lavender

I gave my peppers and basil a good spraying with a combination viruscide and fungicide and the new leaves are coming in fine. Hope it isn't too late for the plants.

Probably easier than getting all that paint off.

Well technically it is a vegetable isn't it? I'm certain it would perk up a dull salad.

This rather misleading. The whole thought of chocolate covered mushrooms is enough to make you sick but the mushroom itself probably won't. Once you get around the fact that picking wild mushrooms without expertise is not safe there is little risk for the normal person in eating them. Some wild mushrooms contain small amounts of toxins. The inky caps that you frequently see growing even in the city contain a substance similar to antabuse but they only make you sick if you mix them with alcohol. Most of those toxins are destroyed with heat excepting of course those mushrooms that are considered poisonous. The emphasis is on small amounts. I've eaten raw mushrooms that should not be eaten raw but in small quantities and pickled. It depends on the individual whether eating certain "safe" mushrooms is going to make them ill and in the quantity that they consume. Some of the mushrooms we pick can cause nausea but it hasn't happened to any of us. The same is true of wild elderberries. I'm sure many people on this forum ate wild elderberries without any ill effects. As for acorns they are so full of tannins that eating them without soaking those out would be next to impossible. If you are going to eat food from the wild you have to use some common sense and do some research. If grandpa said it was edible and grandma cooked it to death you would be wise to do the same unless research proves that there was not a reason for that vigorous cooking or some quirky means of cleaning or preparation. I don't know what was in this book but people do have to take some responsibility for their own actions. Obviously it isn't a scientific publication on wild food and like all such publications the reader should take it for what it is. It's like information garnered from the internet. Verify, verify, verify.

Never went to school at that school but monkey bars were not painted when they were originally put in. I still remember the odd smell of the metal on my hands and that was considerably before the '70s and was true of any monkey bars I ever saw as a kid. I suspect that the silver/gray was the metal itself and they were only painted later when they spruced up the playground. I'm betting Gator's first thought was correct.

Good for you!

What prevents this sort of abuse is frequent visits to those in nursing homes especially those who are the most vulnerable. Visit relatives, friends and acquaintances as often as possible. Make friends with the other residents and check on them. Listen to what they have to say. There is always a shortage of staff and often there is less than optimal supervision as the caregivers are spread so thin. The bad apples are probably few but more likely to be caught if family is involved. Being in a "good" nursing home doesn't guarantee safety. It should but it doesn't. The outside world coming in brings safety with it. And the residents love it.

Couldn't possibly be a hate crime? I wonder why? Just a couple of gang member doing their thing.

I agree this forum is very educational. I'm glad we can provide you with such a wonderful opportunity to learn whatever it is you are learning.

You do manage to get the subtext don't you?

I doubt that all people are sufficiently expert in the art of restraint to apply it without committing violence. Once that violence is committed, as many a police officer has discovered, the necessity of the degree of said violence is open to interpretation. Personally I would not have a problem with the father grabbing the nearest heavy object and whacking him over the head but I would certainly be wary of taking such an action since the law is frequently an ass. Even trained police officers seem to have trouble restraining violently struggling people without using handcuffs or stun guns.

Apparently some part of the population hasn't gotten the word on the abolishment of slavery. Wonder why that is?

This is about par for the course for headlines today. They make the situation sound as bad as possible. A sixteen year old is certainly old enough to babysit and many safely do so. A four year old is old enough to leave in a bathtub alone with checking in a few inches of water. So what did this poor woman do wrong to deserve this type of headline that makes her sound negligent? Reporters should be held responsible for this type of innuendo.

He stopped him which is more than "security" did. Gone are the days when you get to beat up the perverts bothering the your womenfolk. Under the modern interpretation of the law the father would have probably been arrested for assault if he had hit him. They arrest law enforcement officers for unnecessesry force. What chance does an angry dad have?

Probably 99% of the stuff at the dollar stores comes from China. Apparently they have few safety standards and ignore the ones that they do have. If we want cheap goods there is going to be a price to pay. As the old saying goes, "You get nothing for nothing."