In capitalist America, the president shoots you

Yeah, but the fact that it was close enough to win still totally shocked me. Naiver times

It wasn’t exactly unexpected, but I didn’t expect it, if that makes sense. I was working at the call center of an insurance company on election night in 2016, and my team was half people from Connecticut in office and half remote people from non-Chicagoland Illinois, politically divided exactly as you’d expect. My shift went 13-23:30 EST, and the team chat was trying to be somewhat non political, but it was tough.

When I went into work, it seemed like Hillary would win, but throughout our shift, my coworkers and I kept getting chirps about new states being counted while the office slowly emptied (most people in office were on core hours, so by 19, we were the only ones left, including cleaning crews). When the first firm-ish numbers came in, one of our remote team members just spammed the chat with a bunch of terrible r/thedonald memes and there was an audible groan from the group.

I didn’t like Clinton, but I was certain she’d win, because I was pretty sheltered in a New England state. Hearing that trump won felt like finding out your foundation is full of mold. I don’t know how else to describe it, except that I was certain we’d choose the “chicken that’ll do” (I know that was a spoof from the democratic debate, but it feels on brand for her whole deal).

Oof

This is the problem.

When the author of the most widely read children’s books is media illiterate, how are we surprised that critical thinking skills are down?

I’m sorry, there are too many nature words here for me to follow. I’m picturing an insect that lives off of cacao pods and apples

That’s accurate!

The best unexpected“perk” of a job I’ve ever had was at a restaurant where we served a beet salad. Twice a week, the kitchen would cook and mandoline the beets, then let them dry off a little on baking sheets. The chef was incredibly annoyed that I would regularly steal something that literally left me red-handed, but they were too good to resist.

Casino Royale is my favorite movie, and I’m not a bond fan otherwise, so I definitely agree that it stands alone

I’m an adult learner of a foreign language, and I wasn’t able to read for fun until I had finished three semesters of grad school in (and on) the language. Before that, my reading level was so low that kids books for that level weren’t interesting (I was actually really excited to try out the Percy Jackson series, because I missed it the first time in English, but it was way too complicated).

It’s an edge case, I’ll grant you, but I would have loved something like this at that reading level. I would have preferred to pay a real person to do it so as not to lose out on important context and make sure the wording wasn’t weird, but I didn’t find anyone willing to do it

Okay, fuck that, but hear me out: it’s a good sports drink. Drinking a shot of pickle juice for every couple of water bottles on a day where you’re pouring sweat keeps you hydrated better than Gatorade (also good while drinking, and the sour and saltiness mixes well with tequila). There’s no reason to pay a premium for it instead of just skimming some from pickles you already have though.

I have two different vegan yogurts in the fridge right now. I’m so spoiled

That sounds nice.

The days go slowly and the years go quickly

She’s also a cop with a very unpalatable record. But yes, misogynoir is also a huge hurdle for her, as per that other comment

To be fair, that would be a good source of riboflavin.

This makes me realize that there’s actually been progress: I haven’t heard an acquaintance asking about a missing link to try and disprove evolution for at least a decade. That’s just my experience, but I used to hear it a lot.

The heat fills my brain and I can’t think about anything else

American living in Germany, working happily at a German bakery. Brötchen can be absolutely spectacular and I love German bread, but I still miss bagels. I’ve never had a good one here, but the ones you find in the grocery store are basically similar to grocery store bagels in the US(though sometimes they’re not boiled here, which explains why they might seem like Brötchen with a hole).

It’s honestly similar to good Laugengebäck, just without the taste of lye (Lauge), which makes sense. If that’s not appealing to you, sure, but my homemade bagels (which are good but not spectacular, compared to some bagels I’ve had) have always been a hit among the Germans I’ve made them for.

Yeah, otherwise I’d just make a key lime pie. I’m an experienced baker, but don’t have a big sweet tooth, so I haven’t done much non-bread baking lately and am pretty new to (and somewhat apprehensive of) vegan patisserie.