I sold my Fiesta before a cross-country move and if I’d known I was never going to be able to get a small car again I would have paid to have it shipped…

Italy has recently changed their requirements and now language proficiency and residency are required. But yes, up until very recently heritage was mostly enough.

Italian ancestry can qualify you for citizenship, that’s not the best example.

Source: me, American of Italian ancestry working to get dual citizenship

I am not saying you’re wrong about the commercialism aspect, but I think of it a little differently. Many people are uncomfortable receiving a gift without reciprocating or if there is no “reason” like a life event. The holidays are a set time to do a gift exchange, and reciprocity is more likely to be possible. I buy gifts literally all year long, but often hold on to them until Christmas time if I know the recipient will be more comfortable doing a gift exchange rather than being surprised. Part of being a good gift-giver is sussing out the type of gift receiver you are dealing with (I don’t tend to give Christmas present to folks who have made it clear they hate Christmas).

Undergrad in History and International Relations, because I intended to become a diplomat. Realized an anxiety disorder was probably not going to make that a good career choice. Decided to go to nursing school, got an associates in “science” working on the pre-reqs and then decided to go to grad school for public health and epidemiology instead.

Honestly I love school, I don’t regret any of it except that I was too nervous about quitting my job (I worked my way through to cover what grants and loans didn’t) to do a term abroad. I should have taken the five weeks in Berlin.

I think it’s “move fast TO break things” these days…

This is exactly the purpose. I am largely against banning things but it’s SOCIAL media. Parents who want to make the objectively correct decision for their child have to go up against the zeitgeist and risk complete isolation of their kids in exchange.

Civica is launching insulin glargine in early 2026 specifically because of that bullshit.

I think this is just a more common anecdote for older generations. As a child I remember my dad taking me to his old neighborhood in NYC. It must have been over 15 years since he’d been back but all the business owners remembered him and greeted him by name.

I went back as an adult a few years ago and all those shops are gone and the neighborhood is completely gentrified. It’s just a different world now.

I haven’t seen this mentioned elsewhere, but at least in my anecdotal experience women seeking taller men is another symptom of patriarchy being toxic to everybody.

When I was growing up the pressure on women was to be as thin as possible - in essence, take up as little space as possible. I love the body positivity movement for starting to change that mentality but for me the damage was done in my formative years and has never gone away. It has resulted in me being physically uncomfortable if I am the biggest person in the room. The taller/broader a guy, the smaller I am by comparison. It’s completely fucked up, I’m quite tall so there are LOTS of incredibly attractive men shorter/thinner than me but I could not have been comfortable dating any of them without a lot of therapy for myself first.

I never put anything like “nobody under 6ft” on a dating profile, though, so maybe I’m off-base.

Some also have quiet rooms you can reserve. Library was my first thought too.

Mormons read the Bible. They’d be Trek super-fans who think their favorite fic-writer is better than Roddenberry, but they would have watched ToS and NG at least.

Source: raised cultist. Have a Mormon “quad” of all the holy texts somewhere in storage.

Return to Dark Tower is about $200.

It would restore some of my faith that my fellow Americans don’t suck as much as I currently think they do. Y’know, before we all get rounded up to die in camps together.

I grew up in a cult where the expectation was that I’d get married and have multiple children. Luckily my own parents somehow managed to raise me right in spite of the indoctrination, and when I went to college I realized both that I could choose and that I didn’t want kids.

After my partner and I had been together for 15 years or so, we started seriously rethinking being child free. It was something we decided to do together. My kid is now about to turn 9. I adore him and love spending time with him. I still don’t much like other children and I never considered going through pregnancy again. My partner and I have talked about potentially fostering or adopting if we manage to retire early, but I’m content either way.

Outer Range for a newer cancellation, Dark Matter and Kings still sting.

Not as beautiful anymore, the inversion/air pollution is so bad in SLC you can’t see the mountains clearly most of the time.

Anecdotal, but I think this tracks with what you’re asking. I have never been obese, but due to family history of both connective tissue disorders and diabetes it has always been extremely important to me that I keep my weight in a normal range. It took an intense amount of mental effort on my part, religious food tracking and extensive exercise for decades.

When I started on a GLP-1 (due to a weird health situation that’s not really relevant), the amount of mental energy I needed to expend to maintain my weight was suddenly gone. I don’t feel sugar cravings like I used to, so I don’t need to stay so vigilant about my diet. I don’t spend my days monitoring my intake, planning out a rigorous fasting schedule, working out more than I’m naturally inclined to just to counteract that brownie I couldn’t stop myself from eating. It’s both a literal and emotional weight off. I am taking a very low dose but even so I honestly can’t believe the difference. I am one of the ones who was will-powering through calories in/calories out and it was miserable. Now it’s just…not.

I was finally in a position to buy my first home just after the 2008 recession. Just a fluke of timing, and just enough to afford a hundred year old bungalow, but that luck gave me leverage. Sold the house 5 years later when I had a kid, paid off my college debt, and moved to a lower COL area. Never could have happened if I’d bought earlier or later.

Same. I also expected to like all children more after having mine, but I don’t. Even though I adore my kid, I still dislike children.