My cousin's wife divorced him after 6 months to move to her home country. Her stated reason was that during lockdown, she was isolated from her friends and family, and she couldn't handle being alone again.
It was hard on all of us but...uh...what does she think the rest of us single people did?
Dark chocolate. Sweet enough to satisfy sugar cravings, but a low enough sugar content I can chomp on one to get my blood sugar up before going to the corner store for breakfast.
I've always saved very aggressively, even when I didn't have any money. When I first moved out, I ate nothing but rice, lentils, eggs, and lard for several months to save a slush fund. Even today, I make ~15-20k USD below median income for my city, and I've managed to save just shy of 10k in the past year and a half.
Obviously the ongoing coat of living crisis is a big deal that needs to be addressed, but we also need to acknowledge that saving your money is unpleasant, and a significant number of people aren't willing to do what's necessary in order to build financial security.
My friends (I don't get out much, I only have a couple) all have significantly better income/expense ratios than I do, and have exactly nothing saved. Honestly I don't think that would change if you gave them all an extra $20k/year, because they will find a way to rationalize something into being a necessity.
Depends on which kind you're talking about. Cinnamon raisin breads and similar are sweet because they're basically deserts (desserts?).
Standard sandwich loaf is sweet because your weak foreign palate cannot handle the background level of high fructose corn syrup in all American food. It gives us the strength and vitality to enforce pax Americana, build our secret space colonies, and invent all new world technology.
Also, you can take PrEP to avoid catching it in the first place.
Which for the record, you absolutely should do if you're queer, your partner is queer, or if you engage in high risk behaviors. Asymptomatic HIV is a scary thing.
I was up to 14 at age 25. When you're young and inexperienced, any schmuck that will pay you and be slightly less abusive than the last guy is worth working for, and you never owe the last person anything.
I live in DFW, a large amalgamation of two cities and a bunch if suburban sprawl in Texas.
I live in a neighborhood that is considered extremely walkable, as I am directly across the street from a university and less than a mile from city hall.
Here are my walking distances:
Straight-line distance to Big Ben: we don't have a Big Ben, but we killed JFK and that's 34km away.
Bonus fun fact, I commute 42km each day. This is considered far by most people here, 32km would be much more reasonable.
Oh, god. I remember how it ran on a stripped down gingerbread ROM lol.
I gave up and bought a new phone after that.
"I don't really get why people get so up in arms about discussing it, but Sex is fun. Be careful though, those swimmers are persistent little fuckers."
"Drugs feel good and you think everything is fine until one day you look up and realize it all went wrong years ago. I can't stop you, but I really hope you'll choose not to try them."
I think both worked out well. I'm sex positive and I generally avoid drugs because it just isn't worth the risk of finding that one substance that totally ruins my life.
I think it varies a lot by the user. I think (hope) most people are just joking, but I'm sure we have a number of people who aren't joking.
But also keep in mind we absolutely have propaganda bots and trolls here. They're quite good at directing the hivemind, even without the assistance of complete loons.
It depends. I think it's definitely less common here because it just isn't needed most of the time. Even a working class retiree should have a pension or 401k, social security, and some kind of savings from their life as a working adult.
To require the support of your children, you'd have to be unable to work, not entitled to substantial amounts of social security, not have paid into a retirement plan, and not have saved any money from when you did work.
I know a couple of people who support their parents, and they either spend their ENTIRE lives in poverty making sub-minimum wage (which is pretty uncommon), or they just straight up blew all their money because they assumed their kid would take care of them. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the second category.
There is no company that does not engage in anti-consumer data collection practices. Mozilla tried to rank them a couple of years ago, but they couldn't because every single brand got an F on their grading rubric. That being said, anything can be airgapped if you're handy. Just disconnect the antenna(e) and you should be golden.
In regards to reliability, Toyota is and has been the golden standard. Mitsubishi/Nissan/Honda are a mixed bag. Stellantis has been a complete shitshow for a long time. VAG and BMW tend to be reliable, but expensive to fix. Ford and GM tend to be unreliable, but cheap to fix. Hyundai has improved massively over the past 20 years, and now has several models built like tanks, but also several that continue to be tire fires.
I don't know what your means are, but I'd get something small and budget oriented for a first car. Smaller cars are generally safer and cheaper, and lower engine power will help make the car more controllable in adverse conditions. If you have the option, a manual gearbox is cheaper to own, and it's a good skill to learn.
Edit: Also, don't buy a car the first year of a generation or a model. Don't buy a car on a rainy day. Do wait until the end of the month/quarter/year if buying from a dealership. Do find a local, independent mechanic who is reliable and trustworthy.