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Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 22, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I found this archive of Scott's LiveJournal, but I'm wondering of there's a list somewhere picking out the most interesting articles to read. https://archive.fo/fCFQx

Ten Short Scenes from India

Top tier comedy. Love watching "white privilege" go the other way. 23 years in India, and have never had any of these happen to me. (except crying beggars, that's a daily exercise)

Varanasi is a headscratcher. Indians have millennia long memories tied to the once great place, and visit it begrudgingly. But, it makes no sense for a white person to go to Varanasi. Set on the border of Bihar and UP, you are looking at the most underdeveloped parts of the world. By the point the Ganga reaches Varanasi, it's turned into a filthy gutter. Varanasi is far from any other tourist spot, the architecture is sub-par, the important buildings have all been rebuilt recently & the large swaths of domestic tourists make it intolerably claustrophobic.

Indians have sentimental reasons to go to Varanasi, so it makes sense. Others, less so. Imagine if Indians started visiting the Memphis Bass-pro Pyramid one because it has importance to people in American South. I mean, if you find yourself in Memphis for some reason, go ahead. But, why would you go to Memphis for any reason ?

Comments like this are how you end up sprawled atop the Memphis Bass-Pro Pyramid, bleeding out, an Elvis impersonator in his ceremonial garb standing over your body with a wicked obsidian knife in his left hand and your still-beating heart in his right as throngs of intoxicated middle aged Kid Rock fans cheer and scream for more, more blood!

Do not mock the Memphis Bass-Pro Pyramid.

Do not mock the Memphis Bass-Pro Pyramid.

I was in Memphis for a weekend (my wife and I had combined a holiday hiking in the Mountain West with a trip to LibertyCon in Chattanooga, and needed to spend a weekend somewhere within a day's drive of Chattanooga to make flights work) and visited the Memphis Bass-Pro Pyramid. As an outdoorsy Brit who was completely unfamiliar with US Red Tribe outdoor culture, I was erm... enlightened

Do not mock the Memphis Bass-Pro Pyramid.