About Tom Sackett

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• Comment on soundslikepuget's answer…

  0 0 One of the reasons to buy it at Costco is that you can return it any time if it breaks. Just keep the receipt. Tom Sackett commented about 1 month ago

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  What Does "Max A/C" Do that regular doesn't?

  1 0 In many cars it closes off the outside air vents, so the cabin air is recirculated through the air conditioner. If it's 100F outside, you can cool the interior of a hot car more quickly if you start with air that's already been cooled a bit. Tom Sackett answered in Cars & Motorcycles about 1 month ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

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  My coffee doesn't taste like coffee....

  3 0 Is there any chance your water is not hot enough? The optimal range is supposed to be 185F to 205F, but if you are heating the water to the bottom end of that range, it's going to cool down by as much as 20 degrees when you pour it into a room-temperature french press. Buy or borrow an instant-read thermometer and check the temperature of the water before it goes into the press, and after it's sat in the press for a minute. Tom Sackett answered in Coffee & Tea about 1 month ago Answer, comment & read 3 more answers »

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  Tell me about the piano I'm about to inherit and try to learn to play

  1 0 Please take the following advice with a grain of salt. I'm not an experienced piano player, but I've taught myself to play a bit, starting with the same set of goals you describe. If you want to do self-study, I can recommend two books. The first is Alfred's "Adult All-in-One Course". It's really good at teaching basic piano skills in an incremental way, while giving you a sense that you are really playing the piano. The other is Cannel and Marx's "How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make it at Home". It shows you how to play piano using a "lead sheet" that shows only the melody and chord symbols, rather than sheet music that tells you every note to play with both hands. With this approach, you can play just about any song from a song book or "fake" book. It's not very good at teaching you basic motor skills, but it makes playing a lot less intimidating. I don't know much about the tuning aspect, except that you'll probably want to let the piano acclimate to it's new home. Tom Sackett answered in Making Music 2 months ago Answer and comment »

• Comment on Kip Waddle's answer…

  1 0 That's a clearer (and probably better) answer than mine. I would also add the following: 1. Use investing to save for retirement, rather than income. There are a couple other long-range goals, like education or buying a house that may let you take advantage of "retirement" type investments. 2. In addition to 401ks, which are provided by your employer. You can use IRAs from other institutions. There are a couple of different types of IRAs, which have different amounts of flexibility or tax consequences. 3. Index funds may be a better option than managed funds. Even when they don't perform as well, they usually have much lower fees. Both are options in a 401k or IRA plan. 4. The closer you are to retirement (or some other long-term goal) the less money should be in stock-based funds (like the ones mentioned above), and the more money should be in risk-free investments, like bonds. Tom Sackett commented 2 months ago

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  Is it wise to play the stock market on an individual basis?

  3 0 Investing in stocks is a bit like gambling on horses. You can spend a lot of time analyzing different companies and making informed decisions, but you can't really predict which companies will do well, or what the overall state of the economy will be. In fact, full-time professional investors, in the long run, don't seem to do better than the overall economy. This is why a lot of retirement programs now use "index" funds, which just try to match the performance of the overall stock market, over managed mutual funds, in which professional investors pick and choose stocks to try to beat the market. The success of index funds, by the way, does point out something important. The difference between gambling and investing is that in gambling, you always lose in the long run because the house always has to take a cut. The stock market, however, isn't stacked against you. If you invested in index funds, you would make a significant (more than inflation) amount of money in the long run. You still risk severe ups and downs, and you can't guarantee that your investments won't have lost money at the time you want to withdraw your funds, but the market has always grown in the long run. Tom Sackett answered in Personal Finance 2 months ago Answer, comment & read 6 more answers »

• Comment on Russ Campbell, NWEBS's answer…

  1 0 I accidentally clicked the thumbs down when trying to click thumbs up. Sorry. Tom Sackett commented 3 months ago

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  Best roto rooter company?

  2 0 If it's only the tub that is draining slowly, the clog probably isn't one that requires professional attention. In fact, it is probably just a plug of hair and congealed soap less than a foot down into the drain. Take a wire coat hanger and straighten it. With a pair of pliers, bend a very short section at one end (as short as you can: as close to 1/8 " as you can make it) into a 90 degree angle. Push this into the drain as far as it can go, then start spinning it slowly as you gently draw it back up. You're trying to pull up as much of the plug at once by tangling it around the bent end of the coat hanger. Do this a few times to get as much gunk out as possible. If this doesn't work, try a snake. One like this is sold at almost every hardware store for less than $20, and it works well: http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Products-88250--25-Foot-Clearing/dp/B000VLETJ6/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1328747537&sr=8-14 It's worth spending the money, because Roto Rooter is a hassle. The only have heavy-duty industrial snakes with thick cables that probably won't fit in your tub drain. If they have to dismantle anything in your bathroom to get at a better cleanout point, they will charge you for it. They may also insist that you first spend at least $100 for them to send a camera down the drain to identify where the clog is. It's just not worth it if there's any possibility you can solve this yourself. Tom Sackett answered in Home Fix & Maintain 3 months ago Answer, comment & read 5 more answers »

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  Name five hollywood productions or media that depict WWII Prisoner of War camps.

  0 0 "Bridge On the River Kwai" "Von Ryan's Express" "Slaughterhouse 5" "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" There's also a wikipedia page listing WWII POW movies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:World_War_II_prisoner_of_war_films Tom Sackett answered in Whatever 3 months ago Answer, comment & read 5 more answers »

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  What is the best type of carpet for box-challenged kitty?

  2 0 Cat pee is strong stuff. I'm not sure there is any carpet material or treatment that will allow you to reliably clean a carpet in place. One thing that might work is replaceable carpet tile. At least one company (http://www.millikencarpet.com/americas/residential/carpetpanels/legato/Pages/default.aspx) makes carpet tile with a non-adhesive, sticky back similar to post-it notes. If you need to clean a tile or two, you pull them up and clean them by hand. You could probably perform a much more thourough cleaning and drying with the piece off the floor. If you keep extra tiles on hand, you can replace the soiled ones while you clean them. I installed this tile in a basement bedroom because I was worried about flooding. Sure enough, we had a flood last year. A regular carpet would have been ruined, but I was able to gather up the carpet tiles, air dry them, and put them back down when the basement was dry again. The tiles are good, with a nice texture and substantial padding, but not perfect. In some places, I can see the edges of the tiles where they join. They cost a bit more than regular carpet, even though you have to install them yourself. Lastly, you can't install them as an area rug; you have to do it wall-to-wall. We bought the tiles at Home Depot, but I'm not sure they sell them there anymore. Are you sure you want carpet at all? If the cat is going to mark your carpet 5% of the time, and a cat pees maybe 3 times a day, you're going to be dealing with cat pee in your carpet once a week. You say that hardwood is not an option, but there are a lot of laminate "wood" floors you could install that wouldn't absorb liquid at all. I don't think they cost more than carpet. Tom Sackett answered in Home Fix & Maintain 3 months ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

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