Can we start with the rich?

My first ever car was a 1997 Saturn S. And I don’t think it was a bad car overall, but when I bought it, the thing was very old and had been driven by an old lady who smoked in the car. It was all I could afford at the time, and the price was right for obvious reasons. So we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and the smell never quite fully came out. We did a pretty good job, but on hot summer days you could still smell it. It also needed quite a bit of work that we ended up doing and it ended up being the first car I ever rebuilt the engine on.

As for worst car I’ve ever had the pleasure to drive, for a while I was borrowing my mother in law’s Ford Flex. It didn’t have any issues but it really was the worst car to drive. It had absolutely no turning radius. The seats were very large for no reason and were very uncomfortable. The visibility out of the front windshield was trash at night and made me think I was having vision issues. There were so many sounds for everything that you couldn’t discern which sound was for which thing and this made them all useless. The accelerator was so unresponsive, I had to program my brain to floor it ahead of when I needed to speed up so the timing would be right. The infotainment system was complete trash, but really all of them were back then. Loads of other small annoyances that I could go on and on about, but I’ll finish with how the car also just looks awful and I was always embarrassed to drive it. I hope I never have to drive one again.

My father in law was very loyal to the Jeep brand for many decades. He would buy a new Jeep every 3-4 years. His most recent purchase to all of our surprise was a Ford pickup. My last car was also a Jeep and I just bought a Prius. The quality really has tanked and the features people liked have slowly slipped away.

Maybe if their products hadn’t gotten consistently shittier over the years, they’d still have the loyalty they used to to keep up with demand. My dad still has his 91" Jeep rust and all. I still have a 2007 Grand Cherokee Laredo that lasted well over 300,000 miles. My father in law basically gets a new Jeep every 3-4 years. Skip to today and my dad has a Tesla, I have a Prius, and my father in law has a Ford pickup. We all saw the quality decline and the features we loved seemed to slowly disappear as well. I really don’t know what they thought would happen when their cars became nothing more special than any other SUV out there.

Oh shit! That’s a thing? Is it just cardamom steeped in hot water or is it more of a spice/tea blend like black tea and cardamom?

This made me laugh an unreasonable amount. I needed this after everything. Thank you.

The first thing I thought to myself when I woke up on Wednesday and found out was “I hope they get exactly what they voted for”.

I’m genuinely worried about contraception in general. It’s one of the tick boxes for Project 2025. And I don’t know if that will mean prescription contraception or all of it. Luckily there have been some recent breakthroughs in male contraception that you can buy even if they aren’t marketed as contraception for legal reasons. I’m not normally one to fuck with healthcare that hasn’t been tested and approved, but people will get desperate.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

As much as it was sad to see a lot of restaurants die during COVID, there were an awful lot of sushi abomination restaurants out there that I think we’re all better off without. I actually had to stop eating sushi for a few years because we would try to order sushi and it would just be disgusting. You’d get either 1 of 2 scenarios - it was some very gimmicky sushi that you’d never eat more than once, or it was gross because the quality just wasn’t up to par during lockdown. And sushi is unfortunately one of those foods that’s very unforgiving and if you have even 1 bad experience, you won’t be going back to that establishment. So I can see why a lot of them closed.

Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.

This is the best answer. There’s a reason that subway maps are often not an accurate representation of where stops actually are on a map, but instead are condensed and made easier to read in a way that loosely shows where the stops are and also makes each stop easy to read along with other key info that’s relevant. When you’re on a train, you don’t need accurate maps of where stop are, you just need to know where your stop is, how many stops away, or connecting trains.

Not that female anatomy is akin to a train system… Or is it?

I can’t tell you how much happier I was to move to a neighborhood in the city where the grocery store was a 5 min walk away. I always see old ladies with a wheelie cart walking home from the store. And one day I said Fuck it I’m getting an old lady cart! And it’s the best! I can comfortably buy more groceries and walk them home. Only time I ever need to bring the car is if we’re buying cases of beer or something else large.

This is the same shit that happened with braces when I was a kid. It makes me so angry. My parents, luckily, were too poor at the time for any of us to get braces. And then dentists inevitably told them we all need braces, my mom did some digging and decided it wasn’t necessary. She originally did so to determine if they would need to come up with the money or not, but in doing so, found out it’s unnecessary in most cases. Skip to today and my teeth are perfectly fine while my husband has all kinds of issues with his retainer leftover from when he has braces that I’m guessing he didn’t need. While I’m not a doctor, my recommendation in regards to dentists will always be to get your regular cleanings done and fillings if necessary, but anything else, and you should get a second opinion.

Since nobody actually answered the question: Menards is a massive hardware store chain in the Midwest. When I say it’s massive, it has everything you could ever need in a hardware store and more. Like there are usually multiple floors, a lumber yard, highly specialized sections, and even a small grocery section with food, pet supplies, clothing, etc. it’s definitely the greatest hardware store ever conceived, but unfortunately the man who owns them is batshit crazy in classic Wisconsin fashion.

Damned Scot’s! They ruined Scotland!

My husband has had a metal USB stick that is shaped like a key and is very thin specifically for this purpose. I don’t know the brand as it’s not printed on it, but it’s lasted him a long time and I would assume it to win this contest by a landslide. Excellent analysis, very interesting!

For reference, it looks like this (not the same brand):

Don’t forget that eggs also come out the hole!! If you’ve ever seen fresh farm eggs before, you have to wash them before you use them because they’re covered in piss and shit. Yum!

There’s an excellent episode of the Sopranos where they end up going to Italy. And even though their whole personality is “Italian” they find that they have nothing in common with actual Italians. That show is a masterpiece.

I don’t know if these things are sent en masse by a bot or by a person, but it’s like they don’t even skim your profile before hitting send. Like I specifically said “Work from home only”, what makes you think I want your “hybrid” opportunity in bumfuck Illinois that barely pays what it should for my experience?