Minor things that bother you

[1995hoo]

Men's dress shirts with plastic stays sewn into the collars.  They eventually wear their way through the fabric.

Are those still a thing?

The best way to avoid those is buying shirts with button-down collars.

Shirts with button-down collars are minor things that bother me, too.

I don't mind button-down collars for business casual wear without a tie, especially when worn under a sweater. But I've never liked the way a button-down looks with a tie.

[The_Ginger]

Men's dress shirts with plastic stays sewn into the collars.  They eventually wear their way through the fabric.

Are those still a thing?

The best way to avoid those is buying shirts with button-down collars.

I have recently gotten these shirts except the plastic stays are removable. I'm a fan of the stays, but not the sewn in ones.

The ideal solution is to combine buttons and the removable stays.

[kphoger]

The ideal solution is to combine buttons and the removable stays.

And binder clips.

[bugo]

Meanwhile the American caricature of a Mexican is actually liked in Mexico.  It isn't too difficult to find knock-off Speedy apparel at almost every Mercado.

Speedy is a bona-fide FOLK HERO to many/most Mexicans.

In a similar vein, some Native Americans identify with the Washington Redskins logo and name. They wear it as a badge of honor. There isn't a lot of Native American representation in society, and some Natives are attracted to it for the same reason. These guys were staunchly against the renaming of the team and changing of the team's imagery. I worked at a gas station in Oklahoma, and I saw Native Americans come in with Redskins apparel on all the time. There is a myth in society and in the media that all Native Americans are offended by the Redskins name and iconery, but that is not always true. Another tidbit is that the word "Indian" is not offensive to millions of Native Americans. I heard it all the time when I lived there. The hospital in Claremore is called the Claremore Indian Hospital, and nobody is offended. A lot of things that are considered to be hard facts in society are not always accurate.

[Scott5114]

The problem for the Washington football team is they are a for-profit business, so as long as the number of people who would not support the team under the Redskins name is greater than the number of people who would stop supporting it if it changed, then the economics says that a change must happen.

[bugo]

When I was a kid in the 1970s, my grandparents often got lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken on Sunday after church. They always ordered the same thing: "Sea, White and Crispy". I thought it was an odd name for chicken, but I didn't think about it too much. It wasn't until 30 years later that I realized they were ordering the C combo meal with white meat and crispy batter. I really thought they were ordering Sea, White and Crispy.

[formulanone]

It's a squad of 50 twenty-and-thirty something individuals that get cut or shipped off to other teams every few years which fight over a synthetic pigskin ball 17 days a year, and they have no loyalty to your area. Neither do the owners. Get over the stupid name changes already.

[1995hoo]

Men's dress shirts with plastic stays sewn into the collars.  They eventually wear their way through the fabric.

Are those still a thing?

The best way to avoid those is buying shirts with button-down collars.

I have recently gotten these shirts except the plastic stays are removable. I'm a fan of the stays, but not the sewn in ones.

The ideal solution is to combine buttons and the removable stays.

The problem with that, at least with respect to the most common type of button-down collar, is that the use of collar stays is at odds with the way a button-down collar is intended to sit. That style of collar isn't intended to sit straight the way collars that use stays are.

Now, I've never worn a business shirt that has the type of collar where the back side of the collar has two loops that you hook over the buttons, such that the buttons don't show through the collar, so I don't know whether those would have collar stays. I've also never worn a tab collar; I assume those probably do have stays. If my father were still alive I'd ask him. He was extremely well-dressed during his working career, to the point where his idea of "business casual" was a barrel-cuff shirt (as opposed to a French cuff with cufflinks) with a tie, worn with slacks and a blazer (instead of a suit). He would probably be somewhat appalled at the thought that even when I go into the office I usually don't wear a tie unless I will have to interact with the public.

I do have a plastic box of universal collar stays in a variety of sizes that I leave in a closet at the office. The reason: At some point, almost every one of us has forgotten to pack collar stays. Having a box of plastic stays there ensures there won't be a problem if we forget, and because they're plastic generic ones it's no big deal if we then forget to take them out and put them back in the box.

[Big John]

I thought the plastic stays were just packing material and I never used them.

[Beltway]

In a similar vein, some Native Americans identify with the Washington Redskins logo and name. They wear it as a badge of honor. There isn't a lot of Native American representation in society, and some Natives are attracted to it for the same reason. These guys were staunchly against the renaming of the team and changing of the team's imagery. I worked at a gas station in Oklahoma, and I saw Native Americans come in with Redskins apparel on all the time. There is a myth in society and in the media that all Native Americans are offended by the Redskins name and iconery, but that is not always true. Another tidbit is that the word "Indian" is not offensive to millions of Native Americans. I heard it all the time when I lived there. The hospital in Claremore is called the Claremore Indian Hospital, and nobody is offended. A lot of things that are considered to be hard facts in society are not always accurate.

About 90% of them support the name according to polling.

That rendering is of a real person honored by native Amerians.

[The_Ginger]

I'm currently working in Inkscape for a shield for the AARoads Wiki. As much as I try, I cannot get the outer two curved "poles" of the capitol dome to be even.
Any adjustments all look wrong.

(The right-hand image is mine, and the left-hand image is my reference image)

[Rothman]

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/04/native-mascots-survey/

[Scott5114]

I'm currently working in Inkscape for a shield for the AARoads Wiki. As much as I try, I cannot get the outer two curved "poles" of the capitol dome to be even.
Any adjustments all look wrong.

Try this:
1. Create a straight line path with exactly five points.
2. Adjust the five points so that each of them are exactly along the nasty curve.
3. Apply the "ellipse by five points" live path effect. (Ctrl+Shift+&) If nothing happens, or you get a curve which doesn't match the original very well, bop the five points around until it matches nicely.
4. Convert the LPE to an actual path with Ctrl+Shift+C.

You now have a perfect curve you can use your typical combining/intersecting/union tools on to replace the nasty curve.

Given that the graphic is symmetrical, you should only have to do this once, and then you can split it in half (vertical line, center it horizontally to the path, divide with Ctrl+/) duplicate (Ctrl+D), mirror it, and then union it back together.

[Beltway]

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/04/native-mascots-survey/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/new-poll-finds-9-in-10-native-americans-arent-offended-by-redskins-name/2016/05/18/3ea11cfa-161a-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

[kphoger]

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/04/native-mascots-survey/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/new-poll-finds-9-in-10-native-americans-arent-offended-by-redskins-name/2016/05/18/3ea11cfa-161a-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

Congratulations for linking to the exact same study already mentioned in the article, from four years earlier.

[Beltway]

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/04/native-mascots-survey/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/new-poll-finds-9-in-10-native-americans-arent-offended-by-redskins-name/2016/05/18/3ea11cfa-161a-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

Congratulations for linking to the exact same study already mentioned in the article, from four years earlier.

So what exactly changed in 4 years? I take a dim view of polling in general, but if the same population supposedly went from 90% 'not offended' to majority 'offended,' that's a methodological question, not a cultural one.

[vdeane]

Does anyone else feel like the Alanland thread jumped the shark at some point?

Which Alanland thread?  All of them jump the shark after a while and get stale.  Alanland is great after everyone has had couple months long break from it.

What triggered this was my recent thoughts about how the "Annexation of Alanland" has, as of late, gone from being fun absurdity to just plain boring and weird absurdity.  I think the straw that broke the camel's back was when someone asked to have the official map updated with the weirdness of that thread (quite frankly, I tend to prefer to consider stuff not written by Scott since the Great Threadlocking Incident to be non-canon because this tendency is actually older than that thread, I had just forgotten about stuff like how RGT tried to declare himself Grand Unified Alan).

If the original Alanalnd run was like a fanfic with a crack ship and bizarre but which is otherwise well-written and keeps you intrigued and wanting to see where it goes, post-threadlock was like My Immortal, while the current iteration is like stuff that doesn't respect anything about the source material but isn't interesting enough to make you want to read anyways.

[Max Rockatansky]

Does anyone else feel like the Alanland thread jumped the shark at some point?

Which Alanland thread?  All of them jump the shark after a while and get stale.  Alanland is great after everyone has had couple months long break from it.

What triggered this was my recent thoughts about how the "Annexation of Alanland" has, as of late, gone from being fun absurdity to just plain boring and weird absurdity.  I think the straw that broke the camel's back was when someone asked to have the official map updated with the weirdness of that thread (quite frankly, I tend to prefer to consider stuff not written by Scott since the Great Threadlocking Incident to be non-canon because this tendency is actually older than that thread, I had just forgotten about stuff like how RGT tried to declare himself Grand Unified Alan).

If the original Alanalnd run was like a fanfic with a crack ship and bizarre but which is otherwise well-written and keeps you intrigued and wanting to see where it goes, post-threadlock was like My Immortal, while the current iteration is like stuff that doesn't respect anything about the source material but isn't interesting enough to make you want to read anyways.

I see Alanland mostly as a dumping ground for much of the nonsense that ends up going on in this forum.  I haven't kept up with the latest thread in a couple months but it wouldn't surprise me if some of the Dolphin Wars stuff is now incorporated.  I've never been on the delusion that it was anything that equated to high art. 

Really how seriously can the Alanland topic be taken?  It all started when a weird kid up Eureka tried to sneak his fictional country into a run-on sentence.

[Scott5114]

Does anyone else feel like the Alanland thread jumped the shark at some point?

Which Alanland thread?  All of them jump the shark after a while and get stale.  Alanland is great after everyone has had couple months long break from it.

What triggered this was my recent thoughts about how the "Annexation of Alanland" has, as of late, gone from being fun absurdity to just plain boring and weird absurdity.  I think the straw that broke the camel's back was when someone asked to have the official map updated with the weirdness of that thread (quite frankly, I tend to prefer to consider stuff not written by Scott since the Great Threadlocking Incident to be non-canon because this tendency is actually older than that thread, I had just forgotten about stuff like how RGT tried to declare himself Grand Unified Alan).

If the original Alanalnd run was like a fanfic with a crack ship and bizarre but which is otherwise well-written and keeps you intrigued and wanting to see where it goes, post-threadlock was like My Immortal, while the current iteration is like stuff that doesn't respect anything about the source material but isn't interesting enough to make you want to read anyways.

Sometimes I'm tempted to post a thread for Tanrylonia, my fictional D&D country. Alanland was in many ways a prototype/dress rehearsal for it (thus why its capital is also named Quindaro), so it's more cohesive while keeping a lot of the same flavor of absurdity as a backdrop. So I have a feeling at least some people who like Alanland would like it.



The main reason I never get around to it is I'm not sure how well it would go over here. A lot of the themes it explores are more Star Trek-style roman á clef type stuff with pointed takes on political subjects, as well as queer self-discovery stuff (one of the major characters was introduced as a corpse, and got unexpectedly reincarnated with a totally different species and assigned gender than they had before death, so them working through how they feel about that is a major arc). There's also the problem that I am not really sure what medium would work best to adapt it from the rough "here's what happened at today's session" notes dating back to 2018 to something a larger audience could appreciate.

At least there's signs.

[LilianaUwU]

Does anyone else feel like the Alanland thread jumped the shark at some point?

Yeah, at least ten years ago.

[Rothman]

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/04/native-mascots-survey/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/new-poll-finds-9-in-10-native-americans-arent-offended-by-redskins-name/2016/05/18/3ea11cfa-161a-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

Congratulations for linking to the exact same study already mentioned in the article, from four years earlier.

So what exactly changed in 4 years? I take a dim view of polling in general, but if the same population supposedly went from 90% 'not offended' to majority 'offended,' that's a methodological question, not a cultural one.

"I take a dim view of polling, but will cherry pick the ones that align with my perspective...especially if an AI search spits it out first..."

What changes over time is additional research and investigation...

[Beltway]

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/04/native-mascots-survey/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/new-poll-finds-9-in-10-native-americans-arent-offended-by-redskins-name/2016/05/18/3ea11cfa-161a-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

Congratulations for linking to the exact same study already mentioned in the article, from four years earlier.

So what exactly changed in 4 years? I take a dim view of polling in general, but if the same population supposedly went from 90% 'not offended' to majority 'offended,' that's a methodological question, not a cultural one.

"I take a dim view of polling, but will cherry pick the ones that align with my perspective...especially if an AI search spits it out first..."
What changes over time is additional research and investigation...

Just to clarify my point: the polling on this topic was very stable for decades -- roughly the same results from the 1980s onward. The 2020 Berkeley study was conducted in a very unusual moment and used a different methodology, which is why its numbers diverge so sharply. That's a methodological question, not a cultural one.

I've followed this team for over 50 years as a local fan, and the Washington Post has always been the primary source for Redskins coverage here, so that's why I referenced their earlier reporting. I'm not "cherry‑picking" anything -- I'm pointing out the long‑term consistency and the sudden shift in how the question was measured, right before the name was changed.

As for the AI remark, my posts aren't AI‑generated -- I write and edit them myself. If anyone disagrees with a point I've made, the straightforward way to move the discussion forward is to address the point itself.

[Max Rockatansky]

You admitted to using AI to produce posts in at least one of those Key Bridge threads you sabotaged.  You kept denying it when people called you out on it and eventually fessed up.  The whole Suggestions board thread about AI usage was largely based around the actions you were taking. 

I don't think the forum collectively is going to ever let you walk the AI stuff back. 

[kphoger]

So what exactly changed in 4 years? ... if the same population supposedly went from 90% 'not offended' to majority 'offended,' that's a methodological question, not a cultural one.

I agree.  But the question does not tell us its own answer.  It's possible that the first study was whack, or it's possible that the second study was whack, or it's possible that there really was a shift.  One thing I noticed is that there was a correlation between political affiliation and likelihood to be offended, so, considering the times, it's possible that some amount of fast cultural shift really has taken place—though I still have my doubts it would be quite that dramatic.

[Beltway]

So what exactly changed in 4 years? ... if the same population supposedly went from 90% 'not offended' to majority 'offended,' that's a methodological question, not a cultural one.

I agree.  But the question does not tell us its own answer.  It's possible that the first study was whack, or it's possible that the second study was whack, or it's possible that there really was a shift.  One thing I noticed is that there was a correlation between political affiliation and likelihood to be offended, so, considering the times, it's possible that some amount of fast cultural shift really has taken place—though I still have my doubts it would be quite that dramatic.

I could go into the broader context of what was happening in 2020, but that would probably cross into restricted topics here. The short version is that it was an unusually charged moment, and that can affect how people respond to surveys.