DanZemke

I'm 75 an single. Kirk - the current results show zero for the 80 or more category. Did you forget to "vote"? ;-) Also, clarification please. For couples with a single forum ID, whose ages fall in different categories (like Danfreda1): should they use the age of the most active participant, or the average age of the two?

Impressive! A biochemist my ex-wife's neighbor knew, is rumored to be working on an 8 barrel carburetor with pure cannabis injection. Expectations are very high.

Nice compliment! She may even decide to keep you. :-)

Mark, Yeah, it drifted. I notice that you posted your question twice on Jan 8th. The other thread is at: South Dakota, PMBs and Bank Accounts, Oh My! Both threads seem to have run their course.

Me too. But I don't like reading part of an article and then being surprised that the rest is unavailable. So I block sites, that use links to articles, as one of their subscription marketing tactics. My time is not free.

Kirk, I clearly failed to convey what I meant to. My example was trying to show how to easily prevent ANY access to the WSJ. Before my fix, If I started reading a WSJ article, I'd get a pop-up message saying: if you want to read the rest of the article, you must subscribe. I prefer going to another source quickly, rather than reading part of a teaser first. WSJ is just an example. I have many sites I never want to visit in my "hosts" file. Almost all of them are there because the site is behind a paywall.

Kirk, You're right. I did use the words in the link you posted to search for related information. ------------ Long ago, I tired of clicking on search results that repeatedly turned into advertisements to subscribe, like the WSJ's. So I began using a low-level fix - editing a file on my computer named "hosts". I use Windows, but all OSes that access the internet have this capability. Here's my entry in that file for the WSJ: "127.0.0.1 wsj.com # Unsubscribed - 4x cost of NYT and 8x WaPo" The 127.0.0.1 is the address of a simulated DNS server, that does nothing but return a message indicating that the URL doesn't exist. "wsj.com" is the URL you want to block. And every thing to the right of the "#" is a comment. ------------------------------- Because of this, when I click on a link to the WSJ, I get: "Unable to connect An error occurred during a connection to www.wsj.com. The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments. If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network connection. If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the web." ------------------------------- I edit my "hosts" file by hand, but it's a bit cumbersome to do it this way. If you're not a techie and want to do something like this, you should probably use a utility. Here's a few from a well-respected tech site. But I haven't tried any of the utilities they suggest.

Here's a Reuters link without a paywall. It's from Nov 2023 and may be unrelated to Kirk's WSJ link. US regulators push Wells Fargo to improve financial crime monitoring - WSJ

I also have a Chase account. I opened it to get 5% off on my Amazon purchases. The size of Federal fines, for financial institutions, is poorly correlated with retail banking customer satisfaction. IMO, it's not a useful factor in determining where folks like us, should do our banking.

And Well's Fargo's bad behavior wasn't limited to just 2023. From Wikipedia: "On February 2, 2018, the Wells Fargo account fraud scandal resulted in the Federal Reserve barring Wells Fargo from growing its nearly $2 trillion asset base any further until the company fixed its internal problems to the satisfaction of the Federal Reserve. In September 2021, Wells Fargo incurred further fines from the United States Justice Department charging fraudulent behavior by the bank against foreign-exchange currency trading customers. Bloomberg L.P. reported in March 2022 that Wells Fargo was the only major lender in 2020 to reject more home refinance applications from Black applicants than it approved." I will never be a Wells Fargo customer again. I paid off my mortgage early and closed my checking account and credit cards. WF - never again for me.

Seems to be an increasing number of folks having a problem with financial institutions and mail services. Is it just a spike, or will things get worse? I have no idea. I'm protected from this as are many others, but I don't recall anyone pointing out why we won't be hassled. It's because I'm a member of an Escapees Co-op: Evergreen in Washington. I have a mailing address, similar to someone living in an apartment. A real contact address that the Post Office won't flag as a mailing forwarding service. This was an unanticipated benefit for me.

You're welcome !

A good life includes balanced karma. Perhaps your good looks and superior skills provide that balance. :-)

I've never heard of "Tatties and Neeps"! I had to look them up to understand. But I don't like cabbage, so they're probably not for me. I do like cilantro, especially in salsa. No soapy taste for me! However, my pee smells bad, after eating asparagus. And the ability to smell that is genetic. Must be correlated with intellect https://www.medicinenet.com/do_all_peoples_pee_smell_after_eating_asparagus/article.htm

Some what? :-( Hopefully you can do better. Please do.