Random Rants LXXII - What is wrong with us?

[Cutlass]

Oh, c'mon, if it's not justified when Trump does it, it's not justified when others do it, either.

You're just mad because you're not pretty enough to get a free pass.

 

[Broken_Erika]

They looked good in short skirts....

The Beatles?

 

[Zkribbler]

And yet in the 1990s you lot -for some reason- mistook the Spice Girls as talented, fashionable musicians, and managed to deepen the hurt already started by the Beatles.

Spice Girls
Beatles

 

[Cutlass]

The Beatles?

They brought out a lot of followers.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Just found an analysis of restaurant pricing that I had a lot to complain about.

This hierarchy, which privileges paninis over tortas, is almost completely shaped by a simple rule: The more capital or military power a nation wields and the richer its emigrants are, the more likely its cuisine will command high menu prices.

Ah yes, we all know how prestigious British, German, Scandinavian, and Russian restaurants are.

Ray’s analysis in The Ethnic Restaurateur is not just based on subjective assessments of a cuisine’s influence and reputation. To great effect, he draws on data from Zagat, whose reviewers collect check prices for meals at the restaurants it lists (which tend to range from middlebrow to the lower end of high-end); in New York in 2015, the average check at a Zagat-listed Japanese restaurant for a meal for one (including a glass of wine and a tip) was $68.94, while the average price for the same thing at Zagat-listed Chinese restaurants was $35.76.

Here's a thought: maybe that reflects more the sensibilities of Zagat reviewers who select the restaurants to list. Not necessarily the rest of the US.

What the hell is "Continental"? Is that just the rest of Europe just mashed together into some curious amalgamation?

The fact that large numbers of poor French immigrants never settled in large portions of the U.S.

I wonder what the Acadians have to say about that...

In the 1930s, Ray told me, emigrants from Japan found that their children would return home from their new schools parroting their teachers, who had given them the idea that “American” food—dairy, cheese, and meat, mostly—was instrumental to growing up big and strong. Many parents embraced that notion. “Now, it's completely flipped,” Ray says. “Now we think, of course, the Japanese live the longest, eat the best food."

Obviously that's all about racial privilege. It certainly couldn't have been due to research showing that high intakes of dairy and meat is unhealthy.

 

[Gori the Grey]

A week ago, I stubbed the big toe on my right foot. Yesterday, I stubbed the toe next to it.

I'll keep you all posted on whether the trend continues, though I should think that stubbing my middle toe might prove physically difficult, since one of the previously stubbed toes would be more likely to meet with most objects first.

 

[Synobun]

A week ago, I stubbed the big toe on my right foot. Yesterday, I stubbed the toe next to it.

I'll keep you all posted on whether the trend continues, though I should think that stubbing my middle toe might prove physically difficult, since one of the previously stubbed toes would be more likely to meet with most objects first.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Yeah, well, neither of the first to have been volitional.

 

[Synobun]

I didn't say it was gonna be your will...

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Some people don't like my title for the new Raves thread.

 

[Synobun]

That guy sounds like a loser. Throw tomatoes at him.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'm not sure that the Founding Fathers were thinking of future holidays when they signed the Declaration of Independence, Arakhor.

" The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

- John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3rd, 1776.

 

[Lexicus]

To me Juneteenth is a far more profound observance. The real birth of freedom in the United States - and the real Revolution - is the Civil War, not the War of Independence.

 

[Synobun]

I'm of the belief that if you're going to have state holidays like this, they should be for more readily present things. Independence was long ago and it's not really anything a single soul alive today has any connection to. Like Lexicus stated, the Civil War could be interesting. Or maybe the Civil Rights Act. Bonus points if you go with that one since it's July 2nd. Two days earlier! Wooooooo!

 

[Takhisis]

" The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

- John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3rd, 1776.

 

[Cutlass]

My credit friggin card that I don't use very often wants me to use online rather than paper. But I cannot log on online because their idiot friggin security questions won't let me update my password. If I don't remember the goddamned answers to the obscure questions, then I am locked out forever, and there's not a damned thing I can do about it.

 

[Synobun]

My credit friggin card that I don't use very often wants me to use online rather than paper. But I cannot log on online because their idiot friggin security questions won't let me update my password. If I don't remember the goddamned answers to the obscure questions, then I am locked out forever, and there's not a damned thing I can do about it.

They can bypass this if you do it in person.

 

[Cutlass]

They can bypass this if you do it in person.

Ya mean call?

 

[Synobun]

Yes. Call them with your voice while maintaining eye contact inside their office.

 

[Cutlass]

Ya know, I don't think that works as well with international banks that don't have offices within a 100 miles of me....