Articles like these place a lot of emphasis on the poor, rural members of MAGA, but there’s not as much focus on the middle and upper class suburban contingents. People with pristine oversized pickups that have never left a paved road or hauled anything besides a new TV. That coalition as a whole needs to be understood to explain the rise of MAGA.

Also, I don’t know anyone who talks about poor, rural folks like that article supposes, and I’ve spent my entire life in blue urban areas. That guy needs some new friends if his do. In my experience, they speak about poor rural and poor urban people the same way: either equally empathetically or equally condescendingly.

Good point. I think you’re right.

Totally agree. If the restaurant closed down due to lack of interest in that cuisine in the area, then it’s probably not a good idea to try again.

I’d say the same if the last one just had really bad food or made people sick; it’s hard to make people separate that from the physical location rather than brand. This happened to a Chinese place where I grew up. Health department shut one down, so someone opened a new one at the same location. It was really good and had a spotless health record, but most people assumed it would still have the same issues so it failed.

It has to actually become a common thing for it to not be a big deal. You can’t put the cart before the horse.

Oracle is nothing if not consistent in providing shitty customer support across all sorts of products.

It’s hyperbole. You’ve never been very hungry and said “I’m starving” or been out in very hot weather for a while and said “I’m dying out here”? I’m pretty sure the average reader is able to figure out from context she has not actually been abducted to a black site and waterboarded.

Very rarely. Physical intimacy in movies or TV is like a strong seasoning. In the right place, it can accentuate the flavor and bring it to another level. Otherwise, you’re just adding curry powder to a cherry danish.