I like the poems of Eugen Roth, but I don't knoe if there are any good English translations. For short stories I can recommend Umberto Eco. "How To Travel With A Salmon: and Other Essays" is my favorite.

Just looking at the people around me (mostly colleagues, I'm not friends with this kind of people) it's no surprise, when just about anything triggers them to vote AfD. Some actual examples:

"We have a vegetarian day at the cafeteria now. Stupid Greens forcing me to not eat meat one day a week. I'm going to vote AfD next election."

"They built a new bicycle lane on my way to work. Now I'm forced to stick to the speed limit because of all the bicyclists on MY road blocking me. It's a straight street, I should be able to go 80 even though it's inner city. I've always been going 80 there! Stupid Greens, I'm going to vote AfD next election."

"Supplier X stopped issuing their bikini model calendar. Everything is forbidden nowadays! Noone ever cared for bikini model calenders, but the Greens want to forbid every little piece of fun. Stupid woke culture. I'm going to vote AfD."

And let's not forget that one boss who told me that my life-threatening nut allergy was woke nonsense, because back in his day "everybody just ate what's on the table and noone died, but nowadays everybody has to feel special by making up things they won't eat."

They just want to go back to 1950s culture, when gay people, trans people, allergies, ADHD, autism, veganism, climate change and anything other than straight white dudes and straight white housewives "didn't exist", because how dare the world be more complex than a Rosamunde Pilcher movie.

The left one goes into the left ovary, the right into the right ovary. S is for "straight ahead".

Aren't these the kind of people who'd get mad at immigrants in the US if they don't speak English? Why don't they learn proper Russian and integrate?

My entire life I've heard Americans lecture everyone how superior the US is because of all their rights, freedoms and "real democracy". The freest country in the world! Look at the constitution and the bill of rights - the most democratic country EVER! Where are those Americans now?

My mother regularly beat me, yelled at me and told me she wished I'd been aborted. Noone believed me because to outsiders she was the perfect housewive, always smiling, always friendly and happy. My friends and teachers only told me how lucky I was to have such a nice and caring mother and that I shouldn't tell lies about her.

Luckily, my husband believes me but he's never met her since I went no contact years ago. But while I was still living with my parents noone ever believed me.

So, ghosting is bad and evil. At least tell the man you aren't interested! Men are suffering due to ghosting! But also, don't put him down when rejecting him. Men have to suffer so much rejection, so their ego is easily hurt. Let him down gently!!

Oh, you did? Well let me mock you for being TOO nice and diplomatic about it 😂.

Damn I'm so happy I'm not dating anymore. Feels like no way to do it right.

Ich dachte, Straßen zu blockieren und die hart arbeitende Bevölkerung auf ihrem Weg ins Büro zu behindern ist eine inakzeptable Form des Protestes?

I'm 40 (1985). I've had my experiences with older guys hitting on me when I was your age. I can tell you that, in my experience, the reason why men like that won't date in their own age group is because women their age see the red flags more clearly or won't put up with their bullshit.

Here are some things he might do to look out for: Does he try to impress you with things that are achievements for your age group but should be normal for his? Having a car, having their own apartment, having money to take you out etc. Maybe he'll offer to drive you places or stay at his place to get away from your parents.

Does he comment a lot on your age and experience level. Things like "Have you already done (alcohol, sex...)", "I've done XYZ, but you wouldn't know about it". Or does he act overly impressed by you 'already' knowing something, like music from his teenage years, having a job or just some common knowledge he thinks is "adult", maybe about cars or jobs. Basically, does he act like you are special, more mature for your age or does he talk about your age a lot.

Even if he doesn't do any of these things, I'd advice you against it. The age gap is too big. The world of an 18 year old who just got out of school is just very different from a 33 year old who is working a job. Having a few hobbies or music taste in common isn't the same as being in the same place in life.

Tom Cruise I just don't like anything about him

Will Smith, because he's annoyed me in every role after Prince of Bel Air

She often overstepped the guests' boundaries. For exampled she pressured Mariah Carey into drinking alcohol as a toast to "not being pregnant" in order to force her to admit she was pregnant. Carey later said she didn't want to discuss her pregnancy due to a history of miscarriages. She also got really aggressive towards a guest for not having been invited to her birthday party. That's just her on-camera behavior. There are numerous stories of her being an asshole to basically everyone behind the scenes.

So he's pissing off all the great candidates who have better options.

While writing my master thesis my professor suddenly left the university. Noone ever really knew why and there was no official statement other than a short sentence on the website that Prof. XYZ has left the department. My master thesis was on hold while I had to find a new professor. My mother, who has always accused me of being lazy and lying, insisted that it was all a lie. When I pointed out the news on the university website, she said: "I don't know how you hacked the website and got it to display your lies, but I'm not falling for your deceit." I am not a computer science major, I studied linguistics.

You know what the worst thing is? He wasn't the only one by far. Later at a different company another Teamleader told me I have to go out to eat with everybody. When I said the restaurant isn't save for me (lots of nuts on the menu), he just said I HAVE to come and that's what the Epipen is there for. I complained to HR and the HR lady asked why I don't just do a therapy against allergies. Told me about some esoteric bullshit that's supposed to cure all allergies and advised me to do that so I can better fit in with the company culture.

I feel like there is also a pathologization of being single. I was a teenager in the late 90s/early 2000s, so before most of social media. I'm also from a village where most people knew each other.

There were a couple of nerdy, shy guys who never had a girlfriend by the time of graduation. I only had one boyfriend at 16 for 6 month before his friend told me he was only dating me as a dare. I was "ugly" and "not a real girl" because I didn't wear makeup and mostly wore jeans and Tshirts. Stupid village kids.

Anyway, similar things happened to the nerdy guys. But no one started crying about all men/women being awful and no one became an incel. Several girls and boys in my class never dated by the time we graduated and that just wasn't a big deal. Nowadays everybody's being told there's something wrong with them if they've never had a partner by age 17.

You also had decent profiles where you could write more texts about you. That could give you an idea of who that person is. There is a difference between "Tea or Coffee? - Tea." and "Tea or Coffee? - I like green teas but also some black teas like assam. I sometimes bake scones to eat with the tea." A lit of modern apps don't even give you the option to show your personality more.

I don't know, as someone with a nut allergy I don't get why this is supposed to be funny. This is just my everyday life. Especially salad often has nuts like walnuts or almonds as decoration so it's one of the foods where I have to be extra careful. Just like I always have to follow a coffee order with "no nuts, please", because coffee is often decorated with almonds. The tweet makes it sound like asking for no nuts on a salad is as outlandish as thinking there might be a bee in the steak, but walnuts, cashews or almonds are pretty common decorations on salads.

There was a documentary a few years ago about a German correspondent in the US. She let her teenage kids have the same freedoms as in Germany: roam the neighborhood, bike to school etc. The neighbors called CPS on her when the kids were in the street and the school talked to her that her kids weren't allowed to come by themselves, she HAD to drive them.

In my experience as a bi-woman, no. There are equally as many emotionally manipulative men and women. For men it often takes the form of "If you don't do this physical thing (kiss, sex etc), you don't like me." or "If you ask for this security measure (meeting at a public place, using condomes), you don't really like me."

On my 5th birthday my parents threw a party for me with friends from kindergarten. My father had a pretty good camera for the time and loved taking photos. This was during analog times, way before digital cameras, so you wouldn't just take a bunch of photos because it got expensive. He wanted to take a group photo and I, always being a little annoyed back then with the constant photos, stuck out my tongue. He tried to make me smile but I refused. So he told me he'd take the photo of me sticking out my tongue and I'd regret it when I'm an adult that I don't have a nice photo of me on my 5th birthday. I'm 40 and I don't regret it. Love that photo.