I would just like to say that your ability to brush off criticism without being an ass about it is so so so refreshing. I have had issues with some of the writers (whether re: a specific article or re: a general pattern) here and I can't recall ever being responded to in a way that didn't seem condescending, overly…

Thanks for the kind words! The really screwed up part is I know that I am still very lucky, because I have parents who are still alive, who have enough to be able to help me when I can bear to ask, and I have a job even if it pays crap, and I like my job even though the crap pay is ruining the rest of my life, and…

FYI, the article you link to about the human stomach, in the comments multiple people point out that his reasoning is off. I found similarly credible sources stating anywhere from "the Starbucks trenta (916 ml) is slightly bigger than the stomach's capacity" (916 ml = just under 31 oz.) to "it can stretch to hold 3-4…

I'm with you. I took a huge pay cut to follow a career I love, but now I'm so broke that I can't get my life together enough to move upwards with it. Like, I have a filling coming out, and it's irritating my gum and making it bleed on occasion, and I know I need to get it fixed for my health and for presentation in…

WHOA WHOA WHOA. I know how to exhibit proper table manners and eat like a lady and all.. but I also usually only eat food that I freaking love, and you'd better believe that if I'm alone, I'm wolfing that shit down. And it has NOTHING to do with it being a hassle, I just can't eat it fast enough because FLAVOR…

AAAHH I have HS too! I dropped a bunch of weight a few years back and it got a lot better, but lately I've been working in a hot/greasy environment (line cook) and it's gotten worse again. Even grosser, I drive a non-car, which means wearing a motorcycle helmet, and the full face one is safest, but it also means that…

Hey, now... I'm a nerd, in that I love reading about and learning about supposedly "boring" or "uncool" topics. But, I also have a terrible inability to remember concrete trivia details, so I see nothing wrong with "Science says so! With a capital S!" as proper defense of an argument.

Question: How can I incorporate this into my life if I require pre-bed bong-ripping, and thus will consume any delicious item within reach prior to passing out?

No, don't YOU ever change. Seriously. I know this is creepy but I fucking love you. I just... every time I see a post from you, I picture Mike Pipper sitting in a coffee shop talking wildly at a laptop. It makes my day. I have a MST problem, no I will not seek help for it.

This stuff is super fucked up, and very common in the industry, yes. But please do also remember, that it's not an essential part of the business. I work at a very successful place, and while we don't get paid sick leave, we do get paid time off, we get free basic health care and discounted extended healthcare, and…

I want to run my own business someday, so I had to beg to take a pay cut and get into the kitchen (gringa!) to get the learning and experience in. The cooks mostly accepted me right off the bat because we've known each other for a long time, I speak pretty good Spanish, and have worked expo for long enough that…

This is what drives me nuts about people who claim that plenty of servers make lots of money. THEY SHOULD. Waiting tables can be very, very difficult. And the way that it affects your lifestyle and your energy levels, plus the fact that wait jobs often involve some time in physically dangerous environments - it's a…

Ooh, fun! OK I have a good one. So, when I was in college, my brother was working for Al Franken. Franken was touring with Dar Williams to support his new PAC, and she happens to be the reason I started playing music when I was a pre-teen. In college, I was a performing musician, so my brother got my backstage tickets…

Yep yep. I'm closing in on 28 in a few months, and seriously considering a new life plan of inventing tiny, tiny bottles of beer and hard cider so that I can stop feeling guilty about all the money and booze I waste when I fall asleep 1/4 of the way in. Sometimes just 1 cider will give me a hangover - and I used to be…

Duh! Red herring!!

I don't know if it's the same in every state, but where I am (TX) when I went on unemployment in about 2010, the amount that it paid depended on the amount you had been making before. And then there was the issue of healthcare - I had really good healthcare through the job that fired me, and I got a few weeks or a…

I was expecting two belly buttons, vertically so they looked like actual buttons, with a surprise third belly button to boot. Also, that he would be an anthropomorphic hybrid between Frosty the Snowman and a teddy bear. But then, I've always had an overactive imagination.

This is what gets me about these situations... like, so what if you were 100000 percent sure that you would be back in 5 minutes and the weather was cool out and the kid is 6 and capable of walking and talking? Dying of hyperthermia is not the only danger of leaving your child alone in a car out of your view. There's…

I had a pair of drunk idiots in their 30s or 40s one night when I was waiting tables, they weren't being super blatantly creepy, but one was trying to say random, confusing stuff that just almost made sense and sounded maybe insulting but not obviously so, like some kind of power trip game to watch me get flustered,…

Ah yes, I forgot all about the whole non-loyalty thing. Yeah, that was definitely a shitty part of it, too... and the fact that their presence would drive away regulars, sometimes for weeks, because of how service inevitably declined while dealing with the nitpicky Grouponites. They always would eventually come back,…