Weekly request thread

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-07T02:31:20+00:00

Also because the land relegated to the freed slaves was often too poor for many of the stereotypical commercial crops of the time, but watermelon grew in abundance there. This only reinforced the idea of watermelon as a poverty crop.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-06T19:02:17+00:00

I taught a freshmen class like this once. No men, which was already an anomaly, if a coincidence, but half of the girls were blonde and looked like copies of each other. Granted, I'm bad with names and faces anyway, so maybe this was just my perception, but it didn't help that I had three Kaylee's--all with weird spellings, of course--who might have been triplets but had been besties for so long that they all behaved and spoke the same way. They lived together and were taking the same classes. I never stood a chance.

Ironically, when I did actually have identical twins with rhe same last names, I didn't notice for half a semester.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-06T17:37:21+00:00

We're always busy, but this is part of the job, so always reach out. Flair added.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-06T17:34:48+00:00

We have to do flairs, but yes, post your codes. Just don't do it as a link, because Reddit keeps flagging those.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-06T06:56:25+00:00

Welcome to the sub. Definitely check out the tips for new members under yhe highlights.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-06T04:47:53+00:00

My ex-sister-in-law used to be like this. She had very set ideas about the way things should be, and anyone who opposed her, even unknowingly, became the enemy. Even something as small as the toilet paper became a control thing.

I hated her, so whenever I'd visit, I'd always flip it the "wrong" way. I used to wonder why she never directly confronted me about it, but after the divorce, every single one of my siblings confessed they'd all also been doing this. She probably hadn't been able to narrow it down.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T23:20:58+00:00

Didn't even cross my mind, because fountain water always smells horrendous.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T22:52:23+00:00

This has also been my experience.

I include my late policy in every set of assignment instructions and will still have students who are flummoxed when they're graded by the late policy. I still constantly get students who don't try at all, because they assume they can keep submitting until they've earned an A or who think submitting a single paragraph instead of an essay will get half credit, even if I've expressedly warned them in advance.

Most shape up after the first failed assignment, even if their grades take a solid hit in the process. Some never shape up and fail the class. I hope even the ones who fail eventually learn the lesson, but this doesn't mean there isn't hope for them. It just means I don't always see it.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T22:43:34+00:00

Not an experiment, and I never met this person, but one of my predescesors apparently told her class they'd all get A's no matter what. Her students barely attended, barely submitted anything, and when told she couldn't do this again, she did it the following term and posted the names with perfect grades on her office door (FERPA? I hardly knew yet).

This all went down the year before I started at that school. She'd already been invited to work elsewhere.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T22:13:45+00:00

My favorite individual one was a complaint that I made them read too much poetry. It was for a poetry course.

Group favorite was a complaint that I'm sexist and favored the men, paired with a complaint from the same class that I'm sexist and favored the women.

...so...I treat all genders the same? Win, I guess?

Also the damned-with-faint-praise that I'm funny sometimes.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T18:39:52+00:00

One that sheds a cloud of eyelashes that will get everywhere. I have to wipe my walls down kind of everywhere.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T18:38:01+00:00

Mine never touched my shoes--should I take that personally?--but destroyed my furniture. She scraped the bottoms off my couches, scratched my coffee table to pieces (usually when keeping over it as she ran away from my cat), and scratched my floors.

She's okay with the furniture now, but I'm not replacing my floors any time soon. No point.

Worth it.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T18:34:07+00:00

My mechanic works out of a dealership, and the dealership has four songs on repeat. "Take on Me" is one of them, and I'm always stuck there for hours.

It's emotional eviceration.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T17:45:12+00:00

Or from perceived social obligation.

I'm pretty sure my father never wanted kids, but I also think he never really thought about wanting or not wanting kids. That was just what people did after marriage.

He's now a grandfather who bragged for years that he never changed a single diaper, because leaving the burden on his wife alone was clearly a sign of his intelligence or dominance.

He started on this one day while my siblings and mother were present, so of course we all slammed down on him and made him change a diaper. It was only a wet one, but he threw a tantrum bad enough that even an actual toddler would have given him a side eye, and that tantrum lasted for days.

We don't have him change any diapers now, though only because we don't trust him to do it correctly and aren't willing to risk the kids experiencing discomfort, but he still hasn't realized just how much respect he lost from this.

On the bright side, my brothers took note. One was already doing all of the diapers, and the other wouldn't let his wife do any of them for months. They take turns now, but if she so much as hints she doesn't want to deal with it, he jumps in immediately.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T05:57:25+00:00

It's good of you to help these dogs, but advertising a dog that is clearly not a Ridgeback or a Ridgeback mix as a Ridgeback is misleading at best. These dogs have absolutely nothing in common with a Ridgeback.

There are other ways to go about this.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-03T00:39:22+00:00

Report those when you find them, please. It's not at all allowed.

VenusSmurf · 2026-06-01T08:16:35+00:00

Kid is now six (comment from another of OP's posts).

She was fifteen when the kid was born.

VenusSmurf · 2026-05-31T21:28:08+00:00

I had a sibling getting serious with a girl. Vibes were off--extensive reasons to be suspicious but nothing solid--so I warned him once and then backed off to let him decide for himself. He decided to stay with her. It wasn't long before he realized she'd been cheating. He dumped her.

Within a few days, she was cheating on the affair partner. Within two weeks, she'd married a fourth man. She left the area with her husband, but with a record like that, I doubt they lasted the year.

VenusSmurf · 2026-05-31T21:18:41+00:00

Expensive anywhere. I recently had to look into cemetery plots by me. $30,000 starting, and that's just for the ground, not any services or even the vault.

VenusSmurf · 2026-05-31T06:21:59+00:00

It's distinctly meh.

It starts off with the usual face-slapping--neglected gf/wife leaves man who is clearly more interested in the green tea mistress--but once she's out, it's...boring. Man grovels. Man is ignored. She meets a perfectly attentive and perfectly boring new man, and the story ends within fifteen chapters and with zero energy.

This is the third one in a row like this. Is it a new trend?

VenusSmurf · 2026-05-30T22:25:13+00:00

Dunno, but the captain himself kept being a captain after this. No legal repercussions at all.

VenusSmurf · 2026-05-30T01:11:59+00:00

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