“Free Tomatoes, Take One!”

Unethical

That sucks.
I don’t know if this is a thing anymore but “back in my day” your friends/family/coworkers/roommates would try to hook you up with other people that they know are single and might be a good match. Especially the older ladies in your life, that was like their mission in life. Aside from that, you might ask someone who runs in overlapping circles that you’ve seen a few times if they want to get coffee or lunch.

The closest thing to Tinder-type dating would have been “cruising” on a Friday and Saturday night, driving up and down the Main Street of your town, hanging out in parking lots to talk and make plans for the night. Even then, you would ask “where do/did you go to school” and “do you know ____” “are you related to” type questions to establish your “degrees of Kevin Bacon” relationship in the social network.

So there was no need to date total strangers. That would be considered kinda weird and suspicious, which is why online dating was heavily stigmatized in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. I went on a few match.com and eharmony dates but kept it secret, telling only my closest friends, out of shame. They thought I was crazy, meeting up with strangers like that.

A few horny guys would try to chat up every random stranger and it occasionally paid off for them, but that wasn’t really normal behavior.

I think we’re all more mobile now, moving from city to city for work, so those networks are probably shattered for most people.

I feel so incredibly lucky that I dodged the dating app bullet, it seems awful for guys to try and compete in that space. And for women, having creepy dudes be creepy with no repercussions, with no way to tell their mother/aunt/sister to smack some sense into them… not great.

1. There are plenty of tiny coffee places (and other small businesses) near me where the owner is there all day, every day with just one or two employees. You’ll get to know them if you want to. You might also bump into them around town. If they suck, patronize a different place.

2. Theoretically, most of the money that I spend there stays in town, helping to keep other businesses and families going. They probably sponsor the local animal shelter or little league team. I like that.

3. I’ve worked in small businesses and corporate America. In my experience corporate America always sucks, small business only sometimes suck. I don’t like supporting large corporations and especially not their admin and C-suite. Those vampires are why the wealth gap is growing so quickly.

4. Corporate food is boring.

5. Some people argue that all of the transportation involved in moving around product and people for multi-national corporations is worse for the environment. I don’t care about that personally but it seems like a reasonable conclusion.

I agree, I pretty much won’t do “Contact Us for Pricing” unless it’s construction work or something, but man, have you seen the Uhaul moving box in person?
It’s a wooden pallet with wobbly plywood walls and a tarp on it. It looks like something you’d see in a homeless camp.
I’d do it again but damn, the price definitely matches the quality.

And when it arrives on your doorstep, you realize that you just rented a wooden pallet with wobbly plywood walls and a thick vinyl tarp over it 😂

It looked like a hobo’s shack!

I’d still choose them again due to cost but I was shocked at the actual product. Lead with the price indeed.

Great, now I’m gonna be looking even more like a crazy person when walking in the woods, as I crawl around sticking my face up to every Turkey Tail (Trametes Versicolor) that I pass looking for these. Jk, thanks for sharing!

Haha yeah, bacon always wins. Potato chips on a sandwich are nice for that same kinda fluffy crunch layer.

Cooked onions, I suppose I’d agree. They’re just kinda mushy. Raw onions on the other hand have a great crunchy texture to me.

Thick sliced raw onion rings on burgers fluffs the whole thing up a bit and adds some airy crunch.

They add a nice crunchy texture to Greek salad as well.

Cut into lengthwise strips, they’re similarly fun in stir-fry if you don’t cook them too long.

Diced on top of a tostada or taco or bagel with cream cheese and lox, they add a little crunchy something but admittedly this could be also be achieved with pretty much anything not-squishy.

Witches’ Butter! (maybe)
I’ve never been brave enough to eat it, looks kinda… not good.
Edit : here’s a better article

Deadly Galerina likes to grow on dead conifers.

Death Cap grows on tree roots, not sure if that counts.

There aren’t a ton of mushrooms that grow on healthy living trees I think, so it’s kinda hard to find a poisonous example but maybe Jack O’ Lanterns count. They can grow at the base of living hardwood trees. They won’t kill you but you will have a very bad time. I think there’s another closely related species that grows on both conifers and hardwoods.