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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1388 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 20, 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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Ironic “Small-Scale Question Sunday” question:

What happened to Sundays? Maybe I just didn’t realize this stuff when I was a kid (90’s and early 2000’s), but Sunday used to be, well, sacred. Stuff didn’t happen in Sunday, mainly because of church. As I got older, (American) football also got added to that. Between those two things, nobody would dare schedule a practice or a game or a birthday party or anything.

Now, that’s gone. Kids have games on Sunday mornings. Kids have practices. My own kid was told, when we needed to call out of one Sunday morning practice for one special church service around the holidays, that missing practice that one time would result in them sitting. Not sitting one game. Sitting for the season unless someone else got hurt or bailed. Birthday parties during football. Football during church.

Was it like this when I was a kid and I just didn’t realize it?

I used to hate Sundays, for reasons similar to those enumerated in High Fidelity:

All my life I've hated Sundays, for the obvious British reasons (Songs of Praise, closed shops, congealing gravy that you don't want to go near but no one's going to let you escape from) and the obvious international reasons as well...

When we were very small my mum would make us go to Mass, which probably only lasted half an hour and yet seemed to go on for an eternity. Later my sister and I joined an orchestra, for which rehearsals were held every other Sunday morning, which I dreaded. Often when I returned from rehearsal, my mum would invite my granddad over for Sunday dinner, which invariably consisted of mashed potatoes, boiled peas and overcooked roast beef that you would have to spend five minutes gnawing through before you could swallow it (the aforementioned congealing gravy not acting as much of a lubricant), and my granddad wasn't much of a conversationalist even before he lost his hearing. And once he finally went home, I couldn't enjoy the rest of the day because I still had homework to do before the next morning.

Now, however, I like Sundays. I wake up around ten a.m., get a coffee and go for a walk with herself, buy some groceries and do some meal prep for the following week, go to the gym if I need to meet my weekly quota, and still plenty of time left over to unwind.

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