An interesting case (from a book which I unfortunately can’t remember the name of) from when Jack Benny’s career transitioned from radio to tv: he hated the laugh track, so much so that he demanded it be cut way back and lowered in volume. He also utilized it in an unexpected way: when he had a live audience in certain cases, if a joke or gag got an unexpected big laugh that he didn’t think deserved the reaction, he’d fill in a laugh track with a more muted response.

You’re saying a cis teen painted this chapel? Woke agenda!

“I kept them safe from the corrupt Universal Postal Union, and can I get that money out of my secret trust please? I even filled out this UCC-1 in red ink”

Please, RVs are for the poors, it’s a Motor Coach

That and a set of kneepads.

And because they weren’t too smart, as per the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Monitoring software effectively does middle management’s job, so they have to figure out how to justify themselves. Hence the return to office mandates, etc., instead of strapping a vibrator to your mouse for the afternoon and getting your 8 hours of performative busywork done in the 3 productive hours it actually takes.

Pity the Dane who vacations to the US and tries one of those bottles of, like, Voltaire’s Furious Anal Cavity Sundering Sauce that’s at every farm stand and gift shop

Moms Mabely practically wrote his epitaph: “They say you shouldn’t say nothin’ about the dead unless it’s good. He’s dead. Good.”

Good noise canceling + no ringing for under 100 is a really tough category, but I think Anker makes some ok ones with hybrid active noise cancellation (generally less ringing) right at $100: Soundcore Life Q20.

One thing I can’t recommend is a used pair of Sony XM3s, because they caused incredible pressure in my ears when the noise cancellation came on. They worked phenomenally well at blocking noise, but they effing hurt.

They and the Dead Kennedys are just constantly raising toasts to each other

There was a period in the 90s where either Wednesdays or Thursdays you could get a hamburger for .29¢ and a cheeseburger for .39¢ which is about all they’re worth.

Eyedrops are ungodly expensive. If you can wait a day or two, Amazon will usually ship a two pack for less than a single one from Walgreens or CVS. No one can justify $19 for a single goddamn bottle of eyedrops.

He can walk that back, precedent schmecedent

I love a floor pill. “So, we going up or we going down?”

heavy metal riff

Put the lithium in already.

The kicker for me was that they are bought, but seldom read. Nobody is going to read about killing a puppy, but we all know it’s in there, so it’s put on a shelf as a statement (much as the book itself is more of a shoddily-written ghostwritten statement than anything else — perhaps “I can read”).

No, no, totally relatable. When I finished/passed my dissertation defense (zoom meeting due to Covid), I closed my laptop, put my stuff away, and thought, _ that was it?_ Zero sense of accomplishment. I had lost interest in the whole thing a year or two earlier and this was just an exercise in completion. I don’t think you’re alone with this pattern or feeling in the least.

If it’s part of a performance, for example. I guess the point of the debate here is that context matters and that you can do it under very, very specific circumstances.