I thought of this question because someone joked about double-dipping their hands in the chocolate fountain at Golden Corral and boy did that invoke one of my least favorite paying-for-college memories.

Yes, someone did dip his hands into the chocolate fountain at the Golden Corral. Worse, he was a repeat offender, a man that was at least in his 30s if not older slurping it off of his fingers and all, sometimes while making eye contact with me or my coworkers. Worse, there was no enforced rule against doing so, at least at my location, so my manager just told me to let him do it, don't make a big deal out of it, and hope he doesn't bother anyone else.

That same manager once insisted on me making the place extra clean a little before Christmas, so they insisted that I use double the amount of cleaning bleach in the same bucket. I explained that's not how cleaning works or how OSHA compliance works. I got a write-up. I said that wasn't an offense that qualified for a write-up, and what they said was "thanks for the tip, I'll find something that is. Your word against mine."

That same manager punched me out early without telling me, because the place wasn't perfect enough before I left over an hour late, missing my family waiting to pick me up outside by that long to go out to do holiday stuff. I did call that in on the supposedly anonymous tip line later, but you can guess what happens when an anonymous tip about wage theft is called in on a manager that already knows who would call in that tip in a "right to work" situation.

That same manager was fired a week later for embezzlement, and not the cool kind. They were writing up and firing people for months for money missing from the register. I found out when collecting my last check and noticed someone new.

Mine's an easy pick that happened only a few days ago and it went something like this:

"Paying janitors and fruit pickers more won't actually improve their situation. I live in Germany where anyone can afford an apartment for only $800 a month. You live in the US where the GDP is much higher yet janitors and fruit pickers are still complaining because they are entitled. Your country basks in untold riches and even the poor are objectively richer there. Things are as good as they will ever be for those who do work that no one wants to do."

For me the easiest tell is the up front, unprompted, and unsolicited declaration of nonpoliticalness. When someone takes the time and expends the breath to announce how nonpolitical they are, what follows is almost always a rant about how everything/everyone else is too political these days, and that of course leads into something between status quo advocacy and outright reactionary/regressive sentiments for some fabled time before those wicked politics were visible to the nonpolitical ranter.

People that are hostile to service workers. Some just want to take some ideological stand against tipping when the service worker doesn't really have a choice and needs those tips to survive in the current unjust system in a way where ideological purity gestures toward that service worker just look like being a greedy and sanctimonious asshole. The worst of such people will actually declare, shamelessly, that they believe that service workers don't deserve a living wage. The implications of that are worthy.

I may get shit for this, but I'll say it anyway: this hair and beard combo, seen on living people. I have yet to meet anyone in person with that look that wasn't a chud.

(If one of you is a comrade with that look, I am sorry in advance for the prejudice and if I ever meet you in person I will atone by buying you a drink or something.)

The sheer fucking hubris of it all. The unexamined and unjustified hype wave. The "influencers" peddling the damn thing with naked cynicism. The recycled maps that often just took the same assets and tilted them sideways. The laughably bad QA allowing almost anything to be put in the chat box.

The way it just... stopped being relevant.

That is all.

I know the brand/studio reasons, but all I can come up with for in-setting lore reason is that Mirandas require less resources/crew/maintenance, but it still seems like a sharp contrast between the service lives of both ships where, as far as I can tell, the Excelsior-class may have required more resources/crew/maintenance and that judging by size and a history of jankiness alone (I love the ship, I really do, but it's still an in-setting thing) and even the Constellation seemed to be kept around at least a little longer than the Constitution.

Anyone got any sources about this that make it feel justified besides the studio/suits deciding "we don't want audiences to confuse anything on screen for the TMP refit" ?

I think that lady looks more attractive after getting burned out on Hegel. I dunno why.

Whenever there is something like a writers strike, just remember that we really don't need entertainment or whatever more than the people making that entertainment need healthcare and a decent wage.

Too bad the :libertarian-approaching: answer to the question of "why do we obey the legal fiction that is money" is "time to make a worse money!" :cryptocurrency: :dumpster-fire: