en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/8701994 Comments by squishycatmew https://the-toast.net/2016/02/05/toast-points-week-of-feb-5th/#IDComment1012224680 Yay! I love their double-strength vanilla extract so much. Sat, 6 Feb 2016 05:13:49 +0000 https://the-toast.net/2016/02/05/toast-points-week-of-feb-5th/#IDComment1012224680 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010210780 I would be devastated if my fiancé broke up with me, because you know fiancé, but would still feel less used if that happened than I do about my ex, who I did *not* have sex with, because he effectively used his relationship with me to, like, figure out how to relate to humans and then dumped me when he realized my depression was not a "quirk" or something he could fix. (I'm not super mad about it, because we were both 18 and didn't know what we were doing and he was actually a fairly nice person, but yeah.) Fri, 15 Jan 2016 17:42:54 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010210780 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010204606 My ex ate pretty much literally the same thing for every non-breakfast meal - pasta or rice with ketchup and a slab of meat of some type. Sometimes there was a small amount of vegetables. He would, if pressed, eat other things, but defaulted back to this even if better food was available. Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:59:50 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010204606 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010194557 My fiancé actually did this once. ONCE. We hadn't been dating all that long, his mother lives in another country so he's used to picking up every time she calls, but just what. I had to muffle my laughter with a pillow. (I still don't know why he looked at the phone in the first place, though.) Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:33:25 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010194557 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010187318 We have such fucked up narratives about sex and virginity. I was upfront with my fiancé about not having had sex before we met (we were both 25), and he told me he'd only had sex once and told me a story about getting drunk at a party and waking up the next morning naked next to someone, in a way that made it seem like it had just happened, oh well. This distressed me, especially since when I mentioned it about a month or so after we had started having sex he got really distraught - I mean, it sounded a bit like he had been raped. But he was actually upset because he was trying to figure out how to tell me he had lied - he'd never had sex before me and he'd made up what sounded like a plausible story b/c A Man Is Not A Virgin and all that bullshit. How screwed up is a culture where that's the story someone chooses to make up as a plausible sounding ordinary first experience? Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:14:54 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/14/tell-me-about-your-worst-exes/#IDComment1010187318 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/15/an-interview-with-deniz-gamze-erguven-on-her-feminist-fairytale-mustang/#IDComment1010176136 I literally forgot this movie was released, and luckily it is playing near me. Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:46:53 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/15/an-interview-with-deniz-gamze-erguven-on-her-feminist-fairytale-mustang/#IDComment1010176136 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009786980 Like the sudden elevation of grappa! (I don't think radicchio is expensive or "fancy", though, just perhaps having a moment, and that just goes in cycles. It's always been around, in salads etc, it's just popular. I mean, I guess it's fancier than iceberg.) Tue, 12 Jan 2016 02:56:45 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009786980 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/madeline-kahn-monday-friends/#IDComment1009783116 I KNOW I KNOW I THOUGHT THAT THE MINUTE I HIT SUBMIT OH GOD Tue, 12 Jan 2016 02:00:24 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/madeline-kahn-monday-friends/#IDComment1009783116 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009783081 If he could just direct things and then fall off the face of the planet for the rest of the time I'd be pretty cool with that. Tue, 12 Jan 2016 01:59:41 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009783081 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009751817 I think I understood what you meant - it's a complaint that's not coming from foodies, it's worth an eyeroll - I was just trying to expand on it. While I was writing, though, it occurred to me that I'm not sure I hear the same complaints about "canonical" high-end cuisine as much, though. People might mock hundred-dollar dinners but they don't say "oh I could get that for five dollars at the diner" so much. They don't necessarily see French or Italian cuisine as having a cheap equivalent that all food of that type should therefore be priced like. (Except pizza.) Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:37:54 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009751817 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009751216 According to The Telegraph, his producer has confirmed that the entire album and all the videos were intended as a parting gift to his fans. Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:30:54 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009751216 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009749591 Which is I think kind of what he's complaining about, which is an attitude I don't think I see as much here. I mean, you can get a burger for a couple bucks at a fast-food place and a burger for ten dollars or more at a locavore gastropub and I hear only a few complaints about the gastropub price. To me, that's an equivalent comparison and I don't see people complaining about the price of "fancier" Asian places vs the shops where you can get dumplings for a few bucks, because people recognize that they're not the same thing. The people who complain about the dumping prices are the same people who complain about the burger prices - they just don't think food is worth much. Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:13:13 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009749591 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009749092 You are definitely correct about the fusion seeming to only flow one way, for the most part, but the area I'm in, at least, "Asian fusion" is so old hat in the culinary scene that it's nearly synonymous with "California cuisine", and the most expensive meals I've eaten have been Asian/fusion. Personally, except when it comes to pastry, I see non-Western cuisine as being potentially more difficult, but that may be from a partial lack of familiarity with cooking it. (In the end a lot of food prep is pretty similar and it's the flavors that differ - broth is broth, stew is stew, braising is braising, etc.) I think you may be right about Chang's influence on how we see Asian cuisine, because I haven't quite seen the same for South Asian, African (except *maybe* North African - Tunisian, Morroccan etc), or Latin American cuisines in terms of filtering into high-end restauranting as much. Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:07:20 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009749092 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009747988 Gotta say, I do know places where you can get more than just tacos and burritos, and it is possible to find regional Mexican fare, as well as cuisine from other Central/South American countries, but not a restaurant that I know of is more than what I'd call "mid-range". You might spend $50/person but only if you order a lot of meat and drinks. Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:53:35 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009747988 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/madeline-kahn-monday-friends/#IDComment1009744460 Thank you for making my insides alive again after the news about Bowie. oh god i love them both so much at least Carol is still alive Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:10:47 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/madeline-kahn-monday-friends/#IDComment1009744460 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009743461 Honestly, with musicians from that era I basically have a "not as bad as could have been" threshold, which is depressing but also reality. Mon, 11 Jan 2016 16:58:53 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009743461 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009743184 Also, re: Asian food - is that more true on the East Coast than the West? I live in SF and generally find that restaurants set pretty similar price points for similar ranges of quality and price of ingredients. I expect the hole-in-the-wall pho place to be inexpensive, but also the hole-in-the-wall burger place, unless they're advertising that they serve humane grass-fed etc etc, in which case I expect both places to be marking up their prices for the cost of ingredients, the sustainable image, and the image of exclusivity they are probably cultivating by being a hole-in-the-wall organic pho/burger shop. Mon, 11 Jan 2016 16:55:49 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009743184 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009741989 I woke up my fiancé, before looking at any media, because I had woken and it was late enough that he had to wake up for work. The first thing he does when he's *actually* trying to wake up is pick up his phone and look at the news. I was getting back out of bed after a cuddle when he offhandedly announced David Bowie's passing, like it was a footnote (this is probably due to sleepiness, please, I promise he's a good person!). I threw myself back into bed and demanded that he bring me my phone so I could immediately call my father and cry. I'm going into lab today - the undergrads are all like 21 and have no idea who he is for the most part, because we have massively failed the younger part of my generation. I have loaded all the Bowie I own onto my phone and will be playing it through the nice computer's speakers all day. You know, if I can convince myself to get up. Mon, 11 Jan 2016 16:42:02 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/11/link-roundup-488/#IDComment1009741989 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/07/link-roundup-486/#IDComment1009635734 I'm trying to figure out how to drink more because I have this unfortunate habit of a) going wine-tasting with my father a few times a year, b) buying tasty wine but generally not of the type that should be cellared for years before you even think about opening it, and c) then never drinking it because I hardly drink and usually by the time it's time for dinner I'm too tired for more than a small glass and then my fiancé and I would have to commit to drinking again the next night so we don't waste most of the bottle. Sun, 10 Jan 2016 15:51:59 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/07/link-roundup-486/#IDComment1009635734 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/07/finn-is-the-best-character-in-star-wars-the-force-awakens/#IDComment1009558346 In a lot of the EU (which has been scrapped but whatever, there's also some evidence in the films), Leia *is* Force-sensitive. She just isn't on Luke's level, nor is she inclined to train to be a Jedi, as she has other shit to do. Rey's memories and connection to Anakin's lightsaber point to *some* kind of familial relationship, but obviously you don't have to be the child of a Jedi to have the abilities, otherwise how the hell would they exist in the first place? Sat, 9 Jan 2016 19:37:00 +0000 http://the-toast.net/2016/01/07/finn-is-the-best-character-in-star-wars-the-force-awakens/#IDComment1009558346