Water displacement is safer than the straw and easier in many ways. Fill a small pot or large bowl with water. Put your food in your hot safe bag. Ease the bottom of the bag down into the water, keeping hold of both sides of the top edges so you don't get water in the bag. When the water is nearly at the zipper (you can slightly fold or add water as necessary), zip it closed. The pressure of the water pushes out the air. You can use a temperature regulator with any vessel of water to then cook as if under vacuum (i.e., sous vide). The vacuum is used by caterers to season and portion individual servings a day or two ahead of an event. It keeps the food safe, assists the marinade to get into the meat, etc., and doesn't come open while being chucked from box to box while counting, etc. Nearly vacuum, with the water displacement method, is fine for home use. Vacuum might help the marinade, but isn't required. Temperature regulation is, and at a significantly lower temperature than nearly boiling. What was described in "The Hack" was old fashioned "boil in bag" cooking, which was popular for awhile decades ago, especially for vegetables, before countertop microwaves became affordable enough that everyone had one. It makes mushy food, especially chicken. Considering all the homemade temperature regulators we've seen from people like Dcarch and Arley, made out of Radio Shack type parts, wouldn't it have been more useful if they'd told how to make your own? Rather than pretending they're doing sous vide? I guess this bothers me so much because people will try what they've said and be unhappy with the results.

Sometimes I do the US Today puzzle online. It is fun, but easy. It was fun to do the NYT puzzle with friends when we were stay at home moms. We collaborated, chatted, and had coffee while the kids played. (sounds like the stone age, doesn't it?) We generally did not finish the puzzle but continued working on our own and sharing our answers. Eventually as the kids got older, we got jobs and pursued careers. The Group still gets together but not to do crossword puzzles. Maybe we should resume getting together for crossword puzzle time, but we may be too busy in our retirement. I sound really old but I am not, really!

I'm an avid crossword puzzler - so yes, I know they get harder as the week goes on. Our local paper saves the hardest crossword for Sunday. I do the crossword every day and set aside the Sunday one (and the NYT one, if I happen to come across one) to work on at my leisure - sometimes it takes me a few days to finish...but I usually do. Don't let the harder ones intimidate you - the more you work on them the more you will pick up on the clues that get used often - which often helps with the longer answers. Also, I had some guy comment the other day that I was "confident" for using a pen to do the crossword. Yes, maybe - but the truth is I cannot stand to use a pencil on newspaper. And like @Bookwoman I just write over any mistakes. I haven't seen/heard of Spelling Bee...I will have to look into that.

No way I'd ever be able to guess A1, no idea what a three point shot might be. Nor did I guess B1, and I agree with others, 'bad spell of the flu' would be a better answer. I couldn't get past books and wind with D3, so never got it, either. For C3, I had 'Up on a housetop', you know, the Christmas song. I did, however. finally get the bonus, thanks to Roxol! And it's one of those that is so blasted simple, (maybe 'clever' would be a better word here) once you know the answer! The rest of them came fairly easy. This puzzle appeared really daunting at first glance. I think maybe the black frame around each segment may have contributed to that? Or maybe I was just already frustrated when I first opened this thread. Whatever. But again, thanks, Jasdip, it was fun. Rusty