not sure how Stancil is defining it in the quoted post, but for me, anything in the 70-99 F range is pretty good

by moralizing, I mean there’s a pervasive belief that suffering through cold winters builds character, and Northeastern writing about the Sunbelt tends to treat warm cities as basically a frivolous indulgence that will be called off as soon as the people there come to their senses

the idea of revealed preference is pretty controversial!

yeah, 100%. Note the repeated use of the phrase “his close advisor”

and: Hannibal Lecter, as the ur-example of a serial killer/moral monster who is also a sophisticated intellect

also, this is pretty close to Frankenstein, but there’s a genre of stories about building a machine that then turns against you/can’t be stopped, that became newly relevant with industrialization and informs contemporary anxieties about AI. Not sure what the first one is though. The Golem of Prague?

another possibility: Herodotus as the ur-story of “the West” vs “the East” and what those are often assumed to mean

possibly the idea that Yoko Ono was responsible for the Beatles breaking up

that might itself be a retelling of misogynistic/xenophobic ideas of scheming foreign temptresses going back to Medea or to Roman propaganda about Cleopatra, but there’s definitely at least one ur-story about rock music

I don’t think the question “why does everyone feel bad all the time” can be answered with reference to material factors

The US press could never

I suppose that’s reasonable

summer is the best season!

not only would I take an LA summer over a Boston winter, I’d take an LA summer over a DC winter. in fact I’d take an LA summer over an LA winter

someone (in the sane parts of effective altruism, maybe) should do a humorless counter-award that goes to the person who has saved the most person-hours of life in the world this year, probably a public health civil servant in a large developing country, whose name will be known to zero Westerners

^ the importance of this SNL sketch, a radical statement of gender freedom and the only time I have felt Represented(TM) in fiction, cannot be overstated

in the back yard with the well, presumably

I think more specifically they want to sit on the panel that decides whether you’re cool enough to move to their city