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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2546 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 17, 2026

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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What kinds of pets do you all have? And why are dogs the best?

I don't love the implication that you need pets to have a fulfilling life. Other choices are valid too and right for other people. My wife and I have a baby who is more than enough for us. We don't need pets.

In Botswana there were many stray dogs. Probably some mix of Rhodesian Ridgebacks and whatever other feral dogs roamed the Kalahari. They were docile enough when alone and well fed, but wild enough that I wouldn't want to encounter a pack of them in the bush. There was an Afrikaner phrase which basically meant Get out of here which was, if I recall correctly, Vootsak! This--or ar least this was how it was explained to me--was a reduction of the sentence Voort se ek which meant "Forward, I say."

If you shouted "Vootsak" at a dog it seemed to get your meaning, and would fuck itself off. A hand gesture as if flinging seed like someone in a Van Gogh painting helped the message, if you were willing.

I only learned this term because Vootsak, if said to a human, was considered very much fighting words. Unless the human also fucked off, in which case job done, if rather rudely.

I'm just joking if it wasn't clear.

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