Texsox

It's one of my go to beers most places here carry it.

It's been just over 100 years since all states offered public education through 12th grade. The population then felt it was in the public interest to use public tax dollars to educate everyone. Much like police and fire services there was a general benefit to everyone as America was the best educated country. The world has changed a lot since the last state Mississippi, added high school in 1917. Back then a high school diploma would increase your value in a job search, now it's a basic requirement. Eventually, we'll make the same decision that was made 100 years ago, add a couple years to a basic education. I see it happening through the community college system with many families still opting for private or bigger public universities at higher prices.

Not to many self employed 18 year old, probably not enough to worry about, but sure, we'll add them in too. I'm not certain why you thought I required people to be employed to go to college. We already pay for 13 years of public education, increasing that to 15 or 17 seems doable. There are people around the world willing to work for a standard of living far below ours. The choice becomes a better educated work force or eventually accepting workers living in dirt floor dwellings accepting sustenance wages for manufacturing consumer goods. The most successful American companies are employing far few employees and for lower wages than previous generations. We're rapidly losing a middle class.

Hi guys, just wanted to take a minute to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy year, most of all good health! These days people don't spend much time or thought on some personal words to their friends and family, they just copy and paste some random message and send it on. So after all we've been though together this year I want to thank you for your friendship and wish you a happy and fulfilling 2018 - you’re the best gymnastics group anyone could ask for. Best wishes, Helen

Weird. Someone spent a lot of time setting that up.

Drinking Modelo Negra, waiting for relatives who are late, watching NBA and a Christmas Story.

What ya got?

@southsider2k5 was so nice in starting a Merry Christmas thread in Pale Hose I think we needed a thread for the restofus.

I lost thirty years of score sheets somewhere along the way. I'm certain they were thrown out by my ex with other "junk" which was defined as stuff she didn't understand of mine. I'd like to go back and see if the loses were as bad as I remember. I only remember Jim because of the dairy collection. There was one other old timer from that club Iirc, may not be that club, who actually was the highest rated, like insane 1900+. I drew him at a US Open, also got my ass kicked. Really nice guy who tried to make me feel better about a couple of huge blunders I made. Anyhow what was interesting about him was he worked on an assembly line for one of my customers. Mind numbing boring work for most people. He said he would compose chess problems, and write songs while working. He said his brain wasn't for rent or sale at any price.

Merry Christmas from the family . . .

If you really want to hear about someone who did everything, pro baseball player, writer, musician, model, dance instructor, entrepreneur, convict, ex pat, prisoner, and more it's all in my book about Mack Thomas https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997897902/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_3pm5FbPNRF010 *I will receive royalties if you purchase from Amazon lol

Teaching is my second career. I was in electronic part sales for 20 years while living in Chicago. Did you know Chicago was the epicenter of video games? Pac Man, Asteroids, Frogger were all build in the area. Then after AT&T was dissolved, telephony was huge. GE, Tellcom, and others manufactured all sorts of telephone backbone stuff. US Robotics and Incomm Data sold a crap load of modems in the early days of the internet. I love learning things and trying stuff. Boredom is my kryptonite. The only consistent long term things have been reading and golf.

You might be surprised. I had a lot of customers who had a regular neighborhood place they liked for lunch.

I played him in a couple tournaments around the area in the mid 1990s. He must have been rated around 1500 at the time so we seemed to draw each other. I recall that everyone at that club seemed to play a version of the Sicilian Defense and some d4 opening. There weren't many players pushing a queen pawn opening at the time so it was a winning strategy. I just realized I haven't played in 20 years now.

I wish I had experienced him being a sore loser. I was 0-3 against him. That entire club was tough.

Reduced fat? They wrote that like it's a good thing?!

Same here plus it's amazing biking. The beaches are so different than along the Gulf. We've camped in Acadia in a tent, pop up, and our trailer. And Bar Harbor is one of my five favorite vacation towns with St, Charles Mo, Cody Wy, Santa Fe NM, and Terlingua, TX. We tend to rotate heading east with heading east.

While I disagree with most everything he has done from a policy standpoint and a basic human decency point, but I do appreciate the showmanship in him. Barnum and Bailey combined had nothing on him. I really hoped he poured himself a very expensive drink from the White House bar and laughed his ass off as he was tweeting last night. As a hustler, showman, and huckster he's a hall of fame guy.

We're heading to Maine this summer also. Schoodic Peninsula and Bar Harbor primarily.

I have a Boston butt roast and a whole chicken on my smoker. The butt roast, which for some reason comes from the pig's shoulder, should take 10 to 12 hours, the chicken four or five. The butt will be pulled pork sandwiches tomorrow, a great crowd meal. We've invited about 40 neighbors over for a little party on the deck and to award the prize for best holiday decorations. Joking of course. The chicken will be used in smoked chicken enchiladas which are amazing. My wife made up the recipe one day when we had some leftover smoked chicken. Then, I brought in a bunch of lumber to build an assembly table so my table saw will be making sawdust. I'm also make White Sox frame and I'm going to frame a picture of Larussa for my bar. I decided my new theme will be hall of fame guy's mug shots. That's a long way if saying y'all don't miss me too much today.

It has to be thick and sweet but not sugary sweet tea sweet. It also seems to need a Christmas image on the label and the brand I've been buying forever. I want to believe I'm buying Christmas joy and keeping traditions.

My daughter graduated from Urbana with a degree in advertising and had her choice of three job offers months before she left school. They have one of the top programs in the country and employers lined up and offered some nice packages to hire top talent. They didn't visit the Northeasterns of the world. She wouldn't have been earning six figures her second year out of college if she attended SIU. (Which I have great memories of) On to the practical side. I teach a class Senior Seminar with the focus of transitioning to college. I bring in about 25 to 30 recruiters each fall to talk to the classes. From private schools like Pepperdine to our local schools. After about five or six presentations the students start to realize dorms are dorms, they all have clubs and study abroad options. So why pay more? At Stanford or UT you will be surrounded by top students. Your class discussions will be deeper and richer. You will learn more. The recruiters that visit your campus will be more willing to hire you. Some universities have pipelines with certain companies. Is it always a good bet? No. When asked my personal advice I tell them if they are borrowing money for school to stay home, drive 15 minutes to our local community college, then 5 minutes to our local university that is in our shadow. Then go get a graduate degree from a name university. But this perpetuates the class structure in our society. The rich send their kids to top schools and then their children get hired by the top companies with top salaries.

Karl Marx wrote that one of the features of capitalism is eventually the worker's only value will be what work they can perform for the capitalists. All art, music, theater, literature will die as value is only placed on commodities that can be sold for a profit. We've gotten there. Go borrow money so you can develop skills that someone will charge their customers for and give you a portion of their profits. Forget about anything other than making yourself more valuable for capitalists. Anything you personally may benefit from is secondary to your value to your owner. Seems like if the business owners are benefiting the most from your education they should also pay for it. Any while they are at it, educate folks in the arts and literature. Aren't those the things that differentiate us from the squirrels and ravens who simply work for their living and do not create?

Absolutely.