Honestly, I used to think our book club picking 'The Overstory' was a bad call

Tbh, our whole meeting in the back of the Boulder Book Store last Tuesday fell apart because half of us hadn't finished it. I was ready to call it a failed pick, but then my friend Jane made a point about just talking about the first 100 pages we all read, and it turned into this great talk about trees. Has your club ever saved a night by changing the plan like that?

Saw a hawk take a bird at my feeder last Tuesday, really shook me up

Honestly, it was just a normal morning here in Tacoma. I was having coffee and watching the usual crew, finches and chickadees, at my tube feeder. Out of nowhere, this sharp-shinned hawk just dove right into the middle of them. It happened so fast, maybe three seconds total. One minute there's a bunch of birds, the next there's just a few feathers floating down. I've seen hawks around before, but never right on top of the feeder like that. It's made me rethink having the feeder so out in the open, with no cover close by. I feel bad, like I set up a buffet for a predator. Has anyone else had this happen and found a good way to give the little birds more of a fighting chance?

Rant: I thought those glowing reviews for a $20 phone case were all fake

I needed a new case for my phone last month and saw one with hundreds of five star reviews. I figured they were all paid for or bots. I bought it anyway because it was cheap. The thing has survived two drops on concrete already, no cracks at all. Has anyone else been totally wrong about a product because of review bias?

Heating a piece in my old propane forge versus the new coal one I built last month, the difference in weld quality is huge.

My neighbor in Phoenix said the moon landing was a 'good TV show' and it threw me

We were just talking about the heat last July when he brought it up out of the blue. He said, 'They did a real good job with the sets and cameras for a TV show back then.' I asked what he meant, and he just shrugged and said it was obvious if you looked at the shadows. I didn't know what to say, so I changed the subject to his cactus garden. How do you even start to talk to someone who is that sure about something like that?

Bought a fancy airlock system for my crocks and it was a total bust

I spent about $80 on this set of silicone airlocks that promised 'perfect fermentation every time'. In my experience, they just clogged up with kraut brine after a couple days and stopped bubbling, which made me nervous about pressure. I went back to my old simple water airlocks and haven't had a single issue since. Has anyone else had problems with those more complex airlock designs?