The castigation can end over the wrong word choice. A quick word choice perhaps better replaced with something else. Let's call it an "annoying, unwanted nickname" that for whatever reason is disliked. Your name is Allison, you hate being called Ally, and your siblings do so when they want to annoy you. I think that's what's happened in this thread. I didn't make up the issue, it's there. I pointed out that it was odd for a local to use it. Those making a weak and childish effort to be annoying by insisting on finding multiple instances of use (that everyone knows about) are welcome to do so. It's not particularly clever but the word doesn't bother me. Call me Ally if you want. Like most people around here, I don't use "Frisco". If you want to, go ahead. What is annoying is people making an effort to be annoying.

Someone on Hot Topics has posted a video of Sasha Baron Cohen accepting an award from the Anti-Defamation League. It's worth looking up. Cohen makes the point that lies and hatred are being spread far and wide by Facebook and Google -- unchecked -- as some sort of 'entertainment'. I agree with him that these for profit companies should be held to the same regulations as newspapers, broadcasters, magazines, movies, etc. NOT to disseminate fake news and foment hate. "Free Speech" has bounds. Journalism slid into this when it began presuming that *everything* has 'two sides'. No, not everything is 'debatable'. Facts do not have 'alternative meanings'. A pound IS 16 ounces, not some alternative number. Regarding this thread, President Trump DID withhold aid to Ukraine while demanding that Ukraine announce an investigation that he could use to smear his political rival. It is not "OK" to so abuse the office of the President, nor to use taxpayer money for personal profit.

The accident happened in a narrow express lane that's being faulted for having no shoulder, just concrete barrier on both sides. It's a toll lane that many choose because it potentially expedites their drive, allowing avoidance of the main highway lanes. I have hated those lanes since they first began installing them in this area a number of years ago. I am absolutely not "blaming" those who drove there yesterday, but I have to think the lane they were in was a death trap based on its very design. I've only driven in such a lane once and only until I could make a quick exit. It was so unnerving, like driving in a luge track or something, with vehicles barreling down on me from behind at close to 80mph. Horrifying.

Binged "Emily In Paris" last night. I love that show. Perfect TV IMHO, because it is just as good with the sound off as on. So much eye candy, which is one really good reason to watch TV/movies IMHO. If it's just ho hum gritty dreary everyday life, it had better be a pretty engaging/uplifting plot or witty dialog for me to want to bother with it! :) The two things I like about EIP is that they actually show her doing real(ish) work and doing it well. Problem solving. I dislike work themed TV shows where the work is largely irrelevant, as if that were possible IRL. I also just ADORE the fashions. Made me feel seriously bad about letting myself go, although in my line of work, doing a lot of outdoor field work, I could not pull off most of those outfits to wear, considering the situations where I would be wearing them would be very few and very far between. If I could even FIND or fit into such outfits. But I would like to up my wardrobe game, that has been on my "to do" list for a long while, but I seem to have trouble finding clothes that fit me and work with what I already have and that I can afford. Even little tweaks sometimes take me months to realize. For example, I have a skirt I just love but have been searching for years to find the right top that goes with it. I "grew out of" the ones I used to wear with it. I also like how the show "Emily In Paris" is slightly "meta" meaning they at least acknowledge some of the unreality of the setting, even if just to poke fun of it . . .