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It’s wild to remember this joke was from 1998, yet I can swear trucks have gotten even bigger since then. I remember most pickup trucks having a compromise between cab space and bed space. My brother’s first truck had two seats in the front and two side seats squished behind it - that is, it was such a small space that the seats faced inwards from the wall and we had to fold our legs so our knees went up. It was actually pretty fun to sit back there, I had a friend who’d ask him specifically to drive us places because she loved that feature.

But nowadays it seems most pickup trucks (that I see, in the US) gave up on making that compromise, like the truck in the post image. Full cab in front like it’s trying to be a family sedan, then a long-ass bed that makes the thing stick out pretty much anywhere it parks.

I’d say “pick a lane,” but with the size of these things, I don’t have high hopes.

The idea of sitting in a car with so little headroom makes me anxious. One collision and your head becomes a pingpong ball bouncing between the narrow walls. Unless they were somehow able to fit airbags in that thing, though even then I’d think the airbags would take up more space than the car has…

The article goes on about oil prices, but there’s no mention of the fact that many people can’t afford to vacation these days. Of course the budget airline is the first to fail when people on budgets are too busy trying to keep their families fed, housed, and healthy.

Got 16 speeding tickets? Instant banishment to Lancaster. Good luck speeding on a horse and buggy.

But the noise! Figuring out the optimal way to zone so it’s not too noisy, polluted, and people have space to park is one of the trickier parts of the game. (But I like the challenge.)

I love the use of “trump” as a verb here. Totally stealing that.

I second this. I’m almost always too hot and realized years ago that polyester fabrics made it worse. It’s one of the reasons my ex and I used different blankets - I used a 100% cotton sheet, but he was the type of person who’s usually cold, so he used fuzzy polyester blankets. He thought my blanket was too light, while I thought his was too hot.

The struggle to avoid polyester is the hardest part. I have a significant yarn collection for all my art projects, but over the past few years I’ve been trying to avoid polyesters (to avoid contributing to microplastics.) The only polyesters I bought since then were either made of recycled materials, or were special glow-in-the-dark kinds (because I haven’t found cotton or bamboo yarn with that feature yet.)

The joke is that “franca” = French. Though etymologically the phrase is from Italian, the root of “franca” is the same root that gives us the word “French.”

It’s always a good day to remember Rush Limbaugh is dead ❤️ 🌈

Your brain made it up.

Well, yeah, but our brains make up every color. Our experiences of color are nothing more than a facet of our brains’ interpretations of light information. It’s all in our heads.

I have no answers, but I sympathize. I’ve always wanted to ride a train across the country, but damn the prices are ridiculous. When I did make a cross-country trip a few years back (specifically so I could see the country and go through states I’d never been to before), I compared prices and decided to drive instead. The price of a train vs the price of fuel made the decision for me. Such a shame. But at least the road trip was worth it!

Got my harmonica and my bindle. Time to live the dream.

No wonder toddlers are always doing the most dangerous shit

You realize money is required for more than material goods, right? Experiences take money. Museums, live events, transportation, lodging (even if just a tent), all need money. In some places, accessing parks and beaches require money. None of these things are desires for material goods, but desires for experiences - experiences that make life more fulfilling. Experiences that can enrich the spirit, or provide opportunities for bonding with others.

I can get behind anti-consumerism, but to be unable to partake in enjoying nature or exploring our culture, just because we’re poor, is to deny us access to a crucial part of our humanity.

The bathrooms outside the lobby in my work building take this automatic crap a step further, with automatic soap machines. It’s hit or miss if any given one will have soap at all. (Thankfully, we have another sink inside my work itself that employees can use, but guests are fucked.)

Then when they do dispense soap, it’s the foam shit. So it looks like the sink just spit into my hands. Lovely.

He’ll continue aging and eventually lose his muscles. But then he’ll have some nice, little titties. So that’s something.

Even if the vehicle traffic didn’t meet some imaginary quota, that says nothing of the pedestrian traffic. Just another signal of our car-centric society.

With kanji, as well as not knowing what it means, you have no information of how it’s pronounced.

An impossible joke in kanji:

Granted, I never lived in any other era of human history, but I imagine our fractured society plays a huge role in why so many of us feel this way (because you are absolutely not alone in this experience.) We used to stay in close-knit communities, which forced us to hold our ties to each other, but we now have the entire globe to connect with. Consider how dating sites proliferate the idea that we can pick people the way we pick items in a grocery store - check one out, put it back on the shelf, put another in your cart, return another at a later date. It’s a pretty messed up way to think about other humans, but unfortunately a lot of people have internalized that this is a normal way to treat others.

When this happens enough, it’s easy to end up feeling disposable. It’s important to remind yourself that it’s not about you per se, but about how others treat each other. Being loyal is an underrated trait nowadays, made all the harder when you’ve gone through experiences where people take advantage of it.

I would love to offer solid advice on the matter, but unfortunately I often feel the same way. The best I can offer is the knowledge that you likely aren’t doing anything in particular to bring this on yourself - it’s a massive societal issue. Not the greatest hope, I know, but you are far from alone. I think it’s important that we recognize that loyal people are out there. It’s just hard to know how loyal someone is until the chips are down.