Wonderhoy!

“When we were kids, the Phonics Wizard came to our town to show off how the letter E can change the sounds of vowels. He turned a can into a cane, a pin into a pine. This one kid had a cap and he changed it into a cape, that kind of thing.

I actually do think we should discourage women from becoming housewives. Do not become financially dependent on a man. That's how a lot of women ended up dead over the years. A man gets violent suddenly and you have to choose between homelessness or potentially dying at his hand because you have an enormous gap in your resume and no degrees or certifications or anything that will help you pursue a career that will allow you to be financially independent. He owns your bank account. His name is probably the one on the car. Try and leave and he can report it stolen. Where will you go then?

And if you do become a housewife, take steps to protect yourself. Make sure you’re legally married, for starters; stay-at-home girlfriends have very little legal recourse to claim their partner’s assets in a breakup. Make sure your name is on the house deed/rental agreement, and have your car in your name, even if your spouse is paying for it. Have your spouse transfer money every month into an account solely in your name, so you can buy yourself things without needing permission, but also so you can save up to leave if needed.

Tinfoil hat moment but I don't think he was dumb, I think he was strategic. He put her in a situation in which she had to either: sell her car (so the only means of transportation is now in his name), or maybe even to drop out (to have time for the second job) if she wants to feed the kids. He did it right when she was aaaaaalmost done with her degree. Either way, it's sabotage.

No, this is not tinfoil stuff.

i had one of those migraine naps earlier where I spent much of it half-conscious but still having "dreams," and the only one I remember was like... an argument on tumblr where someone made a bunch of really strident angry posts about how themed children's birthday parties are symbols of decadent consumerism and must be shamed and abolished, and then someone else responded like "lol tumblr commies always blame everything on capitalism like all these problems didn't also exist beforehand 🙄🙄🙄" and I took a screenshot of the interaction and went in and showed it to the groupchat and said "so true, everyone always conveniently forgets about that time Marie Antoinette threw an extravagant dinosaur-themed birthday party for the dauphin"

I cant believe this tweet is how I find out

holy shit.

You're not really supposed to say it this way, because its considered crass, but here in the US children are culturally and legally considered essentially the property of their parents.

This is true. Kids' constitutional rights are also a mess; for a long time, they were relegated to the juvenile justice system which was able to do essentially anything it wanted to them in the guise of being a "kind and just parent." This culminated in the Supreme Court case In Re Gault.

Genuine question: do you think raccoons are good enough at human body language to recognize when a hand is reached with the purpose of touching vs. giving them something? Obviously an empty hand is a very big hint that something is Wrong, but as raccoons are very smart, I wonder if they also recognize an intention to touch? If I came over for some food and someone tried touching me I would also react with violence, that is a threat.

They are. Habituated wild ones just literally do not care. They do not see humans as valuable for anything other than food. They bite because they are frustrated and want to show you how they feel about you reaching out without food.

When I was in therapist school one of my profs said, "A lot of trauma needs 10 or 20 years before it's really ready to be worked through. Maybe longer." And at the time I was like: Oh Shit. I planned to be over my trauma and all better by the time I graduated!