I see Skips in the U.K. box. I've often wondered if those are as good as I remember them or if I just remember them fondly because everything craps tastes good when you're twenty.
I assume it's not too expensive to do if you're importing in bulk, especially since they're not bound to ship any specific items.
On the other hand, importing for a single consumer is pointless. If anybody can get a hookup of L&P soda stateside, lemme know. I found a place that will import it and other Kiwiana from New Zealand but it isn't worth $50+ per six-pack.
It just seems difficult to set up a supply chain to place the bulk order.
For a recent birthday I was given a subscription to Loot Crate. It's a similar service for geeky merchandise. I think I cancelled it after three months. I got from it one t-shirt I wear a lot, a retro Alien action figure that's still in the package, a Groot bobble-head, and some less memorable stuff. This Universal Yums thing looks a lot better, assuming away health concerns for a minute. (And really, if I looked at how much junk food Cassandane and I consume in a month, it would probably be cheaper and healthier than some of that.)
If I eat a St Michel mini-madeleine, will I be driven to write an abridgement of À la recherche du temps perdu?
Maybe some of the manufacturers or distributors are subsidizing it hoping they become a cult hit in the US. That's the main strategy of some SE Asian beers, for example. And with Japanese snacks like Pocky in lots of conventional grocery stores these days (ymmv), there's a clear path of how success would work there.
The chip display at the Chinese restaurant I usually go to kind of scares me.
The items in the Asian boxes are all readily available in grocery stores around LA. That may also be true of the Colombian box, but I spend less time in Colombian grocery stores so I can't say.
The box from Holland has those thin wafers filled with caramel like United Airlines gives you if you fly in the morning. I wonder if they are better if you aren't on an airplane?
The thing I miss from SA is chutney flavored crisps.
The Turkish selection doesn't overlap completely with the giant international store we sometimes go to. The Asian boxes AFAICT do. And local BBQ chips count as exotic!
I didn't recognize anything in the American box.
FUN FACTS
The current 50-star American flag was designed by a high-schooler as part of a class assignment.
An estimated 1 in 10 Americans are related to one of the original pilgrims who arrived aboard the Mayflower.
George Washington is the wealthiest President of all time.
The box from Holland has those thin wafers filled with caramel like United Airlines gives you if you fly in the morning. I wonder if they are better if you aren't on an airplane?
I LOVE THESE.
Fun Facts:
Don't drink the coffee on airplanes. I once read this thing about how they have never cleaned any of those pots since the time of the Wright brothers.
United Airlines cancels flights into and out of Lincoln, Nebraska to avoid having to delay flights to and from more populous places.
Stroopwafels! The best thing about flying United.
Topic drift, I have a United flight next week. I read recently that they changed their carry-on baggage size minimum, to like 9x22x14, or some nonsense.* The thing is I just bought a new super tiny carry-on bag, which is like 8x21x15. So, smaller in all dimensions but width. Are they really going to charge me to check it?
*It's amazing how openly hostile to human customers airlines are.
I carry a soft-sided duffle when I fly United. I'm also always on the smaller planes where the standard carry-on never did fit. They gate-checked (without fee) everything I saw that was too big.
16
Are they really going to charge me to check it?
I doubt it. I've never seen any airline staff measure a carry-on. But United sucks so much, who knows.
Yeah, I had a United flight last week, where they gate-checked everyone's baggage for free because it was such a tiny plane, but next week's flight is to and from different airports, and probably a bigger plane. Also, it's personal travel, not for work, so it's my own time and money so I care more.
I never actually fly United-United. It's always the regional affiliate.
Upheads, Unfogged West - I'm coming over on the 7th of March for a Google event. As this is the travel thread.
I've never seen an American airline measure bags unless it looks totally egregious (like, full sized suitcase brought on as carry-on).
Budget European airlines measure down to the nearest millimeter and weigh to the nearest gram. I had my carry-on weighed on a budge airline, and since it was too heavy I had to remove my books and stick them in my purse or coat pocket. It seemed stupid and pointless, since I was bringing the weight on the plane anyways and I was the one lifting the carry-on. (The weight limit was something really low, like 15 lbs).
OTOH, flying back from Prague I had a suitcase full of booze and it was 4 kilos over. The check-in didn't charge me because he's like, "oh, it's just four kilos over. NBD."
Check out the About Us link to get a nice picture of the couple (+ cat) behind this Universal Yums! venture.
Just corporate folks from Cincinnati. So still a mystery of where they procure all of their yums.
This is a nice idea, but the truth is that America really does have the best junk food in the world. While there are certainly some good treats from other countries - European chocolate, for example - most of it is disappointing by comparison. The more common experience tends toward weird-textured Japanese sugar things, or paste-flavored Argentinian nuget. Sad!
You are better off spending your money on Doritos and Mars bars.
22.3: He didn't just help himself to 4 kilos worth of booze? I'm shocked. I guess the Czechs are a polite people.
Aplets and Cotlets are a Eastern Washington treat. They're delicious.
I like the idea of the box, but I'm not sure there's enough stuff I'd like in any one box to justify it. I'm picky about my junk food.
26
He probably felt sorry for me for being from a land of expensive and/or shitty beer.
25: I know, right? The secret is FAT and SUGAR, people!
I anticipate that just as other US cultural innovations have been adopted worldwide, so too our preference for artery-clogging, blood-sugar raising treats will also win out in the end.
Skips aside (yes, they are great), the UK box is pretty disgusting. Jacobs jaffa cakes? For shame. Also they've really messed up the crisp selection.
Also, in answer to the OP, the UK box could probably be had retail for about £6-£7. There are definitely foreign snack importers, retail and wholesale, in the US, which is almost certainly how they source their goods.
25: paste-flavored... nuget
So we know you're a dev, and we know you're not an Android dev.
22: I don't know about European airlines, but the economy-class rules for U.S. airlines clearly only exist to make the first class/gold club fliers feel a relative increase in status by making others worse off.
economy-class rules for U.S. airlines clearly only exist to make the first class/gold club fliers feel a relative increase in status by making others worse off.
Also to drive people insane. Why is it cheaper for me to fly through Houston to Fort Lauderdale than just to take the flight to Houston?
Texas subsidizes getting rid of the kind of people willing to go to Fort Lauderdale.
Why is it cheaper for me to fly through Houston to Fort Lauderdale than just to take the flight to Houston?
This sounds like UK rail fares. It makes no sense, but presumably somebody decided that volume or a loss leader justified a cheaper fare to Fort Lauderdale via Houston and never checked the fare to Houston. If I wanted to fly from Chateau Spike to Houston, I'd presumably buy a ticket to Ft. L and just get off early.
Supposedly the airlines are on to that now and charge you the difference.
My brother lives in Atlanta and to get home, he had to fly into Atlanta, connect to Birmingham, and then drive back to Atlanta. Maybe that had something to do with where he left his car when flying out. I forget.
re: junk food
Having been to the US half a dozen times or so in the past couple of years for work, I have to admit I'm not seeing it.
I don't think I can recall anything I've eaten on any trip that was much to write home about, except some Native American food in New Mexico.* I did, I suppose, have some pretty good -- in a completely dubious, over-MSG'd but actually really tasty -- Chinese food in DC. And the sweet things (pastries, cakes, chocolate, whatever) weren't that good, and the normal other food nothing to write home about either.
On the other hand, while I find a lot of US craft beer pretty rank and over-priced,** I have gotten really very drunk a few times in the US without a hangover the next day. Which must be testament to decent brewing practice, or well-kept beer, or something.
* working with Native Americans, so they hired a traditional chef, and it was pretty good.
** some total gems in there, too.
I don't (often) get hangovers if I don't drink in the bar that allows smoking.
Anyway, you should try a Reese's Cup.
the truth is that America really does have the best junk food in the world
Sad but true. I have a deep sentimental attachment to burnt rice candy and chocopie, but even I have to admit that they're not objectively very good-tasting.
Aplets and Cotlets are a Eastern Washington treat. They're delicious.
Does everyone have the same childhood memory of getting to find out, at long last, what "Turkish delight" tasted like, and then being so very disappointed?
Yes. Worse than all the backs of the closets not leading anywhere.
I think UK chocolate bars are way better than American, though. Around here you can get them at the Indian grocery.
re: 43
They are available in shops here. Lots of Reese's stuff is now standard stock in UK newsagents and grocers. So I've had them. They are fine. Nothing amazing.
Maybe you only get them when they're stale?
We have sugary peanut butter, but not in a way you can understand.
The idea of getting a box of surprise junk food every month is pretty appealing though. One of the most successful birthday gifts I ever gave M was when I bought like 50 different sodas from Galco's, which stocks foreign, small-production, and rare sodas.* Drinking our way through the stash was pretty fun, although it probably took like five years off our lives, or the lives of our teeth.
*dalriata, if you ever plan to come to LA, you should call them first and ask if they stock L&P. They may have it, or be willing to order it for you.
44.2
Yes. I also got the rosewater flavor.
The way I know my boyfriend is a mutant not human from a culture incompatible with American civilization is that he does not like the combination of butter and sugar. If he says a dessert is "buttery" he means it as an insult. He hates buttercream frosting, shortbread, really, anything delicious. His favorite cookies are these hardtack-like things that taste of nothing. He also love amaretti, which to me are alright but the almond flavor's usually too overwhelming for me.
Argh!! html fail
The way I know my boyfriend is a mutant not human from a culture incompatible with American civilization is that he does not like the combination of butter and sugar. If he says a dessert is "buttery" he means it as an insult. He hates buttercream frosting, shortbread, really, anything delicious. His favorite cookies are these hardtack-like things that taste of nothing. He also love amaretti, which to me are alright but the almond flavor's usually too overwhelming for me.
ttaM, you need to try flaming hot cheetos.
Italians are the worst at cookies. Don't tell them that though. They're won't believe you.
41
Also Hint of Lime Tostitos, which I'm pretty sure also have a hint of crack they are so addictive.
54
Italians are like surgeons who decide they're amazing at one thing so they must be amazing at everything. Italians have gotten a few things down perfectly, and now they feel like they've mastered everything and anything food-related.
Italians are the Ben Carson of the food world?
My grandma used to make cookies with only a bit of sugar and some anise flavoring. We had to beg her to at least frost them like an American. Around here they make what they call "pitzels", which are basically the stroopwaffles with no filling and more of a bread-like texture.
Hrmpf. I make almond biscotti that would break your heart. (Admittedly, they very plausibly might also break your teeth. But they're Italian, and they're really good cookies, if you don't mind their being super hard.)
58
Those anise crunchy carb nuggets are my boyfriend's second favorite after amaretti. The first time I ate one I was honestly a little offended it was called a cookie. I also really hate dipping things in coffee, it just gets soggy and leaves crumbs in the coffee.
I got my revenge by making my boyfriend eat a slice of Funfetti cake, which incidentally ttaM should try if he comes back to the US.
I doubt they allow Funfetti to be imported into the EU. Maybe once the UK leaves and the food safety laws are relaxed.
50: Thanks, I'll check that out!
Some brands of soda and other treats have recently gone back a little bit on the sugar, and I think it's helped the taste. Regular soda just has too damn much, but one of those 16oz Mountain Dew Kickstart cans only has 80 calories. Still tastes fine, with the caveat that I have awful taste.
59: I'll be happy to have your almond biscottis since Moby and Buttercup don't want them.
The bigger disappointment than Turkish Delight for me was finally trying Harriet the Spy's favorite cafe drink, the egg cream. I was expecting some kind of amazingly delicious custard shake. The culinary wilderness of childhood!
I never even tried milk and Pepsi, possibly because I was more of a fan of Shirley.
52 Wait, what? There are plenty of Italian desserts that fall on the buttery spectrum. At least the ones my grandma made.
66 Wait, what? egg creams are great. You just had one made the wrong way. And you can only get really good ones in Brooklyn. In the 70s.
A FOAF had a business about 15 years ago selling these packages of bizarre Japanese goodies. Pocari Sweat before it got big and that weird drink with the chia seeds in it but I can get that in my corner 'deli' in Arrakis now. Other weird shit too. Don't know how the biz did but my friend gave me one of the packages as a present once and it was cool if weird.
You must understand, this was at a time when "delicious custard shake" wasn't a hideous contradiction in terms in my head. The egg cream was pretty good (I had several over the course of my visits to that cafe), but it wasn't remotely what I was expecting. Turkish Delight was closer to meeting expectations, in that I immediately became evil and sold out my family after eating one.
||
The rogerebert.com review of John Wick II is amusingly over-the-top.
I hesitate to quote too much of it, because when I first got to a line like, "In many ways, it's the platonic ideal of an action film: operatic yet colored with fine-tuned details, blisteringly visceral yet tinged with pathos." I rolled my eyes slightly but then, as I kept reading and the prose became even more excessive I stared to smile and appreciate the review on it's own merits -- as an oddly gonzo piece of writing which isn't even trying for sober analysis.
|>
Also, applets and cotlets are way too sweet (as is Turkish delight -- though as a kid, the first time I got turkish delight was from a store at Pike Place market and I was, like jms, disappointed, but I ultimately came around to thinking that it was pretty good. I never got it again, however).
Can't wait for Priscilla Page's review.
No spoilers. I haven't seen the first one.
I'm stupidly drinking some of the last of my beer.
you need to try flaming hot cheetos.
One of the awful things about this island is that you can't get plain Cheetos here. Its either flaming hot, or nothing.
I mean, jalapeno Cheetos are fine, but I'm not going to feed them to my kid.
No spoilers. I haven't seen the first one.
I haven't seen either of them, but have read a couple of reviews. As far as I can tell the plotline is just, "violence ensues" so I don't think there's much risk of spoilers.
You can't have your beer and drink it too.
68
There are some good Southern Italian pastries and cakes, like cannollis (sp?), and this Sicilian cake I had that was layers of orange liqueur-soaked pound cake layered with sweetened ricotta cheese with candied fruits and then covered in a thick layer of chocolate ganache. IME though, stupid Northern Italian chauvinism prohibits them from admitting Southern Italians do desserts better. Also, Southern Italians still can't really do cookies.
OTOH, I made an apple pie in Italy and I thought it tasted amazing, but my boyfriend's aunt and uncle couldn't even finish one piece. His aunt after a few bites described it as, "This tastes like something Germans would like." Coming from an Italian I have to take it as a sick burn.
cannolis are exactly what came to mind first.
79 The first one is supposed to be an excellent action flick.
68.1 And that cake too! I forgot what it's called. My Sicilian grandmother used to make it. Funny thing though is that she hated cheese. I mean like she'd get ill if she ate any, just the thought of it. But she'd use it plenty in the food she cooked for us.
My Sicilian grandmother used to make cupcakes filled with ricotta cheese. They were really good, but apparently you could only make them at Easter.
84
I bought the 1968 Time Life Cuisine of Italy cookbook just for that cake recipe.
Perhaps your grandmother lactose intolerant? Could she eat cheese in things if she couldn't taste it?
I've never even had a Turkish Delight.
They have this thing called "Rum Cake" down here which is just the worst. I mean, sure, cake soaked in alcohol sounds like it would be good, but they layer on so many terrible spices that one's pallet can not help be reject it.
That's why the people in warehouses use so much plastic wrap to secure loads.
Actually, now that I think about it, its called "Black Cake," not "Rum Cake." But its soaked in rum. And yet somehow disappointing.
omg I love black cake. It's like regular fruit cake, except completely delicious.
Red Velvet cake is the gross shit everybody here pretends tastes like something fabulous other than overpowering food coloring.
I think I even posted about it here before, it's so puzzling to me.
75: The existence of a sequel is the biggest spoiler of all.
Maybe it's just that it has a pretty name? And looks pretty?
92
It's a vehicle for cream cheese frosting that is slightly less work to make than carrot cake.
I generally consult Rotten Tomatoes for movie recommendations, but the first John Wick movie got an 85% and was really bad. The second one is similarly highly rated.
Speaking of food coloring, when my son was little we came home from a birthday party and he pooped what looked like a large version of those little rocks in the bottom of an aquarium. I was about to call to see if I had to take him in to the emergency room when I remembered the frosting on the cake was exceptionally vividly blue.
Nah, black cake is terrible. The tradition here is that every Christmas, one of the security staff guilts the expats into buying their cousin's black cake, and then the expats take turns trying to fob it off on each other at various holiday events. Its all very colonial.
92 is exactly right. I'm so glad that fad has passed.
The right to dye our food neon colors is our God-given right as Americans. You can pry my food coloring out of my cold, dead hands.
I remembered the frosting on the cake was exceptionally vividly blue.
I'll have to remember that trick next time I deposit an Upper Decker.
Actually traditional Korean desserts are kind of the worst -- usually, a few grains of rice boiled until the starch has broken down into a barely sweet tea, with maybe a couple pine nuts floating on top. There's one pretty good pastry, shaped like a flower and soaked in syrup, but I've mainly seen it at funerary offerings. Apparently back in the day there wasn't enough sugar to go around so they saved it for dead people.
86 Maybe. I'm lactose intolerant too but I love cheese (and I can tolerate most kinds but not milk).
106
Something like 70% of Sicilians are lactose intolerant, I believe.
Also, what percentage of commenters on this blog have Sicilian grandmothers? It seems higher than average.
105
So, do they not eat the funerary pastries?
I never knew Sicilians were supposed to be lactose intolerant.
It's my grandfather that's Sicilian, but my grandma makes the pizelles.
The pizelles come from my in-laws who are Italian, but if the fancy northern type.
81, 84: aside from the chocolate ganache part, that sounds like cassata.
ooh, I think it was a variation on a cassata.
||
I have a question for those of you with a more refined sense of humor than mine. Is this piece in the Baffler supposed to be a joke?
|>
I don't think so. I think it's hyperbolically overstated, but there's something to it.
I've had a thought similar to that before. Our campus is launching a huge smoke-free thing. Virtually no one smokes. If the kids vape, I don't see it. The only people this really targets, AFAICT, is the vets and other stray adults who aren't going to be susceptible to this new form of peer pressure. Lay off already.
116: "June Thunderstorm" is bob's nom de plume. He had to find something to keep himself occupied once he stopped trolling here.
I suspected this immediately, but wasn't certain until I got here:
"Health and safety" provided the rationale for corralling dispossessed peasants into England's workhouses and slave-trading navy, just as "health and safety" was the slogan of British imperialists working to justify colonialism and the slave ships themselves. In fact, it seems when civilized governments discuss "health and safety," what often follows is "sickness and death," so we are wise to stay on guard.
Wow. I mean, that's either bob or Kellyanne Conway.
I couldn't finish the whole thing, but I assume the Asia cinema references come later.
116: Not that I can tell. I think the present-day class association of smoking is worth more thought than we give it, but that article does not represent such thought.
117-118: What are you smoking?
Early characterizations suggest that vaping is much less harmful than smoking. But I haven't seen harm-reduction approaches to give vaping any kind of preferential treatment.
122: Yeah, and there are already PSAs vociferously implying they're identical!
The median vaper seems to be much healthier than the median smoker, but the long tail of vape pens exploding in your face is a little concerning. Then again, probably fewer vapers set themselves on fire after falling asleep.
Something like 70% of Sicilians are lactose intolerant, I believe.
Inconceivable!
22 I've never seen an American airline measure bags unless it looks totally egregious (like, full sized suitcase brought on as carry-on).
Way late to the party but my carry-on got refused by American at PHL last year because it was less than 1" too wide. The person who rejected it said "the FAA is auditing us." I looked it up afterwards and it was true -- in 2015.
I am impressed that Universal Yums chose to include the rare, but oddly delicious, Tayto crisps from Northern Ireland.
I agree with 117 and 118. Almost everyone I know who still has a serious cigarette habit in 2017 is working-class or poor. And yet, last year Californians overwhelmingly voted to increase taxes on cigarettes by another two dollars. At this point it's just a poor tax.
It's funny -- I have issues with the demonization of smoking, and the exaggerated sense of the dangers of second-hand smoke from people who are happily breathing truck exhaust. But from a public health point of view, I can't really regret ridiculous levels of cigarette taxes, because it really does seem to make people smoke much less.
I think the proceeds cigarette taxes should be used to buy cigarettes for the poor. Its not fair for only rich people to get the benefits of smoking.
This was another good bit:
Today's student left is unfortunately complicit. Its adherents implement "scent- free spaces" prohibiting perfume, tobacco, and industrial odors in their organizing meetings, because it is apparently more important that the fraction of bourgeois professionals with allergies participates in their "anti-capitalist" social movements than the majority of all people living below the poverty line. They call these maneuvers "accessibility policies."
The first thing that popped up on Google, by Keith Humphreys, is the sensible discussion that Minivet was looking for in 120.
And when we get to the end, we find out the author is just another inconsiderate asshole with an axe to grind about smoking because he or she resents being asked to smoke somewhere else.
we shall pursue our own desires for pleasure no matter how whimsical, and if our desire is to smoke, then offended professionals can just hold their breath for once
Christ, what an asshole.
129. What makes you think the people who are breathing truck exhaust are doing so "happily"?
They're not complaining about it as loudly?
117, 118: The actual article is lunatic. She invokes Fritz Fanon to defend her right to smoke in your face. She boasts how she self-righteously occupied Occupied Wall Street by smoking.
Frantz Fanon's lesser-known German cousin?
If you want to find non-working class smokers in Pittsburgh, I know where to find a bunch.
I think the article in 131 kind of misses the point. If you are poorer, you have more anxiety and less stability. Cigarettes work great against anxiety and if you have to miss a meal or a night of sleep, it's much easier to do with nicotine.
I've eaten more of the Japanese victuals in the OP.2 than the USA featured comestibles. If I was doing one for the PRC I would include:
Panrico chocolate mini-doughnoughts
Several of the China-only flavors of Pringles
Pineapple Fanta
Several kinds of dried pork products
Some KFC (I guess you'd have to vacuum seal it or something)
Some of those horrible little sawdust plugs that taste like licorices and diesel exhaust.
John Wick 1 was fucking awesome, I was glad to have seen it in theater, and am proud thereby to have some small share in the existence of Chapter 2. Which I hope will prove to be as awesome as everyone says. Also Turkish delight is delightful, American sugary peanut butter products are disgusting, and none of my grandmothers are Sicilian.
If you want to wash the taste of the Baffler piece out of your brain, you could check out this article, which totally needs to win a student-journalism award for lede, hed, and investigative reporting. Photo is pretty great too.
http://slpecho.com/features/2017/02/09/math-teachers-continue-unicycle-training/
Also, note the headline on the same writer's piece from Nov. 7, 2016: Election sparks interest
You really can't beat good copy editing.
Like a montage at the end of the year.
This could become my new catchphrase.
Glad to see the USA pack includes salmon jerky. That stuff is really good.
IKR? I practically live on the stuff.
|| It's that time of year again: could a couple of you movie fans tell me what films I simply can't miss at the BSDFF. Thanks. |>
(Feel free to email me pseud @ gm)
Nothing about the link in 141 makes any goddamn sense, which makes it surprisingly similar to the nightly national news since January 20.
136: I was going to make a joke about Algeria being a German colony all along, but it turns out that Fanon is actually from Martinique. Which really was a German colony all along, but now is one of German Länder.
I guess it would explain the antipathy to Empress Josephine.
It's the same joke, just with a different (former-ish) colony.
Martinique is still part of France.
It's the same confusion, just with a different commenter.
actually, I rather adore turkish delight, and aplets and cotlets are particularly good. fucking red velvet cake is good too because cream cheese frosting. the american trash food I would put would be butterfingers bars. they are both crispetty and crunchety.
Unless it's an ECB joke, in which case frankly the execution was lacking.
Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department.
2 - bro, wait, you're looking for a hook up for L&P? L&P?
147 I'm not as into documentary film as I really should though I've heard of a few to catch this year but I haven't seen any of them on the program for BSDFF. I have a friend I'll run it by.
This year's trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6RW5e_5aHQ
A friend of mine would actually be Chani who is now at the Berlinale without me (I took the week for it but something really important came up I need to take care of, like life-changing for the better good stuff).
Jokes about French territories being German are very outre-mer.
You see, that was well-executed.
Also, Baffler guy is inhaling the pure essence of classic British right-wing horseshit.
"Health and safety" as an item in the political phrasebook dates to the Health & Safety at Work Act 1976, which created the Health & Safety Executive (think a much more punchy federal OSHA) and required employers to define a safe system of work for each task under their authority. Columnists and shitty comedians have never ceased since to piss, bitch, and whine about "elfansafety" to the point where it's become an empty cliché.
Now, of course, the US didn't pass a H&SAW1976, so if you see an American libertarian whining about "health and safety" you know they're plagiarising some Brit via the North Atlantic bullshit circulation.
Columnists and shitty comedians
Aka people who don't have any responsibility for anyone else's health and safety and are unusually unlikely to get an arm ripped off on the job.
Although...I'm available...
156: It was a joke about nothing. It may not seem like much now, but someday it will be worth billions in syndication.
169.3: That is very weird. I have heard the phrase many times over the years without ever wondering where it came from.
OT: Somebody invited me to her dissertation defense. What's the polite way to avoid it given that I can't really lie about being out of town (she's five doors away from me) and really do wish her the best, but not enough to sit through a dissertation defense?
It's not like a wedding where you can just skip the ceremony and come to the drunkening part.
"I'm sorry but I'm at a stage in my life where I can only tolerate sitting through tedious things if they involve my child or if I get paid."
Baffler guy also either doesn't know anybody who suffers from asthma or thinks they shouldn't be allowed out. Fuck him.
Bleg. So, my bite is fucked up enough that it's a constant annoyance, my tooth is rubbing my tongue raw, and one of my front teeth has gotten noticeably more wiggly in the past 6 months. I got a referral from my (in-network, inexpensive) dentist for an orthodontist and had a consultation. It went great and they seem solid. They said invisalign wouldn't work for my issues and they recommend these kind of high tech clear braces.* The total cost is a flat rate $7,000 all inclusive, including retainers after the braces come off. That number was high enough to make me hyperventilate, but online research makes it seem within the ballpark, though it's hard to compare apples to apples with online research. I'm trying to figure out how much shopping around I should do for orthodontists. On the one hand, if cost were no issue I'd be very happy with these orthodontists, plus I was referred to them by my dentist. On the other, I *can* afford it, but it's a big chunk of money and frugal me says to shop around. On the third hand, the lazy and anxious me hates making doctors appointments and doesn't particularly want to shop around.
Should I shop around?
*They explained why they recommended the more expensive brackets given my teeth and the reasoning made sense.
178 These are your teeth, do not fuck around. Shop around just enough to give you the peace of mind that the price quoted is in the ballpark but I would not advise shopping around to find a 'bargain' and save a couple hundred dollars. These are your teeth, do not fuck around. Your dentist's recommendation, if you trust her/him, is worth something.
Honestly, I've fucked my dentistry up no end by being cheap and lazy. Just do it.* The money is unlikely to seem significant spread out over the next twenty-thirty years.
* I mean, check they aren't robbing you blind, but do it.
First, be sure you're on your permanent teeth. You get a freebie starter set and don't need to worry about alignment for that one.
She's young, Mobes, but not that young.
The distribution of ages for last baby tooth lost has a long tail.
That's statistician for, "All you young people look the same to me."
That's not what the tails mean. That's what the mean means.
Thanks guys. I may or may not check out another orthodontist, but I'm leaning against. The blue book for dentistry (?) gives the average dental cost for comprehensive adult orthodontia in Chicago as $7900, so $7000 for braces doesn't sound crazy. Internet search says the cost of ceramic braces nationwide is $4000-$8000, depending on a bazillion factors. Again, $7,000 is on the higher end but not crazy high, but I'm also in a large city and I'm getting more expensive brackets than the standard (they said I could do the cheaper brackets for several hundred less, but they really didn't recommend it for the longterm health of my teeth).
One thing I would be concerned is that an orthodontist would give me a lower quote but that it would have hidden costs. My orthodontist said that the $7000 includes any amount of time it takes and any number of appointments (she guesses 18 months but it could take over 2 years, a normal amount of broken bracket replacements, and any minor corrections or repairs she has to do to my teeth along the process outside of braces, in addition to the post braces retainers).
I guess I don't even buy toilet paper without price comparing, so it feels weird to make a major purchase like this without doing so, but toilet paper isn't my teeth.
George Washington's dentures were made out of toilet paper.