Are you suggesting that he might be (puts on sunglasses) changing his mind?

And giants are famous for their diminutive size.

Andre de Grande?

Arianna Giant?

I did all of this years ago and it is bliss lol

Another thought about read receipts, can’t spammers and phishing scammers use those to determine if a number is active in order to send more trash?

If nothing happened then there’s no harm in releasing those Epstein files. Let’s see them, just to put everything to rest.

(Assuming this is not a psy-op where she says nothing happens, giving time for them to release an AI-generated version of the files that confirms what she said—or some other shady thing they could do…)

My best friend, in our late teens, once emphatically claimed that Eric Clapton wrote “I Shot The Sheriff” and that Bob Marley effectively stole the song from him. This was before the internet as we know it, so fact-checking took effort. He and I argued about this off and on for weeks. Until I wound up in a used record store and happened upon the Clapton album that had “I Shot The Sheriff”. Right there, plain as day, it stated “written by R. Marley.” So I bought the LP, even though I did not own a record player at the time, just so I could put it in front of his face and show him.

His reaction? “Well, I’ve seen a Cream album where it says he wrote it.” CLAPTON WASN’T WITH CREAM WHEN HE PUT OUT HIS COVER!11!

Similarly, my brother-in-law as a kid was quite assured that Elton John’s hit song was actually “Panty and the Jets” and refused to believe otherwise for years.

Both are pretty right-leaning guys these days and so maybe “confidently wrong” is just something that comes with a certain political persuasion? ChatGPT is just made in its makers’ image.

In college, many years back, I worked for a Home Depot that was chronically understaffed. I worked the lumber and building materials department, often during peak hours for contractors coming in to buy things for their projects and often completely by myself. Iʻd also work until like 11 at night and have to be in at dawn the next day. Keep in mind, I was also part-time (it was my senior year of college). I requested time off for Thanksgiving to see my family, something no other retailer I worked for objected to. They denied my request.

So, like Peter Gibbons, I just stopped going. I went home one night and just never came back (other than to sneakily collect my last check a few weeks later). Never answered the phone when they called. I just disappeared.

Years later I bumped into one of my former co-workers (he was working at a car rental place and I was renting a van). He said that he did pretty much the same thing not too longer after lol.

For years Iʻve referred to Republicans as “sore winners.”

As a bit of an odd kid at a Christian school, I gravitated toward other odd kids, some of whom had behavioral issues (winding up in my school because their parentʻs thought it might reform them or whatever). So one of my closest friends in high school happened to be a prolific shoplifter and all around neʻer-do-well. I never condoned his behavior, but I enjoyed him as a person. I was too much of a church kid to do anything like what he did.

Almost fired? Twice (sort of). Most recently (about seven years ago) the school I worked at as a chaplain hired a new head of school who told me at my first meeting that he had lawyers look at my contract. It was complicated, but I was actually employed by a parish (Iʻm an Episcopal priest) that shared the schoolʻs chapel, contracted to serve as chaplain to the school. New guy basically wanted to clean house and also didnʻt like that he had someone as senior administration that he couldnʻt fire. I wound up being called to a parish in Hawaiʻi not too long after, so it didnʻt really matter.

My other close call came just out of high school. I had been working at a pet store for about two years and helped two classmates get jobs. Turned out they began running a multi-store scam involving stealing from one store, getting a receipt printed for their items at a second store, and then returning those items to a third store for cash. Managment thought I was in on it because I had got them jobs (and had a habit in those days of hanging out with criminals though never really committing crimes myself). I was able to convince management that I had no idea what they were doing.

Oh, wait. There was the other time, when working at EB Games, that I accidentally forgot to ring up a guyʻs Voodoo video card. Basically my remorse and my yearslong friendship with the staff saved my ass that day.

I was actually fired from being an RA in college, but thatʻs a whole other story…

This guy Floridas!

I actually did not know that! A friend of mine used to own an independent roaster and kinda ruined me on coffee lol. Learned a lot from him, but somehow missed this tidbit. Makes sense.

Two things: First, coffee became an “American” beverage after the Boston Tea Party (though, iirc beer remained a significant breakfast beverage for awhile). Coffee houses were also places for patriotic discussions and where the revolutionary zeal was fostered. So you have some MAGA types wanting to tap into that.

Second, dark roasting coffee is an old trick to cover the flavor of inconsistent and shitty coffee. Some people really like to taste the “roast.” But what’s happening is that a burnt flavor is masking the actual taste of a coffee bean. You want a light roast to actually taste the coffee.

Also, if I’m not mistaken, it was the French who first came up with dark roasting coffee (likely for preservation reasons). I’m sure MAGA would love to know that their “dark, hard-hitting” coffee has its flavor profile originating in France.

Yeah. I’ve lived in DC in June. I’m originally from Florida and the most oppressive heat and humidity I’ve experienced in the US was during summer in DC. And given that it’s only like two months of such heat (compared to the like 7 months where it’s cold), they don’t prioritize infrastructure for it. It is not going to be a good time for anyone.

Agreed. Big Scott Bakula fan. Plus I hold that the show remains under-appreciated for the Star Trek fandom and— oh. THAT Archer. Nevermind. Please continue.

I have young kids. They often say things like “if I were president, I would—“ and then say some borderline totalitarian nonsense like “make it illegal to put pickles on burgers” or some other thing that is self-focused and completely misunderstands the nature of the presidency.

Which is all to say that Trump holds the same view of the presidency that a five-year-old does. And he occupies the office. Awesome.

All these news reports saying that Luigi killed a guy or used a 3D printed gun. As far as I know, Luigi did none of those things and that that is for the courts to decide. Further, I’ve seen plenty of posts online of people saying that he was at the bar with them when the whole thing happened.