I think about this whenever execs push for more use of "AI." Their jobs can be done by a spigot of on-demand Frankfurtian bullshit, and they think that must be true for everyone else too.

Also one time the CEO came through the office, grabbed the bag of coffee beans, took a big whiff, and went on an insane pretentious rant about the beans. After he left, our secretary looked at me and goes, “those are packaging peanuts in that bag.”

One of the most dangerous myths is the idea of an "unskilled job." Every job requires skill. No matter what job you have now, those skills are transferrable to another job. Even (or maybe particularly) if that skill is not punching mf-ers in the face who obviously deserve it.

If you haven't ever read Mike Rose's stuff, "The Mind at Work" is a lovely place to start.

i will do nothing in my working life as difficult as a barista manning the machine at 8am in midtown manhattan

I mean.

I continue to be of the opinion that the C-suite, by and large, are the dumbest 'smart' people on the planet. Like, they had the critical thinking bits of their brain excised, and that was replaced with LINE GO UP.

Have you ever picked okra? Pick okra and you'll never consider farm workers unskilled again.

The real truth is: use good vermouth AND keep it in the refrigerator. Even then, it only lasts a month or two. Oxidized vermouth is bad juju. Dolin Dry in the green bottle is a good place to start: 6 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. For an interesting variation, try a nice sake instead of vermouth.

*hair tearing, endless screaming*

Bond goes crazy and shoots himself. M tells Q, "turn down the critical thinking on the next one.". Cut to Bond heroically waterskiing in a tuxedo into a volcano.

M, exasperated, finally breaks it to Bond: "Look, 007, you're not even the MOST expensive line of espionage clones this country has at its disposal. You're just the one that gets, well, disposed of most frequently."

Alternate idea: Bond is literally the incarnation of Cold War excess and paranoia, a kind of god a la @maxgladstone.bsky.social 's LAST EXIT. Movie is from someone else's POV as an immortal, flickery Bond turns ordinary situations into international conspiracy by his very presence

I grew up with stories of my grandfather & my great uncle. My g/father came back wounded, my g/uncle died on the Somme & is commemorated on the Mennen Gate.
I studied the poets of WWI in Eng. Lit. But it wasn't until I watched Blackadder that they became real people, and that scene let me cry, too.

oh, it's Kap's Needle, I see!