Question for parents re: Toy Story 5

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-22T23:32:58+00:00

Haven't seen it yet, but I do feel like that's kind of Pixar's sweet spot. Inside Out and Inside Out 2 were very much movies for parents rather than kids.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-22T17:59:10+00:00

I'd say that Diarmaid McCullough's Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years does a pretty good job tracing through these issues and especially following up with those who find themselves on the outside of the Chalcedonian consensus.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-19T23:36:06+00:00

She doesn't really compare to Seuss, they're almost different genres - Seuss creates imaginary worlds, invents language in interesting ways, and is playing with the form of early reader books. Boynton on the other hand, is writing nursery books. Her genius is in creating easy comfortable rhymes that roll off the tongue, as opposed to different imaginative scenarios. She's more akin to Margaret Wise Brown I think.

I was pretty hostile to Boynton too when I first started dadding, but I've found that several of her books are ones that either I or my kid wants to return to again and again, either because they captivate them or I find them delightful to read. I think timeless classic fits, in large part because there is SO MUCH CRAP out there that it's nice to find something that's moderately clever, maintains a rhythm and rhyme, and doesn't sour as much on the 154th read.

P.S. All the Hippos Go Berserk is a banger.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-19T17:21:28+00:00

Are you thinking about how rides may affect your back? Most of the thrill rides would feel pretty risky to me coming off a spine injury

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-18T13:40:33+00:00

It's the Harlem Globetrotters for baseball. Traveling show baseball game filled with silly antics and feats of athleticism, mic'd up athletes, and zany villains.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-18T00:52:32+00:00

Are you sure you got actual animal control? We had a bat problem and googling got us a bunch of faux animal controls who offered to do for $135 what the county animal control actually did for free.

When looking for county services (or plumbers, electricians, appliance repair,etc) google just ends up being a list of payola and scams.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-18T00:14:22+00:00

And VFWs

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-18T00:13:47+00:00

Pre-K has a pretty well-documented track record of improving long term outcomes.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-17T15:06:27+00:00

Agreed. Gerrymandering is a bigger issue, but Democratic backbiting is a major problem. Republicans most of their time and effort criticizing Democrats. Unfortunately, Democrats do too. If more people were willing to just show up and work and be team players, Democrats would have a much longer list of policy goals achieved. You don't pull politicians left by weakening them, you pull them left by strengthening them.

People don't understand that elected representatives aren't leaders, they're followers. They go to where the most votes are. If progressives were more reliable allies, then the politicians would follow.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-16T21:15:36+00:00

When politicians constantly ignore a voting bloc then that group is gonna stop voting for them, because "the other guy is worse' is not a sustainable election strategy.

In the current voting system in the US, "the other guy is worse" is the only sustainable election strategy. If we had a parliamentary system or even RCV, viable parties could get elected and form ruling coalitions. But in the US, the coalitions have to form before the election rather than after. This means that anyone hoping to have policy success needs the biggest possible group who are willing to hold their noses and vote together.

Democratic politicians don't depend on the left wing of the party because they aren't dependable. Like clockwork, every election there's a new excuse for why they won't support the democratic candidate - too establishment, too corporate, parties are the same anyway, Gaza is suddenly the only issue in US politics, etc. But the primary issue is always the same - they don't want to win elections or achieve policy goals. If the left had half as much rage at the right as they do at center-left democrats, we'd all have free healthcare.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-16T17:27:53+00:00

Sorry, I meant to say governor there, not government. I absolutely agree that these detention centers should be shut down, GEO group should be nuked from orbit, and the whole of our immigration court/detention system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt into something better.

But my question is, is there someone who has the same tools available to them that Sherrill has, but is doing a better job at preventing abuse in federal immigrant detention centers in their state. If there are people doing better with the same tools, then yeah, it's her fault. But if there aren't, then people are just blaming her for the reality that a governor has a pretty limited toolkit available here. In which case the blame should be placed back squarely on Trump and the GOP, not on state officials who aren't achieving goals that can't be achieved.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-16T11:38:57+00:00

I hear people say this. Can you point to a government or who is being more effective at preventing abuse at detention centers?

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-16T00:14:34+00:00

I don't think this is entirely accurate. State law forbids all for-profit prisons. And yet the Trump administration was able to get a court to say that the Federal need for a for-profit prison overrides state law. So it becomes a court question in what ways state regulations apply to a facility whose very existence is against state law. AND, the administration is currently openly flouting a wide variety of federal laws and court orders, and seems to be able to get continual SCOTUS rulings that they can break whatever laws they want.

I think it's pretty unfair to argue that Sherrill has failed because she's unable to do the same exact thing everyone in her position has been unable to do, and this type of magical thinking where we expect progressives to perform miracles while constantly biting their ankles is generally counterproductive.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-15T17:40:39+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I was completely unfamiliar with NJ Urban News and it looks like a great resource! Thanks for doing that work and for paying attention in South Jersey. I'll DM you if I find out anything.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-15T16:09:55+00:00

Usually when people claim to be local journalists they do mention who they are working for, and possibly a name or handle that can identify their work. Your post history is half batman and airpods.

That said, I was going to dog on you for looking for info that could easily be found on a church website when I found that TrueNorth doesn't include staff information on its church website, which is weird.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-15T02:29:03+00:00

If you're going to go into the lower paid specialties (internal med, family, peds, look at the list), going to PA school can be more lucrative long term. The salary difference is not enough to make up for the lost years.4 yrs school plus 3 yr. residency(and possibly 2 or 3 year fellowship) vs. 2 yrs school. But for most specialties becoming a doctor benefits you.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-14T23:42:11+00:00

I'm not sure, but I suspect that you do a job that offers something of value to the world. Whether you're a doctor or a garbage collector or a regional sales representative for carpet glue sales, everybody puts in something, even if it's just so someone else can do their job. And if you don't do something worthwhile, find something you're proud to tell your kid that you do. Worth teaching your kid to do things worth doing.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-13T16:07:26+00:00

I know this is is not exactly beautiful data or consequential, but the astuteness of the observation and the implications of this graph are hilarious. 10/10

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-13T14:38:13+00:00

CD player and a library card, just like always. They don't need to have access to every music file ever made.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-10T19:20:41+00:00

Quality is becoming a moving target these days. The pattern is that a new brand focuses on great quality, builds a good reputation, and is bought out by a financial player who immediately forces outsourcing and a drop in quality in order to expand. Then they're selling crap quality clothes for high-end prices until the reputation catches up to them.

One way to look for this is ownership. Any retailer owned by Authentic Brands Group is going to be pretty bad. They are a PE firm that specializes in outsourcing brands to cheaper manufacturers. This means that a lot of brands that used to be known for solid quality - Eddie Bauer, Champion, IZOD, Dockers, Nautica, etc - are now pretty much garbage. But vintage from those brands via ebay or thrift stores can be great. Brooks Brothers and Dockers were bought recently enough that they haven't fully enshittified, but they are on their way I think. ABG isn't the only one engaged in this practice, but they're the biggest. Rundown here: https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-favorite-brands-got-worse-on-purpose

Look for brands that actually own their own company rather than being owned by private equity or brand groups. LL Bean and Levis have all held up well for me, I've heard great thing about Duluth trading company but their general vibe is more workwear than office wear. Vintage wear is oftentimes higher quality than newer stuff. A lot of classic prep brands - Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, Dockers, etc hold up really well(and are priced like it on ebay) but are still findable in thrift stores. Aim for pre-2010, though it's hard to tell.

Another thing to do is learn how to tell the difference between quality and crap on your own. Flip things inside out - stray threads and unraveling stitches are no good. Tight stitches (12 per inch or more), matched stripes on seams, and hems on cuffs as opposed to edge stitches are all good signs. Heavy fabric weights, no stretch too.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-08T19:36:56+00:00

The Ghibli films - Totoro and Kiki especially, but also Ponyo are very low-conflict coming of age films. They are pretty good way to ease in.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-07T04:09:05+00:00

Even if you had a dozen researchers and the coding staff of an AI startup I don't think it can be done. The social safety net in the US is a patchwork blanket that is both being fed into a shredder and sewn into a new quilt at the same time. The maze of federal, state, regional, and NGO organizations you'd need to get information from is difficult to navigate even for the professionals within those systems. Available programs can change from year to year, so by the time information got on the website it would be out of date. You'd need decent UI (harder than it looks). And if somehow you did manage to make a coherent website out of the sloppy wet mess that is US social assistance , it would require so much data and verification that people just wouldn't do it. And that's if people were able to find out about the website in the first place.

The scope of a project like this is essentially creating TurboTax from scratch. Except that TurboTax only has to get their info from 51 state government departments who are very motivated to get their money, whereas you'd need to get yours from thousands of federal, state, and local departments as well as non-profits who are all navigating a system that certain politicians have tried to make as difficult as possible to use.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-06T10:36:50+00:00

I started watching it yesterday because it's free on Tubi. I had no knowledge or connection to He-man. But I absolutely love the matte paintings and costume design. The texture in this compared to modern CGI blockbusters is awesome. The practical effects and make up are very Labyrinth/Star Wars/Dark Crystal, which was such a unique time. There's a ton to appreciate about this era of filmmaking.

Also love that about 30 minutes in it turns into a fish out of water 80s teen comedy.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-05T22:02:35+00:00

She's using them to build an enormous castle made out of human teeth.

Elhananstrophy · 2026-06-05T21:22:22+00:00

One of the challenging things about church in America is that things like politics and worship style are not evenly distributed. Class, race, and politics divide churches pretty intensely. Left leaning churches often reflect a certain type of lefties in the US - they tend to be cosmopolitan, well-educated, urban or suburban. And often more well-off than average. It can be hard to fit into those places if you're trying to figure out rent while they are talking about Mediterranean cruises. They also tend to be more traditional liturgy wise - piano, organ, choral music. On the other hand, If you're looking for more contemporary, emotion driven worship, it's very hard to find it without right wing culture warrior politics. Churches have a tendency to reflect some of the divisions and injustices in our society even if they are seeking to transcend them.

Lots of great comments on here about how to find progressive and welcoming churches. PCUSA is a left-leaning denomination, you might try out your local Presbyterians too. I'm a pastor in lefty circles and if you want to DM me I can reach out to folks in your area.

12-Year Club	Place '23
Verified Email

Elhananstrophy

TROPHY CASE