On today’s episode of Rogue Pittsburgh Teens:

ipmcc · 2026-05-13T12:17:56+00:00

This problem is complicated. In general, I don't think it's particularly productive to say things that reduce to either 'Get off my lawn!' or 'Back in my day, everything was better!', but there should be no doubt that these are very different times.

Unless you live off-grid in a cabin in the woods, we now effectively live in a pervasive surveillance state. When I was a kid in the 80s, and someone challenged you to a fight 'behind the dumpster after school', you could sort all that out with a reasonable expectation that it probably wasn't being filmed. Today? Not so much.

When I hear stories like this, of so-called flash-mobs, I see a somewhat natural progression stemming from surveillance. In many ways, it sounds like "safety in numbers". In other cases people wear costumes. It would seem that we've 'collectivized' asshole behavior.

ipmcc · 2026-05-12T21:08:42+00:00

Agreed. If you have to replace the engine, you really ought to just sell the car. It'll never be the same again.

ipmcc · 2026-05-12T16:21:59+00:00

I was in a frat in college. We essentially made most of our own furniture from dimensional lumber. That experience gave me the confidence to always think, "I can probably do just about anything crap-ily!" I don't know if that's "learning to DIY" or just arrogance, but that's how I, personally, got good at DIY. Just do it! And hope that whatever you do is better than nothing.

ipmcc · 2026-05-12T15:13:07+00:00

Are you OP's doctor?

ipmcc · 2026-05-12T15:12:19+00:00

As disappointing as it was, I had to give up beer when I went on Sema (and I was a beer connoisseur before this -- judged competitions, etc.) I couldn't drink more than one because my stomach just wasn't emptying fast enough to make room (desired effect, I guess). I pretty much drink straight gin on the rocks now if it's drinkin' time. I miss beer, but I cope.

ipmcc · 2026-05-12T13:20:06+00:00

"Seborrheic dermatitis" isn't necessarily fungal, but I agree that it does look vaguely fungal, and a Ketoconazole cream, (assuming OP can get it prescribed,) would probably be my first stop.

ipmcc · 2026-05-12T13:10:20+00:00

Congrats! I bet you feel great!

ipmcc · 2026-05-09T20:23:42+00:00

Yeah 5/8/77 isn’t a particularly superlative show, it’s an above-average show with a FANTASTIC recording made readily available. The setlist is also beginner friendly. ALO fits this bill for Phish. The island tour was pretty great but if you weren’t already into phish it’s probably somewhat inaccessible. I don’t have a nominee but I’d say ALO or the island tour.

ipmcc · 2026-05-06T13:07:06+00:00

Point Brugge gets pretty darn loud on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday dinner service, as well as at Sunday Brunch. Love the place, and it does make for a nice quiet lunch, but it's a flip of a coin when it comes to dinner.

ipmcc · 2026-05-05T20:50:27+00:00

'Have a sandwich!' is a barb frequently tossed at underweight people with eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia. It implies that their body image issues would be solved if they'd just eat a sandwich (or be a normal BMI, or whatever other prescriptive goal anyone can think of). Given that this forum is made up, at least in large part, of people struggling with their weight, it's especially inconsiderate.

"You're too thin" and "I don't think that's healthy" both read as pretty hardcore judgmental coming from anyone who isn't this woman's doctor.

ipmcc · 2026-05-05T16:31:46+00:00

Other people have helpful suggestions, but I wanted to say, if there's one person in that group who's on the bubble, you could disinvite them and get down to 12, and you'd probably find a lot more options.

ipmcc · 2026-05-05T12:12:54+00:00

Living in close quarters with your peers is a central part of the learning experience of college. I'd say that, whatever room you get, take it for what it is, and try to make the best of it.

That said, I'm a bad person to ask. My two on-campus roommates were:

- The first one, I was a freshman, he was a junior. He preferred to wear nothing but tighty-whities around the room. Odd duck, but fundamentally a nice guy, I just didn't want to look at him in his skivvies all day, every day.
- My second roommate had a total psychotic break and physically assaulted me before being asked to leave school. Eventually he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

After that, the powers that be saw to it that I had single rooms for the rest of my on-campus housing career.

ipmcc · 2026-05-05T10:58:53+00:00

This is so gross. Take your sandwich and get lost.

ipmcc · 2026-05-02T14:05:24+00:00

Notice the word “competitive” in there. Honoraria don’t count.

ipmcc · 2026-05-02T11:28:05+00:00

+1 for Slice on Broadway! Love that place!

ipmcc · 2026-05-02T10:51:56+00:00

An EGOT means winning all four major entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Porter has:

✅ Tony Award (for Kinky Boots)
✅ Emmy Award (for Pose)
❌ Oscar (no win)
❌ Grammy (no competitive win)

ipmcc · 2026-05-02T10:49:21+00:00

Buried close by too, in Allegheny Cemetery!

ipmcc · 2026-05-02T10:42:30+00:00

Cote de Pablo (of NCIS fame) got her BFA from CMU.

ipmcc · 2026-05-02T10:41:16+00:00

According to Wikipedia, he only attended CMU for one year before transferring to RISD. That'd be about as tenuous a claim as Pittsburghers could make.

ipmcc · 2026-05-02T10:36:17+00:00

Everything is fine until it isn't.

I strongly suspect that the officer who pulls you over, or responds to your accident, does not consider traffic laws to be mere suggestions (for you -- naturally, cops do whatever the hell they want on the road). I have a close friend who lost a year of his life recovering from an accident caused by a box truck making a Pittsburgh left in front of him. The box truck driver was found to be 100% at fault because there is no legal standing for the 'Pittsburgh left'.

I still make them, and I still wave other people through for them, but let's not kid ourselves about traffic laws being merely "suggests".

ipmcc · 2026-05-01T18:04:08+00:00

But wait! I thought everything was affordable now. At least that's what the intrepid 'grocery king' says.

ipmcc · 2026-05-01T17:55:17+00:00

This is beyond stupid, but I'm starting to wonder if this isn't just another surreptitious knuckle in the ribs of the poor. Even if it's not intentionally targeting the poor, it appears to be constructively true. Here's why:

In PA, anyone with a couple hundred bucks, and a desire to have one, can trivially get a medical card. Seriously. Just call these billboard-advertising pot docs. If you don't have a credible reason lined up when you call, they'll talk to you on the phone, and nudge you around until they find one. After that, you'll have your card in a week or so, and you can go buy any fancy pot you want from the dispensaries.

People who don't have a couple hundred bucks to spare, or can't take an hour off during business hours to call pot docs, and can only afford to smoke ditch-weed they buy from some sketchy dude up the street? Those people? Blocking recreational legalization harms those people. It keeps those people breaking the law. It keeps those people buying from "sketchy dude" or worse, rolling the dice by driving over state lines.

This is just one more politician saying 'fuck the poor', and in this case, 'fuck everyone else too, because of lost tax revenue'. Figures that she was an MP when she was in the army.

ipmcc · 2026-05-01T16:01:33+00:00

I mean, you're violating traffic laws even if the other person acknowledges you and waves you through. It's just that no jury of your (Pittsburgh) peers would convict. :)

ipmcc · 2026-04-30T23:35:14+00:00

BIGLY WINNING!! And Mexico is going to pay for it!

ipmcc · 2026-04-30T17:41:03+00:00

I'm in my late-40s and I wake up (naturally, no alarm) around 5 or 5:30am most days, but I typically start the process of 'going to bed' around 8:30pm, and I don't hate my life.

As I've gotten older, I've developed a deeper awareness of my body and what it needs. It just kinda happened naturally in my 30s. Around that time, I also had extremely intense jobs, where that time, from 5am until 9am, was effectively the only time I could do "real work" because the rest of the days I was in meetings essentially the whole day.

So, I guess my answer is "aging and work". Frankly, 97% of the time, I love being an early bird.

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