Re: This and that

1

Both those links go to the same place. Unfortunate, because this is about the first time I've looked at a post with two links and thought "oh, the first one looks awful, I'd much rather read something apostropher linked to".


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:25 AM
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Whoops. Let me fix that.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:30 AM
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I liked the picture with Trump, Jr.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:31 AM
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That sounds vaguely garbage-plate like, which despite many trips to upstate NY I've never tried.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:34 AM
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Today is move-out day! It's more like packing for a vacation down the street day.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:36 AM
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When you Americans embark on futile wars with nature you sure do so with alacrity.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:41 AM
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What compels these fuckwads to seek political power and try to suppress their own urges by micromanaging other people who deviate in any way from a Norman Rockwell painting?

I always thought of it as more a deliberate attempt at a hiding the behavior. If you weren't in the least trying to suppress your desire to have sex with underage prostitutes, attacking transsexuals or adult homosexuals seeking relationships with other adults will help you. In addition to the distraction ("look over there, not here at me"), if the sex you want is illegal, the more sexual activity that gets shoved in the closet, the easier it is to hide the actual crimes.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:41 AM
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5: Good luck. Hope the repairs get done quickly.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:42 AM
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They aren't repairing, they're upgrading. The chicken legs haven't been fitted yet.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:44 AM
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I won't wish you luck because Baba Yaga never needed any.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:45 AM
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I find any crime just sounds better "within 1,000 feet of a church".


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:56 AM
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As if the church itself had become delightfully shocked and shamefully tumescent with outrage.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:57 AM
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Microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese, then ladle some really greasy chili/bolognese on top, within 1000 feet of a church.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:58 AM
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Just checked, and the nearest church to me is a hair over 1500 feet away. Darn.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:00 AM
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There are four churches near enough to my office that I can hit the Pokestops at them without leaving my chair.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:10 AM
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Pittsburgh is a very churched city.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:11 AM
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We're 1400 feet from a church, using a taxi cab metric. Or 1279 as the crow flies.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:21 AM
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Does that count the vertical distance the crow would need to cover to get over buildings and trees?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:22 AM
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Churches must own their airspace or the whole concept doesn't really work.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:23 AM
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That golden time when your metabolism is fast enough to get away with this, only to be experienced again in the event of pregnancy.

That said, last year I met up with an old university friend and cooking dinner went drunkenly off-track. We ended up making (and eating, and enjoying) a potato dauphinoise pizza.


Posted by: Seeds | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:23 AM
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Does that count the vertical distance the crow would need to cover to get over buildings and trees?

Uh, hello, we're lifting our house for this exact reason.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:26 AM
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only to be experienced again in the event of pregnancy.

Some of us just gain a shit-ton of weight!


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:27 AM
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I've brought this up before in the past, but man did I enjoy the appetite that came with being a nineteen-year-old rowing crew. I was in a truly lousy lightweight women's four at U of C, so we didn't look like anything at all once we'd changed after practice -- not notably large or muscular or visibly athletic or anything. And then we'd go out for breakfast and really disturb the waitress with what we were eating -- multiple rounds of ordering, that kind of thing.

I'd get the strangest food cravings, like eating a pound of steamed broccoli with a lot of cheese grated over it while I thought about what to have for dinner. Doesn't matter what I do now in terms of expending effort; nothing makes me that hungry or enjoy food that much.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:30 AM
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I have never enjoyed broccoli.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:33 AM
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Or rowed crew.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:34 AM
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Put enough cheese on anything, and it's good.

Although I straightforwardly like anything cabbage-related if it's cooked right; either steamed not too much, or roasted to the point where it's got a lot of browning.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:35 AM
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I have tried that with cheese and broccoli. It didn't work. I like cabbage, but only as a thing to go with things that taste better. Pork, usually.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:36 AM
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My recent cheese-related discovery is that sharp cheddar doesn't melt well enough to make a proper cheeseburger.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:37 AM
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But that was the only time in my life where I got the impression that my appetite was reflecting specific nutritional needs. Like, I sort of generally needed a million calories a day, but I would also have these moments of "I need broccoli/red meat/whatever specifically RIGHT NOW."

The impressive bit was that all this eating and working out did not produce much at all in the way of athletic results. We were terrible.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:37 AM
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"The Fighting Classicists, Straussians, and Unclassified Misfits" weren't very good at athletics? Now I'm deeply shocked.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:40 AM
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I'm going to have chicken tenders and fries for lunch. I blame this thread.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:45 AM
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Anyway, I'm sure everybody on any collegiate crew team was more fit than I've ever been in my life. But, at least I've never been hungry enough to enjoy broccoli.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:45 AM
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Fuck all you people who have kitchens.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:51 AM
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I felt sorry for myself because I didn't have a racing shell until a met a man who didn't have a kitchen.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:53 AM
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I could go steal a fucking racing shell right now. I know where they're kept. Wouldn't get me a kitchen.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:57 AM
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I find that I am completely out of things to say about bigots who get outed.

Except... I have to admit that I don't understand the underage thing. I mean, a seventeen-year-old does not look substantially different from an eighteen-year-old. If that's what you're into, wouldn't it make sense to check for ID so as to be committing less of a crime? Someone like Weiner was clearly doing something where what he was getting off on was the risk of getting caught, but I would have thought that that specifically was a pretty small minority taste.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:58 AM
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It's probably the case that he was trying for somebody who looks 12 or 14 or something and got somebody who was 17 because they looked younger.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:00 AM
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Oh. Grosser than I'd thought. Bleah.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:02 AM
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IKR? Cooking in a stolen kitchen isn't thrilling at all. You can't find anything and the pan gets too hot while you're looking.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:03 AM
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36.last: I think the risk of getting caught is an important part of the thrill, as is the knowledge you are doing something naughty. Risky sex (in the sense of getting caught) is a pretty common interest. The line gets crossed when the "getting caught" part involves the legal system. Which I suppose it does in a fair number of the cases I'm thinking about - sex in the park, on the beach, etc. All expose you to the risk of a public indecency charge, but I don't think that's the driver - it's more just getting seen that people are toying with. In the case of Weiner and Shortey I think the thrill is the risk of serious personal consequences, which is missing in the more moderate cases I'm thinking about.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:03 AM
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To be clear, I'm just assuming the worst. It seems reasonable in this case.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:05 AM
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Oh Jesus fuck, his surname.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:07 AM
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Also, it's not sex with a minor - it's childhood prostitution.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:10 AM
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The closest I've got to rowing hunger is hiking hunger. Like, damn, I'm so hungry Tibetan food tastes good.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:16 AM
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Try the deli llama.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:17 AM
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Wrong plateau.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:19 AM
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Also cannibalism is wrong.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:20 AM
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Cannibalism is at least problematic, but unlike procuring a child prostitute, it's acceptable in some circumstances. I'm reasonably sure foolishmortal wouldn't eat somebody who wasn't already dead or dying.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:24 AM
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On the first link: Well, the more shameful something is and the more punished it is (eg, punishing sex workers), the more leverage you have over your victims. If it's not shameful and punishable, they can just go to the paper and say, "you know that dude who hates trans people? Totally into propositioning underage boys!" And also, I think that having power over your victims is an important part of the thrill.

If there's anything that the past year has taught me, it's that the worst impulses you impute to people are almost inevitably revealed to be less bad than their actual impulses. For instance, a year or two ago I would not have believed that there was an actual large percentage of white Americans who were not just casually "I'm kind of ignorant, kind of selfish and kind of lazy" racist but actually "let's have torchlight parades and enshrine racism in law" racist, people who aren't just intellectually lazy and selfish but who actively, after mature reflection, believe that white people are superior.

There are "anti-Muslim" marches on the 10th in various major US cities, including MPLS-St Paul. These people have the fucking gall and hubris to come here, where we have a large Muslim population. Locally, CAIR is putting together some kind of response and there's a counter demonstration. Unless CAIR actually says "don't engage with these assholes", I will be counter-demonstrating for all I am worth.

But anyway, the point is that people are garbage, and Republicans are garbage that is soaked in radioactive scum and on fire.

On another and unrelated note: The best times for eatin' were when I worked in Shanghai in the nineties. I was in my early twenties, I was cold virtually all the time except summer since there was no indoor heating and I biked all over the metro for thrills every day. I ate so much, all the time! So many dumplings full of pork fat! So many dumplings that were fried and full of pork fat! So many noodles! So much rice! So many imported Japanese snacks and locally-sourced cream cakes! And then on top of that simply absurd amounts of fruit because the local fruit selection was amazing. I mean, I ate like it was my job, and I still came home about ten pounds lighter than I'd left. My happiest day was a winter Saturday when I ate (well, probably a bunch of noodles and dumplings too) an entire box of melon-flavored Japanese sponge cake biscuits while reading The Golden Notebook for the first time. The snacks, the book, the freedom from responsibility - it was a perfect combination.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:27 AM
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I've been told that with soup dumplings, you are supposed to bite off the top without burning yourself to let the steam out. I've just been poking them open with chopsticks. It seems just as effective but safer.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:41 AM
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Chopsticks are never as effective.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:56 AM
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The key with soup dumplings is temperature, but you don't know the temperature ex ante, so you have to know the restaurant. There's a superior type of soup dumpling that is like a cross between regular xiaolongbao and a pot sticker, and those are truly dangerous flavor grenades. There was an excellent movie made about my relationship with Shengjianbao: Lust, Caution.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 8:56 AM
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Yes, shengjianbao are really difficult to eat if you aren't brought up to it due to crispy fried part. Biting through that without sort of upending the whole dumpling down your shirt takes practice.

I once ill-advisedly got a plate of them for lunch from a little restaurant that always served them with a brothy soup and managed to spill the actual dumpling down my front and drop it into the soup, splashing it all over myself. Right before class, too.

On the other hand, about half of my class schtick was "what ridiculous thing did Foreign Teacher Frowner do today", so it all worked out.

Ah, those were the days. I had some wonderful students.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:04 AM
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When I worked in the Arctic, I'd hike a moderate distance every day (~5 miles?) and would basically eat constantly. Grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches for breakfast (fried in bacon fat, obvs), more cheese and bread for lunch, trail mix while sitting around, chocolate bar on the way home, a big chunk of salami once I got back to camp, three huge serving of whatever was for supper, and two more polite ones of dessert. I ate more than everyone else at the camp and they probably had at least 50 lbs on me. I ended up losing weight over the summer.

Related to Frowner's comment (besides agreeing with the general pox on humans and especially Republicans), I think that huge hunger can often be related to being cold (and having insufficient insulation?) - hiking (only do when cool enough for no bugs) and, even moreso, swimming make me ravenous. Weights, running, and biking not so much.


Posted by: hydrobatidae | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:05 AM
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I think that huge hunger can often be related to being cold (and having insufficient insulation?)

This rings true - and if you were skinnier than the others you'd be less insulated and so lose heat faster. Because when you're running, you aren't doing it for long, but if you're in the cold you're cold all the time. It doesn't even have to be terribly cold to ramp up your metabolic rate.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/how-being-cold-burns-calories/283810/


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:10 AM
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And note that being too hot also ramps up your metabolic rate.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:11 AM
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56: Huh. I can see how your body would spend more energy trying to keep cool but it really doesn't translate to hunger. Just midday naps.


Posted by: hydrobatidae | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:17 AM
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57: but you definitely lose weight if you're working in hot climates, and I don't think it's all just dehydration.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:23 AM
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Clearly the best way to lose weight without having to diet is simply to wear flimsy, revealing clothing all the time.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:24 AM
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58. Hrm. Peace Corps Volunteers in Samoa, this was odd. Men all lost a lot of weight, but women mostly stayed the same. At the time I attributed this to differing levels of domestic competence; if you weren't a competent cook, there wasn't much available to eat. But maybe there was a different level of adaptation to the heat?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:31 AM
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Men and women definitely thermoregulate differently - different body fat distribution, capillary laydown etc. But how that would translate into different amounts of energy expenditure I don't know.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:33 AM
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It was very dramatic on the men. Anyone who came into the country pudgy had sort of an eight month transition to looking ripped. Anyone who came in looking healthy and muscular took the same amount of time to transition to stringy.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:37 AM
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I've lost quite a lot of weight. I put that down mostly to smaller portion sizes, in virtue of mostly buying food rather than cooking (see bitching above). Temperature, I've no idea.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:39 AM
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Up until my late 20s I could eat basically anything, all the time. My weight kind of floated up and down within a 10-15lb range, but the top of that range was still solidly unflabby. And if I ever felt I wanted to lose weight, I just ate slightly less for a few weeks, and the weight fell off.

Thyroid removal, enforced (by work/commute patterns) sedentary lifestyle, and many lbs of weight gain later, I find I need to (literally, I've measured it) consistently eat under 2000kcal* a day for significant amounts of time to lose any weight at all.

* really quite a long way below my supposed basal metabolic rate.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:43 AM
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Just hang in there for long enough and climate change will melt it right off you.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:44 AM
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I might as well preen a bit and note that I have kept off all the weight I lost in that big artificial-food-only program two years ago, and settled in at a fairly stable range 45-50% under my Jan. 2015 peak, or about the 25th percentile for American men in my age range.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:09 AM
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But I definitely have a lower metabolism. Eat a little more than my enforced limit and the weight comes back on super-predictably.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:10 AM
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Congrats Minivet.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:20 AM
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Nice! Two years is a long time to maintain a big weight loss.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:22 AM
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So, what do you eat now? Calorie-tracking but normal food, or still on a maintenance proprietary food diet?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:31 AM
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Congratulations!!

How difficult to you find it to maintain?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:33 AM
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Said the actress to the archbishop.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:37 AM
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There's cake in the break room. I'm going to go eat some.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:40 AM
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Thanks Mobes. When you cook yourself a nice mushroom omelette be sure to tell me that too.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:46 AM
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The cake hasn't been cut yet, despite promised.

Also, I have a kitchen plus an outdoor grill.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:49 AM
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I've stayed mostly low-not-no-carb, but also low-meat (lots of eggs and yogurt for protein). 6 eating times a day, 3 of them snacks, 2 of the snacks meal replacement bars from SwissBehemoth. I try to make sure my meals combine protein, fat, and carbs because supposedly that evens out the energy flow over the next few hours. So for example my mid-afternoon snack right now is crackers, cherry tomatoes, and a hard-boiled egg. I also still conventionally include at least 1 cup of fresh fruit/veg in each non-snack meal - omelettes, cole slaw, frittatas, etc. At least a dozen other rules of thumb I've developed for myself, including things like when/how to eat out, weighing food, etc.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:54 AM
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I might be able to grill stuff in the utility balcony-cage thing outside my window. At the right time of day stuff would probably fry if I just dropped it on the floor, even.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 10:54 AM
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Whenever I travel I always lose 15 or 20 pounds, and I'm usually going somewhere tropical. If anything I eat more, although, you know what that say: you don't buy dinner in developing countries, you only rent it.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:02 AM
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That sb they


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:03 AM
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That's amazing Minivet, congrats!

I have a kitchen but I don't cook here. All take out and delivery. I once cooked an emmental cheese omelette, and there were all those times I made soft-boiled eggs with kaya toast after my Singapore trip. Yum. But eggs don't really count as real cooking to me.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:12 AM
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My blood pressure has been creeping up, so now I have to watch my sodium. Which sucks, because I frickin' love salty food.

So I've been looking at the sodium labels on food lately. It turns out that Cheez-Its are super bad for you!


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:25 AM
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They don't even taste good.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:29 AM
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Are you kidding? They taste like crunchy, salty cheese. Aside from your arteries crying out in pain, what's not to love?


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:30 AM
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66: That's really impressive. Congratulations!


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:35 AM
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The cake appeared and tasted good.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:43 AM
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83: I'm not kidding. I find the texture very off putting.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:44 AM
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Huh. Stick to Cheese Nips, I guess.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:57 AM
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Those are worse. I want cheese puffs or cheetos.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:58 AM
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Cheese puffs make no sense to me if Cheetos are an options.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 12:15 PM
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60: Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan kept me cold all the time, not Samoan-hot, but had the same gendered effects: men losing weight, women maintaining or gaining. Some of it was gendered activity level differences in the local culture, for sure, but it sure didn't seem like that explained all of it.


Posted by: Kymyz Mustache | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 12:17 PM
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For whatever reason, men's bodies seem more amenable to rapid weight loss in a wide range of scenarios.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 12:22 PM
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Weirdly, we all lost weight in Shanghai, not just the men. Maybe it was because our activity level increased so markedly - I was probably biking a minimum of ten miles a day and walking a lot, plus we had to get all our drinking water from the potable water guy - you were issued a big plastic jug and a ticket, and you turned up every other day and paid something really ridiculously low, like two kuai. And if you ran out, you drank boiled water.

(One time I got really, really sick when everyone else was away. I was too weak to leave the apartment and barely strong enough to boil drinking water when I ran out. It was really scary for a day or two, and I had this plan that I would try to crawl down the hall and down the stairs if I got any sicker, on the theory that even though it was the long holiday at least one of the residential staff must be around to find me. Actually, the only time I ever managed to get a seat on the bus - except when I got on at the start of a route - was the first day I was strong enough to go downtown to the foreign language bookstore. I was so motivated - I elbowed my way on the bus like a Shanghainese native - because I knew I wasn't really strong enough to stand all the way. But I was out of books, so what could I do? That also was a blissful day - it was beautifully sunny, I had a feeling of returning strength and I got a different translation of The Story of the Stone than the one I knew, complete with very pretty illustrations. I must have also gotten some fancy snacks, because one didn't really go to the foreign language bookstore without stopping for international snacks on the way back.)


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 12:39 PM
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When I was in high school, a friend of mine and I would order a "three pizza" special from the local pizza place -- 3 pizzas for 10 dollars. We would each eat a pizza and a half, and then go home and eat dinner.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 12:49 PM
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Cheddar-flavored crackers of all shapes disgust me*, but I do like Cheetos.

*to me they simply taste nothing like cheese. Come to think of it, it's like that thing where banana-flavored foods are supposed to taste like a kind of banana we don't eat anymore, so they're just weird and artificial, even compared with other fruit flavors. Perhaps there's some horrible cheese somewhere that tastes just like a Cheeze-it.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 2:02 PM
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Responding to the travel stuff upthread, I haven't been anywhere tropical since I still had my youthful metabolism (or whatever), but when I first went to Europe in 2002, I maintained despite gorging on rich foods, because we were on the move all the time. Subsequent trips come with 5-10 pounds in gain because we stay with AB's dad, whose mobility isn't great. We still walk a lot, but it's closer to how much walking we do at home, but with much more wurst.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 2:06 PM
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When I was in high school my best friend and I would go to the pie shop across the street from school, buy a whole pie and sit in her car and eat the entire thing during our 40-minute lunch.

In late high school I also went to Oki Dog on a semi-regular basis. They had this burrito that was filled with two hot dogs wrapped in pastrami, wrapped in cheese, and doused with chili. The whole thing weighed like five pounds. Sometimes I would also get chili cheese fries on the side. I went back some years ago with M, whose curiosity was piqued by my frequent nostalgic ravings. The two of us couldn't finish half. I gotta say though, it was still pretty delicious.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 2:15 PM
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92: I'm pretty sure I know what bookstore you're talking about and that it's still there. It's just south of Nanjing Donglu right? That part of Nanjing lu is pedestrianized now and there's a metro stop, but the big (official?) English bookstore is right by there. Have you been back to Shanghai since you left?


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 2:18 PM
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98

Two Big Macs for $2 is definitely a thing I took advantage of.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 3:26 PM
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99

I live in the tropics and I'm still fat.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 3:28 PM
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100

Presumably because you have running water and mechanized transport.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 6:56 PM
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101

In the Rose Garden, verdant and leafy
Prowls the Donald (he's bigly! He's beefy!)
Though he tweets in a rage,
When he sees the front page,
We all had a laugh o'er "covfefe"


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:04 PM
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102

Important question: does anyone here say "a biceps" in conversational usage?


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:07 PM
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103

No.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:10 PM
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104

Not yet.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:13 PM
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105

Sure, sure, like that assassin, Gavrilo Biceps.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:17 PM
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106

I think the medical term is "a ceps".


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 7:21 PM
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107

This came up because I said "a biceps" in conversation and have been flagged as weird.


Posted by: lourdes kayak | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:21 PM
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108

All you people who ever had a fast metabolism under any circumstances, congrats. I can pretty easily get by on about 1200 kcal a day unless I'm getting a ton of exercise. I have very little room to maneuver otherwise. I figure after menopause I'll just eat an egg, a piece of fruit, and some kind of crunchy salty multi-grain hippie flatbread every single day, plus zillions of omega-3 supplements and a 1x3cm piece of dark chocolate, and will still end up with type 2 diabetes.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:41 PM
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109

More stories about Shanghai pls


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:45 PM
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110

107: If you're talking about a muscle separate from the animal it might work. "Could you please hand me a biceps from the pile?"


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 9:57 PM
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111

I like broccoli and kind of hate cheese and if I go to Pittsburgh for a conference this fall, as seems likely, I will hunt down Moby and force him to eat steamed, but not European-style too-steamed, broccoli while grating cheese directly over a trashcan.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 05-31-17 11:58 PM
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112

I've lost quite a lot of weight. I put that down mostly to smaller portion sizes, in virtue of mostly buying food rather than cooking (see bitching above).

I was surprised that I basically maintained or even lost a bit of weight during the year I didn't have a real kitchen. I did have an induction cooker and a microwave and rice cooker, so I occasionally made simple pasta or rice-based things, or sausage and beans, but I ate a lot of meals out, especially while waiting out commute traffic. I figured the weight loss must have been mostly the result of doing less snacking and I guess maybe smaller portions. I wasn't eating healthily.

The following year I cut soda almost entirely out of my diet and lost a noticeable amount of weight, maybe 15-20 pounds. I wasn't trying to lose weight and other people noticed it first, so I wasn't measuring. I did start hiking more that summer, but most of the weight was gone before then so I think it really was just the soda. But then I sat around doing nothing over the holidays while visiting my parents and ate way too much and I think I haven't really gotten back to that point even now.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 12:12 AM
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113

Seconding 109.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 3:41 AM
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114

Too dull; didn't watch. Those of the media who still have one foot in the real world seem to think he did ok without being earth moving. He's the only part leader still trying to talk about policy. All the others have gone full on ad hominem, and I suppose will go on like that for the next week.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 4:16 AM
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115

114 in wrong thread. Can someone delete it please.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 4:17 AM
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116

111: You'll never find me without beer.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 4:37 AM
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117

But I can be emailed at this pseud at the usual monopolist search-engine company.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 4:39 AM
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118

Presumably because you have running water and mechanized transport.

Also a grocery store that features shitty produce and plentiful North American junk food.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 6:57 AM
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119

Also a grocery store that features shitty produce and plentiful North American junk food.

"North American"? Are you a Canadian and I never picked up on it?


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 10:10 AM
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120

Can someone explain what the hell is going on with these weird Josh Marshall doodles?


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:21 AM
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121

I liked the tweet that Trump would reject the wrong Paris accords, and then have to reinvade Vietnam.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:25 AM
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122

Are you a Canadian and I never picked up on it?

No, but I can see South America from my veranda.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:26 AM
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123

Or give Canada back to France.

Along with the Ohio River drainage.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:27 AM
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124

My basement drains into the Ohio River.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:33 AM
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125

121: I didn't see that, but it is good.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:34 AM
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126

120: a particularly bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:38 AM
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127

He's repudiating the Treaty of Paris. We will be at war with the UK within a fortnight.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 1:24 PM
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128

Thank god the president is representing this city by attempting to bring back the more horrific aspects of its past. Fucking asshole.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 1:33 PM
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129

127: Just Great Britain; we don't want to get on the wrong side of the Belfastites.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 1:39 PM
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130

kind of hate cheese

Wha? My mind, it is boggled. I didn't think this was possible.


Posted by: F | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 1:42 PM
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131

When my dog started to refuse cheese, that was a sign she had reached the end of the road.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 1:49 PM
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132

What was the cheese asking for?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 2:11 PM
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133

The cheese stands alone.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 2:19 PM
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134

A Michael Bay film.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 2:23 PM
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135

Any North Korean lurkers? I'm looking for advice on living as a member of a pariah state.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 2:53 PM
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136

109: It was great, I was a bad teacher except for my comp class, Chinese people were incredibly gracious and patient and other white foreigners were total assholes, some Australian tried to get me drunk so that he could cheat on his girlfriend with me and then said I was ugly when I didn't go for it.

There was a lady who sold pomelo from a cart in the residential part of campus. They cost nine yuan if she peeled them for you.

In lichee season, people came in from the countryside and set up their carts all together, so a whole stretch of one street - maybe it was Kaixuan Lu? - was all lichee carts. There were rustling piles of lichee shells in the street everywhere.

I visited Beijing during the holiday, and a kind Chinese friend had her friends from the Philosophy department (at Beida, maybe?) show me around. We went out to the ruins of the Old Summer Palace and it was so still that we could hear the ice cracking all the way across the lake.

I read Goodbye To All That, which has had a huge influence on me ever after both in terms of its content and in terms of my literary and historical interests, and I reread several translations of Story of the Stone, which supplied me with my most abiding internet handle.

You sound like you must have been in Shanghai at some point, lurid.

(I haven't been back - I'm not a professional class person, so the money and time for international travel isn't there, and the high points of my travel for work were Boston and La Crosse WI. But maybe someday, if the world doesn't end.)


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 3:23 PM
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137

I've never been to any part of Asia. lourdes, however, recently went to Seoul on "business" and met a man who lived on (in?) Mallorca, and who reminisced about watching rugby with Robert Graves. More later. When were you there? The 90s? (Approximation fine if you feel cagey about details.)


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 4:37 PM
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136 is great. But it's like Death in the Afternoon: even as you read it, you know that world can't exist anymore.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 6:42 PM
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139

There's probably cockfighting, if you want to see animals fighting for their life.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:23 PM
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140

A greyhound straight up ate a cockapoo at the dog park near me. People who go to those dog park things only go to see if a fight will break out.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:26 PM
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141

I guess it looked like an electronic rabbit and he saw his chance for revenge.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:36 PM
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142

I was thinking actually about economic development and the tourist economy of Spain, but I guess bloodlust gonna lust.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:37 PM
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143

You seem tense. Have a cockapoo.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:40 PM
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109/136

Ooh, I didn't realize (or maybe had forgotten) you'd lived in Shanghai! How long ago did you live there?


I'm trying to lose 3-5 lbs I gained over winter break, except I'm not disciplined enough to diet or exercise, so I'm not sure how it's going to come off. I am lucky in that I love broccoli and kale and bitter leafy greens, except I also love sweets and alcohol.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:41 PM
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145

I'm drinking Moscow Mules, for sweets and alcohol.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:43 PM
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146

145

That's a good combo. I'm three margaritas in, and I have to write a dissertation chapter draft. I hope drunk me is better at it than sober me.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:44 PM
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147

Actually, now it's just half-sober tired me. Trying to decide if I should get drunker or soberer.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:45 PM
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148

I tried one without the lime juice to see if being lazy had consequences. I did. Stupid necessary effort.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:46 PM
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149

Isn't that just triple sec and tequila?


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:48 PM
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150

Vodka and ginger beer, except it's ginger ale because I was lazy about going to find a store that sold ginger beer.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:49 PM
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151

I don't know what triple sec, lime juice, and tequila is, but I'll try it.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:50 PM
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152

Oh right, the Moscow Mule. I might make what I call a poor man's whiskey sour, which is supermarket ginger ale, costco whiskey, and lime juice from a squeezy bottle. Vodka does bad things to me after a very memorable experience with it in college.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:51 PM
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I have no idea how anybody gets the energy to make a margarita at home. You can to get the blender and the ice and probably a frozen mix.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:51 PM
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151

That's a classic margarita. It's also easy to make a frozen one with limeade concentrate, tequila, and triple sec.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:52 PM
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155

You're pushing me to head in the direction of getting drunker, even though I need to pace myself for a week of parties.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:53 PM
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156

I should have gotten the squeezy bottle. It turns out the lime is pretty key, but I'm not going to wash the lime squisher again.


Posted by: Opinionated Bubble | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:53 PM
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157

Stupid form memory.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:56 PM
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158

I'm editing, plus I have to be up at 6. I'm on my last one.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 7:57 PM
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154: Or with tequila, Rose's lime juice, triple sec, and a goodly splash of Gran Marnier (my preference over Cointreau), on the rocks. Only problem with those is that they go down way too easy and you're well into the third one by the time the first takes full effect.


Posted by: DaveLHI | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 8:26 PM
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160

I also learned recently that French 75s are delicious, thanks to a restaurant in Buttercup's neighborhood that was serving them with brunch. This will require further research.


Posted by: DaveLHI | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 8:28 PM
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161

I learned that at a meetup here.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 8:31 PM
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I don't make many meetups. Too low energy, or geographically challenged, or something.


Posted by: DaveLHI | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 8:37 PM
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My short, but not lightweight, SLAC crew team used to go to a putatively all-you-can-eat Mongolian grill and outrage them into throwing us out. After perfectly good value for money, and they let us in regularly.

When we were all broke I'd host waffle breakfasts, ports vs star boards competing to beat the egg whites.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 9:15 PM
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164

I just learned in this Uber (mea maxima culpa, I may otherwise miss the flight) that Todd Rundgren has recorded a novelty song about the president. The future is a leather boot jumping over a shark... forever.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 10:37 PM
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Into the city. A billboard advertises Portland. I consider seasteading. Would have to import kale and almonds. Also, I don't know what an ocean is. No escape. Disillusionment is the final frontier.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 10:45 PM
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How much Southern rock is there in the world? Is that what an ocean is? The awkwardly pulsing heart in the "Success Factors" logo seems momentarily to lay bare the absurdity of working for one:s child's benefit. An exceedingly quick trip at this hour. I have to pay for this somehow. No, I mean PAY​ for it pay for it.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 10:55 PM
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Lost driver's license in security line, temporarily famous in the terminal. Those neck pillows cost as much as the red-eye discount, almost as much as a hotel room. The cheap ones smell like they would give you nightmares of every waking-nightmare expose of DuPont you've ever read. Calming thoughts? Was there a plan for calming? Maybe more Penderecki.

The Success Factors heart keeps beating in my mind. Heart failure. Heart success.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 06- 1-17 11:34 PM
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108: #relatable
my metabolism has just continued to slow super-annoyingly. I just ate a slice of very heavily buttered toast after rice cakes with cream cheese, though, so maybe I don't have much room to complain. I could try or something.

the teenage thing to eat too much of in the south is the delicious weird miniature burgers from krystal's. they sell sacks of six and we would sit in the car at eat them competitively. I worked on a farm pruning christmas trees two summers and it was amazing how much food I could pack away.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 12:35 AM
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I guess I've lost a couple of pounds (4, 5? maybe) since Christmas, without really making major diet changes. Just by drinking less Coke, and walking more (changes in my commute routine). But that just takes me back to the weight I've been most of the past 18 months, pre the gain of 3 or 4 lbs over Christmas.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 3:51 AM
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170

lurid's 164-167 are great.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 4:30 AM
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171

Trump is still name-checking Pittsburgh? He's doing shit for the assholes in the suburbs and exurbs, not the city. He should make the clear.

That is all.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 5:19 AM
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Also, has anybody else noticed how Putin's language about patriotic volunteer hackers echoes the Chinese "volunteers" during the Korean War?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 5:31 AM
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173

170 is correct.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 6:18 AM
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174

As is 173.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 6:25 AM
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175

Since May 5, when I got and set up my new wifi scale that calculates weight and BMI and dumps it into a bunch of different apps for me, I've lost 8.6 lbs., not bad on its own. I attribute a lot of this to the fairly strictly focused ketogenic diet I've been following (lapses with alcohol have been kept to keto friendly red wine and straight liquor). However, I've also been running (C25k) and lifting weights (Stronglifts 5X5), which means that I've been adding muscle while losing fat. I realise that BMI scales are not particularly accurate, so I've been mostly trying to follow trend lines, but if I take the readings as accurate I have theoretically added 5.5 pounds of muscles in the past 4 weeks, making my total fat loss 13.6 pounds--which is kind of ridiculous and I don't anticipate that it will be sustainable.

Anyway, I can't post about this stuff on FB because it triggers a fairly militant fat-acceptance advocate friend of mine (I mean I could, but why stress her out?), so thanks for the opportunity to brag. Now to just keep this shit up sustainably.


Posted by: Chopper | Link to this comment | 06- 2-17 8:59 AM
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