‘Was there anything else on the dinner menu?’

‘Vole-au-vents and Cream of Rat,’ said Gimlet. ‘All hygienically prepared.’

‘How do you mean, “hygienically prepared”?’ said Carrot.

‘The chef is under strict orders to wash his hands afterwards.’

The assembled dwarfs nodded. This was certainly pretty hygienic. You didn’t want people going around with ratty hands.

• Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

I learned to read a tape measure, covert fractions to decimal, practical application of the Pythagorean theorem, and quite a bit about the application of dimensions and measurement in three dimensional space.

I didn’t think it’s bad for a kid to have a job, provided the hours are limited, do not interfere with schooling, and are integrated into school curriculum. Parents also have a duty to monitor the employer, and the employer should view the teenager as a trainee who might make the company money as an adult, not a source of direct profit.

So, you know, a fantasy

This is gross negligence by the boss, and it’s very very common in smaller construction companies and crews. Allowing a minor to operate heavy machinery is dumb illegal to start with, but the kid learned unsafe behavior from his coworkers, who likely never had any proper safety training themselves. Garbage in, garbage out. (Walk behind trenchers are shite anyway, pay the extra $50 to rent a ride-on trencher)

There is a place for teenagers on a construction site, but it’s not in high risk areas or work. So much can be learned about work ethic, practical skills, and the challenging realities of construction without risking life and limb.

I grew up in a construction household. My dad was a small time contractor. Custom homes, spec builds, one at a time, bank financed, that sort of thing. I go into that detail to say we weren’t rich, not even middle-class until I was almost graduated from high school (secondary school). Also this isn’t an endorsement for how I was raised, just my lived experience.

I learned to run a skid-steer at 13. I was cutting lumber for the framers by the time I was 15. In many ways the skills I learned as a child set me up for success as an adult. But I also learned so many unsafe practices and endangered myself from a young age because of that casual familiarly with dangerous work and locations. The entirety of my twenties was spent unlearning bad habits and practices. I’m still working at it now.

The only time teenagers should be working on construction sites is if the company has a very strong safety culture, which means they won’t put kids in high risk situations. Parents should absolutely be checking these things before allowing their kids to work

there’s something kind of sad about

the way that things have come to be

desensitized to everything

what became of subtlety?

I just couldn’t get through it. But to each his own, I had a good friend who refused to read Pratchett’s Thief of Time because “books need chapters” lol

I have a friend that grew up reading the Wheel of Time series. He talked it up a lot. I got through the first two books and couldn’t keep going. He said, “It gets really good at the end of book three. Book four is amazing. Books five, six, and seven are only okay. There’s a couple more that are really good, but the last book falls flat.”

And I realized that’s probably how people that never watched Star Wars experience it after we recommend the movies to them. “This one specific movie is amazing, and those two are pretty okay. That one was good in its time and I like it for nostalgia. We didn’t talk about how the movie series ended. Want to watch the cartoons?”

Can confirm, am depressed

Sometimes I’m scrolling and my thumb gets lazy and goes sideways and I upvote or downvote things unintentionally.

It’s the only explanation that makes sense

Look on a bag of Doritos.

Do you see a list of ingredients and nutritional value? That’s because they are regulated by the FDA

Sweet! Imma make Mr Bones Wild Ride

Redo the meme? Like, in GIMP?

Every society needs a cry like that, but only in a very few do they come out with the complete, unvarnished version, which is “Remember-The-Atrocity-Committed-Against-Us-Last-Time-That-Will-Excuse-The-Atrocity-That-We’re-About-To-Commit-Today! And So On! Hurrah!

• Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett

Pteppic and Ptraci are waiting beside Ptimothy

^GNU ^^Sir ^^^Pterry

Somewhere on my PC are literal scans of Twisted Toyfare Theater, from Toyfare magazines a friend has given me in the early 00’s. They’re not cleaned up or edited, you can see the curvature of the magazine on some, and the ripped edges of pages on others

Right? I feel like Child with Crayon should be between fanfic writer and 50 Shades

Name and shame OP

I read that as entomologist for a second and was really confused

Figured it had something to do with fleas

It’s hyperbole, but inspired by this outfit