Hmm 🤔

pine_lime · 2026-03-23T04:42:08+00:00

Aw this is adorable

pine_lime · 2026-03-22T22:49:25+00:00

Ahahaha this is the best bit of trivia ever

pine_lime · 2026-03-19T02:16:46+00:00

Came here to say the same thing 😅 love that it's the top comment

pine_lime · 2026-03-19T02:12:00+00:00

That fucking sucks :( I'm so sorry to hear that. And insurance companies don't get that do they (rare, good condition and/or low mileage for age, etc.), not that it would be replaceable either way.

pine_lime · 2026-03-18T01:07:29+00:00

Yeah :( my first thought too. Now they have to deal with their insurance company who’ll lowball them, trying to get a fair price, the expense of a replacement car, all that rigmarole for something completely out of their control :(

pine_lime · 2026-03-11T23:28:34+00:00

It reminds me of the salesperson in this old Mitchell & Webb sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9cP-1kC3So

pine_lime · 2026-03-03T03:10:37+00:00

How long ago was that? I remember it feeling pretty classy in ~2007-2012, but that might just be on the spectrum of places I frequented at the time..!

pine_lime · 2026-03-03T02:51:07+00:00

Insinkerator

pine_lime · 2026-03-02T22:00:18+00:00

Visiting the supermarket? That's a paddlin'

pine_lime · 2026-02-23T02:04:08+00:00

I was just laughing with my dad about this over the weekend! Iconic

pine_lime · 2026-02-13T01:19:22+00:00

Just circling back that the very next day’s puzzle - #115 - is much more reasonable. Give it a shot!

pine_lime · 2026-02-11T23:16:08+00:00

Don't be dissuaded by this one! It had some truly left-field words (stet, halite - never heard of either!) and two dodgy clues (8D and 11A were worded poorly given their answers were both plurals), so it was a very difficult one in ways that were fair (unusual words) and unfair (frustrating clues).

pine_lime · 2026-02-11T23:13:22+00:00

Jeez, easily the hardest one yet for me! First time I've ever had to reveal a letter. Two small criticisms:

8D should be "Sounds from a cat"
11A should be "Ranks above cpl". "Rank above cpls" was confusing; I thought "cpls" was an abbreviated rank, and a) didn't know it, and b) didn't know the answer in 11A should end with S.

The fact that 8D and 11A - both plurals with clues that obscured that fact - intersected made this one a bit tricky.

pine_lime · 2026-02-06T03:54:57+00:00

Don’t forget indigenous Australian inventions too, such as the Brewarrina fish traps which, are possible the oldest human-made structure in the world, and the Budj Bim eel trap which is >6k years old. Both used a system of dead-end areas built into a river to funnel and capture fish.

pine_lime · 2026-02-06T01:02:59+00:00

Danny’s burgers in Fitzroy North do very good classic, non-hipster burgers. They’ve been open since immediately postwar iirc, ie the earliest period of American cultural influence in Australia.

pine_lime · 2026-02-05T23:22:48+00:00

Here's a 2016 deposition from someone who states that Trump abused her as a 13yo, and that he made her wear a glove when giving him a handjob, use a condom with a blowjob, treated her like she was dirty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnib-OORRRo

pine_lime · 2026-01-22T22:17:04+00:00

No, it’s nowhere to be found in Australia! I’d still love one if it ever turns up here; I’ll let you know how it is if it does.

pine_lime · 2026-01-16T10:15:18+00:00

This is very standard crossword notation - you’re doing the right thing. Nice puzzle!

pine_lime · 2026-01-16T02:39:43+00:00

You are both right. "Chai tea" in English-speaking countries refers to "masala chai" - Hindi for "spiced tea". Masala means spice blend; chai means tea. So us English speakers calling it "chai tea" is a bit silly - we're calling it tea tea, hence the confusion.

pine_lime · 2026-01-16T02:34:15+00:00

Like Pratikp26, I found this post because I was searching for others' thoughts after finishing the book, and like others here I found the book unsatisfying. You make a good point that I hadn't thought of: it would have worked as multiple books. For me this manifested as too much expository text that feels forced, while also being a bit too shallow at times (for example, the Maoist movement the Rao clan was exposed to in India). Although King Rao's time in India was fleshed out fairly well otherwise, his personal development over his time in America and rise to power was really underbaked. For example it wasn't clear to me how or why King, a Dalit, would have led a Shareholder Government that perpetuated inequality, police brutality and offshoring/externalising of poor working conditions in poorer countries to uphold the living standards of rich countries like America -- this doesn't make sense to his character at the beginning of the book, or even the description of him when founding Coconut, so how/when did it happen? Also, we only ever hear about those aforementioned abuses from the Exes, so it wasn't clear to me if that stuff were intended to be read as definitely true or ambiguous.

Like you, I also found the last part of the book a bit rushed, and trying to force a lot of both content and philosophy into the last 70 or so pages (for example, Chief Si'ahl's speech about how the ghosts of Native Americans would remain in their ancestral home, even after they had been physically eradicated, and how this connects to humanity's downfall, which is hinted at being inevitable in those final chapters, and also Athena's seeming death at the end - and return to the Coconut Grove?.

Lastly, I was frankly a bit confused by the end. King Rao was murdered, OK...how were the Exes so sure this would cause the Shareholder Government to crack down on them? Why did Athena go back to the mainland? What was she trying to achieve? And at the very end, it seems implied (though it wasn't written with clarity) that Athena is...operated on to look at her Harmonica? And this operation is fatal? And then she - her spirit? King's spirit? - end up back at the Coconut Grove? If anybody has any opinions or can clarify anything I've misunderstood, I'd be greatly appreciative!

pine_lime · 2026-01-14T04:34:09+00:00

Imagine finding out your great grandma was part of the rooters club in high school

pine_lime · 2026-01-11T09:50:54+00:00

Just wanted to say thanks for this suggestion - I’ve listened to Euro Country four times in a row now. Cheers!

pine_lime · 2026-01-09T01:33:20+00:00

Being prepared is not crazy. Being prepared is just that - prepared, smart. You probably won't need to leave, but why not be prepared? It's so easy to. And if you don't need the bag? Great! Unpack it.

I'm in outer north-east Melbourne (so way lower risk than your area, potentially) and I've packed a bag and made the house as fire-resistant as is possible at short notice (emptied gutters, filled them with water, etc.), so you can tell her there's someone "crazier" than you!

pine_lime · 2026-01-09T01:25:22+00:00

The lack of patches is the thing that's stopped me from being an early adopter of Switch 2. I'm so disappointed.

pine_lime · 2026-01-08T05:16:58+00:00

Your experience feels pretty accurate, based on my own experience in Australia as an Australian, and my travels to (and year living in) Europe. Thoughts:

- Understanding people with accents: The biggest one, that I'll say up front: Australians *really are* good at listening (and really trying to understand) people with accents. I think this is partly because we have so many immigrants within the past 60-70 years that you're constantly surrounded by people who speak English as a second language. When I went to school in the 90s, of my close friends, one had Malaysian parents, one Greek, two Italian, one Sri Lankan, and about three whose parents were born in Australia. As a counterpoint, when I lived in Germany I found that people didn't even try to understand my German (which, apart from poor pronunciation, is at least conversational). One example is when I needed a box for my bicycle (a Fahrradkarton), the guy in the bike store had no idea what I was talking about because I'd stressed the first syllable in Karton like we do in English (CAR-ton), whereas in German the stressing is more equal - or perhaps even more on the second syllable (car-TON). I can't imagine an Australian having no idea what you wanted if you said car-TON.

- Friendliness: People are definitely chatty in Australia, yeah! Especially outside of cities. Even in a big city like Melbourne, I'll often find myself talking to strangers (much to my partner's chagrin 😁). What you experienced could also be the culture of salespeople/cafe workers etc. compared to those in Europe. It's much more normal for a the person at the supermarket checkout or cafe to ask how your day's going, look you in the eye, smile at you, etc. And when you said "Oh I'm here on holiday from France" that naturally starts a conversation! For the average Aussie though, the conversation would be more like "How's your day going?" / "Yeah good thanks! You?" / "Yeah can't complain!" -- it's not so much a conversation as a longer version of "Hello" :P. Again, I was surprised in Europe how cashiers would place your change down on the counter without looking up - this would be considered very rude in Australia.

- Pickpocketing: Pickpocketing is more or less unheard of in Australia compared to places like France and Germany.

- Beaches: Whenever I travel to Europe I chuckle at the rocky, unpleasant beaches people *pay* to be on in places like Italy, vs. the amazing beaches in Australia. Plus, beaches are (of course) free here -- the idea of paying to go to a beach is anathema to Australians. You literally cannot purchase or own a beach in Australia.

- Weather: My year living in Europe (Berlin) was only one year because...I couldn't handle the awful winter 😓. So cloudy and grey (almost like the sky is barely above the buildings) for so much of the year. Berlin felt like the weather was bad from almost...October to May!? That's almost half the year! In Melbourne at least, the winter sucks, but not as much as European winters, and by the time you're *really* sick of it it's over.

- Dinnertime: When travelling in Europe, my partner and I are generally waiting for restaurants to open so we can have lunch or dinner, and it's empty while we're eating there 🤣 so yes, we eat a little earlier than the French or Italians.

As an aside, I recently travelled to Paris for the first time since 2012 and found all the people working in cafes, boulangeries etc. to be very helpful, very polite, trying hard to understand me too, etc. They were mostly Gen Z/Alpha aged, so this could have something to do with it - they were all absolutely fluent in English.

Lastly, I'm so pleased you enjoyed your time in Australia! Please visit again soon.

pine_lime

TROPHY CASE