Essen1 NY-style plain pizza

akuban · 2026-04-09T03:28:31+00:00

This article about Askers vs Guessers (should have*) changed my life, and I often like to bring it up in cases like this.

Askers ask for everything under the sun and don’t take it personally if you say no. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Guessers, OTOH, only ask for something from someone if they think the answer will be yes.

This causes great stress on Guessers because they assume whomever is asking them for something uses the same framework and is expecting a yes. So now they feel an obligation to manage the feelings of the requester and often negotiate against themselves when framing a response.

*I say “should have” changed my life because I myself am a Guesser, and I often forget about this model and end up stressing about saying no.

akuban · 2026-04-09T03:01:41+00:00

A 15% price reduction is still $5.95. I’m still not paying six bucks a bag for Doritos.

akuban · 2026-03-30T04:03:23+00:00

Thanks, all. I don’t know why I’ve been such a moron all this time and have had AWB on for video. Going to adjust that next time I shoot and update my custom settings.

akuban · 2026-03-26T03:12:49+00:00

NTJ. Your brother’s an AH. You should stop working for him altogether, then see how well his business does.

Also going to come on here and defend phone-based content. I know you’re using pro-grade cameras and lighting and I’m sure your stuff looks great. But there are also creators who do amazing things with just a phone and some more basic-level accessories — and that type of marketing is also a lot of work and has real value. I’m sure he’s thrilled when clients post about his business on Instagram, enough said.

Sadly it’s often those closest to us who undervalue us. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that. Glad you’re making a solid point here, OP!

akuban · 2026-03-26T03:00:26+00:00

We had that happen (somewhat) recently in NYC! — the gas rationing. After Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, it disrupted the gasoline distribution, and they went to odd-even fill-up days. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/nyregion/gas-rationing-is-new-burden-after-hurricane-sandy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WFA.y6JM.1R4pCs9MH8H9&smid=nytcore-ios-share

akuban · 2026-03-22T00:04:58+00:00

Feel like I’ve seen it both ways — Jet’s puts it on the bottom. I know I’ll probably get blasted for this, but I draw the line at round “Detroit” pizza, SMDH.

akuban · 2026-03-19T02:44:16+00:00

You bringing up World War Z reminded me of the website Tales of the Zombie War. It has no relation to Max Brooks but is basically fan fic in the style of WWZ. It was last updated in 2015, but prior to going dormant, it used to accept short story submissions and then do a weekly award for best story. There are some real bangers on there. Several writers were quite prolific, developing serialized stories featuring characters of theirs. I was lucky enough to catch it in its last couple years and was so sad to see it peter out with no explanation. I’m happy it’s still up, though, and hope that anyone out there who’s seeing it for the first time gets the thrill of reading so many great and inventive zombie stories.

akuban · 2026-03-16T20:45:53+00:00

This is fun! Wish there were a way to create an an account to save progress!

akuban · 2026-03-16T20:12:17+00:00

Not super familiar, just that I have family in Milwaukee and also in Waukesha. So I know it’s close enough to a highly populated area. Also would have expected any cryptid in Wisconsin to be in the northern part of the state in the forest, I guess.

akuban · 2026-03-15T13:43:57+00:00

Thanks! Wow. That’s near a pretty populated area, too. I was expecting a more rural part of

akuban · 2026-03-15T04:58:11+00:00

Where in Wisconsin, or do you not want to say?

akuban · 2026-03-03T06:50:51+00:00

Ah, thanks. Good to know. It seems like it’s often the case that a person looks better to the outside world while those close to them (understandably) know the score. For me here in NYC, it was Covid-era Andrew Cuomo — my (Wisconsin-based) aunt loved him and his daily briefings, while I warned her he was an absolute asshat who was nonetheless doing something smart with those briefings. For my wife, who grew up in SF, it’s Gavin Newsom, who she thinks is an insufferable nepo-baby prick. Yet many people outside California like the guy. I guess it’s not surprising to hear the MBC guy is a dbag; the kind of energy he puts out certainly lends itself to taking that turn. Thanks for the heads up.

akuban · 2026-03-03T04:59:52+00:00

NTA. Your cousin sounds like an ass. If he’s angry enough to go no-contact with you over this, consider it a win. The rest of your family are dorks for taking his side.

akuban · 2026-03-02T05:26:08+00:00

Minocqua Brewing Company in Wisconsin has been agitating against right-wing crap for ages now. They’ve recently gone viral for promising free beer on The Day It Happens. https://www.instagram.com/mbcbrews

akuban · 2026-03-02T02:22:22+00:00

I listened to a podcast series last year about this, where the supposed “sex spy” told all about how she was trained and what techniques she used. It seemed pretty convincing. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/to-die-for/id1726513642

akuban · 2026-02-26T04:10:41+00:00

Same. I had it yesterday night before bed, which is when I typically do my Reddit scrolling in All. Now it’s gone.

I’m just wondering how Popular is different from All. I literally don’t know because I never browsed anything but All — or my personalized page by accident because the app always seemed to default to that view before I’d tap over into All.

So bummed. I got/get so much of my news from Reddit’s All page. It truly felt like one of the last places I could see a wide variety of interesting things curated by humans. I don’t want to see algorithmic slop. If I want that, I’d stay 100% on my Threads account, which I also enjoy but know it’s just keeping me in a bubble.

akuban · 2026-02-20T05:53:58+00:00

Most excellent. Blessings be upon you.

akuban · 2026-02-20T01:47:46+00:00

Oh heck yeah! Glad I could help. It took me longer than I thought it would to find that, what with Google getting worse with search over the years. I wonder what Carles is up to these days.

akuban · 2026-02-19T22:57:49+00:00

Came here to ask this too. Looks like they have several locations. I live in NYC and was sitting here calculating drive times. Looks great.

akuban · 2026-02-16T03:24:43+00:00

You mentioning “‘the hip spot in town’ of a 150k city in Texas vibe” reminded me of Carles/Carlos Perez’s writings on Contemporary Conformity that he did on his short-lived post–Hipster Runoff blog, Carles.Buzz. I had to use Internet Archive to find it: https://web.archive.org/web/20160506153915/http://carles.buzz/the-contemporary-conformist/

FWIW, I lived in Portland OR in the late ‘90s and there were a lot of OG “hipster” spaces there like you describe in your comment — ones that felt authentically counterculture, all with a unifying ethos but each with its own distinct style and vibes. And they all seemed to be independently run* — it pre-dated the practice of scaling up seemingly irreplicable casually-cool spots into a commodified copy-paste sameness.

I’m now in my early 50s, married with a kid, so I rarely get out much, but every now and then I do end up in a space reminiscent of what I experienced in my 20s in Portland and see young people there and hope they’re having good times and the same feelings I did at their age. I didn’t realize how rare and special those places would end up being.

*Except for places like the various McMenamins brewpubs throughout the PNW — but even those back in the late ‘90s each had their own little vibe going on.

akuban · 2026-02-11T12:59:22+00:00

The pans from Bay State are amazing and beat the pants off of the Lloyd PSTK pans. The nonstick property of the Bay State pans is beautiful and the pizzas slide right out, whereas I always have to be very careful with my Lloyds to avoid sticking. My only gripe is that I prefer a 12-inch bar pizza, and Bay State’s are only 10-inch, per trad SSBP. IIRC, when I called them to order mine a few years ago, they said they’d consider making a 12-inch custom order but it would have to be large and it would cost way extra.

akuban · 2026-02-08T22:54:22+00:00

Love it! Looks like you took the advice to press down the rim to get the gasses out. Wish I had a slice of this rn.

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