Ishmael [he/him]

When I was a teenager, I literally had girls literally tell me they liked me but that I was too short, or they’d date me if I was taller. It bothered me a lot but I didn’t get weird and bitter about it or anything. The average height of a woman in the US is 5’4" so I was still able to find plenty of partners shorter than me or the same height or even a little taller, and the older I get the less it matters. I just always think of Prince who was 5’2" and just about the sexiest human alive. The hardest part is not internalizing American society’s standards.

Look at what Nintendo’s been doing for the last like 20 years. PS2 level graphics but great game design

CN is far from what I’d call “militant”. Probably as well-documented and mild-mannered as radical politics gets. Then again, Medium deleted my length call out post of a former friend when he was accused of rape so maybe it’s not so surprising

I could never live in the Upper Midwest states like Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Too cold for too much of the year. Chicago gets crazy cold sometimes but winters are getting milder thanks to climate change. The more Western Midwest states are too boring for me. There are small cultural enclaves like Lincoln Nebraska or Lawrence Kansas, but they are more remote out there than in the eastern part of the region. Instead of a couple hours drive to see a cool concert you’d need to get a hotel.

I like Cincinnati although I’ve never lived there. Good mix of culture and affordability plus a drive towards more bike and transit infrastructure. If I weren’t concerned with having a career I’d live in a blue city in the South, like Asheville North Carolina or Lewisburg West Virginia. Great weather, good culture, and nice people. Just a lot of poverty and few jobs.

Columbus is not Great Plains. Too much corn and not enough grassland

The US Census Bureau defines the Midwest like this, but I think the Dakotas and most of Kansas and Nebraska are Great Plains, not tha Midwest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States#/media/File:Map_of_USA_Midwest.svg

When I was a kid growing up in the Midwest, this is what I thought tacos were. And then a friend took me to a legit Mexican joint as a teenager and my mind was blown

And yet its collectivism makes it a much more cooperative society than America. People take care of the commons instead of taking as much as they can before anyone else

Hen hao

The Best Condiment

I said the same. Giving you a virtual high five

Lao Gan ma.

I’m also kind of upset as a half-Chinese person that I didn’t know about furikake until I was like 30. Like I’m low-key jealous the Japanese thought of it and my family didn’t get the memo while I was growing up. Ah well, at least I know now!

The idea that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, two of the richest men in the world, are somehow prisoners in America is truly unhinged

I remember these from like 2008. A lost art in the age of AI

I feel like I first saw it in 2015

We pointed out his insane rants about Corn Pop and leaving the record player on for your baby, and the libs told us to stop making fun of his stutter.

It reminds me of when I got jumped and robbed by three dudes and someone called the cops cuz I was yelling for help. They showed up after the dudes fled and told me that even if they found em the courts would just let em back out on the streets tomorrow anyway. People really think the cops are just held on too tight a leash when really they’re lazy

I remember having to come up with a bizarre story about paying my brother-in-law in Kansas for a car because the clerk asked me why I kept coming in and wiring so much cash all the time…

Whoooops! I blame autocorrect…

It was Pennsylvania, back when Philly was the capital. I heard about this on the Dollop podcast episode on Ona Judge, who escaped Washington during one of these trips to reset the freedom clock. The episode was based on this book:

https://www.amrevmuseum.org/read-the-revolution/never-caught-2