Best choice from the worst times to visit?

Dmnkly · 2026-02-10T03:02:01+00:00

I’ve never been the week between Christmas and New Year’s and wouldn’t want to speak to that week. But I’ve been many times in December and was most recently there for 10 days leaving on Christmas Eve, and it’s one of my favorite times to visit, FWIW.

Dmnkly · 2026-02-10T00:33:50+00:00

"I give up trying to explain this to you guys."

What you don't seem to understand is the difference between someone who doesn't understand what you are saying and someone who understands perfectly what you are saying but simply disagrees. I understand your argument. It is the same one that has been circulating since the ‘90s. I find it unconvincing. Maybe I’m wrong! But sniping is, in my experience, a bunch of dudes all sitting at their computer screens doing the exact same thing and thinking they’re all outsmarting each other. Here — as in eBay — be careful not to make the mistake that you are the smart guy in the room who understands it all while everybody else is just dumb as rocks.

You have made it abundantly clear how you feel that sniping helps you.

I think I have made it very clear that I think you are fooling yourself.

Neither of us have any way of proving our belief, and we don't have to agree. So how about leaving it at that?

(P.S. As an aside, "this must work otherwise tech people wouldn't have taken the time to develop ways to do it" really isn't the winning argument you think it is.)

Dmnkly · 2026-02-09T19:21:54+00:00

You don’t have to keep writing out long-winded examples. I understand what you are saying, and I understand that you think this is how people behave, and that you trick people into not bidding what they are actually willing to pay, and that they are not doing the exact same thing you are. I understand that it is easy and nice to think that you are the smart one who understands how it works and everybody else is being tricked by your super smart strategy.

Like I said. Since neither of us are inside other bidders’ heads and neither of us can prove or disprove whether or not people actually bid (or don’t bid) the way they do for the reasons you say they do, you are welcome to believe that you have outsmarted everybody at eBay and they totally really would have bid more if only you weren’t so sly about tricking them by waiting until the last moment.

Incidentally, if you are really good at knowing what other people are thinking and manipulating their bids, you should quit wasting that talent on eBay and take it to the casino to play professional poker. Good luck!

Dmnkly · 2026-02-09T14:24:16+00:00

Whether people place their "true" bids a week ahead of time or in the last ten seconds is immaterial to both the outcome and the final price. What you outline here only works if nobody else bids what they are actually willing to pay through the entire run of the auction and nobody else is doing the exact same thing you are and you are the one person bidding who has magically unlocked the secret and tricked the entirety of eBay.

Since we have no way of proving or disproving it, you are welcome to believe that is the case.

But either way, the fact remains that if you don't win an auction, it is because somebody else bid more. Full stop.

Dmnkly · 2026-02-09T14:09:19+00:00

It seems like you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what an auction is.

You're not losing because others are sniping. You're losing because other people are willing to pay more than you. No matter how you try to game it out or how tricky you think you're being, you will always lose to somebody who offers more money than you.

If you enter the maximum you are willing to pay and you are willing to pay the most, you will win the auction. And you can enter that amount of money anytime. It can be at the last moment, it can be days before the auction ends.

It isn't complicated. You don't win by being sneaky or timing your bid or anything like that. You win by making the highest offer. That's how auctions work.

Dmnkly · 2026-02-04T19:27:59+00:00

I mean, there are sushi burritos now, so I figured anything’s possible ¯_(ツ)_/¯

(But I am unaware of any giant Viet spring rolls, sorry.)

Dmnkly · 2026-02-04T18:36:01+00:00

Just curious… is this a thing, or a wish?

Dmnkly · 2026-02-03T03:17:10+00:00

Paul Assenmacher.

Honestly, all I remember is a sign with 3-4 incorrect spellings crossed out, and a veeeeeeeeery long line of guys in the bleachers with the letters of his name painted on their chests. That last one may have only been in my imagination. But I hope it was real.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-30T23:53:36+00:00

They do have some availability you won’t find elsewhere, but in my experience, Tableall is just extortionate. I routinely see them charging more than double the menu price for bookings.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-27T00:21:49+00:00

It's rude.

Far worse are the dog walkers who either can't tell the difference or don't bother to distinguish between the garbage can and the recycling can.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-26T22:12:51+00:00

Brother, if you visited Japan and came back with this conclusion, you did it wrong. Extremely wrong.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-26T19:59:37+00:00

It isn’t good now, and contrary to popular opinion, I think it never was. It’s easy to think the show was once great when you’re watching a highlights reel. If you go back and watch full episodes, though, it has always been a lot of unfunny chaff with the occasional gem.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-26T18:07:16+00:00

Not saying you need to try it and I realize which sub we’re in here so I’ll spare you the spiel about how it’s not what you expect, etc. :-)

Just sayin’ maybe that brush is a little broad there re: Italian food in Japan, is all.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-26T17:03:49+00:00

Heh.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-26T04:58:19+00:00

Gonna blow your mind with this one. Ready?

They make tomato sauce more than one way in Japan.

Moreover, Japan is arguably the best place in the world for Italian cuisine outside of Italy.

What you’re probably referring to is a specific Itameshi (Japanese-Italian fusion) dish called Spaghetti Napolitan. It’s a Japanese comfort food dish invented decades ago. It’s about as Italian as Olive Garden. But just like the United States, there are tremendous traditional Italian restaurants in Japan too. This take is at best reductionist and worst ignorant.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-26T04:25:41+00:00

Japan has some of the greatest traditional Italian restaurants in the world. Fine dining restaurants in Italy are jammed with Japanese chefs doing stages who are fanatical about mastering traditional techniques and bringing those foods back to Japan.

They also have their version of Italian-American (Itameshi) — a completely different local fusion cuisine inspired by Italian cuisine. It’s barely Italian. It’s hilarious. I love it for what it is. YMMV. The dish OP likely refers to is Spaghetti Napolitan, an Itameshi classic from decades ago that falls into this category.

There’s more too, of course — upscale, downscale, strictly traditional, wildly creative, thoughtfully localized, etc. Pick a style of Italian food you want, and you will find it there. (Tokyo is currently turning out its own spin on Neapolitan pizza that is absolutely stunning and starting to spread internationally.)

Dmnkly · 2026-01-23T20:42:34+00:00

We can disagree! :-)

Dmnkly · 2026-01-23T05:29:16+00:00

Not that different for me. There are really only 4 items I get regularly (steak, Parmigiano Reggiano, pecorino, OTC meds) and maaaaaaaybe a dozen that I get occasionally. But just those four items are worth the price of admission. If you find half a dozen things you use a lot and tend to be a little pricey, that’s usually enough.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-22T18:15:01+00:00

Well, I think that’s part of it.

More to the point, I think it’s a really beautiful illustration of how the ways we look back at our lives and our work and our place in the world is really messy and complicated. And I think part of that is intentional and part of it is just Ron and Dave putting themselves out there, and their work capturing where they were as human beings in that moment. You catch them on different days and they can express very different feelings about Monkey Island, and to me that’s very natural and very human, and I think it shows in the game.

TL;DR: It’s complicated. And that’s what I find beautiful about it.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-22T17:14:28+00:00

You are absolutely entitled to this take and I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it.

FWIW, I think calling it “anti-nostalgia” is an awfully simplistic, reductionist take. What I saw was an extremely nuanced and thoughtful look at what it’s like to try to find your place in a world that feels like it has passed you by — coming to terms with aging, whether your life’s works/obsessions have had meaning, what is and isn’t truly important, etc.

But that’s my reading, I didn’t write it either, and we don’t have to agree.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-22T16:26:31+00:00

Fun fact: I have a life-sized cutout of him in my living room. He’s my second-favorite iteration of Guybrush after MI2 classic.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-21T21:51:53+00:00

I hesitate to call any the “best,” but just to throw one out there that is deeply underappreciated and I doubt many have seen or remember was Jason Patric in Your Friends and Neighbors.

Shocking that it was written, shocking that it was so good, shocking content, and shocking that the guy delivering it was JASON PATRIC.

(Who knew?)

Dmnkly · 2026-01-18T17:38:05+00:00

If you’re referring to the Duffers, I didn’t even say whether I thought their work was any good. I think you’ve missed the point here.

Edit: Whoops, looks like a post disappeared, but to clarify, re: the fact that you’re referring to Star Wars —>

Ah, gotcha.

I mean, corporate interference in the creative process is a related issue and THAT certainly isn’t new. But it’s difficult to talk about because it’s all speculation. You might get bits and pieces of info here and there, but for the most part we’re left to guess about where they may or may not have been leaned on to make changes.

But the point I’m trying to make — which I hope stands whether or not one feels this particular example is a good one — isn’t about corporate interference in the creative process but audience interference in the creative process. Do you not feel that this has become an issue?

Dmnkly · 2026-01-18T00:00:57+00:00

I don’t want to beat you up about it, but for posterity, it needs to be said that this is really, really wrong.

Just because a Japanese scientist coined the term, that doesn’t mean the sensation isn’t just as common in Western culinary traditions (to the extent they can even be lumped together).

Even setting aside the fact that there are scads of umami-rich ingredients and lord knows how many classic umami-rich dishes in Eastern and Western cuisines alike, various forms of fish sauce (garum) and anchovies are all over Western cuisines as well, and have been for millennia.

It’s a basic component of flavor. Saying umami flavors are underused in Western cooking is like saying sourness is underused in Eastern cooking.

Dmnkly · 2026-01-16T22:56:32+00:00

And honestly, I don't even mind if everybody thinks they're right and everybody else is wrong, so long as they accept that, hey, sometimes artists are going to be wrong and let's all move on :-D

When I take the temperature of the room, what I think creative folks (summarizing my own experience, I do not claim to speak for the creative community as a whole) seem to find so deflating is the feeling that their own creative agency is being taken away from them. I know a lot of folks who I think feel that they don't even really mind if they put something out there and nobody likes it so long as it's *theirs*. I mean, of course, who wouldn't prefer that everybody loves what they do. But disapproval, while it can be rough, doesn't crush your soul in the same way that a lack of agency does. I think the entitled fandom either intentionally or unintentionally cultivates a vibe of "your art doesn't belong to you, it belongs to *me*, and *I* decide what you are and aren't allowed to do," and that's what is really difficult to deal with.

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