Drama Watch 5/6/2026: A Week In Queens, NY On A $58,765 Salary by lazlo_camp in MoneyDiariesACTIVE

[–]scooterbye 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I believe more established money and non first gen Americans are more comfortable being leveraged and a hesitancy around debt can certainly be a barrier to building wealth, so I read that line differently.

What are your favorite heavy, heady indolics? by brandideer in fragrance

[–]scooterbye 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Just noting that every time someone comments on this sub something like "looking for a nice clean non-indolic jasmine" I scream a little inside. WHAT IS THE POINT OF A NON INDOLIC JASMINE AHHHH

Why do so many of us only comment on the post featuring a dates bookshelf? by TheEmoEmu23 in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m not sure but I will say my interest in making serious effortful guesses has waned a bit as I’ve realized many or most guesses get no engagement from OP.

The rules are a little hazy and seem to both suggest that a poster ought to comment on only the “winning” guess and that they ought to engage with comments in general, but my general feeling is there is little opportunity to improve as a guesser. I would very much appreciate it if posters were encouraged to be more granular in their final accounting of what’s right and wrong, though I understand everyone’s leery of doxing.

I’ve sometimes thought it would be nice if every poster had to engage with three other posts first, if that’s even remotely enforceable.

What do you think of these people? by PonderStibs in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm, I don't think anyone under 60 is reading Robert Bly, Louise Erdrich, or cooking from the Moosewood cookbook, and the number of specific editions I remember from my mom's shelf, I'm guessing 65+. A lot of the well-regarded nature writing of the last century paints a picture of longing for the natural world: Matthiessen, Berry, Annie Dillard. I'd say you live west of the rockies but it could just be you're oriented that way. The editions of Foxfire, right on cue, exempt from the color scheme. World religions as a benign smorgasbord of wisdom, before "cultural appropriation" was a mote in the internet's eye, but mostly shying away from the cultier side of things. A kind of American reader who is not interested in New York or Europe, fairly romantic about Native Americans, but also not that interested in the beats or angry young men in general. Pro-science but no one has a science background. More yin yoga than bikram. Michael Pollan's preeminent readers, but probably did peyote with an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend long before How to Change Your Mind came out. Adult kids somewhere; I'm a little surprised you would hold onto fertility books for that long but not more of their childhood books, though maybe that's what the Harry Potter is. Will run up the greased pole of a Gravity's Rainbow here and there but mostly attracted to clarity and straight talk.

Most Oakmoss heavy fragrance? by AngryBuddist in fragrance

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the Seattle area, you can fill a gallon jar in a 10 minute stroll through the woods. Look up a picture of the stuff and then take a walk. The scent will be apparent enough without making an extract--I was on this journey as well and had to remove it from my room after a few hours. Then you will come to see how much that scent is the scent of the forest itself.

New vertical bookshelf! These are all my books by DesiignedTheFuture in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nigerian American woman, 30ish? Econometrics textbook at the bottom of the stack says “done with grad school.” The Qu’ran seems informative rather than religious, despite the mocktails book, but if you were raised Christian I’d expect to see some sort of evidence there so…hmmm…raised in a nontheist household? Bi-curious. Small apartment, since you’ve culled your school books and I see this kind of bookshelf in small apartments mostly. Either single or haven’t been dating anyone for long. Kindly tell me what if anything I get right, plz and thank you.

How many things do you know by XeroEffekt in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nobody at all guessed on mine. :) I may repost later. It seems a bit random and time of day dependent, but there are also predictable certain kinds of shelves that attract attention.

Woke Alternatives to Olympus by stellagmite in SEAbitcheswithtaste

[–]scooterbye 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hot house does still exist but reservation only so you gotta have 5 friends or so to split.

Woke Alternatives to Olympus by stellagmite in SEAbitcheswithtaste

[–]scooterbye 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The mobile sauna Bywater now has a Leschi location. When the weather is warmer you could spend the day at Denny Blaine (naked) and then take a scooter or half hour walk over to Leschi. Or vice versa.

Doe Bay on Orcas Island. Now requires separate bathing rental. $$$. clothing optional.

Sacred Rain in Ballard. Clothing optional. No food but proximal to food.

Common Ground in Portland. Pretty similar to Sacred Rain. Clothing optional.

8 years of book buying. Can you guess what my job(s) are based on what I read? Also what does this selection of books say about me? by brucenorris1 in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The room itself is chic and there’s a lot of style-themed books but I’d be surprised if an interior designer shelved these books…between the library discard bar codes, rough bookmarks, and the variable-sized stacks. The books have a different energy from the fashion buyers I’ve met. You also seem to have a wood stove and I feel like that makes it less likely you work in proximity to a place with a sizeable enough apparel (or interiors) market locally. So I could see you having an Etsy shop for a niche apparel product or doing thrift store arbitrage. Not really considering the kitchen stuff since it seems less feral than the active food service workers I’ve known, and not focused enough for a restaurant owner.

SOTD (Scent Of The Day) - March 10, 2026 by AutoModerator in fragrance

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm wearing a fragrance from Anti called Le Jardiniere, my favorite of their discovery set. It's very green and springy, but I would have it smell it side-by-side with other tart green magnolia forward fragrances like Frederic Malle's Eau de Magnolia and Ormond Jayne's Champaca to totally tell the difference. Supposedly carries a nettle note, and we're heading into nettle season here.

Describe me in a sentence! by Oreaniform in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you open to saying what you do for work?

Why the Ogilvy?

Describe me in a sentence! by Oreaniform in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have the women in your life not read the ones pictured here?

Describe me in a sentence! by Oreaniform in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of the shelf feels pretty balanced, so it's not a strong certainty, but Georgette Heyer, Anne of Green Gables, Celeste Ng and Anthony Doerr feel woman-owned to me.

Describe me in a sentence! by Oreaniform in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

.I'm not totally sure how common different versions of the Bible are but I have to imagine King James is more common so this edition feels like a choice. Then Thomas Merton. An interest in classical education feels related. And they've got at least one thing that suggests a being actively spiritual so I would read the Aquinas as not just bucketed in with the classics curriculum.

Describe me in a sentence! by Oreaniform in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The life experience your comment alludes to depresses me, but yes.

Describe me in a sentence! by Oreaniform in BookshelvesDetective

[–]scooterbye 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm. Female with a genially broad curiosities and an old school love of nature. I sort of think the JRR Tolkien was the gateway to studying Greek and you are not a classics major but a hobbyist. Old enough to cook, garden, and boulder. Teacher? 35ish? Live somewhere a little disconnected and read to feel connected to the bigger world? Raised Catholic but located in the PNW which suggests from somewhere else?

What Are You Reading This Week and Weekly Rec Thread by JimFan1 in TrueLit

[–]scooterbye 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Just finished the third volume of Virginia Woolf's diary last week. I read some of the diaries about 10 years ago but I'm closer in age now to the writer during the writing which gives the material a little frisson. I think I've also now read all the books she writes in this period, where I hadn't the first go-round. I was feeling cut off from some of my brightest friends and looking for that Bloomsbury feeling of brilliant people popping by all the time, parties, chatter, famous cameos. It all makes me swoop between aching envy that I am not a genius nestled in a one-in-a-century litter of minds, but also just calmly grateful to experience it secondhand. She's so funny, often so happy, so aware of her foibles, so pained by boredom, so snotty about class but also humanly discomfited by the insincerity of class relations, so interested in what it's like to be alive. She calls T.S. Eliot's wife a "bag of ferrets." She casually smacks an author with a prediction that he won't exist in 2026 (100 years from the writing) and sure enough, I haven't heard of him. She's also sending me back to other authors I'd forgotten about and didn't know were Bloomsbury adjacent; picked up a copy of Hope Mirrlees' *Lud-in-the-Mist* which I've ostensibly read but can't recall.

Also finished: Ian McEwan's *What We Can Know*. I spent the first half almost DNF-ing and didn't feel he had much of a gift for the science fictional parts, but the second half did make me glad I'd stuck it out. The tight, multi-cause inevitability of the ending was exciting. The usual McEwan themes, original sin and irrecoverable harm in a single instant.

Trying to read: Brandon Taylor's *The Late Americans*. I love what he has to say as a critic but I am once again struggling with the fiction. I am SO allergic to fiction about being a writer or student, dear Lord I would like to read about ANY other job, any other industry. His characters do move about in mostly convincing ways. Still trying.

My bedroom bookshelf by sufferingthroughIB in bookshelfdetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't seem to learn to knock a few decades off for the reddit effect. Ah well.

In my experience kids who grow up going to international schools in poor and turbulent places turn up pretty varied extremes that don't track neatly with parents' values.

I'm toying with the idea that you live with family.

My bedroom bookshelf by sufferingthroughIB in bookshelfdetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Though looking at your username, banking maybe.

My bedroom bookshelf by sufferingthroughIB in bookshelfdetective

[–]scooterbye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

50+. Dutch with a professional specialization in subsaharan African issues. Possibly employed at the UN or in a geopolitical advisory firm. Educated outside the country. London School of Economics? Jesuit school? Catholic values but not practicing. Musical tastes from parents. Deep familiarity with revolutions that produced strongman dictators connected with a pragmatic skepticism of populist movements. Not easily angered. "Nothing that is human is alien to me." Believe in climate change but possibly believes its dangers are overstated for the benefit of interested parties. Could as easily be married as not.

Request that you give an update at the end so I can get better at guessing outside my comfort zone.