Answers Day

the sequel to Questions Day

Is the future basement dweller one of your urizonetian commenters? - Mom

The future basement dweller is Rebecca's younger cousin, who might be attending NOVA after high school, and lives 22 miles deeper into Loudoun County. Living here would reduce her daily commute to NOVA by 19 miles.

Darth Vader vs. zombie horde: GO - Groovymarlin

This really depends upon the nature of the competition between the involved parties.

Is it better to use spray sunscreen or lotion? - Doobie

• Spray sunscreen can be self-applied, while lotion requires you to have, or pretend to have, friends with whom body-touching isn't icky. Otherwise, you'll end up with a burnt, smarting negative-space hand mural between your shoulder blades. We had a guy that this happened to on the 2002 OBX trip, who we called Josh, because that was his name.


• Lotion bottles can be refilled and reused to maintain your green cred. Empty spray bottles accumulate so quickly that you'll quickly bring a landfill to capacity unless you come up with some unnecessary crafts projects, and the world has enough Etsy jewelry.


• The true SPF rating of any lotion sunscreen is (originalSPF - 20) because that's how much time has passed by the time you're done applying it.


• Lotion is much cheaper per application, especially since 5% of the spray bottle is sunscreen while 95% is magic propellant dust.

Evidence-based decision marking shows that spray sunscreen is the clear winner here. Screw the environment. In fact, buy the Coppertone bulk spray sunscreen that comes packaged in an SUV.

Have a good weekend! Start it out right with this cover of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance".