The Lounge's "Random Questions That Don't Need Their Own Thread" Thread

[Hyperspace Industries]

Why do people like the taste of coffee and tea? Is it just me, or is that bitter taste just horrible?

Is it because of the caffeine, like how people can stand alcohol after starting to drink it, or what?

[kerbiloid]

As an experienced gourmet _{actually, not a gourmet} of Soviet origin, I would suppose that caffeine doesn't play a role, and the reason is that they aren't as sweet and fragrant as compote, cola, and other dessert beverages.

That's based on the fact that in Soviet schoolhood we were drinking a couple of sorts of Caucasus "tea", and a "instant coffee beverage" (mostly consisting of fried barley and chicory rather than coffee), and they were... in strained relations with the caffeine presence.

Actually, they were the most natural and healthy beverages everm as I'm reading in the internet now, lol.
So, the modern pampered bourgeois bloggers are paying dollars for same boiled grass which any Soviet pupil was drinking for kopecks, and post the photos  of their veg experience, lol2.

The alternatives were a fruit compote and tea with jam, and I was preferring the tea and "coffee" exactly for their neutral taste, not for the absent caffeine.

In post-Soviet studenthood the situation changed. The campus canteen lacked tea, but was full of "coffee", worse that the Soviet one, and fruit compotes.
I was still preferring the "coffee" again for its non-sweet, non--fruity, neutral taste. And I doubt that the word "caffeine" was ever be put near that coffee. And the compote in the diner because they had only it.

Later the tea and the coffee got better and more caffeinous, so their choice was obvious.
But in the airport diner I was always taking the compote just because it was much cheaper than the overpriced tea and coffee (obviously used as a clickbait for the passengers, together with cakes).

So, I believe the fruitless neutrality and controllable sweetness are the reason to prefer tea and coffee, and the caffeine is significant for sleepy students and office staff.

On the other hand, any tea (even the most expensive) is an untasty boiled grass for me, as well as any coffee (which is untasty burned acorns), so the sugar is necessary to make that untasty swill edible, and I believe that those who don't put sugar in tea or coffee are just showing off or have a distorted sense of taste expressing a toxic masculinity.

Edited August 16, 2022 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 hour ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

Why do people like the taste of coffee and tea? Is it just me, or is that bitter taste just horrible?

Is it because of the caffeine, like how people can stand alcohol after starting to drink it, or what?

I love coffee. 

Coffee.  The black stuff.  Not some sugared up milk-confection... Coffee. 

I also like dark chocolate and tobacco. 

A box of cookies is safe from me.  Cake?  Can last long enough to go stale.  Salty snacks?  They are MINE! 

Whiskey.  Good whiskey.  Not the sweet stuff.  I like complex flavors.  I like the peaty scotch and the flavorfull Speyside single malt.  Craft beers with hops.  Never the sweet crap Millennials concocted by adding fruit or cactus or some nonsense to the batch - real, traditional IPAs, bitters, dunkles, stouts, porters and other stuff made from roasted grain berries. 

... 

So tell me: why do people like sweet stuff?  Sodas, gooey candies, sugared confections and milk chocolate?  Is it because of the sugar and chemicals? 

[Hyperspace Industries]

Just now, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I love coffee. 

Coffee.  The black stuff.  Not some sugared up milk-confection... Coffee. 

I also like dark chocolate and tobacco. 

A box of cookies is safe from me.  Cake?  Can last long enough to go stale.  Salty snacks?  They are MINE! 

Whiskey.  Good whiskey.  Not the sweet stuff.  I like complex flavors.  I like the peaty scotch and the flavorfull Speyside single malt.  Craft beers with hops.  Never the sweet crap Millennials concocted by adding fruit or cactus or some nonsense to the batch - real, traditional IPAs, bitters, dunkles, stouts, porters and other stuff made from roasted grain berries. 

... 

So tell me: why do people like sweet stuff?  Sodas, gooey candies, sugared confections and milk chocolate?  Is it because of the sugar and chemicals? 

So it’s personal taste then.

Should have thought of that earlier.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

gourmet _{actually, not a gourmet} of Soviet origin,

This turn of phrase intrigued me... so I ended up down another rabbit hole.  Does this ring at all true?

 

Quote

 

So, what is dining Communist-style? 

‘Medicinal’ could be one word, with names such as Doktorskaya kolbasa (Doctor’s sausage); ‘pretentious’ could be another, with Muzhskoy Ideal (Men’s Ideal) for a cake. What was an amalgamation of various national cuisines of the constituent republics (Uzbek plov, Georgian Kharcho, Ukrainian Borscht) was mixed with the imperial Russian (Beef Stroganoff/Stroganov) and peasant food (Solyanka), as well as Austria-Hungarian (Goulash) and French influences (Cutlet). 

Yet all of this had an ideological foundation: The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food (1939), the communist manifesto of diet and lifestyle, compiled by none other than Nutrition scientists at the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, and spearheaded by Anastas Mikoyan, the grandee of the Politburo, diplomat, then commissar of food, and the godfather of ice-cream and popcorn in the USSR. By the time I was old enough to remember, every Soviet (Armenian) household had a copy of this hardback, complete with advice on how to set the dinner table.

Later, constituent republics acquired their own, localised versions, and upon Mikoyan’s initiative, Armenian Cuisine also came out in 1960. My mother’s dog-eared copy is in Armenian – one of only 60,000 out of 350,000 (the rest in Russian). Though a family heirloom, I do not suppose that people still living in the former Soviet space would rush to consult or re-vitalise this book. Meanwhile, its many editions are gathering dust in countless apartments even if waiting to shake off dust too – of history, of associations, or baggage.

In our family, we continue to make the salads Olivier (known as ‘Russian’) though we are trying to move away from Soviet quantities of sour cream or mayonnaise used.

 

Communist Cuisine? Up To You, Comrade! — Armenian Institute

 

 

[kerbiloid]

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

‘Medicinal’ could be one word, with names such as Doktorskaya kolbasa (Doctor’s sausage)

The name from early XX, when the sort of boiled sausage made out of cheap but nutritious meat ingredients was used to feed up the distrophic people.
After 1960s just a traditional name of one of them with no meaning.

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Muzhskoy Ideal (Men’s Ideal)

An impossible name in Soviet time for anything but a men's perfume or jewelry (watches, ties, tie pins, etc.)

(Maybe some local joke for this sort of sausage, as it is the smallest between the boiled ones, about 6..7 cm in diameter, )

But a cake - "Men's"??? An absolute nonsense or some local Armenian dish. 
The cakes had other childish or celebration names.

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

What was an amalgamation of various national cuisines of the constituent republics (Uzbek plov, Georgian Kharcho, Ukrainian Borscht) was mixed with the imperial Russian (Beef Stroganoff/Stroganov) and peasant food (Solyanka), as well as Austria-Hungarian (Goulash) and French influences (Cutlet). 

The ethnically Russian cuisine is poor, due to the climate, so the nationally Russian cuisine is absolutely inclusive and makes no difference of the meal origin, just adapts it to the ingredients widely available since the XVIII century.
Usually simplifying and avoiding too spicy spices which the Southern peoples love.

Some aristocrate hired a cook, the cook cooked the meal, it became popular among the aristocratic company, then in restaurants. Then the diner cooks adapted the recipe, and it became national.
The Beef Stroganov is an example,

Also, mutton/lamb is not popular among the Slavs (too smelly and the fat quickly gets frozen and inedible), so a in the Southern meals the mutton is usually replaced with pork or chicken.
For example, in plov (mutton→chicken) or shashlyk (mutton→pork).

The dish origins are well-known, and nobody cares.

***

The borscht (holywar!!!) is not just Ukrainian there are Ukrainian and Russian ones, differing a little in used vegetables. Actually, it's the cook's borscht.
Originally all East Slavs had shchi/shti (a soup with cabbage). The southern East Slavs were probably adding the beet.
When tomatoes came to Europe, they were started adding them to shchi, so appeared the borscht (a soup with cabbage, tomato, and usually (but not always) beet), that's all.
Obviously the Ukrainian population started doing this a bit earlier, because they were living closer to the tomato source and had warmer climate to grow them,

Since 1654 Ukraine became a part of Russian Empire, and a little later the steppe regions up to Caucasus and Caspian Sea did.
The former steppe regions were turned into plowland and populated by millions of peasants from everywhere, so the (North) Russians and Ukrainians had been mixed there (back again) into the (South) Russians, which eat the Russian borscht, and so do all Russians, just to the North they still like the shchi which to the South they don't eat eat because a lot of tomatoes, so why not put them.

Yes South Russians include a lot of people of Ukrainian origin (which in turn are a part of descendants of the South branch of East Slavs, as most part of Russians are).
No, they don't mind themselves as "Ukrainians", even when have some traces of that local pronunciation.
They mind themselves as Russians, and their borscht as theirs. When they mention "Ukrainian borscht", they mean that exact local recipe, opposing to just "borscht".

***

Plov is of Uzbek origin (formerly there was no rice in Russia), but again, the Russian "plov" by defaut has little common with the original one, except boiled rice.
Also proper Uzbeks eat plov with fingers (a part of ritual), while the Russians with fork (because just boiled rice with chicken and a little of species).

Kharcho is Georgian, and is well-known, but not as popular as borscht. For spicy food lovers.

Solyanka (formerly Selyanka, i.e. "village food") is originally just a soup of boiled everything in one pot, later became a specific recipe to let the cooks look wise.

Goulash is from somewhere on South, probably of Romanian of Hungarian origin (its name), but has little common with the original recipe.

Cutlets are of aristocratic origin from XVIII, and have little common with anything French, but the name.

 

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Anastas Mikoyan, the grandee of the Politburo, diplomat, then commissar of food,

Brought the American-style fastfood and diners to replace the obsolete style of XIX with the "modern culture style".

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food (1939), the communist manifesto of diet and lifestyle, compiled by none other than Nutrition scientists at the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, <...>
By the time I was old enough to remember, every Soviet (Armenian) household had a copy of this hardback, complete with advice on how to set the dinner table.

Yes, a must-have. Just a big cookbook with colored photos of usual and unusual food and a lot of recipes.

The ideological part is not bigger than in others.
If mean that not everyone could afford to cook that, then not exactly.
It's a book for middle class, from lower to upper.  It was  normal to hire a home servant for Soviet mid managers and mid engineers till 1950s (because most part of population was rural, so a woman servant from village was cheap), and there were restaurants for those who had enough money.
So, the reaction of a person on this book is a detector of his grannies social origin.

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Later, constituent republics acquired their own, localised versions, and upon Mikoyan’s initiative, Armenian Cuisine also came out in 1960. My mother’s dog-eared copy is in Armenian – one of only 60,000 out of 350,000 (the rest in Russian).

Probably. The Caucasus cuisine was always rather different and too spicy, so it's for local peoples and tourists (a part of Southern exotics).

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Though a family heirloom, I do not suppose that people still living in the former Soviet space would rush to consult or re-vitalise this book.

There are just a lot of other books and internet recipes. But the book itself is good.

Unlikely it's somewhat different from the American young homewife books of that time, and probably was adapted from them.

3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

In our family, we continue to make the salads Olivier (known as ‘Russian’) though we are trying to move away from Soviet quantities of sour cream or mayonnaise used.

Can't imagine. Without mayonnaise it's just bland.

Edited August 16, 2022 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

14 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Gud Stuf

Thanks for this!

Although...

15 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

 Without mayonnaise it's just bland.

...my wife would be horrified.

[benzman]

Different people have different tastes.  I like coffee but tea does nothing for me.  Many of my female friends like green tea whereas to me it is just dirty water.

[Superluminal Gremlin]

Who has the lego model of the Saturn 5

[razark]

[TheSaint]

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Does this count?

[razark]

6 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Does this count?

...

There's a park in the area that has one of those.  I've never seen another one like it.

The rest of the playground equipment was removed long ago, and it's been closed off, but it is still there.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

4 minutes ago, razark said:

There's a park in the area that has one of those.  I've never seen another one like it.

The rest of the playground equipment was removed long ago, and it's been closed off, but it is still there.

The city removed all that years ago, saying it was old and scary - replacing it with the bland, generic and unfun stuff of today.  The community revolt surprisingly worked.  They brought it back (hence the plaque). 

I played on it as a kid - and my kids have enjoyed the fear of being 4 stories up in a rickety rocket that sways in the wind! 

https://savingplaces.org/stories/imaginations-lift-los-arboles-rocketship-park#.YvzfwaQpAwA

 

[TheSaint]

10 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Does this count?

We had one of those at Verdugo Park in Glendale when I was growing up. Loved playing on that thing.

[AlamoVampire]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:02 PM, TKMK said:

Who has the lego model of the Saturn 5

Saturn V, 2 of the Apollo 11 sets, ISS and Shuttle Discovery (which I need to finish lol).

 

ok, now, a question for those who are trained in tech stuff. Im playing MSFS 2020 and loving it, but ive noticed something this session and last. Im getting odd audio pops with sudden freezes that last 10-20 seconds. These symptoms are intermittent with no known way of duplication beyond random chance. My rig was purpose built for DCS World and MSFS2020 by my now (RIP) deceased friend and he massively over built it. This is my question (and suspicion but want as many 2nd opinions as are willing to come) this: my headset cable has been in use on this pc since it was built in late 2019. Could its age be causing this?

These symptoms just suddenly began the other day and before that ive managed 35 hours of sim time w/out these symptoms.
 

Only recent change made was the August 11 AIRAC (Aeronautical information regulation and control) cycle update and update to my PMDG737 to reflect the current AIRAC cycle but I got 3-4 sectors of 2.4-2.6 hours each prior to symptoms showing.

so thoughts? Im thinking the cable is somehow linked…

014908182022

edit: the audio pops are more frequent than the freezes. Both are not overly frequent but the pops are more frequent than the freezes.

015308182022

edit: also i noticed my headset (logitech g633) cycling on/off on my pc. Its wired. Does NOT do that on my ps5 (new cable for headset to ps5. Its a 7-8foot cable so its way too long for pc which has a 3.5-4foot cable from 2019). Forgot to put this info in the op and its why im suspecting the cable…

024108182022

Edited August 18, 2022 by AlamoVampire

[AlamoVampire]

Update to my sound popping and freezing issue. Im flying a sector right now, KLAX to KDFW and am about 45 minutes in. Ive been running a timer and as I type its been 33 minutes since I thought to turn it on. I have a new cable for my headset. Im hearing pops but I think its my headset and me creaking. In the last 34 minutes now, no audio abnormalities to be heard other than my ai FO being silent. I hear ATC (this is a non vatsim flight to prove out my theory about my cable. Im estimated wheels down on the deck at 0824Zulu in KDFW. I will know more by then and will update accordingly. But tentatively 36 minutes into testing its looking good. Knock on wood.

013208212022

UPDATE Conclusion: And now, after 2 hours 48 minutes and 32 seconds of flight time <at least thats what my flight log in my profile on MSFS2020 tells me for that flight> I think it is now officially safe to say that my usb cable that was in service from late 2019 until just a few days ago was the likely source of the audio popping with the odd lag freezes I was experiencing. I say this not being a tech guy and only from referencing personal experience with what the good ol interwebs gargler has told me about what can happen as a cable reaches end of life. SO, I am pleased with this outcome, and with having logged another sector and nearly 3 more hours of flight time. Over all: Win  Thus concludes my update and this minor saga. 

034808212022

Edited August 21, 2022 by AlamoVampire

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

Are there people buying stuff from anything other than big companies? (Such as Samsung, Sony, Etc.)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

13 minutes ago, Aerodynamic Kerbal said:

Are there people buying stuff from anything other than big companies? (Such as Samsung, Sony, Etc.)

Guess it depends on the 'stuff'.  I had to buy a new dishwasher recently and wasn't interested in getting an off brand from the scratch and dent like I used to in my early days.  Going for a mid-top end appliance, it made sense to look at the leading brands (got an LG, and it was worth it). 

OTOH I used to really enjoy having an HTC phone back when everyone else was getting Apples and Samsungs. 

But - again, it depends on the product.  It's not like I can go to my local dealership and get a local car brand - but I sure as heck can buy a locally brewed beer! 

[StrandedonEarth]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

but I sure as heck can buy a locally brewed beer! 

I can get a microbrew 3km to the west, or a major brand (Molson) brewed 4km to the north

[kerbiloid]

From time to time I'm marking, cutting, rolling, and hammering in the local tinsmith workshop. People buy.

Edited August 31, 2022 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

On 8/31/2022 at 7:02 PM, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Guess it depends on the 'stuff'.

As well as on 'big', @Aerodynamic Kerbal. Do, say, store brands count if they're of a nationwide supermarket chain that you haven't heard of?

That, and online classifieds muddy the waters further. Such as, say, when we sell something made in Czechoslovakia or the GDR (and that has happened, one of my blankets is way older than me).

Edited September 1, 2022 by DDE

[DDE]

Why is there such a common form-factor of single-floor supermarkets/hypermarkets that are sized as hangars with ceilings that are at least 5 m high? It just feels like a waste of space.

[kerbiloid]

Because humans smell. U need a lot of air.

[SunlitZelkova]

On 9/15/2022 at 6:20 AM, DDE said:

Why is there such a common form-factor of single-floor supermarkets/hypermarkets that are sized as hangars with ceilings that are at least 5 m high? It just feels like a waste of space.

To cut back on noise, regulate temperature, and make space for stacking inventory. It also leaves room for hanging signs from the ceilings with ads and directions to the other aisles.

It supposedly also comes with a bonus psychological effect: if you are in an open space you think more creatively, so instead of being in a tiny hallway-like room you just want to get out of after getting your needed stuff, your mind connects the open ceiling to an open area in your home and starts making connections involving the expensive patio furniture set on display.