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A face for radio, but hair made for TV.
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RTDNTOTO š» Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)
- Thread starter JNA
- Start date
WSU MUP Student
Cyburbian
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I'm usually an early morning gym-goer and it has not been particularly busy at all so far this year. Yesterday I had some free time late in the afternoon before I had to pick my oldest up from her drama rehearsal so I went to the gym with the plan to waste some time on the Stairmaster while answering emails. I've been going to the same gym for about 16 years and it was easily one of the busiest weekday afternoons I've ever seen there. There are only about 5 or 6 Stairmasters and they were all in use when I walked in. Thankfully, there are like 20 treadmills so there's almost always one of those open.
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I can think of a whole bunch of words I know the meaning of, but that's not one of them.
dandy_warhol
Cyburbian
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And it was used in the context of a passel of possums.
SlaveToTheGrind
Cyburbian
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Name of groups of animals fun fact of the day:
Antelope: a herd
Ants: a colony or an army
Apes: a shrewdness
Baboons: a troop
Badgers: a cete
Bass: a shoal
Bats: a colony, cloud or cauldron
Bears: a sloth or sleuth; Cubs: a litter
Beavers: a colony
Bees: a swarm
Boar: a sounder
Buffalo: a gang or obstinacy
Camels: a caravan
Caterpillars: an army
Cats: a clowder, glaring, pounce, nuisance or clutter; Kittens: a litter or kindle; Wild cats: a destruction
Cattle: a herd or drove
Cheetahs: a coalition
Chickens: a brood or peep; Chicks: a clutch or chattering
Clams: a bed
Cobras: a quiver
Colts: a rag
Cows: a kine, drove, herd or fold; twelve or more cows are a flink
Coyotes: a band
Cranes: a sedge
Crocodiles: a float or bask
Crows: a murder
Deer: a herd
Dogs: a pack or cowardice; Puppies: a litter
Dolphins: a pod
Donkeys: a drove
Doves: a dule
Ducks: a brace, paddling or team
Eagles: a convocation
Elephants: a herd or parade
Elk: a gang or herd
Emus: a mob
Falcons: a cast
Ferrets: a business or fesnyng
Finches: a charm
Fish: a school, shoal, run, haul or catch
Flamingos: a stand or flamboyance
Flies: a swarm, hatch or business
Foxes: a skulk or leash
Frogs: an army or a colony
Geese: a gaggle or flock, a skein when in flight
Giraffes: a tower
Gnats: a cloud or horde
Goats: a herd, tribe or trip
Goldfinches: a charm
Goldfish: a troubling
Gorillas: a band
Grasshoppers: a cloud
Greyhounds: a leach
Hares: a down or husk
Hawks: a cast or kettle
Hippopotami: a bloat or thunder
Hogs: a drift or parcel
Horses: a team or harras
Hounds: a pack, mute or cry
Hyenas: a cackle
Jaguars: a shadow
Jellyfish: a smack or brood
Kangaroos: a troop or mob
Larks: an ascension or exaltation
Lemurs: a conspiracy
Leopards: a leap
Lice: a flock
Lions: a pride
Locust: a plague or cloud
Magpies: a tiding or tittering
Mallards: a sord
Manatees: an aggregation
Mares: a stud
Martens: a richness
Minnows: a steam
Moles: a labor
Monkeys: a barrel, cartload or troop
Mules: a pack, barren or span
Nightingales: a watch
Otters: a family, romp or raft
Owls: a parliament
Oxen: a team or yoke
Oysters: a bed
Parrots: a pandemonium or company
Partridges: a covey
Peacocks: a muster or ostentation
Penguins: a colony
Pheasants: a nest, nide or bouquet
Pigeons: a flock or flights
Pigs: a drift or drove (younger pigs), or a sounder, litter or team (older pigs)
Ponies: a string
Porcupines: a prickle
Rabbits: a colony or warren
Raccoons: a gaze
Rats: a colony, pack, swarm or mischief
Rattlesnakes: a rhumba
Ravens: an unkindness
Rhinoceroses: a crash
Sharks: a shiver
Sheep: a drove or flock
Skunks: a stench
Snakes: a nest or knot
Sparrows: a host
Squirrels: a dray or scurry
Starlings: a murmuration
Stingrays: a fever
Storks: a mustering
Swans: a bevy or lamentation, a wedge when in flight
Tigers: an ambush or a streak
Toads: a knot or knab
Trout: a hover
Turkeys: a gang, posse or rafter
Turtles: a bale or nest
Vultures: a venue
Wasps: a pledge
Weasels: a colony, gang or pack
Whales: a pod, school or gam
Wolves: a pack or route
Wombats: a wisdom
Woodpeckers: a descent
Zebras: a zeal
There are a passel of things on this list.
estromberg
Cyburbian
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michaelskis
Cyburbian
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I just got back and it was the same thing here. I was terrified that lunch rush was going to be crazy but I had no wait for anything.
WSU MUP Student
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I always went with, "... and a voice for newspaper" in my case.
ursus
Cyburbian, raised by Cyburbians
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I just wanted to let you all know: If you're looking for pitas with pockets, like the good ole days, the only place I can find them is Trader Joe's. Actual pockets. So excited for tonight's dinner. Wrapping stuff in flat bread or pocketless pitas is for barbarians and losers. Get the pocket! Long live the pocket!
ursus out.
ursus out.
There's no Trader Joe's in my town or county. Can't find a parking space at the one in Pittsburgh.
Faust_Motel
Cyburbian
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I remember in the 80's for some reason pitas with pockets was seen as a health food. We used to get them all the time.
I agree, long live the pocket.
Doohickie
Cyburbian
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I think it's because, compared to bread or a conventional roll, you're actually ingesting less... that simple.
There's a place called Pak-A-Pocket near where my office used to be. This was when I was riding my bicycle to work routinely. Anyway, one day a storm moved through at quitting time so I decided to duck in there and have dinner. I had dinner and waited out the storm, but it lasted longer than I thought and past closing time and finally the owner said, "Where do you live?" I told him, and it was only about a mile from his house, and he had a minivan. So he put my bike in his van and drove me home. Kinda nice of him.
Long live the pocket.
WSU MUP Student
Cyburbian
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Pee-ta? I don't know about food from the Middle East. Isn't that whole area a little... iffy?
But seriously...
Come to Metro Detroit we have a plethora of pita to please your palate!
We buy pita bread quite a bit and I always hate when I don't pay attention to what I'm choosing and I grab one of the types without the pocket.
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This reminds me of something. On the cast iron thread I mentioned we use our 10.5" griddle all the time. One of the things we use it for is making naan (a type of Indian pocket flat bread). These are the only ingredients:
3/4 cups water, 1 tsp active dry yeast, 2 tsp sugar, 2 cups flour,1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp oil. You mix the water, sugar, and yeast. After five minutes you mix in the flour, salt, and oil, mix and knead it, cut it into four smaller pieces and flatten/shape the dough into balls, let rest for 15 minutes, then flatten out into four patties about 1/4" thick. Fry one at a time on a preheated cast iron griddle on med. heat for about a minute, flip it over and it quickly turns into a balloon (forming the pocket) and the other side is browned.
The ingredients cost just a few cents, is incredibly forgiving, and only takes like 25-30 minutes total to make them. We pretty much stopped buying naan at the store after trying this method.
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WSU MUP Student
Cyburbian
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We make naan quite frequently but I think the recipe my wife uses has us heat it in the oven. I don't think we've ever heated it up on the stove top but that sounds like a good idea - it would probably make it a bit toaster and more crisp than in the oven... or maybe she does initially heat it on the stove but then we reheat it in the oven while we're working on the rest of the dinner.
Either way, now I want some naan!
Either way, now I want some naan!
ursus
Cyburbian, raised by Cyburbians
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You have broadened my world...you are Trader Joe. You are Trader Maist. Maister Joe? What other secrets do you hold, I wonder? What other hidden gems await the patient needler? We shall see. We shall see.
I love TJ's, but I haven't been in one in years. No reason, really, other than I just don't really think about it enough to make a special trip to one.
We used to get their "Fearless Flyer" in the mail. Haven't gotten one in a decade or more, but I loved those even as a teenager. My father and I would peruse them together when they arrived.
JIm
dandy_warhol
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Tired.
WSU MUP Student
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We have a Trader Joe's in the same shopping center as the grocery store where I do most of my shopping a couple miles from our house. I'll often go into the big grocery store to get all the stuff we need and then I'll walk over to TJ's to get all the stuff we want. I don't know how anybody could do the majority of their shopping at TJ's (especially if they are shopping for an entire family), but they do have some fun and interesting items and the prices aren't terrible... but it's really primarily a glorified snack store for us. I do really like the TJ's ginger beer though so that does keep me coming back.
All that said, I did stop in there a day or two after Christmas and stocked up on Jingle Jangle, chocolate-covered peppermint Jo-Jo's and some more holiday treats before they disappear for the year!
All that said, I did stop in there a day or two after Christmas and stocked up on Jingle Jangle, chocolate-covered peppermint Jo-Jo's and some more holiday treats before they disappear for the year!
WSU MUP Student
Cyburbian
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I've never been into an Aldi because the closest one to me is not far but definitely not in a convenient location. My wife likes to go there when they have their "German Week" and stock up on sausages and spaetzle and some condiments (is sauerkraut a condiment?) and frozen items that they don't carry year-round. Now that I type it out, I may have to stop by the next time they have their German Week... I wonder if they bring in any specialty beers?
btrage
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I received an Advent beer box as a gift from Aldi in the past. I don't recall exactly what beers were in there but they were definitely European.
Faust_Motel
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long live the pocket
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Planit
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They tore down the AC/DC house!
Doohickie
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They have common roots... kind of. Did you know? Aldi was started by German brothers. They parted ways over whether to sell cigarettes. They ended up splitting the company into Aldi North and Aldi South. (in Europe). One came to the U.S. as Aldi, the other came to the U.S. by buying out Trader Joe's.
Doohickie
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As for me, my shopping loop is Costco > Sprouts > Albertson's.
My wife has a condition with her esophagus and the doctor wants her to drink alkaline water. I get that at Whole Foods because they sell it in bulk by the gallon. We have a couple of 3 gallon jugs and I just fill them at Whole Foods for a small fraction of what it costs to buy alkaline water in bottles, but that's not usually part of the regular shopping trip; I pick it up as needed..
My wife has a condition with her esophagus and the doctor wants her to drink alkaline water. I get that at Whole Foods because they sell it in bulk by the gallon. We have a couple of 3 gallon jugs and I just fill them at Whole Foods for a small fraction of what it costs to buy alkaline water in bottles, but that's not usually part of the regular shopping trip; I pick it up as needed..
SlaveToTheGrind
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Trader Joe's Dutch Kringle is quite tasty.
estromberg
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We LOOOOVE German month at Aldi. The Fruits of the Forest and Apple Strudels are SOOOOOOOOO good. We buy about a dozen of each for the freezer. We really like using spaetzel, so buy a bunch of that as well. We do the majority of our grocery shopping at Aldi. We don't use much in the way of prepared foods or prepackaged stuff, so we are able to get most anything we need there, but there's a WM across the street, so if Aldi doesn't have it, WM usually will.
estromberg
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I am unfamiliar with Dutch kringle.
Around here, Kringle is Danish and comes from Racine, Wi. The kringle capital of the Midwest.
WSU MUP Student
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Uncle Norbert would be offended for being confused with the Dutch instead of the Danish!
FWIW, the kringle at TJ's is the Danish Kringle from O&H Danish Bakery in Racine.
We get it every once in a while, depending on what the current flavor offering is.
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We asked Junior what he wanted for an ideal special Christmas dinner that we would prepare. He requested chicken schnitzel, sauerkraut, red cabbage, cheese spaetzle, and German potato salad, with gherkins and pumpernickel bread on the side.
That took NO encouragement or hints from me. I guess we did something right raising him.
That took NO encouragement or hints from me. I guess we did something right raising him.