Sounds reasonable that the populace was also getting upset about it. Regardless, the point is that measures were taken to deliberately reduce the percentage of one's income that went to food, for better or worse, explaining the differences between the US and other country's costs.

I think I spend about 6% of my grad student income on groceries, which are all but one or two meals out of my week. I'm also a single person buying for just me, and I cook daily, so I think I keep my food budget pretty low.

I watched an interesting documentary recently that addressed this very phenomenon, in part- old news, but it's not mentioned here and I think it's worth noting. The doc is called King Corn, about the use and role of corn production in the US, and it included some policy history. Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture…

Haha, well, this was the weirdest pickup line I've ever received. My friends and I were out at our favorite shitty bar having a good ol' drunken time. One of the regular guys there hadn't seen me in a while, and I think forgot that we knew each other (he had a bit of a drinking problem). We were talking on and off…

I am also a Mirena fan! I have now had it for about 2 years. As long as we're doing the anecdote thing, I'll tell mine as I find it to be unique (at least, haven't found any similar stuff in my internetting). I love the thing, but the first couple months after insertion were weird. I was happy as a clam 99% of the…

Traumatizing is right. For the fear, and also for the fact that I'm then reminded of her every time I ever think of OkCupid or Match... it just became completely not worth my energy when I was single. I'd rather remember her fondly than in the context of what this sick guy did to her.

Yeah, I do the same with friends now if online dating comes up in conversation. It usually results in pleasant surprises, I think, which is always good grounding. Thanks, and good luck.

I already didn't want to do it, because reasons. This was the final nail in the coffin of that decision (sorry for poor choice of metaphor), though I do understand the exceptional nature of this story.

I have not used online dating myself. I have one humorous nightmare scenario, and one horrible, though.

Fancy rats are awesome! They're not biters, and they're happy to hang out on your shoulder all day. I also like the rabbit/guinea pig idea. Also: birds are awesome, intelligent, fun critters to have around and are great apartment animals. Cockatiels are inexpensive and sweet, very funny, and a little vocal but not…

This is so sweet and so wonderful, and I'm really happy for that dog. But I teared up a bit, just because my dog (who was the BEST) used to cry like that anytime you first walked in the door. He would bound up, attach himself to your leg, and just get so excited he had to cry about it. He left us about 9 months ago…

I absolutely believe that's true for some faces. I personally look extremely goofy if I wear any lipcolor that is more than a shade different than my natural coloring. That may be partly because my lips are quite brightly pink on their own, and the color shows through most lipsticks and such pretty quickly. If I wear…

I've been a dancer my whole life. I had multiple stage makeup tutorials as a young kid, and had it pretty well nailed by 12 (putting heavy foundation on after concealer just wipes all the concealer off!). This didn't always serve me well when learning how to tone it down for anything other than the stage. I still…

This needs a bump. If, as this article states, there is no outbreak of BSE in cows (which would legit be terrifying in the US), then this is just a recall due to procedural precedent, and no real need to worry exists.

Yeah, I know someone who was charged with the same thing for accidentally shooting a lit firework into a friend's car while on the road. Also in Florida. Hmmm...

I shared some blunts with a couple friends one night. I had not gotten high in a couple years, and smoked a bit more than I could really handle. I realized this, but was trying hard to play it cool. I did not succeed. We sat around playing Wheel of Fortune on Nintendo while I melted into the couch, needing to be…

The train station newsstand was always a draw for me as a kid for the candy. As a 12-year old girl, I don't think I entirely knew that magazine porn existed, until I happened upon some guy with a Newsweek open in front of him and glanced over his shoulder to spot the porn he was actually viewing. I was pretty…

I was nearly a Bonnie. Which is a nice name, but hearing my mom go on about how she wanted that for me.... it's just not me. She also was going to name me Jeremy if a boy, which is also not really my jam. Thank god she remembered that random babysitter she named me after at the last minute!

Omg LA BOUM. I've never met anyone outside my middle school who knew that movie. I'm so happy to be reminded of it!

Oh, it's mostly the format of the show. Generally the dancers get what, 45 seconds to perform... and so the choreography gets packed with tricks at the expense of musicality and less "impressive" looking technique that is far more important than the big tricks. Dance is art, the visual expression of music, and thus…