The "This Might Be A Stupid Question, But...." Thread

[Slartibartfast]

It can be used as a tongue-in-cheek way of adding sarcasm or a postscript to a tweet, too - "Cleaning vomit out of the car for the third time this week #ParentingIsGreat" or "Yay political robocalls!#NotReally #NotVotingForYouAnyway #IHateLivingInOhio".

[twiggy]

I cook with Marsala all the time.

No, not all the alcohol cooks out of the wine.
The flavor is heavily dependent on the wine.
I usually get three to four recipes out of one bottle.
Marsala is fortified, and lasts just fine as long as the lid or cork is secured between uses.

really? Now I'm very sad. No more chicken marsala for Twiggyy  

[Snooks]

My district tech department has a hashtag so we can see each other's tweets about things we have done in the classroom. Some schools have hashtagas and a tv set to display things happening at the school.

This backfired pretty impressively for Starbucks.  They encouraged people to use the hashtag #SpreadTheCheer the tweets were then displayed on a giant screen at the Natural History Museum ice rink in London.  Problem was it was an automated system and Starbucks were (are) in the middle of a tax scandal in the UK. Examples/full story here.

[Mental Magpie]

I cook with Marsala all the time.

No, not all the alcohol cooks out of the wine.
The flavor is heavily dependent on the wine.
I usually get three to four recipes out of one bottle.
Marsala is fortified, and lasts just fine as long as the lid or cork is secured between uses.

really? Now I'm very sad. No more chicken marsala for Twiggyy  

As far as I know, the stuff you buy pre-made (I find mine in the frozen food section) has all of the alcohol cooked out of it.

[kherbert05]

My district tech department has a hashtag so we can see each other's tweets about things we have done in the classroom. Some schools have hashtagas and a tv set to display things happening at the school.

This backfired pretty impressively for Starbucks.  They encouraged people to use the hashtag #SpreadTheCheer the tweets were then displayed on a giant screen at the Natural History Museum ice rink in London.  Problem was it was an automated system and Starbucks were (are) in the middle of a tax scandal in the UK. Examples/full story here.

I could see this happening especially with the secondary schools. They had a problem with another group using the same hash tag not to harm the school - but because it also fit their business so our district added 2 letters to the hashtag.


Not my place so I kept my mouth shut about the possible problems.

[magicdomino]

I cook with Marsala all the time.

No, not all the alcohol cooks out of the wine.
The flavor is heavily dependent on the wine.
I usually get three to four recipes out of one bottle.
Marsala is fortified, and lasts just fine as long as the lid or cork is secured between uses.

really? Now I'm very sad. No more chicken marsala for Twiggyy  

As far as I know, the stuff you buy pre-made (I find mine in the frozen food section) has all of the alcohol cooked out of it.

I suspect the commercial version of chicken Marsala (which would also include chain restaurants) uses a low (or no) alcohol concentrate rather than real wine.  But yes, if someone has either an alcohol allergy or alcoholism, it's better to skip the booze.  The longer the dish cooks, the less alcohol will remain -- spaghetti sauce cooked for hours may be alcohol-free versus cherries Jubilee which almost qualifies for a cocktail -- but you can't be sure without testing.

[kherbert05]

I'm watching Sea Patrol on Hulu Plus.


Does the Australian Navy really have a gap year program where kids between HS and University work on their boats for 1 year?

[Iris]

I'm watching Sea Patrol on Hulu Plus.


Does the Australian Navy really have a gap year program where kids between HS and University work on their boats for 1 year?

According to the ADF site there was a gap year program (who knew?) but it was closed after the last Federal Budget.

Whether the gap year participants actually got to work on boats I don't know. If they did, I'm sure it was largely grunt work.

[Carotte]

Can anyone find me a reason why a grown men, in the middle of the afternoon, would decide to go to the swimming pool, change into his suit, go sit on the edge of the pool for 15 before putting on his swimming cap, and then still stay sitted for at least another 30min? I think when I left he got out too since I didn't see him in the water (changing rooms open on a balcony that overlook the pool.)

He just, looked... didn't seem like he was talking himself into jumping in the water, that he was waiting for someone.. If he was waiting for people to leave the lane then he could have waited a long time, we were always at least 5 people in the lane.

Anyone think it's a bit creepy? I didn't want to give a bias (I mean, there must be a logical reason), but if I tell you that while he was there two groups of kids where there...
I didn't see him ogling them more than a normal person would, and between the pool's staff and the kids teachers others must have noticed him and not thought it was anything weird but still.
And the kids where making so much noise that I would never have stayed more than I needed myself..

[WillyNilly]

He just, looked... didn't seem like he was talking himself into jumping in the water, that he was waiting for someone.. If he was waiting for people to leave the lane then he could have waited a long time, we were always at least 5 people in the lane.

I'd wonder if it was a case of him not knowing to share lanes?
I never knew about that.  A few years ago I bought a membership to a local fitness facility in part because of its awesome pool.  But I'd never belonged to a pool or swimming facility before.  And I ended up only going twice because I was just so put off by the expectation of knowing all sorts of weird not explained not explained 'rules' of pool culture. I'm not a strong enough swimmer to feel confident sharing a lane, and it had never in a billion years occurred to me that was a norm - it wasn't explained when I signed up, there were no signs, etc.  In fact it took a bunch of circular questioning between me and a staff member before that even became clear to me, because I didn't even fathom to ask if that could be a possibility (and apparently the staff member never fathomed it wasn't obvious - they looked shocked when I finally said "oh!  people share the lanes?  At the same time in the same lane?  Why wasn't I told that?  Why are there no signs explaining that?").  I thought lanes would be more like treadmills - if there is someone waiting you must vacate after 30 minutes/if its being used you wait 30 minutes for your turn. When I was a kid and took swim lessons we never shared lanes - we swam along side of each other in our own lanes or we waited until the person in front of us reached the other end of the pool for us to start.

[lady_disdain]

Can anyone find me a reason why a grown men, in the middle of the afternoon, would decide to go to the swimming pool, change into his suit, go sit on the edge of the pool for 15 before putting on his swimming cap, and then still stay sitted for at least another 30min? I think when I left he got out too since I didn't see him in the water (changing rooms open on a balcony that overlook the pool.)

He just, looked... didn't seem like he was talking himself into jumping in the water, that he was waiting for someone.. If he was waiting for people to leave the lane then he could have waited a long time, we were always at least 5 people in the lane.

Anyone think it's a bit creepy? I didn't want to give a bias (I mean, there must be a logical reason), but if I tell you that while he was there two groups of kids where there...
I didn't see him ogling them more than a normal person would, and between the pool's staff and the kids teachers others must have noticed him and not thought it was anything weird but still.
And the kids where making so much noise that I would never have stayed more than I needed myself..

I think it is in bad taste to hint that he is a pedophile on such flimsy grounds. As you said, he wasn't ogling the children, he wasn't showing signs of arousal, he wasn't acting inappropriately.

To me, it seems like someone who might have a phobia, trauma or other form of bad relationship with water or swimming and is slowing acclimatizing himself to a pool by increasing exposure. Yes, I can go into the pool room. I can prepare myself to swim. I can go near the water. And so on. Often, this sort of treatment is done by a professional's suggestion.

He might have been unsure of pool etiquette, as WillyNilly explained.

[ladyknight1]

Could he have been doing exercises with his foot or ankle in the water? It doesn't make sense to have the cap on in that case, but I have seen a lot of that at hotel and club pools.

[MrsJWine]

I see a lot of people at my pool who do that. I usually offer to share a lane, and they'll say, "No, thanks; I can wait. I'm a little claustrophobic." Which I understand. I actually hate sharing a lane, but I have a very limited time to swim, so I take what I can get. If you have some time, or if you're willing to forgo the swimming that day, it makes sense.

[Iris]

I can think of several explanations other than paedophile.

*He has a fear of water he is trying to overcome
*The aforementioned lane sharing issues
*He has been ordered by his doctor to exercise but just can't motivate himself
*He usually swims laps and it is important to him, but he was ill/tired/depressed and just couldn't motivate himself

I'm sure I looked equally strange last week when the day after a dear family friend died I got out of bed, put on my exercise clothes, set up my treadmill and dvd, started the treadmill and then just stood there with my feet on the edge. Eventually I stopped the treadmill and just stood on the treadmill for a while, staring into space. I was trying to live as normal but when it came to the crunch I was just too sad to do anything.

[Ereine]

How small are the pools where people don't expect to share lanes? The largest pool at the place I go to has maybe ten lanes and I'm trying to imagine the riot that would ensue if people were told that they had to wait for their turn. There's another pool there that's used for swimming laps but it has even less lanes and the place has something like a thousand visitors a day (though not everyone swims laps, of course). Fortunately the large pool is 50 m long and the lanes are wide enough that passing isn't a problem. I go there every week and I haven't seen any problems.