Emchap's Shit from the Internet 03/20/19 🍠
I am back from a somewhat whirlwind trip to the southeast for a college classmate's wedding, which served primarily as a reminder that my life is very different than it was at 18, and which included a lot of very good food and visits with people I love. I renewed my dislike of American Airlines (why the fuck are their desks so tiny), I left one sweatshirt richer than I came in, and saw many pelicans. In a reminder that my life is actually very similar to what it was at 24 sometimes, I spent several hours drinking High Life 40s out on a patio and enjoying the sunshine.
I was talking today with friends about the somewhat strange social interactions that weddings produce. So much of the time, the small talk that emerges from people who used to live 20 feet from each other interacting now that that is no longer true basically boils down to, "I'm describing what's happening!" "It's also happening to me!" "We mutually understand the rules here."
That interaction is at the core of Nathan Pyle's Strange Planet, a comic strip about aliens that's been taking my corner of the internet by storm. The joke is always the same: friendly aliens do some normal human thing, described literally, and it sounds very weird in that context. It's the "We mutually understand the rules here" part of smalltalk made explicit. (For the record, my favorite comic is the aliens discussing a cat, because "What does it excel at?" "Scratching." kills me every time; "because trust!" is also very good.)
I feel like my life is going pretty well, most of the time. I like my job. I have friends. I do a vanishingly small number of things that I don't want to do, which is a tremendous human luxury. But there is something about being in the weird alien smalltalk spaces that puts me profoundly off kilter and makes me anxious about all of it. I haven't slept well since I left home, and last night my tiny excellent scratcher screamed at me, so I'm hoping that tonight allows for me to return to normal. (And failing that, I trimmed the cat's claws so he'll be worse at scratching.)
Shit to read
I thought this interview with Andrew Yang—a presidential candidate running on a Universal Basic Income platform—was super interesting. (I follow and like his Twitter account and broadly am assuming I will vote for Gillibrand absent her doing something horrifying, but if Warren continues to lean in on abolishing the Electoral College I'm there. Do not talk to me about politics if you are a man.)
This interview with the creator of Cathy (Ack!) was super fascinating! I read the strip as a kid and I think so much of its context went totally over my head.
Amazon is a poison nightmare that eats human bodies and it is the backbone of the modern web's infrastructure and at some point we will have to reckon with that.
I like seals and I like this article which makes fun of their relative lack of land-grace.
Generally speaking I strongly dislike commercial feminist slogan shit, and I thought this article about the more radical corners of it was super fascinating. (I always laugh at the "the future is female ejaculation" tees at Otherwild, but I'm not going to wear one out, you know?)
Shit to eat
Wander around the grocery store for straight-up an hour trying to find artichokes in a can before finally giving up, only to discover that they're sold across from the olives, but only artichoke bottoms, which you've never seen?
Buy two cans.
Take them home, drain them, chop them up into chunks. (Or buy and chop canned artichoke non-bottoms if you can find them, what is with my Jons.)
In a bowl, mix some mayo into the artichoke bits. You want them coated but not swimming.
Add a couple of chopped up cloves of garlic.
Shred some parmesan, and add that in there (about a cup, but again, this is all very approximated).
Stir in the juice of half a lemon to one lemon depending on your whole deal.
Add some salt and pepper.
Stir some more.
Into the oven it goes for about half an hour at 350.
Serve with crusty bread or crackers or just eat it with a spoon.
(Adapted from the Etiquette Grrl's website, which now exists only as archive.org snapshots!)
Shit to listen to
Shit to buy
I am dying at how much I love this bra and I weep that I can't buy it apparently.
I'm into this weird plant print on these underwear. (I need to get underwear and am 100% dropping the ball on doing so; email me if you have recommendations.
Alternatively, these.
Speaking of Otherwild, I love these earrings, and these, and this necklace.