Seleni

Not comfortable, comfort. The comfort of routine, the predictable, the familiar… and fighting against a fascist government is very uncomfortable, especially from that perspective. Once they cease to feel comfort, then people act.

That’s why massive social revolutions tend to be preceded by famines. Food comfort (that is, the idea of always having food available, even if so expensive one needs a 5-finger discount to get any) is one of the major motivational comforts, so its loss tends to hit very hard socially.

They’ll be furious that Democrats and brown migrant workers sold them out

At least in my case, family. My family is really big and loves parties, his family is really big and loves parties. That quickly becomes a 250-300 person guest list.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."

-Martin Luther King Jr

The truth is people are rarely good or bad. The vast majority of people are simply creatures of comfort, and will be adverse to losing that comfort over all other things.

All toads are frogs but not all frogs are toads.

Sometimes you want to try a recipe and it’s so tied to the meat (texture usually) that a substitute works better (or at least makes it so you don’t have to muck around to find the right texture/taste).

I’ll give tacos as an example. As a kid we’d just ask to sub beans into the taco. And they were okay. Then one day, I tried it with Beyond Beef, and I suddenly understood why people liked tacos so much.

For me only diced mushrooms came close, but even that texture was inferior, compared to the Beyond Beef. Flavor was just as good though.

Honestly the simplest answer for me was making it myself. Every so often I get frustrated with commercially available gnocchi and go this route.

I admit, I do cheat a little and use dehydrated potatoes (because dang it takes forever otherwise), but I can confidently say even half-assed home-made gnocchi is way better.

I sent the club a wire stating, "PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER".

-Groucho Marx (Telegram to the Friar's Club of Beverly Hills to which he belonged)

Mites. You have mites.

It’s a species that snuck into the US recently. Bad infestations can kill plants, and even mild ones make them look bad. The purple is a stress response.

A lot of landscapers in my area are recommending people pivot away from rhododendrons and azaleas because of how annoying this mite is.

I recommend a hard-hitting systemic mitacide. They’re not native so they don’t have real predators here; the lacewings try but they’re too small and sneaky.

If you want to ditch the azaleas but grow something similar looking, try Kalmia latifolia. It’s a distant cousin of rhodies, but the mite doesn’t seem to like it.

You might actually be able to help him. There are trainings you can do to help a dog get used to sudden loud noises; hunting dogs for example get this training so they can work around gunfire. No reason it wouldn’t work for things like thunder and fireworks too.

As it so happens, it did nearly kill him. Some locals beat the shit out of him afterwards.

But hey, he said he could afford the fine, so I’m sure he could afford the medical bills too.

Unfortunately pared with this attitude is the magic thinking that ‘as long as everyone follows The Rules and keeps to Their Proper Place then nothing bad will happen ever’. They literally believe that The Hierarchy is the only thing keeping civilization from disintegrating into chaos.

It’s not that they don’t realize they’re buffoons, it’s that the buffoons are ‘following The Rules’ and so are they, so that buffoonery will never be turned on them.

Paired with this is the belief that everyone thinks exactly as they do, just some people are too stupid to realize it. So they need to exert The Rules and The Hierarchy to help those poor other people see sense.