benstanley.eu
Associate Professor, SWPS University. Welsh by birth. English by upbringing. Irish by design. Polish by choice. I am a lineman for the county.
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unbothered by the silly injunction against drinking coffee with foamed milk after 11am.
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Take cappuccino. I like cappuccino. I do not like drinking cappuccino in the morning. I am told there is something terribly wrong with this. I am also told I must have been imagining things when I mention that last time I was in a cafe in Bologna several very Italian ladies also seemed serenely
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What I dislike about Italian cuisine is less the cuisine itself but the absurd collection of pointless shibboleths that have grown up around it, many of which are heeded more by performatively outraged TikTokers and foreigners who want to show you they’re in the know than they are by actual natives.
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It made me laugh out loud on the train. Something about “Donny” just makes it all the funnier.
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Yes, this exactly. I remember that conversation. The “but it’s not *really* British” thing is just “yes, but where are you *really* from?” with a lick of cultural-appropriation paint.
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Instead, people protesting against the authoritarian use of force against immigrants are casually equated with people *invading the seat of the legislative branch of power and bent on attacking elected representatives* because they’ve bought into some dumb conspiracy theory about a stolen election.
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…and watch your family use it to prop doors open
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It looks like an autopsy being conducted on a Danish wrestler, there’s no getting round that.
(Tastes great, if you like that kind of thing. I like that kind of thing.) The point is that the reaction it elicits varies depending on whose culinary tradition it’s attributed to.
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It looks to me like it tastes great. I’m not sure what’s wrong with having stuffing with beef.
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Take timpano, for example. If ever there were a dish that gets a free ride on the updrafts of Italian culinary soft power, it’s this. If it were made by an overly-enthusiastic American on one of those Instagram channels where they deep-fry blocks of cheese, the reaction would be very different.
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“Someone should tell the poor guys the Luftwaffe aren’t flying overhead, they have time to cook their egg before rushing to the bomb shelter” - that kind of thing. These days people tend to think of memes as throwaway amusements, but as per the original definition they’re powerful cultural scripts.
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Ever tried showing someone a video of someone making one of those Japanese omelettes that are basically raw egg in the middle, and claiming it’s a traditional British dish? It’s an experiment that almost invariably yields the usual scorn mixed with condescension.
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And yet here is the internet, insisting that this is 1953, the only olive oil to be found is dispensed by the otolaryngologist, and all egg is powdered.
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Keep preaching…
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I simply don’t respond. Let them have their little victory - it’s just a waste of time engaging any further.
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you think *that*, then? It follows that you must also think *this*, which is now what I’m going to make the discussion about” trick.
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I wonder how much of it is genuinely being bad at this, and how much is just bad-faith manipulation. I’ve had plenty of experiences on social media where people who are clearly intelligent will shortcut their way out of properly countering an argument of mine they disagree with by doing the “ah, so
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In retrospect the design of that bottle did look like it contained something that could have done dual purpose disinfecting things in hospitals
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And odd that this remains perhaps the one area of administration departments are not encouraged to push onto academics
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It is odd, isn't it? I like some jazz (although not so much the stuff that sounds like everyone has just been acquainted with their instrument, or for that matter with jazz itself). But people who *really* like it are often extraordinarily persistent in their belief that others should too.
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and so it should, the hoops they have to jump through
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Oh, it's definitely the latter. They know deep down just what a silly affectation it is, but to change their style guide would be to admit that the little people had it right, and our readers won't wear that.
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They also misspell the very simple word "teenagers" by adding an entirely superfluous hyphen between "teen" and "agers".
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Whatever it is, it is an absurd affectation that only persists because the New Yorker's sense of its own importance also persists.
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I thought it was just me this irritated the shit out of. Good to have you on board.
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Anyway, New York is a fascinating place, and will be quite the city when they get round to cleaning it.
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“It would be a disaster for our students to have no idea how to effectively use one of the most powerful tools that humanity has ever created”
They don’t do introductory library courses?