How are you?

We’re the laughing stock of the world (we’ve been for a decade), there’s winter weather on the way to Dallas, and Ted Cruz is already on a plane. I’ve played this game before.

All bullshit aside, how are you?

I was speaking with a neighbor a few moments ago about him getting gypped on web design. For a fraction of what he paid, I could’ve showed him how to do it himself, and he’d never have to pay another dime to anyone else ever again to do it. He looked bewildered. Don’t people do that anymore? Favors to help another better themselves? Just for the heck of it?

Let’s pause a moment: I’d heard that word my whole life, but never seen it in print. I never knew the spelling. Without even seeking a definition online, I immediately knew it originated as a racial slur in regard to Gypsies. Hell, even the word Gypsy is considered a slur by the purest of language police, but every other soccer mom in the Starbuck’s line thinks they are one in 2026. I blame Etsy.

Continue: Wow; I had no idea this was going to be a thing. I was going to ask how you were and just play the cat game. Now, I’ve learned something, and we need to discuss it.

Since we’re on the subject of gypping and Gypsies, why doesn’t the most “offended” demographic on the freaking social map get language-policed for saying that? Every “barefoot gardening, Soccer fields by seven on a Saturday, ‘wine-tree’ in the front yard, mid-thirties/forties karaoke with my high school bestie, still attempting to understand the deeper meaning of Rocky Horror Picture Show but gets tingly when her girlfriend hugs her goodbye,” suburban twat who’s ever known all the lyrics to at least one Fleetwood Mac song. I know that sounds hyper-specific but, trust me, it’s a fucking demographic.