potatoradio

OK, rollers...out with it. What is this "right" way? Uncouth slobs like me need a clue. And a reason. A data-driven, proven hypothesis that shows with a 99% confidence interval that putting the roll on "THIS" way is better than "THAT" way because.... Because why? Is this the table setting equivalent of putting the fork on the wrong side? Or am I going to catch a dread amoeba disease if I roll the paper wrong? Maybe one way shakes off the cooties better? I am at work and do not want to Google anything about toilet paper* and risk those Charmin bears popping up on my ad banner, but I must know. I really must. *Yeah, right. Like I wasn't going to. OK, so the Good Housekeeping theories include: 1. "Over" may pick up fewer germs from the bathroom wall 2. "Under" may prevent cats and todders from completely destroying it 3. "Over" encourages you to use less because you can see it better 4. Hotels always hang "over" so that's right because Anthony Melchiorri 5. "Over" is easier to fold with a fancy "twist." My God. I cannot un-know this. I'm buying a bidet.

Because both sides need equal presentation (barf), I, a Hillary supporter, offer a few minutes of being nice to Mr. Trump: He was kinda funny on the Apprentice. The humor was not worth the sexism and inappropriate behavior that took place off and on camera and it wasn't worth suffering his ego enough to watch, but I admit, sometimes I'd laugh at what he said when I caught an ep. I can appreciate someone who (allegedly) wants incisive, direct answers to questions and not vague, self-serving spins from politicians. I freaking love his forcing the vapid, fake Republican party weather vanes to twist in the wind or go down in a blaze of misplaced loyalty. Suck it, Ryan and Christie and McConnell and Rubio and Cruz. There's an oaf at your elegant table and you want us to feel badly for YOU because you won't send him away and instead keep suffering his tantrums and telling us it's not the behavior you endorse? Oooohkaaay....good luck with that. You have proven exactly how pathetic and useless you really are. I really can't stand Trump, but I really loathe you guys even more. He's exposed you more than he has Hillary. Maybe because he's 70 and I'm feeling a bit emotional about my own elderly parents, but I do feel the TINIEST flicker of empathy for him for his total dependence on others for validation and self-worth. It's not easy to think of someone at his age potentially having his entire self-perception trashed without redemption, and I do think there's the TINIEST bit of humanity under all that bluster/BS and it's a shame he can't develop that. When trying to address sexism or racism or homophobia, I, personally, am far more comfortable dealing with someone who's blatant and out with it, not a well-mannered, insidious racist/sexist/homophobe. That said - it's a sad, terrifying day in American politics that this dangerous, ignoble fool is so close to the White House and that he's ramping up a dangerous level of hate for Hillary at his rallies. I feel like I'm watching the groundwork laid and emotional hysteria getting revved up for an assassination attempt. I hope I'm wrong, but I am sickened that a political candidate would encourage such base, violent hatred toward his opponent and that crowds seem to be eating it up.

Uh......do you mean "fix" as in finally bring in a new roll to the bathroom from the closet? Or do you mean moving the new roll from the sink to the roller thingy? Because what if your roller thingy is broken and it's one of those thingies that requires a trip to the bowels of Menards or Walgreens to try to find? Oh, wait...you're totally talking about a whole other ballgame. You're talking about this backwards/forwards conundrum once the roll actually gets ON the roller thingie. I have heard this may be grounds for full on family war and I am fascinated. Why does it make a difference which way it...er...hangs? Does one way prevent it from spilling or is it more hygienic or is it a southern/northern thing? "Yanks do it backwards - that front-loading roll is barbaric!" All I know is that our cat doesn't care - he'll shred the roll backwards or forwards, no problem. Grammar peeve - people who refuse to believe there's a difference between "roll" and "role." There may very well be "rolls" and "roles" at a business meeting, but please be clear about which are for eating/slathering with butter and which are not. I hear there are already Fourth of July, 2017 aisles at Target, so, we'd better peeve the voting season before it's gone, right? My voting place is a church, which...OK, fine, I need to vote somewhere, but I really resent having to walk down halls that are plastered with LGBT hate/conversion/h*llfire and d*mnation, so I can cast my vote at a fairly hardcore anti-gay place of worship. On occasion, there is a churchgoer sitting in the lobby with leftover donated bread from a food shelf or something, and offering leftover loaves to people. My wife always comes home with several loaves - says since she's going to h*ll anyway and didn't promise to vote a certain way for a free loaf of Wonder Whole Wheat, may as well enjoy free bread while still on Earth. But I do like the markers we use for our ballots. I try not to steal them. I'm a total pen kleptomaniac. And I love our senior citizen officials. Very thorough and ready to answer questions - you are not stepping into that booth until they're convinced you know what you're doing!

Oh, wow, that is one my huge peeves with enormous stores like Target, Home Depot, etc. I always seem to need one little thing that could be a million different places in the store, depending on marketing strategy, stock, etc. It's to the point where if I need batteries or a replacement doo-hickey for something electronic, I'm hyperventilating before I'm halfway to the store, thinking of the hours I'll spend wandering up and down the aisles, finding everything from circus peanuts to bird feeders to martini glasses, but nooooo sign of what I need. Bonus points if I find an associate who then scratches h/her head and calls someone else, who then pages the store for someone else...until the end result is "sorry, maybe we don't have any." My wife and I are both messy, but in different ways. She has tons of stuff. Granted, it's all stacked and ordered and she knows where things are, but it's a lot. I have less stuff, but I'm a bonafide slob and if it were up to me, I'd randomly go through and throw out everything in sight once in a while - mostly because I've never been good at designating a "home" for stuff. Best I can do is keep up with the dishes and put my keys in the same place. And that took years. I grew up with forced family dinners and I loathed them - mostly because I was the youngest and not really included in conversation, so I was bored to tears and really just wanted to read my books or watch television. It got really awkward when my siblings all left for college and it was just me, a sullen, withdrawn teen and my parents, sitting around this huge dining table in silence. I think it's why I'm such a fast eater to this day - could not wait to scarf and bolt. I had to relearn the art of talking and eating and it peeves me now when I go out with someone who has not figured out the give and take of eating/talking. I am dreading the dinner I have this week because my friend has a habit of talking a mile a minute until the food arrives, then, as I take my first bite, asks, "and how are things with you? Tell me about your life" And promptly starts shoveling food into her mouth as though I'm now supposed to be the entertainment. First, my life isnt' that entertaining. Second, I want to eat, dang it. I usually say, "oh, well, X happened recently...what you think of that?" Also, peeve about eating with someone - if you think my food looks good, you can ask for a taste or order it yourself or ask me how it is. Once. Please do not spend the entire meal talking about what I'm eating. It's not like I'm Andrew Zimmerman sitting across from you eating urine basted bull horns, OK?

I watched the actual debates on C-SPAN (and was horrified to discover that the minutes of silence before the debates began were so startling to me - help me, I've become a hapless void that must have my life filled with chatter or I don't exist) and the post-debate pundit blah-blah-blah on MSNBC. Because Maddow and Reid. I so wanted to high-five Maddow through my teevee when she said, as an aside to Wallace, that she can't get behind this "moral high ground" all the late Trump-Train jumpers are trying to hold. It is so transparent and such BS. Those who saw instantly what Trump was and refused to endorse him? Yeah, those people get to stake the high ground. I know, lots of spots left up there, but you do not get a site because you suddenly smacked your head like a V-8 commercial and realized your mistake. It may be petty and unprofessional, but it felt d*mn good to see a teevee pundit express pure disgust at this false "morality" of ditching Trump this late in the game. Also, I cannot understand why the entire MSNBC panel seems so fascinated with KellyAnne Conway. I think they hope to break through her very plastic, Regina George persona and see if she'll cough up any real dirt. They brought her back live because they "couldn't figure out" what she meant when she said, "Of course I'll stick with Trump...unless..." Golly. I was soooooo sure one of the panel 'o pundits would be able to get her to say, "You broke me. I'm actually an alien spit up by one of the lions Trump Jr. shot and I learned to talk pretty and put on clown make up but...this is...is...too...much...." (cue split pea soup vomit). I take it back - if they can produce this, then please proceed, MSNBC pundits...

Yes to this. Even a consult with a lawyer or documenting this type of (better be illegal) behavior gives you a bit of power back. Oh. My. God. Jaw drops. The mind boggles at the amount of blatant misogyny that goes unchecked in 2016. Seriously so sick and tired of people thinking it's their deity-given right to not question or consider how they put down and belittle someone of a different race, gender, orientation, etc., and maintaining that it's the "other's" fault for not understanding or abiding by "the rules" or denying that there's the slightest degree of any "ism" in their intent. Gee, I'm sorry...you're too friggin' stupid and childish to realize that there are myriad reasons you can't say sh*t like that to a coworker? Well then, you don't need to work in the modern world, do you? Go rub bear grease on yourself and beat your chest with a a piece of meat and don't come back until you've been chased by a rabid, hungry puma to clear your mind, OK? I've been trying to play nicely in the sandbox this week and be more of a "team player" and dear goddess above...grant me patience. Or just get me drunk. You pick. My brownnosing coworker "ran the show" last weekend (if you call incessant requests for hand holding running the show) for a project and we spent the better part of Monday talking about it. Really, buddy, it wasn't a huge deal. A few "oopsies" that were fixed. Life goes on. But nooooo....he insisted on a lessons learned/debriefing meeting that he rescheduled until EVERYONE could be there and then he started pacing around the office five minutes before the meeting reminding everyone that "um...remember, we have a meeting today...whenever you're ready..." Of course, he chitchats for ten minutes before he presents a spreadsheet with one item on it that we'd already discussed. And, when it was clear that we were done talking after about fifteen minutes, he kept trying to keep things going. "Soooo...well, what about X that has zero to do with this last project? Have you thought about that, Potato?" No, I haven't. Because I'm too busy thinking what a colossal waste of time this is and I'm passively aggressively surfing the net on my iPod*. Cripes, if you can't go five minutes without a meeting, at least learn the basic etiquette: invite only those who need to be there (not everyone who "might" need to "be aware" of something) and when it's winding down, let it die. Really, it's OK. *Disclaimer: I fully own my passive-aggressive, p*ssy behavior. That's all me. It in no way is to be taken as a reflection on my gender, orientation, race or anything else. Except my introversion. Perfectly fine to say that this is why introverts have a hard time constantly fronting a game face when they are incessantly dragged into useless meetings to be an extra warm body to prove how important someone else is. I will be the poster child for that. Purposeful work free of any b-shit about people's identity. I refuse to believe that's asking too much.

Chris Matthews last night complained about the VP candidates interrupting each other last night. I mean, nobody could get their thoughts out with all the interrupting. Zounds! Funny how that works, isn't it, Chris? Also, saying that Kaine hit the "erogenous" zones of the Democratic base? Twice? First, unprofessional and gross. Second, he needs to never, ever utter another word remotely close to "erogenous." Not on the air, anyway. I don't want to picture this guy in a Cialis bathtub. I have enough nightmares about this election already...

Watching pre-debate coverage and wondering why they are using those ugly, ugly pink microphones. They look like giant pimples or boils. Ew. Guess I should be glad they're working.. Heh Yaaasssss- kormacki map play!!! Roll 'em up, Steve! Because it bears repeating until something changes: get lost, briwi

Seconded. Who are these Michigan-ites? Sounds like a type of rock you'd pick up on the shores of Lake Superior. I only know of other Michiganders and Michiganians who can't help the fact that they were born with a state map attached to their body and YES I am going to whip it out and show you EXACTLY the city I am talking about. You can't stop me. Plus, it's fun to make the Wisconsonites jealous because they'll start talking about how their state is shaped like a mitt, then try to use their hand to show you and....oh, please, just stop right there. I didn't know I had a peeve about tight clothing until our local weatherman decided to paint his shirts on instead of wearing them. Look, dude, I get it. You eat kale and pump iron and you are massive. Congratulations. Now, could you please find a shirt that fits so I can get my weather report without wondering if you're going to go all Hulk at any minute? Find a catwalk somewhere else, k? Speaking of clothing - I thank my lucky stars every day that my wife loves laundry and every week the magical laundry fairy visits. But today, I grabbed what I thought was a pair of black pants to wear and then, at the gym, realized that, whooops, they're PJ bottoms. Luckily, the line between PJ and pants in women's wear is very thin, so nobody has said anything, but it's a really weird feeling to sit at my desk in a jacket and pajama bottoms. Should I do my hair in curlers or hop on some power emails? Hmmmm....

Dang it. Was really relishing my work from home day because I heard the lovely voice of Jeremy Peters on my teevee and huzzzah! He was on twice! I know ,I know, he's not that exciting a reporter, but I never fail to feel like a giggling twee who starts demanding (in best Veruca Salt voice): "Daddy! I want a Jeremy Peters! Get me one this instant, Daddy." Because issues. Anyway, then I was really happy because here comes Korancki, sleeves rolled up, and I'm thinking, oh, happy day, it's time for map play! But no...Hillary Clinton was giving a speech. Well, that's great because she rarely gets airtime (IMHO) for talking about her policies or ideas. So, I'm happily settling down with my granola and...what? All they care about is when she's going to respond to the Trump Twitter Tantrum? Then they cut away from her speech to ask Kasie Hunt (who is at the speech, btw) when she's going to talk about Trump. How about airing her speech and finding out? So, they finally go back to Clinton and then, as soon as she says her lines about Trump, they cut away to discuss. Gah!! There's more to this election than responding to Trump, OK, media? My kingdom for a single, in depth discussion about global warming. But still...I need to go get more work done...

Well, her mom DID only rate herself a "6" on the parenting scale, so Kate's not being thin is clearly a tragedy beyond her sad mom's imagination and coping skills. Gawd! The more I read about this storyline, the more disturbing it gets in its complete dismissal of reality. It is awfully convenient for Randall's birth parents to sober up just long enough to provide a fairy tale triplet and then disappear. Why, how nice they are to the white, privileged, yuppie couple. This show is more messed up than I originally thought. I mean, why deal with nuances of reality when you can present a fantasy land where emotion is imagined instead of felt? I swear, I'm not trying to be unreasonable, but I'm insulted that my teevee thinks this is what I want when I tune into a reality, contemporary drama. Get better, show.

I like to be in other people's heads far more than my own sometimes. I like it here. I won't leave the cap off the toothpaste, promise. :) Totally this unearned sympathy/love/OMG how TOUCHING tone that is zapping my initial interest. At least, with Parenthood, the couples were tested and developed because they were struggling with raising kids with realistic problems - that's what drew me in initially. On this show, the characters are struggling with....well, overgrown and overripe young adult identity boo boos. I can't tell what's motivating them in the present storyline - just that they are having a massive sadz and it's somehow the parents' fault because, darn it, sometimes parenting just isn't easy. Ya don't say!? I feel badly for these actors, because they're clearly talented, but talent can only carry so much.

Zumpie - I am kind in love with your post. Delicious, meat and potatoes analysis with a special snark sauce. I hope the show figures out a little less fake CRY and a little more originality, but if not, I look forward to more of your posts! Cheers -

I would give this show a lot less side-eye if, when flashback kiddo Kate meekly and tearfully says to her mom that "I just ate fruit today," the mom had responded with Beth's line: "Gee, I kind of feel like a bitch now." I might have liked the flashback mom a tiny bit better and had more hope for this storyline, but as it was, I merely want to dump sugar cereal all over that judgmental woman. I cheered the heck out of the dad pouring cereal for that kid. Kids completely absorb it when a parent doesn't accept them and thinks something is wrong with them and saying "we can be healthy together" doesn't even begin to undo the psychological damage of not accepting your kid's physical appearance and blatantly supporting fat phobia and hatred. Yeah, I get it, it's realistic to have fat people concerned and shamed about their weight. I have seen that storyline a million times, show, can you try something new? So that maybe some kid who is eating a kale salad and hating herself can see a different narrative? Gah - disappointing. Very much so. But I usually detest at least one storyline/character in shows like this, so.... Anyway, I'm still curious as to why Kevin seems to have no friends and what really prompted his meltdown. I have a hairtrigger gaydar, so I'm wondering if maybe he's in the closet or has some affair he's hiding or...something he's keeping from everyone. I hope he has a big secret, anyway, because a whining, employed actor? Cry me a river of headshots, buddy. Cute twist. Family "cheer" utterly cringeworthy. I'm having flashbacks to "we Bravermans....well, us Bravermans..." There's just something weird with the pacing - the big emotional "payoffs" still don't feel earned or built up. It's insta-emotion. I'm not even close to crying yet. But I am seriously in the mood for a big bowl of Count Chocula or Crunch Berries and playing Ms. Pac Man.

Yay! Someone else who gets it! I totally understand randomly adding tentacles to a UFO. I wish more people did! The world would be a very different place. Ah, I see the difference. I remember when a friend of mine was dating this really pretentious, obnoxious “aspiring” novelist and he gave her his first chapter as a “gift” and “sign of trust” for feedback. Well, it was boring as h*ll (all about a guy sitting at a desk and thinking about time warps – not travelling any, mind you, just pondering them as he played with his Bic round stic medium – not a euphemism. Not kidding.) and she said, ‘well, maybe introduce a little more dramatic action up front?’ And he said, “I thought, as a poet, you’d appreciate nuance and subtlety! I guess I won’t ever give you the ‘boring’ part of my work again!” Yeah, buddy, that would be an excellent idea. They broke up. There’s a difference between building tension and outright manipulation/author intrusion. Can totally tell, like you, when an author’s trying to wink at me and rubbing h/her hands devilishly together in attempts to toy with me, the reader. I can’t read when I’m rolling my eyes that hard or flipping ahead out of spite. Hook, my arse. I’ll show you… I have a few “planners” in my writing group – you know, *those* people who always outlined a research paper and followed the steps to creating a thesis and never turned in a paper with a single stray comma. I tease. I actually admire these people, because I completely can’t do it that way. We can be good readers for each other when we’re not ready to kill each other – I keep asking them to mess things up and they keep asking me for my “takeaway” and “point.” I do not say (anymore), ‘d*mn it, I’m writing a novel, not a bumpersticker!’ Ha ha!! Well, yeah, if you say ‘butter,’ obviously her father never loved her and she’s trying to find love in a tentacled spaceship that’s tearing up cornfields. I have been grilled for something as…mundane as writing a male MC instead of a female MC. I don’t know if the assumption is that, because I’m dyke, it’s my divine mission to write about nothing but women coming undone and having emotional breakdowns and identity crises or getting bullied/abused, but f*ck that sh*t. I didn’t pick the character – he picked me. And…I sure as h*ll don’t write fiction as therapy. I write, in part, to discover, so if I’m lucky enough for a character to guide me through a world I don’t know and ask questions I hadn’t thought of, well, I don’t consider that a pathology. That’s creative license. Takeaway/thesis/TLDR – thanks for your reply! Good to hear from another kindred “pantser/UFO tentacled” writer!

I love it when Rachel Maddow gets her crew to crack up. Last night, she talked about getting kicked out of Catholic "class" because she wore a "Jesus is Coming...Look Busy" t-shirt and someone backstage burst out laughing. I love those little moments when I get the impression that MSNBC is having fun again. Poor Kornacki - shows up with sleeves just made to pushed up, but no map for him. Chris Matthews has had another body snatching. In his post-debate talking heads, he was suddenly all on the Clinton train and was actually a tad...restrained? On meds? Off meds? On bottle? Off bottle? Whatever, I'll take it. However, we're apparently back to Trump-toutin' Morning Joe hosts. Folks, I don't care if you're not neutral reporters. That's OK. But please be consistent. It's more interesting to me to watch a consistent pundit try desperately to spin a loss or bad cycle or (heavens!) evolve on an issue, but the flip flopping at the command of the executive zeitgeist is tiresome and annoying. Also, MSNBC, you need to keyword/tag your show descriptions better so that I can search your page and see whether a certain panelist will be appearing - no good with the "MJ panel discussions" so I have to waste time FF-ing through the clip. Please help make my pathetic life a little more efficient, k, thx. Could they can BriWi and just run Joy Reid's Twitter on my teevee? That woman needs primetime, stat. I'm debating between her and Michelle Obama as my write-in POTUS vote.

You were 't a sociology major, were you? Sounds like a perfect experiment; I would have laughed my arse off. My hygienest told me that if a toothpaste doesn't have the ADA seal, it hasn't been approved for all of its claims (e.g., whitening). Not quite the same as a Consumer Reports write up, but I think that's why some varieties of paste with the same ingredients have the seal and some don't. Course, she also told me the new high pressure water thingie MIGHT sting. Oh, ha ha ha....

I'm not that "twisty" a viewer, heh, so I liked the twist, but it wasn't a jaw-drop moment for me. Clever, yes, but I didn't think it added much. I'm a sucker, though, for character-driven dramadies, and I had a free night by myself. With a little wine and cheese, this was all right. A bit precious and definitely needs more work to earn the great emotional catharsis it seems to want to evoke, but watchable. I liked the ManNY character's storyline best - probably because I relate to job-meaninglessness the most out of all the storylines and I am curious, like another poster said, as to why he's an actor with seemingly no entourage or groupies. Massive eyeroll at the fat characters' storylines being (so far) about self-hate directed at their bodies. I don't want to watch self-loathing people cowed by a 150- calorie glass of wine, unless it's leading to an ultimate rejection of that mindset. Did the guy really ask for a handjob when he walked her to the door? Ew...was that trying to illustrate that a fat guy must be so desperate for sex that he's incapable of being classy or restrained? Or is that the character? Or is that how men are these days? I've been out of the dating pool for years, so perhaps I'm not entirely wakey-wakey to the current dance. Then again, I tend to watch any uber-hyped show with a side eye, so I'm not completely giving it a fair shot. And it's a pilot. It can go either way from here and with any luck, it will improve its nuance and depth instead of piling on GONNA MAKE YOU CRY moments....

Am so using that line - it's perfect. Thanks!

I offered to get together a few weeks in the future - over drinks and with the promise of seeing a movie afterward. Wine + junior mints = win win! Unless junior mints now have sucralose....it's always something, dang it.... Also, I'm hoping that by the time we get together it'll be past the election and I may have some griping of my own to air out.

Aw, thanks, Topanga! That makes me feel better - I'll use snark and humor to lighten up the doom and gloom a bit when I see her (or drink...lots of wine...).

My wife had to explain to me why picking tomatoes off a sandwich isn't good enough - I hadn't realized that, once sandwiched, a tomato leaves a vile, soggy ring of tomato-ey goodness that cannot be undone. I used to suggest that she pick off the tomatoes and give them to me, but then she showed me the proof (a rather gross-looking pale pulpy circle on her burger) and I said, OK, you win. I, however, am not allowed to order my sandwich/burger without bacon. I am one of those weirdos who hates bacon (texture thing - it's either totally burned or fatty and flabby and tastes like a salt lick. No, thanks). I pass over the bacon from my order and suffer the residual grease/salt/vaguely burned pork taste. Unless the bacon has come into contact with the extra tomatoes on my dish. Then, well, we just have to make it work. I had a conniption fit the other day because I could not find a single variety of gum or mint that didn't have some kind of fake sugar as an "artificial flavoring." I know to bypass anything that says "sugar free," but f*ck you, ALtoids and Juicy Fruit and DoubleMint and Starbucks mints, for not pointing out that you now use some form of fake sugar. LifeSavers is the only brand I can find that uses sugar, still, but did they have plain old LifeSavers at the welcome center kiosks? Oh, no, too hard to fit one more brand among the ten thousand already there. Phhhhhtttt.... You know, I'm not a Pollyanna or even a glass half-full kinda person by any stretch of the imagination, but I get awfully tired of friends who are in perpetual crisis/piss-and-moan mode and seek solace only trying to find out who else feels as badly as they do. A friend of mine, who has been wildly and obsessively unhappy about something or other in her life for years, emailed me about getting together because she's miserable and wanted me to commiserate. I mean, I get venting. I do it all the time. Happy to be a listening ear. But Chr*st on a cracker, don't ask me, "Potato, I know you were really devastated about event X in your life a few years ago...aren't you still upset? Have you seen how many people from our class are successful? Doesn't it tear you up? Do you feel as badly as I do? What are two miserable wretches like us supposed to do? Let's get together!" Um....color me excited to see you! I can't wait to play Queen for a Day and admit all my dark and secret misery about the unfairness of the world. Except, maybe not. Totally fine with listening to someone's woes. Totally NOT fine with someone insisting that I must feel the same way or I'm lying to myself. I mean, in all fairness, we went through a long few years where we spent a lot of time complaining to each other, so I get that she wants to not feel 100% alone in the world, but it feels really icky to me now instead of cathartic, and that makes me feel like a terrible person. I bet I'm on a lot of 'ignore for bloviating' lists. Ignorance is bliss. :)

Ha - for the longest time, I thought the two types of avocados were "organic" and "non-organic." :) I know tipping came up here a while back, and I was just on a trip so I have to spew that I despise tipping. Hate it. I would so much rather people are paid a living wage and pay more up front for service. It's way too stressful to worry about who I should tip, how much, have cash handy to always be prepared, and to feel like people are playing me for a tip instead of providing good service to increase repeat business or positive reviews or whathave you. I might feel differently if tipping was a consistent and well-known expectation across service jobs - and as far as I know, it's only really consistent for servers and mail/paper carriers (which is a holdover from the olden days when you knew your mailcarrier and paper route guy/gal by name and gave a holiday bonus more than a tip). I am happy to generously tip, but only when the expectations are clear and consistent. Now, it's just a socially awkward situation and I constantly feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by not tipping someone I'm "supposed" to. I want to pay fair value for a service and have that be the expectation. Way too stressful to take a trip these days and worry about who I'm offending by not tipping. Hate. It. Service people should make a decent living and quality of service should be rewarded by raises and repeat business and reviews, etc. /end soapbox. I'll trade anyone's lima beans for my eggplant any day. Ew, ew, ew...slimy, tasteless mush with a chewy skin. Not even deep frying makes it palatable to me, and that's saying a lot.

Dear Rachel Maddow - you have it backwards. You shouldn't treat your guests who lean alt-right as though they're doing you a YUGE favor by appearing on your show. YOU are doing THEM a service by offering them more media and a chance to try to present their viewpoint as anything other than white supremacist claptrap. You're really that excited about interviewing the Trump campaign manager bot? Really? And yet, you don't say much of anything about HRC's talk yesterday that calls them out on this very thing? Or did I miss it? I hope I missed it. Because you were all excited about all things HRC and I hardly ever see you cover her talks. I did like Daryle Lamont Jenkins, though. He can come back anytime. But, I kinda forgive you as you lean all over the place because, be still my guilty crush, sad little heart, you had Jeremy Peters on. Moar, pleeze. My dream election coverage desk: you, Peters, Hayes, Robinson, and, of course, Kornacki going full roll up sleeves map boy. And you're right - the interview with Kelly Campaign Bot was long. Very long. Much time for her to put her "woman's touch" on the sewage that is the Trump campaign. Too much time. However, I did appreciate all the time to try to figure out if she's really human...I honestly couldn't tell from the first few shots of her.

I'm actually wrestling with this very question. I agree that I find the whole "hook the reader with an opening cliffhanger" device really gimmicky and rarely does the rest of the book live up to it. However, I've seen more epic style novels use the end of a story quite well - I'm thinking of books like "How Green Was My Valley" and "East of Eden" and "Giovanni's Room." Those books start with the narrator in the present and the rest of the book is essentially a flashback to show how we got to the opening scene. That would be a big no-no in today's world, but I think it sets reader expectations really well. I know what I'm getting into. Then again, these are master writers we're talking about, so I'm pretty sure they could do just about anything. I may try it both ways and see if one feels more authentic. I would love for someone to ask how the writing is going! The question I hate is, "what's it about?" I dunno. People. Places. Stuff. Might be a story in there somewhere. I also hate it when people start the psychoanalysis behind why I'm writing what I'm writing. "Oh, so you have father issues?" "Oh, so is it therapeutic for you?" "You're writing about deranged, alien caterpillars? Are you an entomologist? Did you read Jane Smith's autobiography on deranged, alien caterpillars? Because that's a good book." Back away slowly while I brew more coffee and consider ways to include you as a bumbling, clueless minor character, please...