See also the audits conducted by hire-on companies such as rpk Group who destroy academic programs for “budgeting” purposes. This is one example. They’re effectively a bunch of MBAs dictating the funding and courses a school can offer, shifting to a “strategic finance model” which is totally what education is about, of course.

Texans frantically turning extra locks on their aircraft doors at hearing the “final approach” announcement

He would’ve been fine at 374, but it was that last one that was just too much.

This is a good explanation because it gets at the source. L. Ron was a failed Freudian and had some mental issues of his own, he lashed out at the psychiatry community, and built this whole thing out of a hatred for what (rightfully) rejected him. He just happened to write shitty sci-fi, so he channeled that into pseudo-psychiatry (Dianetics). There’s a reason those e-meters exist: bullshit stress response devices to measure “clearing” certain negative thoughts. They don’t actually work, but that’s the principle: you have a “auditing session,” and let’s say you get asked about your propensity for lying in a certain situation. E-meter response is measured until you’re no longer stressed by the thing you were asked about (according to the meter), you pay them absurd amounts of money, they now have dirt on you in case you try to leave, etc. This is its core, reductively. Anti-psychiatry money mill.

Always liked Power Pete, and if you don’t have vertigo, the Descent series.

Donny always needs about tree fitty.

I cringed so hard that I involuntarily did a kegel

Ok so strictly speaking it was a specific mustard colored rectangular Tupperware bowl that often held soup leftovers in the fridge. Occasionally it held popcorn. For a small child who was sick and couldn’t reliably get over a toilet to puke, it was the designated “puke bowl.” For the record, I don’t believe poop knives actually exist, but in this instance, your wife is correct.

Wouldn’t be a good look for that wankpanzer if a $5 tool from Walmart could bust through its windows. Better call it a Cyber-izer and sell it for $200.

You mean the popcorn container/puke bowl?

Volunteered at a hospital in 10th grade for community service. Walked home 2.5 miles each time, partially along an expressway. I wasn’t allowed to have a cell phone because of the evils of screens (the Nokias had just switched to color, god forbid). It would’ve been weird not to walk home and wait hours until a parent was free when I lived that close. Shoutout to the eternally on-duty 7-11 employee Ray who sold me Gatorades.

Nobody’s mentioned the sensory overload that is Buc-ee’s yet?

people being so uninformed and then acting like they’re the ones that are informed

I see you’ve met my Trump-supporter/Qanon MIL

They got $1200 last time, surely it will happen again

I’ve had good results with the cushionlab car-specific one. I know they make a regular one, but the car seat shape works great on the particular mesh chair I have for some reason. Getting out for an occasional walk helps a lot too, even 10 minutes.

Here’s what happened to me before the ACA: I started grad school at ange 22 in a state where my parents’ coverage didn’t work, and therefore had to buy into the school plan through Blue Cross (may they forever burn in hell). For an entire year, I paid for all medical care out of pocket PLUS paid for an insurance plan, so that after a year Blue Cross would go “ok, I guess you paid enough to get on our plan for next year.” This is to say nothing of the ensuing years spent fighting tooth and fucking nail with Blue Cross over literally every medical decision my providers made. Absolutely nothing went without needing an appeal or a peer-to-peer due to “pre-existing condition.” The ACA made some of this easier, but Blue Cross figured out they could do stuff like drop drug coverage from their formulary to “pass on savings,” which brought back the need to do peer-to-peer on literally everything to get a high-copay “formulary exemption,” etc. It’s going to be a nightmare you can’t possibly imagine.

“Illegals smuggle our patriotic, expensive insulin out of the US, and we gotta build a wall facing the other direction to keep them in this time! We’ll use tariffs to get Mexico to pay for it!”

Bruce Bond is great, and any of his numbered “Fables” are particularly good. When I teach poetry, I like to take the approach with a triangle of form, content, and meaning. Then the most straightforward thing to do is see how a poem matches tradition/expectations at each point, and how it subverts tradition/expectations. Calling it a “fable” immediately draws the questions of what a fable is, the history of fables, how they operate, their purpose and commonalities, and then how this poem both fits in the tradition of fables but also subverts it. That’s where you could crack into the meaning portion, academically speaking.

Also, sometimes poems are just awesome little pieces of writing, and that’s why I like them too.

People at my spouse’s workplace were high-fiving each other on Wednesday. This country is just a goddamn middle school.

Damn, and there goes my FDR crutches monogramming Etsy along with it