Ask Yerac

Yerac, what is your best story of someone doing something stupid or illegal at a bank?

Also, what are the best condiments?

You have to give me a more specific topic. I like things that aren't super illegal but just really grifty/weird. Like the guy who stabbed a cab driver in the hand. Or fucking H4ro)d F0rd who would not take any meetings with anyone unless you bought some of his books first. And his office was full of boxes of them.

yerac what's the best Chilean fruit that you can't get in the US?

I put hot sauce on everything. I put only grey poupon on salads. I am pretty sure I am dying on the inside.

That one that tastes like a pear but looks like scallops/white uni, I have to look it up, I can't remember the name.

chirimoya?

Chirimoya.

Don't eat the seeds because you supposedly die or maybe just get bad moops. Yu are supposed to put lemon juice on the fruit meat too.

Te3dy R00sev3lt IV does not know how to use a computer or a phone. He still has a secretary patch him in to say one word. His favorite saying when he is angry "you're making me jaw tight. TIGHT!!!"

there is some chirimoya grown in California, I saw some at whole foods once but wasn't prepared to pay 10 dollars Canadian for one piece of fruit

me=my. I am in France right now (late) and on 2 bottles of wine. Going downey fabric softener time.

loads of cherimoya in los angeles chinese markets

they import it from some southeast asian country i believe

also trying to think of appropriate questions

got nothing

I've never seen it anywhere on the east coast but i have prolly have not looked too hard. LIke how my mom magically manages to whip persimmons out of her bag even though I never see them anywhere. There is a lot of chimamoya geltao. When russians come to visit us (i know) in Chile they really like to bring chiramoyas to our house. And that russian white sugary candy that has the cranberry in the middle.

loaads of persimmons in even non chinese produce stores in los angeles

yerac what do you think of zinfandels

They are fine. Some grape varietals get a bad rap because they had some weird cultural flashpoint that made a lot of people hate it. Like Sideways and Merlot. People hate zinfandel because of white zinfandel from the 80s and it being sickly sweet, overproduced, cheap. I like ones from Dry Creek. They are super good for Tgiving dinners too because they are fruit forward and lower tannin so work well with the range of foods served (carby, salty, high fat). I have a friend that can always recognize zin blind because it smells like cobbler to her and reminds her of her grandmother. Plus zin is higher in alcohol so you will be happy talking to family or finally telling them that they are out of your life for good.

nice

ya i love cali zins

anything full bodied and dry

Almost every wine produced nowadays is dry. I think most people are just scarred from when they accidentally got some riesling from Mosel or an off dry moscato or some bad wine in a box. A lot of US/AU/New World wine is very fruit forward so people interpret fruit as sugar when it's really just fruit heavy notes.

If you want to know if wine has real residual sugar just pinch your nose and stuck your tongue in the wine. You should taste sugar without needing to smell the wine. It's the jelly belly test.

Who drinks enough wine to gain weight off it anyway

Ummm can you expand on the hand-stabbing story?

i just don't like sweet things

It was all over the paper. We had a lot of bad employees. One let a client use his private plane once without getting approval (you were required to disclose gifts and entertainment activities). Of course his client crashed in the plane.

https://nypost.com/2012/03/02/banker-stabbed-cabbie-then-bragged-hed-get-away-because-he-pays-10k-in-taxes-docs/

I don't like sweet things either, but I do like dessert wines. I have one in my luggage right now that I bought today. 1985 Moulin Touchais (botrytised chenin blanc from Couteaux Layon, Loire).

Wow. Never trust anyone whose first name is “W.” or “J.”

xpost, I drink enough wine (call it depardieu'ing) to gain weight. And then I go cold turkey for a month or three, eat very well until I lose 20lb rinse repeat. I pretend I am preparing for a movie role.

yerac is a classic poster

Hardcore. I probably do too, but exercise/water/decent diet mostly seem to keep it under control xp

Yerac if someone told you that you could not drink wine again how would you feel

Yerac, you use the word "spouse" to describe your other half. I find the word amusingly old-fashioned. I don't think I've heard anyone else use it for years. Was it Nicholson Baker who talked about how there was no good word for it, just as there's no good word for belly? I'm probably remembering wrong. Why do you use "spouse"?

I would be ok not drinking wine. I think I once went two years without drinking. I looked like Tony Horton. I am very flexible with what is offered. I appreciate most spirits.

I went over this in another thread recently, but I hate the terms wife and husband. I'm not really into marriage either but I got married 2 or 3 years ago so whatever. I was with my partner ~15 years before we got married and I hated calling him my boyfriend before that. I usually just refer to him by his name. We mostly got married because there was this really expensive jacket that I was obsessed with and it was more money than I would really ever spend on a piece of clothing. So I said if I bought it I would wear it to city hall.

Also, I just remembered there is an old thread somewhere that I talk about how he got the maddest I have ever seen in my life. We were in our yard and I found a squirrel tail. I picked it up and threw it at him and he got crazy upset and left the house for hours. I think most people agreed that I was a jerk because the tail was wet and he was a vegan.

I went looking for the thread and found this other one and I literally made a Peanut Butter Solution joke 2 days ago. I just asked spousehead why I brought it up because he laughed but he has no clue what Peanut Butter Solution is and was just laughing to appease me I guess. I obviously need newer jokes. To All the bItches in Greenpoint last night

Thanks for the reply. Here's the Nicholson Baker quote:

"There is no good word for stomach; just as there is no good word for girlfriend. Stomach is to girlfriend as belly is to lover, and as abdomen is to consort, and as middle is to petite amie.”

― The Mezzanine

the bit about the wedding/jacket is lol

Yeah yerac is funny as fuck

Thx dude(s). I wish we had a better word for partner. We were having dinner with an older prof once and he was saying his Significant Other was meeting us late. But he said his "S.O." (pronounced es-soh). I thought he was using spanish slang like "ese" (pronounced es-say). I would temporarily post a pic of the wedding jacket, but I don't think I have used a temporary hosting site in a decade.

angelfire is good

I just wiki'd Nicholson Baker. I should read him.

He's great. I read The Anthologist most recently and loved it. I knew someone who called her bf her "feller" and thought that was cute.

The Anthologist is great although maybe not the best starting point. It may be better to accustom yourself to his approach and concerns by reading an early one.

My first was Vox, I think. Worked for me. A friend of mine hated it but I think he was just squeamish about sex.

Someone recently introduced their companion to me as "my person"--I appreciated this choice a lot. Idk how they each identify but imo they're both gender-nonconforming women-presenting ppl, and I just liked the avoidance of definition and also the expansiveness of it.

What do you call your compression principale (main squeeze)? And you know me, I've always been a weirdo about F.

I call C my boyfriend, but when I lived with someone I used to use "partner." Bf is unsatisfactory but there aren't really models for different kinds of partnerships. I don't want to get married, and I probably won't want to live together, but I might have to do the first so he can have health insurance for the first time in his life, and it might eventually make more financial sense to do the second. But also without marriage or cohabitation in the picture, everyone assumes you aren't long-term or you're not serious, ie you aren't taken seriously has having a place in each other's lives.

Was at a family wedding last week and I was excluded from family pics of bride & groom & only married family & offspring--"significant others" weren't considered part of the family. I was mostly ok w it but poor C kept saying, "WAIT YOU FORGOT [IN ORBIT]" loudly and embarrassingly.

we used to get that then we got married and then they found out how we married and we were relegated straight back to "you are not srs about it"

It's also come up a lot lately bc he bought a house outside the city and everyone assumes that means something for our relationship, that either we'll break up or I'll move there, or that because I'm *not* moving there, that we're not serious. I mean not ppl who know me, but, like, realtors and plumbers and idk just ppl. Actually even a lot of friends asked me, "Are you okay with that?" which I appreciate that they were checking on me, but also his choice of residence has nothing to do with me. (Also I like spending time apart--I admit it would be different if we were like "date night every Thursday!" kind of ppl).

xp lol yeah u can't win

Also true that Yerac is a total weirdo about her relationship, which I extra-appreciate because it creates more space to be a weirdo, and as it turns out I'm one too.

I'm not opposed to "gentleman caller"--it's gender-reductive but I like the "just visiting" aspect of our partnership, that we have our own spaces.

Yes, you are now sounding like the exact kind of weirdo I was/am, especially with the not needing to live together, to be in each other's asses all the time, or needing to define it. "BF" is totally unsatisfactory. "Husband" has too much baggage. That sucks about the pics, except that I think the wedding pic ritual is weird anyway. Especially with digital photography there was no reason for them to not take a pics with you in the moment.

Oh they took some shots with and some without. It was fine. It just made me pause.

My friends introduce partners just by their first name

That seems very reasonable in an environment where ppl are attuned to that level of subtlety but honestly in most social situations someone is gonna be like, "And is this your BOYFRIEND? Or husband? Or...?" At the scooter shop where we buy parts, they refer to us as "the girl mechanic and her husband."

Hey girl mechanic, did you find your scooter keys?

Wedding jacket. These pics should expire in a day.
https://24h.rip/SmubS30
https://24h.rip/SmpiS30

MF'er.

dmac did u elope?

....not far off it?

her folks knew a fortnight before my dad knew a few weeks before we had two witnesses and nobody else knew until we were married and at the airport

highly recommend bte

https://s8.postimg.cc/xbtxft7ud/IMG_0944.jpg
https://s8.postimg.cc/q8m20bcqd/Carey_Franz22.jpg

banging wedding outfit!

So awesome. :)

thx (sorry that it's a leather jacket, my only one ever, I could not resist the collar and pretend aviator).

so good with that amazing dress!

I have a friend who I'm not even sure their families know they're married. they did it for visa reasons before moving to the u.s. although they're back in Europe now.

That jacket is cool. Would upend life for.

The Mezzanine is the best Baker intro imo. It's not penis-centric, and if you can stand the level of detail in it you will be willing to follow him elsewhere.

I 100% regret that we didn’t elope. Our wedding was v v small but kind of lame tbh. I hadn’t really thought about my own wedding much in my life, which I regret, bc I would’ve realized not-eloping was really not my style. Total waste of money too. My husband feels bad about it by I’m like *shrugs* who cares? Our wedding was dumb but our marriage is awesome.

In New Zealand most ppl use the term partner if it’s serious/long term. Boyfriend has always been a word I find embarrassing to use.

And it’s really fucking weird to me that anyone would voice comments or concerns about your relationship status unless they’re super close to you and something is actually off - who does that?? What business is it of anyone else??

The jacket is so much better in person too. I stalked it for months (balenciaga *shhh*) and it finally went on sale and I said "I GUESS WE HAVE TO GET MARRIED, I JUST BOUGHT THAT JACKET."

I told my parents we were getting married 2 months beforehand, called them from the airport right before I boarded an international flight so they couldn't call me for a couple of week to try to guilt me into having a wedding. I invited 2 friends and my partner invited his dad and brother to city hall. We got done early so had two lunches after. The next night we had a small dinner for 14 people (to include my parents, I wish I still had the bill, I think we went through ~30 bottles of wine) and then did karaoke all night in a koreatown room after.

xpost, I think people are just terrible at small talk which is why we get the canned responses about marriage or kids or member berries.

Apparently the photos expired already bc I can't see them!

I don't mind ppl asking about relationships--for one thing a lot of us are navigating a new world without role models for our choices and it really helps to know that you're not alone, and see others doing things their way too. It depends on who's asking, and how they're asking imo. I don't NOT want to talk about it, I just want to get positive, helpful responses and not idk be treated like I'm a freak from Mars for not wanting 200 people at my non-existent wedding.

I can still see them but maybe it's my cache? Weddings and marriage are just (to me) super bizarre things for people to obsess over. I don't get it, but if it's someone's thing, that's fine. At a certain point when people try to convince me of things like having kids or having a wedding I am glad that I can fall back on being too old to care.

I've never been one for having goals that have very structured requirements (gotta get married AND it involves a big wedding AND you have to do this set of things) so this all makes perfect sense to me

if it works and you want to do it, go for it, I say

great wedding jacket

aw just1ne. Were your family there and would you have gotten a load of shit from them if you eloped?

I got married young and had a traditional church wedding which at the time thought was hilarious, getting to role play doing this normie conventional thing when we felt anything but. it was really fun and I had no expectations or knowledge of what you are 'supposed' to do at weddings; there was no Pinterest or anxiety about which table decorations represented our true selves or whatever. anyway now I've got a mortgage and kids and feel conventional as anything so maybe some memories of an out-there wedding on a Japanese mountain or something would be a good story but nm.

That jacket's great and you look happy as hell, which is the whole point. My wife and I got married on 10 days' notice, because that's how long the paperwork took to process. The ceremony was performed by the mayor of a town neither of us lived in then or now. Her parents, my dad and his wife, my brother, and two friends of ours were there. It's lasted 25 years so far.

Xp only my parents came, and then it was just my husbands family. It was in Chicago at his parents house but it was just weird and uncomfortable- I really didn’t like being at the center of attention like that. We actually got legally married at the courthouse a year before, with just his brother as our witness, and that was way better. I just regret bothering with a stupid ceremony in front of a bunch of extended family who I didn’t even know.

Someone kept telling me that weddings are for the family. I mean, I guess? The above doesn't sound too bad. I didn't invite my brothers and got some shit about it from my parents, but it really was because the room in the restaurant I chose could only hold so many and my brothers have wives and kids and are in a different state and it was too many logistics. I didn't invite my parents to city hall because it took maybe 5 minutes and again, logistics of getting everyone up in the morning to get there early, and my parents only stress me out. If I did it again, I would've maybe have taken more pics (only had friends' iphone shots) and maybe would not have drank so much that weekend.

we put our wedding outfits on the week before and got a guy i know to take a load of pictures down in the park.

very relaxing altogether.

again, this seems to have been considered cheating by the offended parties.

that IS cheating! If the photos aren't at the actual wedding they won't capture the traditional glimpse of wild-eyed horror

in that case it was the occasion of telling her father that we needed the camera at

We have an ill-advised pic of us in front of the NYC Corrections bus. Ill-advised meaning I wanted to take it.

yerac, you seem very cool. what were your formative influences?

the Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, DUMPLINGS!, lasagna, Grease 2, To Sir with Love, Peter Buck, Ronnie Spector... i think I've worked every job ever.

Boxcar Children! I had forgotten.

I think I get my resourcefulness from that.

What did you get from driving a bus?

I can drive a bus.

That's my fallback career. I can bond with busdrivers and figure out local bus schedules in any foreign country like *this* (weird hand motion).

cheers drive

oh man, I used to love the Boxcar Children books as a kid

Someone should do a boxcar children surviving a zombie apocalypse series with some Lord of the Flies and Naked and Afraid sprinkled in.

I just realized Naked and Afraid with children in the same sentence sounds wrong. I just want the using found objects/making stuff aspect.

I read a fair amount of boxcar children as a kid but I recall being annoyed that they are only in the boxcar for like the first book, after that they just have a wealthy guardian!

Yerac did u read Mrs Piggle-Wiggle?

<3 <3 Ms P-W 4eva

Oh oh oh yes also forgot!!! But loved!!!

Yeah, I wish they stayed in the boxcar forever being self-sufficient, but it was eventually bought for their backyard. I was ok that they switched to solving mysteries.

I just looked up Mrs Piggle Wiggle. I have no recollection of this. And Shelly Duvall hosted a tv show? I only remember her doing Tall Tales and Legends for kids.

yerac how is the aging process treating you

because not to get all orlando but somehow i can't even imagine it of you

Aren't we fb friends? I just turned 40 (donnie 2 scoops and I are bday samesies). I feel exactly the same as I did 1-2 decades ago. Except I can do more squats and I eat and drink better things? I started going grey when I was 15; I do have to dye my hair more frequently now.

I can drive a bus lol

Ask me about buses, I really like them.

Previously you mentioned you can figure out bus schedules in any country like *this* - what does this mean? Also were you a former bus driver?

Also is your name Carey but yerac is backwards

Most local bus systems run pretty similarly; I am pretty good at reading bus routes anywhere. Yes and yes.

yerac i want to ask a question but i can't think of one right now. what would you do if you were me? improvise a question or wait til a good one comes to mind later, oh wait too late i'm posting now whoooaaa

I would take a nap after lunch.

i'm definitely going to do that today. also, how do you approach situations where you're forced to say a word that you're not sure how to pronounce? personally, i double-down on my idiotic instincts. for example, the other day i was at a fancy restaurant with friends, and gnocchi was one of the few vegetarian options. i've cooked gnocchi a few times before, but wasn't sure how to pronounce it. the time came, and i said "i'll have the no-chee, please". the entire table and the server all smiled with various degrees of embarrassment, and the server said "...yes, the naw-kee" and everyone laughed as my complete ignorance reared its ugly head once again. so i said "actually it's pronounced no-chee" just to turn the tables on everyone, but before they could react another server completely dropped a tray of food just behind us and glasses shattered everywhere.

anyway, would you ask someone else how it was pronounced first, order something else entirely to avoid the situation, or just fucking go for it?

If I am not sure how to pronounce something in a setting like that, I elongate all of the vowels and repeat some consonant sounds so it's obvious I have no clue what I am saying. (although most people mispronounce food/wine names so that is weird that you got looks). Also sometimes people who try to correct a pronunciation are also wrong. Just go for it. If it's something I am interested in though, a word in another language, I usually do ask.

The other day I was trying to figure out this special at a restaurant so I asked because I didn't recognize one of the words. I thought he said it was "white bison" so I was like, oh that sounds weird, I should order that. It wasn't until a day later when I was mulling over the "white bison" that I realized he was saying it was white meat/pork (I can't remember if I misheard viande or cochon). And it did totally taste like pork.

Xp whenever I order bruschetta at a restaurant the server will, 99 times out of 100, smugly “correct” me - but they’re the ones mispronouncing it, bc I worked for an actual Italian family for 8 yrs. it pisses me off.

Server correcting a patron's pronunciation seems like a generally bad move to me.

Yeah, that's a bad server. I almost brought it up on the gnocchi thing but I couldn't tell if the server was just repeating the order or actually correcting.

If they were repeating that’s fair enough, if they were correcting... naw-kee is wrong

Quite aside from anything else

NYO-kee

xpost Italian pronunciations throw me. Were they trying to tell you that it was a sh sound and not a hard c/k sound. I always forget how to pronounce verdicchio because of this.

Ppl think it’s brushetta it’s brusketa

I remember once I was buying a beer at this music festival in a multi-storey car park and I said to the guy “could I have a Yakima” and the guy said “it’s actually pronounced Yakima”

At first I thought he was just making a joke but then after a second he said “oh wait that’s what you said - people usually get it wrong”

Now pronounce “Puyallup”

The yakima guy was a tool. They should've just put up a pronunciation sign if it bothered them that much.

When I started a prior job, I was sitting at temp desk in another department for a week or 2 while waiting for mine to be ready. The temp desk had a nameplate that said Alice-something. Of course people in that dept. started calling me Alice and I just kept responding and never corrected anyone. Like, I would see someone in the bathroom a year later and they would say "oh hi Alice, how have you been." 2 years later our office was doing March Madness brackets for charity and I went to sign up and of course it was one of the women who thought my name was Alice taking the names. She started jotting down Alice and said "oh, I feel bad I don't know your last name." And I'm the big jerk that has to be like "actually, my name isn't Alice." She never spoke to me again.

Gnocchi is pronounced "noogie." I will not listen to any counterarguments.

Using all my will power to keep myself from flashing my Italian card on this thread.

Uh oh. I mean, I get kind of ansty when someone tries to tell me I should drink my wine at room temp.

yerac, what's your favourite music atm

I couldn’t unlock the door to enter my home tonight because I had gnocchi

When I am in France I try to listen to yé-yé to help improve my speaking. Otherwise the only other thing that has been exciting recently is how great the music to Killing Eve is. I kept saying "is this a Ride...is this a Slowdive song?" and then it would end up being some band called Cigarettes After Sex.

I've been eating a lot of gnocchi this week too.

Cigatrettes after Sex are pretty good. The music in KE WAS great, you're right.

The Cigarettes After Sex (I had never heard of them before) song they used is called "K"? It also reminds me a lot of this Stratford 4 song called "Telephone".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0U8bNi-kqs

I saw a post from 15 years ago saying I loved potlucks. I fucking hate potlucks.

― Yerac, Monday, August 6, 2018 3:04 PM (four seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yerac, what do you hate about potlucks? What's the worst thing that ever happened at a potluck?

Maybe I should clarify a little and say I especially hate office potlucks and regular potlucks are just annoying. I've seen the state of office bathrooms; I don't want to eat any food a coworker has made.

Do you have any particular recommendations from your recent trip to San Sebastian? Primarily eating / drinking I guess but anything else that comes to mind too?

I went there years ago and Cuchara de San Telmo is a find memory but any other top tips v welcome.

Dearest Mrs. Yerac,

What is the furthest you've paddled in one go?

Were you a vegan when we all were hanging at Pies n Thighs? (v. inconsiderate of me if so)

<3s
Albert

PS: I auditioned for guitarist in the Stratford 4, lol.

The hell. (Keep in mind I interviewed the Stratford 4 three years back and have gotten to know Sheetal a bit more through my girlfriend.)

yerac are you here now/might you fancy a pint next thursday

San Sebastian, I really liked Cuchara but I went at quiet times. I got the pulpo twice, foie gras, beef cheeks, thon, it was all good. And the bartender explained the difference between asking for txakoli-NA or txakoli to me. I also liked Borda Berri and Bar Sport. Only there two days so I couldn't get too b-side/deep cuts. I usuallu spend most of my days wandering around and trying to pet strange dogs.

Paddling: I think I have paddled on the water maybe 20 km in one go. And that was a terrible day because I drank a protein shake that morning because it was a 7am paddle and I had big stomach problems from the start. And I wanted to die on that canoe. I thought about jumping in the water, but the water was so clear....

I was vegan for maybe one year in my life. I try to be pescatarian while at home but I eat everything while traveling. I EAT EVERYTHING.

And on my concept 2 rowing machine I have done 10k but only because I was watching a teen movie that I didn't want to turn off.

Mookie, I am here. I got in on Sunday and went right to work on Monday. Exhaustion. But yeah I have a hard time going out right after work because I am doing some dog sitting for my friend and also I get out a lot earlier than most people. fb message me.

Thanks!

Yerac, Is this the only disco tune to use "spouse"? probably!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXt7P3ZTLpA

Prolly, because I don't think I can think of one off the top of my head. I would be surprised that no one wants to rhyme it with blouse.

Yerac, what are some notable vehicles you've driven, other than buses?

I've only ever had two cars. A red toyota carolla (like every good asian american) and a bright yellow pickup truck that looked like the pussy wagon. Oh and I guess my old vespa and motorcycles for when I passed my test. I have driven buses from the late 1970s that had manual steering. You had to dry crank those things to turn when not going fast.

Does manual steering even really exist anymore? I remember what it felt like to turn the wheels of my parents' old Datsun when it was parked and it was.. tactile

I also had a smurf bike growing up.

I don't know? It was a 1978 flxible I remember. It sucked so bad when it was hot out and you had to turn from a stop. I sometimes had to stand on the brake to get enough leverage to push-pull the wheel.

Sports cars still use manual transmission

And of course most motorcycles

Yerac's talking about manual steering (i.e. not "power steering")

Oh read that as manual transmission not steering

This meeting is taking a toll on me

😴

hey yerac, how are you today

Blech. I had a very boring spinach, broccoli salad I brought for lunch today but I make it a point to bring boring salads to work so I will be forced to eat a lot of greens because I am too lazy to go look for lunch.

+ all the listless rage everyone feels nowadays.

Y,

Would you like a subbed version of TH:Closing Door (2005 film, post-BGND)?

Al

*2015

OF COURSE. I got stuck somewhere in the episode 20s range on the first season. I still need to make my way through. Maybe I should skip ahead a bit.

Check your email!

Woo hoo thx! Maybe I should save this to watch on the plane ride home (11 hours, blech).

Yeah it's like 130 mins... I should spoil that it dovetails seamlessly with the final episode of BGND (semi-spoiler I guess?)

yerac is so cool, warms my heart

I am pretty square (I will go off about random etiquette that people don't follow; so if you ever are a houseguest you must not arrive empty handed).

like drinks or what

If one is staying at someone's house, especially if it's in an expensive city, you must bring something. Fruit, plant, cookies, something from the town you are traveling from, omiyage.

Yerac, are you a punctual person?

Yeah, I get angsty if I am late. But it's probably from being a busdriver for 4 years and for my mom being late to everything.

Yerac, what do you think will happen in the US stock market during the rest of October?

What I want and what actually happens is different. I never would have thought the market would be this high right now. This won't be popular but I am dying for it to tank at least by 30% and for the rest of the year. Like, it keeps bouncing back regardless of what happens. The last time there was any semblance of maybe a real correction, it was right after brexit and before that Q1 2016 when all of the asian market circuit breakers kept tripping.

Thoughts on this:
https://www.eater.com/2018/10/11/17963784/master-sommelier-examination-scandal-explained

I mean, I kind of like the drama. There is a lot of popcorn eating and floundering right now. The people who have to retake the exam, are understandably upset. I haven't ever devoted my life to something that intensely so I can't really relate, but there are annoying logistics that I get. Like people don't know whether to amend their title for gigs they have already accepted and are being paid Master Somm salaries for. And a lot of people seem to have shot their (and friends') wine wad celebrating

I don't know the guy that supposedly gave an assist on what the blind flight was going to be, thank goodness, but he is in the Somm movies.

Yerac where are some places you have been where you have been unable to get ice (for your coffee or otherwise)?

In my lifetime, it has been a lot.

Even in London it was hard to get ice for coffee at one point. I sometimes just carry the hot coffee around until it cools off and then if someone has a beverage that comes with ice, I do a little bit of business to get their ice.

or if it's cold in a place I will put the coffee outside on the window sill of a hotel room (that does not have ice) and drink it in the morning.

A hotel without ice is an awful prospect, what are you supposed to do when you get the hotel if not go get ice?

What's your favorite Honor Role song/album?

aw <3 RVAHC

I don't really like the Honor Role and I was just trying to figure out if I definitively like any Richmond bands! Maybe the Rah Bras and maybe only in passing. There are some bands that it would seem like I should like but I just really don't. I like Randy Newman so I would suspect I would like the Hold Steady. Nope.

I don't know why in movies people check into a hotel and go and get ice. I don't know what they are icing at night!?! I stay in mostly basic to middling hotels if not an apartment somewhere. As long as I don't get bed bugs I am happy.

Maaaaybe ice in hotels is a hold over from when ppl carried their food in coolers w them?? Which my family did for a hundred years to save money. And I guess before hotel rooms had mini-fridges although you can't fit a whole cooler worth of food in there anyway.

holy shit. i am about to go in a googling rabbit hole.

Oh, this wasn't as complex as I thought it might be. It's an American hotel>>>Holiday Inn franchising thing. Which makes sense why hotels outside of the US don't have ice machines and Clark Griswolds on every floor getting ice.

lol

Honor Role is a musical blindspot for me (despite friends of 25+ years saying they're the greatest!?!?!) so I was asking to dig deeper but I guess I will pass.

yeah, people were always talking about them but nothing ever struck me. I am like that with almost all of Drag City, except maybe Smog and a couple of Palace songs. I tried hard but nothing ever really appealed to me.

I go get ice when I get to the hotel so I can put ice in my water basically

I thought the ice was to cool the booze they bought to prepare for their seedy hotel tryst.

Ice for cocktails

as I'm scottish and i often stay in hotels that are too shitty to have a fridge in the room i enjoy chilling some beverages in an ice filled bathroom sink

oh sorry to be clear the scottishness both accounts for the shittiness of the hotel room (cheapness) and the need to have alcohol at all times while on a trip (cultural alcoholism)

My luck with ice filled bathroom sinks is not good. They always drain down.

I realize i have only had one seedy h(m)otel tryste in my life. I like hotels in general so I am pro those things. xpost

I just got my winekey taken away rom the madrid airport and then promptly broke a super shitty plastic winekey in the apt I am staying so I get the need to BYOB(opener) to accommodations.

Ugggggh I have broken several shitty plastic corkscrews purchased in wine stores while traveling. It's an eternal dilemma. In Lisbon this spring our Air bnb didn't HAVE a corkscrew so I had to take a bottle of wine downstairs to a restaurant where we had eaten before and ask them. They were lovely, natch. But still.

wow, normally a big plus of AirBnBs is that they have corkscrews, hotel rooms never seem to

Yerac why is the stock market going up again

Donald J Trump's stewardship of the nation ofc

*waves* @ Yerac

Is the US still the only country that goes in for filling a 16oz glass to the brim with ice and then pouring about 6oz of drink in it? And talking about liquids in terms of ounces, I guess.

hey it's bnw

did u touch the stanley cup

if the trash can in the hotel room has a liner and it looks like they've both changed it regularly and no one has thrown trash in the non-lined bin, you can take the liner out of one, fill it with ice, and embed your drinks in it. the ice-in-sink method does tend to drain

I have done that when there is no fridge, or the fridge is one of those "fridge is the minibar" situations where there's no room in the fridge

but otherwise: ice for a bunch of mixed drinks when friends are hanging out in the room, ice for my injuries I've undoubtedly incurred while traveling, occasionally ice for coffee

I have no clue why the general market is going up again. It loves Trump. Although a lot of individual stocks still seem stalled/trading badly. It's crazy how well Beyond Burger did though.

hi bnw. I still think about that time we met up to go dancing and I was very drunk and we ended up standing in line at JayZ's club because I had no clue where I was going.

If I don't have a winekey, I use my keys to push down the cork. Supposedly if there is a synthetic cork you can just put a lighter to the neck and it pops out.

I have like 10 pulltap corkscrews (the basic double hinged ones) . They are cheap and the best thing for the price. So if one disappears or gets taken away, it's fine.

You okay? Saw some news footage that looked pretty intense.

Yeah! I did learn the word 'cacerola' this week though.

Or rather, 'cacerolazo'.

yerac have you ever considered writing a memoir? would read

no but I have a children's book idea about a panda that drinks wine in the shower. there is a lot of alliteration involved.

(ps. this is the fake plot from the other book)

that may have just made my day

Would sponsor at patreon elite tier.

i'd settle for a carefully libel-free list of the jobs you've had

The main song is called "drinking chenin in the shower". The not fake book is much better.

I have had a lot of jobs. But I have never been fired or laid off. I am a serial job quitter.

Start listing, lady!

this is generally it.

restaurant, sandwich shop, restaurant, bus, record store, pool installation co., coal co., bar, bar, engineering firm, government background checks, boutique, digital architecture firm, bar, record store, bank, bank, ratings agency, vineyard, events co., ratings agency

i think.

What is a ratings agency and why did you have multiple jobs with one?

oh that should read rating (-s) agency. from wiki
"A credit rating agency (CRA, also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor's ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments and the likelihood of default. An agency may rate the creditworthiness of issuers of debt obligations, of debt instruments,[1] and in some cases, of the servicers of the underlying debt,[2] but not of individual consumers...
Credit rating is a highly concentrated industry, with the "Big Three" credit rating agencies controlling approximately 95% of the ratings business.[3] Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's (S&P) together control 80% of the global market, and Fitch Ratings controls a further 15%."

I worked at one of those three during two separate timeframes. I don't know why I worked there. Some friends/previous co-workers from one of the two banks I worked at were there and I wasn't doing anything else.

I tried to make that list chronological and I held some jobs simultaneously.

(hockey player)

correction- world famous goalie.

Should I short Tesla?

Best meal of 2020 so far?

Do you want to short tesla? I would never tell anyone to short anything. I can't absorb that much guilt. I also don't follow tesla at all and have no interest in automotive.

We haven't eaten out that much! Still obsessed with murakame udon (only cold noodles though) and taiwanese/japanese bakeries. Also the meal at M0rio's Sushi was pretty great (byob, sushi chef is really engaged, prices reasonable).

old wtju alumni pix 4 u:

Purple Mountains (RIP David Berman, August 2019)

Why you hate chocolate, Yerac?

xpost thx! all the pics from then are sooo 'of a time'. all those tall, lanky indie rock boys.

I've never liked chocolate. Even as a kid, I remember telling my parents it tasted like dirt. I eat it when people give it to me but I would never buy it, order it or put it in things on my own. Dark chocolate on pretzels is ok.

people say chocolate or coffee tastes like dirt and i'm like yeah, I'd eat dirt too

i love coffee. I always do dark roast, black, iced.

Yerac have you ever been a boss? If so what was that like

Yeah. It's terrible. People are entirely too much drama at work and most people are just not great at their jobs. I don't like being responsible for other people. My last job, I managed a team of seven (who had all been there 10-25 years and were in that exhausting 'everything used to be better when we didn't have to rely on computers and there weren't so many policies' spiral) before I eventually asked to be transferred to another position where I just worked by myself and with the original person who hired me (was great). Then my old entire team was laid off after I transferred and their roles moved to Mumbai and Baltimore and they totally blamed me.

You're not weird, I love black coffee and hate chocolate also. Never liked chocolate, it always gave me a migraine.

Speaking of your PS4, how are you getting on, and have you played any Yakuza games yet?

love it! It's only slightly ruining our lives!

Have Yakuza 0 but haven't played it for more than maybe 3 hours total. We kind of have been concentrating on finishing Spiderman and Zero Horizon before picking anything else back up. Next games to get are Death Stranding and OuterWorlds after we finish most of what I got. I kind of don't understand Fortnite, but I also was drinking while I was trying to figure it out.

Lol 3 hours on that game is like...12 on another. It’s long but soooo good & I am always happy to bore people on the subject!

I don’t understand Fortnite either tbh

Merely stumbling across the word 'Fortnite' is enough to force me to accept, once again, that I am one of the olds now.

I mean, I wasn’t going to say it.

Yerac had an alibi and I don't, so it's all good.

I meant I felt the same way about Fortnite for that reason!

yeah it's a little too story based and the feel feels too sluggish if you are coming from a newer game. But I like running around the city and hope there is more of that. Do have a favorite Yakuza game?
I don't know how many hours I have on Witcher 3 and God of War but those are the other two games that are likely over 30% done.

I really really didn't get Fortnite. I couldn't even figure out if I was playing the real game.

Did you play the first two Witchers?

no. I just got the ps4 last month after much deliberation about whether it would destroy any motivation I have left to do productive things.

the last console I had was in 2002.

They're both pretty good, but hardly essential if you've just hopped on the train via the 3rd instalment. But yeah, it's an absolute timesink either way. Steam says I've spent no less than 180 (!!!) hours on The Witcher 3 (completist run with all DLCs tbf). Fucking great game, but I sometimes wish I could unwind more productively. Do make sure you play the DLCs, though, it's the best part imo.

xps 0 is probably it because the story and depth of content, but I love Kiwami 2 even though it’s painfully early noughties at points. You can spend tons of time just running around playing mahjong/doing karaoke/playing koi koi/fishing etc before you need to touch the story. Oh! Also there’s a whole amazing minigame where you run a hostess club.

i am a very tediously completist mfer which is why I put off buying a console for so long. Am definitely doing the DLCs.

oh maybe this will help me become better at mahjong (and running a hostess club). I have a group I used to play with a lot but there was always the main friend guiding us and yelling at us to play faster. I have a mini mahjong set he gave me that I still have never used.

Mahjong is so fun and in all the other games except 0 it’s a great way to make money. Am sure you’ve been to Tokyo & Osaka cos you’re a lot better-travelled than I am but Kamurocho and Sotenbori are Kabukicho and Dotonbori and absolutely identical in loads of places.

I haven't been to osaka! I actually got the Yakuza game because of this article. https://kotaku.com/man-visits-japan-because-of-the-yakuza-games-gets-on-j-1841321441

I didn’t see that til now but I absolutely did want to see Kabukicho when we went to Tokyo for that reason! I got into the series when 0 was localised and my friend who’d been playing for years was like “you should play this, it’s full of betrayal and super intense everything and weird goofy shit too”, ie lots of stuff I like. And then there was the infamous Yakuza 3 reviewed by Yakuza article.

"The breaded pork cutlet bento box is like mega power. More than ramen. That's accurate."

lol I forgot about them saying that crystal meth should be a power-up

"The dish gets its name from the Japanese onomatopoeia “shabu shabu” meaning “swish swish”, which describes the light swishing of the meat in the simmering broth."

i wish that terrible Katy Perry song was about shabu shabu instead.

Yerac I read a profile in the New Yorker a few weeks ago of a woman with a preternaturally worry-free personality and a complete insensitivity to physical pain. Do you experience physical pain?

I don't really have a frame of reference. My spouse says I have a high pain threshold (we have tested this in a non-kinky way). Like I feel pain but I don't think it hurts me or I am bothered by it as much as an average people?

fascinating!

did you ever have an injury or illness that you didn't notice? that's p common with people who feel no pain at all (and why they end up dying prematurely)

Yerac: What was the highlight of your last few months (assuming your long stay has ended)?

xpost Oh, I just read the article. I actually did fracture/crack my kneecap and the ball of my foot and probably my hand, but only found out years later about my kneecap and foot when I had an xray to get orthotics made/approved. I knew about my hand because I saw the entire thing bend back when I fell and kind of wanted to throw up. I did just wrap it in a wet wipe and try to play it off though to my friend who was worried and it was my dominant hand that I couldn't really move for 6 months. It's fine now. I am super careful, conscientious about health/bad decisions though so I hope to live a long time. But I actually do never get depressed and sadness/ anxiety is super fleeting.

Hmmm...udon and sushi? I don't know, I just really like being near the water.

the weather was kind of bad for a bit, super windy, choppy water.

Ah... jealous of your proximity to Foodland Farms et.al., but I have heard the weather has been really wacky.

I think I told you that this is the first year in forever that I'm not going to visit? Very sad but at least it's more understandable this year...

i think i only ended up going to foodland 3 times? they opened a Target nearby and then the Don Quijote is closer.

I am pretty sure we will be there for the same months again next year.

I may have also firmly decided that I no longer like pre-made poké.

That is... crazy talk! What killed it for you?

i think it's something about the texture. Maybe because all the ahi is on top of each other so it gets compressed in the food bin and then in the takeaway container? I got it a couple of times from Foodland (I ended up adding more ginger, scallions, shisho, everything) and Ono but I much prefer it when it's mixed fresh. A new place for poké I was really into was the no7 Japanese food truck in Haleiwa, so much better now than the poké food truck across from sharks cove.

Yerac, can we clip a locator beacon to you somewhere? Every time I think you are in Santiago your are ordering Poké in Hawaii.

oh, i just got back from there a week and half ago (was there from before new years). Although I got my ps4 while I was there, so it was probably not the best use of the time.

Yerac what is your job and why do you travel so much

I am a dirtbag now.

no wait. i think I am way too much into hygiene and skincare for that to be correct.

Yerac, since the global financial crisis, venture capital has propped up thousands of stupid software startup businesses

where did all that fucking money come from

Would you (and yours) go to the Kaka'ako FM with me? (y/n)

Why do questions lie hanging in the snow

What is the nature of man

oero