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This is my favourite news item of the day. Warning: it is horrifying. /hilarious.

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Headline: Austria rejects asylum-seeker's 'gay' claim.*

Immigration officials in Austria have come under scrutiny after they reportedly rejected a gay asylum-seeker because he did not walk or dress "like a homosexual."

The unnamed 18-year-old claimed he faced persecution in his native Afghanistan because of his sexuality.

But asylum officials dismissed the claim because he did not conform to gay stereotypes, according to details leaked to Austria's 'Falter' magazine.

"Neither your gait, your posture, nor your dress sense even come close to suggesting you are homosexual," the asylum office in Wiener Neustadt allegedly stated in a rejection letter.

The official in charge of the case also said the man had "too few friends" to be gay. "Aren't homosexuals supposed to be more sociable?" he wrote.

He also said the asylum seeker had a "tendency to aggression you would not expect in a homosexual" as he had argued with other residents at a shelter.

The letter also dismissed the Afghan teenager's claim he had kissed other youths who were not homosexual as "utter nonsense." The letter read: "If you had actually done this with a non-homosexual, you would have received a serious beating.

"You are not homosexual and therefore have nothing to fear when you return to Afghanistan," the letter concluded.

Austria's interior ministry said the leaked details "did not reflect the wider reality." The Afghan teenager has appealed against the decision.

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* Austria did no such thing. One person in Austria did, but for the purposes of many sub-editors one per country is enough, it seems.


I just want to know what the official making the decision thinks proper homosexuals look like. In fact I think he or she should be made to give public presentation, with pictures. Just so we all know how to tell in future.
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ah ha, CM
winner winner

me thinks it is to use your right arm to fend off any foes - French, Viking or otherwise
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I've always assumed it was to annoy the French, our traditional pastime for at least a thousand years. But I expect it's something boring and sensible like which hand you used for the horses' reins while maintaining your line of sight for oncoming traffic. The Japanese drive on the left, too, mind. Presumably for them it was a matter of being able to wield swords more easily.

Speaking of swords - that definitely IS the reason why spiral staircases wind anticlockwise going up. When you built your castle you had an eye to defence, and if the attacker is coming up the pillars are in the way of his sword arm, whereas you're going down and free to hack away as hard as you like. Which is such a comfort in these dangerous times.
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No, not quite what we're looking for, Send

there's an historical common sense reason for why the British drive on the left side of the road
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Hope your jitterbug has a silencer, Send
then it will just vibrate in your drawer 😜
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Because "hundreds of them" are driving the wrong way?
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At my wits end, the end of my rope, wanting to fly outta here on my jet broom last night after taking the very last "caregiving call". So I tucked the cell phone away in the top drawer of my dresser all night. That will quiet it!
After a good nights sleep, I was feeling better.
What in the world is that very loud ringing? Whos phone is that? I know that mine doesn't even ring that loud, ever,!
Finding it in my drawer was easy since it was so loud!!

It was funny to me, but not t h at funny.

Storing the cell phone in the drawer from now on so I can hear it, Lol.
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A British tourist was driving down the freeway when his wife called his cell phone.

"Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Route 280. Please be careful!"

"It's not just one car," said Herman, "It's hundreds of them!"
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Trivia question

Why do the British drive on the left side of the road ?

-CM and Veronica can be judges of the best answer
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From My Cousin Vinny Marisa Tomei asking Joe Pesci if the deer he is about to shoot who is taking a sip of water from a brook really cares if his pants are made of leather.
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Me too! Couldn't bear my usual daily route with no dog, but the silver lining was that it did make me drag my bike out from under its dust sheets.

I am not the girl I was, but I have rediscovered my quadriceps - they're the achy bits just above my knees.

I have a proper sit-up bike with a bell and a basket, like Dorothy's nemesis. I might even get myself a pointy hat to go with it.
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There is an ongoing debate about bicyclists sharing the roads, in many towns. The bicyclists are pro-active, and are not always the victims of being run off the roads. Angry, yes.
Entitled, yes.
Some are not.
One is my very favorite person.
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I would now like to apologize to any and all Vancouverites for my brother's new cycling addiction.

He was always an angry, holier-than-thou prat like that. Nothing to do with the cycling.
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Send, we have some serious bikers here in Vancouver. They are always very skinny and angry looking. That's probably why building bike lanes here in the city has become such a big topic on the news. Hell, I think there are more bike lanes than regular streets here now.

Our present mayor is retiring after this term. Probably getting too many threats from angry spandex-clad Lance Armstrong wannabes! :)
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Lol Gershun.
I enjoyed that way too much. Guess I do kinda want to poke fun.
Spandex clad Lance Armstrong wannabes, lol lol.
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cwillie, as a fellow Canadian you are probably familiar with Stanley Park here in Vancouver. Occasionally Hubs and I would bike around the seawall until we realized that these spandex clad bikers liked to whip around the seawall like their lives depended on it yelling loudly "TO YOUR LEFT!!" If you didn't move out of their way on time you might be on your way to St Paul's hospital before you knew what hit you.

I don't know why these Lance Armstrong wannabes can't just leave the seawall to us weekend bikers and stay on the shoulder of the highways or something.
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I hear you Cwillie. Take a quirky dresser with aspergers, add spandex, and what have you got? I have got pictures. Ones that I take so he can be found when lost.
Has anyone ever been asked, when your dH comes up m i s s i n g :
W h a t. w a s. h e. w e a r i n g ? Answer: indescribable, here is a photo.

This is not to be making fun of him.
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There was a bike club somewhere near where I used to live, I jokingly called all those spandex clad people on the roads "professional bikers" (as opposed to the amateur ones like me who do well to make it the mile across town and back).
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Do you have a bike-riding club in town, Cwillie?
Hubs is safely riding 50 miles now, with 15-30+ bicycle enthusiasts on a regular basis. He wears an outfit, just like in the Tour de France. It is amazing to see that many bikes stream by, as if they are in sync. There is a yearly Amgen tour coming through our town, quite an event to watch.
In dh's club, they ride at all levels of skill, and wait up for others to catch up.
At the end, they socialize, go for coffee.
Quite a sport, he loves it. His balance is better, arthritis is improved.
It can get expensive, just like other sports, like golf.

The other day, he was making an appointment at the bike shop to get measured for a "bike fit", costing $80. To fund this, he was going to return the bike tires we recently bought (he needs them).

O v e r. m y. d e a d. b o d y .
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OK, so I really love my bike. Some of you may remember that last year I discovered that you really can forget how to ride a bike but I persevered and now I'm riding almost every day, I've even become brave enough to tackle riding on the (quiet) streets in my town. I gave up running because the pain wasn't worth it but I can get that same feeling of the wind in my hair on my bike, and mom's NH is just a 5 minute ride away.
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Singing:
When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I?m feeling blue....
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad.
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Everything is still there for us to read Luckylu, you just can't comment anymore. If you look through the Popular Discussions topics you will notice some that are obviously not used anymore (one started by Captain is "Failures and accomplishments today"), go to one of them and check it out.
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Thanks for explaining cwillie and Send.I understand.
Do you think we will be able to look at the archives though if we want to?
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Well said CWillie. I was often mistakenly duped into posting an answer on a thread as far back as 2012! It was embarrassing. Then, I always checked.

Luckylu, does that better explain the why?
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Many of us commented on people tacking new comments at the end of threads that hadn't had a comment for months or years and asked that they be archived. In some cases the issue had been resolved or the people involved had died or moved on so new comments were not welcome, in other cases newbies would tack on a question that wasn't seen by anyone but the few who checked to see why an old thread had been revived. Even some popular topics tend to fade away over time, it often makes more sense to start a new thread than to revive an old one.
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Well, I could be wrong Lu, but in response to complaints about older threads popping up long after the question was answered, and new posters starting to post answers there, the forum moderators I believe announced that threads older than 90 days WITHOUT A COMMENT would be archived.

Since I don't know the real reason, I am just speculating in order to answer you.
As "old timers", we can post on all our favorite threads to keep them active, imo.

Maybe the ACCM has suggestions to get some beloved threads/questions back to active. There are some grief threads that are excellent, that people would not ordinarily be posting on, but maybe only once after the loss of a loved one. The history from those who have gone before you is invaluable imo and can help a new poster grieve.

There may be a difference between a question or a discussion, but I cannot fathom if there is a difference just yet.

Take heart Lu, the moderators are on our side because they too want to help our elderly and their caregivers. Almost e v e r y o n e. has a Mom.

As a member caregiver and not a moderator, I suggest we post the title of our favorite lost threads right here, on MY FAVORITE THINGS, making the moderator's jobs easier if they decide to reinstate some archived threads.

An example would be:
"LOVE NOTES FROM CARGIVERS WHO HAVE LOST A LOVED ONE".
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Why Send? This is such a wonderful thread to just sit and read and list some favorite things when you want to.
Why will it just be archived after 180 days I wonder...?
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This is one of my favorite threads.
I think the threads will be archived after 180 days without a post or comment.
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The Viking loves apricots

Such a short season but I got her couple at the store as farmers market didn't have any
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It's the lil' old lady from Pasadena
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