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Sunday Sale Digest!

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you! Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun! If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section … Continue reading Sunday Sale Digest!




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Orange You Glad

banana




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Pluggers

Rajesh is chill




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Genre Exploration




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Age Of Crisis

Lotta heavy lifting




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The Wages Of Sin

I'm gonna be at Gencon at booth 1237 this August! I'll have some books and stuff and will be doing sketches and complimenting your pet photos. SEE YOU THERE???




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Danger Close

Liz knows her place




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Danger Extremely Close




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Danger...Somewhere?

Bubbles is doing her best




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Edmund Fitzgeraldry




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wages stagnant get worse

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: wages stagnant get worse


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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stronger or injured

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: stronger or injured


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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generation zeta

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: generation zeta


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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GET MAD AND CLICK SOME ADS

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: GET MAD AND CLICK SOME ADS


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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pay more get less

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: pay more get less


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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nice generalization

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: nice generalization


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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climate change grilling season

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: climate change grilling season


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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'As the breadwinner, you hold all the leverage': Husband refuses to spend $2,000 on wedding gift for wife's friend, wife tallies up his recreational finances

It seems that both parties are at fault here. On the one hand, you have the Redditor, who is the breadwinner of the family. He recently brought home a bonus of $3,000, a bonus that his wife wanted to be mostly used to pay for a wedding gift for her friend. Now, this friend frequently extends financial generosity to the Redditor's wife when they socialize together. It makes logical sense that the wife would want to pay her friend back for all the meals and financial assistance her friend provided to her over the years during difficult times. However, spending $2K out of your husband's $3K bonus on a necklace does not seem like the kind of idea her husband would be happy with. Naturally, this started a heated argument between the two spouses.

This conflict led to the wife tallying up all her husband's expenses on recreational activities, such as hobbies or the two cars he owns. Clearly, he is not the most generous spouse either, especially since his wife still needs help with her personal finances from her friend. Keep scrolling below to see what people had to say to this guy in the comments section. For more, check out this post about a 40-year-old who was passed over for a promotion in favor of a younger coworker.




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'It was nonsense': Entitled employee constantly takes credit for other's work, coworker gets revenge by making a fake presentation for her to present in front of boss

There's always that one coworker who knows how to get away with taking credit for everyone else's hard work. You put in the effort, lose sleep over the details, and then they swoop in, ready to present it all like they thought of it themselves. This exact situation happened in one office until one clever employee decided to turn the tables. After watching his entitled coworker repeatedly swipe his projects and pass them off as her own, he put together a presentation just for her. Packed with confusing data points and meaningless buzzwords, the presentation was just convincing enough to look important…until you actually tried to explain it. And sure enough, the coworker snagged it and confidently presented it in front of their boss. The employee watched with quiet satisfaction as she stumbled through, each buzzword making less sense than the last. When the boss turned to him for clarification, he threw her under the bus, telling the boss she had no idea what she was talking about. Sweet, sweet office justice.




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Ex-boss freaks out after reading former employee's online review, sends her essay-long messages: 'Block and move on'

It must have been challenging for this boss to read about how her own lack of professionalism. However, as Justin Timberlake himself once sang and then experienced, "what goes around… comes around." 

Here, we have a former employee who quit after experiencing a severe case of burnout. Their horrible boss established a workplace environment that discouraged calling in sick because that only meant having to do more work down the road. Eventually, there was a final straw and the employee left before having another job lined up. They decided to pen an anonymous review of their experience at the company, mostly focusing on organizational flaws and less on personal grievances. 

Still, however, their boss took the review very personally and figured out who the author was. As many folks in the comments section pointed out, the Redditor is under no obligation to respond to their ex-boss's ridiculous messages; if anything, they should "deny, deny, deny."

For more stories like this, check out this post about another who employee who quit during the first week.




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'The manager [said], "You really want to burn this bridge?" I said, "Yes"': 20+ Employees who quit their jobs as fast as possible

There's no need to double down on a bad bet, especially when your career is on the line. Although it can be a letdown to try and start a new job only to leave immediately, it's better than staying somewhere you hate for years only to regret it each day. 

 Some workplaces have working conditions that are completely unacceptable, and a lot of folks cited that as their reasons for leaving. For example, one person found themself working in a propane tank factory, but they realized they were working in the second-hottest room possible. They were stationed right next to a kiln room, and the room they were in was often at 130 degrees! They rightfully refused to return to that job. 

Other people were dealing with some really incompetent management situations. As one worker shared, their management at a small retail shop barely bothered to train them, and they spent their entire second day on the job alone. This was the deciding factor for that person, and they called it quits. At least some of the people who shared their stories moved onto way better jobs after learning from these bad ones. 

After that, read about this job candidate who chose the wrong interviewer to lie to, because at the job he claimed to work at, "Nobody knew him." 




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25-year-old employee requests off to attend a funeral, micromanager demands for proof of the service: 'After this, I want to quit'

The last thing anyone wants when they are going through a family emergency is to have to deal with your micromanaging boss simultaneously. Here, we have an employee who took one day off to attend the funeral service of a family member. He did not request any bereavement leave or anything more than just the one day of paid time off he was certainly entitled to based on his contract. 

However, upon his return to the office, his micromanaging supervisor demanded for proof that he did, in fact, take time off to attend a funeral service. Apparently, this was because he also had to dip out early one day due to a dentist appointment. The supervisor's own boss was skeptical about the whole thing and forced the supervisor to request for proof. Now, all the employee wants to do is leave the company with no notice instead.

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from folks in the comments section. For more, check out this post about a 40-year-old company man who was passed over for a promotion in favor of a much younger coworker.




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'A masterclass in how not to get hired': 18-year-old writes unflattering pitch for themself on social media job page

This person is young and aspirational, but their methods of finding a new job could use some fine-tuning. 

Creating your very first resume is both intimidating and kind of embarrassing. Because you have zero job experience, you have to write about the clubs you participated in school, or your hobbies where you have leadership qualities, or even just the classes you're currently taking. None of that life experience is going to wow a hiring manager. But that's why kids start small, picking up jobs at fast food chains or clothing stores and working for minimum wage. 

This 18-year-old had a different idea of how they think their first jobs should go. They wrote in to a Facebook group for job offerings with an interesting paragraph about their own experience. Instead of highlighting their best attributes, they insisted on avoiding jobs where they have to work with customers (even though they claim to be outgoing in the same breath). The internet found this all very funny, and had some notes for this kid about better ways to find a job. 

Up next, have a laugh at some employees who got fired after getting petty with their most entitled customers, like one who informed a customer that, "If I have to talk to you again, you have to sit in time-out for 10 minutes."




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'Hang up the phone, Karen': Entitled couple brake-checks catering delivery vehicle, blames the driver and tries to get free catering out of it

It's always shocking when people who are so clearly in the wrong forcibly double down on their behavior. Of course, that kind of entitlement among the Karens and Kevins of the world comes as no surprise, and yet to see this kind of audacity unfold in real-time is still a sight to behold.

Here, we have an entitled couple that brake-checked a catering delivery vehicle. The driver reported the incident to his supervisor, and the camera footage that was captured clearly showed that the couple was at fault. And yet, the couple willingly called up the catering service to accuse the driver of wrongdoing, threatening to call the policy and sue the company unless they got free catering for an upcoming event they were hosting. Thankfully, the supervisor did not fall for this entitled behavior and proceeded to show them the footage that was captured. Let's just say that Karen and Kevin quickly hung up after the evidence presented itself.

For more stories like this, check out this post about an entitled boss whose behavior caused their new hire to quit immediately.




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'[He] was on 24/7 call, so unplugging the phone wasn't an option': Tech support guy gets revenge on an angry IT customer by programming the office phone to call him at 2, 3, and 4 AM every night

We learned from a young age that you should be nice to the other kids on the playground. Share the bouncy rubber ball, don't pull a girl's pigtails, and include everyone in your fun games! That's how it should be in the working world–the adult world–because if you make an enemy on the blacktop, you might just get destroyed in the next game of dodgeball. 

This IT customer learned never to mess with their tech support crew after being a total buffoon on the phone. He was known for screaming at the guys who were just trying to help him troubleshoot his modem, but finally, after being placed with the same phone support guy one too many times, he snapped and decided to get some revenge. 

Frankly, I think this guy's sleep schedule became a little more precious to him after he got completely pwned by the dude he was used to screaming at–I guess now it looks like the phone is the only thing screaming at 2 AM… 3 AM… and 4 AM. Do you think he'll be nicer to his next customer service rep after this? You be the judge.




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'His hand pauses in midair': Front desk attendant gets scolded for using his phone at work, instead he maliciously complies with company policy by wasting other precious office resources

No personal cell phones? Okay. This employee took his malicious compliance to the next level after getting scolded one too many times for using his cell phone on the job. 

I get it… It doesn't look good for a hotel receptionist to scroll memes while the line at the concierge starts to grow. Smacking your gum, rolling your eyes, and scrolling endlessly really isn't something you're supposed to be doing at work, but as many of us forget, our phones are actually super useful little tools. We've grown accustomed to traveling around all day with a tiny computer in our pocket that it's easy to let slip their more convenient functions. The front desk reception guy in our next tale knew all the ways his phone could help out clients, but after his manager got on his back about using his personal device on the clock, he decided to use the second language translating tool at his disposal. 

Keep scrolling to read how an employee turned a spiteful MC into a memorable guest experience when a traveler needed help with a quick translation.




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14-year-old daughter asks her mom to tell her the truth about how she looks, 39-year-old Karen mother does not mince her words: 'I told her she was average-looking'

Sure, honesty may seem like the best policy, but this Karen of a mother took things way too far.

At first, when reading about her seemingly genuine concern over her teenage daughter's body insecurity, one might think that this is an attentive, caring, and decent parent. However, when her daughter asked her to honestly tell her the truth about how she looks, this Karen thought it would be a good idea to tell her that she is, in fact, only average-looking. Her supposed point was to inform her daughter that most people in the world are average-looking, but as one might expect, this "truth-telling" moment did not sit well with a 14-year-old. 

When the mother shared her side of the story on Reddit, people eviscerated her in the comments section, and rightfully so. Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from other mothers and daughters. For more, check out this post about a husband and wife's heated argument over money.





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'This is the first time I have ever asked to have some time off': 22-year-old babysitter gets denied vacation time for her sister's wedding, boss tries to guilt trip babysitter into skipping it

This kind of boss is just the worst, as this flustered nanny can tell you. 

Taking time off at your job can be awkward at times, especially if you're close friends with your boss. You might feel obligated to tell them everything you're planning to do with this time off. This person certainly did, but they at least had a great reason for requesting a few days off. U/Nannyneedabreak writes that as a babysitter for two kids, ages 6 and 8, she gave her boss a generous warning that she'd be gone for a few days. She gave this boss an incredible seven months of notice that she would be out of town for just four days! That's way more generous than most employees would be. 

This woman shared that she also reminded her boss about that important date at least once per month. Still her, boss insisted she cancel the trip when the date got close. Come on, lady, there are other babysitters in the world! Just ask for a reference to someone else, and let this woman go to her sister's once in a lifetime event. 

Up next, this non-HOA homeowner is refusing to take down their holiday lights, and told the HOA member to "just get off my property… I've just had enough."




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'[It] is just really tacky': Job candidate interviews with glowing recommendation, picky manager spots one flaw and refuses to hire her

This manager is being totally ridiculous, and he doesn't even realize the full scope of what he did. 

Sticking your neck out for a friend can be risky. In this person's case, they recommended their friend for an interview at their coffee shop job. They figured this friend would be a shoo-in for the role. To be a great barista, you need to be upbeat and positive when interacting with customers, be able to put drinks together quickly, and work well under pressure. U/BAAAUGH was completely exasperated by the way her boss treated that friend she recommended for the job

The only person who should be embarrassed by the way things went down is the boss. It almost seems like he's worried that his staffers will steal coffee or something. First of all, most baristas do drink coffee at their workplaces, but it's a cheap item, just let them have it! And secondly, if that's the boss's biggest concern about a potential employee, maybe he should spend some more time behind the counter, preparing orders, and learning what it actually takes to thrive in a cafe environment. 

Up next, read about this scorned ex who yanked a $600 gift card back from an ex just to get back at her. 




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18-year-old stepdaughter refuses to accept younger stepdaughter and 39-year-old stepmother, stepmother tells her to move out: 'I told her that if she hates us so much then she can leave'

At 18, you are an adult in every sense of the word. Sure, your frontal lobe hasn't fully developed, and you're going to make a whole lot of bad choices over the next seven or so years, but the difference between 17 and 18 is that you're going to be solely responsible—and accountable—for those decisions. That means the way you engage your personal relationships and the decisions you make for your future are on you, despite your relative inability to properly rationalize them and your lack of experience in making them.

If you're fortunate and privileged, you'll still have the support of parents, guardians, and other mentors who push you in the right direction. If you're even more fortunate, you get to spend these years in a structured simulation environment called "college," where you get to engage with other frontal-lobe-ly challenged "adults" where you can go on adventures and make all kinds of terrible decisions that you'll look fondly on and/or regret for the rest of your life. But regardless of whether or not you attend this life-simulator, you're going to have to start getting your act together and taking responsibility, which is why the behavior of this 18-year-old, despite her tragic background, needs to desperately be adjusted.

This stepmother has been really struggling to develop a closer relationship with her 18-year-old stepdaughter, who has not adjusted well to her blended family, saying horrible things about her stepmother, who she has known as a parental figure for most of her life. This tragically complex situation is probably a signifier of some underlying trauma that the young woman is dealing with, but it prompted the stepmother to turn to this online community to see whether or not she was in the wrong for telling her stepdaughter to leave their home, to which the young woman complied.




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‘I got extra pay, a box of chocolates, [and] an apology': Karen gets fired after screaming for 40 minutes at a customer service rep because they refuse to break company policy

Is it really so difficult to be kind to the customer service person trying to troubleshoot your problem over the phone? I get it, everything's falling to pieces on your end, but it doesn't make any logical sense to be unsavory to the one person who can actually help you.  

This Karen in our next story proved that being aggressive over the phone doesn't get you everything you want, and sometimes it can get you fired…. Or maybe even investigated by the Feds. 

Imagine, this customer service employee was about 15 seconds from clocking out for the day–it was Friday at 4:59:45 PM and they were grabbing their coats on their way out and the blasted phone rang. Seeing that the number was from an internal caller, as in, someone within their company, the employee thought this would be a simple thing to solve and that they could make quick work of their coworker's problem. Except, the woman on the other end of the line wasn't looking for solutions, she was looking for a customer service rep to break the rules for her. 

Keep scrolling to see how a 40-minute IT support call turned into an apology letter, a box of chocolates, and an immediate, dishonorable resignation. 




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'He was a nightmare': Employee's savage review after quitting exposes entitled boss, leads to their termination

When you're applying for jobs, you're probably checking out every online review you can find to dodge any potential red flags. After all, who wants to go through multiple interviews only to discover that the company's run by an entitled boss who thinks coworkers should act like "family"? Hard pass. Sites that let employees rate companies are a goldmine for honest feedback—sometimes with details that make you grateful for the warning.

Well, after one employee spent six grueling months working under a new VP, they tried to clue in the higher-ups about just how awful the new boss was. When the owner didn't take their concerns seriously, they took things a step further, leaving a brutally honest review that laid everything bare. The best part is it worked. The entitled boss eventually got the boot, and the company's culture finally went back to normal. Unfortunately, the original employee who exposed the mess had already quit—but at least they left with a story of sweet, well-deserved karma.




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Candidate gets rejected from a job they perfectly qualify for, they reapply with a new email account and immediately get moved up in the hiring process: ‘It was even the same recruiter’

Who didn't experience the frustration of getting email after email of rejection from countless jobs you thought you'd be perfect for? If you never experienced that, then congratulations! You are one in a million. If you do know what we're talking about, our question to you is – After how many rejections did you acknowledge that maybe the problem is you and something should change? 50? 100? 1000?  Plus, what does one should change to actually make a difference?

The person in this Reddit story came up with an interesting tactic after getting rejected from a job for which they were perfectly qualified. After several more similar rejections that made no sense to OP (original poster), they decided to open a new email account and reapply for jobs using the same exact resume. This tactic proved successful when they were immediately moved up to the next step in the hiring process for that initial perfect job.

Keep scrolling to read the full story. After you are done, click here for a story of an employee who overheard their boss talking about major workplace changes, and then confronted him about it.




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'I didn't even think it was possible to get fired at orientation': 20+ Employees who were stunned to be fired for their big mistakes

In case you've never considered it before, yes, you can get fired at your job orientation. It probably makes things easier for the hiring team. Why bother hiring a person who can't even make it through the first few days of the gig?

Some people get hired at a job, but they make it clear from day one that they're just utterly uninterested in doing work for even a minute. One guy chose to only work from 10 AM-12 PM each day, which is iconic of him, and I wish him all the best. Another woman became notorious for her habit of refusing to work, and only riding the office tricycle all day! It's pretty startling that some people make it so blatantly obvious how little they want to work. Have some subtlety! Just do what a lot of higher-ups do and work half a day, grab a long lunch with your coworkers, then claim you're taking a phone meeting and leave at 3 PM. How hard could it be to get away with that? Keep scrolling to read some of the funniest stories about coworkers getting fired early on. 

After that, read the tale of the babysitter who ate about $25 of a $90 cake, and the woman she babysat for (her own aunt!) wants to be repaid ASAP. 




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Dad gets back at teenage stepdaughters for making his 16-year-old daughter sleep on the floor of their hotel room: 'I gave my daughter an entire room for herself'

Who knew that evil stepsisters were still a thing? One would think these two teenagers would get a grip and be kind to the Cinderella of this story, rather than lean into the Evil Stepsister caricature. Unfortunately, however, they could not help themselves.

This Redditor was traveling with his family for a memorial service, and his wife booked a hotel room for his daughter Shiloh and two stepdaughters to share. Things went a bit south when the stepdaughters insisted that Shiloh sleep on the floor. When the original poster (OP) discovered that this was going on, he told Shiloh to pack her things and immediately booked her a separate hotel room.

This ultimately backfired as the two stepdaughters went crying and complaining to OP's wife (their mother), accusing OP of playing favorites. The fact that OP's wife had the audacity to not hear and empathize with her husband's side of the story leads us to believe that this second marriage is unlikely to work out. For more stories like this, check out this post about some Thanksgiving drama.




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Stage mom of 16-year-old divorces husband via email, CC's his entire family and friend group: '[He's] unable to adapt to any change'

There's divorce, and then there's burning every bridge you've ever built! This stage mom of a 16-year-old is sharing her story about what happened when she and her husband decided to call it quits via email, and it is a messy story. 

I suppose every divorce is messy in its own way. Some couples face cheating allegations, with one partner losing trust in their spouse. Others realize they're just not compatible anymore, and have different life goals. And of course, it's always more complicated when family is involved, whether that's having a bunch of kids or having parents who live at home (or both). 

It's not like you can totally keep the public out of the loop when you divorce your spouse. You'll have to pack up everything you own and move, sign legal documents, and face big life changes. Still, the way this stage mom went about it had people on the r/AITAH subreddit calling her out for her behavior. Check out the full story below and see if you side with her or her husband. 

Up next, read about these employees who got fired almost as soon as they started the job, like one dude who refused to wear safety gear, telling the supervisor "no" to his face! 




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The Leaden Angels




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BtAF's Classic Literature sequels: Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later




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Промо-предложение от наших партнёров на фоне ухода GetResponse

Недавно мы писали о том, что сервис рассылок GetResponse решил уйти из России буквально одним днём. Для тех, кто столкнулся с этой проблемой (и не только для них) этот материал. ???? Sendsay — это российская омниканальная CDP для коммуникации с клиентами.




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Six unelected people forcing their unpopular christian nationalist agenda on a population of three hundred and forty million is not a Democracy. It is tyranny.

America has not been attacked like this since 9/11. Six unelected people forcing their christian nationalist agenda on a population of three hundred and forty million is not a Democracy. It is tyranny.




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frances farmer will have her revenge

I haven't actually listened to a full album in a really, really long time. Like, other than Pink Floyd records, which must be listened to in their entirety, always (I will not be taking questions at this time), it just hasn't occurred to me to listen to, say, all of In Utero.




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Mothers have a sneaky way of getting to you

The last time I was in Washington, we had cleaned out a lot of my parent’s old stuff, and I was leaving after having booked a real estate agent to sell off the property. There were boxes and bags of miscellaneous papers that were going to be thrown out or destroyed, and I scooped up […]



  • Miscellaneous and Meta

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The More Things Change… (or: What’s in a Job Title?)

I’m designing for the web. The infinitely flexible web.

The post The More Things Change… (or: What’s in a Job Title?) appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.







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Budget boost to UK economy forecast to fade after two years

The government's official forecaster raises its prediction for UK growth in 2024 and 2025 but reduces it for later years.




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Where is the growth in Reeves' 'Budget for growth'?

Labour's first Budget in 14 years had a lot to say about growth, but forecasts paint a mixed picture.




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Chris Mason: A change-making Budget but a moment of jeopardy

The government's fate will depend on whether it can make things better, says political editor Chris Mason.