I am ECLECTIC

Like. I remember back in my grocery store cashier days I did so much crazy shit.

When WIC (Women, infants, and children voucher program to help low income mothers/families with children) people were in my line I would pretty much know who they were. Before the cards they had to tell us upfront they were WIC and show us their vouchers for what they were allowed to get (it was awful some times. Like. 2 gallons of milk. $4 worth of vegetables etc etc). They’d always have items hanging back, waiting to see what the total was and if they would have to take it off the belt.

I began to place the fruits/vegetables a certain way on the register scale so that like 1/2lbs of grapes read as like .28lbs or something. Then act shocked when I said that they still had X amount of lbs left. They got all their fruit and vegetables.

I think it started to kinda? Catch on to the women? Because I would have the same moms in my line month after month. And even after they switched to the cards (they worked like food stamp cards?) I’d still do the same thing. They were able to get more produce for whatever shitty max amount Indiana gave them.

+Chocolates galaxy+

I used to be *good* at search. It was a whole thing - I found people's "lost songs" or their unknown-source childhood stuffed toy or whatever from Google.

Now, you can't search for the exact brand/design name of something and get accurate answers. It drives me spare on Amazon - if I search for XYZ and you don't have any, or you only have 2, tell me that.

I used to be able to search for recipes and easily eliminate unwanted ingredients with a -. For example I'd look for low-carb desserts but without the zillions that use peanut butter simply by searching for something like:

low carb chocolate dessert recipe -peanut

And I'd get a slew of on-point suggestions. For some time now if you do -peanut Google ignores the - and assumes you want recipes stuffed with peanuts.

Where it's even worse now is now you get directed to sites full of bogus AI recipes that don't even make sense. But they have peanuts in them.

I used to be able to use reverse image searches to find out who made that awesome art so I could give credit in my share. They've removed that ability entirely and replaced it with Lens, which is AI BS just showing you more like what you looked for. (Rebecca Watson complained about this in her recent video about JD Vance jizz cup rumours and I apologise for that sentence but...yeah. Watson is great, go find her on Youtube and subscribe because she went into detail about how Google has become less and less useful for debunking.)

This isn't just about Google inserting shopping ads instead of what you wanted to learn about. That's bad. But the results now are just *broken*. The tools we used to have to make searches better have been removed. Google no longer wants us to find the answers we seek, but the answers they want us to have, and that's super creepy and dangerous.

And the alternatives are either using Google in the back end or have other significant barriers to use.

There are many versions of the saying all around continental Europe; the origin is possibly Yiddish.

A similar one is the Italian "Se mia nonna avesse le ruote, sarebbe una carriola", meaning "If my grandmother had wheels, she would be a wheelbarrow". Gino is referencing a common way of putting a stop to unnecessary hypothetical thinking in conversation.

Other even more colorful versions can be found in the following article, linked here:

Unfortunately, that second billboard is a photoshopped fake. BUT the real billboards that went up are just as fun!

So PETA put up that top billboard in 2018 in Baltimore, and the restaurant across the street, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, put up a response. They also debuted a beer called, appropriately, PETA Tears, but I digress.

The ME was a subtle call out, a warning shot if you will.

But earlier this year (2023) right in time for Lent in very catholic Baltimore, PETA decided to try again.

To which Jimmy’s decided fuck that, let’s get two billboards this time. (WaPo)

Proposals to defund the police

Police Household: 49.2% Support

Non-Police Household: 30% Support

Proposals to dismantle the police

Police Household: 52.2% Support

Non-Police Household: 30.1% Support

Proposals to redirect money from LAPD budget

Police Household: 63.7% Support

Non-Police Household: 50.6% Support