If this hasn’t happened to you then you are probably full of hubris
I try to admit I am wrong generally but I do not always because I have some hubris because I am crappy sometimes. Sometimes the people on the other side are graceful in their “winning” and sometimes not
I actually do live in a somewhat rural area down the street from a dairy farm. I’m not in the Midwest though, I’m a dirty coastal elite in PA
Institutional investors invest in rural real estate as well. It’s calmed down a bit since 2021 when they were really aggressive but they see farmland as a stable investment
https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/03/12/farmland-values-lose-steam-after-years-of-rapid-growth/
I do agree that zoning needs to be fixed and suburbia needs to end though
That was unironically my response to their anxiety. Why would they bother with all the plane nonsense if they had access to nuclear weapons? Makes no sense. But people went nuts after 9/11, totally irrational
I remember I was in high school and they didn’t do early dismissal but all of our classes were pointless because we just watched the news. I also remember an edgelord kid making jokes while the news was on after the first plane hit about how the pilot must have been drunk or something and then literally watching another plane hit live and he shut up
Then I had a shift at my job, blockbuster video, which decided that people may want to rent movies during this tragic time so we had to come into work. Absolutely no one came in and my coworker spent the entire shift freaked the fuck out that a nuclear bomb would be dropped on the northeast
For reference I lived in New Jersey not that far from Manhattan. I could kind of get it if I lived in like Wisconsin or something.
I don’t remember where but I remember seeing a youtube video where someone did this but didn’t call attention to it
Like they were driving in a roundabout and just kept going around and around, then a jump cut to when they finally exited but like it was clearly much later because the sun was down. They had to have been in it for at least a half hour or so
Cast iron is generally safe but not entirely without risk. Old pans are sometimes made with lead and some newer cheap pans from sketchy sources are made with cadmium and/or lead
Generally if you get like a lodge or whatever you’re fine though. Biggest risk there is that it leeches iron into your food, which is usually beneficial unless you have some uncommon health concerns
A stainless steel pan are also generally safe but have similar issues: low quality pans and excessively scratched pans can leech nickel and chromium. 304 and 316 stainless ($$$) are more resilient against this issue. Stainless takes a bit more technique than cast iron for stuff like eggs and fish but it’s not that tricky (preheat pan, add fat/oil when hot, basically). It is also far more responsive to changing temperature (rather than retaining it) and much lighter so it’s easier to use for sautéing and such. Cast iron is superior when heat retention is needed: stews, soups, curries, roasts, etc
Ceramic coated cookware is a mess. Some did use PFAS/PFOA and still does, some ceramics have lead and cadmium, and some coatings just suck. I got one pan to experiment with that was lead/cadmium/pfoa/pfas free but the nonstick properties dulled after 2-3 months of daily use. It was not scratched or chipped; I took care to not use metal implements or wash it with abrasives. I did use high heat at times though which potentially degraded it. It was like $50 too. Researching online after I see there are “good” ones for $80, fuck spending that on a single pan.
I’ll stick with cast iron and stainless steel. Can use metal utensils, covers basically every scenario, and cheaper. To be clear, “well sourced” doesn’t mean expensive. A 10” lodge cast iron skillet is $20 online. A tramontina 12” 304 stainless frying pan is $35.
Of course if you ever eat at restaurants none of this matters as they’re generally using the cheapest aluminum and steel pans they can get that are beat to utter shit
You can get fancy bidets that have blow dryers in them if you want the drying part
“we need to get back to working on securing dinner dates with lobbyists for Israel and tech companies”
And then there are big brains with bidets
They’re artificially high because concentrated wealth is buying up the supply. As of 2024 as much as 25% of the supply is being purchased by institutional investors in some markets
I will still be making an obscene amount of money but please pat me on the back. Tuition is 60,000 per year now btw thaaaaanks
RFK had it from the beginning