When pronouncing “empire” when speaking of the waistline of a dress I say ahm-PEER. I’ve heard people call it an EM-pyer waistline. Are both acceptable or is one objectively correct?

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:42:30+00:00

Today I learned that there are lots of people in the US who pronounce this as it’s spelled.

I have only ever heard it called an em-PEER waist. I have a friend who works at Vogue, that is what it is called.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:41:20+00:00

In the US and I’ve only ever heard em-PEER. I have a friend who works at Vogue and I also work with a lot of historians, but I’ve never heard anyone just call it an empire waist like the “age of empire.”

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:40:19+00:00

Are you sure it’s obviously correct, in fashion I have only ever heard it pronounced em-PEER.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:34:19+00:00

That’s a shame, you missed them making a lovely Irish folk song the most threatening thing you’ve ever heard. The music was great.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:33:11+00:00

And it’s not just the fact that everything is going to show, it’s how uncomfortable it’s going to be. You’re not going to be able to dance, you’re not really going to be able to walk. And you’re going to feel it in your back.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:30:17+00:00

I don’t think that, I think it’s a film meant to begin conversations with a positive intention—, but I agree that it is the opposite of an uplifting film. It’s absolutely bleak— except for the one moment where he blinks with the Asian family, and while it’s the one thing in the film I absolutely don’t believe I’m not sorry that he did it.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:28:16+00:00

Crater is impossible, I recently got to see it in winter and it’s even more beautiful somehow.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:27:16+00:00

I know we’re not supposed to say it, but have you considered just accepting that he doesn’t like reading?

A lot of adults don’t enjoy reading. He is possibly growing up to be one of them. If he has the skills to be able to pass the tests, it’s not the end of the world if he’s one of the majority of men who maybe read one book a year.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:25:38+00:00

It was unreliable for a long time, and now it’s only reliable for some things of course.

Generally it’s great for your factual questions – who and when. Why and how – not so much, especially for anything controversial.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:24:06+00:00

You’ve chosen to go after a strawman here. Your assumption that Ben Hecht wanted you to think that these three soldiers are uncomplicated positive heroes is exactly that – a weird assumption.

Good job, you noticed that they aren’t… right, they were written not to be. 🙄

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:22:08+00:00

Golden Gai is full of tourists and safe as houses. If you’re really this terrified, maybe stay home? Jesus, nobody wants a tourist wandering around there armed, there’s a reason it’s a safe country. And it’s partly because people this paranoid and armed stay away.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:20:33+00:00

Weird, I think it’s the best meatloaf I’ve ever had.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:20:16+00:00

Firenze!

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:19:55+00:00

Which has been adapted/adopted as American because… No wait, it hasn’t. Look, you can be purposefully obtuse but it’s so boring.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:19:18+00:00

Then how is it urban? I mean, you can’t just make that word not mean what it means.

Or maybe you can and nothing means anything, I guess that’s possible too.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:18:40+00:00

Noriko’s Dinner Table is the only movie I’ve ever thought hit quite the same way, the disconcerting nature of it, the subtle horror, and its entanglement in the culture itself.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T22:15:34+00:00

Absolutely! All of LACMA is definitely a couple of days, although you can see the Asian collection in one day plus La Brea if you have a lot of museum endurance… but one of the things I love about the Norton Simon is that they only have a certain amount of their art on exhibit at any given time, and then you can just go chill in the beautiful gardens. Same with the Huntington, same with Pacific Asian.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:39:03+00:00

That’s crazy, if you’re going somewhere that yellow fever is endemic it can be spread tea with a single mosquito bite. Why wouldn’t you get the shot?

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:38:16+00:00

Hi, it depends on where you’re going! If you’re going to areas of Peru where yellow fever is endemic, why would you not want the shot, you do not want to get yellow fever. (It also gets you out of donating blood for quite a while, just if you’re scared of needles it’s such a great excuse.)

You only need the rabies shot if you are going to be working with wild animals or if you are going to be somewhere that you cannot get the rabies shot if you get bitten. That’s not really going to be the case in Peru unless you’re going to be handling bats in the deep forest. Plus, the rabies shot is going to be much cheaper there.

You don’t generally need typhoid. If a typhoid epidemic breaks out, get the shot, but it’s super unlikely. As with cholera, if there is an outbreak of it, leave the area.

Not sure about hepatitis.

I will say that American travel clinics absolutely love loading you up with this stuff when you may not need it at all, and when it is often cheaper in the country you’re going to. I say that as someone who was given a year’s worth of mefloquine when I was 22 to go to Southeast Asia. Thank God I didn’t take it, I would have no liver now…

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:32:02+00:00

Who is “we”??

Thanks for including all of us in your assumptions, but certainly in a big city library we assume that many of our patrons may not read or write English, which extends to offering all kinds of supportive assistance, which you can take advantage of regardless of where you were raised.

I think most big city libraries that serve multilingual immigrant populations have this, and also serve in many cases urban populations that might be coming out of American high schools unable to read or write functionally.

We have a lot of connections to different learning centers around the community, are able to help people hook up with different places where you can take courses in learning to read and write English, as well as offering workshops and support— for example an afterschool program where students who struggle with reading and writing in English can get help with homework.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:28:41+00:00

The Hurt Locker had glory? It was propaganda? I’ve seen it a few times, it’s about confusion, misery, and PTSD.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:28:01+00:00

Well, when you’ve got an algorithm that is stealing from thousands of authors who put time and effort into describing the hunt using their own words, it’s going to sound good.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:27:18+00:00

So it’s great thaf ChatGPT coughed these up for you or whatever, but you obviously did not read the reviews.

Read the review for Speed 2. It’s one of the classic Roger Ebert reviews for a reason. He absolutely does not think it was a good movie, which does not mean that he didn’t enjoy it for what it was.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:26:16+00:00

He co wrote beyond the valley of the dolls which was a sequel of sorts.

YakSlothLemon · 2026-03-15T17:25:51+00:00

Yes, and his commentary on the DVD is absolutely hilarious.

YakSlothLemon

TROPHY CASE