I honestly cannot imagine a competent employee being demoted. I can imagine positions in Youth Services that might (might) be better filled by someone gay, like gay youth programs, the “it gets better” is more convincing from someone for whom it actually got better, for instance.

In Ohio, though?

Green?

It’s gorgeous but I wouldn’t say green. All stone, with some potted plants.

I just made my first last week. So delicious, onion bacon tart! But didn’t feel like a meal. You put potato on it? Raw?

Local pizza or homemade I get at least half a pie with jalapeno, onion, and anchovies if available, kalamata olives if not.

I do not have the stores you mention, so no recommendations on frozen, Target used to have good ones with buffalo mozzarella but that was years ago, I think they are discontinued. I do think if you can make a frozen pizza homemade is within your skill too. If you love pizza it’s great to learn to make it.

I love the idea of storing them on giant dildos.

Yeah. No carpets, dogs coming in and out. I only take mine off if they are legit muddy, it’s a lost cause, I am not going to make everyone take off their shoes. We aren’t eating off the floor. I am also willing to sit on the ground outside, turn cartwheels, etc. Really just not that paranoid about dirt.

Up north I understand everyone has carpets.

Some places there is much more sitting on the floor.

It seems situational to me.

Nobody is putting their shoes on the furniture though, they are putting them on the floor.

Hmm, well what else can we bring? Guitar and strings? How much of the day is busy with work, and how much left for recreation? If we aren’t going to be busy then yeah I would love to read. But it takes my whole attention. Music can play and work, so if our time is mostly spent working and sleeping, it would help a lot.

Music, music, and more music. I would say books but I read too fast, they wouldn’t last. Might as well just remember the stories I have already read. Well, actually - my favorite books please yes.

That is how I do it, low and slow with a bacon press, it is still a little splattery but not bad at all.

I use whatever is on the counter usually, but lard (homemade), bacon fat (clarified) and avocado oil are the usual and seem the best when doing the high heat seasoning. I just get the pan hot after cleaning it, with a very thin layer of oil (wiped as thin as possible) and keep wiping oil in there awhile with a paper towel, take it off the heat and occasionally wipe it with the paper towel to spread it evenly.

Pancakes also work as pan rehab. The long low heat works to get them smooth again. I use butter for that, which leads me to believe that any fat is probably fine.

Find someone with a self clean oven. My current one doesn’t do it either but the ones made to burn the baked on grease to ash get up to 475-480, that is what will burn off the seasoning. Not as hot as a kiln, I have no Idea what that would do.

My friend Mary said her grandpa just stayed alive to spite her mother, he was mean. Should have been dead for years but hung on to make her take care of him.

On the other hand, my mom’s dad shut himself in his house, laid down and died when his wife (my mom’s mom) finally divorced him after decades of abuse. Not killed himself using anything, just died. She lived for her happiest years after that, just sitting on the porch with her boyfriend shelling pecans.

Nooo give it to a disapproving hipster dude, so he can sand it and lovingly restore it and judge you!

One of mine got crusty, I put it in the oven and ran it through a self clean cycle, it all burned off and I re-seasoned it, been smooth sailing since. So you could try setting it on fire like that.

Cast iron is cheap, indestructible, gets better with time, does want some care but nothing outrageous. I do have a good stainless skillet as well, call it the “stick pan”, if you want something to stick and then deglaze, it’s good.

But the cast iron is my joy, my kids joke that I love it more than I love them (it is older than they are) and already argue about who will get it when I die. Have never bought a nonstick pan, they seem unhealthy, and old cast iron is satiny and nonstick. It suits the way I cook, or perhaps the way I cook has been shaped by the pans. I don’t worry about tomatoes or wine sauce but wouldn’t slow cook spaghetti sauce in one, would use stainless or the Le Cruset one for that.

Mostly I think it’s like flannel, not great at the start but improves with use, ends up better than everything else and then stays better for a long time. In the case of cast iron that could be several generations.

Probably exercise. Lifelong habit of exercise. Different sorts at different times but never nothing, always something on purpose to strengthen & keep flexible, most days of the week.

Night cream and sunscreen since my early 20s too, I do not look how I expected to at this age, nice surprise that was.

I like penultimate, next to last.

I have a story about heat and flavor. Often the flavor and heat ARE intertwined, if you “cool” the pepper you mute the flavor.

So I make lentil salad sometimes, it’s one of those dishes so much better than it should be - cooked al dente lentils, jalapeno, onion, carrot in a dressing of olive oil, mustard, lemon. My little kids loved it but would whine that it was too spicy. So my older daughter graciously de-seeded and took out the ribs of the jalapenos when helping make it one time and

They whined because it didn’t taste as good. The flavor was contained in the spicier part of the pepper.

Not everything should be spicy but it’s good to have a tolerance because some flavors are in those spicy foods that simply aren’t in the mild versions.

Posture is so important for health, both as a practice and an indicator.

As a practice, stacking your body up in a good position lets it work better and protects your joints.

It is also an indication of strong enough muscles and bones, very weak people or those with osteoporosis often can’t achieve good posture.

It’s also free, nothing to buy, a free intervention that can only benefit you, so why not practice it?

I don’t think of selective gene editing of one person as eugenics and do think we will get that, we have some versions of it for born people already. Editing it out of humanity? No that’s probably a bad idea. One of my kids works in genetics and was horrified when I joked about her making designer babies like in Gattaca, so I don’t think science thinks it a good idea. Push on one thing, another pops up.

You might enjoy Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis and Patternist books, if you like thinking about this stuff.