exasperation

The original screenshot is from Its Always Sunny, where the illiterate character has trouble pretending to be a philanthropist, because he can't pronounce the word "philanthropist," much less describe and understand what it means.

The comment you're replying to is just riffing in their own way, completely unrelated to the scene where the screenshot comes from.

There are two factors for making connections through conversation. You've pretty much nailed the "showing interest" part.

But don't forget, in addition to needing to show that you are interested, you need to show that you are interesting, too.

A good conversation will have some back and forth between both sides, on both factors. So merely showing interest may sometimes be counterproductive if you can't tie that intense interest into something to reveal about an interesting side of yourself.

For example:

Statement: "I went to France last summer."

Good response: "Ooh, that's really cool, what were your favorite things you did?"

Better response: "Ooh, that's really cool, I've always wanted to go. What recommendations do you have for places and things that I absolutely must experience?"

Similarly, tying things back to your own experiences may be helpful at generating some of that back and forth, even on topics that you don't have any direct knowledge or experience with. For example:

Statement: "I was hesitant about the escargot/snails at first, and there just wasn't a ton of substance to them, but it was delicious under all that butter anyway."

Good response: "Wow that sounds like a fun experience, would you do it again?"

Better response: "Wow that sounds fun, so was it like linguine and clams where it's as much about the flavors that get infused into the butter as it is about the clam itself?"

I know too many people who get stuck in a pure listening mode with strangers and forget to actually show their own personalities and why they're worth getting to know, too.

Yeah, I don't have any real trouble with scrambling on a cast iron. Even if it does stick a bit, it's scrambled so it'll all come together in the end anyway.

Are they, though? The original comic reads to me to be a bit more condescending towards the idea of travel as a concept, and especially towards small talk about travel as a past experience.

Talking about travel is one of the best ways to find topics of overlapping interests. For me, food and drink are pretty important ways for me to connect to people, so talk about travel is always helpful for figuring out what we have in common in terms of food preferences, what we find interesting (cooking, gardening, restaurants, grocery shopping, books about any of this stuff, etc.).

Cast iron is pretty good at almost everything, but isn't the best at anything.

For searing meat at high temps, I've settled on stainless steel. It's easy to clean and maintain, and the typical 3-ply or 5-ply cladding has much better heat transfer characteristics than cast iron (which is a mediocre heat conductor masked by the fact that it's so heavy and thick that it takes on a lot of thermal mass to aid in searing). You don't have to worry about metal utensils or harsh scrubbers scratching the surface. And you don't have to worry about acidic ingredients messing with the surface, either.

For things that need nonstick characteristics, like eggs, I cycle through nonstick on a short replacement cycle (once every 2 or 3 years). I might get a carbon steel one day but I'm not in a hurry.

Ah yes, the police, the institution that is widely respected as being effective at ending domestic violence, filled with people who would never perpetrate such domestic violence themselves.

Ok but can I still get like 3 months to still be listed on your website to help me with my job search?

That's the joke.

Even in a small geographical area, I'd imagine getting pre-auths for tanks of gas multiple times per day would trigger some kind of unusual activity flag.

15 minutes and 30 minutes are a pretty long time to have to heat food up for.

When I'm reheating soup I generally pull it from the stove as soon as it simmers, so that's probably around 2 minutes above 95°C and like 5 minutes above 80°C.

Actually making the soup the first time, I may simmer for hours, but some of the vegetable/herb ingredients I'm adding with less than 10 minutes of simmer time, so that wouldn't be enough to destroy the toxin reliably.

You're getting the labels mixed up.

As a labeling requirement under U.S. law, anything labeled "American Cheese" must be pasteurized process cheese made from some combination of cheddar, colby, washed curd cheese, or granular cheese, which the law also defines pretty strictly. It must be made from these cheeses, heated and emulsified with an emulsifying salt (usually sodium citrate).

American cheese is allowed to have some optional ingredients and still be labeled American Cheese:

• Food safe acid (as long as pH stays above 5.3)
• Cream or milkfat, such that this added fat can account for up to 5% of the weight of the finished product.
• Water (but the total moisture content of the resulting product must still be within the other limits in the regulation)
• Salt
• Artificial coloring
• Spices or flavoring that do not simulate the flavors of cheeses
• Mold inhibitors from sorbate up to 0.2%, or from proprionate up to 0.3%
• Lechitin, if sold in slices

You can add milk, cream, buttermilk, whey, or certain other dairy products up to 49% of the finished product, but then you'd have to call it "Pasteurized American Process Cheese Food" instead of just American Cheese.

American cheese is made from almost entirely cheese ingredients. The individual slices being sold at the store, though, vary by brand on whether they're even trying to be American Cheese (or whether they're some kind of lesser "cheese food" or even lesser "cheese spread" or even lesser "cheese product")

Regular Kraft singles aren't American Cheese. Look at the label. They're "cheese product." Even the Deli Deluxe line has taken a hit in quality in recent years, even if they are labeled Cheese.

Go with other brands that actually put together a decent tasting American Cheese, and check the label to make sure it's made with 100% cheese instead of 51% cheese (or less).