What is the matter with folks here?

Not only is Santa white, the whole dang holiday is:

I'm kinda surprised nobody seems to have caught that reference putting the Kennedy-Kruschev relationship into an observation of how long ago that was.

Yes, folks, science has conquered Peyronie's disease.

How'd you like to be the guy THAT one was named after, eh?

Sounds like an Italian menu item, "I'll just have the Peyronie's today."

http://www.businessinsider.com/xiaflex-treats-bent-penis-from-peyronies-disease-2013-12

There's Now A Drug To Fix A Bent Penis

The FDA just released an announcement that might make you blush.

They've approved the use of a drug called Xiaflex to treat curved penises.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/xiaflex-treats-bent-penis-from-peyronies-disease-2013-12#ixzz2mjimhEbL

My first account, which I started back in October, never managed to get out of "pending verification" limbo, so I started a second account last night. Took about 20 minutes, worked like a charm. I can definitely see why there are reports of "large numbers of accounts, much fewer enrollments" since, given the various options, we are definitely going to take some time to decide.

Overall, it looks like my spouse and I will be paying a little bit more than the estimate we got from the healthsherpa.com tool, which suggested we'd be paying less than we are now. We currently pay a combined total of around 1K a month for separate policies from different companies due to quirks in eligibility for various policies the last time we shopped for insurance (we are self-employed). So, I can see where the lack of finer age categories for healthsherpa.com can produce inaccurate results.

That said, both of our current policies are shot through with exclusions due to the fact that we both went for stints without any health insurance before buying what we could a couple of years ago. So, on balance, while we are going to go from around 1K a month to around 1.3K a month, what we will be getting for our money will be coverage that is a boatload better than what we already have. But to make a final decision, we have to do some thinking about what we want to trade off in terms of deductibles, co-pays, prescription benefits and so on. That's a much better situation than where we were before which was, "can we get anything at all".

But, as far as the website issues go, it worked like a charm. Coincidentally, though, today I got a call back from my support inquiry of a couple of weeks ago about the first account I had opened, and told them that it didn't matter anymore. So it also looks as if they are catching up on the backlog of support issues with older accounts.

Damn you Ben Franklin! I KNEW the patent system would never work!

Here's what I don't get....

Chancellor Merkel called President Obama on the telephone to request that he not listen to her telephone calls.

Why didn't he say "Okay" and hang up the phone?

In point of fact, the US has not been tapping her phone.

They've been picking up her conversations by concealed transmitters that were cleverly and surreptitiously installed just below her ears:

CTYankee is busy this week, so I've been put in charge of shaking up the Friday Art Quiz.

This time it's "Jeopardy Style"

I'll post the answers, and you have to post the pictures!


Ready?

#1 - Oh, I've seen that before, but can't remember it

#2 - Definitely Not Caravaggio

#3 - It looks like something in the Sistine Chapel, but instead it's from somewhere you never heard of.

#4 - The Dutch Guy!

#5 - Wasn't that one stolen from somewhere in Norway?

#6 - I'm pretty sure its a Mucha, but it might not be.

As noted in earlier threads, there was a woman who took the podium during the vote, started yelling something, and was removed from the House chamber.

She was apparently an actual House stenographer, and not an infiltrator. Reports from Twitter suggest she started ranting on about Jesus, Masons, and the House doing the work of the devil.

Everyone please check to see if your spelunking buddy is safely out, or we'll have to send in a search party.