Note to vacationing non-Americans: while it’s true that America doesn’t always have the best food culture, the food in our restaurants is really not representative of what most of us eat at home. The portions at Cheesecake Factory or IHOP are meant to be indulgent, not just “what Americans are used to.”
If you eat at a regular American household, during a regular meal where they’re not going out of their way to impress guests, you probably will not be served twelve pounds of chocolate-covered cream cheese. Please bear this in mind before writing yet another “omg I can’t believe American food” post.
Also, most American restaurant portions are 100% intended as two meals’ worth of food. Some of my older Irish relatives still struggle with the idea that it’s not just not rude to eat half your meal and take the rest home, it’s expected. (Apparently this is somewhat of an American custom.)
Until you’re hitting the “fancy restaurant” tier (the kind of place you go for a celebration or an anniversary date), a dinner out should generally also be lunch for the next day. Leftovers are very much the norm.
From the little time I’ve spent in Canada, this seems to be the case up there as well.
the portions in family restaurants (as opposed to haute cuisine types) are designed so that no one goes away hungry.
volume IS very much a part of the american hospitality tradition, and Nobody Leaves Hungry is important. but you have to recognize that it’s not how we cook for ourselves, it’s how we welcome guests and strengthen community ties.
so in order to give you a celebratory experience and make you feel welcomed, family restaurants make the portions big enough that even if you’re a teenage boy celebrating a hard win on the basketball court, you’re still going to be comfortably full when you leave.
of course, that means that for your average person with a sit-down job, who ate a decent lunch that day, it’s twice as much as they want or more. that’s ok. as mentioned above, taking home leftovers is absolutely encouraged. that, too, is part of american hospitality tradition; it’s meant to invoke fond memories of grandma loading you down with covered dishes so you can have hearty celebration food all week. pot luck church basement get-togethers where the whole town makes sure everybody has enough. that sort of thing. it’s about sharing. it’s about celebrating Plenty.
it’s not about pigging out until you get huge. treating it that way is pretty disrespectful of our culture. and you know, contrary to what the world thinks, we do have one.
Okay but Root is one of the best and most creative examples of character growth induced by “breaking” the character
She starts out as a villain, of course, and a fucking terrifying villain at that. so like, let’s assume that having her switch to the good guys’ side was in the cards from the beginning. The most common way a villain does that is by seeing the error of their ways/allegiances/whatever and making some attempt to rectify that. but Root? What starts Root’s path away from villainy?
It started when she became the Analog Interface, the walking embodiment of God Mode, which was her goal the entire time up to that point.
In other words, she fucking won as a villain.
Like, with the benefit of hindsight, her arc is wild. She’s the biggest threat for the entirety of season 2, culminating with her achieving her goal, and that eventually transitions into her becoming one of the show’s main good guys?
And that’s all because being the Analog Interface is so MUCH responsibility. Responsibility she was prepared for, responsibility she killed for, but it’s so much, and it’s hers. It’s security for her, it’s bliss for her, but it also comes within inches of killing her at every turn.
She’s forced her own hand into being one of the most valuable pieces on the board. She wanted it entirely for selfish reasons, and now she’s regularly suffering physical and emotional trauma as a hobby, for one of the most selfless beings on the planet.
And it’s only by repeatedly hitting rock bottom that she begins to even superficially comprehend TM’s worldview – and begins to earn the trust of viewers that watched her be utterly nasty not that long ago.
In other words, she didn’t become good by growing a conscience. She strong-armed her way into TM’s camp and her conscience came later, after being institutionalized, after being imprisoned by Finch, after being tortured by Control, after every other terrible thing that happened to her. And the other protagonists didn’t accept her because they were HEROES WHO HAVE TO LOVE AND FORGIVE. They took her on as a matter of convenience firstly (since she’s ultimately fighting for the same person they are) and secondly because they watched her devotion for TM just the same as we viewers did.
It’s a very organic process, and I love the show for it.
i'll apple your turnover 