The line “She is like a cat in the dark/And then she is the darkness” in Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” is probably the best line in a pop song ever written. Just so evocative and lovely. Wish I could’ve written that, but I’m glad someone did.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

I don’t think my musical taste is better than anyone else’s. But I do think I listen to more different songs in a month than most people listen to in 15-20 years.

I think this outfit that Rebecca Hall wore in 2015’s The Gift is my favorite one that any woman in a movie has ever donned:

Those collarbones! I have no idea what that neckline cut is called but it’s hella flattering on Rebecca. The film is also very good, which helps.

Soccer is just the worst sport. Boring, absurdly repetitive, about as interesting as a tax return. I’d rather watch competitive donkey-licking.

I still firmly believe that back in 2019, someone in the WIV dropped a vile vial of Covid virus and thus gifted us with the pandemic. A lab leak is the only explanation that makes any actual sense.

Since relations with China have declined greatly since that time, I guess we’d not kowtow to China publicly nearly as much now. Not that it would’ve mattered to the outcome greatly. But the truth still matters.

By the way, the “people’s brains aren’t fully developed until they are 25” claptrap is just as much bullshit as the earlier “we only use 10% of our brains” nonsense that preceded it. Both are based on shoddy understandings of incomplete research — for instance, the study that people have used to conclude that the prefrontal cortex keeps changing until age 25 only studied people age 21-25. No one older.

Later studies showed that your PFC keeps changing into your 30s and beyond. Unsurprisingly. The brain is dynamic unto death.

I cannot emphasize how absolutely and fully horseshit the idea that the “brain doesn’t mature fully until age 25” is. It’s dipshit clown crap of the highest order.

If you think inflation is bad now, just wait till China attacks Taiwan in 2030 and we lose access to all Chinese and Taiwanese (TSMC) manufactured goods. That’s not gonna be a good time.

Minus housing, I’d expect ~40% inflation for a few years.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

Saw some guy on Reddit say that women without tattoos are now highly valued on the dating market. I can believe it; the majority of men find tattoos on women unappealing, and if I were actively dating I’d spend a whole, whole lot more time, effort and money to find a woman whose skin was still clear of them.

If you’re a woman and you care about finding a quality man, staying slim and having no tattoos automatically means that you can in fact actually date those top 10% of guys who are the only ones most of you think you deserve. Slight snark aside, this would be a solid strategy for being with someone you might not have otherwise had a chance with.

Choose wisely.

I’m an Economist. Don’t Worry. Be Happy.

Wow this is such utter bullshit. Fucking clown. Idiot.

That’s because the currency that really matters is how many hours you have to work to afford your groceries, a small treat, or a home, and none of these real trade-offs have changed.

Now here’s my motherfucking rebuttal:

Really, housing is the major issue here. Economists love to obfuscate and directly lie about this aspect of the economy, but it only takes a really cursory examination of the facts to refute their absurd and factually baseless claims. (A sociological examination of why they feel they must do this is a project for another time.) They like to claim that if you compare square footage then people pay about the same as they used to because houses have gotten larger. Which, yes, they have gotten larger. BUT I CAN’T FUCKING JUST GO BUY 400SF IN 99.99% OF PLACES. FUCKKKKK.

I’m wondering how college-educated people can be so incredibly, inexplicably dumb. The economy is not actually doing great; not for most people. Housing being woefully unaffordable for the majority is now starting to have major consequences.

Economists are the paid jesters of the ruling class.

I’ve been spending time working out too.

All natural, no tren, test or any of that other shit. Just a lot of time and effort.

My safeword is unpronounceable in any human language.

What is the most intimate thing you’ve done with someone else?

One of the most (that I’ll reveal here) is to stare into my friend’s eyes for 10 minutes straight without looking away and blinking as little as possible. It was something she wanted to do. It was incredibly intimate and it felt like we knew each other vastly better after that even though no words were exchanged. To be honest, it was far more intimate than the times we’d had sex which was something we mostly did just out boredom.

The eye contact thing was different. It was so much more connected, piercing, and intense. And intentional. We both felt miles closer after doing that just once.

Gen Xer quits because of Gen Z firing.

I bet Joana was pretty and that all of the managers here were women. I’ve seen this happen before at a previous place I worked with an intern I mentored. While being beautiful is usually an advantage in life, it is not if you are young and attractive in a team with older women who feel threatened by it. I was shocked by how vicious this coven of older women project managers were to her. Meanwhile, they treated a not-that-pretty intern much better (who was not nearly as good at the job).

It got so bad that the intern in question sought me out, even though I was not on that team, to have my help because she heard me talking in meetings and thought I sounded “smart and nice” (awwwwww). So I stole her, making a team of two, and we did our own thing while the PM harridans seethed. Luckily, I was a favorite of the CEO so I told him what I was doing, and an abridged outline of why. So she was protected until her internship was over.

Then the team of PMs began all sorts or rumors about me and my junior protégée. They never went anywhere, though, because everyone knew they were absurd lies.

All’s better that ends well, though. The intern in question got a fancy job at Google after I harangued her into applying (her confidence was low after how she’d been treated) and I still text with her from time to time.

And those older women PMs are still terrible people.