Oh, the thing I left out of my first long response — curved seams are not just different, they are *very much* more difficult. Lots of people can sew straight seams fine and not curved ones; or you add steps to production to keep the curves stable, and a new production order is actually expensive and hard to manage;…

Plus, wouldn't they just make a uniform design for each specific style and then copy that over and over, same as they do for other clothes?

BAFFLEMENT. Unless you have humid winters, which I can't imagine you have more than I have had in the Bay Area and Puget Sound. Why so different? Because my kitchens really don't have a fine film of grease, even when my insides have a good home-cooking coating thereof.

Actually, it is more technically difficult to make clothes for curvier (not quite the same as larger) women. (Although I am dubious that this explains much of clothing companies' reluctance, since it's not like they're mostly paying much for labor. They may not be able to handle the quality control.)

Think about…

Three data points! I'm calling that a proof-of-concept survey. Hey, Mihir Patkar, can you make a follow-up survey? Just asking people if they have a grease buildup problem in their kitchens and whether they have warm humid atmosphere?

Humid summers, or dry summers? (Science wants to know!)

But this is so sudden. I am deeply conscious of the honour you do me but I hardly know how to respond.

Now, what could a husband have against that? except the constant work and smell of goats? ... There's a joke about the Man Cave in here, but probably not a funny one.

I remember it as a wash between sheep, too dumb to keep themselves out of trouble, and goats, smart enough to get themselves into trouble.

But now you were into goats *before they were cool*. That's got to be worth a microbrew somewhere.

A cave to live in, or for cheese?

I'm beginning to wonder if climates with warm humidity have this grease/dust problem. Because I really don't, but I believe everyone who says they do, and you must some of you have adequate range hoods. And the best guess I have for `carries ook through the air' is warm water. SURVEY TIME: do you have a…

Well, I'm already scared by the time I turn around or the car passes me, so not-a-threat isn't as useful as one would like.

If Eye of the Tiger were playing from some distance and the car didn't seem to be slowing down or taking any notice of me, I might enjoy it. But how could you see me from a distance? I guess…

That really isn't my experience, and I saute or stirfry daily, and make bread, so my kitchen ought to be pretty messy. Your surfaces get gooey? ... Ew, you must have to wash the ceiling regularly, I hate that.

The clever thing about this advice is that it's so easily reversible.

... That's been the intro to some scary creepster interactions with Guys in Cars, for me. Would be very cautious about doing.

Well, that is the US pattern — superb (healthcare, education, environmental safety) for the rich, and gunk for everyone else. O brave new world.

House prices can't continue to go up more than incomes forever — so either we get another property crash (ouch), or the 1% buy all the houses and the rest of us rent them (depressingly likely, eventually we can't even afford that, bigger crash), or ... wages go up again?

The US can presumably develop the cultural equipment. We'd probably be better off doing it on purpose — some of the stable traditional solutions suck (e.g., `youngest daughter never marries, spends life taking care of parents and unmarried brothers and probably eldest brother's children, is lucky if she ever gets any…

Good criminy. Were you anemic?