A surfeit of annoying things happened today

and high up on the list is this: My computer restarted, and when it was done my browser had decided to entirely forget what tabs I'd had open, forcing me to try to remember them.

Argh!

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Scientists Create a New Form of Light by Linking Photons

The Donkey Kong Timeline Is Truly Disturbing

Young babies can distinguish between what’s language and what’s not, even when it’s not spoken, but 1-year-olds can’t.

The Special Stew at the Heart of Sumo Wrestling

New Zealand goose: How one blind bisexual bird became an icon

Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West

Why Police Backing Is Key to Needle Exchanges

Dozens of refugee resettlement offices to close as Trump downsizes program

Food box idea draws ire from Democrats, advocates (I'll say it again. SNAP, as it currently works, is an extremely effective economic stimulus. Every dollar put into SNAP brings back nearly $1.80 into the economy. This is the only argument I've found has a hope of breaking through with some parties, so boy do I harp on it.)

Study: DACA increased immigrants’ education, labor force participation, and productivity

Nearly a Quarter of Confined Juveniles Nationwide Held for Noncriminal Infractions

Trump lawyer’s radio show slams Russia probe

Geez

Link hopping and I managed to find an advice column on allergies.

The comments were, of course, full of "I hate those lying liars who lie about having allergies when really they just don't like this food. They're the sole reason people don't take allergies seriously."

Many of those same commenters, elsewhere in the thread, then proceeded to say things like "When my neighbor/brother/friend talks about the twenty/ten/two foods he can't eat, I roll my eyes SO HARD" or "I can't stand people who let their kids be picky, just be a parent!"

Let me get this one straight. You don't want people to lie about their food preferences/aversions... but if they say straight out that they don't like a certain food, you roll your eyes and make fun of them? (Or their parenting.) Exactly what do you expect them to do?

Oh, that's right, you expect them to suck it up and not have any food preferences at all. You are part of the problem. They shouldn't lie, but they wouldn't if it was just as easy not to.

And, for that matter, these people aren't why other folks don't take food allergies seriously. If you are capable of understanding that just because one person lied about being allergic to broccoli that doesn't mean you can just throw out food safety rules for all time, guess what? Everybody else is capable of understanding it too. If the waitress at this one restaurant is cavalier about cross-contamination and willing to lie about it, that's not because somebody once lied to them about being allergic to tomatoes. It's because they don't think other people's dietary needs are worth taking seriously. If your coworkers go out of their way to sneak your allergens into your food to "catch" you not being allergic, then first of all they're toxic and homicidal, and secondly you can rest assured that they do this same thing to vegetarians, Jews, and people who just really don't like eggs.

So stop blaming the people who lie about allergies because, for once, they'd like to be able to eat dinner with the family without worrying about onion sneak attacks. Blame the guy who hears "no onions" and takes it as a personal challenge to slip as much onion into the meal as possible. Probably twirls his mustache as he does it, too. Mr. "No onions" really isn't doing it for attention, no more than you are when you enter anaphylaxis. Not that you can convince the food sneakers of the world. Those are the real enemy, and you can't take them down so long as you're busy hating and laughing at people who just don't like certain foods, no matter how long that list appears to be.