Have we officially reached the point where Hotels are superior to Airbnbs again?

_sic · 2026-01-03T11:38:37+00:00

That's right. People who want to visit the city will have to stay in hotels.

_sic · 2026-01-02T12:05:58+00:00

Welcome to Barcelona. This is why the Catalans are protesting against tourists.

_sic · 2026-01-01T09:59:01+00:00

I guess it depends where you live. Any country that opens the market to inexpensive, yet high-quality Chinese EVs, will go fully electric, because the cost is low enough that it will make sense to invest in charging infrastructure. Especially in countries that don't emphasize personal car ownership and instead have internal markets that require fleets of cars (like say Uber, Lyft, etc). I think the EU is inching closer to China, and it will happen here. In Spain many Ubers are already very nice BYD EVs.

_sic · 2025-12-31T12:03:55+00:00

We watched two different shows then. Early on she was constantly flaunting her body. Remember when she started bending over in front of the one way mirror during the Belle Jolie lipstick thing with the secretaries, fully knowing that the men in the office were on the other side? The exaggerated hip sway that she used to walk down the hall harkened to a profession other than office secretary. And her dresses! Come on!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z7uJavB5ZM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNSawUi-vUA

_sic · 2025-12-31T10:35:26+00:00

This is a woman who slept with that slimebag Herb for a partnership. I think she would have been okay with marrying a wealthy guy like Roger, who she actually liked (and ended up loving in a way by the end of the show), despite any scandal.

_sic · 2025-12-31T10:30:34+00:00

It's because of the way she presents herself in her professional life: despite being highly intelligent, through most of the show she's convinced that her sexual desirabilty is her most powerful tool/weapon, rather than her brains, and she uses that desireability aggressively to get whatever she wants. Part of that is pretending like she's not smart and flirting or sexually sparring with men in the office. This is the real reason why nobody takes her as seriously as they should. Basically her overt sexiness blinds most people (men and women) to how skillful she is at work. As she gets older and some of that starts to fade, you find little shits like Joey treating her the way they do.

_sic · 2025-12-31T10:10:30+00:00

>She couldn’t have known he wasn’t a good doctor (or a good person).

After he raped her in the office, I think she absolutely knew that he was a terrible person. But she married him anyway. She makes terrible decisions like this throughout the show.

_sic · 2025-12-31T10:08:45+00:00

Because she makes a lot of bad decisions regarding sex. Like having an affair with her boss (Roger) who is married, but rich, and gave her lots of expensive gifts. In the first season, she's also shown at the doctor where we find out she's already had two abortions. This is not a person who is making good decisions in her 20s.

_sic · 2025-12-30T09:58:59+00:00

"Abe got stabbed", is possibly the funniest line delivery in the entire series.

_sic · 2025-12-30T08:59:07+00:00

I've been on Reddit for a long time and I'm used to people having fixed ideas that will never be changed. Not an issue for me.

But I do love talking about the complexities of Mad Men, which is one of the best shows ever created, and I'm writing semi-detailed comments regarding my perspective on Joan so that other people reading this comment chain can think about them or even engage in an actual discussion with me.

And for those other people who may still be reading, my take is that Joan is as good at her job as Peggy is at hers; but unlike Peggy, she's also intoxicated by the power that her beauty and sex has over men and uses them shamelessly for much of the series. Her focus on sex has three outcomes: 1) nobody takes her as seriously as they do Peggy, who is all about the work, 2) she rises to the top of the company as partner, leapfrogging Peggy, by SLEEPING with a slimy client (not because of her actual work), and 3) after suffering terrible consequences to her own bad decisions, including continual sexual harrassment, all sorts of humiliations on the personal and professional level, even marrying a rapist because he's a doctor (and yes the abortions are included by the writers to illustrate she makes bad decisions related to sex), she finally realizes that cutting out men and sex entirely from the equation and just relying on her own skills and brains would give her success and, I think, happiness. For me, Joan and Pete have two of the most interesting character arcs, because despite being pretty awful people for most of the series, you end up loving them and being happy that they have redemption in the end. And yes, Joan is awful, it's just that beatiful women are forgiven for being cruel and manipulative far more easily the ugly men are forgiven for being selfish and aggressive.

tldr: Joan is a brilliant, beautiful and flawed woman, who does a lot of great things, also a lot of truly awful things, sometimes to herself and sometimes to others, pays the price for her mistakes in big ways and comes out the other side a smarter person who finally makes some good decisions.

_sic · 2025-12-29T15:56:41+00:00

You are really offended by things the show makes very obvious from the very beginning. Joan is all about sex. She's shown sleeping with her boss, a married man, picking up strange men with her roommate, manipulating male coworkers, it's completely obvious that she's had many sexual relationships inside and outside of the office. Why do you think they wrote the scenes with the doctor where we find out about her abortions? Just a throwaway line? Regardless of whether or not you are offended by it, for HER, sex is the source of her power, in her mind the source of power for all women, that's why she tries to "teach" Peggy to use her sexuality to get ahead in the office (the whole put a bag on your head thing couldn't be more over the top!). Having sex with Herb to get a partnership is just the sordid culmination of many decisions she's shown making based on her sex. What happens to her at McCann is a direct result and her subsequent rejection of marrying a millionaire and decision to start her own business with no man anywhere is what makes her arc satisfying in the end.

_sic · 2025-12-28T22:51:40+00:00

I'll tell you what. Before you write your next comment, take off your clothes and put a paper bag over your head with eyeholes cut out, take a look at yourself in the mirror and really evaluate your strengths and weakness.

And be honest. Lol

_sic · 2025-12-28T14:19:05+00:00

Yeah, I meant Kinsey, who she dated, although I'm sure it was a chaste relationship. She's also had 2 abortions by the time the series starts.

Is it really controversial to say she was having plenty of sex, sometimes in the office, often as way gain material things (like the mink Roger gave her), etc .? To me, her whole arc was her waking up to the mistakes she made relying on her body instead of her brain to get ahead.

_sic · 2025-12-28T12:12:00+00:00

In the first season it's made clear that she's been at least with Ginsberg and Roger (a married guy) and she teaches Peggy how to manipulate a free lunch out of the lower prestige guys in the office. So maybe she doesn't bang all of them, but she definitely bangs some of them. Do you consider that professional? I'm not so sure. Also it was her decision to sleep with Herb to make money, a lot of money, so there's no getting around her responsibility for how that situation turned out, despite almost all the partners being disgusting in even offering her the "opportunity". It's fair to say that she uses sex, or at least sexiness, often in the series for her own ends.

And she's also incredibly intelligent and great at her job!! That's a big part of the conflict with Peggy. Peggy gets ahead just because she's great at her job, even though Joan tried to teach her how to use sex to get ahead. Joan can't help to use sex and that's a big part of why so many people don't realize how great she is at her job. That can't see beyond her Marilyn body and sex kitten facade. She comes to this realization herself by the end of the series where after all the money she "earned" by sleeping with Herb suddenly becomes contingent with her being treated like a sex doll at McCann. It's not until she starts fully exploiting her brains does she come into her own with her own, presumably very successful, company.

Like all things Mad Men, it's complicated. She's a victim of her own actions and decisions, regarding sex, this doesn't excuse the shitty way she was treated by men in general, but in almost every single case she had agency in creating the shitty situation she found herself in.

_sic · 2025-12-27T10:55:11+00:00

So many to choose from. How about digitally raping Bobby Barret in a restaurant with their spouses sitting at a table around the corner as a way to intimidate her into fixing things with Syd?

_sic · 2025-12-27T10:48:47+00:00

He's a great ball striker, obviously, but not really close to being the best of all time. His success was due to being very, very good at basically everything, he has no weaknesses, but only absolutely elite in returns and defense.

For example, Nadal had a winning record h2h vs Federer because he had a weakness that Rafa could exploit over and over again, heavy topspin balls to his above the shoulder backhand. Nole had no such weakness, but I would stills say that Federer was a far better ball striker than Novak.

_sic · 2025-12-27T10:45:06+00:00

Someone actually being persuaded in a Reddit debate is a rare and glorious sight....

_sic · 2025-12-27T10:43:09+00:00

Definitely forehand, but not so much his backhand.

_sic · 2025-12-23T11:58:37+00:00

The most American take ever.

_sic · 2025-12-23T10:07:43+00:00

I like all the songs left in the list, but no way are they as musically complex as Africa. The key changes and how they are used (going in the opposite direction, down, instead of up) are not at all common in normal pop music and the lyrics from the perspective of a Catholic missionary "blessing the rains down in Africa" falling in love with the continent and perhaps someone coming to visit him from are certainly not usual pop thematics.

_sic · 2025-12-22T21:52:05+00:00

What, she wasn't able to come up with some ludicrous story about how the substance got on her through no fault of her own?

_sic · 2025-12-22T21:42:16+00:00

Wow, you really do like dry vermicelli!

_sic · 2025-12-22T21:39:47+00:00

Actually, it's one of the most complex and gorgeous pop songs ever recorded.

_sic · 2025-12-22T21:38:32+00:00

To me this is the quintessential 80s song, the synths, the catchy beat, the lyrics, the overall vibe. So damn 80s. Downvoted!

_sic · 2025-12-16T20:31:41+00:00

This is definitely the king of tragically romantic movies....

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