People are indeed buying Super Soakers instead of just using a hose.

The point of this comparison is that they aren’t at all the same thing. People don’t want things that barely work and few have the time to learn new skills to craft what they want in an acceptable quality. Could any able-bodied adult pick up a knife and whittle themself a spoon? Probably. Most of those spoons are going to suck though and you can get one at Target for a couple bucks. It’s a position that feels out of touch.

I’m all for taking care of what you have and repairing rather than replacing when possible, and I’d love to collectively move away from plastic crap, but saying “just learn to make bread with all the free time and functional kitchen you for sure have” helps nobody except the speaker patting themself on the back.

Flexible sure but not exactly easy. There’s a lot of choices to make at every level and many of the feats have prerequisite, earlier feats so you functionally have to plan your entire expected progression up front.

I don’t want 25 cents worth of checkerboard, I want a decent wooden object that doesn’t make me feel like I live in a dumpster. And most people want a sturdy piece of decorated, folding cardboard that will last a century if nobody spills juice on it.

Your position sounds a lot like “why do you kids need Super Soakers anyway, we have a perfectly good hose.”

We flip idioms all the time. Head-over-heels is another one, used to be the other way around. I suspect it’s a subconscious thing as both moved the long e sound to the end and we prefer vowel sounds in particular orders and rhythms.

“End of life care” is entirely optional. I’m not going to waste away in a hospital bed, that’s for sure.

I played Yahtzee once and now I hustle back alley Craps foe drug money.

Green burial. No preservatives, no permanent structures, just natural decay and completing the circle of life. Don’t pickle me for a funeral just get me in the ground asap.

In left-leaning spaces it means “cognizant of the injustice pervading society”. On the right it means “uppity”.

What, and take any responsibility for the Commons?

Forced perspective? Look at the plates, the jars, the chips! It’s so clearly a pile of drumsticks, and not small ones.

Are the real communists kept around back with the real scotsmen?

Barley tea is delicious.

Not nuts but very close, they’re called “achenes” (ə-ˈkēn). The only Important difference is that nuts have a thick, protective shell but we’re being specific here.

Specter! I should replay those games.

Single-handedly? Nah. It pulled a lot of existing ideas together though, and it’s certainly responsible for the popularity. Another Minecraft influence is early-access.

It’s been a while since I’ve done kitchen work but I’ve never had an automatic lifter. We just had someone being paid to cook food and watch the fryer. The issues start piling up in places that make the cashier handle front, drive-thru, fryer, whatever else all at once rather than pay an extra $150 in labor for the day.

People don’t treat you differently for any reason. Oh you’re the Dragonborn, leader of three guilds, an obvious vampire, bedecked in legendary artifacts from a half-dozen Daedric lords, and savior of the Nords? I bet you don’t spend much time in the Cloud District though.

Semi is giving them a lot of credit is what I’m saying. They’d starve to death if their food was in a paper bag instead of a bowl. One of them is afraid of the new curtains. Utterly useless. I love them but they are fully dependent on human care, much more than an average dog.

“Choose” really isn’t an applicable concept here, and even then dogs more likely stem from wolves hanging around of their own volition rather than kidnapped pups. And then there’s honey bees.

My cats are belligerent toddlers and not at all autonomous. Only one of the three could survive outside for more than a week. (Granted, the other two are “old” now so even if they weren’t useless babies it would still be a statistical miracle for them to survive in the wild)