Apple butter is an underrated condiment. I used to eat it on pancakes instead of syrup as a kid, and I put it in oatmeal and such as an adult. I don’t have it often nowadays, but there’s a place that produces it and other fruit butters nearby, and there’s occasionally some other brands in stores and roadside shops.

For those that haven’t had it, I guess imagine baked apples or an apple dumpling but reduced down so it is super concentrated into something spreadable.

Very nice! I’m into whatever info you have to share! Always down to learn more about other cultures.

If you ever assemble anything to read, I’d love to hear about some of what you’ve learned about owls or the Nahuatl in general. You’ve had to have put in a lot of hard work and I’m sure you’ve connected a ton of great random bits of history and culture.

I wasn’t going to say anything here, because I’ve been trying to self promote less now that we’re a big enough group, but that so many upvoted this without any kind of promoting felt really nice.

Especially from someone like you who has stuck around a long time now without even being super interested in the subject matter tells me I’m doing something right.

I have a hard time thinking I ever accomplish much of anything important, but a number of you have said some really nice things the last week or so and it’s meant a lot to me. I try my best to show that appreciation back, and I hope I do that.

And I’ll always argue that even though I provide most of the posts, it wouldn’t be a fun place without all of you that do come and comment or just keep the place active and a generally good place to be. It encourages me to keep giving it my best efforts even if I’m not typically a super social person. You’re a really great group and I feel fortunate you share your time with me.

PS. Chicuahtli forever!

It’s used to it! Whoooooo!!!

We just lost my fiance’s mom 2 weeks ago. They’re a very close, very big family and their mom was a true matriarch. She also didn’t leave any plans for any of the complex situations she’s left behind, so her and her sisters have been stuck in all this legal and business drama instead of being able to grieve, and they just lost their dad at the end of last year.

We just got engaged this summer and she was already heartbroken her dad wouldn’t be there, and now she suddenly has no parents when she would talk to them every day. I’m not a big people person, but both her parents were really good to her and they all loved each other very much, and I feel really crushed this holiday season, so I can’t begin to feel what they all must be feeling.

You have my sympathy. It stinks. I liked her parents more than most of my own family, and I’m sad I won’t have anyone but my brother anymore to have good family time with.

I’m sure you had a really great mom, and I hope you get a proper chance to find the closure you need eventually and get to remember all the positive things again. I hope this was helpful, I feel I’m not great expressing emotional things, as I’m not used to feeling that close to many people, so please take this as my deepest sympathy and caring.

Thank you for the great reply. I know your modern brand recommendations, but the reconditions for older brands is a great idea I’ll have to look into.

For anyone that has contractor grade faucets, if you ever get to handle a higher end faucet, or even a lot of the commercial fixtures and compare them to the cheap stuff, it should be night and day.

I replaced my faucets before attempting to sell my house and used ok stuff to modernize, but they’re still low end. I ended up not moving, and I treat them nice so they’re doing ok.

But they all have plastic internals, the weight is much less, the parts wobble more, and the finish isn’t holding up as well as I’d expect of a premium faucet. Even when right out the box, they aren’t as nice as a decades old name brand faucet.

They’re made to meet a price point. While they will get you the look (potentially) of a high end faucet, it won’t hold up like one with better fit and finish, and if it does need repair, your chances of getting the part is likely much better.

Do you want a buy it for life faucet? Or do you need one to last a couple years? Spend accordingly. There’s a market for both, and people need to determine which product is right for them.

If you require some superb owls, we just started the quarter finals of the 2nd Annual Lemmy Owl of the Year bracket tournament over at your federated owl-ternative destination, !superbowl@lemmy.world.

I read the interview as a 380 page paper on a subject I don’t really understand seemed a bit ambitious. I linked it, as I didnt know who did the report, and I wanted to hear her summary in her own words.

The comments here are full of people defending one side or the other, but no one seems to be providing any sources. This seems to be a difficult subject to approach if one isn’t seeking to affirm an existing stance. Both sides just seem to say “show me the proof” back and forth because neither will acknowledge the other.

You seem to be at least leaning in favor of the report. If you have any noob appropriate links to supporting info, I’d look at them.

She makes it hard to feel out what her actual position is, which in a way is probably what she should do, but is also very frustrating because being on neither side feels disingenuous as a default these days. I don’t know enough about her to really feel I know for sure.

We had decades (centuries?) of people not getting this care. There were definitely negatives to that. We’ve had maybe now a couple decades of increasing HRT/puberty blocker stuff. I’ve heard positive stories. Everything makes it sound reversible should the need arise. Everything against it seems to not be evenly distributed across the political spectrum so walking it back feels political based on what I’ve heard cumulatively.

Keeping it as research seems it would greatly reduce its availability, and if it causes people to suffer or die, that’s not something that can be taken back, unlike stopping hormone treatment or puberty blockers seems to be. That’s the part that concerns me.

I don’t know much about the issues, but I try to stay informed, so I don’t want to go trashing this lady’s report. From all I’ve read though, a lot of doctors already have to sign off on patients before it comes to these treatments, so canceling that now seems to overrule a wide range of medical and mental doctors for a dubious position.

I don’t know about the issue enough for me to comment on if she is biased or not, but I found this NYT interview (archive.org link) and she really seems to try to be playing both sides to me. Her main arguement seems to be don’t treat this as an issue to resolve gender, that makes you ignore mental health/depression/other things, but with there not being the best care of that nature available for trans individuals, what avenue is left for them?

It sounds like she wants to go on about a lack of enough proof for her to stop treatment, but it also doesn’t sound like she has enough proof to say it’s harmful, but that doesn’t seem to discourage her helping eliminate it.

I forgot the emergency updates. My gf will send me links of that stuff well before it ever hits the news, if it even makes the actual news.

Like I mentioned in my comment, I think that it still has a huge user base and it’s free makes it still be the default tool for casting a quick message to the most people for free.

I have the Messenger app since some of my best friends still prefer it. It also seems to be useful for occasions where I run into problems sending something to someone via RCS. Not sure if it’s an occasional hiccup since I’m on Android and they’re all iPhone users, but Messenger never has that problem with us.

I don’t use the Facebook app, but I am on there for an extended time every day. I use it to get the bulk of my content for !superbowl@lemmy.world since all the animal rescues use it. It’s free and still has a huge audience, so it makes sense for them to share their content there. I take the hit and subscribe to every rescue, rehab, and wildlife photographers I come across, filter through all the fake stuff, scams, and privacy violations, and bring the best of it here to share with you all so you don’t need to do it. No need for us all to suffer.

They share important info, but I get why most people here want nothing to do with it. It’s the only practical way to get info for a large group of charities though, so it’s still a necessary evil for some niche purposes like mine.

I am a big fan of most zoos too, so I wouldn’t want anyone to write them off completely. As I’ve gotten to learn more about the animals, when I get time to talk to staff now, I’ve been getting more info on the regulations and licensing they have to navigate, and transitioning from a place helping animals to one that also displays animals is a pretty big leap, and that is going to require much more overhead. While many cases won’t be as extreme as a huge zoo like OP was looking at, that would seem to be what leads to larger and larger zoos starting to look more like a typical corporation on paper like that.

I suggest donating to your local wild animal rescue/rehabber. They’re all volunteer based. They receive $0 public money. The public rarely sees the work they do. They’re doing physically and mentally taxing work purely for the love of animals.

They typically all have a donation page, and many have Amazon Wishlists where you can send them cleaning, maintenance, or medical supplies directly if you’re worried about the money going to something you might not intend.

Nothing will go to people. You won’t have to question if you’re really help an animal that may or may not exist in a country you’ll never see. They’re your neighborhood animals.

As the !superbowl@lemmy.world person here, I look specifically for a raptor rehabbers to donate to, and I share links to those rescues worldwide.

I can’t find my link to the world rescue database, but for a US based one, you can look here or just Google up “wild animal rescue near me” and you should get some options.

I still feel grateful for being in the right place to help out some people many years ago.

I was headed to meet some friends down at the shore and right when I got to town , I stopped by McDonald’s to grab something to eat. It was pretty empty, just the employees and 2 groups of kids.

There were 4 young teen girls and 3 or 4 older teen boys, and from the second I walked in, I saw the girls were very uncomfortable and the guys kept trying to get them to leave with them. They were trying to call someone to pick them up but nobody could come get them from what I could tell.

It was very dark out and the town was deserted, so I assumed they were not locals either so they didn’t have many options.

I asked them if they wanted a ride and they quickly said yes and literally jumped in my car as fast as they could. They were a decent number of blocks away, and they were very happy to be back at their rental.

I assume nothing serious would have happened, but it probably would have made the rest of their trip shitty if they had to worry if those guys knew where they were staying. I couldn’t have just ignored them without offering to help though, they all seemed on the verge of tears.

It was a little mind blowing how they’d just jump in a stranger’s car, but I was at least a neutral party when the other guys were already verified creeps. I wasn’t much older, about 20, so not in creepy old man territory yet, so that probably helped. As I said, I still think about how I got to be someone’s champion that day, and it makes me feel good to know I helped out.

I imagine you’re an adult, so you should have a decent radar for picking out some non-creep stranger. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I didn’t have much time to process the situation until after the girls had left, but seeing someone desperate for help I’d think would have most people willing to accommodate getting you to your car or a better public place. Most people are good and would help out if asked.

I saw the mention of it protecting abortion rights, but I was confused about that because as far as I know, nowhere requires someone to be married for abortions or any type of healthcare.

The quotes and comments I saw made it sound like the stance was this doesnt happen enough we should risk losing any rights unnecessarily, but I feel there should have been some specifics mentions what those rights they’re protecting actually were. The stats seem all over the place too, from as low as IIRC around 50 child marriages since 2019 to an estimated 1600.

This all seems like something people should have some real facts and figures on, but that I cant find them is really raising my eyebrows for a number of reasons.

My first thought was what’s up with California?

I could find a bunch of articles talking about the usual stuff like conservatives and evangelicals arguing in favor of avoiding a ban, but Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are also frequent supporters of avoiding a ban on child marriage. The only reasoning I could find was “we don’t have enough data,” but I’m struggling to think of any positive things about allowing it. From the articles, it sounded like fringe religious beliefs and questionable things regarding immigration laws, but I am skeptical the pros of allowing child marriage for those outweigh a number of cons I could name.

I wasn’t able to find any actual articles from PP or ACLU themselves about it, so does anyone have any insight? This seems a bit out of character for both orgs.

It is unfortunate. I try and be mindful around new people to look visibly happy, or at least not in a bad mood. But I can’t fault anyone for playing it safe. Especially since being harassed isn’t something you can undo or something anyone should have to build a tolerance for. They may have also been in a previous incident that we don’t know about.

If they’re overreacting or not isn’t really a strangers’ business. We start to venture into egocentrism to think their behaviors have anything to do with us. It’s just a live and let live thing. There’s plenty of people over been nice to, and they still never liked me for one reason or another, but it’s no biggie.

If it was a repeated thing, like they saw you every day and actively avoided you, that’s a somewhat different story, but some person we only see once, it’s not worth the mental energy to worry about it to me.

I never understand why someone would feel offended by something like this. I doubt many people are riding public transit to make new friends. Most seem to want to be ignored there.

I’m of bear-like physique and I assume to a lone woman on a train car that has no clue who I am, potentially intimidating. Likely, I’d expect neither of us would pay each other much mind. If she decided to get up and move to an empty car, it probably still wouldn’t dawn on me right away why she moved, as I’m minding my own business. If I did realize, why should I be offended though? If anything, it’s a good strategic move on her part. She’s not there to get to know me, and she’s darned well not there to potentially get to know me in a negative way, no matter how slim the chance of that could be.

Should they require separate cars? Of course not. But I don’t see how it could be seen as ant-man. If your first thought is to be seriously angry at someone for not trusting a stranger, to me, that pretty much proves them right.

Different job, but same scenario. I hook things up to a machine, run it an hour, swap the next units in, repeat until done. Sometimes there’s other stuff to do, but the basic job is mostly waiting.