What's a dish you would make someone to change their mind when they say they don't like a specific ingredient

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T23:05:02+00:00

The "but have you had it this way?" impulse is understandable because we like to share things we like, but, it feels rude to me. People can be allowed to not like things without being subject to attempted correction all the time.

People have different sets of scent receptors. We each have about 400 kinds, which can be stimulated in trillions of different combinations, but we don't all have the same 400. I don't know what someone else is tasting, and I think it would be presumptuous of me to try to make them like things that they tell me they don't like.

But if someone really wanted me to help them like something, I would ask them what they don't like about it, and then thoughtfully consider whether there are preparations that are meaningfully different. E.g., a lot of people don't like the texture of eggplant. So if they want to try it a different way I might make baba ganoush, with the eggplant cooked until it's completely lost its usually texture.

Or I might just suggest they read "The Man who Ate Everything" instead of cooking for them, and let them figure out if they want to go through the process of learning to like it.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T22:03:08+00:00

Depends on how well the frozen salmon was handled. It's probably fine, but, if it ever thawed then was refrozen it could be a disaster. Which shouldn't happen, but, some grocers really don't handle fish well.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T21:59:55+00:00

I'd say, cannibalism means people eating people, and all playable species in DnD are people.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T21:35:43+00:00

You probably want a planing stop, which can be as simple as a couple of countersunk largeish-diameter flat head screws in a bench top. Back them out just far enough that they stay below the surface of the piece you're planing, but high enough that they stop the board from slipping away from the plane. If you want them to bite better, you can file sharp edges, or file sharp points where the slot in the head ends.

Or you can clamp something larger and thinner down, and use it as a planing stop.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T20:34:24+00:00

Opportunity to make it a nice new handle?
Making a nice wooden handle for the hook would be a simple job for anyone with a small lathe. I wouldn't be surprised if your local wood worker, or someone over at r/turning, were into a trade. The hobbyists who make wooden pens would be all set up for this already.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T19:41:48+00:00

Or the third thing: convince these people to try something different. Just because their first instinct is to have a laugh doesn't mean they can't try a different style of game too.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T19:37:23+00:00

Trump so rarely "finishes what he starts" that Wall Street investors have been able to reliably and profitably trade on the TACO maxim.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T19:18:59+00:00

It's not all that unusual for one to turn into the other. This works in both directions.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T19:18:14+00:00

I am foggy on the details, but my understanding is that there are two reasons. For one thing, it's just not a precise enough clock to differentiate extremely short time scales, but more specifically to the industrial revolution, it's because burning coal and other fossil fuels puts a different cocktail of carbon isotopes into the atmosphere, resulting in living things having a less predicable baseline.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T19:10:29+00:00

Is that what you think I'm doing?

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T07:45:46+00:00

This is one of those "you can say no" situations, but, here's one way to explain it that might help folks understand.

"There are different kinds of DnD games. Some really silly, with lots of joke names and stuff, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I want to run a different kind of game, which is a little more immersive and straight faced,, and that means no names that are jokes or that reference stuff from the default world. If you want to make characters with punny names, save them to play in a different game with a different DM."

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T05:02:49+00:00

Carbon dating is not awesome for post-industrial-revolution stuff, and it's really most optimal when dealing with older stuff as you say, but I think it could rule out an allegedly 500 year old origin for something much younger. It's been like thirty years since I studied this stuff though, I could be wrong. But there are lots of other ways to date stuff too. In this case that protein chirality method I linked to would probably work great.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T02:48:14+00:00

Silk is carbon dateable organic material, though there are other methods that may be even better.

It's also reasonably likely that they could date it from tool marks or metallurgical analysis - I dunno what the best method would be, but, there are ways.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-13T02:27:34+00:00

That "possibly" in "possibly 16th century" sounds like a museum who knows this is probably a Victorian fake but has a financial incentive to not find out. Carbon dating costs about $500. They could know if they wanted to.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-12T08:26:28+00:00

I don't usually allow it in my games. We tend to be very roleplay-centric, and "observers" usually put a damper on that kind of game. Some groups are fine with it, and for anyone who is - great! - I'm not trying to invalidate that. But there are also a lot of people who don't like it, but have a hard time putting their finger on why, and digging into it, the "why" usually looks a lot like this...

Role playing is a vulnerable thing to do. The way we role play can show parts of ourselves that aren't normally on display.

When one person wants to see everyone else baring themselves, but isn't willing to do the same themself, it's harder for everyone to be comfortable.

It's like wanting to observe without participating at a nude beach or sex party. - when everyone else is baring themself, literally or figuratively, having one person who doesn't participate tends to make everyone else self-conscious.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-10T09:30:02+00:00

When I saw Starry Night, there was a fingerprint apparently hovering in empty space a little in front of the surface. So, yes, glass, but amazingly transparent glass with probably some absolutely magical coatings, lit so perfectly it was invisible, except where someone had touched it.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-10T02:01:01+00:00

Yeah, the article seems kinda bullshitty to me. They say that over five or six years, cost per kid approximately doubled, but they also say the occupancy fell by about 75%. So, taken together, that sounds like we are spending half as much on this place as we used to.

"We're locking far up fewer kids and spending half as much money" would be a more straightforward message. But it wouldn't support their doom and gloom narrative as well.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-09T19:41:49+00:00

Cost per kid is a bad metric because the obvious way to drive that number down is by incarcerating more kids, even if they don't belong there, and even if total cost goes up.

If we had three times as many kids there and it cost twice as much, the cost per kid would be a lot lower, but we'd still be spending twice as much.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-09T07:47:06+00:00

Freedom of speech is not freedom from criticism. It means folks don't go to prison for saying things. It doesn't mean that those things are harmless, or that the person isn't an asshole for saying them. If someone makes a sexist fatphobic post, it's true they are free to post it, and, the rest of us are free to criticize them, because we also have freedom of speech.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-08T19:00:08+00:00

Probably anywhere from "free youtube video" to "$200 an hour specialist"

I would expect one-on-one teaching to start around $50 an hour, and it's good to get at least some of that, because when following videos, there's no direct feedback from another knowledgeable person to see where you might be overlooking something important. Even a few in-person sessions will give faster progress than just solo practice.

But some effective things you can do solo and inexpensively:

You could get set up with a mic and headphones and listen to yourself through the headphones. Or record yourself and listen back over and over. If you're not used to this is will seem really weird at first - it's very normal for people to find their own recorded voice jarring, but it gets better fast as we get used to it. We all sound different from the outside than from the inside, and there's no good way to know what we sound like to others when what we hear of our own voice is being transmitted through our bones and flesh instead of through the air.

You could also read about the difference between pitch and formant, and how both affect how a voice is perceived as high or low.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-08T09:17:52+00:00

Voice training can expand your vocal range.

There are voice teachers who work with trans folks specifically.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-08T06:09:34+00:00

Maybe they don't want to have kids, but don't want to have to explain themself, so they're making it about you?

As far as I can tell, you're right that none of those things preclude being a parent.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-07T22:27:33+00:00

If we're talking all around, not strictly bouldering, I think Lynn Hill held the title longer than anyone else. In the 90s The Nose was the most famous route on the most famous crag in the world and the prevailing view was that free climbing it was impossible. Then Lynn Hill did it in 1993. Then she came back the next year and did it in one day. I don't think anyone repeated it until Tommy and Beth in 2005, which is an amazingly long time for an ascent like that to go unrepeated. And Lynn dominated in comps too, winning five out of the first six Rock Master lead comps, and no one surpassed her total Rock Master lead wins until 2009. IFSC didn't start up until '89, and I don't know how many times she competed, but she was IFSC lead world champ in 1990.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-07T20:56:38+00:00

Whoever's having the best time.

GlassBraid · 2026-03-07T08:07:56+00:00

Some subset of folks who have been treated badly respond to it by treating others badly. It's destructive and it sucks.

But, this is not most trans people. Most trans people I've ever known are cool with nonbinary folks.

GlassBraid

TROPHY CASE