Genuinely? Because I find it really funny to see how many times I can tell someone who was trying to make me feel bad about a mistake that they’re a moron to their face and have them just. keep. coming back. for more. Like, yeah, I made a typo, but you’re signing up to be abused in public, so how clever can you be?…

I’ve tried it several times (and on the DC Metro, too, where it is Not Allowed) and it had never gone well for me. I thought I had it all figured out when I started to scarf down a fried sesame ball from Chinatown (handheld, fried but not pungent, consumable in 5 minutes or less) but instead I just got sesame seeds…

I’m definitely not into the cause, but I am very much into the effect if it means we can find more Ötzis and learn further things about our very distant ancestors.

I agree with you in spirit, I guess (although the person I’m actually responding to was in fact specifically talking about the heat), but in practice no one anywhere can just wear “whatever they want.” Everybody everywhere on earth is choosing their clothing every day based on what they want tempered by what they…

I’ve always thought an actual interesting conversation to have would be about the Saudification of previously-diverse Islamic cultures (which is genuinely leading to a more-static and more-monolithic version of Islam), but we’re never going to get there because so many people just want an excuse to be afraid and angry.

What I love most about it is finding out how many different ways I can make pedants look like puling fools, and let me genuinely thank you for all the help you’ve given me in that endeavor.

If you know enough about modern society not to mention someone’s got food on their chin or an undone fly loudly and in public, then I shouldn’t have to explain to you why it’s not okay to correct someone’s grammar in what passes for “loudly and in public” on the internet. Even if it is a real case of misunderstanding…

Anthony Bourdain once said (in regards to India, I think) “How do they keep their colors so bright?” and damned if it isn’t true. Walking down the street in Omdurman was like a goddamned Tide commercial, except that no one was using Tide.

Did I not acknowledge the inconsistency of interpretation and enforcement loudly enough for you in my original post?

I promise you I’ve learned nothing. I find it difficult to retain new information that’s conveyed in the whining, snot-choked voices of pedantic nimrods.

Listen, since you’ve clearly got a lot of time on your hands, feel free to go back through my entire comment history and find me at least one more instance in which I swapped ‘tenant’ for ‘tenet,’ in order to establish “consistent misuse.” Otherwise just accept that you’re a childish pedant who learned some grammar…

Most rules do not have your health in mind. In reality, no one cares about your health. Women are not actually allowed to wear “whatever they want” anywhere outside of nude beaches, and for proof of that, next time you go to the grocery store in Poughkeepsie or whatever bastion of liberty you call home topless with…

I once burned the tops of my feet just going shopping for an hour in sandals. That’s how I learned why Sudanese women wear socks if they’re wearing strappy sandals. I just began to wear sneakers if I was going to be outside for more than 15 minutes at a stretch.

You could have let it go, the way most adults have learned to let go of many minor annoyances as they move about the day, assuming as seems to be the case that you have no informed thoughts about the issue at hand.

Yeah, this I can’t speak to, although I feel like I read an article saying that black clothing is actually no hotter than any other color. I had a few friends there who wore abaya and niqab (the face-covering) as well, and they claimed the one time I asked that wearing it was like air conditioning - it actually kept…

You’re the one who “didn’t want to be that guy,” and then proceeded to be that guy. Let your anxiety on the issue go, you’re clearly unfixable.

Listen, I’ve got people laying their throbbing dicks against the back of my neck for mixing up “tenant” and “tenet” in a post up-thread, and now you want to wave yours in my face over being too specific? It’s almost like most people just want to stroke themselves in public rather than engage in a thought.

Oops, you’re that guy! Enjoy being correct but cretinous!

<whispering gently but urgently> Chiding people for extremely minor issues in spelling and grammar instead of dealing with the content of their statements is proof of a childish mind that understands rules but not manners, and using action tags on your text makes it look like you teleported from LiveJournal 2004,…

It’s not nearly as bad as you’re thinking. I’m a white American, and I lived in Sudan for a bit - which I acknowledge is different from Saudi because there’s no prescribed piece of clothing that you have to wear over your other clothes (you can wear modest “modern” dress - lots of women wear abaya but no one is making…