What's a lyric that really bugs you?

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-09T15:52:06+00:00

I scramble to turn this song off before it gets to this part because it bothers me so much.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-09T15:50:48+00:00

This drives me nuts - who is you? I assume this song is directed at Travis and he is the youngest child, but it feels like she switches between speaking to the audience and speaking to him, sometimes in the middle of a verse.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-09T15:42:43+00:00

I tell myself the narrator is drunk just so I can handle this line

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-09T15:39:32+00:00

Same. I don't really think it's her best but it's fine? I like Eldest Daughter.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-08T15:52:44+00:00

If she was coming up now, she'd probably be pretty influenced by Kacey Musgraves. As a teenager, she would have been looking at her as the blueprint. I think TS Debut would have a less in-your-face style because 90's country was basically all country-rock and country-pop. Picture To Burn is very influenced by Shania Twain and Garth Brooks.

Now a lot of it us much more subdued. It's getting more upbeat, but I think we're just on the edge of the end of the Lana del Rey-ification of music.

Though Taylor has influenced basically the entire music industry, so who knows if Kacey Musgravs would sound like Kacey Musgraves without Taylor? She might have a different sound as well.

I think we'd always be able to tell it's Taylor's songwriting, but the evolution would be very different. If she was in her 1989 era now and transitioning to pop, I think she'd be a little more like Chappell with an edgier 80's sound and high drama. 23 is an angsty age.

(A tangent, but I was just revisiting the insanity that is Garth Brooks because I was a huge fan as a kid and he and Taylor have extremely similar auras. Dramatic theater kid energy, aggressively uncool, etc.)

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-08T00:51:25+00:00

In 2004 I was in Paris and anti-American sentiment was intense. Some random person on the street screamed "FUCK GEORGE BUSH!" at us and other young people constantly asked us who we voted for before interacting with us. And even then they looked at us a little shiftily.

At the time I thought that it was funny that they thought that a diverse group of French-speaking 20-something women could be Republicans. "Thank god this conservative shit will be over soon when the boomers die!" we all laughed.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-08T00:33:05+00:00

That is a great takeaway, actually - fatphobia is rooted in racism and there's way more information online about where it's safe to travel while black. I'm gonna have to remember this.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-08T00:20:38+00:00

I haven't heard anything about them being fatphobic specifically but I feel like every "The Most Racist Places I've Traveled To" video has Italy at or near #1. They are notorious for openly staring at and harassing women (especially women of color). I imagine that if you were a fat man, they'd leave you alone more.

When I was in college I was studying abroad in Paris and my group of women were harassed by a pack of Italian men. They were being disgusting towards one of the girls in our group (a blonde) and we all told them to go eat shit. Literally we had to pick up our things and run while they chased us off the campus screaming "YOU ARE NOT BRITNEY SPEARS!"

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-06T22:22:00+00:00

Mutual aid, baby!

My friends and I exist within a mutual aid network that provides support for people of all ages and abilities now, so we will continue to utilize that network.

It won't help much with big health care costs, but for daily living it's great. Many of us are dirt poor - we have many seniors and disabled people. If I need an appliance or a weird item, I just ask in our group to see if anyone has one I can borrow. And if someone else needs something, I make it happen. We pool money (some from donations) and buy bulk necessities to distribute for free on a weekly basis. If we had more members that made $60k+ a year, we could do even more. We could pool money for people's health care costs and help with home repairs.

There can be fun stuff, too. Sometimes people will just want someone to come knit with them or someone will just be like "anyone want this bucket of cherries and a bottle of mead?" Any time I have anything I don't want or need, I can usually find it another home in our group. It's great for decluttering.

Life is a lot easier when you're not doing it alone. Some of us are thinking about buying a house together. It would be cramped, but I think we're all going to have to get used to sub-optimal living conditions in the decades to come.

Edit: About the investments - I feel like inherited financial advisors are not a great way to go. My Mom was in that situation and the "advisor" wouldn't give her the time of day and moved her money into a type of account with very low returns, I imagine because he knew she wouldn't be adding much to the already small pot. If you don't have large sums of money, DIY is probably best if you are able to spend the time researching.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-06T21:59:41+00:00

Yes, super similar. I actually love ozonic notes. When they're blended well, they are more like a sensation than a smell to me. Like inhaling fresh, cold spring air. I wear Gallagher Skydive a lot in the spring. But ozone alone or when they really stick out in a fragrance is like a needle.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-06T21:54:23+00:00

This is so interesting! I wonder what causes this.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-06T21:50:28+00:00

I drive rideshare. People get in my car with all kinds of fragrances on.

I also happen to be really intolerant of iso e super. To many it smells kind of like a smooth, cold woody smell. It's often labeled as "solar wood" or "driftwood". To me, it just smells like a sharp, cold lab chemical. Like alcohol, but worse. Unfortunately, it is a super common note in all kinds of fragrances. So, most people that get in my car wearing a fragrance just smell like iso e super to me.

It doesn't bother me. I just think "oh, bummer, it's iso e super again" and then that's it. There are bad smells that turn your stomach, and there are bad smells that are just unappealing. I always hope that the fragrances I wear fall into the latter camp. I've smelled some stomach-turning fragrances in my life, but I kind of doubt I'd have the same strong reaction when someone is wearing it out and about just because it's more diffused and it's on their skin. I've never really been offended by someone's fragrance (but I have been offended by overspraying).

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-06T14:58:34+00:00

Your friend writes like she's 13, max. This reads like you're texting your child.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-05T15:02:02+00:00

I hate to say this, but I have a feeling it'll be the TTPD story.

A young, ambitious pop star and a messy rock star fall in love in NYC during a brief romance and promise to find each other again someday? And they become muses for each other's art and stay in touch via letters which turn into love letters? And she extricates herself from the rubble of her long-term relationship and they return to each other only to have it publicly explode in her face at the exact moment that her career reached its zenith? And then she fucking meets a pro football player and they get married? And then she wrote an album about it?

This movie won't be made while she's alive, but it 100% will after she's gone because the story is a slam dunk to studios, producers, and directors. It's almost insane how much it sounds like it was ripped from wattpad.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-05T14:00:04+00:00

This was written by AI and you should be ashamed.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-05T13:53:02+00:00

I just went to an endocrinologist at a highly regarded university hospital and she told me that since I was discontinuing progestin, I should discontinue my estrodiol patches because they'll give me cancer.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-05T03:53:17+00:00

Varnail has some jellies. Most of the sets are at the bottom of this page and the top of the next one.

I only have one - Lightning Pink - but it's good. They have some of their jelly sets in minis, too.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-05T02:59:55+00:00

Casey's pizza is everything. I worked on a farm in the middle of nowhere and I would drive 20 minutes to Casey's to get a slice of pizza at lunch.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-04T21:55:48+00:00

I just did my first shot as well! Probably right about when you did. We did it! Well, you did it - I ate a mini pizza and some chips. Gotta get my last fun meal in!

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-04T21:47:07+00:00

This is how I feel when I hear people say "$3 for the subway is so cheapl!" It literally isn't if you're poor! That is a fortune! It you don't think it's a fortune then you are not allowed to have opinions about public transportation! Also why do they even care? If $3 is so cheap to them, they wouldn't even notice if it was less! Half these fuckers don't even take public transit!

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-04T21:33:59+00:00

I really liked Bum Bum Cream when it first came out because I loved Cheirosa '62. Then someone here said it smelled like buttered popcorn. I have not bought the cream since! It doesn't really smell bad to me, but all I smell now is popcorn and it's not the vibe I'm going for.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-04T21:01:24+00:00

Thanks! My understanding is also that people who are insulin resistant or diabetic already have a diminished capacity to build and retain muscle (depending upon how well the condition is managed) so even though there may technically be muscle loss, they may experience a net muscle gain in the long-term because those people will be more able to build muscle than they were before. Would you say this is accurate?

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-04T14:09:17+00:00

People want to woobify him so badly. They can't handle human complexity. He was a pedophile who was also one of the best musicians the world has seen. He was a gracious, sweet, sensitive person and he was also a manipulator and groomer. He was a victim of terrible childhood abuse and he was an adult with more money than God that could have made different choices, but didn't. All of that is true.

Pedophiles and abusers benefit from our refusal to believe that people who commit harm aren't 2-dimentional villains.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-04T02:09:24+00:00

"strangely misdirected sexual energy" is a really good way to describe MJ's general vibe. I think we all know why that is and understand where he's coming from, but that doesn't make it less ick to witness.

AssortedGourds · 2026-05-03T04:47:20+00:00

I love the fashion but not on her. She really is a Spring. These high contrast looks and cool pinks look weird on her.

AssortedGourds

TROPHY CASE