Making Animals Happy with an Empty Toiletpaper Roll

A bathtub sits unused for a week, and a thirsty spider leaves her erstwhile home in an adjacent corner. I see her and hope she will understand as I extend the cardboard core from a toiletpaper roll. She gets inside and I transport her to the window garden downstairs. After the spider disembarks, the roll makes a great chew toy for a doggie.

I really do think spiders are telepathic sometimes.

Alli

I don't understand the popularity of Alli. Yes, I'm sure there are people who are helped by it; but these same people could be helped by using less cooking oil. Some may say that cooking oil imparts flavor, but I've found that it's mostly a matter of diminishing returns. One teaspoon of oil will flavor a family-sized dish splendidly but two will do little more. Alli doesn't purport to help with anything except expelling undigested fat, supposing that's what you want to do. Frankly, I'd bet most dieters want to keep the fat they eat because they put it in their diet deliberately to meet intake targets for various types of good fats. I know I usually do. Dieters might look for help with portion control, limiting glycemic impact, increasing metabolism, balancing hormones and sensitivity to insulin; and the Alli advertisements say nothing about these things. As far as I can tell it just flushes a little undigested fat for a big price tag. I say go easy on the cooking oil and you won't need or want to flush it. Any reactions out there? Because I know lots of people like Alli. What gives? Please write to Kitty.

Severe Setback

The student loan people gave me a forbearance and I breathed I sigh of relief, feeling that I could afford a modest Christmas celebration. After I sprung for Christmas they sent me a letter saying they were taking it back and I don't qualify for that forbearance after all. It was to be a retroactive one, so that I could come current. Instead they said that my $9 per hour was just too much money for someone to make and still get grace on a student loan. I wish they had told me that in time.

Our government will find a way to ameliorate these loans for people. Back when we borrowed them, the money was easier to come by. Plus, at that time, people had the idea that inflation would overtake their loan rates as they generally had in the then-recent past. After all these mortgage write-downs, student loans should be next.