Anecdotal observation from college: Lots of people got hammered on a weekend, at least sometimes, but the people who couldn’t draw a line and keep it from destroying their grades were mostly the ones whose parents kept them rigidly controlled at home. It seemed like those folks had no practice in drawing their own lines because their parents always drew the lines for them, so when they were on their own they went nuts. The preacher’s daughter is a cliche with a lot of truth.

I don’t think that attitude is as fringe as you seem to be thinking. There seem to be an awful lot of people who are horrified at any kind of nudity.

I can’t wait to pay for groceries with my free healthcare.

Is anybody shocked to see a nude statue in a museum or something?

Sadly, some are. I remember as a teen visiting my aunt and uncle who had a giant Catholic family. We were sitting around watching one of the Pink Panther movies, where the main character is in a museum at night. As he scans his flashlight across the room, it passes over some nude Greek statues. My aunt took the remote and switched the channel, saying “We don’t need to watch this smut.”

The counterpoint is that, for many women I know, their swimwear exposes way more skin than their underwear.

You should reflect back on that “less prude than Americans” part of his statement. It’s only “not really possible” because of widespread American taboos about nudity. If boobs were visible in everyday life - on TV shows and at a typical day to the beach - in a non-sexual way, your son wouldn’t give a crap.

It’s interesting that in many US cities, there’s no law against women going topless, but if a woman does it, it’s outrageous. Hell, some women get chastised for breastfeeding in public. We’re a messed up society.

I wish there was a good way to let publications know we feel that way. So they know is that we clicked.

My wife and I are both computer geeks, and so our kids were exposed to computers and played computer games from a young age. One day I was playing with our daughter - playing with her dolls - and she said, “I’m going to exit this Barbie and select this one.” Cracked me up because it made perfect sense, but it’s not the way people talk about things IRL.

I don’t see how people physically eat cookies without a glass of milk.

I grew up with milk being the main dinnertime beverage, and I still drink it quite a bit. My step-son’s gf clearly did not, and clearly thinks it’s strange, but tries to be polite about it. She’s asked me if milk is my favorite drink, if I feel like milk goes with most food, and a number of related questions. I think in her family, milk is something some people put in coffee.

I feel more like I’ve got the wire monkey mother from that same experiment.

I’ve never played horde, but she’s at 49, 50. I can give you a straight answer since I haven’t had to deal with horde barrens chat.

I read an obscene amount of science fiction and play a lot of classic wow.

If you want sometime currently in the theater, you might try The Life of Chuck. Likely to make you cry, but uplifting. Great cast.

Upvoting for Eternal Sunshine, such I think fits OP’s request better than EEAAO.

Yeah, I get it, it just feels very different to me. And, of course, as with all things, the line is blurry anyway. For instance, Orson Scott Card wrote an alternate history where the change is that American folk magic actually works, which seems pretty explicitly fantasy. It’s similar to the way it’s pretty hard to clearly differentiate between SF and fantasy. I get it, it’s just annoying.

Thanks for this. I read a huge amount of mostly SF, with some fantasy, and there are quite a number here (most of them) that I’m not familiar with, so I’m happy to have things to add to my reading list.

In the SF novel category, the only one I’ve read is Service Model, which I thought was excellent. A couple of the others are already on my to-read list.

In the fantasy novel category, the only one I’ve read is the winner, A Sorceress Come to Call (which I finished yesterday), and I really liked it as well.

Some of the others are ones I’ve looked up, but aren’t my thing (for instance, I don’t generally enjoy alternate histories, and it bugs me that they’re considered SF).

But several of the nominees look interesting. Looks like I’ve got more reading to do!

I retired in January after 40 years (not counting jobs during college). Marriage collapsed not long after (unrelated). So now I live alone and have nothing on my calendar. It’s honestly so very strange not having to go to bed early on a weeknight. Also, for some reason, the hours and days go very slowly, but the weeks and months go very quickly. Time is fundamentally different than it was previously.

Oh, there it is

I did not. These are the first celebrity Oreos I’ve encountered.