Over-Pruned Cherry Plum - will it survive?
We had some landscape type people come in to trim back the bushes and such in our yard and part of that involved trimming back our cherry plum tree. I came home and found that they left nothing but the...
View ArticleI have to cancel last minute on attending a wedding. How to communicate?
The wedding is on Sunday, interstate. My not going is unavoidable as of this morning. A tremendous, epic, work emergency has developed. I got the news at 4.30am this morning. There is no way I can get...
View ArticlePeed on shoe rack.
A person - who will remained unidentified - pissed on my shoe rack. Most of the urine was directed INTO suede, lace-up shoes with a squishy, fabric bottom. A second pair of suede shoes (below) was...
View ArticleBest Emergency Radio?
Looking for an emergency radio with all of these features: 1. SAME capability, so I can choose the county and the specific types of NOAA alerts I want to receive; 2. Adjustable volume; 3. Can be...
View ArticlePlz halp fix my curly haircut fail - West Hollywood version
Got a haircut yesterday that I really hate. The shape is entirely wrong and I ended up with curly bangs I never wanted. I (of course) have an important interview tomorrow. Help. I live in West...
View ArticleISO: Weird, tragic, mysterious, and/or spooky history
What are your favorite history mysteries or tragic tales of historical disasters? The creepier, odder, and more mysterious the better! I'm working on building some online resource guides for historical...
View ArticleHunkering down for a hurricane in the ER in Miami?
My dear friend is a trauma surgeon in Miami and has been assigned to work this weekend. He was hoping for Ryder, the rock-solid hospital proofed for Cat 5 storms with carefully organized plans &...
View ArticleWhich medical supplies are most likely to run out during disasters?
When a hospital or clinic is in a natural disaster and can't resupply in a timely manner, what are the key medicines/medical supplies they will be most concerned about depleting? While reading the...
View ArticleHow can I donate for victims of the Asian flood?
What's the best way to help victims of this flood?
View ArticleHurricane response - how can we know how FEMA is doing, &other efforts?
Is there a clearinghouse site for covering Caribbean or other hurricane relief efforts, reports from hurricane-hit areas other than St. John, ways to help that actually do help, ways to hold...
View ArticleWhere can I find adventure (at home)?
I love reading long-form adventure articles, or well-written books on same (eg. Krakauer's "Into Thin Air"), like this, or this. Point me to your favourite articles/books describing adventures,...
View ArticleDid I handle this hair coloring fiasco appropriately?
I went to a professional hair salon for a hair color. After botching the color, two stylists promised they would do everything they could to get it to the color that I asked for. I paid the first time...
View ArticlePulling together resources for my sister post-hurricane
My sister lives in a town that was smacked awfully hard by Hurricane Michael (Lynn Haven, Florida, just North of Panama City). My mom got word from her earlier today thanks to a neighbor that found a...
View ArticleWTF candied pecans
Keep f*ing up candied pecans... help me Why does sugar fall off my candied pecans and won’t stick? Stovetop method. I end up with toasted pecans and a puddle of hard sugar. I used 1c pecans 1tbsp...
View ArticleCan I salvage my scorched stockpot?
I made spaghetti sauce with meatballs in my Bodum stainless steel heavy-bottomed stockpot, got distracted, and severely scorched the entire bottom of the inside of the pot (the outside is fine). I’ve...
View ArticleShort story about Hurricane Katrina?
I have a vague recollection of a short story or possibly narrative non-fiction set during a disaster (I think hurricane Katrina). What is it? As I recall the plot, a father is forced to take...
View ArticleDisaster Preparedness
My city got hit by multiple serious tornadoes last night and I realized just how unprepared I was. I'd like to be more prepared in the future, especially as a non-driving, apartment dweller (with a...
View ArticleConcatenating Bad Decisions
What is the term for a chain of bad decisions based on misperception of a situation that leads to each additional decision making the situation worse? This has been driving me nuts for a couple of days...
View Articlecan't live through another flood
For the past two years, my entire house has flooded from the back left of the house due to flash flooding down the hill we live on. I have hired a drainage remediation specialist who recommends (among...
View ArticleBook Filter: Disasters have been good for Japan?
I am librarian and a faculty member at my institution asked me to help him find a book (he read a review of in the past five years) in which one of the central tenets is that naturals disaster have...
View ArticleWhat are the most spectacular business failures of the past 25 years?
I'm working on a short piece about how "____ should be run more like a business" arguments are... ill-founded, to put it charitably, and hoping to broaden my scope of business disasters, especially...
View ArticleColloquial expressions for chaotic or poorly-run situations
When something goes horribly wrong, what do you call it? I'm after colloquial expressions for chaotic, disastrous, or poorly-run situations—in the style of the 'goat rodeo', 'clown show', clusterf*ck...
View ArticleActual numbers for probabilities of adverse health events (in life)
Is there some kind of public record / database showing the probabilities of things like broken legs, severe depression, and/or having one's car totaled/house burn down/etc? I'm aware that insurance...
View Articlelike a just-add-water human soup packet
I saw this image on Instagram earlier today (direct link if insta is being screwy) and now I'm curious what WOULD actually happen? I can't imagine the astronaut would be totally skeletonized unless...
View ArticleMinimize icestorm disaster?
What can help prevent all the disaster caused by icestorms? I don't own a house yet, but how do I prevent problems that arise from icestorms?
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