Why do circuit breakers go up for on and down for off?

Not the Americans, but a specific American, Noah Webster, who was into spelling reform, but wanted to freeze British competition by selling his dictionary as a dictionary of American English. It didn't work too well at the time - he lost money on it and died in debt, but it eventually succeeded.

Much too much like hard work.

That's excellent news. I have a season pass at Sugar Bowl.

Two. Know-ee.

Haven't you seen Blade Runner?

I wonder how people survived in Nebraska in 1800, with no waterproof parkas, no moon boots, uninsulated log cabins, no phone or internet, no penicillin, no Safeway down the street.

Makeup is so weird. In the glamour mags, when they have 'before' and 'after' pics, I always prefer before. Once you paint people, they all start to look alike.

A lot of them didn't. Old graveyards and ad hoc burial grounds are everywhere to tell the tale.

In 1800, 46 percent of children did not reach their fifth birthday.

Yeah, they had lots of kids and most didn't live to be teenagers.

On old novels, it's shocking to me how common death was.

And, maybe over-dramatized, is how people would get caught in the rain and immediately acquire near-lethal fevers. Jane Austen did that a lot. And there was a lot of "brain fever."

My mom was one of 10 kids, and two died in infancy. That was better than average.

And with some of the gold rushes, 'living' in tents quite literally.

Yeah. In round numbers, half of children did not make it to age ten. Disease was the leading cause of death, except in dense jungle, where predators abounded, with lots of cover.

She was not exaggerating much, in the days before penicillin.

Joe Gwinn

Ever read 'Giants in the Earth'. Per Hansa's wife, Beret, survived by slowly going insane. A final straw was when Per whitewashed the cabin interior trying to cheer her up. During winter in Dakota the cabin walls were the only thing within miles that weren't white for miles around.

A good wall tent with a wood stove isn't that uncomfortable. It might even be warmer that a hastily built shack with old newspapers for insulation.

Yeah, but I didn't know they spray painted the actors. I'll admit to complete ignorance when it comes to cosmetics. Other than my mother I can't think of a woman in my life that used them. Well, maybe one. She used enough hairspray to build a DOT approved helmet so there might have been other products.

I did paint a couple of fingernails Tamiya XF-59 (desert yellow) but I was really trying for the Panzerkampfwagen II. I don't see pointing the thing at my face.

I don't read glamour mags and have very little experience with makeup. (okay, there is that tube of red lipstick I use for fitting parts). I prefer the original meaning of 'glamour', an enchantment creating an illusion.