I worked in a private school kitchen briefly, and was absolutely shocked they still had butcher block benches for food prep and such. Like, the school was built in the 50s/60s at least, and these things looked original. We always put some barrier between the food and the actual table surface when we worked on them, but still…

I even brought it up at one point and was told the health inspector never mentioned it. Personally, I both believe that (health inspectors are very 50/50 on how thorough, and most aren’t looking to shut places down), and find it hard to believe they never mentioned the tables that had obvious grooves in them from knives of yesteryear, and discolorations from whatever organisms were growing in the pores and what not.

But outside of that, yes, 100%, professional kitchens would either need dozens and dozens of wooden boards to cycle through throughout their shift. Every kitchen I worked in used plastic, and you can buy the boards they use in pro kitchens online from restaurant supply stores.

Same! I remember back in high school some of my classmates had confederate flags on their trucks and hats and shit.

Like… Bruh, we’re in Connecticut, we were on the Union’s side, and your “farm” is half an acre outside of Middletown, relax.

Calculus? I thought it was wood shop.

Nixon did this when the Postal Service went on strike in 1970. He brought in 23,000 national guard troops to New York to deliver the mail.

They failed, miserably, because they didn’t know how to do the job. There’s clips of interviews with some of them at the time, I remember one, the soldier was trying to sort the mail and laughing about how he didn’t understand how the regular guy could do in a couple hours what took him almost all day.

Good luck to him, but he’s gonna find out quick that soldiers aren’t longshoremen.

There were also the Order of the White Feather during WWI in the UK (and I’m sure other variations in other countries at the time). They were women who would walk around and try to shame young men into enlisting, or they would present a white feather to men who weren’t in uniform to highlight their “cowardice.”

Some of the men these women gave feathers to were on leave from the front lines, or even home after being discharged from some horrific injury sustained on the front. My personal favorite: article.

[…] none more so than Seaman George Samson who received a feather when he was on his way to a reception held in his honour to receive the Victoria Cross as a reward for his bravery at Gallipoli.

We need to learn to take care of the ones who are already here before we start making more. That’s not open for debate.

Personally, I think the solution of “not enough kids” mirrors that of a law proposed decades ago: if a citizen votes in favor of going to war, they’re automatically drafted should war be declared.

Republicans/Conservatives the world over want abortion banned, right? Cool, you vote to ban it, you’re automatically added to a list to adopt children who cannot be aborted. The individual gets no say in when the adoption happens, they have no say in gender/ethnicity/etc, the government shows up, hands them a baby, and that’s now their child. Government can do weekly/regular checks to ensure the child is being raised well enough and that the parent is home enough to watch them. And no limit on how many kids end up in your lap, either.

Oh, that doesn’t work with your work schedule/life schedule/etc? Too bad, you wanted to save the unborn babies, now save them. You can’t afford 13 newborns all at once? Sure sounds like a you problem, since you didn’t support any of the things to make the lives of children better, like abortion/contraception/sex ed, childcare subsidies, school lunch programs, etc.

Problem solved: Conservative Christians get to save all the babies, people can still keep making them without fear of it hindering their lives, and the population continues to grow so the capitalist machine can be fed.

I had a coworker who cited music licensing as the sole reason he can’t find his favorite show anymore: The Drew Carrey Show. Whatever schmuck owns the music licensing refuses to cooperate with the rest of the show owners, so it can’t be streamed or distributed anywhere.

Another example would be Scrubs, most of the songs used in the show (including key moments and the OG songs were perfect for them) have been edited out and replaced because of licensing issues. Unless you’ve got the DVDs or pirated older versions, you’re stuck with the new music and it’s not the same.

Too chicken to answer my questions? Or did you finally realize you’re wrong?

I had one of those guys come by about 2 months ago, but for windows/siding/roof/solar/gutters. I didn’t decline, figured I’d hear the kid out, but he set me up for an appointment the following afternoon.

Second guy was younger than me (I’m 30), and kept using quotes like “I’ve been doing this a long time,” and “In my professional opinion, I really think XYZ.” I also got a lecture on “needs versus wants” because I wasn’t willing to pay $600+/month for the next 17 years but I had the audacity to own a TV. 🙄 He even took a picture of some “carpenter bees” that were nesting above one of my gutters to try and upsell how seriously this work needed to be done.

He did not like the fact I went outside, checked the spot, and came back to inform him that those were, in fact, wasps, not carpenter bees. And he realized the conversation was over when he finally (about 2.5 hours in) asked me what I do for work, and I told him I’m a general contractor and already knew everything he was telling me, I’m just broke af. 🤷‍♀️

Met a woman on OKCupid back in like 2014. We seemed to hit it off, so we agreed to a mall date since we were both broke (she was a college student, I was a youngster in the military). We were gonna get food and just kinda walk around and window shop and talk. Gonna try to keep this short, but a lot happened:

1. Had me pick her up from her dorm, went up to the dorm, her roommates were drinking even though everyone was underage, and they’re thanking her for having mom get it for her. She’s super nice about it, but proceeds to complain the entire drive and start getting emotional because she hates that they drink when they’re underage, etc. Yet… She provides it…

2. She doesn’t eat when we get to the mall, and instead spends the whole time I’m eating, talking. No breaks for me to respond, just keeps going.

3. We start walking around the mall, and she starts randomly pinching me. Like, painfully, randomly pinching me in my arms and torso. I’m finally like wtf is with the pinching, and she says that she was doing it because I wasn’t holding her hand while we walked around… We just met, and the vibe is already pretty crap, and how in any way is that a way to communicate…

4. We finally leave and get back to her dorm, I walk her to her door, and I’m invited in by her/the roommates. Fine, I decline drinking because I’m a good sailor, but my date and I exchange some pleasantries with the roommates and then head to her room. It’s basically just a bed, I think maybe she was just super nervous at the mall and being in her own environment she’ll relax.

5. We’re just chatting, and the pinching starts again, and she’s kinda just going for it with no breaks. I’m getting pissed and finally grab her wrists and tell her to stop, and she bit me. On the chest, like, hard, not a romantic playful lil love bite. I’m, again, taken aback and am like, wtf?!?

6. She starts giggling and tells me that that’s how women tell guys that want to make out/get intimate. What?! No, not how that works, at all… Especially not on a first date. But, fine, I tell her she can just ask, figuring she just wants to make out.

7. After a little while making out, the pinching starts again, and apparently this time it’s how women say they want to have sex. I wasn’t so turned off, it just didn’t happen, like, at all.

8. She walked me back to my car, and I drove her back to her buildings door, and she bursts into tears about her roommates and the drinking again, I console her enough for her to feel better and go back to her room. Say goodnight, and she just sits there staring at me. I’m kinda done at this point and just ask what, and I get, “No kiss?” Fine…

9. Get a text while I’m driving home telling me it was one of the best dates of her life, she really hopes we can see each other again soon, she really liked me and was attracted to me, etc. I respectfully declined, and when she wouldn’t just take that as an answer, I sent her a text essay outlining basically all of the above, and I honestly can’t remember if she responded.

Honestly, she wasn’t a bad person, and maybe at different stages in our lives things could’ve gone better… But she had a lot going on and a lot of life to live and learn from, and I wasn’t up for the ride. Hope she’s doing well, if she sees this and recognizes it, and that she stopped using pinching as a means of communication.

Oh, and to illustrate how hard the pinching/bite were, I had dime sized bruises all over my arms and torso the next day, and a bite mark bruise on my chest.

Your argument is the same one cops use to justify “bad apples”: it’s not all of us, it’s only some of us.

Before any religion starts preaching to their neighbors or “sharing the faith,” y’all need to get your own folks in order. You may not demonize LGBTQ+ people, or want to ban abortion, or force others to live under the same tenets as you, but those who wear your cross and share your God do.

So all I can and should do is help to show it’s real by the way I live my life, demonstrating love for all mankind, and hope they get the idea. If that much is problematic, I think we’ve got issues.

I would argue we definitely have issues. You will not change my mind, but religion has done significantly more harm across history, particularly Christianity, than any amount of Christian do-gooding will ever be able to undo. Millions across history have suffered, been enslaved, had their rights taken away, been tortured, and killed at the hands of “Christians,” and that includes the modern day. Christian groups are the ones helping to spread HIV/AIDS across Africa because god forbid anyone use a condom, Christians are the ones pushing for abortion bans, and Christians are the ones trying to pull the US into an authoritarian theocracy.

So if you don’t want to be associated with the ills of Christianity, you may want to reconsider, in my opinion, what benefit God provides to mankind. Because from where I’m sitting, it’s literally zero. The world would be a much better place without religion, and you shouldn’t need the promise of an eternal paradise and eternal salvation to, as you put it, “demonstrating love for all mankind.” If you can’t live that way without “God” telling you, then you’re exactly the problem with Christianity.

I mean… I give a fuck, the intention behind the action is just as important as the action itself.

You argue we should be grateful because a company is participating in rainbow capitalism, and that makes people feel accepted and happy. Fair enough. But if Home Depot spends the other 11 months of the year donating to organizations and political groups that are actively trying to take away the rights of LGBT+ folks…

How is that a win for anyone? Like, are we supposed to jump up and down with joy because a company decided our money was worth accepting for a brief period of time? We’re allowed to exist for one month because it results in a profit increase for a company that actively hates who we are the rest of the year?

In what world does that make sense? “We hate you and want you back in the closet, but we threw a rainbow on this shovel, BUY IT OR YOU HATE LGBT PEOPLE. Cool, now go back in the closet, we’ve got what we wanted out of you.”

It’s patronizing at best, and insulting at worst. You liken it to a vaccine, which is a bad example since, famously, vaccines like Polio were released without a patent to help ensure their widespread use across the globe.

To me, it’s more like “Why are you complaining that this restaurant spits in your sandwich every day? They didn’t spit in it today because it’s Pride, so why aren’t you happy about it?” Because I know in 30 days they’re going to spit in my sandwich again, and they’re only not doing it now because of optics and wanting more money.

Purchased a soft drink from a fast food restaurant. I have a few friends that, in their minds, it is never justified to buy a drink from a fast food place if you’re doing takeout because “you have drinks at home, they charge $3 for something that costs them $0.11 to make, etc.”

It’s become somewhat of a debate amongst our group of friends: I argue they have flavors I may not have at home, it can be a treat, and it helps keep restaurants in business since drinks are where they make their money. I’m told it doesn’t matter, the upcharge is too much to justify.

I’ve boiled my view on it to “There is a fine line between frugal and cheap.” But never thought the purchase of a soft drink would be so polarizing amongst people in my life, hahaha.

There’s also an ongoing moratorium on the board game Life simply because we cannot agree if it’s legal for one player to take out all of the bank’s loans on their first turn. It’s not explicitly stated in the rules you can’t, but many of us feel it defeats the spirit of the game.

The older guy at the beginning gives him and the people around him a look of “Wtf is this guy doing?!” with the upward-facing palm gesture when the guy first starts. He’s also one of the ones leaving towards the end.

But seriously… Fuck the guy with the gun, broke damn near every firearm safety rule for what, the sake of a dance?

Fun fact: The Navy uses the affirmative “aye” or “aye aye” as opposed to “roger” like the Army/Air Force/etc because of similar slang origins. Basically, sailors used to use the word “roger” to mean “fuck,” both as an insult and as a way to identify women they had been with while in port.

“Yeah, I rogered her last night at the tavern,” kind of thing. But as sailors began to respond to officers using “Roger that (fuck that),” the Navy came down and made “aye aye” the official affirmative response for their personnel.

And even then, “aye” is simply a “I understand” whereas “aye aye,” means “I understand and will carry out X.”

The US Navy also launched an investigative unit during the 1800s (I wanna say the 1880s?) to find homosexual sailors and kick them out of the Navy. The unit only lasted a couple of years before being shut down, as the only people volunteering for the unit were homosexual sailors. 😆

My mom has no sense of smell, I believe it was from a polyp surgery where the surgeon nicked something during the operation. We couldn’t have any gas powered appliances growing up because she wouldn’t be able to smell a leak if there was one.

Plenty of reasons beyond COVID for why someone may not be able to smell.

From high middle-high school timeframe, probably The Yellow Wallpaper, I just think about that one at least a few times a year. And I only read it the one time in school.

The less well known one I remember from elementary school was My Brother Sam is Dead. It’s about a family during the American revolution, where the father just wants to stay out of all of it and live their lives, but the eldest son wants to join the revolution. The whole story is just the hardships the family has to go through after the son runs off with the only gun to fight and ends up dying, and how that affects the family and the youngest brother, who the story is told from the perspective of.

None of my friends remember My Brother Sam is Dead, but if I’m remembering right, the ending is kinda dark for a bunch of 3-5th graders.

Ehhh, people don’t take kindly to assertions regarding animals/pets. It’s not the same, but look how quickly everyone, including Republicans, turned on Kristi Noem after she doubled down on shooting her own dog.

Yeah, he’ll rile up some of his base in Ohio and they’ll start taking precautions to protect their animals, but the majority of pet owners aren’t going to buy this, and they’ll hopefully condemn him for not only the outright lies, but the xenophobia/racism embroiled with it.

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I use my own bag a lot of the time because my usual grocery store (ShopRite) doesn’t put out baskets anymore. I don’t want a cart or need a cart, I want a basket, but they’re never out anymore. Like, they’re just gone…

So either put the baskets back out, or accept we’re going to use our reusable bags as baskets. Granted, I flip mine upside down in front of the self checkout camera to show I’m not stealing, but ffs… Just put the baskets back. 😭