Yes, words matter.

But the ends don’t justify the means. Morality isn’t outcome-oriented. It’s wrong to kill someone just for their words and ideas.

If the assassin had targeted the people enacting those ideas, that might be different. But assassinations tend to be a net negative. I can’t think of an exception.

There’s a long list of people taking our liberties away, and the guy who says stupid shit is pretty far down on that list. Words matter, but they’re not violence.

*you’re

Oh man. I remember the very small Castle Crashers vs. competitive scene on Xbox in 2008. I was 15th ranked in the world, and probably higher than that in actual skill.

I met a couple of really cool people on there. Most of us were about evenly matched, and a game could go either way.

But the number one player was this shit-talking child with a voice that could shatter glass. Normally I love shit-talkers in competitive scenes. I don’t tilt easy, so I feel like I get an edge on them.

But not this banshee. I don’t know if I ever even got a hit on him. I saw it as a challenge to overcome, but he just fucking wrecked me every time I saw him.

The gameplay in vs. was so crazy. Castle Crashers seems like a simple game, but with the right combos you could get airborne and never touch the ground. So most of the game was trying to get under your opponent so you could juggle them endlessly, back and forth across the screen. But you had to execute. It was tough to keep the combo going for long enough to beat someone in one go, and once you slipped up, they could do the same to you.

So my memory from that time was this shrill little fucker, gleefully shrieking about my mother while his brightly colored knight juggled mine back and forth across the top of the screen. Honestly kind of fitting for that game.

Back in the days of instant messenger, there was a girl I’d talk to for hours. We just connected in a way that we always had more to say to each other, about everything.

I’d say something in parentheses, and she’d respond in parentheses, and sometimes we’d end up holding two entirely different conversations at once.

I don’t have a lot of regrets in my life, but some of them involve her.

Yeah, stigma. Your experience doesn’t invalidate mine.

If it interferes with her school, we’ll probably have her tested. She may not even have it, and there’s no rush. For now she just gets to be who she is, no labels.

I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and we suspect my six-year-old daughter may have it for a lot of the same reasons you listed.

We don’t plan to have her diagnosed anytime soon, because we don’t want to put that stigma on her. We wouldn’t medicate her for it anyway.

It’s entirely possible it’s all just her being a six-year-old, so we approach her with patience and practical solutions. She lays out her school clothes the night before. We do our best to make meals interesting and varied. We have serious discussions about listening and give her gentle reminders. Her tv time is limited anyway, but we just pause it when we need to tell her something.

For my part, I don’t know if my life would have turned out better with an earlier diagnosis. The way it went, I feel like I learned some valuable coping skills. And it’s not like my diagnosis and treatment were some kind of magic fix. I still struggle with my ADHD.

A little more grace from my parents would have been nice, but they did their best and everything worked out with just a normal amount of grace.

You don’t know that it’s “most often”.

That’s just how you feel about it. You’re being judgmental but don’t have any idea.

Pretty sure it’s a reaction without any external energy input, which this is, but again, I’m no astronaut.

That’s how basically all our fruits started. Do you think some ancient person just stumbled across a watermelon one day? Fuck no. They found something as disgusting as olives, decided it was good enough, then hundreds of years of selective breeding happened.

Have you ever seen a wild banana? It’s bullshit. You’d peel it open and that’s what you’d say: “This is bullshit.”

Meanwhile olives have been cultivated for olive oil for thousands of years, so that’s probably why people kept growing them in their bitter form.

Yes, it’s misused sometimes. And it sounds like you agree that sometimes it’s the right word for the situation.

If a man inaccurately and smugly trying to correct a female astronaut, punctuating it with “Simple thermo”, isn’t the right time to use “mansplaining”, then when would be?

I’m pretty sure he didn’t make a fair point. I haven’t taken any thermodynamics classes, but I think the word “spontaneous” means something more specific in this context and is technically accurate.

He’s trying to one up her by using the common definition.

So he’s wrong on multiple levels here, and there’s no reason to pick apart the meaningless social media post accusing him of mansplaining.

Sometimes people are being sexist. Mansplaining is a real thing that happens. You may not see the need for the word because you personally don’t need it, but maybe you can understand that there a lot of people who do need it?

I’ve never heard of a disco clam before, but it makes sense if you think about Sam Clam’s Disco.

Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Jane from Tarzan.

Depends where you are. Louisiana? Still pretty good. Houston? They changed their suppliers years ago so now instead of getting tenders they just get gristle. 100% gristle. Totally unchewable.

Layne’s is better. Same concept, but executed well.

It wouldn’t shut up about it.

I’d clear it with the couple. It’s their day.

I would have thought you’d pick the more obvious example of Dexter Holland, from the Offspring, who has a PhD in molecular biology. Apparently the line “Gotta keep 'em separated” from Come Out and Play was inspired by two chemicals that he had to keep separated.

I like prompt refills. I’m happy to tip for that.