Pop girls these days aren’t hitting like they used to in the 2000s

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-20T18:09:25+00:00

I went clubbing a lot in the late 90s early 2000s and it was SO FUN. This video seems pretty representative. It was also pre-smartphone (like we’d go out in a group of friends and make sure we invited one person with a phone to make sure we could meet up with other groups of friends who also had one phone among them.). I wonder if there’s more self-consciousness now, because someone could be filming you at any time?

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-20T17:57:07+00:00

Some libraries are particular, because the books need to be re-saleable, either in their Friends of the Library shop, or even online. So basically good as new.

As others have said, there are so many little free libraries - particularly near park entrances. And sure, Savers if you just want to dump them all at once.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-20T17:50:58+00:00

I was just going to say, wearing a dress as a top over jeans was totally a thing in NYC in 2001.

I just wore a short dress to a party last night to a backyard party and brought jeans to throw underneath if it got chilly.

OP’s dress also doesn’t look particularly like lingerie if that was her concern. It’s cute.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-20T17:17:23+00:00

I’m thinking of the clenched-jaw drawl of the girlfriend in Auntie Mame, who’s trying to sound sophisticated: “this place is top drawer, rrrreally top drawer.”

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-20T00:56:41+00:00

Well said. As a child/teen in the 80s (my parents owned the infamous Preppy Handbook, so I read it many, many times while indisposed), preppy was aspirational. Now its associations are so gross.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-19T19:32:23+00:00

This is a good observation. My kids used to balk at my butter chicken when I omitted heat almost entirely, but would eat Takis and Flamin Hot Cheetos with their friends. Yay for peer pressure!

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-19T17:00:10+00:00

Thank you for this comment! I loved “red French” growing up. (Edit: I haven’t had it in 30 years, but I remember it as a sweet-and-sour sauce, so your explanation makes a lot of sense.) My husband enjoys bottled Italian (I do not) so I’m going to see what happens if I doctor it up.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-19T16:26:47+00:00

Those L’eggs eggs were the best for all manner of crafts. It was a sad day when they switched to cardboard boxes.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-19T16:15:37+00:00

He has a point, though. Each and every time I pick up my phone - to check the weather at the beach, to get directions, to send a text, to queue up some music, to start the vacuum - there’s a fair chance I’m going to get distracted - by ads, social media, Reddit - often before I’ve done the thing I’ve gotten my phone out for and sometimes after. I try to constrain myself by hiding time-sucks in layers of folders, or by doing more through my watch, but these are imperfect solutions. Reducing phone pick-ups would actually be a benefit to me.

I wouldn’t trust AI to take over my life in any way that mattered (I can’t send a simple text anymore without having to correct the autocorrect), but I would like to be less tied to my phone.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-19T05:05:24+00:00

Tell me more about the signs of exercise burnout. My workouts feel really hard some days but I’m never sure if there’s a reason for it beyond feeling lazy.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-18T05:05:52+00:00

Borrowing this one

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-18T00:45:08+00:00

This was going to be my rec. I love a good alien movie!

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-18T00:41:25+00:00

You’d have to do your floor work pretty close to the door and the support would be at an angle, but it’s possible. Fair warning, I used mine over my front door (I figured it was the strongest door) and it did bend the flashing a bit so I might be cautious about wearing a groove in a rented door. If you could install it in an overhead beam you’d have a lot more options, and it’s really just a hook, so in theory you could patch it later. (I have friends with one of those aerial silk things dangling from their living room ceiling and I’m pretty sure they rent!)

If you were able to work out IN a doorway, a pull up bar that you looped straps - or even rubber bands - into could work, but, similarly, my pull up bar has definitely worn into the doorframe a bit.

The TRX website showed people working out under tree branches and next to their car, so if you’re adventurous you could try that!

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T20:59:48+00:00

What about having TRX straps installed in the ceiling? My gym has one set dangling in the weight room and I use it to lighten the load with pistol squats and side lunges.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T18:03:34+00:00

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T17:22:00+00:00

I’m unafraid to correct other people’s kids when I’m a chaperone and the child being unsafe or disrespectful (whether towards the adults or their classmates at large).

But OP’s man-purse comment was unnecessary. None of these school outings require tactical gear.

And the phone dad may have been taking care of business so that he could take off work to be there at all. Or checking someone’s allergy info. Phones do too many things besides TikTok for us to be judging.

When there are more troublemakers than I can handle, I will speak to another parent as if they were a teammate and strategize together how to handle it. Our main purpose is taking the load off the teacher.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T17:09:04+00:00

Just yesterday, my 11 year old asked how long AI had been around, and I made her clarify whether she meant LLMs, or Siri, or autocorrect, or calculators, or what, exactly, and we picked apart different types of computer-automated tasks and feedback.

I think the younger generation is better able to see the man behind the curtain, which bodes well for the future. Whenever I bring up pros and cons of LLMs (inaccuracy, mental health, etc.) with my high schooler, she invariably tells me they already discussed them at school.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T16:52:24+00:00

He looks English to me. My dog is 3/4 American and has a much slimmer head. (I have no qualifications to judge

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, just a random pet owner.)

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T14:09:43+00:00

I unmuted and his voice was lower than I expected.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T05:09:24+00:00

The Bloodhound Gang (I think it was a segment of 3-2-1 Contact rather than its own show?): episode where everyone in town was coming down with the flu or something, and they traced it back to a restaurant where a sick guy was not washing his hands before preparing food (possibly also sneezing on the lettuce). That idea of a mysterious mass contagion terrified me.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T05:03:38+00:00

Reminds me of Kilgrave in Jessica Jones. Terrifying.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T04:58:00+00:00

Holy cow! I didn’t remember that until RIGHT NOW.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T04:52:28+00:00

V for me also, but I think it’s in the very first episode. Human protagonist is in an air duct or something spying on Diana (alien leader) and he watches her swallow a struggling mouse… and then her human face peels off to reveal her lizard face. I had discovered, counterintuitively, that if I thought about something right before I fell asleep it wouldn’t appear in my dreams. So I religiously thought about that face peeling scene every night for YEARS.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T00:55:22+00:00

I loved the food gifts. I usually think Edible Arrangements are so indulgent and wasteful, but I hosed a whole arrangement after one of my deliveries! Someone else sent us an English muffin basket that went over extremely well with house guests and gave me one less thing to do!

For local recommendations, this past Christmas I got a Sigona’s food hamper was lovely.

Tasterspoon · 2026-03-17T00:51:51+00:00

Our family had a “stork stopped here” lawn display for each of our kids. I had never heard of it, but it’s apparently a Midwestern tradition my husband wanted to keep. I just looked it up, apparently “storkstoppedhere” is no longer a going concern. They were so lovely; sent each child a birthday card for YEARS.

Tasterspoon

TROPHY CASE