pigeon

when you save alarms for specific things but then you just keep reusing them. like sure wake me up at the chocolate milk alarm, what do i care

Hit the hay so hard last night that i found the needle

It’s definitely not “do whatever you want bc nobody cares” it’s somewhere between “people don’t care as much as you think they do” and “if you want to truly do what you want you have to not care about how much other people care”

I feel like in the rush of “throw out etiquette who cares what fork you use or who gets introduced first” we actually lost a lot of social scripts that the younger generations are floundering without.

A lot of tough situations where we now feel like we “don’t know what to do or say” had social scripts just a couple of generations ago and they might have been canned phrases or robotic actions but they could still be meant sincerely and unfortunately we haven’t replaced them with any more sincere or easier new script.

Another example is that at parties a lot of people talk about how awkward it is to mingle or talk to people they dont know. But at old timey parties that was traditionally the HOST'S job, and there was a specific scripted way of doing it that eased the process! The host would bring you in, introduce you and maybe even a little bit about you like what you did for a living, and then guide you to a group you could talk to. They didn't just let you in the door and then ditch you to fend for yourself in a sea of strangers. That would be unthinkable and no one would be surprised if a get-together like that wound up being awkward.

you hear a lot of theorizing about how 19th and 20th century formal etiquette was Meant To Enforce Class StratificationTM, and to be sure some of the more inane minutiae definitely was. but a lot of the basic rules and forms were meant for exactly this: to provide a roadmap for social situations so nobody felt awkward or uncomfortable

If people are interested in historical ways of hosting and etiquette, I recommend checking out dowagersdressmaker on IG and watch his Edwardian etiquette series. Really helps highlight on how a host/hostess is/was supposed to make sure all their guests are comfortable and having a good time. He also does a spot on Maggie Smith impression.

Humans are 1000x more sensitive to the smell of petrichor (that smell you get with rain) than sharks are to blood, to no apparent evolutionary advantage. You’re privileged to be a part of the first welcoming committee to meet our new Non-Human arrivals in person. They smell like petrichor.