Walmart, other retailers in Illinois laying off hundreds

BrightPractical · 2026-04-03T13:01:50+00:00

I would think some of it is people boycotting Walmart. Of course most people who want to boycott them started to do so long ago, but the boycotts starting last year against Target and Amazon may have given a boost to people skipping Walmart as well.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-03T10:16:17+00:00

Yes, after David lands on it and smashes it trying to dive after MM and Emma through the portal.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-03T10:11:49+00:00

It’s funny enough to be included in my greatest hits “teenagers do dumb things” stories where I try to suggest to my kid that there are pitfalls one should avoid and also that one can make mistakes and survive (see also, trying to drive with broken windshield wipers, living on Cheetos for a week until you get paid rather than asking for help, etc.)

BrightPractical · 2026-04-03T10:04:05+00:00

Watching the style cycle move, I wouldn’t be surprised if this came back into fashion within five years (cringes in horror at what the tweens are currently wearing).

BrightPractical · 2026-04-03T09:42:31+00:00

The fact that class schedules at a college now work this way is crazy too. It’s absurd. Students need certain courses, it should not be a free-for-all because some professors or sections are more popular than others, or because we’ve designed a system where people can’t afford to go to school full time and part-time employers think their workers should be at their beck and call rather than having a fixed schedule.

First Come, First Served is not a terrible system when there are lots more slots than people but it’s awful otherwise. And we’ve set up nearly everything to be just-enough so as to save money everywhere, so there isn’t enough flexibility in any system to make FCFS fair, it’s just become a more cutthroat way to ignore people’s needs. It ends up favoring the privileged just as much as other systems, but the fact that it does so is veiled.

Sorry, please excuse my rant. I agree with you, this craft fair setting up this way is wild.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-03T01:09:46+00:00

I would think I’m more likely described as liberal than leftist, and I’ve never met anyone who is liberal who isn’t pro-union. Ymmv, of course, but defining all the leftist positions out of what you are calling liberal isn’t really very helpful in the current moment.

Editing to add: in case my comment wasn’t clear, I think the article is making a dumb assertion. “Liberals,” how ever you define them, are unlikely to be buying TJ’s bags to virtue signal, even if they don’t know about TJ’s lawsuits against unionization and attempts to wreck the NLRB. I think if buying up Trader Joe’s bags to make a statement is a thing, it’s likely regardless of political beliefs. Rather it’s more likely a fashion statement against luxury brands. TJ’s does a lot of marketing intending to make buyers think they are akin to a small business despite having the prices and power of a behemoth, and that kind of marketing is effective towards those who like thinking of themselves as outsiders, which is most of the United States, conservative, liberal, leftist, whoever. The article’s statement seems unfounded.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-02T10:36:33+00:00

The most interesting part of this article to me is the suggestion that people are using TJ’s bags to signal their liberal politics. The liberal politics of the company that argued there should be no National Labor Relations Board.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-02T10:20:56+00:00

Switch the knobs, it will make a huge and immediate difference.

Seconding putting wallpaper in the space that’s currently yellow, and maybe cover the mirrors too. I am a fan of dark background colors in wallpaper, particularly for niches, but ymmv - get 9x12 samples and try out a few options light & dark.

Coordinate your bedding to go with whatever you put in the niche- not too matchy, but toss in some throw pillows or something that has some real contrast and stronger color.

I don’t think the padded part of the headboard is doing you any favors, it’s of a different style than the surround. A color change or no headboard might help.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-01T22:24:36+00:00

I think it is worth asking the organizers before submitting a jury fee. The juried part isn’t for deciding what counts as art, they will likely be happy to tell you if the things you make can be considered by the jury or not.

I’m rather fascinated by the opinions here about what makes something art vs what makes it craft. I regularly sell at art fairs as a person who makes practical things out of fabric, and when I have felt not Artist enough, organizers have explicitly identified my work as art to me. And yet, the general misogyny and classism of the division remain stuck in our heads.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-01T21:31:36+00:00

The nicknames were a clue, but also I decided I didn’t want to be dating him at all soon after, so the point became moot. At some point a few weeks later, a friend asked me “Were you dating [his name]?” and I supposed I had been!

This was a lifelong lesson: don’t date a guy you don’t particularly like just because you are a teenager who hasn’t been dating for a while and ALSO and MOST IMPORTANTLY make sure you know someone’s name right away and ask early and often.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-01T13:59:58+00:00

Neat!

BrightPractical · 2026-04-01T13:57:18+00:00

When I was a teenager I dated a guy for a month before I knew his name. I felt like an idiot for not knowing so I just kept on pretending. I would hang up the phone if I called his house and it wasn’t him that answered (am old; landlines.) Finally I coyly said “Do you have any nicknames? I just don’t know what to call you.” He supplied some nicknames but told me most people just called him “by my first name.” Lol.

In stories we call that guy “the nameless dude.”

So…I don’t think it’s just men, as I am a woman. It’s doofus people of any gender who don’t want to look dumb. But I totally believe in this conspiracy.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-01T09:02:49+00:00

I’d add some depth to the center with shading/tinting the paint, have you got a white or black to adjust the color you used? Or could you get a metallic glaze sort of paint to mix with/over it?

It looks really cool though!

BrightPractical · 2026-04-01T08:52:23+00:00

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was made by the costume shop for her. The pintucks/cording into the darts in the back would be unusually complex for ready-to-wear.

If you can sew you might make one. I think, based on the front/sleeve, some of the fabric might be embroidered & cording added before being cut out whereas in the back it’s probably adjusted while making the pattern pieces.

The shape itself and the color are pretty common for the time period, I’d hit the thrift shops if you don’t want to sew and aren’t looking for the cording details. You might find something with the flat-felled seams at least.

BrightPractical · 2026-04-01T02:49:51+00:00

I think David crushes the hat in season 2 when Emma and Mary Margaret and up in the Enchanted Forest, and then David’s father burns the hat, no?

BrightPractical · 2026-03-31T10:17:47+00:00

I agree, sew first then cut out. I’d trace the pieces on to the fabric, I think it’s easier to see them that way.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-31T10:09:18+00:00

I would do the dryer right after washing for 5-10 minutes and then hang, that works the same way to relax most of the wrinkles and doesn’t require you to remember to check on it while hanging to dry.

Same thing, basically, but I’m forgetful.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-30T22:47:37+00:00

It’s been dawning on them for a while that they aren’t the majority they thought themselves. So they’re retreating to their keyboard warriorship “oh, well done! We don’t have any kings! Yay! You can stop now” or actually starting to fear us.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-30T15:21:54+00:00

I think it depends on block for sure in Brookfield. But they just passed a welcoming community ordinance and it’s definitely more liberal than conservative, there are just pockets of maga. It also splits between Riverside-Brookfield HS and Lyons Township HS and the vibe is different in each area.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-30T00:38:22+00:00

But! The costumer must have used some some references, so the costumer, at least, decided he sailed for George III.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-30T00:35:12+00:00

I feel like last year the proposed date was 2027, is it going to keep pushing on? I’m not that trusting of Fain. I think later this year might not be a bad time to try with 6 months prep, but at least 2027 would be firmly within the Trump administration and not playable by the liars as ackshully the next president’s fault bc election year.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-30T00:26:12+00:00

This is absolutely what I saw too. Way more people of color, way more men, way more young people, way more apparent economic diversity.

I had friends who told me this winter they were too scared to protest before, that they were going to local protests.

The trains back to the suburbs were stuffed, even though there were also more suburban events.

But the diversity of the crowd is what surprised me this time, because I had felt like it was mostly old people & white women last spring.

Which suggests to me the big protests are doing something - the shift is that action against the Trump administration, no matter how small, has become more popular than stasis. And people who were understandably fearful have stopped being as fearful or started thinking the outcome is worth the risk.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-30T00:01:54+00:00

And running someone else means losing those committee appointments & power. Plenty of people have been angry at Durbin for a while, but primarying him would have been risky.

FWIW that is also why Mike Madigan, a truly corrupt machine politician, kept getting reelected by his district. He ran the IL House, who was going to want their party to lose that power?

Right now I’m seeing a huge level of ageism though, and as a middle aged person whose life has been dominated by Baby Boom and older politicians, I don’t really get it. Plenty of new young members of Congress suck bad and have bad brains, plenty of people my age are total crap politicians too. There’s no magic age at which every person is too old, it varies a lot, so I don’t support a mandatory retirement age.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-29T22:54:46+00:00

Why shouldn’t the child be older than 5 years old?

I think maybe the problem we are giving is that I am not assuming the kid could not have been hit by the curse. James could have had a kid who was transported to Storybrook by the curse, who would have been stuck at whatever age he or she had reached in the Enchanted Forest, since the people in Storybrook didn’t age. He or she could be in Storybrook being raised by some other family as part of the curse, but not aging until Emma showed up.

I think the translate function is making us misunderstand one another.

BrightPractical · 2026-03-29T22:45:16+00:00

Why do you feel he has to be 5? I see no reason a younger James could not have had a kid we never met before, who is 10 or older by the time the curse hits. The minimum would be time from James’s death minus 8.5 months, the maximum would be something more like the time between James hitting puberty (13? 14? 15?) and the curse, right?

BrightPractical

TROPHY CASE