I love most of what he’s written, and he is prolific and the books are different from each other.

One of the odd effects I’ve noticed with the last round of inflation is that prices are converging. Cheaper places raised prices more than more expensive places. I never liked McDonald’s - the french fries are good but I’ve never chosen to go there, only had them incidentally. But it was cheap. Not now, it’s more like going anywhere, so why would you go there? As someone else said, I can get tacos down the street, closer than any fast food place and they are pretty fast, or we go to the cafe up the street, they did have inflation but at least the money stays local.

Like @Broadfern@lemmy.world I miss the subreddit abrathatfits.

You are correct you don’t see 30C on the ground much, but it’s the right size for someone with 30" ribcage and 33" bust.

And you are further correct that it would just look to you, when undressed, like what I and most of the non bra buying world think of as an “A cup”.

Now I have about 33" under bust and 37" or 38" or so bust, really don’t have to wear a bra at all, this still is small boobs, but the size that fits when I do wear a bra (like for work) is 34D.

If I was making up the bra sizing though - I would use:

Band size in inches (or cm, of course)

Wire width (A-K where A is tennis ball curve and K is basketball curve)

Cup volume (maybe measure like they do with implants, in cc? From say 100 to 1500, or wherever bra scaffolding fails)

So I would be something like a 34 D 300, and you are thinking of a 34D 600, who would be oozing out of my bras, and I would be swimming in hers. Right now in the bra world neither of us are really well served.

You can look at bratabase if you are interested in what the sizes really look like on different people, different boobs.

Maybe but the difference between small boobs and big is fat so probably both would increase, depends on the distribution of where they put on fat.

And see above - I literally had to buy a 34DD in the last bra I got and nobody would call me stacked, nobody. On the smaller band sizes the cup sizes are smaller. When I was underweight and flat, 30C, because 30a is for ping pong ball width boobs. It was frustrating. Bras need 3 measurements not 2. Volume should be separate from diameter.

I answered above but besides the increase in obesity (if it was fat causing the increase the band size would increase too) the sizing scheme has changed so a 34D is like an old 34B.

The real average is probably more like a 38 something, as the average waist is up to 38 and ribcage unlikely to be smaller.

Bra sizing is whack. I got a bra, and asked my husband “what size does this look like?”. He answered 34B. I agree that’s what it looks like, but it’s a 34DD. I have small boobs, the sizing doesn’t work the way it used to and honestly I’m glad because before I was a negative size, nothing fit. Small boobs stay close but small bra sizes are small in the wrong dimension - if small boobs are champagne glasses, small bras are made for half-lemons.

So now they say - under bust is band size, cup is bust minus band so if I have 37" bust and 33" under, they look small, are small, but do usually fit 34D. It’s like the opposite of vanity sizing, but much more inclusive at the small end of sizes.

Oh, and speaking of Charley we were lucky enough to have the Charley Crockett/Leon Bridges show come through, holy crap, I’d seen both of them live before but getting TWO great performers in one night, wow. And that intersection between county and R&B is such pleasant music.

I saw Joshua Ray Walker open for Marcus King and didn’t even like his show but looked him up and found his recorded work to be incredible, THEN he found out he had cancer and that was part of why the live show was weak, nothing to do with his music, and says he is recovering now, but I felt so uncharitable thinking the show sucked when he was dealing with something so awful.

But anyway - I do use streaming but like you find bands other ways, opening acts, radio, sometimes Brooklyn Vegan, that site posts about bands I’ve never heard of, I listen and find stuff I like (and a lot I don’t).

I figure out how to not use a printer because they are nonsense expensive pieces of crap. The small amount of printing I have to do I do at work. Told the kids to use the ones at school, that 5cents a page is never going to reach the cost of owning a printer at the rate we print.

Oh no, they didn’t believe me and got a printer. Or, more correctly, got their aunt to buy them one because I was denying them, almost abuse they whined. As soon as it ran out of ink, back to printing at school. They figured out what an expensive pain in the ass piece of equipment it is for themselves.

My mom had a black and white one that used toner, when it had to be changed you better be wearing black clothes and rubber gloves.

I think this is closer. I read once that the happiest people in the world were conservatives living in countries with a strong social safety net, and lots of government subsided programs, because they simultaneously benefited from the programs and believed their success was something they achieved on their own.

So even if they were poor and got out, they take a different lesson from it. Not “there but for the grace of God go I” or “wow, I’m so glad I got subsidized education and food when I needed it so that I could get here” but more “I got mine fuck you”

Where I live - wages have always been shitty but it was a low cost of living city (we literally had the lowest grocery prices in the nation and housing market was “depressed”. You could and can always get a job of some sort here, and because costs were low a roommate or two got you through with money to go to shows on the weekend or have a car. And a cat!

Housing and food now are average for the nation but wages are still lower here than average.

My NET pay after taxes and benefits and 401k is not twice the average rent for a one bedroom apartment here now. And you used to be able to rent houses so cheap, there were slumlords and people who owned a couple of houses and rented one out. No more. A house costs more than my whole monthly net to rent, before electricity or water, just the rent.

We bought a house for 5x what my old shithole of a house did cost (and there are none of those left, they get flipped or torn down for luxury housing) and even that amount would be cheap for it now, and we love it, but yeah we struggle with the cost to pay for it and maintain it. That’s a choice, yes, and we know it, but in a very limited set of choices.

All that is being built is high end expensive housing but there are not many people here earning enough for that.

Well. I made 35k in 1996 so apparently my salary has kept up with inflation, maybe? Google says that is like 75k today. 106.4% increase.

Together we do hit that 6 figures but

Housing cost increased by 500%

Grocery cost increased here by 500%

Electric bills by 300%

Those are the essentials, right? Other things, clothing and gas, didn’t go up as much but I drive less and (except for menopause, damn you) stay pretty much the same size and bought some items that last well, so it’s more discretionary.

I figure I’d have to be making closer to 200k to be making my 1996 salary with regard to essentials. Maybe more. I’m certainly NOT making that.

Well not half an hour probably but sometimes I want to wash my hair, shave my legs, have a comprehensive shower.

Other times it’s a 5 minute quick wash of face, underarms, crotch, & feet, before bed.

What are you drying that takes only a minute though? Do you not have hair?

Like someone else said in the thread, when I had hair past my butt it took longer, but that I only washed once a week because it took 2 days to dry.

Ooh a debutante. Does he get a fancy dress and a coming out party? How exactly do you get jumped into that club?

I come in when I get to work. And leave when I’m done. Not at a time. So happy to work where I do, they don’t care. one of my department comes in at 8 or before and leaves at 4:30 (16:30), I just try to make it in before 10 and usually leave around 6, so I can garden in the morning and yoga in the evening.

Lifestraw filter pitcher. We have hard water and good coffee, so I guess it’s working.

It doesn’t like to grow here (not enough winter, and summer too wet) but my grandma in Arkansas always planted garlic all along her fence line in her yard.

My daughter came over once & I had fresh sourdough I’d made so I offered her bread and water.

“May I offer you fresh sourdough with butter and chilled filtered water?”

Yes I don’t get tired of that. Good bread is good. So good.

I do, they just think it’s an unrealistic world, not a bad one. Something that could never happen here.

My dad’s mom’s Oyster Dressing. I do not miss merliton (chayote) though. She was from New Orleans but grew up rich, not a very dedicated cook, but that Oystah Dressin, I liked it and don’t know how she did it.

My mom’s mom was oh so southern and made such good biscuits and fried chicken, but what I miss are the pecans. After her abusive husband died (she divorced him at like 65 years old, finally had enough and he just left and died!). She had a pecan tree and would sit on her porch with her boyfriend and shell pecans for hours, and give us a bag when we left, I loved them.