That’s why you size-up your fries order. 🍟

ETA: If you think your GF wants dessert and is eying the lava cake ad, decide you’re going to get dessert. If she persists in her resistance, order the lava cake and two spoons.

Sometimes you gotta force being human on people who’ve been mask-on for too long.

For most definitions of supernatural, no.

I believe in unidentified areal phenomena, not that it’s ETIs or aliens, but that something’s up there doing its thing.

I believe in ball lightning even though we don’t have a model of electrodynamics that explains it.

There’s some weird shit out there, Horatio, that isn’t explained in our philosophy. I’m sure we don’t have all the answers. I just am okay with knowing we don’t know what those answers are.

As for ghosts, spirits, afterlife, etc. There’s strong evidence those things do not exist, just in the stark silence where there should be noise.

I do pretend that treating my cat well and wearing cat themed tees and keeping cat kitch does please the cat gods. 🐱‍👤

We’ve been in an oligarchy for a while, according to an Oxford study of US history and the policy voting behaviors of elected representatives. It’s only gotten spicy since Reagan, when the Republican party decided it had enough power to take all the cake (and is trying to do so).

The Federalists tried this before, which caused the party to die out and the Democratic Republicans to split. (Source: Helen Cox Richardson) It’ll be exciting to see how this all plays out.

When I was just a lad looking for my true vocation
My father said "Now son, this choice deserves deliberation…
Though you could be a doctor…

…or perhaps a financier…

My boy, why not consider a more challenging career!"

Adolph Hitler: 39 known attempts
Charles de Gaulle: At least 31 attempts
Fidel Castro: Fabián Escalante, former chief of Cuba’s intelligence, stated that there had been 634 assassination schemes or attempts.
Josip Broz “Tito”: About 22 attempts

So, Fidel Castro by far… according to one source. That’s a mess and a half.

Hitler is 39 attempts known, according to Wikipedia’s list. There may have been unknown ones.

Can I get robbed by the movie guy, please?

I became too crazy for my wife.

I was pretty crazy when she took me in (also hella creative and hella horny), but the COVID-19 lockdown did a number on me everyone, including me, and then I couldn’t get back into therapy because it’s impacted.

TMI

I haven’t been going to cafés since the great fast-food inflation hike, but that tracks.

When I lived in San Francisco, self-bussing was the norm. Here in Sacramento even the cafe wait staff look at me like I am crazy, unless I’m in a coffee franchise like Starbucks or Peets.

Wait, I remember this in Henry V, France sends Henry V of England tennis balls You don’t want to take back continental English soil. You want to play sports at home!

The gift was not well received.

I remember this bit when Putin gave Trump a football, a gesture that Trump did not fully understand.

My management tricks (which came from being managed) included calling for a 90 minute meeting if I needed 45 minutes, and bring snacks.

Oh and when someone finishes an all day job in half a day, let them goof off for the rest of the day.

But then I believed that whole happy workers are maximally productive workers thing that, well, every serious management study reports.

The problem is, it’s plausible they are ice, and in the US hoodlums gathering near a van before pulling a heist are rarer than unmarked ICE guys waiting to acquire a target, so if this isn’t a movie set, they’re most likely ICE.

If they are this obvious, I’d see if I could get a flash mob of civilians with phone cameras.

Either they move, or if action goes down, there’s going to be a big protest soon.

Also we’ll know who they took.

Someone should meme this up as a bunch of dudes about to get jumped by Spiderman.

There are some pepper sprays that are mixed with red difficult-to-remove dye for the purpose of identifying those involved in an incident.

Legal in California!

Never let the assailant take you to the secondary location.

Urban self defense classes have been teaching this since the 1970s, at least.

I may be thinking of the July Revolution of 1830, in which case you’re right. They’re not the same, just related.

The French Revolution took about a century to fully process through. There were several instances of guillotines and piles of heads. We usually know about the first one (and the second one for those who’ve seen Les Misérables. ) During the post 1789 process there was also a weird cult thing that looked a bit like MAGA, until even the cultists got tired of Robespierre’s bullshit.

Marie Antoinette was a perfectly serviceable princess / queen and fielded charities and smiled at the commoners and all the things ambitious feudal ladies are supposed to do. She never said Qu’ils mangent de la brioche but the rumor of it was current, and sped her way to the guillotine. She was also accused of sexual perversities, including The German Vice (lesbianism) most of which had to be explained to her so she could deny having ever done them.

Looney Tunes did it first.