This. I’ve watched too many people I care about suffer horribly and die prematurely from largely preventable illnesses. My own health went to hell from some genetic predispositions until I worked out I could absolutely not tolerate a standard American diet. Obviously some people can get away with it more than others for longer. But that’s not me. Found I wanted more life and a better quality of life. Fortunately I had the resources to change my diet and lifestyle. I realize that is a luxury not available to everyone.

My reaction on seeing this was to wonder about the Wendy’s Nasty Patty ™.

“For the love of God, Montresor!”

Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o’clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

Seriously. I spent 2 days in the hospital last week with bilateral pulmonary embolisms after having COVID the middle of last month. I was NOT otherwise at risk for clots. A terrible surprise that I’ll no doubt be recovering from for some time. I’m on a blood thinner for 6 months.

Robert Loggia and David Lynch have something to say about this:

https://youtu.be/nDilD3wAxt8?feature=shared

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDEsGZLbio

Yeah. Feel this is a slippery slope. First it’s supposedly luxury extras like heated seats and remote starts. Next something more critical when folks are habituated to the practice? Enpoopification all around.

Well, you could say Dennis.

I was there. Mid-70’s southern Florida. The most batshit crazy fundies making my life an utter misery for around 4 years. Surely they don’t still exist.

When Vita-mixes are criminalized, only criminals will have Vita-mixes.

Only know about chicken fish from Tom Waits and John Lurie.

U.S. has the Dr. Bronner’s soap label of currencies.

I’d like to see it more active. Long-term maintainer here. 115 lb loss. Kept off with little variation for over two decades. Life events impacted my equilibrium over the last 2 years and I’ve laid on ~15 lbs I can’t afford to carry for health reasons. It is coming off, just slower than I’d like. Welcome support and happy to share experiences.

Seems to me that weight maintenance is inherently difficult. Given that such a small percentage manage to preserve a major weight loss. It’s something that requires daily mindfulness that is difficult to maintain in the stresses of life in this era.

And I’m cracking up at the scammers phoning up my 85 year old father telling him his Windows has been compromised on his Linux desktop.

Koo-Koo, Katchoo.

Appalachian here. No doubt curbing demand for coal and doing little to take up the slack in viable livelihood has dropped an economic bomb on an already historically depressed region. All of the programs you hear about teaching coal miners to code and such are superficial window dressing and often non-profit grifts that fold in a short time leaving executives to float away on golden parachutes. Whichever way you turn it, people here are exploited and propagandized. Most often attributing their woes to the wrong sources. Folks that are for sure feeling the effects of a changing climate with frequent severe storms, 1000 year floods, etc.

Sadly, the sociopath/idiotic formula does seem to resonate with the algorithms and/or the public. There is a local creator that I know to be a thoughtful, well-rounded person, yet they had to reduce themselves to a cartoon caricature in order to get traction. But that approach seems to have worked out for them, at least initially through Tik Tok and YouTube. Now I see them taking on increasingly sketchy sponsorships as their 15 minutes fades. And of course audience capture indisputably steers media makers into conspiratorial niches they can’t escape without sacrificing views/payout. Authenticity be damned.

Whoa. “Going to Hell in a handbasket” just got literal.