutch]

I loved the part where the teacher played a Beethoven music then explained that he turned deaf in his later life.

Rock n roll has always existed since the dawn of mankind. Nothing new.

About Beethoven and the Ninth Symphony? That's a great story.

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/...oss-composing/
When it came to the premiere of his massive Ninth Symphony, Beethoven insisted on conducting. The orchestra hired another conductor, Michael Umlauf to stand alongside the composer. Umlauf told the performers to follow him and ignore Beethoven's directions.

The symphony received rapturous applause which Beethoven could not hear. Legend has it that the young contralto Carolina Unger approached the maestro and turned him around to face the audience, to see the ovation.

[AProudLefty]

About Beethoven and the Ninth Symphony? That's a great story.

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/...oss-composing/
When it came to the premiere of his massive Ninth Symphony, Beethoven insisted on conducting. The orchestra hired another conductor, Michael Umlauf to stand alongside the composer. Umlauf told the performers to follow him and ignore Beethoven's directions.

The symphony received rapturous applause which Beethoven could not hear. Legend has it that the young contralto Carolina Unger approached the maestro and turned him around to face the audience, to see the ovation.

LOL. I like that story. Though I'd image if it was me, I'd be able to feel it. But that's just because I was born deaf.

[Iolo/Penderyn]

Yes. And that is exactly how I quit too, after decades. Went to my oldest g-kid's 7th birthday party. On the way home I was thinking about how smart and excellent she is, and threw my pack of cigs out the window. Have never touched one since. And she IS still super smart and excellent, now aged 22.

I guess there has to some trigger, some goal, some reason. For me it was always my kids/g-kids.

It is probably easier now that most people don't. In my family only the dog didn't smoke, because he couldn't hold a fag easily. I started when I was about ten, but moved up to fifty a day when I got stuck in a tax office to be bored to death while I waited to go into the RAF. I gave it up about five times, the longest spell off it, ending when our oldest child was born. Finally, a lot later, I took the option still easily available in ex-mining areas and went over to snuff, which a I cut down five or ten minutes a week for as long as it took. It probably saved me from lung cancer to take my nicotine that way - I got a bladder tumour instead! Happy days! The great thing to remember is that the tobacco companies' profits kept up wonderfully. Long liver capitalism, eh?