Trump advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle hawks gold and silver at CPAC

[VeronicaConnor]

@DukeTrout

when he finds that the Rocinante has a large store of whole coffee beans and a high-end coffee maker.

It’s a great thematic mechanism as well- it signals the resources that Mars pours into its military that they would bother to put coffee on every single ship. Even a small escort like that.

[DukeTrout]

@Purplecat

Approximately 50% of all nitrogen atoms in the human body were fixed by the Haber process. Without manufactured ammonia, and its derived fertilisers, we would need between double or quadruple the same amount of land to feed the current world population.

That’s assuming non-rotational, monoculture factory farms. There would be a transition, but as long as more people accepted more legumes in their diet, current production could be maintained with sufficient labor rededicated to agriculture.

[csilvest]

@anon65652885

Years later he could still clearly remember the gasp she made the first time they walked into a Canadian supermarket in mid-winter and saw stacks of oranges. “How… how… how is this possible?”

My mother, born in PEI in the '40s, always gave us children an orange in our stocking for xmas. When I was old enough to ask why, she said it was because a single orange was a once- or twice-a-year treat when she was a child.

I continue the tradition as a reminder. Even though I can easily obtain a few different types of oranges any time of the year for ~C$2/lb.

@VeronicaConnor

I’m old and jaded, but still amazed we get fresh bananas every day of the year. The window on getting those to the store from the tree is something on the order of 24 hours.

Oddly, 24 hours is also the window in which they’re just the right ripeness.

[VeronicaConnor]

@csilvest

My mother, born in PEI in the '40s, always gave us children an orange in our stocking for xmas. When I was old enough to ask why

We do this too! Maybe it’s a Canadian thing?

[Brainspore]

@knoxblox

One of the things that sends me reeling about all of this is how wildly Guilfoyle and Governor Newsom’s paths have diverged since the divorce.

I don’t think Newsom has ever been credibly accused of a sex crime but he does have a history of ill-advised romantic partners. When he was mayor of San Francisco he once showed up at some formal function with a date who was under the legal drinking age (and was photographed drinking champagne there). Years later he had an affair with a campaign manager’s wife. Kimberly Guilfoyle we all know about.

Again, nothing criminal on his part (unless he provided the champagne to his underage date), but the guy’s judgement hasn’t always been great.

[Gyrofrog]

@VeronicaConnor

We do this too! Maybe it’s a Canadian thing?

I think it goes back to the days before widespread, regular truck transportation. My grandparents grew up in rural TN & the orange was a big deal for them. I believe it’s supposed to symbolize the gold that St. Nicholas would leave.

[Otherbrother]

@Brainspore

Kimberly Guilfoyle we all know about.

I’m sure that his current wife is a much nicer, more stable person than Guilfoyle but even she was a registered Republican until they got married in 2008, when she switched her registration to “no party preference” (after briefly registering for the American Independent Party by accident.) So for someone who supports such progressive policy positions he seems to have a weird pattern going there.

[anon33932455]

We did this in my family. SoCal, but parents from Philly and Pittsburgh who got oranges as kids.

[fuzzyfungus]

My family did it growing up, including one parent from a part of California where local citrus trees (while obviously still seasonal) were considered unremarkable landscaping occurrences. I assume that it’s not for nothing that it’s a christmas orange rather than the exciting and exotic christmas turnip; but the tradition definitely seems more durable than the actual experience of scarcity.

[almighty_bob]

Always got a Xmas Orange in my stocking in Boston MA. Some of the family claims Nova Scotian heritage and some Southern US heritage from Georgia. My Great Grandmother had an Orange tree in her backyard in Augusta GA.