I can’t believe all the counterpoints in the comments! My dad has been taking me to car shows since I was little, and the very first thing he taught me is DON’T TOUCH THE CARS.  Now, I was so cute, and he knew so many car guys that they inevitably let me sit in the driver’s seat anyway, but STILL. This is the ONLY…

We need to be “less hysterical” about mass shooters? Whataboutism? Gun control wouldn’t help anything? Sorry not sorry. This is a bad take.

Okay, I know the donut burger gets a lot of hate, but hear me out. A place in my former city did a donut burger with local Square Donuts (My fave donuts on earth), local grass fed beef patties, crispy smoked bacon, and melty cheddar, and y’all, it was the most delicious thing on earth. My brain lit up with joy from…

HARD AGREE. I’ve tried so many recipes, but nothing beats a box. I often doctor mine up with whatever I’ve got lying around, or if I’m particularly inspired. Last week, after gorging on sampling a delightful ice cream in Denver, I did ribbons of marshmallow and blackberry jam through my Ghirardelli goodness, and it…

These are amazing, and I hadn’t seen a lot of these, but does else anyone get that semantic satiation thing while they’re scrolling, when a word doesn’t look like a word anymore?

Preach! (Love, your fellow Southern Illinoisan)

In 201o, I was a teacher at a summer enrichment program, and one of the end of year prizes was a trip to laser tag. When the day came, I loaded up the kids in the Econoline, which had been sitting in the parking lot for a month, and we drove an hour to the laser tag place. After getting annihilated by a bunch of…

Erm, I live in central Illinois, so no mountains, but I’ll look on the map for some good squiggles! Thanks!

I’m in a new city and haven’t discovered a good cruising road yet. How do I go about finding one since everyone I’ve asked just looks at me like I’m nuts?

I take issue with the quality of “Midwestern” being the thing that disqualifies Chicago from being a great city. And you’ve never been there, so I don’t think you can comment. Midwestern doesn’t have to mean unsophisticated. Pretentiousness isn’t a good look.

My 2002 Taurus was on its last legs, and I was visiting local dealerships and looking for a small hatchback or crossover to replace it. This was my first time buying a car for myself, so I asked my dad to give me some pointers for dealing with dealerships. He told me to tell them exactly what I wanted and to not take…

Good Midwestern chicken salad with crackers, steamed sweet corn with butter, salads with walnuts, parmesan, and dried cherries, and fancy grilled cheese (white cheddar and caramelized onion, anyone?). Not all at once, of course, but these have been my go to items for the last couple of weeks. My waistline kind of…

Right. And though there are certainly Applebees and Arby’s located in cities, people who live in cities are spoiled for choice and might not pick these chains as much. (See, my small conservative town where an Applebees would be packed 99% of the time because it has no competition vs my new city where Applebees has to…

Even if you’re not charging, you still have to have permission. If you are showing movies at home to your friends, that’s one thing, but if you are showing them in a business or non-profit, you are still supposed to have a public performance licence. I work at a public library and we subscribe to a company that gives…

I loooooove cottage cheese. I’ve given up a lot of dairy as I eat healthier, but I just can’t quit it. I like it the best with a little salt and pepper on top or with mashed or baked potatoes instead of sour cream.  A freak salad bar accident led to me using it as salad dressing, and it was pretty darn good. I’ve…

The whole last season may have some interesting revelations for you...

I went to a home daycare when I was six or seven years old, and this provider thought that canned peas and poached eggs would be a great lunchtime meal for the passel of children occupying her home. I refused, and when she made me eat the peas, I had, well, a reversal of fortune, as they say. She called my mom to…

Huzzah! Somebody finally said it.

My 2002 Taurus was a BEAST. I upgraded from a heavily patched together 80's Cavalier in 2006, and I wasn’t thrilled about the meh styling, but it was something that could get me to and from undergrad, so whatever. I put 200k on top of the 100k that was already on it, put it in an embankment, and ran it ragged through…

I work for my local city and share our municipal employee parking garage with the police and fire crowd. If your truck doesn’t fit in the parking spot, width OR length-wise, maybe you shouldn’t be using it as your daily driver, jerks. When I can’t get my Honda Fit in the spot, you know there’s a problem.