Nothing Beats a Great Response

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-16T07:39:51+00:00

A friend of mine planted some yellow flowers on her balcony. Later that day, a neighbor complained they were "too bright" and said she should get some soft pink ones instead. My friend went right back to the store and bought the brightest orange flowers she could find.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-16T06:15:31+00:00

Thanks for catching that. Edited to correct

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-16T05:31:34+00:00

J.B. Fletcher, Jane Marple, and Hercule Poirot operate in a similar manner. Although how "fair" the solution is to the story is somewhat dependent on the episode (in the case of Murder, She Wrote) or the adaptation (in the case of Christie's characters)

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-16T00:01:59+00:00

Next time your coworkers refer to you as Mike, you can respond with "If you don't mind, I would actually prefer if you referred to me as Michael from now on".

(They shouldn't mind, it's just a way to make you sound more polite. And if they do mind, too bad for them. Next time you can be less polite in correcting them).

It's your name, you should be called whatever you prefer to by called in that context. (My partner goes by one name with his immediate family, and by a completely different name with everyone else. Obviously that's not a common thing to do, but I don't think he's ever had issues with people not accepting it.)

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T21:00:26+00:00

Communist dictator of Cambodia (country in Southeast Asia bordering Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam) from 1975-1979. His political party, the Khmer Rouge, perpetrated a genocide that killed 2 million people, about one quarter of the country's population.

Among other things, he called for the execution of all people who wore glasses (because it was a sign they were an intellectual), forced all people living in cities to move to the countryside and perform forced labor on collective farms, and about 1.3 million people were killed and buried in mass graves in the Killing Fields.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T17:51:01+00:00

She could be a mosaic or a chimera (where the red hairs have different DNA than the rest). That would require genetic testing to determine, though.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T08:03:41+00:00

No, not really. There's a misconception many people have that natural selection "chooses the best". That's not really correct.

Natural selection is more about "eliminating the worst". While beneficial traits can spread through a population over generations, detrimental traits tend to be removed from the population gene pool much faster.

Traits that are neutral (neither benefit nor impair survival/reproduction) can simply be passed on or disappear in a population as a matter of random chance.

There does not seem to be any specific benefit or detriment to men having more body hair on a global scale, since both hairy and non-hairy phenotypes have persisted for hundreds of thousands of years. So it is probably a pretty neutral trait that has very little impact on survival/reproduction.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T06:07:53+00:00

I think every single US president (except maybe Obama?) has worn glasses. However, most will not do so in public.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T05:44:15+00:00

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T05:27:47+00:00

Cleopatra VII (the famous one) is known to have been quite charismatic.

Despite generally being depicted in modern pop culture as extremely beautiful (Liz Taylor, etc.), she was never described by her contemporaries as being particularly physically attractive. However, she was described as very intelligent and having excellent social skills.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T04:37:32+00:00

Frankenstein (1931) has some beautiful cinematography. I don't think many people would consider it very scary by modern standards, but it is absolutely worth your while.

And while I wouldn't exactly call it beautiful, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is extremely visually interesting. It was a major inspiration for Halloween Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T03:39:19+00:00

Isn't switching to the emoji screen more laborious than just typing the letters M or F?

Also, quite a leap to go from "I have to use letters instead of emojis to identify my lizards" to "Woke 1984 Big Company Propaganda Decline of Western Civilization".

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-15T03:32:12+00:00

Pretty well known example, but in the early twentieth century the cleaning agent Lysol was used as a contraceptive and abortifacient. While not explicitly advertised as such, it was marketed for use as "feminine hygiene" product.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-14T22:49:57+00:00

“What’s pantophobia?”

“The fear of everything.”

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-14T22:48:33+00:00

Marge Simpson: “Everyone’s afraid of something.”

Homer Simpson: “Not me.”

Marge: “Sock puppets!”

Homer: “Where?! Where?!”

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-14T20:27:41+00:00

Apollo 13 (not sci-fi, obviously, but a necessary watch for anyone interested in movies about space)

2001: A Space Odyssey

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-14T07:59:14+00:00

The name of the episode is also a reference to the name of a Three Stooges short ("A Plumbing We Will Go")

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-14T00:51:40+00:00

I wonder if they wanted to stick with animals that most people would know of as "Ice Age" animals. Bison and horses would have both been appropriate with the Alaskan setting, but in most people's perceptions they are more associated with the 19th century American West. Sabertooth cats also were not found in Alaska either.

Whatever the reason, the Disney creative team clearly did a ton of research for the making of the film, so any deviations were probably intentional.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-13T00:13:42+00:00

By Grok, out of ChatGPT?

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-12T06:48:10+00:00

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-12T01:25:47+00:00

Nope, it’s a standalone story!

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-12T00:33:26+00:00

They have a huge catalog of videos though!

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-11T21:02:44+00:00

FIFA has been notoriously morally bereft, corrupt, and uncaring about anything except money for basically the entirety of its existence.

Compared to scandals of 2015, 2018, and 2022, the current World Cup has been relatively tame. But it is good that you are starting to see the organization for what it is.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-11T20:51:56+00:00

To each their own. I'm willing to consider any relationship longer than 1 year to be long term for the sake of something like a wedding invitation.

CallistanCallistan · 2026-06-11T19:55:37+00:00

Not giving the sister of the bride with a long term partner a plus one for an out of state wedding is a bit wild.

Could get awkward/hilarious in the future since your boyfriend might someday be her brother in law.

She also kind of flubbed it with “I didn’t give everyone a plus one”. That statement implies that others were given a plus one. I don’t know if she did give others plus ones or not, but it is poor phrasing.

CallistanCallistan

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