It's almost like there's no good way for a middle aged man to stare intently at girl's chest.
Isn't this an old, solved problem? I recall schools having everyone's pictures taken in a drape for a uniform and dress code compliant look. I mean, not my school, who had one bikini and one "apparently naked under a sheet", but we were special.
If you leave the rod in the drapes, it would really hide things.
who had one bikini and one "apparently naked under a sheet"
Which one were you?
We only had the draped sheet thing for senior year. I did not like that one bit. I think you had to take off your shirt to put it on, because it had a wrap-dress styling, and that made me very uncomfortable. Plus I thought it was ugly.
I was decorously leaning on some columns. I was a sedate child.
Dress codes like this are weird, because I don't think it's out of line for the school to have some expectations (like, no bikinis seems fine to me). The problem is when they're enforced in a way where they're always picking at girls for dressing in a socially ordinary manner.
Plus, they could have done a better job using MS Paint on a Windows 3.1 machine.
You needed approval to get a photo in our yearbook, but even thirty years ago in rural Nebraska the pictures were unremarkable. I was assistant editor. I put in pictures of my entire family (including grandma) plus like three pictures of this kid with his shirt tail pulled through his fly.
The kid from the link?! that's incredible.
The spending article was interesting but I felt like only barely nodding to the income involved made it kind of weird. The person with rental properties, for example - sure, they're spending on the mortgage for the place, but are they also getting rent? More or less than the mortgage?
And that back child support that was mentioned... no money going towards that, eh?
Finally, there was a spot where "credit cards" was listed as an expense, but it wasn't at all clear what that meant. Paying back previous purchases? Interest? Fees?
(I'm glad you posted about it, it seemed tailor-made for discussion here. Some of the kids' names really grated).
I always think I would have really liked going to LBs high school. The kids I knew from there at summer camp all seemed like my people.
Reading the spending thing gave me so much anxiety! I don't even know why. I guess figuring out where our spending falls on the continuum, in which categories we are "winning" and "losing?" Looks like perhaps they don't include retirement savings as "spending" for these purposes.
We just had a huge, huge vet bill (like, so huge I was a little surprised AJ was just like, "yep, we love the cat" when I was thinking, "Hmm, perhaps we should consider a new cat?"), so maybe that's what's bugging me looking at the past couple of months of bills.
Law school loans seem surmountable, at least. Medical bills seem relentless. Back child support? How awful for everyone, but particularly the kids. I was glad the reporting was straightforward and reasonably sympathetic to the folks who participated, since it was interesting.
I don't think I could love a cat more than maybe $850.
13: Oh, huh, I'm wrong about not counting savings. There is savings/investments, but I only see it for one family. And I guess another lists their 401K contributions, which makes me very sad about the remaining families . . .
I had to look up Martell, NE. It's basically exurban Lincoln.
14/15: Yep. Luckily, the cat is now fine. I told the cat I expected good ROI in pleasant demeanor from here on, since they didn't give him back gold-plated.
I was kind of relieved that no one's budget was actually $1200 total with $150 for groceries, which is more or less what I imagine for all families other than our extravagant selves here in Babylon. We also had a massive vet bill recently. Do any of you have vet insurance? It was widely considered a ripoff for a while, but boy, I wonder now. (The poor kitty seems to have a congenital gum disease, so she might end up getting all of her teeth extracted.)
Man. I insist on the pet insurance just so that I don't have to be the person who says to put the dog down rather than pay for an expensive vet bill. I just know I'd be the bad guy and I'll pay for pet insurance to avoid it.
My sister has a chihuahua with no teeth and very little ability to stand. I keep hoping she'll put it down soon.
Cannot believe I used this month's last free NYT article on household budgets instead of forbidden flesh.
My mom semi-recently saw a gummy dog with no teeth, and started brushing her dog's teeth every day. She sings an old Ipana Toothpaste advertisement tune to hold herself accountable for keeping it up for 30 seconds or so, and it's the absolute cutest thing in the world.
22: Isn't stealth mode the workaround of choice? Or open up your old Explorer browser or something.
My sister's dog was a rescue and arrived in her care with only two teeth.
ublock origin appaers to kill the NYT paywall. You might have to block some scripts by hand.
I'm not a pet person, so salt to taste - I think people should be much more willing to put down pets. To which you might say, "But they're part of our families! Like pseudo-humans!" And to which I would respond yes, and we should be more willing to put down our humans as well. (Or rather, arrange in advance to permit our humans have ourslves put down.)
My vet is very much in your camp. He was like, "Well look, if you want to go to heroics, you can do X, Y, and Z, but I wouldn't" for my previous cats. The interventions weren't necessarily expensive so much as time-consuming, but they extended quality-of-life, so I did it. But it was kind of a funny life-on-the-farm attitude for a vet to have.
I think a substantial, if hopefully not too large, "mindful euthanasia" movement is going to arise in the next few decades in developed countries. (I mentioned this to lourdes and she seemed kind of disturbed by it. Sorry, but yeah, my view of the future is rreeeeaaalll dark.) Our cat's VORC is extremely high, though.
29: I hope so! (unless I don't know what 'mindful' means here.) I think e. Asian states might be leaders here. Rather different attitudes to treating terminal conditions, and informing patients. And superaged populations on public health systems.
It's too much of a Michigan thing to catch on.
Isn't stealth mode the workaround of choice?
They figured that out and mask stuff even on incognito mode. They still want to give a tantalizing taste of the article, so I learned to be really quick with select all + copy.
My elderly parents kept a dog long, long past the time it should have been put down. They couldn't really take care of themselves, much less a blind dog with very limited use of his limbs and no control over its digestive tract. As Depression-era people, there's no way they would have spent money to ameliorate that animal's suffering, either.
My mother died suddenly one morning. By the time I got there (I was a four-hour drive away) my brother had already seen to the disposal of the dog.
No pet insurance, and we have a happy outdoor cat. (I know, I know.) People can spend what they want on their pets bit equating them to children just pisses me off.
There'sa big thing on our Nextdoor about outdoor cats. All the cat people fighting with each other and with the bird and rabbit people. I assume lockdown left some with too much time.
I wish our cat were more outdoor, but he is too frightened of noises. A couple of friends came for a visit with their giant white samovaryed and Jackie spent the next two days expecting to find a DOG in behind every doorway. But then I remind myself that he has gone from being a Japanese indoor cat to an English outdoor one.
I really don't like seeing my pets suffer, so if they're not going to be having a pretty good quality of life, I'm going to pull the plug. The dog before this one pretty much called it -- stopping eating when the growth on her liver was at the point that she felt like crap all the time. Our current dog has a large growth in her armpit, but seems to be liking life -- running, jumping, barking at real and imagined bears. She and I both gained a lot of covid weight. It'd probably be a good idea for us both the shed some of that, but I'm not interested in having the dog so hungry she's just thinking about food all the time. I also don't want that for me. So, fat it is.
Lemonade has pet insurance now and I'm tempted. Given their target customers I expect their prices to be reasonable. https://www.lemonade.com/blog/pet-insurance/
There are obviously some things missing in the expenses. The last family has a bunch of animal related expenses listed but nothing for utilities so maybe the horse also runs on a treadmill generator.
I want to know how the family with a vlogger and day trader and manager working remotely are only paying $35 a month for internet.
Delete this if it's too VSOOBC, but the horse in the last picture has the same expression as a certain FPP's mom in a particular picture.
We should have gotten a pandemic cat, but the moment is gone. Also, I heard that cats poop depression germs.
29 a substantial, if hopefully not too large, "mindful euthanasia" movement is going to arise.
I am mostly satisfied with the existing term limits in NYC.
FTR, I'm pretty willing to put down both cats and humans where quality of life is an issue, but this particular cat is only 3, and the issue was fully treatable. Just expensive.
39: I know for us, if you took 30 days of expenses, you might not see some recurrent bills. Like, our trash pickup is billed quarterly. Sometimes we pay utilities the day the bill shows up, sometimes a week later, so actual payments might be as much as 45 days apart. I was wondering about some of the bills, though. I don't think I ever paid less than $100 a month for car insurance, even 15 years ago.
34: Same deal. The cat is about 10 - vague because he's a stray we adopted. I'm complacently not worried about expenses when he gets older because I assume he's going to get run over by a car or mauled by a dog long before that. (He's very streetwise, and that would break all our hearts. But he's also very independent, and I figure his personality and general cat psychology makes it likely he wouldn't suffer decrepitude inside the house.)
Around here, if a cat slows down, the raccoons will get them.
45. Around here, it's the coyotes and (recently) foxes.
I think the foxes just eat the rabbits here.
40: Also, I heard that cats poop depression germs.
They just wake you at 3am and 5am, which amounts to the same thing.
I know that if I draw blood he will throw me off the bed. But suppose I just grab a foot and nibble in a playful fashion? Surely he can't object to that. Why else would it be sticking out from under the quilt?
Or I could lick his face.
Jeez; it's two hours since he last woke up. Maybe he's forgotten me by now.
It's not *natural* to sleep when I am complaining that he won't open the front door for me. He can't really expect me to use the cat flap after all. Maybe he's dead? I'd better check ...
Oh God, I feel ill. Quick, on the pillow beside his head, without disturbing him at all.