ArtieShaw

My husband had a weird job many years ago doing this very thing. He worked (via a temp agency) for the federal government. They reviewed hospital billings for their agency's workers and send mildly threatening letters if they charged $12,000 for a procedure that averaged $5,000.

It had some success, but some states had outright outlawed this sort of thing. Texas.

Yes! They absolutely did. And they were wildly creative about it.

Some knock-offs were semi-genuine. For example, many cities minted their own version of legitimate coins, like the wildly successful Athenian Owl. They look a little weird, but they aren't strictly counterfeit because they contained the equivalent silver content. There was no intent to deceive, but there was a desire to show that coins from your city were as good as the ones accepted in international trade.

I have one that was minted in Egypt in ancient times and it just looks a little funky. If you put it next to a real one, you can see obvious differences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetradrachm

Some were straight up fakes. For example, pretty much what you said. It could be a convincing looking bronze core with a light coat of silver.

To make things a bit more murky, even officially minted coins may have been debased in times of economic hardship.

A good place to start down this rabbit hole is the term "fourree" https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Fourree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourr%C3%A9e

Modern fakes are a whole 'nother story.

The "conventionally attractive" Marx brother, who usually played the straight man. Still better known than Gummo, if I were to guess.

We're personally fans of Harpo, mainly because of the metaphorical whiplash that comes from watching his scenes. One minute you're laughing at the comical clown or admiring his musical skill, and the next you realize that he's actually a dangerous maniac. (Run, children!!!! He is not safe!!)

Not a doctor, but I'm interested in the subject. I think the current consensus is "yes and no."

200 years ago, people may have answered yes. Thirty years ago it was popular to discount the idea entirely because germs are what make you sick. Can't deny that.

Lately I've been hearing some acknowledgement that a stress to your body may make you more susceptible or less able to fight off an infection. The wiki article includes a recent study that pointed to poor sewage treatment near the White House in Harrison's day. For whatever reason WHH wasn't able to fight that off but the rest of the residents seemingly were.

People have been making the connection of "he stood outside for hours in the snow and drizzle, then caught the dropsy and died" for centuries. I don't think they lacked for sense or couldn't make the obvious connection between exposure and sickness. I do think they lacked for microscopes.

I'm probably being annoying, but I'm a lapsed space/astronomy nerd. And I'm old.

When I think of cheap and fast, I think of the soyuz program.

It's just that 30 years ago I heard so much public boosterism about the promise of private space flight and nothing much of substance has seems to have materialized in the subsequent 30 years. Older nerds that I knew (in their 30s or 40s at the time) were pretty skeptical of that '90s narrative. To be fair, most of them worked at Fermilab or Argonne NL rather than NASA. It's not exactly an insider's view. It was just nerd gossip overheard by a teenager.

I was born into a world where people had been to the moon a few years earlier. They had launched Voyager, Mariner, and that Venus one. My family ate weekend breakfast at a restaurant called Skylab (it was shaped like it). The shuttle flies. Shuttle explodes. Shuttle flies again. All before I graduated middle high school.

Had to look that last one up. 1988. It seemed like an eternity at the time.

Thirty-five years later?

Hoping for another Wm. Henry Harrison?

When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe.... He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day.[104] He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history

In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30 p.m. he uttered his last words....

The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier.

Things one learns in high school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison

Wasn't the first shuttle launched 45 years ago? Or is this talking about something else?

I honestly haven't been paying that much attention since the '90s, but to this casual observer it looks like it has taken 45 years to find a different way to reach low earth orbit.

Two references:

Local Farmer Seizes Territory Along the French/Belgium Border https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56978344

And a story less amiable and fun... Since the state of Kentucky was established before its neighbors, its border was defined as the northern shore of the Ohio River. Indiana and Ohio were established with reference to the Kentucky border. Basically, they start where Kentucky ends. When the river moves and islands form, legal disputes begin. Kentucky usually wins.

https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2021-04-21/oki-wanna-know-why-does-kentucky-own-the-ohio-river https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/comments/17c0pv0/the_ohiokentucky_border_does_something_real_weird/

I have met people who were quite incensed about this situation.

I think there's also some weird shit going on along the Mississippi.

Mexico became part of "South America" about 20 years ago if memory serves. That continental drift is a bitch these days.

I think there may have been a joke in there.

Or maybe not.

Nah. Conventional wisdom says he can either

1. the the priest all about it and do some chants
2. find himself a baptizer and spend the rest of his time Jesusing real hard.

Johnny's options will depend on his local wise man, but I suspect either way he'll also be strongly encouraged to buy some merch.

What's funny is that I also think I'm on the spectrum.

And to continue the conversation - my husband and I have been talking about visiting a South American country this summer where roasted guinea pig is on the menu. I honestly think I could give it a try even though I try to save any mice that my cats corner.

Food choices are both weird and personal. I'll always respect that.