Reply All: #142 We Didn't Start The Fire

May 24, 2019 8:24 AM

This week, an epic Yes Yes No spanning an entire galaxy of internet fights. Plus, Alex Goldman reveals a dark personal secret. And an update on Sal's quest to get into college in Canada.

The tweet.

posted by dnash (15 comments total)

Oh, I should've thought to add:

Previously on Mefi: Aperol spritz sucks
posted by dnash at 8:27 AM on May 24, 2019

Funny as it was I kind of wish Alex had kept that to himself. It makes my germaphobe-y skin crawl.
posted by orrnyereg at 9:10 AM on May 24, 2019

I was thinking about Alex's washing technique while in the shower this morning and just could not fathom it at all.

Also, as one who has NOT seen Avengers End Game, I had to do some fast forwarding through the "Wiccan Life" explanation. Trying to stay (mostly) spoiler free!
posted by jazon at 9:39 AM on May 24, 2019

They could have easily explained Wiccan Life (if that is the real explanation, I'm unconvinced) without actually getting into Endgame beyond "There's an extremely minor scene with an openly gay man and people are conflicted about it" then rolling into how it relates to Wiccan.

Also I have experimented with sitting in the shower in my youth and I found it extremely unpleasant. The shower drops hit with more force down there and you're constantly getting splashed in the face. I can understand using a shower chair out of need or preference, but sitting on the floor? Utter madness.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:39 PM on May 26, 2019

I honestly thought that the Wiccan life thing had to do with the resurgence of Astrology and Wicca in lesbian culture and that article about feeling ostracized for being a lesbian who doesn't believe in astrology.

The sitting in the shower just weirds me out. Like, how is that comfy? How wide is that shower? Isn't it kind of hard to get up? I wash my legs in the shower, but most of my cleanliness efforts go to my genitals and butt, and it seems like it would be more difficult to scrub in that position.
posted by dinty_moore at 2:50 PM on May 26, 2019

Sitting down in the shower! Sitting down in the shower! I am agog
posted by Going To Maine at 10:53 PM on May 27, 2019

It had literally never occurred to me before I saw one of the mentioned memes last week that people do not wash their legs. My legs are literally the first part of my body that I wash.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:46 AM on May 28, 2019

So, the shower thing - my brother and I both do it now and then. You don't sit while washing. The washing part is done standing, like everyone else does. The sitting is either before or after - like a relaxation thing. Like being in a steam room or sauna. I do it rarely now, but for one thing it can be nice for re-hydrating on a hangover morning.
posted by dnash at 11:40 AM on May 28, 2019

I feel for Sal. Someone really should have told him to make a phone call. I go far out of my way to avoid talking on the phone now. When I was his age, I would have made the same mistake. It's not surprising. But, spending months unable to apply to a school because of a broken website and missing the deadline for most other schools as a result is nuts. Call the admissions office. Call the admissions director. Call the secretary of the department you're interested in. Call the department chair. Call the dean. It sounds like it turned out pretty okay for him in the end, even if he didn't get into McGill, but cripes! Sometimes I think the most genuinely useful thing I do at my university is try to persuade non-rich kids that they shouldn't be shy about asking for things.
posted by eotvos at 12:11 PM on May 28, 2019

I was a first generation college student, and a college dropout. My parents didn’t especially want me to go to college. When I was Sal’s age, I would have had no idea that there was such a thing as an admissions office, or an admissions director, or a department secretary, or such a thing as a department chair or a dean that I could call, and I was an American high school kid. I had access to a high school guidance counselor, but had no notion that this was the kind of stuff I should be talking to them about. These institutions are not that scary once you’ve been around the block a little, but I do think they can be extremely opaque to people with a non-college background. Seriously, WTF is a department chair to a Syrian refugee and why should a Syrian refugee think they could just pick up a phone and have a chat with them? For all anyone knows a “department chair” is a piece of furniture.
posted by chrchr at 4:32 PM on May 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

Maybe Alex Goldman has one of those combo tub/shower bathrooms, so sitting in the shower is just sitting in a bathtub while the shower is on? That seems less squicky because I guess there’s a presumption that bathtubs are cleaner than the floors of shower stalls.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 6:10 PM on May 28, 2019

FWIW "sitting in the bathtub with the shower on" is the sort of thing I personally dabbled in, specifically filling the tub up via the shower head instead of the spout. It's not pleasant. The water hits you very hard, it splashes droplets in your face constantly, and you have to futz with the temperature more because the water will actually cool significantly by the time it reaches the bottom.

I've seen fancy Kohler shower booths that have a seat and a mini tub to soak one's feet, which seems pretty pleasant, but the way Alex was talking definitely sounded like sitting on his butt in the middle of a normal shower and not sitting on a bench in a fancy shower.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:11 PM on May 28, 2019

Maybe Alex Goldman has one of those combo tub/shower bathrooms, so sitting in the shower is just sitting in a bathtub while the shower is on? That seems less squicky because I guess there’s a presumption that bathtubs are cleaner than the floors of shower stalls.

Okay, but how do you sit criss-cross applesauce in a bathtub? I don't think I've managed that since I was a kid.

Also, for real, I cannot blame Sal for not making an international phone call during working hours, especially when there's a seven hour time difference. I've had the 7am scheduled meeting with colleagues in Poland before, it's not the easiest or most productive time to get things done for either party, and I'm an adult. This is when email or a website should come in and make our lives easier.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:33 PM on May 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

To be clear, I'm not blaming Sal. I had a lot of advantages compared to him and would have done exactly the same thing as a student. I just feel bad for him and angry that universities (including my own) haven't made much progress on solving problems like he faced.
posted by eotvos at 1:29 AM on May 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

Sometimes I think the most genuinely useful thing I do at my university is try to persuade non-rich kids that they shouldn't be shy about asking for things.

bless you for doing that. as the gulf between a student's situation and the perceive elite-ness of the university increases, the likelihood of the student asking for help tends to go way down. ask me how i know.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:17 AM on June 18, 2019 [1 favorite]