I’m not defending it nor am I saying it’s typical, but it’s not that hard to spend $500 per person per month on groceries.

It’s definitely doable (and then some) for folks living in high cost of living places. I recently went on a quick weekend trip to such a place. I knew I didn’t have the type of money to dine out, but I figured I could suffice on a few staples from the grocery store. I visited several different stores, and the prices were all about the same (i.e. insane). The little pint (or half pint?) Ben and Jerry’s was $10 - 12. A container of romaine lettuce was $8. A package of Oscar Meyer sliced deli meat was $15. These prices are easily 3 - 4 times what they typically cost where I live.

Also, a lot of people shop at the kinds of stores where you can find everything from apples to Apple watches. And when people do their “grocery” shopping, they’re buying bulk paper towels, a case of wine, a new Switch game for the kids, cosmetics, cat litter, clothes, 30 pack of batteries, a couple azaleas, and a partridge in a pear tree and then calling that their grocery bill. So, it’s not exactly a fair label nor an accurate assumption that the grocery bill is just groceries (i.e. food).

And honestly, if you mean HOW as in how can they afford it: $500 x 4 = $2,000 or $24,000. A lot of money, sure, but median household income (in the USA) is like $80,000 and I’m guessing that $500 a month per person is above median expenditure (especially if we’re excluding the folks that like to include the partridge in their grocery bill), so most people spending that much on food would be earning way more than median income.

This is just so inaccurate. Sometimes it’s 90’s reboots and remakes with talking animals, too.

World War 3D

That’s the general consensus in my social circle as well. It’s not fooling anybody, but we appreciate it for what it is. Fishham with shellfish flavoring.

So, the immigrants are criminals if they are not authorized to be in the country. But the people unlawfully employing them aren’t criminals? I’m confused about what he’s saying, but then again, I’m also 100% he’s confused about what he’s saying so you can’t really blame me, right?

if you take a digital photo of the [ … thing … ] and post it on the internet as a terribly compressed jpg

That sums up the entirety of the content on a number of popular subs on the R-word site.

Confusing perspective? No. More like confusing JPEG artifacts.

To err is human, to go get is feline.

Truthfully, I want to work. I just don’t like having to play the game because the game sucks and I’m terrible at it. Let me just do the work.

I’m actually surprised it’s taken this long to show up in the numbers, but I am fully aware that I’m in a bit of a bubble.

Most people I know got all their big ticket spending done before January, and then hunkered down into saving money mode so that they’d have some cushion for if and when things go bad. Sure, there have been some outliers, but they aren’t the norm.

Part of the problem is, even a lot of people who still have their good jobs are cutting way back and trying to put money aside because they simply do not know how much longer they’ll have a job. People who once saw themselves as indispensable to their employer and have enjoyed stable careers are no longer so confident in the economy or their job because they’ve seen what’s happened to so many others recently.

Yes, but it can only be transmitted purrposely.

Mom: Honey, we have ninja turtles at home you can watch any time you want, we don’t need to go see the movie.

You’ve heard of ennui, but have you met felennui?

Also, if you have pets that go outside, such as a dog you take for walks, you need to check them even if they are on flea and tick prevention. Ticks are more than glad to hitchhike indoors on pets and then later decide to rehome themselves onto a human.

Incorrect. There are MANY species of tick.

Ass, ass, or ass, no one rides for free.

It’s a mineral, Gurk.

Did anyone else get in school suspension?

Yes, though my memory of it is kind of limited all these years later.

It was a case of collective punishment. At least that third and final time the bus was late, it was because a number of the kids on the same route took too long to get on the bus and get settled, which caused us to be late. Some kids would wait to leave their house until they saw the bus or heard the horn beep. So, I guess they decided to punish everyone, for reasons.

I don’t even think it was literally everybody that rode the bus, because some of the kids’ parents would/could drop them off at school any time the bus was late or not running. But that wasn’t an option for me.

Tastes just the same.

It loses some of its crispness, so you wouldn’t necessarily substitute frozen / thawed celery in a recipe that calls for raw / uncooked celery. Though, I have used the thawed stuff for things like potato salad and chicken salad before, which are things that typically use raw celery, and it still added enough texture and crunch to make it worthwhile.

But for things that involve cooking celery, like in soups, stir fries, and things along those lines, frozen works just fine for me. I don’t find any difference in taste or texture in the finished product, assuming that the frozen celery didn’t get freezer burned or go through multiple freeze/thaw cycles.

Most grocery stores in my part of the world sell frozen celery or at least frozen veggie mixes that include celery, so I’d say it’s a fairly common practice.

This is probably stretching the definition of strange, but I got in school suspension in middle school for having 3 tardies (aka arriving late to school). I rode the school bus to school each day, I had no control over whether I was late or not, so I find it strange to be punished for something like that.

Any of the “salads”: Tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, potato salad benefit from a little added celery, both as an added flavor component as well as for a little texture and crunch.

While I use celery in a lot of cooking, I tend not to be able to use an entire bunch of it before it goes bad. So, whenever I buy it, I use what I can, and then I chop the rest up and freeze it. Then I can pull out what I need for cooking purposes at my leisure, and I don’t end up wasting much celery.

All the options you mentioned for eating the celery raw are great. I’d also add cream cheese to that list.