Playing hockey?

Be careful with that advice. Yew is highly toxic.

Here’s exactly what my feed looks like. I’d say this is further evidence that the straights are not okay.

This appears to be almost a quote from Clarence Darrow which has been misattributed to multiple other historical figures over the years.

He likely took a diagnostic test for cognitive decline that has 30 questions. But he somehow thinks it was an IQ test. He claims he got all 30 right, which they told him is a perfect score. He probably thinks he’s a genius with “a very high IQ.”

It’s the Dunning–Kruger effect in action.

You’re right. I just wish politicians would just let us have nice things.

Oh, I’d have to say before. Now I’m extra glad I quit when I did.

I’m glad I gave up after season 2. I kept waiting for something important to happen, but all I ever got out of it was poorly written family drama.

That’s a fair criticism. We know how poll testing has historically been used to disenfranchise minority groups.

That’s why I suggested the citizenship exam, which is a well-established test with specific parameters and existing preparation programs.

There are meetup groups in other countries, too. I’m currently in Colombia and I was kind of lost until I found a local board gaming group.

We have demonstrated that it is impossible to describe all aspects of physical reality using a computational theory of quantum gravity …

Okay, but isn’t that just evidence that the theory of quantum gravity doesn’t actually describe our universe?

I’m getting real Principal Skinner vibes from this. “Is our theory so out of touch? No, it’s reality that is wrong.”

I think that voter registration should work like driver licensing. And the test you have to pass should be the citizenship exam.

In this administration, every accusation is an admission.

Fun fact: The “cherry” part of the coffee cherry tastes awful, but the mucilage around the bean tastes sweet. (But it has a very “green” flavor, so not everyone enjoys it.)

Some coffee is dried still inside the cherry (natural process). Or you can take off the cherry and leave the mucilage (honey process). Or you can get rid of everything before drying (washed process). No matter which process you use, the cherry and parchment are always removed before roasting.

Before you ever even think about different ways of roasting, beans from the same variety of plant will have different flavor profiles depending on the drying process.

The time, thought, and effort that goes into good coffee at every stage is staggering. I totally understand why artisan coffee carries a hefty price tag.

Source: You really can’t live in Colombia without learning all about coffee.

I’m sorry. That sucks.

Fortunately, life is what you make it, and the holiday season is just part of life.

It took me a while, but I found a group of friends who have similar values and (lack of) family situations to mine, and we often spend holidays together.

Local meetup groups were instrumental in bringing us together and solidifying those friendships. If you don’t have a local meetup scene, you could try starting a group. Any town with more than a few hundred people is likely to have at least a few people who want to join your movie club, hiking group, or some other thing you enjoy.

If those things are not options for you, maybe you can find volunteer opportunities in your community. Shelters and soup kitchens almost always need extra help during the holiday season, and you might meet some new friends there, too.

There are a lot of ways to make meaning for yourself, and once you have some people in your corner, the annual messages from American culture will feel less pointed and a bit more bearable. (At least, that’s been my experience.)

Not currently teaching in a “US hole.” I’ve been teaching in South America for 5 years and I have never noticed an analog clock in a public place here.

I’m from the US, but I’m currently a teacher in South America. Kids here are even worse at reading analog clocks than my students in the US were.

Teacher here.

I’m pretty certain that the only place where my students ever encounter an analog clock is at school. But teaching how to read analog clocks is required in our math education standards, so I have one and I use it, even though I think there are other, more relevant places to put our academic focus.

I’m 45 years old. I’m pretty sure we only ever had one analog clock in our house when I was growing up in the '80s, and that was my grandpa’s alarm clock. The only places I’ve been where only analog clocks were available have been schools. Even our local bank in my small town changed to a digital clock on its sign outside.

Unfortunately, education systems are dictated by legislators, who are often old and out-of-touch. So I doubt we’ll see a change in the education requirements any time soon. But, just like how keyboarding has replaced cursive in classrooms, it will eventually come.

I did it for almost 10 years. Most of the work we did was fine, but some was utterly opposed to my personal values. I started making donations to my favorite charities (mostly Planned Parenthood and ACLU) every time I had a new work project that I felt was working against their goals.

When my husband and I were financially stable enough, I noped out of that job and found something that paid less but was affirming instead of soul-crushing.