It's a cold, hard fact of life that when presented with a 10-lb bag of Russet potatoes for $.97, you can't NOT buy it. Please help -- need ideas for a more interesting baked potato (or other ways to eat Russets).
posted by mudpuppie to Ask MetaFilter at Jan 4 at 12:51 PM
67 users marked this as a favorite
Losing the War "From the beginning, the actual circumstances of World War II were smothered in countless lies...People all along have preferred the movie version: the tense border crossing where the flint-eyed SS guards check the forged papers; the despondent high-level briefing where the junior staff officer pipes up with the crazy plan that just might work...The truth behind these cliches was never forgotten -- because nobody except the soldiers ever learned it in the first place."
posted by deern the headlice to MetaFilter at Jan 3 at 12:35 AM
58 users marked this as a favorite
Oh boy... I've screwed up.
I invited a woman to live with me. I am female, reasonably well-employed, decent income, have my own place, etc., and the invite had nothing to do with sex or a relationship of any kind. Things have already turned sour and I need some advice, a sane voice or two...
posted by Anonymous to Ask MetaFilter at Jan 3 at 10:54 PM
55 users marked this as a favorite
Man, I love it when I get a chance to trot out my "the G-Spot as a historical construction" speech.
There was this long-standing idea that the penis and the clitoris were biological homologues, which has been extensively critiqued because it takes men as the standard and then assumes that women must just be a variation on men.
But i...
posted by besonders to MetaFilter at Jan 5 at 7:47 AM
211 users marked this as a favorite
I love it when people extrapolate the meaning of a 60 page article from one sentence.
It's great that you love it, but no one's doing that, Allan. Do I need to cite fifty sentences more? Tad's added several examples; there are many more.
Let's ignore the countless examples he uses of how the war was ill-planned chaos where so many died due...
posted by Dee Xtrovert to MetaFilter at Jan 3 at 3:56 AM
195 users marked this as a favorite
Hm. I was just checking Metafilter before I called Gallagher. (He's on my cell phone favorites, right below my parents.) This will probably be a long post.
Filthy Light Thief, that clip you saw on TV was from my documentary, "History of the Joke with Lewis Black." (Penn and Teller were in it.) It was originally called "The Greates...
posted by turducken to MetaFilter at Jan 5 at 1:37 PM
176 users marked this as a favorite
I'm a federal employment lawyer. Let me explain exactly how this happened.
This is a case of unmitigated stupidity by the State OIG people who do this kind of work. 99% of the time, State OIG is interviewing federal employees, either excepted service (foriegn service), or career-conditional (regular federal employees). 99.9% of the time, these a...
posted by Ironmouth to MetaFilter at Dec 31 at 3:17 PM
161 users marked this as a favorite
This is just to say
I have hugged
the gays
that are in
my immediate reach
and which
you were probably
saving
to hug yourself
Forgive me
they were fabulous
so tasteful
and so totally worthy of full protection under the freaking 14th amendment already
posted by scody to MetaTalk at Jan 5 at 1:44 PM
126 users marked this as a favorite
Republican Party: Where did you learn these tactics? Who told you about this stuff?
Andy Martin: I.. I just... some of the guys musta...
Republican Party: Answer me! Who taught you how to do this stuff?
Andy Martin: You, alright! I learned it by watching you!
posted by stavrogin to MetaFilter at Jan 6 at 4:56 PM
100 users marked this as a favorite
Okay, guys, here's what I'm going to do. I'm moving back to Texas this year. I have two kids who will be school age before long, and a wife who is an elementary teacher. I'm a (soon-to-be-ex) minister from a conservative denomination. I can speak fluent evangelical Texan--it's my first language. So I'm going to be the Manchurian candidate for ...
posted by Pater Aletheias to MetaFilter at Jan 4 at 5:36 PM
94 users marked this as a favorite
Dude, I just read through all of this, stated from YOUR point of view, and two things hit me in the face:
1) After having read all of that, I have no idea what this poor guy is supposed to be apologising for.
2) STOP TEXTING EACH OTHER. You two are not very good at it. You sent him a "Hi" and his response was "lame"? What ...
posted by DarlingBri to Ask MetaFilter at Jan 4 at 1:36 PM
94 users marked this as a favorite
God damn, I loves me some Bruce Schneier. That guy is awesome.
He's saying here what I've been trying to say, but less effectively, for many years:
Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country's way of life; it's only our reaction to that attack that c...
posted by Malor to MetaFilter at Dec 30 at 11:47 PM
92 users marked this as a favorite
You've learned something about the nature of homelessness. Simple poverty is only one of its causes. The inability to live peacefully in shared housing - whether a result of mental illness, trauma, addiction or personality - is another. People become homeless when they're both too poor to pay for a home of their own, and too broken to uphold the m...
posted by embrangled to Ask MetaFilter at Jan 4 at 1:41 AM
86 users marked this as a favorite
In all seriousness, no sarcasm whatsoever, this is what justice looks like:
The disputed evidence concerned statements the guards gave to state department investigators, which they were told would not be used to bring a criminal case.
This limited immunity deal meant that prosecutors should have built their case against the men without using ...
posted by Malor to MetaFilter at Dec 31 at 3:18 PM
84 users marked this as a favorite
Iceland's an interesting situation, and maybe not as cut and dried as it would seem on the surface.
We've actually spoken about Iceland and their problems before; market driven instruments (i.e., credit default swaps) were predicting a default long before it happened.
And, of course, there was an earlier Krone collapse, March of 2006, when Ic...
posted by Mutant to MetaFilter at Jan 5 at 11:18 PM
80 users marked this as a favorite
Well, I applaud the spirit but I don't see this as having much practical effect for a couple of reasons.
First, just look at one of the the factors banks use to attract business; interest rates. Bigger banks can afford to pay higher rates as their business is much, much larger in scope. Geographical diversification also helps; the small town ...
posted by Mutant to MetaFilter at Dec 31 at 4:08 AM
79 users marked this as a favorite
Some responders seem to be unclear on what the OP offered this woman. She did not agree to be her support network, to be her social worker, to get her back on her feet, to save her, to dispense unlimited charity. She offered her a place to stay, under a set of specific conditions, including that rent be paid and the rules of the house obeyed. Th...
posted by bookish to Ask MetaFilter at Jan 4 at 3:11 AM
66 users marked this as a favorite
and comments 