.

Scribblings

08/24/25

Food and drink

Last week I burned myself on the jelly from an uncrushable. There’s a deep shame to standing in the kitchen in front of the jaundice light of the open microwave, silently cursing and running my fingers under cool water at 6:15 am. I don’t always know what to have for an early morning pre run snack. Sometimes my groceries easily offer up a little bit of something, or I’ve baked cookies or a loaf that I can cut a sliver off of to keep me going. The uncrustables are really more so meant for long runs, and I’ve been taught that lesson the hard way. …

While watching My So Called Life, I got an ad for Carl’s Jr. They’re always on some crazy shit with their ads: weird celeb cameos, not acknowledging that the only time we’ve ever considered going there is during a stopover in the Dalles airport. This time though, the crazy shit was the food they serve you in their establishment. Their knockoff of chicken nuggets are called chicken stars. They’re in the shape of a star. I get it. The logo is a star. But.

According to google ai, the exact origin of the chicken stars is not known, but they’re at least as old as the Carl’s Jr/Hardee’s Fandom wiki. There is a fandom wiki for Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s. Is Hardee Carl’s son?

(these stars are just floating in the white space of this photo. It honestly makes me a little uncomfortable. They're kind of haunting.)

…

This morning while in Berkeley/Oakland running errands I stopped at High Wire on College for a vanilla latte and to get outfit inspiration from the baristas. I like High Wire a lot. Their typeface and color scheme on their coffee beans makes my brain feel smooth in a good way, and everyone that works there is always sweet and has aforementioned great outfits. They also have a worker’s union, which I love and support. It’s a great coffee shop.

The only problem is: there’s nowhere to stand while you wait for your coffee. I think that the little blue stools by the windows are supposed to serve this purpose, but people actually just hang out there so if you stand in front of them you’re really crowding people just trying to sip their matcha. If you stand against the wall closest to where you’ll grab your drink, you’re blocking the sugar, milk and trash cans, and if you stand by the beautifully bagged coffee beans, you look like you’re in line to order. The shape and orientation of the shop is hostile to customers. I get so uncomfortable waiting for my drink I almost don’t want to come back. Almost.

08/09/2025

I went to the dentist on Monday, so I've been thinking a lot about teeth. Contemplating the purchase of an electric toothbrush (can’t shake the feelings its cooler to be analogue, but at what cost?), being picky about my brand and variety of floss (someone once told me that it needs to be grippy or waxed so it actually gets shit out of your teeth), and reflecting on one of the cinematic victims of 2010s middle school ridicule, the 2007 film Teeth.

For the uninitiated, Teeth is a horror comedy about a teenage girl who discovers her vagina has teeth, and ends up using this superpower(?) to maim men who attempt to assault her. So the ridicule was not entirely out of place, it was certainly part of the point. It’s a kind of fun but mostly forgettable revenge plot, aside from the central premise which really sticks in the mind. In my googling of this movie I learned that it’s a Weinstein company film, which gave my misgivings as to its 2007 feminism/post-feminism political stance. I mean you can’t make a movie about vaginas, let alone the dentata component, without having a political position, in the year of our lord 2007.

Apparently (courtesy of wikipedia) this is based on a pretty widespread motif in folklore about some sort of feminine creature with teeth in her vagina that harms men. Sometimes it seems like its a morality tail thats anti-rape, sometimes just a "women are tempting yet dangerous” story. Either way, it gives me the creeps whenever there’s one of those myths that shows up in a bunch of seemingly unrelated cultures, even if its as wackadoo as this one.

But back to the dentist. Is it a sign of my age that I get worried about gum disease and my teeth moving out of alignment every 4 days or so? Teeth are kind of scary because they feel a little bit like something that should remain tucked away behind protective layers of tissue and skin but are instead exposed. They look like how I imagine the rest of my bones look, but they're just out, and we have to look at them and clean them every day so they work for us. Other bones you don't have to do that for, unless you break one or are developing osteoporosis(as many women do).

In either case, it makes me think about how much sugar I’m eating (generally, probably a smidge more than I should). No cavities though, information courtesy of campus dental. I tried to sneak a picture of my mouth x-rays but my phone was too far away and I couldn’t reach it before the hygienist came back (I 100% for sure could have just asked to, she probably would have emailed me them if I asked). For that reason these are not actually my teeth.