I also think you missed the biggest thing (to me), which was the absolute, unmitigated corruption of the American Fork (Utah) police department, who acted like hired goons for the B&M guy and harassed a guy trying to collect for the Lego owner.
To me, it was a civil dispute that should have been handled by lawyers long before (or small claims court) right up until those Utah police were involved.
I'll never understand how difficult people make things by not being forthright and making things awkward:
"Is it okay if I bring my boyfriend?"
"...I think there's been a misunderstanding. I had asked you on a hike as a fun first date, I didn't realize you had a boyfriend. I'm going to bow out of this, but I can give you the hike info if you want to take him." And then you laugh about the misunderstanding the next work day, and keep things at work from then on. No reason for it to get bad. Flirting is still fun! Just leave it at that without expecting anything more.
Just a reminder to those "Biden and Harris are participating in genocide, it's not like Trump could be any worse" crowd.
It can always get worse.
There are more appropriate ways to say this:
"Nobody with kids. I might want kids some day, but I'm not ready yet, and it feels like there would be too much pressure to either be involved with her kids or be cut out of a major portion of her life until we're really serious. And again, not ready.
And somebody athletic, since I'm into biking and hiking and other activities that require a certain level of fitness.
And... well, somebody who isn't into the whole casual sex thing, honestly. I think sex is special and, for me, requires a strong emotional connection. I want someone who has similar views on sex."
See, I feel like it changes it when you're not focusing on the other person, but yourself. I'm not ready for kids, I'm into fitness, I'm a demisexual. It sets up the same thing without disparaging people who aren't what you're looking for.
Her character gave the impression of being in her thirties with a doctorate and tons of experience, regardless how old the actress was. In the books she was apparently in her "late twenties" so that reasonably tracks.
This isn't even satire. I am willing to bet if my conservative coworkers even hear about it, they'll basically say this. Or make some comparison to Venezuela if they are slightly more aware than just parroting Fox.
So to preface, I am absolutely and without reservation against the death penalty, so any state-sanctioned murder is unacceptable to me.
That being said, if they're going for painless, why not just a captive bolt stunner the their brain stem? Like, having them lie back in a massage table with a container for the blood (heaven forbid the audience should experience the discomfort of gore with their death spectacle), and just pop it when it's time. Guaranteed to shut them off, mess is handled, suitable for a casket, and no suffering. They wouldn't even have a chance to feel it.
And if the thought of putting a human down like cattle is disturbing to you, good. It should be, just like any other way we would keep somebody locked up waiting to be killed.
My experience with people who are really into working out is that they want everyone to be into working out, and want to help you get there. They're nerds for lifting. They're excited to get you excited.
Anyone who shit-talks you for not already being great at it is a fucking poser and you should tell them that.
So I'm in the military, and my unit is particularly pleasant to be at, enough that if there are other military people on here, they might get upset by what I'm about to say.
We have peer group meetings with the Commanding Officer of the base, meaning each paygrade meets with the CO without the people above or below them to hear, and discuss issues. As you can imagine, those in the lower paygrades tend to be significantly younger, and when it got to my paygrade, we were all, almost without exception, millenials.
To give a background, in the military we get 30 days of leave per year (basically vacation), unlimited sick days, maternity and paternity leave (I believe it's at 2 months for Paternity, which is pretty generous by US standards). Additionally, at my unit, we get a four day weekend for every federal holiday, have various "morale days" through the year for fishing derbies, group hikes, etc, and a 6.5 hour work day (cue all military going WTF?!).
At the lower paygrade peer group, a few of them were apparently asking for "more control" over their time off, and being able to take ask for days off with no notice because the weather was going to be good (for hunting, for example). When the CO brought the stuff they were saying up to us, the older, supervisor, millenials, we were facepalming and talking about the fucking Zoomers. But then something amazing happened:
The CO said he could see their point, and maybe we take some of those four day weekends and instead give a few "Liberty Bucks" at the beginning of the year to each person, that can be turned in to get a particular day in the immediate future off (like getting the next day off to go hunting). That actually worked really well for us, because it made those long weekends easier to schedule, and spread out the days people would be out.
And I realized we Millenials were just so happy to have what we had, we couldn't fathom asking for something better... but they could, they did, and got it.
Fucking Zoomers indeed. Keep pushing, y'all.
Okay, I need to say it: having an ad for your own programming is still an ad.
Paramount. I'm looking at you, Paramount. I don't want to watch your shitty movie/TV show/whatever about the shitty mom from the His Dark Materials series losing another kid. Stop playing the same goddamn ad for it before every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Especially since you feel the need to double whatever goddamn volume I have set in the opening to the ad. I pay for the subscription, I already bought your product. Fuck off with your shitty ad.
I mean, others do it too and it pisses me off, but I'm on Season 2 of TNG and I may just have to get it some other way and canceling Paramount because that ad has started really getting to me.
Additionally, small claims for individual sets or groups of sets totalling less than $20k. It would also mean dragging them into court repeatedly. And with the documents they have it should be a slam-dunk each time.