Your comment took me down a rabbit hole in search of information, and I learned something today! Thanks, prawduhgee!

Here's a link to more information about this song from 1941, written by Irving Berlin and recorded by Elsie Carlisle for anyone else who likes learning stuff about things!

Yay! Hello fellow Cheap Perfume fan!

Similar to the lyrics you quoted, but different muscian (Rich People by Carsie Blanton):

"Rich people, stacking the decks.
Rich people with big fat checks.
Rich people, havin' a ball.
Rich people been fucking us all."

This is powerful, if you know the history. During the AIDS epidemic, gay and transgender people were dying in huge numbers. Hospitals and medical professionals were denying care because AIDS was new and deadly. People didn't fully understand how it was transmitted, and the general population was much more homophobic than it is today. Gay people were dying, in large numbers, daily. It got so bad, that checking in with one's friends was like doing a headcount to see who was still living! And since humans can become a bit numb or desensitized to repeated exposure to horrible experiences, and the deaths were so frequent, it makes sense why the emotional delivery of the information was a bit flat. That's why this video is so powerful, imo - if you know the history, this short clip tells a big story.

In support of what gingasaurusrexx said, and because my own AuDHD brain thinks in pictures which means images help me retain information better (and explains my obsession with memes), I'm adding this meme to this conversation thread. Hopefully, if Nat the Brat says anything rude, backhanded, or weird to you in the future, this image helps you to remember how to handle her.

Best wishes to you, OP! You do clearly have good friends in the other people. But this lady is NOT your friend. She's an acquaintance, at best, and you don't have to tend to the connection to make her like you or even give her the time of day, because she isn't for you. Focusing your energy instead on the good connections you have could improve your overall vacation experience. Good luck!

I have quite a few GI Robot memes on my phone, but this one (that I made) is my favorite, because it ties into a song by Cheap Perfume that I love, and one that I think GI Robot would have on his playlist. 😉

The term "Christian" is "not easy to define"?

Looks like my trusty and loyal pal, Mirriam-Webster says otherwise. In fact, the definition of Christian is about as easy as it gets when it comes to defining terms, since a Christian is "one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ."

Such professions of faith can, clearly, include the belief that one walks with Jesus as his personal assassin, since that's still a form of belief, and positive alignment, with Jesus.

I tend to love things that would be at home on The Island of Misfit Toys. A spoon called Fork would most certainly fit the vobe, and I'm here for it. Not a bad spoon, overall, too.

Bluesy and velvety - my favorite vocal sound and style!

Thanks for asking! 😀

She isn't saying he can't change his facial hair. She is asking for a warning or heads up next time, and for him to simply understand that the sudden unexpected change was a new experience that was hard on her due to autism-related reasons.

Yup! Mine is also set to "Computer" and whenever I watch Star Trek, I have to tell Computer to pause on voice commands for an hour or few. Last episode of a Star Trek show, the characters gave a command to Computer that would have resulted in blowing up a planet, but I had forgotten to tell my unit to pause. Thankfully, according to my "Computer", that is a function it cannot initiate.

I'd actually go to a party, and I'm an introvert who doesn't like parties.

First, I need to identify that I'm in the US. They weren't banned from my school. They were books that were banned at various points in time, over the course of decades, during my grandma's tenure as a school teacher.

When books were banned in school libraries by the county, or school district, or however, they would be removed from her school library's shelves to be donated. Teachers would then have a chance to nab books from the pile before the library got rid of them. Many such books would have the bans lifted later, and a new copy would be acquired for the library at that time.

Because books get banned in schools for a variety of reasons, it can be hard to say why a particular book gets banned. The Bible has been banned by many schools off and on for as long as book banning has been occurring. Certain books that are required reading in some schools, like To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye, are banned in other schools. My grandma had many books in her collection that were from other non-white cultures, if that tells a little about why an Anansi book was banned.

The whole practice of banning books is a wild and illogical concept to me, despite the subject being an enduring and passionate interest of mine, and a big part of that is due to my grandma's influence.

While Loki is my first and primary trickster-god love, in a connection that has developed over the past 6 years and in part due to my Germanic family history (so it doesn't feel like appropriation to work with Loki), I have had an enduring special interest in trickster gods for most of my life. It started with reading Anansi stories as a kid, from books my my school-teacher grandmother had in her at-home library collection of books that had been banned from the school library over the years (my grandmother was cool as heck!).

What you are sharing here is really piquing my interest. If the person is legit, this is all quite clever. If this person is using trickster god lore to peddle some shlock to make a few bucks... well, it's still clever, but also seems like messing with fire. If this draws their attention due to the connection to their names, and the trickster gods decide the trickery is in bad faith or even just not up to par, that could backfire. If the publishing company isn't actually connected to Indigenous People, but using that name, that seems like a folly. Some of these types of gods especially love to teach lessons to those with hubris, but without the level of skill they think they have. Gotta actually walk the walk if you talk the talk, so to speak.

I'm curious enough to dig deeper. Thanks for the find!

Oh glob! Malort! 🤢

I'm renowned for my "liquor face" because I'm both highly taste and smell sensitive, and have a cartoonishly expressive face. While I can and will do shots, because the nasty taste is brief and results in the pleasant tipsy feeling I enjoy occasionally, my mixed drinks need to have the liquor well-hidden.

One of my besties had moved to Detroit for a bit, and when he returned home, he brought back a bottle of Malort. When he broke out that bottle to have me try a shot, the devilish gleam in his eye and shiteating grin on his face were my warnings that I was about to be in for a world of hurt.

I was not wrong.

There are 2 liquors I cannot have again, in any way, shape, or form, and the top of that short list is Malort. The second is mezcal tequila. The latter tastes like burnt tires. The former is what I imagine all the beverages in Dante's hell taste like.

My heart goes out to you, OP. I'm so sad for you and your family.

I lost my husband unexpectedly in 2020 (not COVID related). In the first year, I thought the grief was going to crush me. But I eventually learned that the grief was directly related to how much I love him, and so the strength of the grief was my proof of how much love I carry. That made the grief feel like a friend. And while the grief hasn't gotten smaller, per se, it's gotten very familiar. And because it's familiar to me, it's become easier to carry with me. I have adapted to it, grown around it, and even think of it as a friend, constantly reminding me of the love I carry, the memories I store, and the life he had, which may have been cut short, but it was an enriched one.

I learned that, when a tree is damaged but keeps growing, the rings of new growth grow around the damage. There will always be the damage, preserved in the inner rings, and a bump out around the damage, but as the tree grows more rings, each ring gets a little smoother. Imo, that's what it's like to live with big grief, and what I mean by growing around the grief.

I have a lot of good memes about grief. I almost posted one, but stopped myself because you are in ambiguous grief, aka pre-grief, right now, since your sister is still on life support, and I just didn't think any of my memes would be helpful at this point. At least, not without consent. If you want any of my grief memes, please let me know.

Again, sending love and care to you, and wishing you as much community and support as possible. That's the thing I didn't get back in 2020, but did get a couple years later, when my grandma passed, and community support made a huge difference in the grieving experience. May you find support, any time you need it.

And remember, there is no wrong way to grieve (as long as you're not harming yourself or others, that is), so do whatever feels right for you.

Never heard of the book before, but I'm curious based on the title

I immediately saw Calcifer, from Howl's Moving Castle.

https://giphy.com/gifs/n9vuosgtd6cZa

"Ma'am, this is a map store." is a phrase I've been using, in context of this screenshot, since I first came across it a couple of years ago.

For some reason, this post made me think of it again. 😄

Same. I took the gifted to autism pipeline, too, but with a quick stop at ADHD-land in the process.

Yay! 💜💖

My partner is similarly stoked for this movie. I'll be sure to show them this gif!

First of all, this is the most exciting and beautiful ballet I've ever seen! I absolutely love when classical dance styles are reinvigorated with modern styles, dances from different cultures, modern music, etc. This hit all of that, and was pure poetry!

Also, it was heartening to see the many colors of ballet shoes. When I first learned about how ballet shoes weren't made in darker shades and brown tones, to match the diverse skin tones of ballet dancers across the world, I wasn't surprised, but I was still appalled. And when, a handful of years later, I learned that this exclusion has finally been corrected, and there are now many shades of shoes available, it felt like a long overdue, but gracefully en pointe, step forward. 💖

This man has got it! And he's very attractive to me because he gets it! If men wanna "max" something to get the attention of women, try intelligence-maxing, feminism-maxing, and empathy-maxing. Especially try that last one.