There are many dead and dying small towns across the northern part of the state. Pretty much glorified logging camps that served as supply, repair, and staging towns as the logging companies moved ever outwards. Not really sure they were ever meant to be more than temporary. But it's taken some 100 years to reach their ends. And some still barely cling to life but are dying slowly but surely.

I won't argue with your thought. I'm certainly no accredited expert either, just a dad that, along with my wife, raise 4 daughters and pets - mostly working hunting dogs.

My take is that baby talk is impossible to do in a loud and angry voice. And is always done in a soft and gentle tone. I have noticed that when training dogs, I'm a fan of Spaniels, that if you are speaking in a loud voice and that has angry tones, they will start to separate from you and watch you closely. Because ain't no one wants to get yelled at. It's kind of similar to loud sharp barking I suppose. Cats though, are generally arse holes and just don't care......

When our Daughters were newborns, they started to make just sounds after about a month. So baby talk was was pretty much just making intelligible sounds back at them in a soft and soothing tone. As they started to actually learn and use "real" words, less baby talk and far more normal speech is used by parents I think. But children are also smart enough to know the different between the baby talk when playing peek-a-boo with daddy and then need for normal speech at other times.

I certainly don't see baby talk to infants and small children as an issue except in rare disfunctional family situations.

It's one thing to use baby talk with an infant, (hence the baby talk moniker), and another to speak that way to a child that is actually learning to form words and construct a sentence.

Use whatever voice you prefer with your pets. Dogs actually enjoy the soft sounds of baby talk. A bit of brilliant manipulation of humans by the dogs.

Pro Tip for GenXer's: There is a point in life when you need to pick a Doctor that you like enough to die on. That will be the doctor that will take you through the last years of your life. And treat all those little miserable ailments like high blood pressure or urinary issues. Long term medical care, while it's often something that might not kill you outright, It will demand a lot of monitoring and medication to treat.

God bless nurses explaining things in simple term a child can understand.

It's a nice idea. But I wonder what the long term ramifications might be. What ripple effects might happen that we can't see today that end up being problems in the future.

Human history is littered with such problems.

As a retired toolmaker, I see your trebuchet and raise you the artillery piece I made for myself - a small Coehorn mortar of about 50mm/2" bore.

I've known 2 toolmakers that have built their own full scale full functional Gatling guns from scratch also.

Variety - a silly taskbar program that changes my background randomly from my own selected sources with added random quotes. I have it set to change my background every 3 hours and the quotes every hour I think. I just can' live without it anymore.

Exactly. There is little reason to live without garlic. And the more the better!

But not for Pi Day. Having taught classrooms how to calculate Pi by tossing "frozen hot dgos" and literally timing the period of the swing of an apple pie suspended from the ceiling, it's pies or nothing!

I have a Daughter who was born on Pi day. When she was little. she would tell you it's the second most important day, right after Christmas. Pi Day actually became a school wide fun day because of her, (small rural schools can be fun that way). We would bring a couple of pies for her math class to celebrate. Oddly, she much prefers a strawberry cheese cake for her birthday over pies.

I suspect she will NOT allow the change...........

Meh, close enough.

Heinz Baked Beans are some of the worst canned beans on the market. I'm all for beans and toast, but Heinz? Come on Britain, you can do better.

Slowly baked beans made with real bacon, molasses, onion, vegetable broth, and tomato paste and then slow baked at 250F/125C for 6 or so hours is the food of the gods. And will elevate Beans and Toast - particularly if you pair it with homemade bread.

So you are happy to let the evil win? You get to have what you are willing to do. DO something to make the change. Become the Better Bernie Sanders yourself. Change something for the better just don't waste your time and everyone else's time pissing and moaning about something.

If you do not like the current state of affairs, do something about it. Get help find and recruit candidates that represent you and perhaps run for office yourself. Local government is where it all starts.

The next Bernie Sanders does NOT magically pop up out of nowhere. The future generations need to step up and do so in a significant manor. Be that change you want yourself. Otherwise let the downward spiral happen and just live with your choice to not get involved personally.

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That is an issue more with owners who don't know better or are just lazy and poor at training rather than the dogs themselves. All dogs do better with activity, but even Border collies, (Long ago and far away I owned, trained and worked a pair), don't work all day long every day. Most days they might do 30 minutes of actual work. The rest of their time is spent lounging in the sun or shade. So it's less about energy and more about training. The one thing a working breed from a proper bloodline has over a lot of rescues is tractability. No matter how "high powered" they might be, if they are not willing to easily do your bidding, even at a long distances, they are worthless. Tractability means as much or more than drive.

Again, don't get me wrong. Rescues deserve and need a loving home as much as you or me. I have a rescue dog myself. His only requirement is to do tippytaps for his kibble, soak up butt rubs, (because who among us does not love a good butt rub), and keep my feet warm over the winter. But he came from a harsh place and was a very stubborn and willful dog to work with. It took me nearly 2 years of training effort to get to the lovable house pet he has become. And I'm a very highly and experienced trainer - more so than the vast majority.

Your dog is a reflection of its owner/handler/trainer.

I own and train hunting dogs for upland and waterfowl hunting. I've also done breeding in my younger days. Bloodlines absolutely matter. A puppy from National Champion bloodlines has a far, far better chance of being very good at his job. This goes for ANY working breed that is actually expected to work at their job in real life. And they cost a LOT of money to buy, train, and maintain. But these aren't foo-foo dogs bred strictly for looks either.

If all you need is a popcorn and movie and sleep on the bed pet, then it doesn't probably matter very much. Find a nice rescue - they need a home and love too.