Random Thoughts XII - Floccinaucinihilipilification

[Takhisis]

What god did you offend to have to eat Burger King?
Taco Bell may give you explosive poops, but at least it tastes good going down and you get a funny story about it after everything is cleaned up.

Just wait for the restaurant wars, when all restaurants will be Taco Bell.

Also I have to wonder how these fast-food restaurant chains manage to have this duality whereby they are at least one of cheap and crap in the US and Canada but expensive and/or high-end in the rest of the world.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Also I have to wonder how these fast-food restaurant chains manage to have this duality whereby they are at least one of cheap and crap in the US and Canada but expensive and/or high-end in the rest of the world.

The food baseline in most of the rest of the world in very low? US food is still exotic in most places? Eating US fast food helps one learn English? Everyone not living in the US secretly wishes to live here and eating Big Macs feeds that fantasy?

 

[Takhisis]

The food baseline in most of the rest of the world in very low?

Hmmm, no. It's a prestige thing…?

US food is still exotic in most places?

Could be? Sometimes it's morbidly fascinating.

Eating US fast food helps one learn English?

It doesn't.

Everyone not living in the US secretly wishes to live here and eating Big Macs feeds that fantasy?

Definitely not.

What I mean is that they seem to aim for a higher-end public –and cater to it accordingly– than what their image inside US-and-Canada is.

 

[Synobun]

What I mean is that they seem to aim for a higher-end public –and cater to it accordingly– than what their image inside US-and-Canada is.

I suspect this is out of necessity. We have an almost nonexistent street food economy. We have microcosms in places like NYC and Chicago, but we largely have no way of accessing truly cheap mobile food. That's where our fast food comes in. In the last decade we have had some growth of food trucks, but at least here, they are just normal foods at a mark-up and made bougie.

Meanwhile, in a lot of other countries, fast food would need to compete with the already preexisting street food economy, which they can't do.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I suspect this is out of necessity. We have an almost nonexistent street food economy. We have microcosms in places like NYC and Chicago, but we largely have no way of accessing truly cheap mobile food. That's where our fast food comes in. In the last decade we have had some growth of food trucks, but at least here, they are just normal foods at a mark-up and made bougie.

Meanwhile, in a lot of other countries, fast food would need to compete with the already preexisting street food economy, which they can't do.

People with food trucks or bikes are hammered with health regulations and licenses.

Even people like me, who used to sell my dad's baking at craft fairs, had to stop because of regulations stating that the food had to made in a government-inspected kitchen. So I asked how to arrange for an inspection and was told, "We don't inspect private homes' kitchens.

They even came down on my Christmas ornaments that included factory made/wrapped candy canes. So how I got around that was to sell the ornament, keep the cane and/or chocolate under the table, and call it an "extra" that was included for free, and not for sale or consumption (wink, wink; of course you know the kids are going to eat it).

It's a shame about the baking. My dad used to make banana muffins that were really good, and a friend from the local SCA branch made mini-loaves. The 10% commission I charged them helped offset the cost of the table rental.

 

[Tee Kay]

I suspect this is out of necessity. We have an almost nonexistent street food economy. We have microcosms in places like NYC and Chicago, but we largely have no way of accessing truly cheap mobile food. That's where our fast food comes in. In the last decade we have had some growth of food trucks, but at least here, they are just normal foods at a mark-up and made bougie

People with food trucks or bikes are hammered with health regulations and licenses.

 

[The_J]

What I mean is that they seem to aim for a higher-end public –and cater to it accordingly– than what their image inside US-and-Canada is.

What, where?
Not anywhere in Western Europe, pretty sure.

 

[Samson]

What, where?
Not anywhere in Western Europe, pretty sure.

One of the saddest things I saw, in a really posh bit of Morocco, was a street full of really good fish restaurants that were all quiet, and the MaccyD's at the end of the street was packed. I do not think it was significantly cheaper that the good restaurants.

 

[Takhisis]

I suspect this is out of necessity. We have an almost nonexistent street food economy. We have microcosms in places like NYC and Chicago, but we largely have no way of accessing truly cheap mobile food. That's where our fast food comes in. In the last decade we have had some growth of food trucks, but at least here, they are just normal foods at a mark-up and made bougie.

Meanwhile, in a lot of other countries, fast food would need to compete with the already preexisting street food economy, which they can't do.

It might be that they achieve the same effect that Schwarzenegger observed when he got his business degree and started having to raise his prices because of an effect akin to conspicuous consumption.

People with food trucks or bikes are hammered with health regulations and licenses.

Even people like me, who used to sell my dad's baking at craft fairs, had to stop because of regulations stating that the food had to made in a government-inspected kitchen. So I asked how to arrange for an inspection and was told, "We don't inspect private homes' kitchens.

They even came down on my Christmas ornaments that included factory made/wrapped candy canes. So how I got around that was to sell the ornament, keep the cane and/or chocolate under the table, and call it an "extra" that was included for free, and not for sale or consumption (wink, wink; of course you know the kids are going to eat it).

It's a shame about the baking. My dad used to make banana muffins that were really good, and a friend from the local SCA branch made mini-loaves. The 10% commission I charged them helped offset the cost of the table rental.

That's absolutely moronic, but par for the course for bureaucracy ‘you have to get authorisation and [xyz] means that we just don't hand out authorisations.

What, where?
Not anywhere in Western Europe, pretty sure.

Well, I haven't been in Western Europe (does England count?) for two decades, so that might be the case.

One of the saddest things I saw, in a really posh bit of Morocco, was a street full of really good fish restaurants that were all quiet, and the MaccyD's at the end of the street was packed. I do not think it was significantly cheaper that the good restaurants.

This… this really is sad.

 

[EgonSpengler]

One of the saddest things I saw, in a really posh bit of Morocco, was a street full of really good fish restaurants that were all quiet, and the MaccyD's at the end of the street was packed. I do not think it was significantly cheaper that the good restaurants.

I remember my first day in Paris there was a line out the door of a McDonald's. As I walked past, I thought I might hear a lot of American voices, but it sounded like most of the people in line were either French or tourists from countries other than the US. It was also difficult to find a French movie to see while in Paris.

 

[amadeus]

“18 screens and they’re all Jerry Lewis?”

 

[Valka D'Ur]

One of the saddest things I saw, in a really posh bit of Morocco, was a street full of really good fish restaurants that were all quiet, and the MaccyD's at the end of the street was packed. I do not think it was significantly cheaper that the good restaurants.

Back in the '70s, after my parents' divorce, my dad had custody. My mother had visitation twice a month, so we usually went out for supper. It annoyed her that whenever we went to a particular restaurant, I ordered the salmon. Every. Single. Time. She seemed to think there was something wrong with that, and couldn't wrap her head around the idea that I loved salmon, they did a great job with it there (the rest of the meal included baked potato and steamed carrots that were also wonderful - I rarely got well-prepared veggies at home because my grandmother usually overcooked EVERYTHING that wasn't meat or fish).

So we had an argument about it and she said next time I had to have something different (I was still a kid at the time and I guess she'd forgotten that it's normal for kids to get fixated on specific foods and meals for weeks/months/even years at a time... which she should have remembered, given all the sardine sandwiches I had for my school lunches; she'd said at the time that she was glad of that because it put no pressure on her to decide what to put into my lunch box).

Nowadays, if you give me a choice between McDonalds and seafood restaurants, I will take the seafood every single time (unless I'm craving a Sausage & Egger).

 

[TheCleanerDragon]

If you have set a custom location for your profile, it will appear on your profile page as a link. clicking on it will open up google maps and search for the user's location. This works fine for real locations, but for made up ones, like mine, it can end up anywhere, as long as the name is close enough. In my case I'm apparently in a hiking area in India, called "Edge of Tomorrow."

 

[Kyriakos]

Not sure whose bright idea it was to have the stupid german chancellor visit this city instead of Athens.

 

[Synobun]

A series of rants and raves:

Rave: I got an air conditioner for the summer.

Rant: This necessitates huge changes in my room, as a bookshelf has been in front of my window since I moved in and I've never been able to move it.

Rant: The AC is 55 lbs, and the delivery person left it at the curb. It took me twenty minutes to slowly hobble it to my apartment.

Rave: Emptying the bookcase went easier than expected, and I was able to put some more stuff in the trash. I also finally took the opportunity to take apart an old, grimy chair my former roommate left here and put it in the garbage as well.

Rave: The shelving in the bookcase was easier to remove than expected as well, and so I was able to reduce the weight of the bookcase by an additional 15 lbs or so.

Rave: Because of the above, it was possible to move the bookcase away from in front of the window. I elected to also move the bookcase to the empty room rather than keeping it in my space-deprived bedroom.

Rant: As expected, a giant piece of furniture staying in the same place for seven years means the area was very dirty. That portion of the window and wall has not seen human touch or airflow in nearly a decade.

Rant: Before my former roommate moved out, he destroyed my vacuum cleaner and I have yet to replace it. All I have is a dinky little cordless handheld vacuum, which doesn't have incredible suction. This made the prospect of cleaning that portion of the room a little dire.

Rave: Cleaning went better than expected. I used a scrub brush beforehand to get everything loose.

Rant: I used the bookcase as storage for, well, everything I own. I also used it to keep things I use on a daily basis nearby close at hand. Now that it's in the other room, I no longer have a way of keeping those things close by, and I'm uncertain how I want to reorganize everything too.

Rave: On the subject of reorganizing, I keep all my professional development books in a cardboard box under the bed after I finish them. With the bookcase in the other room, I'm considering using it as an actual bookcase. My colleagues tend to use bookcases as their background in video chats/pictures, which I can't really do with how I have it placed in the other room, but it feels, erm, more "put together" to actually put books in a bookcase instead of using it as just catch-all storage for everything.

Rant: Even with the window freed, I still likely need to make changes to my bedroom. The window opens right where I sit at my desk, so the AC tubing will likely be right up against my chair, and that seems nonideal. The bookcase being gone technically means I can move my desk to where it used to be, but the thought of that positioning doesn't please me. My back would be to my door and I wouldn't be able to rest my feet on my bed. It would also place me right at the entrance of my closet, which seems annoying. It may end up being necessary to make the AC work, though. Another alternative is switching the direction of my bed, but this would make changing my sheets more difficult as there's only a couple inches of clearance that way.

Rant: I'm not supposed to exert myself, and I am really feeling the efforts of the past week. My body's in shambles. I am thankful that I stopped my meds and I'm no longer dealing with the insomnia it gave me. Sleep is still somewhat elusive, but I'm actually sleeping now for a considerable amount of time. Still, the pain and discomfort is close to unbearable, and I'm not done yet.

Rant: I need to get a curtain rod, a cordless drill, and a step ladder before I can install the AC. Right now, the window has typical blinds, and installing tubing with that is going to be a nightmare. My window looks out directly on a pathway, and I am not keen on having people being able to have themselves a gander into my bedroom. I already have blackout curtains laying around, but the other stuff will likely be a couple weeks.

Rave: In theory, having an AC means summers (while I'm in my room) will no longer be miserable, and my sleep quality during the hot months should also be better. I'm not sure how loud the AC will be, but I suspect it will be quieter than the two fans I usually have going 24/7 during the summer, especially since the fans click/rattle when on high.

 

[amadeus]

Rant: the air conditioner contains potassium benzoate.

I have neither a rant nor a rave, it’s in between. It’s a raven’t? Anyway, got some lemonade at the store and it’s light lemonade. It’s alright, but I’d rather have it a little less light. Medium-light.

 

[Synobun]

Rant: the air conditioner contains potassium benzoate.

I have neither a rant nor a rave, it’s in between. It’s a raven’t? Anyway, got some lemonade at the store and it’s light lemonade. It’s alright, but I’d rather have it a little less light. Medium-light.

You've heard of Mike's Hard Lemonade, now check out Amadeus's Medium-Light Lemonade.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Rant: the air conditioner contains potassium benzoate.

I have neither a rant nor a rave, it’s in between. It’s a raven’t? Anyway, got some lemonade at the store and it’s light lemonade. It’s alright, but I’d rather have it a little less light. Medium-light.

Light in sugar, or light in color?

It's been decades since I could tolerate lemonade.

 

[amadeus]

You've heard of Mike's Hard Lemonade, now check out Amadeus's Medium-Light Lemonade.

One of the few Western foreigners who is not a functional alcoholic! I mean because I’m neither an alcoholic, nor functional.

Light in sugar, or light in color?

It's been decades since I could tolerate lemonade.

Light in sugar. As long as it’s some shade of yellow that resembles lemonade, I’m fine with the color.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

One of the few Western foreigners who is not a functional alcoholic! I mean because I’m neither an alcoholic, nor functional.

Light in sugar. As long as it’s some shade of yellow that resembles lemonade, I’m fine with the color.

Have you tried mango juice?