Outside of the US, stuff is at least not as bleak. It’s a bit harder to destroy things that have been established for so long. Like in New Orleans, things had been established for a long time and it took a natural disaster (Katrina) to destroy the independent venues. But there are no protections against late stage capitalism in the US. Often, taxes alone will destroy independent venues. And yeah, I don’t have any hope in the US government doing anything to help. It would sooner call all music a form of terrorism and make it illegal.

Do you live outside of the United States or something? Or just not go to concerts? Live Nation owns almost all of the small venues too. They’ve bought nearly everything out, and the few remaining independent venues are on life support. And if you’re a local band, good luck. 20 years ago, venues would pay you to play. But now you have to pay them like $200 just for the privilege of playing at a small venue with a 350 person capacity. In my city less than 20 years ago, I remember being able to walk downtown in the music district on any day of the week, and there would be over a dozen venues right next to each other all playing something different. It could be a Tuesday night. Music was everywhere, and tickets were $6-20. But there was also tons of free stuff. But after the venues all got bought out, that all stopped. There’s not enough big money in music 7 days every week. A lot of venues now only have shows as little as twice a month. And then they’ll want to charge $70+.

Why shouldn’t we be outraged? Music culture is being destroyed. Your “stop going to shows” solution isn’t a solution. Nobody is going to concerts several times in a week anymore. What there once was has been destroyed. Live Nation needs to die.

Don’t forget about Peruvian food with G - literally some of the best food on the planet. Since the contest began in 2012, Peru has won World’s Leading Culinary Destination in the World Travel Awards every single year except for one. But a lot of people have no idea that the cuisine even exists. G also has a lot of fusion foods such as Vietcajun and Chifa.

But if you’re vegetarian, D is the obvious choice.

To say he was a generally great guy really overlooks how awful he was to women. He was no doubt brilliant, but he had some very serious character flaws. And unfortunately, he had an echo chamber of peers and a rockstar celebrity status that only worked to reinforce his shitty behavior and backwards views. It’s not super uncommon for brilliant people to be absolutely nightmares on a personal level. Imagine being an absolutely brilliant scientist that gets married only to be completely forbidden from science and the things you love, and then reduced to being a maid for a madman with tons of insanely particular demands.

It keeps eroding away. I’ve had skilled jobs where the expectation was 8-5 without any breaks at all. “If you need to eat, you can do it at your desk while you’re working.”

I spent 5 days backpacking to Berg Lake, and Snowbird Pass in 2018, and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Kinney Lake is beautiful, but what came after Whitehorse was absolutely insane. I can’t imagine how it’s changed since the flood, especially Emperor Falls. Definitely go back when you can do the whole thing. Snowbird Pass is a challenge (probably best to start early from the Robson Pass campground), but even if you don’t make the whole trail, whatever you can make is incredible (and if you can make the entire thing, it keeps getting better).

In Asia, there’s what’s called Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai okra, but those are actually in a completely different plant family than actual okra and closely related to squash. If picked while immature, they’re said to taste similar to actual okra. You can find them in Asian markets. They’re in the luffa genius and if fully grown, they’re used like sponges for scrubbing.

You can online. And if you haven’t ever had curry ketchup, prepare for your life to change.