Four How-Tos

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. Alison Green has some thoughts on what to do about being repeatedly proselytized to while undergoing medical procedures:

The tech is representing the medical practice and the doctor; she's not there to proselytize, and you're not there to be proselytized to. It would be wildly inappropriate under any circumstances, but the fact that she persisted after you asked her to stop makes it even worse.

Tell your doctor what happened. Say it was frequent and persistent, and she didn't stop after you asked her to, and say that you don't come there to be proselytized at.

Some commenters recommend going to professional bodies or regulatory agencies if speaking to the doctor isn't enough. That has merit, but I'd also switch providers after that, if possible.

2. I dislike shoe laces because of how frequently they come undone, and double knots give me the opposite problem. I usually go for loafers or the new type of tennis shoe that doesn't require tying, but the next time I have to deal with laces, I'm trying the Berluti knot, which looks easy to learn, and will both stay tied and be easy to release.

3. If you cook, you might sometimes have to deal with wilted scallions. A MyRecipes post can help with that:

If your scallions do start to wilt and lose that crisp texture, you can shock them back to life. "Soak root ends in cold water for an hour to revive," explains Gunders. (Pro tip? Putting wilted produce in cold water is an easy way to bring a lot of different vegetables and herbs back to life.)

I don't have this problem often, but if you do, the same post also has tips on preventing this altogether.

4. Someone gave me a gift membership to AARP, which caused my junk mail to go from zero to sixty in no time flat.

This induced me to discover that there is a way to cut down on junk mail akin to the National Do Not Call Registry.

I think I'll give that a try.

-- CAV