Light Banter

Chapter 2, The Social Hypocrisy by Quinn Barrett, The recent Netflix documentary, "The Social Dilemma" was supposed to be a cautionary public service exploration about how big-tech companies have brainwashed users using human-psychology against us. Social media tracking, manipulative algorithms, and systematic grooming are truly scary realities. The movie really gets you thinking. The problem is that the messengers of this dire warning come from some experts who helped to create the very scenario they are now advocating against.

Chapter 1, 500 Birds, One Stone, Group Chat, Is it just us, or does it seem like social media has become a bastion for boundless opinions with a glaring lack of personal boundaries? We all have stories of odd social media postings, which are often funny usually for the wrong reasons. But when it comes from friends and family, how much is too much?

Chapter 4, Brown Fat and Cold Suits, Group Chat, Rebecca explores a clinical trial to learn more about the positive effects of brown fat. When she learns she'll have to wear a cold suit for two hours, well, no thank you.

Chapter 3, Seat Warmers with Air Conditioning by Rebecca Gross, One of my greatest little joys in life is heated seats. My basic trajectory in life was cloudy upstate New York, windy Northern California, and the sharp mountains of Khazastan, and then the Colorado Front Range. But my first experience with heated seats was in a Florida rental car in 110-degree weather with 90% humidity. It was the first time that my lower back finally felt warm.

Chapter 2, Ice, Power Outages and Still Kindness Can be Found by Quinn Barrett, Traveling to Texas under the best of circumstances is an experience. I've been to Texas a number of times, mostly Dallas and usually for business. On my most memorable business trip to Dallas when I arrived the weather was in the mid-80s with plenty of humidity. When I woke up the next morning there was a 50-plus degree shift and it was snowing and I don't mean snow flurries. It was enough snow to stick on the ground until I flew back to Los Angeles later that evening.

Chapter 1, My Furnace Story by Chrys Withrow, We have lovely weather today. I was able to take the dog for a good long walk. It was beautiful, but man last weekend while we had that horrible storm, we didn't realize till Monday morning that our furnace had gone out. It was not pleasant. The furnace would turn on and the little lights would go and we could see the flames and if you wanted to stand six inches away from the furnace, you'd have a nice warm--not real warm, only the part that was facing the furnace and the rest of your body was frickin cold.

Part 5, The Valentines Metric, How Does it Rate?, Do you love, love? We do. Rate Valentine's day as an overall holiday on a scale of one-to-ten with us. Ten means you love Valentine's Day whereas one indicates that you believe that the holiday was strategically designed to make people feel awful.

Part 4, Romantic Movies, Candles, and Farts, Trying to replicate a romantic movie scene in your home for Valentine's day may not go as planned, especially if you're married to a card-carrying, non-romantic, carbon-based cyborg. To anyone thinking they can change an aromantic spouse, don't waste your time.

Part 3, Food: Weighing In On Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, Contrary to popular belief, dinner is not necessarily the most important meal of a good Valentine's day. We've got some breakfast and brunch lovers in this group, but dinner done right is still the quintessential Valentine experience. Just listen and get ready to drool.

Part 2, Candy: Rasberry Tootsie Pops, Truffles, and Dark Chocolate, No matter your age, everybody gets excited talking about candy--even if you're off sugar. Candy evokes memories of times when we didn't know, understand or care how bad candy is for our bodies. Luckily, the sugary smells and memories will stay with us forever.