Post a controversial opinion

I miss smoking in bars. OK, not really but it makes me a little nostalgic for a time that seems less complicated. It does seem insane to think about how many shows I smoked at while right in the middle of a crowded audience probably dancing and drunk. It's amazing we didn't all just burn the crap out of one another but maybe we did and I've conveniently forgotten that part.

when I visited Raleigh in December 2007 it was the last winter before its smoking ban kicked in, but Florida had gone smoke-less since 2003 and it felt like another century.

I definitely remember getting cig burns on my hand while dancing and from people waving their arms around.

when I was 15 I was with a bunch of friends and we stopped at a park for a cigarette break (since the driver was driving his parents' car). there was six of us and I was the only one who didn't smoke. anyway one of the guy's parents drives by and he freaks out and hands me the cigarette b/c his parents were very much against smoking. I take the bullet but later get lectured by his parents. Good times.

i always kinda envied people who smoked after the smoking ban because it was real easy to kick up a conversation with a woman in a bar that way..."you got a heater??" that worked pretty well for me though it did result in one awkward moment where I had to come clean about not smoking

wait hang on - a "heater"?

that's exactly how he draws them in

I would literally prefer being chloroformed into unconsciousness than being around smokers in any context.

"chloroformed into unconsciousness" i dig that

I've never heard "heater" in my life. Ha. I love regional slang. Is that regional? I remember being really confused when the kids at that youth center I worked at asked me for squares. I still don't get where that originates. I have a theory but I have no idea if I'm right.

Re: em dashes, I learned from *cough* an editor at Pitchfork, can't remember who *cough* that they as a website prefer their em dashes to have no space before and one space after-- like this-- because it doesn't confuse browsers when they need to change wrap-around points-- the em dash is firmly attached to the word it follows. I like it

And yes yes I am aware that em dashes are distinct from ellipses and semi-colons. However, the thought process that I engage in when selecting which one to employ, and alter my sentence structure to accommodate, is distinctly defined by the level of familiarity I have with the subject and the formality of the content. [moves conversation to the "post a tedious opinion" thread]

two dashes do not an em dash make

I miss smoking in bars but then I was somebody who smoked in bars so I would. Cancer's probably gonna get you anyway

I am very disappointed in all the people who prefer hamburger to pizza in the other thread. I feel like there are some childhood issues there.

I guess my perhaps-not-that-controversial opinion is that copy-editing punctuation pedantry is a sneaky guilt-free way of dismissing the writing of lower-class people who have never even met an editor but have taken the time to work on their writing style, use spell checkers, etc. Not that I'm accusing anyone here of that exactly, at least everyone has the self-awareness to realise that it doesn't really matter.

I've already said all I have to say about boring hamburgers.

I've never heard "heater" in my life. Ha. I love regional slang. Is that regional?

lol I guess so

Tbh I did the 2 spaces after a full stop because I was taught to do it and kinda got that impression too but my "class" fwiw is mess anyway.

toilet paper should unspool from underneath, so that the loose end hangs near the wall

That is a controversial opinion. And I should know

Only in savages' private homes does toilet paper look like this.

I will die on this hill

I couldn't care less if toilet paper hangs over the top or the bottom. I never ever notice this. Who the fuck cares????

Don Henley of the Eagles apparently

For a split second the thought crossed my mind that maybe Don Henley had died while switching the toilet paper roll.

that's what 'GEt Over It' was about

ENBB I have been upbraided for this choice, people are vicious

I mean in restaurants/hotels/hospitality etc. you definitely have it hanging in the front. The stuff sticks with you.

sometimes, esp on those harder jobs

toilet paper should unspool from underneath, so that the loose end hangs near the wall

― motorpsycho nightmare winningham (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, March 29, 2018 1:38 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

savagery

I feel like my real controversial opinions are way too assholish for this thread.

Honestly I couldn't give a shit how you hang your tp as long as it exists but I felt obliged

sir yes sir

being insensitive to bidet owners tbh

Aren't you supposed to wipe after using a bidet??? *googling*

I think the super-fancy japanese ones have a blow dry option

Yeah, I don't like that blow dry option on the Japanese ones. I like the music option and the oscillator.

It's really all about the heated seat and stream.

During the allegedly halcyon simpler smoking times, I remember using a totally separate coat for going to rock concerts in winter, because otherwise my normal everyday coat would reek for days. The smokers themselves were nose-blind to it, so couldn't understand why anyone might mind or think it unpleasant.

yeah, the last smoking bar i went to was in missouri and even though it was a freezing cold night i ended up going back out to my car and leaving my heavy coat in the backseat before heading back in, just so that i wouldn't have to send it to the drycleaners afterward

yeah. when i was a kid my parents smoked so much that hobos would accost us on the way to school, my little brother and me, begging to lick the rich yellow nicotine glaze from our chortling faces. it all seemed perfectly normal at the time, and the pocket change they sometimes offered did help extend our meager allowance. perhaps a bit odd in retrospect, i cannot deny.

anyway, my controversial opinion is that controversy and opinions both pretty much suck, and doubly so when combined.

i'm not sure how controversial this is here but i think a good way for humanity to survive climate change is to limit the amount of children anyone can have to two max via some kind of automated birth control mechanism installed in everyone. like birth control should be free and available to all women everywhere, but also after two everyone is infertile.

obviously that's impossible to do but damn it people need to stop having babies

if elon musk spent his mars money on giving women easy and free access to birth control we might actually make some progress on having a habitable planet 100 years from now.

geoengineering ourselves into quasi-conscious (semi-intentional?) extinction seems morally equivalent. you're taking something that works a certain way, changing it for almost everyone, and then hoping the results improve at some point in the future.

The easiest way to reduce birth rates to or below replacement is to lift large populations out of poverty, not engage in social engineering.

agreed. really i just want to socially engineer mormon baby-makers out of existence.

but seriously i think it's pretty obvious that the root cause of global warming and related crises is exponential population growth.

No, it isn’t.

ok