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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 30th, 2023

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  • Some anecdotes from my experiences during this time:

    I lived and worked in downtown Chicago at the time, right next to the Board of Trade. The local OWS was set up right next to it. I remember the traders had dumped out a bunch of McDonald’s job applications from the window onto them below. I would walk by them everyday for months and absolutely no one was paying them attention. It was a small group of people and eventually one day just like that, they were gone.

    A week or so after OWS started I was visiting NYC and we ended up at Zuccotti Park where it all started. I think there were more people selling pins, buttons, and various arts and crafts than there were actual protesters. I remember my FIL asking each one if they were trying to supplement a living or if they were purely a for-profit capitalist venture taking advantage of an opportunity at an anti-capitalist protest. I just couldn’t stop laughing. He was serious.

    Went to a wedding in Tulsa a few months in the whole OWS movement and their main park had an encampment of tents with signs but didn’t see any activity.

    The big thing I noticed was there was virtually no people of color present, no organization, was a gathering of almost entirely white (mostly young) Leftists, that like usual, failed to cobble together a coalition from other demographics and really just seemed like a spectacle.











  • Yeah, it might be Cantonese actuall, if I’m not mistaken a lot of the residents in Chinatown in Chicago speak that. Just spam but in another language.

    What’s odd is that all of these calls hang up if I bother to answer. So yeah, could be looking to see if active, and if that’s the case, there must be like a dozen different outfits doing this because nearly that many every day







  • I’ve got a plain older countertop device with mini CO2 cartridges (with a cheap exchange program) for now. I am redoing my living room and study soon and will get a kegarator soon so I have it on tap.

    I don’t need the flavors infused. But if I’m feeling fancy I’ll add a slice of lime or lemon, or both (usually when I need to use the rest of one after making dinner). Although it is my understanding this is certainly possible, adding flavours/syrups or what not.


  • Years ago when I visited Germany (a hotel in Heidelberg), there happened to be another American in front of me at the hotel. He asked for water. The young woman behind the counter, knowing he was American from his language and accent, said: “Would you like any gasoline in your water?”

    He was very confused, and I couldn’t contain myself, bursting out in laughter. I stepped in and explained, she meant to say “gas” and was asking if he wanted still water or bubbly water. She knew most Americans didn’t drink carbonated water, at least then – a few years later brands like La Croix would sweep the country’s soccer moms all over the States.

    We Americans think it’s funny but then I remember that these people know multiple languages and of course someone is going to get a word wrong here and there.

    I also remember the four of us at dinner getting served waters and the waitress was saying “please” as she sat down each one on the coaster on the table. Which my understanding is that she was translating ‘bitte’ to English and that word has many meanings, one of them meaning please but can be used when your hand something over, if I’m not mistaken.