No, no, and yes.

No, you is the singular; y’all is the plural.

All y’all works because you might say “All of you all”, I suppose.

It’s still good where we are, is in a run down part of town, not generally even fast, technically, but still so good. Publix has good fried chicken too but the spicy Popeye’s, so good and the only ‘fast food’ I will eat. Even french fries I generally just make oven fries now, but I never even try to make fried chicken.

Doesn’t pot famously make food more enjoyable?

I agree, fast food is not worth what it costs. The reasonably quick food landscape has expanded though, we can get different things, better Mexican food, a Chinese fast to go place with some really good tasting stuff, a restaurant that advertises “curry in a hurry” even.

Popeyes is still good though.

Ha! It’s flavorful as fuck actually with the mostly ancho assortment and tomatillos but the venn diagram in my family for people who like meat heavy meals and the people who like very spicy (as in picante) food doesn’t have much overlap - me and the vegan are the only actual chiliheads.

When I make the vegetarian chili, it gets jalapenos, tomatoes, lots of bottled chili powder, some tinned chipotle powder, leftover very spicy salsa, sometimes beer or a splash of whiskey, I keep adjusting it until it seems like it will be good, then leave it to simmer or in the slow cooker. it’s more of a refrigerator stew but always pintos, I don’t like any other beans in there.

Ha, no they call it “meat” but of course there are chiles. Generally anchos & a guajillo and if I have one the smoked oaxacan pepper. rehydrated in the meat broth and blended with onion and roasted tomatillos, not tomato. It’s really good I just cannot think of it as chili.

The bras & underwear from Branwyn are great. The t shirts from Unbound are also fantastic, I haven’t tried their athletic stuff. Other brands I’ve had mixed experiences with, the socks from Smartwool I do love.

It’s hot here, not cold but Merino knits are remarkably comfortable all weather items.

I have not, but why not start by helping someone else cook, or inviting someone over to help you cook?

It does sound like an unhealthy obsession not an actual cooking problem but if it’s more like you just never did it and have built it up in your head, perhaps taking small steps and seeing that your fears are not fulfilled will deflate them.

I agree you don’t necessarily need to cook, assembling can go a long way, but if you want to cook that is a very good reason to cook!

I will say - as an experienced home cook, shit does (rarely) happen so maybe also taking a kitchen safety class and getting fire suppression equipment would help, practicing what to do if something does happen so you don’t panic at a small fire and let it become a big fire when it would have been easy to put it out.

I say it’s short for Chile con Carne because beans are the baseline chili - I’d eat chili with beans and no meat, Chile sin Carne, that’s a meal by itself.

But chili with meat and no beans, like Chile Colorado, needs to be served with beans and rice, it’s not good by itself. I do make that sometimes but people just call it “meat” when I do. Nobody here thinks of it as chili.

I don’t think any food is pure. Traditions are forever changing.

Octavia Butler

NK Jemison

They build worlds more around the changes in people, and explore living systems more than mechanical.

We have plenty of trans people here, and one of the bigger LBGT communities. Obviously we also have rednecks in the boonies, like the rest of the country but plenty of openly queer people here, and a big scene.

Now, if you are boycotting because of the tone at the top, that makes sense, I support you. But you don’t need to worry about visiting if you want to, it’s safe in the cities.

Depends whether you want to just relax in the warm bathtub of the Gulf of Mexico, or be freezing in the water of the Pacific with its dramatic and beautiful waves.

Abortion protection was proposed as a constitutional amendment because the backwards -ass gerrymandered legislature here is much more conservative than the population. A majority of us voted for freedom of choice even though the amendment on the ballot had bold text added by the governor, including the dubious claim that it would “increase the number of abortions performed in the state”. They only added these annotations to the two amendments DeSantis opposed.

I was born here, my kids were born here, I am progressive, my kids are progressive, all y’all dehumanizing us, why? We are just people, like you!

I’m not a Democrat. Yes I’d like them to be progressive instead of drifting ever rightward. It sucks to have two totalitarian parties here. But if you think racism and sexism is dead in America you are blind.

The government isn’t a machine, it’s us. People.

When my kids were younger, before we had money, we had a “tree” each year that I’d put up after they went to bed. Always something different. One year lights in the coat rack, one year construction paper on the wall, one year my ex cut the top off one of the bushes outside and we sort of carved it into the cone shape, once an inflatable beach ball sort of tree, all sorts of different things but it was never an actual Christmas tree.

That stuff all sounds nice, I would just say to make sure you don’t burn yourself out or keep others from reciprocating your kindness.

I’m not that nice, though we do sometimes let homeless people stay, always have because we know some, I am happier when the workload at home is balanced between us, wouldn’t intervene in a fight because that’s too dangerous.

So I think if you are doing things to be selfless, like at the expense of yourself, watch out. As I noted in my original reply, you need to take care of yourself too, giving too much doesn’t work out better for anyone. You are a person too, just like the people you are trying to help.

I think it’s pretty normal to hold yourself to a standard you don’t impose on others, and I do think it’s somewhat problematic, like perfectionism is. If you get mad at yourself for messing up and not being inhumanly perfect then yeah that’s not good. You are a person too, and should give yourself consideration.

If you just mean you try to think before you act and consider how your words and actions affect others, I would hope everyone does that!

For Halloween, yes. We actually have a contest at work, we get it spooky, and at home I decorate the front porch. Love Halloween.

For Christmas I barely decorate at work, at home we get outside lights and inside a tree, not really anything else.

I don’t think it matters (decorating specifically for holidays) but if I lived alone I’d want to decorate for me, so it would probably be sort of Halloween every day. That’s kind of how my work cube is, have a toy rat and crows out all the time but at Christmas I give them little Santa hats.

Old white man, old white man, if he can’t do it, no one can!

Yeah I wouldn’t discount sexism, or racism - I do think it’s hard for Democrats to win elections here unless people are in the middle of a conservative administration, they just don’t remember how bad it is, it’s like people who remember their time in school fondly once it’s over.

But in general, it’s also true that women have to be near perfect, to be promoted over a man. And same thing with race. Like they can’t just be the better choice it has to be a blowout. Now to a sensible person, she met that bar and flew past it, but we aren’t all sensible and people are stupidly nostalgic for times that were objectively worse.

I don’t, because I’d rather have nothing. But it’s what my husband will get for himself and the kids if I’m fasting or can’t or won’t cook for whatever reason.

It’s not anyone’s favorite food, but they like hamburgers and I hate hamburgers so it’s the way they get to eat those, and it’s convenient for them, and, well, fast.

I’m with you, though. I will either cook what I want, or go out someplace local with actual good food made from food.