If they really wanted to nail it, skip the quarter sizing and allow me to buy one 12D and one 11.5D. That’s closer to a “bespoke” experience than two mirror-identical shoes where one will feel better, but you are stuck with the other that is (usually) too big.

Claire, your father is my kind of guy. You should absolutely “write about Scotch more.” If I’m honest, I’m okay if you write about whisk(e)y more in general.

Fair points, but I would suggest that you walk the mile, so to speak, before you pontificate. Since I became a father, some of the shit that I used to rail against seems tame and silly by comparison to the challenges that I never even imagined (could not imagine).

Cool. Well, good for you that you’ve been lucky enough not to have one of the situations those other parents have obviously had. In all seriousness, that’s awesome for you.

If you wanted to do it easy and hands-off, you can boil your pot of water, turn off the heat, add the corn, and come back later. Simple, perfectly cooked (except, you know, where the top of the corn floats above water - that gets slightly less cooked).

How many kids do you have? Before I was a parent, I sounded a lot like you.

No kids, eh?

This should be the advice in this column. With a backup of, “If you’re unfortunate enough not to get regular performance evaluations, then resort to cannibalizing your job description. Don’t forget to use your own words to describe the position, though, or else you’ll look like an idiot when someone asks you what…

This is exactly what I try to do. I’m not an expert at SEO, so I find the whole, “use keywords in resumes to hope that I get promoted by the AI” to be tiresome and time-wasting, at best.

Let’s read for content:

EXACTLY! This person gets it.

I hadn’t bothered to look further, but yeah, now I will! Thanks.

Excellent! I thought I used them all, then I saw Link and Related. Awesome.

Gets me every time. I didn’t realize until I was a parent how much I loved Fred Rogers. What an incredible loss and yet an indelible legacy.

No, they can’t. Fred wasn’t Catholic, so, there’s that.

Young Dwayne Hoover there...

The thing about shoes... if they’re throw-away trainers (Nike, Adidas, etc.) you can probably get away with an aftermarket sole insert pretty easily (Superfeet is one, and there’s another that is highly regarded whose name escapes me at the moment). If they’re leather with older-fashioned soles (like cork or similar…

I think this could be adapted to many, many areas of life, frankly.

I think part of the problem is believing in the brand. The brand is interested in making money. If you look for the item that will serve you, you’ll be better off (and your research time will be well spent, to boot).

It’s important to be able to identify where your money will really be spent well and where it won’t. Shoes, socks and underwear, and dress/formal clothing all benefit from a moderately higher cost and last longer.