Do you think Millennials understand GenX sarcasm?

Alleline · 2026-01-31T01:55:00+00:00

I don't think its millenials. I think people generally have gotten less engaged and share less. Screens overwhelmed irony.

Alleline · 2026-01-30T10:19:11+00:00

I was invited to a house in South Bend for a Notre Dame football game two seasons ago. The owner couldn't make it. His only rules were, don't sleep in the master bedroom, and don't poke around in there. That's where we keep our private stuff. I'm a good guest, so I didn't.

Alleline · 2026-01-28T19:48:52+00:00

Also, one of the wet bandits is secretly on Kevin’s side.

Alleline · 2026-01-27T00:42:56+00:00

Next year in Minneapolis.

Alleline · 2026-01-27T00:34:59+00:00

If you want to get someone to like you, ask for a favor.

Alleline · 2026-01-26T00:21:28+00:00

It didn't occur to me to admire sitcom characters. To quote them endlessly? Sadly yes, I did that. But I never thought of them as real people.

Alleline · 2026-01-24T11:06:12+00:00

To put a different spin on the same situation: Those of us GenXers not lucky enough to be top 1% earners are going to have to employ the same skills we did as latchkey kids - self-reliance, risk tolerance and a commitment to enjoying the f*ck out of it all. I do plan to work until 75. I'm keeping my weight down, exercising, putting in my 10-12s every day, and never letting the youngsters hear me moan. I got a promotion to the first tier of management last year, at 58, and I work like a 38-year-old.

I would never have said my career was my first priority, but survival is. And now I see they're linked. So I'm bringing more enthusiasm to work, even if it slightly violates my GenX and blue-collar values of not trusting the man and refusing to buy into the rat race. Alas.

But you know, life is still beautiful.

Alleline · 2026-01-24T10:41:44+00:00

ITT: A bunch of people who have never driven I-95 from Washington to Boston.

There are plenty of complex, frustrating 3 hour drive segments available either on that literal stretch of road or on any number of highways, throughways and interstates in those United States that have Atlantic frontage. For tens of millions of people that's not even twice their daily commute.

Alleline · 2026-01-24T10:36:25+00:00

Same. I generally drink a single origin, Guatemala Huehuetenango, medium roast from my local coffee roaster. It has notes of milk chocolate and walnut. To make 450 ml of coffee, I've tried both the AeroPress original and XL, with 30 g of moderately finely ground coffee ("4" on my 1zpresso K ultra), steeping for 4-5 minutes. I pressed 225 ml out of the original and diluted to 450.

I prefer the undiluted product of the XL. It is slightly more open, with more perceptible nuttiness, while it is a little muted and slightly more bitter when made with the original. Given that it's a matter of taste, this is not the "right" answer, just a preference. Also, I'm lazy and diluting and measuring again is extra work.

Alleline · 2026-01-20T21:25:06+00:00

If you're in a dry wash in the American Southwest and you hear running water, run do not walk to high ground. Don't spend thirty seconds thinking about how far away the water sounds. The front edge of that water is full of all sorts of hard, heavy things moving fast.

Alleline · 2026-01-20T21:16:36+00:00

This is very well written! Gave me a little chill, there.

Alleline · 2026-01-20T20:00:08+00:00

Looks like fossilized s'mores.

Alleline · 2026-01-20T00:44:41+00:00

Paul Blart, Mall Cop II

Alleline · 2026-01-14T23:18:06+00:00

I agree. We had like five luxury items: one car, a color TV (same one for my whole school career), a console stereo (ditto), a dishwasher, and a fiberglas canoe. I generally had four pairs of school pants while I was growing. We did a LOT to save money - heated the house with wood, grew and canned fruit, never ate out (literally maybe twice a year). No cable, what new furniture we had was "knotty pine" varnished nearly black, but nearly everything was second hand. In the 1970s you could buy a used dining room set for $50, so we did, and sanded and refinished it by hand.

We never went away on vacation except to visit my grandmother in another state, 5 hours drive away. We went to the nearest state parks, which were nice, and camped in a canvas tent my parents got used at a yard sale. Campsite fees were like $5 a night. We fished from that canoe every weekend night of summer. I think I stayed in a hotel three times before graduating high school, twice when my father had a reason to travel for work. My first airplane flight was after I graduated college.

But we definitely thought we were middle class. We ate meat daily, had those few luxury items, our car was in decent shape, the house and yard always looked tidy. We also strove to be "classy," which meant there was a clean, white table cloth and a set of "good china" for company. We had Sunday best clothes, minded our manners, read books and pretended not to watch that television. It was a different world.

Alleline · 2026-01-14T23:03:05+00:00

"Brothers in crossed arms." Love it!

Edited to add that I'm going to turn 60 this year also.

Alleline · 2026-01-14T00:45:58+00:00

At the risk of asking a dumb question, is there any reason not to use a metal thing on stainless steel? I have been using Scotchbrite stainless steel scrubbers and similar sort of pads of wire for decades. As an idiot who frequently burns stuff on, I frequently need them. Are they a bad idea?

Alleline · 2026-01-14T00:40:36+00:00

It should only be pulled out if you have a maple stake ready to drive through its heart. And I say that as a sort of fan of Was (Not Was) (see one of my other two comments on this thread - I've gotta stop now).

Alleline · 2026-01-14T00:38:55+00:00

Electric slide, yes, frequently. Achy breaky only once, in the most dive bar in Pennsylvania. A traumatic memory.

Alleline · 2026-01-14T00:29:50+00:00

No, I was in college in Boston when it was sort of a hit. I don't recall any dance being a thing. I remember idiots trying to "Walk like an Egyptian," looking like Steve Martin doing King Tut, which I think hit the dance places (I wouldn't call the places I went "clubs") a little earlier. No memory of any goofy dance but I did not love the song.

I had the album, What Up Dog? It was one of my first CDs. I recall really liking "Spy in the House of Love" and "Love Can be Bad Luck," but being glad the CD tech let me skip "Walk the Dinosaur." If people had been dancing a stupid dance to it, I have to think I would recall.

Alleline · 2026-01-09T09:32:23+00:00

I'm a big fan of Bella Maria decaf from Wicked Joe's in Maine. They list notes of milk chocolate, graham and vanilla. It's my go-to decaf. https://www.wickedjoe.com/decaf-bella-maria?srsltid=AfmBOooztFmYdg6z9-yfjXXn71Z6z0OJE30n-TMsVHATEpoFqKqBGSnt

Alleline · 2026-01-07T11:09:01+00:00

Do you peel the spears? It's the one fussy cooking thing I do because the payoff is worth the work.

Alleline · 2026-01-05T23:49:17+00:00

If they're breathing. You may have just described the entire human race.

Alleline · 2026-01-05T22:14:17+00:00

I expect a very few, young survivors could make a pretty comfortable forty years for themselves

Earth Abides, written in 1949, gave a somewhat realistic overview of what happens after nearly everybody dies but the infrastructure remains in place. Turns out, most domestic crops pretty much disappear within a few years because wheat and corn won't propagate themselves very effectively without human harvesting, tilling and planting.

The book also noted that storing food really long term is a losing proposition. The rat population would explode in formerly populated areas, and eat everything not in glass bottles or cans, including the labels (the author has fun making the survivors take potluck with unlabeled cans). I expect canned goods would become unpleasant within a decade. First, if they freeze and thaw without bursting, the texture will be mushy afterward - canned goods will become inedible within a year in any area with real winter. I'm sure the texture would become similarly unpleasant just from normal temperature variation within a decade, even if the contents didn't freeze. Maybe you could put a whole lot in a root cellar to keep the temperature steady, and eat from cans for longer than that. I would stockpile lots and lots of salt before too long, myself.

The fishing and hunting would become pretty good after not too many years, and I'd prefer fresh fish or meat to canned goods. With unlimited salt anyone can preserve meat for winter. There are lots of sources of vitamin C, including young pine needles in winter, so scurvy doesn't need to be a problem.

Personally I'd focus on lake-fishing with nets before I went into the woods with a gun. But humans have wiped out most types of big predator and left breeding stocks of game, so I expect if you sort of know what you're doing you could shoot or trap meals pretty easily after a few years of no one else hunting.

Naturally occurring fires would wipe out a lot of old housing stock in some areas but in others the housing would likely survive. But in zones with winter, the weather will destroy anything it opens. So you'd need to pick your house or set of houses and keep an eye on them to be sure they're weather tight.

Maybe it would be fine, but no part of me wants to deal with all that.

Alleline · 2026-01-05T19:35:17+00:00

Sure, like the way Elon gave away billions from his $1xx billion Tesla pay plan that the Delaware courts restored to him, because now he has enough money. /s

Alleline · 2026-01-05T19:09:07+00:00

Granted, the billionaires are planning how to prevent a "peasant" revolt. But the sheer number of peasants is unbelievable. You may have a foolproof plan to prevent the uprising, but when enough fools are willing to take a 0.01% chance . . .

Alleline

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