Unpopular Opinions Post [NOT 8/6/21]

8/6/21 brightersideoflife 69

Hi, friends!

I have a mushy brain after work and complicated thinking is beyond me.

So I’m gonna come out and say it.

Oatmeal cookies are amazing (unless they’re the gross store-bought ones). They are fantastic. They are so chewy and delicious and have wonderful depth of flavor. They hold up great if you can refrain from eating them all quickly.

In fact

I think oatmeal cookies are better than chocolate chip cookies.

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69 Comments

  1. Also, curly kale is disgusting and should be relegated to garnishes on catering trays.

    Lacinato kale is sublime and lovely and Red Russian kale is also good. 

    But fuck that curly kale. It can go sit in a corner with chard and contemplate why it sucks so much.

  2. I’ll play. Grilled cheese and peanut butter sandwiches are sublime. I was excoriated by the commentariate the last time I stated this opinion. 

  3. So your pic made me think…prior to pandemic we were a week away from going to Iceland.  I looked up food there and found that they eat Puffins.  Since we covered chicken lobsters earlier and Puffins are kind of like seafood and poultry together, would you eat a Puffin?  I love to experience the culture of a country I visit but…I do have my boundaries.  Also, all my experiences with Puffins were off the coast of Alaska watching them float in the water as we got way too close to them on a small boat wondering why they didn’t fly away, then I was told they can’t.  They eat so much food they have to float until they have digested/shitted out enough to be light enough to fly again.  Makes me think, prestuffed sea-turkey might be good eating?

    • I like trying local cuisine.  When I was in Alaska, I tried caribou (excellent), moose (fucking awesome) and other exotics.  I kept missing out on bear and have been told that it is really good, but never got the chance.  So, that said, yes I would try puffin.

    • I guess it would depend on how ubiquitous they are there? Like are the populations really high like deer in Missouri where hunting is important for healthy wildlife management? I only see puffins in the zoo so in my head they are at risk/endangered?

      I could probably eat them then, but I don’t think it would be something I’d seek out. 

    • assuming they aren’t endangered, and the capture/kill/preparation/etc. method isn’t unnecessarily cruel, sure.  Then again, I eat regular-old supermarket cow and chicken in the U.S., so I may be being a bit of a hypocrite in regards to the cruelty bit…
      A long time ago, I was in Japan, and was excited to hit up one of those conveyor-belt sushi places, and while there got to try a few things I’ve never had before, and haven’t had many opportunities to try since – jellyfish, sea urchin, sea cucumber, and one or two other things.
       
       

      • We used to have a sushi bar near us that did live lobster sushi.  Fucking strapped down claws w/ tail flapping & cut it into bite sized pieces alive.  I never ate it but found it fucking disturbing.  Seems like it would be super chewy but the Japanese enjoy the show as much as the food sometimes

  4. This, I’m sure, will be a really unpopular opinion, but I am sick to fucking death of all the positive coverage about Naomi Osaka bailing on the French Open.  Yes, Naomi, the press conferences and the media in general are awful and insulting.  Yes, Naomi, it’s a gigantic pain in the ass and nobody wants to do it.  But, you know what?  That’s part of your fucking job.  You got paid $37 MILLION dollars last year–more than any other female athlete in history.  So, you can afford a good counselor to help you through the bullshit.  You know who doesn’t get paid millions of dollars and who puts up with way worse abusive shit from people?  Restaurant and retail workers.  They get shit on every single fucking day and nobody gives a rat’s ass about it.  They work for poverty level (and even less than poverty level) wages, eating shit all fucking day long because that’s what they have to do in order to survive.  They don’t have the luxury of not showing up for work.  Also, anyone who thinks that your example is going to somehow trickle down to these types of workers suddenly being treated like human beings is 100% kidding themselves.

    So, see a licensed therapist, and if you can’t bring yourself to do your job as a professional tennis player, then quit and do something else that will still pay you way fucking more than minimum wage.

    • Eh, I think the expectation that they do press conferences is stupid. Let people do the conferences who want the publicity and let others skip. Plenty of people would court the opportunity for more free PR, etc. 

      • I think that the expectation that a restaurant server has to eat shit all day so they can encourage terrible customers to tip them is stupid too. But if those servers want to pay their rent then they have to eat all the shit they can stomach. They know it, they’re bosses know it. And, worst of all, the customers damned sure know it. Almost every time a server chooses to stand up for themselves they get fired. 

        • Speaking for myself for the times I worked awful jobs, I never felt like other people needed to suffer more because of my job.I’d occasionally hear people complain about union guys with good salaries and benefits going on strike, but I didn’t see why that was their problem.

          • Once again, that’s not the point. The point is we’re expected to praise someone who has all the money and resources and choices available to them for doing something that has essentially zero impact on her livelihood. But nobody gives Fuck One when it comes to low wage workers who have to deal with everything from racism to sexual violence to the banality of daily shit eating that they have to live with in order to just…live. Where is the world wide support for those who live in fear for their survival if they so much as make even the slightest attempt to stand up for themselves? Nope. Let’s just order a pizza with Uber Eats and watch the game. 

            • Nah, it’s important before bringing in the working class to stop and ask whether they want you to use them when stopping other people from getting to stand up to their bosses or complaining about their working conditions.
               
              The perfect is the enemy of the good. Insisting on a strict hierarchy of action is a guarantee of inaction.
               
              Joss Whedon is an abusive freak. There are certainly people who say nobody should care when stars raise problems with his on-set behavior because they make lots of money and getting screamed at is part of the job. They’re wrong.
               
              Hollywood screenwriters are paid extremely well, but when their guild went out on strike there were definitely people who said nobody should care, our shows are on hiatus, those guys get enough. They were wrong.
               
              You can always find someone worse off. You can always find someone who is a higher priority. Always. But if you insist that those people need to be dealt with before anyone else can stand up for themselves, that nobody should praise anyone with means for standing up to people with even more means, you’re guaranteeing that nothing ever happens.

            • …I don’t know that being “expected to praise someone who has all the money and resources and choices available to them for doing something that has essentially zero impact on her livelihood” is exactly “the” point…or that there’s only one point to be found between the two sets of things you’re comparing?

              …on the one hand I’m not sure praise is the the word I’d use for my reaction…& on the other I’m not sure that if you’re a ranked player on the world tour & you drop out of a grand slam tournament you can exactly say that’s a decision that’s going to have zero impact on your livelihood, either…but I guess for me that wouldn’t be the point

              …for me the point would probably be that in both cases there’s clearly something going on that shouldn’t be the way that is is/has been…so if the subject comes up then in both cases I’d be inclined to argue that it should stop…in terms of media coverage I’d be inclined to agree that the fixation with osaka & the french open thing has been excessive but I don’t think that invalidates the possibility that there’s some stuff involved in that whole thing that warrants discussion

              …as for the restaurant workers thing…it’s harder to meaningfully stand up for a large number of people in a noticeable way than it is to signify support for a single well-known individual as (effectively) a token representative of a reaction against something people acknowledge to be some sort of unjust…but I see a fair bit of support of late for the idea that people shouldn’t have to put up with the kind of shitty conditions you’re talking about in the hospitality industries?

              …while everything’s been shut down I think a lot of people (at least the ones paying attention) have developed a different sense for who qualifies as doing “essential” work…& how badly rewarded a lot of those people are…not least that uber eats delivery person who’s out there bringing them that pizza

              …& there’s been a lot of stuff online about how “there’s a shortage of workers” in the hospitality industry isn’t because they’re all happy sitting around being unemployed & can be forced back to work by cutting off whatever support they might be getting but because a hefty slice of that industry was only staying afloat by systematically underpaying those folks & a lot of them are in the process of turning their backs on that deal…& I see a fair bit of support for that in a number of places

              …that sadly doesn’t mean that a lot of customers aren’t still going to be assholes or that employers won’t try to make extra money by fucking over their employees…but it’s not nothing, either?

      • …being something of a sports heathen the whole thing is a bit foreign to me since I never had much interest in those kinds of interviews/press conference/post-game analysis things to begin with…but I do think they were always kind of dumb even when there was a better argument for them…the questions are generally (at least in so far as I’ve seen in a limited & sporadic way over the years) thoroughly predictable & the answers provide basically zero insight into either the game or the players…the whole exercise seems pointless, to be honest

        …& that was before there was a whole internet’s worth of ways that atheletes could interact with the people who watch/support them…so I guess I don’t think there’s really been a good case for making the stuff osaka wants to avoid a contractual obligation in the first place?

        …on that basis I guess I’m more sympathetic than not, in that I think she’s right to object & they’re wrong to have insisted in the first place…at least to my mind

        …I’m sure somewhere behind it all there’s a part where someone gets paid or they wouldn’t put it in the contract…but my suspicion would be that the extent that they want to hang on to that way of doing things is because they know that part of their revenue stream is on borrowed time & they don’t want to give it up

        • As kids, my friends and I (who were decidedly not sporty) were always a bit judgy about how insipid and uninsightful athletes seemed based on the piles of nothingness they told sports journalists and broadcasters. I can’t find it, but the comedian Michael McIntyre had a bit where he imitated either a rugby player or footballer giving a post-game interview that consisted of entirely “at the end of the day” and “give it 110%” constructions. 
          Nobody finds post-match press conferences worthwhile apart from the press room.

          • A while ago we were flipping around through our 650 cable options. A Super Bowl had just ended and Tom Brady was trotted out (it was one of the ones the Patriots won.) His remarks were exactly that, and (to me) he has a very particular style of speaking, like a California teenager, but slow and languorous. Granted, he had just played a Super Bowl. Much to my astonishment his musings were reported as news almost immediately, as if he had let out some kind of life-changing secret.
             
            Better Half is a tennis fanatic, has played all his life, and at one point held a tennis scholarship which allowed him to go to a Tony New England prep school. Not a day goes by that we don’t watch at least a little tennis, which is helped by the fact that every city on earth now hosts an “Open,” so the big names are always playing somewhere. I watch the post-match interviews, hoping to learn a little bit more about the game, but all you ever get is “X is a tough opponent but I tried to stay focused…” What is the player supposed to say? “My opponent is such a feeb that I was tripping balls and I still won!”
             
            So yes, Naomi, the media availabilities must be tiresome and are useless, but maybe just have three or four stock responses and deploy one and be done with it.

            • Re: your first paragraph. 
              I’m rather sympathetic to Naomi Osaka and I don’t fancy myself a fan or know anything about her life or anything, but couldn’t she take the opportunity to, like, SAY ANYTHING during these press thingies? Does she even have to answer their questions? Couldn’t she just prepare statements and sound bytes relevant to things she wants to get out into the world in regards to mental health and say thx for coming to my ted talk, peace? Would they fine her for attending, but ignoring the microphone dudes?

    • Is it part of her job?  It might be part of her sponsorship contracts but that I don’t know.  I’m with her & would have pulled a Marshawn, “I’m only here so I don’t get fined”.  Fuck the press & how degrading to be asked shit like “what’s it like to be an Asian black woman athlete” or “what does it feel like to beat Serena”.  Fuck you!  I’m here because I want to kick everyone’s ass & don’t have time for you to make me justify my greatness!

      • Again, I have no argument that her press conferences are loaded with insulting bullshit. The fact is, she doesn’t have to play nice with them. She can feel free to tell them how stupid and insulting their questions are and she’ll still be able to compete anywhere. She has the privilege of making those choices and doesn’t have to worry how she’ll feed her family. 

        • We all agree that service workers get treated like shit. 

          I don’t know that “servers get heaped with bullshit so it’s ridiculous that a wealthy tennis pro doesn’t subject herself to unnecessary bullshit because that’s just ‘part of her job’ ” really makes sense though. 

          By that logic, since it’s just “part of the job” for servers to get treated like shit, it’s acceptable to abuse them. 

          Both situations are bullshit but it’s not oppression olympics. Sometimes I have to be up all hours for code deployment but that doesn’t mean I think people in other professions should be fine with working shitty late hours if they aren’t night people.

          • That’s missing the point. The entire point is that low wage workers will never ever get the kind of public awareness that a professional athlete will get. But we’re supposed to admire the athlete for doing something that carries almost no personal risk to themselves, if a little professional risk. For low wage workers it is literally a matter of survival but they will never get that kind of widespread approval, much less any public discussion about changing their working conditions. 

        • “Why do you consider yourself to be Japanese when you’re black?”

          “I’m white but the person who just slaughtered me in three straight sets is up next, perhaps you can ask them this question about tennis.”

    • eh, I don’t really follow sports, so I don’t know the background on this type of thing, but have been hearing about this event as it’s percolated it’s way through the internet.  Related to this, I also learned about that guy (Lynch?) who just answered every question with “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” which was kind of amusing.
      I don’t know how the “fine” thing works, but that sounds kinda sketchy.  Maybe they should at least change to a different model, where there is a slightly lower pay scale, but with some sort of bonus to those able and willing to do that press conference thing?  I don’t know, I’m just very uncomfortable with the idea that someone “owes” someone else their time and energy outside of their normal job duties.  It seems especially suspect when it’s expected of a POC.
      Not that I disagree with you about the food service industry workers, but that is just more wrong, and shouldn’t be used to justify less wrong.  I also feel it is really telling that the people most opposed to abolishing tipping and paying a living wage are those that tend to tip the least or not at all…

    • A few things:
      She’s been getting roasted by a good chunk of establishment press, praised by peers and blogger types, and tennis fans are mixed. I personally think she earned the right to reject media abuse. And some of the shit she gets asked absolutely is mentally harmful, disguised as “just asking a question”. It’s not the press’ job to stress test someone’s mental stability. Some people in press rooms fancy themselves as Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men but they’re more like Jack Nicholson.
      “It’s part of the job” being the main response from half the press probably means the job needs reexamination. 
      None of us are in her head so we don’t know what mental health problems are like for her starting from that 2018 shitfest. She said she bailed because the mental toll exceeds her capacity. I’m not Piers Morgan so I’m not gonna sit here and call someone a liar.
      Ultimately I think she reached the end of her rope and chose a way out. That relief from bad situations should be available for all workers, tennis stars included. She’s privileged with her financial resources, it’s true. But if the net effect of this whole saga includes improvement for regular folks, that’s good.

      • “It’s part of the job” being the main response from half the press probably means the job needs reexamination. 

        This right here. While I don’t think Osaka necessarily intends to get the conversation going about changing this element, I do think her decision to take care of herself has inadvertently sparked that dialogue in the press.

  6. I’m late but sports pressers are gross, there is that undercurrent of ownership, performing for the man, you owe it to the viewing public, that is very very disgusting, more so, as always, for women and POC. Not having to do it is my reward for being profoundly unathletic, thanks shitty gene pool.
    Oh, btw, I fucking love raisins [try the ones from Nuts.com]and other dried fruits. For dinner last night I had trail mix and cantaloupe.
     

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