Here's fun passage from a guy named Jose Alvarez at NYU:

Trump’s single term cemented the following characteristics within US foreign policy: (1) a pronounced preference for alternative normative instruments in lieu of multilateral treaties requiring approval by either or both houses of Congress; (2) a more wary/hostile approach towards China; (3) deep skepticism of the world trading system; (4) reliance on punishing “bad” actors through trade sanctions; (5) circumspection towards UN system organizations; (6) avoidance of most international courts and tribunals; (7) aversion to “never-ending” wars and resistance to humanitarian use of force (RIP for R2P); and (8) ever more “ironclad” commitments to Israel’s security.

A Biden administration can be expected to modify at the margin each of these trends, and adopt a more measured diplomatic tone with respect to all of them, but four years hence it is likely that all eight will remain recognizable aspects of US actions in the international law space.

And on the domestic side, weird personal fandom for geriatric and/or incompetent public servants seems normalized, and similarly likely to survive a few more election cycles.

In the same way that sports radio callers quibble over salary dispensation for professional athletes they've never met, Twitter people have strong feelings about the relative pricing for these robots.

Perseverance: How to do iterative development when iterations cost $2,900,000,000.00.

If anyone didn't see this in the other thread...

Found the Herriot reference - it's from chapter 39 of All Things Bright and Beautiful. (That was the second book in the series. Pity he didn't anticipate that there would BE a series - then, he could have titled the books in the right order!)

http://reader.epubee.com/books/mobile/a7/a7c683404c73bae4bd60eef60f04aee4/text00120.html

It's amusing.

And, let's face it - most people today, even uneducated ones, would not have enjoyed that breakfast!

Btw, I did think of another case where yes, chances are you really DO have to eat what you're served. Namely (according to the popular travel writer Roger Axtell) when you are a foreigner on a business trip. There is no substitute for it, when you clearly need to send the message "I'm so glad to be in this country and doing business with you."

Even when the delicacies you have to eat are sheep's eyeballs (Saudi Arabia), bear's paw soup (China), or rodent, snake, chocolate-covered grasshoppers, or roasted scorpions.

(Axtell also said that many visitors to the U.S. find the following foods disgusting: roast turkey, gravy, peanut butter, root beer, ketchup, grits, pecan pie, corn on the cob, pumpkin pie, rare steaks, popcorn, many fast foods, and hot dogs.)

A short, glorious tale of mistaken identity.

One hates to see a classic American airframe suddenly besmirched like this.

Lenona— Amy doesn't police her comments anymore, at all, but she would want in pointed out that it ain't the meat and fat that puts weight on people... It's the carbs. "Piccalilli" looks too intimidating to look up on google or a dictionary.

Me, discussing Orangeboy, March 9, 2020 5:19 PM:

An outcome is approaching.... Is there any number of American dead that would interrupt their teenage devotion to his splendor? Let's guess:

☐ 0 - 50,000

☐ 50,000 - 100,000

☐ 100,000 - 200,000

☐ 200,000 - 300,000

☐ 300,000 - 400,000

☐ ~ 500,000

We'll leave it there for now…

Well, yes, Little Scout, I fucking well did.

Hi Raddy!

Hey, how about some South Lake Tahoe real estate?

If you're into the whole Buffalo Bill / Silence of the Lambs lifestyle, this could be the house for you.

See it on Zillow:

3695 Primrose Rd, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

Mind the crawlspace! No, seriously, don't go in there.

Crid, maybe, but how many people WANT to eat greasy or fatty food without some type of gravy and/or bread, regularly? It's practically a moot point.

At any rate, even back in the 1970s, people already knew that bread was fattening. Not sure about the 1930s.

(However, one thing Brits are notorious for is eating TWO starches per meal - such as spaghetti on toast. According to one humorist, protein wasn't discovered there until 1980 or so.)

But Herriot apparently wasn't that afraid of getting somewhat fatter; he just found fatty MEAT to be disgusting, just as most Americans find salt pork repulsive these days, even though a great many ate it in the 19th century. Poor ones, especially.

In the meantime, here's an interesting piece on piccalilli - I was surprised that the term is used mainly in the U.K.! Also, in the U.S., it seems, you won't usually find it in the South or West.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccalilli

I also thought it would look like salsa. It doesn't.

According to one humorist, protein wasn't discovered there until 1980 or so.

More specifically, the importance of protein to growth in children.

And, unfortunately, improvements in domestic technology - and farming technology - were a two-edged sword. That is, farming has always been seriously dangerous, and even women with small families exhausted themselves into early graves in the days before washing machines, vacuum cleaners, etc. became common. But at least they were burning calories, big-time, so only rich people had to worry about which foods they were eating, mostly. (Especially before the days of processed foods.) Nowadays, the time one saves with modern machines still has to be spent on exercise if you don't want to get fatter every year - even with a healthful diet! Hence, the jogging mania that started in the 1970s.

Hey, how about some South Lake Tahoe real estate? ! Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 21, 2021 8:46 PM

Gog, a picture from that set was just made the group photo for the Facebook page, "Bad MLS Photos."

The page is members-only and is dedicated to poorly photographed, decorated, or staged properties advertised on the Multiple Listing Service.

> how many people WANT to eat greasy
> or fatty food without some type
> of gravy and/or bread

Well, if you're looking for a diet that answers every impulse with fulfillment and glory, the cause is lost anyway, isn't it? Fatty foods slow the progress of flavors over the taste buds… That's great!

But yeah, carby foods are popular. Most of them came to civilization as a (less expensive) way to extend the enjoyment of (costly) meat and proteins... but the demon is out of control.

Ever go to Chick Filet?… It's breaded chicken served on a bun. And the pattern is spreading, in more ways than one.