when you were a child, the worm named LANGUAGE ate its way into your brain and cursed you to understand the letters and the syllables and the sense of speech, doomed you to commas and clauses and passive voice, took the meat of you and twisted it with words. this is why youāre able to post about maids and berries and flasks and catgirls and whatnot, so itās pretty great. make sure to thank the worm named LANGUAGE the next time you see it!
The Least Intimidating bakery in the village has closed for good so now Iāve got to go to the Intimidating Bakery, itās awful. If you donāt have a PhD in being French I donāt recommend going to that bakery, hereās the humiliating account of the 3 times Iāve visited it so far:
the first time I went in there I pointed at one of those extra-skinny baguettes and said āa flute, pleaseā feeling pretty sure of myself, and the baker said āā¦ thatās a ficelleā (you idiot) (was implied) āa flute is twice as large as a baguette.ā
Thatās insane, first of all, a flute is a skinny instrument. Call your fat baguette a bassoon, ladyāI made some timid remark about how it would make more sense for a flute to be a skinny bread and the baker said, āIn Paris it is. I thought you were from the South?ā
oh, that hurt
I guess Iām from the part of the South thatās so close to Italy the breadās waist size matters less than whether itās got olives in it, but I left the bakery having an existential crisis over whether living in Paris had made me forget my roots
the Least Intimidating Bakery just had normal baguettes vs. seedy baguettes vs. horny baguettes (easy mode, some have seeds, some have horns), while the new bakery has breads that are only different on a molecular levelāthereās a good old loaf and then another, identical loaf called a bastard? google told me a bastard is āhalfway between a baguette and a breadā but denouncing them like āthose are not regulation-sized bastardsā would get me banned from the bakery for life
on my 2nd visit (while I stood in line discreetly googling baguette terminology) there was an English tourist who asked for a baguette while pointing at what was either a rustique or a sesame and I felt a bit worried for them, but the baker just clarified āthis one?ā to waive any responsibility if they found out later it wasnāt a classic baguette, then handed them the bread without educating them in a judgmental tone and I felt envious
I know itās because she thinks the English are beyond saving but still it made me want to come back with a fake moustache and an English accent so I wouldnāt be expected to play bakery on expert mode just because Iām French. I asked for a pastry this time and the baker asked āno bread with that?ā which felt cruel, like she wanted me to sprinkle myself with ashes and admit out loud that my level of bread proficiency isnāt as advanced as I once believed it was
The third time I went, I had lost all self-confidence and I hesitantly pointed at a bread and said āIād like this, uhāwhat is it called?ā and the baker looked at me in disbelief and said āThatās a baguette.ā
God.
for the record, if that stupid bread had been flanked by a skinny bread (ficelle) and a fat one (flute) then yeah of course I would have known to call it a baguette, but in the absence of reference points I now felt lost and scared of being called a Parisian again
itās hard to express the depth of my suffering so Iāll just let the facts speak for themselves: this morning a French person (me) stood in a French bakery in France surrounded by French people and pointed at a baguette and said āwhat is this calledā
now that i have these allergy reactions to unspecified food and have looked up low histamine diets with my dietitian, i'm becoming aware of the fact that when my OCD telling me that days old food in the fridge was bad is actually not that far off from reality.... the horrors of my OCD maybe coming from some truth, is in retrospect, frightening.
If you're an American with a disability who receives government assistance, you likely qualify for an ABLE account, or you may starting next
Named for the 2014 law that created them, the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, ABLE accounts have been available since 2016 to individuals identified by a doctor as having a disability before the age of 26. Next year, theyāll become available to those identified before the age of 46, which will increase access to an additional 6 million people, including 1 million veterans, according to Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott, who administers the accounts in his state. An estimated 8 million people nationwide already qualify.
āThe fact that it used to be that individuals could only save up to $2,000 or they could lose benefits ā that was really restricting a lot of families,ā Elliot said. āPeople were forced into a position where they couldnāt save for their futures. Now weāre seeing average account balances of (ABLE accounts) between $11,000 and $12,000.ā
Generally, ABLE accounts may reach totals of $100,000 without affecting Supplemental Security Income. Lifetime balance limits for the various state ABLE accounts can range from around $300,000 to over $500,000. Theyāre administered by state treasurers, and the vast majority can be set up online via their websites. Some ABLE plans accept paper applications as well.
Anyone can contribute to an ABLE account ā including the account owner, friends, family, organizations, nonprofits, and employers ā up to $19,000 per year in 2025. If the account owner is able to work and not already contributing to a workplace retirement plan, they can contribute an additional amount equal to their yearly gross income. For 2025, that amount is up to an additional $15,560 to $18,810, depending on the state administering the account.
There are also tax advantages. Investment earnings from ABLE accounts remain untaxed as long as money taken from the account is used for āqualified disability expenses,ā such as medical treatment, education, tutoring and job training. Account holders may choose from a number of investment options for the funds in their accounts or hold and save the money without investing it further.
Elliot said raising awareness of the accounts is the biggest challenge for the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST), for which heās also the secretary treasurer.
āMany people are used to the idea that, āIf I have a disability or my child has one, it could endanger their benefits to save money,āā he said. āWe as a state and as a country need to start reaching out to people and saying, āLook, you actually can save money now. You could save towards the purchase of a home.ā The hardest thing right now is getting that message out. We need more people to be aware things have changed.ā
According to NASTās data, just 186,641 ABLE accounts existed at the end of 2024, despite an estimated 8 million people qualifying. When the age limit is raised, the accounts will also become available to people whose disabilities may have been the result of an accident in adulthood or developed later in life, such as after a COVID infection.
Andrew Warren, senior associate for policy and research at the Financial Health Network, who studies the financial circumstances of Americans with disabilities, said that the vast majority of peopleĀ surveyed for a 2023 report by the organizationĀ did not know these accounts existed.
āLess than 1% of eligible individuals have these accounts,ā Warren said. āOur research show that one of the major barriers to becoming financially healthy for this vulnerable group is asset limits. But thereās an information disconnect between caseworkers and direct services providers on the ground and (administrators of ABLE accounts).ā
Two online resources āĀ ABLE TodayĀ and theĀ ABLE National Resource CenterĀ ā can guide you through questions to determine if you or a friend or family member qualifies.
like most of ozuās films, an autumn afternoon (1962) is both dreamy and almost neorealist in feel, this time using that unmistakeable tone to discuss the loneliness of a nation aging out of a golden age. it is a film self-consciously about women, and just as self-consciously centered around menāaging, alcoholic salarymen cared for by their 23-year-old second wives and adult daughters as they indulge in nostalgia for a war and a youth long gone by. they concern themselves with the fates of these daughters, who must be married off lest they face a life of spinsterhood caring for their widowed fathers. these fathers, bastions of traditionalism, bemoan that the only fates their daughters can have are as unhappy wives or unhappy spinster caretakersāunaware that they, as bastions of traditionalism, are preventing them from taking any third path. the narrative, organized in a series of loose vignettes, highlights the mundanity of the dilemma; the cinematography, often capturing conversations in boxy lineal one shots, both mimics the form of traditional etiquette and illustrates the loneliness and isolation that this etiquette breeds. among the avalanche of late 20th century east asian film about the tension between traditionalism and modernity, this one stands out for its elegant, non-judgmental, matter-of-fact positioning of the camera with the very bastions of traditionalism who typically form the enemy in films like these. unlike the father protagonists of, say, fiddler on the roof or eat drink man woman (1994), these fathers never come around to the modern style of female independence or even seem particularly aware of its existence; unlike the father protagonists of those stories, these end up lonely, discontent, and unable to take a second path for themselves. an autumn afternoon (1962) is undoubtedly a standout film and triumph of midcentury japanese cinema, and i highly recommend it
vaporwave
yousharknotpass
blakekathryn
titsay
