Please Send Me Absolutely Free

  Folks are bitterly opposed to all of the new charges on AFF, yet it seems to be a trend affecting all "meet people" apps. Here is a New York Times opinion essay titled   It's Not You: Dating Apps are Getting Worse .  It's a "gift" link so you should be able to read it without being a subscriber. TL,DR if you don't want to read the essay:  Modern dating apps spoiled us for a number of years by allowing users to operate on their app even without subscribing.  This was enabled by low interest rates and lots of venture capital floating around.  In other words, they weren't really making money with that approach but were still able to keep operating because of infusions of cheap capital. Now, increasingly, there are add-on charges.   Some sites segregate the more "desirable" members and one has to pay extra to be able to see and contact those profiles.  Tinder supposedly has rolled out a $500 a month plan. 🤯 That actually isn't all that n

 I'm seeing an increasing number of comments that even Gold members, when trying to view a photo album on someone's profile, are getting prompted to pay $14.99 for the "Voyeur Package" or pay 100 points. It's a bait and switch, as someone commented - why else to do people pay for Gold membership if not to look at pictures?   Seeing as the messaging privileges don't get most men anywhere. It's so outrageous that I almost wonder if it's a programming error - that when they went to add the pop-up for Standards, they added it for everyone. If it's NOT an error, they must really be in dire straits.

  Sometimes on my social media feed I will get delivered a New Yorker cartoon. The other day it was this one: I studied it. The drawings of the grumpy gardening tools were hilarious. But I knew I had to be missing something. I looked in the comments. Several people referred to "WCW". I was still in the dark. So of course I had to google red wheelbarrow. Whaddya know - it's a poem. I confess, poetry isn't my thing. I'm sure if I had been an English major I would have known this. But the cartoon's idea of animate gardening equipment tickled my fancy. I picture mine gradually waking up from a long winter's nap. Getting prematurely excited when I pulled them out to reorganize them and put them into a different spot in the garage (The Great Garage Cleanup of Spring 2024). Never fear my lovelies. Soon. Soon. Next weekend is the gigantic plant sale to benefit the Friends' School of Minnesota. I haven't volunteered for several years - first because of the

 Here we go... Craft report Couple of finished objects, recently. First, the Aveena sweater. I'm happy with how it turned out except for the tiny botched stitch halfway down the right hand sleeve (your left). Second, my mosaic table top. In which I managed to repurpose some of the left over tiles, from the bathroom wall tiles that I rejected. It's funny, the colors looked so puegy up on the bathroom wall, but I think they look pretty on this table top. I'm not completely satisfied with the grout. I just smoothed it with my hands. It probably would have been better if I had an actual leveling tool, and a sturdier sponge. But all in all I'm happy and maybe I'll even end up doing a mosaic on the bottom tray of the coffee table, too. Not Crafts I went with two of my besties to see Robyn Hitchcock last night. I first got to like him when a long ago boyfriend introduced me to Fegmania and Gotta Let This Hen Out. He also was in a band called the Soft Boys that had some dis