General thoughts

[LongRunner]

Romance stories
Why exactly are they seen as a girl's thing? Most romance involves a boy (some even involves two boys and no girl )
Is it because most romance stories are vapid fluff that only girls (in general) would bother with? I'm not sure…
Either way, if you read The Dangers in My Heart (or watch the anime if you aren't much of a reader) you're in for a treat
(Just be aware that some of its characters are quite perverted; you've been warned.)

[LongRunner]

(Written yesterday, but delayed by HWI's downtime)

Margarine
It isn't of much value as a spread on bread (I use avocado there when I'm in the mood, as we have an avocado tree in the yard), but it's very handy for frying when you need a consistently thin oil layer (especially for pancakes, where using a thick oil layer will seal the pores and block the maple syrup from soaking in).
As long as it's trans-fat free (which most reputable brands nowadays are), it shouldn't pose a major health concern in that task.

Bread
I find regular soft bread to be overkill for everyday eating; crispbreads are more sensible for that, saving soft bread for special occasions…

[LongRunner]

Gotham (typeface)
Does anyone else think it's become this century's Helvetica? Not that any typeface nowadays is as overused as Helvetica was in the '60s and '70s, but it does seem to be a common default by designers whenever they don't have another style in mind… I suspect it will even look more dated than Helvetica in 10 or 20 years.

In any case, I'm not spending US$996 (or whatever) on 66 styles of Gotham, when all 92 styles (94 if you include the dropped Condensed Ultra variants) of Fira Sans are legally available free.

And as for calling it “masculine, new, and fresh”…I don't really see what's “masculine” about it (Eurostile would be an obvious example, although Exo 2 looks slicker to me), “new” was a stretch given its inspiration by mid-20th-century architectural signs, and it ain't “fresh” anymore

(Isn't Eurostile rather quaint now, too? Its “regular” form is still somewhat OK, but it keeps getting harder to take the Bold Extended variant seriously…)

[LongRunner]

“New Look, Same Great Taste”
Then why did you need to change the look?

Ants
Let's face it, they're just longer veterans at the whole “society” thing.
Sure they wage wars between colonies, but within the colony they're far more peaceful than humans are (plus there are also supercolonies).

[LongRunner]

“Piggyback” (Australia)/“Tap-On” (New Zealand) plugs
If you're Australian you've probably noticed that rewireable versions haven't been available for a few decades – allegedly because some moron wired one onto a cord with another plug on the other end, electrocuting himself off the pins. This doesn't seem like a proportionate response; I could understand banning or restricting them (together with double‑adaptors) due to overloading concerns, but they haven't exactly restricted against that as molded piggyback plugs are still allowed on extension cords. Anyway HPM's plugs and sockets warn against connecting plugs together, as do the current instructions for Clipsal's 461SUA and 463SUA (despite having to be special-ordered for one-time assembly, and no such warning existing in the instructions for Clipsal's normal plugs and sockets).

(The 461SUA gets a pass from me as it's a control/switching adaptor, not a regular piggyback plug.
Likewise the 463SAS presents no problem, as it's pre-fitted with an anti-static earthing point so can only be loaded via the socket.)

If I was going to restrict them (short of banning outright), I'd limit the molded versions to low-power appliances (1A at most, so no IEC couplers except the C1) – where the rewireable versions were indeed common in decades past, though modern appliances just have ordinary plugs regardless of their current draw.
So far I haven't seen anybody dumb enough to fit one to a heater, but including them on extension cords is almost (or arguably just) as bad…

In New Zealand the PDL 940 is still available unrestricted.

[LongRunner]

“Unpopular opinions”
They're mostly boring and mundane; unpopular facts (not to be confused with “alternative facts” ) are where the real fun is
Notice that I rarely post mere opinions – most of these items are grounded in logic.
In a nutshell: Unpopular facts are real facts accepted by experts in the field, but rejected by the wider public as they defy “common sense” or have “unacceptable” implications.
“Alternative facts” are just nonsense from conspiracy theorists or other charlatans. (Of course, misinformed people can and do mix the two up.)
An easy example of an unpopular fact is that in a power transformer, magnetic flux is highest off-load and drops somewhat under load (due to winding losses).
(That's because its inductance is parallel to the load, not in series.) Flyback SMPS are an exception as their transformer, strictly speaking, works as a coupled inductor.
You can observe this quite easily by briefly shorting the output of a small linear plug-pack (preferably an AC‑output one so there's less to damage by the short) – it will go quiet, not loud as would be the case if the flux increased. (Posher DC‑output types may have a series inductor in the output smoothing, which would indeed saturate and hum.) Note that the leakage inductance may cause a brief voltage spike upon releasing the short, so if you have any heart problems you should probably wear rubber gloves to be on the safe side…

% (percent)
Isn't it odd how it's drawn like a fraction (zero-zeroths), but means something completely different?

[LongRunner]

“Mansplaining”
I find that it goes both ways (man→woman and woman→man), so we should probably call it “gendersplaining” rather than making it just about men
There are also forms of -splaining unrelated to gender – what I call “prosplaining” (professionals talking down to hobbyists), for one.
Or “edusplaining” (people with formal education talking down to the self-taught) for that matter