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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2308 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 16, 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?

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What are some irl parallels to the pleasure of a horror game “save room”?

I’ve heard some pretty good things about a hit of heroin.

When I researched this some time ago, a lot of heroin users would describe the high as being tucked into a warm bed after a long day of walking in the rain.

Someone once asked me what falling in love for the first time felt like, and I described it as “what it feels like to use heroin.”

Never having taken any opioid, I was just guessing for rhetorical effect. But if that’s accurate, I wasn’t far off.

To be fair, though, “you’re my addition baby” is the province of love songs and fuck sonnets since the invention of modern pharmaceuticals, so it’s not like I invented it. I notice nobody has yet described their lover as their methamphetamine, although I’m fairly certain the sensation is similar. “I’d rot out my teeth because of my singular obsession with you and lack of dental care” isn’t, you know, exactly a Shakespeare sonnet, though maybe it kinda rhymes with 130.

(Did people before opium came to the west use alcohol as a reference point? “You’re like fine wine” doesn’t really parse as a romantic phrase to me, and the process of alcohol intoxication sounds more like a metaphor for a bad hookup, of which I’m sure the drink has been the cause of many, than it does a burgeoning romance. “It’s fun while it lasts but I’m throwing up in the morning.”)

“You’re like fine wine” doesn’t really parse as a romantic phrase to me, and the process of alcohol intoxication sounds more like a metaphor for a bad hookup, of which I’m sure the drink has been the cause of many, than it does a burgeoning romance. “It’s fun while it lasts but I’m throwing up in the morning.”)

The comedian Sam Morril had a bit where he said that sex in a relationship is like a baked salmon darne, where you feel nourished and satisfied afterwards, having eaten something that was healthy and good for you. Whereas casual sex is like a takeaway kebab or burger, where you are absolutely loving the experience in the moment, but then feel disgusted and ashamed of yourself immediately afterwards.

Whereas casual sex is like a takeaway kebab or burger, where you are absolutely loving the experience in the moment, but then feel disgusted and ashamed of yourself immediately afterwards.

Off-topic: do people actually feel disgusted and ashamed after eating take-out?

I get that people say this so it must somehow be true (even if a meme, it's too popular to just be made up) but of the thousands of burgers I've consumed over my lifetime so far I have yet to identify one I was disgusted with myself for eating.

Is it just that it's a product of an industrial kitchen system, and industrial kitchens are bad because reasons?

Do people really order two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s (one with cheese) and a large soda, then consume it all themselves in one sitting?

Have I missed the mythical past, or never having visited the southernmost US states, never knew a world where fast food meals were more than 1000-1300 calories on the regular?

Or is it something else I can't see?

do people actually feel disgusted and ashamed after eating take-out?

Depends on what kind and how much.

I'm a big fan of that burger assembly meme, where healthy bread, lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese, and beef get put together and suddenly get labeled unhealthy instead for no apparent reason. Yeah, you could do with a lot more of the fiber and low-glycemic carbs in the lettuce+onion+tomato and a little less of the high-glycemic carbs in the bread, and if you're topping beef with cheese maybe that's more than one meal's worth of fats, but balance it out later and you're probably fine.

But it's real easy to get that burger with a huge side of fries and a large coke (and if you're not frequently in the US recall that here "small coke" means "large coke" while "large coke" means "a quart of diabetes"), and that combo can push you over the line from "fine meal" to "disgusted and ashamed after".

never knew a world where fast food meals were more than 1000-1300 calories on the regular

Even 1000-1300 is a lot for a lunch, and a Big Mac combo gets you straight to 1170; you can get to 1360 just by going from medium to large on the fries and soda, even though the burger itself is only 580.

I guess the other parts of "disgusted and ashamed" are:

  1. Fast food often kinda sucks. My wife's burgers probably aren't much healthier than McDonalds' (the extra onions and mushrooms might have helped, but a quick sauté in salty burger grease fixes that right up!), but they're about the same nutritionally for far higher quality. If I just go to Burger King, even if either way I can afford some extra calories (I can't), it still would have been much better to spend those extra calories on something worth the expenditure.

  2. Fast food is really fast. Burgers with avocado and fresh-grilled Hatch chile slices are not something we're going to make every day, or every week, at home, but if I want something 40% as good I could have it any time by swinging by one of many convenient drive-thru lanes. Making it so easy to indulge makes it too easy to over-indulge.

It’s the bread/bun, condiments (ketchup, mayo, mustard, and whatnot), and side(s) (e.g., fries) that are the culprits. Cut those out, and ground beef + cheese + toppings are decently solid.

Fast food is really fast. Burgers with avocado and fresh-grilled Hatch chile slices are not something we're going to make every day, or every week, at home, but if I want something 40% as good I could have it any time by swinging by one of many convenient drive-thru lanes. Making it so easy to indulge makes it too easy to over-indulge.

It's a good point but burgers are not the best example -- my burger-making strategy these days is:

  1. heat pan
  2. scoop 1/3 lb beef with measuring cup
  3. slap in pan
  4. squish with flipper
  5. flip after 2-3 minutes
  6. wait a couple more minutes then add cheese
  7. put on bun with mustard, butter and whatever veggies

If I'm at home it's pretty much the fastest easiest thing I can make, and probably at least half-way between your avocado burger and the fast food one; if I'm not at home obviously stopping at a restaurant is faster, but a burger is probably the easiest, fastest fast food to make for yourself in the universe.

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