Charlie in there with the cervix stabbing stem and skin tearing texture, what is that, some instrument of torture? Ouch.

I used to dance and one of my teachers, in a situation where we had to improvise a little at an event that had hired us said “you need a very strong beginning and ending, people can forgive a lot in the middle.”

So the end season of a show being shit is worse than a bad season in the middle. I didn’t watch it through but that makes logical sense to me.

Mostly I am happy - I don’t think it really has that much to do with my circumstances, which now are relatively cushy, just a lucky quirk of biology. I have been reasonably happy when homeless, I do get anxious but not depressed, just not how my brain works.

So please never blame yourself if you are unhappy, it can be the other side of the same coin. I do think satisfaction, the ability to be satisfied is a life skill, but happiness vs. sadness, some of that is biological.

Le fromage americain?

I am mostly sort of a cheese snob but just this morning had Cuban cheese toast - Cuban bread with white american cheese - not swiss - and butter, pressed in the sandwich press. Such nostalgic food for me and utterly delicious, utterly without nutrition. Has it with a big ol’ cafe con leche. Bliss.

Cats and dogs are the best pets but I also make sure to be nice to the crows; and if I could have any group of working animals I would love to have a flock of vultures to rent out to clean up dead animals.

I also often wish for a shoebox sheep, a couple of sheep as small as a very small dogs, as lawnmowers.

Cashier whenever it’s available AND I answer the post shopping surveys and whine about the stupid self checkout.

Not around here, no. To keep the sun off, yes. Those are generally deeply unfashionable hats like my grandma visor is on me, though. Or those baseball caps.

I think OP was talking about hats as a fashion accessory though.

Fela Kuti. Absolutely transcendent.

Runners up - Henry Rollins, Bad Brains.

Gawd I sound too nostalgic. I have been to some amazing shows more recently too - Janelle Monae in a 2,000 person venue, Cimafunk is great live. Charley Crockett and Leon Bridges, Tyler Childers (I did not love the venue but he is amazing). J Roddy Walston and the Business oh my God what a live act they were, and we got to see them in bars.

But FELA, that really was a special thing to experience.

Yes I know it’s my problem, not the hat wearing man’s problem. It’s from seeing guys on stage using hats that way, I think.

Wiry is a good word for it. I was honestly shocked at how much I could push with my legs back then, my arms were like string though. I don’t have any idea what I could press now, no machine to measure it, working towards deadlifting my own weight by 60 and will be well satisfied with that. And still want to be able to cartwheel, lol.

I do find fat people are overall very powerful because they have mass behind their movements and yes, strength from carrying all that mass all the time. Absolute strength but not good strength - to - weight ratio.

Women don’t wear hats much either. I only do at the beach, or sometimes the Korean Grandma visor to do yardwork, but never really for fashion. I do have a witch hat, I guess that is for looks but certainly not fashionable. It’s too hot here to really wear anything warm; and like OP, once I put head and hair in a hat I’m not whatever the standard size is.

I don’t really love hats on guys, it makes me think they are hiding balding. I like bald guys fine, the hiding it is what I don’t like.

I would even be willing to add the egg in a pan emoji to every message for that money.

“Thanks, your presentation went so well!” 🍳

Agreed, sure. Especially in school sports, the point is not even supposed to be winning. It’s teamwork and working together with people not like you.

My trans son doesn’t think sports are a big deal - doping is already disallowed so he couldn’t compete on either the boys or girls teams in soccer at high school, wanted to play but it’s not anything he thought a big issue - more like if he wanted to play that bad, would have waited to do T and “tomboy” his way onto the girls team, and did end up having to wait until 18 anyway, the laws changed.

And almost no people are good enough at sports to be pro. And not a large proportion of the population is trans, the intersection of those two has to be vanishingly small.

Is it legal for a very short athletic woman to have her kids with a short athletic guy to advantage them in gymnastics? Is it legal for me to have my kids with a very tall athletic guy because it will advantage them in volleyball? There is just SO much intra-sex variation I don’t understand why it matters but mostly just wanted to say the actual trans people I personally know don’t give a fuck about being able to be on a gendered sports team.

Those GLP drugs, the news about them keeps getting better and better. Price is the big barrier - if they were not so expensive, there seems to be a benefit to staying on them. Probably because they reduce blood sugar, they are very good for your brain and heart, improve overall health beyond the weight loss effect. So I wouldn’t call them a band-aid.

Waist to height is the only proven metric, but as I wrote above, BMI misses in the other direction much more frequently. You are not likely so muscular you are obese, but skinny-fat is common.

Good comment - two notes only:

BMI misses in the other direction much more frequently - very few people are overweight without being overfat, but many are overfat within BMI guidelines.

And secondly I don’t think we can judge the appetite of an obese person by what we of normal weight feel. I can forget to eat for hours, and can’t eat when stressed, I cook good food and enjoy it but don’t overeat because it feels bad and gives me anxiety. Going to bed full feels dreadful, empty but not hungry feels best. Other people may feel anxious when hungry and comfortable when too full. My husband bulked and ended up fat (ish) because he said he just felt So Strong and good while putting on weight.

I like this definition the best. The rules are there to serve a group you don’t belong to - so from the outside they look silly or heavy handed. But that just means you don’t belong there. Uncomfortable topics may need more rules.

I could press 400 with my legs when I was a 95lb 5’9" ballet dancer, I was proper skinny certainly as I weigh now half again as much and people still think I am thin. Just all my strength was in my legs back then. Now more distributed.

Woah that’s crazy. It’s still summer here (weather-wise) through September at least and hurricane season runs through October! I can’t even put in my fall garden yet, I want to but it’s too hot still.