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How long can an abandoned house stay habitable?
I’m working on a story involving a ghost, and she needs to have been alone in an abandoned house for a long time before someone moves in. What’s the longest amount of time, realistically, that the house can have been vacant for? It’s ok if the house needs significant rehab.
National WTF Day
According to a bunch of silly websites, today is both National Bagels and Lox Day and National Pizza Pie Day, while tomorrow is both Cream Cheese Brownie Day and Umbrella Day. But like, says who? Where the hell do all these fakey holidays come from?
In Search of Short Horror Collections
What are your very favorite collections of short horror fiction? Multiple authors only, please!
Yes, I'm sure.
Why don't my cheap wired earbuds work in direct sunlight?
Places to write in NYC
Where in NYC can I both use a laptop and eat until 11pm or midnight on a weekday?
Lowest-possible-effort Mediterranean diet?
After a routine blood test came back with various issues (high A/G, high LDL cholesterol), my doctor has asked me to follow a "low LDL cholesterol Mediterranean diet" for two weeks and return for another blood test, as a way of ruling out diet to see if anything else is going on. Upon googling, I found a shitload of time-intensive recipes that I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR over the next week. What is the absolute simplest way to do this?
Forgot PIN, life over
It seems I have absolutely, completely, fundamentally forgotten my laptop PIN (PC). How utterly fucking fucked am I?
Send me your historical gays
Please recommend great queer literature written before 1960. I just read The Haunting of Hill House and it blew my mind.
Online community for queer women
Where do queer women hang out online?
What colors to paint my apartment?
After living here for years, I finally get to choose paint colors for my currently all-white apartment! I am paralyzed with indecision! Please help!
Please diagnose my pepper plants
Can you tell me what is wrong with these pepper plants?
Native NYC seeds for seed bombing?
This year, I'd like to seed-bomb the vacant lot behind my building in NYC (so USDA hardiness zone 7a/7b), and I'd like to use native plants. The soil looks stony and is always full of dandelions in warm weather. What types of seeds should I get, and from where? And when is the best time of year to throw the seed bombs down?
No fairy godmother jokes please (unless it's a REALLY funny one)
After my godmother passed away a few years ago, her daughter found this bone or ivory wand-like object in her house. What is it? (She was active in the Lutheran church, so it may be a religious object.)
Feeling uninformed
What site can be my one-stop shop for national and/or international news (NOT JUST POLITICS)? I have a handful of go-to sites for local news and news in my industry, but I've realized I've seriously fallen down on knowing what's going on nationally in the realm of not-politics (for example, I only found out about Hurricane Barry just now by random chance). But I don't have the patience to juggle half a dozen sources for this sort of thing - I just want one comprehensive site (maybe two) that I can check once or twice a day.
History of the treatment of psychic abilities in science fiction
I read a lot of vintage science fiction, and I've noticed a trend I'd like to explore further. In stories written in or around the 1970s, psychic abilities in humans are often treated as a legitimate scientific possibility based in human biology. In later stories, this isn't the case: the possibility of 'natural' psychic abilities in humans is treated as purely fantastical. I want to know more about when and how these shifts occurred. When and why did writers begin thinking of inherent psychic abilities as scientifically plausible? When and why did this stop?
Post-post-collapse fiction?
I've read plenty of speculative fiction taking place in the years/decades following the collapse of society (for various definitions of "the collapse of society"). I'm looking for recommendations for post-post-collapse fiction, taking place after society has begun to rebuild itself.
Incredible clawhammer banjo playing
I just started taking clawhammer banjo classes, and I'm looking for inspiration. Please send me your favorite clawhammer jams! Any era, any genre, whether technically proficient or paired with a catchy song or in an unusual genre, whatever. I want all the exposure I can get!
Food you don't have to think too much about eating
I'm on two medications that 1. almost eliminate feelings of hunger until after I get home from work and 2. make me slightly queasy. As a result, I keep skipping lunch, which is bad. Recommendations for stuff I can eat?
Verbs for wheelchair use
What is the equivalent of the verb "walk" for wheelchair users?
Practical steps for dog adoption in NYC
I am in NYC and would like to adopt a dog three or four months from now. What are the concrete steps I need to take between now and then to prepare for this?
What plants can survive me?
I've killed most plants I've tried to grow through, frankly, a combination of ignorance and neglect. However I have managed to keep some oxalis triangularis (purple shamrock) thriving over several years indoors, even propagating it through repotting. I'd like to know what other plants I am likely to be able to keep alive on a New York City fire escape (moving them inside during the winter if necessary).
'Browse my movie theaters' - does this exist?
Is there a site or app that will let me browse all showtimes for all movie theaters within only my own selected list of theaters? I'm looking for a one-stop way to browse all NYC indie theaters that accept Moviepass, while excluding non-indie ones and non-Moviepass-accepting ones.
Hosting a large-ish family gathering 101
For this Thanksgiving, which happens to be right before my 30th birthday, I decided to invite my extended family and friends to Thanksgiving at my place in NYC. At this point it looks like it will be me plus 11 or 12 guests, most of whom are coming from out of town. I would love any tips you can give me about 1) being an awesome hostess in this situation and 2) the logistics of preparing Thanksgiving dinner for this many people!
Tracking down a theoretical book
I am looking for a specific edition of a specific book which may or may not actually exist: The 1979 Annual World's Best SF, in hardcover. How can I find out if this book was ever published in hardcover (and, ideally, buy it)?
Bulk clothing donation in NYC
Where in NYC can I donate about eight garbage bags full of women's clothing in the next few days? It must be a place that will accept the whole donation as-is, rather than piecemeal.
Can I stack two mattresses on top of each other?
Currently I have 1) a very annoying creaky ikea bed frame with slats and a mattress, and 2) an older mattress I was planning to get rid of. Could I just use the older mattress as a pseudo-box spring instead, and put it directly on the floor? The solution doesn't need to last for longer than say a year or so.
Looking for a decent women's suit
I am having a hell of a time finding a decent women's suit or matching separates that fit my criteria: pantsuit, less than $300, one button on the jacket, straight legged or tapered but not (freaking) cropped, buyable in person in NYC. Black or grey. Help me out here.
Podcast alarm app?
For some unfathomable reason, I haven't been able to find a single iphone app that will allow me to play a podcast as a wake-up alarm. Surely, SURELY, this incredibly basic functionality must be available SOMEWHERE. Yes I have seen this question, the app marked as 'best answer' no longer exists.
UX design: bubble or nah?
A friend of mine who works in advertising told me I should look into a job in user experience design. It does sound super cool and aligns with a lot of my interests. But I have two questions: is this explosion in interest in UX just a silly trend which will have the bottom fall out of it soon? And if not, do I really need to take a 10-week full-time multi-thousand-dollar course to break into it?
Shimmer nail polish that's ONLY shimmer?
I'm looking for nail polishes which have a completely or nearly transparent base and colored shimmer. I have found very few examples of this type of polish - the only ones I know of/own are e.l.f. Big Bang Blue (no longer being made), which is a totally clear base and mostly blue shimmer, with little flecks of pink/purple in there too - and Sinful Colors Just You Wait, which is a very sheer pink (almost invisible on the nail) with green shimmer.
How important are 'good' running shoes for a beginner?
I want to try Couch to 5K again. Do I really have to spend $100+ on running shoes for this?
How to sell art prints?
I would like to start getting my collage art professionally scanned and sell prints of it online. Where in NYC can I get the pieces scanned, and what site would be best for selling the prints? Possibly relevant deets inside.
Tell me about interventionism
In the run-up to the election, I keep seeing debates about whether various candidates (ok, specifically Clinton) are too interventionist. I would like to read more about the subject of interventionism by America, and the various arguments for and against it.
Future DNA modeling tech?
Is it theoretically possible to design a computer program that can take an organism's DNA and produce a model of that organism, without being given any other information? (It does not need to be possible with current tech, just theoretically possible.) This is, of course, for a story.
What is 'bloatware', why should I care, and how do I fix it?
After some research I have decided to buy this laptop, which has great specs for the price - but multiple reviews (like this one) say that while it's a good computer, it's "full of bloatware, which takes time (or a fresh Windows installation) to clean up." I barely even know what that means, much less how to actually go about doing it.
I've been meaning to ask this question for a couple of years:
What are these strange symbols on my drinking glasses? I bought a set of three identical glasses at a thrift store a while ago, and I've always wondered what they mean. The symbols above and below the crest in the first image look like they could MAYBE be script, but the ones around the sides of the glass look like some kind of arcane magic-type symbols, along the lines of the symbols for star signs. If anyone can explain this, I'll be super grateful!
Help me find my ceiling studs
I want to hang a projector screen from my ceiling, and I can't locate the studs. I have a magnetic stud finder, but it doesn't seem to be picking anything up.
Help me learn more about the history and craft of television
I've always been more of a TV person than a movie person. Now I think I'd like to get more serious with my interest, and really delve into the history and theory of television, both in terms of the shows themselves and the industry behind them. Help me get started with this!
Where to find lawyers for our fellowship?
You are a criminal defense lawyer in the English- or French-speaking world looking for fellowship opportunities abroad. Is there a specific website or mailing list where you'd be likely to look?
Help me kill these things!
There are a bunch of weird little insects in my office. That photo isn't to scale - I'd say they're maybe an eighth of an inch/3 mm long, really tiny, and they like to congregate in little groups underneath various things on my desk. What are they? What do I do about them?
My parents are very perplexed by all this
Tell me about your transition from white collar to blue collar work. Bonus points if you're a woman or in a trade union.
How do I ADHD
So it seems I have ADHD. 1. Yay, this explains so much! 2. Oh geez, what do I do now?
Women's sandals
I want a pair of sandals similar to this or this - flat, made of thin straps of real leather, with an interesting strap design but no other embellishment. For some reason, I can't seem to find them anywhere.
I'm pretty sure this one is unsolvable.
My sister and I are trying to find the name of a Mac shareware or freeware game from the early or mid 90s. It involved going to a spooky hotel and becoming trapped in the hotel room. You had to solve a series of puzzles to escape.
Am I insane?
I am a 27 year old woman with a college degree who works in an office all day. Can I become a carpenter? Should I?
Home pedicure equipment
My sister has requested a pumice stone for her feet for Christmas. I'd like to go a step further and get her all the stuff she'll need to give herself a nice home pedicure. I'm not so interested in polish, I think she has that covered. But any recommendations for equipment/clippers/cleansing goo/foot baths/etc are welcome.
Being your own boss
You work for yourself. How did you get there? What is it like?
Photo management?
I need a photo management system that allows me to tag and search photos, but I'd rather it NOT be web-based. I don't really know what to look for.
No, swing dancing is not what I'm looking for
I don't want to "learn how to dance." I just want to be able to go to dance clubs. Are there classes for this in NYC?
Jaunt me
I'd like to take more weekend trips outside of NYC. I don't drive. Where should I go, and how should I get there?