>>> Composting is a disgusting waste of time and serves only to mark the composter as a social degenerate.
Even though I get that this was mostly a joke, I'd like to push back. Not only does composting work in *some* individual cases, it's also making good strides on the community level. My town has had a "food scraps recycling program" in place since 2017, and it seems to be going well. I can't find numbers on it, but the very fact that they haven't done away with it after this many years suggests it is, at worst, not too expensive. As for all of the upsides, see here:
I live in a different city just about every month (no, I'm not a fugitive from justice, just a nomad), and one of the most tedious aspects of getting used to each new place is figuring out what to do with food scraps. Even in enlightened cities that have a program for this, the place where I'm staying (Airbnb or hotel) invariably never participates. So I have to find the nearest store that has a compost container (Whole Foods usually) or pay for a month of compost pickup; I've even been known to sneak my food scraps into someone else's curbside green cart (shhh!).
Learning the recycling rules for each place is equally tedious (glass? which metals? which plastics?). In some places I suspect that it's all just eco theater, like maybe the recyclables are so contaminated that they just go to the landfill or get incinerated. But I keep "doing the work," hoping that all my effort isn't totally pointless.
THANK YOU for exonerating me on the whole composting thing. Many years ago my husband wanted to buy a worm bin and keep it in the basement. I said hell no and continued to throw away food scraps and coffee grounds, but I always felt guilty and wasteful. Now I feel vindicated!
And I had to laugh at the umlaut bit at the beginning. My name used to have an umlaut (it’s even written on my birth certificate in black marker!) because my parents erroneously thought that it would make it clear that my name should be pronounced to rhyme with sari. But in fact, as I discovered when I got to college and met people who spoke German, Märi is pronounced Mary. D’ohh! So I dropped the umlaut. I still have a copy of a book signed by Dave Barry, whom I met in my umlaut days. And yes, it is signed “Däve Bärry.”
Loved your take on how "punching down" has devolved from "picking on vulnerable people/groups" to "making any jokes about groups I have deemed 'underprivileged'" - it's absolutely demeaning to the group being "protected" and usually just shows who doesn't have a sense of humor. Besides, there's a HUGE difference between making jokes about the peccadillos of a specific group and simply attacking the group wholesale.
Does Substack give information on who is subscribed to who? (or is it whom?) Is that data available to everyone, or only people who write on the forum?
Anyway, I also read Freddie Deboer, and I would also pick him in a bear fight. He could probably just write a degrading article about the bear and have him slink away in shame.
It should be "who is subscribed to whom". It depends on whether you're talking about a subject (whatever is doing something) or an object (whatever is having something done to it). A good rule of thumb is you should use "whom" in the same situations you'd use "him". You'd say "he is subscribed to him".
Superior reference to Andrew Sullivan, among my favorites
>>> Composting is a disgusting waste of time and serves only to mark the composter as a social degenerate.
Even though I get that this was mostly a joke, I'd like to push back. Not only does composting work in *some* individual cases, it's also making good strides on the community level. My town has had a "food scraps recycling program" in place since 2017, and it seems to be going well. I can't find numbers on it, but the very fact that they haven't done away with it after this many years suggests it is, at worst, not too expensive. As for all of the upsides, see here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+are+the+benefits+of+composting
I live in a different city just about every month (no, I'm not a fugitive from justice, just a nomad), and one of the most tedious aspects of getting used to each new place is figuring out what to do with food scraps. Even in enlightened cities that have a program for this, the place where I'm staying (Airbnb or hotel) invariably never participates. So I have to find the nearest store that has a compost container (Whole Foods usually) or pay for a month of compost pickup; I've even been known to sneak my food scraps into someone else's curbside green cart (shhh!).
Learning the recycling rules for each place is equally tedious (glass? which metals? which plastics?). In some places I suspect that it's all just eco theater, like maybe the recyclables are so contaminated that they just go to the landfill or get incinerated. But I keep "doing the work," hoping that all my effort isn't totally pointless.
You are to be saluted for your efforts.
THANK YOU for exonerating me on the whole composting thing. Many years ago my husband wanted to buy a worm bin and keep it in the basement. I said hell no and continued to throw away food scraps and coffee grounds, but I always felt guilty and wasteful. Now I feel vindicated!
And I had to laugh at the umlaut bit at the beginning. My name used to have an umlaut (it’s even written on my birth certificate in black marker!) because my parents erroneously thought that it would make it clear that my name should be pronounced to rhyme with sari. But in fact, as I discovered when I got to college and met people who spoke German, Märi is pronounced Mary. D’ohh! So I dropped the umlaut. I still have a copy of a book signed by Dave Barry, whom I met in my umlaut days. And yes, it is signed “Däve Bärry.”
Loved your take on how "punching down" has devolved from "picking on vulnerable people/groups" to "making any jokes about groups I have deemed 'underprivileged'" - it's absolutely demeaning to the group being "protected" and usually just shows who doesn't have a sense of humor. Besides, there's a HUGE difference between making jokes about the peccadillos of a specific group and simply attacking the group wholesale.
Does Substack give information on who is subscribed to who? (or is it whom?) Is that data available to everyone, or only people who write on the forum?
Anyway, I also read Freddie Deboer, and I would also pick him in a bear fight. He could probably just write a degrading article about the bear and have him slink away in shame.
It should be "who is subscribed to whom". It depends on whether you're talking about a subject (whatever is doing something) or an object (whatever is having something done to it). A good rule of thumb is you should use "whom" in the same situations you'd use "him". You'd say "he is subscribed to him".
"If you could tag team with another substack columnist in an MMA match against a bear, who would you pick?"
I can't fucking believe you didn't pick me, lifelong hockey player.
https://twitter.com/copyranter/status/1748832551060595034
Thank you for answering my question! :)