That's rough. After a friend had to go on a diet for Celiac, she told me that "apparently gluten is the thing that makes you feel full, ever."

I accidentally started one of my friends on eating baby/toddler food pouches, because she's so excited about the variety and she can get her fruit & veggies without worrying about things going bad before she eats them all. Initially, I'd just suggested them for when she was recovering from an oral surgery, but…

My sister is having trouble getting a gastrointestinal issue diagnosed, and she just passed the point where people stopped complimenting her on how good she looks and started asking if everything's ok. She's sort of thrilled to not be told how good she looks anymore, because it was getting hard not to bite people's…

Crazy, right?

I kind of thought it was both things. Anansi isn't amused, and he's every bit as enraged as he comes off, but he's also taking the opportunity to get these people to dedicate their deaths to him, and give himself a nice big energy boost. Given the sort of character he is in the book, though, I assumed off the bat…

I really loved that part too - lock internals are really cool looking, and it is, as you say, an ordinary bit of "magic" that people generally overlook. Lockpicking is remarkably easy to learn the basics of. I can get someone with no prior knowledge picking a standard Master lock within 20-30 minutes, and when they…

It looked like they did some on-location filming for "one of the most important places in America" (the one referenced in this episode), but hopefully they also got some others as well - didn't Wednesday make a point of stopping at roadside attractions and the like? The book's focus on middle America seemed like…

Well, there's always Goedel, Escher, Bach - isn't that the biggie about the links between art and math skills?

It might be one of those ones that's worth a revisit - could have just rubbed us the wrong way at the time. This sort of thing is why I review all the books I read on Goodreads - I hate remembering that I did or didn't like something, but not being able to name specifics.

One of my friends is a martial arts expert, and he's always ticked off when people make comments like that. He's as good as he is because he's trained every single day for years - to imply that it's just inborn talent dismisses all that work.

Personality and aptitude play a role, but our culture (and things like this) greatly inflate that role, in my opinion.

That too

My sister and I were going through all the artwork that my parents had saved from when we were kids, and there were some gems in there

This reminds me of the studies about all the problematic side effects that arrive from telling kids how smart they are, rather than praising effort. When you treat intelligence or creativity as purely inherent traits, rather than also skills that can be honed, then when kids hit an obstacle they give up easily,…

Yeah, looked sort of like an animal's underbelly and rear legs to me.

I'm sure that statue will be excellently executed and not reside somewhere in the uncanny valley with that infamous Lucille Ball statue.

Anything topical is going to age poorly as a rule, although very few of my go-to comedy albums are political. Eddie Izzard's focus on history and religion makes things like Dress to Kill age much better.

I really liked his Sleepwalk with Me and Secret Public Journal albums, but I didn't connect with My Girlfriend's Boyfriend at all. It's been a while, but I remember thinking that it came off as a bit misogynistic? Can't remember what specifically bugged me, though, since it was just one listen right after it came…

Maria Bamford's material about mental illness does a great job of still being really funny. I haven't seen her latest yet, but Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome and Ask Me About My New God! were both hilarious. I get what you mean, although I think it's easy for a comedian to aim for thoughtful and miss the comedy, no…

If the kid has their own seat, you've got to pay for another full price ticket, whereas flying with the baby on your lap is free. Trust me, the parents would rather have a seat for everyone, but those extra tickets can be the difference between being able to afford the trip or not. Also, if you've got a not-too-busy…