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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2523 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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You will probably never get a good tomato at a grocery store.

My grandparents were gardeners for 60+ years for this reason. My father is pushing 50 years of gardening for the same reason. Store-bought tomatoes are only useful for looks and are otherwise awful. Home-grown ones are a totally different vegetable (or fruit, whatever). The same applies to strawberries and a bunch of other produce.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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