I saw some truck commercial yesterday where the thing was eighty thousand dollars AFTER all incentives and rebates.

I thought to myself that the people who are screaming about inflation and how the Democrat president is ruining their lives are the same people who are lining up to make crazy monthly payments into a vehicle that will immediately be upside down on the note.

This was my introduction to Bill Gates in 1992

The comments are pretty much all with you save one person. If I were you, I’d calmly walk away with that satisfaction before you get baited into a comment that “proves” you are what has been said of you.

(Note that “proves” is in quotation marks there.)

Are you asserting that nobody should ever have any preferences? Do you meet your own standard?

OP didn’t say he’s throwing women out of bed for having piercings. He expressed a preference for them not to.

I prefer dark hair. Sometimes it’s red or blonde or blue.

I prefer pubic hair. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not.

I prefer a few extra pounds. Sometimes those pounds aren’t there. Sometimes a few extra is more like a lot extra.

In no example above did I shut down the interaction, nor did I experience any less pleasure.

But I still have preferences. That’s all they are though.

American here.

Just checked my latest paystub. My taxes are $405 per WEEK.

Good to know I’m getting such a bang for my buck.

And by bang, the military just got a few more bullets for war out of me.

You joke but…

I was in a benefits meeting a few years ago led by the insurance rep for our employee health coverage.

Deductibles came up.

I raised my hand and asked, “So if I go skiing for Christmas and snap my femur on December 26, it behooves me to delay any treatment until January 1, right?”

She didn’t miss a beat and said, “Yes, that’s correct.”

There was a stunned silence in the room from that one.

To the immigrant thing - I was on vacation a few weeks ago and took five Uber rides. None of the drivers spoke English. I wonder if ride sharing is going the immigrant predator route these days.

For clarification, it didn’t bother me to have non-English speaking drivers. They were all great.

Until I saw the picture, I had so thoroughly forgotten about these that your title conjured no mental image.

I remember these mostly as soft drinks served at expensive restaurants as a way to keep the refill inclined riffraff out.

I think I also remember seeing them as mixers for bartenders at catered events, but I’m not a hundred percent sure on that one.

Connecticut penitentiary? A state facility? How are the prisons in Connecticut? The only thing I know about the state is that they have their own form of pizza though I have no clue what that form is.

I can’t tell if that’s a joke or a real question.

If it’s a real question, nips in this case refers to those little bottles of alcohol you would get on an airplane. They’re readily available in liquor stores here. Common purchase for the chemically dependent alcoholic who just needs a quick fix.

I’ve already had this talk with my daughter. I’m not presently ill or anything, but I see this as the new American version of estate planning.

Somehow, I’ve managed to build up a few meager assets to leave to my daughter and I’ll be damned if I let American healthcare take it all.

(And please refrain from bringing up misinformed statements on estate tax. I’m a tax accountant. I’m more astute on that stuff than most of the population, and my little pile of shiny trinkets is well below any threshold for any of that to kick in)

Nah. In Texas all she has to do is say that God told her to do it, and she’ll get a couple years of taking drugs in a hospital.

The exception is Taylor Parker because she killed an _unborn child, and that’s a damn step too far.

Shithead maga bleeding a nonprofit dry example aside, this is a good (albeit extreme) illustration of why I’m generally hesitant to give to any large charity.

You can pull their tax returns up online (form 990) and see where the money goes. Too often, it all goes to executive salaries and marketing with some token single digit percentage going to actual charitable work that may or may not be doing any actual good.

Whoa there pal.

What part of driving pickup trucks with giant tires through the mud while drinking cases of ~~bud light ~~ Modelo and wearing jorts and a tank top with a picture of Rambo Trump firing footballs from a grenade launcher isn’t culture?

My experience in Iowa is limited to seeing Cage the Elephant at a casino in Council Bluffs.

Saw music

Got laid

Gambled

Drank

It was alright

What in Sam hell is that even supposed to be? Like what did it say on the menu?

I remember getting my Texas instruments financial calculator circa 2009 for probably fifty dollars or so.

The professor told us that at the time, production costs for my fifty dollar calculator were roughly a dollar.

On the bright side, I’ll bring that thing in whenever I buy a car and it truly fucks with the whole “what kind of payment are you looking for” routine they do. (Though these days, I’m more likely to bring a laptop with Excel. Same idea, but faster and better visuals)

Product - use daily

Language - speak English, Spanish, and Korean, though the latter two are admittedly falling off from lack of use. Lived overseas for four years in my twenties

Collared shirts - wear daily, but I’d guess that’s not goth chick bait

Dancing - was religiously prohibited from such growing up and never took an interest in it

Personal skill - I can cook like a motherfucker. Like really good stuff. If I believed in love languages, mine would be feeding others. The women in my office make weekly requests for me to cook whatever they’re craving over the weekend and bring it in on Monday.

But I’m talking about energy. Gomez spends his entire existence striving toward being Morticia’s everything. I don’t have enough gas in the tank after seventy or eighty hours of getting yelled at for my income.

Next up, since everything is so easy, I guess I just simply waltz into another job, right?

If only that last panel still held true

Gomez lives off generational wealth and thus spends his time culturing himself with dance, art, and seductive languages.

I work until it’s not safe to drive home because I’m so tired and my eyes don’t work. I crawl home on surface streets, collapse into bed for a brief nap, and get up to go do it again because the man needs his dollar.

My spirit may be willing, but my flesh is spongy and bruised.