Oh, I picked things I actually liked. I grew up on this stuff. But I also made sure I picked the most stereotypical stuff from among that set.

No one actually knows what those consequences would be, as no one has ever run out of anything. But they would be dire. The lamentations of the souls of our ancestors would shame us too much.

The au gratin potatoes from a box and the cocktail sausages wrapped in crescent rolls were both big hits.

Yes, I made like 3 entrees and 5 side dishes and 4 desserts. See above: suburbia. If I were to run out of something while hosting, there would be dire consequences.

It was very amusing to watch a room full of people confront standard midwestern food and ask questions like “How did you get the fruit in the jello?” (Answer: I followed the package instructions. Also, mandarin orange slices in line jello. I’m not a monster)

A former lab had a rotating ethnic dinner and movie night. Almost everyone in the lab was either an immigrant or child of immigrants. On my turn to host, I made meatloaf, baked chicken breaded with crushed cereal, tuna noodle casserole, chocolate chip cookies, etc, and showed Pleasantville.

My cuisine is probably 1950s sitcom suburbia, so I’m picking: Rice Krispie Treats. Bottom tier dessert.

I feel like not being religious should have granted me immunity to the Protestant work ethic, but it really feels like I keep botching my saving throw there.

Fun fact: For most of history, more soldiers died of disease than injury.

Cordyceps gilroyii, perhaps.

I'm thinking an endemic fungus.

I've heard of this, and I wonder if it's part of a parasite needing multiple hosts at different lifestages.

As someone made physically ill by many nightshades, I will strongly disagree. And point out that pain is not a flavor.

It's hot, it's cold, it's tepid. It's all-temperature fusion!

It is a standing point among one couple I am friends with that nearly any food can be improved by the addition of either garlic or cinnamon (though rarely both)

I do believe there are edge cases where too much garlic is plausible.

Cheesecake, perhaps.

But otherwise it's likely propaganda from a pro-vampire cabal.

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Innovative New EdTech Collaboration “With a free Skynet Edu account, students can gain the career-readiness needed to navigate an exciting future in which they will be hunted by a remorseless, ...

"With a free Skynet Edu account, students can gain the career-readiness needed to navigate an exciting future in which they will be hunted by a remorseless, nuclear-armed superintelligence seeking to annihilate the human race—which will later be revealed to be Skynet itself."

After these worthy goals, we can then transition to stage II of the Apple Fund: replacing Granny Smith and Red Delicious with actually good cultivars.

And that ... doesn't change the fact, at all, that engineering controls need to be implemented by the people in charge, not the people using the transit. Which is why I continue to feel that that's a better route for lobbying than PSAs.

We do need better filtration, particularly in schools and offices. Not in doubt. This isn't an either/or, but if we're going to invest in a PSA campaign, I expect likely higher impact from one of them, and the other to be better served by lobbyists.

I suspect that the average person has more control over whether they are wearing a mask than whether their transit system has good air filtration. PSAs are typically most effective when they advocate actions most individuals are capable of taking.

Also approximately 1/3 of students in that course even open the email that contains a link to their personal feedback.

This may explain why I feel like I am constantly deducting for the same errors.

I spend more hours each week grading for that particular course than any other activity with the exception of sleeping.

Enroll in my course and you are getting hand-crafted, artisanal feedback on your writing. Weekly. Even in a room of ~280.

I have heard through a game of telephone that apparently some students in one of the courses I teach (unclear if they're in my section or one of the other ones) believe that their writing is being graded by AI, and: dear Lord no it is not.

To the surprise of economists the world over.

Yeah. That's actually why I phrased it as also, instead of as a direct rebuttal; there is good reason to believe that there *are* areas with longer healthspans, and community connections do seem to be a relevant factor. Those just may not be the same zones originally identified, so some skepticism.

(I am a ray of sunshine at parties)

They can tell that you might be hoarding the good bags for yourself.

Though also it turns out that a number of blue zones are artificial; areas where they was relatively poor record keeping about birth years a substantial time in the past, and robust enough of safety nets to encourage some fraction of individuals to claim to be older than they actually are.

I'll take "Posts that should be on pro-mask-on-public-transit PSAs" for $200.

Here is where I confess I'm more comfortable in base graphics than I am in ggplot2.