[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Damn near lost my left leg to a chainsaw today. Please practice proper powertool safety protocols or suffer my fate!

[Hermes_]

Damn near lost my left leg to a chainsaw today. Please practice proper powertool safety protocols or suffer my fate!

I told you to get out of the way.

_
so my (sarcastic tone) wonderful(/sarcastic tone) state will be giving out 500 dollars to single residents which means i'll be getting 500 dollars at some point in june. I plan to pre-order all of the pre-con decks from the commander masters.

Then i'll have a janky silver deck, a janky super friends deck, a janky colorless deck and a janky enchantments deck.

on a side note the name of the enchantment deck is Enduring Enchantments, which makes me think they either just wanted the name or plan to reprint Enduring Ideal

[duducrash]

Damn near lost my left leg to a chainsaw today. Please practice proper powertool safety protocols or suffer my fate!

I spent most of my working years in the offices of a food factory and Ive seen the most gruesome injuries possible from all sort of things because people don't practice proper safety. Once I saw the bowels of a man who cut a…. I dont know the english word, big package of flower with the knife going his way instead of outwards. I was there for 10+ Years and we had bi monthly safety meetings for good safety measures but the workers would rather cut corners (and themselves) than abide by it.

I'll tell you, there isnt a job or a boss in this beautiful world that is worth a paper cut for me, I dont get it

[Hermes_]

Pizza Hut menu from 1984

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[TheAmericanSpirit]

Pizza Hut menu from 1984

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Give me a 00 buckshot to the face and a diet coke. Pizza Hut, Dominoes, et al is not pizza. Fight me!

[tstorm823]

Pizza Hut, Dominoes, et al is not pizza. Fight me!

Counterpoint: many things that aren't pizza are delicious.

[Lifeless]

Imagine ordering a ham sandwich from Pizza Hut in any era. Really rolling the dice.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Pizza Hut, Dominoes, et al is not pizza. Fight me!

Counterpoint: many things that aren't pizza are delicious.

True, but the best of those things don't lie about being pizza.

[Dunadain]

Give me a 00 buckshot to the face and a diet coke. Pizza Hut, Dominoes, et al is not pizza. Fight me!

Yeah I'll bite. Pizza has always been a cheap and flexible item "poor man's food", regardless of where you want to argue it originally came from.

Gatekeeping pizza is like gatekeeping tacos or sandwiches, they are cheap options made with whatever is available to you, trying to act like a certain kind of pizza is "real" pizza is ridiculous. ESPECIALLY if the kind of pizzas you are looking down on are cheap, low-quality pizza, when that was kind of the original point of pizza.


(All in good fun though, I don't actually care for Dominoes' myself, but calling it "fake pizza" feels too pretentious).

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Give me a 00 buckshot to the face and a diet coke. Pizza Hut, Dominoes, et al is not pizza. Fight me!

Yeah I'll bite. Pizza has always been a cheap and flexible item "poor man's food", regardless of where you want to argue it originally came from.

Gatekeeping pizza is like gatekeeping tacos or sandwiches, they are cheap options made with whatever is available to you, trying to act like a certain kind of pizza is "real" pizza is ridiculous. ESPECIALLY if the kind of pizzas you are looking down on are cheap, low-quality pizza, when that was kind of the original point of pizza.


(All in good fun though, I don't actually care for Dominoes' myself, but calling it "fake pizza" feels too pretentious).

It's not gatekeeping if I'm correct. With all due respect to the humble origins of pizza, the big "pizza" chains are fast food and imho fast food isn't really even food. Pizza, even in its lowest form, is food, therefore Pizza Hut et al is not pizza.

Real pizza comes from pizzerias lining streets all over the world, prepared by people with a passion for the product and made from way fewer ingredients that got extruded by some massive machine and then flash frozen for your "convenience". There's always real pizza to be had in damn near every town in America, so there's absolutely no legitimate reason to buy fake "pizza" from a chain nor has there ever been.

[DirkGently]

Lol damn that is some gold medal gatekeeping. Things being bad doesn't prevent them from being the thing that they are. I don't think Jussie Smollett is a good person but that doesn't mean he ISN'T a person.

In NZ pizza is easily the most affordable fast food for some reason. McDonald's can easily be $15-20 for a meal whereas you can get dominoes or Pizza Hut for $7. Obviously it doesn't hold a candle to a neopolitan prosciutto but it's also 1/4 the price, and every meal doesn't need to be 10/10.

[Dunadain]

Before I dive in, I'd just like to reiterate that while I disagree with @TheAmericanSpirit, I'm actually not that invested in this, mostly just arguing because I'm bored and i do think there's health misconceptions in this discussion that are worth talking about.

So please, let's not start an internet flame way over pizza of all things.

It's not gatekeeping if I'm correct.

You're not correct, therefore it is gatekeeping. See, I can make baseless affirmations as well.

With all due respect to the humble origins of pizza, the big "pizza" chains are fast food and imho fast food isn't really even food. Pizza, even in its lowest form, is food, therefore Pizza Hut et al is not pizza.

Yeah, you're gonna have to define your terms for me, pizza hut (or any fast food) provides calories and some (dubious) nutritional value. That makes it food in my eyes, lol.

Heck, you'll probably need to define when a restaurant is a chain in your eyes. There was a local pizzeria in my hometown that did quite well for itself, so they opened two new locations, and while I no longer live in that area, last I heard all three locations were doing very well. Are they a chain now? what if they've grown since I've last seen them to 4 locations? 5? 6? 10?

Real pizza comes from pizzerias lining streets all over the world, prepared by people with a passion for the product and made from way fewer ingredients that got extruded by some massive machine and then flash frozen for your "convenience".

The modern health trends of obsessing over the number of ingredients or whether or not the food is frozen has no real science behind it. I could give you a glass of high fructose corn syrup and it would have much less nutritional value then your average "real" pizza, but it only has one ingredient.

Freezing also has no affect on the nutritional value of the food (in most cases, obviously, poorly kept food could spoil and become a health hazard). Now, food that is frozen IS the kind of food that's not meant to be eaten immediately, food which isn't meant to be eaten immediately, in turn, often has higher levels of sodium to help it last longer. So there is a correlation between frozen food and high sodium levels. but correlation =/= causation.

Heck the entire "fast food = bad" mindset, particularly in America is overblown and lacks nuance. I blame the Supersize Me documentary, (a guy ate McDonalds everyday for a long time, became fat and made a documentary about it, it's a good watch, but it's important to realize it's not a scientific study, and the extreme transformation shown in the documentary is just that, extreme).

The pizza argument is all in good fun, but seriously, if you're interested in improving your health, these trendy "only 5 ingredients" or "fresh, never frozen" foods aren't really all the healthy. I realize it might be expensive, but talking to an actual expert, like a dietician or nutritionist, will do a lot more for your health then following health fads. And if you can't talk to one of these people in person, at least look up what these professionals have to say, rather than health influencers.

Though on a more serious note, why are you bothering bringing up whether the food is frozen or the number of ingredients in a chain pizza, when you're average pizza chain probably DOES have less nutritional value than a local pizzeria without trying to appeal to misleading health fads?

There's always real pizza to be had in damn near every town in America,

so there's absolutely no legitimate reason to buy fake "pizza" from a chain nor has there ever been.

I can think of a couple reasons:

• Chain pizza tends to be cheaper than local pizzeria's
• Delivery services: only one pizzeria delivers to my house, as I live in literal Amish country, that pizzeria is a dominoes. As I said, I don't care for Dominoes, so usually if I want pizza I'll go pick it up or (even better) make it myself. But there's been times when that wasn't convenient, so I just ordered Dominoes.
• I know this one is wild, but... maybe you like their pizza? sounds like a much better reason to buy a pizza honestly. I don't, but if someone does, judging them on their taste in pizza is, once again, kind of pretentious. For a real world example, I have a friend from college that adores Little Caesar's Praetzal Crust. Why? idk, it's a pretty mid pizza in my eyes. But every time they bring it back, he invites me to go grab pizza with him, and I have a blast spending time with him and eating just-okay pizza.
• Conversely, just because a pizzeria ISN'T a chain restaurant doesn't mean that you will like it. I've bought a pizza from the nearest pizzeria near me (it's even closer than the dominoes, but for some reason they still won't deliver) and it was awful. Admittedly, I've only bought a pizza from them once, and I could have just been given a bad pizza, but I have no intention of giving them a second chance to disappoint me.

[Hermes_]

On a semi-related note, one of the characters in my book works as a delivery driver for a pizza place, called The Sliceria because i couldn't come up with something better lol

[BeneTleilax]

Domino's is my favorite pizza, cultures mix and food evolves.

[DirkGently]

Heck the entire "fast food = bad" mindset, particularly in America is overblown and lacks nuance. I blame the Supersize Me documentary, (a guy ate McDonalds everyday for a long time, became fat and made a documentary about it, it's a good watch, but it's important to realize it's not a scientific study, and the extreme transformation shown in the documentary is just that, extreme).

To my recollection, it's basically total nonsense - he was eating way more calories than a normal person who eats fast food would. You can get fat eating brussel sprouts if you pack down 5000 calories of them a day. It doesn't prove anything except that grossly overeating is bad for you - what a shocker.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Lol damn that is some gold medal gatekeeping. Things being bad doesn't prevent them from being the thing that they are. I don't think Jussie Smollett is a good person but that doesn't mean he ISN'T a person.

Eh, Smollett might be a person but to my point, he also isn't food. Either way, I would argue that's not really a fair comparison. There's a whole field of philosophy dedicated to debating the ethics and nuances of the human experience and personhood itself. Pizza either is or is not, it's completely binary, black and white, cut and dry. There is no pizza-esque, pizzaisms, or pizza-adjecents in my view. Chain fast food is not food, therefore it cannot be pizza. It may look like pizza, but imho no more so than animal feces resemble chocolate.

In NZ pizza is easily the most affordable fast food for some reason. McDonald's can easily be $15-20 for a meal whereas you can get dominoes or Pizza Hut for $7. Obviously it doesn't hold a candle to a neopolitan prosciutto but it's also 1/4 the price, and every meal doesn't need to be 10/10.

Holy smoke, I pray I am never so desperate or unable to cook that I have to spend $20 in a McDonald's. And for that price, you could easily afford real pizza so again, I see no viable excuse.

Before I dive in, I'd just like to reiterate that while I disagree with @TheAmericanSpirit, I'm actually not that invested in this, mostly just arguing because I'm bored and i do think there's health misconceptions in this discussion that are worth talking about.

So please, let's not start an internet flame way over pizza of all things.

Of course! We battle for sport and good fun. May the best forumite win.

It's not gatekeeping if I'm correct.

You're not correct, therefore it is gatekeeping. See, I can make baseless affirmations as well.

Agree to disagree there.

With all due respect to the humble origins of pizza, the big "pizza" chains are fast food and imho fast food isn't really even food. Pizza, even in its lowest form, is food, therefore Pizza Hut et al is not pizza.

Yeah, you're gonna have to define your terms for me, pizza hut (or any fast food) provides calories and some (dubious) nutritional value. That makes it food in my eyes, lol.

Heck, you'll probably need to define when a restaurant is a chain in your eyes. There was a local pizzeria in my hometown that did quite well for itself, so they opened two new locations, and while I no longer live in that area, last I heard all three locations were doing very well. Are they a chain now? what if they've grown since I've last seen them to 4 locations? 5? 6? 10?

I disagree wholeheartedly. Fast food technically fulfills the role of edible but is often so nutrionally bankrupt that they contribute to food deserts. Imho, you are what you eat.

As for chains, I think semi-local chains are fine. I think multinational corporations peddling pink slime and causing all sorts of pollution shipping their crappy psuedo-foods in pre-prepped plastic packaging on massive refrigerator trucks all over the place is not good for anyone.

Real pizza comes from pizzerias lining streets all over the world, prepared by people with a passion for the product and made from way fewer ingredients that got extruded by some massive machine and then flash frozen for your "convenience".

The modern health trends of obsessing over the number of ingredients or whether or not the food is frozen has no real science behind it. I could give you a glass of high fructose corn syrup and it would have much less nutritional value then your average "real" pizza, but it only has one ingredient.

Freezing also has no affect on the nutritional value of the food (in most cases, obviously, poorly kept food could spoil and become a health hazard). Now, food that is frozen IS the kind of food that's not meant to be eaten immediately, food which isn't meant to be eaten immediately, in turn, often has higher levels of sodium to help it last longer. So there is a correlation between frozen food and high sodium levels. but correlation =/= causation.

Heck the entire "fast food = bad" mindset, particularly in America is overblown and lacks nuance. I blame the Supersize Me documentary, (a guy ate McDonalds everyday for a long time, became fat and made a documentary about it, it's a good watch, but it's important to realize it's not a scientific study, and the extreme transformation shown in the documentary is just that, extreme).

The pizza argument is all in good fun, but seriously, if you're interested in improving your health, these trendy "only 5 ingredients" or "fresh, never frozen" foods aren't really all the healthy. I realize it might be expensive, but talking to an actual expert, like a dietician or nutritionist, will do a lot more for your health then following health fads. And if you can't talk to one of these people in person, at least look up what these professionals have to say, rather than health influencers.

Though on a more serious note, why are you bothering bringing up whether the food is frozen or the number of ingredients in a chain pizza, when you're average pizza chain probably DOES have less nutritional value than a local pizzeria without trying to appeal to misleading health fads?

It's not about health fads. I'm not exactly seeking peak nutritional value when I want pizza of all things. But frozen food is usually loaded with salt, processed food has a ton of microplastics in it, and fast food is chock to the brim with both of those things. It simply has fallen too far to be considered food.

If a local pizzeria can source even a fraction of their ingredients themselves instead bulk buying prefab garbage and serve it within the natural lifetime of the product instead of pumping it full of preservatives, the effect is enormous. I have eaten a truly astronomical amount of pizza in my life so far, and by god do I intend to eat more, so I feel fairly confident when I say that the quality and value of a pizza is directly proportional to the artistry and care that went into its preparation. Take my favorite pizzeria ever, for example: The Devil's Pizzeria on 9th St in Durham, North Carolina. The man behind the counter, Zeod, is a Lebanese pizza god in the flesh. He doesn't serve his customers anything less than the finest and each pizza I've purchased from him had the same love and attention as a Michelangelo commission. You can taste it, man. Satisfaction made real. Why would you settle for so much less?

There's always real pizza to be had in damn near every town in America,

so there's absolutely no legitimate reason to buy fake "pizza" from a chain nor has there ever been.

I can think of a couple reasons:

• Chain pizza tends to be cheaper than local pizzeria's
• Delivery services: only one pizzeria delivers to my house, as I live in literal Amish country, that pizzeria is a dominoes. As I said, I don't care for Dominoes, so usually if I want pizza I'll go pick it up or (even better) make it myself. But there's been times when that wasn't convenient, so I just ordered Dominoes.
• I know this one is wild, but... maybe you like their pizza? sounds like a much better reason to buy a pizza honestly. I don't, but if someone does, judging them on their taste in pizza is, once again, kind of pretentious. For a real world example, I have a friend from college that adores Little Caesar's Praetzal Crust. Why? idk, it's a pretty mid pizza in my eyes. But every time they bring it back, he invites me to go grab pizza with him, and I have a blast spending time with him and eating just-okay pizza.
• Conversely, just because a pizzeria ISN'T a chain restaurant doesn't mean that you will like it. I've bought a pizza from the nearest pizzeria near me (it's even closer than the dominoes, but for some reason they still won't deliver) and it was awful. Admittedly, I've only bought a pizza from them once, and I could have just been given a bad pizza, but I have no intention of giving them a second chance to disappoint me.

1. Not necessarily, and even so, it's 100% worth a small premium to eat something 1000% more substantial and satisfying.
2. Eh, I never get delivery. I always call it in and swing by on the way home from work. And besides, delivery is hardly environmentally responsible anyway, so perhaps it shouldn't be an option anyway.
3. There's no accounting for taste, I guess. And as a red blooded patriotic American, I will proudly admit to occasionally indulging a craving for garbage. But on those occasions, I don't call it food, and certainly not pizza.
4. I never said all pizza was good, no sir. Nor will I nail myself to the idea that all local pizza is good. But all chain "pizza" is universally bad and not food, and that there is a hill fit for me to die on.

[tstorm823]

It's not gatekeeping if I'm correct. With all due respect to the humble origins of pizza, the big "pizza" chains are fast food and imho fast food isn't really even food. Pizza, even in its lowest form, is food, therefore Pizza Hut et al is not pizza.

You are aware, I hope, that "imho" stand for "in my humble opinion". It's an interesting qualifier to apply to the sentiment you express after, and I think you would be more convincing if you just owned the lack of humility in your statement.

That being said, I have myself argued often that Pizza Hut isn't pizza. But not because of some bougie "I'm above fast food, it isn't real food" argument. Pizza Hut (at least the product that Pizza Hut is known for) isn't pizza because even the broadest possible definition of pizza categorizes it as a baked product, and given the oil content of Pizza Hut, it seems more accurate to call it a fried dough product. The texture is certainly closer to doughnut than pizza.

It still tastes good though.

[DirkGently]

Eh, Smollett might be a person but to my point, he also isn't food.

He could be if you were a tiger. Or if you were trapped together in the Andes.

Pizza either is or is not, it's completely binary, black and white, cut and dry. There is no pizza-esque, pizzaisms, or pizza-adjecents in my view. Chain fast food is not food, therefore it cannot be pizza. It may look like pizza, but imho no more so than animal feces resemble chocolate.

Most words are fuzzy. Say you ask me for water and I hand you a bottle with clear liquid in it. Water is H2O of course, but what if it's got trace minerals dissolved in it like standard tap water? Of course that would be fine and exactly what you'd expect from the bottle. What if, instead, it had the same amount of dissolved arsenic? It's still the same amount of H2O as before, why are you upset that I handed you a bottle of it?

And that's a hell of a lot clearer than pizza since H2O is a freaking molecule. We can do some Ship of Theseus thought experiments with pizza too, but I hope you get the gist.

Fast food objectively fulfills the criteria of food - it has calories and nutritional value. Less nutritional value than a salad, but more than fudge. Call it bad food all you want, it's still food.

Holy smoke, I pray I am never so desperate or unable to cook that I have to spend $20 in a McDonald's. And for that price, you could easily afford real pizza so again, I see no viable excuse.

Keep in mind it's NZ funbucks so $20 is more like $13 USD.

I rarely get McDonald's because it is surprisingly expensive, and yeah I'd rather get something nice if I'm paying within that price range. But Pizza Hut is half that, so comparing it to fancier pizza is pretty unfair.

Also tbh I'm really not that into not-fast-food-but-not-super-fancy pizza. It costs twice as much as fast food pizza and it's usually about the same enjoyability on average. I'll either have a fancy night out with authentic Neapolitan, or I'll grab a cheap XL from Pizza Hut on the way home. I don't see that much point in aiming in between.

@tstorm823 that's a much more coherent argument, though I think it's really the utility that matters. Pizza hut eats like a pizza so it's a pizza.

[pokken]

There is absolutely nothing different about fast food than regular restaurant food intrinsically.

If you go to Applebees or your local pub and grub and order French fries chances are they are lower quality than you'd get at five guys.

A filet of fish from McDonald's is probably significantly healthier for you than what you'd get at a random pub and grub. McDonald's has more safety rules about their friers that's for damn sure.

A McDonald's egg McMuffin is an almost surely healthier for you than some bougie breakfast sandwich at your favorite upscale diner where they soaked everything in butter then put mayonnaise on it.

A burrito from chipotle or Taco Bell can easier healthier than a burrito from insert Mexican chain restaurant or even a fancy pants food truck.

Arby's is one of the most maligned fast foods out there but their roast beef is one of the leaner and healthier options you are going to find. And you can bet a roast beef sandwich from your local diner will be frozen beef from Sam's club instead of fresh roasted in the restaurant.

A dirty secret of the restaurant industry is that probably 90% of what you get anywhere is bulk frozen trash someone microwaved for you.

And that's your mom and pop pizzeria too. They use the same bagged frozen %$#% dominos does. They just pay more for it and probably treat their employees worse.

Edit: Just wanted to clarify re dominos produce it's actually not frozen just almost frozen and pre sliced at a processing plant had to fact check myself there.

Chances are good your mom and pop place has worse quality ingredients.

Food is food. You have to assess every food item individually. You can live a perfectly healthy life eating Taco Bell for every meal if you pick the right things and don't overeat, drink enough water to balance the sodium and maybe pop a multivitamin.

[duducrash]

I mean, its toppings on bread. If we were to get elitist surely there are more deserving things. I dont think nothing is sacred, but something is I dont think pizza is

Here in Brazil we have a banana pizza that my fiance absolutely loves. I like it too but she is bananas for bananas

[Hermes_]

I mean, its toppings on bread. If we were to get elitist surely there are more deserving things. I dont think nothing is sacred, but something is I dont think pizza is

Here in Brazil we have a banana pizza that my fiance absolutely loves. I like it too but she is bananas for bananas

Since she's your fiancé I already question her taste

Also, my sidebar comment was an invitation to offer better names for a pizza joint, also it's hard to be picky when you live in a town under 50K population.

[RxPhantom]

Slice to See You
Slice of Life
Pie in the Sky
Pie on Life
Itsa Pizza
Pistol Pizza
Yoolikadis Pizza
Picky Paul's Premium Pizza Palace
World Pizza
Yougonnawanna Pizza

[Venedrex]

At my work today, someone tried to take a bath in the drinking fountain. (JK, it was the bathroom but I think they left their clothes by the fountain)


Also I read the last pages thread about fast food during my break and I went to Taco Time after work and had a massive amount of food just now. I enjoyed it very much.

[TheGildedGoose]

As someone who has died on multiple dumb hills, this is a particularly dumb hill to die on.

[duducrash]

I mean, its toppings on bread. If we were to get elitist surely there are more deserving things. I dont think nothing is sacred, but something is I dont think pizza is

Here in Brazil we have a banana pizza that my fiance absolutely loves. I like it too but she is bananas for bananas

Since she's your fiancé I already question her taste

Also, my sidebar comment was an invitation to offer better names for a pizza joint, also it's hard to be picky when you live in a town under 50K population.

While you do have a point i'll stand by banana pizza!!!